CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Gerry Spence, the fringe jacket-wearing trial lawyer from Wyoming known for a string of major court wins starting with a multmillion-dollar judgment against a plutonium processor in the landmark Karen Silkwood case, has died.

Spence, 96, died late Wednesday surrounded by friends and family at his home in Montecito, California, according to a statement from colleagues and family.

“No lawyer has done as much to free the people of this country from the slavery of its new corporate masters,” Joseph H. Low IV, vice president and chief instructor at the Gerry Spence Method school for trial lawyers, said in the statement.

A polished raconteur with a gravelly voice whose trademark suede fringe jacket advertised his Wyoming roots, Spence was once among the nation's most rec

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