‘French Connection’ Fugitive Names Self
An alleged drug distributor, arrested after 17 years as a fugitive, admitted Friday that he was one of those accused of involvement with a 1962 heroin case made famous by the Academy Award-winning movie “The French Connection.”
Stanton Garland, 60, identified himself to U.S. Magistrate Charles Eick in Los Angeles. Prosecutors and a fingerprint expert were on hand in the courtroom to prove his identity if he denied it.
Deputy Federal Public Defender Yolanda Barrera said she planned to discuss the case with New York prosecutors to see if both the escape charge and the heroin distribution charge could be handled here.
Federal authorities alleged that Garland oversaw heroin distribution in Harlem for the infamous French Connection drug ring.
The case, cracked in 1962, was the basis of the 1971 movie “The French Connection,” which earned five Academy Awards.
Garland, who escaped while being questioned by federal drug agents in 1972, was arrested without incident on May 31 by federal marshals who surrounded him in the parking lot of the Meadowbrook Neurological Center. His son was being treated there for severe injuries sustained in a February traffic crash.
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