Michael Baden
Let’s play a game.
Close your eyes and think of a famous murder trial from the past 40 years.
Got it? Good.
Chances are, whatever your choice, this guy was involved in the case:
Meet Michael Baden, a forensic pathologist who, unbelievably, has been involved in nearly every high-profile murder and suspicious death case over the past 40+ years.
Just take a look at some of the cases he’s been involved in: JFK. OJ Simpson. MLK. JonBenet Ramsey. NBA stars Jayson Williams and Kobe Bryant. John Belushi. Civil Right activist Medgar Evers. George Floyd. Jeffrey Epstein. Music producer Phil Spector. Robin Williams. NFL star Aaron Hernandez.
Baden’s involvement in these cases varies. Sometimes he’ll autopsy the victim(s) and determine a cause of death. Other times he’ll be called on to analyze an autopsy performed by another pathologist (sometimes decades after the original autopsy was performed), then give his opinion on whether the findings from the first autopsy were accurate. Baden is notorious for giving testimony in court that contradicts the findings of the original autopsy, which has led to individuals both being convicted of crimes or being found innocent, sometimes years or even decades after the crime happened.
The one obvious question here is: WHY? Why is one guy so consistently involved in so many high-profile cases over a 40+ year era
There are 2 possible explanations:
1. He is very good at his job.
2. He is very corrupt.
Let’s tackle these one at a time:
IS HE VERY GOOD AT HIS JOB?
Perhaps Baden is light years better than any other pathologist out there -- the Michael Jordan of Pathology. He’s involved in all these high-profile cases, this argument would go, because they garner lots of attention and therefore require the very best pathologist in the world to be involved.
But Baden’s history suggests that he’s far from the Michael Jordan of Pathology. More like the Frank Brickowski of Pathology.
In 1979, Baden was fired from job as Chief Medical Examiner for the City of New York because of “sloppy record-keeping, poor judgment, and a lack of cooperation.” Shortly after that, he was fired from his next job as the ME for Suffolk County (NY), for commenting during an interview how easy it is for hospital workers to kill patients with drugs without being detected.
That’s two firings, back to back, early in his career. Most people would be ruined by such a thing. Not Baden.
Baden rose to national prominence when he was named head pathologist for 1976’s House Select Committee on Assassinations hearings, a much-publicized re-investigation into the JFK and MLK assassinations. As can be seen in the above video, he was a bumbling, stumbling mess during his testimony, during which he pushed the controversial ‘single-bullet theory’ of the JFK assassination. At the start of his presentation, he even displays an image of Kennedy’s head wound upside-down for a moment before fixing his mistake.
Baden’s testimony was criticized extensively at the time, and still is to this day. Fellow committee member Cyril Wecht called Baden’s ‘magic bullet’ conclusions the “greatest forensic scientific hoax ever conceived.”
One of the main reasons Baden has come under such criticism over the years is that he primarily used drawings of Kennedy’s injuries during his presentation instead of actual images of those injuries. This was supposedly done because drawings were less gruesome to view.
But many critics have argued that using drawings instead of the actual photos made it easier for Baden to misrepresent the facts to support his ‘magic bullet’ theory. In other words, the drawings used were missing key details that would’ve contradicted the ‘magic bullet’ theory…details that were present in the original autopsy photos but omitted from the drawings.
In fact, years later, a collection of JFK investigation documents was released, one of which was a note from Baden to medical illustrator Ida Dox (the lady who drew the drawings Baden used in his presentation), ordering her to “do better” with her drawings.
“Ida, you can do much better,” Baden wrote to illustrator Ida Dox.
Many have speculated that Baden instructing Dox to “do better” was simply a case of him ordering her to do a “better” job of altering certain drawings so they would support the single bullet theory.
These 3 articles do a fantastic job laying out the irregularities in the drawings Baden used in his presentation vs the actual JFK autopsy photos:
How Ida Dox was Duped into Falsifying JFK Headshot and Neck Diagrams by Dave O’Brien
Between getting fired from jobs and his much-criticized work on the JFK investigation, it’s safe to say that Baden’s pathology work is questionable at best.
Now for point #2…
IS HE VERY CORRUPT?
If Baden is corrupt, his popularity would start to make more sense. A pathologist has a tremendous amount of influence during a murder investigation — he helps determine how the injuries found on the body occurred and how the death happened. Often times, a defendant’s guilt or innocence can hinge on a pathologist’s testimony.
All it takes is for one or two details to be misinterpreted or overlooked (or ignored on purpose) and a case can be completely transformed. An innocent man can look guilty, a guilty man can look innocent, a killer can walk free.
So if, hypothetically speaking, you (or you client) wanted to raise suspicion about the evidence in a murder trial, and – again, hypothetically speaking – there was a pathologist willing to interpret the autopsy results in a way that was favorable to your case (for a fee, of course), it would be quite simple to make a nice hefty payment to this person so they would give testimony that would raise suspicion in the eyes of a jury.
Regardless of whether Baden’s corrupt or not, it’s just plain weird that one guy has been involved in so many cases that have had such a major impact on society. Here’s a brief list of Baden’s involvement in some of the high-profile cases he’s worked on.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
In MLK’s original autopsy, the Tennessee medical examiner had failed to identify certain black material in MLK’s neck wound. Many believed that it was gunpowder, which would have meant that King had been shot by someone much closer than James Earl Ray, who had been standing 100 yards away. This evidence gave rise to speculation that Ray had not acted alone.
