* Eleazar Lipsky; Lawyer Wrote Murder, Courtroom Novels

Eleazar Lipsky, 81, a lawyer and novelist whose manuscript became the basis of the 1947 film “Kiss of Death,” which introduced Richard Widmark to motion picture audiences as a crazed killer with a chilling laugh. His detective novel, “The People Against O’Hara,” was made into the 1951 film starring Spencer Tracy. Lipsky also wrote the highly praised murder and courtroom novels “Murder One” and “Malpractice.” He drew on his legal knowledge for yet another judicial drama, “The Scientists.” Earlier in his legal and literary career he wrote a mystery series for radio titled “Indictment.” In the 1940s he served as an assistant district attorney in New York City and was legal counsel to the Mystery Writers of America and the New York City Artists Equity. In New York City on Sunday of pneumonia.