<table><tr><th>From:</th><th>paul krassner</th></tr><tr><td>Sent:</td><td>Friday, July 21, 2017 2:42 PM</td></tr><tr><td>To:</td><td>Jeffrey E.</td></tr><tr><td>Subject:</td><td>memory</td></tr></table>

Johnnie Cochran Meets Dr. Hip

=nbsp; Tragedy and absurdity were two sides of the same coin: On one side, O.J. Simpson's "suicide" note =ith a smiley face in the O of his signature; on the other side, the woman who pinched Simpson lawyer =obert Shapiro's ass because "I wanted to be part of ristory." And somewhere along the ridge of that coin was Simpson himself, walking into the courtroom =umming the melody of "Touch Me" from the Broadway hit Cats and explaining to reporters that he was thinking about his =hildren.

That =as at Simpson's criminal trial. Shortly before his civil trial began in 1997, I met his lead attorney, Johnnie Cochran. He =as the guest of honor and luncheon speaker at a national convention of criminal defense attorneys held in a huge banquet hall at a hotel in Santa =onica. No media people were allowed entry.

One =f the attendees was Dr. Eugene Schoenfeld, also known as Dr. Hip from his days as a syndicated columnist for the underground =ress. He now testifies occasionally as an expert witness, and was at this =vent for that reason. My wife Nancy and I were his guests.

=ochran's speech reassured the enthusiastic audience: "In the Simpson matter, we just did what you do every day"—that is, defend their clients by any means necessary and chalk up a bunch of billable hours in =he process—and he got a standing ovation.

well-wisher In =hared =he afterglow this joke: of his "If [prosecutor] speech, colleagues Chris Darden came up spent to Cochran as much to time shake =rying his hand to nail and O.1. get Simpson in a little as banter. he did trying One to nail [prosecutor] Marcia Clark, he =ight've won the case." The other defense attorneys within hearing distance all =ad a good laugh at that one.

Dr. =choenfeld joined the line of lawyers waiting to have photos taken of themselves standing alongside Cochran. =and-printed When it card was underneath =choenfeld's the turn, standard, Nancy focused plastic-encased her camera. ID lapel For card. this particular As in the occasion, =revious poses, Schoenfeld Cochran had and stashed Schoenfeld a put their arms around each other, although =hey were looking, not at each other, but straight ahead and smiling at the =amera.

Thus, =ochran didn't notice how, just before Nancy snapped their picture, Schoenfeld subtly managed to pull away the ID card and =eveal the hand-printed card, which declared, in large printed letters, "=.J. DID IT!" I published that photo on the front cover of The =ealist that spring. It was the result of a good old-fashioned guerrilla action.

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