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395 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn 112a Thursday, August 17, 1978 Vol. VII, No. 10 25 CENTSBellamy PutsNew HurdleOn WestwayBY JON CINERA resolution that would require all approvals for highways, including Westway, to come before the Board of Estimate%u2014instead of the Mayor%u2014has been introduced by City Council President Carol Bellamy. The resolution, if passed, could be a major obstacle to the development of the $1.2 billion interstate highway plan.The resolution would, in effect, take the $1.2 billion interstate highway plan, out of the hands of the Mayor, and into the hands of the Board of Estimate, where there may be enough votes to kill the project. The Mayor supports Westway.In a maneuver to get eventual approval, Bellamy%u2019s resolution was tabled at a Board Executive session Wednesday, but is expected to be re-introduced for the September 14 Board of Estimate meeting. Under law, an item that has been put on the Board of Estimate calendar more than once needs only a majority vote, rather than threefourths the vote, to pass. Since City Comptroller Harrison J. Goldin was %u201cnon-committal%u201d on the resolution, according to Bellamy counsel Steve Polan, supporters decided to table the item so that it would need only a majority vote when it appeared again on the calendar.The resolution quotes state highway law as saying that %u201c designs, specifications, and estimates of costs%u201d for state arterial highways passing through the city %u201c shall require the approval of the city in the manner provided by the city charter and administrative code.The city%u2019s Corporation Counsel, Alan Schwartz has ruled that, in this case, \means Mayoral sanction. Bellamy%u2019s resolution interprets the measure to mean that the Board of Estimate must approve highway plans.The Board of Estimate is made up of the Mayor, City Council President, and the Comptroller, each of whom have four votes; and the five Borough Presidents who each have two votes.Right now, Bellamy, Manhattan Borough President Andrew Stein, Bronx Borough President Robert Abrams, and City Comptroller Harrison J. Goldin have said they would oppose the project, giving anti-Westway forces a majority on the Board of 12 votes.But the Bellamy resolution is not- C I I 7 - . ________u h n i t m e n u kjil u w a i n u j ,President Anthony Gaeta were reportedly undecided.In making the resolution, Bellamy stressed that the Corporation Counsel ruling was %u201cwithout the force or effect of law%u2014they are merely an opinion.%u201dBalloonists Make it to IrelandOVER BEAUTIFUL IRELAND%u2014Three American adventurers completed the first successful Atlantic crossing in a helium-filled balloon yesterday, reaching the Irish coast in a helium-filled balloon yesterday, reaching the Irish coast after five days. Instead of setting down, they kept floating toward the European mainland, %u201cjust to see how far they get.%u201dThe Double Eagle II, with Ben Abruzzo, 48, Maxie Anderson, 44, and Larry Newman, 31, all from Albuquerque, N.M., reached Ireland at 5:01 p.m. EDT. Seventeen other recorded crossings all failed, and seven people, including onewoman, died trying.Ireland, the balloonists ground crew said, is %u201c considered European soil, but they would like to bring it to the European mainland.%u201d Depending on meterological conditions, the fliers, said crew spokesman Michael Levitt, %u201ccould set distance records.%u201dWith a catamaran boat as a gondola, the balloonists set out from Presque Isle, Maine, last Friday, and had eclipsed the record for remaining aloft, 107Vi hours, by early Wednesday morning.Strong 40-knot winds pushed Double Eagle II across the Irishcoast, but also brought 20-below zero temperatures to the crew.Irish radar specialists said the balloon was tracked as it reached the coast. The adventurers, how ever, plan to celebrate when they land with a bottle of champagne stowed aboard.An apparent key to the duration of the flight, Levitt said, is the amount of helium left in the balloon. To gain altitude,. they jettison bags of sand. To descend, helium is released. Since this was done off and on during the ocean crossing, it is unknown how much helium is left.James Earl Ray testifies again today before the House Assasinations Subcommittee afterdeclaring himself innocent of the M artin Luther King killing. [Gerald Holly Photo]1 Didn't Shoot Him%u2019Ray Claims He Was Dupedits jurisdiction. It was supported by Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden, Queens Borough President Donald Manes, as well as Bellamy, Stein, and Abrams. Goldin and Staten Island BoroughWASHINGTON - %u201c I did not shoot Dr. Martin Luther King.