Word: pensacola
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...case did not seem to add up to a big-league corporate scandal. For more than three years, the IRS and the FBI investigated kickback schemes at Gulf Power, an electric utility based in Pensacola, Fla., and all they produced were the convictions of two former managers. But last month the affair took a sudden, dramatic turn. Moments after taking off from Pensacola, a company plane caught fire and crashed, killing its two-man crew and the only passenger...
...National Transportation Safety Board and the FBI say it will take months to determine what caused the crash. But that has not stopped a rash of rumors from circulating in Pensacola, a town of 60,000 where Gulf Power is one of the biggest employers. Many thought the crash was caused by either suicide or sabotage and is linked to the investigation. The speculation was fueled by a telephone call made to the local sheriff's office three hours after the plane went down. "You can stop investigating Gulf Power now," said an anonymous caller. "We took care of that...
Horton's death was only one of a series of unsolved mysteries that have embroiled Gulf Power. Last December Ray Howell, a Pensacola graphic artist who worked for Gulf, traveled to Atlanta but disappeared prior to a scheduled appearance before the grand jury. A month later, former Gulf Power director Robert McRae and his wife were found shot to death at their home in Graceville, Fla. In the weeks since the crash, three dead yellow birds -- which Levin believes are Mafia-style warnings not to divulge the substance of his last conversation with Horton -- have been deposited outside the attorney...
...telling only their side of the story behind Horton's imminent dismissal. Executives of Gulf Power and Southern have clammed up, refusing to give more information until authorities determine the cause of the mishap. One thing is sure: no matter what the investigation turns up, many people in Pensacola will insist that the crash that killed Jake Horton was no accident...
...girlfriend. Says he: "I had to stop reading the newspaper so I wouldn't get scared of getting on the plane." The airlines know well the devastating visual impact of a damaged plane. When the fuselage of an Eastern DC-9 cracked in half during a hard landing at Pensacola, Fla., last December, injuring three, airline workers quickly concealed the carrier's name with a tarpaulin. Similarly, Aloha employees hurriedly covered their company's logo on the damaged 737 by swabbing orange paint on the tail...