Playboy : June 1965

PLAYBOY INTERVIEW: MELVIN BELLI a candid conversation with the embattled, outspoken attorney who defended

"The mad genius of the 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- few as formidable in stature as the A ►neri- ducer," and his trials "epics of the super- leagues amid a spectacular Victorian ran Bar Association, the American Medi- n►r.- 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 . 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 erally hundreds of criminal cases. But he regally in his 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 Nixon is all out for it; I can't think of to be—I'm him of being in favor of civil rights, due a damn good lawyer. You've got is better argument for its abolition." to ring 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. without kind of conspiratorial monster. So the of $100,000. legal counsel, interrogated for hours and rumor that he had killed Oswald to "si- thrust into that Friday-night mob-scene PLAYBOY: Did that stun play any part in lence" hint got cabled abroad, and it your decisioit? "press conference" and shouted ques- steadily mushroomed. besmirching the BELLI: I agreed to take the case for the tions in police headquarters corridors. image not only of our law-enforcement had no counsel to object as clowns of reasons I've just stated. But since you've nation. II has been agencies. but of our brought up the money, it might interest self-seeking. self-serving "authorities" made to appear that our FBI either could volunteered to the press their prejudi- you to know that I never got anything not or would not report the full :story of cial, inalminating and otherwise unwara $100.000 for the case. What I got the -plot." There was even an outrageous like ranted statements regarding 05Walcrs was debts—bills, expenses for our defense rumor that our own President Lyndon guilt. He went a full day without coun- team, for the medical experts who flew to Johnson conspired in the assassination, sel. In trey belief, the public's mounting Dallas to testify for Ruby, and other costs. to succeed to the Presidency. Now, I outcry shamed the city into sending the I did get about $12,000 from the Rubys, know as much about the assassination president of the Dallas Bar Association, but I paid for every other cent of the as any man alive. and I can tell you flatly H. Louis Nichols, to visit him in his cell. costs out of my own pocket—ahout that it was the barren, solitary act of Lee AS far as I know, Nichols has never $15.000. It might also interest, you to Oswald_ fie was a crazy man. And he been inside a trial courtroom except For know that L was offered 5100,000 from and Ruby were strangers. Those are official inductions to office. eulogies and another source not to defend Jack Ruby. facts. The most incredible thing to me ceremonial purposes; this legal paragon I'm not saying what source. is why the FBI didn't pa,s along to the then did what strikes me as unthinkable PLAYBOY: There has been_ some specula- and unforgivable by giving an. interview Secret Service the lengthy fde it had on tion that- the. offer.. came from a well- to the press that probably destroyed Oswald. But as much as I &Lest the known right-wing Dallas oil millionaire. Oswald's ohs ions and vatid defense, that tape of man that J. Edgar Hoover is, I Bath If that's what you heard, that's he- was mentally deranged. Nichols told can't make myself believe that the FBI what you heard. the pres. that -he looked perfectly all or the C1A or anyone else suppressed PLAYBOY: Tines all you want to say right to me." which gratuitously and ;ono- knowledge of any plot. On the Warren about it? Ina iica Ily helped- the Dallas establishment Commission. we had overt wise and hon• BELU: No more—now. ((audition f of Eie opinion against any in- orahle men, some of the best. If they PLAYBOY: Ad right. Once you accept-at a:Jolty defense by Oswald. Where was an couldn't come up with the truth, then eel the case, what made you decide On ooaaid aletense counsel to scream ire pro- Cod pity us all! a plea of temporary insanity? !t ,1 when Dallas,' prosecutor told millions PLAYBOY: What significance do you at-, wattling; on television, "Oswald is the tacit to Warren's statement, during the BELLI: The incontrovertible evidence ' Pe C godly man. Throe is no doubt about it. Commission's deliberations, that the full Of psychiatric examinations. Jack Rohs and we're goiug to try him!" What kind story of the asransinaticin "won't come was and is a very sick man who helone- of defense counsel would have cousented out in our lifetimes"? in a mental hospital. We owed to tiar ale to the Dallas police department's utterly BELLI: None. That was a horse's-ass national image a dramatic example et ro 7t3 unbelievably stupid act. of. smirching Os- thihg for Justice Warren to say. I don't how the American legal system pursues Its and protects a defendant's rights. We er y major who and me: He was going to have a police O owed to our own law an exposure of had veteran writers there who ap- car deliver us to court "because there's the incongruities in our law's under- praised and reported Dallas in such so much high feeling around here." I cia standing of mental. illness. Indeed, for terms as "murder capital of the world." told him. "Look, I appreciate your con- the world to see and appreciate the mod- "a sick city," "a festering sore." "a city of cern, but we're going to walk down ex ern method specialty of psychotherapy shame and hate-" Here is a city where a goddamn Main Street to the Courthouse. a at work. was one of the great promises of Minister told his flock, "If any of you Whenever it gets to the point here in that trial. And those brilliant clinical vote for this Catholic Kennedy, don't America. in my own country. that I Of experts—psychologists and neurologiats you ever come to my church again." can't walk down any main street as a —who examined Jack Ruby put to- Here is a city where I took. my wife trial lawyer, then have to take down gether an trumistakably clear picture of and son to a beautiful Baptist church my shingle." And I would. I'd go to a mentally unstable man whom the as- and on the Sunday program an usher Congress and walk. outside wearing a sassination had stunned and shocked gave me. the Lord's message was sandwich board. I'd howl to the heav- and impelled into frantic. attention- squeezed down in a corner under the ens. I might have to do some flamboyant seeking compulsions beyond his power church's impressive balance sheer full of things to get my story heard, but you to control. Nothing I've ever sensed in dollar signs. Here is a city where l en- know I know just how to do it. in any advance about the line of defense for a tered a barbershop, unrecognized, and case. we did walk down that Main Street client has ever been more graphically someone discussing the trial said, "I hear in Dallas to the trial. but I'm going to justified by the evidence—or more ig- they got those Jew psychiatrists out from tell you the truth, I was scared shitless. mind by a jury. Maryland," and someone replied, "Yeah, used to say. despite all my enemies. that I tic's er dreamed what a kangaroo with their slick Jew lawyers." I swept the ito one would ever actually want to court of mockery and errors and prej- towel from around my neck, stood shoot me. But now, after walking down udice in law and decency we were going straight up, gave the Nazi salute, yelled that street and seeing the hate in the to face in that city. There isn't one fair- ".elehtung! Heil Hitler!" and goose- eyes of everyone who watched, I never minded lawyer who won't appreciate stepped outside. Here is a city whose would say that again, what I'm saying when the transcript can prosecutor said of a St. Patrick's Day pa- PLAYBOY: Was your outburst in court be. read. I've disagreed with jury verdicts rade. "Maybe we're pressing our luck too the reason for your being dismissed as before; every lawyer has. But I've never far to allow another parade so soon for Ruby's lawyer after the trial? felt that the jurors weren't honestly another Irishman!" And the same pros- BELLI: 1 Acts not fired. I bowed out of trying to do their very best—except on ecutor said. "Well, if they want to took my, own accord. I lost my objectivity that that black day there in Dallas. inside of Jack Ruby's brain, we'll give in day in Dallas. Once I lose my objectiy. PLAYBOY: Bitter criticism and even to them after we fry him!" itv. I've lost my value in our adversary American Bar Association censure have Dallas is where Adlai Stevenson was ss stem of justice. So I got out of the case. been leveled at you for