By Leslie Waggener

When Gerry Spence died on August 13, 2025, at age 96, the legal world lost one of its most colorful advocates. But Wyoming lost something more—a native son whose buckskin-fringed jackets made him one of the most recognizable trial lawyers in America.

Born in Laramie on January 8, 1929, Gerald Leonard Spence was shaped by Depression-era Wyoming. When he was young, his family moved to Sheridan, where his father worked for the railroad. His family scraped by taking in boarders, and his mother sewed his clothes from hides of elk his father hunted.

In a 1991 oral history interview conducted by historian Mark Junge for his book The Wind is My Witness, produced by Sue Castaneda for the Wyoming State Archives and available on WyoHistory.org, Spence reflected: “My early memories in Sheridan were those that meant the most to me, had to do with things I experienced outdoors. My father—if you had asked me what my father did—I would have told you, as a child, that my father was a hunter.”

When Spence’s devout Methodist mother, Esther Pfleeger Spence, protested taking him away from Sunday school for hunting and fishing trips, his father, Gerald M. Spence, would reply: “The true temple of God is outside.” As Spence recalled, “And I had that vision.”

Tragedy also shaped his character. His sister, Peggy, died of meningitis when he was four, and his mother took her own life when he was 19. These losses contributed to his deep empathy for others who suffered.

After graduating first in his class from the University of Wyoming Law School in 1952, Spence initially represented insurance companies, work that left him disillusioned. “I saw the light,” he later said, “and became committed to representing individuals instead of corporations.”

This shift reflected his Wyoming upbringing. He contrasted his childhood experiences—like his family taking a widowed neighbor on Sunday fishing trips—with modern children whose “primary experience is the Sunday cartoons on television.”

The Fringed Jacket and Courtroom Magic

Spence’s trademark buckskin jacket, hand sewn by his wife, LaNelle (whom he called “Imaging,” a name that came to him in a dream), became his signature. In his 1996 autobiography, he explained its deeper meaning: “The small boy, now a man of serious years, still needs to wear into battle the protective garment of love.”

His courtroom record was remarkable. Spence claimed to have never lost a criminal trial before a jury and didn’t lose a civil case between 1969 and 2010. His breakthrough came with the 1979 Karen Silkwood case, where he won a $10.5 million verdict against Kerr-McGee Corporation. The case launched him to national prominence and became the basis for the 1983 film Silkwood starring Meryl Streep.

Wyoming cases defined much of his career. He defended Ed Cantrell, Rock Springs’ public safety director who shot and killed undercover agent Michael Rosa in 1978—a case WyoHistory.org chronicled in its article on Ed Cantrell and boom-time crime in Rock Springs. During the trial, Spence had Cantrell demonstrate his quick-draw technique with the evidence-impounded revolver, showing the jury that Cantrell could have shot first only if Rosa was reaching for a weapon—convincing them it was self-defense.

He also defended Randy Weaver in the Ruby Ridge standoff in northern Idaho, arguing federal officials had entrapped Weaver despite rejecting his extremist views. The case demonstrated Spence’s willingness to take on controversial clients when he believed the government had overreached. Another high-profile case was the acquittal for former First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos on charges of corruption and racketeering in New York.

Beyond the Courtroom

Spence founded the Trial Lawyers College at his Thunderhead Ranch near Dubois, teaching attorneys to fight for “the poor, the injured, the forgotten, the voiceless, the defenseless and the damned.” His philosophy was simple: “You have to care about your client. You have to love your client. If you can’t love your client, you can’t care about your client, you can’t win.”

He wrote more than a dozen books, including the bestseller How to Argue and Win Every Time, and became a household name as an CNBC legal commentator during the O.J. Simpson trial, bringing his colorful commentary to millions of viewers. Despite declining to join Simpson’s defense team, Spence later concluded Simpson was guilty and faulted the prosecution for failing to win a conviction. He also appeared on Larry King Live, The Geraldo Rivera Show, and other national television shows.

His high-profile media presence, however, drew mixed reactions. Not everyone admired his flamboyant style. Some fellow lawyers criticized him as a “phony bastard” and “a charlatan,” according to his own 1991 reflections. Several of his multimillion-dollar verdicts were reduced or overturned on appeal, leading critics to question whether his courtroom magic translated to lasting victories.

Despite criticisms, colleagues remembered Spence as a champion of ordinary people. “No lawyer has done as much to free the people of this country from the slavery of its new corporate masters,” said Joseph H. Low IV of the “Gerry Spence Method.”

Perhaps his most profound insight came from his Wyoming childhood. “Most of us, no matter how ugly we are, or how we have failed...would surely like to trade places with me—and you,” he reflected. “Those of us who are more fortunate, are really just simply more fortunate.”

This philosophy reflected Spence’s complex relationship with success. Despite his wealth and fame, he claimed in his 1991 interview to spend “about 80 percent” of his courtroom time on pro bono work. From Depression-era Laramie to his final days as one of America’s most recognizable trial lawyers, his Wyoming values remained evident.

His fringe jacket may have made him famous, but it was his Wyoming heart that made him legendary.