by Mark Shaw
The case is closed, is it? Well, I’d like to know how, in a big, smart town like Dallas, a man like Jack Ruby—owner of a strip tease honky tonk—can stroll in and out of police headquarters as if it was at a health club at a time when a small army of law enforcers is keeping a “tight security guard” on Oswald. Security! What a word for it.
Further making her case for a full-scale investigation, Kilgallen added, “I will not try to speak for the people of Dallas, but around here, the people I talk to really believe that a man has the right to be tried in court. When that right is taken away from any man by the incredible combination of a Jack Ruby and insufficient security, we feel chilled.” Continuing her strong diatribe, Kilgallen wrote, “Justice is a big rug. When you pull it out from under one man, a lot of others fall too.”
Providing another indication of her suspicions, Kilgallen added:
That is why so many people are saying there is “something queer” about the killing of Oswald, something strange about the way his case was handled, a great deal missing in the official account of his crime. The American people have just lost a beloved President. It is a dark CHAPTER in our history, but we have the right to read every word of it. It cannot be kept locked in a file in Dallas.
Kilgallen’s laundry list of enemies expanded. It included the State Department, the CIA, the FBI, Fidel Castro supporters, the Russian government, and angered celebrities like Frank Sinatra. Added now were those who may have been involved in the John Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald assassinations. To the latter, a chill had to run up their spine—the most famous crime reporter of the time intended to search for the truth.
19 Belli made several inconsistent statements regarding how he became Ruby’s attorney in two different books he wrote, Dallas Justice and My Life on Trial. One version alleged that Earl Ruby watched him in an LA courtroom and was impressed enough to ask that Belli represent Jack Ruby. This proved to be false. When asked by this author about how Belli became Ruby’s lawyer, Belli’s associate Seymour Ellison attributed it to “a call from a Las Vegas businessman, someone in the entertainment industry.”
20 Candy Barr, stage name for Juanita Dale Slusher, was a top name stripper who appeared in Las Vegas and also at Jack Ruby’s Carousel Bar. At one point, she was engaged to gangster Mickey Cohen, Melvin Belli’s client. When Barr was arrested for narcotics violations and sentenced to a long prison term with Judge Brown presiding and Bill Alexander prosecuting, Belli was hired to appeal the case.
Within 10 hours after Ruby’s shooting of Oswald, the FBI interrogated Candy Barr. The agents asked about her friendship with Ruby and any part in an alleged plot to kill the president. The interrogation lasted several hours. The next day, a Dallas Morning News article read: “Candy Barr, [a] well-known Dallas stripper who worked a few doors down from Ruby’s strip club, told reporters she received a call from Ruby shortly before the JFK assassination. She said [Ruby] was trying to get in touch with Mickey Cohen or some other mobster. Ruby was certain that Juanita [Candy] would know how.”
CHAPTER 13
Shortly after writing the column, Dorothy Kilgallen telephoned Melvin Belli in Dallas. She asked his intentions concerning Jack Ruby’s defense. Belli was noncommittal while flirting with the famous journalist. He said he looked forward to meeting her at the Ruby trial.
Kilgallen continued to wonder how Belli became Ruby’s lawyer when he was a civil attorney not a criminal lawyer. She knew there were many nationally known defense lawyers available more qualified to represent Oswald’s killer. Among them were Charles Bellows, Charles Tessmer, and Jake Erlich.
At the Dallas jail, Ruby told Belli he killed Oswald so Jackie Kennedy and the family could avoid a trial. Belli dismissed the story. He ordered Ruby not to discuss his case with anyone.
Kilgallen’s research confirmed Belli’s prowess as a trial lawyer in high-profile civil cases. He had won large verdicts against such corporations as Coca-Cola and Cutter Laboratories. Clever as a trial strategist, Belli implemented creative methods to convince juries to award substantial plaintiffs’ verdicts. He employed innovative “demonstrative evidence” courtroom exhibits. They included “Day in the Life” projections visualizing how severe the disabilities of his injured clients were on a daily basis.
