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O.J. Simpson says he didn't do it. So his defense team has offered a reward of up to $500,000 for information that leads to the person or persons who really killed Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
That's pretty clever, and it makes you wonder why no one thought of this before:
· WASHINGTON, June 21, 1972 -- The Committee to Re-elect the President has offered a $100,000 reward to anyone who can explain who ordered five men to break into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in the Watergate Complex on the night of June 17.
We're pretty sure these guys didn't think this up
themselves,
a CREEP spokesman said. However, we have
no idea who put them up to it, and we'd like to know, too.
There are totally unfounded rumors that we did it, and
that's hurting our reputation.
· NUREMBURG, Nov. 12, 1945 -- Before a special Allied tribunal, Nazi Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering pleaded innocent to charges of crimes against humanity, and offered a reward of one million marks in gold to anyone who could finger the real culprits who operated the death camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
We had a reputation for operating a police state
where the government knew about everything,
Goering
said on the stand as he explained his plea, but
obviously, some things were going on behind our backs
without our knowledge. We'd like to get to the bottom of
this, too. I beg anyone with knowledge of who was behind
this nefarious scheme to come forward.
· WASHINGTON, Aug. 1, 1994 -- A reward of up to $1 million has been posted by the Republican National Committee to Harass the Clintons for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the party or parties responsible for the death of Vincent Foster, former White House counsel whose body was found in a park last year.
Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., chairman of the committee,
conceded that everyone who's spent more than 10 minutes
looking into this has concluded it was a suicide. But that
doesn't mean we can't continue to try to get some political
mileage out of it by circulating rumors about safe houses
and hit men, and offering this reward.
Meanwhile, back at the White House, the Clinton Defense
Fund denied persistent rumors that it will offer a reward
in an effort to learn who really was in a hotel room with
Paula Jones. Many strategies are under
consideration,
a spokesman said, but not this
one.
Oh, well. Doubtless the purchasing of evidence has always been a part of our legal system. If the new-fangled reward for exculpatory information doesn't work, there are traditional methods of applying money to justice, like hiring an expert witness.
Lawyers can subscribe to a service which provides information about expert witnesses -- whether they favor prosecution or defense, their fees, etc. -- and then select appropriately.
This may not do as much good as they think, though. I
asked a judge once how much credence he placed in the
testimony of expert witnesses, and he said none.
Why? When I was a mere attorney practicing criminal
law, I learned you can buy any expert testimony that you
want. Now that I'm a judge, I know better than to listen to
any of it. I wish there were a way to explain that to
juries, or even better, get rid of expert witnesses
altogether.
AMPLIFICATION: In Tuesday's column, I wrote that the Alpine Tunnel above St. Elmo was built for the Union Pacific Railroad. Several kind correspondents have gently suggested that I was in error; the railroad should have been the Denver, South Park & Pacific.
For starters, no railroad dug the tunnel. In those days, railroads seldom did their own construction; they engaged contractors, and the tunnel contract went to M. Cummins & Co. in 1879.
The rail line that stretched up the South Platte from Denver and over Trout Creek Pass to Nathrop, then up Chalk Creek toward the tunnel, did indeed begin its days as the DSP&P.
But was purchased by Jay Gould on Nov. 9, 1880, who operated the DSP&P as the South Park Division of the Union Pacific. When the tunnel opened in 1882, it was part of the Union Pacific system.
That's a condensation of a long tale of corporate mergers and takeovers, but the main thing is that the D&RG had nothing to do with the Alpine Tunnel, despite what you read in Colorful Colorado Magazine.
As for today, the U.S. Forest Service wants to restore the area around the west portal of the tunnel, which sits at the head of Quartz Creek about 30 miles northeast of Gunnison.
Last summer, the Mile High Jeep Club of Denver restored the old depot and telegraph station there, as well as a water tower. Among the remaining work is clearing about 80 years of rockslides from the west portal, and volunteers from throughout the country will gather for that exercise from Aug. 20-28.
If you're interested in helping (the only reward offered here is a sore back and the satisfaction of restoring some Colorado heritage), call Ray Rossman at the Gunnison Forest Service office, 303-641-0471.
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