APPOINTMENT IN DALLAS THE UNTOLD STORY

For five weary weeks the world focused its attention on a struggle in a Texas

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OF JACK RUBY By Edward Linn

Court, hoping to catch a glimpse into the minds of both a murderer and his notorious victim.

The St. Patrick's Day parade was held in Dallas on Saturday, March l4, anticipating the actual holiday date by three days in order to have the run of the relatively trafficless downtown streets. Only a few hundred people lined the sidewalks rise green-imiformed hand and a thin column of paraders moved slowly up Main Street and past the courthouse. March 14 was also the day on which the fate of Jack Ruby was handed over to the jury. As Bill Alexander. the assistant D.A., came to the courthouse, he cocked an eye at the passing parade. "Dallas is sure crowding its luck," he said, pushing his Stetson to the back of his head, "holding another parade for an Wailer." The jury had begun its deliberations at 9:15 A.M. At I I :35 a call came up to the D.A.'s office for District Attorney Henry Wade. Wade wasn't there. A minute later an excited assistant D.A. called in, "We've got ourselves a verdict. They've knocked." The press lined up outside the courtroom, while everybody waited for Judge Joe B. Brown to drive in from his home. Bill Alexander came walking through, and when someone asked him what he thought the verdict would be, he jerked his tie up over his head and made the gargling sound of a men being hanged. By n special ruling of Judge Brown, a camera had been set up at the back of the room to record the verdict. The last circle had closed. The case would end as it had begun—on national television. Defense Attorney Mel Belli, who is usually dressed like a show horse, walked into the courtroom wearing a black suit and a black sport shirt but toned to the neck. He looked for all the world like a priest-hangman. "This is going to be rough," he told Ruby. "They're a butch of no-good bastards. Whatever it la, we'll ap- peal. You just Sit back, Jack. I'm going to take it, not you." The jury Sled into the box, looking grun- The bands of the juror in the near corner of the back row were trembling as Judge Brown read the verdict. For all the emotion in his voice, Judge Brown might have been reading the temperature-humidity index. "We the jury find the defendant guilty of murder with malice as charged in the indictment and assess his punishment as death." Jack Ruby's eyes blinked. The blood drained out of his already white and sunken face, He bit Na lip. As Belli leaped up in his hangman's suit to shout to the jury, Ruby started to rise from his seat—dosed and dutiful—as if he thought that perhaps he was supposed to be on his feet too. The hands Of two guards shot out quickly to press him down. "May I thank this jury for a victory for bigotry...." Belli shouted. As Ruby was led past him. Belli yelled, "Don't worry, Jack. Well appeal. We'll appeal to the highest court in the land." For five weary weeks the nation's attention had been focused on that Dallas courtroom in the hope—however illogical—that a glimpse into the mind of Jack Ruby, who had performed one ir- rational act, might provide a faint glimpse into the mind of his victim. Lee Oswald. who had performed another. But the trial tinned. The defense did not show Ruby's mind; they showed only a literal recording of his brain waves. There was no psychiatric testimony that went much deeper than the pity- the-poor-boy-who-never-had-anybody-to-love-him level. The Bat- tle of the Psychiatrists, for which we were waiting an anxiously, turned into nothing more than a mild disagreement among tech- nician', a quibble over some squibbles on a piece of paper. The best exhibit for insanity was Jack Ruby himself, sitting there all those weeks with a frozen, waxen look of agony on his face. lack Ruby entered the courtroom a stranger. He was a North- erner in the South, a Jew among Christians, a striptease-joint

Parfietpaats to (ha /Noy trial iyoladed Mergri. Attorney ma Harken. ( I), faek lend (2). Dersass Attorney Melvin Asa{ (3), Delves. Attorney les reaakat (4). Draxi-ngs lrq John OroM lady. Ise A. Breves (14 Alunklurte D.A. 's Prank Wags (6) and Jim (Mete I.:P. Loafs Lynn IN). Amnion) p.A. 8W Alkkander (9), and D.A. Dewy Wads (101. 25 Triad of Jack Ruby himself felt that his life had come to an expression around his eyes and mouth. into the pattern. Even the slight amount end. The defense, in short, had to show Melvin Belli himself noticed it from the of information about his life and his talks operator among the Baptists. He was a that Ruby grimed for himself to the point *tinning One day during noon recess, with paytimatrisu that came out of the spectator in a game played among three where there developed a confusion of he held the pictures of the two men side trial screamed for interpretation. oantestams, the two lawyers and the identity in which he drifted back and by side, shook his head in wonder and Mel Beth hired Dr. Rey Schafer of judge. Ruby, the the defendant in any forth between Kennedy's death and his disbelief, and said, "The resemblance Yale University to give Ruby a battery of murder trial, became little more than a own until they became so interwoven, so between these two guys 1.3 most incredible." psychological testa to find out whether was figure, depusonalized, dehumanized, inseparable, that he had lost all contact From beginning to end. Ruby was his Ruby was suffering from any physical or &juiced. Ruby, accustomed throughout with reality. Which means that he did not diem best exhibit. Nobody claimed that he mensal disorder,. In one tut Ruby was his life to hitting out when he felt himself know right from wrong, the only lest of was not unstable. He was a man who sur- told to assemble 32 different objects in in danger. became that saddest of all insanity under Texas law. rounded himself with dogs and insisted logical groups. Schafer concluded that things: the man of action delivered into There's nothing so farfetched about that they be treated with respect, "Don't Ruby showed a "concreteness" rather the hands of the talkers. He had to sit that The murder of Kennedy did, in fact, call them 'dogs,— he'd tell his friends an- than an "abstract" turn of mind, because there through these endless days and set of precisely this kind of crisis in men- grily. "These are my children, and chil- he had "perseverated" on a single idea to listen to that endless talk, that Niagara of tal hospitals all over the country. And dren should he treated with respect." Ho explain all the groupings. What was the talk on which his life depended. not only In mental hospitals. The anat. favorite dog, Sheba, he salted "my wife." single ideal "He perseverated on the idea Most of all he was an outcast because Ruby's rabbi, Hillel Silverman, recalls that all the groupings had something to he was being tried, when all was said and a conversation. "We were standing on do with grownups and children." dane, for interfering with the due process my front lawn talking. The dogs were Ruby might have been expected to of tow, Jack Ruby's crime was not to running all around. I said something "perseverate" on that point, because there much that he hod killed an assassin but about them, and he broke down in sobs. were many other signs that indicated he thel he was a body snatcher. The body He cried and moaned and said something was completely obsessed with the way he of a criminal belongs to the court no less about these were his only children, the had been treated al a child. But Doctor than the body of a dead man belongs to only real family he had." Schafer. a psychologist, was concerned the church. Ruby. in ho meandering way, had cold with t hese "obsessions" only as they served The prosecution's tine of attack was Dr. Manfred Gunmacher, a defense psy- to show a lack of flexibility of thought. that Ruby hod idled Oswald because he chiatrist, "If only I had been held at the The defense's two psychiatrists could expected fame and glory, a line which Western Union office a few minutes hardly have picked up each from these they had every reason to believe, Al- longer, this never would've happened.... indications of Ruby's view of himself and though they were never able to bring it If only I'd been able to get married, this his life, since they examined Ruby before out at the trial, they knew that upon be- never would've happened," Doctor Schafer made the tests. ing transported to the county jail, Jack On the stand, Doctor Guttrnacher re- The mind put on display in that court- had told Jim Leavelle, the same officer to lated this as an example of the discon- room in Dallas was not Jack Ruby's; It whom Oswald had been handcuffed, "I nected thought processes that indicated was the baffling mind of Melvin Belli, the not wanted to to a goddamned hero, and brain damage, 'The fast Part of it made enormously successful San Francisco per• all I dune was foul things up." sense," Doctor Gunmacher said, "but sanalanjury lawyer who, against all logic. Jack told Isle first visitors, his closest the second.. ." Then he paused and became the chief attorney for the defense. friends, the some thing. But when a men Ren1y, felt, Tomahill dad Mein said, "I did have the feeling that there The flower of the world press came to in Jack's pneitinn volunteers what seems was something more in there. . .." Dallas and found Melvin Belli standing to be the moat damaging pasoille admis- There was, of course. In order to kill in a pool of tight. In those first couple of sion, he probably is only trying en pre- sination practically immobilized the na- Oswald. Ruby obviously had to be where weeks Belli could nut enter the court- vent anyone. including himself, from dis- tion for several days, as we sat down and Oswald was, not in the Western Union house without the camera lights coming covering the real—and to him far mote pumice:el our awn mortality, our own office. In order to get married, he would on. And once those lights are an him, painful and shameful—reason. inexcusable failings, and our own wasted have had to be a man capable of marrying Belli cannot slop talking. lie is an engag- Within II minutes of the lime he killed lives. Because—and we all felt it to some a woman and raising children. Lev other ing man, and part of his charm is that he Oswald, Jack Ruby had given an equally degree or other—if the man who had words, he was telling the psyduatrat that is such a notable example of that good strong sign of premeditation by telling everything could be wiped out in a second if he had not 'lilted" before he had a old American species, the publicity bound. Sgt. Par Dean, "1 wanted to show the at the whim of some miserable little mis- chance to become a man, there would Even his co-counsel, Blg Joe Tanen ill, world that Jews do have guts." fit, we knew how vulnerable we were. We have been no need to avenge himself. who considers him a legal genius and was "You know, I had the feeling that it were all brought face-to-face in broad For weeks Ruby remained in that sort content to walk one step behind him, felt wasn't really what he meant" Dean told daylight with those intimations of mar. of floating state, in which almost every. constrained to add. "Of course, he's been me later. "It was just so ambiguous the inky that normally come only in the thing he said seemed to have this double bitten bad by the publicity bug." way it came out, so out of place." dead of night. meaning—once you made the assumption Belli was not the original lawyer in the There is one big bole in the argument And there was one other thing that that he was involved, subconsciously, with case. A Dallas criminal lawyer named that Ruby did it for glory. Everybody would invariably bring the tears to Jack his own lost life Everything he said fitted Tom Howard, who had once been a who had sera Ruby—including the prose- Ruby's eyes. A reference to the breakup melon's own widiessea— agreed that he of his awn family when he was 12 years did go into a !WA of deep and meonsffi- old. In the by-ltned series of articles he able vier upon hearing that Kennedy was dictated from his jail vall before the trial, dead. During the trial itself, any mention Ruby told how he had been shipped off of the assassination, or even of Jackie to a farm. "And l died there," he said. Kennedy and the children, would bring Ruby, in his floating, troubled Hate, tears to Ruby's eyes. did everything extent shout out his con- In the early days. when Ruby was being fusion. "The poor children." he said interviewed before every smoke, he was after Kennedy was shot. "Those poor, still choking up with grief whenever he fatherless children." When he was first had to talk about Kennedy. It became ap- told of the murder on Friday afternoon, parent that nobody could possibly put on November 22, in the advertising office of an act that successfully. It also became the Dallas .Nriv.r, his first words were, apparent that something was very wrong "My life is over-" Not Kennedy's and even very unnatural. Something that my life. To his sister he said, "I em dead " went beyond the mere act of crying. No- To complete the picture, the defense body grieves that much for a stranger, had to show that there was something even if the tinnier happens to be the about Oswald himself, about his physical President of the United States. You grieve presence, that would provide the final that much for only one person. Yourself spark to set Ruby off. In talking to the You don't sat out to avenge a stranger defense psychilanst or the police, Ruby either. You avenge only yourself. used pretty much the same terms about In hindsight the real tragedy of the Oswald: "a smirking, arrogant Com- trial may have been that the kind uf de- munist . cunning and vicious. . . . I fense that would have told us what we felt like I was looking at a rat." wanted to know about Ruby vim also There was a curious thing that hap- quite passably the defense that might have pened during the trial, As Ruby shriveled saved him. To get Ruby off on an in- before our eyes growing thinner and thin- sanity plea, the defense had to show ner by the day, he began to look more that the murder of President Kennedy set and more like Oswald. Not only in the off in leek Ruby the already emerging contours of his features but in the way he memories of a time in his life when he held his head and pursed his lips, in the Prtfanae .idomey Jf el BeUI mmyht M three char...No-vb. p.m 211

