The Assassin's Assassin: A Case Study of the Jack Ruby Trial

[Music] good evening good evening welcome my name is Nicola Longford I'm the executive director here at the sixth floor Museum and welcome to a truly exceptional program format and theme tonight this is an event that has been inspired and led by presiding judge of Dallas County's criminal district courts judge brandon birmingham and it is because of george birmingham his own personal interest in the fascinating trial proceedings of jack ruby along with the judges infectious enthusiasm generosity and spirit that has forged the development of this unique and rewarding partnership tonight's program called collaboration between Dallas County's legal arm featuring judge Brandon Birmingham and criminal defense attorney Toby shook and the sixth floor museum is thus and inspiring an incredibly exciting positive outcome after more than nine years of on-and-off discussions since 2008 about the fate of the large cache of historical records and artifacts pertaining to the trial of Jack Ruby and that were part of the legendary Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade's records that sat forgotten for many decades in a Dallas County safe so this year on the spring of 2017 and with extreme thanks to judge birmingham who was the lead if not the sole custodian and steward navigating this latest opportunity for a loan agreement between dallas county and the sixth floor museum that all the records that were part of the district attorney henry waste jack ruby materials they have come to the sixth floor museum for preservation digitization and preparation for public access and that's over twenty linear feet of fascinating stuff this significant body of historical materials including some quite strange artifacts like knuckle busters a gun holster rubies personal address book and other effects greatly enhanced the existing set of ruby related materials Carole in the museum's collections they all shed light on the complex makeup of a character so many still today seek to understand who he was why he felt compelled in a split second to shoot on live television the alleged murderer of the President of the United States this new loan from the Dallas County DA's office in conjunction with existing museum Jack would be collections of photographs records artifacts and other materials now creates the most extensive Assembly of Jack Ruby related materials anywhere and which we hold at the sixth floor Museum in public trust it is a sixth floor museum's commitment to make these materials accessible for researchers in the museum's reading room through online collections and our special module called a museum through our website and also through various types of education on public programming many of you in the audience tonight may not have been to the sixth floor museum before for those of you who are taking the CLE credits you may not know anything about this rich history but we are thrilled to be hosting you here and maybe will provoke your curiosity in discovering different aspects of historic preservation beyond examination of traditional traditional legal proceedings and documentation dovetailing our respective methods museum methods and legal methods and historical analysis on collecting information stories and testimonials preserving evidence artifacts etc it demonstrates why even after all these years professional collaborations such as the one we have tonight only help strengthen our collective work to better understand our past we are framing why understanding our history is always relevant in some way to the now and will help guide us as we make way for the future and what will come after us with current renovations underway at the former Dallas police headquarters soon to be the new anti UNT law school and to the Dallas County criminal courts and records building in several years there will be new interpretive spaces inside these historic structures that will relate the events of Lee Harvey Oswald's arrest his interrogation and the shooting and the jack will be timeline events that fall within the JFK assassination story and so the sixth floor museum stands at the ready to provide support and assistance to our satellite historic sites by offering our collections our film footage photographs records over fifty five thousand items we have in our collections and it's just wonderful but we will work collectively to integrate a new form of shared history choice storytelling that will aid the public and also a local community about what happened the when the where the why the how the who the what and I can safely speak for all of our staff here everybody here at the museum has helped for several months to try and put this event together and they've all been absolutely fabulous and it's so rewarding we really have such an an exciting job to work with all of you and I'd like to acknowledge now the living legends here tonight to whom we're eternally grateful for your support and willingness to share your stories and to help educate those that will come after us there are so very many friends in the audience tonight to thank and recognize but first I'd like to thank aside from the staff our board members and Lindell Anatomy was some of you might know is a dallas legend in her own thanks to her there are so many historic sites that have been preserved and she regrettably cannot be here tonight but I wanted her to be recognized way back twenty nine years ago almost she couldn't imagine that we would still be around telling this story I'd like to recognize Lynn Novak Keith Palmer call auntie no hello mo from our board and our historical living historian see history Walton and Katherine Bondi's Phil Burleson jr. is representing his father Helen Holmes the widow of Bert Holmes Bob Huffaker and vive his wife detective Jim LaValle Palma Guerin Nancy Meyers I think was supposed to be here tonight I'm not sure if she's arrived and women and David rose and there are also many other descendants and family members recognizing some historical figures who are now deceased but I'd like to recognize Margaret and Jeff freshmen Julian skip Alexander Helen Holmes who's the widow of Bert Holmes Shirley Bassey Lobel and her friends that she bought from Phil bill Alexander's family and of course Kim Wade and his family that he bought here tonight thank you so much Rachel Wade Robertson whose family of the DA prosecutor Henry Wade and the Karen Wyse who is the daughter of Ruby wise if you can stand up or wave or let us the audience know who you are thank you so much for being here [Applause] and also I'd like to thank the district attorney faith Johnson and her her staff for public information officer Elizabeth Saab and all the other people that helped make this event tonight but now without further ado I'm going to please help me give a warm welcome to our presenters Toby shock and judge Brandon Birmingham [Applause] as mrs. Kennedy the crowd yells and the President of the United States [Music] and I can see his son fan all the way from here and here they come right down tortoise I can see mrs. Kennedy and they're going to come right on down and shake hands with everybody mrs. Kennedy it gave a lovely smile in a wave at that time the people surging up for that fence and the president waves goodbye and back they go to the car presidential limousine the president now in with the First Lady and the motorcade begins to move out the president and the first lady sitting in the back seat as we said the top is down immediately following the presidential limousine a car loaded with secret servicemen anything radiant in that big outfit and a big add and of course you can hear the streets around us they're driving at about five miles an hour ready slow enough for the people on hand here to get a good look at them to get a good wave in and I'm sure that everybody in my immediate vicinity would swear they were waving directly at them it was a wonderful welcome for President Kennedy and mrs. Kennedy there was certainly no adverse demonstration it was a tremendous Welcome that Big D gave our chief executive [Music] good afternoon ladies and gentlemen you'll excuse the fact that I'm out of breath but about 10 or 15 minutes ago a tragic thing from all indications at this point has happened in the city of Dallas the police are now surrounding the area down here sirens are screaming man we fired the shots is still in the Texas schoolbook depository building at the corner of elm and Houston in downtown Dallas was a wonderful welcome at downtown Dallas has become a scene of indescribable horror the president's called with some 50 feet still yet in front of us coming towards us we heard a shot and the President and I had the baby and I just ran and we got on top of me laid on the grass President Kennedy is on the inside of Parkland Hospital and two priests have just been sent in to the room with the president you can see the telescopic sight that's home aside captain will Fritz examining the weapon you can imagine the confusion that's going on in the city of Dallas today not only in our newsroom but in all the newsrooms Ron tell us what you know we joined a police motorcade that was a dashing to the Texas theater where they had a report of a man coming in there that was armed police suddenly jumped this man and started to drag him out of the theater hustled him out to the car as the crowd broke and started to maul the police officers and grab this man trying to run with him they shouted murder and just almost anything to try and get at this man as you see here the officers hustled him into the car and ran away just as fast as they could from this Texas theater in hopes of protecting this man and they have taken him off to an unknown spot we don't know where they're holding him you killed no I've not been charged with that in fact nobody has said that to me yet the first thing I heard about was when the newspaper reporters in the hall asked me that question F Kennedy I figure we have efficient evidence to convict is there any doubt in your mind chief that oswald is the man who killed the president is the man that killed the president it is anticipated that he will be moved because extreme precautions have been taken they are ready to prevent anything they possibly can there were perhaps two or three hundred people outside the city hall waiting to see the transfer of Oswald this is the basement floor of the Dallas City Hall and that's a scuffle on the basement floor it seems all right how's everybody doing tonight good that was some good video work by the sixth floor museum kind of encapsulate everything that happened in that fateful weekend back in November of 1963 I wanted to tell you all just a little bit about how we even got here and then tell you where we're gonna go tonight first of all my name is brandon birmingham i was a prosecutor for some time with the Dallas County DA's office and I used to work in the cold-case unit and there in the warehouse at the DA's office in the corner was a file that we were never allowed to touch the file of Jack Ruby and so I was always very curious about how that was what was in there and what type of paperwork and how there was just this mystique about it and so mister shook and I got together and we were talking about the biggest trials in the history of Texas and he's been involved with some of them but then if you go back I would say that this is the biggest trial that happened certainly in the state of Texas and probably one of the biggest trials in the history of this country and it happened right here we had access to the file so we arranged to have it donated here and tonight has been a long time coming with a lot of people who've done a lot of work so I'm very very proud to be here tonight with my good friend mr. Toby shook the state of Texas versus Jack Rubin steam that is how he was indicted it was a capital murder trial the state was seeking the death penalty there was an alias on the indictment of Jack Ruby but his true name was Jack Rubinstein that's how he was indicted there is a road map that you'll see there there was two bail hearings there was a change of venue hearing that was fascinating then we have jury selection and then we do indeed have the actual trial of the century and that is how we're gonna go forward tonight so I want to thank each and every one of you for coming it's an honor really to stand in front of you all and to actually stand in front of some of the people who lived this trial or did the investigation on the case or were involved somehow in the investigation of the incest of the assassination not only of the president