Bernard "Bud" Fensterwald Jr. (August 2, 1921 – April 2, 1991) was an American lawyer who defended

James Earl Ray James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 – April 23, 1998) was an American fugitive who was convicted of the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. After the assassination, Ray fled to London and ...

and

James W. McCord Jr. James Walter McCord Jr. (January 26, 1924 – June 15, 2017) was an American CIA officer, later head of security for President Richard Nixon's 1972 reelection campaign. He was involved as an electronics expert in the burglaries which precipitate ...

Other notable clients included Mitch WerBell,Hougan, Jim. ''Secret Agenda''. p. 246. 1984. New York: Ballantine Books. Richard Case Nagell and the widow of John Paisley.

Early life

Fensterwald was born on August 2, 1921, in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

. He served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Fensterwald graduated from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

in 1942 and

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

in 1949. He entered the

Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies The School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a graduate school of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C. The school also maintains campuses in Bologna, Italy and Nanjing, China. The school is devoted to the study of int ...

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

and received an M.A. in 1950.

Career

Department of State

From 1951 to 1956 Fensterwald worked for the

State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...

as an Assistant Legal Advisor. This included defending State Department employees accused by

Joseph McCarthy Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican Party (United States), Republican United States Senate, U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death at age ...

of being members of the American Communist Party. In 1957 Fensterwald was hired by Thomas C. Hennings as an investigator for the Senate Committee on Constitutional Rights. In the 1960s he was chief counsel for the

Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally known as the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a Standing committee (United States Congress), standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the United States Departm ...

under Senator Edward V. Long." Fensterwald once implied that Long was being

blackmail Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat. As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a thr ...

ed by the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

Work on 11/22

In 1968-1969, Fensterwald and Richard E. Sprague founded a private sector "Committee to Investigate Assassinations," which primarily concerned itself with the

Kennedy assassination John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Kennedy was in the vehicle with his wife Jacqueline, Texas gove ...

. In 1973, in honor of the 10th anniversary of JFK's death, Fensterwald held what was, according to Peter Dale Scott, the first commemorative conference on assassination of a kind that would become common on the tail end of the 20th century; better known are the organizations and events and followed in the wake of Fensterwald’s successful effort, such as the Coalition on Political Assassination (COPA), the

Assassination Records Review Board The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, or the JFK Records Act, is a public law passed by the United States Congress, effective October 26, 1992. It directed the National Archives and Records Administration (NA ...

(ARRB), and the Assassination Symposium on Kennedy (ASK) conferences. In the late 1970s, he was Congressman Thomas N. Downing's favorite to become chief counsel for the

House Select Committee on Assassinations The United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was established on September 15, 1976 by U.S. House Resolution 1540 to investigate the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963 and ...

but withdrew himself from consideration after objection from Congressman Henry B. Gonzalez. In 1984, Fensterwald and James Lesar (with whom Fensterwald had represented

) founded the Assassination and Archives Research Center (AARC).

Counsel to Watergate 'Plumber' James McCord

One of Fensterwald's more notable cases was his unsuccessful defense of

Watergate The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon. The scandal began in 1972 and ultimately led to Nixon's resignation in 1974, in August of that year. It revol ...

criminal James McCord. He was also connected to other characters on the fringes of Watergate. John Paisley, who was the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

liaison to the

White House Plumbers The White House Plumbers, sometimes simply called the Plumbers, the Room 16 Project, ODESSA or more officially, the White House Special Investigations Unit, was a covert White House Special Investigations Unit, established within a week of the pu ...

, was Fensterwald's friend and neighbor. When Paisley died under suspicious circumstances, his widow hired Fensterwald to investigate. Prior to the

Watergate burglaries The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon. The scandal began in 1972 and ultimately led to Nixon's resignation in 1974, in August of that year. It revolv ...

, both Fensterwald and McCord employed a private investigator named Lou Russell.Hougan, Jim. ''Secret Agenda''. (''passim'')

Personal life and death

Fensterwald had a wife, Patricia, and a son, Bernard. He died of a heart attack in

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in Northern Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Washington, D.C., D.C. The city's population of 159,467 at the 2020 ...

, aged 69.

Bibliography

Books

* ''Assassination of JFK'' (1977). Zebra. * ''Coincidence or Conspiracy?'' (1977), with Michael Ewing.

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

. .

Articles

"Sovereign Immunity and Soviet State Trading."
''

Harvard Law Review The ''Harvard Law Review'' is a law review published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the ''Harvard Law Review''s 2015 impact factor of 4.979 placed the journal first out of ...

'', vol. 63, no. 4 (Feb. 1950), pp. 614–642. . .
"The Anatomy of American 'Isolationism' and Expansionism, Part II."
''

Journal of Conflict Resolution The ''Journal of Conflict Resolution'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering research on international conflict and conflict resolution. It was established in 1957 and is published by SAGE Publications. The editor-in-chief is Paul ...

'', vol. 2, no. 2 (Jun. 1958)
pp. 111–139.
.
"The Anatomy of American 'Isolationism' and Expansionism, Part I."
''

'', vol. 2, no. 4 (Dec. 1958)
pp. 280–309.
.
"Eight Little Words."
''

SAIS Review ''The SAIS Review of International Affairs'' is an academic journal of international relations. Founded in 1956, the journal is based at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), a graduate school of Johns Hopkins Universi ...

'', vol. 4, no. 1 (Aug. 1959), pp. 14–19. .
"Constitutional Law: The States and the Amending Process—A Reply."
''

American Bar Association Journal The ''ABA Journal'' (since 1984, formerly ''American Bar Association Journal'', 1915–1983, evolved from '' Annual Bulletin'', 1908–1914) is a monthly legal trade magazine and the flagship publication of the American Bar Association. It is n ...

'', vol. 46, no. 7 (1960)
pp. 717–721.
.

Conference proceedings

"Regime of the High Seas,"
with Montgomery Phister, Thomas Franck, and Richard Young. ''Proceedings of the American Society of International Law at Its Annual Meeting'', vol. 50, Special Issue: Evolution of International Law in the 20th Century (Apr. 25-28, 1956), pp. 136–154. .

Memos

"Memorandum by Bernard Fensterwald, Office of the Assistant Legal Adviser for United Nations Affairs, to Dwight M. Cramer of the Office of Dependent Area Affairs"
(Jun. 10, 1954). In: ''Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, United Nations Affairs'', vol. III (Document 943).

References

External links

* Collection of files at

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

* Collection of files
PDF
at

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

Biography
at

Spartacus Educational Spartacus Educational is a free online encyclopedia with essays and other educational material on a wide variety of historical subjects, principally the struggle for equality and democracy as part of British history from 1700 and the history of ...

Assassination Archives and Research Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fensterwald, Bernard 1921 births 1991 deaths Virginia lawyers Harvard Law School alumni Lawyers from Nashville, Tennessee Lawyers from Alexandria, Virginia Researchers of the assassination of John F. Kennedy 20th-century American lawyers Nixon administration personnel involved in the Watergate scandal Johns Hopkins University alumni