Milestones Oct. 17, 2005

CHARGED. STACY SIMS, 19, JAMIE UNDERWOOD, 27, and JENNIFER WILSON, 26, with the murders of six Mexican immigrant farm workers; in Tifton, Ga. The alleged killers used baseball bats and guns in the attacks, described by one official as "some of the most vicious" in the state's history. Sims and Underwood were also charged with rape in connection with another attack on immigrants. Some 20 homes in nearby Hispanic communities have been invaded in recent months, and officials say these suspects may be part of a gang targeting workers who, without papers to open bank accounts, carry large amounts of cash.

PLED GUILTY. LAWRENCE FRANKLIN, 58, senior Pentagon policy analyst; to leaking classified information to two pro-Israeli lobbyists and one Israeli official, in a statement that appeared to undermine Israel's insistence that it does not spy in the U.S.; in Alexandria, Va. He is likely to face less than the maximum of 25 years in prison because he has agreed to cooperate with an ongoing investigation.

ARRESTED. WILLIAM DAVIS, 33, convicted sex offender and one of the FBI's most-wanted fugitives, currently facing charges of molesting three Indiana boys last year; two days after talk-show host Oprah Winfrey broadcast his photo on her show and offered $100,000 for tips leading to his capture; in Fargo, N.D.

DIED. BETTY LESLIE-MELVILLE, 78, conservationist who spent much of her life creating sanctuaries in Africa in a successful push to save the Rothschild's giraffe, a white-legged subspecies, from extinction; in Baltimore, Md. She and her husband, whose house in Kenya often had giraffes poking their heads in the windows, helped raise the breed's population from 120 in the 1960s to 500.

DIED. PAUL PENA, 55, critically loved bluesman, almost completely blind since birth, whose quest to immerse himself in Tuvan throat singing--an arcane art from a region in Central Asia that involves producing more than one note at the same time--became the subject of an Academy Award--nominated documentary, Genghis Blues, in 1999; of complications from diabetes and pancreatitis; in San Francisco. Pena, who lived off royalties from his song Jet Airliner, a Top 10 hit for the Steve Miller Band in 1977, happened upon Tuvan music in the 1980s on a shortwave-radio broadcast out of Moscow.

DIED. NIPSEY RUSSELL, 80, comic known as the "poet laureate of television" for his signature, often political, impromptu verse; in New York City. One of the first blacks to co-star in a sitcom (Car 54, Where Are You?), Russell was best known for reciting his topical poetry ("The opposite of pro is con/ That fact is clearly seen/ If progress means move forward/ Then what does Congress mean?") on variety and game shows like Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and To Tell the Truth.

DIED. HAROLD LEVENTHAL, 86, pre-eminent folk impresario of the last half-century; in New York City. Among Leventhal's credentials: pushing a scruffy 21-year-old Bob Dylan onstage for his first major concert-hall appearance; bringing Jacques Brel and Ravi Shankar to American audiences; and representing, at one time or another, every major figure of the 1950s-and-'60s folk-music revival, including Joan Baez and Peter, Paul and Mary. A producer of Alice's Restaurant and other movies, he was the inspiration for the central character of Irving Steinbloom in the 2003 film spoof A Mighty Wind.