Robert M. Morgenthau, longtime friend of Armenians, dies aged 99

PanARMENIAN.Net - Former Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau, who spent more than three decades jailing criminals from mob kingpins and drug-dealing killers to a tax-dodging Harvard dean, died Sunday, July 21, The Huffington Post reports.

A friend of the Armenian people and vocal advocate for the Armenian Genocide recognition, Morgenthau was 99, just 10 days short of his 100th birthday.

Morgenthau died at Manhattan’s Lenox Hill Hospital after a short illness, his wife Lucinda Franks told The New York Times.

Morgenthau, who served as U.S. Attorney for New York’s southern district during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, returned to law enforcement as Manhattan’s top state prosecutor in 1974 and didn’t leave for 35 years, with his office handling around 100,000 criminal cases yearly.

In 2005, at age 86, Morgenthau was elected for the eighth and last time, turning back a challenge from Leslie Crocker Snyder, a popular former state judge. Snyder tried without success to turn Morgenthau’s age and lengthy tenure into campaign issues.

Morgenthau left office in 2009, throwing his support to his eventual successor, Cy Vance.

Robert's brother, Henry Morgenthau III, who dedicated himself to honoring the memory of his grandfather, Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, passed away almost exactly a year earlier.