We are going to talk about this case in a couple of different sections. First, we will talk about the case itself. As we talk about this case, i want you to keep two things in the back of your mind. We are going to come back to talk about these. First is, i want you to think about how this case is both similar and different from the Lizzie Borden murder trials from 1893. About 100 years earlier. The second is a question of, why do you know who this he borden is. Raise your hand if you heard about the jean harris murder trial before this class. You had all heard of Lizzie Borden, right . I want to talk about why some cases remain more famous than others. Especially because everybody talks about cases as if they are this case of the century, the trial of the century. We will begin with opening statements. Most of america really got to know our alleged perpetrator and our victim in the opening statements. Today, Luke Nicholas will be presenting. Representing the prosecution, he will go first. Our second guest will go next. Luke, representing the prosecution will go first and julia immediately after. Ready . Come on up. I will step away. I would like to begin just by thanking my colleague for defending jean harris. Aso a heavier note, my role the prosecutor of the state is not to defend the moral character of dr. Tarn our. Paint a false picture. My duty to the people of the state of new york is to uphold the foundation of our society. Justice. I must do this in a fair and equitable way. I must provide evidence, expert witness, and the testimony of dear friends and family. I must make known the truth of what happened on the night of march 10, 1980. This is a solemn undertaking. I take no joy in the facts of this case. Wish it were that we were not here finding ourselves in such a terrible situation. But as many, many years of Human History have shown us, jealousy, hatred, and revenge, all too often distort and disfigure mankind. It seems as though the british had been congreve and they wrote the architect is now famous through this maxim, heaven hath no rage. Scorned, a powerful word, meaning belittled, or demeaned, to the point of fury. I have seen, to my deep dissatisfaction, that ms. Harris was a woman scorned. Consumed with jealousy, with hatred, that led her to murder her lover of 14 years. As you will see by the testimony of her sons and her colleagues, ms. Harris was a tightly bound woman, a commanding woman, a woman easily offended by irreverent actions. She was the headmistress of the allgirls school in mcqueen, virginia. The stress of such an occupation was augmented by the constant challenge to her authority is headmistress. Contacting explosions and reprimands handed down from her office to disobedient students. She was embattled in her position as such positions are. She is a woman who believes that if all miscreants would follow her way, they would be reformed and in stoic discipline. As all of us have seen before, she fell in love with a man who could be perceived as her exact opposite. Maybe she saw an opportunity to reform him, a conquest to prove her own pedagogical power. A mighty triumph, it would have been, to take dr. Tarnower away from his horse, as she called them, and reformed him. Make him see the light to a good strong woman like herself. I daresay, she dreamt. But this was not to be. He was set in his ways. He was set in his ways. As abhorrent as they may be to us. As the two grew close, as oftentimes couples like this do, like two worlds colliding, opposites attracting. Different values, friends, attitudes, and agendas. They remained together for 14 years. The affairs, i do mean the sexual endeavors of the doctor outside of his relations with jean harris were unknown known to jean harris. She never thought any of these floozies a threat, until the beautiful lane came into the picture. Ms. Harris would tell police after fleeing the scene of a murder, not only did she in fact shoot the doctor, but he slept with every woman he could. And i have had it. Jean harris was of a sober mind as she got in her car in the late hours on the evening of march 10th, 1980. She had with her a. 32 caliber pistol. A coat, and a scornful intention to kill her lover. Jealousy had become fury. The rival in this love triangle had cut up thousands of dollars worth of her clothing and encouraged the doctor to stay away from jean. Miss harris had a plan. She drove from virginia to new york that night. Walked into the dark garage of , up theowers house spiral staircase that led to his bedroom. She drew the gun. She yelled at him after seeing the negligee of Lynne Tryforos. She then squeezed her trembling finger on the cold trigger of the. 32 caliber handgun five times. Killing the man who had scorned her. Possibly wishing that Lynne Tryforos had not left early that night, or she, too, likely would have been murdered. Jean harris picked up her coat and gun, and she exited the house the way she would come in. She got into her car and began driving back to virginia. After evading the police by making a drastic uturn, she was pulled over. She admitted to the crime. Now, here today, she sits in the courtroom. She is not pleading insanity, or any instability of mind. She has confessed to the murder of dr. Tarnower in a spite of a jealous rage. This love triangle ended abruptly at the discharge of that. 32 caliber pistol. One shot pierced through the palm of the doctors hand and into his chest as he raised his hands to shield himself. We are left beyond a reasonable doubt, and the evidence will show that jean harris consciously, voluntarily, and intentionally fired five shots, the five shots that murdered the doctor on the night of march 10, 1980. I leave in the hands of the jury truth. May you by the grace of god, bring justice to the family and friends of dr. Tarnower. Thank you. [applause] your honor, opposing counsel, members of the jury, its easy to paint a woman of high stature and independence such as ms. Harris as arrogant and with uncontrollable temper. It is easy to accuse such a woman as driven with jealousy and rage when she discovered her lover of 14 years, who asked for her hand in marriage, only to take it away because had had a wandering eye. Ladies and gentlemen, the prosecution is looking for the easy way out. But unlike the prosecution, you