Tallula.Belle
Armchair Sleuth
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2014
- Messages
- 891
- Reaction score
- 11
TB, that's what I was thinking as well.....that the letter in question was the original that was received by AL in prison (or a copy of said original). Knowing what we know about the guy, I certainly wouldn't be shocked or the least bit surprised to think that he would use his artistic abilities to try to doctor up a letter. Actually, it sounds like something that would be right down his alley. LOL
I don't have notes in front of me and she was hard to hear at times, so I could be mistaken, but IIRC, the point they were arguing over in the letter was whether or not CL had stated in the letter that her attorneys scared her into pleading. I *think* she had agreed that the portion of the letter that stated she was afraid she couldn't get a fair trial was her handwriting, but there was apparently a part in there talking about her attorneys scaring her into pleading and *that* was the part she was saying didn't look like her writing. She said the writing was "too pretty" and I'm pretty sure she mentioned that she thought something had been erased and reworded?
I was under the impression she was insinuating that AL had taken her original letter and doctored it up in his jail cell before handing it over to his attorney. Could be a totally wrong assumption on my part, but that's what I took from that entire exchange. I think it wound up being one of those splitting hairs things. He kept asking her if it was her letter and she said yes. He was then asking about different parts of the letter. She agreed one portion was her words (fair trial/media attn), but denied the other portion was her words (scared by attorneys). I *think* the last question he asked was, "....but this is your letter" (as in, overall as a whole) and she stated "yes" and that ended the exchange. I was unclear as to if she ever conceded that she wrote the "scared by attorneys" part.
At the end of the day, it was really a moot point. I don't think it was going to change the outcome of the trail. Even if she had said "Yep...wrote every word!". JMO
I absolutely agree that "doctoring a letter" would be right up AL's alley. I do know that CL did tell family and friends that she was afraid, she would not get a fair trial and that her attorneys rushed her to plea. But you're right, whatever point Bill James was trying to make didn't even matter at that point.