Janet Reno, First Female U.S. Attorney General, Dies

Janet Reno, the first woman to serve as U.S. Attorney General, has died of complications from Parkinson’s disease. She was 78 years old. She arrived in Washington, D.C. in 1993 as President Bill Clinton’s third choice for U.S. attorney general. Within weeks, Reno made a devastating misstep: she approved an FBI assault on a cult compound in Waco, Texas that ended with the house in flames and about 80 dead. In the wake of the disaster, Reno told the country: “I’m accountable. The buck stops with me.” Reno served for nearly eight years. She challenged Republican Jeb Bush for Governor of Florida after her tenure as AG ended, but was defeated. She spent her final years at a family farm near Miami.