During 1976’s House Select Committee on Assassinations hearings (the same hearings that Baden reexamined the JFK assassination and pushed the ‘magic bullet’ theory), Baden testified that the black stuff was not gunpowder but lead, which he claimed had come from Ray's bullet and not residue from a second gun being fired nearby.
The Boston Globe, August 15, 1978
Like the JFK magic bullet theory, there were serious questions about Baden’s testimony and why, over a decade after MLK’s assassination, this new information was being revealed.
In fact, MLK’s own family believed that James Earl Ray was framed for the assassination – and has maintained this belief for decades.
OJ Simpson
Baden was paid over $100,000 to testify for OJ Simpson’s defense in the former football player’s famed trial. His testimony gave the “The Juice” an excuse for his blood that was found at the murder scene, saying the former running back had cut himself packing for a business trip.
Chicago Tribune, August 11, 1995
Baden also denied that Simpson’s injuries matched defensive knife wounds and gave the opinion that Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman struggled greatly as they died — since OJ showed no signs of being hurt by them, he couldn’t have committed the murder.
Baden’s testimony was cited as one of the main reasons for Simpson’s acquittal.
Phil Spector
One of the truly bizarre murder cases of the 2000s occurred when actress Lana Clarkson was found dead of a gunshot wound in the mansion of ultra-successful music producer Phil Spector. The evidence pointed to Spector’s involvement, evidence such as Spector emerging from the house carrying a gun and covered in blood splatters after a gunshot was heard inside.
In his murder trial, Spector was represented by Linda Kenney Baden…who is the wife of Michael Baden.
At the trial, Michael Baden testified and claimed that Clarkson had lived several minutes after she was shot — which contradicted the instant death officials reported — allowing her to spit blood on Spector after she supposedly shot herself in the mouth. Baden’s testimony supported the story Spector’s attorney told…which, to reiterate, was Baden’s wife.
The trial ended in a hung jury but Spector was later found guilty of murder in 2009.
One of the highlights of the trial occurred during Baden’s testimony, when he was asked during cross-examination whether he had any conflict of interest in the case. “None of that I can think of,” Baden replied…then moments later, the prosecutor revealed that Baden’s wife was one of Spector’s attorneys.
Eric Garner
After being hired by attorneys for Eric Garner’s family, Baden insisted that a police chokehold was the reason for Garner’s 2014 death on Staten Island. Garner’s death was already a controversial issue, and Baden’s findings added fuel to the fire for protestors.
Medgar Evers
Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers was assassinated in 1963. Byron de la Beckwith was found innocent in two separate trials in 1964. Over 30 years later, Evers’ body was exhumed and Baden was hired to re-examine the body. Baden’s work led to de la Beckwith being convicted of the crime in 1994.
Jayson Williams
The former basketball star was accused of accidentally shooting his limo driver Costas Christofi with a shotgun — after which, witnesses testified, he tried to put the weapon in the dead man’s hands to make it appear to be a suicide.
At the trial, Baden contradicted the findings of other pathologists by testifying that that, in his opinion, Williams actually hadn’t placed the weapon in the driver’s hands due to the condition of bloodstains found on Christofi’s palms.
The attorney for Williams was, once again, Linda Kenney Baden, the wife of Michael Baden.
Jeffrey Epstein
Shortly after Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his jail cell, New York City Medical Examiner Barbara Sampson ruled Epstein’s death a suicide. As he’s done on my other cases, Baden ignited controversy when he released his own findings, calling the ruling of a suicide “premature” and saying that Epstein’s injuries were ‘more indicative of homicide.’
WRAP UP
There are countless other death cases Baden has been involved with: Gabby Petito, JonBenet Ramsey, Kobe Bryant, actors David Carradine and Robert Blake, and many more.
So why is this guy so popular? Why is he involved in all these high-profile cases?
Many believe that Baden is a ‘fixer,’ essentially a hired gun who will push whatever conclusions he’s paid to push by the government, the FBI/CIA, and other powerful people.
Baden most likely “earned his stripes” back in the late 1970s, when he was named to head up the House Select Committee on Assassinations. During those hearings, many believe he ignored and covered up evidence that the government and other powerful people were involved in the JFK and MLK assassinations by pushing the much-maligned ‘single-bullet, Oswald-did-it-alone’ theory and the questionable ‘lead in the neck wound’ theory in the MLK death.
Ever since Baden proved his worth during those hearings, those in elite power circles have continued to used Baden to push whatever conclusion they wanted pushed in major cases. As this 2009 feature on Baden says, when someone famous dies, Michael Baden’s phone starts ringing.
It should also be noted that Baden is the host of HBO’s Autopsy, and he’s co-author of a series of novels with his wife. High-profile gigs on television and book advances are notorious ways to “pay off” people without leaving a suspicious money trail.
We’ll end with an old saying that’s long been popular in underground mafia circles: “Control the coroner, control the city.” The implication being: if you have the coroner in your pocket, getting away with murder is easy.
Perhaps in Baden’s case, the quote should be amended: “Control the coroner, control the country.”