樊尚·布格里奥西

Vincent T. Bugliosi Jr. (August 18, 1934 – June 6, 2015) was an American prosecutor and author who served as Deputy District Attorney for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office between 1964 and 1972. He became best known for successfully prosecuting Charles Manson and other defendants accused of the August 1969 Tate–LaBianca murders.

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, including that of O. J. Simpson and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy (JFK) and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy (RFK).

Early life and education

Vincent T. Bugliosi Jr. 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, California. Bugliosi graduated from Hollywood High School. He attended the University of Miami on a tennis scholarship and graduated in 1956. In 1964, he earned his law degree from the UCLA School of Law, where he was president of his graduating class.

Career

Bugliosi began his law career in the Los Angeles County District 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.

Manson prosecution

As a Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney, Bugliosi came to national attention for prosecuting the seven murders that took place August 9–10, 1969, in which Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Steven Parent, and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were killed. 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 LaBiancas, had not been physically present during the actual murders.

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. His campaign was marred in controversy after his opponent organized a press conference where he presented Bugliosi's former milkman, Herbert H. Weisel, who claimed that Bugliosi had harassed him after he suspected that Weisel was having an affair with his wife. Bugliosi responded by claiming that Weisel had stolen $300 from his house. In turn, the Weisels sued Bugliosi and reportedly received $12,500 in compensation from Bugliosi for slander. In 1976, Bugliosi ran again after Busch died of a heart attack in 1975 but lost to interim District Attorney John Van de Kamp, who was the incumbent.

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. Possibly his most famous client was Stephanie Stearns (referred to as "Jennifer Jenkins" in Bugliosi's book And the Sea Will Tell), whom he successfully defended in her trial for the murder of Eleanor "Muff" Graham on Palmyra Atoll, a South Pacific island.

O. J. Simpson case

Bugliosi wrote Outrage: The Five Reasons Why O. J. Simpson Got Away with Murder (1996) about the murder trial of O. J. Simpson and his acquittal for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. 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.

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.

George W. Bush

Bugliosi condemned the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the Bush v. Gore case that decided the 2000 U.S. presidential election. He wrote a lengthy criticism of the case for The Nation, titled "None Dare Call It Treason", which he later expanded into a book titled The Betrayal of America. Some of his criticisms were depicted in the 2004 documentary Orwell Rolls in His Grave. He also believed that George W. Bush should have been charged with the murders of the thousands of American soldiers who died in the invasion of Iraq because of his belief that Bush launched the invasion under false pretenses. In his book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, he laid out his view of evidence and outlined what questions he would ask Bush at a potential murder trial. Bugliosi testified at a House Judiciary Committee meeting on July 25, 2008, at which he urged impeachment proceedings for Bush. The book formed the basis of a 2012 documentary film, The Prosecution of an American President.

RFK assassination

Bugliosi is on record for believing that Senator Robert F. Kennedy was the victim of a criminal conspiracy. He said the following during a civil trial of the RFK assassination: "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. ... 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." As a result of his research, Bugliosi came to refute conspiracy theories.