Terror At The Morgue

Did A Medical Examiner Strap A Bomb To His Own Neck?

(CBS) 
Workman's bid for clemency was denied, and his attorney, Robert Hutton, took to the airwaves, and attacked Smith's testimony before the clemency board. Within weeks of going on air, in April 2001, strange things started happening.

Letters threatening the life of Smith suddenly cropped up in the mail. The letters were full of peculiar religious references, saying 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 Workman's attorney.

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 Smith's neck the night of the attack three months later.

"On one side it said, 'Steel in the hands of the king of kings.' On the other side of the device were inscribed the letters JMJ," says Blum.

What does that mean?

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph," says Smith.

"Kind of makes it look like there's some fanatical nut supporter of mine, or perhaps I knew somebody, or had somebody do such a crazy thing or something like that," says Workman, who denies having any connection to Smith's attack.

But Workman had his own ideas about who could be behind Smith's barbed wire attack, the strange letters and the bombs: "I told them, you all need to be investigating Dr. Smith."

Paramedic Kelly Moore is still haunted by what she saw the night that Smith was attacked. "It was like Christ getting crucified; a surreal, bizarre sight," she says.