Recently Kevin Price, Host of the nationally syndicated Price of Business Show, interviewed John D. O’Connor.
John O’Connor, the Price of Business legal analyst, worked as a junior lawyer against the great Bailey in the U.S. v Patty Hearst case, then dubbed the “Trial of the Century.” John had previously worked with famous lawyer Melvin Belli, who had been in a cross-country partnership with Bailey, which ended right before John’s hiring, giving him many stories filtered through Belli’s equally immense ego. During the Hearst trial, Lee was gracious and kind to John, his young lawyer on the opposition, and showed true Irish charm throughout, always with a drink in his hand. Lee’s macho feistiness in Court likely helped him win the next “Trial of the Century” on behalf of O.J. Simpson. But, as John will explain, Bailey’s hubris caused, as in a Shakespearean drama, his tragic downfall in the winnable Hearst case. Lee Bailey was a true American original, who will be fondly remembered by those, like John, to whom he showed warmth and kindness when such was unnecessary for the country’s most famous lawyer. God bless you, Lee.
