Cyril Wecht

Dr Cyril Harrison Wecht March 20 1931 May 13 2024 was an American forensic pathologist He was president of both the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the American College of Legal Medicine and headed the board of trustees of the American Board of Legal Medicine He served as County Commissioner and Allegheny County Coroner and Medical Examiner serving the Pittsburgh metropolitan area He was a clinical professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and an adjunct professor of law at Duquesne University During his career he performed more than 17000 autopsies He was perhaps best known for his criticism of the Warren Commissions findings concerning the assassination of John F Kennedy From 1962 he had a private practice He served as a medicallegal and forensic pathology consultant in both civil and criminal cases He was frequently an expert witness in legal cases he testified at the 1997 criminal trial of police officers Milton Mulholland and Michael Albert in the killing of Jonny Gammage the 2000 civil trial against the State of Ohio relating to the Sam Sheppard case the 2011 criminal trial of Jeffrey Locker in the death of Jeffrey Locker and the 2018 wrongful death trial arising from the death of Rebecca Zahau His forensic consultant engagements were for the Los Angeles County Coroners Office in regard to the 1968 Robert F Kennedy assassination the 1969 Sharon TateLaBianca cases and the 1974 Symbionese Liberation Army Deaths for the Health Hospital Panama Canal Zone as a member of the Special Expert Panel on American Legionnaires Disease Department of Health Education and Welfare Centers for Disease Control for the ABC network show 2020 in regard to the John F Kennedy assassination 1976 and the death of Elvis Presley 1979 for the US House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations Forensic Pathology Panel for the 1991 film JFK and the expert on the Jeffrey Locker case He became famous appearing on television and consulting on deaths with a high media profile Some of the cases include Robert F Kennedy Sharon Tate Brian Jones the Symbionese Liberation Army shootout John F Kennedyassassination the Legionnaires Disease outbreak Elvis Presley Kurt Cobain JonBenét Ramsey Dr Herman Tarnower the Scarsdale diet guru Danielle van Dam Sunny von Bülow the Branch Davidian incident Vincent Foster Laci Peterson Daniel and Anna Nicole Smith and Rebecca Zahau He was portrayed by Albert Brooks in the 2015 film Concussion In the film Wecht was a staunch supporter of Bennet Omalus efforts to expose the link between concussions and football From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia