In Memory

Terrence Runte

 

Terrence Runte

Terrence Runte, 34, the American scriptwriter from Chicago who came here in October 1994 to write a movie script. He headed for the scenic north-eastern parish of Portland. On the night of October 16, a few days after he arrived in Jamaica, he went night-clubbing with two expatriate women and a local man. He went missing on the morning of October 17 after dropping them home at Happy Grove in his rented car.

The burnt-out car was found near the guest house at which he was staying. The clothes he had been wearing, his wallet and his watch were found in the sea at Sharks Rock, Hector's River, tied to a concrete column. He was never found.

After three trials, Elvis Martin, 39, carpenter of Olympic Gardens, Kingston 11, and Hectors River, Portland, was in 1997 convicted of manslaughter arising from his death and was sentenced to life imprisonment with the recommendation that he serves 25 years before being eligible for parole.


KINGSTON, Jamaica A 37-year-old tailor was sentenced to death by hanging Thursday for fatally beating a Chicago screenwriter and dumping his body into shark-infested waters off this Caribbean island.

Elvis Martin of Kingston was found guilty of the capital murder of 34-year-old Terrence Runte after a nine-day trial, and a judge sentenced him to the punishment prescribed by Jamaican law.

Martin, who testified he was innocent, said nothing as the jury handed down its verdict after 38 minutes of deliberation.

Runte's parents, Kenneth and Kathleen, and his sister, Laurie Kornowski, wept. All traveled from Milwaukee to attend the trial.

 

`Super Mario Bros.' delivers a shot of sci-fi slapstick
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The Milwaukee Journal-June 2, 1993
Author: NICK CARTER

       The Journal staff
       
       THOUGH IT doesn't have the frenetic cartoon quality of the Nintendo video game of the same name, "Super Mario Bros."  the movie
       
       delivers a goofy yet unnerving dose of futuristic slapstick.
       
       The film opens with a day in the life of Mario Bros. Luigi and Mario (Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo), two Brooklyn brothers who run their own plumbing business.  While out on a service call, the pair happen upon a distressed paleontology student named Daisy (Samantha Manthis), who's caught in a
       
       development-vs.-conservation controversy over a Brooklyn land site she wants to protect.
       
       A sleazy developer, who wants to move along with his plans, is ruthlessly trying to get rid of her to the point of hiring a pair of bumbling thugs to bump her off.
       
       The Mario Bros. come to her aid, and during the ensuing confrontation, the three of them are swept into a
       
       "through-the-looking- glass" conversion that takes them into a futuristic milieu of deranged vid-game characters and hi-tech wizardry.
       
       The plot? Brace yourself.
       
       The three enter this New Millennium York, "Dinohattan," apparently a parallel universe submerged somewhere far beneath New York's East River. Here neo- fascist President King Koopa (Dennis Hopper) reigns.  Those who don't obey the corporate new world order are "de-evolved" into lizard-like "Goombahs," who serve as Gestapo-like protector troops to Koopa's regime.
       
       Back in her Brooklyn days, Daisy came into possession of a powerful pendant that can save the declining Dinohattan, so Koopa is heatedly pursuing his "Princess Daisy" and her plumber protectors in pursuit of the powerful stone.
       
       Hopper delivers another trademark over-caffeinated performance. , though obviously struggling to contain himself within the film's PG parameters.  As a descendant of dinosaurs,  (as opposed to the lowly humans, whom he refers to as "slimy mammals"),
       
       Koopa dons Armani-styled suits draped in scaly fabrics, and holds a snaky politico's contempt toward Dinohattan's citizens.
       
       as well as his underlings.
       
       After beginning a bit overly blowsy with the Vinnie Barbarino "dem-dose" characterizations,   Leguizamo and Hoskins develop into an interesting pair thrown into a futuristic caper that could have been drawn from Aldous Huxley's worst nightmares. Rocker Mojo Nixon adds to the zaniness, playing a humorous rebel troubadour fated to be transformed into a Goombah named Toad.
       