people who have been terribly maimed Trial of Jack Ruby other lawyers—Tonahill, a personal- injury specialist from Jasper, Tea., and and make the insurance companies pay nightclub owner like Ruby himself, was Sam Brody, from Bellis own firm. them for the loss of. if not their lives, at hired by one of Ruby's partners an hour Howard retired before the trial. least their livelihoods. OS so after the shooting. Howard, who has Belli's impact was enormous. He al- With it all Belli takes pains to show never lost a client to the electric chair, is ways gives people the sense that he is that he is a winner himself. "I pick them simple, direct man. He disdains the use thrusting himself upon their senses—the up as losers, that's true enough," he says, of notes, since he feels that lawyers win door of his hotel suite in Dallas always "but by the time I put them down again, ass by outthinking the opposition. When seemed to be open, and the sound of ha they're winners:' And he is off and run- Torushill handed him a question to ask a Yoke, over the phone, on TV or in simple ning about a recent vase where the assur- witness, Tom showed his displeasure by conversation, hit a visitor halfway down ance company had offered his client a saying, All right, I'll read this just the the hall. The very way he dresses is a cart- lousy 55,000 and "it went for SI 03,00O3" way foe Tonahill wrote it." canna- There were. (or example, the well. Speaking of his battle against The Es- The defense Tom Howard planned for advertised cowboy boots vat h the two-inch tablishment, Belli says, "What 1 ant Ruby was just as simple and direct. His heels and the special sideatraps. custom- against is Big Brother, the people who plan was to push the case through as made by Peal's of London and polished, know what's better for you than you do." quickly as possible, stirring up as little reputedly, with a special brand of saddle When Belli walked into Dallas and found fuss an possible. At no time did he intend soap. In Teens, whets cowboy boots are dust It was ruled by something called "the to plead temporary insanity. His case was not ornamental, they were looked upon oligarchy"—a semiofficial, semtpublt- that Jack always has been insane. He was as a joke. Assistant D.A. Bill Alexander cized self-perpetuating group of busi- going to put about 50 witnesses on the called them "fruit boots." nessmen—he could no more have kept stand to testify cheerfully that, sure, Then there ass the fancy coat with the everyone knew Jack was a nut. He was Persian-lamb collar, and BCIII'S rather then going to put one or two psychiatrists unusual red-velvet briefcase. Even the on the stand, preferably from Dallas, but beautiful full mane of nicely peppered certainly not from outside Trans. gray hair, thickly coiffeured at the sides At the and he was wing to place Ruby and joined together neatly in the rear himself on the stand to that he could cry in perfect movie-star style, seemed to a little and say, "I shot Oswald because I be part of a costume. was to worked up about him killing the His soft. even features do give him the President and Officer Tippit I know I look of a matinee idol while he's in action. shouldn't have done it. and I couldn't be Close up, though, he has the puffy. sorrier. Do whatever you want with me. dumpling look of a man who has in- the only thing I ask is, please don't send dulged too freely. Or maybe it was just ma to the chair." that he came to the trial overweight. Tom would then deliver his famous He is a marvelously eloquent and witty "death-house speech." in which he walks man. Once, walking back to his hotel the jury through death row, details every after a particularly galling day, he started move from the time the condemned man to cross the street against the Dos'r leaves his cell until the switch is thrown— WALK sign but came trotting back when and finally spends 13 more minutes let. a car came bearing down an hint "I'm Ling them smell the flesh homing "But going to wait until t an get hit by a I will go home tonight and lay niy head Dallas police car." he said. "Oh, how I'd on the palms' with a clear conscience." love that. I'd be manipulating three verte- hrfen,te A fivreey .100 Tom tells them, "because I know that the brae out of joint, screaming 'internal in- blood of Joe Smith is not on my hands. juries' and 'five million dollars,' and leaf- The blood of Joe Smith." he intones ing to the indicated page of the medical himself from attacking It than he could sepulchrally, "Is, ladies and gentlemen. journal before I hit the pavement. - have grown a beard. put on dark gleams on your hands." Belli is actually a rather shy man in pri- and hidden himself in a closet. Tom Howead figured that with any vate, and almost everybody covering the During the change-of-venue hearing, kind of luck, Jack would he sent to an trial liked him. Even while Belli was ac- he did a particularly savage job on Sam asylum, and after a decent interval of time, cusing Dallas of unspeakable mina Bloom. who handles public relations for say two or three years, would get out. At against justice, a woman employee in the the Citizens Council, from whose mem- the very worst, he figured a 10-year jail courthouse could say, "If he'd just take bers the oligarchy is drawn. After estab- sentence— which would have meant that off that 5750 suit and those silly boots, lishing that Bloom had volunteered For Jack would he out in less than five years. use that beautiful, mellow voice to ad- public-relations work during President But lack Ruby, sitting in his cell, was vantage, and just smile at everybody. he Kennedy's visit, Belli shouted, "After the Bea President wits shot. did you hand in a re- pretty much running his own show and could do his client an awful lot of good." kept insisting that he wanted "a head- At first brush Beal seemed to be the part of the wenn welcome Dallas had Mermaid liner" to help Tom Howard with the case_ perfect defense lawyer for a man tusused afforded him?" And before he let Bloom Jack Ruby's sister, Eva Grant, was of a crime against The Establishment. go, Belli asked him whether he thought it ready to lure Jake Ehrlich of San Fran- Despite the record verdicts he has won in wouldn't wash away the sins of the city if Tampa• internal sanitary pro- cisco, the model (or the TV character his principal field. personal-injury cases, Ruby were put to death. "I don't believe Dallas has any sins tection kts you swim any time Sam Benedict. But the Ruby family, con- there is not much doubt that he is one successful man who identifies with the that need to be washed away," said Bloom. of the month. You can't feel It, cerned about anti-Semitism, decided against a Jewish lawyer. They then tried 104C11_ His special technique is 10 take "Well, if that's your better —dramatic and WS completely invisible to hire Charles Bellows, the most colorful pause followed by a disgusted wave of when in place. You hardly know criminal lawyer in Chicago. But Bellows the hand-1 don't have any further you're wearing it. made it dear that he expected a five- questions for you." Belli launched a frontal attack on the Aren't you lucky s doctor figure retaining fee, and that killed that, While this was all going on, Earl Ruby, oligarchy during the change-of-venue invented Tampax? Jack's brother, was arranging to raise hearing and continued through she selec- some money by publishing a book about tion of the jury lin which he had to attack Tampax Incorporated, Palmer, Mass. the lase. The writer he wanted was Wil- the prospective jurors as being under the liam Read Woodlieid, a Hollywood pho- influence of the shadowy oligarchy). He tographer who had written a book about even attacked the Dallas power structure, Caryl Chessman. Woodfield told Earl that against what seemed to be hts client's he didn't think the book could sell unless beat interests, during the trial. they hired a colorful lawyer to give the One of the oldest axioms of the legal trial some boa office. When Earl asked profession is that when you are defending him whom he would recommend, Wood- an acknowledged murderer, you try to trial. With one of the field suggested Skirl, a friend. pus the victim on Belli leaped at the opportunity to make most obnoxious victims of all time to an International reputation and took the work with, Belli decided to pm the city of case without fee While the Rubys were Dallas on trial. He dared that jury to find to pay expenses, Bulb presumably would his client guilty. get his return from a book he would The local courthouse reporters—a pre- write about the trial, He brought in two AN Boric dominantly young, liberal and extremely Re he says, because he felt the "psychnlogi- ail clinutte" of Dallas was so Vrigid that he had to demonstrate as quickly as pos- sibk that Ruby was not a cold-blooded killer but a man with a sick mind. Chilled O.J. is a good thing Belli put Doctor Schafer of Yale and a psychiatrist. Dr. Walter Bromberg of Ka- to give thirsty kids tonah. N.Y., an the stand and asked them because it's real orange detailed questions which clearly estab- lished that the defense would be based on a claim of psychomotor epilepsy caused juice and that's all there is to it, Real Florida orange by organic brain damage—and specifically ruled out both schizophrenia and para- noia, the convectional defenses in an in- juice. Full of natural vitamin C. You don't care if your 'artily plea. Judge Brown had agreed to order a full battery*, neurological station Ruby, but Belli did not wait ro sec how they children drink it from breakfast to bedtime, go, —.T- came ouL He was betting everything on an examination of Ruby's brain vraves. To District Attorney Henry Wade and or for that matter even your husband, too. his aides, the sight of a defense Lawyer lay- capable group--had no thought at the ing his cards one by one on the table was beginning that Ruby could get the chair. dumbfounding, At one point Assistant Buy it at the store or from your milkman. By the time the change-of venue hearing D.A. Bill Alexander actually objected was over. they were saying humorously, that Belli's questions to Doctor Schafer "There's only one man who can kill Jack. were inappropriate to a bond hearing. His lawyer." Then, as it became clear what wu hap- After a very few dare in court it became pening, Wade laid a restraining hand on evident that the original impression of Alexander's elbow. Belli as the perfect defense lawyer was When Belli had first his town in a burst simply not true. Belli is not, at heart, a of publicity, the D.A.'s office had come defense lawyer at all. He is a prosecutor. close to panicking. Monk had sunk so and the defendant is only the IMAMS low that Wade called his top men into his through which he prosecutes society. In office to remind them (and himself) that his personal-injury • .01.0 6,1,8154 cases where he per- they had been taking on the beat lawyers ,•••■• forms so brilliantly, Both not only prose- in Texas for a dozen years and had always cutes society, he literally maker salary been able to more than hold their own. pay. Belles technique. whether it is con- But on the second day of the bond hear- scious or unconscious, is to get the jury ing Alexander whacked Wade across the A to pay his client what he would get nor- knee and said, "We're gonna cut this mally, plus another 100 percent in con- guy's butt. All we got to do from here on science money. And when society pays to be careful." (In lawyer language that the victim, it also pays Belli his 131-5 per- means "make no reversible errors.") int to move to him he's still ahead. Under time adversary system on which In the ease of Jack Ruby, Belli upper- we operate, each lawyer has the right—in witty adopted the defense Ise was beat fart, the duty--of taking whatever unfair equipped to make. His case, as It devel- advantage he can. That's what the adver- oped in wan, as not really that Ruby sary system means.. The third party in the had killed Oswald because he was insane, system, the judge, is there to hold both Not in the usual sense of insanity, any- sides within acceptable bounds, and it he way. His case was that Ruby was insane cannot