Book Reviews

to send him to Georgetown University for a Bracete $10.95 Drops of Remembrance preparatory, graduate-level immigration law By Juan M. Bracete course taught by Charles Gordon. Bracete Vantage Press, New York, NY, 2012. 66 pages, $10.95. grabbed the opportunityDrops of Remembrance ,and the bracing soon new memoir com from- author Juan Bracete, recounts his years as a U.S. Immigration Judge, menced work withand the the following Board period whenof Immigrationhe worked as a U.S. Foreign Service officer. Mr. Bracete relates some of the many incidents Reviewed by R. Mark Frey Appeals. Later, hebecause observed, and ofsupplies his poignant grandfather’s anecdotes regarding his terminal illness,work, he as quit well as biographicalhis job notesand about returned the nature of his job and how it profoundly shaped his career. In writing his memoir, Drops of r A career in the United States Foreign to Puerto Rico.Bracete Bracete acts on his long-heldinitially desire to despairedshare with his readers the

totality of his life experience, and his search for ways continu- e M e Service—the allure of exotic locales, climes, about his employment prospects in Puerto MB rance ally to improve his journey through life. of cultures, and peoples, has caused many of Rico, but, as he notes, “God provides for Drops us to consider it. It can be a great way to see madmen, children and fools,” and, not long Juan Bracete was born and raised in Puerto Rico. Having earned reMeMBrance the world and possibly play a role in world after returning,his he B.A. atwas Georgetown hired University, by he returneda local home to lawtake his J.D. at reMeMBrance the University of Puerto Rico. He practiced law for a number of years, before being appointed a United States Immigration Judge. Following this, events, while also having the honor of rep- firm, where heMr. Braceteworked decided to fulfillfor his sixlongtime years.wish to see moreBy of the world Juan M. Bracete and became a U.S. Foreign Service officer, a profession he followed for six resenting our country. How does one pursue then, his grandfatheryears. Currently, had he has resumedpassed his law career.away In addition and to his legal work, Mr. Bracete is a philatelist who also enjoys reading the works of such a career? How does one go about join- he developed anFranz Kafkaitch and Nassimto Taleb.seek government ing this elite group of people? What skills service on the mainland. Contacting former VANTAGEPress and talents does the Department of State supervisors at the 419Department Park Ave. South of Justice, New York, NY 10016 seek for the position? What may one expect he was hired to be anvantagepress.com immigration judge in VANTAGEPress from such a career path? Miami. He remained in that position for four These questions and more form the basis and a half years and then followed it with years until December 30, 2009, when he of Juan Bracete’s account of his life and three and a half years of private practice. resigned and returned to the United States. career. Born and raised by his grandpar- Finally, he was appointed to the Foreign Drops of Remembrance is enjoy- ents in Puerto Rico, Bracete led a solitary Service. He considered it a dream come true, able, and Bracete’s account of his days in childhood marked by many hours read- but he also felt apprehensive about starting a Venezuela are especially insightful. But I ing books borrowed from his grandfather’s new career and moving to Washington, D.C., found myself desiring more from his autobi- library while dreaming of a life in another after eight years in the Miami area. ography—more discussion of his formative land far away from his small isolated island. Following training at the Foreign Service years with his grandparents, more discus- These dreams were encouraged by the fact Institute, Bracete served his first assign- sion of his varied education in both Puerto that his grandfather’s prominence exposed ment in Caracas, Venezuela, where he car- Rico and the United States, and more dis- Bracete to a stream of high-ranking island ried out such none-too-pleasant tasks as cussion of his work in immigration law, as people and visitors from Europe. A trip to visits to the morgue and to U.S. citizens in he has a unique perspective forged during Europe at age 10 with his grandparents prison, while he wended his way through his years as an attorney with the Board of contributed even more to his desire to live a political minefield of coworkers, local Immigration Appeals, an immigration judge, abroad: “The desire to achieve, grow up citizens, and government officials in both and an attorney in private practice. I wanted and rush into the world outside the balmy Washington, D.C., and Venezuela. to hear more about his career in the Foreign Caribbean was overpowering. That mustard Bracete’s second assignment took him to Service—both its good and bad aspects. seed was exploding within me.” his wife’s homeland of El Salvador, but then Lastly, I would have been interested in Although Bracete’s grandfather discour- he resigned his Foreign Service employ- his impressions, as someone from Puerto aged him from attending school abroad, he ment in order to pursue local opportuni- Rico, of life in the United States, both in pursued studies at Georgetown University, ties that unfortunately failed to materialize. Washington, D.C., and Miami. soaking up the culture in and around After a couple of other steps that I’ll skip, I hope that Bracete will revisit and Washington, D.C. Unable to find a job after he opened a law practice in El Salvador, expand upon this book to give the reader a graduation, he returned to Puerto Rico to and, after a year, he was appointed to the more comprehensive view of his life. He has work as a junior credit officer at a local savings unpaid position of Minister Counselor of the lived a unique and fascinating one and has and loan association. He moved on some six Embassy of the Sovereign Military Order many insights to offer readers, especially months later to a bank, then to law school and, of Malta to the Republic of El Salvador; young people on the cusp of making deci- during the summer preceding his last semes- he took this post because of his inter- sions about their own career paths.  ter, did an internship with the Department of est in the Order’s humanitarian projects Justice’s Tax Division, in Washington, D.C. in El Salvador. This was followed by an R. Mark Frey is an attorney based in St. Bracete hoped for post-graduation appointment to Ambassador Extraordinary Paul, Minn. He has practiced immigration employment with the Tax Division but, as and Plenipotentiary of the Sovereign law for almost 25 years with an emphasis luck would have it, the Board of Immigration Military Order of Malta to the Republic of on political asylum, family immigration, Appeals had an opening. The Board offered El Salvador—a position he held for nine removal defense, and naturalization.