       Not really straight sci-fi nor purely kids' fantasy, "Super Mario Bros." creates a niche of its own.
       
       If you're turned off by the adolescent corniness of the narrative, you're sure to be impressed with the dazzle and realism of the special effects. If you're expecting lightweight escapist fare, well, for the most part, that's what you get, but you'll have to deal with the evil the tale summons up. In other words, the film offers something at some level for anyone.
       
       Cast and Credits
       
       Super Mario Bros.  ***
       
       Cast: Bob Hoskins as Mario Mario; John Leguizamo as Luigi Mario; Dennis Hopper as King Koopa; Samantha Manthis as Daisy; Fiona Shaw as Lena; Mojo Nixon as Toad; Fisher Stevens as Iggy; Richard Edson as Spike.
       
       Behind the Scenes: Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, directors; Jake Eberts, producer; written by Parker Bennett, Terry Runte and Ed Solomon; Christopher Francis Woods, visual effects.
       
       Rating: PG
       
       **MARIO GUYS LINES**
       
       John Leguizamo (left) and Bob Hoskins are Brooklyn plumbers in "Super Mario Bros."
       
       family rating guide:
       
       Super Mario Bros.:  PG. comic-violence.
     
Section: ENTERTAIN
Page: B9

Record Number: MLWK149837
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City native disappears on Jamaica trip Screenwriter's car was found torched earlier this month
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The Milwaukee Journal-October 27, 1994
Author: MARK EDMUND

       The Journal staff
       
       Milwaukee native Terry Runte visited Jamaica this month to soak up color for a movie script he was preparing to write  a love story sprinkled with mystery.
       
       But now he's the center of a real-life mystery in Port Antonio, Jamaica.
       
       Runte's burned-out car was found a week ago. And no one has heard from the screenwriter since early Oct. 17.
       
       "It's so hurtful because it's such a shock," said Laurie Kornowski, Terry Runte's sister. "It's so far away, it's unreal. It's like a movie Terry would have written. It's like a story you don't want to be in."
       
       Terry Runte, 34, who moved to Chicago about 12 years ago, has had many writing successes, including co-writing two movie scripts  "Mystery Date," starring Ethan Hawke in 1991, and "Super Mario Brothers."
       
       Called Girlfriend
       
       On Oct. 15, he flew to Jamaica for research on the unnamed script. The next day, he called his girlfriend, Jan Pessin, at the Chicago home they share.
       
       "He had been out at a club with some people he met," his sister said. "He would drop them off and give them a ride home. The last thing he said to {his girlfriend} was `I'll talk to you soon.' "
       
       Runte apparently had made friends with a 27-year-old volunteer high school teacher and the man who accompanied her to the club. Making friends out of strangers was not unusual for Runte, his brother, James, said.
       
       "He's quite a character. He's very conversational," he said of his older brother. "He loves to talk and meet people and he's very outgoing. He likes to work a room and is very
       
       entertaining.
       
       "He was a night owl and stayed up all night to write," James Runte said. "He would get among the people to stimulate his creativity. That has been a pattern."
       
       Terry Runte apparently dropped the new friends at Hector's River, about 20 miles east of Port Antonio, Kornowski said. But he hasn't been heard from since.
       
       Car Found Torched
       
       The Subaru that he rented was found about five miles east of Hector's River on Oct. 20, "totally stripped and totally torched," Kornowski said. "Just a shell of a car. And no Terry."
       
       At the time of the discovery, Jamaican authorities failed to contact Runte's girlfriend or family.
       
       They only found out about the disappearance after his girlfriend went to pick Runte up at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Oct. 22.
       
       Since then, the family has been in contact with the US State Department, the US Embassy in Jamaica and police investigators. His girlfriend, along with a friend, traveled to Jamaica to help authorities in the search.
       