but also of officer Tippit so welcome let's talk very very first about the first time what you're seeing here is one of the very first times that the name of the defendant was released to the public Oswald expired at 1:07 p.m. the man who shot him has been arrested and will be charged with murder who is he what's his name that's the man's name is Jack Ruby he goes by the name of Jack Ruby he's a local Dallas man his real name is Ruben Steen let's let us out please I have no other statements to make at this time that's dallas police chief jesse curry announcing the name of Jack Rubenstein so who is Jack Ruby he was born in Chicago he was the fifth of ten children grew up in a very very tough neighborhood a poor neighborhood in Chicago skipped out of school was a gambler a hustler they called him Sparky Archie you know why they call him sparking cuz he could always get things done could always get things done so he floated around for some time after he got out of school he was drafted and served in the US Army served in World War two was honorably discharged and after some time actually moved here to Dallas in about 1947 shortened his name to Ruby and he ran some of the nightclubs I'd like to first of all tell you that you are all now members officially of the Carousel Club I don't know that it's gonna be as exciting as it possibly could have been back in 63 Toby and I are gonna try to be entertaining I don't know if we can provide the same services that they did we we thought about getting a snare drum and maybe a sax player and interludes but but thought it might be too much but it was a the first club we had was called a sovereign club and that was a dinner club and these were in vogue obviously back at the time then he opens up the Carousel Club I've had the pleasure of meeting along the way Tammy Tru was her name and spoken with her a little bit about her experiences there she's still alive I was so hoping to see her tonight she's got a larger-than-life personality which is one of the great things about this case but she told me she was very quick to point out that she was a burlesque dancer she was not a stripper she told me to to get the mind to give my mind right that it was not a strip club like we know today but it was very tasteful it was an entertainment club they'd have live bands they're comedians van't will acquiesce and they would of course have the burlesque dancers and that was what the carousel club was back in 1964 ruby was known to try to promote things the old-fashioned way if you all have looked at latrines I'm gonna try to refer to some of the things that you all seen well first of all a vitrine is the glass thing back there with all the stuff in it okay I didn't know that until doing this whole thing but the vitrine is is back there he would pass out these cards there was one in particular of cart of Giada that was actually recovered from Ruby's car after he was arrested for the murder in the case and the trial that we're all here to talk about and it's right back there but he passed those cards out there would be guests including men and women there'd be lawyers there the police were more than welcome there Jim Lavelle who was boy it's an honor to have you here that was his beat he knew Jack Ruby he told me in an interview that we did and told me that he was an honest businessman and that he ran his club very well and very lawfully and so that was huge AK Ruby was in 1964 Jack Ruby and what you'll find as we go through this was very much live in Dallas was a very different City back at that time kind of why that's coming now downtown has been revived but back in that time downtown was the center of everything and within this 12 block radius all your banking was done all your office it was lively edge all your restaurants at nightclubs so he was seen on the streets every day if he wasn't in his club he was out promoting it and and I think what's real interesting when you study this trial and then you have to go back to the times it's just how different Dallas was and then the atmosphere of how everything happened just in this area that we're in right now all right so this next clip that we're gonna watch I'm going to show you the clip because it's going to gonna narrow down for you the issue ultimately in the trial but this was the first time that the public heard about what the actual charge was going to be and this is what is going to have to be proven by the state at the trial and we hear now the justice of the peace who is going to read to you what the charge is so I want you to remember that as we go through the trial because that's what the lawyers are going to be focusing on as they're gonna try to present this evidence this is a formal murder complaint filed as of this date November the 24th against Jack Ruby it alleges that on this date Jack Ruby did voluntarily and with malice aforethought kill Lee Harvey Oswald by shooting him with the guns this is what is known in Texas as a capital offense the complaint was far with me as just into the piece and no bond is being set as of this time all right so the issue is going to be voluntarily and with malice aforethought we'll get to that later but you all heard it was a capital offense that means it's going to be a death penalty case and so this is from that night or maybe the next day but this is very early on in the case and of course the very first thing that has to happen is that the lawyers have to be assembled okay and so at the beginning there was a number of lawyers that sort of came in and out but there was one in particular named Tom Howard Tom Howard was a Ruby's first lawyer and things moved a lot quicker back then you know that President Kennedy was shot on the 22nd Oswald was shot and killed on the 24th and Jack Ruby was arrested at time and he was indicted on the 26 so it was a long investigation of two days and I believe mr. Wade made the decision seek the death penalty about five minutes after in that indictment so there were a number of lawyers that came up to meet Jack Ruby but when they found out he wasn't going to be he's going to be held without bail most of them left except Thomas Howard who was a very good local criminal lawyer a Howard office across from the courthouse Doug Mulder told me an interesting tidbit that his wife was the former wife of luckily Frank H Oni who she had killed and destroyed represented and got her off and then they were able to marry like the work he had done on the case he was an interesting guy but he was smart Howard quickly developed the defense he thought would work he wanted to keep this kind of quiet and as you'll find out murder with malice is what the state wanted to charge because that could get you the death penalty his strategy was try to get the jury to find him guilty of murder without malice because murder without malice limited penalty range from two to five years at the most and the way he planned to do that was to maybe have Ruby see a couple of local psychiatrists they could get on the stand and talk about he's kind of a strange guy got some mental unbalance but not say he was insane because Howard thought a jury aspect particularly a Dallas jury wouldn't buy off on insanity it's tough anywhere but back in 1964 Dallas it wasn't going to happen he didn't believe it's hard to sell to get jurors to let someone walk scot-free for shooting someone down but he thought it'd be more effective to do it that way they could talk about it then put friends on they could talk about his emotional care traits and how affected he was by the Kennedy assassination and then put Jack Ruby on himself that could talk about personally how he was affected and and and the pressure he was under and that when he saw Lee Harvey Oswald walk out he was overcome by sudden passion it's the same definition that we use today that it's a killing done under the immediate influence of sudden passion arising from adequate cause and that's what he wanted to do and that's what he set out doing though the problem was the ruby family now that this was the biggest story in the world at the time thought he wasn't a big enough lawyer because he hadn't he hadn't handled any big cases just local cases record he did he did it was hid he had handled 26 cases in which this stated sought the death penalty and he won every one of them so he had a pretty good record but they told him they didn't think he was comfortable being the lead so they asked him to find out who to find some better lawyers so Earl Ruby is Jack's brother goes to San Francisco to meet with a book publisher and the book publisher had known this lawyer named Melvin belli and they put them in contact Earl Ruby as Belle I writes in his book came to one of his murder trials watched him do a closing argument and hired him on the spot so we have the the lawyer Melvin belli Melvin Belle I was a personal injury lawyer from San Francisco the interesting thing I think I said this before these larger-than-life personalities in Melvin belli I certainly was one if you were in San Francisco at the time and he had just won a big verdict you would know because he would fly as Jolly Roger the skull and crossbones flag and then he would shoot off a cannon off the roof of his building and announced that he had won and that there was a big party to follow so Melvin belli had a tremendous amount of personality and charisma and confidence let's just say confidence he had lots of confidence and he had a good friend named Joe Tana he'll we'll talk about Joe Tunney he'll real quick but first of all you need to see Melvin Bell line there he is I don't necessarily mean this picture to be funny I do want to tell you though that that picture is gonna be a little bit funny by the end of the so this is what they call a preview seat so you look at this picture now that's a picture from the end of the trial on a legendary moment for Melvin belli that we'll get into much later but he was very flamboyant very confident very much a sharp dresser he would have been I guess oil and water with what was happening here in Texas he had the Italian boots no Stetson hat for him no he wore I think his clothes were tailored came from England his leather boots were actually English boots and he had he liked red linings and all his clothing and the boots caused a little bit of problem you'll learn about Bill Alexander who's one of the prosecutors and he dubbed those fruit boots in the trial just to get under Bell eyes skin because Li was pretty proud of everything so we heard a lot about fruit boots so Melvin Bella's good friend in the personal injury litigation world was a very successful lawyer from Texas named Joe Tana hill now Joe Tana Hill was six foot four he weighed 300 pounds he was a big country lawyer he was a graduate of George Washington law school worked as a system DA in Beaumont was a US attorney and then of course a very successful plaintiff's lawyer and was known around there and was bail eyes good friends so you've got bail eye with his buddy from Beaumont who were gonna come in and try the case and you've had some interesting conversations with some folks who knew him Tannehill had moved to Jasper Texas and he had a ranch which he renamed Sherwood Forest and he had a lot of confidence too but I know the lawyer who actually bought his law office and he claimed told me that the place is haunted still that he's working at night he can smell cigar smoke he can hear the whiskey cabinet open and things like that but Donna Hill was really interesting he he was a big man and you can see his eyebrows a little bit but he liked to grow his his eyebrows out and kind of troll them up because he thought that was intimidating and he also had big six gun conflicts which he would spin when the opposing counsel was arguing to try to distract the jury things like that but he had a lot of confidence that he had a big voice Big Joe Tana hill you all are gonna hear some of his arguments as you will all the lawyers later on in the show and I got to tell you I don't exactly know what mr. shook is going to do with Tana Hills argument but I can't wait to hear it then you've got a former clerk from the Court of Criminal Appeals a very highly successful appellate prosecutor in Henry Wade's office that was opening up his own firm and as near as I can tell was the Texas expert for bail I and for Tana Hill and his name is Phil Burleson and I believe that mr. Burleson family members are here some of them are and he came and at the time he was out of a 16-year career I believe with Henry Wade's office he had a very successful career there and mr. Burleson can be seen here in this picture of