McCarty, John William II 1952 - 1979
MCCARTY, SLOPECKY, FRY, PRIDGEON
Posted By: Reid R. Johnson (email)
Date: 11/22/2014 at 16:06:23
Cedar Rapids Gazette, Sunday, 4 March 1979.
Cedar Rapids- John William McCarty II, 26, a former Cedar Rapids resident, died unexpectedly Friday near his home in Managua, Nicaragua.
Born July 11, 1952, in Oelwein, he was married to the former Beth Slopecky June 21, 1978, in Nicaragua. He attended Washington High School in Cedar Rapids and was graduated from the University of Iowa in 1974. He was an elementary teacher in the Cedar Rapids school system for 1 1/2 years and had been teaching the last two years in Nicaragua.
Survivors in addition to his wife are his father, of Decorah; his mother, Marjorie McCarty, Cedar Rapids; a sister, Rebecca McCarty, Charles City; a grandmother, Dorothy Fry, Strawberry Point, and four half-brothers.
Services are pending at Roberson Funeral Home in Strawberry Point. Burial will be in Strawberry Point Cemetery.
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Cedar Rapids Gazette, Sunday 4 March 1979. 2nd article. (condensed.).
A 26 year-old former Cedar Rapids resident and school teacher was shot and killed Friday in Managua, Nicaragua.
Dead is John William McCarty II, who had taken an elementary teaching job at the American Embassy School in the Nicaraguan capital city two years ago.
The victims mother, Marjorie, lives at 1054 33rd St. NE, Cedar Rapids. (Her father, Harry Fry of Strawberry Point, died last week and was buried Friday, the day of her son's death.)
McCarty's father, John, of Decorah, said he knew few details of the shooting. His son's wife, Beth, also a teacher in the embassy school, told the family that her husbands car was forced off of a highway and that he was shot in the head. A companion was seriously injured in the incident.
McCarty's father was unaware of a motive for the shooting but pointed to political unrest in the Central American country as a possible explanation for the killing.
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Cedar Rapids Gazette, Tue., 13 March 1979. (Condensed.)
Less than a week ago, Beth McCarty, 28, was fighting Nicaraguan officials for the right to bring her husband's bullet-riddled body home to his family in Iowa and for an investigation into her husband's death.
John William McCarty II, 26, was killed by Nicaraguan National Guardsmen March 3 near a road blockade. Guardsmen claimed they opened fire on the car in which John was riding only after the driver disregarded their orders to halt. Dennis Pridgeon, a friend of McCarty, was driving the McCarty's car.
Beth McCarty is skeptical of the Guardsmen story, she said "Dennis Pridgeon was driving the car, and he and the other man in the car (unnamed in the article.) both say they heard no command. They were driving down the road and saw four National Guard jeeps blocking the road. Thinking there was trouble on the other side of the blockade, Dennis stopped the car over 200 yards before the blockade and decided to turn around. After the car had backed up into a broadside position, the Guardsmen opened fire. Dennis knew John McCarty was hurt and so they went off down the road, trying to get John to the hospital. A Guard car pursued the McCarty vehicle and opened fire again. John's two friends stopped and climbed out of the car with hands over their heads. They had their hands in the air and the Nicaraguan Guardsmen then beat them with the butts of their rifles and guns. They were shouting at them, accusing them of throwing bombs and having firearms in the car."
Beth McCarty asked police officials for her husbands belongings, she said "He left that evening with about $60 in his pocket, but when they gave me his wallet, it was empty. Dennis said they spent no more than $5. They gave me his car keys without the key chain. But the keys he wore on his belt, the keys to the house and the American Nicaraguan School where both were employed as teachers, were gone."
Beth McCarty's inquiry into the death has centered on one man, the colonel in command of the guard unit. "It's no secret that the colonel in command of the blockade had been transferred to that area after he and men under his command entered a church and shot and killed six teenagers."
John and Beth McCarty met in Nicaragua and married there June 21, 1978.
Beth McCarty plans to return to Nicaragua to complete the school year and then to coach the school's girls basketball team. After that she plans to return to Iowa, pick up her mother-in-law and take her to the Philippines to meet her folks.
The State Department has promised a full investigation into her husband's death, and a Nicaraguan investigation is also in progress, but Beth McCarty is not optimistic about the outcome.
The coroner's report hasn't been released, and Beth McCarty doesn't know if it will be.
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(Note: No further information was found on this incident or the outcome of any investigations.)
Information directing researchers to this obit has been placed on Fayette and Linn Co. obit boards.
The photo of John and Beth McCarty is from the Tue., 13 March 1979 Cedar Rapids Gazette.
Submitter is not related.
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