know just because something is easy doesnt mean it is correct. The tale of an old woman seeking revenge for a lover running for someone younger is not only cliche, it is simply not the case when it comes to ms. Harris. At the height of her life, ms. Harris felt she was at her lowest as her reputation as a discipline headmistress of a academy was under fire. Her integrity was broken. She couldnt walk away despite knowing about the affair not because she was upset, because she loved him so much, she could not accept it. The prosecution has brought forth evidence that they believe she committed such a horrific crime. Ladies and gentlemen, the only motive that she had was the motive to end her life. The prosecution i tell you the night of march 10, 1980 ms. Harris sent to the home to shoot his four times in the chest. With a. 32 caliber pistol. They will fail you failed to tell you that miss harris left behind a suicide note. They will fail to tell you about the bruises found on her arms. Indicative of a struggle. When tried to pull her arms away when she pointed to her head. The same struggle as the bullets went through the palm ever to cover the gun. They will show you a letter written by ms. Harris and will , say it shows undeniable proof of the intent to kill lover. It will fail to tell you that this letter is only representative at the time she found out. This is not presented representative of their 14 year marriage. They will also fail to tell you s written by mr. Tarnower. Written as prescriptions for sedate sedatives, sleeping pills and amphetamines. They will also tell you how officers overheard miss harris admit she committed the crime. The same officers who physically the same mishandled the evidence because they were unequipped and lacked the knowledge to follow the proper procedures of the crime scene. The prosecution has the burden to prove to you that mrs. Harris had one, the motive and the means, with the intent and the langley, and beyond a reasonable doubt, that ms. Harris committed this crime. The prosecution will fail. Members of the jury, jean harris loved mr. Tarnower despite everything. She did not want to kill the man who she remembers warning her whew the night of march 10 was not driven by hate, but a woman resulting a woman struggling with her Mental Health. I implore you to turn this verdict over as not guilty. Thank you. [applause] well done. You dont need me for the rest of the class. That was very. Since we are all all here and they pay me to do this, we will continue. This is a case where geography matters. You know how much i like maps. Geography matters here, because it reveals social status. Dont worry, there will be more maps. Heres the big picture. Denver, over here. Detroit, right here. Cleveland is right here. This is lake erie. Washington, d. C. Is down here. Philadelphia is about here. And new york city is here. Hermann tarnower lived just outside of new york city near the connecticut border. Lets talk about the back story. There is a little bit more. We will start with jean harris story before she met tarnower. She was born in 1923 to a wealthy family. In a particularly known suburb known as shaker heights. I got this information from a combination of sources. I read a whole bunch of articles from the time of the trial. I also read a biography by about jean harris by a woman named shana alexander. To be clearly candid, this biography is not unbiased. The opening sentence basically alexander says jean harris could have been her. So, not unbiased at all. In that biography, which was based on just tons of letters and interviews while she was in prison, alexander argues that harris problem with her Mental Health and her problems with men begin as a child. It is the 1920s, her father is a very successful businessman, in addition to living in shaker heights, they vacation. Heres detroit. This line is the canadian border. They went vacation on the canadian side of lake erie. Allegedly, ms. Harris father was a cold and distant guy. Jean harris was smart. She did well in high school. She went off to Smith College and graduated phi beta kappa. She did everything a wealthy young woman of that era was supposed to do. Once she got her degree, she got married. She got married to a guy named james harris, a boy she had known. James harris also fit the bill of someone you should marry. He was a nice guy, but he was not terribly ambitious. He came from a good family, but when he graduated from college, he was not moving up in his company as he would like. And he was not making as much money as either of the two had grown up with. Jean harris life starts to deviate from what was expected from a woman at this point. James had moved to grosse pointe, michigan. Outside of detroit. Another wealthy suburb. They had two sons, and they send the boys to to private school but they didnt have enough money. So, jean got her masters in education and began teaching at a private girls school. This changed the dynamics between james and jean quite a bit. She later would say she married james to irritate her father. In the end, they got divorced at around 1964. Jean took a new job in philadelphia. She was the headmistress of a girls middle school. One of the advantages of that is sons could go to the Brother School of where she was headmistress. Now, he comes from a different tarnower comes from a different background. His parents are immigrants. He was born in 1910. He lived the american dream. He went to college and medical school during world war ii. After world war ii, he moved up, just outside of new york, so heres manhattan down here. He moved to an area up here, purchase, new york. He started a Medical Clinic and specialized in cardiology. The Medical Clinic became quite successful. Multiple members joined, he was one of the lead doctors most of the time. He was by all accounts, he was very successful, not only as a doctor, but socially. He really enjoyed to travel, and he traveled on his own and he traveled as a guest of some of his patients. He enjoyed the idea of them saying they were traveling with their private doctor. He liked hunting and he went on safaris. He enjoyed golf and tennis at the country clubs that would him. He was jewish, so not all of the local pubs would admit him. Local clubs. He was a bit of a ladies man. He would