Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 7

A7 Austin American-Statesman Tuesday, May 1, 1984 Mount Vernon regaining 'Washington slept here' lool ii A J-f i. It--- arA jn (l T-h, 7 -'Fi -r 'x II gun flnslT ln BlS IE Is laE? i finished at Mount Vernon, where specialists are recapturing the through all but two of the 22 coats of accumulated paint on the walls, doors and sills to find the exact colors that were there in 1799. Then homemade paints, using pigments ground by hand from chemicals dating back to Washington's time and mixed in linseed oil, were applied with the curved animal-hair brushes of the period. The colors are a somewhat of a surprise, and created consternation among some of the women in the association. Mosca said house paints popular in the 1700s were bright, almost garish.

So Mount Vernon is now alive with Prussian blues, pistachio greens, and bright lemon yellows all as historically accurate as Mosca and his 20th century scientific detective tools can make them. BUILT-UP PAINT and wax that once dulled the mansion flooring were removed, leaving the bare pine boards that George and Martha once trod in dances with their guests. Oriental carpets were replaced with the English, Chinese, and locally woven floor coverings of the period. So far, Mount Vernon has recovered 26 percent of the original furnishings, including an English harpsichord that Washington imported for the use of his granddaughter, Nellie Custis. to drugs Lara Bonilla had initiated an energetic campaign against Colombia's multi-billion-dollar drug rings, and said late last year he had received several threats from the gangs dealing in cocaine and marijuana.

U.S. Ambassador Lewis Tambs gave Lara Bonilla a btilletproof vest last year because of the threats, but the minister said he stopped wearing it after a few days because it was uncomfortable. Last month, police raided four cocaine-producing laboratories in the jungles of southern Colombia and seized and burned 10 tons of the drug. U.S. officials called it the biggest cocaine seizure ever.

paign. They have raised $9.1 million of the $10 million goal enough to renovate an adjoining administrative center and to build a center for offices, conference rooms, reception rooms, a library, and archives. About $4 million of the money will be used to create an endow MOUNT VERNON, Va. (AP) From the garish greens, blues, and yellows of the walls to the unwaxed pine floors. Mount Vernon Is looking strangely different these days, but It Is looking more and more the -way George and Martha Washington knew the place.

A painstaking five-year restoration of the stately home of the first US. president, financed by a $10 Snillion fund drive, is nearly finished. The mansion and grounds on the Potomac River have been returned as closely as possible' to their appearance in 1799, the year died. The completion of a companion project last week was marked In a Masonic ceremony dedicating a new $2.8 million brick library and research, center adjacent to the Mount Vernon mansion. BOTH PROJECTS were undertaken by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, a group of women who banded together in 1853 and raised $200,000 to buy the estate from Washington's descendants to save it from ruin.

The ladies, as nearly everyone xalls them, still own thevmansion and 500 acres of land, which are visited by a million people annually. As the nation's first national historic preservation society, the laddies have never accepted a penny Of federal money. They have operated Mount Vernon from gate re- Lucas From Al ian "quote things out of the Bible." "I can tell what some people think, I can guess your feelings if somebody's sad. Sometimes, I'll be sitting and talking about certain things and start crying like a baby. -I have feelings now, feelings I never did have before." He said that since his conversion, he has been able to recall his 'murders in detail.

"I have one of the best memories now in the world. But it's not because of me. It's because I prom-" ised God that I'd go back to each victim and try to get them identi fied and get them a decent burial." He says he can recall "even crimes back in 1951 what the was wearing, how it happened to her, the exact spot where she was lying." "A lot of people think it's just my but I know better." During Lucas April trial in San jAngelo, when he was sentenced to -death by injection for the myrder iof an unidentified hitchhiker, one psychiatrist said Lucas' excellent memory is characteristic of schizophrenics. Other psychiatrists testi-. fied that Lucas was not a schizophrenic.

WHATEVER THE reason, Lucas memory is amazing say law enforcement officers who see daily. i When they take him to within a few miles of a where a murder Colombian assassination linked ment fund. Proceeds will be used to buy Washington memorabilia, start educational programs for schoolchildren, and cover rising operating costs while holding the price of admission to $4 a person. To return the mansion parlors, bedrooms, dining rooms, and re Rodrigo Lara Bonilla had cracked down on drug trade was killed and the other was wounded and escaped. captured.

Some Caracol radio station identified the captured suspect as Bayron Velasquez, 20, and quoted police sources as saying he told detec AP appearance of the home in 1799. ception rooms to their original colors, the association hired Matthew Mosca, an architectural conservator and restoration expert from New York. USING A scalpel, microscope, spectroscope, chemicals, and ultraviolet light, Mosca scraped tives he was paid $20,000 to kill Lara Bonilla. Security police said the chauffeur-driven Mercedes, carrying Lara Bonilla and two bodyguards, was en route to the minister's home with a trailing jeep carrying four other guards when it had to slow because of a car blocking part of the two-lane Boyaca Avenue. As it came to a halt an undetermined number of men in or near the blocking car and the two men on the passing motorcycle opened fire, riddling the limousine, police said.

Lara Bonilla was struck three times in the head and four times in the chest and throat and one of his bodyguards was seriously wounded. commercial or assets over Saving? of America makes commercial and industrial loans the millions. A five-year restoration is nearly ceipts. The government, liowever, built a scenic parkway 15 miles from the capital to Mount Vernon in 1932 to commemorate George Washington's 200th birthday. A few years ago ago the group decided that Mount Vernon needed refurbishing, so they embarked on a second fund-raising cam ing, something inside that causes you to do this." Lucas began killing "I guess because of hate toward my mother, being raised the way I was." "Not that I'm trying to blame her.

