Monday, Jun. 30, 1997

MILESTONES

ARRESTED. IRA EINHORN, 57, peace-spouting hippie guru who escaped to Europe 16 years ago after fatally beating his former girlfriend and stuffing her mummified remains in a trunk; at his home in Champagne-Mouton, France. A favorite of Philadelphia's intelligentsia in the 1970s, Einhorn was convicted of first-degree murder in absentia in 1993. He faces extradition.

SENTENCED. JESSE TIMMENDEQUAS, 36, child molester convicted of raping and killing seven-year-old Megan Kanka; to death by injection; in Trenton, N.J.

DIED. LAWRENCE PAYTON, 59, Motown master of harmony who sang with the indestructible Four Tops; of liver cancer; in Southfield, Mich. What began as a teenage gig for Payton in the 1950s became a lifelong commitment to seamless choreography and the precise vocals that typified such Tops hits as Baby I Need Your Loving and Reach Out, I'll Be There.

DIED. RICHARD JAECKEL, 70, movie tough guy; of cancer; in Woodland Hills, Calif. A real-life Marine during World War II, Jaeckel took on the Japanese in the Sands of Iwo Jima. He was nominated for an Oscar in 1971 for his portrayal of a logger in Sometimes a Great Notion.

DIED. GONZALO FONSECA, 74, Uruguayan sculptor whose cryptic carvings, punctuated by unexpected hollows and totemic objects, were influenced by his excavations of pre-Columbian ruins; of a stroke; in Seravezza, Italy.

DIED. AMOS TUTUOLA, 77, Nigerian novelist who foraged into Yoruba folklore for his grisly tales; in Ibadan, Nigeria. In prose unfettered by grammatical conventions, Tutuola depicted mythic odysseys. In The Palm-Wine Drinkard, a wino travels to the afterworld and battles a horned monster to appease his hellish thirst.

DIED. THALASSA CRUSO, 88, TV's prickly mother of all flora; in Wellesley, Mass. The British star of the educational series Making Things Grow practiced tough love: she poked, prodded and downright bullied fading philodendrons and pooped polypodies until they stood at attention.

DIED. GLYNN ("Scotty") WOLFE, 88, Bible-thumping minister who took the holy out of matrimony, marrying 29 times; in Redlands, Calif. After reportedly divorcing one wife for eating sunflower seeds in bed and another for using his toothbrush, Wolfe met his match in No. 29, Linda Essex, the world's most frequently married woman (her trip to the altar with Wolfe was her 23rd).

DIED. PETER BLOS, 93, compassionate psychoanalyst who pioneered the exploration of adolescent angst; in New York City. In The Adolescent Passage, Blos argued that the psychic battles waged during the teenage years help determine an adult's mental health.