84 • The Federal Lawyer • April 2013 any number of “anatomies”—examinations/ background of deprivation and abuse. When delvings/investigations—have been written, she takes his case pro bono, “she had been including a “true crime” book, Michigan a lawyer for less than 100 days,” and has judge John Voelker’s bestselling Anatomy to “convince the judge that ... three juries of a Murder (1959), whence Raymond at three trials—had gotten it wrong.” Like Bonner’s title surely derives. Elmore, she had received few breaks in Bonner’s subtitle, A Murder Case her early life, so he and his family under- Gone Wrong, confirms this, though “gone stand and trust this neophyte white lawyer, wrong” is a howling understatement: the despite her inexperience. case involved the palpably erroneous—and The chapter that introduces her to us manifestly racist—repeated murder con- (and to Elmore) is by far the best in a good victions in South Carolina of an innocent book. Bonner’s prose comes alive there, black man, the marginally literate handyman describing how Holt fought her way up from Edward Lee Elmore. After being imprisoned a background of sexual abuse by a stepfa- for more than 30 years, most of it on death ther, extensive drug use, truancy and poor row, Elmore, in a plea-bargaining irony, had, grades, and, as a hitchhiking runaway teen, finally, to plead guilty to the state’s murder to use the intelligence she has always had charge to gain his freedom. to graduate summa cum laude from Texas Ironies abound in the book, as in the State University before entering law school. Anatomy of Injustice: A case. Greenwood, S.C.—where the murder But she does not yet know that for much Murder Case Gone Wrong of an elderly widow, Dorothy Edwards, of her life Edward Lee Elmore has been on By Raymond Bonner took place—calls itself “Emerald City,” death row. Soon she will find out, and both Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY, 2012. 298 pages, $26.95 though any wizard therein is surely malign. their lives will change. (cloth), $16.00 (paper). Edwards’ next-door neighbor, “Jimmy” Holloway, who had an extended sexual Epilogue Reviewed by Thomas Holbrook relationship with her (“‘hooty pooty’ around As the book ends Edward Elmore is off ... with her,” a neighbor described it), had death row but still in prison. It is a rare “Justice delayed is justice denied.” been trained as a meat cutter (the widow reviewing pleasure to note that on March —Legal maxim with attributions had been stabbed 52 times), and claimed 2, 2012—after the book under review had dating back to the Magna Carta publicly, “I am the only one who could kill gone to press—he was set free.  her and get away with it.” Advanced thinkers have been carv- Nevertheless, Edward Lee Elmore was Thomas Holbrook has a doctorate in English ing into anatomy since the Renaissance, tried and convicted for the murder three literature. He is retired from the Library of when, in an era before refrigeration, stench times, in the same venue and with almost Congress’ Congressional Research Service. accompanied new knowledge. One of the the same prosecutorial and judicial partici- most famous paintings in Western art is pants, alas. Each time, he was returned to Rembrandt’s “The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. death row, first for 19 years, then for anoth- A Wilderness of Error: Tulp,” depicting a surgeon of the day reveal- er 8, and finally for 5—a prisoner who is 22 The Trials of Jeffrey ing the penetralia of a human cadaver before when the murder occurs, and 53 when he MacDonald a rapt audience of students. Anatomizing is released. The level of impartiality toward By Errol Morris can thus be considered the door passed Elmore by the legal authorities is character- Penguin Press, New York, NY, 2012. 526 pages, $29.95. through to reach the modern from the ized by the usual local police reference to ancient. him as “Black Elmo.” Reviewed by Christopher C. Faille In English, the word “anatomy,” as the Such bias adds to moments of dark study of the structure of living beings, dates humor in the book, as when, after a concat- Errol Morris is the documentary to the transition between the medieval and enation of legal, judicial, and prosecutorial filmmaker whose best known movie, The the modern, stemming from the Greek roots incompetence (and probable police chica- Thin Blue Line (1988), secured the for “up” and “to cut or slice”—literally, “to nery), Bonner quotes the South Carolina freedom of a man wrongly convicted of cut up.” A recent coinage is “tomography”— state prosecutor pontificating about local murder. In 1991, Morris pitched the idea of electromagnetic legerdemain that images justice: the case, he insists, “revealed a qual- an analogous documentary—one focused on bodies in sections or slices. ity of justice which I think is appropriate the 1970 murder of Jeffrey MacDonald’s wife A figurative literary sense also evolved, in this state. ...” Misfeasance, malfeasance, and daughters, committed (said a jury in dating to Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of and manifest incompetence, Bonner shows, 1979) by Jeffrey MacDonald. Despite Morris’ Melancholy, a 17th-century work “anato- abounded in Emerald City. stellar reputation at this time, after The mizing” what we call “depression” (melan- There is a second redemptive story here Thin Blue Line had won best documentary choly deriving from the “black choler” of the too, an unusual bonus in an unjust-convic- honors from the National Society of Film Four Humors theory of human dispositions tion narrative. Elmore’s primary defense Critics, the New York Film Critics Circle, of that time). Since Burton’s exemplar, attorney, Diana Holt, also came from a and other organizations that give such

