An Indianapolis soldier, S. Sgt. William E. Thomas, has been charged with the murder of Spec. 6 James Terry Abbott, son of Mrs. M. E. (Pete) Jackson of Flora in South Vietnam on Monday, January 11. Military authorities reported that Abbott, who was in charge of the criminal investigation field office at Camp Evans, located about 15 miles north of Hue, entered a barracks at Evans with an M P detachment when Thomas was reported firing an army rifle in a barracks. Abbott was shot several times and died two hours later in a base hospital. His assailant is being held on a charge of murder in an Army stockade at Da Nang. His wife, who lives in Waubach, the Netherlands, received word of his death Thursday and called Mrs. Jackson that morning. It was the first notice the mother had of her son’s death. Official notification from the government did not come until Friday. The wife arrived in Flora Monday. She was accompanied by her brother. Abbott, 26, was the only Accredited Criminal Investigator in South Vietnam. On Oct. 10, 1970, he was assigned in Vietnam where he was attached to the 101st M P Co. of the 101st Airborne Division. He was to have been there one year. He had studied at Camden and Delphi schools and received his high school diploma from Delphi High School while in service. He was a member of the First Baptist Church at Monticello. Abbott entered service on Dec. 19, 1963. After completion of basic training, he attended MP school at Fort Gordon, Ga. He was in Korea for one year and at Oakland, Calif., two years before returning to Ft. Gordon for CID training. The past three years Abbott had been with Army CID personnel assigned to the American Embassy in Paris. In December the Specialist had served as the bodyguard for comedian Bob Hope during his Christmas tour of Camp Eagle in South Vietnam. Early in the month he had served as the bodyguard for the U. S. Ambassador to India during his visit in Vietnam. Intensely interested in drugs and the problems which confront American servicemen in Vietnam, one of his assignments in Vietnam was to teach new arrivals about drugs in that country. While in Paris, Abbott met Gonny Rutten of The Netherlands. The were married on Jan. 25, 1969 at Waubach. A son, James Terry Abbott, Jr., was born to the couple on Dec. 28, 1970. Born Feb. 19, 1944 in Marion, he was the son of James Farris and Joan Beougher Abbott. His father died in 1954. Surviving with the wife, son and mother are his step-father, M. E. (Pete) Jacksop of Flora; two sisters, Mrs. William Platt and Mrs. Robert Yates, both of Lafayette; two brothers, Larry Abbott and Tom Abbott, both of Lafayette; the maternal grandmother, Mrs. Leone Beougher of Flora; the paternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Coy Abbott of Rt. 3, Delphi; two step-sisters, Mrs. Joe Schafer of Sycamore, O., and Marilyn Jackson of Bucyrus, O.; and three step-brothers, Alan Jackson of Bristol, Stephen Jackson of Winona Lake and Scott Jackson of Terre Haute. Military rites will be held today (Thursday) at 2:00 p.m. at the Camden Baptist Church with Leiter-Reinke Funeral Home of Flora in charge. Rev. Myron Hinton will officiate and burial will be in the Camden Cemetery.

Flora Hoosier Democrat January 28, 1971