Milestones Feb. 2, 1998

INDICTED. JOHN GOTTI JR., 33, reputed successor of jailed Mob boss John Gotti; on charges that include racketeering and extortion; in White Plains, N.Y.

SENTENCED. MIR AIMAL KANSI, 33, Pakistani terrorist who in 1993 ambushed CIA headquarters, killing two of its employees; to death; in Fairfax, Va.

DIED. JAY MONAHAN, 42, NBC News legal analyst and husband of Today show host Katie Couric; of cancer; in New York City.

DIED. CARL PERKINS, 65, Big Daddy of rockabilly; after a series of strokes; in Jackson, Tenn. Blue Suede Shoes, his anthem to teenage vanity nearly became his requiem when, as he was en route to a key national-TV performance in 1956, a car crash hobbled him and his career. Drinking binges followed, but so did songs–Honey Don’t, Matchbox–that helped teach the Beatles rock ‘n’ roll.

DIED. JACK LORD, 77, clean-cut actor who played his TV tough guys straight and a little bit square; of heart failure; in Honolulu. The West and its cliches suited Lord as the rodeo-going Stoney Burke, but he left the range for Hawaii Five-O. The locale changed, but his lawman soul didn’t, as Detective (“Book ‘Em, Danno”) McGarrett on TV’s longest-running crime drama.

DIED. HARRY ASHMORE, 81, Pulitzer prizewinning editor of the Arkansas Gazette; in Santa Barbara, Calif. In 1957, Ashmore’s leery support of “the admission of only a few, carefully screened Negro students” to an all-white high school in Little Rock resounded like a call to arms against bigotry.

DIED. MARY BUNTING-SMITH, 87, visionary Radcliffe president; in Hanover, N.H. She fought what she termed the “climate of unexpectation” for girls in the ’60s by starting Radcliffe’s Institute for Independent Study, now called the Bunting Institute.