48 Hours - Terror at the Morgue

Episode Date: February 27, 2026

On June 1, 2002, Memphis police responded to an alleged attack outside a morgue. The victim was the medical examiner, Dr. O.C. Smith, who was found wrapped in barbed wire with a bomb strapped to his neck. Dr. Smith survived but was concerned his assailant might attack again. “48 Hours" Correspondent Troy Roberts reports. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 7/8/2006. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Lieutenant Dr. Chalb, you have any warning? Is that okay? I'm Lieutenant Jerry Blom with the Memphis Police Department. I've been on the Memphis Police Department in 22 years. What I saw that night at the medical examiner's office was like something I've never seen before. The worst thing was the barbed wire going in the in my mouth and around my head.

You're being attacked. Right. He's able to pick me up and push me up against the security grate and shackle me. He passes this object under my chin and tells me, push it, pull it, twist it, and you die. Welcome to death row. One of the dispatchers told me that the medical examiner, had a bomb around his neck at the forensic center. Dr. Smith was in a crucifix position.

His hands are above his shoulders. It's the most bizarre thing I've ever seen in my life. And we're trying to keep him as calm as we possibly can. And all you can do is control your mind to control the pain, control your body to not move the bomb. And I grab a hold of this thing and I'm holding on for dear life now, because I know it can't move. We cut the wires and we were able to take the doctor

and remove him from the alleyway. I get angry that somebody wants to take Dr. Smith and put him through so much torture and torment. I'm very upset. They need to find the person that did this. It became a priority to find out who would do this to the medical examiner. He's still out there.

And I don't know what his trigger point is. If he is still angry, then he can come after me again. Terror at the morgue. Memphis, Tennessee, best known as the birthplace of the Blues, has long harbored a dark secret. Two people are dead after a shooting rampage. It has one of the highest murder rates in the country. It used to be that streets that started with the names of states were some of the most dangerous streets in Memphis. And Dr. O.C. Smith knows the secrets of these streets better than just about anyone.

You get a lot of killings and find a lot of bodies out there and such. He was the city's medical examiner. How many hours a week did you put in? Somewhere between 80 and 100, seven days a week. 52-year-old Smith was dedicated to a job most people would find too grim, even on a good day. Well, I love my profession. They've got a blue-collar background, and you've taught to work for a living, and my father always told us to leave the woodpile a little higher than what you found it. Dr. Smith was always available anytime homicide needed it.

Crime scene cops like Major Mike Willis and Lieutenant Jerry Blum knew they could always count on O.C. Smith to uncover even the smallest of clues. He didn't care if it was the middle of the night. It didn't care if it was on the weekends. He didn't care if he was down in the mud, or we were out in the field, if the body had been there days, weeks. Same was true when you were at the morgue doing an autopsy. He was very helpful, cooperative. He'd take his time to show you. For the young investigators, you learned a lot from him. Well, this is a place where the body of a young woman was found.

She dies alone, and she dies violently. And it's, I mean, how can something like that happen? After he helped solve a mystery, it was also OSE's job to testify in court, often in high-profile cases, and the cameras were always there. You're almost like a local celebrity. People recognizing you on the street, knowing your name. You might think it gives you a big hit, but actually it just makes you want to hide. So it was front page news when Dr. O.C. Smith was brutally attacked by a phantom assailant as he was leaving work. on a warm June night in 2002.

Now the medical examiner, one of the city's top crime scene investigators, was himself at the center of a bizarre mystery that would puzzle Memphis for years. It was unexpected, it was unimaginable. Shelby County Medical Examiner O.C. Smith found, bound, head to toe, and barbed wire. His attacker attached some sort of a bomb to his chest. chest. Dr. Smith's ordeal began as he was leaving the Forensic Center shortly after 10

that night. He came out of my right front. I got a glimpse of a man, maybe six feet. I just saw something come up into my face and it just burned and I put my hands up in my eyes and I got a second splash. After his assailant blinded him with lie, Dr. Dr. Smith says he was punched in his side, knocking the wind out of him, then dragged down a flat of stairs and thrown to the ground. Then I'm face down, belly down, and then he starts to tie me up with lengths of barbed wire. The assailant came armed with enough barbed wire to wrap Dr. Smith's ankles and wrists and what looked like a crown of thorns around his head.

