Baltimore

Nicholas C. Lykos, a druggist who served generations of customers at his independent Lykos Pharmacy in Timonium, died Wednesday of a heart attack at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He was 70. Mr. Lykos was a member of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation in Baltimore, where he received the highest layman's honor -- Archon to the Patriarch. Born in Allenport, Pa., he was a graduate of the Polytechnic Institute. In 1952, he graduated with honors from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and later served as an Army sergeant in Germany.

Mike Mussina is now four years into retirement. He sports a salt-and-pepper goatee. His days include coaching his two sons in baseball and basketball. Happy with life after baseball, Mussina remains in his hometown of Mountoursville, Pa., just three hours from Baltimore, where he became one of the top pitchers in Orioles history. But this week marks Mussina's first trip back to Baltimore since he retired after the 2008 season. Mussina will be honored, along with former Orioles second baseman Rich Dauer and the late longtime scout Walter Youse, as the newest members the Orioles Hall of Fame before Saturday night's game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Camden Yards.

A 21-year-old Baltimore man was sentenced yesterday to 33 years in prison for charges related to a December 2004 murder, according to the Baltimore state's attorney's office. Devin Burrell, of the 1200 block of Ostend St., had been convicted Sept. 1 of second-degree murder and carrying a deadly weapon for the Dec. 26, 2004, killing of Nathaniel Smith Jr., 39, of the 1100 block of Ward St. Prosecutors said Burrell and Smith were fighting over money - and an argument led to a fight in Smith's home in which Burrell kicked Smith repeatedly and then stabbed him in the chest.

"You don't look so good," says the cop, smiling. "You look like death."Possum nods, the gaunt face bobbing. The Virus hangs on him, hangs on everything in the rented room. Three decades of firing heroin and thieving and turning over criminals to police at $50 to $100 a head, but it isn't a penitentiary or a bullet or a lethal dose that claims him."Yeah, I been sick, you know," says Possum in a mumble, his stick-leg stretched over a table. "I been sick but I'm back now."Possum, showing some life, talking about working.

Today's 75th anniversary of the Talmudical Academy is a reminder of the significant role the Orthodox Jewish community plays in Baltimore. If anything, that role is getting more pronounced. Baltimore is said to have the largest percentage of Orthodox Jews of any American city and each year some 150 additional families move in, mostly from New York.Several reasons explain Baltimore's attraction for these religious families. Houses here are often relative bargains for large, young families.

A former Baltimore police officer was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday -- considerably less than he could have been given -- for conspiring with drug lord Anthony Ayeni Jones to abduct and kill a narcotics dealer.Erick McCrary, who took more than $5,000 in bribes from Jones, received concurrent five-year sentences in Baltimore Circuit Court and U.S. District Court in Baltimore. He will not be eligible for parole.McCrary faced up to 30 years in prison on a state charge of conspiracy to kidnap and a federal charge of conspiracy to murder in aid of racketeering.

In a contentious and sometimes tearful hearing in federal court yesterday, George A. Dangerfield Jr. -- the slumlord drug dealer and self-styled "King of Baltimore" -- was sentenced to 11 years in prison for masterminding a cocaine ring that employed a dozen convicted felons.In handing down more than double the usual sentence for the crime, U.S. District Court Judge Andre M. Davis cited Dangerfield's record as a scofflaw landlord with a prior drug conviction as "aggravating" factors in the case.

Dr. Abraham B. Hurwitz, 91, Baltimore internist Dr. Abraham B. Hurwitz, a retired internist who practiced medicine in Baltimore for nearly 50 years, died Monday of a heart attack at his Pikesville home. He was 91. Dr. Hurwitz, whose office was on Liberty Road, began practicing medicine in 1938 and retired in 1987. The son of Russian immigrants, he was born in Baltimore and raised on Eutaw Place. His father, Samuel Hurwitz, was rabbi of the Poppleton Street Synagogue in Southwest Baltimore.

William A. Bacon Sr., 77, automobile sales managerWilliam A. Bacon Sr., a retired automobile sales manager and former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad worker, died Tuesday of lung cancer at Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin. The Ocean City resident was 77.Mr. Bacon, who began his automotive sales career in the 1950s working part time for Govans Chevrolet, was later named sales manager of Bob Davidson Ford in 1962. He worked at the Towson agency until 1982 when he retired.The former West Baltimore resident had lived in Ocean City since 1982.

Michael D. Bayton, a longtime professor of English at Morgan State University, died of a brain tumor April 14 at Joseph Richey Hospice. The Northwest Baltimore resident was 54. "We used to call him the young Dr. Bayton, the learned doctor. When he returned to Morgan, he brought a new vitality and vigor to the department and stimulated others to get their Ph.D.s," said Burney J. Hollis, dean of Morgan's College of Liberal Arts. Dr. Bayton was born in Baltimore and raised in Cherry Hill, one of seven children.