Earl Rogers

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8984

Earl Rogers (November 18, 1869 – February 22, 1922) was an American trial lawyer.

One of the most famous criminal defense lawyers of his day. His flamboyant courtroom antics and memory for detail won over jurors despite overwhelming evidence against his clients. A popular saying of the time went, "If you are guilty, hire Earl Rogers".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Rogers

Life

Earl Rogers was the son of a Methodist minister. When he was still a small boy, his father went to California.

Rogers was admitted to the bar in 1897. One of his clerks was Buron Fitts.

Rogers appeared for the defense in 77 murder trials and lost only three. He astonished medical experts on the witness stand with his technical questions. His expertise was so complete that he became a professor of medical jurisprudence and insanity in the College of Physicians and Surgeons as well as a professor at the University of Southern California Law School. In "The Case of the Grinning Skull", Rogers introduced the skull of a victim to prove that what appeared to be a fracture resulting from a violent blow from a blunt instrument was, in fact, the result of carelessness by the autopsy surgeon. His client walked free.

Ten years after his death, impressed with accounts of Rogers’ cases, attorney and author Erle Stanley Gardner reincarnated Rogers as the character Perry Mason. Earl Rogers's life is recounted by his daughter Adela Rogers St. Johns, who was his sidekick for most of his legal career, in her book Final Verdict (Doubleday, 1962).

His cases

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Rogers#His_cases

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Feb 28 2019, 0:25:04 UTC