Milestones Dec. 15, 1997

AWARDED. To LORNA WENDT, 54, spurned wife of a top General Electric executive whose divorce trial attempted to calibrate the economic worth of a stay-at-home spouse; reportedly more than $20 million in cash, property and investments; in Stamford, Conn.

RELEASED. IRA EINHORN, 57, a.k.a. the Unicorn, elusive hippie guru convicted in absentia of a 1977 Philadelphia slaying; by a French court that rejected a U.S. extradition request; in Bordeaux. French police finally netted the Unicorn last June, but the three-judge panel set him free on a technicality: French law, unlike that of the U.S., automatically grants retrials to suspects convicted in absentia.

DIED. EDWIN ROSARIO, 34, troubled boxer; of acute pulmonary edema that may have been caused by drugs; in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico. Thrice world lightweight champion, Rosario was brought low by cocaine abuse in the early 1990s.

DIED. STEVE HAMILTON, 62, Yankee relief pitcher who patented baseball’s version of the lob, the “Folly Floater”; of colon cancer; in Morehead, Ky.

DIED. ENDICOTT (“Chub”) PEABODY, 77, quixotic onetime Massachusetts Governor; in Hollis, N.H. Peabody campaigned for the 1972 Democratic nomination for Vice President, insisting that the party, not the Prez, should choose the nation’s second-in-command.

DIED. JOHN MOSS, 84, watchdog California Congressman, 1953-79, who authored the 1966 Freedom of Information Act; in San Francisco. Ever on the lookout for government misdeeds, Moss also rigorously defended the First Amendment, the environment (the 1970 Clean Air Act) and consumer rights.

DIED. STEPHANE GRAPPELLI, 89, exuberant jazz violinist; in Paris. Grappelli started out as a pianist for silent films but switched to strings for the swing standards he loved. America had Ellington, but Europe got the Quintet of the Hot Club of France in the 1930s–the chamber group-cum-jazz ensemble that featured Grappelli and guitarist Django Reinhardt. The quintet broke up during World War II, but Grappelli played on–recording more than 100 albums.