Tom Sneddon Dead -- Michael Jackson Prosecutor Dies at 73

Tom Sneddon -- the prosecutor who tried twice to nail Michael Jackson on child molestation charges -- has died.

Sneddon -- who served as D.A. of Santa Barbara County for more than a quarter century -- famously lost the case against Jackson in 2005, in which Jackson was accused of plying his alleged victim with wine, sexually assaulting him at Neverland and holding his family hostage.

But Sneddon went after Jackson more than a decade before, trying to prosecute the singer for allegedly molesting a boy at Neverland. Jackson made the boy's civil case go away at a cost of $20 million and the boy and his family refused to cooperate with Sneddon, so the case went away.

Sneddon, who had 9 kids, fiercely believed Jackson was a child molester. For Jackson's part, in one of his tracks you hear him say, "Tom Sneddon is a cold man."

He died of cancer.