April 2013 • The Federal Lawyer • 85 the MPs herself on another line. Acid’s groovy.” He told of his own life-or- Emergency personnel started showing death struggle, of his loss of consciousness, up 17 minutes later, and they found and of waking up some time later on the Colette, Kimberley, and Kristen dead in hallway floor, his teeth chattering. their respective bedrooms. MacDonald was The CID officers, led by chief investigator beside his dead wife. This is when he gave Franz Grebner, indicated that they didn’t his first account of what had happened, believe him, and that they saw him as a to Ken Mica, one of the responding MPs, suspect. “Your story just doesn’t ring true,” saying that there had been four intruders, Grebner told MacDonald, and showed him one blonde white female, two white men, a crime scene photo. “Do you see anything and one black man. They had set about odd about that scene?,” he asked. When killing his family while praising LSD. MacDonald said that he didn’t, Grebner MacDonald himself had a puncture continued, “Notice the flowerpot?” wound and partially collapsed lung. He was The fact that the flowerpot was standing taken away in an ambulance. up in the photo was one of the key points indicative of what Grebner and his A Compromised Crime Scene colleagues saw as a “staged scene,” a not-so- Everyone who writes about the messy mess created by MacDonald himself awards, and after Morris had received MacDonald case agrees at least that so he could blame imaginary intruders for a genius grant from the MacArthur somebody, during the early minutes of a the death of his family. Foundation, he wasn’t able to interest the homicide investigation, moved a flowerpot. Even aside from the manufactured studios. At a hearing just six months after the nature of that piece of evidence, its use Morris describes for us in his new book, murders of MacDonald’s wife and daughters, by CID in this interrogation seems a bit A Wilderness of Errors: The Trials of an MP, the aforementioned Ken Mica, dubious. If MacDonald—a physician and by Jeffrey MacDonald, how at one pitch testified that in the living room of the all accounts an intelligent guy—had wanted meeting he spoke of opening the case back MacDonald home he saw a man pick up an to stage a scene, why couldn’t he have up and showing “how critical evidence overturned flowerpot and set it on its base. turned over the flowerpot? As Errol Morris was ignored or suppressed” and “how This evidence tamperer looked as though writes in the book under review: “The CID the evidence that was introduced does he belonged there and was wearing an army officers were suggesting that there were not confirm MacDonald’s guilt.” But the field jacket, but, beyond that, no one knows two MacDonalds: One MacDonald cunning studio executives wouldn’t bite. “Because who he was. enough to manufacture a crime scene; he’s guilty,” one of them said. They had This is a small point, although it became another MacDonald too stupid to do it thoroughly bought into what was then the a somewhat larger one soon enough— effectively.” definitive mainstream conception of the the crime photos were taken after the case—the Joe McGinniss conception. flower pot was restored to its base. Early A Spot of Blood So now Morris has published this book, investigators, looking at those photos, drew Beginning in July 1970 and continuing thereby at last having his say about the the conclusion in part from that upright pot into September, the Army held an Article 32 subject that no one wanted to bankroll him that there couldn’t have been much of a hearing, the military justice system’s analog to film. struggle in the living room, despite the fact to a grand jury proceeding. Its purpose was that this was where MacDonald, on his own to determine whether a court martial would Births and Deaths account, had warded off the intruders until proceed. This is the hearing at which Mica Kimberley, the first child of Dr. Jeffrey knocked unconscious. testified about that mysterious evidence MacDonald and Colette (née Stevenson) More generally, the replacement of tamperer in the field jacket. MacDonald came into the world in April the flowerpot shows that the crime scene Colonel Warren Rock, who presided 1964. The second, another girl (Kristen), was not under control. By some reports, over this hearing, issued his final report in arrived in May 1967. More than two years there were approximately 18 MPs in the October. Not only was there insufficient later, their father joined the U.S. Army MacDonald family quarters that morning, evidence to proceed to court martial, but as a captain. In due course, the Army way too many for the smallish space under Rock went a good deal further than he assigned him as a group surgeon to the 3rd investigation to begin with. Other people had to, saying “the matters set forth in all Special Forces Group (“Green Berets”) at with no part in the investigation, including charges and specifications are not true.” Fort Bragg, NC. He and his family took up a neighbor and a chaplain, say that they MacDonald was honorably discharged from residence at 544 Castle Drive. walked in and out unchallenged. the Army in December. At 3:33 a.m., on Feb. 17, 1970, Jeffrey Authorities questioned MacDonald in At this point, MacDonald had a good MacDonald called an emergency dispatcher detail on April 6. He gave them an account of relationship with Freddy and Mildred for help. His call was to a civilian dispatcher, how he had come to be sleeping on the couch Kassab, the stepfather and mother of his who instructed him to call the base’s MPs. that night, of how he woke up to the sound deceased wife. But he put that at risk when He left the phone off the hook. The operator, of his family’s screams, and of how a blonde he started telling them that he was tracking getting no further response from him, called stranger, holding a candle, said, “Kill the pigs. down the real killers, whom he described in

