Who The Heck Is The “Tarzan Murderer”?

It is day two of the Sonya Sotomayor senate confirmation bonanza and she spoke today about her time as a prosecutor in New York, in particular a case in which she tried the “Tarzan Murderer.” What in the name of Jeff Sessions’ taint is that about?

The “Tarzan Murderer” was the moniker given to Richard Maddicks, a junkie burglar that committed a series of murder/burglaries in the early 80’s. He was called Tarzan because, in spite of being higher than Kieth Richards in a poppy field half the time, he managed to swing and leap across roofs and windows in the tenements of Harlem. He would sneak in acrobatically rob the families living in the apartment and shoot them with two guns John Woo style.

Sotomayor was the prosecutor in the case which led to a life sentence for Tarzan, (one hopes he found his Jane in prison). Sotomayor says that the case greatly affected her like “perhaps no other case had fully done before.”

As a result, he destroyed a family. … that family was destroyed. … That case taught me that prosecutors–as all participants in the justice system–must be sensitive to the price that crime imposes on our entire society…That’s what being a trial judge teaches you.

Anyone who took down a crazy arcobatic junkie killer is the kind of person we would like to see sitting on a bench next to Scalia and Thomas.

Sotomayor Is Recalled As A Driven Rookie Prosecutor