The Journal Herald from Dayton, Ohio • 3

Ism irASsI ArriA aion Unchained Beast on the timid side Line -Off The Beat 225-2400 Action Line cuts red Upe, gets tnswers, rights wrongs. CtU inyttme. Or write Action Line, The Journtl Hertld, S7 S. Ludlow St, Diytoa 45401. In December 1977, 1 contemplated joining Universal Health Spa in Springfield, but was hesitant about paying the full membership fee.

The management suggested that 1 pay only $20 toward a membership, and if I changed my mind, the money would be refunded. I paid the $20, but later decided I wanted my money back, so I signed a cancellation form. I have tried several times since then to get my refund and have become very frustrated. What can I do? Ms. Urbana.

Universal Health Spa gave Action Line quite a workout before we reached the finish line on this one. But you finally received a $20 refund check, two free 20-visit passes and an apology from Universal's management. We contacted Universal's bookkeeper, who informed you the company would refund $10 of your deposit. After several days, you hadn't received the money, so you contacted us again, still insisting you were entitled to the full $20. So we contacted spa manager Connie Barat-tini, who said the delay for your $10 check was caused by your card being placed in the wrong file.

Then she sent you a check for the full $20, and threw in the free passes to soothe your feelings. KINGS ISLAND They unchained The Bast yesterday. The Beast is, in Kings Island's contribution to rampant illiteracy, "the biggest, baddest, long- est, fastest coaster in the world." Furthermore, it is "the world's ultimate coaster," according to "authorities, buffs and fans," none of whom had even seen the coaster at the time that particular press release was written. But in spite of what appears to be an advertising campaign filled with unfounded claims and blatant exaggerations, it is decided that we should send a representative to the press preview of The Beast. After all, if newspapers refused to cover every event guilty of unfounded claims and blatant exaggerations, they would never go to another major league baseball game.

Or to another political event. ALL THAT REMAINS, then, is to decide which writer to send for a ride on a roller coaster that goes as fast as 70 miles an hour. Together assignments editor Finster O'-Shaughnessy and I consider the possibilities. "It should be somebody who is experienced," Finster says. "After all, this is a pretty big deal.

It cost $3.8 million." "Let's send the business writer," I suggest. "And it took 87,000 hours of construction work to build it." "Let's send the labor writer," I suggest. "And anything that goes that fast and that high is bound to have people screaming their heads off." "Let's send the rock music writer," I suggest. "No," Finster says. "We have to send someone who is bold, fearless, daring, brave and expendable." IT IS COOL AND rainy when I arrive at Kings Island yesterday for the press preview of The Beast.

There are, I discover, more than 200 news media representatives on hand for the opening of the world's newest roller coaster. Or, roughly, 198 more than you'll find at the average city council meeting. Most of them are from the Ohio-Indiana area, but there is one TV reporter from the British Broadcasting Corp. "I'm stationed in Washington and normally I cover politics and major news stories," he says. "But it's quite possible I'll learn more about America here than by staying in Washington." To open the ceremonies, a chain that "restrains" The Beast is cut by a pair of U.S.

Marines in full parade dress. A shiver of patriotic pride runs up my spine as I realize that my tax dollars have helped make it possible for our Marines to be on hand to keep amusement parks safe from foreign invasion. THE FIRST RIDE of the day is reserved for Kings Island executives and the men who de- signed and built The Beast. It is an idea with a certain appeal, not unlike suggestions that those who design nuclear plants should be the ones who send their children to nearby schools. The second train is filled by randomly selected members of the press, plus special guests like Rick Rodriguez.

Rick Rodriguez is 21 years old and he is from Brooklyn, N.Y.,. and he is a special guest here because he holds the world record for marathon roller coaster riding: 128 consecutive hours at Circus World in Florida. It is a mind-boggling achievement. Not to mention stomach-boggling. I get a seat on the third train.

MY GREEN SHIRT matching my face, I take a firm grip on the safety bar as the train pulls away from the platform, rounds a bend and begins to clickity-clack its way up the first hill. The top of the first hill is 105 feet off the ground, dropping 135 feet into an underground tunnel. This is always the most frightening part of a roller coaster for me, reaching the top of the first hill and looking down. It is the time when my body tells my mind that it would rather be on the merry-go-round. But, in spite of its height, the view from the top of the first hill on The Beast is not nearly as awesome as I had anticipated.

