Quayle Paper Cooperates in Hostage Case
A rifle-wielding woman took a cashier hostage in a women’s apparel store Friday and demanded that the newspaper owned by the family of Republican vice presidential nominee Dan Quayle publish a statement she provided over the telephone.
City Editor Cindy Klepper said the Huntington Herald-Press held its presses and published the woman’s statement on Page 1.
The woman, who identified herself to the paper only as “Mary,” surrendered about three hours after the incident began, police said. No injuries were reported.
Police later identified the woman as Mary Samples, 28, of Indianapolis. She was being held on a felony charge of confinement with a deadly weapon.
The woman took cashier Judy Scher hostage in the Sycamore shop in Huntington Plaza on the north edge of the city shortly before noon, police said. Officers surrounded the shop, but no shots were fired.
Her statement was “really rambling and makes no sense at all, but we printed it,” Klepper said.
Essentially, the statement said: “I want some kind of strong action or statements about police efforts against drugs.”
“She thought maybe we had some pull with somebody because this is Dan Quayle’s newspaper,” Klepper added.
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