And once he had me wrapped up like that, then he was able to stand me up and push me against the security grid on the windows. Shackle me in a crucifixion position. After that, he glued a homemade bomb to Dr. Smith's chest. And then, for the first time, he spoke. When he leans over and tells me, push it, pull it, twist it, and you die. Welcome to Death Row. You must have been scared out of your mind. No.

There's no time to be scared. If I lose my balance and I move the bomb, I'm dead. Finally, after two hours, sometime after midnight, a police officer on routine patrol discovered Dr. Smith in the stairwell. Veteran bomb squad members Mike Willis and Gerald Blum were summoned to the scene.

There wasn't any room for air. in any room for air. I was telling him that it's very important that you remain calm, that we're all in this together, we're going to get through it. It's my job to grab a hold of the bomb. I'm holding and trying not to move it. I was thinking also in the back of my mind that this is my son's birthday, and I certainly don't want to get hurt or killed on his birthday. The officers managed to extricate Dr. Smith from his shackles.

They determined the bomb was real and neutralized it. Dr. Smith was then rushed by ambulance to the hospital. I mean, I never will forget when I first saw him. Paramedic Kelly Moore. I looked back at these doors and the light hit him. The hair on the back of my neck just stood up. I got chills. In the emergency room, the barbed wire twisted around

Dr. Smith's face was cut away. Amazingly, he escaped serious injury. The doctor was treated for cuts and burns and then released. I just gave him a big hug. I was glad he was okay. Ossie's wife, Marge. His eyes were very red and there were like burns on his face. You get home and what did you say to March? I don't remember the words. I just was home. Dr. Smith survived, but police believed there was a madman on the loose who could strike again. A task force of federal, state, and local authorities made it a top priority to find him, especially after they determined that Dr. Smith had been targeted before. There was a bomb scare. Three months earlier, March 2002.

So we do have one explosive device. It's not a hoax. A Molotov cocktail and a crew. crude bomb were found outside the morgue in the same stairwell where Dr. Smith would later be attacked. At the time, police didn't know who the devices were meant for, but now they were connecting the dots. Who would want to harm your husband? I don't know. You know, we've tried to think about certain cases he testified in.

Who do you think did it? A disturbed individual. This is just, you know, somebody who's filled with just, you know, anger. Was it an angry individual Dr. Smith may have helped put behind bars? He leans over and tells me, Welcome to Death Row. Investigators began to focus their attention on Death Row. And on this man.

Okay, we're there. Have you feared for your safety? Yes. Because he's still out there. And I don't know what his. trigger point is. After surviving the bizarre attack outside the Memphis Forensic Center, Dr. O.C. Smith said he worried it was only a matter of time before his assailant would come after him again. Give it up. He got a guard dog

and began carrying a gun with him at all times. Be that way. Who was out to get the medical examiner? That question now haunted law enforcement. Everybody's like kind of leaked. Gee what happened to OC? Including police director Larry Godwin. Was he targeted because it's his job and someone doesn't like what he did? Because you come out with unpopular decisions, somebody's not going to be happy with what you say. Working on the theory that revenge was a motive for the attack, the multi-agency task force focused on one man in particular. A man, Ossie Smith, knew well.

Philip Workman. In 1981, Workman was involved in an armed robbery of a fast food restaurant. Take me back to 1981. You're a patrolman. The car went out and we heard officer down. I got in my car and headed toward the scene. It's a site Godwin will never forget. One of the first officers to arrive at the scene,

Lieutenant Ronald Oliver, had been fatally wounded in a struggle with workmen, who was later arrested. And of course, when we got there, we immediately started securing the scene. and as I knelt down, there was a pistol laying there. That gun belonged to Workman, but police never found the fatal bullet. Lieutenant Ronnie Oliver, a 20-year veteran of the police department, was pronounced dead on arrival.