shouting after spat upon and hit upon the head with a as simple as that. the verdict, "May I - thank the jury for a picket sign, and where the American nag PLAYBOY: Weir do you think will re- victory of bigotry and injustice!" How was hung upside down by General Ed- sult from the appeal of Ruby's convic- do you feel about it now? win Walker, an ardent advocate of the tion which is now pending? BEM: As outraged as I did then. It philosophy of the John Birth Society. lit BELLI: I chink that everyone in law was a spontaneous outburst of horror at Dallas in 1960 even Lyndon Johnson and knoes what will almost automatically the callous death sentence from a jury his holy had been insulted. Dallas is a city it:tirrien when an appellate court re- that had taken actually less than one where the "Mintnewomen" get on tele- \ 12 s than trial transcript away from hour to consider all of the complex phones and call all over with such mes. that emotionally charged Dallas court- scientific testimony about that pitiful. sages as "Mental health is Communistic" esan'. I pray to God that the terrible afflicted little man. I shouted long, vine and "Fluoridation of water is Commu- iages of American justice that iteratively, and in tears, that a kangaroo nistic." trial transcript contains will cause the Court and a bigoted jury had railroaded PLAYBOY; Aren't you describing the case to lit- reversed. And I pray, for the Jack Ruby to purge their collective con- activities of a lunatic fringe? -sake of that sick, pathetic little man, science in a rape of American justice DEW: Look., I'm not talking about all Jack Ruby—whose already paranoid- that made Dallas a city of shame forever- the citizens of Dallas. I'm talking about schizophrenic condition has deteriorated more. Too often have our courts of law the oligarchy that rules and runt the shockingly during his long imprison- shown us that vindictive streak. that city. I'd be the first to admit that some ment without psychiatric care, and who drive to heap society's sins upon an indi- of America's truly tine people live there. has tried several times to commit suicide vidual. that hypocritical refusal to face In Dallas I met two of die greatest in his cell, once by butting his head facts inherent in which are unpleasant stand-up guys- I ever knew: Stanley .Mar- against the wall—that his cruel death truths about ourselves. The watching, cus of Neiman-Marcus—it rook visceral sentence will be commuted to life im- listening world needed to hear a voice courage to speak out as he did; and Rah. prisonment in a mental hospital, where from among those Americans who recog- he has belonged since the day they put bi Silverman—he was one of the bravest nized what had happened. and who were him in Dallas' city jail a year and a half sickened by Dallas cruelty, the smug- men there. No. my contempt is reserved ago. solely for the city's archreactionary oli- ness, the community defensiveness and PLAYBOY; Do you favor capital pun- O garchy. You know what made them mad- the blind determination to crucify one ishment in murder cases where the assail- rs man for everyone's sins. der at me than anything else? It was ant is adjudged mentally sound? PLAYBOY: Do wni think that's any when I said what Ayrnbulized Dallas for BELLI: I don't favor institutional venge- is more true of Dallas than it would have me: a gold-plated bidet I'd seen with a ance under any circumstances. Who in been of any other city where the Presi- philodendron growing out of it. They God's name has the right to pass judg- dent might have been murdered? were enraged at the implication that ment on the life of another human BELLI: Its uniquely true of Dallas, Dal- they hadn't known what to do with it. being? Who's to usurp this divine pre- las is unlike any other city in America: Well, 1 take that .back. They do know rogative? Only a primitive mind sane- even the rest of Texas. thank Cod, is what they can do with it. Lions this kind of barbarity. Just look at diderent from Dallas. Federal Judge Sar- I'll never forget how Sheriff Bill Deck- the creeps who are in favor of it; you gete's. ah Iluigin called Dallas "the only Amer- er said he was going to see to the "safe- the feeling they want to be the ones to:, en ican city in which the President could ty" of Joe Tomthill, my trial assistant. pull the switch. Dick Nixon is all out 1. capital punishment; I can't think of a quendy testify in criminal cases on be- fact. I think we're slowly growing better. More likely it's because of the catapult- 0 better arguMent for its abolition. f only half of the prosecution, as more reliable wish I could take him. and all the rest of witnesses than the average man in the ing rare of population growth among. them who believe in gassing and "frying" street? the poor. the uneducated and the under- laK felons, through the agonizing ordeal of BELLI: I'm glad you asked. that ques- privileged in our squalid, sprawling city 4 the last days of waiting in the death tion. It happens to be one of the axes -alums; bemuse of the struggle to retain house to be hanged or electrocuted, grind in my book Dallas Justice. ILI it, 1 our individual identities in an increas- through the gut-wrenching last meld, said I was convinced that the testimonial ingly anonymous mass society; bemuse rit through the writing of the but heart- credibility of policemen on the witness of our liberation from Victorian sexual breaking letter to one's wife or daughter. stand is often highly suspect, ha' in stems strictures, which has set many young Let Inc do just this, nothing more—arid front the belief, deep in their Liwahicl• people morally adrift; because we find I'd be able to defeat capital punishment ing hearts. that they are serving a higher ourselves burdened with more leisure singlehantledly. truth than justice when they testify for time than ever before, and the Devil is PLAYBOY: Do you disagree with the view the prosecution. They often know a lot finding work for idle hands; and maybe that the death penalty deters crime? about the case in which they arc testify- partly because we have too many laws Bath Naturally. punishment does de- ing that might he helpful to the defend- telling us what not to do—some of them ter some crime. A lot of crime hasn't ant—hut they s■OrtIr dines neither make it daunted silly laws. Instead of trying to pened because whoever ct al*idered it available to his attorney nor mention it legislate morality for adults, why don't +im ply feared he'd wind up in the clink. in court. They are convinced—it's part we try teaching it to children? The bet- But you've got a dill:coon breed of mod- of being a cop—that the reason the de- ter, the more tolerantly, the more sym- vatiou in 1 En ler—because of its irra- feudant is sitting there is that the law, pathetically we educate our children, the tionality.rality. Most murderers just don't their part - of the law, has done its job less crime we'll have when they grow up, think in terms of consequences: they and that the job of judge and jury is to PLAYBOY: Another "legal technicality" don't think at all, as a matter of fact. provide a quick, questionless conviction decried, and occasionally defied, by law- Thus, die death penalty does very little, and a stiff sentence. The presumption of enforcement officials is the Constitution- if anything, rn deter murder. I've seen innocence until guilt is proven is for al amendment that safeguards the public priswl, join a jailbreak. -going right lawyers, not for cops. The man must be from "unreasonable searches and sei- past condemned row, Jibing exactly what guilty, they think, or else why has he zures." thus prohibiting police, say on a they knew could put them in the death been arrested, arraigned and brought to gambling or vice raid, from entering a house, and it didn't deter them a bit. tri.al? So they sometimes convince them- private residence without knocking, or PLAYBOY: Examining another aspect of selves that a modicum of truth stretch- from searching a premises without a American justice in a recent hook called ing or truth omission on their part could warrant. Do they base a valid complaint? Innucence, author Edward D. Raclin achieve the desirable end that strict ad- Bath In a word, no. I'm still Vicusri- estimated that some 1-1,0(10 people each herence to the rule of evidence could_ •an enough to feel that my home is my year arc convicted, imprisoned and in not, castle. Damn it. if I were growing mari- some cases executed for crimes they Perhaps, of all people, from what juana in my hack yard, I'd still insist that didn't commit. Are those figures accu- you've read of me, and because of what J. Edgar get -a search warrant before I'd rate, in your opinion? I've just said, you wouldn't expect me let hint wipe his feet on my door mat. BELLI: We can't have any way of know- to say this, but I think the average Once the uninvited have the carte- ing for sure unless their convictions are American policeman nut only is a good blanche right to: prowl my home and reversed—and nothing like that number guy, but be's- underpaid, overworked. search my person, next they'll be tres- are. Circumstantial evidence can often be and a pretty damned good human being. passing in my mind, as they're already loaded or 'misleading, and eyewitnesses Ile goes out of his way to help .kids, trying to do with truth serum and lit can he mistaken or untruthful, but FM and to help people its trouble. It's only detectors. Such Cestapo infornunion pro- still not among those who feel that a the .black sheep, the el rant cop._ who gets cedures are not only unnecessary but great number of innocent people are into the newspapers. And thank. God unendurable in a democracy. convicted because of either. I have coo there aren't - many of them.