Monday, Jun. 08, 1998

Milestones

By James Carney, Tam Martinides Gray, Lisa McLaughlin, Jodie Morse and Michele Lynn Orecklin

ARRESTED. SAM BOWERS, 73, former Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard and subject of a May 18 TIME special investigation, along with two other alleged ex-Klansmen; charged with the 1966 firebomb murder of civil rights leader Vernon Dahmer Sr.; in Hattiesburg, Miss.

EASED ASIDE. ROONE ARLEDGE, 66, ABC's visionary producer who, after inventing modern sports coverage for the network, reinvented its news division; in New York City. Though he will remain chairman of ABC News, control will be wielded by 45-year-old David Westin.

DECLARED WINNER. JOSEPH ESTRADA, 61, Philippine presidential candidate, who achieved B-movie fame and a popular following in his country playing tough guys who stood up to injustice; in Manila.

DIED. ROY EVANS, 88, world's savviest table-tennis champ who paddled his best point off the court: in 1971 he landed the U.S. team an invitation to play in China, paving the way for Nixon's historic visit the next year; in his native Cardiff, Wales. A cutthroat competitor, Evans bristled at the term Ping-Pong diplomacy (he considered Ping-Pong an "awful" name) and, in fact, was disappointed in the storied match, grumbling that the Chinese gave away points.

DIED. TELFORD TAYLOR, 90, formidable Nuremberg prosecutor who held that "the laws of war are not a one-way street"; in New York City. An ardent New Dealer, Taylor joined the war effort in 1942 and worked on Nazi codes. Though at the hub of military intelligence, he learned of the Holocaust only as an assistant prosecutor at the first Nuremberg trial. He was chair of the next 12 trials, and his clarity and eloquence (he called Nazi Germany "an infernal combination of a lunatic asylum and a charnel house") led to 142 convictions. Later, as a lawyer and a professor, he scrutinized public officials, and spoke out against McCarthyism and the Vietnam War.