Even so, a jury later convicted Workman of Capitol murder, and in 1982, he was sentenced to death. Since that time, Workman has remained on death row. He spoke to us from behind a glass partition. Did you kill Lieutenant Oliver? No, I believe and see no way possible that up killed, Lieutenant Oliver. For years, Workman has been trying to overturn his death sentence.

I'm alive still today because the Lord has seen fit to make me still alive today. He says his newfound faith in God has strengthened his resolve. In my second state of mind at the time, you know, I definitely did armor. And I've always admitted that. It's your innocent of murder? I'm innocent of murder, yes. Workman insists Lieutenant Oliver was killed by another police officer's gun, a case of friendly fire. In 2001, the State of Tennessee's clemency board agreed to hear his claim.

I'm sorry that we're here. Sorry that happened, of course. But everything isn't the way that's being presented. But at the hearing, a surprise expert witness appeared with new and and damning evidence, Dr. Osi Smith. When a medical examiner takes the stand, they're like God. Dr. Smith testified that when he examined the tissue from around Lieutenant Oliver's gunshot wound, he discovered traces of a bullet

that could have only come from Workman's gun. I believe that the signature-tip ammunition that has been alluded was in Mr. Workman's gun actually did produce the wound to Lieutenant Oliver's body. And that sealed your fate? That totally sealed it. Workman's clemency bid was denied. When Dr. Smith was testifying, I said that man's a murderer.

He was going to murder me with this false testimony. Shortly after, Workman's attorney, Robert Hutton, took to the airwaves. We'll be back in a minute with the Mike Fleming radio program. Attacking O.C. Smith's testimony before the clemency board. Do you think he's lying? I think he is telling an untruth. Is he lying? Yes.

He's lying. All right. Robert Hutton said O.C. is lying about his testimony. Within weeks of that broadcast in April 2001, strange things started happening. Letters threatening the life of O.C. Smith suddenly cropped up in the mail. The letters were full of peculiar religious references,

saying Dr. Smith's evil actions on earth must end, and that God is calling upon us to act. The letters were sent to a Memphis district attorney, a local reporter, and oddly enough to Philip Workman's attorney, Robert Hutton. The evil one is in the body of O.C. Smith. Solace pawn of the devil. Guilty of two mortal sins.

I got this letter from this nut. It seems to be threatening Dr. Smith. He heard me on the Mike Fleming show, thought he was the voice of God talking to him, and now he decided he was going to go and kill Dr. Smith. When you heard about the contents of these letters, you thought that someone related to the Philip Workman case was involved?

Yes. The person was tied into almost an Old Testament type of justice. Which is? Like eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Did you ask Philip Workman if he was somehow involved in this letter campaign? No. The way the letter was written, it sounded to me like it was a person that was a local mental nutcase.

Because it mentioned Dr. Smith by name, I erred on the side of caution, called the DA's office and you know said come get this bloody you might want to look into this. A similar letter was found alongside the Molotov cocktail discovered outside the morgue a year later in March 2002 and the same religious themes were also etched into the crude bomb attached to Dr. Smith's neck three months later. On one side it said steel in the hands of the King of Kings on the other side of the device it was scribed the letters JMJ which means what Jesus Mary Joseph kind of makes it like it's some fanatical nut supporter of mine,

or perhaps I knew somebody or had somebody do such a crazy thing or something like that. Do you have any connection to the attack on Dr. Smith? Absolutely not. But Workman did have his own ideas about who could be behind the Bardwire attack, the strange letters, and the bombs.

His accusation would prove to be just as explosive. I told them. Y'all need to be investigating Dr. Smith. I had my portable radio on my back pocket. And they said, we've got somebody down there with a bomb on them. Seeing him, I mean, it was something out of the movies. Paramedic Kelly Moore is haunted by what she saw the night medical examiner O.C. Smith was attacked. But it's what she didn't see that bothers her the most.

