Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) to-do or rigmarole, especially of a rote kind; thus attrib.

1953		Labor-Management Relations 3855: Mr Landrum [...] I did not argue the merits of who did it, or who struck John.
1961		Labor Market Developments 18/1: Most of us quickly weary of discussions [...] that try to fix [...] responsibility for an act that is already past. ‘Who struck John?’ expresses colloquially the general reaction to such probings in work separation cases.
1972		Hearings on Consumer Safety Act (US Congress) 148: Is that not correct? Dr Goddard. It is until you get to the who-struck-John routine in Congress.
1980		G. Liddy Will 172: There would be a lot of who-struck-John in the liberal press, but because nothing could be proved the matter would lapse into the unsolved-mystery category [ibid.] 313: They weren't going to interrogate me without my being under oath, and it saved all the formal who-struck-John of going through the Fifth Amendment after every question.
2012		R.E. Bailey Private Heat [ebook] Who-Struck-John is what you call the legalese in a contract—‘party of the first part’ kind of thing—verbiage meant to obscure the facts.