Biography
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 17,000 autopsies. He was perhaps best known for his criticism of the Warren Commission's findings concerning the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
From 1962, he had a private practice. He served as a medical-legal 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 Coroner's Office in regard to the 1968 Robert F. Kennedy assassination, the 1969 Sharon Tate/LaBianca 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 20/20 in regard to the John F. Kennedy assassination (1976) and the death of Elvis Presley (1979); for the U.S. 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. Kennedy'assassination, 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 Omalu's efforts to expose the link between concussions and football.
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