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MELVIN BELLI a Candid Conversation with the Embattled, Outspoken Attorney Who Defended Jack Ruby

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MELVIN BELLI a Candid Conversation with the Embattled, Outspoken Attorney Who Defended Jack Ruby Playboy : June 1965 PLAYBOY INTERVIEW: MELVIN BELLI a candid conversation with the embattled, outspoken attorney who defended jack ruby "The mad genius of the San Francisco ing from $100,000 to a record-setting owners and spent $150,000 restoring to bar" . "a court jester" . "a publicity- S675,000. He has also pioneered the such turn-of-the-century elegance that mad pettifogger" . "the S. Hurok use of "demonstrative evidence" before it has been formally designated State of the legal profession"—these are juries—graphic, and sometimes grisly, Landmark Number 408 by the Califor- among the kinder things .said about San courtroom displays of artificial limits, au- nia Historical Association. The local San Francisco attorney Melvin Mouron Belli topsy photographs, skeletons, manne- Francisco Gray Line tours include a (pronounced "bell-eye"). That he is un- quins. X rays. witnesses on stretchers— glimpse from the street through the pic- questionably among the greatest living inspiring William Prosser, former dean ture window of his ornate office, where trial lawyers, however, is conceded even of the Cniversity of California Law Belli himself may be seen at his vintage by Belli's legion of enemies, including no School, to call hiM "a Hollywood pro- desk consulting with clients and col- a spectacular Victorian n r.- few as formidable in stature as the A►neri- ducer," and his trials "epics of the super- leagues amid ► ran Bar Association, the American Medi- colossal." So potent is the Belli image, lenge of heavy crystal chandeliers, velvet cal Association. mast major insurance however, that defendant insurance com- chairs, leather couches, antimacassars, firms, J. Edgar Hoover, Robert Kennedy, panies have sometimes made substantial quill pens, oil paintings, awards for Richard Nixon and, perhaps most re- settlements when mere mention was Belles forensic triumphs, thousands of cently, the city of Dallas. Texas, ever since made that Belli might be hired. legal and medical books, an array of Jack Ruby—with Belli as his counsel— An international law practice, plus a apothecary' jars. several human skeletons was sentenced to death there for the prodigious schedule of writing, lecturing and a 25-foot-long bar. With a small murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. and teaching. takes Belli around the communications network of telephones An eminent attorney lung before the world, usually followed by a wake of and speaker systems, Belli maintains Ruby trial, "Belli has had snore effect on controversy. But no case has earned him touch with 18 lawyers on the premises, the law in the past ten years than any 50 as many headlines as the one lie lost 15 their secrefaries,_private investigators and lawyers in the last century," in the pos- months ago in Dallas, where he caused a sundry other specialists attending the sibly ov ►eren.thusiastic opinion of a col- courtroom sensation by leaping up after cases of clients by the dozens who have league. Indeed, many of his cases have the announcement of the verdict, tears been lured by Belli's magic name and established, or carried forward, major in. his eyes, to denounce the death _sen- lofty courtroom batting average. precedents in America's civil and Crim- tence for Jack Ruby as "the shotgun jus- In a casual display of expansive gra- inal law, Defending those accused of rape, tice of a kangaroo court." ciousness. millionaire Belli flipped to us robbery, assault, arson, murder, fraud, It was to explore the issues and the the keys to his Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud pimping, inconse-tax evasion, forgery and aftermath of this historic trial, as well for our use during the visit; and lw even overtime parking, he has won lit- as the other unpopular causes he has es- wined and dined us regally in his erally hundreds of criminal cases. But he poused during his 32-year career, that we $280,000 Twin Peaks home. During our is best known as "The King of Torts"— went to San Francisco early this spring weeklong series of conversations, we ac- a title he cordially dislikes—for his vic- for an exclusive interview with the em- companied him to speaking engagements tories in more than 100 personal-injury battled 57-year-old attorney. He greeted and joined him at his tailor's for the and medical-malpractice suits, in which us in the three-story Belli Building. fitting of three new suits. And on our he has earned for clients