do it !Moue the force of his per- because of a physical damage to the sonality, he can fine them or put them in brain, which had been brought about by fail. Under Judge Brown the system fell a lifetime of brawling. Society, having apart. To this observer, Joe Brown is in vented its own murderous impulse, on most amusing and likable character, who Jock Ruby, was obviously getting what seemed constitutionally incapable of it deserved when it was repaid in kind. maintaining order—let alone respect— This was a defense that did something inside a courtroom. else for Belli. In coming to the most im- We an recall Mel Belli dancing down portant case in his life, Sear undoubtedly the street in front of his hotel one eve- felt more comfortable about running on a ning, snapping his lingers happily and familiar track. Because what Malvin lariat saying, "Can you think of any other court tried in that Dallas courtroom was nei- In the country where both Joe Tonahill ther a murder case nor an insanity case. and I wouldn't have been in Jail the first He tried a personal-injury case. day" And then snapping his fingers to- The trouble was that he based it on ward the sidewalk. he said. "Gil along something called psychomotor epilepsy, there.... I'vc never had a judge tell me to which, as it turned out. was extremely 'sit along' before. Gil along let dogie...." difficult to prove in a court of law. And. In the early days Belli was still using the in my view, he mark it worse by going it common Latin phrases taught in law away in advance. school and used in most of the courts in The turning point in the trial came be- the land. In Texas, when the lawyer and fore it began—on January 20, the first the witnesses are frequently on a fint- day of a two-day bond hearing. Bond name basis, they see no great reason why hearings serve a special purpose for Texas the English phrases shouldn't be used. It defense lawyers, even when it is obvious was common knowledge that drown tad they cannot get their liens out on bail. called Belli into hO chambers to tell him. In Tel.., unlike [nom sates, the law doer "Met, will you do me a favor and lay oir nut require the state to turn over police that Pig Latin'!•' records to the defense or to give the de- "I enjoy My daily visits with Joe fense much of anything that might help It Brown,- Belli said, "He keeps a little can prepare its caw before the trial starts. of baking soda in the bathroom of hie Being entitled to so little information, de- chambers. I look at it as soon as l walk in fense attorneys have noose to use the bond When that can is almost empty fIl know hearings as a means of pretrial discovery. he's just about ready to let the case go to Mel Belli did the opposite. He gave the another city" But only a second later prosecution advance information on his Mel Belli was saying, "I One that man. plans, and got little In return. He did it, I'd never do anything to hurt him." "N.' 'nes,. 31 secret of their belief that it would be im- OK, but if, having seen it, he knew Ruby to something else. In one stretch 46 out Trial of ...look Ruby possible for Brown to get through the had shot him, he was disqualified of 50 questions were inadmissible. Judge Brown has many auractive qual- trial without making a reversible error. The formula that was finally settled "You were hurt the way Jack Ruby was hurt," Tonahill would say. "The way a ities. There was a moment during the and much of the trial *name a grime of upon was based entirety upon semantics. trial when all the lawyers were gathered unashamedly trying to trap him. The dis- If the juror stated that he had -an opin- lot of people were hurt?" at the jury-boa railing to study lack trict attorney's office, in nue, had three ion" of the defendan s guilt or innocence, "To which we object, Your Honor," Ruby's brain tracings. Ruby himself was D.A.'s tucked away in an upstairs office he was still in the game. If the defense Jim Bowie would say. left alone at the table among the scattered to check every ruling the judge made, so could get him to agree that he had a "Did you even happen to wonder why papers, the piles of books and the multi. that they would be in a position to rescue "Reed opinion," however. he could not this man Oswald who killed President colored briefcases. In that moment lack him before it was too late. then extricate himself by claiming that he Kennedy lived as long as he did?" Ruby's wandering eyes net the wander- Brown was cunning enough to know could lay that opinion aside. "To which we object, Your Honor." "Would you be a member of the first ifeic9cs of Brown. Ruby offered a strained, that if the defense was trying to maneuver Through that narrow hole, which ex- tentative smite, uncertain whether it Was him Into making an error, and the state panded and contracted according to each jury to sentence to death an ex-G.E. Who proper to communicate even that indi- was doing its darrideat to prevent him side's alertness and each side's will for killed the Communist who killed the Pres- rectly. Brown's bps moved into a compas- from making one, the smartest thing to battle, the prosecution had to drag, ident? Especially here In Texas?" sionate little smile, and he gave Ruby a do would be to trust the state not to lead squeeze and carry Their jurors. "To which we olnect. Your Honor." little nod. It was simply the acknowledg- him astray. When the state said "ObJec• For a while the game was played almost Eventually Bowie didn't even bother to ment that they were both human beings. ton:' Brown, almost always, it seemed, by rote. Since the prosecution had first sit down between objections . and that if one had somehow ended up in would say "Sustained." It got to be so crick at every juror. they would immedi- After a couple of weeks of this it did the dock end the other on the bench, it nearly automatic that at one point Belli ately establish that he had no fixed opinion. seem as if the lawyers for the defense were was just the way the ball had happened to argued against a "ruling" for 31) seconds By the time the defense came to bet. the irresponsible and contemptuous of good bounce. It was perhaps the only time dur- before Judge Brown broke in to tell him, prosecution knew pretty well what kind legal procedure. It inevitably came to seem ing the mitre trial that Jack Ruby was "Go ahead with your questions, Mr. Belli. of juror they had. If they wanted to fight that the district attorney's office was the treated to a human bemg, as opposed to The court hasn't sustained the objection." for him, they would block every attempt only hope for order and sanity. being a defendant or is curiosity. In the end Judge Brawn hurt both by Belli to jockey him into a corner. But, of course, 11 was all just a game Joe Brown looks like a judge—nicely sides in odd and unpredictable ways. He "This juror," Assistant D.A. lint Bowie among lawyers, and It was only the tide of grayed and wondrously wrinkled. But no hurt Belli by holding him in such loose would say, alerting both the coon and battle that had cast them in their respire. one has ever compared him to Oliver Wen- rein, bemuse Belli—whether he appreci- the juror himself, "has already testified eve roles. With 10 of the jurors selected. dell Holmes In anything save appearance. ated it or not—was a far superior lawyer that he does not hive any fixed opinion. and the defense picked clean of its peremp- Since Ire was elected to the Criminal when he tended to business. Brown hurt The question is repetitious." tory challenges, two Negro women came District Bench in 1956. 34 of his cases the prosecution by being so quick to up- If, on the other hand, the prosecution to the stand. Wade had already made it have been reviewed by the Criminal Ap- hold their objections that they finally had did not want to fight for a juror, they quite clear, by his abrupt and discourte- peals Court in Austin. Seven of them were to pull hack and refrain from conducting would simply sit beck and tel him floun- ous questioning, that he was Making no remanded. four for what May be described as tough and as harassing a battle an they der Tonahill's style tau to get him to effort to qualify Negroes. Belli, in fact, as elementary errors. lOn two separate usually do. There are times, after all, agree that the sight of the shooting was a had protested indignantly after Wade eases he incorrectly allowed the police when the game calls for one side to make horrible thing for any man of normal had pointedly failed to address a Negro record of the defendant to be admitted an objection with every expectation that sensitivity. "That scene was so horrible," venirerran as "Mister." had dis- Into testimony.) it is goihg to be overruled. There were he would say. "that you can close your The earlier Negro veniremen Until a new court was added Una year. times In this trial, in fart, when the state eyes and see it right now, can't you?" qualified themselves quickly, but it be- there were only two other criminal district had to fight like a tiger to get Its own And then. "It was an horrible that it came apparent that the first of the Live courts in Dallas County. The two other objections overruled. will stay with you to your dying day." women was prepared to go the full,route. judges had 60 reviews with four reversals. When it came, finally, to the selection From there he was only a step or two And suddenly there was Jim Bowie—that Judge Brown got the Ruby case by an ore jury, both sides joined battle over the away from establishing the point that a champion of common sense—asking her. accident of timing Each of the judges 162 veniremon. The prosecution was memory no shattering could only leave a "From what you heard, did you form any presides over the minty grand jury for faced with the unprecedented difficulty of man with his opinion fixed. opinion on whether lack Ruby was the one quarter. Brown had the last quarter having to impanel a July made up for the For the most part the defense simply man who shut Onyaiddownat City Hall?" in 1963. and he reamed all pressure to most part of people who had seen the bludgeoned from one area to another, No, she hadn't. assign the case to any docket but his own. murder on television. Even though the asking whatever questions suited them, no Q. "The picture chewed the shooting, One member of the D.A.'s office went court rejected Bari argument that any- matter how irrelevant and improper the did it not?" Well, she answered, it showed a man so tar AS to visit Brown on his own to one whe had son it was a witness. Belli questions might be. They were forever plead 'with him to give it up. still had a corollary issue that a witness volunteering to explore the Jurors' un- with a gun. "I love you. Joe, but side is tot) big for who had seen it was unable to give Ruby conscious with such scion Uric aids as a Q. "From what you saw of the picture you," he said. "You're ant going to make a fair trial. The whole thing became so Rorschach test. (Belli had the whole net and the gun, you formed the opinion a dorm fool of yourself. Do ta all -0 laser ludicrous that for one full afternoon of ink blob hopefully at his fingertips.; that leek Ruby was the one who shot Lee and assign it to someone else." But Brown. fudge Brown's rulings had pretty much Tonahill had a remarkable talent for Harvey Oswald," sorely hurt, refused, established the formula duo if the jitror asking the same gunmen sin ways and for And now it was Tonahill who was ob- None of the defense Lawyers made any had Seen Ruby shoot Oswald, that was ignoring the judge's inureetiors to net on jecting to the same questions he hod himself been asking for two weeks. The MIS used a peremptory challenge to re- ject the woman. The second Negro woman wits middle- ham fefl, Agar:deaf D.A. husk iratta. Definer aged and heavy-set. She was wearing a Atterara JIM Toaehlll, dolenadeal Jack Ruby earl blue cotton print dress and a fright of a Ir. A. Deere Irode gem Imperatore& el )reareerlispe. dark-blue him, topped by a huge white rose garnished with a hideous green leaf. Frank Warts, the baldheaded No. a Iran of the D torn, took the witness Q. "Do you believe in the death pen- alty?"

