Watercooler Stories

Woman wants child by Rabin's assassin

JERUSALEM, April 24 (UPI) -- A woman who befriended and married the jailed religious fanatic who assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, now wants to bear his child.

Larissa Trimbobler, a Russian Jewish émigré who moved to Jerusalem from Moscow in 1989, began writing to Yigal Amir after he was imprisoned with a life sentence. She sent him novels and began to have daily phone conversations with him -- which led to a friendship, the Sunday Times of London reported.

When her marriage dissolved. Trimbobler said she fell in love with Amir, who had comforted her during the divorce. The couple married surreptitiously in an ancient Jewish ritual.

After a protracted legal battle, Amir and Trimbobler, who is also deeply religious, are fighting to have a child. The prison service, which denied them conjugal visits, has reluctantly agreed to allow artificial insemination.

Rabin's daughter, Dalia Rabin-Pelosoff, objects to the agreement.

"We believe that it is the duty of society to prevent Amir from enjoying certain rights," she said.

Trimbobler said she believes the murder was wrong, but she thinks Amir felt he had no choice. A recent poll showed 18 percent of Israelis think Amir should be pardoned.

Historic cottage could save family farm

ATLANTA, April 24 (UPI) -- A Georgia family is waiting to learn if it can prevent the government from taking part of its farmland for the second time in a generation.

The Cato family first lost land during the Cold War, when the federal government needed 500 acres in South Carolina for construction of a massive facility to help make nuclear weapons, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Sunday.

After selling the property to the government, the family purchased a farm outside Louisville, Ga. Now, state transportation officials want a portion of that property for a project that will straighten and widen U.S. 1 to four lanes.

The project would take land that includes a cottage that had been the Cato family home. The newspaper said the family's best hope is a historic designation for the cottage that might force the state to alter its plans.

Godfather plans to marry sons' mother

ROME, April 24 (UPI) -- Mafia godfather Bernardo Provenzano has told Italian authorities he plans to marry the woman who bore him two sons during his 43 years on the run.

Provenzano, captured near the Sicilian town of Corleone earlier this month, met Saveria Palazzolo when he was a teenager -- before he embark on a life of crime -- The Sunday Times reported.

The couple never married because a ceremony was considered too risky.

They remained hidden until 1992 when Palazzolo opened a laundry in Corleone with her son, Angelo.

Provenzano regularly sent her money and notes, with help from henchmen who passed messages and parcels to each other over several days to foil investigators, the Times said.

The system eventually led to his capture as police managed to follow a pack of clean laundry from Palazzolo's home to his hideout.

Prison officials say Provenzano must formally apply for permission to marry but it is likely to be granted.

Chicago's Soldier Field no longer landmark

CHICAGO, April 24 (UPI) -- Chicago's $660 million modern renovation of Soldier Field has caused the stadium to be removed from the National Park Service's list of historic landmarks.

Former Interior Secretary Gale Norton signed the order removing Soldier Field from the list after an advisory board found additions had fundamentally changed the stadium's historic character.

Chicago Park District spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner said 90 percent of the stadium's architectural design was preserved, the Chicago Tribune reported.

"The Independence Day' flying saucer that dropped on top of Soldier Field" destroyed the building's historic architecture, said David Bahlman, president of the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois.

Loss of the designation will make city officials across the nation think twice before major renovations of landmark sites, Bahlman said.