Milestones

By Harriet Barovick; Elizabeth L. Bland; Deirdre van Dyk Sunday, Dec. 19, 2004
    • EXECUTION RECOMMENDED. For SCOTT PETERSON, 32, fertilizer salesman convicted, after a sensational five-month trial, of murdering his wife Laci and their unborn son Conner; by a jury in Redwood City, Calif. Judge Alfred Delucchi could reduce the sentence to life in prison at the formal sentencing in February.

    CHARGED. AARON SPEED, 21, security guard for Hunters Brooke, a tony housing development under construction in southern Maryland; with setting fires on Dec. 6 that destroyed 10 houses and damaged 16 others in the worst arson case in the state's history; in Charles County. Court documents suggest that Speed had a grudge against his former employer. Three of his acquaintances were also charged in connection with the crime.


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    CONVICTED. DANIEL PELOSI, 41, an electrician; of the 2001 fatal beating of multimillionaire Wall Street banker Theodore Ammon in his East Hampton, N.Y., home; in Riverhead, N.Y. Against his lawyers' advice, the brash Pelosi, who had been romantically involved with Ammon's estranged wife, took the stand in his defense, testifying that he enjoyed zapping co-workers with a stun gun and would like to have used the gun on the lead prosecutor. He faces 25 years to life in prison.

    DIED. FERNANDO POE JR., 65, Filipino film idol turned presidential candidate; after a stroke; in Quezon City, the Philippines. Popular for playing socially conscious underdog heroes in more than 200 action movies, the actor known as "Da King" lost by 3% of the vote to incumbent Gloria Macapagal Arroyo last May. His court challenge of the count is still pending.

    DIED. ARTHUR LYDIARD, 87, New Zealand track coach widely regarded as the first proponent of jogging as a training technique; of an apparent heart attack while on a U.S. speaking tour; in Houston. Before the frequent marathon winner came up with his then revolutionary concept — that long, slow distance training worked best to develop stamina for all kinds of running — the accepted regimen was a form of short sprinting called interval training. When Lydiard, who was initially dismissed by critics, was not invited to coach New Zealand's Olympic team at the 1960 Summer Games, he paid his own way to Rome, trained his runners outside the official grounds and brought home two gold medals.

    DIED. RAY RUDE, 88, who as an aircraft-company worker in the late 1940s invented a flexible board out of a junked aluminum wing panel and eventually turned it into a multimillion-dollar international diving-board company, Duraflex; in Stanley, N.D. More durable than wood, Duraflex boards are now the standard at the Olympics and other major diving events.

    DIED. AGNES MARTIN, 92, reclusive abstract painter whose spare yet soulful geometric grids strove to induce nothing grander than, in her words, "a little happiness [and] tranquillity"; in Taos, N.M. Martin's work was sometimes linked to Minimalism, but she insisted it was more a product of Expressionism and certainly "not cool." She won acclaim in the late 1950s for her clean lines, awash in grays or muted pastels, then stopped painting for seven years. Influenced by Buddhism and the colors and shapes of New Mexico, she eventually resumed creating work that can now be seen in collections from the Tate in London to New York City's Museum of Modern Art.

    DIED. PAULINE GORE, 92, mother of former Vice President Al Gore Jr. and the influential though reserved wife of gregarious longtime Congressman and Senator Al Gore Sr.; at her home in Carthage, Tenn. The 10th woman to graduate from Vanderbilt Law School, she became her husband's key adviser on campaign strategy and other issues, and in 1992 hit the road on a seven-week bus tour in support of the Clinton-Gore ticket.