- - Except perhaps to our God, we all much respect for our system of laW to PLAYBOY: The U.S. crime rate is steadily have a façade, even to our closest believe that justice could miscarry so of- rising, and many liwenforcement OER- friends: some of us even to ourselves, ten and on such a scale. Over and above CCTS are convinced that part of the cause and to our spouses—our, spouses in par- that, I've had the practical experience to lies in the courts' insistence on strict ticular, for that matter. It may not be deny the allegation. But, of course, rules of evidence that provide lawyers, good that we have it, but I don't believe miscarriages_ do occur, and probably al- as you mentioned a moment ago. with the state or anyone else has a right to ways will. for man-made law will always ""leg-al loopholes" to spring their clients. pierce that facade without the individ- be fallible; but even if it happens only Flinv do yon feel about it? ual's consent—even though it might be once in a million cases, we must rectify BELLE What the police mentality seems good therapy for us to have the veil it and look for means to improve our unable to comprehend is that these drawn aside. But that's the psychother- system of justice so that the same mis- "loopholes," these technicalities of the apists' realm, not the cops', take isn't made again. If by protecting law, are among the. inalienable protec- PLAYBOY: Flow do you feel about le• the rights of an accused, providing him tions against the violation and usurpa- galii.ed wire tapping? Is it morally or as we do with recourse to appeal For a - tion of human rights. I admit that I've legally defensible? reversed decision on the basis of irregu- seen a few flagrantly guilty men slip Bath Wire tapping, like lie detectors larities in the conduct of his trial, we through legal loopholes and go scot-free and truth serum, isn't only impolite, it's enable ten guilty men to go free because in my time: but far more often I've seen morally. legally, innately wrong; it stinks their lawyers get them off on a "legal these same loopholes used to save inno- of spying. We can't let Big Brother get technicality," it would still be better cent men and women who would other- away with it. lie's already got his long than for one innocent man to be convict- wise have perished or been sent to prison arm up to the elbow into our pocket- ed and imprisoned, or even executed, for the best years of their lives. No, that's books, our offices and our daily life. because he had no such recourse. not the reason for the rising crime rate. PLAYBOY[ Doesn't your own firm em- PLAYBOY: A moment ago you brought And it's certainly not because people are ploy wire tapping in its investigative up the fallibility of eyewitness testimony. growing more lawless and depraved, :is work? 82 Would you regard policemen, who Ire- some have darkly hinted. As a matter of BELL[: Yes, I'm afraid we do. I don't

have to like it to be forced to appreciate the fact of its widespread use, which makes its coutiteruse unavoidable. 11 a layman, I can turn away from an ugly wound, but not if I'm a surgeon—and as a lawyer, 1 am a surgeon of sorts: I have to use every means at my command to represent my client, just as a surgeon has to use every instrument or drug at his command to save his patient. It's simply that bugging is now CO commonplace You've been asked to spend a day aboard that no conscientious and realistic law- the Poseidon. What makes you think you can yer.. however much he deplores it, has any choice but to use it. get away with dungarees and a sweatshirt? PLAYBOY: Among the staunchest support- ers of legalized electronic surveillance is the FBI. What do you think of its vaunted reputation for scientific eTinte detection? OEM: Their technical expertise is more impressive than their reputation. Slue. it's a patriotic institution. as sacrosanct as motherhood—but both can get a bit sickening when overportrayed, which they are. While it spends its time and the taxpayers' money chasing two-bit car thieves and looking for Communist spies in Greyhound bus stations, organized crime• continues to get fat off of prostitu- tion, dope, gambling, "juice" and mur- der for hire; it's the nation's biggest business. AVith its resources and its pow- er, there's no reason in God's world why the FBI couldn't have broken up the syndicate long ago if Hoover really wanted so. The reason he hasn't is sim- ply that syndicate bigwigs are so good at covering up their tracks that k's hell- ishly difficult to get a conviction, and he wants to keep his precious FBI's gleam- in escutcheon unbmnirched by failure. PLAYBOY: We take it you're not one of his greatest admirers. BELLI: You might say that. if you want if yOU see these, forget the whole a good scare, get a copy of Fred Cook's thing. They mean: hurricane. book. The FBI Nobody Knows, and read it some dark night. It tells the cold, hard facts about Hoover. As the Mil s revered director, he's done a great job—of mak- ing his position more secure than that of most crowned heads in this troubled world. Hoover's dictatorial ideas and ideology have no place in a position of such power in a democracy. Make it easy for them to tell their guests from the PLAYBOY: What is his ideology? - crew. Wear Cricketcer's Club Cloth denim look BELLI: The ideology of fascism, of right- sportcoat in lightweight Arnel' and cotton with ism. Look at how many ex-Fill men are color coordinated slacks. And maybe a chambray members of the John Birch Society; I button down shirt. Sportcoat, about $35.00; coor- wonder where they picked it tip. Hoover dinate set, about $45.00. is an archreactionary autocrat who clep- recites the concept that "we the peo- The big ascot controversy. Face it, ascots look great. But they do ple" are fit to govern ourselves. Ile's a get storm 11 you have the guts, dangerous, dangerous man whom we by all means wear one. should have gotten rid of a long time ago. Given full rein, he'd legalize not only wire tapping but search-without- Later, slip a tie out of your warrant and no-knock-and-enter: in pocket, and suddenly you're the name of law and order, he would dressed for dinner. completely abandon due process and the constitutional protections guaranteed to every citizen. PLAYBOY3 Aren't you going a bit far? CRICKETEER' SLII7S,SPORTCOATS AND SLACKS At most knrrwledgeatsie stores. Or write to Crteketeer, 1290 Ave. of the Americas. N.Y. for store nearest you and for your free "Knowmanstlip" booklet...a young mart's guide to social triumphs. 