This famed lawyer died not that long ago.

Apparently in his files, he has notes that show his most famous alliterate client from 60+ years ago, was actually guilty.

Would have made that television show and movie, much more interesting.

F. Lee Bailey
Francis Lee Bailey Jr. was an American criminal defense attorney. Bailey’s name first came to nationwide attention for his involvement in the second murder trial of Sam Sheppard, a surgeon accused of murdering his wife.

Sam Sheppard
Samuel Holmes Sheppard, D.O. was an American neurosurgeon. He was exonerated in 1966, having been convicted of the 1954 murder of his pregnant wife, Marilyn Reese Sheppard. The case was controversial from the beginning, with extensive and prolonged nationwide media coverage

Movie: The Fugitive

SHEPPARD MURDER CASE

The SHEPPARD MURDER CASE (1954-66) assumed legal importance when Dr. Samuel Sheppard’s 1954 conviction for the murder of his wife was set aside by the U.S. Supreme Court on the grounds that the defendant was not sufficiently insulated from the excessive publicity surrounding the case, and thus was denied a fair trial in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. This decision helped define what protections from adverse media coverage were necessary under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

On 4 July 1954, Marilyn Reese Sheppard was found murdered in her BAY VILLAGE home. Her husband, Sam, said that a bushy-haired intruder had killed his wife. Sheppard maintained his innocence despite questioning by officials, but Cleveland newspapers, particularly the CLEVELAND PRESS and its editor, LOUIS SELTZER, demanded his arrest, alleging that the Sheppard family was conspiring to shield Sam from the authorities. The publicity intensified with Sheppard’s arrest of 30 July and continued through his 9-week jury trial, presided over by Judge EDWARD BLYTHIN. The prosecution, led by John J. Mahon, presented evidence which included analysis of bloodstains found in the house and used Sheppard’s affair with Susan Hayes, a former lab technician at Bayview Hospital, to establish a motive for the murder. In what was called a “carnival atmosphere,” the defense, led by Wm. J. Corrigan, Sr., failed to convince the jury of Sheppard’s innocence. He was convicted of 2nd-degree murder on 21 Dec. 1954 and sentenced to life in prison, where he continued efforts to secure his release. Ten years later, Sheppard’s new attorney, F. Lee Bailey, charged Judge Blythin with improper conduct in Federal court. Although Bailey won his client’s release, the decision was overturned on appeal, and he went to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1966 the high court supported the original ruling, citing Blythin’s failure to protect Sheppard from the inherently prejudicial publicity that had saturated the country. The State of Ohio, which had the option to retry Sheppard, did so in the fall of 1966, but this time he was found not guilty. Sheppard died of liver failure on April 6, 1970. – Source

The Rise and Fall of F. Lee Bailey, the Lawyer Who Set O.J. Simpson Free

If F. Lee Bailey’s your lawyer, you’re his friend, you’re his client, and you’re innocent.

On June 3, 2021, F. Lee Bailey died at the age of 87, according to NBC News. In light of the news, we’re republishing our 2017 interview with Bailey, where he discussed his notorious legal career, disbarment, and bankruptcy.

Lee Bailey is forever ready to share brutal opinions on the lawyers who have crossed him over the years. Marcia Clark, who in the midst of a row during the O.J. Simpson trial called him a liar? “A harridan,” he growls. His Simpson co–defense counsel and ex-friend Robert Shapiro? “At least mildly sociopathic.” David McGee, the United States Attorney from Florida who doggedly pursued Bailey for helping himself to millions of dollars the government said was not his to spend? “Totally dishonest.”

When former Dream Teamers, as Simpson’s lawyers were known, failed to publicly proclaim the ex–football star’s innocence following the 1997 wrongful death civil judgment against him, it felt like pure treachery. “Barry Scheck caved, told Newsweek you have to respect the civil verdict, which you don’t, and he never should have said it,” Bailey says.

By the time Simpson went on trial in 2008 on charges that he had liberated several items of his old sports memorabilia at gunpoint from a man in a Las Vegas hotel room, Bailey was the only one of those lawyers Simpson was still in touch with and, seemingly, one of the last people on earth still willing to assert publicly that the onetime legend hadn’t murdered his wife. They talked on the phone several times before and during the 2008 trial.

Having been disbarred in 2003, the old gunslinger Bailey could offer only informal advice. Fire your lawyer, he implored Simpson, who refused to listen. A jury convicted him on all 10 counts, and he was slapped with a 33-year prison sentence. Bailey hasn’t heard from Simpson since the conviction; he says he was told that Simpson was warned by prison officials to steer clear of Bailey if he wanted to get on the good side of the parole board. – Source

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