Biography

Some of his more famous clients have included Albert DeSalvo (The Boston Strangler) (convicted in 1965), Sam Sheppard (acquitted in 1966), Dr. Carl Coppolino (acquitted in 1966), Capt. Ernest Medina (acquitted in 1971), Patricia Hearst (convicted in 1976), and O.J. Simpson (acquitted in 1994).

On November 21, 2001, the Florida Supreme Court issued a decision upholding the permanent disbarment of Bailey (that is, he was stricken from the roll of lawyers admitted to practice before the state's courts) for his misconduct in the 1994 DuBoc case specifically, for misappropriating client funds. In 1994, Bailey and Robert Shapiro represented Claude DuBoc, characterized by the federal government as a marijuana trafficking kingpin, eventually negotiating a verbal plea bargain deal with the U.S. Attorney in Florida in which DuBoc agreed to turn over his assets to the federal government. His assets included shares of the company BioChem worth approximately $6 million at the time of the plea bargain but which had appreciated by an additional $14 million by the year 2000, when the government sought to collect the stock, which had been deposited with Bailey as a caretaker. Pleading poverty to the press, Bailey refused to turn over the stock to the federal government, claiming in court that he was entitled to the appreciation of the stock in lieu of payment of his legal fees. In 2000, he was sent to prison for 44 days for contempt of court. After Shapiro testified for the federal government that it was entitled to the appreciated value of the stock, Bailey eventually quit his claim and surrendered the stock and was let out of prison. His conduct in this case led to his permanent disbarment in Florida. In a reciprocal disciplinary ruling, Bailey was disbarred by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 2003. The Masschusetts disbarment was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in a decision issued on June 9, 2006. Bailey earlier had been disbarred by the state of New Jersey for one year, in 1971. Bailey also had been censured in 1970 when a Massachusetts judge said his attitude showed "a self-esteem of such proportions as to challenge description" and recommended disbarment. By the dawn of the 21st Century, Bailey -- one of the most famous and sought-after trial attorneys in the 1960s and '70s -- was essentially ruined.

Filed for bankruptcy (June 2016).

Famous lawyer and author of many true crime books.

Was spoofed by actor Tim Conway on The Carol Burnett Show (1967) as "F. Lee Bunny", a lawyer who just happens to resemble a rabbit.