From today’s Daily Nebraskan:
Timothy Haverkamp points to an unfinished pineapple in a design that’s carved in the grand staircase at the governor’s mansion, and explains the artist left it incomplete out of superstition.
Lines on the rug below his feet represent the state rock, he says, and the abstract painting in the sitting room off the foyer depicts Lincoln’s landmark buildings.
Haverkamp rattles off details about each room without notes. The stories and facts are rooted in his mind after leading hundreds of tours through the governor’s residence.
He has worked at the mansion for years. He is also a murderer…
Haverkamp was one of five people who, along with cult leader Michael Ryan, shot off the fingers of Richardson County farmer James Thimm, sodomized him with a shovel and then shot him in the head after throwing him in an open grave.
He now takes your children on tours through the governor’s mansion, essentially unsupervised.
Interestingly enough, as reporter Rachel Albin points out, the governor’s office not only doesn’t want this information publicized, but they wish to respect the rights and privacy of this convicted killer.
Can you believe this is the same governor’s office issuing blistering statements against the Nebraska Supreme Court’s decision to rule the electric chair unconstitutional? The governor who demands a vehicle for the most permanent and irreversible form of punishment is concerned about a convicted murderer’s privacy to protect that murderer’s ability to live some kind of a normal life.
That Dave Heineman is one mercurial fellow. Great work, Daily Nebraskan.
UPDATE!! As reported by UWIRE, Heineman’s office has cut off Daily Nebraskan access to the governor!
Press contacts told newspaper staff members that no one would comment to the newspaper in the future, it would be taken off an e-mail list and its staff members would not be allowed to attend press conferences in the Capitol — especially the Governor’s office, said Josh Swartzlander, editor of the Daily Nebraskan.
When contacted by UWIRE, Jen Rae Hein, spokeswoman at the Nebraska Governor’s office, would not respond to questions regarding severing ties with the student journalists and the publication. She did not offer any additional comment and said she would contact UWIRE if she had a comment.
The situation is reminiscent of when Tom Osborne banned the DN from covering NU football practice back in 1995.
as reported in Editor & Publisher:
Osborne met with the team and soon afterwards, Daily Nebraskan students were banned from covering the team’s practice sessions, creating a national media uproar. The Chicago Tribune, for example, warned Osborne not to bite the journalistic hands that fed him.
“Coaches like Osborne, whose sports depend . . . on free publicity are happy to be open when the news is favorable but . . . clam up defensively when criticism comes,” the Tribune said.
The furor convinced Osborne to slightly reverse his field. He rescinded the no practice ban against the student journalists, but refused to allow Daily Nebraskan reporters to interview him or his coaches.
UPDATE!! Now according to today’s Daily Nebraskan, Heineman’s office has backed down.
[Heineman's Deputy Communications Director Ashley Cradduck] then said the Daily Nebraskan would no longer receive press releases from the governor’s office and the newspaper’s reporters would be banned from covering the governor’s press conferences at the State Capitol.
If Daily Nebraskan reporters were at one of the governor’s press conferences at the Capitol “I would ask the security to see if they could remove (the reporters),” Cradduck said.
When the Daily Nebraskan tried to get a written copy of the new policy, Heineman’s Communications Director Jen Rae Hein refused to go on record with a comment.
She then hung up the phone.
Later in the afternoon, the governor’s office clarified its position by saying Daily Nebraskan reporters would be allowed to cover any kind of press conference at the Capitol, but they would still not receive e-mailed press releases.