| Copyright 1989 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc. St. Louis Post-Dispatch May 30, 1989, TUESDAY, FIVE STAR Edition SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4AI LENGTH: 574 words HEADLINE: MURDER TRIAL TELLS TALE OF SEX, BRIBES BODY: CHICAGO (AP) - Sex, murder, a beautiful blond woman and allegations of corruptpublic officials are all part of a trial that is drawing crowds of onlookers. The trial continues this week for Alan Masters, a lawyer; former Willow Springs Police Chief Michael Corbitt; and James Keating, a former lieutenant with the Cook County Sheriff's Police. All three are charged with bribery, racketeering and mail fraud in connection with the death in 1982 of Masters' wife, Dianne. Prosecutors contend that Dianne Masters, 35, a trustee of Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, Ill., was killed after her husband learned she had been involved in a four-month love affair with James Koscielniak, an instructor at the college. Dianne Masters disappeared in March 1982, and her body was discovered months later when her car was fished out of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. Copies of a 1981 Chicago Sun-Times column by the Rev. Andrew Greeley, titled ''Love and Sex: Truths the Bible Teaches Us'' were distributed to the U.S. District Court jurors after Koscielniak said he had mailed a copy of it to Dianne Masters in their affair. In the column, Greeley discussed the sexual imagery in the Song of Solomon and said it was depicted ''with words that are surely more tantalizing than any Penthouse magazine can manage.'' Koscielniak testified Thursday that he and Dianne Masters once acted out some of the imagery in the column in a sexual encounter and later discussed it on the telephone. Prosecutors say Alan Masters had the telephone call intercepted and listened to a tape recording of it, which drove him into a rage against his wife. Diane Economou, a partner in Alan Masters' law firm in suburban Summit, testified that she had been present when a private detective informed Alan Masters that Koscielniak was his wife's lover. In testimony Friday before Judge James Zagel, former sheriff's deputy Jack Bachman said Keating had offered him a share of $25,000 to aid in the plot to kill Dianne Masters about a month before she disappeared. |