note mr. Burleson is the only lawyer for ruby that lasted from the beginning all the way until the end a little bit more on how this case ended later but that's mr. Phil Burleson the he was also a participant obviously in the trial as well yeah he the year before he had worked for Henry white and was chief of his appellate section and he was a brilliant lawyer I believe his record for the three years previous this trial was he made a hundred arguments before different courts of appeals any 193 of them so Bell I wanted a lawman as he called it and Thomas Howard had recommend Phil Burleson and after an interview they hired him and his role in the trial primarily was to prepare memorandums the legal objections and you always need a good lawman when you're in a trial Phil Burleson now on the other side you have a legendary district attorney Henry Wade Henry Wade his father was a judge in Rockwall he had seven let's see he was the fifth of seven brothers I believe no five of his seven brothers were lawyers which is impressive he was a UT football player the president of his law school class when he graduated with high honors so he had an impressive resume he was roommates in college with somebody that you all may recognize from the video Governor Connally that was his roommate in college so when the assassination took place and his friend got shot obviously this was a personal case for mr. Wade not only because it happened here in his hometown but because they had shot his friend and former roommate he had been a prosecutor of the district attorney since 1951 so by the time this trial happened he'd been there for about 12 years before he worked as a prosecutor or as the elected District Attorney he worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation including going down to South America on doing and collecting surveillance information on the Nazis down there so he had a quite an impressive resume was by this time firmly entrenched as the elected district attorney this was his believe I read that it was his twelfth death-penalty trial that he had done personally before he had been the District Attorney and mr. sook was hired by him I believe they they say that his it was a brilliant lawyer and his best skill was hiring talented lawyers recognized talent but he was a legend in Dallas and at that time he'd been DEA since 1951 which was long when I was at the DA's office they used to have all the photos of all the other DA's and from about night you know from the beginning Dallas history there's about 30 of them and then there was mr. Wade for 36 years so they hadn't had a DA that had served that long and Dallas history was pretty wild in the 20s and 30s and there was a lot of corruption in a lot of cities and the Dallas leaders loved Henry Wade because he liked being DEA and and he had the reputation of he wasn't corruptible he and Bill Decker were known for cleaning up crime and organized crime wouldn't in Dallas and they loved him and by the time this trial came around everyone in Dallas County knew him and they respected I got my numbers wrong dad that word that 12 was wrong he had a better record than that he had 28 what was his record he it's interesting there's a great video where one of the national news casters when he announces he's seeking death ask him if he's tried many death penalties and he said yeah I've tried 24 and they said well how many do you get death and he said 23 and then they they cut to a commercial but he was successful in so there's Henry Manasseh Wade some of his family members are here too I would love to talk to y'all after this is all over William F Alexander I know that his wife is here bill Alexander big bill there he is coming in to do unbeliev closing arguments that is at least if not closing arguments in the trial that's one day going into trial but bill Alexander was an Arkansas Razorback he went to SMU he was a captain in the US Army in World War two he was hired as a prosecutor 1953 by mr. Wade and by the time that this trial happened ten or so years 11 years later he was the chief felony prosecutor he's the one that had 12 death penalty jury trials as the lead prosecutor under his belt by the time that we come here now there's some really great things in those vitrines one of my new favorite words back there but bill Alexander was present basically at every major part of the November 22nd November 23rd and November 24th during the killing he was out writing search warrants he was at the back of the Texas theater when they arrested Lee Harvey Oswald he interrogated Oswald and and talked with Ruby as well he knew Jack Ruby they had had some dealings together in business wise and also some business down to DA's office and so that's big bill Alexander he took half of the trial I mean I would say mostly it was him and Henry Wade we'll get into that a little later later but he had a really good way that he organized the file some of which you can see on those cards and the vitrines and what he did is he had a no card for every witness and for each witness there was a location on there and he had the witnesses divided up alphabetically but he also had the witnesses divided up by subject matter and so if something was going to happen during the trial he had these notebooks made he had these cards made and if he didn't know who the other side was going to be called he would be able to pick up and and run with the cross-examination now the the preparation that they did in this case was spectacular we'll talk a little bit about more on that later he was a living legend I had the privilege of you know him when he was a defense attorney but the thing in about mr. Alexander was he was known for being able to needle the opposition during the trial get him off base in stuff route boots comments mr. Bailey and in return whatever they said the hem really didn't bother him and you'll see that actually worked at their advantage some during the trial so those are the lawyers the very first thing that happened in a courtroom in this case were the bail hearings as we said before so we're talking now about bail hearings from January of 1963 and in February of 1964 I want to just describe the picture and then mr. shook you can talk about what the issue in a bail hearing it's not that different than today that picture is actually from judge Browns courtroom this was with the as I'm told the newly discovered or invented fisheye camera lens but that is Judge Brown Joe Brown he was the presiding judge in this trial that was his courtroom now the trial was actually later moved to judge Wilson's courtroom but this was his view and this is actually a picture taken during a break of the bail hearing so tell us what the the issue is and they do in a bail hearing in a capital case okay and one one before do that we left out a couple of prosecutors oh we can muy yeah Jim Bowie was one of mr. White's top prosecutors he later became one of the most well respected judges and he was the the prosecutors law man he knew constitutional law left and right even Melbourne Bell I who got into it with prosecutors really respected mr. Bowie and then another the other prosecutors mr. Watts who actually was considered one of the top trial lawyers but during the trial he he developed laryngitis I think and and more or less stayed behind the scenes and organize things but the bail hearings every defendants entitled to bail obviously upon being charged and in a capital case bail can be withheld if the DA moves and it can be proven that the death penalty they call it proof is evident that they're likely if convicted to get the death penalty and in this case you have to have a hearing about that and so that was the first hearing in December of 1963 there were two bail hearings and at that case they started out mr. Wade didn't want to show all his cards which is one of the reasons the defense wanted it they wanted to get some discovery and I believe they only put on two witnesses they've even put on very many witnesses that's right and it was value did you testify the bail hearing I know I know captain Fritz did and so mr. Laval did who we have here he obviously was there because he was kind of close to the action one time right next stars wall and then captain wolf Fritz don't think Oswald was there now if Oswald was there we'd be in trouble they did have to prove the man was dead they did it I think he made Ruby there's a little note up there that says trouble always follows a little Lin more about that story later but as it relates to this bail hearing little Lin was a dancer at the Carousel Club and she was going to be called by the defense at the bail hearing to talk about how this was a happenstance deal that there was no plan on behalf of Ruby - there's no way he could have known what was happening and of course little Lin is the one who needed money ruby was going to wire her money and this is when he saw a crowd according to them and went down into the basement so they have that now the problem with little Lin trouble always follows a little Lin I mean there's the part where she wanted money to be wired and of course Ruby killed Oswald after little Lin needed her money and then at the bail hearing she comes in to testify in court and she forgot that she had a pistol in her purse so of course she was taken into the judge's chambers where she was interrogated by the United States attorney at the time and friend of mr. Snipes mr. burfoot sanders interrogating her a judge Brown listened to her she was testified about kind of what I told you that she needed money Ruby gave her the money in a Western Union telegram that was a centerpiece of this trial and then she was let out and she was arrested and she bonded out by Tom Howard Tom Howard wanted her out just remember the trouble always follows a little Lin because it may come back up during the trial itself the other testimony that was put on briefly was the defense called the telegraph operator that actually wired the money because that was important it be important in trial it showed that the money was wired at 11:17 a.m. and then Oswald was killed at 11:21 yeah four minutes later Ruby actually and that was a 150 yards away that office he walked down was able to get down the ramp and then a couple minutes later they brought also by and the shooting happens so the defense wanted to show first of all that they wanted to kind of get good publicity out their side of the story get some sympathy for Ruby and we're starting to try to educate the jury pool you've got unprecedented media access during the bail hearings and the change of venue hearing that is in court in a break can you imagine the lawyers who try cases now having the media surround and interview the defendant who's on trial for a death penalty case just talking to them hey Jack how you think it's going oh you know good how we doing over there a Melvin oh we're good we're good I think we're good you know we're gonna and it doubted that's that's how it was they just interviewed him it's kind of like we're in recess and then woo everybody would descend upon the the counsel table which is fascinating for me as a judge and a lawyer I can't even imagine that those pictures are interesting though because they they speak a little bit to what mr. shook was talking about in your you see Melvin Bell I they're closest to the camera back on his right shoulder with you can see both of his hands is of course mr. Ruby and then to Ruby's right is Joe Tannehill now behind him is Tom Howard and Tom Howard is the one I think it's interesting just because he's behind he doesn't really ever seem to be evolved they were basically nudging him out kind of from the get-go and this is one of the last times I think mr. Howard was was involved they broke for this hearing and we're going to resume the hearing later but that's that's when Thomas Howard left the case bill I didn't want him bail I didn't trust him and bail I didn't want anything to do with his defensive theory bail I wanted to all-or-nothing win he wanted to go with insanity in fact he decided to go on insanity when he meant Earl Ruby when they first met especially when Earl told him that he'd been in a mental hospital himself he didn't quite know what his insanity or evidence was going to be but that's when he made a decision and he didn't want anything to do with the murder with malice defense though the other thing about that picture in particular is that there's a young man on the right side with his back you can see his shoulder I just kind of put that up there as an homage that's Bill Winfrey most of the pictures that you're gonna see tonight he was