Dallas and the Jack Ruby Trial: Memoir of Judge Joe B. Brown, Sr.

All Rights Reserved © 2001 by Diane Holloway, Ph.D.

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Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Epilogue

Afterword

About the Editor

References

I dedicate this book to my daughter, Kathleen Anne Wagoner, who brought me together with Judge Joe B. Brown, Jr. in Dallas some 35 years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

—President John F. Kennedy Inaugural Speech, January 20, 1961.

Preface

Recollections of the Assassination of President Kennedy by Joe B. Brown, Jr.

My father wrote an account of how he conducted the trial of Jack Ruby. I wanted his memories to become part of the public record but, for many reasons, I have not been able to publicize his memoirs up to now. However, with the help of Dr. Diane Holloway, who wrote The Mind of Oswald: Accused Assassin of President John F. Kennedy, the public will finally be able to see the trial from the judge’s bench.

My father wished he could have heard Ruby testify on the stand. He thought that would have brought up a different defense and verdict by the jury. For this reason, Dr. Holloway has included Ruby’s testimony to the Warren Commission members and Ruby’s polygraph examination in this document.

Several writers besides Dr. Holloway have gone over my father’s memoir to improve its readability, including the late Paul Crume of the Dallas Morning News.

Of course, I have my own recollections of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I was a Dallas Justice of the Peace at the time that these events occurred. However, my father and I and all of us were subjected to the same emotional media events of those dreadful days in Dallas.

I remember the news coverage the morning of November 22, 1963. Kennedy was speaking to the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce. After starting with praise for local Congressman Jim Wright, reporters were asking about the First Lady. Kennedy amused the audience by saying, Everybody wants to see what Jacqueline will wear, and they never pay attention to what you and I wear, Lyndon. Earlier at breakfast, the crowd had chanted Where’s Jackie, where’s Jackie? when Kennedy arrived without his wife. He quipped, Mrs. Kennedy is busy organizing herself. It takes a little longer, you know, but then she looks so much better than we do.

It was approximately 11:40 a.m. when the President and Mrs. Kennedy arrived at Love Field. The President was scheduled to speak at a luncheon at the Dallas Trade Mart and then fly to Austin. Prior to the luncheon speech at the Trade Mart, a presidential motorcade was to move through downtown Dallas with the hope that it would improve the President’s image in a city that he lost in the 1960 election. The 25 Texas electoral votes were going to be important for the Democrats in the 1964 election.

Only the day before, Richard Nixon had been in town asserting that Kennedy would replace Johnson with another more effective running mate. Connally, the Texas Governor, and Johnson were under considerable pressure to keep the state in the Democratic fold, but Democratic leaders were also worried over the possibility of incidents’ from segregationists or ultra-conservatives that might picket or try to harm the President.

On October 24, 1963, U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson spoke in Dallas at a U.N. Day program. During his speech, protesters coughed in unison and walked down aisles carrying U.S. flags upside down as a sign of distress. Retired Major General Edwin Walker spoke at Southern Methodist University the previous day about communist tendencies in the government and the United Nations. This meeting was attended by many including Lee Harvey Oswald. Walker had discussed strategies for showing disapproval at the U.N. Day program.

Frank McGehee, leader of the Dallas-based National Indignation Committee and supporter of Walker, began shouting at Stevenson, who tried to joke as police carried McGehee out. As Stevenson left Memorial Auditorium, a woman hit his head with an anti-U.N. placard and another young man spat on him. Dallas retailer Stanley Marcus got him into a car, which the protesters then began to rock. The driver gunned the motor and got away but a very unpleasant impression of Dallas resulted, which prompted Stevenson to advise President Kennedy not to visit Dallas.

Along with President and Mrs. Kennedy in the motorcade were Vice President and Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson and Texas Governor and Mrs. John Connally. The Kennedys and the Connallys rode in the second car and the Johnsons were in the fourth car.

My wife and I, along with about 2600 enthusiastic Dallasites were waiting at the Dallas Trade Mart to meet and lunch with President and Mrs. Kennedy, the first president of the United States that we would have seen in person.

While we waited for the presidential party to arrive at the Trade Mart, Erik Jonsson, President of the Dallas Citizens Council, stepped to the microphone and said, There has been a mishap. We believe it is not serious at this time.

Rev. Luther Holcomb led a prayer for the President and the Governor. As we continued to wait, an officer friend of ours came by our table and said he had heard over the police radio that the President had been hit. We assumed that the President had been hit by a rock thrown by a fanatic. We never thought for a moment that the President had been shot.

Soon, Erik Jonsson announced from the rostrum that the President and Governor Connally had been shot and had been taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital. No details were known concerning their condition. He urged the crowd to be calm but people began to cry and shout. Those damned fanatics. Why do we have to have them in Dallas? shouted one man. Then Rev. William Dickinson offered a benediction but with the commotion, I’m sure few heard it.

Stunned by this grave news, we decided to leave the Trade Mart to watch the news on TV. As we were leaving, the news came over the radio that the President had died. One woman screamed. People were crying, one was hysterical, and some were saying who might be behind an assassination. Everyone just walked out confused and dazed, dabbing their eyes.