'Celanese Reg. T.M. mut: I probably am----because I'm tell- —the ones who pull the trigger and the ing on the "redeeming social merit" of ing Ilse truth. When this appears in ones who let them off—affront not only allegedly obscene creative works? print, I fully expect a knock at the door the law of man but the law of God; they BELLI: With the public, through the from Mr. Hoover's gray.flannel minions. disgrace themselves and our country be- courts. If I were defending a so.celled They've already tried to tap my phones fore the world, But this conspiracy of "dirty" book, I'd feel a jury of my peers and monkey with my mail. But I've had hate and bigotry won't last: its days are fully qualified to judge its redeeming uninvited nocturnal visitors before. I'm numbered. hi practical terms, however, merits. Juries do a damned good soul- ready for them. The question is: Are we can't change the state laws or the searching job that speaks for their com- they ready for me? inbred prejudices that keep them in munity's collective morality. Let literary PLAYBOY: Speaking of violating indi- force. Fru afraid we must resign our- men, ministers, professors, the tolerant, vidual rights. do you feel, as some have selves to the fact that these atrocities, the bigoted, the broad-minded and the denged, that Robert Kennedy, as Attor- and travesties of justice, will con- narrow-minded all have at it in a jury ney General, unduly and extralegally tinue until the white South learns to un- room. The sparks of conflict will shed harassed Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa? derstand and respect the spirit as well as the light by which justice may be illumi- BELLI; God pity Hoffa. Any individual the letter of due process and equality be- nated. Only a jury will arrive at a judg- is in trouble today if he gets the eagle fore' the law. It just takes time. Pretty ment that is the wish, the temper of the after him. One vicious man, Bobby Ken- soon all the subterfuges, nicks and de- community—which I think should be nedy. subverting the powers of govern- ceits designed to circumvent the civil the ultimate criterion of judgment. ment, made it a mission to "get" Hoffa. rights laws will have been tried by the PLAYBOY: How do you feel in general Now, Hoffa's done a lot I don't like---hur die-bards and eliminated by the Supreme about the muds-discussed revolution iu I think some of his convictions will be Court. Then, and only then, will Ne- sexual attitudes and practices that's tak- reversed. It -Hotta has dune wrong—and groes in the South begin to enjoy the ing place in America today? maybe he has—the law will take care fruits of true freedom. BELLI: I believe in die Constitution, of him. He should be prosecuted. not PLAYBOY Do you share the conserva- the Bill of Rights, and sex, and not nec- persecuted. tive view that the present Supreme essarily in that order. But sex has been PLAYBOY: Fact magazine recently at• Court, because of hs trail-blazing deci- here since the Garden of Eden and no tribuaed to you the following remarks sions in civil rights, censorship, school overnight revolution in the sex relation- :shout Robert Kennedy: "He's the most prayer and the like, is "too liberal"? And ship is going to accomplish anything vicious, evil sort of a birch in American do you agree with those who feel that it good. Greater candor, yes; greater per. politics today. . . Sure, he wants to he has begun to unrightfully usurp legisla- missiveness, no. I can't believe that pre- President, but what he really wants is to tive authority? marital and extramarital relations per become head of the universe. . . The BELLI: What do you mean by "liberal" se can lead to a fuller life or more en- Pape isn't safe with that little bastard and "conservative"? If you mean that during happiness. I'm certainly not Vic- around. . . He's arrogant, rude, and "liberals" are more concerned with .hu- torian. except in my office decor, and even ignorant of the law. . . . He's the man rights, and "conservatives" with I've certainly seen enough of life as an monied Little Lord Faunderoy of gov- property rights, I think that's as good a able-bodied seaman, knocking around ernment. . . . Every newspaperman definition as any. According lo that the world with , and trying knows what he is, and even Johnson definition, the present *Time Court is cases in every state; but I do not believe. can't stand him, but everybody is too the most liberal we've ever had, But too in this particular area of human rela- scared of the son of a bitch." Are these liberal? No. As for assurning legislative tionship, that lack of will power will accurate quotes? authority, of course it has. But unright- achieve any greater degree of happiness. BEIM That's what I said. But I cer- fall)? No. For good or for bad, our I will say, however, that I don't think tainly didn't expect to see it on. the Supreme Court has without question be- we're more meretricious sexually than cover of a magazine: indeed, I didn't ex- come the second legislature in lVashing- lecherous old grandpa. We've just pect to be directly quoted. But I've since ton. 1 ,ay that not in crititism, only as brought sex a little more into the open. had hundreds of both lawyers and lay- something in the nature of things. I hap- And that's all to the good. men write and telephone me to say„ pen to think. we have a great Supreme PLAYBOY: You and Errol Flynn were wish to hell I'd had the guts to say the Clime the greatest decision-making close friends, weren't you? same thing." Kennedy as Attorney Gen- Court we've ever had. the in, 1St humani- BaLl: Yes, we were. We met when I eral had absolutely no experience for tarian in our history. Earl Warten is a was retained to represent a sailor who had been accidentally harpooned in the the job as top lawyer of the United great administrator; he has integrity, States. Who is this man, who has never foot by a guest on Errors yacht, the ability. The individual justices are sin- Zaca. When I went down to Hollywood been in a courtroom, to tell me how CO cere and hard working; they try hard to to question Errol and walked in wearing act, or to tell my colleague trial lawyers he objective, to put country above per- a white suit and a black Homburg, his how to -act? Which he did. But quite sonality: they're the best we've ever had. eyes lit up. He had always beers im- apart from that, and his vendetta against The Court has done the American pressed with the histrionics of trial law, Hoffa. I know of nothing Bobby Ken- people great justice in rendering the- law and I've always felt that I might have nedy as Attorney General did that he consonant with the changing needs and been an actor. After I'd taken his deposi- could point to with pride. increasing complexities of the contempo- tion, we had a most enjoyable legal tus- PLAYBOY: How about Isis department's rary: world, sle, and a friendship began. He was dedication to the enforcement of civil PLAYBOY: Since the turn of the centu- great company. He lived life to the full- rights legislation? ry. many attempts at censorship of sex- est; he was up at all hours; he drank sate His office did a tremendous and ually explicit books and films have been vodka before he got out of bed in the good job on civil rights; but in Jack made by the U. S. Post Office, the U. S. morning. And be had the Devil in him. Kennedy's Administration, could any Customs Bureau, various. state govern- He loved pixy tricks, and played more Attorney General's office have done less? ments and scores of religious and citi- than his share of them. In a dresser PLAYBOY: What do you feel can be done zens' censor hoards. Almost all of these drawer, I remember, Errol kept about 30 to rectify the mockery of justice in South- bans have been judicially overruled, emerald-looking rings, which he'd give ern courts, which perennially exonerate some of them in histotic decisions by the to girls, telling them with great feeling. whites charged with murdering Negroes? Supreme Court. With whom do you feel "This belonged to my mother." 84 BELLI: These segregationist barbarians -should ultimate authority rest for pass- He and I also played great jokes on each other. One hot afternoon in Paris. PLAYBOY: In Sonora, California, accord- but I know that's when I developed my ; ing to your biography. is that where you deep, strong sympathy for the underdog :. O Errol took off all his clothes to be cool and lay down on his bed for a nap. I grew up? and the outcast, and it's where I learned ga left him sleeping soundly and went BELLI: Until I reached college age, when about the kangaroo courts in this coun- downstairs to the howl bar and sold tick- I went off ID the University of Cali- try. Well, after that migratory hobo in- 1 A ets for five dollars apiece to about 20 fornia in Berkeley. But I almost didn't vestigation job ended— Say, I seem to --1 women—Frenchwomen and tourists— make it. I was the valedictorian of my be telling my life story. Do you really whom I brought upstairs for a guided high school graduating class, but I had want to hear it.? tour of Errol in the altogether. Well, we to sue the principal to get my diploma. PLAYBOY: Certainly. were all tiptoeing through the bedroom PLAYBOY: How did that happen? BELLI: All right, you asked for it. Well, Francisco when some silly Frenchwoman began BEU1: NVell, I was brutally attacked I got desk space in a small San giggling and yelled "Fleen! Fleen!" the evening before graduation—by a law firm. But nothing happened. I just a well-known and woke him up. Did he get sore! huge bottle of whiskey. I was so sick the sat there. Finally, in 1934, This was in 1949. I had been in Rome next day that 1 couldn't get to school to defense lawyer took me on [or the lordly on a business trip, and was about to make my speech, and when the principal wage of $25 a month. But nothing hap- leave for TokyO when Errol called from found out why, he withheld my diploma. pened there either, so I manages! to save Paris. He said. "Dear boy, you've got to He was adamant, so my father took me $20 and went down to Los Angeles look- come to Paris. They've got me over a to see an old family friend, a judge. ing for a better job. One big lawyer barrel." I went, intending to stay two When the judge heard the story, he said, there who turned me down I later op- days, and stayed months. Errol was mak- "My boy, you've been wronged!" And posed in a case; I won my client a ing a movie partially financed by the he hauled out of his desk a couple of $187,500 settlement. The guy could have French government and there were plen- writs. a replevin. a bench warrant, a cou- hired me in 1935 and sent me to Palm ty of complications on which he needed ple of subpoena duces tecurns, a habeas Springs for the rest of my life at $100 a my help. We stayed about half the time corpus, a habeas diploma, a handful of week and still saved his client money. on the Zact.