Even if a cat scratches you, you're going to see you're going to see. something there's going to be some blood there wasn't any that night there was no blood and no serious injuries even though dr swiss wrists ankles and head have been wrapped in barbed wire there would have to be some kind of injuries that's the only thing it just doesn't add up and then bottle with the acid would be over here and it wasn't adding up for u.s. attorney bud commons he was bound in barbed wire secured to these bars could Philip workman have orchestrated such a strange attack from behind bars on death row.

He was interviewed and investigators looked at any members of his family that might have had an interest in doing something like that. But that trail eventually came up cold. There was no evidence that anybody connected with workman was motivated to do this or capable of doing it. Workman was eliminated as a suspect. His ankles were crossed down here. As he walked through the crime scene with investigators.

And then he's affixed these boys. bars with a bicycle cable. Cummins was struck by something else. This is a pretty complex crime. This person is going to have to be out there standing in the middle of the night with all this stuff. OSE's assailants had to bring along a grocery list of items to carry out his crime.

A bottle of lie, barbed wire, a bicycle cable padlocks, and a homemade bomb. On network TV, they may rise to that complexity, but in real life, crimes usually are not that complex. If they want to harm you, why go through all these steps? Why not just shoot you? You can only speculate because we don't know the mind. To me, it speaks of a mind who sits there in plots and wants to do things and wants to punish. But after an exhaustive 15-month investigation that examined dozens of cases that Oce Smith was involved in,

Authority still hadn't come up with a suspect. They just couldn't find anybody that would have had any interest in doing something like this. At the same time, Dr. Smith's story just wasn't making sense to investigators. They were facing the unthinkable. Was it possible the well-respected medical examiner was actually lying about everything? Had he actually staged the attack himself? They asked Dr. Smith to come in for one more interview. Why do you think they might do this to you?

Do this to you? Honey. For what? Workman. Dr. Smith again told the agents he was targeted for his testimony against death row inmate Philip Workman. But with each recounting of the attack, inconsistencies emerged. What an attack first?

I had a hard time remembering my hands and then my feet. In two earlier written statements, Dr. Smith said his assailant first. He first tied the barbed wire around his ankles and then his wrists. But this time... Do you remember you're tying your hands first to your feet? I think it's my hands first. I'm blind. I got my hands underneath me.

He's on top. I can't move. He owns me. Agents didn't buy Dr. Smith's story of being so easily overtaken by his assailant. Because Dr. Smith was well known to have a second career. He was well-known. was a combat surgeon with the Navy reserves.

This tough military man even served with the Marines in the Persian Gulf War. Why didn't you resist this guy? Because machismo gets you kill. You have a choice. You can resist, anger him, suffer the consequences, or you can write it. His story is just not believable and it can't be.

For prosecutor Pat Harris, these pictures raise the greatest suspicions. This is the inside of his hands. There's no cuts here. I think somebody wraps you with barbed wire. They're going to cut you and you're going to resist and you're going to get hurt. It doesn't look in good shape though. Those are just scratches.

I get scratches all the time. Emergency room personnel were surprised at your appearance. They thought that you would have come in in worse shape. I mean, how do you explain that? Well, what you're looking at is the fact that the barbed wire is old, it's rusty, it's So it's going to scratch a little bit, but it's not going to tear skin. You can see some lie right there. Harris believes Dr. Smith doused his own face with lie,

carefully avoiding contact with his eyes. If you notice how clean his eyes are and how they're just white, if it was either splash stone around his face, he was very careful about making sure he didn't get in his eyes. Almost a year and a half after the attack on Dr. Smith, the investigation formally ended. It didn't happen the way he said it happened. With an outcome no one could have predicted.

The evidence indicates that Dr. Smith did this to himself. In February 2004, Dr. Osi Smith, the well-respected medical examiner for the city of Memphis, was indicted for lying to federal agents an illegal possession of a bomb. Did you stage this attack, doctor? No. What was your reaction when this indictment came? when this indictment came down. This is nuts.

