Legal eagles, criminals and victims

Legal eagles, criminals and victims

Salvatore “Bill” Bonanno, 75; oldest son of the late New York crime boss Joe Bonanno and author of a book about growing up in a Mafia family (Jan. 1)

Christian Brando, 49; son of acting legend Marlon Brando who was found guilty of killing his half-sister’s lover (Jan. 26)

Manuel “Manny” Reyes, 82; one of the last defendants in the infamous “Sleepy Lagoon” trial of the 1940s (Feb. 5)

Joseph T. Sneed III, 87; judge of U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for nearly 35 years (Feb. 9)

Richard Hecht, 77; leading figure in L.A. County district attorney’s office who played key role in 1962 arrest of Lenny Bruce on obscenity charges (March 15)

Sam C. Pointer Jr., 73; retired U.S. District Court judge who endured death threats for his school integration ruling in Birmingham, Ala. (March 15)

John Ed Cothran, 93; former sheriff’s deputy who investigated the Emmett Till killing in Mississippi and testified against two white defendants (March 15)

Edward Rafeedie, 79; U.S. District Court judge who showed pragmatism and independence in several high-profile cases (March 25)

Ester Soriano, 61; Filipino American civil rights activist who was jury forewoman in the Rodney King civil damages trial (April 3)

Ruth Greenglass, 84; her testimony in a sensational Cold War espionage trial helped send sister-in-law Ethel Rosenberg to the electric chair (April 7)

Leonard Goldstein, 76; retired Orange County Superior Court judge who presided over the 1970s Ford Pinto product liability case and later oversaw civil cases related to the UCI Medical Center fertility clinic scandal (April 12)

Joseph Lodge, 76; among California’s longest-serving judges (May 5)

Warren J. Ferguson, 87; judge served on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (June 25)

Frank “The German” Schweihs, 78; reputedly one of Chicago’s most feared mob enforcers (July 23)

Jamiel Alexander “Jimmy” Chagra, 63; drug kingpin accused of leading a 1979 conspiracy to assassinate the federal judge set to preside over his drug trial (July 25)

Jesse W. Curtis, 102; served 28 years on U.S. District Court for Central California (Aug. 5)

Julius A. “Jud” Leetham, 90; Los Angeles County Superior Court judge and former head of the county’s Republican Central Committee (Aug. 16)

Deanne Smith Myers, 64; former Los Angeles County Superior Court judge who presided in South Bay and Long Beach (Aug. 20)

Gerald A. Margolis, 65; entertainment lawyer for such high-profile clients as R. Kelly and Robin Williams (Sept. 15)

Ken Lamb, 55; longtime prosecutor for Los Angeles County (Sept. 16)

Barefoot Sanders, 83; U.S. District Court judge who presided over more than two decades of litigation to desegregate schools in Dallas (Sept. 21)

Julius M. Title, 93; L.A. County jurist was oldest retired judge still hearing cases (Sept. 21)

DeWayne McKinney, 47; earned millions in Hawaii after being locked up for 19 years for a crime he didn’t commit (Oct. 8)

Jack Tenner, 88; retired Los Angeles County Superior Court judge involved in many of the city’s civil rights struggles (Oct. 13)

Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, 79; former Las Vegas casino boss who inspired the character Sam “Ace” Rosenthal in the movie “Casino” (Oct. 13)

P. Cameron DeVore, 76; attorney who helped establish the field of media law and was one of the first to successfully argue that advertising was a form of speech protected by the Constitution (Oct. 26)

Frederick Baron, 61; wealthy Texas trial lawyer and prominent Democratic fundraiser linked to the John Edwards mistress scandal (Oct. 30)

Martha “Sunny” von Bulow, 76; spent nearly 28 years in a coma after what prosecutors alleged were two murder attempts by her husband (Dec. 6)

David Kagon, 90; the attorney who represented actor Lee Marvin in the notorious “palimony” case brought by his former live-in companion, Michelle Triola Marvin (Dec. 20)

William R. Glendon, 89; successfully defended the Washington Post before the U.S. Supreme Court in the Pentagon Papers case (Dec. 25)

Ellie Nesler, 56; woman who shot and killed her son’s alleged molester in a Tuolumne County courtroom in 1993 (Dec. 26)