- anchored off Nice. Errol old bail bonds, and he stuck all of them Now he tells people, "I recognized Belli would go down to the bilge, where he together with notary public seals and as a corner the first time I saw him," kept sonic gold ingots hidden, bring one red ribbon and he marched over to the Sure he did! I know ever since then, back, row to shore with it, turn it in for school and served all of it on the princi- I've never refused to see a guy fresh from currency—and we'd be off for a night at pal. I got my diploma on the spot. Up to law school. You never can tell. the casino. that day I had been thinking about I finally learned to quit waiting for In Paris, at the Belle Aurora, an being a doctor, but right then I knew business to find me. If I was going to get exquisite little French restaurant. after the law was for me. any clients, I decided people would we'd gotten up at noon. we'd sit from My father lost his money in the crash, have to know I was around. I got the about one to four and have imaginary so I had to work my way through college idea of spreading it around that I'd take. trials, drinking bottles of calvados. as a soda jerk. a summer farm hand and free of charge, any cases of criminals in That's applejack made in Normandy things like that. I even wrote off for free lots of trouble. One of the first clients I country; it would chase white lightning samples of things like soap and shaving fount! was Avilez, "die Black-Gloved out of business. We'd drink and invent cream and sold them to my fraternity Rapist." He had beat tried. convicted and legal cases, usually murders, which we brothers, After I graduated, I spent a sentenced to .a total of 400 years. For what- tried on the spot. People would crowd year traveling around the world on mer- ever it was worth, I got 200 years knocked outside in the.-street until they blocked chant ships as an able-bodied seaman. off his sentence. He wrote me a thank- it. I'd accuse Errol and examine him. Then I entered the University of Califor- you note. After that, I got a number of . then he would accuse me and examine nia Boalt Hall Law School. I stood a other hopeless cases—one of them a con- me. We'd get almost to the point of lucky 13th in a class of 150. visaed counterfeiter who had resumed blows. In 1933, when I got my degree. I was printing the stuff right in San Quentin 's In later years. back iu this country. my lucky enough to get a job as a Govern- print shop. family .came to know Errol well. He ment investigator, posing as an itinerant Although I didn't realize it at the the • sometimes stayed with us. But he wasn't bum, moving around with the Okies. time, the case that first showed me thing that would later get me on my was well. My little son, Caesar, called him "a My name was supposed to be "Joe Baci- was that of a young Negro convict sick man"—the perception of children. gealupi." I was supposed to submit re- My wife would plead with him to take it named Ernie Smith, He had been indict- ports on what the Okies were talking ed for murder for . killing another con- easier. He told her, "Look, I've done I had a about and what they wanted. vict, in a tight in the San Quentin prison everything twice, why should I bother? card with a special Los Angeles tele- If I had an attack, there wouldn't be yard. Smith told me he had done it in . phone number to call if I ever got in self-defense, that the other man was anyone to give a damn." Right at the really bad trouble—not for just getting was planning to play me in a about to throw a knife at him_ I couldn't end, he arrested or beaten up; it had to be really film, It was about this time that he sent believe it, but the captain of the guard important. 1 never had to use it. One of me galleys of .fly Wicked, Wished Ways. confirmed for me that most of the cost. my first deep impressions was watching 1 wasn't home when he telephoned, on victs carried knives. He showed me a his way to Vancouver to sell the Zaca; it Los Angeles deputy cops standing on desk drawer full of over a hundred le- was like selling his life. He told my wife, the city line clubbing back poor Okies thal-looking pigstickers, explaining, "We "Tell the guy I love him; just tell him trying desperately to get into the city to take away the big ones." Before the trial. that for me." Then. later—it was mid- get on relief rolls, or at least to get a I served a subpoena on the captain of night—I was in bed at our Los Angeles meal. Eventually. I wrote a report that the guard, ordering him to come to home when Errol's valet telephoned and was used as the basis for migratory- court with his drawer full of knives to be said, "He's gone." worker relief in that area. admitted into the evidence. Walking PLAYBOY: You talk about him like a Moving out and about then, riding in past the jury box with it, I was struck by brother. and on and underneath freight cars, a hell of a thought. My whole case, every Bath I guess we were brothers, in a way "bumming," standing in soup lines, argument to determine if Ernie Smith —though I was an only child. Like him, sleeping in skid-row "jungles," I don't would live or die, was in that drawer! I'm wild. enthusiastic; I love people. I'm know how many times I got thrown out So I "accidentally" stumbled and: of different towns about the Southwest— dropped it; a hundred wicked-look' II 86 a Leo, you see, born July 29, 1907. 051-1 the nom- in front . blades. .•1 l ht rt------brokirri %cu sharp: 1411 Mrs with tile-tape handles. works. l ht jin ors trot, Inn! 100k :Ind iBOTAIT1,500TAPeRePTITT PegGil Ilit tlwv /mew it 14.141 brun sell -drkttse. ivaiiir what I had lot upon by accident? I Inc direr of ,frnirmstratille evidthci: in pials. I might WI er have talked those -paws into seeing self-defense, btu I had ptiirra it witch 1 dropped that drawer. Well. that's barkground. I had a lot of rimcrent cases after dial. all kinds. And 1 yttatlitally built up a pretty good 1u-ac- lice, at least enough to live on. prArrsoy: How did you come 30 SIX, Iali'e ill 11("rsonal.injury 511115.' Rath :‘I.11ltil bekause when J entered In 01 tire, the average individual who had suilered a personal injury faced a pretty dismal financial-award prospect if he seem. rrt court. Well up into the 1900s. settlements were in the neighborhood of Si lint lot the loss of a leg, $5500 for the 1 loss of a male organ. Sometimes people who were eVeil paralyzed with perma- nent spinal injuries would get simply nothing. /lethal* on the basis of a "con- tributory negligence" claim by the de- fense. Some states had laws making $10,000 the maximum allowable death award. The average suffering. scared, inex- perienced plaintiff had usually been ren- dered penniless by medical costs and the loss of habitual income. if he did get an attorney to go to court, a fee of one third of the average award wouldn't per- mit the attorney to present a really per- suasive case. And when 12 well-meaning but confused jurors bat hearing a jumble of legal terminology they couldn't un- derstand, if the plaintiff got anything. it was the usual, totally inadequate award. Well, I began to make a practice of showing demonstrative evidence to ju- ries: human skeletons. moving pictures, enlarged X rays, still pictures in color, infrared pictures, wooden scale models. %%ien the jurors graphically saw the na- ture and extent of injuries, my clients began getting substantially increased awards. And when other personal-injury attorneys