Cyril Wecht


Cyril Harrison Wecht was an American forensic pathologist. He was president of both the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the American College of Legal Medicine, and headed the board of trustees of the American Board of Legal Medicine. Wecht served as County Commissioner and Allegheny County Coroner and Medical Examiner, serving the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. He was perhaps best known for his criticism of the Warren Commission's findings concerning the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Background

Wecht was born to Jewish immigrant parents in Pittsburgh in 1931, but spent his early years in a tiny mining village in Dunkard Township, Pennsylvania, called Bobtown. His father, Nathan Wecht, was a Lithuanian-born storekeeper; his Ukrainian-born mother, Fannie Rubenstein, was a homemaker and helped out in the store. When Wecht was seven, Nathan moved the family first to McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, and then to the Hill District neighborhood of Pittsburgh, opening a neighborhood grocery store. He attended and graduated from the now closed Fifth Avenue High School in Pittsburgh.
Wecht had musical leanings and was concertmaster of the University of Pittsburgh Orchestra during his undergraduate years. He earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1952, an M.D. degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1956, a Bachelor of Law from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1962, and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Maryland School of Law. In 1959, he served in the United States Air Force at the Air Force Hospital, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, where he became a captain in the medical corps. He became a forensic pathologist. He served on the staff of St. Francis Hospital in Pittsburgh before becoming Deputy Coroner of Allegheny County in 1965. Four years later he was elected coroner. Wecht served as coroner from 1970 to 1980, and again from 1996 to 2006.

Forensics career

Wecht became famous appearing on television and consulting on deaths with a high media profile. Some of the cases include; Robert F. Kennedy, Sharon Tate, Brian Jones, the Symbionese Liberation Army shootout, John F. Kennedy, the Legionnaires' Disease outbreak, Elvis Presley, Kurt Cobain, JonBenét Ramsey, Dr. Herman Tarnower, Danielle van Dam, Sunny von Bülow, the Branch Davidian incident, Vincent Foster, Laci Peterson, Daniel and Anna Nicole Smith, Jeffrey Epstein, and Rebecca Zahau. During his career, Wecht performed more than 17,000 autopsies. He was a clinical professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and an adjunct professor of law at Duquesne University.
In 2000, the Duquesne University School of Law established the Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law. The Institute offers graduate degree and professional certificate programs in forensic science to a diverse group of students spanning the disciplines of law, nursing, law enforcement, pharmacy, the health sciences, business, the environmental sciences and psychology.

Cyril H. Wecht and Pathology Associates

From 1962, Wecht had a private practice. He served as a medical-legal and forensic pathology consultant in both civil and criminal cases.
Wecht was frequently an expert witness in legal cases; he testified at the 1997 criminal trial of police officers Milton Mulholland and Michael Albert in the killing of Jonny Gammage; the 2000 civil trial against the State of Ohio relating to the Sam Sheppard case, the 2011 criminal trial of Jeffrey Locker in the death of Jeffrey Locker, and the 2018 wrongful death trial arising from the death of Rebecca Zahau.
His forensic consultant engagements included:
  • for the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office in regard to the 1968 Robert F. Kennedy assassination, the 1969 Sharon Tate/LaBianca cases, and the 1974 Symbionese Liberation Army Deaths;
  • for the Health Hospital, Panama Canal Zone as a member of the Special Expert Panel on American Legionnaires' Disease
  • for the ABC network television show 20/20 in regard to the John F. Kennedy assassination and the death of Elvis Presley
  • U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations, Forensic Pathology Panel
  • for the 1991 film JFK
  • the expert on the Jeffrey Locker case.

    JFK assassination

In 1965, Wecht presented a paper critiquing the Warren Commission to the meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. In 1972, Wecht was the first civilian ever given permission to examine the Kennedy assassination evidence. It was Wecht who first discovered that Kennedy's brain, and all related data in the killing, had gone missing.
In 1978, he testified before the House Select Committee on Assassinations as the lone dissenter on a nine-member forensic pathology panel re-examining the assassination of John F. Kennedy, which had concurred with the Warren Commission conclusions and single bullet theory. Out of the four official examinations into the Kennedy assassination, Wecht was the only forensic pathologist who disagreed with the conclusion that both the single bullet theory and Kennedy's head wounds are mutually consistent.
In 1988 he appeared in The Men Who Killed Kennedy. Wecht was a consultant to Oliver Stone for the 1991 film JFK. He was interviewed for the 2021 documentary JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass.

Investigation into the death of Daniel Smith

Wecht was hired by Callenders and Co, a Bahamian law firm, to do an independent autopsy on the body of Daniel Smith, the son of Anna Nicole Smith, who died while visiting his mother in the Bahamas. Wecht attested that Daniel Smith died as a result of the interaction of methadone, sertraline and escitalopram.

