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Turner, a short, peppery former paratrooper, was called before the committee last week, but most of the interrogation involved his admitted sale of Army guns for personal profit. Turner acknowledged that, when he was provost marshal general and shortly after he retired, he had received 688 weapons confiscated by police and customs officials. At the time, he signed receipts saying the guns were for Army use, but in his testimony he insisted that the receipts were a mere "formality." Not so, said a spokesman for one of the donors, Chicago Police Superintendent James Conlisk: "The general is engaging in falsehood." Last June, seven of the weapons were seized as part of an illegal arms shipment to rebels in Haiti.
Turner admitted failing to pay income tax on the $6,800 profit from the gun sales, claiming that he had not known that "hobby" income was taxable. He also explained that he had lost his account ledger but filed amended tax returns this month to reflect the sales. Said Senator Charles Percy in disbelief: "It seems to me that not showing this profit in your tax returns has nothing to do with seeking a loophole. This is evasion. You are either incredibly naive or you have evaded payment of income taxes."
Take the Fifth. When the investigation became imminent, the Justice Department hastily accepted Turner's resignation as chief U.S. marshal, a post he had held for nearly six months. Now the department is considering proceedings against him. The Army will probably prosecute Wooldridge and the other sergeants. The sergeants deny the charges against them, but have said that they would plead the Fifth Amendment rather than testify before the subcommittee. Wooldridge told reporters: "I'm stunned. Never in my wildest nightmare did I believe this could happen to me."
The investigation has pointed up the lack of supervision of club affairs. Acting Subcommittee Chairman Abraham Ribicoff charged that the Army pays little attention to club funds because the money is not appropriated from the federal treasury but comes from the dues and spending of individual soldiers.
One result of the investigation has been to speed up the long-planned centralization of the Army's criminal investigation division. The Army announced last week that investigations will henceforth be monitored at central Army headquarters in order to prevent suppression of probes by local commanders. Said one general: "The petty graft will continue to go on, but maybe we can stop this big stuff." Perhaps to show that it really means to get tough, the Army has taken back the Distinguished Service Medals previously awarded to Turner and Wooldridge.