Milestones Nov. 8, 1999

CONFESSED. LUIS ALFREDO GARAVITO, 42, a drifter, to killing 140 children in Colombia during a five-year period. Garavito told police he lured the children with soft drinks, money and disguises. Some 114 bodies have been found so far, many dumped in a ravine.

ASSASSINATED. VAZGEN SARKISIAN, 40, Prime Minister of Armenia; inside the Armenian parliament; in Yerevan. The gunmen--who killed several other officials before taking 40 hostages--claimed a coup d'etat but surrendered the following morning. A former Defense Minister, Sarkisian had been in the post for five years.

DIED. PAYNE STEWART, 42, pro golfer and winner of this year's U.S. Open; when his Lear jet crashed in South Dakota, possibly after a loss in cabin pressure (see story, page 41).

DIED. HOYT AXTON, 61, folksy singer-songwriter best known for the 1970s Three Dog Night hit Joy to the World; of complications from a stroke; in Victor, Mont. The sometime actor's offbeat tunes--with titles like Boney Fingers and The No No Song--were recorded by Ringo Starr, Linda Ronstadt and John Denver.

DIED. ABRAHAM POLONSKY, 88, film-noir screenwriter and director who was blacklisted for nearly 20 years for refusing to name names at the height of McCarthy hysteria; in Beverly Hills, Calif. Polonsky, who won an Oscar nomination for the 1947 boxing film Body and Soul, continued to work in Hollywood pseudonymously.

DIED. JESSIE FOVEAUX, 100, plainspoken great-great-grandmother who sold her first book, Any Given Day, at 98, for $1 million; in Duluth, Minn. On hearing of the sale of her memoir, which grew out of a writing class for seniors, she said, "I might just get myself a new dress."

DIED. JOHN CHAFEE, 77, Republican Rhode Island Senator who pressed environmental issues and promoted bipartisanship; of heart failure; in Bethesda, Md. (see Eulogy, below).