Q. (Incredulously) "The Bible teaches you dun ?" Objection! Q, "Murder with malice is where a murderer Mks exactly what he intended to do. Wrongfully, intentionally, mali- ciously. Without justification. You might say he has o wicked heart. Would you consider giving a man as little as two years in the penitentiary for that Belli objected on the same grounds that the state had always used when he asked the same question—in short, that it was necessary to explein that the law allowed such a sentence only "if the mr cumnerices warranted ii" For all their talk, due process is to law- yers what a rag doll is to a child; they

i

embrace it or they kick it around as suite about 21 miles from Dallas. Five of his tiOn for its lawenforcement agenCies—a their mood and their purpose. seven brothers are Mayen. Before Henry situation which boggles the mind. As the defense lawyers kept interrupt- was horn, there had been a lynching in The testimony of a couple of police ing. Waco barked at the woman, "They'll Rockwall that had tapped the little town officers became very important in mods. have a chance to talk to you later. Now in half. Judge Wade had been the leader lishing premeditation. Dallas jurors are you Worn to me." of the faction that had opposed and con- predisposed to behave their police offi- The whole social structure of the South demned the lynchers. From his ern con- cers, because they are confident that their was in that voice, Watts did what Belli scious moment young Henry Wade knew police force is incorruptible. had ties. been able to do: He stripped who had taken part in that lynching, and After night jurors had been selected, I away the court's insulation and put as when ho went to town and saw one of was walking down the street with Belli, right into downtown Dallas. them walking along the street, he hated when he suddenly clenched his hat and But the Negro woman was not going him with the fierce hatred of boyhood exclaimed, "Any other city In this coun- to let this man make her my anything she In many ways Wade is both a relic,. try, dammit, and I swear I'd walk tros didn't want to say The prosecution used tian of and a reaction to his father. "My guy out! I swear itl" It seemed an admis- sr one of its peremptories on her as well. father wasn't a man who was close to his sion that he knew even then that he was Finally, after two weeks of ploy and children;' Wade sari. "He was a strict not going to walk Jack Ruby out of that counterploy, Jim Bowie walked into the disciplinarian of a school you don't see Dallas courthouse. D.A.'s offices three flights up from the much of now." Wade, for has part, likes Belli had hurt himself at the bond hear- courtroom and called out, "Well, where's to take his live kids, one or two at a umc, ing and may have thrown away the initial Alexander' He's been hollering fora jury on long early-morning rides out to a lake impact of his personality in rantings and I've got him one. Alex, get the script or to his own farm, and then drop them against the oligarchy at preliminary hear- ready." It was—as Belli had predicted— off at school on the way back. On the ings. Yet he started the trial as if he were a white, Protestant jury. It was made up first day of the change-of. venue hearing, going to walk on water. The tint day was of eight men and four women. the start of the most important case to the best day Beth had, After the jury was sworn in. Jack Ruby his life, he rushed home so that he could The prosecution's original plan had :I mastoid D..4. 13111 1 lenander. was directed to stand. He looked as- attend a father-son night at the junior been to place about five muse.es on the tonishingly changed; Ruby had not only stand to establish the basic leant case that fully. "Just like I'm staring now at the ehriveloci up but had almost disappeared. Oswald was dead and Ruby had killed back of the room—just fixed." The change had begun when the first him. At the last minute, however, Wade For the nest five minutes he put to Mien mnireinstit took the stand, and Henry decided to hang a sort of conspiratorial Mayer every question he could think of Wade had begun explaining the jurors' smoke screen over the trial by demon- that would allow him to drive home those duty to assess punishment. "Strict the witting that Ruby' had shown "an unnat- two words, "fixed sum." maximum in this rase a the electric chair, ural interest" in Oswald's movements. With each succeeding witness, Belli set we will ask you and the other jurors to There wit a certain indistinct pattern to work to draw the portrait of an eccen- render that verdict." said Wade. And that could be strung together. On the tric but essentially harmless character. Ruby's head snapped as if he had been evening of President Kennedy's assas- He was "a Damon Runyon character." hit between the eyes. What he had known sination, at the very time that Oswald "the village down," "a character toler- all a tong had finally become teal, in all was in the homicide office, Ruby had ated by the community." And even— its enormity, when spoken aloud in an phoned a homicide llostenant to ask if he with what seemed to be unnecessary open court. They really meant It Ruby', could bring up some sandwiches for the cruelty to his client—"some kind of goof face stiffened and seemed to stiffen more buys Later that night he had worked his around the COMMUnity." through the next few weeks, as though he way into the police station with the pre., When Belli is operating well, he rocks were budding a protective *heath and he was there in the office when back and forth. When he's standing, he Now Henry Wade strolled across to Oswald was paraded through. And he rocks on his heels; when he's StRing, he when Ruby was minding and stationed had, according to the testimony of a rocks onto the rear legs of has chair. On himself directly in front of the defendant. policeman, been standing at the garage this first morning he looked as if he were With one hand in his pocket he read off ramp the following afternoon at the very on a rocking chair. the indkorent in a voice that had very time that Oswald was originally supposed As Henry Wade walked into his office little of the snap of aanaation. Them eyes to have been moved. at the noon recess, he growled, "This never met; each seemed to be looking Pones Sergeant Petrie&• T, Dean, He had also been in the Dallas News afternoon let's put on some witnesses for over the other's left shoulder. building writing out ads for his clubs at the prosecution." "Mr. Ruby," said Judge Brown, "how high school with his II-year-old son. the moment Kennedy was shot, and it is As the last witness in their tracking op- do you plead 'I" Kim. He brought his two boys, Kim and indisputably true—of not particularly rel- eration, the state called Doyle Lane. the Softly and hesitantly, not quite sure Hank, to the night session, and when they evant—that the Newt is only two blocks apparently whether he or his lawyer was Western Union man who had waited on got home, they all went out to the back- from the Texas School Book Depository, supposed to speak, lock Ruby said, "Not Ruby and, more important, placed the yard, in a light rain, to shoot baskets. where Oswald allegedly fired his rifle. time stamp—I 1:17—on the money order guilty, Your Honor." So things were not exactly whet they The strategy of tracking Ruby through Ruby had wired to an indigent stripper Somewhat hesitantly, too, Beth broke seemed. The defense attorney was a those two days was questionable at best. in to say that Jack was pitading not just before the Oswald murder. prosecutor at heart, and the district at. Tom Howard', plan had been to march guilty by reason of being insane at the Since the time stamp showed that Roby torney was a pushover for kids. Jack's acquaintances onto the nand in time of the act and "presently insane, as had only three to four mutates to walk Wade is also a rough and tough com- job lots so they could tell how unstable the 396 feet to the police station, Lane he stands here right now." At if to dem- petitor. "If you go hunting," says a Dallas he Wen, By putting on the people whose was the defense's awn star witneti in onstrate that lack of mental capacity. he attorney, "Henry gets the biggest deer. paths Ruby- had crossed, turned to lack and mid, "Repeat It Wade, to a de- knocking down the charge of premedita- after and if you go tithing, he gets the most butt. gree, was doing the same thing. me, Jack, not guilty by reason —" tion. By putting him on the stand as Its If you play bridge or dominoes with him, The stale opened with the two ad sales- Judge Brown broke to quickly to tell own witness, the state was softening the he'll beat yea. He wants to win...." men Ruby had talked to at the him, as Roth undoubtedly knew. that he News. As impact of his testimony just a little—al- In 13 years in office Wade has become soon as Belli got them, he was able to could only enter a ample plea of not though Belli was careful to let the jury widely accepted 10 the best district at- establish Jack's shock and grief at the guilty. If Ruby were imane, as he stood know that the defense had also sub- torney Dallas has ever had. His office got news of the shooting, as well as Jack's there, the Mal would have had to be poenaed him_ convictions on 93.5 percent of its cases in general reputation for instability. stopped. Belli could nave asked for When Lane's name was called, Ruby, 1963, the best percentage in the country. For same reason Alexander then put sanity hearing before they began to select who was apparently well aware of Lane's There is no organized crone in Dallas. no on yet a third employee of the advertising t he Jury; it was now too late. importance to him, watched in appar- syndicate operation which pays the poli- department, Georgia Mayer, a pretty Ruby at down withuutsaying anything ent surmise, as Lane came to the stand. ticians and the polka far grazing privi- young secretary with a Dutch hairdo. more. The four words were the only ones Throughout Lane's testimony lack leges. Dallas, Once a wide-open WWII, is All she did for the state was to corrobo- he spoke through the entire trail- seemed to have trouble breathing, his closed so tightly because the oligarchy rate the hardly disputed point that Jack While Belli entered his pica Henry characteristic look when he was upset— decided otter the war that the city's future was still in the office after the assassination. Wade slouched in his seat_ You could the slightly pureed lips somehow giving lay in attracting whitecollar businesses. And then she fell to IkIli. No, she sad. scour the whole country without finding the Impression that he wee letting the ale In Wade the oligarchy found a man Jack wasn't crying, he was just sitting a man better cast for the role of district come out slowly in a low whistle. who couldn't be touched. He is no honest there with "his eyes fixed toward the back attorney than Henry Monsoon Wade Lane turned out to be a plump man Jr. that his wife, Yvonne, would not dare to of the office." He is an easygoing mac, but with a slight lisp quite similar to Jack's he is eh° drive down to the corner after drinking ■ Rent leaned back on the rear kgs of his persistent and thorough—and if he be- and a somewhat prissy way of speaking. glass of wine. "With Henry, right's tight chair. -You mean rued !Ike ■ lieves one thing morn than anything else fitted When at the very end he answered a ques- and wrong's wrong," she says. starer Belli asked, pouncing lie turned in the world, It Is that men should not tion by saying, "My goodness, I went All this, Belli later found, was a factor to the courtroom, acting out the part of over that at the other hearing," it seemed take the law Into their own hands. in the trial of Jack Ruby. With all his a man with an Indisputably fixed stare. just about right. Wade's father. Henry Menne° Wade other difficulties, Belli was forced to go "Like thlsr The tune Beni pLeyed on crossexam- Sr , had hem a judge in Rockwall, Tea, up against a jury that had great admire- "Yes, and dared." she said thought- ination could have been titled "11:17."

