EFTA02368658.pdf

From: paul krassner Sent: Friday, July 21, 2017 2:42 PM To: Jeffrey E. Subject: memory Johnnie Cochran Meets Dr. Hip =nbsp; Tragedy and absurdity were two sides of the same coin: On one side, O.J. Simpson's "suicide" note =ith a smiley face in the O of his signature; on the other side, the woman who pinched Simpson lawyer =obert Shapiro's ass because "I wanted to be part of ristory." And somewhere along the ridge of that coin was Simpson himself, walking into the courtroom =umming the melody of "Touch Me" from the Broadway hit Cats and explaining to reporters that he was thinking about his =hildren. That =as at Simpson's criminal trial. Shortly before his civil trial began in 1997, I met his lead attorney, Johnnie Cochran. He =as the guest of honor and luncheon speaker at a national convention of criminal defense attorneys held in a huge banquet hall at a hotel in Santa =onica. No media people were allowed entry. One =f the attendees was Dr. Eugene Schoenfeld, also known as Dr. Hip from his days as a syndicated columnist for the underground =ress. He now testifies occasionally as an expert witness, and was at this =vent for that reason. My wife Nancy and I were his guests. =ochran's speech reassured the enthusiastic audience: "In the Simpson matter, we just did what you do every day" —that is, defend their clients by any means necessary and chalk up a bunch of billable hours in =he process—and he got a standing ovation. In =he afterglow of his speech, colleagues came up to Cochran to shake his hand and get in a little banter. One well- wisher =hared this joke: "If [prosecutor] Chris Darden spent as much time =rying to nail O.1. Simpson as he did trying to nail [prosecutor] Marcia Clark, he =ight've won the case." The other defense attorneys within hearing distance all =ad a good laugh at that one. Dr. =choenfeld joined the line of lawyers waiting to have photos taken of themselves standing alongside Cochran. When it was =choenfeld's turn, Nancy focused her camera. For this particular occasion, Schoenfeld had stashed a =and- printed card underneath the standard, plastic-encased ID lapel card. As in the =revious poses, Cochran and Schoenfeld put their arms around each other, although =hey were looking, not at each other, but straight ahead and smiling at the =amera. Thus, =ochran didn't notice how, just before Nancy snapped their picture, Schoenfeld subtly managed to pull away the ID card and =eveal the hand-printed card, which declared, in large printed letters, "=.J. DID IT!" I published that photo on the front cover of The =ealist that spring. It was the result of a good old-fashioned guerrilla action. EFTA_R1_01367794 EFTA02368658