       The two people that Runte drove home that night have been interviewed by authorities, Kornowski said, but nothing about her brother's whereabouts has been substantiated.
       
       "It's very hard," said Kathy Runte, Terry's mother. "We have our good moments and bad moments. We're trying to be hopeful, but it's scary.
       
       "We have our highs and lows, but it's so distant," James Runte said. "It's tough. It's a hurry-up- and-wait game. There's just not a lot to work with, so it's tough."
       
       `Our Tornado'
       
       Kornowski described her brother as "our tornado in our family. He would put a spark in everything. He's just a sweet and generous loving brother, as well as crazy."
       
       Runte grew up in Milwaukee and graduated from Hamilton High School, 6215 W. Warnimont Ave. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee before moving to Chicago to pursue his writing ambitions.
       
       He worked for a Chicago advertising agency and sold humor pieces to national magazines, including Playboy and Omni, and wrote sketches for Chicago television. Much of his writing and humor is satirical.
     
Section: NEWS
Page: 1

Record Number: MLWK214948
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Man confesses to slaying in Jamaica
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The Milwaukee Journal-October 30, 1994
Author: MARK EDMUND

       The Journal staff
       
       A man confessed to Jamaican authorities Friday that he killed Milwaukee native Terry Runte, weighted the body and dropped it into a part of the sea called Shark's Rock.
       
       Police in Port Antonio, on the east end of Jamaica, were
       
       looking for two other suspects they believe helped rob and kill the 34-year-old screenwriter, his family and a US embassy spokesman said.
       
       "We expected something, but nothing this savage," said Laurie Kornowski, Terry Runte's sister. "My family is holding on. But it's horrible.
       
       "This is so graphic and so horrible," Kornowski said from her Milwaukee home Saturday afternoon. "It's a shock. We're just numb."
       
       Late Friday afternoon, the Jamaican suspect, whose identity was not immediately available, led police to Shark's Rock, an area frequented by sharks, located at the water's edge near a high school in Port Antonio.
       
       There, divers found a rope tied to a concrete pillar, along with the shredded remains of what were identified as Runte's jeans, shirt, wristwatch and plated belt.
       
       "They did not find the body," said Michael Houlahan, the spokesman for the US Embassy in Kingston, Jamaica. "They're afraid that the body has been eaten. But they haven't given up on finding something."
       
       Runte's disappearance and murder has gained much attention on this island always flooded with American tourists. News of his death dominates the front pages of newspapers and other media coverage in Jamaica.
       
       Was Researching Movie Script
       
       Runte flew to Jamaica on Oct. 15 for research on an unnamed script he was to write. The next day, he called his girlfriend, Jan Pessin, at the Chicago home they shared. But that's the last anyone heard from him.
       
       Apparently, Runte left a club with an American teacher, her boyfriend and a British teacher late Oct. 17 in Runte's rented Subaru. Runte dropped off the two teachers and was alone with the boyfriend. That boyfriend is the suspect who confessed to police.
       
       "He {Runte} was carrying enough money to be attractive as a robbery victim," Houlahan said.
       
       Runte was robbed and then killed. It was not known how he died. His burned-out Subaru was found about 25 miles east of Port Antonio on Oct. 20. Family and friends here in the United States found out Runte was missing after he did not return on his flight home to Chicago on Oct. 22.
       
       In the suspect's confession on Friday, he implicated the two other men in the slaying whom authorities are now seeking.
       
       Runte grew up in Milwaukee and graduated from Hamilton High School. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee before moving to Chicago 12 years ago to pursue his writing ambitions.
       
       He worked for a Chicago advertising agency and sold humor pieces to national magazines, including Playboy and Omni. He co-wrote the movie scripts for "Mystery Date" and "Super Mario Brothers."
     
