Johnnie Cochran Meets Dr. Hip Tragedy and absurdity were two sides of the same coin: On one side, O.J. Simpson’ s_ “suicide” note with a smiley face in the O of his signature; on the other side, the woman who pinched Simpson lawyer Robert Shapiro’ s ass because “I wanted to be part of history.” And somewhere along the ridge of that coin was Simpson himself, walking into the courtroom humming the melody of “Touch Me” from the Broadway hit Cats and explaining to reporters that he was thinking about his children. That was at Simpson’ s criminal trial. Shortly before his civil trial began in 1997, | met his lead attorney, Johnnie Cochran. He was the guest of honor and luncheon speaker at a national convention of criminal defense attorneys held in a huge banquet hall at a hotel in Santa Monica. No media people were allowed entry. One of the attendees was Dr. Eugene Schoenfeld, also known as Dr. Hip from his days as a syndicated columnist for the underground press. He now testifies occasionally as an expert witness, and was at this event for that reason. My wife Nancy and | were his guests. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015189