awards rang- which lie had bought from ten Chinese first morning in town, we even helped "Look at the creeps who favor capital "I'm for hire. VII defend anyone who "I've endured my share of slings: 'Belli's punishment; you get the feeling they want comes to me—even the president of the a nut, a charlatan, an egomaniac.' Sure, to be the ones to pull the switch. Dick Bar Association suing a guy for accusing Fin flamboyant; I can afford to be—I'm Nixon is all out for it; I can't think of him of being in favor of civil rights, due a damn good lawyer. You've got to ring is better argument for its abolition." process of law and against wire tapping." the bell to get the people into the temple:' 77 wald right out into the open—for tele- know what he meant, but I don't think ▪ him transplant geraniums in his office vision? An expert defense counsel for he meant anything ominous by it. If ••• O window box as his fire.engine.red shacks and shirt wowed the ogling tourists in Oswald should have been of urgent prior- you're looking for untold facts, though. the street outside. In this bizarre setting, ity for the American Bar Association— I can tell you something most people we began by posing a hypothetical while he was alive. But tiOt. until Oswald never knew.. The night before Oswald • question. was safely dead did he get a counsel. was shot, I learned, a Dallas policeman When his lawyer couldn't be embarrassed and his _girlfriend talked with Jack 11.1 PLAYBOY: You said once that "any lawyer by being seen sitting next to an assassin, Ruby. trying to get him to approve of Or worthy of the name has a commitment an unpopular defendant. then national to defend the pariahed, unpopular de- the idea of having Oswald lynched. A. B.A. president Walter E. Craig was fentlant." You proved your point when -Their reason was that they knew what a appOiiat:d to represent Oswald at the weak-minded guy Jack Ruby was. M the you defended Jack. Ruby. Would you Warreo Commission hearing. [lase been as willing to defend Lee Os- trial, I never mentioned the cop and his PLAYBOY: Despite the Warren Report, wald if he had lived? girl, because I never could loatte them the belief persists in some circles, espe- BELLI: I would have hated to, for I loved again: they just disappeared. cially abroad, that Oswald and Ruby Jack Kennedy very much. But as a law- PLAYBOY: Wit% did von take on the Ruby were parties to a right-wing plot against yer. I must acknowledge that any man case? Some say it was for the publicity. the President's life—a plot in which the charged with any crime, however hei- BEIM Look, I'm for hire. I will defend FBI. the Secret Service and even the nous, is entitled to competent representa- Warren. Commission conspired to con- anyone who comes to me—even the pres- tion. So if Oswald had lived, and he ceal "the truth.- Do you feel that these ident of the Bar Association suing a guy hadn't been able to obtain other compe- suspicions have any substance? for defamation, for accusing him of tent counsel, and I had beets asked to BELLI: They're hallucinatory and utter- being a liberal, in favor of civil rights. take. is case—yes. I would have repre- ly preposterous. Do you want to know who due process of law, and against wire tap- sented him. If I had refused, I feel I I believe is solely responsible for starting ping. My service to the community as a would have had to turn in my shingle. these rumors? The Dallas police depart- trial lawyer is that I am for hire by like to think that the American Bar ment and the Dallas district attorney's either side. As far as publicity is con- hasn't sunk so low that there are not office. 'Their ominous insinuations that cerned, I'd had my fill of that long be- other defense attorneys in this country Oswald and. Ruby knew each other start- fore that travesty of a trial ever came who would have done the same thing. ed during the trial. In the judge's chain- along. My motive in taking the case was PLAYBOY: Do you think Oswald's rights hers I tried to persuade the D. A. to that I hoped I might be able to do some- as an accused were adequately protected announce in court that there was no thing for that sick man, Jack Ruby, for by the Dallas authorities? truth to those rumors—which could paachiatry, for law, and for tolerance. BELLI: Oswald's treatment by die law was have been quashed right there—hut it But I didn't volunteer for the job. Jack's the biggest scandal iii die history- of appeared to me that the D.A. encouraged American justice. The world "saw the brother Earl asked me if I would take them, so as to make Jack Ruby seem some the case, and he offered me a defense fee horrendous spectacle of Oswald.
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