Exonians in Review
his life, the author remarks, “I discovered the good that government action can accomplish.” Considerably more might be said of Lenzner’s experience in Mississippi, but like many elements of this work and in a Forrest Gump-like manner, Lenzner takes little credit for his personal achievements and hypes nothing throughout the book. In this age of autobiography where narcissistic tendencies reign, Lenzner offers readers a refreshing reprieve from such tales of
Terry Lenzner ’57 was once “one of the most powerful and dreaded private investigators in the world.”
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The Exeter Bulletin
personal glory or tragedy. For all its appeal, however, this minimalist approach sometimes leaves us wanting for more. The author, for example, mentions in passing at the beginning of the book that he was fired by Donald Rumsfeld. When Rumsfeld appears in later pages, readers are offered little more than a glimpse into the author’s feelings or thoughts about this important figure in American history. It was Rumsfeld who appointed Lenzner to head the Office of Economic Opportunity’s Legal Services Division, where Lenzner spearheaded a policy of providing poor people with attorneys to sue underperforming state and local governments, which ran afoul of powers like Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and California Governor Ronald Reagan. Yet to remedy the criticism of there being only superficial personal reflection, as this example alone might suggest, would be a tall order when one pauses to consider the trajectory of Lenzner’s
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career and the paths it has crossed. In the pages that follow his time as a young lawyer working in Mississippi, Lenzner leads his reader through a myriad of legal cases with a cast of characters that his readers will certainly differ in opinion on. Lenzner not only headed the national Legal Services Program, he also pursued and prosecuted organized crime from a unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He defended Philip Berrigan, a former Roman Catholic priest, peace activist, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, while simultaneously representing CIA operative Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, who headed the mind control program under the direction of Allen Dulles. Gottlieb is notoriously remembered for his administration of LSD and other mindaltering drugs on unsuspecting subjects. During this episode we learn a bit more about Gottlieb’s role in the CIA’s attempt to assassinate the Congo’s Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, but in lawyer-like prose, Lenzner offers little judgment about his client’s character. More fantastic tales follow as readers trace Lenzner’s involvement as counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee: Our protagonist played a critical role in the investigation of Nixon, following the money trail that led to the Watergate burglary and cover-up. In the end, he was the first lawyer to deliver a Congressional subpoena to a sitting U.S. president. But investigations into government doings don’t stop there.We come to find that Lenzner uncovered cost overruns with the Alaska oil pipeline in the 1970s, helped in the investigation that led to the identification of the Unabomber, and was approached to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of Princess Diana of Wales. But also let us not forget Lenzner’s founding of Investigative Group International (IGI), his help in clearing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of false charges of corruption, or his work with President Bill Clinton’s defense team during the impeachment hearings—work that earned the lawyer his own subpoena before Kenneth Starr’s committee. With so many stories of intrigue, it is hard to image a life so full of riveting episodes. The Los Angeles Times once called Lenzner one of the most powerful and dreaded private investigators in the world. The Investigator gives readers a sense of why this characterization may have been accurate for so many famous and infamous characters on the American historical landscape, but in true investigative fashion, Lenzner doesn’t reveal too many secrets and leaves his audience only wanting more.