Section: NEWS
Page: 1

Record Number: MLWK215265
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Probe of ex-city man's slaying gets priority
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Milwaukee Sentinel-October 31, 1994
Author: JOE WILLIAMS

       The slaying of a former Milwaukee screenwriter in Jamaica has become a top priority for Jamaican officials fearful that news accounts of the case will hurt tourism, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy said Sunday night.
       
       Terry Runte, 34, apparently was beaten and then dropped into shark-infested waters in what authorities believe was an Oct. 17 robbery attempt. One man, who has confessed to taking part in the killing, has been in police custody since last Tuesday, authorities said.
       
       "It's a big story here," Michael Houlahan, the embassy
       
       spokesman, said in a telephone interview from his home in Kingston. "Authorities are very concerned, because of the human element, of course, but also because of the impact on tourism."
       
       Houlahan said authorities are eager to arrest two other suspects wanted in Runte's death.
       
       Runte, who moved from Milwaukee to Chicago about 12 years ago, has had many writing successes, including co-writing two movie scripts, "Mystery Date" and "Super Mario Brothers."
       
       He was in Jamaica doing research for an upcoming film project, family members said. Runte's family discovered he was missing when his fiancee went to pick him up at Chicago's O'Hare
       
       International Airport Oct. 22.
       
       Jamaican authorities informed family members of the arrest over the weekend.
       
       Runte's burned-out rental car was found Oct. 20, but his body has not been discovered.
       
       According to authorities, Runte left a club with a group of people Oct. 17 in his rental car. He apparently dropped off all but one of the passengers before encountering two men standing next to motorcycles on the side of the road.
       
       The remaining passenger, a Jamaican man, knew at least one of the bikers, who claimed to be experiencing mechanical problems. When Runte stopped to help them, he apparently was forced back into his car at gunpoint.
       
       The suspect who has confessed, Runte's passenger, said Runte then was beaten and thrown into the waters off Shark's Rock in Port Antonio.
       
       The Jamaica Herald reported in its Sunday editions that Runte "pleaded and begged them not to kill him."
       
       It was unclear whether Runte was dead when he was thrown into the water.
       
       Divers have found a rope tied to a pillar, along with the remains of Runte's clothing, wristwatch and belt.
       
       Laurie Kornowski, Terry Runte's sister, said family members were waiting for a death certificate from Jamaican authorities. She said a memorial service probably would be held once their lives have settled down a little.
       
       "It's almost too horrible to imagine," Kornowski said Sunday.
       
       "Terry has so many friends in Milwaukee. We've been trying to let everyone know," Kornowski said. "He was a wonderful brother and a wonderful man."
       
       Runte grew up in Milwaukee and graduated from Hamilton High School, 6215 W. Warnimont Ave. He attended the University of Wisconsin  Milwaukee before moving to Chicago to pursue his writing ambitions.
       
       He worked for a Chicago advertising agency and sold humor pieces to national magazines and wrote sketches for Chicago television.
     
Section: NEWS
Page: 15

Record Number: MLWK215639
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Runte lifted family, with care, intellect
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The Milwaukee Journal-November 8, 1994
Author: MARY CAROLE McCAULEY

       The Journal staff
       
       Two years ago, Milwaukee native Terry Runte saw his family through one of the major crisis periods of their lives.
       
       In the winter of 1993, his mother, Kathleen, was diagnosed with breast cancer and went through four months of chemotherapy. His father, Kenneth, underwent triple bypass surgery and nearly died on the operating table.
       
       "He'd come up and visit from Chicago, or call many times a day," Kathleen Runte said. "Through all that time, that kid encouraged me."
       
       She finds herself reaching for the inner strength he gave her now. Terry Runte, a Chicago screenwriter, was murdered last month in Jamaica. He was 34.
       
       "He was a wonderful son," Kathleen Runte said.
       
       A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday in the Chapel of the Chimes at Wisconsin Memorial Park in Brookfield.
       
       Runte said her son was curious about absolutely everything.
       
