http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/21/news/fitzgerald.phpIn 13 years prosecuting mobsters and terrorists in New York, Patrick Fitzgerald earned a public reputation for meticulous preparation, a flawless memory and an easy eloquence. Only his colleagues knew that these orderly achievements emerged from the near-total anarchy of his office, where the relentless Fitzgerald often slept during big cases.
"You'd open a drawer, looking for a pen or Post-It notes, and it would be full of dirty socks," recalled Karen Patton Seymour, a fellow assistant U.S. attorney who tried a major kidnapping case with him.
"He was a mess. Food here, clothes there, papers everywhere. But behind all that was a totally organized mind."
That mind, which has taken on Al Qaeda and the Gambino crime family, is now focused on the most politically volatile case of Fitzgerald's storied career...