Books

Wecht wrote many books, including:
  • From Crime Scene to Courtroom
  • Investigation of Police Related Deaths
  • Forensic Science and Law
  • Tales from the Morgue
  • Forensic Aspects of Chemical and Biological Terrorism
  • Mortal Evidence
  • Into EVIDENCE: Truth, Lies and Unresolved Mysteries in the Murder of JFK
  • November 22, 1963: A Reference Guide to the JFK Assassination
  • Grave Secrets: A Leading Forensic Expert Reveals the Startling Truth about O.J. Simpson, David Koresh, Vincent Foster, and Other Sensational Cases
  • Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey?
  • A Question of Murder
  • Cause of Death
  • Legal Medicine
  • Exploring the Medical Malpractice Dilemma
  • Preparing and Winning Medical Negligence Cases
  • Forensic Pathology in Civil & Criminal Cases
  • The Life and Deaths of Cyril Wecht: Memoirs of America's Most Controversial Forensic Pathologist
  • The JFK Assassination Dissected: An Analysis by Forensic Pathologist Cyril Wecht
  • ''Final Exams: True Crime Cases from Forensic Pathologist Cyril Wecht''

    Political career

Early years (1965–1985)

In 1965, Wecht became Deputy Coroner of Allegheny County. Four years later he was elected Coroner of Allegheny County. Wecht served as coroner from 1970 to 1980. His initial departure from the office of Coroner was not met without controversy. Wecht did not resign as Coroner until January 9, two days after his swearing-in as an Allegheny County Commissioner, as the law did not prohibit him from holding both the offices of Coroner and Commissioner.
Wecht resigned under pressure from a variety of sources, including his predecessor as Coroner, Dr. Ralph Stalter, a Republican, and the administration of Governor Dick Thornburgh, also a Republican. He initially recommended that Dr. Joshua Perper succeed him, and indeed Perper held the title of Acting Coroner until Thornburgh appointed Dr. Sanford Edburg to succeed Wecht. While Perper initially rejected the appointment as unconstitutional, the State Supreme Court upheld Thornburgh's right to appoint Edberg, who duly took over the office of Coroner on March 2, 1981.
In 1978, he was elected chairman of the Allegheny County Democratic Party. One year later, Wecht was elected to the Allegheny County Board of Commissioners. In 1982, he was the Democratic party's nominee to oppose freshman Republican Senator John Heinz in a bid for a second term; Heinz won the election with 59 percent of the vote.
Wecht and fellow Democratic County Commissioner Tom Foerster were frequently at odds, and battled for control of the Democratic Party in Allegheny County, which Wecht chaired. Although the Democratic Committee rejected Foerster and endorsed Wecht for re-election as commissioner in 1983, the committee paired him with Sheriff Gene Coon, with whom he also had a longstanding political feud.
Foerster teamed up with former Pittsburgh Mayor Pete Flaherty, and the two defeated Wecht and Coon in the primary election for the two Democratic nominations. Wecht then lost the chairmanship of the county's Democratic Party in 1984 to Foerster's hand-picked candidate, Scott Township Tax Collector Ed Stevens. Wecht then sought to become chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party that same year, but was defeated by Ed Mezvinsky, a former Congressman from Iowa.

Later years (1995–2006)

In 1995, Wecht, after 12 years out of public life, was again elected as Allegheny County's Coroner. In 1999, he ran for the newly created position of Allegheny County Chief Executive, defeating one-term minority County Commissioner Mike Dawida in the Democratic primary, but losing to prominent Republican businessman Jim Roddey in Roddey's first bid for elective public office.
While serving as the county's coroner, Wecht continued to operate a private forensic consulting business on the side known as Wecht Pathology Associates, which charges clients for examining cases, conducting autopsies, and testifying in civil and criminal trials. In his official capacity as county coroner, Wecht continued to squabble with DA Zappala, often over deaths that took place during encounters with police.
In the case that led to Wecht's federal prosecution, Wecht ruled that Charles Dixon had been suffocated through positional asphyxiation during a 2002 encounter with police officers from Mount Oliver and Pittsburgh. When Wecht ruled the death of Dixon a homicide, DA Zappala refused to press charges against the officers. In response, Wecht, acting in his private capacity as an employee of Wecht Pathology Associates, wrote a medical opinion outlining the officers' alleged role in Dixon's death which was utilized by Dixon's family in a civil suit against the county.
In response to Wecht's testimony in the Dixon case, Zappala accused Wecht of violating the federal Hobbs Act, which prohibits public officials from using their offices for private gain. In early 2005, Zappala launched an investigation into whether Wecht had been using county resources to carry out private work — allegations similar to those Wecht had faced before. By spring of 2005, FBI agents were seizing documents in Wecht's private and county offices.
Wecht continued to serve as Coroner until the position was eliminated in 2006. County Executive Dan Onorato named him as the county's first appointed Medical Examiner in 2006. By January 2006, a federal grand jury had indicted Wecht on 84 criminal counts, prompting Wecht to step down from his county post per an agreement he made when the investigation became public in 2004 that if indicted he would resign as county coroner.