       As a young boy, Terry conversed with college professors. At 12, he read the encyclopedia from cover to cover.
       
       He graduated from Hamilton High School in 1978 and studied film at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Despite his intellectual trappings, Runte was savvy enough to succeed in the notoriously non-egghead Hollywood milieu. The first two screenplays he co-wrote were successful commercially  "Mystery Date" and "Super Mario Bros."
       
       "He had a huge vocabulary and he knew how to twist a sentence around and make it funny," Kathleen Runte said.
       
       In addition to his parents, survivors include a sister, Laurie Kornowski, of West Allis; a brother, James, of Milwaukee; and his longtime girlfriend, Jan Pessin, of Chicago.
       
       The family plans to establish a trust fund for memorials.
     
Section: NEWS
Page: 4

Record Number: MLWK216605
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Runte's family will miss an intelligent, caring man
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The Milwaukee Journal-November 9, 1994
Author: MARY CAROLE McCAULEY

       The Journal staff
       
       Two years ago, Milwaukee native Terry Runte saw his family through one of the major crisis periods of their lives.
       
       In the winter of 1993, his mother, Kathleen, was diagnosed with breast cancer and went through four months of chemotherapy. His father, Kenneth, underwent triple bypass surgery and nearly died on the operating table.
       
       "He'd come up and visit from Chicago, or call many times a day," Kathleen Runte said. "Through all that time, that kid encouraged me."
       
       She finds herself reaching for the inner strength he gave her now. Terry Runte, a Chicago screenwriter, was murdered last month in Jamaica. He was 34.
       
       "He was a wonderful son," Kathleen Runte said.
       
       A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday in the Chapel of the Chimes at Wisconsin Memorial Park in Brookfield.
       
       Runte said her son was curious about absolutely everything.
       
       As a young boy, Terry conversed with college professors. At 12, he read the encyclopedia from cover to cover.
       
       He graduated from Hamilton High School in 1978 and studied film at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Despite his intellectual trappings, Runte was savvy enough to succeed in the notoriously non-egghead Hollywood milieu. The first two screenplays he co-wrote were successful commercially  "Mystery Date" and "Super Mario Bros."
       
       "He had a huge vocabulary and he knew how to twist a sentence around and make it funny," Kathleen Runte said.
       
       In addition to his parents, survivors include a sister, Laurie Kornowski, of West Allis; a brother, James, of Milwaukee; and his longtime girlfriend, Jan Pessin, of Chicago.
       
       The family plans to establish a trust fund for memorials.
     
Section: NEWS
Page: 6

Record Number: MLWK216697
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He was a good son, and his own man
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The Milwaukee Journal-January 15, 1995
Author: LOIS BLINKHORN

       KATHY RUNTE has written a list of things about her son, Terry Runte, that she wants us to know about him.
       
       "He loved to read," she says. "He was very, very intelligent. At 4, he knew every dinosaur. He always talked with such a vocabulary  way beyond his years. I'd think, `Where did that come from?' He was interested in bugs, and polliwogs and
       
       butterflies."
       
       Kathy and her husband, Ken Runte, are sitting in the living room of the little ranch house on S. 86th St. where their son grew up, the second of three children. It's two houses down from the home where Kathy spent her childhood. Terry's grandmother, Catherine Clark, still lives there. The Runtes' other children, Laurie and James, live within a few miles.
       
       The Runtes are private people, the sort of good, hard-working folks who are the backbone of Milwaukee. Their son was hard-working, too, but flamboyant and given to felt fedoras, '50s furniture and big dreams.
       
       Your eyes flick to a framed photo of Terry Runte. Darkly handsome, with sharp features and intelligent eyes, he's wearing his trademark fedora.
       
       Who did he take after?
       
       "He took after himself," says Ken Runte, with a little smile.
       
       Childhood Gift
       
       At age 8, Terry wanted to be a scientist and asked for a microscope, Kathy says. Ken Runte found a nice one and took it to be checked out in the lab of the Metropolitan Sewerage Commission, where he worked.
       