taken and this is obviously taken by somebody else but he's in the frame so the bill Winfrey collection is here at the sixth floor museum and I think that was pretty great what about an entrance to Dallas the venue hearing talked about a way to make an entrance it Bell I after the second bond hearing decided that maybe there was a little too much publicity in the in this case for Dallas County so he filed for a change of venue hearing and his theory was he wanted that move because he felt as he told in a interview with the New York Times I believe it was that the Dallas oligarchies what he always referred to it city leaders this ominous presence wanted a conviction because they had to cleanse the city they had to cleanse it of our sins and the way to do that was to give Jack Ruby a fair trial in Dallas and then hanging and he he started with that theory and you know you had to admire the man's confidence because they say a good defense is a good offense well he issued 200 subpoenas for the change of venue and he hit everyone important in Dallas the mayor Earl Coble Stanley Marcus of Neiman Marcus Jesse curry the police chief the president of SMU in fact you know if you didn't get on the list and were served and you felt pretty slighted that you learned anything in Dallas yeah it didn't interview most these people this plan was to shame these leaders to get them to say under oath that Jack Ruby couldn't get a fair trial in Dallas in the and the I think he took three days to put on this change of venue hearing three days and very acrimonious the lawyers already weren't getting along they were doing lots of objecting and lots of comments towards one another and after three days he rested and Henry Wade introduced thirty-eight affidavits to counter that didn't call a witness and then they argued and mr. Wade's argument was simple he said we don't know if we can get a fair trial we're just gonna have to see by picking the jury see about picking the jury that was the joke was you're nobody unless you have a subpoena to the jack ruby change-of-venue hearing in Dallas that was the joke I've got another thing up there Manley versus the state mostly I didn't know this maybe y'all knew this but this was not the first time in the history of Dallas that a visit from the president was the reason for a killing that led to a trial where the death penalty was assessed and came with a change of venue but a 1909 President Taft came one of the people that was guarding the crowd got into it with one of the other folks and ran through him with a bayonet and they had a jury trial and the man was given the death penalty there was a change of venue was the issue in the case much like it was here in Dallas in the Jack Ruby trial thought that was an interesting little side note this is from the venue hearing this bill Alexander on your left with Henry Wade this I'm I'm assuming was a staged photograph I don't know maybe they were getting into it at the time I'm probably not there's some some staged photos there's there's a lot of them there but in the change of venue hearing you see in front of mr. Alexander I thought this was interesting that mr. fagin pointed out that's a picture of Lee Harvey Oswald there and this is them getting ready for the change of venue hearing this is actually the change of venue now where my Dallas County lawyers that work over to Frank Crowley the the idea this is to y'all that we're the first generation where you can only take pictures through the glass in the courtroom and get those crazy pictures with the blurry edges that started a long time ago this is actually taken through that's Melvin belli standing out but he's going after the witness and this change-of-venue hearing name mr. bloom Sam bloom Sam bloom was a big kind of PR guy in fact judge Brown the presiding judge had hired him to kind of be his PR guy and he he corralled the press key at the International Press there and he was an important guy because he could get you your seat and Bela I didn't like him was really went after him didn't the change of venue hearing thought he was leaking information and getting the newspapers to say negative things about his client the change of venue hearing well next up in any criminal trial at least and this one was the jury selection this is the picture from the central jury room of Dallas County down in the Kermit County Criminal Courts room this was taken of the potential jurors the quote up there is the wade office espionage Network that's not coined by me okay none of this stuff is coined by me but this in particular came from mr. belli in his book and describing the lengths and the research that mr. Wade and his crew did on the potential jurors I bring that up in particular because there's some of the actual jury cards are in the back they had a number of information they had a lot of information about that even including on you mr. Rose who's here in the front of the the front row here they had information on everybody and bail I referred to him as the office espionage Network you had some experience with that too that's right they had big books when I first started at the DA's office and it had every juror had been on a jury and you and the prosecutors would write them after the trial what kind of case it was that sort of thing and mr. weh started those records right away he was also in this case they were aggressive they'd get the jury list and they passed around the entire office and he was so well connected that usually if he didn't know you he found someone that knew you and bail I was kind of I think becoming impressed that the prosecutors were a lot better than he anticipated in fact Thomas Howard had said that bail I was somewhat shocked after the first bond hearing how good a lawyers they really were so we go into jury selection again you've got some unprecedented media access right during the middle of voir dire let's have an interview with the defendant see what's happening to get an idea of the scope of that now we've taken just about it I mean boy oh boy that it's got to be every news outlet that there is right that mean my goodness so that was the that was the jury selection that was voir dire we know from the trial that there were 168 panelists called 127 were dismissed for cause 68 by the state 58 by the defense one was six one was six so you've got eleven peremptories by the state and eighteen by the defense but what I wanted Toby to talk about is the the first couple days there was some question about this change of venue judge Brown never made a ruling after the change of venue hearing and he carried it for jury selection was carrying them the motion and judge Brown was one of those people that if you're with him and talking to him then you thought he was agreeing with you and Melvin belli I didn't realize that and and apparently he told mr. Bray yep I'm probably going to have to change this and he was very confident that this case as things developed that they would judge Brown would eventually change the trial to another County and in a capital case the jury selections one at a time they put the juror on the witness stand and then the state goes first in the defense and you make your decisions at that time if they're not disqualified whether you're going to take him or not and you only get 15 strikes peremptory strikes and then you have to select these jurors well bail I us felt that his strategy to cement this change of venue he was going to make as much trouble as he could and so the very first juror he took three hours on and one of the questions he asked was did you see the shooting he said yes and he said we have to disqualify this juror because he's a witness in the case and he a couple of days he went in it that way trying to disqualify jurors that way but you know he was known as the king of torts and he could be very charming when he wanted to be and it picked plenty of juries but he wasn't charming the first four days he was very obnoxious very insulting insulted some of the jurors and wound up burning seven strikes in the first four days and about the fourth day he figured out judge Brown wasn't gonna change the trial so he was in a hole he only got 15 strikes and he was seven down and he had even struck some of the jurors he normally would have liked he'd and so he started in a hole and put himself in a bad position yep so this is after all of those weeks we have the jury here this is the first juror was chosen became the foreperson and that's max cause he he was chosen after as mr. shook said three and a half days and then he was asked a question by mr. Bell I'm well do you think that you can give him a fair trial here in Dallas and he said of course I can I'm not from Dallas I'm from Garland so so that was your that was your he became the foreperson now I've got up there the jurors plight these jurors were sequestered mr. Cozzi was taken and led upstairs to converted jail cells and that's where they live for the duration of the trial mr. Cozzi of course lived lived there longer than any of the others because he was the first one and so I guess day after day if you read his book he would just kind of wonder if anybody's coming and nobody would come and then he got a knock on the door and there was juror number two and then a knock on the door and there's juror number three and they spent a whole lot of time together mr. Rose is here you can see mr. rose in the back right he was asked a question on jury selection about an Alabama football player and the this was something that mr. Bell I love the Alabama football player my brother-in-law Albie this is stories for you buddy Alabama football player came off the bench and tackled a rice football player and and was so caught up in the moment that he came off the bench and tackled him and of course that was just right in line with what Melvindale I was saying about what happened with Jack Ruby and so he he mr. Bell I picked Wayman you he thought you were gonna be the foreperson of the jury didn't work out just like that but that is a picture of the jury this is a picture that was taken in the courtroom the jurors actually posed for this picture and I think it's a pretty fantastic picture right there that was their plight they had to go they would they would leak I understand that they would leak to the spouses where y'all were gonna go for dinner and then maybe they would mean the spouses would meet him there but of course the press wanted to hound him and follow him wherever they went but they did not it was one of the one of the jurors had made a comment that he said say you can have one beer and he said okay well let's make it a big beer you can't have more than one beer but as long as there's a big beer I don't know if you said that or not mr. rose but if you did I think it's a great quote we do have an interview of course of what the lawyers thought under the tedious process of jury selection chief defense lawyer Melvin belli remarked about the unusually advanced educational level of the jurors the level of this jury here is much higher than the cross-section of intelligence of the Dallas and I don't say that disrespectfully district attorney Henry Wade added to his comments we know seems to be fair and impartial all I could say about it you never know what a jury what type of Jarius to leave returned a verdict of course but it appears all right for everything we know that I say it's a valuable lesson you see the contrast between the two lawyers li in his unique way insults all of the Dallas every single one of us and I don't even think he realized he was doing it and then you got Henry Wade he says he's high-class turian he says he thinks he'll be fair I think he already had a good idea that he had a pretty good jury in fact later on it was said he was very happy with the jury that he got and mainly because Belle I'd got put in a hole but but he liked they wanted an intelligent jury but you know sometimes that's not good for the defense to have a real intelligent intelligent jury not representative of a cross-section of Dallas but it's an intelligent I thought it was great Wednesday March 4th 1964 preparation was complete I told you a little bit about the filing system they had a very very impressive filing system of course one of the very hardest thing for lawyers to do is to kind of assimilate that information and come up with a witness list two of the neatest things that I think are in the file that you can see over there is the one of the original witness lists of the order of the trial that was you can see it's kind of marked through and they change a little bit but that was disseminated about the