Earl Rogers

Earl Rogers (November 18, 1869 – February 22, 1922) was an American trial lawyer and professor, who later became the inspiration for Erle Stanley Gardner's fictional character Perry Mason. Life Earl Rogers was born in Perry, New York on November 18, 1869, the son of Methodist minister Lowell L. Rogers and Ada (Andrus) Rogers. The Reverend Rogers moved the Rogers family to California in 1874. Rogers attended Ashland Academy in Ashland, Oregon and St. Helena Academy in St. Helena, California. He then studied at Syracuse University, but left to return to California after his father went bankrupt. Rogers worked as a newspaper reporter, then studied law under former U.S. senator Stephen M. White and Judge William P. Gardiner. Rogers was admitted to the bar in 1897, and began to practice in Los Angeles. Among the prospective attorneys who studied law under Rogers was Buron Fitts, who later became a Los Angeles County district attorney. As a defense counsel, Rogers handled 77 murder trials and lost only three. He astonished medical experts on the witness stand with his technical questions. His expertise was so complete that he became a professor of medical jurisprudence and insanity in the College of Physicians and Surgeons as well as a professor at the University of Southern California Law School. In "The Case of the Grinning Skull," Rogers introduced the victim's skull to prove what appeared to be a fracture caused by a violent blow from a blunt instrument, in fact, was the result of the autopsy surgeon's carelessness. The jury returned a not guilty verdict.