Your life would change. Bingo, big time. County Mayor A.C. Wharton reluctantly asked for Dr. Smith's resignation as medical examiner. The point is there are questions. Anything that diverts attention from the matter that's on trial, you need to remove that. The hard part was leaving the people,

because there's good people that work there. and hardworking people. And I just never dreamed to it in like this. His hard-built reputation was in ruins. There was confusion, there was shock, disbelief. An individual that we trusted so dearly working all the homicide cases that we work with him. And now he has been indicted.

Is it really necessary to prosecute him and potentially send him away for 20 years? Obviously, the first responders put their lives on the line, and he endangered him, and that was wrong. He drew the attention of significant amount of precious law enforcement resources over a long period of time in one of the most violent cities in America. Prosecutors offered Dr. Smith a plea deal, no jail time, in exchange for a confession. If I don't admit that I've done this to myself, you'd offer me some sort of help or something like that, but not criminal charges or anything? But Dr. Smith rejected the offer and hired this prominent attorney, Jerry Easter. It looked like he was weighing his options and some of his questions to the prosecutors.

Sounded to me like a man who was trying to get information. I'm never going to quit and I'm never going to surrender and I'm never going to sign that piece of paper. Now, the battle lines were formed. Did it strike you as odd when you heard Dr. Smith's account of this attack and how well prepared his attacker was? The whole scenario is odd. However, is it any less odd to assume that O.C. made it up with lie and a bobwire and a bomb and a ba-da-bing and a bo-da-boom? The truth is my shield and the Lord is my shepherd. How can it get any better than that? But as his trial begins, people with this disorder don't tell the jury. Things are about to get a lot worse.

Welcome to Radio Rentle. The scariest stories you've ever heard in your life. All told by real people. And off we go. This wasn't a human being that I saw. There's something here in this house, something out of this world. There was a woman moving through the hall. I stepped back and I was completely alone.

Radio Rental is available now. Listen for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. I heard again here at the federal courthouse today about these mysterious letters. Dr. O.C. Smith was found tied in barbed wire in a crucifix position. Once again, Dr. O.C. Smith is making headlines. He's doing okay. He's doing fine. He's scared. This time, not as the city's top medical sleuth. But as a defendant...

This one is one strange deal. All right, my friends, are you ready? Memphis radio talk show host Mike Fleming has been following this story from the very beginning. It's the most unusual story that I've dealt with in my adult professional career. What's so unusual is Dr. Smith is accused of staging his own attack. Why do you think you've been charged with this crime? As one agent told me, why couldn't find the guy who did it, so I think you did it. This is the list.

Dr. Smith's defense team, Jim Garts and Jerry Easter, say the facts tell a different story. To think that on one night, he just went completely nuts, wrapped himself in Bobwire, crucified himself to burglar bars on a basement window, and strapped a motion sensitive bomb to his neck. That's nuts. Why in the world would anybody do this to themselves? How in the world would anybody do this to them? themselves. As the trial begins, prosecutors admit they may not have a smoking gun, but they believe their evidence does add up. They know why and how Dr. Smith could have done this.

I think anybody can wrap their legs and their face and barbed wire. The question is, can you lock yourself to padlocks on each hand? And the answer is yes. This is how he think he could have done it to himself. Pat Harris demonstrates on a 48 hours producer. We've got the straps around his wrist as if they were the barbed wire. First he'd take the padlock and put it through the right wrist. Then he'd go ahead and lock himself in with his left hand. Then with the padlock on his right wrist, he'd slide it through the bicycle cable. Although it wasn't easy.

He was finally able to do it. He takes and he pushes against the steel bars and he locks himself in. And naturally before he's done this, he's already put the bomb around his neck and he put the barbed wire mask around his face. So the last thing he does is he locks himself in here. and then he's ready, and he just stands here and waits. Why would a respected medical professional, like Dr. Smith, stage his own abduction? He likes the attention.

That's not enough to be insane or to be found not guilty by reason of a mental defect, but it explains why somebody would do something so bizarre. Suddenly, the police are very interested. There are investigators for being kind. The story can be told over and over, and everyone's hanging on every word, word and fascinated by it. To back up their theory for the jury, prosecutors turn to forensic psychiatrists, Dr. Park Deetz.