       Ken leaves the room. A few minutes later, he comes back with the microscope and quietly places it on the coffee table. When they cleaned out Terry's apartment in Chicago, they found it in the closet.
       
       "He was broke so many times, I thought he would have sold it," says Kathy.
       
       His enthusiasms were many and strong: science, cooking, tennis, movies, comedy, writing.
       
       "Everything was a big event in his life," says Ken. "When he got into tennis, he was going to go to Wimbledon."
       
       But Terry Runte was his parents' child. He managed to combine his quirky, sophisticated style with sensitivity and loyalty. He drove home often from Chicago, kept in touch with friends and called regularly  up to three times a day when his parents were ill a few years ago.
       
       He even made a trip last summer to Boulder Junction, where his parents camp in an old trailer on a piece of land they own. They hoped he would come up on his 34th birthday, Oct. 8. When he didn't, they called him from a phone booth and sang "Happy Birthday" to him. He loved it, Kathy says. Nine days later, he was dead.
       
       "You should talk to Laurie," says Kathy. "She knows how to describe him better than we can."
       
       A Sister's Story
       
       Married and the mother of four kids, Laurie Kornowski's life was very different from her brother's, but at some level they were always in sync. He would call her at 11:30 p.m.  his prime time, her sleep time  and "after a few minutes of being mad at him," they would talk till 2:30 in the morning.
       
       "He was such a paradox. He would be flamboyant, he would be outspoken. But in the same breath, he was very concerned. He didn't drink because he didn't want to drink and drive. He took good care of his health.
       
       "He loved girls. He was very committed to Jan, but he loved to talk to girls and to flirt. And he used to love watching old movies. He was like, oh gosh, a '50s PI {private investigator} in a movie. Never married. You could never get married because that wouldn't fit with the plot.
       
       "He was never boring. Sometimes he was exhausting to have around, but he was never boring."
       
       About that Chicago Tribune story (see story elsewhere on this  page): "He did put an accent on the e in Runte, but he didn't have a Frenchified accent. That makes him sound like a goofball," says Laurie.
       
       "He was so special, so sweet. He would come up just to rub mom's shoulders when she was having chemo. That was in 1992. Mom had cancer, I was 8 months pregnant and Dad was recovering from open heart surgery. Terry was like a rock."
     
Section: FEATURES
Page: 3

Record Number: MLWK225217
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WEST ALLIS NATIVE DISAPPEARED IN JAMAICA Writer's case remains a mystery
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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel-October 31, 1995
Author: MEG KISSINGER, Journal Sentinel staff

       A year after West Allis native Terry Runte's disappearance, his apparent murder, like one of his many scripts, remains a mystery.
       
       Runte, then 34, a well-known screenwriter who lived in Chicago, disappeared while on vacation in Jamaica. On Oct. 17, 1994, police on the island discovered his clothes  a beige T-shirt, jeans, a  belt and vintage watch  at the waterfront.
       
       His body is believed to have been thrown into the shark-infested waters at a place ominously called Shark Rock, east of the resort town of Port Antonio.
       
       Two Jamaican natives, Ladrick Scott and Elvis Martin, have been arrested and charged with his murder. One of the two reportedly has confessed to the crime, citing robbery as the motive.
       
       A third suspect is being sought, according to Ed Kata, consul to the American embassy in Jamaica. A hearing is set for Nov. 13 to set a trial date for Scott and Martin.
       
       Meanwhile, Runte's family in West Allis can't dispose of his property or properly mourn his death.
       
       "We don't have his body," said his mother, Kathy Runte, fighting back tears.
       
       The State Department won't issue a death certificate until the body is found or a guilty verdict is reached in the case, Kata said.
       
       "We can't settle anything until they issue that death certificate,  and that makes it very hard," Kathy Runte said.
       