33

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intrigues and backstabbings that went on Trial of Jack Ruby Are you using in this CARR were just unbelievable. They In hit the time element from all possible bugged our first meeting here by getting directions, and he passed the money order to ono of tour investigators; then we got the most modern around the jury boa to Let them game upon somebody in their office, and we were those magic figures. When he finally let getting a steady flow of information until Lane go, Beth said, "Mr. Wade, would they found out. I swear that you could way to relieve you mind if we circled the time.' never pick up the phone without wonder- Said Wade drily, "I believe you've ing whether it was bugged." (Al one hemorrhoids? mentioned it about five times." point the D.A.'s office got a tip that Ruby Once the prosecution had managed to was going to throw it fit in the courtroom Vol can be .era—with The PASO Formate le cone..at suppaelserm form ... moat extricate itself from the fairly disastrous and Belli was going to fake a heart attack. weern oar to earl. haemorrhoid Mame pi a n ofturning Ruby in to Oswald'. to I ker. They took it seriously enough to station atm.. vunters. Here'. why ... Assistant D.A. Bill Alexander got down their own doctor among the spectators so MOODIN IN FORM. ?AZ° mo- to laying the foundation for his case. he could rush in and examine Belli.) otentones are ideal for todey's While Wade had the responsibility and Alexander's crudenas makes it easy to active people Handy to carry the final word on strategy, it was Aletan. underestimate Ms ability. As the trial of In peekat or purse, simple to der who molly trod the case. He is Henry Jock Ruby progressed, it became increas- use wherever you go. Prat- ingly evident that while Bill Alexander wrapped. Stainless, pure- Wade 's hatchet man, the man who draws faith' L.""'"".'"n7"°""'iPP"' white No mare spoliator, no the fire and gets the job done. the man did not have Belli's maiammmability in many Maine who, to use one of his own favorite ex- interrogation and couldn't approach Belli the corny. The dnveway MOODIN IN FORMULA. Some pressions, "can fade the heat." in sheer eloquence, he was—in that court- Pal-office door to There war no plan produce claim 011-portaa in- Bill Alexander is call and rawboned in room, on duo CaM—the hest and the most iaperhups 30 feet long gredienta whteh are expected a square-shouldered, fiat-hacked way that solid lawyer we were watching. rB wolk Orwaid down (hose 30 lea The so do maoy fobs. PASO suppealtorisa, how- is characteristic of a farrnworker. His It was Alexander who called to the glen was to show hint to the comeras just ever, are a scientifically developed cow eyes are narrow—he is tight-eyed—and stand J. Ft. Lavelle, 44, the detective long enough fn prove stun he had not brew bimodal or tented iagredieeta . ...eh beaten. The plan went wrong when scut- chola, for eta ability to do one primary job they somehow seem to be made even who will he identifiable forever as the with full-etranath effealweame. more menacing by a quick Hash of &smile man in the fight suit and the tall Stetson ,tying reporters and photographers cut that spreads up acmes his face and Oven is who looked on aghast as Ruby pulled the (off Dohrity. NON her. rr *My NnIsso gone almost as soon as it has begun. trigger. Al 9:30 a.m. an November 24. 1 At approximately 11:15 Oswald was rue LIAM AN craw Alexander's courtroom delivery struck two days after the assassination of Ken- faring walked to the elnatee on the third hot.. Ina As the the ears at first as an elocution-clau nedy, Lavelle, Detective C. N. Dohrity, , floor between Leavelk and Graves. No tau. Nonaseit monotone, In the sense that he gives each and Detective L. C. Graves were in- a elevator reached the basement, Lavelle Lamas*. syllable and letter equal time and weight strutted to bring Oswald down from hisi turned to Oswald and told him, "If any- £014101 Onste It M a style that earned crude and ama- jail on the fifth floor. Leavelle hand-;\ body tries to shoot you., I hope their airy teurish when pitted against Belli's beauti- Osuald's hands together and de- Is as good as yours was." Tau IOU fully shaded and modulated voice, Once livered him to an office, where two Secret Oswald gave him his little smirk. RN MIN you became accustomed to Alexander's Peruke men were waiting toquestion hen. body's going to shoot at me." Preceded by the three officers, they U. flu meal modem delivery. however. the very lack of modu- Oswald was Still as uncooperative as root lo ANON old lation gave it a power that day by do ever. ("He never gave you a direct an. walked through the jail office to the out- altreafluneeeeland one detective says. "If you asked side door. With the door held open, they II..,.. In.lhost napery, scorned to become the remorseless, u Mee." PASO es;rNonlorie. compromising voice of justice—or, him whet nme it was. he'd say, 'What hesitated for u few seconds, waiting for Nee oe hp RP... 10ra time do you think it is?' And if you said. the all-clear signal. Leavelle could see /.1113 n111 lilt N10111/01 Cr .110vE L11101141.1•1/1 accurately still. of vengeance. Alexander customarily wars a pest 'We want to know whet orro you think it only the heavily lighted driveway and the BOWLING SHOES In court, a habit dating back to the day is,' he'd say, 'Look up at the clock on the officers lining the walls. when he used to ride with the Dallas wall and you'll Sect —) In questioning Lavelle, Alexander was police vice squads. He didn't wear it dur- At around I 1:10 0.M. they finished the almost too casual with the hey question, ing the Ruby trial, because he bed been interrogation and prepared to move Os- "What, if anything, of an unusual na- tipped off that Belli intended to leap up weld from the city jad to the county jail. lure happened on you approached a point ,..,.. and shout, "Your Honor, I fear for the The time of the transfer was purest about three feet in front of the corner?" safety of my client. Mr. Alexander car- chance. The plan was to place Oswald in "A 1111m came from the crowd of re. ..„- ,if ries a gun. 1 demand he be searched and. the beckmat of an unmarked police can porters, photographers and"—drily- If necessary, disarmed!" between Lavelle and Graves. ''police officers.... He came up in front of His information was probably correct. Detective Dottnty was told to back the myself, Oswald and Delectt. Graves." ..:'-.. .—--,...,.._„,. 1 4 ..., ...„, After the verdict was in, Belli said. "The car into the driveway that led from the Q. "What first attracted your attention to this num?" A. When he first dashed from the i 1/4...... L....:::--" crowd, 1 saw ha had II, pistol in his right ...... 4.:Oo,...L.54:Nri.A hand and he was ready to shoot.... He oconaamke I...5n' ollee. ol .dl took two quick steps and fired the gun." TarrI glarre•mused [NON .14.. ...il, he reure- Q. "What did you do?" Send or.... 2.yrar ....Nairn Fr.vany Pea .4. "I tried to Ditch the mast by the aulnetip,one at 110.90 Nob N four I-tout If deka auhreelegem. as 55,95 each. Ail .1.b. shoulder and did succeed in catching him urstptooto Noel he wIrl ooultle *roar ens, boort by the left shoulder." tooh:.fru....P6:•4;tr::"-.7.17trt,7:: Q. "What did Oswald do?" .4. "He grunted and said, 'Oh; and nrnt.,"' attrr‘hera'. ham.. .ate NiAlreoon Oslo pep.. sod maul .1111 ? oor nu, e nary.t enrl slumped to the floor." tad malt revolt 44444 . Youll reeNr. AS Oswald went down. he dragged ■ .11, reNsfirete ... 113 ,rhich to slim tee, elioN, Lavelle down with him. Graves hod an. Offer mat rrottoomtai Li only, nice December 01, 154A Oder., o. howl... Nome medlately grabbed Ruby's gun band and N., L. oold for rah. was wresting the gun away from him CURTIS CIRCULATION CO 4 on NI 6.0...... •.nea Nemo. mol.orome. "The right hand was still contracting the gun as if he was attempting to fire BRILLIANT UNCIRCULATED mouthy shot," Lavelle noodled. KENNEDY HALF DOLLARS Belli had been demanding to sec the gun from the first day of the bond hear. 4 Good Inaosimani Only $1.00 oach ins, but under Texas law he simply was 117 50 0.1 roll100 piorN ono tout state was ,tOO 5105,00 not entitled to see it until the rw omorto Nolodeigewo or our... MOO ready to introduce it into evidence. Belli trim most of his caws in Cali- CRANFORD KOINS c.o. sm fornia. where the laws favor the defense_ EASY TO USE LIQUID "In California," Belli says, "the district attorney has to turn over everything in DISSOIVES CORNS his bnefease, including his tapes." If he 0.0 ho OM OEN, Oil- doesn't turn over the evidence upon de- Nikes Nee most NI No. N,Nly. mand, he cannot use it in rho trial. In ivy, posionslo Oss•I GEM Teams a defense attorney is entitled to nothing. He is not even entitled to see the DUCH NAPPY 'In Coon reporter rerariN Wallow of liefma, iritmeus /Ir. rimier. SS polite repOrta. The dangers such a system many with the district attorney, was that questioning, swung his eyes hack up at holds (or the unwary defense lawyer was statement present" McMillan and—incredibly—he said, com- demonstrated during the second day of Wane (quickly): "We don't hate any pletely out of context. "All right, did he the trial, which may well have ranked as tacit atalleftlent - say anything about the dog in the cars" one of the worst days that Mel Bela ever Belli insisted that he had a right to (Belli was raft:rims to lack Ruby's No- suffered in a courtroom_ see It. vember 24 visit to the Western Union The state had to prove prune:daimon, Bone Belowso "You're making a for- office just before the Lee Oswald murder.i and they had to prove it in the face of the mal request for the statement? Request McMillan. frowning as he tried to re- 11:12 time sump on the money order denied." member, said, "Later on in the day that and the apparent accident of Ruby's ar- Bun tcompletely astonished): "We Caine out." m,' at the right pilau at the right time. ain't have it"" Q. "All right, tell us what he said . . . That meant they had to prove it out of Once the witness began to testify to the that he hod left his dog in the car across Ruby's own mouth. even though all of as same material he had written up an his the street?" who grew up on B movie—or Congres- report, BeJlt war—as he said—entitled to After a couple of more questions about sional haarings—know a roan cannot be see it "for purposes of craw-esamination the dog, Belli asked, ". . he said that he made to tau* against himself and impeachment," had kit the dog In the car to go over and Is it true: But there war one tiny crack in that While Belli was making this point. Phil send the wire, didn't her armor, and the D.A.'s office set out to Burleson, of the defense team, ducked Lana recall all that conversation." summer colds drive their Case through it. The opening into the bailiff's office to have s subpoena Alexander, having restrained himself shot had been foal on the fast day of the made out for Archer's superior, Capt. through thy earlier questions to get it all trial, when Alexander naked Leavelk LC. Nichols, instructing him to bring the firmly on the naiad, stood up—his fax are worse than whether he hail heard Ruby say anything report into court flushed in disbelief—and said, "I want to as he was being hustled past Oswald's Alexander, upped off to what was hap- warn counsel that with these questions he body in the jail office. pening, rushed out of the courtroom. met is opening up the door to the entire winter colds? Leavelte had barely begun to answer transaction in the jail cell." before the defense Inonseys were on their And he had. Once Belli himself had in- feet to object that, since Ruby was under troduced the subject of Ruby's jell-cell technical arrest at that rime, nothing he conversations, he hed opened up any said could he repeated in court. The state thing MeMillon had overheard and, quite maintained it was part of the rry mum of probably, anything else Ruby had said in theme. and the objection was overruled. the cell. I Re, erswe.Ittendly ''things done,- means The state didn't need the cry 'tutor anything that coma naturally and spon- cloak to cover it anymore and. frankly. taneously out of the crime. The classic nobody outside the district attorney's example is that I( you hit me on the nose, office had even been able to see how ref and I say, "Oach," that's on grylac,) goatee could be stretched that far. The time element is therefore a prime The day was not yet over. Belli had consedcration, although not completely also been demanding the reports made binding. And, except in very rere cases, out by McMillan and had been turned anything said in response to a question down. As soon as Belli finished his cross- would obviously not be spontaneous and examination, Henry Wade dropped Mc- would therefore fell outside the scope of Milton's statements on the court report- In some ways your summer cold 'el genre. In Tears the definition Is left er's desk and offered them into evidence entirely to judicial interpretation. Since Belli had spent the greater part does seem worse. Your nose seems As each suaacedins polite witness look of the afternoon expressing his profound runnier. You're especially uncom- the stand, Lavinia* !limbos Pr. Roy Scheirer. the prosecution embarked belief that the detectisa's statements, if upon the delicate job of stretching fortable—plagued with sniffles and nes the jury could sae them, would be consid- e.t.a, up the elevator. nut Into the corri- Nichols nest as he was coming up the erably different from his testimony, Wade sneezes. And your summer cold dor, into Ruby's jail cell and, finally, stairs, and plucked the report out of was not only snatching what had been seems to last so long! into a forestal interrogation which could Nichols's hand. "Let's make them get it shaping up as a strong basis for an appeal not, under the kindest interpretation. have Summer colds calf for Contac.. the hard way," he said. sway from Belli. he was also turning Mc- ended less than 15 minutes after Oswald Back in the courtroom Defense Attor- Milton into his own corroboniong witness. Contac has the drying action you was shot. ney Joe Tonahill shouted that Bill Alex- Belli was up and shouting for a mas- need—up to 12 hours of relief in This was by far the shakiest part of the ander had defied the court's subpoena. trial. "We are being baited. Now If we slate's case. Since the Fifth Amendment every capsule. "The statement is not admissible," ruled object to having it introduced, I'll look is involved here, it atm Belli grounds on Judge Brown. as if I'm not stricere to the jury." Minutes after taking Contac which to bring an appeal to the U.S. Archer was followed to the mend by With nothing much to lose. Belli de- your nose starts to clear. You Supreme Court. It seemed to be Belli's Thomas D. McMillon, a detectise for manded that Judge Brown allow him to best hope for a reversible error. breathe easier. Your eyes stop wa- seven years. McMillan testified that he enter Archer's statement, too, carefully The state's rrs :sway case wits taken a had been looking head-on at Ruby as noting for the record that he had already tering. You stop sneezing. And be- step further by Don Archer. ■ balding, Ruby had come out of the aowd, and subpoenaed a. cause of the more than 600 tiny moon-faced detective. who had helped had heard him say, "You rat sonofabitch, Brown refused, "You only have these (enrol* Ruby to the ground and bring "Wile pilLs" in every Contac cap- you shot the President"—which was six McM tilon'll reports because the state has him to a cell. He testified that when Jack words more than anybody else had heard. tendered it," he said in what scented like a sule, this relief lasts all day or all was on the ground, he had heard him say, He also corroborated the exchange be- clearly improper ruling. night. "You all know me, I'm lade Ruby"— tween Archer and Ruby, but remembered Since he was getting no help at all here which hardly sounded like a man in any Contac is today's largest-selling It in even greater detail. "He veld he'd from the court, Wade finally had to intro- kind of an epileptic fit. Over the objec- meant to shoot him three WIWI. but we duce Archer's report himself. Reading the cold medication at your pharmacy. tions of the defense, he was also allowed had moved too fast and prevented him reports quickly while Wade was conduct. That's because more people choose to taffy that while they were riding in the from doing so.- ing his redirect examination, fleltr came elevator, he had said, "Jack, I think you this effective way to relieve head On crosa.examination McMillon noted across one damaging quote. Belli ran up killed him," and Ruby had answered, "I that Ruby said, "Somebody had to do it. to McMillan, clutching all three state- cold symptoms—summer and win- intended to shoot him three times." You guys couldn't do it," ments, and yelled, "You remembered the ter. Contac is great for hay fever, Belli, operating smoothly, got Archer McMillon was an irritating witness for parts that were damaging to Ruby, but too! tocancede that "under thecircomstaneea" Belli anyway, so irritating that he kept you didn't remember everything, did you? seeable in Canada Jack had looked exceptionally calm, him on the stand for more than four How come you didn't tell me that Ruby which is is characteristic of a man in a hours. McMillon had a young, friendly, had stud 'You won't believe this, but I psychomotor-epileptic fit. He also got open face, an air of ingenuousness that didn't have this planned; I coold.n't have hint in admit that just before Ruby had somehow didn't fit with a detective, and tinned it that perfectly'?" Said, "You all know me, I'm lack Ruby." a reaurkable Inability to understand a McMillan, looking bewildered. denied the cries of "Who is it Who is it?" had question until he was good and ready to Ruby had ever told him thet. Angrily, been shouted through the basement—the understand it. Belli shoved the statement under his nose, implication being that these cries had As Belli became increasingly angry, he "That isn't my statement," NieMillon jarred Ruby out of his blackout. starred to say. '"These other conversa- said, brightening_ "It's the other officer's." Belli asked Archer for a copy of the tions that you have memorized—strike Turning to the front page, he painted official report he had road, to his semen- that—that you have testified to here...." triumphantly to the heading. "Seer ,CONTAC on. But Archer said he didn't have one. Then he paused to took down at his notes Belli hung his head, "There are days ME SWIM a Was LAINATCRILS, Mwanisi, Q. "When you went over your tcsti• ra 83 If he were picking up a new line of you have to suffer," he said, with etas- Frowwxy 117-TaMS10710.9, a Leia litanies

