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And the private detective acting as a DNA evidence consultant to the Simpson defense team, who as a police detective had been the lead investigator and presented the evidence in Indiana's first DNA case to be reviewed by that state's supreme court, was shot to death in a gangland-style murder, just as Judge Ito's bailiff was shot to death, and just as both the other waiters who had worked with Ron Goldman at the now-defunct Mezzaluna restaurant were similarly murdered.

Archy

Where did you hear this?

Archy
Where did you hear this

I was a newspaperman covering the case. Former Vincennes Police Department Detective John Birch was the lead investigator into the murder of Vincennes University co-ed Lisa McCracken on the very early morning of 13 October 1987 in her off-campus apartment. The case was taken to a grand jury, which indicted a young soldier then in the 4/16 Infantry Battalion of the First Infantry Division, then stationed at Ft Riley, KS. He was the nephew of another Vincennes PD officer.

Birch retired before the case came to court [it was later dropped after the prosecutor was defeated in a subsequent election, and the new prosecutor declined to press charges against the member of the family of a local cop] and moved to California, where he assisted his brother with cases developed by that brother's business, Birch Classic Investigations of Reseda, California. It was confirmed to me by a San Francisco newspaperman that Birch's involvement in the case on behalf of the defense had been confirmed, and that he'd questioned some sources in the SF/Oakland area.

We ran a story about it in the Midwestern-based newspaper chain for which I was then writing as a columnist [though that effort was interrupted by a period of service on a federal grand jury myself, during which I heard every permutation of every OJ and nasty lawyer joke known to western civilization.] The piece was also picked up by the now-defunct San Francisco internet magazine Bitey which ran the piece in their second or third issue as *The Other OJ Murders...*. I don't believe it's still available on-line, but the Wayback Machine might turn it up at bitey.com.

The other deaths are more-or-less documented if you know where to look, particularly since the OJ trial was recessed for one day so that Judge Ito and the other bailiffs could attend their fellow court guard's funeral. Likewise, followup interviews about what a swell guy Ron Goldman was were made difficult when his co-workers were themselves killed, one in the Aspen area, and another down south, as I recall. They didn't run far enough.

Further details available upon request, if you need 'em. And there's another I didn't mention that was also covered in the Bitey piece.

-archy-/-