Irving Allan Kanarek (May 12, 1920 – September 2, 2020) was an

aerospace engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...

and a criminal defense attorney, best known for representing defendants such as Charles Manson and Jimmy Lee Smith.

Background

Kanarek was born in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. His first career was as an

working for North American Aviation (NAA), where he invented a

corrosion inhibitor In chemistry, a corrosion inhibitor or anti-corrosive is a chemical compound that, when added to a liquid or gas, decreases the corrosion rate of a material, typically a metal or an alloy, that comes into contact with the fluid. The effectiveness ...

for

Inhibited Red Fuming Nitric Acid Red fuming nitric acid (RFNA) is a storable oxidizer used as a rocket propellant. It consists of 84% nitric acid (), 13% dinitrogen tetroxide and 1–2% water. The color of red fuming nitric acid is due to the dinitrogen tetroxide, which breaks ...

for the Army's

Project Nike Project Nike (Greek: Νίκη, "Victory") was a U.S. Army project, proposed in May 1945 by Bell Laboratories, to develop a line-of-sight anti-aircraft missile system. The project delivered the United States' first operational anti-aircraft mi ...

. In 1954, while employed as a chemical engineer for North American Aviation, Kanarek had his security clearance revoked by the

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...

on suspicion of communist associations. He successfully sued for reinstatement of the clearance and back pay. He attended the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

as an undergraduate and later

Loyola Law School Loyola Law School is the law school of Loyola Marymount University, a private Catholic university in Los Angeles, California. Loyola was established in 1920. Academics Degrees offered include the Juris Doctor (JD); Master of Science in Legal ...

. He was admitted to the

California Bar The State Bar of California is California's official attorney licensing agency. It is responsible for managing the admission of lawyers to the practice of law, investigating complaints of professional misconduct, prescribing appropriate disciplin ...

in 1957. He married, fathered two daughters, and later divorced. A mental breakdown in 1989 led the Bar to suspend his law license.

Legal tactics

According to

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

- LaBianca prosecutor

Vincent Bugliosi Vincent T. Bugliosi Jr. (; August 18, 1934 – June 6, 2015) was an American prosecutor and author who served as Deputy District Attorney for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office between 1964 and 1972. He became best known for s ...

, Kanarek was legendary in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

courts for his dilatory, obstructionist tactics. In his book, '' Helter Skelter'', Bugliosi claimed Kanarek, in a different case, had once objected to a witness identifying himself: Kanarek claimed that the witness's name was hearsay because the witness had first heard it from his mother.Bugliosi page 549 In the Tate-LaBianca trial, Kanarek objected nine times during opening statements, despite continuous censure by Judge

Charles Older Charles Herman Older (September 29, 1917 – June 17, 2006) was an American who was the third highest scoring ace of the American Volunteer Group (the "Flying Tigers") and later the judge in the Charles Manson murder trial. Early life Older was ...

. During a later objection, he called witness

Linda Kasabian Linda Darlene Kasabian (born Drouin; June 21, 1949) is a former member of the Manson Family. Even though she was present at both the Tate and LaBianca murders, because she was the key witness in District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi's prosecut ...

insane, and by the third day of the trial, he had objected more than 200 times. Bugliosi, also wrote of Kanarek as opposing counsel during the Manson case saying, “The press focused on his bombast and missed his effectiveness. He fought as if he were personally on trial." During the course of the trial he was jailed twice by Judge Older for contempt of court. In his summation, Bugliosi dubbed Kanarek "the

Toscanini Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orch ...

of Tedium." Kanarek believed fiercely in the constitutional right to counsel, and that everyone was entitled to their day in court. He said, “I would defend a client who I knew was guilty of horrific crimes. They have to be proved guilty. I’ve had cases where people were guilty as hell but they couldn’t prove it. And if they can’t prove it, he’s not guilty. In that case, the person walks free. That’s American justice.”

Later life and death

Throughout his later life, Kanarek lived in

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, a ...

Legacy

In November 2008, a stage play premiered at

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

in Pasadena, California, entitled ''Rocket Girl'', about the life of Mary Sherman Morgan, a former co-worker of Kanarek at North American Aviation. The play was written by her son, George D. Morgan. The character of Kanarek appears throughout most of the play. The play was later turned into a book of the same name.''Rocket Girl''
georgedmorgan.com; accessed March 18, 2017.

Death

He died at 100 on September 2, 2020.

References

Notes

External links

*[https://caselaw.findlaw.com/data2/californiastatecases/g020180.doc ''Kaufman v. The Superior Court of Orange County'', No. G020180 on the docket of the Fourth Appellate District, Division Three (Word DOC)] {{DEFAULTSORT:Kanarek, Irving 1920 births 2020 deaths Criminal defense lawyers American centenarians Men centenarians University of Washington alumni Loyola Law School alumni Lawyers from Seattle California lawyers American chemical engineers