Butcher Pleads Guilty: Former Tennessee financial wizard...

Butcher Pleads Guilty: Former Tennessee financial wizard Jake Butcher and a close associate pleaded guilty to two counts of a federal indictment accusing them of defrauding an Orlando, Fla., bank of $3.9 million. The plea-bargain agreements in the complex case were entered before U.S. District Judge G. Kendall Sharp shortly before the two men were to have gone on trial. Butcher, who until 1983 headed a financial empire of 28 banks in Tennessee and Kentucky, is serving a 20-year prison term for bank fraud. Also pleading guilty was Earl D. Wilson, who worked for Butcher at the time the banks failed and is serving a 10-year sentence for bank fraud. Butcher’s attorney, Edward Garland of Atlanta, said related conspiracy charges against his client would be dropped.