Why he would stage this event is to have the benefits of producing this drama. Faking an event for attention is a recognized mental condition called factitious disorder. The most common form is Munchausen syndrome, when a person actually makes himself sick. Some people have the psychological need for sympathy, attention, nurturance that being a patient provides.

My name is Tijuana Brawley. I'm not a liar and I'm not crazy. One example that's very prominent is the Tijuana Brawley case. It is a tale of horror. Ordeal of terror. Tijuana Brawley accused six white men in upstate New York of kidnapping, rape, and racism. Don't shut up. He told you to shut up. But after months of a massive investigation,

a grand jury concluded Brawley's accusation. were a hoax. She faked her own attack. The benefits are psychological and usually are designed to solve some very unique individual secret problem. Do you suffer from factitious disorder? Certainly not. Have you ever been examined by a psychiatrist? No. No.

But prosecutors insist he has a history of lying. There was quite a pattern of telling stories for dramatic. stories for dramatic effect. Although the defense refused to give Dr. Deets permission to examine O.C. Smith, Dr. Dietz did examine the prosecution's evidence. One story that he told a number of people was that he had been in Africa and his family was massacred. Well, there was no truth to any of that.

How did he suffer these injuries? I think he's told people that he suffered him through either being shot or being stabbed in some type of covert military operation that he's. conducted. So you look at his military records, it never shows he's ever injured. Prosecutors say if he can tell tall tales about his military missions, then it's not much of a leap to believe he lied about the attack. O. C. Smith had an unblemished military record. The defense dismissed the factitious disorder theory as nonsense. I mean if you're going to lie a little, why not lie a lot? Why not say, no, it wasn't one guy. Lord, there was four

of them and one had a gun. and two had a knife and they wore me out, I fought them tooth and nail. Lord, it was a fight. But they finally got me. Why not say that? Dr. Smith, my name's Pat Harris. I'm an assistant U.S. Attorney. But prosecutors say there's one other key issue. When they were interrogating Dr. Smith, he didn't act like an innocent man. He was too calm. What you do all this stuff and you tell the story, it's tough to stop the ball from rolling. And I just don't see this. Is anybody but you?

He told his story. I told him I didn't believe it. I told him I thought he did it to himself. He needed to tell the truth. Give me the chance to tell me what really happened. And if I say something like that, what happens next? He didn't react or make statements consistent with someone who was being accused of a significant crime. It can have your beliefs and I'll have it. It wasn't hostility. It wasn't great denial. It wasn't loud. For four hours, Dr. Smith voluntarily sat there.

and talked to agents even after he was read his rights. Why would he do something like that? He talked to them under the mistaken belief that they just don't understand. Let me explain it to you. You've just, your science is wrong. Let me explain. Some people looking at this may see that this is more evidence of a man who suffers from factitious disorder, that he enjoys the attention. What kind of attention do he get? He's in a room with two cops and a prosecutor.

What kind of attention is that for Christ's sake? There wasn't any news media there. If convicted, Dr. Smith could face up to 20 years in prison. For his wife Marge, it's all too unreal to comprehend. Are you afraid of the potential outcome? I know the truth and I just believe that he will be found innocent. I believe that. Now, a jury must decide if Dr. Smith's attacker is sitting right in front of them.

or if he's still out there. You don't need AI agents, which may sound weird coming from service now, the leader in AI agents. The truth is, AI agents need you. Sure, they'll process, predict, even get work done autonomously. But they don't dream, read a room, rally a team, and they certainly don't have shower thoughts, pivotal hallway chats, or big ideas. People do. And people, when given the best AI platform, they're freed up to do the fulfilling work they want to do.

To see how Service Now puts AI to work for people, visit ServiceNow.com. The jury started deliberating around 9.30 this morning. After three weeks of testimony by nearly 60 witnesses, a jury is deliberating the case of Dr. O.C. Smith. It was something that was so far out of the norm. Crystal Rice Johnson, a manager at FedEx, is the foreperson. You felt like you were in a dream world because it was just so bizarre. For the first time, Dr. Smith admits he's swearing. When I listened to the closing arguments of the prosecution, I'd have voted myself guilty.

