St. Johns, Mich., April 19. -- A jury of seven men and five women found 21-year-old Richard Pohl guilty of manslaughter yesterday in the bludgeon slaying of Mrs. Anna Hengesbach. Pohl received the verdict without visible emotion. He returned to his cell in the county jail, where he has been held since his arrest last July, without a word to his court-appointed attorney, Jack Walker, or his guard. Stepson vindicated The verdict brought vindication to the dead woman's stepson, Vincent Hengesbach, 54, who was tried for the same crime in December, 1958, and released when the jury failed to reach a verdict. Mrs. Hengesbach was killed on Aug. 31, 1958. Hengesbach has been living under a cloud ever since. When the verdict came in against his young neighbor, Hengesbach said: "I am very pleased to have the doubt of suspicion removed. Still, I don't wish to appear happy at somebody else's misfortune". Lives on welfare Hengesbach, who has been living on welfare recently, said he hopes to rebuild the farm which was settled by his grandfather in Westphalia, 27 miles southwest of here. Hengesbach has been living in Grand Ledge since his house and barn were burned down after his release in 1958. Pohl confessed the arson while being questioned about several fires in the Westphalia area by State Police. He also admitted killing Mrs. Hengesbach. However, the confession, which was the only evidence against him, was retracted before the trial. Charges in doubt Assistant Prosecutor Fred Lewis, who tried both the Hengesbach and Pohl cases, said he did not know what would be done about two arson charges pending against Pohl. Circuit Judge Paul R. Cash did not set a date for sentencing. Pohl could receive from 1 to 15 years in prison or probation. Walker said he was considering filing a motion for a new trial which would contend that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence and that there were several errors in trial procedure. Locked in motel A verdict against Pohl came at 4:05 p.m. after almost 13-1/2 hours of deliberation. The jury, which was locked up in a motel overnight, was canvassed at the request of Walker after the verdict was announced. The jury foreman, Mrs. Olive Heideman, of rural Elsie, said that a ballot was not even taken until yesterday morning and that the first day of deliberation was spent in going over the evidence. She said the jurors agreed that Pohl's confession was valid. The jury asked Judge Cash to send in his written definition of the difference between first and second-degree murder and manslaughter. The verdict came three hours later. Some 30 spectators remained in the court during the day and were on hand to hear the verdict read. The trial had packed the large courtroom for more than a week. A Sterling Township family of six surviving children, whose mother died yesterday as the aftermath to a fire that also killed one of the children, found today they had the help of hundreds of neighbors and school friends. While neighbor women assumed some of the dead mother's duties, fund-raising events were being planned by a homeowners association and a student council for the hard-hit Henry Kowalski family, 34220 Viceroy. Mrs. Eleanor Kowalski, 42, died yesterday afternoon in Holy Cross Hospital of burns suffered in a fire that followed a bottled gas explosion Saturday night at the flat of her widowed mother, Mrs. Mary Pankowski, in the adjoining suburb of Warren. Services tomorrow Funeral services for Mrs. Kowalski and her daughter, Christine, 11, who died of burns at the same hospital Monday, have been scheduled for 10 a.m. tomorrow in St. Anne's Catholic Church, 31978 Mound, in Warren. The mother and daughter, who will be buried side by side in Mt. Olivet Cemetery, rested together today in closed caskets at the Lyle Elliott Funeral Home, 31730 Mound, Warren. Mrs. Pankowski, 61, remained in Holy Cross Hospital as a result of the explosion, which occurred while Mrs. Kowalski fueled a cook stove in the grandmother's small upstairs flat at 2274 Eight Mile Road East. Held candle Assistant Fire Chief Chester Cornell said gas fumes apparently were ignited by a candle which one of the three Kowalski girls present held for her mother, because the flat lacked electricity. Christine's twin sister, Patricia, and Darlene Kowalski, 8, escaped with minor burns. They are home now with the other Kowalski children, Vicky, 14; Dennis, 6; Eleanor, 2; and Bernardine, 1. "All we have left in the world is one another, and we must stay together the way Mother wanted", Kowalski said in telling his children of their mother's death yesterday afternoon. Kowalski, a roofer who seldom worked last winter, already was in arrears on their recently purchased split-level home when the tragedy staggered him with medical and funeral bills. A135 donated Neighbor women, such as Mrs. Sidney Baker, 2269 Serra, Sterling Township, have been supplying the family with meals and handling household chores with Kowalski's sister-in-law, Mrs. Anna Kowalski, 22111 David, East Detroit. Another neighbor, Mrs. Frank C. Smith, 2731 Pall Mall, Sterling Township, surprised Kowalski by coming to the home yesterday with $135 collected locally toward the $400 funeral costs. John C. Houghton, president of the Tareytown Acres Homeowners Association, followed that by announcing plans last night for a door-to-door fund drive throughout their subdivision on behalf of the Kowalski family. Students help out Houghton said 6 p.m. Friday had been set for a canvass of all 480 homes in the subdivision, which is located northeast of Dequindre and 14 Mile Road East. He said contributions also could be mailed to Post Office Box 553, Warren Village Station. Vicky Kowalski meanwhile learned that several of her fellow students had collected almost $25 for her family during the lunch hour yesterday at Fuhrmann Junior High School, 5155 Fourteen Mile road east. Principal Clayton W. Pohly said he would allow a further collection between classes today, and revealed that Y-Teen Club past surpluses had been used to provide a private hospital nurse Monday