CASPER, Wyo. — Gerry Spence, a Wyoming native and one of the best-known trial lawyers, has died. He was 96.
According to the Associated Press, he died surrounded by family at his Montecito, California, home.
“We are proud of his legacy and contributions to the world, but most importantly, we are proud to be a part of the family he lovingly created. “We are deeply saddened by this loss, and we will carry him with us always,” granddaughter Tara Spence McClatchey wrote in a family statement.
The Spence Law Firm, which he founded, stated in an online tribute that in more than six decades of practice, Spence had never lost a criminal trial and had not lost a civil case since 1969. The claim is a little exaggerated, but the New York Times found it to be fairly accurate.
“With jurors, he combined the cadence of a Wyoming storyteller with the precision of a tactician.” ‘I never represent a client I don’t love,’ he frequently stated. “The jury can tell if you don’t,” the New York Times wrote.
Spence, wearing a trademark fringe jacket and a shock of blond-turned-white hair, appeared as a legal expert on numerous television news programs over the years.
He first rose to prominence after representing the family of nuclear worker Karen Silkwood, who claimed Kerr-McGee poisoned workers with plutonium and died in a suspicious car accident weeks later.
Other notable cases include defending infamous former Philippines first lady Imelda Marcos on fraud and racketeering charges, as well as acquitting white supremacist Randy Weaver, who was charged with murder following a shootout with federal agents at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
In 1981, he won a $25 million libel suit against adult publication Penthouse Magazine after Kimerli Jayne Pring, Miss Wyoming 1978-79, sued the magazine for an explicit fiction story.
Spence stated in a statement that magazine publisher Robert Guccione “and his life can no longer drape themselves in the American flag and scream freedom of the press, while he smears little helpless people for profit.”
According to the New York Times, Spence was approached to represent O.J. Simpson in the murder case against his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. He declined, but appeared frequently on NBC as a legal analyst. He later stated that he believed Simpson was guilty and blamed the prosecution for losing the case.
Gerald Leonard Spence was born to Gerald and Esther Spence on January 8, 1929, in Laramie, Wyoming. During the Great Depression, the family struggled to make ends meet, renting out rooms to boarders and using whatever resources they had.
His mother made the family’s clothes out of hides from game hunted by his father. Spence learned to sew and make his own fringe jackets, according to his autobiography from 1996.
When he was four, his sister died of meningitis, and his mother committed suicide in 1949. He graduated from Laramie High School and worked as a sailor before enrolling at the University of Wyoming.
After graduating in 1952, he established a private practice in Riverton and was elected Fremont County prosecutor in 1954. According to his autobiography, he decided to dedicate his practice to serving “the underdogs” after having run-ins with insurance companies during his early years.
The Spence Law Firm has several offices throughout Wyoming, including one in Casper.
Funeral arrangements will be announced at a later date, according to his family.
