SPOILERS.
Of course Rachel Ward gets off, otherwise Bugliosi would never have written the book, which I don't think I've read. But I believe Vince may have blown it this time around.
Hart Bochner is easy to categorize as what used to be called a psychopath but now has a longer, fancier name in psychiatry. He has all the criterial attributes. He's got a sense of humor, he's attractive to women, lives in the unfolding moment, has multiple identities, is easily bored, shows little in the way or foresight or an ability to plan for the future, is impulsive, "lives off the land" in more ways than one, carries guns, and manipulates people readily. He's a done deal.
Rachel Ward, as Jennifer, Bochner's girl friend, isn't really much different from the kind of unthinking partner that these kinds of guys pick up along the way. They're kind of attracted to rogue males. Ward has lived with two convicted murderers and she lies all the time. She doesn't tell Vince about her first boyfriend/murderer because, "If I had told you, would you have taken my case?" No comment from Vince, who lets slide the fact that she hasn't told him, even AFTER he's taken the case. No comment from the director or writer either. The remark is taken as, well, maybe not entirely OKAY -- but understandable, you know? I mean, why not lie to your attorney if it will get him involved with you? It's even more understandable when that real-life attorney, the author of the book, is looking over the screenwriter's shoulder as he's reconstructing the dialogue. Ward shows the same kind of carelessness with facts and social dynamics that a good partner for a psychopath would. She lies to the FBI about the fate of the rather crummy sailboat that she and Bochner were in. She not only fibs, she comes on to one of her lawyers in the courtroom where everyone can see it. Little things like stealing someone's yacht and trying to disguise it don't bother her at all.
Would murder bother her? Nobody knows because we have only her word for what she was up to at the time they took place. And there are a lot of ways in which she does things that hint at innocence. Why would she help Bochner dump the bodies in the lagoon where they can be found, when they could have buried them in the middle of the Pacific? Why should she interrupt her arrestor with protestations of innocence when he was Mirandizing her? Bugliosi brings these and other incidents up in his summation, claiming that either she was terribly stupid or that these incidents indicated "consciousness of innocence."
My "gut feeling" is that he blew it. It WAS really terrible stupidity not "consciousness of innocence". Bochner and Ward act like two people born with no frontal lobes. Everything they DO is stupid in the sense that it's not well planned. What do they care if somebody digs up a couple of dead bodies in the lagoon a year or two from now? They plan on selling the yacht and adopting new identities. They will have melted into the crowd. And anyway, who cares? A year or two is a long time.
Palmyra, along with Wake and Johnston Islands, were pretty much uninhabited until before World War II when they became outposts against Japanese expansion. Of the three, Palmyra was often said to be the most beautiful, the kind of tropical paradise people dream about. Of course there were some inconveniences. The many rats for instance. They were brought to the island by humans. So were deceit, the destruction of part of an ecosystem, garbage, dope, and murder.
Of course Rachel Ward gets off, otherwise Bugliosi would never have written the book, which I don't think I've read. But I believe Vince may have blown it this time around.
Hart Bochner is easy to categorize as what used to be called a psychopath but now has a longer, fancier name in psychiatry. He has all the criterial attributes. He's got a sense of humor, he's attractive to women, lives in the unfolding moment, has multiple identities, is easily bored, shows little in the way or foresight or an ability to plan for the future, is impulsive, "lives off the land" in more ways than one, carries guns, and manipulates people readily. He's a done deal.
Rachel Ward, as Jennifer, Bochner's girl friend, isn't really much different from the kind of unthinking partner that these kinds of guys pick up along the way. They're kind of attracted to rogue males. Ward has lived with two convicted murderers and she lies all the time. She doesn't tell Vince about her first boyfriend/murderer because, "If I had told you, would you have taken my case?" No comment from Vince, who lets slide the fact that she hasn't told him, even AFTER he's taken the case. No comment from the director or writer either. The remark is taken as, well, maybe not entirely OKAY -- but understandable, you know? I mean, why not lie to your attorney if it will get him involved with you? It's even more understandable when that real-life attorney, the author of the book, is looking over the screenwriter's shoulder as he's reconstructing the dialogue. Ward shows the same kind of carelessness with facts and social dynamics that a good partner for a psychopath would. She lies to the FBI about the fate of the rather crummy sailboat that she and Bochner were in. She not only fibs, she comes on to one of her lawyers in the courtroom where everyone can see it. Little things like stealing someone's yacht and trying to disguise it don't bother her at all.
Would murder bother her? Nobody knows because we have only her word for what she was up to at the time they took place. And there are a lot of ways in which she does things that hint at innocence. Why would she help Bochner dump the bodies in the lagoon where they can be found, when they could have buried them in the middle of the Pacific? Why should she interrupt her arrestor with protestations of innocence when he was Mirandizing her? Bugliosi brings these and other incidents up in his summation, claiming that either she was terribly stupid or that these incidents indicated "consciousness of innocence."
My "gut feeling" is that he blew it. It WAS really terrible stupidity not "consciousness of innocence". Bochner and Ward act like two people born with no frontal lobes. Everything they DO is stupid in the sense that it's not well planned. What do they care if somebody digs up a couple of dead bodies in the lagoon a year or two from now? They plan on selling the yacht and adopting new identities. They will have melted into the crowd. And anyway, who cares? A year or two is a long time.
Palmyra, along with Wake and Johnston Islands, were pretty much uninhabited until before World War II when they became outposts against Japanese expansion. Of the three, Palmyra was often said to be the most beautiful, the kind of tropical paradise people dream about. Of course there were some inconveniences. The many rats for instance. They were brought to the island by humans. So were deceit, the destruction of part of an ecosystem, garbage, dope, and murder.