◆ SpookStack

3 Ul de ow 0 wh at we oe Uae WN dw he ee x “ ugented him. PLAYBOY: You said aFer uh Spry lawyer wo AT thier asset has’ | STAAL to defend the parithed, wrapper tee -fendant” You proved. your poosne when you alefendid Jack Ruby. Weld you have been as willing (0 detemt Lee Os- wald if he had Viscd? — peitt: | would his hated to. ford loved . Jack. Kennerly seny much, But as a liw- vyer, L -suncast, a4 huswledge that cry mat charged with cre, However hei- “nous, IS entitled le CaMperenne LepAe seavta- tions So if Oswald had lived, and he anv “hadn't been alle to obtain other conmmpe: tent’ counsel, and 1 had been asked to ~ rake his Gusc——yes. To woukd have repre: ft had refused, I {eel I awoulthhave had to turn in my shingle. 3 “Vike to think that the American Rar “taste stk so low that there are not ‘other defense auiorneys in this country “who would have done the sinme thing. PLAYBOY: .Do yor Lin Ovwald’s rights as an accused: Were adequately, protected hy the Dallas authorities? BELLE: Oswald's treatment by the Jaw was the biggest scandal in the history of American justice. ‘The world saw the horrendous sprelicic of Oswald, guthout legal counsel, juterrogated for hours and thrust into that Friday-night mob-scenc press conference | and shoticd (0CS- “Hons in police headquarters corridors. He had no counse! to aloject 5 docens af selisecking, se} serving “uiheriticn” ered ro dhe press their prejudt -volunte cil, Incriminadins and otherwise Hiwatt * yanted SULETUICTES regarding, Oswalils guilt, He went a fall day without cout: sel, In my belief the public's yee ouary shamedl ie city HtO sending the president of the yallas Vac Assocituon, MH. Loup Nichols, to visit lina i his cell. As far us JT knew, Nichols has never | been inside a triat courtroent except for oficial inductions aihce, culogies and ceremonial purposes: this fegal paragon then did what strikes me as nothinkable and unforgivable by piving an jnterview ta the press that, probably destroyed Oswald's obvious and valid defense. that he was mentally deranged, Nichols told the press that “he looked perfectly all right to me.” which gratuitously and auto matically helped the Dallas establishment condition public e yiOT agaist any in- sanity defense by Oswald. Where was an Oswald delense canmsel to scvearn in pra- test when Dallas’ prosecutor told millions cure Dadinage east television, “Oswald is whe quilry mut. Vhere is 80 doubt about it, caih we're going to fry him” What kind of defense counsel would have consented ‘to the Datias police deparimcns's utierly “Ww unbeitetaty, stupid act of paren Us, hme TAA eI ee ‘pele ~ | the President's life--a plot in which the | as any man alive, and Pain tcl you flatly amon: Aw: ik; ie Gea “Tn t swat should 7 IE ecu Se COL prior iy for the Awe au Bar Association while he was alive. Wut nor andl Oswald was safely dead did he get oa counsel When bis lawyer couldart be embarrassed by being scen sitting Next town AASSASSE, an unpopular defendant, then nations ALBA. president Walter B. Crtig, W553 appointed te TEPTEscnt Oswald at ure Warren Gonnmissiont hearing. PLAYBOY: Despite the Warren Report, the betiel persists in some circles, ese cually abroad, that Oswakt and Ruby were pariics toa right-wing, plot suggest FBI, the Sceret Service and even the Warren Commission conspired to con- ceal “the truth.” Do you feel that these suspicions hyve any substince? pet: ‘hey're hallucinatory and uttcr- ly prepostcrous. Do you want to know who 1 believe is solcly responsible for starung these rumors? The Dallas police depart yment and the Dallas cistrict attorney's office. “Eheir omimous insinnations Unt Oswald and Ruby knew each other start ed during the trial, In the judge's cham. bers I tried to persuade the, DA. to announce in court that chere was no truth to those rumors-—which could “fiave been quashed right there=-but ik appeared to me that the J).A. cncoureged them, so as Lo mtke jack Ruby scem some kind of conspiratorial monster. So we rumor that he had killed Oswald to “'si- cabled abroad, aud it besminhing the yrwertaas tence” hum got sicadily musirvoined, enforcement raage bor outly af ony bi t. agencies, Vu ot cur nation. Te has heer on qiade lo appear tharour FUI cither cous. | not or would noc report the fall stary ef the “plot” “Phere was cren ap Quirageonus ramer that our own President Lyndon conspired in the Presidency. Now. f Johnson AMSUSSTEALION, to succeed to the know as much about the assassination that itawas che barren, solitary act of Lee Oswald. He was a gravy man. And be and Ruby) were stingers, Vhesae are facts. “‘Vhe most incredible thing 0 me if is why the FBI did't pass along to he Seeret Service the leneuhy file it had on Oswiild. But as much as F decest the I type of nan that J. Edgar Hoover is. ! £ can't make inyself believe that the FBI | or the GIA or anyone else suppressed 1 gnawledge of .tty plot, On the Warres | Commission, we had seven wise and hou- orable men, some of the best. EE they | couldn’ come Up with whe truth, then Gad pity us alll PLAYBOY: What significance do you at rich to: Warren's statement, during the Comanission’s deliberations, that the full sory of the assassination “won'f come out in our. lifetimes”? pelt: None. That was _thing tor justice, Warren to Say: 7d a_ horse’s-ass ont obs 7 4. “ u . sy i 1. \ ! 3 i : t