18 The Pittsburgh Press, Thurs., Aug. 16, 1973

Guru Followers
Beat Pie-Tosser

DETROIT (UPI)–Followers of 15-year-old Guru Mahamj Ji today said they were holding for police two disciples who confessed to the beating of a reporter for "The Fifth Estate," an anti-establishment newspaper.

The reporter, Pat Halley, 22 was operated on yesterday in an attempt to repair his fractured skull. Doctors said he was in satisfactory condition. Halley threw a cream pm into the mystic's face at a City Council meeting last week.

Before the surgery. Halley said. "I think the assailants) are connected with the Divine Light Mission. They were going to kill me."

Witnesses said the two unidentified men were driving a car carrying license plates issued to the Divine Light Mission, the area headquarters for the followers of the Guru.

Spokesmen at the mission said the guru requested an investigation of the beating and asked "that the responsible parties be brought to justice."

Followers of the guru said they have received confessions from two assailants and are holding them until they are turned over to Detroit police, but Sgt. James Jackson of the police department said today no one has been arrested in the incident.

Halley said he received a call Tuesday before the incident from a man who congratulated him on the pie-throwing and said he could give him inside information on the mission and expose it as fraudulent.

The caller and a friend eventually met Halley in a restaurant. They went to the reporter's nearby apartment.

"They kept telling me how they were trying to expose the guru and his followers.

PAT HALLEY

Before he was avenged.

They said. 'sit down, relax and close your eyes,'" Halley said from his hospital bed.

"I heard a jingling noise. One of them was behind me. He smacked me on the top of the head with something that felt like a hammer. I fell over," he said.