Unlike some coasters, which drop away at a 55-degree angle, the angle here is only 45 degrees. No one who has ever driven through the mountains of Kentucky is going to be impressed by a 45-degree hill. We speed down the hill, flash in and out of a tunnel and climb the next grade. This hill is longer, but the incline is only 18 degrees. There are floors in my house steeper than that.

FROM THERE, The Beast is remarkably tame until it nears the end, where it bends into the helix, one-and-a-half revolutions at 70 miles an hour that flatten your body against the right side of your seat. Then the ride is over. The Beast, I conclude with a mixture of relief and disappointment, is enjoyable and fun, but hardly terrifying, sense-numbing or even very frightening. Which is not to say that Kings Island does not have anything new and terrifying to offer. Admission this year has been Increased to $9.50.

For real terror, sit down and calculate how much that will cost you for a family of six. jys' krwV Ji -4 If Staff photo by Bill Garlow D.L ready to roll Judge questions cross-examination FBI tests on King's car proved negative PThe Journal Herald April 14, 1979 FBI laboratory tests on the interior of Billy King's car for elements found after a gun is fired proved negative, according to developments yesterday in the tenth day of King's murder trial. When lawyers for the suspended Dayton police officer on trial in the Nov. 14 killing of Monika Walker were cross-examining Montgomery County Sheriff's Sgt. John Falldorf about how he checked King's car for the elements, Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge William MacMillan Jr.

asked why any questioning about the testing was necessary "since the test was negative." Correction Mrs. Eickman did not say board will drop agency blanket probe A story on this page in some editions yesterday concerning the Montgomery County Community Action Agency created the impression that acting board chairwoman Jeanne Eickman said the FBI had asked the agency to drop its probe into allegations of wrongdoing in the distribution of blankets last year. The FBI information came from other board sources and a letter addressed to Mrs. Eickman from the agency's former executive director. The Journal Herald acquired a copy of the letter from another source and Mrs.

Eickman did not comment on the FBI request. Mrs. Eickman also said the agency had not actually dropped its inquiry into the blanket Issue, but had suspended it until the FBI probe is completed. In December, sources at the Miami Valley Regional Crime Laboratory said FBI tests had shown barium and antimony in the ceiling liner above the front passenger seat of King's car. At the time, investigators said that showed a gun may have been fired in the car.

Further tests were ordered. MacMILLAN'S interjection was the first public mention since then that the tests failed to prove a gun was fired in King's car. After court recessed, prosecutors said the FBI learned that barium and antimony are commonly found in materials that comprise automobile interiors. Thursday, however, David Taulbee, a crime lab firearms expert, testified that the elements were probably absorbed by Miss Walker's left hand when she grabbed at the gun used to kill her. The bullet passed through her head and has never been found.

Also yesterday, a Dayton police detective testified that King told police he was at home sleeping the morning Miss Walker was killed. King said he had taken the previous day off to complete a college term paper, went out and had a few drinks that night and that between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. he'd been sleeping, according to Detective Lionel Combs. MISS WALKER, a 15-year-old freshman at Colonel White High School, apparently was picked up as she walked to school.

She left home at 7 a.m. Her body was found along Aullwood Road in Butler Twp. about 9 a.m. Combs said that King, however, "didn't remember the subject (of the term paper) or didn't remember what the papers were about," Combs testified. Defense attorneys have said King was studying political science at Sinclair Community College at the time and that he had taken Nov.

13 off to write the term paper. Combs said detectives talked "informally" with King as they searched his apartment Nov. 22. They confiscated two guns, a sports coat and pants which prosecutors say he wore the morning he killed Miss Walker, and woman's clothing, some of which has been identified by Miss Walker's mother. Combs said he also asked King how his rent receipt got under Miss Walker's body and King replied, "I don't know." "I TOLD HIM if he had an alibi to come out with it," Combs said.

King said he had "nobody to back up" his explanation that he was at his apartment sleeping, Combs said. Combs said King denied knowing Miss Walker. He said King was "very calm, quiet, casual" during questioning but that at one point there were "beads of sweat on his nose." Combs said when King was told that a car matching the description of his white Ford Elite had been seen near the murder site, King said there was "no way" he might have loaned his car to anybody, and that it had not been stolen. Prosecutors are expected to wind up their case Monday or Tuesday. Defense attorneys have subpoenaed 40 prospective witnesses.

It is expected that King will take the stand next week. I am interested in obtaining Information about the Beery School of Horsemanship in Pleasant Hill. My grandmother, who still lives in Pleasant Hill, remembers watching the school's founder train dogs in his back yard before he began training horses. Is this school still in existence? Mrs. J.W., Kettering.