While Kilgallen further investigated Belli and Ruby, at FBI headquarters on Dec. 6, 1963, J. Edgar Hoover spoke with a high-level agent. He told him no grand jury investigation of the assassinations was necessary. Why? Because, Hoover asserted, it was not a Federal crime to kill the president unless a conspiracy existed. The Director insisted there was none.
Days later, Kilgallen’s Journal-American reported that Robert Kennedy and LBJ met at the White House. Friction was apparent based on mistrust between the two powerful men. LBJ placated Bobby regarding his continuing to be attorney general. It was apparent RFK had little interest in promoting any of LBJ’s agenda especially his pursuit of underworld figures. RFK left the Oval Office despondent. Bobby hated LBJ. The feeling was mutual.21 RFK knew his days with the new administration were numbered.
On December 11, 1963, Kilgallen once again noted the assassinations in her Journal-American column. It was entitled “Still Live Topic.” Dorothy Kilgallen wrote, “What happened in Texas on Nov. 22 and two days later is extraordinary, so it is inevitable that people should continue to discuss the events, debate them, and argue about them. But even I am amazed at the sustaining interest in the assassination and its aftermath.”
Extolling her propensity for mixing with the rich and famous, Kilgallen then wrote of a party she attended. Stage and film director Joshua Logan (Picnic, Bus Stop) hosted. The guests included celebrated author Truman Capote, wealthy sportsman Alfred Vanderbilt, American impresario, theatrical showman and lyricist Billy Rose (Me and My Shadow), and the former president of Mexico. She wrote:
As I moved from group to group, it seemed to me that there was no one who did not want to talk, for a moment or for quite a long time about President Kennedy, Jacqueline’s astonishing fortitude after his death, the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald, and the mysterious figure who shot him, Jack Ruby. One might think that this collection of sophisticates and celebrities might be “tired” of the topic by now, but they were not obviously.
On December 12, 1963, Kilgallen noted a Journal-American mention of a speech by American Bar Association president-elect Edward Kuhn. Regarding Belli’s representation of Ruby, Kuhn told reporters, “Belli is not a criminal [defense] lawyer. He will make a circus out of this case.”
While Kilgallen made plans to visit Dallas and meet Belli, in his San Francisco offices on the unseasonably balmy day of January 15, the famed civil lawyer examined legal treatises while preparing the Ruby defense. After several days of deliberation, he chose one realizing it would surprise the prosecution and the public at large. They expected him to throw Ruby on the mercy of the court and plead for a light sentence in light of millions of witnesses having seen Ruby shoot Oswald on television.
In New York City, Kilgallen continued to wrestle with Oswald’s motive for assassinating JFK. She demanded more information from her Dallas sources. At the same time, RFK discussed who was responsible for JFK’s death with CIA Director John McCone. During an interview for the John Lowery Simpson Oral History series, McCone stated, “[RFK] wanted to know what we knew about it and whether it had been a Cuban or perhaps Russian hit. He even asked me if the CIA could have done it. I mentioned the mob but RFK didn’t want to know about it. I suspect he thought it was the mob. He said, ‘ They—whoever ‘they’ were—should have killed me. I’m the one they wanted.’”
Meanwhile, on January 22, 1964, Kilgallen discussed the assassinations with her Journal-American editor. She told him Jack Ruby was the key to solving the case. The editor said she should interview Ruby but that was probably impossible. Kilgallen explained that Belli was enamored of her. She believed through him, an interview with Ruby
was likely.
Two days later, an anxious Belli, unaware that Kilgallen had launched a full-scale investigation into his law practice, visited Ruby in jail. Belli explained to his client that an insanity defense could be their best option. Ruby was dubious. He asked Belli whether he believed he was crazy. Belli begged the question. He then convinced Ruby their only defense was insanity. Ruby reluctantly agreed but wanted to tell his story. Belli warned Ruby that would be a huge mistake. When Belli left, Ruby was distraught but he decided he had to trust Belli. After all, the famous lawyer represented mobster Mickey Cohen, Ruby’s idol.
At her home office, Dorothy Kilgallen’s file on the assassinations swelled. She spent hours on the telephone tracking down leads on Jack Ruby. Then she bought an airplane ticket for Dallas. Kilgallen was about to cover her second “Trial of the Century.”
