Not so long ago, Richard "Dickie" Scruggs was one of the most powerful civil lawsuit attorneys in the country. In prison, he will be inmate No. 12734-042.

Scruggs, 62, must report to a federal prison in Kentucky by 2 p.m. Monday to begin serving a five-year sentence for conspiring to bribe a judge. His law partner goes to prison Monday, too. And Scruggs' son, a lawyer who also worked with his father's Oxford law firm, must turn himself in later this month.

Scruggs reached the pinnacle of his career in the 1990s by using a corporate insider against tobacco companies in lawsuits that resulted in a multibillion dollar nationwide settlement.

The case made Scruggs one of the richest lawyers in America and was portrayed in the 1999 film "The Insider," starring Al Pacino and Russell Crowe.

A scene from the movie was shot at Scruggs' waterfront home on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Hurricane Katrina destroyed that home and many others in August 2005. Eventually, the money Scruggs wrested from an insurance company on behalf of other Katrina victims would be his downfall.

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