F. Lee Bailey, the brash and no-nonsense criminal defense attorney who helped win an acquittal in the sensational 1995 murder trial of O.J. Simpson as part of the former NFL star’s legal “Dream Team,” died Thursday in Georgia. He was 87.
His cause of death was not immediately revealed.
Superior Court Judge Kenneth J. Fishman, Bailey’s former partner, confirmed the news to The Boston Globe.
I lost a great one. F Lee Bailey you will be missed. pic.twitter.com/6s8JI3OQVB
— O.J. Simpson (@TheRealOJ32) June 3, 2021
Fishman did not disclose the cause of death but said Bailey had moved to Georgia about a year ago to be closer to one of his sons and had been dealing with several medical issues for the past few months.
Simpson, who was found not guilty in the 1994 murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman, posted condolences to his former lawyer Thursday on Twitter, calling Bailey “a great friend,” and “one of the great lawyers of our time.”
Bailey defended Simpson alongside several other famous defense attorneys including Johnnie Cochran, Robert Shapiro and Robert Kardashian.
In one of the most suspenseful moments of the trial, Bailey cross-examined Los Angeles Police Detective Mark Fuhrman and raised doubt about his character due to his history of using racial slurs.
Bailey’s name preceded him, with an audacious persona that often eclipsed that of his most famous clients, but his legal career ultimately ended in ruin under the weight of financial troubles and disbarment.
Bailey graduated from Boston University Law School and began his legal career in the early 1960s.
Bailey’s list of clients through the years reads like a Who’s Who among heralded cases in legal history, including Albert DeSalvo, who confessed to being the Boston Strangler, and newspaper heiress Patty Hearst, who was convicted of bank robbery in 1976.
Bailey became known as one of the most fierce and iron-hearted litigators in American justice, seizing on witnesses, prosecutors and judges alike.
In one of his earliest victories, Bailey won a new trial for Dr. Sam Sheppard, who was convicted in the murder of his pregnant wife. The neurosurgeon was then acquitted at his second trial, and the case became the inspiration for the TV show and film “The Fugitive.”
Bailey was also the author of several bestsellers and was the host of two television shows, including “Good Company” in 1967 and “Lie Detector” in 1983. Commercials and constant media attention made him a celebrity and pop culture icon in his own right.
Despite his impeccable courtroom image, Bailey could not escape some serious shortcomings in his personal life.
He was disbarred in 2001 for transferring assets from a client into his personal bank account, according to TMZ.
Bailey’s own legal problems started in the 1970s, according to the Globe, when he defended businessman Glenn Turner, who stood accused of running a fraudulent self-help pyramid scheme.
A grand jury investigation into Bailey’s conduct led to his indictment on bank fraud charges, the Globe reported. Although Bailey was acquitted — appearing on his behalf was future Dream Teamer Alan Dershowitz — the affair cost him dearly, monetarily and otherwise, the Globe said.
In 1982, Bailey was charged with DWI in California, according to the Globe. He was represented by Shapiro, who later brought him onto the Simpson defense team. After his acquittal, Bailey published a payback book titled “How to Protect Yourself Against Cops in California and Other Strange Places.”
By the mid-1990s, Bailey’s legal career was floundering, his personal affairs and finances unraveling, the Globe reported.
Claude Deboc, a former client, had pleaded guilty to drug smuggling. To cover Bailey’s fees, the government let him hold $6 million in stock owned by Deboc, according to the Globe. When its value more than quadrupled, government officials insisted the profits belonged to Uncle Sam, not Bailey. He vehemently disagreed, the Globe said, citing a verbal agreement that could not be independently validated.
By that time, Bailey had already spent $4.6 million of the stock proceeds. He was jailed for 44 days and fined $3.5 million, according to the Globe.
Testifying against him this time was Shapiro, with whom he had suffered a bitter falling-out after the Simpson case, the Globe reported.
In 2001, Bailey was disbarred in Florida on multiple counts of judicial misconduct, according to the Globe. Massachusetts quickly followed suit. Bailey’s final attempt at a career comeback came in 2012, when he moved to Yarmouth, Maine. He passed the state bar exam, but Maine’s board of examiners refused to admit him, the Globe reported. A successful appeal was rejected by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, which narrowly held that Bailey “minimizes the wrongfulness and seriousness of the misconduct for which he was disbarred,” according to the Globe.
Bailey never practiced law again.
Francis Lee Bailey was born in the Boston suburb of Waltham, the son of a newspaper advertising man and a schoolteacher.
He enrolled at Harvard University in 1950 but left at the end of his sophomore year to train to become a Marine pilot. He retained a lifelong love of flying and even owned his own aviation company.
While in the military, Bailey volunteered for the legal staff at the Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station in North Carolina and soon found himself the legal officer for more than 2,000 men.
Bailey earned a law degree from Boston University in 1960, where he had a 90.5 average, but he graduated without honors because he refused to join the Law Review. He said the university waived the requirement for an undergraduate degree because of his military legal experience.
Bailey was married four times and divorced three. His fourth wife, Patricia, died in 1999. He had three children.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