86 • The Federal Lawyer • April 2013 terms reminiscent of the Manson family. On and that this supported its account of the guilty and not just because he has a bad Nov. 17, MacDonald told Freddy Kassab that murders. A physical science technician at lawyer,” she wrote. “You might even insert he had killed one of them. the FBI laboratory determined that it was a sentence or two pointing out to the reader We’ll skip past the Kassabs’ growing possible to fold the pajama top in such a the irrefutable nature of certain pieces of conviction of their son-in-law’s guilt, and way as to align the puncture holes with the evidence against Jeff.” mention that, in August 1974, largely as a wounds, using pushpins to simulate the By this point, McGinniss was near the consequence of their insistence, a federal presumed impact of the ice pick. bottom of what Morris calls a “slippery slope grand jury met in the Eastern District What is actual, of course, has to be of tergiversation, opportunism, and self- of North Carolina to look into the three possible. But what is possible need not be interest” that would lead him in the book murders from scratch. That grand jury actual. And Morris has a low opinion of the in its final form, as Fatal Vision, to present indicted MacDonald early the next year. significance of this supposed reconstruction. to the world a quite unambiguous picture The government’s attorneys presented It was an exercise in creative folding, which of MacDonald as a psychotic adrenaline- evidence to the grand jury that must have is origami, he says, not forensics. pumped killer. seemed scientific and persuasive. For Morris’ book also credits MacDonald’s Putnam published Fatal Vision in example, they told the panel that there attorney, Bernard Segal, with an effective September 1983. That December, in an was a small speck of type O blood on cross-examination on this point. Segal apparently unrelated development in the the right lens of Jeffrey MacDonald’s pointed out that there was another layer of world of publishing, The New Yorker eyeglasses. Kristen’s blood was type O, and cloth involved—the pink pajama top that published two articles by Janet Malcolm the government suggested that it had gotten Colette wore to bed that night. Presumably, about a dissident psychoanalyst, Jeffrey onto MacDonald’s glasses while he was assuming the government’s theory, the ice Masson, and his theories about Sigmund killing the younger of his daughters. pick passed through that pajama top, too, Freud. The articles later became a book, In But what the grand jury didn’t hear was every time that it inflicted a wound on her the Freud Archives, that brought Malcolm that MacDonald had worked as an ER doctor body. Shouldn’t the origami experiment both fame and litigation, as Masson claimed at Hamlet Hospital on Feb. 15, two days have included that? that she “quoted” things he had never said. before the murders. As Morris writes: “He In 1991, the U.S. Supreme Court decided had treated five patients with O-type blood Bernard Segal: Did you ever attempt to Masson v. New Yorker Magazine, Inc. that day, including a man with a cut foot. do this little experiment: first putting NBC ran a miniseries of Fatal Vision The speck of O-type blood could have come on the pink pajama top across the in November 1984. In that broadcast, the from any of these patients.” dummy, then putting on the blue Kassabs are the heroes, struggling to see that pajama top, and then trying to put their daughter’s killer is brought to justice. Lining Up Puncture Holes through—these skewers through it all? Indeed, Freddy Kassab was portrayed by Shortly before the start of his trial, Karl Malden, and Mildred Kassab by Eva MacDonald contracted with Joe McGinniss, Shirley Green: No. Marie Saint, who could hardly have been a writer best known for his book about a other than the good guys. Nixon presidential campaign, The Selling This was another instance, like the In the course of this miniseries, there of the President 1968. McGinniss would flowerpot and the blood on the glasses, in is a bit of business involving the flowerpot. live with the defense team, sit with them which “evidence” was employed only as As Morris puts it, the viewers “see an MP through the trial, and write a book on the a prop, not as part of a genuine effort to pick up a tipped-over flowerpot and put it case. determine the truth. upright.” This Morris calls “lip service to During the trial, which got underway The prosecution prevailed. On Aug. 29, reality,” to the sloppy nature of the evidence in July 1975, the government presented the jury found Jeffrey MacDonald guilty gathering that morning, but the general tone evidence about a pajama top. At the crime of one count of first-degree murder and of the miniseries is unaffected. scene, the prosecutor said, investigators two counts of second-degree murder. (The The miniseries made a big point of the had found a torn blue pajama top with a lot different degrees of murder are explained pajama top. But it wasn’t the supposedly of holes in it lying over Colette’s body. This by a prosecution theory that the defendant perfect lineup of holes that was critical in was Jeffrey MacDonald’s. killed his wife and one child in a frenzied the screenplay. It was the shape of the According to the prosecution’s theory state and that he then killed the remaining punctures. Freddy Kassab decided that his of the case, MacDonald put the garment child cold-bloodedly, in order to eliminate son-in-law was a murderer (according to over Colette’s body and proceeded to stab a witness.) the series) because, if MacDonald had been her through it, repeatedly, with an ice pick. using the pajama top to ward off the blows There were 21 ice pick wounds on her body McGinniss and an Editor of an assailant, the blows would presumably and 48 punctures in the pajama top. (She In 1982, McGinniss’ editor at Putnam have been jagged. The government was already dead before this began. On wrote him about his ongoing work on investigators informed him, though, that the prosecution theory, the actual murder the book on MacDonald. The editor was the punctures were circular, as would on weapon was a board of lumber.) concerned that his draft as of that time their hypothesis have been the case had the The prosecution suggested to the jury wasn’t adequately unambiguous in its clothing been at rest. that the wounds to Colette’s body lined conclusion. “Please make sure that it is clear In 1988, Miramax Films distributed The up with the holes in this blue pajama top, that Jeff is convicted because he is truly Thin Blue Line, which is Morris’ movie on

