He became best known for successfully prosecuting Charles Manson and other defendants accused of the Tate–LaBianca murders that took place between August 9 and August 10, 1969.
In 1972, Bugliosi left the District Attorney's (DA) office and started a private practice, which included defense cases for criminal trials. He twice ran for the DA's office, but was not elected. He also began his writing career, exploring notable criminal cases.
Early life and education
Bugliosi was born on August 18, 1934, in Hibbing, Minnesota, to parents of Italian descent. When he was in high school, his family moved to Los Angeles.
Bugliosi began his law career in the Los Angeles CountyDistrict Attorney's office in 1964, where he served as a deputy district attorney for eight years, through 1972. He successfully prosecuted 105 out of 106 felony jury trials, which included 21 murder convictions.
Bugliosi successfully prosecuted Charles Manson, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Leslie Van Houten for these murders, and each was convicted. He was credited especially with gaining conviction of Manson, who, although he had tied up the La Biancas, had not been physically present during the actual murders.[3]
Political candidate
In 1972, Bugliosi ran as a Democrat for Los Angeles County District Attorney against longtime incumbent Joseph Busch. Joseph Gellman was his legal counsel for this campaign. Bugliosi narrowly lost the campaign. Bugliosi ran again in 1976, after Busch died of a heart attack in 1975, but lost to interim District Attorney John Van de Kamp, who was incumbent.[2]
Private practice
After leaving the Los Angeles district attorney's office in 1972, Bugliosi turned to private practice. He represented three criminal defendants, achieving acquittals for each of them—the most famous of which was Stephanie Stearns (referred to as "Jennifer Jenkins" in his book), whom he defended for the murder of Eleanor "Muff" Graham on Palmyra Atoll, a South Pacific island.
Bugliosi wrote Outrage: The Five Reasons Why O. J. Simpson Got Away with Murder (1996), about the acquittal of O. J. Simpson for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman.[4] Bugliosi argues that Simpson was guilty. He criticizes the work of the district attorney, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and Judge Lance Ito. He criticized the media for characterizing Simpson's lawyers as "the Dream Team," and said that the lawyers were unremarkable and of average ability. He used his profiles to explore what he considers broader problems in American criminal justice, the media, and the political appointment of judges.[5]
Bill Clinton
Bugliosi criticized the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Clinton v. Jones. In his book, No Island of Sanity, he argues that the right of a president to be free of a private lawsuit while in office outweighed Paula Jones's interest in having her case brought to trial immediately.[6]
We are talking about a conspiracy to commit murder...a conspiracy the prodigious dimensions of which would make Watergate look like a one-roach marijuana case.
and
The signed statements given me perhaps can be explained away, but in the absence of a logical explanation, these statements, by simple arithmetic, add up to too many bullets and therefore, the probability of a second gun.[8]
As a result of his research, Bugliosi came to refute conspiracy theories.
In 1986, Bugliosi played the part of prosecutor in an unscripted 21-hour mock television trial of Lee Harvey Oswald. His legal opponent, representing Oswald, was the well-known criminal defense attorney Gerry Spence. London Weekend Television sponsored the mock trial, which followed Texas criminal trial procedure. It also included a former Texas judge and a jury of U.S. citizens from the Dallas area which reviewed hundreds of exhibits and listened to witnesses who testified about the assassination. The jury found Oswald guilty. Spence remarked, "No other lawyer in America could have done what Vince did in this case."[9]
The program required extensive preparation by Bugliosi and inspired him to later write a comprehensive book on the subject of the assassination. His 1,612-page book with a CD-ROM containing an additional 958 pages of endnotes and 170 pages of source notes, Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, was published in May 2007. His book examined the JFK assassination in detail and drew on a variety of sources; his findings were in line with those of the Warren Report, which concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of the 35th President. He called Reclaiming History his "magnum opus."[10] The book won the 2008 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime.[11] A portion of the book was re-published in 2008 as Four Days in November: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which became the basis of the 2013 film Parkland.
The title of Reclaiming History derived from Bugliosi's belief that the history of the Kennedy assassination has been hijacked by conspiracy theories, the popularity of which, he asserted, has a pernicious and ongoing effect on American thought:
Unless this fraud is finally exposed, the word believe will be forgotten by future generations and John F. Kennedy will have unquestionably become the victim of a conspiracy. Belief will have become unchallenged fact, and the faith of the American people in their institutions further eroded. If that is allowed to happen, Lee Harvey Oswald, a man who hated his country and everything for which it stands, will have triumphed even beyond his intent on that fateful day in November.
It was adapted twice for television movies (one produced in 1976 and one in 2004). As of 2015, it is the best-selling true crime book in publishing history, with more than 7 million copies sold.[1][2]
Bugliosi did not own a computer and at one time did all his research through library microfilm archives.[10] In his later years, he relied on his virtual secretary, Rosemary Newton, to help with these tasks.[10] He also wrote his books entirely by hand, with Newton later transcribing his long-hand texts.[10]
Personal life
Bugliosi was married, and he and his wife Gail had two children: a daughter, Wendy, and a son, Vince Jr. Although raised Catholic, Bugliosi said later in life that he was an agnostic, although open to the ideas of deism.[12]
^Turner, William W.; Christian, Jonn G. (1978). The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy: A Searching Look at the Conspiracy and the Cover-Up, 1968-1978. Random House. ISBN978-0-394-40273-4.
