Edward J. Turnbach, a former Superior Court Judge and Ocean County prosecutor, died on July 19. He was 90.
Turnbach was an Assistant U.S. Attorney from New Jersey during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, where he was involved in labor racketeering investigations. He later founded Starkey, Turnbach & White, a Brick-based law firm, and served in Gov. Richard J. Hughes’ administration as a part-time assistant public defender for Ocean and Burlington counties.
In the early 1970s, he served as president of the Ocean County Bar Association.
Gov. Brendan Byrne nominated him to be the Ocean County Prosecutor in 1976 after State Sen. John Russo (D-Toms River) sponsored legislation to make the post full-time. He succeeded Martin B. Anton, who had been Russo’s choice for a judgeship; Anton withdrew after the state Bar Association declined to give him their backing.
In the 1980s, Turnbach prosecuted Robert Marshall, a Toms River insurance executive accused of hiring a hitman to kill his wife. The murder trial and subsequent conviction received national attention and led to the bestselling book, Blind Faith, which became a TV mini-series.
He also investigated the 1984 murder of Vincent “Jimmy Sinatra” Craparotta, a used car dealer from Toms River. Craparotta had been identified as a loan shark and bookmaker associated with the Lucchese crime family and was beaten to death with golf clubs at his car lot. Two defendants were acquitted after Turnbach left office.
In 1984, Turnbach led the investigation of the Great Adventure Haunted Castle fire that killed eight teenagers trapped inside.
Turnbach held that post until Gov. Thomas Kean nominated him to the bench in 1987. Kean’s pick to replace him was James Holzapfel, now a Republican state senator from Toms River.
He was serving as presiding judge of the criminal division when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 in 2006. He returned to his old law firm after a 30-year stint in public service.
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