A. Jay Cristol


A. Jay Cristol was an American judge, poet, author, pilot, and lecturer on naval warfare. He served as a special assistant attorney general of Florida from 1959 to 1965 and as a trustee in bankruptcy from 1977 to 1985. He was appointed judge to the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida in April 1985 and served as the bankruptcy court's chief judge until his retirement in January 2023.
Cristol served as a U.S. Navy aviator and a captain in the U.S. Naval Reserve with 38 years of service in the diverse roles of both a carrier pilot and a Judge Advocate General Corps lawyer.

Higher education

Cristol received his B.A. degree from the University of Miami in 1958 and his J.D. degree, cum laude, from the University of [Miami School of Law] in 1959, where he was research editor of the law review and recipient of other honors.

Navy career

Cristol made his first flight in a Piper J-3 Cub on Biscayne Bay in 1945. He piloted a Ford Tri-Motor, the Goodyear Blimp, a Soviet MiG-15, a Czech L-39, a Chinese CJ-6 and a French Fouga Magister.
In November 1951, during the Korean War, Cristol joined the US Navy. After receiving his wings in 1953, he deployed to the western Pacific and flew both day and night missions in the Grumman AF Guardian from the USS Princeton (CVS-37). Upon returning to the US, Cristol left active duty and joined the Naval Reserve.
He graduated from Naval Justice School and served as a naval JAG lawyer for twenty years. In 1983, Cristol was appointed an honorary professor of the Naval Justice School. During the 1980s, he was sent to the International Institute of Humanitarian Law at Sanremo to lecture on the Law of Naval Warfare.

Research into USS ''Liberty'' incident

After completing law school, Cristol became a civil lawyer, and served as special assistant attorney general of Florida.
He returned to school in pursuit of a doctoral degree. While working on his Ph.D. thesis, Cristol analyzed the official investigations of the USS Liberty incident of June 8, 1967, in which Israeli forces attacked an American ship, resulting in a significant loss of life. The Liberty incident had already been investigated by more than a dozen government agencies and government-commissioned groups; it had always been found to have been an accident. Cristol conducted over 450 interviews. Freedom of Information Act requests were used to obtain declassification of the Clark Clifford Report, 22 hot-line messages, 22 National Security Agency documents, and 31 National Security Council documents. Cristol also obtained classified Israeli documents. The conclusion of his dissertation was that the attack on the USS Liberty was a mistake.
Following completion of course work, Cristol continued to pursue information surrounding the event. He sued the National Security Agency under the Freedom of Information Act. In 2004 the agency released audio tapes which had been collected by an NSA unit aboard a Navy Lockheed EC-121 Warning Star aircraft flying near the scene of the USS Liberty attack. Subsequently, Cristol published his analysis in 2002 as a book about the attack, The Liberty Incident: The 1967 Attack on the U.S. Navy Spy Ship. Cristol concluded that the tapes show the attack was an accident, and that the Israelis mistook the ship for an Egyptian warship.
Cristol's second book, The Liberty Incident Revealed: The Definitive Account of the 1967 Israeli Attack on the U.S. Navy Spy Ship, was published by the Naval Institute Press in 2013. One of the Naval History and Heritage Command’s webpages pertaining to the USS Liberty incident cites this book as its primary source. Curiously, neither of Cristol’s books contains interviews from any Liberty survivors, despite many still being alive and willing to discuss their experiences at the time the books were being written. Furthermore, many Liberty survivors have claimed that The Liberty Incident and The Liberty Incident Revealed contain many errors and omissions.
He spoke in favor of Israel during a 2004 U.S. State Department symposium that was convened in about the Six-Day War in response to the findings of the 2003 Moorer Commission and the 2004 release of Captain Ward Boston’s affidavit pertaining to the USS Liberty incident. He spoke alongside Marc J. Susser, Michael B. Oren, and James Bamford.
Cristol wrote several online articles challenging the assertions made by James Bamford and Liberty survivors.

Civilian career

Cristol was an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law where he taught a bankruptcy course.

O.J. Simpson and other notable rulings

Cristol presided over the Chapter 11 reorganization of General Development Corporation, Prime Motor Inns, Flannigans, Banco Latino International, Arrow Air, and Pan American Airways.
In 2007, Cristol awarded the rights of O. J. Simpson's book If I Did It to the family of Ronald Goldman to satisfy a $38 million wrongful death judgment against Simpson.

