Milestones Feb. 25, 2002

ARRAIGNED. JOHN WALKER LINDH, 21, American Taliban accused of aiding al-Qaeda and conspiring to kill Americans; in federal court in Alexandria, Va. Lindh pleaded, "Not guilty, sir," as the family of CIA officer Johnny (Mike) Spann--killed at the prison where Lindh was captured--watched. Lindh faces life imprisonment if convicted.

DIED. MIKE DARR, 25, outfielder for the San Diego Padres; after the car he was driving hit an interstate-highway median; in Phoenix, Ariz. Following the loss of minor leaguer Gerik Baxter last summer, Darr became the second Padres player killed in a car crash in less than a year.

DIED. NIKOLAY SOLTYS, 28, Ukrainian immigrant jailed for the alleged murder of his pregnant wife, son and four other family members; a suicide by hanging; in his cell in Sacramento, Calif. Soltys was caught hiding in the backyard of his mother's home after a 10-day manhunt last August.

DIED. JACK HENRY ABBOTT, 58, philosophical criminal whose unsettling letters to Norman Mailer about inmate life were turned into a best-selling book, In the Belly of the Beast; a suicide, by hanging; in his cell in Alden, N.Y., near Buffalo. With Mailer's help, Abbott, serving time for armed robbery and killing an inmate, won parole and a research job in 1981. Six weeks later, he was back in jail after stabbing to death a New York City waiter. He wrote that prisoners "cannot be subdued. Only murdered."

DIED. WAYLON JENNINGS, 64, gristly Grammy-winning country "outlaw" who recorded Nashville's first platinum album (Wanted: The Outlaws); of a diabetes-related illness; in Chandler, Ariz. With his black Stetson and brash persona, Jennings, along with Willie Nelson, led country's outlaw movement of the late '60s and early '70s--a honky-tonk response to country's slick pop sound. Perhaps best known for Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys, he recorded 16 No. 1 singles. Once a bassist for Buddy Holly, Jennings was scheduled to be on the plane in 1959 that killed Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson (the Big Bopper), but he gave up his seat because Richardson felt too ill to take the bus.

DIED. DAVE VAN RONK, 65, erudite folk, blues and jazz musician known as the Mayor of Greenwich Village during the folk revival of the '50s and '60s; of colon cancer; in New York City. A mentor to the young Bob Dylan, Van Ronk offered his apartment as a gathering place for musicians like Dylan, Tom Paxton and Suzanne Vega.

DIED. VERNON WALTERS, 85, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who served seven Presidents; in West Palm Beach, Fla. He helped craft the Marshall Plan and used his fluency in eight languages to open doors for U.S. intelligence. A deputy CIA chief for Nixon, he once translated an address for the visiting Charles de Gaulle, who later told Nixon, "You gave a magnificent speech--but your interpreter was eloquent."

DIED. FRANK CROSETTI, 91, shortstop who became third-base coach for the New York Yankees for a total of 37 seasons; in Stockton, Calif. "Once a Yankee, always a Yankee," he said.