The flashy yet venerable attorney's health started to falter last year, according to media reports. Following his surgery in April 2004, Cochran began to avoid the limelight after having welcomed it for so many years.

In an interview with the New York Post last September, he said, "I'm feeling pretty good" and described himself as "90 percent" improved. Rather than a tumor, he called his ailment a neurological condition requiring a procedure.