other one of course we'll get to you later is the closing argument notes the actual notes of of Henry Wade on the yellow legal pad but Wednesday March 4th it was a Wednesday they started with the trial and and it should be noted that they finished jury selection on March 3rd so typical it's still moving fast and so that lawyers didn't get much much rest and and you talked about preparation one of the things we forgot to tell you the second bond hearing bell I called two psychiatrists to testify and he at first the prosecutors objected because they were talking about their findings and then they realized that Melbourne Bell I was about to lay out his complete defense for him so they sat back and watched and these psychiatrists later testified and they they basically laid out the defense that jack ruby was insane at the time because he was suffering from psychomotor epilepsy here we go it was in a seizure in a fugue state as they said he didn't know what he was doing when he killed Lee Harvey Oswald and after they got that information they weights in his prosecutors of the various cities and when they mentioned epilepsy was the cause of this that really got the president of the National epilepsy Association angry and he called up the DA's and directed them to all the top experts in psychiatrists and they developed a very good preparation to take him on this insanity defense in fact it was said later after the jury selection they were confident but they figured that this psychomotor epilepsy defense had to be some kind of trick on Bell eyes part because there's no way that was going to work and they thought he was hiding something and coming up with got a good long line waiting to get in that's the Records building that's across the street I guess I should have said that first it still look exactly the same in the the little entryway to me it does anyway the steps are there but this was the the trial of the century it was all over the the obviously the news the media all over Dallas this was a place to be this is an interesting picture to me this is the courtroom that it was actually taken in there's a few people that I wish were there but or not but you can see judge brown presiding in the forefront you have Henry Wade and then next to him I believe it's Jim Bowie and then Frank Watts us to his right bill Alexander isn't present in that picture I really wish that he was but but behind mr. Watts is at Joe Tana Hill Melvin belli and then I believe that's mr. Burleson all the way over to the right on the left edge of the picture but that is the courtroom that's one of the few courtroom pictures that we have of the actual trial itself so we've got the state's case and the way we're going to do this is we're just going to sort of break down each of the different phases of the trial what you have is of course the state has the burden of proof they go first then the defense can put on evidence if they want to and they did and then the state can rebut that evidence if they want to and they did and the defense can rebut that evidence if they want to and they did and then the state can rebut that rebuttal if they want to and they did and then one more time for the defense and then we rest that's it those seven sections just like that all in two weeks all in ten days yeah yeah so here we go the state's case this is summed up by a quote from one of the lawyers and unnatural wanting on the part of jack ruby to be around Lee Harvey Oswald that's what bill Alexander said in his closing argument about what I would sum up as this phase of the trial what they're doing is they're there you all remember malice aforethought one way to prove or that they had to prove a capital offense that would also defeat this insanity defense and the defendant did plead insanity is to prove that it was a premeditated killing with malice aforethought and so what they set out to do was to trace the steps of Jack Ruby he started out the Friday that President Kennedy was in town and in the Dallas Morning News and while the parade was going by he was up there in the Dallas Morning News I'm doing an ad for his carousel club that weekend he expected there to be a lot of business he was there when that was happening when they found out that the president had been assassinated he was still in the Dallas Morning News and there was testimony that he had an emotional reaction as most everybody did and then he was he had this fixed stare about him for a little while and of course bail I seized on that anything unusual anything that seemed out of sorts bail I was very good and so was Tony Hill about seizing on and and getting the witness to further explain that but then you've got a Ruby's past as the DA set out followed to this press conference and there was a press conference after Lee Harvey Oswald was caught at the Dallas Police Department in the basement and you actually have Henry way giving an interview and talking about the case in Lee Harvey Oswald and all that and he mentions the fair play for Cuba and there's a voice in the back that corrects him about the true name and that is Jack Ruby he had been down and made himself a part of this press conference he was acting like a reporter for that day after he brought a bunch of bought a bunch of sandwiches for everybody and he was passing out his Carousel Club Card the Jada Carter jaw Don was called Jade her name's John John a card that you see in one of those betweens is one of the cards he was actually passing out to some of the reporters there and that's going to be important later on and then you've got the next day you've got him at the Dealey Plaza with West wise where let me he was talking and go ahead Jack another thing he did so I just uh it was uh one other thing he did he loved being or a lovely porters and he loved being around cops and he liked knowing important people and he got on he was on the phone a payphone when mr wegg was down there and he was talking to a radio reporter and he said you want to an interview with Henri way and he said sure so he put the phone down and said mr. Waide would you like to come over here and talk to this reporter on the radio and mr. Wade said yeah and he did an interview well that really you know I told about the Alexandra needling the defense they needled Henry Wade the trial on that and it was constantly were you there when Jack Ruby talked to his friend Henry Wade and go over and over mr. Wade didn't like that but he they would constantly make issue of Henry Wade getting an interview can Jack Ruby got him on the phone it was his friend Hank what did you see your friend your friend Hank I always referred to him as that made Henry Wade pretty upset wouldn't mean to so you've got them sort of going through and then of course one of the last things they did is they introduced this Western Union telegram that I had mentioned before with a time stamp on it and then of course 150 yards away is the interest to the garage and then we have the testimony of officer LaValle mr. Lubell he was the last person to speak with Lee Harvey Oswald as I understand it he felt the bullet in the back of him and actually collected and that bullet was introduced in the trial but he heard some statements and I think the next part of the case is really gonna be what some of those statements were so you've got the first part where he was inserting himself around where Lee Harvey was and then you have this collection of statements one of which was one that mr. Laval heard and that was I hope the SOB dies that Ruby had said as he was immediately after the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald I hope the SOB dies now mr. Bell I had big problems with any statements that were made by mr. ruby obviously because they they showed what is what was on his mind but his argument was that statements that are made while you're in police custody are inadmissible and so there's a series of statements that were gotten out by mr. Alexander and mr. Waide afterward in succession at the end of their case there's the one that was testified to by officer McMillan and Patrick Dean and mr. Archer sort of think about it like this there's a statements that were made right during the killing and that was one of these I don't know if I'm allowed to say but you rat sob and then the shot okay and then as he falls down on the ground so there's a statement of the shot and then there's a statement on the ground I'm Jack Ruby y'all know me and I'm Jack Ruby so there's that statement as well they take him off as they you see him take him over through the door back into where they had just gotten Lee Harvey Oswald from they take him up and there was another statement that was testified to he said I intended to shoot him where I meant to shoot him three times that was another statement that was testified to and then they end on what I would call a bombshell and this was a statement that was testified to by mr. Patrick Dean and his statement was that after this when they take him up in the elevator and they go up after the killing that Ruby said to officer Dean I had it in my mind when I saw that sneer on his face if I ever had the chance to kill him that I wanted to do it and I would kill him he said that that Ruby told him that on Friday the day before well now we have something that was very important for the prosecution we have premeditation and malice aforethought remember that's what the lawyers were trying to prove in this case that the the defense obviously wanted to keep those statements out their argument was ruby was in custody once they grabbed him and that the statements shouldn't come in the state argued these are raised gestae statements which you'll hear about later when they the defense lawyers started their arguments but they were hurtful because obviously the defense theory is ruby doesn't know and he's going to have psychiatrists testify that if you're in a a epileptic seizure or your fear in a fugue state you can't remember what happened so these statements by Jack Ruby after the shooting that he remembered how many times he was going to shoot and why he shot showed memory and that caused a big problem for bail eyes so once judge Brown let that in he didn't succes it's just sustained that defense objection fact I only think he's sustained about three objections by the defense but they had a problem so bail I've ins problem in Tana hill was to cross-examine and try to make it look like they could have been someone else or Ruby might have been responding to what other officers are saying things like that but but Archer and McMillan were young all killers the boy McMillan the interesting thing was they were young officers and they testified very damaging statements detective lavell and detective Graves who were actually with Ruby didn't hear as many of the statements of course they're in the middle of it and they were older officers and then sergeant Dean gave other statements that were led in that said hey I did it because I didn't want Jackie to have to come here for the trial I wanted to show the world that Jews had guts and things like that and so bel I was really dug in the hole once those three witnesses Archer McMillan and Deana testified you're talking about statements that were made immediately around the killing so those you know what we would normally think of as race gestae the further away you get and certainly when you're talking about being in handcuffs things like that is kind of shaky that was one of the appellate grounds but with that with this bombshell statement at 36 hours before the killing he had said to somebody else you know if I ever get the chance I'm gonna take him out that obviously was was a significant statement so now it's time for this was on a Friday afternoon by the way when they arrested so in the morning sorry after the around the lunch break is when they rested and now it's time for mr. belli to do his opening statement but I told you the problem is that trouble always follows little Lin Toby he's very famous for prosecuting the Texas seven I see detective Randall Johnson here he was Irving detective he was the lead detective on that if you all know about the Texas seven but that was a big jail break that happened here well it happened down south and then it and wound up here in Dallas Toby tried all those cases with detective Johnson among others but there was a jailbreak of course in the Jack Ruby trial as little Lynn was going to get up and testify after the opening statement by Melvin bail line what do you see there is on your left that is an escaped inmate who had been caught the on the sixth or seventh floor above the trial there