have lots of different girlfriends. He seemed well on his way to being a perfectly happy wealthy player, until he meets jean harris in 1966. It is a set up. They have these mutual friends who live in new york city. As luck would have it, they had gone off to visit the soviet union separately, relatively recently. The friends thought the two of them would get along because they enjoyed travel, they were witty, all of those things, and so, they had a party, they set the two of them up, and it worked. They began dating. And, after a year or 18 months or so, they got engaged. Here is where the stories diverge a little bit. Tarnower were never serious about the engagement. Other reports are that he was completely serious about the engagement, but she, with her sons who were not yet 18, she felt she did not want to introduce that element of a stepfather into their life, even though she had been dating. They all travel together. And so, in her autobiography, jean harris insisted that she was pretty much ready to call the engagement off. When hermann tarnower called it off. Regardless of who called it off, the engagement ends. Jean returns the very expensive Engagement Ring. He says to keep it, dont keep it, back and forth, eventually she keeps the wedding ring. All along, jean has issues with money, and she doesnt want to be seen as taking his money. The engagement is off, but the relationship is not. This is again, where perspectives change. Everything on the story depends on whose perspective youre listening to and whose perspective you believe. It is made more complicated, because tarnower died before he could write his memoirs. Jean admits that he was a bit of a ladies man, she does not think he was necessarily dating folks while they were engaged, but after the engagement ended he , started his playing ways and dating other women again. She says i can live with this, because i know that i am special. He takes it as fair game. Ando what he wants to do, they continue their relationship. They continue to travel together. She hosts parties for him, she offers him decorating advice. In a lot of ways, she acts like it is a longterm girlfriend, kind of like a wife, except she does not live with him permanently. She then moved even closer to where he was. He is on the border of connecticut and new york, and she gets a job as a headmistress in another girl school in connecticut by the house about 45 minutes from tarnowers. Maybe she spends the night, maybe she goes back home, but she is super close. A couple years after that, she she decides she wants to change. She ends up working for a corporation in manhattan. She drives up to manhattan every day. She is perfectly happy. Now, in the background of all this, at about 1970, jean harris complaints that she is having complains that she is having problems with exhaustion and she is just so tired. And if there is anything he can do to help. He prescribes drugs. He starts with a prescription methamphetamine. Then, not surprisingly, she cant sleep. So, he gives her sleeping pills. They later said she was probably depressed, and the drugs were covering the depression. Its important to remember that she spends 10 years on methamphetamine. This is going to come back to us. In 1977, things are going to change. Because harris moves again. She gets a different job. And this time, it is in washington, d. C. She is headmistress of an elite boarding school. This changes the dynamic. She is much further away physically. It is the longer 45 minutes, i can pop over. Now she is 275 miles. In 1980, that is about a five hour drive. She has to go through philadelphia, new york city, or washington, d. C. All to get to him. You can imagine what its like with traffic. Tarnower has, in his mind more freedom. This contest relationship going on for a while but they spend more time together because jean is not there. At tarnoweros works s Medical Clinic. She gets to say high every day. She is seeing him every night and attending parties with him. Gina south side washington, d. C. It is beginning to get into her head. Then Something Else also happens that changes the dynamic. Tarnower publishes a diet book. This was a huge diet book. It was one of the first diet books to be crazy big. It was so big that last year my mom was going through my family has a book collecting problem every once in a while, they take other books they do not want anymore, but that they put them in a giant box, and whoever visits next, they take out whatever books they want. My mom had a copy of the scarsdale diet in her box. I should have taken it. Ebay anduy it on amazon for super cheap. To save you time, it is a lowcarb, lowcalorie diet. It says you can lose up to 20 pounds in 14 days. That is the lowcalorie part of it. The book itself, which is like sick this thick was based on the twopage handout used to give to cardiac patients, which set eat less red meat, avoid sugar, alcohol, then he expanded it to get into this book. The book is a huge hit, makes a ton of money. It published in late 1978. It finished number two on the nonfiction bestseller list. There is an estimated income of about 11 million. To put this in perspective, he was probably getting between 10 and 20 of the proceeds, so that is one or 2 million 1 is off of this book. 1. 1 million off of this book. Dollars he is probably making not only that, he is now gone from being a local doctor that everybody likes to dr. Oz famous. He is on television, and people know who he is, he is a demand. They invited to parties, they give him awards. Jean, who is feeling out of it, is alienated further. In 1981sked jane harris who wrote this book, she is going to say she was a coauthor. They asked the guy who is the coauthor, a guy named sinclair baker, and he says no. She offered some suggestions she gets mentioned in the acknowledgments. Jean thinks that she contributed more. So it adds to the tension in a in the relationship it adds so much tension, that she is thinking about things like money. He is getting his accolades, she cant get away from her job in washington dc, and she wants to go to the awards. He does something that irritates her more. He writes her a check. Remember the battle over the diamond Engagement Ring . You keep it, no, i dont want it, well, they do that with the check, too. I dont want your m