In the late 1960s, I served as an Assistant US Attorney in the District of Columbia. It was a wild affair. I began in the Court of General Sessions which handled all manner of crimes, some as innocuous as bad checks and street assaults, others as serious as burglaries and even homicides where the evidence was too shaky to charge as felonies. Inside the building, in the elevators, and even in the courtrooms, the government witnesses were often mixed...