Hart Denies Killing Girls

              Tribune State Staff  McALESTER — A stoic Gene  Leroy Hart, charged in the grisly  slayings of three Girl Scouts at a  northeastern Oklahoma summer  camp last June, denied to authorities that he killed the young girls, it  was learned today.  It was one of few statements the  full-blooded Cherokee made to a  team of Oklahoma State Bureau of  Investigations en route to the state  prison were he was being held under  close guard after eluding for nearly  10 months the largest manhunt in  Oklahoma history.  Hart, with a woodsman's knowledge of eastern Oklahoma's rugged  hills, was captured by state crime  bureau agents who quietly surrounded an isolated residence in the  hilly brush country of the Cookson  Hills.  HART WAS transported to the  McAlester prison by OSBI agents  and the Highway Patrol in a three-  vehicle caravan that entered the  main gate shortly before 9 p.m.  Greeted by a small horde of newsmen who had kept vigil since news of  his capture, Hart was walked from  just inside the gate nearly 100 yards  to the main entrance steps.  flit's a pretty big crowd," Hart  denies  girls  told lawmen when he saw the  newsmen.  Except for the constant whir of  TV cameras and muttering of reporters, the journey was silent. Hart  raised his head to look into the mob  of reporters before him only once.  Dressed in tattered cutoff jeans, a  ragged tank top, socks and shoes,  Hart was bound by ankle chains and  handcuffs, making his parade before  the cameras agonizingly slow.  The procession moved up the  prison steps and into the lobby  where Hart shed his noisy following  and proceeded alone with prison  guards into the rotunda area.  BILL ARENDS, deputy warden at  the state prison, said Hart was processed as "a returned escapee,"  then given a shave and haircut.  Arends said that after a physical  examination, he was taken to a cell  on Death Row for safekeeping.  Later today, Hart will be removed  from the prison and taken under  heavy guard to Pryor and arraigned  on the triple murder charges.  Mayes County Sheriff Pete  Weaver said today he will have  extra deputies on duty and arrange  special security when Hart is  See HART, page 4A  CAPTURED FUGITIVE—Gene Leroy Hart, accused of killing  three Girl Scouts, struggles with heavy wrist and ankle shackles  as he inches his way up the front steps of the state prison  between Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agents Larry  Bowles (left) and Bud Ousley, followed by Mayes County Sheriff  Pete Weaver (behind Ousley) and Deputy A. D. David. Agents  caught Hart late Thursday in a shack near Stilwell and took him to  prison for safekeeping. (Tribune Photo By Ben Newby)