37

--1""" Trial of Jack Ruby Belli bounded out of his seat, as if he oey. The whale psychological climate meted an act of murder. He had put were happy he didn't have to fight for changed, of course, when Belli demanded together a case which looked well on aerated tragedy. Seel knew he had been Mir lux. Holding out his hand, he said, it and then had to concede that it was paper. His use was built in three Imen reading from Archer's report, of course. "Let's have it." favorable to the other side. locking parts: But Archer was gone, and he had used the Dean reached into his back pocket, The difference in tine, than explained, / I. The psychological examination (Dr. only way available to get that key state- unfolded a clutch of flimsy sheets, sep- was due to his own original miscalcule/ Roy Schafer) that pointed to brain ment in from of the jury. arated one section, refolded the other Lion. Seeing a televeed rerun of the err ts damage causing psychomotor epilepsy. Belli woo able to point out that the two and, shifting in his seat again, put tt hack of the day, and particularly the intepnew, 2. The physical examination (Dr. most damaging quotes McMillan hod into his pocket. he had realirel later how quicklyeverv. Martin Towler) that confirmed Doctor given were in the second report, made "What did you put beck in your thing had happened. Schafer's diagnosis by demonstrating an out a week after the original one. But pocket?" Belli demanded. "I want to see Although Belli will never rlieve it, the abnormal brain wave. McMillan explained that the first hod that! Your Honor, he has another report trap he had walked into had never been 3. The psychiatric ruminations (Dn. been a security report involving only what there! I want both of them!" set. Wade hadn't [yell known the second Manfred Gunrracher and Walter Brom. had happened to the basement, while the "You can't have it," Judge Joe B. report existed until the previous after- berg) that established a low emotional second had been for the specific purpose Brown said. noon. Once Wade saw the date on It. he breaking point. of reporting on the arrest itself. Up from his slouch came District At- was perfectly aware that he might do Doctor Schafer got the medical defense By the end of the day lielli's hair was torney Henry Wade, drawling out a mag- himself more harm than good with the off to a roaring start by testifying that the ruffled for the first titre in memory. He nanimous offer. "If that's another report. jury by bringing it up. conclusions he had reached as a result or hiinself seemed weary and dispirited. we have no objection to diem having it. If the Jack Ruby verdict is ever re- his psychological examinations had been The nest duty it got worse. Au a matter of fact, we'll offer both in versed, it quite probably will be because confirmed by Ruby's electroencephalo- The star witness in establishing pre- evideram" Judge Brown allowed Dean to testify grams. He said he had seen the EEG meditation was Sgt. Patrick T. Dean, 32, Before the first sentence was out of about that interview. The entire appeal readings for the first tune that morning, PI dark and black-haired young man, Wade's mouth, the blood had dreirted could hang upon the difference between and "I came to the conclusion that he whose normal expression is a slow frown. from Belli's face. a 10-minute time lapse and a 40-minute does have organic brain damage. the When he got to Ruby's cell after the "They're doing it again," he wailed, time lapse. most logical and specific nature of which murder, Dean muffled. he found Ruby turning to the bench. "They're baiting a With Dean's testimony Henry Wade is psychomotor epilepsy." stripped to his shorts. McMillan, Archer trap a bear Imp!" announced, "Your Honor and ladies and It developed, however, that he had not and another detective were with him. seen the actual brain tracings, but only WADI: "And then did you ask a couple the report of Doctor Towler, who had of questions?" supervised the tests. Doctor Towler's re- Beth entered an objection to any gees- port said that the EEO recordings were duns about any converaation that might -abnormal," although he did not use the have taken place with Ruby. winds -psychomotor epilepsy." He wrote, Brown overruled him. "This type of seams disorder most acme The case for the appeal was being laid naely falls into the category of a psy- out now, and there were no them trim. -In chomotor variant." Texas low," Belli said, "e question may Wade saved the crossmumination not be asked of a prisoner, and his an- and set a high academic tone by asking, swer then repeated in court_ if he hat not "After all those ink blots, did you form committed it to paper and signed it." an opinion on whether he knew right Alexander was up on he feet to argue from wrong?" that Bell/ had opened the door during the Given any kind of a chance, Wade', questioning of McMillan. "Not only is it style is not to engage the witness its any gentle tea but, leaving gono into what may kind of dialogue but to attack him have been an inadmissible conversation, head-on. In examirung Doctor Schafer in they have made the balance of it admts- the bond hearing, where he was truly in- uble." he said terested in drawing forth information. Beth took his exception—the magic Wade had handled the language of pay word that must be uttered before an ob- chewy with competency and ease. Before jection can be converted into an appeal. a jury, though. Wade becomes downright The record had been made, and Dean down-country, To hear hun pronounce proceeded to an interview between Ruby the words "schizophrenic-paranoia'" is to and a Secret Service man. "Ruby said be left with the impression that he u not something to the effect that he thought only speaking a foreign language but that about the killing two nights prior. when it is the language of a Worry with which he saw Oswald on the show-up stand. we are at war. "Ruby said he believed in due process With Schafer he quite possibly achieved of law, but he was um torn up and emo- the pinnacle of his career by stumbling tional about this event. He said this man Dr. efeeirrat effeeerier. prioripot ptopAtutri,se for decome. around the words "I.Q. tear —a test not not only killed the President but also really our exotic as to be unrecognizable, shot Officer Tippit, and that the Outcome To nobody's great surprise—least of gentlemen of the jury, the state rests at let alone unpronounceable, to a man who of the trial would he that he would be all Belli's—the report he had screamed this time." graduated at the top of his law class. But given the death penalty inevitably, and he for was the one that hurt. Dean's original Beth's first witness was Little Lynn, a all the lawyers played that game—Belli didn't see any sense foe a lengthy trial report, dated November 26, ended with 19-year-old stripper who had called Jack fumbled nicely while questioning Schafer that would subject Mn Kennedy to corn- the notation that he had been instructed from Fort Worth on Sunday, November on the "thematic apperception test" Once, ing back to Dallas to testify." to take the Secret Service man up to in- 25, to ask him to send her 523. The tele- when Belli asked a witness to define "ex- Belli was up now, shouting for a mis- terview Ruby "at apprOxirrialety twelve phone-company records showed that the trapolate," a word that hadn't been used dad. -That man's Constitutional rights noon.- ITbe shooting had taken place, call had been made at 10:10, an Online. more than a dozen times previously, Al. have been violated," he said. remember, at I I :21.1 The second report tam point to establish right at the begin- minder went one up on him by asking Wade pressing on, asked Dean what had not been dictated until February 18. ning, since it had been announced over the witness to spell it. Ruby had said. IS weeks later The first words in this the radio that Oswald was going to he The trial sparkled with such moments Dean: "He said when he Orat noticed report were, "At approximately 11:30 moved at 10 est. of high philosophic inquiry. When the the sarcastic sneer art Oswald's fact, that A.M. Chief Curry approached me.. , Lade Lynn was more than a little session came to an end at Seven PAL was when he that thought he'd kilt him if The last words were that the interview pregnant. She was already two days over- Belli s necktie was loose and his shirt was he got the chance. And also that he had taken piece "five to ten minutes after due. "lf I don't put her on," Beth told the ballooning out of the top of his pants. guessed he the world to know wanted the shooting of Oswald." court, "we may lose her as a witness." He looked for ail the world like a prize Jews do have gun." Had Belli ben) able to conduct his She didn't get on right away though. A Siamese who had gotten himself mixed up Wane: "What was that latter now"' cross-examination exclusively off that jailbreak happened to be taking place with some: allay era Beau (Outraged end disgusted): "Jews, original report, he would have had a right outside the door—on camera—and The next day there were only two Vitt- J-E-W-S. I went it said loud and clear so fighting chance of discrediting Dean on we suddenly had the case of the pregnant nesse, Doctor Towler and Doctor Gum that the word will rung out Jews!" the decrepaney between the 10-minute stripper caught in a jailbreak. Upon such macher. Between them. Towler and Gun- Belli asked if Dent, had made out interval he had testified to and the a0- a note the defense of Jack Ruby began. macher were the whole case presented for an "insurance investigation"—and than minute interval he had reported in his (At the end of the day—Little Lynn hav- lack Ruby quickly corrected it to "accurity report." security statement. ing tettlfied—Belli told the writers, "Some With Doctor Towler on the witness Dean, it developed, had not only mode By the time Wade was able to bring out ham convict tried to tipster rne• • • .") stand, Melvin Belli placed iron evidence a out a security report, he had brought a the existence of the Late, Late Report, in It now fell to Mel Belli to convince green shot box containing 600 feet of carbon copy of it into =at on instruc- his reexamination, it would have had all the jury that Jack Ruby did not know brain-wave tracings. which had been tions from the distnet attorney. the force and validity of a belated apoi- right from wrong at the moment he com- folded Accordionlike into two books. 40 ▪

