A FOOL FOR A CLIENT

by Roy Cohn ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 28, 1971

Readers who might delight in the irony of hearing Roy Cohn call ""foul"" will find this an egotistical, self-righteous, and somewhat confusing account of his legal duels with Robert Morgenthau, the U.S. Attorney for New York, duels which he believes were masterminded by Bobby Kennedy. The story line of Cohn's acquittal on conspiracy and bribery charges in the United Dye and Fifth Avenue Coach trials is punctuated with glee over cracking a prosecution witness, parenthetic references to Morgenthau's villainy, and dismay over the great waste of taxpayers' money; however, the self-confessed triumph of Cohn's legal career was tacking an extra 20 million dollars to the taxpayers' tab for New York City's takeover of the bankrupt Fifth Avenue Coach. Cohn's next brush with the feds is a tax evasion case which again he beats hands down despite government surveillance. His last exploit involves a libel suit against Life for two articles, the first of which Cohn says had the o.k. of RFK. Cohn concludes with a plea for abolition of the grand jury and elimination of the use of conspiracy indictments which admit hearsay testimony for the prosecution and allow individuals to be named as conspirators but never indicted and given a chance to prove their innocence -- Cohn's McCarthy experience is not mentioned in this connection. And just as he accuses his tormentors of omitting details from their case, Cohn's chronicle is self-servingly sketchy. Anyway, if his charge of vendetta on the part of Morgenthau and Kennedy is correct, it takes one to know one. . . .

Pub Date: June 28, 1971

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Hawthorn

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1971

Categories: NONFICTION