around San Francisco, then around California, caught on and began doing the same thing. the whole picture of awards began improving. It was about then that the defendant insurance companies began campaigning against us. Awards were getting "too high." "Ambulance chasers!" they called ...in the Forward Fashion suit us. "Shysters!" Since personal-injury law is 75 percent of all trial work, their im- Tapered-Trim Design hones i ts leaner, tom-selected, including DAROLITE plication was that only 25 percent of smarter lines to perfection. Softly- (Dacron' polyester Worsted blend), lawyers in America were respectable—a shaped jacket (with a clear hint of the DAROGLO (Dacron Mohair blend), thought to conjure with_ Continent), new clover-notched DARO-POPLON (Dacron Worsted % PLAYBOY: Still, any business—including lapels, slim tapered sleeves and trou- Poplin blend). America's greatest tIIC insurance companies—must make a sers, each detail shows the Daroff quality value. )S59.95 and up. -..,Airofit to stu-vive. Isn't it reasonable Personal Touch. The fabrics are cus- Sanitized P- for Hygienic Freshness. -drat they would resist personal-injury Awards of often hundreds of thousands `BOTANY' 500 TAILORED BY DAROFF t dollars? r• • 1,Eo booklet. "Secret: tit looftred:frim" and name of nearby clothier write: 1i. Daroff & Sons, Inc,, bath 230U Walnut Bt, Pritiadotonia 3, Pa. IA subsidiary of Botany tribustrits.1 Prices slightly higher in Wost. Tell me: Who is the victim—the press by Arnie? Sophithcatn/Wornar'l_ hat by Ernme/Handlaag by Two/Woman's shoob by Florentine 87 Dy poor injury-bankrupt plaintiff trying to cases, the people who were once just like eraged about two hours of sleep on week .you and me but who are doomed for nights and one hour a night on week-- O collect adequate damages from a rich in- surance company; or the rich insurance their lives to a wheelchair or a brace, or ends, but finally [ turned out the three fat company trying to whittle down or to the indignities of bowel and bladder volumes that were published in 1955. avoid payment of an adequate award for incontinence. called Modern Trials. I'm happy to say a personal injury inflicted through the Let me give you an example of a typi- that it's become something of a standard fault of the defendant whose paid-up in- cal case of mine and let you decide textbook in the field. arZ surance premium that company has reg- whether the award I won for my client PLAYBOY: What about your Belli Sem- ot. ularly collected? Which is the greater was "too high" or not. He was a happy, inars? Will you describe what they are perfidy? You talk about insurance-com- redheaded kid, just back from the War. and what they do? pany profits—well. let me tell you some. He had a wile, a child, a job, and then Ball: For the past 13 consecutive years. thing: The insurance companies arc his life was ruined in an accident caused I and my associates have held these among the world's biggest businesses. by the negligence of the San Francisco Belli Seminars in almost every state and and they got that way by taking in un- municipal railway. He suffered a crushcd major city in America, and they have believable amounts of the public's mon- pelvis, and a rupture of the urethra at been widely and enthusiastically at- ey in premiums.—billions of dollars a the juncture of the prostate gland. He tended and accepted by trial lawyers, year. The public is buying protection. will be impotent for the rest of his life. law students and even some laymen. In But the insurance-company executives And every tenth day for the rest of his them we teach in all phases of modern seem to forget that they are holding the life he must endure a painful urethra trial law, on civil and criminal. sub- public's money in trust. They come to catheterization, or his urethra will close, stantive and procedural law. These semi- regard that money as theirs, and they'll whereupon his bladder would burst. nars have done a lot for the law, but be damned if they'll give it up without a His hospital and doctor bills were not one has failed to draw criticism from struggle. They accept your money readi- over $25,000 at the time of trial, and some local member of the American Bar ly enough, but did you ever try to collect they will be at least $2000 a year as Association, some insurance lawyer, or any money from a big insurance compa- long as he lives. Two years afterward, some large law firm with a "business ny? Nine times out of ten, when the I saw that boy again, and what t had practice." They raise their old cry: My time comes to pay off, they fight tooth feared within myself had happened— lectures are "illegal" or "unethical." and nail to get out of their obligation. his wife had divorced him, his home PLAYBOY: On what grounds? Their cries that adequate awards was gone: he had nothing left but the BELLI: I'm teaching lawyers how to raise threaten to bankrupt them are nothing remainder of his award money. Would awards to injured people. I'm teaching alongside their shrill cries whenever you swap places with that boy for the them how to site rnalpracticing doctors someone suggests now and then that the $.125,000 he was awarded? Or for a mil- who refuse to testify and who condone state take over their business. Isn't it lion dollars? Two million? Ten million? the American Medical Association's con- odd for someone claiming to be losing so I think not. spiracy of silence. I'm teaching lawyers much to scream so loudly against losing Yet according to them, die noble, stal- how to sue the reluctant insurance com- the opportunity to keep on losing mon- wart simon-pure insurance companies are pany and how to serve the process ey? No, the six-figure adequate awards being "victimized by fakers" for $50.0011 evader. Among the politicians and the I've pioneered are equitable, just and and $100,000.---just for having lust a fat cars of the A.. B. A. hierarchy, need- necessary. These awards are here to stay. lousy man or kg! When I started win- les: to say, noire of this law for the and I think the trend is further upward. ning this kind of award, they began benefit of the little man is particularly But I will guarantee you that awards to sending out letters arid buying expensive popular—though social-circuiting A. B. A. the personal-injury plaintiffs will never ads aimed at potential jurors in personal- presidents are constantly trumpeting on keep pace with the insurance companies' injury cases: "Keep those awards low, the majestic subject "The Defense of fantastic and mounting profits. or you'll force your automobile insur- Unpopular Causes," and proclaiming Let me ask you something: Except an ance to go up." Bushwai Today, with that its every lawyer's duty to give a adequate award, what else can be of- personal-injury :mania higher than ever courageous representation of his un- fered to the personal-injury victim? We before, insurance-company stocks are fortunate brother, however unpopular have nothing dint will make the per- among the best. market buys. he is, however heinous his crime. These manently injured victim whole again, Anyway, when I won three verdicts are the same great vocal defenders who nothing that will let him walk without for more than S1000/0 apiece in 1949 whimper, from behind their corpo- a limp, nothing but drags to let him and 1950, 1 really began to draw fire rate desks, when some poor unfortu- sleep without pain. For many, one from the insurance companies. "Belli is nate's unpopular case has to be tried, day not even morphine any longer a Barnum!" they screamed. "The court- "Sure, he's entitled to the best defense, eases their frightful suffering, and the rooms are being turned into horror but you defend him, I can't afford to!" only alternative left is a cordon my—the chambers!" But headway was being Even worse, these preachers of lofty sen- severing of the spinal cord to halt the made everywhere. Asking not a cent of timents are the quickest to impose guilt dreadful journey of the pain impulses to fee, I began lecturing all over the coun- by association on the lawyer of the the brain. Think about that the nest try—to law students, to bar associations, heinous-crime client. And these same time you see one of these propaganda to groups of plaintiff lawyers. Sometimes A. B. A. presidents are approving the ab- pieces about the "high awards" that are my speaking in a state would start an olition of law-school courses that would "ruining" the country's insurance com- immediate rise in personal-injury awards. teach the student lawyer how to try an panies. Think about those pitiful per- An example of that is Mississippi, which unpopular case! If we continue