was a destruction of his ego. The impli- T Trial of Jac* Ruby cation seemed to be—before a squabble between lawyers rendered this point Even before the EEG tens were per- F • vague—that the ego may have to preserve formed. Doctor Towkr said, Ruby's own re itself and its sanity by committing a posi- description of the numerous head injuries tive act of murder or even, as contradic- he had received in the course of his brawl- or tory IS it may Seem, suicide, m ing life had led him to the belief that Ruby Rio why did Jack Ruby have this un- suffered from seizure disorders. Jack had usual degree of identification with Presi- told him that from time to time he expe- tro dent Kennedy"! The answer we got from rienced painful "pricking sensations in Guttmacher ass that Kennedy repre- the head." During these attacks, Ruby ea sented to Ruby the idealized father, both told him, am not as normal as Pro sup- M in his position as the head of state and as posed to be. Every fraction of a second be the head of what seemed to be the perfect I felt something was going to happen. I ha family group. And something else: "He feel as if my head is cracking open." sec eapremed great love [for Prestdent Ken- Did the EEG"s show Rutty had psycho- of nedy] by saying, 'I fell for that man.' motor epilepsy, Belli asked him, or didn't Those are the words he rued. He talked they? "There is no way to look at an rid Robb, character IfillleAfl Ramey Ran. about him as a man in love." EEG," Doctor Towkr said, "and say hit When Beth asked Guttmacher whether Take this is the result of a head injury or re- he thought there was a latent homosexual peated head injuries." five, And yet anyone who had looked to content in these expressions of love, Ruby Sew: "Does that oak in or out the Doctor Guttmacher to show as the tor- me came alert. There was, again, the parted a moment psychomotor epilepsy?" ment that had caused Ruby to lunge to- lips, the held breath, and the slow ex- wh Towtee : "It neither rules it out or in." ward Oswald could only be disappointed. as the full halation. "I think there are suggestions That was a surprise. This was the de- We got the psychiatric largon WT of it," Doctor Guttmacher said, and mu fense', witness, and the burden of proof explanation. Doctor Guttmacher read as Ruby turned his head away, in a sort of stn was upon the defense. the label on the jar; we never now the wincing, incredulous, embarrassed gri- anc Still, Tarsier's diagnosis was that Jack contents. "I think," he said, "we are deal- abnormal individual. with an mace. You could almost see his lips form did have brain injury and did suffer from ing with an the words, "Av.,. for Crissake I" of 4 s. "seizure disorder." abnormal personality structure who has a The next morning Belli surprised every- "During a seizure a man would behave very weak ego structure and was under a one by resting his case. It was now the dor as an automaton," Doctor Tow ler testi- very great emotional impact for a couple prosecution's turn to attack the medical hair fied. "and would probably be amnesiac of days. I. think he was struggling to keep ease, and he put only one psychiatrist on through the entire spell." his sanity during this period. I think he the stand, Dr, John Holbrook of Dallas, When Trawler went to the jury box to came upon this perpetrator of the assas- to make the necessary legal point on out show them the EEG's, the actual brain- sination, and with this disruption of his Ruby's sanity at the nme of the murder. Tea wave tracings, the jury came so life for ego .. there was a psychotic episode." His heavy artillery was leveled at what he not the first time, those in the front row hud- Q. "What do you mean?" felt to be the weak underpinnings of the nee dling in closely around hum. and those in .4. "T think all his defenses crumbled case, those 600 feet of brain-wave tracings cart the back row craning their heads forward. and his hostile, aggressive feelings came in the green shoe box. A As Towkr turned the pages, he care- to the fort, and focused on this one in- Two days earlier, Henry Wade had that fully pointed out each instance where the dividual], with the homicide resulting." asked Doctor Towhee to name the most man wavy line broke elf into a small pike. He Q. -LSO important that seeing Oswald outstanding neurologists in the country. res # circled these "abnormal discharges" with triggered this?" The first name out of Towle-Cs mouth Was have o red pencil, but ta the demonstration A. "Yes. I think it is wellaxstablIshed Dr. Frederic Gibbs of Chicago, who had they dragged on, page after repetitive page, the that people who have psychotic episode' for Murine are subject to triggering of the act by been trumpeted by Belli in court as the stole jurors began to settle back to their seats. great EEG expert_ The second name was Be Boredom set in all over the courtroom. sarong emotional stimuli." Dr. Robert Schwab of Boston. Assistant wort Belli, seeing interest flag, took over at When he was asked to tell the jury what D.A. Bill Alexander had Schwab ready to the end of the second hook end, almost had led him to his conclusion, he said, take the stand for the prosecution. He had The as an act of will, breathed life back into -This patient has an abnormal back- im- mustered a lineup, in fact, that was al- pros the room. "Here's another!" he'd ex- ground. His father was an illiterate mast a neurological eq va len t of the blew and claim, as if they were engaged together in migrant drunkard, and his mother and York Yankees. Larne some gnat voyage of discovery, and the the children were terrorized by him. They Doctor Holbrook readily conceded abuts back row of the jury would come for- were so disorganized that a social agency that Ruby had an extremely unstable he sa ward, all in rhythm, Like blown wheat, had to put the children in foster homes. personality. But, he said. "He did know Just what did It all come down to then? Jack Ruby was put in some half dozen right from wrong end knew the moss-- of tar Wade asked fleeter. foster homes. His mother suffered para- macron of his act." Holbrook also made tiona "A seizure disorder which we refer to noid schizophrenia requiring institution- the telling point that Doctor Schafer's not as psychomotor variant." alization. A young brother was hospital- psychological examinations, taken five shot Ile still hadn't uttered the words "psy- ized for depressive psychosis, a sister had weeks after the act, could not be pro- of Oa chomotor epilepsy," and Beth tried one involutional melancholia, which is a type _iected back to cover the Jack Ruby who gaen mote time. "Ninety-nine percent of this of depressive psychosis, somewhat more had pulled the trigger. type have psychomotor epilepsy?" frequent in worsen than in men." While psychiatrists do have their own that Towkr tweed. Jack Ruby's identification with Presi- compensatory techniques, the ring of ing tit The star witness for the defense, Dr. dent Kennedy was an strong. Doctor truth was unmistakable there. The Jack Bel Manfred Guttmacher, had been around Guttmacher said. that the assassination Ruby we were looking at as Holbrook trial. the court for a couple of days, having was testifying was not even the same man have I rushed in at the behest of Melvin Beth to who had come into the courtroom the Wa quiet Jack Ruby down. Or, as Belli put 0, day before. The psychiatric testimony Ruby "Jack feels better now that he knows the had done something to him, and there De, nutcrackers are coming in." was on his face that bony, grating look the to He had hardly settled into the witness that is recognizable to anyone who has was w chair before Beth asked whether Jack ever walked through a mental hospital. begs Make this simple eye teat. Ruby knew right from wrong at the time Before he left the stand, Doctor Hol- itaase Put a kw drops of Munn. in killed Oswald. he brook also made his contribution to the Jews ones eye. Blink. Look "I don't think he was capable of know- all-out assault on the psychomotor- W. around. Hight *say youll ing right from wrong at the time of the notice how good ma epilepsy plea. "I don't believe he has Bat. homicide." Doctor Guttmacher answered. Moho* makes your eye psychomotor epilepsy front the medical 3-E-14 Doctor Guttmacher held the-audience feet—wide awoke. evidence," he said. "I don't think you Thal th 711ERINE So good you'll quickly all afternoon. After all the calk about can diagnose psychomotor epilepsy from Bela teats arid brain waves, we were leaving the apply Mario* to the • BYE'S the EEG alone." en "in other aye. Try world of machine and being told about The attack on the EEG's had been quiekl! the test that sad, troubled man, Jack Ruby. launched earlier that day with the state's Dee tomorrow morning. Ili For the purposes of a trial Doctor lead-off medical witness, Dr. Shelf Olin- out of the fears and Outtmacher's analysis ger, in whose small Dallas clinic the teats Carbon Eiri. lieEars Inadequacies that had driven Jack Ruby had been made. "In your opinion, do the horn fi Dr. Frederic Gabe. ERG mien. ro raw-, ro. e • a •rwrow.... 1,1 N er over the brink may well have been elm- 40 44 The secret word here Is "epilepsy." All Belli got nowhere with him, especially Trial of Jack Ruby feeding neurologists are members of the when he tried to were the great Gibbs at reeding' show psychomotor variant?" various epilepsy societies that have been him Ito disagreed, he said in that voice of Almander had asked him_ working hard for years to erase old super- authority. with Schafer, with Towler and A. "Psychomotor variant is a term I nitions and prejudices and encouraging with Gibbs. saw for the first tiara in an article written the public to look upon enikeem au Punter's credentials were above and but year by Doctor Gltsbe ft is a par- normal human beings from whom society beyond the Merely academic. He had ticular type of wave that occurs when a has nothing to fear. been called in to attend President Eisen- patient is drowsy or sleeping." Psychomotor epilepsy is not epilepsy bower after his stroke, a biographical insert into the Q. "La It a den-riptlan of a hrain,wave in the normal sense, as the defense had nom that Almander didn't 'acorn rather than a disease "' gone to great pains to make clear. But record more than once every minute. .4. "It re a brain-ware patreen." that was in the courtroom, not in the The litany rolled on: Now we had it. A definition of psycho- newspapers. The stories that curse out of "There is no evidence hem that this motor variant. And the definition wets the bond hearing said, in effect, that the patient has a compulsive disorder." that it was not a disease at all. murder we had all seen over television "No, these tracings would not support The next prosecution cannonball was with our very own eyed had been corning- a finding of psychomotor epilepsy or Fred by Dr. Peter Kellevaly, 43, a small, led by a man in an epileptic seizure. The psychomotor Variant." crew-cut men. The EEG. he said, was experts were enraged. They were enraged, Far from occurring in only one portent Larkin Lhekeetna, weather of Jeer. merely a diagnostic aid. first of all, because they did not feel that of the populauon, Doctor Forster said, it at value Without a diagnosis?" Doctor Schafer had been justified in it was a pattern that occurred in 28 per- Q. -ha shouldn't really be denied the oppor- .4. "The EEG in itself never supplies a making such a flat diagnutis off his tests. cent of the population Doctor Forster enjoyed himself immensely. His style was tunity of hearing the world's greatest au- - (That doesn't mean they were right and diagnosis- thority. The judge, suddenly aware that Belli could not get Doctor 'Callaway to Doctor Schafer was wrong,l to preface his answers with background they were talking in front of the jury, state flatly that he was disagreeing with When they finally did get to see the information and then illustrate them— snapped. "Be quiet till f get rid of—till I the redoubtable Doctor Gibbs., All Kell", EEO tracings—which, as for as they were you could are the schoolteacher here- get the jury out of here, willya?" way would say was that them was a concerned. showed nothing—they were with amusing little stories. It was per- If we can assume that not even Joe "considerable difference" its Ruby's trac- even more enraged. fectly clear that the jury was finding him Brown, in all his wisdom, had the power ings and Gibbet definition of psycho- The greatest brain specialists in the Errunemely likable, immensely entertain- to wipe their minds clean. the jurors knew motor variant. country came down to Dallas, when ell is ing—and immensely informative, that the trial was being held over for an- The defense seemed to have abandoned said and done, on a public-relations job. Thu volunteer instructor delivered to other day for the sok purpose of hearing psychomotor epilepsy and reiregt.,%1 to Before the trial had even started. when us, finally, a deenition of psychomotor the testimony of The Great Gibes. psychomotor variant, and now—accord- Towlere report had come back without epilepsy. "Psycho," he said. memos men- Understand one thing—the attorneys ing to Doctor Kelleway —they didn't the word "epilepsy." Wade had begun to tal activity, and "motor" refers to muscu- for the defense had not coaxed Gibbs even hase that. consider the probability that Belli had lar activities. "Epilepsy" is a sudden eke- down. Belli had built hint up into such a Belli's most brilliant gambit through- set up a decoy. When he learned from discharge from the gray matter of mythological figure. the fount of all knowl- out the medical testimony was his use of Alexander that Alexander had a lineup the brain. Putting it ell together, psycho- edge and wisdom, that the only way Gibbs Doctor Gibbs, who was unwilling to tes- of glittering witnesses who were prepared motor epilepsy meant that both the mind could live up to his billing would be to tify ewer as a friend of the COurt. Since to pulverize psychomotor epilepsy, he and the body of the victim were function- materialize in court in a puff of smoke. he was confident that Gibbs was rimer ing, but functioning abnormally. He fa- But Gibbs had been up in Chicago seine to be them. *Ili felt free to wale vored us with an eyewitness report of a reading all those terrible things his col. his name at the jury as if it were a flag, friend of his who leaped from his plane leagues had been saying about psycho- establishing through sheer assertion and stool in the middle of it Christmas carol motor variant and the EEG's, and he had repetition that Gibbs was the foremost and began to play bebop and jazz- method man dace Pasteur. In psychomotor epilepsy, he empha- called Doctor Towler and insisted upon coming down to defend himself. Unable to move Doctor Rollaway, he sized, the activity was always that silly It was altogether consistent with Jack was reduced to observing, -There is a end, except for a certain amount of em- Ruby's journey through life that while great deal we don't know yet in due tield. barrassment, that harmless. There is no Doctor Gibbs had refused to Submit him- just barely scratched she surface, reran, Ile said. The patient himself remelt self to cross-examination for the sake of isn't that right?' to believe it happened. A psychomotor saving Jack Ruby from the electric chair, Ketlewev (curtly): "I presume so." episode, he said, could never result in the neither rain nor snow nor Joe B. lb-men The final witness of the clay was Dr. patient pulling Out a gun, lunging at an- could keep him from coming down to Earl Walker of Joints Hopkins, whose other man and shooting him. Dallas. at his own expense, to defend his credentials set him forth as the nation's Roland Mackay, a mousy little man, is theories and his machine. leading brain surgeon. The EEG "bursts," president of the American Epilepsy So- In meeting with Doctor Gibbs over Doctor Walker conceded, were unusual. ciety. He testified, like the others, that the breakfast the next day. to go over his Nothing more than that. EEG's were not even suggestive of my- testimony. Belli and Tutuila] had discov- Weil, Belli said, if he didn't know what alternate( epilepsy Or venni!. creel that they had a walking time bomb they were, then he couldn't Matt posi- Under Belli's scalpel Mackey turned on their hands. Yes, Doctor Gibbs did tively that it wasn't psychomotor epilepsy. out to be a rigid old boy who had no use believe that the tracings definitely 'showed And if he couldn't say It want's, then he for any of this newfangled psychologiral Juryman marts 0w OW handle, psychomotor violent and yes, he did be- would hese mazy that it could be. Walker testing, with its inkbloss and its machines. lieve that psychomotor variant was a agreed with a slime that indicated he He had found it far more valuable he definite, if rare, type of epilepsy. No wasn't interested in getting himself in- was sure of it. "It just can't be this sim- said, to just talk to the patient as he was doubt whatsoever about that. It was what volved indite kind of sement ic countdown. ple," he said. "Say what you want about examining hint and make his own judg- he didn't believe that hit them right where And once again Belli was Saying, "We Belli, he's beaten everybody in the med- ment as to intellectual capacities. their defense lived. Unlike the victims of haven't done enough work to know what ical field. Maybe Mr. Belli didn't under- Beth approached him with a letter from ordinary psychomotor epilepsy, Inc told we have here." Doctor Walker was quite estimate an in that bond hearing. We've Doctor Gibbe, his routine gambit with all them the vice= of psychomotor variant willing to agree that there Wilt always a got to assume now that while we thought these witnesses. The stets, as always, ob- mriined 0201JriOlLI of everythrae they did great deal more to he learned Unfortu- we were setting a trap for him, he was jected to ire being reed on the grounds tlreaughout thee/race. No, not just islands nately, Mel Belli sus charged with prov- setting the trap for its." that Gibbs wasn't there. ing by a preponderance of the evidence To the very end the prosecution was From his seat at the defense table of memory, fully conscious. Belli's entire legal case—the necessity that the defense knew what it was talking waiting for a trap to be sprung. To the Tonahill shouted, "Gibbs will be here!" to establish that he did not know right about. On Wednesday, the sixth day of very end they found it difficult to believe Belli mine whirling around, low to the from wrong—had been predicated upon the trial, the defense had collapsed. it could be that simple. ground. "You've just milted him, Joe?" Why should the top neurologists in the On Thursday, March 12, the seventh "Yes. We assure you he'll be here." the argument that Jack had been in a country have been so willing to take time and, it had been made clear, last day of Wheeling beck to the witness, Belli fugue state, that is, that he had not been conscious of what he was doing. out from Moe busy lives to Canna down the trial, Alexander still had such lop asked, with marvelously feigned ennft- to Dallas and testify against Jack Ruby? neurologists as Doctor Schwab, Francis dence, "Now will you reed it ?" Now Belli knew very well that his case It is safe to say that if these same men had Forster and Roland Mackay. Objection. had already fallen apart. The only ques- been on the jury panel, most of them Doctor Schwab is a man who speaks As Wade rested he case for the final tion that remained was whether he was would have disqualified themselves be- with flat authority. When he said no, you time, Belli requested permission to put going to beat the cheer. In capital cases muse of their opposition to capital pun- knew the answer was no. When he said Gibbs on the stand the following morn- Texas defense lawyers count anything loss ishment. Yet they mote or less recom- yes, you knew it was yes. And when he ing_ Judge Brown, of course, has a genius than the chair a victory, since under the mended each other to the prosecution tend said he didn't know, you knew that no- for asserting hit powers at precisely the very liberal parole system a life sentence came almost as a Warn. The answer takes body knew. "I have seen this type of brain wrong tone. "No." he said, "t told you really means 10 to I?. years. as beck to Belli rivaling his cuss at the wave in many true," he testified. "It is we were going to end it today, Mr. Belli, Oh' all the strange And sometimes inex- plicable things Belli did in his handling bond hearing, and of the had luck that mote common in normal people than in and I'm going to hold to that." of Ruby's defense, the strangest of all has always, showed Ruby. people wife-ring from brain damage." Belli argued his point that the jury

