Hugh R. O'Connell

Hugh R. O'Connell (July 22, 1919 – June 30, 1987) was an American attorney and judge from Wisconsin. He was a Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge in Milwaukee County from 1968 until his retirement in 1983. Earlier, he served as Milwaukee County District Attorney from 1964 to 1968.

Early life and career O'Connell was born in Butler, Wisconsin. He graduated from Arizona State College at Tempe before receiving a law degree from Marquette University Law School in 1952. From 1954 to 1964, O'Connell worked as a Milwaukee County prosecutor, eventually serving as a first assistant district attorney under longtime district attorney William McCauley. When McCauley died in 1964, O'Connell was named to replace him on the Democratic ticket, edging out the party's preferred candidate, Donald W. Steinmetz. O'Connell was appointed interim district attorney by Governor John W. Reynolds shortly thereafter and was elected to the office in the November general election. As a judge, O'Connell was praised as a "superintellect" and as a fair decisionmaker.

Although respected as a jurist, O'Connell was criticized for his own ties to the Milwaukee underworld. The Sentinel also noted that, three years after defeating Frinzi, O'Connell appointed Frank Balistrieri's son Joseph as a court commissioner.

O'Connell retired from the bench in 1983, citing his growing frustration with his criminal calendar and his desire to write spy fiction. He died four years later, in 1987, of spinal cancer.