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 convicted for assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. After this Ray was on the run and was cap ...

and James W. McCord Jr. Other notable clients included Mitch WerBell,Hougan, Jim. ''Secret Agenda''. p. 246. 1984. New York: Ballantine Books.

Richard Case Nagell Richard Case Nagell (August 5, 1930 – November 1, 1995) was a United States Army veteran and alleged former CIA double agent. Biography Nagell entered the US Army in 1948, served in two tours of duty in the Korean War with the 24th Infant ...

and the widow of John Paisley.

Early life

Fensterwald was born on August 2, 1921, in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

. He served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Fensterwald graduated from Harvard Law School in 1949. He entered the

Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a graduate school of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., United States, with campuses in Bologna, Italy, and Nanjing, China. It is consistently ranked one of th ...

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

and received an M.A. in 1950.

Career

Department of State

From 1951 to 1956 Fensterwald worked for the State Department as an Assistant Legal Advisor. This included defending State Department employees accused by Joseph McCarthy of being members of the

American Communist Party The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...

. 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 the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations ...

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

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

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 on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was in the vehicle with ...

. In 1973, in honor of the 10th anniversary of JFK's death, Fensterwald held what was, according to

Peter Dale Scott Peter Dale Scott (born 11 January 1929) is a Canadian-born poet, academic, and former diplomat. A son of the Canadian poet and constitutional lawyer F. R. Scott and painter Marian Dale Scott, he is best known for his critiques of deep politics ...

, 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 (NAR ...

(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 in 1976 to investigate the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963 and 1968, respectively. The HSCA completed its ...

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 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 ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

liaison to the

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

, 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 from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's contin ...

, 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 in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C. In 2020, the population was 159,467. ...

, aged 69.

Bibliography

Books

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

Articles

"Sovereign Immunity and Soviet State Trading."
'' Harvard Law Review'', 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 based at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), part of Johns Hopkins University. The journal's mission is to advance the debate on leading contemporar ...

'', 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 no ...

'', 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 ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

* Collection of files
PDF
at

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

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 British history from 1700 and the history of the United States. Based in the United Kingdom, Spart ...

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