dimin- sonal-injury victims who tempt one to was for many years one of this country's ishing the hours devoted to criminal say "They'd be better off dead." But the lowest-verdict states; soon after I ad- law in our law schools and increasing law forbids them to choose death; they dressed its State Bar Association in 1951, those devoted to taxation, accounting have no legal choice but to go on living Mississippi awards rose sharply—to at and the like, we may as well move —and suffering. Think about the double least an equitable level. over into the business-administration amputees, the "basket cases," the trau- Finally 1 decided that I would write a schools. Then the few of us remaining matic psychotics, the paraplegics, the book of all that I thought was modern criminal lawyers and general trial men spinal-injury invalids, the blinded, the and just in trial procedures, in both may as well be displayed at the monkej grotesquely burned and scarred. Think criminal and civil law. It took me two house where the public can stare at oui 86 about the permanently immobilized years to write it: in those two years, I av- (continued on page 170) A.M.A., not one doctor in 10,000 will • PLAYBOY INTERVIEW (continued from page 88) testify against him. You can force a odd and nearly extinct species—attracted them are great guys, doing their hest doctor to cake the stand as a witness; M to the zoo by the A. B. A. presidents' and working hard. But here again, the but all you can get out of him is a C.* public barking against us. individual doctor has a far higher code grudging acknowledgment that good oh! of ethics than when he acts in con- Doc Frebish may have forgotten to wash rt PLAYBOY: For a member of a nearly extinct species, you seem to he making a vention. through his association. With his hands before taking out Sirs. Smith s pretty good living. It's been reported lawyers and doctors, it seems there's uterus instead of her tonsils, and that nindedty left .t Pa that you earn more that 000.000 a some sort of collective amorality. a cal- he may have absent-► year from the "adequate awards" you lous mob psychology, that takes over the sponge in her abdomen, but that this win for your clients, individual practitioner's ethics and hon- "could happen to any of us." and cer- BELLI: Every penny I get, I earn! Do esty. Doctors as a group condone mal- tainly couldn't be considered negligent. you think all a lawyer has to do is pick practice acts that individually they PLAYBOY: Aren't you exaggerating a hi! up a phone and get an insurance com- wouldn't dreatn of sanctioning. The in- BELLI: You think so? Listen, an entire pany to settle for $100,000 and then bite dividual doctor is so busy treating the book has been written about things left off a third of it? To start with. I'm sick and performing operations that he's in patients—not just sponges and for- eye- gambling when I take a case. Especially forfeited the administration of his na- ceps, but rings, wrist watches, even when it's a large award to be sought, tional organization to a bunch of dirty glasses, for God's sake. Imagine: "What the layman has no dream of the amounts sons of hitches who try, because of their time is it, nurse? I've lost my watch." of time and talent and money that the own shortcomings in their profession. to "Just a minute, doctor, I'll put on my plaintiff's lawyer must invest in pre- make him conform to what they think glasses. Oops! Where are my glasses?" paring the best presentation possible. medicine should be. They tett him not Now I have personal knowledge that do deplore this If we get to court and a jury votes to publicly criticize his fellow practi- most doctors privately against my client. I've lost all I advanced tioners: they have usurped his conscience. sort of thing. A number have told me —in cash as well as effort. I don't just sit PLAYBOY: Do you think it's reasonable privately of incompetent colleagues gen- in my office and work my cases. Our firm to expect a doctor to jeopardize his erally regarded as disgraces to their here, we aren't just some fat-ass-corpora- professional standing by testifying profession. "But Mel," they say, "don't tion of lawyers sitting around thinking against a colleague? ask me to testify against him. My insur- about new ways to screw the Govern- BELLI: Look. every doctor is licensed ance would be canceled." I can't really ment out of taxes; we are a firm of by us. the public, to practice. His train- say I blame them: if you ever do actually concerned and committed people rep- ing. his talent, his title, is given to hint get a doctor to take the stand and testify against another doctor's flagrant and resenting men and women who need in trust, by society. To whom, morally, help. We care. It's the most precious does he owe more—to mankind, or to the perhaps tragic malpractice, he's regarded as a "stoolie" and will be ostracized for thing we've got here. our feeling for the A.M.A. and the insurance companies life. Score another victory for the con- people who come here wanting help. who underwrite his practice? Think of spiracy. This is the sort of thing I'm I'm working my cases in the shower. yourself as a victim of some doctor who trying to fight. is it any wonder my when I'm trying to sleep and can't, was simply careless. Think of your be- name is anathema to these people? when I'm on the john, when I'm driv- ing maimed. tuaybe irreparably, because But you know, I take pride in the fact ing my car, when I'm sitting in those of his bungling and of your being un- that there's an instructor in one San late-night planes. If I win the adequate able to get another doctor to testify deserve against a wrong that he can plainly see. Francisco medical school who asks his award for my client. 1 [eel I students, "What man has done the most the one third I take for the work that My first malpractice case was my eye for medicine in the past century?" They got the award. Most personal-injury opener to this incredible conspiracy. I name Pasteur, Lister. He says, "No— lawyers take a bigger cut than 1 do— was retained to sue a doctor who had Melvin Belli, because the son of a bitch many of them 40 and 50 percent. prescribed enemas and cathartics for a has made medical men conscientious PLAYBOY: Still, you've managed to amass young man who was suffering classic ap- about their courtroom testimony, and a sizable fortune from the proceeds of pendicitis symptoms. The boy's aamp- has made lawyers learn medicine." such cases. How much would you say big worsened, the doctor sent him to a PLAYBOY: Is a background in medicine you're worth today? hospital where he let him wait; the ap- essential for a lawyer? BELLi: I could cash out today with—well. pendix burst and the boy died. Not only . feet that after was the treatment patently wrong, but BELLI: Absolutely. In our courts today. look. let's put it this way: I three fourths of the criminal and civil he makes a million dollars a guy should later I had good reason to believe that cases involve some understanding of start counting his blessings instead of the doctor was intoxicated when he some aspect of medicine and medical money. I'm counting my blessings. made the house call. Are you ready? I practice. If a general trial lawyer doesn't PLAYBOY: Your remarkable success in lost that case! Not one of this drunken cultivate for himself something beyond a winning six-figure asvards, and earning doctor's colleagues would testify in court layman's knowledge of medical fields. le- five-figure fees. in medical-malpractice to what he had obviously done. Worse, five doctors testified in his behalf, in- ans himself off from essential informs cases has made your name a red flag to Lion. and he deprives his client of all the Anserican Medical Association as cluding the head of one of our largest essential service. Every law student I well as to the nation's insurance com- university hospitals. Five years later, meet, if he indicates to me that he wants panies. What's your brief against the that defendant doctor killed himself; he to do something more worth while wit!: medical profession? had become a dope addict and a habit- himself than to be a jockstrap for some BELLI: George Bernard Shaw wrote it ual drunkard. better than I could say it, in The Doc- Twenty-five years have passed since insurance company, or to keep sonic tor's Dilemma: "We're a conspiracy. not then, but it's still next to impossible to corporation's legal skirts clean. I ads a profession. Every doctor will allow get one doctor to testify against another, him to arrange not only to see a cote- a colleague to decimate a whole country- and it doesn't matter how flagrant the plete