%u201dThose words were the most dramatic part of the testimony of James Earl Ray in his first public explanation of the death of Dr. King on April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis as Ray appeared before the House Assassinations Committee yesterday.Under heavy guard, Ray, now 00, said: %u201c My testimony is the same that I would have given in a Memphis trial court if I had had the opportunity.%u201dIn 1969, Ray pleaded guilty to the King murder but soon after retracted a confession to the killing. He had been given a 99-year sentence in Memphis.D o u r c o i r i f h f l t H i^ X V J I V I V A U j J ~ ----attorney, Percy Foreman, had coerced him into pleading guilty. He told the Congressmen that he had not participated in the killing. Instead he was duped into a gun-running scheme by a man heknow only as Raoul and may indeed have been set up to take the blame for the King murder.He gave a rambling account of escaping from Missouri State Penitentiary in 1967 and then travelling to St. Louis, Chicago and other midwestem cities before ending up first in Toronto and then in Montreal. On the Montreal waterfront he met Raoul.Raoul, who according to Ray spoke Spanish, gave him phone numbers in New Orleans and gave him some items to smuggle across the border. Ray said he carried out the smuggling and then from New Orleans went to Los Angeles.Later he renewed the friendship with Raoul in Birmingham, Alabama and bought a rifle suooosedlv to be shipped to Mexico. With the rifle, they drove to Memphis. On April 4 Raoul suggested that Ray go to a movie. Instead he went out to pass the time and while out saw police cars rushing through thearea.First he fled to Atlanta and then back to Toronto. Spotting the name of a policeman in the newspapers, he decided on an impulse to apply for a passport in the officer%u2019s name, after first calling the man to see if he had a passport. Ray got the passport and then flew to Britain. After a trip to Portugal from whence he hoped and failed to get to Biafra or Angola, he returned to London and was leaving for Brussels when he was caught at London airport.Ray claimed that his lawyers, in collaboration with author William Bradford Huie, conspired to coerce him into pleading guilty so that they could profit from a book Huie wrote on the case.He also charged that Federal Bureau of Investigation officers could have been responsible for King%u2019s death and that they were now out to kill him to keep him quiet.Cops NabSuspectsIn AssaultActing on tips from an off-duty mailman, police last night arrested eight members of a Brooklyn gang in connection with the racially-inspired clubbing of five persons Monday night in troubled Borough Park.Police spokesmen said the round-up began shortly before 8 p.m ., on charges of assault, possession of weapons and menacing. Four of those arrested were juveniles, and the others between 16 and 23 years.Few details of the investigation were available, but police confirmed that one of the victims, an off-duty mailman, had identified a number of the suspects from his familiarity with the community.Earlier in the day, city Employment Commissioner Stanley Brezenoff pulled 40 teenage summer employees out of Borough Park and Bensonhurst in a direct reaction to Monday%u2019s attack. \thing I like to do, taking crews out of a neighborhood of New York for safety reasons,%u201d Brezenoff said. %u201c But these are teenagers. I simply can%u2019t take a chance with their safety.%u201dThe eight arrested are believed to be part of a 20-member white gang upset over inroads made in the community by Hispanics. Of Monday%u2019s victims, one was black and four were Hispanic. Two remain hospitalized.To OurRegular ReadersLast Friday, the second day ofdie dally paper strike, we published our first %u201cdally%u201d , to bringour neighborhoods professbialcoverage of city, national andworld news and sports. To makeroom for expanded coverage,some of our usuai weeklyfeatures are missing from thisedition. Our temporary %u201cdaily%u201dis sold at most stands that regularly sell the paper each week.His Agony f Blackout, Looting Plus Strikes-Page 2