Whew!  I think I'll leave that one up to all you English professors... but this
is precisely the kind of problem I run into with lawyers.  If someone came
to me with this sentence and asked if it should be he, him, or himself, I'd
tell her I didn't know and to consider re-writing the sentence to make the
subject more clear, use fewer words, and perhaps even lose the weak
linking verb.
 
e.g.,
 
The jury was astonished when the witness suddenly confessed that the
murderer was he.
 
or, better:
 
.... that he was the murderer.
 
or, because I do hate weak verbs,
 
... that he had committed the murder.
 
or
 
.... that he had murdered Ms. X.
 
I'd recommend simply tightening it up and eliminating the problem that
way.  But is that a cop-out on my part to avoid answering your question?
;-)
 
>>> Wanda VanGoor <[log in to unmask]> 10/03/97
02:33pm >>>
 
Here's a good sentence to try the pronoun form on.  I took it from a
handbook--
 
     The jury was astonished when the witness suddenly confessed that
the murderer was none other than he.
 
I see "than" here as a preposition, substituting for "except" or "but."
If it is, then on objective case is called for--but the "he" has already
been identified as the speaker, so "himself" might be a better choice.
"Than" is not a conjunction here, for the "he" is not the subject of an
understood verb.
 
Responses?