21 Author Jeff Shesol wrote, “Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy loathed each other. ‘This man,’ Kennedy said of Johnson, ‘is mean bitter, vicious—an animal in many ways.’ Johnson considered Kennedy a ‘grandstanding little runt.’ Their mutual contempt was so acute, their bitterness so intense and abiding, they could scarcely speak in each other’s presence.” In LBJ, a PBS documentary aired in 2006, John Connally said of the rivalry, “LBJ and Bobby hated each other,” and Bobby Baker, Johnson’s political adviser, added, “mutual dislike between LBJ and RFK was second to none in the world.
CHAPTER 14
On February 12, 1964, 20 months before her death, Dorothy Kilgallen and more than 400 reporters from around the world flocked to the entrance of the Dallas County courthouse as rain pelted the sidewalk. At a few minutes before 9:00 a.m., Melvin Belli entered. A dour-faced Jack Ruby joined him at counsel table.
At the pre-trial hearing, Belli addressed Judge Joe Brown. Ruby’s attorney informed the court of his intended defense: “Not guilty by reason of psychomotor epilepsy insanity.” Hearing the news, Kilgallen’s face froze in shock. Chief trial prosecutor Bill Alexander told this author, “I could not understand Belli’s strategy. It made no sense.”
Three days later, Kilgallen and Belli, both staying at the Statler Hilton Dallas hotel, dined together. Kilgallen asked if she could interview Ruby. Belli told her that was impossible since Ruby was crazy. Kilgallen disputed the claim. Belli was insistent.
On February 21, Kilgallen read with interest the latest issue of Life magazine. It featured the infamous photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald brandishing his rifle on the cover. The magazine touted headlines reading “Exclusive—Oswald Armed for Murder, In Full and Extra Ordinary Detail, The Life of The Assassin.” Below the caption, the blurb read, “As Jack Ruby Goes to Trial, Cast of Characters: How the Law Applies.”
In one accompanying photograph, Kilgallen noticed that Ruby stood with his hands clasped in handcuffs. He was dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and tie. His eyes stared blankly at the reader in an eerie fashion. The photograph caption read, “As Ruby goes to trial, the question before the court: Was This Man Sane?” District Attorney Henry Wade, when asked about the insanity defense, replied, “We think [this] is a case of cold-blooded, calculated murder.”
Dorothy Kilgallen and Jack Ruby attorneys Melvin Belli and Joe Tonahill during the Ruby trial, March 1964.
In a biting Journal-American column of February 21, Kilgallen noted the government’s refusal to provide the Ruby defense team documents requested. After quoting a governmental reply to Belli’s co-counsel Joe Tonahill, she wrote:
Say that again, slowly. Information concerning Oswald’s assassination of the president will not be available. Perhaps it is dramatizing to say that there is an Orwellian note in that line. But it does make you think, doesn’t it? It appears that Washington knows or suspects something about Lee Harvey Oswald that it does not want Dallas and the rest of the world to know or suspect.…Lee Harvey Oswald has passed on not only to his shuddery reward, but to the mysterious realm of “classified” persons whose whole story is known only to a few government agents.
Why is Oswald being kept in the shadows, as dim a figure as they can make him, while the defense tries to rescue his alleged killer with the help of information from the FBI? Who is Oswald anyway?”
To Tonahill, Belli boasted about gaining Kilgallen’s cooperation. He also proudly pointed to the Life Magazine story’s implication that Ruby was insane. Tonahill criticized Belli’s insanity defense. Every one of his colleagues did as well. According to author interviews with Belli’s associate Seymour Ellison, Tonahill and his daughter Rebecca, Belli refused to alter the strategy.
The same day, Kilgallen begged Belli to permit her an interview with Ruby. He once again told her this was impossible. Her persuasive charm began to chill his resistance. When Belli mentioned his interest in a career as an actor, Kilgallen sensed a trade of sorts. She could provide Hollywood contacts in exchange for his allowing the Ruby interview.
