THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 14, 1994 TAG: 9412140468
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: VIRGINIA
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: EASTVILLE LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
The ghost of Morris Odell Mason, an Eastern Shore killer executed in 1985, has been summoned by anonymous opponents of the proposed maximum-security prison in Northampton County.
Unsigned fliers bearing a picture of Mason, who was black, have outraged people in both the black and white communities. But nobody - particularly the leadership of Citizens Opposed to the Prison - claims responsibility for them.
The memory of Mason and his brutal, two-week rampage in 1978 remains clear in the minds of many Northampton residents. His family and the families of his victims still live in the county.
Shortly after being paroled after an arson conviction, Mason attacked two elderly women and two teenagers. Two died, two lived. He was sentenced to die for the rape and slaying of a 71-year-old woman.
The fliers bearing Mason's picture are printed on purple paper, the adopted color of the Citizens Opposed to the Prison. They have been found stuffed in newspaper boxes, and tacked to black churches and to utility poles.
``Howdy neighbor. . . Remember Me?'' the fliers have Mason saying. ``It don't bother me none,'' he says of the proposed prison.
Black leaders condemned the fliers at Monday's meeting of the county Board of Supervisors, calling them a ``racial slur.''
``We African Americans are not the only committers of crimes,'' said Jane Cabarrus, president of the Northampton branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. ``We refuse to stoop to your level, to call names, because there are several that we could call.''
She reminded the crowd that Mason was a native of the Eastern Shore and had returned home to commit crimes. Some local residents fear that criminals who have finished their time at the proposed prison would be released into Northampton to stay or go as they please.
Vincent J. Mastracco Jr., a Norfolk attorney for Citizens Opposed to the Prison, denounced the fliers. He said the organization did not endorse them or any other illegal or inflammatory action.
``Any of that is totally repudiated as far as COP is concerned,'' said Mastracco. But he warned the supervisors that they had no ``sovereign immunity'' in the prison issue, and that they could be held personally liable if they voted before collecting enough public input and data.
Corrections officials have said the 1,267-inmate prison near Cape Charles would provide 425 jobs with an annual payroll of $13 million.
Bill Parr and other vocal members of COP said county officials were distorting the group's efforts, casting opponents as ``irrational radicals.''
In another ugly aspect of the prison protest, officials said that county supervisors and their wives have received threatening telephone calls. They would not go into detail about the calls.
At Monday's meeting, county officials weren't taking any chances. County and state police were stationed at every exit.
As it turned out, the meeting was considerably calmer than the last public forum, when hecklers repeatedly interrupted state corrections officials who were speaking.
Cabarrus, the NAACP president, agreed that police protection was necessary, given the anger over the Mason fliers.
``I think it was a good precautionary measure,'' she said, ``just in case someone decided to act a fool.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Morris Odell Mason
by CNB