       Terry Runte would have turned 35 on Oct. 7. The family marked  the occasion with a visit to Wisconsin Memorial Chapel, where a  plaque stands in his memory.
       
       The family gathered recently in West Allis to remember the man whom his mother described as being "so much fun, full of so much potential."
       
       Runte wrote the screenplays to the films "Mystery Date" and "Super Mario Bros.," but that's not how he would want to be remembered, said his sister, Laurie Kornowski. "He was sort of embarrassed about those, but they were a start."
       
       To his friends in Chicago, Runte was bright and brassy. "Terry was the best character he ever wrote," his friend, Tim Kazurinsky,  a Chicago screenwriter and comedian of Second City and "Saturday  Night Live" renown, told a Chicago reporter.
       
       So popular was he that mourners stood shoulder-to-shoulder  at his memorial at Chicago's Bailiwick Repertory recalling their  friend who wore fedoras and flirted incurably.
       
       Kathy Runte says her life seems so much sadder and quieter now that her son is gone. "He always used to call late at night," she said. "But the phone never rings past 9 o'clock now."
     
         Photo
         
         Caption: Runte
       
Edition: Final
Section: News
Page: 4

Index Terms: murder
Record Number: MLWK264432
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NOW A TIME TO MOURN Son's watery grave gives mother pause Coming home from trial in Jamaica, family comes to grips with slaying
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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel-January 30, 1996
Author: MEG KISSINGER, Journal Sentinel staff

       As she flew over the blue-green waters of Jamaica on Friday, it hit  her.
       
       "Terry is in there and he's not coming home," Kathleen Carter Runte,  of West Allis, muttered. Her husband, Kenneth, took her hand and said,  "Yes, Kay, but he's on the other side now."
       
       Then she did something she hadn't been able to do since their screenwriter son, Terry, then 34, was killed execution-style on that Caribbean island on Oct. 17, 1994.
       
       She wept.
       
       The Runtes returned home early Saturday after sitting through nearly two weeks of testimony in the trial of their son's killer. Elvis Martin, 37, a tailor, of Kingston, Jamaica, was found guilty of the capital murder, and sentenced to death by hanging.
       
       It was a sad and exhausting two weeks, the Runtes say. And they find little solace in the verdict.
       
       "Terry would not wish vengeance as we do not," she said. "We would  rather that truth and justice prevail."
       
       Terry Runte was living in Chicago in October 1994 when he decided to return to Jamaica for a ninth time to continue to collect some data for a screenplay he was writing.
       
       His film credits include "Mystery Date" and "Super Mario Brothers,"  and he was getting quite a reputation among the literati in Chicago  as a writer of tremendous talent and quirky energy. He wore fedoras  and spoke in an accent. A newspaper article once described him as  "a first-class schmoozer who coasted on auto-flirt."
       
       According to court testimony, Terry Runte was beaten and his  body thrown into the shark-infested waters after his car accidentally nicked two Jamaican natives on their motor bike.
       
       Kathleen Runte says she didn't want to go to Jamaica for the trial  but once she got there "all the fear left me. We knew we had to do this  for Terry."
       
       During a break in the testimony, the Runtes and their surviving children, a son, James, and a daughter, Laurie Kornowski, traveled six hours to the spot where Terry was killed.
       
       "We said a prayer," said James, a printer from Milwaukee. "We're glad we went. We really wanted to understand what happened. But  I don't think you ever really get a sense of closure when something  so tragic like this happens."
       
       Kathleen Runte says she was heartened by the warm and caring people she and her family met in Jamaica, and she wants them to know that "Terry loved your beautiful country."
       
       He never got a chance to write that screenplay.
       
       "What a terrible waste," she said.
     
         Photo
         
         Caption: Terry Runte
       
Edition: Final
Section: News
Page: 3

Index Terms: murder
Record Number: MLWK286628
Copyright 1996  Journal Sentinel Inc.

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