Nice article on cnn.com today about the retirement of Robert Morgenthau: http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/12/31/morgenthau.district.attorney/index.html
*New York (CNN)* -- Off the coast of Algiers one day in 1944, a young Navy officer plea-bargained with God as his torpedoed ship, the USS Lansdale, took on water. If he survived, he vowed, he would dedicate his life to public service. "I'd always thought of going into government service," Robert M. Morgenthau recalled recently. "But when my ship was torpedoed off Algiers and I was floating around in the water, I made promises to the Almighty." He kept those promises. For more than a generation, Morgenthau was the district attorney in Manhattan, making him the face of law and order in the nation's most densely populated county. Today is Morgenthau's final day in office. He is 90 and ran the office for 35 years, serving longer than any other prosecutor in New York. (SNIP) It has been called the nation's premier prosecutor's office and is the model for the television series "Law and Order." The show's first fictional district attorney, Adam Schiff, played for 10 years by the actor Steven Hill, was said to be based on Morgenthau. The real-life Morgenthau also had a cameo role in the show as a judge. Morgenthau recalled meeting Hill: "I was mad at him because I understood that he was getting $25,000 an episode, and I told him when he quit I wanted his job, and he didn't tell me." (SNIP) His wood-paneled office is a cluttered nest of memorabilia. During a visit in late October, Morgenthau pointed to the photos hanging on the walls -- of his father with Franklin D. Roosevelt, and himself with President Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. He described watching history unfold while having lunch with Robert Kennedy on November 22, 1963, at Kennedy's Virginia home. The phone rang and Kennedy answered it. From a distance, Morgenthau saw Kennedy cup his hand over his mouth in shock. "He came back and said, 'That was J. Edgar Hoover,' and he said Jack had been shot in Dallas," Morgenthau recalled. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
