Obituary: Retired Judge Bruce Hartigan loved his job

Before Bruce Hartigan was appointed a Hennepin County judge in 1988, he was considered one of the best criminal defense attorneys of his time and place.

In the 1970s, he landed an acquittal for one of the alleged kidnappers of Virginia Piper, still considered the largest kidnap-for-ransom in FBI history. He also defended one of the hundreds of American Indian protesters who seized the village of Wounded Knee on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1973.

Hartigan, 82, died Dec. 21 at his home in Minneapolis.

"There's nothing he didn't like about being a judge," said his son Denis, of Los Angeles. "He kind of liked bossing people around, but many lawyers thought he was kind."

Friends and colleagues described Hartigan as a character with a razor-sharp legal mind who sometimes got slapped on the wrist for using vulgar language in the courtroom. He also was a person with great compassion for the less fortunate, said Hennepin County Judge Kevin Burke.

"Bruce was prone to say things as a judge that may well have been better not said, but there was no doubt in anyone's mind that he was fair and that he had a sincere dedication to applying the law correctly," Burke said.

Hartigan, a lifelong Minneapolis resident, served in the Army during the Korean War and graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School.

"He was one of the world's real true liberals and hated hypocrisy," Friedberg said. "In the courtroom, he offended people all the time, and that's why I loved him. Outside the courtroom, he was very different."

As an attorney, Hartigan struck fear into prosecutors' hearts and charmed juries, his son said. The Piper case, involving the wife of a wealthy investment firm chairman, gained national attention. Hartigan represented Donald Larson, who was already serving two life terms for murder. The Pipers paid a $1 million ransom, and only about $4,000 was recovered.

Virginia Piper was found shackled to a tree in Duluth two days after the kidnapping, but it took five years for Larson and Ken Callahan to be arrested. Both men were convicted, but their verdicts were overturned. They were acquitted on retrial, and the case has never been solved.

Hartigan was most proud of his pro bono work on the Wounded Knee case representing Roger Iron Cloud in Lincoln, Neb., his son said. His family has photos of him with American Indian Movement activists Russell Means and Clyde Bellecourt.

It was an unusual move by then-Gov. Rudy Perpich to appoint such a high-profile defense attorney to the bench in 1988.

Services will be private. An informal memorial gathering will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Calhoun Beach Club, 2925 Dean Pkwy., Minneapolis.

In addition to his son Denis, Hartigan is survived by two daughters, Susan Hartigan and Ann McGinn, both of Minneapolis; another son, Kevin, of Cairo, Egypt; a sister, Katherine Hubbell, of Minneapolis; a brother, Michael, of Minneapolis, and his former wife and her husband, Moira and Daniel Moga, of Minneapolis.