autopsy but to learn firsthand side sun nier than violate the bond of pro- case is. Good old Doc Frebish may have about surgical procedures of eVer, •• ,!1- fessional etiquette by giving him away." come into the operating room dead to sit in on skin grafts. bone grafts, pts The same as with chicken-hearted, fat- drunk, carrying a rusty knife and wear- tic surgery. I advise him to learn the cat lawyers. my isn't against ing an old pair of overalls, but as long as functions of surgical instrument-. tl 170 the individual doctors: 99 percent of he's a member in good standing of the familiarize himself with hospital !s11.1 want to cry out—but how official lists of lawyers; my credit was fro- IN phernalia and pi-IKE-Alm-es. and we all c.r me tell sou a %ory simple caw of many of us dare? We all see Big Broth- zen; some TV appearances and lectures were canceled. I'm not being paranoid thug lilt 1111.11 11.11MS WO IMO oil tor- er's steady encroachment beta tISC ,;,'„ini,,w“; :he howl:ids mid hothhed; dote/. I know we have to give up some when I say that those bastards in Texas ol times that it has. 1 leis was as simple freedom to have some safety. some or- were behind the whole thing. Why. you .,s merely knowing a word. a medical der in society. but I simply cannot toler- wouldn't believe sortie of the mail I got term, when I heard it. I was cross-exam- ate very much of Big Brother—those who postmarked Texas. Imagine opening a inindt a doctor who contemptuously claim to know what's better for you than letter addressed to you as "Dear Rec. 0. attributed several of my plaintiff's cam- you do. tune." I heart-warming' pianos "amenorthea." When I got up I don't believe that the average per The best part of it. though, is their ca to present my argument to the jury, I son, informed people included, really pa ign—with tie cooperation of the heads had a medical dictionary in my hand. I realizes the swiftly increasing degree to of the .1. R. :N., who have-been waiting hit- read aloud the meaning of that word; it which our country is being run and cote an excuse—to have me kicked out of the wasn't something with which my male medical by an torreett govermueta—not American Bar Association. After the client was likely to be afflicted. It means only by the FIlt and the CIA and the Ruby trial, f was notified that I'd be giv "irregular menstruation." My client won A. M. _1. and the A. B.A.—Inn by found& en a "trial,- investigating my "conduct a handsome award. By now I probably hanks, ad agent.WN, itt,:oratwe of the case"—though publicly I'd already know as much medicine as I do law- conti.atries, t rte: comps Ii ie.; a nd their bet!' convicted by the A. B. A. "grievante Here in my office I've collected a bigger monolithic_ ilk_ In insidious ways, they committee." I was notified that my trial medical library than is owned by proba- are pest-tilting iittr moral codes, limiting would be held in the Settler Hotel in bly any doctor in San Francisco. ir Ili al,. txu livedutits. Theirt.tilti-blonclled busi- Dallas. I replied that I wasn't about to my law library—in %chit It 29 of the books ness ethics arc het eosin} universally, and come to Dallas. Out of curiosity I asked are my own, by the way. passively. accepted. them if they intended for it to be held PLAYBOY: How do you lend the time to The A. A. is at war with me—like on the hotel's top floor with my seat study medicine, write books, give lec- the A. NI. A. and the insurance com- next to the open window. tures, teach law ourses—and still panies—Ix:cause I'm at war with those I was next peremptorily notified that maintain your overflowing calendar of who abet evil by keeping silent when my trial will be held in San Francisco persona hinjury Lases:: they see wrongs being perpetrated and instead. That suited me fine. Then they BELLI: Wen, somehow you manage to perpetuated by the greed, malice and announced they had decided to take do- get done what von feel has to be done— deception of these self-seeking institu- positions against me. I asked that the de- especially if. you don't see anybody else tions. I'm under attack because I be- positions be delayed until a date when I doing it. And besides, I love my work. lieve in crying out against injustice. could be present. Denied. I asked by But I sometimes wish I could be a were- God knows. I've endured more than what "rules of evidence" was I to be wolf, with two lives—the life I have now my share of slings and arrows: "Belli's tried. No reply. I asked for the privilege and another life. I yearn for the quie- a nut. a charlatan, a publicity seeker, of taking depositions on my own behalf. tude and the thoroughness of dealing an egomaniac:" Sure I'm flamboyant. Denied. Next came an indefinite post- with only a few cases. The way it is now, I can afford to be, because I'm a damn ponement of my trial. So 1 not only have to budget my time like a whore good lawyer. You've got to ring the don't know how I'll be tried, or for what when the fleet's in. This morning I've bell to get the people into the tem- I'll be tried: I don't know when I'll be been on the telephone, about different ple. But my brand of nonconfortnism is tried either. rases, with Canada, New York City, so offbeat they don't know what to label PLAYBOY: Can you continue practicing if Pittsburgh, The Virgin Islands, and I've it. About the only thing they haven't you're ejected from the A. B. A.? exchanged some cables with Hong Kong. tagged me is "Communist." It's a wise Bond I don't have to belong to the I need time to work on my autobiog- thing they don't; I'd sue. This, mind American Bar Association to practice. 1 raphy. I've been collecting stuff for 15 you, after all I've done for the law, I've don't even have to belong to the A. B. A. years. It's going to he big. Aunt it's real- tried more cases. I've had more judg- to take books out Of their library. To ly going to lay into all those bastards. ments affirmed on appeal, I've made practice. 1 just have to belong to my PLAYBOY: Who do you mean by "all more new law than probably any lawyer. own state bar. As Bob Considine said, those bastards"? group or firm in the past 15 or 20 years. "Being kicked out of the American Bar BELLI: You know: Bobby Kennedy. J. After I'm gone, they'll be teaching Association is like being drummed out Edgar. the A. M. A., the A. B. A., the in- courses about Belli. But the pack is out of the Book-of-the-Month Club." I'd cry surance companies, ad infinitum. in full cry salivating over mc. So be it. If all the way to the bank. PLAYBOY: Don't you sometimes feel that I'm going to go down, I'm going to go PLAYBOY: Suppose you were disbarred you've earned a few more enemies than down fighting. also by the California state bar. you can afford? PLAYBOY: Is your plight as serious as BEM: Well, I've always got my solid- BELLI: Maybe so. Maybe I should have all that? gold Honorary Life Membership card in better sense than to take • them all on BELLI: You bet it is. And things have the Bartenders' Union. Or maybe I headfirst and simultaneously. Because been .coming to a head since the end of could get the Coast Guard to renew my you know what I'm scared of in this the Ruby trial. I was absolutely awed by able-bodied-seaman papers. I think I the speed and the ruthless efficiency with office today? The big frame-up! I'm al• might write, too. Back when I first start• which Dallas' multimillionaires retaliat- ways telling myself I have to watch my ed, I might as easily have gone into steel- ed against me for my uncharitable re- tongue. My fault is that of Adlai Steven- working, or teaching, or exploring. or marks to the press about their fair city. son. He likes to make cracks, too. It cost doctoring, instead of law—and I bet the Presidency. But whatever the You've heard that money talks? Listen, him there are a lot of people who wish I had. cost, I've got to fight for what I think is money screams! By the time I got back But you know, it's hard for me even to right—and against what I think is des- to San Francisco I found that insurance think about having any other career than. policies of mine had been canceled with- perately wrong—or I wouldn't think law. The law is my muse. She has in her out explanation; a book publisher had much of myself as a human being. wooing been a jealous mistress, but my backed out On publishing Black Dale: I've told you how in my early days courting of her these 30 years has been began to acquire my bitterness against Dallas, the title I had planned for a an exhilarating time. the guy with a billy, the entrenched book; mortgages had been foreclosed: 172 powers. We see injustices all around us, my name had been withdrawn from