At his Virginia home far away from the Kilgallen/Belli rendezvous, RFK, despite the frigid temperature, sat with wife Ethel by the pool at his home. He read works by Albert Camus, Greek philosophers, and classicist Edith Hamilton [American educator and author] suggested by Jackie Kennedy. From Hamilton’s The Greek Way, RFK selected a passage to remember: “The gods who hated beyond all else the arrogance of power, had passed judgment upon them.” Later, Bobby read one Bible verse from Genesis 4:10 that haunted him: “The voice of my brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.”
As Bobby mourned, Kilgallen’s February 2422 Journal-American column provided readers with inside information about the Ruby trial. Under the headline, “DA to Link Ruby to Oswald,” she wrote:
Among those who know the seamier side of Dallas show business, the betting is 10 to 1 that Dist. Atty. Hank Wade will produce witnesses who will testify that Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald were acquainted. Ruby has said repeatedly that he didn’t know the alleged assassin of President Kennedy—but then Ruby’s plea is temporary insanity and there are a great many things he doesn’t remember, and isn’t about to.
Kilgallen, having referred to Oswald as an “alleged assassin,” then added:
To quote one observer, “the operation of Jack’s Carousel Club had its unsavory aspects but if Oswald checked in there a couple of nights a week, he could have made some extra money. That would account for his ability to take trips—like the one to Mexico—on a $50-a-week salary, and it also would account for his lying in a room in the heart of Dallas five nights a week and joining his wife and children in the suburbs only on Fridays and Saturdays.”
On March 2, 1964, jury selection began for the Jack Ruby trial. Kilgallen had prepared herself for a high-profile case like this since the early days at the Evening Journal. To date, she had covered four of most headline-making trials of the twentieth century, Bruno Hauptmann, Dr. Sam Sheppard, Dr. Bernard Finch, and John Profumo. Kilgallen had written hundreds of articles and columns while learning the ins and outs of the criminal justice system.
Without question, the reporter whom Hemingway had called “one of the greatest women writers in the world,” was the preeminent investigative reporter of her era, a skilled wordsmith who paid close attention to detail, to accuracy, to an undying search for the truth. Now Kilgallen, armed with unequaled credentials, was ready to cover the case of a lifetime on the grandest stage of all.
Predictably, Kilgallen, who believed women should challenge men regardless of the occupation, made her appearance amidst much attention. She was a national celebrity whose very presence added to the gala appearance of the trial. Autograph seekers lined the halls before deputies shooed them away. Noted columnist Bob Considine wrote, “Dorothy Kilgallen arrived in court yesterday and stopped the show. Judge Joe B. Brown, one of her fans, gallantly granted (yea, insisted) on an interview in his chambers. Melvin Belli, of San Francisco, and Joe Tonahill, of Jasper, Texas, took her to lunch at a nearby seafood house named Vincent’s—whose oysters Belli declared are the be
st this side of his native city’s Fisherman’s Wharf.”
Jim Lehrer of the Dallas Times Herald escorted Kilgallen around the courthouse. He later became a co-anchor on PBS’ News Hour. Lehrer interviewed Kilgallen regarding Dallas’ responsibility for JFK’s death. She said, “I don’t see why Dallas should feel guilty for what one man, or even three or five in a conspiracy have done.”
To anyone involved in the planning and assassination of JFK and Oswald, this was a sure warning sign. Use of the word “conspiracy” by the famous journalist meant she intended to continue investigating the Dallas killings until she revealed the truth.
22 On February 23, Kilgallen had written in her column, “Melvin Bell, Jack Ruby’s lawyer, is threatening a giganctic lawsuit if a weekly magazine publishes a highly critical article about him in its present form.” The weekly magazine was never identified and Bell never filed the lawsuit.
CHAPTER 15
On a cold and windy morning before court convened, Dorothy Kilgallen visited Dealey Plaza where President John Kennedy had been assassinated.
The famous journalist carefully noted the angle of the street in front of the Book Depository. She examined the exact spot where the shots rang out toward JFK. Looking upward, Kilgallen gazed at the sixth floor window where Oswald had allegedly fired his Carcano rifle. She walked toward the infamous grassy knoll area, and the overpass nearby. Whatever she concluded was included in the ever-expanding assassination file.