'French Connection' Judge Dies at 96

Frederick B. Lacey, a police chief’s son who as a tenacious federal prosecutor helped drain New Jersey’s fetid swamp of political corruption and who later built a reputation as a stringent judge presiding over celebrated cases, died on April 1 in Naples, Fla. He was 96.

His death was confirmed this week by his son John.

As an imposing, 6-foot-4 United States attorney for New Jersey, Mr. Lacey smashed the corrupt Democratic machines in Essex and Hudson Counties.

He successfully prosecuted Mayors Hugh J. Addonizio of Newark and Thomas J. Whalen of Jersey City; John V. Kenny, the Hudson County party boss; and Mafia leaders with whom local politicians, power brokers and officials conspired to plunder the public coffers.

Within four years, Mr. Lacey and his successor, Herbert J. Stern, won the convictions of three-dozen government officials after what Mr. Lacey called “the most intensive investigation ever conducted by the federal government in New Jersey” had uncovered graft “unmatched in anything in my experience.”