were that was the jail and the jailers were overtaken by the Ruby seven if you want to call him that and they had fashioned a gun which you can see in that second picture right there on the right out of soap and they colored it with shoe polish and to me it looks pretty real and they had taken a hostage they bumped down little Lynn and knocked her over she was nine months and a half pregnant at the time the poor little Lynn after she testified after you know she's run over she's got to go in there and testify but we can hear a little bit about the the trial from or their defenses theory from mr. Bell I and his opening statement mr. Wade did not give an opening statement that was the kind of the Dallas County tradition Dallas County prosecutors didn't give opening statements and if the prosecutor didn't give an opening statement then the defense couldn't give an opening statement at the beginning of trial which they wanted to do that because the jury didn't get to hear Bell ice theory till they had already rested their case so we have the words of Melvin Bell lime I say this not an argument but in fact that the fates conspired against Jack Ruby he went right out here where wreaths were and he went up to the western union office left his little doggie in the car told his doggie he was coming back and we'll show you the influences the impulse is on his mind and we'll show you what happened to this tragic man someday science will confirm that the fates conspired against Jack Ruby one of the other things that you see up there and this exhibition is the actual EEG of Jack Ruby and this was something that was right in line with what mr. Bell I was known for and that was demonstrative evidence he had been known to set up in a personal injury case a street car that it hurt somebody's set everything up in the courtroom so he was known for his demonstrative aids that EEG the one that you see over there was his centerpiece of his defense it was abnormal there was an abnormal part an abnormal part in the reading of the EEG that even the some of the states psychiatrists or some of their own witnesses had agreed was a little bit abnormal and his theory was that the fates conspired and you have a diseased mind and the proof of that diseased mind was in the EEG you have Ruby who was known to be an emotional character very vulnerable very unpredictable he mentioned the dogs there was a dog named Sheba Sheba was in the car and Sheba had a special relationship with Jack Ruby I guess Ruby had a special relationship with Sheba Sheba was his wife Sheba was his wife that's what he told people that people was a weenie dog and dogs they oxid weenie dog my mom taught me to comb we need ohms but Sheba was the head weenie dog and he carried Sheba around everywhere with yeah they she would go a little I'm Tammi true I got to talk to her she said that she become in and run around the club and that that they would be there until the time for everybody to come and then he would put little Sheba in the back and and go about his business but she was with him the implication was that this was more evidence that this was not a plan deal that this man who loved his doggie so much would not leave his prized possession in the car that he really did just go to give a little Lin her money and left his little dog in the car saw a crowd and then walked down for the crowd and then had this opportunity and it was the fates that were conspiring with all of these things when you have this diseased mind he was unpredictable character some some good stories about him at the Carousel Club and how he might react they developed they wanted to show that ruby was very emotional and would sometimes fight people or bounce people and didn't have a memory of it so they would put on these witnesses before they put on any of their experts to give examples of this and they wanted to show that he thought of this Sheba as his wife or his favorite dog and then all the other little dogs and and they had like four other weenie dog Oh children and and they were his children and he referred to this to you on a guy named sharor who who was good friend of his and he said yeah the dogs would tear up stuff in his house and he said don't call those dogs these are my children and don't disrespect my children or my wife or things like that so they wanted to show how eccentric and strange Jack Ruby acted very strange and and of course the crosses examinations we can't get in all of them but we're great you know sewer said all this but then he was cross-examined by Bill Alexander who who was very good at this is conservative 1964 dollars so he he wanted to point out to the jury so you go to the burlesque club every night do you there's your wife lets you do that masseur and well I didn't really catch on that most Dallas jury wouldn't appreciate a man who went to the Carousel Club every night so we also know from them what Ruby they further Illustrated what Ruby did okay they Illustrated a little bit more we have the path that Ruby took and the the state had brought some of that out and what we see from the defense as they sort of illuminate that a little bit more that Ruby woke up at a he was up at about 3 a.m. and woke up his roommate because he was incensed and had finally made a connection between a newspaper that he tore out the original newspaper is there in that between over there that's actually one that he had in his possession he tore it out this was the newspaper that said welcome mr. president it was surrounded by a black border which he took to be a threat and that he there was signed at the bottom by Bernard Weisman well he had seen a billboard that was said impeach Earl Warren and it was signed by I believe Bernard Weisman where there was a a post-office box at the bottom too so he gets his roommate George senator they go to the Carousel Club and they round up a boy their name I'll think of in just a minute but he has a Polaroid camera they go at 3:00 in the morning and take a picture of this Earl Warren in peach or Warren sign go back to the Carousel Club they go back then to drop him off they have breakfast and then it's at 10:30 after that that's the Jack Ruby that walked into the Western Union store so they illuminate that a little bit further there actually one other place that they went was the post office box that was listed for mr. Wiseman on the Earl Warren sign then we go on to the the doctor's there in the defense's case the dafaq the doctors had looked at him and they examined him and they're the ones there was one name good mocker who testified at the end and that is finally the one who says Jack Ruby does not know right from wrong thus satisfying the insanity defense the problem was they had to put several doctors on ahead of time there was a dr. Schaefer who conducted all the forensics tests and actually hooked him up and they did the EEG tracings which bear live valued so much but these witnesses the way bill I put it on we're all going to lead up to dr. Goff mockers final opinion and the prosecutors would stop each one and ask what do you have an opinion about his sanity did he know right from wrong at the time of the shooting and they'd always fun no I don't which I think carried a lot of weight with the jurors all these experts that were examining the defendant didn't have an opinion and also all the tests showed that that they ran him through he was normal and everything and they made were very careful in the cross examinations to emphasize that to the jury that ruby was showing to be normal in all aspects except for this brain waves that we saw in the tracings which they said was really organic brain damage and then the other big problem with their their star witness that they finished the first part of their case on he was a renowned psychiatrist but he didn't think Jack Ruby did the killing in the fit of a psychomotor epileptic seizure which was kind of bad because that's what Belle I'd been telling the jury what it was all about and you know he he tried to slip that by a little bit he gave the classic we had a week ago he was under a day and a half of a very emotional stress he had this family history and I believe at the time of the killing he did not no right or wrong from his axe and yes he has psychomotor epilepsy but he didn't go quite that far now if it wasn't clear to the jury on direct bill Alexander made it very clear on cross-examination and got the doctor to say I I'm not saying that this happened in a state of psychomotor epilepsy just that he has psychomotor epilepsy and so when your star witness doesn't go along with what you've been saying an opening statement in your theory it kind of puts you in a much bigger hole they were real mad about old McMillan and Archer and they talked about them in the closing argument one of the things that they did too in this part of the case is they had a picture of McMillan where he was looking away which wouldn't have in other words it wouldn't possible for him to hear or see what he said he was and of course Archer was too far away to hear what he said to so they rest the state comes back with their own experts now we're in the rebuttal phase of the state's case what the state had to deal with was the claw hand this is kind of a neat illustration I read about it I didn't really see it in the in the picture by Bob Jackson this is the picture by Bob jacks the very famous one they sixth-floor did this picture for the advertisement but you can see Ruby's middle finger sticking out of the trigger and Bell I snatched and Lulu and grabbed onto that as further proof that Ruby wasn't in his right mind because who in their right mind is gonna shoot a gun a little pistol a 38 Cobra like that with their middle finger so he snatched onto that as well we go to the next phase of the case now as I go to this I want to tell you all that you need to give if you have questions to the sixth floor folks that are going to be coming around make sure you write those down and pass them to the end of the rel they've already got him thank you very good this was not the act of an automaton what you've got here then to rebut this and we're gonna run through this real quick Toby I feel like we might be running out of time we got to get to the closing arguments obviously there was a lot of media around and so there was a lot of newsmen around and they the state found and their rebuttal that one of the men who worked at klf que LIF I believe had actually conversation with Ruby around 10:30 so this was 40 minutes before this Western Union telegram where ruby was asking this radio man if they had brought him down yet further proof according to the state that he was looking for and trying to get around Lee Harvey Oswald and that he was not in this fugue state that was so put up and sold by the defense and the state then put on their experts they since they had had a preview of the defense went and found experts from Texas but as well as experts from all over the United States and topic guys from Harvard guys from John Hopkins guys from University of Wisconsin and then they started putting them on and they had waves of them I think the first rebuttal they put on like five experts and then the defense put on some more and then they put on about five more and I think they had about five more waiting in the wings that they thought they needed them but they were these were very good experts and they all disagreed they all said yeah he may have some brain waves but this is not someone that was acting in in a fugue state or in an epileptic seizure at all and the other thing you know they were really good this state at pulling out things they bail I made a great point showing that middle finger of the firing and then Bill Alexander puts on some colonel who had been head of the United States Air Force shooting team he said middle using your middle finger is the way we teach people to do quick firing instincts shooting instinct shooting that's instinct shooting so boom you think you're going good and then you got some kernels saying that's instinct shooting so that was good rebuttal evidence so the state put that with their experts on and then they rested we've got more from the from this from the defense now they kept referring to the father of the electroencephalogram the Creator the guy who had studied this and started it back in 1933 dr. Gibbs and both sides that referred to him during the trial and what they were going to try to do the last rebuttal that the state did is they they put forth evidence they took five EE geez they didn't tell this doctor this was a pretty ingenious trick they didn't tell the doctor that they