California

Fire destroys 16 homes

A wind-whipped fire burned 16 residences Sunday, forcing dozens of people to flee into streets choked with smoke in a community north of San Diego.

Six residents suffered hypothermia and smoke inhalation after they sought safety in a swimming pool while flames raged over them, said North County fire Capt. Rick Mann.

The 16 homes in Fallbrook were damaged or destroyed shortly after the fire was reported Sunday morning, said Audrey Higgen, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry.

Mann said many of the homes were valued at $500,000 to $1 million. He said the area had not burned in decades, and that 15-foot-high brush was fueling the blaze.

Pennsylvania

Half of money spewed from ATM returned

A couple who made off with more than $35,000 when a cash machine began spewing $100 bills called police and returned some of the money, but more than half was still missing, police said.

Authorities said they would consider theft charges against Willie and Tawanda Anderson, who told police they went on a spending spree, gave cash to friends and bought gifts for their five children.

Police found bottles of champagne and cases of beer when they went to the house of Willie Anderson’s mother to retrieve some of the money from under a mattress.

On Friday, the couple took their $2,200 IRS refund check to H&R Block, which operates a machine that cashes refund checks.

Instead of dispensing $2,200, the machine spit out $100 bills until an employee shut off the power, $72,000 later. Police said the Andersons scooped up wads of bills and took off with about $35,500.

New York

Murderer-turned-author hangs self in prison

Jack Henry Abbott, whose prison writings became the best-selling book “In the Belly of the Beast,” hanged himself in his cell Sunday, officials said.

Abbott was found dead Sunday morning in his single cell at Wende Correctional Facility, said Jim Flateau, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections.

Abbott, who was 58, gained fame from writing “In the Belly of the Beast,” a best-seller composed of letters he wrote to author Norman Mailer from prison between 1978 and 1981.

During those years, Abbott was behind bars first for bank robbery and then for fatally stabbing another inmate. Mailer supported Abbott’s parole, but six weeks after Abbott was released in 1981, he stabbed a 22-year-old aspiring actor outside a New York City restaurant.

Abbott was sentenced to 15 years to life for manslaughter in the man’s death. He was denied parole in August and would not have been eligible again until June 2003.

Los Angeles

Mausoleum to offer invitation-only crypts

A massive mausoleum beneath the nearly completed Roman Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels may become one of the most prestigious final resting spots in the city.

The 1,300 invitation-only crypts will likely start at $50,000 each and generate an endowment to pay for the operating expenses of the cathedral, which is due to be consecrated this fall.

Perpetual residency beneath the Spanish marble floor is to be based on personal goodness and contribution to the community. The head of the archdiocese, currently Cardinal Roger Mahony, will decide who fits that description.

Plans so far call for the remains of five California bishops, now at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles, to be placed at the downtown cathedral mausoleum. St. Vibiana, the patroness of the archdiocese of Los Angeles, is to be moved to a private chapel in the cathedral.