April 2013 • The Federal Lawyer • 87 the conviction of Randall Dale Adams in McGinniss and Boyd Norton pseudo-science and, as a true scientist, he the death of Dallas Police Officer Robert He does not take the view, in the end, is angered and offended by that.” W. Wood in November 1976. Largely as a that MacDonald is innocent. He may be consequence of evidence Morris compiled, guilty. The rest of us may never know just Not Like a Fingerprint the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals what happened at 544 Castle Drive that But what does Fatal Vision tell us overturned Adams’ conviction and sent the night. Surely if we look at the situation as about that pajama top? It praises the very case back to Dallas County for a retrial. dramatists, MacDonald does not fit the role same supposed evidence that McGinniss in Adams was released after the district of “innocent man wronged” very well. He has 1979 had found so contemptible. McGinniss attorney declined to re-prosecute. lied, as in his tales to Freddy Kassab about speaks through the lips now of a supposed his tracking of the real killers. He has also (but unnamed) criminological consultant to Facts: Who Gets to Speak shown what psychologists might consider the defense team. In 1989, The New Yorker ran another inappropriate affect. This was notoriously pair of articles by Janet Malcolm. These so in an appearance on the Dick Cavett “This is very convincing evidence,” articles centered on the MacDonald case Show after the Article 32 hearing when he the paid expert said. ... “Now I see and in particular on the relationship discussed the case in a rather jovial tone. why they got the indictment.” Segal between MacDonald and McGinniss. This, But Morris is sure that MacDonald has attempted to be dismissive, discoursing too, would become a book: The Journalist never received due process of law. His at some length about how even the and the Murderer. Much of the reaction conviction and his continued imprisonment government’s own theory of the crime to these articles and the book turned on are tainted for Morris by the botching of the offered no plausible explanation for the perceived parallels between Malcolm’s initial military investigation, the vendetta why MacDonald would have placed his situation and McGinniss’, in the light of atmosphere of the civilian investigation, pajama top on his wife’s chest before Masson’s complaints about In the Freud and the decisions of a string of people stabbing her with the ice pick. The Archives. Malcolm’s opening sentence thereafter: the trial judge who “eliminated criminologist simply shook his head. in her new book seemed to some a self- exculpatory evidence from the trial; “You can raise all that, Bernie, but this indictment: “Every journalist who is not too appellate judges who passed the buck rather is like a fingerprint. Holy Christmas! stupid or too full of himself to notice what is than re-examining the issues” and “a craven That’s very convincing stuff.” going on knows that what he does is morally and sloppy journalist who confabulated, indefensible.” lied, and betrayed,” as well as another Do real live criminologists use But Morris, for his part, focuses on journalist who “lost herself in a misguided exclamations like “Holy Christmas”? At another passage from The Journalist and discussion of journalism” in order to avoid any rate, the passage paraphrases Segal the Murderer, in which Malcolm says that the difficulties of a pursuit of the truth. making a perfectly reasonable point, then she spoke to MacDonald while preparing To Morris, this all suggests “an endlessly pooh-poohs that point by simply having the the original articles and that he responded perverse universe where guilt is assumed unnamed expert shake his head. by sending her documents, a “mountain and issues of truth are left dangling.” The evidence that McGinniss saw as lousy of documents.” She felt oppressed by the Let’s go back to that bit about McGinniss and lazy in December 1979 had become quantity of it—“trial transcripts, motions, as a “craven and sloppy journalist.” In decisive, just “like a fingerprint,” by the fall of declarations, affidavits, reports”— which, Morris’ view it was McGinniss’ cravenness 1983, when Fatal Vision hit the market. That when she glanced at it, contained phrases that led him to change the gist of his book is the kind of switch that has encouraged such as “blue threads,” “left chest puncture,” to something that would be appealing to his Morris to call McGinniss “craven.” “unidentified fingerprints,” and so forth. publisher and the marketplace. We quoted Oh: and why were the holes in that She decided not to read through this above the concerns of McGinniss’ editor. pajama top smooth rather than jagged? pile. “I know I cannot learn anything about There is evidence that he rewrote his McGinniss himself offered an answer in MacDonald’s guilt or innocence from book in response to such non-cognitive that December 1979 letter. “Boyd points this material. It is like looking for proof factors. In December 1979, four months out that if one’s wrists are entangled in a or disproof of the existence of God in a after the jury’s verdict, McGinniss wrote to garment and one is being attacked, the only flower—it all depends on how you read the MacDonald telling him about a conversation natural defensive motion would be vertical, evidence. ... The material does not ‘speak he’d had with a scientist friend of his, not horizontal, and you would be pushing for itself.’” Boyd Norton. He assured MacDonald that toward the ice pick, thus causing contact to Morris, who very much believes that if you scientists like Norton can see through be perpendicular, and permitting the holes want to know what happened you do have the pseudoscience the prosecution had to be cylindrical, as they were, rather than to struggle with the facts, and that in this employed. He referred specifically to the elongated tears.”  situation that means with the documents, pajama top: “Boyd himself says he would is offended by the postmodernism of fly to San Francisco and go over all that Christopher Faille graduated from Western Malcolm’s sentiment. No, facts don’t speak is available—not the actual pajama top, New England College School of Law in 1982 for themselves. Nonetheless, they are the etc., but all reports of procedures, and and became a member of the Connecticut bar reality against which we, the speakers of the conclusions—and he would do it simply soon thereafter. He is at work on a book that universe, need to check our speaking. for expenses, no fee involved, because will make the quants of Wall Street intelli- he thinks you got screwed by lousy, lazy gible to sociology majors.