were about to put up which one was Jack Ruby okay but they put up five EE G's they gave it to the doctor sort of a blind test of EE G's and they didn't tell her which one was Jack Ruby's and she examined them all and said well these two are normal these two or not and this one is kind of in the middle Ruby's turned out to be normal so that was a pretty good strategic call on the on the state's part and excellent now we've got all of this is being reported of course in every news outlet that there is and there's a guy named Gibbs who's reading this stuff and he hears about it from Chicago Gibbs was the the person who invented the science of getting these brainwave tracings and and that bothered all this I think he started in nineteen twenty thirty two when he came up with it and psychomotor epilepsy and so all the experts referred to him but no one thought he was going to show up because he didn't want to come testify he didn't want to subject himself to cross-examination but he read about what was being said he was upset and it was kind of funny as since the lawyers didn't think he was going to come the prosecutors let him kind of build him up and I'm sure they were going to make light of that closing I reckon you know Gibbs didn't even show up and so all sudden he shows up he flies in on his own dime at night and he's going to testify be the star witness to pull it out at the very end for the defense yes and he gets on the stand I was in the more I day morning last day of try day morning and he bail I puts him on and takes him 24 minutes he's I've looked at it and yes Jack ruby has psychomotor epilepsy and they turned him over and so bill Alexander takes him on cross and starts asking him questions and then he comes up and says well do you have an opinion doctor yep see if Jack Ruby knew right from wrong knew what he was doing when he shot Lee Harvey Oswald no I don't and that was a the way they ended the trial not on a good note for the defense but it was described in one of the books I don't know if it was mr. rose or mr. Cozzi xournal as a bomb shows cause he's Journal of a bomb show you know that Alexander had dropped the bomb and that's how this trial this testimony ended you've got sixty four witnesses twenty-two civilians seventeen doctors testified I put up there 15 to two for the state because if you look at all the doctors had testified two of them said that ruby was insane fifteen of them either said he was not insane or they had no opinion either way you look at it the scorecard isn't good as a matter of fact there was only three people in the whole trial who testified that he was insane those two doctors good marker and Bromberg and then rabbi Silverman so there was three people if you want to look at it against the 64 that testified and we had 13 reporters 12 police officers and one jailbreak this is my other favorite part we got a game break here let's go to Joe Tana Hill and see mr. Tana Hill how we're doing on the jury charge there's a lull in activity here at the Dallas County Criminal Courts Building after optimism reign supreme this morning that perhaps by this time this evening the jury would have the case of jack ruby but such is not the case objections to the charge being prepared for the jury delaying proceedings here of the defense counsel Joe Tana Hill of Jasper Texas would you give us what some of those objections are and why the delay well Murphy you know we're down to the most serious part of the lawsuit now and that's the preparation of the charge or the instructions for the jury the charge is customarily prepared by the district attorney here in Texas is submitted to the judge although it is expected that the judge does that function however but it's done in Texas by the district attorneys in this particular instance there's an awful lot of zeal on the part of the district attorney to obtain obtain a conviction and therefore they are very skillfully prepared a charge that is highly objectionable to us it amounts to nothing less than a cold-blooded murder charge and it's so artfully prepared that I consider to be an instructed verdict of guilty it has comments upon the weight of the evidence it assumes facts and assumes malice on the part of the defendant when our main defense is that the act was committed in a state of insanity and of course if it's done in a state of insanity there can be no malice in the defendants mind because his mental factors were suspended at the time and he had no consciousness of what it was done and so if you go before the jury with a charge that assumes that the defendant acted with malice you can see what that would do to our defense Jo when do you think we will start final arguments now in all likelihood around 8 o'clock tonight or else in the morning I just spoke with judge Brown and suggested that we'll go ahead and get to charge in proper shape tonight read the charge to the jury it contains about 11 legal size pages and then start oral argument in the morning at 8 o'clock the judge is willing to do it he knows everyone is tired and exhausted but he's going to leave it up to the jury and let them vote on it and that will be their first vote as to when we start arguing this case Murphy Martin ABC those arguments did actually begin on Friday the 13th at 8 o'clock in the evening the jurors had said they were ready to hear this and they wanted to to go you got seven lawyers five hours one on field-interview that we'll talk about here a little bit and a steambath melvin del lie before his argument went to the Dallas Athletic Club took his steam bass and had a rubdown beforehand but we start out with with Bill Alexander and we're going to read just some selections of these arguments because they're their fans pastic this is from bill Alexander it is incumbent upon the state to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that on or about the 24th day in November 1964 with malice aforethought that Jack Ruby killed Lee Harvey Oswald I'm not going to fuss that the other lawyers you were a ssin is not logic the evidence shows an unnatural warning on behalf of this defendant to be in the presence of Lee Harvey Oswald the man that professes his love for the president couldn't even stir it himself enough to walk five blocks down to see the president and his wife this shows the mind in the heart of Jack Ruby I want to talk to you about this psychomotor business I'm not trying to be funny but I wonder if they got their psychomotor variant from the psychomotor pool I have seen enough to know that any time a jury is considering a murder case the first question they are going to ask is should the deceased have departed I'm not going to defend Oswald to you but I tell you this American justice is on trial American justice had Oswald in its possession he was entitled to be tried in a court of justice just like you Jack Ruby I don't tell me it takes guts to shoot a man that's manacled it doesn't take any kind of guts like that that's the thing the law seeks to deter and warrants the death penalty I ask you for that because of the crime committed the flagrant disregard for the life of Lee Harvey Oswald and also because he mocked American justice while the spotlight of the world was on us and it was a very good well organized argument said in a very loud voice as many of the prosecutors and defense lawyers practiced at that time he sat down and they did we don't do this these they but they they they traded lawyers back and forth so Alexander went first and then that's the defense and they went all the way through it going that way called they called swing arguments and so they would go back and forth they'd send out their their guy and the first defense argument was done by Phil Burleson who was the lawman he didn't get to ask a lot of questions but they wanted him to argue he was the only Dallas lawyer that had been at the table but he's great fellow lawyer but Phil Burleson was so a trial lawyer and a very good one and he it was the one lawyer who talked in the more subdued tones throughout his argument but Alexander had made a big deal remember at the beginning of the trial how Jack Ruby he's supposed to have done this and was going insane because of his great love for resident Kennedy yet at the time of the parade and the shooting he was down there putting an advertisement in for it was going to be dancing at the Carousel Club that night and so Alexander had made a big deal about that and emphasized that in his in his closing argument so Burleson answered first he started out the lawyers back then was so much better they were kind of Shakespeare and he started out going feeble feeble feeble feeble feeble is the state's chances of true you know prove in this case but he addressed the parade he said no parade some of you on the jury may not have gone to that parade gone home go home and ask your friends and your family and when they tell you they didn't go tell them they aren't patriotic wanted to set the tone that not everyone was at the parade that day and then the best line he had because again they have to prove the murder happen with malice he said the only malice that comes in this case is from the blistering lips of police officers who was he talking about he was talking about those young boys as they called them throughout the whole trial Archer and Macmillan and Dean particularly Archer and Macmillan that they were the key to the state's case and these res gestae statements he attacked the Dallas police in that way but the most interesting part is and the courts charge he's the only defense lawyer that addressed maybe finding a ruby guilty of murder without malice the old Thomas Howard defense strategy if that would limit the punishment up to five years and he said this charge has it in there if the murder has done and immediate influence a sudden passion arise of matter cause you can find so Jack Ruby had business problems his sister just had an operation the assassination of the president had happened on the streets of Dallas there was impeachment of Earl Warren signs that he saw took photos and then he saw the scene he saw the sneering smirking communist killer of the president these are the things that would lead to add were the cause of anyone and he's the only one that addressed that of the three defense lawyers which caused some concern by the prosecution and when they had to answer those re and Frank watt stands up and their behalf and rebuttal of that and he says insanity is a simple rule devised by god-fearing people here in the state of Texas as a man thinketh so is he I hope I killed the SOB I meant to get off three shots these words show a heart regardless of duty a black wicked heart I say to you that he was saying in November he's saying now I say he was guilty then he's guilty now I say the blood is still red on the hands of Jack Ruby following mr. Watts is mr. Joe Tana Hill and they say that and now we're going late into the evening at this point in time and one of the lady jurors had dozed off at the end of mr. Watts argument and then mr. Tana Hill who you got to see in his comments about the jury charge he got to get up and she was quickly awakened because mr. Tannehill was bombastic to say the least and he argued for an hour and six minutes in a very very loud voice and it's the most entertaining reading you can get if you want to read these closing arguments first thing he did was attack the prosecution and some of the comments he had was the prosecution is I make channel him a little bit in a minute has sought to send a sick man suffered from sakamoto epilepsy I would love to hear him say that psychomotor epilepsy gratifying nothing but political ambition they demand that you do something to Jack Ruby to make up with a great political opportunity that mr. Wade might have had to prosecute Lee Harvey Oswald then he had to take a shot at mr. Wade mr. Wade is uncouth unsavory ungentlemanly undignified in the worst insult of all on Texas he had referred that would use that insult during objections throughout the child how on Texan that was of you slugs and ur the the kid who had to take photographs of the rural Warren sign apparently blinked strangely because bill Alexander mentioned in its argument you remember that guy he was a guy with Wiggly eyes since Tonia was greatly how could bill Alexander Allen Texan to make fun of his physical defects and called him wiggly eyes and so it was great and then he wanted to get into he didn't do it as eloquently as bill I'd put on the testimony of Ruby's past mental problems that that he had something wrong with his brain and he I think he might have started to loosen the jury