Brian Jacques, 71, author of the best-selling “Redwall” adventures for children, died Feb. 5 in a hospital where he was being treated for an aneurism on his aorta.
Jacques was a milk delivery man when he wrote the first Redwall story for children at the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind in Liverpool, one of the stops on his route. The book’s hero was a timid mouse named Matthias who found the courage to protect his home, Redwall Abbey.
The book was published in 1986 and became the first installment in what is now a best-selling 21-volume children’s fantasy series.
John Volz, 74, a former U.S. attorney who spearheaded high-profile corruption cases involving Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards and New Orleans crime boss Carlos Marcello, died Saturday.
Volz died in a Tulsa, Okla., hospital after a long illness, said his wife, Daisy. He had been a federal administrative law judge there for the past six years until he retired Dec. 31, she said.
Volz was the chief federal prosecutor for the Eastern Judicial District of Louisiana from 1978 to 1990. He tried Edwards twice on racketeering charges in the 1980s, but one trial ended in a hung jury and the second resulted in acquittal.
Volz got a conviction of Marcello in a bribery case with national implications known as Brilab, although that verdict was overturned in 1989.
Denver Post wire services
