A Legal Story of My Own
At the time Milken was first convicted of security fraud, he arranged for Edward Bennett Williams to defend him. On Williams' death , Milken decided not to be defended entirely by members of Williams' firm, but to get the help of Alan Dershowitz. A book "Den of Thieves" had just been published by Stewart, a staff writer for the Wall Street Journal. Dershowitz started out by taking a full page ad in the New York Times decrying Stewart's extensive material on Milken's crimes. He only succeeded in moving "Den of Thieves" to the top of the New York Times non-fiction best seller list, where it remained of about six months. Williams must have rolled in his grave at Dershowitz's stupendous stupidity. It seems that stupidity is not incompatible with being a Harvard Law professor.