Died. Otto Skorzeny, 67, audacious Nazi SS colonel, saboteur and guerrilla fighter during World War II; of bronchial cancer; in Madrid. Skorzeny led the September 1943 glider-borne rescue of Benito Mussolini from the mountain-top hotel where he had been imprisoned by the pro-Allied Badoglio government. The exploit earned him the Iron Cross and der Fuhrer's gratitude, which he repaid by helping to thwart the July 1944 plot against Hitler, rallying SS units and halting a wave of executions so that Gestapo torturers could extract from conspirators the extent of the plot. As German armies pressed the Ardennes offensive during Christmas week 1944, Skorzeny directed the infiltration of hundreds of English-speaking Germans clad in U.S. uniforms behind Eisenhower's lines. While awaiting a denazification trial in 1948, Skorzeny escaped the German prison camp at Darmstadt and spent his remaining years as a businessman in Spain.

Died. Morgan Beatty, 72, reporter and NBC radio broadcaster; in St. Johns, Antigua. As a military expert for the Associated Press during World War II, Beatty accurately predicted both Hitler's assault on Russia and the successful Soviet resistance. Later, he reported Roosevelt's choice of Harry Truman as his 1944 running mate before even Tru-- man knew about it. But his biggest scoop was never broadcast: sailing home from the 1945 Potsdam Conference on a naval vessel with Truman, Beatty guessed that an atomic bomb was to be dropped on Hiroshima when Truman interrupted a poker game to confer with an aide and point to the city on a map. Beatty commented, "There was absolutely nothing I could do."

Died. Achille van Acker, 77, Socialist Premier of Belgium in 1945-46 and 1954-58; in Bruges. Van Acker became a longshoreman, union leader and Socialist parliamentarian, fled Brussels to join the Belgian Maquis after the Nazi invasion in 1940. Named Minister of Labor in the coalition government that followed liberation, "Smiling Achille" persuaded striking coal miners to return to work, and was credited with the labor peace that speeded Belgian recovery. As Premier, he resisted the return of Belgium's collaborationist King Leopold in 1945 and formed an economic union with The Netherlands and Luxembourg that later became part of the European Common Market.

Died. Ruffian, 3, one of the fleetest, most beautiful fillies in racing history; by an injection of phenobarbital after injuries suffered during a $350,000 match race at New York's Belmont Park race track (see SPORT).

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