Humorous opinions

Cristol was known for his often humorous judicial opinions. In 1986, he authored an opinion in the bankruptcy proceedings of Robin E. Love written almost entirely in verse as a parody of Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem, The Raven. The decision was also notable because Cristol uses it to deny his own sua sponte motion to dismiss.
In 1992, when a bank's computer repeatedly and erroneously sent letters to debtors John Coffey Vivian and Margaret Vivian regarding a debt Cristol had ordered discharged, the judge held the computer in civil contempt of court after writing that the issue "has truly established, beyond any reasonable doubt, that Mr. and Mrs. Vivian have no sense of humor and no gratitude whatsoever for the court's prior efforts on their behalf." Cristol continued:
In a 17-year case between two sisters, Judith Herskowitz and Susan Charney, Cristol entered an "ORDER OF SHANDA" granting a motion for sanctions and ordering as penalty "that Ms. Herskowitz shall obtain and mail to Ms. Charney, at least five days before Susan's next birthday, a birthday card which contains the words 'Happy Birthday Sister' and the signature of Ms. Herskowitz." He further ordered, "The card shall not contain any negative, inflammatory or unkind remarks but may contain an overture to family reconciliation and settlement."

Personal life and death

Cristol was an avid aviator. He was a founding member of the National Museum of Naval Aviation at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida and a founding member of the Wings Over Miami Military and Classic Aircraft Museum in Miami, Florida. Cristol was an Angel Flight volunteer pilot, flying people in need of transportation to and from regional medical centers for treatment. The 2007 May/June issue of Airliners magazine published a story about Judge Cristol; and Dow Jones featured Judge Cristol on January 2, 2008 in a three-page article.
Cristol died on October 21, 2024, at the age of 95.

Awards and honors

A. Jay Cristol was an Eagle Scout of the Boy Scouts of America, earned on March 6, 1944. He was honored as a National Eagle Scout Association Outstanding Eagle Scout in South Florida Council in 2021.
During his navy service, Cristol received the Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, China Service Medal, National Defense Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Overseas Service Medal, Naval Reserve Medal, and Vietnam Service Medal.
In 1998, Pan Am was sold to Guilford Transportation, in a transaction which removed Pan Am from bankruptcy. Consequently, the company honored Cristol, who presided over the speedy reorganization, by naming one of their 727-225 aircraft the Clipper A. Jay Cristol. After presiding over the reorganization of Arrow Air, he was honored by having an Arrow Air Douglas DC-8-62 named the "Judge A. Jay Cristol."
Cristol was a founding member of the National Museum of Naval Aviation at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida and a founding member and historian of the Wings Over Miami aircraft museum in Miami.
In 2003, the Greater Miami Aviation Association honored Cristol with their Glenn Curtiss Award which recognizes the contributions of an individual to improve the South Florida community.

Judicial appointments

Academic assignments

  • 1983 - Honorary Professor of Law, United States Naval Justice School. Lecturer of Law of Naval Warfare at the International Institute of Humanitarian Law, San Remo, Italy
  • 1988 to Present - Adjunct Professor of Law at University of Miami Law School
  • 1994 - Bankruptcy Law Instructor to Russian Judges for the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, Atlanta
  • 1995 - Bankruptcy Law Instructor to Judges from Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, Thailand and South Africa for the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, New Orleans
  • 1996 - Bankruptcy Law Instructor of Slovenian Judges for the Judicial Development Program sponsored by the u.S. Department of State, and American Bankruptcy Institute, Slovenia
  • 1996 - Bankruptcy Law Instructor to Czech Republic Judges for the Judicial Development Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of state, and American Bankruptcy Institute, Czech Republic

Publications

  • "Theoretical Legal Problems in Converting the Central and Eastern European Military Industrial Complex to a Free Market Economy," 27 Foundation Notes, Naval War College.
  • The Liberty Incident, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Miami.
  • Bankruptcy Alchemy: Conversion of Nothing to Golden Opportunity. St. Thomas Law Review 9:305.
  • The Liberty Incident: The 1967 Attack on the U.S. Navy Spy Ship. Washington : Brassey's Military, 2002.
  • "The USS Liberty and the Role of Intelligence". Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Vol. XIX, Dept. Of State. Cristol, Castle and Hadden.
  • The Liberty Incident Revealed: the Definitive Account of the 1967 Israeli Attack on the U.S. Navy Spy Ship. Naval Institute Press, 2013.