when when he said when going over that let's go back when Jack Ruby was born an extremely large child in all probability suffered a head injury during birth so Jackson Your Honor you know he he he might have started losing their interest a little bit but then they got to the officers Archer and McMillan which they were very upset about the rage yesterday so and he made a point of that the officers that are actually handcuffed to Oswald only shot didn't hear all these things that Jack Ruby has said so he said there are peace officers and there are peace officers but you'll find that these youngsters are the ones who will supply the district attorney with the so-called rich gestae statements you don't find that in men like graves he was right on top of it they've got to stand or fall in this lawsuit with the mamelon boys testimony they've got to stand to fall I meant Milton lied through his teeth he must said that about 20 times now they really got involved in that and he got so worked up and and I'm gonna do this before my career is out okay any any and I hope that defense attorneys here will try it I have no ideas when he got wound up about the McMillan boy finally Henry Wade objected and he willed and ran over to Henry why didn't said in response to the objection boy they're hurting now aren't the judge I'm hurting them now so I want to do that yeah at some point they have the guts to yell out I think any lawyers are in my core you can do that one time okay I'll let you do it once whoa so now he would he would continue the little needling of wait he said Jack likes to do favors for his friends like his friend Henry Wade and oh that would get the DA's up and and Jim Bowie objected said there's no evidence he's done any favors for Henry Wade and Wade got in no job nodded to some a hundred thousand people in my life that I didn't know and then Tonia said well you've done a good you've had a lot of good luck Hank I voted for you which was hard cuz he lived in Jasper Texas but you know he played around with the facts and you know he said you know Jack Ruby going around identifying people I can relate somehow it embarrasses Henry Wade that he knows Jack Ruby now and again that would cause more objections but he saved his most vicious comments for Bill Alexander remember Bill hugs and ERDA needled him pretty good and so he finally turned and said bill Alexander likes to travel he would like to see the rolling hills and blue bonnets and dogwoods and tall pines all over East Texas on his way to Huntsville to watch the execution he'd watch it and he would love it have you watched his eyes his tarantula like eyes and seen but terrific pleasure he would derive if you gave Jack Ruby the death penalty tarantula like a tarantula like eyes and I'm sure bill Alexander was just grinning back at him he did I was and that you know so finally after an hour and six minutes the judge Brown said wrap it up mister Tony Hill and so he did it in a new unique way which I don't think I'll use no I don't he stepped to the jury panel and said I just want a minute to look at you and he did that he waited one minute and stared at them all and then he sat down and then he gave his well you know it would be great if we could go on field and see what the lawyers were thinking here in the middle of this trial like they do on the football games let's go to what happened to the video there we go we're dealing with a very rare disease in this psychomotor very an epilepsy and it's not easy to explain not easy to understand and but we do have an intelligent jury one it will not be swayed by emotion and that's one thing I did not indulge in like you generally do in some personal injury cases over in the East woods you do get a little emotional I didn't get emotional I was gonna remark that now that was purposeful he did not intend in other words to to have an emotional a direct appeal to the jury absolutely not anything but an emotion on the field of this jury this deer is too sophisticated and turned telogen to tolerate emotional Appeals there you go I don't know it seemed pretty emotional to me especially when Toby does I think it's great Jim Bowie was up next and he is the third to last before mr. Bella and before mr. Wade and he was hitting on the same themes that we go through with these others for the state that there is something more important to you there's something more important than me there's something more important than Jack Ruby and that is the law we ask that you write a verdict that will deter others from doing what he did the law against murder is no stronger than the weakest heart that sits on this jury I ask that she write a verdict that will show the state the county this land in this world that we do not allow murder to occur here of a shackled man and with that we go to theirs mr. Bowie we go to mr. bell I'm now Melvin Bell I had this melodious voice he was a great speaker and so you know it's a hush courtroom because he's got to pull it out and he started out this argument very well he said and when he thanked everyone is every lawyer dead he started in and said but and then it's that about what when he went out was on Midnight's yeah just after midnight so he said let it but let it now in the beginning of the small hours of the morning when great discoveries in the history of the world have been made in Gerrits and attics and basements in here in a temple of justice we can't rediscover something that was never lost in your great city of Dallas that we may rediscover justice that's a great way to start out a closing argument where did he go from here well he followed that up with and remember we told you that he has a healthy ego my life has been dedicated to the law perhaps except for the months Howard Nash singer wanted me to leave the law and go to his especially brain surgery other than those few months I think I've dedicated my whole life to the discipline of study alone so he veered off to say that he was could have been a brain surgeon if he wanted but the law was blessed to have him back and you imagine I think that got him off a little at track but he got into what basically he wanted to do is said it's kind of it's hard to follow with reading it but he said there's three categories there's the unstable man who that we can then doubt the stable man who that way can weaken in Dallas with all the emotion seized Oswald and shoots him well that's the kind of guy you can find guilty but give him a suspended sentence then the second category is the unstable man kind of like the the man who and he gave the example runs off the field and tackles unstable man with a little bit of family history who then shoots Lee Harvey Oswald of the same circumstances and that's a guy who you definitely have to give a suspended sentence to and then there's the person like Jack who at a family history who is unstable and had psychomotor epilepsy that man is insane and he never once asked about finding his defining mercy he didn't spend any time they give him life sentence or I mean give him just some prison time not one mention of lesser included offense he wanted to all or nothing all the way and fought that way all the way to the end well mr. Bell I the Communists would be happy to know that you could commit murder of a handcuffed man in police custody and walk out a free man I don't think you're interested in that ladies and gentlemen to turn this man loose you would set civilization back a century you'd set it back to barbarianism you would set it back to lynch law and say that anybody that I have decided should be killed I can kill I ask you ladies and gentlemen of the jury to show Jack Ruby the same mercy and the same compassion in the same sympathy that he showed to Lee Harvey Oswald in your Police Department and in in York County that was Henry Wade's response to mr. Bell I'm taking it back to the themes that we have here so a Saturday that jurors go home and they decided they were going to come back on Saturday morning and of course this was a Saturday morning March 14th to 16th estates for mr. Kennedy photographers it's our telegram that's old red and we have the verdict being read I believe this is the first time this is obviously the first killing on live TV in this case may I have it sheriff please there is the verdict poem a branding it to the judge we the jury find the defendant guilty of murder with malice as charged in the indictment and assess his punishment at death sign match ecozy foreman so say you all ladies and gentlemen is that your unanimous verdict will all of you whose verdict that is please hold up your right hands all right sheriff you're free all right so that's the verdict and I've cut this part out because this is the picture that I was referring to before this was a rant that was legendary it started right about the time the verdict was read and bail I followed it and you're gonna see a little bit of that here and in two of these clips that we have this is kind of hard to hear on the audio but the the the words are pretty succinct may I thank this jury for a victory for bigotry and injustice American justice has been raped outraged and shouting and in tears I was its spokesman there and that's what he shouted as the jurors had read their verdict and the judge read the verdict so let's hear from mr. Bell aye mr. Tannehill this is just outside the courtroom or actually probably inside the courtroom all about judge Brown how do you think he handled the case just a bail out your opinion on judge Brown he went down the line for every motion that the district attorney made and they led him into some 30 errors and every Texas jurist knows this thing was the greatest railroading kangaroo court disgrace in the history of American law they just required every bit of a psychiatric testimony they disregarded every witness who was sworn and you heard last night when those jurors looked at us and said we don't want to have any argument we've had our mind made up now that was the nod when the judge said do you want to go ahead they didn't even want recess why in a civilized country in the heart of darkest Africa you wouldn't argue a man's life starting at twelve o'clock in the morning when I think we're coming into Holy Week in Good Friday to have a sacrifice like this I think we're back 2,000 years and the blight that's on Dallas with those twelve twelve people who announced the death penalty in this case they'll make this a city of shame forevermore and I'm going to participate in the two when I write this appeal mr. come on mr. tano your associate is a Texan what's your reaction to it it's a violent miscarriage of justice that's right for Henry Wade this was an extraordinary victory it's a good picture of him out there in the front steps of the criminal courts district attorney Henry Wade on the steps of the Dallas County Criminal Courts Building where death in the electric chair has just been assessed as punishment for Jack Ruby for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald what's your reaction well from the start when this happened I thought it was a case where he should have the death penalty I've said that all along told the jury that we asked anyway the district attorney and we asked for it I think the facts fully warranted I think it was a assassination in itself of a man handcuffed in police custody and I think it went actually deeper than that then who the person was killed I think it was more of a you might say a murder or killing of our government by law rather than men I think it actually is a step it even advances civilization quite a bit I believe by this Verdi that's my theory all right just a quick special thanks to some of the folks that I talked to there's Tammy true dancing at the actual carousel Club that's the the wood carving of the carousel Club this was Hugh Ainsworth the man on the right I talked with him quite a bit he was one of the ones who revealed to us how mr. Oswald was able to escape and get through to that and there's of course mr. Lavelle thank you very much for coming and talking to me about your experiences in this process this is the time I guess for questions and comments although I really feel like we've gone over quite a bit I'll take direction from Nicola we're good that's it very very good all right thank you all very much for coming you

Channel: SixthFloorMuseum

Views: 399,697

Keywords: Jack ruby, Lee Harvey Oswald, Trial of the century, Sixth, Floor, Museum, Dealey, Plaza, Dallas, Texas, JFK, Assassination, Brandon Birmingham, Toby Shook

Id: Rx3i8nxv-XY

Length: 109min 10sec (6550 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 01 2017