Note: The caption under picture: Five men dead, one badly injured in a  Baltimore factory. Five thousand miles away Jack Lord gazes at the tranquil blue Pacific. The tragic connection would soon become apparent.

It began as an average workday for the men at the PPG Industries paint brush plant in Baltimore, Maryland. "Nothing ever changes around here," one of them might well have said. "I don’t see how I’m going to last until retirement time. I kind of think I’m going to die of boredom before then." But boredom wouldn’t kill anyone. A bullet from a madman’s rifle would take care of the lives of five men.

Raymond D. Ferrell-El, the man accused of murder, got to the Baltimore plant later than usual that day. The reason was simple: He waited until everyone was there before making his entrance. According to United Press International, "He was wearing camouflage military fatigues, and carried a canteen and an Army field pack, and was armed with two rifles."

...I’m going to die...before then. That man did. And another. And another. Then a fourth man. And finally, a fifth.

Reports indicate that Ferrell-El was laughing as the victims, crying in shock and pain, went down. Blood spurted over the machines and on the sawdust-covered floor. "The stench was awful," stated an eye-witness. "You could smell the carnage. And the expressions on the faces of the five dead men were the stuff of nightmares. I’ll see them over-and-over at night for a long time to come. How could I forget?"

The men left behind wives, children, people who (that morning) had kissed one another good-bye and parted with "have a good day at the plant, dear" and "stop for bread on the way home" and call me if you’ll be late." Now they were gone.

To the sweat and boredom of factory work was added blood and more blood! A sixth man was hit. He nearly died. But that outcome was different. His family got him back. There were tears, but this time, tears of joy that the victim didn’t die.

The police came - with rifles and tear gas. Ferrell-El tried to hold them off. He was equipped to hold off the National Guard if he had to. But he made one mistake. He was one second too slow or unobservant or whatever. And he went down - just like the five men he would be accused of slaying. But with Ferrell-El, there was a difference. He would live and progress from medical condition air to medical condition satisfactory, and he would recover while widows planned funerals, and ministers and rabbis and priests prepared their eulogies and children who understood wept and children who didn’t asked about when Daddy would be coming home.

Meanwhile, 5000 miles away a man sat on a patio in a lush garden, with the surf booming so loud you could hardly hear yourself think. But if you had sat on that patio in that lush garden as many times as he had and read the morning paper and studies the morning’s dialogue and sipped his cup of steaming hot coffee as often as he had, you would be able to block out the noise as though it didn’t exist.

The man was Jack Lord. As accounts over the years affirm, Jack is an independent creature. He is independent financially as well as emotionally. He relies on himself, and that has often rubbed people the wrong way. Jack is not liked by everyone. He has refused to see reporters on the set or in his dressing room on the Hawaii Five-0 set, and is not known to be a very tolerant individual. But that’s just the way he is. He’s an artist. He is often forgiven his excesses.

"I learned long ago to have my own way," Jack commented, "Once you begin to give here, you give there and once you’ve prostituted your ideas, your goals, your artistic concepts, you are a hack who will sell himself to a carnival if need be. I would rather not work than do that which is less-than-meaningful, that is not an honest reflection of myself, my goals as an actor."

Admirable. Praiseworthy. And serious actors applaud it. And, undoubtedly, Jack was sincere. But a sincere man can also be misguided - and Jack’s quest for artistic freedom of choice has seemed to many (this reporter included) an excuse to be misguided.

In any event, back in Baltimore, police wee uncovering sketchy information about Raymond D. Ferrell-El. Here is what United Press International wired to newspapers across the United States. "Police said Ferrell-El, who added the ‘El’ to his name after his discharge from the Army, had purchased last November 8 a .30 caliber Army carbine, ammunition and a bowie knife at a sport goods store here."

UPI added, "He had served in the Army from February 1962 until 1965 as a light weapons infantryman. He was honorably discharged as a specialist fourth class. His only duty overseas was three months and thirteen days in West Germany ."

Fade out to Hawaii again. It was mid-afternoon, the sun bouncing back off the Pacific with mock-diamonds a glistening. Look at the surf and you are blinded. Look at the sun and you are blinded. Look at Jack Lord and, suddenly, well there was a chill. He hates interviews. They are an invasion of his privacy.

"People accuse me of being difficult," Jack says, "But that’s not the case. I try to be fair. There is so much to do, though The stars who last the longest are those who expose themselves the least. Garbo, Jimmy Stewart, Tony Quinn - you name them. I’ll admit that most do give interviews, but not indiscriminately."

There may be some credence to this view. Jack Nicholson recently remarked that he felt "interviewed out," and would be far more selective from now on. He decided that a public that reads about him every other minute in Time, Life, Redbook and the daily newspaper will feel less inclined to pay two or three bucks to see him in a film. There is such a thing as being overly-familiar.

But what most people object to is how Jack Lord goes about maintaining his privacy. Jack Nicholson will spend half an hour telling a reporter why he holds few interviews. But Jack Lord will not go to such trouble. He will not feel apologetic in any way. He will feel pressure, bugged, offended and so on - but not sorry. Never sorry.

The overriding consideration for this man is career. Everything is oriented in that direction. Career is his goal, blocking out nearly all else. Jack is proud of his career and his show. It is, he says, an extension of himself. "I work hard on it," he commented. "I give it my best. I allow for nothing less than best from those around me. That’s the way it has to be if you expect to stay at the top. We’ve been around a long time now. I made the mistake - while doing Stoney Burke - of not sticking to my guns as much as I should have. I compromised. But I am not a man of compromise, basically, and I hated myself for that failure to be firm.

"I determined not to step into the same rut again. I own a piece of Hawaii Five-0. And I have control."

He is proud of the show. It is everything he wants it to be. He threatens to leave, for good, if anybody tries to tamper with it. He tends to direct for his directors and light for his cameramen.

"You have to treat him like Paul Scofield," one of them remarked. "Otherwise, he just won’t react to your direction. Jack is undirectable. Since I am a director, I find that unbearable."

According to journalist Dwight Whitney, "Guest stars...come away awed by his technical knowledge, also ‘with the distinct feeling that I was a snake being come at by a mongoose’."

"Five-0 is a fine show!" Jack emphasized. "There are few that can compare to it. And it is a show with a great deal of influence. Tourism has been very favorably affected in Hawaii as a result of our show. Yes, it has a real impact, you know."

Yes, it has a real impact. A fine show. Perfect. Wonderful. Top-notch A show with impact.

Headline: 5 Dead - Slaying Compared With TV Episode.

United Press International: Baltimore. Police said...a television show may have given Raymond D. Ferrell-El the idea to shoot and kill five of his fellow workers at a the PPG Industries paint brush plant here.

Dennis Hill, a spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department, identified the television show as an episode on the Hawaii Five-0 series which was aired the night of October 19^th on CBS.

"There are a lot of similarities to this case and an episode of Hawaii Five-0," Hill said. "In the show, a deranged Army veteran sniped at passing motorists as he munched chocolate."

There is no connection, one might add, between a dedicated TV star, who strives for perfection, and a man driven to murder five innocent people. It is apparent the show and the tragedy were pure coincidence. Jack Lord - a man who gets his own artistic way because he is a talent. Raymond D. Ferrell-El - a man who got his own violent way because he was a violent man.