Totally Perplexed
CBS news show 48 Hours ran an episode on Saturday night about a medical examiner in Memphis, Tennessee, who was found wrapped in barbed wire around his hands, feet and face. The story was titled Terror at the Morgue. It was gruesome.
Furthermore, the medical examiner was locked up with TWO padlocks locks around each hand forcing him into the crucifix position over a grated window. And worse, the medical examiner had a real live homemade bomb super-glued to his chest.
When he was found, Dr. O.C. Smith told police that he was attacked after leaving work late at night. He told the police that someone threw lye at him to render him blind and then they went about tying him up and attaching the bomb.
He said the assailant told him, “Push it, pull it, twist it, and you die. Welcome to death row.”
After a year and a half investigation, the police were not able to come up with a plausible assailant. Early on in the investigation, investigators did focus on a death row inmate that Dr. O.C. Smith knew well: Phillip Workman. Phillip Workman was accused of robbery and killing a cop — and he always maintained he didn’t kill the cop. Workman managed to get a clemency hearing — a hearing that Dr. O.C. Smith devastated by presenting new and convincing evidence that supposedly showed Workman was in fact guilty. Dr. O.C. Smith sealed Workman’s death sentence. Workman says to police Dr. O.C. Smith’s testimony was all lies.
After months of investigation, the police were unable to find anyone who could have carried this out on behalf of Workman so they dismissed him from the list of suspects.
Furthermore, the EMT who arrived on the scene where Dr. O.C. Smith was shackled said that his wounds were not consistent with his story. If someone splashed lye into his face, why didn’t he have burns under his eyes? He only had it on his cheeks. Why didn’t the barbed wire injure him more? He didn’t have puncture wounds…only scratches from it. How could that happen?
The police said that Dr. O.C. Smith’s also got his story mixed up. He didn’t clearly recollect how he was tied up with the barbed wire. One time he thought his feet were tied first, another time he remembered his hands being tied first.
What really happened that night?
Well, the state of Tennessee charged Dr. O.C. Smith with the crime of doing this to himself to get attention. Yet Dr. O.C. Smith was a well-recognized and well-established medical examiner for the county for over 20 years.
While watching Dr. O.C. Smith, I am totally perplexed. He seemed to say the right things. He showed some emotions. Yet with the questions raised in the case, I do lift an eye-brow.
I reject the claim made by the state that Dr. O.C. Smith has Munchausen disease — a disease that would have caused him to do this for attention — because he got plenty of attention as the medical examiner according to 48 Hours. But I question how come the lye didn’t get onto his cheeks underneath his eyes and I wonder why the barbed wire didn’t puncture his face? It’s simply odd.
Dr. O.C. Smith was tried in a court of law — however the jury couldn’t agree on a verdict, deadlocked and the case has yet to be retried. The state, while still maintaining their belief that Dr. O.C. Smith did this to himself, doesn’t believe they have enough evidence to try the case again so Dr. O.C. Smith is free.
Dr. O.C. Smith says he fears for his life still…got a guard dog and now carries a gun. He no longer works for the county.
While I want to believe Dr. O.C. Smith when he talks, I can’t say it with 100% certainty if he is honest or not. I have to pass. This could go either way. I cannot make a call here. Dr. O.C. Smith does act very similar to a pathological liar. Pathological liars usually say all the right things, and yet in a weird twist, their expressions are usually baseline — more baseline than normal — and Dr. O.C. Smith’s emotions are not very deep — which is a concern.
This case simply stumps me at this point. How I would love to have access to more footage of Dr. O.C. Smith to see if I could come to a stronger conclusion.