Word: yablonsky
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...when a bomb went off in his car. New Jersey was lurching through one of its periodic discoveries of mobster influence on public men and public affairs, while across the border in Pennsylvania there were no known leads to the identities of the brutal killers of Union Leader Jock Yablonski, his wife and daughter. The football industry, which usually confines mayhem to the gridiron, was shuddering on the eve of the Super Bowl through a fresh gambling-scandal scare...
CRIME A Deadly Venom Jock Yablonski aroused strong feelings wherever he went in the traditionally violent coal fields. In December, the burly 59-year-old former miner challenged President W. A. ("Tony") Boyle in an election to head the United Mine Workers Union. Yablonski lost, but not before he had made fiery speeches accusing union leaders of mismanagement and worse. Yablonski was the sort of man who inspired either ardent loyalty or deep enmity. Last week the enmity caught up with him. Yablonski, his wife and daughter were found shot to death in their secluded home in Clarksville, Pa., south...
...Yablonski's stronghold along the West Virginia-Pennsylvania border, where crude, hand-lettered Yablonski campaign posters still dot lampposts and telephone poles, his supporters suspected that the union was responsible for the murders. During four days of wildcat strikes, up to 19,000 miners angrily walked off their jobs, closing down a number of mines. Yablonski's two surviving sons, Kenneth and Chip, both lawyers, issued a statement saying: "There is no doubt that these horrible misdeeds are an outgrowth of our father's most recent bid to win election...
Wild Glint. Tony Boyle scoffed at the idea of any U.M.W. involvement, and offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the murderers. He received some support from West Virginia Congressman Kenneth Hechler, a friend of Yablonski's, who said: "I'm sure that officials of the union had nothing to do with this." Hechler speculated, however, that the murders were prompted by "the venom that was generated during this campaign...
...Yablonski was no stranger to venom. Reports TIME Correspondent Mark Sullivan: "Joseph A. Yablonski was a rasp-voiced man with bushy eyebrows and a kind of wild glint in his eye. He did not by his presence establish an air of calm and reasonableness. He was a man haunted by many demons. It is not surprising that he died violently, reaching for his gun. He was in and around violence much of his life...