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yedebreen A NT b- fas ity sual have. Fores 4 ion Th . praised and reparted T . , : terms as “murder capital et tie worl.” : 3 “a sick city.” “a fesser ing sore,” Te city of “or shame ‘aut hate.” Here is a city where a minister told his flock, “If any of you vote for this Catholic Kennedy, don’t you ever come to my, church agains” Here, is a city where Look my wife ‘gnd=son (o.a beautiful Baptist church and. on the Sunday‘ program wn usher | gave..me, the Lord’s message was squeezed down in a corner under ‘the , church's impressive balance shect full of dollar ‘signs. Here is a city where I ¢n- tered’ a‘ barbershop, u nrecognized, and ‘someone discussing the trial said, “I hear - “they got those Jew psychiatrists out from _Maryland,” and someone replied, “Yeah, | with their slick Jew lawyers.” I swept the - towel ‘from around my neck, “stood straight up, gave the Nazi, salute, yelled _ “Achtung! Heil #Hatler!” and goose- - stepped outside. Here is a city whose ‘rosecutor said of a St. Patrick's Day pa- . | rade, “M aybe we're pressing our luck too | \ i ee pe, ra ~wOUNRIAN awh, far to allow another parade so soon for “another Irishman!” And the same pros- ecutor said, “Well, if they want to look inside of Jack Ruby's brain, we'll give it” , to them alter we fry him.” “Dallas is where Adlai Stevenson wis RN ee Ow ND bw te tg spat upon and hit upon the head wit) a ix picket sign, and where the American flag was hung upside, down by General Ed-". ‘win Walker, an ardent advocate of the : philosophy of the John Birch Society. Tn 5.) Dallas in 1960 even Lyndon Johnson anil his lady had been insulted. Dallas is a city where the “Minutewomen”™ get on tele- * phones ane. call all over wilh stat mes- sages as “Mental health is Communisiic” sae nistic.” pLaYBoY: Aren't you describing the activities of a lunatic fringe? , , pettt: Look, I’m not talking about all the citizens of Dallas. I'm talking avout “the oligarchy that:rules and runs the city. I'd be the first to admit that some vp eneahehniebentancomrenanat neem ars te eae oe cus of Neiman-Marcus—it took Visceral ; courage to speak out as he did; and Rab- “*bi Silverman—he was one of the bravest garchy. You know what made them maid. t der at me than anything else? “It was 3 when J said what syabolized Dallas for * me: a gold-plated bidet I'd seen with a philodendron growing out of it. They were enraged at the implication that i they hadn't known what to do with it. Well, J take thaw back. “Vhey da know what they can do with it. Ore Ser of America’s truly fine people live there. ; In Dallas I met two of the greatest } stand-up guys T ever knew: Stanley Mar- 5 and “Fluoridation of water is Commu- . men there. No, my contempt is reserved . solely for the city’s archreactionary oli- _. Th never forget how Sheriff BU Deck: . er said he was going to sce to the “safes Tenahill,, my (flarrassistant,- * > shockingly ‘during his long imprison-_ ane * 2 ™ oo mame wes! a Be y court “beaten Lacil ’ so muchzoiyl fecting around here.” x ico . { told himg,,, ook, P appreeme your con- cern, but we're going ta walk ‘down goddamn Main Street to the courthouse. : Whenever it gets. to the point ere in ' America, in my own country, uit 1 can’t walk down any main street as a trial lawyer, then I'll have to uke down my shingle.”. And I would. I'd go to 8 : Congress and walk outside wearing a ; : sandwich board. I'd howl to the heav- ens. I might have to do.some flamboyan, * things to get my story: heard, but. yor: ‘know. | know just’how to do it. In any -- case, we did’ walk down that Main Strec« in Dallas to the trial, but I'm going to ‘tell you the truth, I was scared shitless. f used to say, despite all my enemies, thet no one would ever actually want tae : shoot me. But now, after walking down #i that street and seeing the hate in the eyes of everyone who watched, I never would say that again. . f PLAYBOY: Was your outburst in court gthe reason for your being dismissed as % Ruby’s lawyer after the trial? BELLI: I was not fired. I bowed out off my own accord. I lost my objectivity that f day in Dallas. Once I lose my objectiv-# ity, I've lost my valuc in our adversa-y 5 system of justice. So J got out of the caze.f It's as simple as thar |. + PLAYBOY: What do you think will -e¢ sult from the appeal of Ruby's conv .c tion which is now pending? . peut: I think that everyone in lavy® knows what will almost auromatical 38 happen when an appellate court re views that tial transcript: away from thac emotionally charged Ditlies court- room. 1 pray to God that the terrible miscarriages of American justice. that ‘trial transcript contains will cause the : case, tO be reversed. And I pray, for the sake of that sick, pathetic litue man, Jack Ruby—whosc already parancid- ; schizophrenic condition has deverioraed ume ee atom oe od LEEW Re 2 TT IME ee ay! a. ment without psychiatric care, and who: has tried several times to commit suicide . in his cell, once by butting. his head i against the wall—that his cruef death . -sentence will be commuted to life im-. prisonment in a mental hoespal, where he has belonged. since the day they put him in Dallas’ city jail a year and a wall? ago. ; . PLAYBOY: Jo you favor capital pu isiment in murder cases where die assatl- ant is adjudged mentally sound? pettt:; f don't saver institutional venge- ance under any civeumpstunees. Whe ir God's name has the right to pas oh adg- ment on the life of anoihe: $ being? Who's to usurp this diviag gpre romative? Only a primitive dine Salic tions this kind of barbwrity. fuat “Rous - the creeps who are in “ayor of tit) gee the feeling they want to le gas te pulrtheswitch. Dick Nixon is eran