88 • The Federal Lawyer • April 2013 Jack Kennedy: Elusive unpopular causes. “Though Kennedy dug up 1956, he was partying in London when a Hero the stories and sketched out his intentions,” daughter was stillborn. Jackie soon realized By Chris Matthews Matthews writes, “Ted Sorensen did most of that her role was more as a backdrop for Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, 2011. 460 pages, the actual writing.” Kennedy than an equal, but she suffered $27.50. Well known is the assistance that in silence. On Nov. 29, 1963, a week after Kennedy’s father, Joseph P. Kennedy, gave Kennedy’s assassination, Jackie summoned Reviewed by John C. Holmes to his son’s career. Mathews convincingly the popular political writer, Theodore H. shows that, although the younger Kennedy White, to the Kennedy compound at Cape Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero, by benefited from his father’s financial help as Cod, where she delivered a monologue for the popular political commentator, Chris well as connections, his political decisions nearly four hours on Kennedy as she knew Matthews, is a superb portrayal of the 35th were his own, often taken in defiance or him. White used it as the basis for an article President of the United States. Focusing not disregard of his father’s views. Kennedy for Life magazine, taking Jackie’s suggestion only on Kennedy’s career, but on his back- had strongly opposed the isolationist views to make “Camelot,” which was then run- ground, character, personal relationships, that his father took while ambassador to ning on Broadway, the theme of Kennedy’s charm, and charisma, Matthews augments England prior to U.S. entry into World War presidency. Matthews, however, uncovered his thorough research with his considerable II. Jack Kennedy looked up to his older White’s notes and found that White, who political wisdom, intelligence, Irish humor, brother, Joseph Jr., and grieved deeply after was a friend of Jackie’s, had omitted from and cynicism. The result is an exception- Joseph was killed when his plane crashed his article the bitterness that Jackie had ally perceptive, balanced, and well-written during World War II combat. He was also expressed. book. saddened at the death four years later of his When Kennedy became a senator in Though it is commonly known that sister Kathleen, with whom he’d had a close 1953, he hired the 24-year-old Ted Sorensen John F. Kennedy had health problems, the relationship. Jack pretty much ignored his as his chief legislative aide, and, in Sorensen, extent of his illnesses is still not appre- younger brother Bobby until Jack pressed he found a kindred spirit who, although ciated, particularly his Addison’s disease, him into service in his political campaigns. of Scandinavian and Jewish middle-class which is a serious disorder of the adrenal Jack acquired a longstanding appreciation parents and a graduate of the University glands for which no cure has been devel- of Bobby, which Bobby reciprocated. Bobby of Nebraska College of Law, shared many oped and that usually requires lifetime would become the “bad cop” whenever Jack of Kennedy’s ideas and political outlook. treatment. So serious was his condition needed him to attack political opponents. Together they would forge, in addition to that on three occasions Kennedy was given When Kennedy was first elected to the Profiles in Courage, the speeches that last rites. Matthews reveals that Kennedy’s House of Representatives, Rep. George made Kennedy one of the most quoted of usual tanned face was an artificial neces- Smathers of Florida became his closest all world leaders, with phrases such as, sity to hide his pale, yellowish skin caused social friend. Matthews writes that Smathers “Ask not what your country can do for you; by this condition. His quick, sunny smile “was a hack, knew it, and enjoyed it.” ask what you can do for your country,” and also hid severe back pain that resulted Surprisingly, Kennedy became closely affili- “Man holds in his mortal hands the power to from injuries he suffered in combat during ated politically with Richard Nixon, whom abolish all forms of human poverty and all World War II. While recovering from back he judged to be the “smartest” guy on forms of human life.” Standing before a huge surgery during 1954 and 1955, Kennedy the Hill, according to Matthews. In Nixon, crowd in front of the Berlin Wall in West worked on his best-selling book, Profiles Kennedy saw a bright, ambitious politician Berlin, Kennedy emotionally declared, “Ich in Courage, which described courageous like himself, with whom he could share his bin ein Berliner.” actions of eight U.S. senators on behalf of views and from whom he could learn. But Some critics view the incident of a Kennedy, in Matthews’ view, although con- Japanese destroyer smashing through vivial, was coldly calculating in both his per- Kennedy’s PT-109 boat in the Pacific as sonal and political associations. He put aside revealing a lack of his navigational skill. his friendly relationship with Nixon when he None, however, could deny his heroism ran against him for the presidency. Prior to in saving his 12 crewmen from the shark- their first debate, Kennedy agreed that he infested waters, hiding them from Japanese would not wear makeup if Nixon wouldn’t. soldiers, and arranging for their rescue. In Without telling Nixon, he subsequently did campaigning for President, Kennedy would use make-up; Nixon’s four o’clock shadow cite his military experience to counter argu- and perspiration would probably have been ments concerning his Catholicism, stating: less visible had he done the same. During “They didn’t ask my religion when I was the debates, Kennedy studiously ignored sent into combat.” Kennedy gave marvelous Nixon and appealed instead to the audience. speeches, strongly denying allegiance to the This flustered Nixon and the debate contrib- Pope rather than to the Constitution. At the uted to his failure to win the presidency. same time, Kennedy stirred up the Catholic In 1953, at age 36, Kennedy married the population—more than 25 percent of the glamorous Jacqueline Bouvier, age 24, but voters—urging them to support their fellow he did not stop his womanizing; in August Catholic.