for Mrs. Kowalski. Funds from dances Student Council officers announced today the Kowalski family would be given the combined proceeds from a school dance held two weeks ago, and another dance for Fuhrmann's 770 students this Friday night. "Furhmann's faculty is proud that this has been a spontaneous effort, started largely among the students themselves, because of fondness for Vicky and sympathy for her entire family, Pohly said. There also were reports of a collection at the County Line Elementary School, 3505o Dequindre, which has been attended this year by four of the Kowalski children including Christine. Expresses thanks Kowalski has spoken but little since the fire last Saturday. But today he wanted to make a public statement. "I never knew there were such neighbors and friends around me and my family. I wasn't sure there were such people anywhere in the world. I'll need more than a single day to find the words to properly express my thanks to them". An alert 10-year-old safety patrol boy was congratulated by police today for his part in obtaining a reckless driving conviction against a youthful motorist. Patrolman George Kimmell, of McClellan Station, said he would recommend a special safety citation for Ralph Sisk, 9230 Vernor east, a third grader at the Scripps School, for his assistance in the case. Kimmell said he and Ralph were helping children across Belvidere at Kercheval Monday afternoon when a car heading north on Belvidere stopped belatedly inside the pedestrian crosswalk. Gets car number Kimmell ordered the driver to back up, watched the children safely across and was approaching the car when it suddenly "took off at high speed", he said, narrowly missing him. Commandeering a passing car, Kimmell pursued the fleeing vehicle, but lost it in traffic. Returning to the school crossing, the officer was informed by the Sisk boy that he recognized the driver, a neighbor, and had obtained the license number. The motorist later was identified as Richard Sarkees, 17, of 2433 McClellan, currently on probation and under court order not to drive. Given 15 days He was found guilty of reckless driving yesterday by Traffic Judge George T. Murphy, who continued his no-driving probation for another year and ordered him to spend 15 days in the Detroit House of Correction. The jail sentence is to begin the day after Sarkees graduates from Eastern High School in June. The long crisis in Laos appeared nearing a showdown today. Britain announced that it is asking the Soviet Union to agree tomorrow to an immediate cease-fire. Help asked In Vientiane, the royal Laotian government decided today to ask its "friends and neighbors" for help in fighting what it called a new rebel offensive threatening the southeast Asian kingdom. Britain's plans to press Russia for a definite cease-fire timetable was announced in London by Foreign Secretary Lord Home. He said Britain also proposed that the international truce commission should be reconvened, sent to New Delhi and from there to Laos to verify the cease-fire. A 14-power conference on Laos should then meet on May 5, he said. Plea for arms The Laos government plea for help was made by Foreign Minister Tiao Sopsaisana. He indicated that requests would be made for more U.S. arms and more U.S. military advisers. He declared the government is thinking of asking for foreign troops if the situation worsens. One of the first moves made after a cabinet decision was to request the United States to establish a full-fledged military assistance group instead of the current civilian body. A note making the request was handed to U.S. Ambassador Winthrop G. Brown. Heavy support The Laos government said four major Pathet Lao rebel attacks had been launched, heavily supported by troops from Communist North Viet Nam. The minister, describing the attacks which led up to the appeal, said that 60,000 Communist North Vietnamese were fighting royal army troops on one front -- near Thakhek, in southern-central Laos. There was no confirmation of such massive assaults from independent sources. In the past such government claims have been found exaggerated. Havana, April 19. -- Two Americans and seven Cubans were executed by firing squads today as Castro military tribunals began decreeing the death penalty for captured invasion forces and suspected collaborators. A Havana radio broadcast identified the Americans as Howard Anderson and August Jack McNair. The executions took place at dawn only a few hours after Havana radio announced their conviction by a revolutionary tribunal at Pinar Del Rio, where the executions took place. Arms plot charged The broadcast said Anderson, a Seattle ex-marine and Havana businessman, and McNair, of Miami, were condemned on charges of smuggling arms to Cuban rebels. Anderson operated three Havana automobile service stations and was commander of the Havana American Legion post before it disbanded since the start of Fidel Castro's regime. Anderson's wife and four children live in Miami. McNair, 25, was seized March 20 with four Cubans and accused of trying to land a boatload of rifles in Pinar Del Rio, about 35 miles from Havana. Report others held At least 20 other Americans were reported to have been arrested in a mass political roundup. Among them were a number of newsmen, including Henry Raymont, of United Press International, and Robert Berrellez, of Associated Press. So many Cubans were reported being swept into the Castro dragnet that the massive Sports Palace auditorium and at least one hotel were converted into makeshift jails. More than 1,000 were said to have been arrested -- 100 of them Roman Catholic priests. Of the millions who have served time in concentration camps in Siberia as political prisoners of the Soviet state, few emerge in the West to tell about it. M. Kegham -- the name is a pseudynom -- was a teacher in Bucharest and a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) -- two reasons the Communists put him away when they arrived in 1945. Today, M. Kegham was in Detroit, en route to join his wife and children in California.