4$ may well have been his examination of would have discovered the mistake and, "Here in the early houn of the morn- chamber. Whatever his reasons for killing Doctor Gibbs. He asked Doctor Gibbs. presumably, abandoned the ERG ma. ing." he began, "when great discoveries Oswald might have been, it was not to as admittedly he had to, "Whet did you chitte—as Wade expected him to—end have been made or garrets and hasements, hear himself being called "a mental de- diagnose from Jack Ruby's ERG?" gone on to build a solid psychiatric case. let us try to rediscover a justice that has fective" and "a goof." it was not to hear Gimes: "Ruby has et particular, very Still, one might aniline that before he did never really been lost in your great city." his lawyer tell the jury that "he came rare, type of epilepsy--one that does that go ahead on the bath of a I35-word let- He had audacity, With ha arse shot from bad stock." Nor was it to hear his manifest itself In convulsive seizures." ter, Belli would have taken the precaution from under him, Belli mood there on the friends, the cops, come M. one after the That was bud enough But that de- of eying up to Chicago to talk to Doctor burning deck and asked the jury not for a other, to nail him to the chair. If Ruby structive link w ord " no I" had been tucked Gibbs, compromise verdict but for an acquittal. was sure of one thing, it was- as he told in to unobtrustYety, and so close to the If Akeander missed the import of one "You know be wet get Veterans Ad- Doctor Guttmacher. that "all the police tragic word "epilepsy," that it was pos- pan of Gibbs's testtmony, he did not ministration treatment if he has a felony department loved me" Oswald, at least, sible that neither Alexander nor anybody miss the fact that Belli had not asked him on him." died with the image of himself—whatever else at the prosecution table would pick whether Ruby had known right from Henry Wade, the man who always gets that weird, haunted image might have up the implications. wrong at the time of the crime. Mex. what he asks from Dallas juries, re- been—intact. The trial not only stripped Shortly thereafter Belli laid it right into ander did ask that question and, of minded them that they had sworn at the Ruby bare of every shred of dignity, it their laps. "With this particular type of course. Gibbs could have no opinion. beginning that they believed in capital ripped away the painfully constrocied epilepsy," Belli asked, "do you find after Donor Gibbs left the stand at 10 A.31_, punishment. "We believed you then. We protective network that had kept him the attack that the patient t% or is not and the testimony in the rase of the State believe you now." sane. This is an odd thing to say, but at generally amnesiac or has Islands of of Texas vs. Jack Rubenstein, alias Jack The law, he told them, is a chain which the end he had the look of a man who m.emory?" Ruby, had come to an end. begins with the police and ends with the had been violated. Grew: "ft is extremely variable. Con- After a 10-hour recess. Joe Brown read jury. "The weakest heart on this jury an The more cerebral and self-assured sciousness is commonly maintained right his tharge in the toneless, ratchety way set before the world what we think of this among the journalists had been writing, through the seizure, often aecompanied that comes when the words do nor quite kind of conduct." Here at the end Henry with a terrible air of sanctimony, that by aware pain. The pain is often so great carry the torte and color of the total mean- Wade was telling them to contemphot we had to give "this your miserable seen- that the patient threaten to commit ing. Ruby leaned hack onto the rear legs the image of Dallas. Most of all, though, men," hts day in court. one of those Suictde." of his chair for perhaps the first time in he hammered at the theme closest to his dreadfully moralistic and self-preserve's He had put that question to Gibbs, the entire trial, coming forward only heart. "Set this man tome, and you set menses that desktop what it is presum- Belli told us later, only because of ho when the judge began to instruct the jury civilization back a hundred years. And ing to preserve. utter contempt for the district attorney's on the law of insanity. Now that it was you set it back to lynch law." Jack was not a specimen. He was not office. "I analyzed them as not being over. he teemed more relaxed than he had The case was given over to the jury at a miserable anything. Looking at Ruby competent enough to pick up the Mni. been for weeks. 1:06 3.31. They began their deliberation objectively, he was a man who despite al- canon that If Jack had been conscioue, After the long, wain and wzmuig day at 9:15 A.m. most disabling personal problems had our case was destroyed. And I was right." of delay, there was a SCOW of unreality as always girded himself up and gone back He was right: they didn't pick it up. the lawyers arose, one by one, to stand It has been said that the jury should out to fight the world. He had managed Such a complete abandonment—a repo- before the jury box and shout out their have stayed out longer, if only for the through most of his adult life to take are diet/on—of his case, out of his own final arguments_ sake of appearance. At the same time, of not only himself but of his mouth, at the very end of the trftd, was sister, Each side had two and a hail hours' something should be said in their de- Eva Grant. so unthinkable that everybody at the worth of summation to split up as it saw fense. After they heard the summations, It was the trial itself that degraded and prosecution table had apparently heard fit, with the district-attorney's office, as in they retired for the night, but there cannot debased him. He became a specimen to the answer they were geared to hear. all states, having both the first and Ian be much doubt that they pondered some the experts, the sport of lawyers. Before Bela of course, couldn't he sure they words. Seven lawyers addressed the jury more before they went to sleep. They had the professionals were finished, there was were going to null it Whether he realized over the next five hours in styles which the case, not for two hours and 19 min- not a man in the courtroom who did not it or not, in his eagerness to show his held, for the most pert, to a sort of early utes, but for 21 hours and 35 minutes. feel superior to Inn. The ultimate dis- contempt for the people who had knocked high-school commencement, feasurine- Having said all that, it is also true that his ears off, he wan also telling am that he position of Jack Ruby may well hang on un the prosecution side—a great deal of they quite probably could have given had based his insanity plea upon a mis- a perplexing question: What happens if a whirling and pointing and condemning their verdict without leaving the box. understanding. Psychomotor variant, if defendant who is legally sane as the trial in the style of, "You, Jack Ruby!" From what we could find out they took it echos at all, apparently begins is driven rind by the trial itself! is not what Belli Even here at the end the tension built only three auto; thought it was. Jack Ruby had his day in court, all to the climactic moment when Belli would 1. Guilty or not guilty. The real tragedy, to far as the defense right. Unlike Lee Oswald, he YOU given step in front of the jury box for this one 2. Sane or insane MIA concerned, is that if Gibbs had been the full protection of due process of law. lost theme in summon up the magic 3. Death or less than death. willing to testify from the beginning, Belli It would have been kinder to have stoned words that would save Jack Ruby's life. For Ruby the trial had been a torture him to death. THE END

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