April 2013 • The Federal Lawyer • 89 Kennedy was hardly ensconced in the their skin, who waged war not on the summary of the book given on its jacket White House when he was forced to decide smaller nations but on poverty and and in pre-publication publicity. Instead, whether to approve the proposed secret illiteracy and mental illness in his Macintyre writes about the formation of the C.I.A. military action against Cuba that own country, and who restored the British double agent system, the recruit- became known as the Bay of Pigs operation. appeal of politics for the young and ment of double agents, and the activities of Unprepared, he allowed the operation to sent Peace Corps volunteers overseas five double agents during and after the war. proceed, but required restrictions that made to work with the poor and untrained But he does not justify calling these agents it bound to fail. Emboldened by Kennedy’s in other countries—was in my book “D-Day spies.” failed mission, Khrushchev smuggled nucle- a moral president, regardless of his Macintyre writes about a specific type of ar warheads into Cuba that were pointed personal misconduct.  spy—a double agent—not merely someone at the U.S. While the world stood in fear who served the British Special Operations that a deadly confrontation would occur, John C. Holmes was an administrative law Executive. Therefore, he does not men- Kennedy, with cunning and courage, man- judge with the U.S. Department of Labor for tion Britain’s World War II spy queen, Vera aged to defuse the situation and have the more than 25 years, and he retired as Chief Atkins. Britain’s double agents were super- missiles removed. As a quid pro quo, he ALJ at the Department of Interior in 2004. vised by T. Argyll Robertson, known by his secretly agreed to remove U.S. warheads He currently works part-time as an arbitra- initials as “Tar,” with assistance from John from Turkey, but not until several months tor and consultant; enjoys golf, travel, and Masterman, an Oxford don and mystery later, when it would probably go unnoticed. bridge; and can be reached at jhomesalj@ writer on loan to Tar’s group. Khrushchev pressured Kennedy aol.com. Tar formed his department by taking on over West Berlin, threatening all-out war certain German agents captured in Britain if he did not remove U.S. troops from who agreed to cooperate rather than receive the city. Kennedy refused, not knowing Double Cross: The True death sentences or long terms of imprison- whether Khrushchev was bluffing or insane Story of the D-Day Spies ment. He also agreed to accept persons who enough to launch a nuclear attack. When By Ben Macintyre had led the Germans to believe that they Khrushchev contemplated building a wall in Crown Publishers, New York, NY, 2012. 400 pages, were loyal. The five double agents upon Berlin to keep East Germans from fleeing to $26.00. whom Macintyre focuses were of the second the West, Kennedy tacitly indicated that he type of double agent—Germans who were would not actively oppose it, and the crisis Reviewed by Henry S. Cohn not as loyal as the Nazis thought. was defused. Kennedy was also conflicted Among the five agents, Macintyre over what approach to take with respect Double Cross is Ben Macintyre’s third writes mostly about Dusan “Dusko” Popov, to the increasing tension between North book on Great Britain’s efforts to deceive a wealthy Serbian playboy who original- and South Vietnam, but he would not live the Germans during World War II. The first, ly agreed with German intelligence to be to see war erupt. Although we will never Agent Zigzag, entertainingly traced the smuggled into England and obtain informa- know whether the Vietnam War would have career of con man Eddie Chapman, who tion on military installations. In December been averted had Kennedy lived, Matthews was awarded the Nazis’ highest symbol of 1940, Popov met with Tar in Bristol and praises him for his steadfast refusal to yield bravery, the Iron Cross, but who was actu- became a double agent. Popov longed for to Soviet aggression while avoiding war. ally a double agent for Britain. The second the good life in England, and Tar rewarded Matthews praises Kennedy for advancing book, Operation Mincemeat, was a brilliant his successes with “wine, women, and song. the United States ahead of the Soviet Union and suspenseful retelling of memoirs about Especially women.” Popov provided the in the space race, and for establishing the the war deception known as “the man who Germans with what was termed “chicken goal of landing a man on the moon by the never was.” Critics praised Macintyre’s tell- end of the decade, which was accomplished ing of a true incident in which a body of a in July 1969. Matthews also quotes Ted tramp, dressed as an officer, was dropped Sorensen’s moral verdict on Kennedy: by British intelligence off the coast of Spain with a briefcase full of false documents An American President, com- attached to him. The deception worked and mander in chief of the world’s great- German planners were misled into believ- est military power, who during his ing that the 1943 Allied landing in Italy was presidency did not send one combat intended to be in Sardinia, not in Sicily, troop division abroad or drop one where it actually occurred. bomb, who used his presidency to Double Cross, however, is not as suc- break down the barriers of religious cessful as Macintyre’s prior books on British and racial equality and harmony in deception during World War II. Macintyre this country and to reach out to the writes well and what he relates is of interest, victims of poverty and repression, but he only briefly addresses how the Nazis who encouraged Americans to serve were tricked “into believing that [on D-Day, their communities and to love their June 6, 1944] the Allies would attack at neighbors regardless of the color of Calais and Norway rather than Normandy”—