This is it, you know, Mrs. Smith's little boy is going to go to jail. But inside that jury room, a heated debate is raging. Juror Dona Mullen is leaning toward acquittal, Steve Matthews, to guilty. Reaching a unanimous verdict was not going to be easy because because it was such a complex case. If you were going to do this to yourself and make it credible, would you have all those elements? He would have made it a little simpler and a little more believable. Yeah, it was overkill, but I think that overkill points to Dr. Smith.

Where's the proof about this? It's all speculation. It's all suggestion. As they wait on the jury's decision, defense attorneys Jerry Easter and Jim Guards. If you can get one good point out of their witness, then that's great. Could only hope they created enough reasonable doubt that O.C. Smith had injured himself. How do you explain the absence of burn around the eyes? It's almost like he's wearing goggles here.

He's got his head bowed. The guy throws the stuff on him. It comes in contact with the top of his head and the right side of his face. His eyebrows basically protect everything. from the eyebrows down to here. Those eyes gave us some trouble. We had an argument for a period of time over the eyes. I'm not a doctor.

So who am I to say how red his eyes should have been? But the jurors are unable to agree on several issues. Just four hours after deliberations begin, they are already hopelessly deadlocked. But the judge orders them to continue deliberating. The jury was under a good. great deal of stress. They weren't happy. They weren't making eye contact with anybody other than the judge. The jury tries for two more days. Finally, on that third day, the jury told the judge it could not reach a

verdict. Around two o'clock this afternoon, they finally gave up. The judge has no choice but to declare a mistrial. An unusual end to an unusual case. It's pretty rough. Dr. Smith has free for now, but he still faces the possibility of a retrial. And you're prepared to go through this again. Absolutely. When you go on through hell, keep on going. Only three of the 12 jurors had voted guilty, including Matthews. How did they know he wouldn't fight back?

There's too many coincidences that, to me, leads back to Dr. Smith. The others felt they could not convict without a smoking gun. And they were even angry that the prosecution had presented a case. without one. It was a waste of time and taxpayers money. And as for O.C. Smith's alleged motive, factitious disorder, and the testimony of Dr. Park Deeds. The benefits are psychological.

Dr. Deets never even spoke to Dr. Smith, never examined him. There was no evidence there that Dr. Smith had that disorder at all. After the trial, prosecutors met with the jurors and got an earful. I'm surprised this even went from the grand jury to a trial. I'm shocked. U.S. Attorney, Buck Cummins, realized it would be just as tough to convince another jury. So he reluctantly drops all the charges against Dr. Smith. Though disappointed, he says he has no regrets.

Nothing that happened in trial did anything to undercut my belief or my satisfaction that he in fact did this to himself. But we still have an obligation to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt to 12 citizens. And we weren't able to do that. But the prosecution team still manages some parting shots. The experts have told us that they believe he has factitious disorder. And the only way you can resolve this problem is to get psychiatric help. If it's true, then he obviously could continue to be a danger both to himself and those people

around him. For him to state that outside of the courtroom, that's a defamatory comment. One cheap shot, that's fine. Two cheap shots, and we have a problem. While this trial is now behind him, it's clear Dr. Smith faces another uphill battle. Do you think you'll get your reputation back? My reputation belongs in the minds of others. All I can do is live my life well and hopefully the best on that.

Are the police still looking for your assailant? Oh, I doubt it. So he's still out there. You bet. But Memphis police aren't looking for the police. looking for that man. And the U.S. attorney says this case is closed.

If he did it to himself, then it's just a matter of time for something else comes up. So just wait and watch. Dr. O.C. Smith died in 2019. This year, on NPR's Thule Line,

life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. For centuries, America's pursuit has changed the world. Now, 250, years later, who are we? Where are we headed? Join us every Tuesday for a brand new series, America in Pursuit. On ThruLine, listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.