But my mother was a prostitute. My dad didn't have any legs and was a drunk." In 1961, Lucas was convicted of, killing his mother. HE SAID HE stole and bootlegged because "that's the only way we could live." "If I didn't do it, I was beaten." He said he grew up to hate women that he viewed as prostitutes, adding that he believes women hitchhikers who are "on the road constantly are just out there for one thing." "They're highway prostitutes." Since his conversion, he said, his nis feelings toward women changed. "I can sit close to a girl now and talk. Before, I couldn't do that, couldn't even relate to a strange girl.

The first thing I'd do is think about killing them. Now I can talk, laugh with them, tease them." He said he also was able to relate to jurors during his capital murder trial in San Angelo. During one day of testimony, he began weeping, and the judge excused jurors briefly until Lucas composed himself. LUCAS CRIED for jurors, he said, because "I put them in a position to commit one of the biggest sins there is in the world" by assessing the death penalty. However, he says, "I have no fear of death.

I believe I'll die on earth, but be reborn again." Although he says God has forgiven him, he feels remorse for the victim's families. "I know it doesn't help, but I am sorry," he said. "I wish I could replace each one." Yet, he said if he were freed, "there's no guarantee" he wouldn't kill again. "I've lived in it so long," he said. "It's pretty bad when a man can outsmart sheriffs and law officers so long the way I did." HE SAID JHAT once, when an officer stopped him to see whether his car was registered in Lucas' name, there was a body in the back seat But the officer "didn't walk far enough to see it" Lucas said.

"If he -had, I would have shot him." Since Lucas' arrest he has achieved a nearcelebrity status. During his San Angelo trial, he was barraged with requests for his autograph. He said some people even have asked for one of his paintings. "I don't know what they really see In the he said. "I can't see what benefit it is.

But it's something they want so I do it-He seems almost amused by the psychiatrists and psychologists "who have examined him. "I can either relate to them or make fools out of them," he said. "I've told some the truth, and some -I've made fools out of because they think they know it alL I dont ever say I don't have a problem. But I'm not crazy." If you need $10 million, $300 million, financial institutions in the country with -v 1 1 1 ff i- or even more, to finance a BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) Colombia's justice minister, who had received threats for spearheading a major anti-drug crackdown, was killed by a volley of bullets when gunmen ambushed his limousine. The government responded with a nationwide state of siege.

Security police said Rodrigo Lara Bonilla was struck by seven' bullets fired by two men on a motorcycle and others in a car which, had blocked the path of his limousine Monday night on an avenue in northern Bogota. It was believed Lara Bonilla, 39, was assassinated because of his campaign against illegal drug traffickers. The nationwide state of siege was announced early today by Minister of Government Alfonso" Gomez following an emergency Cabinet meeting. Bodyguards accompanying Lara gunfight and officials of the Administrative Security Police said one of the men on the motorcycle 'Adam' spurs tipsters to give reports TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) More than 1,000 tipsters phoned in reports about missing children after the rebroadcast of the television movie "Adam" about the abduction and slaying of Adam Walsh, and officials said five youngsters may hava been located.

Florida Gov. Bob Graham and the mother of slain 6-year-old Adam Walsh were among those -fielding 1,004 calls to a nationwide toll-free number shown during the NBC dramatization Monday night "Adam" producer Linda Otto did not say where the five youngsters are believed to be or who their parents are. Pictures of 49 missing children were shown at the end of the show along with the toll-free number 1-800-342-0821. When the program was originally televised Oct 10, the organization Child Find, of New Paltz, N.Y telephone tips that led to the recovery of 15 children. Reagan opposes moving embassy ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) President Reagan said today he remains opposed to moving the U.S.

Embassy in Israel and was surprised to learn that some officials in his administration are recommending th Idea. "No, I te very strongly that this is not something that we should do," Reagan told reporters as he wrapped up a six-day trip to China. The Washington Post reported in Monday editions that administration officials, seeking to avert embarrassing problems on Capitol Hill, were considering a plan to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to West Jerusalem. "It should be part of negotiation," Reagan said. "Jerusalem has to be part of the negotiations, if we'e to have peace talks." $20 billion and offices in five states: Texas, California, Illinois, Missouri, and Florida.

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One murder that stands out clearly in his mind is that of Becky Powell, his 15-year-old wife. Lucas was sentenced in to life in prison for her murder. "THAT'S THE only real true 'love I ever knew," he said. "I I raised her, taught her everything I knew. I guess she's the only one really understood me." He said that Powell "participated" with him in killings, but was not a member of a cult he says he ibelongedto.

He says the cult is called the 'Hands of Death and of members across the Uni- States. He says the cult has met in the Everglades and on beaches. He says it kills animals and humans in order to reincarnate the ideviL He said cult members wear a scorpion for kidnappers, a for members who have done crucifixions, and a flame, cross hand design for "pure killers." I LUCAS SAID he once had all three types of tattoos on his hand, they have since worn off. Rangers said authorities are investigating Lucas' statements about the cult, but declined to say whether they have found evidence verify it exists. Lucas says not all of his killings Iwere inspired by the cult 7 "Some of it just comes from hat- An Ahmanson Company Bruce ManleyVice President 3003 S.

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