90 • The Federal Lawyer • April 2013 feed,” tidbits of true information that was deceptions. He briefly describes Operation not helpful and false information on major Fortitude North, in which Tar’s agents par- FBA Members matters that was misleading. ticipated, to set up the Germans for a fake In 1941, Popov was sent to the United Allied invasion of Norway; and Operation SAVE: States, ostensibly by the Germans, but with Fortitude South, which spread false infor- British approval. J. Edgar Hoover, who was mation about the actual Allied invasion aware of Popov’s true role, did not trust of France taking place at Pas de Calais. Popov and hated his lifestyle, with its almost Macintyre quotes from a telegram sent by unlimited expenses and behavior that German intelligence (and shows a pho- Hoover considered less than moral. Later tograph of it as well) that incorporates a in the war, Popov risked his life in Spain, warning by Pujol that a “decisive” invasion FBA members can receive up to a overcoming German suspicions that he was at Calais was to follow the June 6 landings 20% discount on AVIS rental ser- not acting in their interests. Then, in early within three days. Of course, Pujol’s warning vices. 1944, he gave a report to German agents in was false and was meant to deceive. Lisbon about a fictional invasion force being Double Cross concludes with a sum- formed in England. mary of the postwar careers of the five The second agent was Roman double agents. Popov wrote a partially The most rewarding card of all,™ Czerniawski, a Polish patriot who had true book about his experiences, engaged WorldPoints® rewards is the credit served in the Polish army in its tragic efforts in international trade, and married two card rewards program that absolutely to repel the German invasion in September glamorous young women (not at the same puts you first. And, it is available with 1939. He had managed to resettle in Paris time). Czerniawski lived in London with the Federal Bar Association Platinum and conduct a successful intelligence- his pet cats—32 of them at one point. He Plus® MasterCard® credit card. gathering operation for the British. A dis- divorced twice and remarried twice, and gruntled confederate turned him in to the was “secretly appointed an Officer of the Nazis, who offered him the chance to spy Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in England. He accepted the offer, but once for his wartime role.” Sergeyev moved to FBA members can save up to 26% in England, he contacted Tar and became a Michigan and wrote a book that caused on select FedEx® shipping services. double agent. consternation for her British handlers. There are no costs and no minimum The third agent was Elvira de la Fuente Chaudoir was always in debt, but survived shipping requirements to take advan- Chaudoir, a wealthy gambler in Europe. by opening a gift shop in France. Pujol was tage of this great member benefit. Down on her luck and starved for cash, she appointed a “Member of the Most Excellent was recruited by the Germans, but found Order of the British Empire” and settled in her way to England and Tar. The fourth Venezuela. (Macintyre does not compare his agent was Lily Sergeyev, from the moneyed rank as a “Member” with Czerniawski’s as an class in Paris. She convinced the Germans “Officer.”) Pujol wrote, “My main pride and that she would spy for them in England, satisfaction has been the knowledge that I Members of the FBA may apply for but, before she took on any assignment, she contributed to the reduction of casualties the Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Discount made contact with the British in Madrid. among the tens of thousands of servicemen Card and receive a 20% discount She agreed to be a liaison to a German fighting to hold the Normandy beachheads. on all regularly priced merchandise. major, Emile Kliemann, stationed in Madrid, Many, many more would have perished had Sale items are excluded. who had information that the British sought. our plan failed.” She annoyed Tar and her handlers over mat- Double Cross is a charming book, but it ters such as bringing her male terrier-poodle lacks depth and suspense, and it does not named Babs into England, where the law succeed in showing a relationship between prohibited it. the so-called D-Day spies and the successful FBA members can save money on Macintyre’s final double agent was Juan Allied invasion on D-Day itself.  auto and home insurance premi- Pujol García, who also played a role in ums with the Group Savings Plus® Operation Mincemeat. Pujol successfully Henry S. Cohn is a judge of the Connecticut program, in which you may receive convinced Karl-Erich Kühlenthal, a Nazi Superior Court. an exclusive group discount of up intelligence officer stationed in Spain, that to 10% off Liberty Mutual’s already he controlled 27 subagents across Britain. competitive rates. This was a falsehood, invented with the assistance of Tar’s unit. These supposed subagents supplied Kühlenthal with useless For more details about information and “chicken feed.” these exclusive offers, After spending more than 200 pages visit www.fedbar.org/ relating the history of the five double benefits. agents, Macintyre finally turns to the D-Day

April 2013 • The Federal Lawyer • 91