He died in a small plane crash in Alaska.

He was an SOB, and he reveled in it, though I think that he would argue that he was Alaska’s SOB.

My take on his career is that he was not a benefit to the United States, and at best mixed for Alaska, which he was largely responsible for making into a corrupt petro-state.

Additionally, I agree with Zachary Roth, that it is far too likely that we will see a full blown hagiography which ignores the fact that he was actually very corrupt, deriving significant personal benefit from his position, whether or not the government could have successfully retried him after he won a dismissal on prosecutorial misconduct.