The news is cheery about Beery. The Beery School of Horsemanship still is operating in Pleasant Hill as a correspondence school. Owner Dean Hocker reports that courses are offered in horse training, how to ride and train a western horse, saddle horse instruction and animal breeding. The school was founded in 1909 by "Professor" Jesse Beery to train colts and to rid horses of bad habits. For more information, write Beery School of Horsemanship, Pleasant Hill, Ohio 45359.

In 1977, I purchased a Bowmar digital watch as a Christmas gift from Gray Drugs, Old Troy Pike. In February 1978, 1 returned it to the Bowman company in New York for repair under the 90-day warranty. I have written and called since April 1978, but still don't have my watch. A.W., Dayton. Your watch has taken more directions than a feather in a tornado.

It has been the property of four different companies since you sent it to Bowman for repair more than a year ago. Now it is the innocent victim of various legal squabbles which have left its future highly uncertain. The problem began when Bowmar sold its digital watch rights to CMI Inc. of New York. The company's name then was changed to CMIBowmar Inc.

Your watch was sent to CMI in New York, from where it was shipped to the company's branch in North Hollywood, Calif. Then CMI went out of business and its watches were transferred to the SIR Service Corp. In North Hollywood. Guess what happened after that? Yep, SIR also went out of business. The wandering watches were left with the Electronic Calculator Service (ECS) in Santa Ana, Calif.

Although it has no connection with CMI, SIR or Bowmar, ECS agreed to store the watches. However, it would not honor any warranties or other repair agreements which were causing various legal problems. According to information supplied Action Line, has more than 2,000 watches stored In a multitute of boxes, and refuses to return any of them, even the unrepaired ones, unless the owners are willing to pay postage. But first your watch must be found and that's another problem. No one at ECS contacted by Action Line would wade through the boxes to see if your watch is there.

Until someone assumes responsibility, your problem is in limbo. But we'll keep close watch on it. Wolfe serving term in Indiana prison farm By Cilia Bosnak Journal Herald Slatf Writer Former Montgomery County Commissioner Ray Wolfe has been assigned to a federal minimum security prison farm in Terre Haute, Ind. Wolfe had requested assignment to the Federal Corrections Institution in Lexington, but a federal iji 1 I 'I 1 860 in the stricter security of the prison itself, the probation officer said. There is no fence at the camp, which includes a farm and a manufacturing operation whicij produces canvas duffle bags.

He said inmates also perform janitorial and maintenance services. Most of the "honor camp" inmates, like Wolfe, have been convicted of non-violent, white collar crimes, and are believed unlikely to escape, he said. Wolfe and Page admitted their involvement In a bribery scheme in which they received a total of $27,000 from trash haulers while they were Miami Twp. trustees. Wolfe admitted receiving $25,000 of the total, Page, who was granted immunity from the bribery charges in exchange for his cooperation, pleaded guilty to separate federal charges connected with his skimming of $95,000 in interest from a state auto license bureau he operated.

In his guilty plea, Wolfe admitted traveling to Florida to accept a $7,000 bribe from Albert "Cisco" Engle In exchange for his help in awarding a trash-hauling contract to a firm operated by Engle's son. Engle was convicted by a federal jury March 29 on four bribery-related charges in connection with the scheme and Is awaiting sentencing. Wplfe will become eligible for parole Aug. 6. probation officer here said the distances of the two facilities from Dayton are nearly the same.

Former Montgomery County Commissioner Oscar Page is serving his sentence of one year and one day at the Lexington facility. Wolfe entered the Terre Haute prison camp April 6. A prison spokesman there said he has been assigned to i -J- Wolfe Call Direct Line- Errort in newt stories, requests for corrections, inquiries or comments about The 1 Journal Herald's news policies should be reported to Direct Line Editor James Zofkie. Call 225-2404 between 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.

weekdays. Other hours and weekends, leave a message at 225-2401. Your report will get immediate attention of top management of The Journal Herold news department, Written queries should be addressed to Direct Line, The Journal Herald, 37 S. Ludlow Dayton, Ohio 45401 Staff photo by Al Wilson Benched As bench marks of progress, these concrete slabs at McKinley Park really don't amount to much. City park the "honor camp." Wolfe was also sentenced to a year and a day for violation of the federal Travel Act, which prohibits Interstate travel to further the commission of a crime.

The camp has an Inmate population of about 300, and serves the larger population of about workers stripped the benches of their slats in the first bench refurbishing program, The slats will be tor season and replaced. 1 A.