Bruce Castor

Bruce L. Castor, Jr. (b. October 24, 1961) is an American lawyer and Republican politician from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Castor currently serves as district attorney for Montgomery County, a post he has held since 1999.

Castor is a party-endorsed candidate for county commissioner in 2007. The other party-endorsed candidate is incumbent Jim Matthews. The two winners of the Republican primary will face former Democratic Congressman Joe Hoeffel and incumbent Democrat Ruth Damsker in the general election.

Legal Career

Castor began in the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office in 1985. Prior to his election as district attorney, he served as an assistant district attorney in the Major Crimes Unit and Sex Crimes Unit, eventually becoming Chief of the Trials Division in 1991. Castor investigated and prosecuted primarily homicide cases achieving much success and wide acclaim. His work came to the attention of then-Montgomery County District Attorney Michael D. Marino who appointed Castor as First Assistant District Attorney in 1993. In that position, Castor supervised all wiretap and homicide investigations and personally prosecuted a string of high-profile murders gaining him even further notoriety. Since 2000, Castor has served on the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania District Attorney's Association and was elected Vice-President of that organization in 2006.

Political Career

In 1999, incumbent district attorney Mike Marino left to run for the County Commissioner with James Matthews. Castor won the GOP nomination to replace him. Castor won in 1999 and won re-election in 2003. He led the ticket on both occasion and set a record for the higest vote total ever in a countywide contested election in 2003.

Castor then ran for the the GOP nomination for Pennsylvania Attorney General in 2004 against Republican Tom Corbett.

Furious that he had lost endorsements of the southeastern GOP chairmen, Castor attacked Corbett and the county chairmen of backroom deals with Bob Asher, the state's national GOP committeeman and a convicted felon connected to Budd Dwyer. The result was a bitter campaign which Castor lost gaining 48% despite a strong showing in the southeastern counties where he trounced Corbett by a more than 2 to 1 showing, and winning his home county with nearly 84% of the vote despite the best efforts of the state party and Asher to crush him in the Southeast Pennsylvania media market. This appeared to prove Castor correct that the southeast GOP chairmen had gone against the wishes of their voter to appease Asher.

In 2006, Castor challenged incumbent county commissioners' Chairman Tom Ellis who had backed Corbett for Attorney General in 2004. Ellis and Castor had been friends. Ellis had even served as chairman of Castor's campaigns in 1999 and 2003. To curry favor with Asher, Ellis turned his back on Castor and supported Corbett for Attorney General even though Casotr was from Montgomery County where Ellis was county commissioner. Castor defeated Ellis handily in the party's nominating convention forcing Ellis to withdraw from the race. Castor also succeeded in getting his assistants named as the GOP candidates for District Attorney and Controller. However, Castor's preferred runningmate for County Commissioner, Melissa Murphy Weber, was edged out by incumbent commissioner Jim Matthews.

Notable Cases

• Bill Cosby - Castor declined to prosecute Cosby for sexual assault in 2005 after he determined that his office found "insufficient, credible and admissible evidence exists upon which any charge against Mr. Cosby could be sustained beyond a reasonable doubt."
• Guy Sileo - murdered his business partner in the General Wayne Inn, serving a life sentence for first degree murder.
• Caleb Fairley - sexually assaulted and murdered a mother and her child in his parents' shop, serving a double life sentence.
• Craig Rabinowitz - murdered his wife to elope with a stripper. This case was the subject of multiple television programs and a book by Ken Englade called Everybody's Best Friend.
• John Eichinger - murdered three young women and a small child making him the greatest mass murdeer in Montgomery County History. Eichinger was sentenced to death.
• Thomas Hawkins - sexually assaulted and murdered his young neice after doing a similar crime as a juvenile in another county and being released on parole.

Personal

Castor is an alumnus of Chestnut Hill Academy.

He earned his undergraduate degree in Government and Law from Lafayette College and a law degree from Washington and Lee University.

He attended the FBI National Academy in 1993

Castor is a three time named "Pennsylvania Super Lawyer," listed on Martindale-Hubble's Bar Register of Pre-Eminent Lawyers, and holds the Order of Merit of the Pennsylvania District Attorney's Association. He has been honored by the governor on two occasions as well as by the state legislature.

He has scores of honors from law enforcement, victim, and community groups.

Castor is married and the father of two children.

References

• Editorial: A rare public dispute in ranks of the GOP, Delco Times, 02/06/2004
• Corbett, Eisenhower win in attorney general race, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 4/28/04
• Most still undecided on Corbett, Castor, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 4/22/04
• Castor backs Corbett in attorney general race The Colonial, 6/4/04
• Prosecutors end Cosby investigation, CNN, 2/22/05
• Families, friends of victims give support to candidate, Pottstown Mercury 4/24/04
• http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/weird/vampires/18.html Caleb Fairley Case, Crimelibrary.com]

Official Biography