As we approached the Oak Cliff area, we saw what was the closest thing to pandemonium that we will likely ever experience. Police vehicles were racing toward Oak Cliff exceptionally fast, as though they had no regard for the safety of other motorists. What we didn’t know was that a police officer had been shot in Oak Cliff and the police had information that a man matching the description of the President’s assassin was seen there.

Following the shooting, an employee named Lee Harvey Oswald of the Texas School Book Depository, where the shots appeared to originate, was missing. He boarded a bus on Elm Street a few blocks east of the Depository. On the bus was Mrs. Mary Bledsoe, one of Oswald’s former landladies, who immediately recognized him. Oswald left the bus, which was stuck in traffic from the assassination. He then got into a taxi a short distance away and rode to a point close to his boarding room on North Beckley in Oak Cliff.

Newscasters later reported that at 1:00 p.m. Oswald was seen entering his rooming house by his housekeeper. He didn’t speak to her but rushed out of the house, zipping up a jacket over what was later found to be a pistol he stuck in his belt.

At approximately 1:15 p.m., he shot Dallas Police Officer J. D. Tippit near the intersection of Tenth and Patton Streets in Oak Cliff. Tippit, responding to the description of the assassin broadcast over police radios, stopped Oswald and was questioning him when he was shot. In my capacity as a coroner, I was called to Methodist Hospital to conduct the inquest investigation of the officer. Tippit had been shot four times and was dead upon arrival at the hospital. Police had the unpleasant task of notifying his wife, who was devastated when she heard.

Minutes later, the man who was seen shooting Officer Tippit and trying to hide from passing police cars was tracked to and seen entering a movie theater on Jefferson Boulevard without purchasing a ticket. Many policemen arrived at the theater because one of their own had been murdered.

At the Texas School Book Depository, Assistant District Attorney Bill Alexander heard about the suspect who matched the description of Kennedy’s assassin as well as Tippit’s assassin. He asked to go with one of the police officers to the theater.

After surrounding the theater, police entered and the house lights were turned on. Police arrested their suspect after a brief struggle when he tried to shoot the arresting officer. A pistol was taken from Oswald, and he was transported to police headquarters, arriving at

2:00 p.m.

In the meantime, police had searched the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building, found the sniper’s nest and the rifle hidden near the stairway, and had established that Oswald did not return after lunch. They had notified police headquarters that Oswald was a missing employee who did not return to work after the assassination. The police thereafter considered Oswald a prime suspect in the assassination.

We learned later what had happened after the President was pronounced dead at 1:00 p.m. Of course, the Secret Service, the F.B.I. and Dallas Homicide Bureau detectives were involved in the investigation of the assassination. Also, police noted on the homicide report that coroner Joe B. Brown (myself) was to be notified to conduct the inquest over the body of the dead President.

However, immediately upon learning that the President had been shot and was at Parkland, a Justice of the Peace from the northeast suburb of Garland, Theron Ward, sped over to the hospital and notified police that he would take charge of the inquest investigation of President Kennedy. Detectives were then notified to cancel the call to Judge Brown. As part of the inquest responsibility, Justice of the Peace Ward ordered Dr. Rose, County Pathologist, to perform an autopsy on the President.

Desiring to get the President and Mrs. Johnson back to Washington, Secret Service officers wanted to remove the President’s body from the hospital. Judge Ward and Dr. Rose attempted to physically hold the hospital gurney upon which lay the President’s dead body, stating that the body could not be removed until after an autopsy. This was in accordance with Texas law that requires an autopsy for forensic purposes.

Secret Service officers overpowered Judge Ward and Dr. Rose and literally pulled the gurney from the Dallas officials and removed President Kennedy’s body from the hospital to a waiting O’Neal Funeral Home hearse. The Presidential casket and Jackie were then driven to the Air Force One plane at Love Field. There, aboard the plane, the President’s widow watched as Federal Judge Sarah T. Hughes administered the oath of office to Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th President of the United States.

At about 2:38 p.m., on November 22, 1963, standing in the crowded cabin of the plane, Lyndon Johnson took the oath of office: I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God.

At police headquarters, Oswald was interrogated by Captain Will Fritz and his detectives. I was contacted by the investigating detectives to issue a search warrant for Oswald’s boarding house room and the home of Mrs. Ruth Paine where Oswald’s wife, Marina, lived in a suburb of Dallas. Much incriminating evidence was brought to headquarters linking Oswald to the assassination.

The next morning, Saturday, November 23, 1963, Oswald was being held in the City of Dallas jail on a charge of murdering the President and Officer J. D. Tippit. There was no federal assassination law, so state law prevailed.

On Sunday morning, November 24, 1963, police arranged to transport Oswald to the county jail where they assumed he would be safer following some death threats. Preparations included an opportunity for press and TV coverage of the transfer. This was done so that the public could see that Oswald was being correctly handled since he had yelled police brutality during his arrest. At 11:20 a.m., Oswald was being taken from the city jail to a waiting police car in the basement of Dallas City Hall.

Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub operator and a person who often hired policemen for nightclub security, slipped past security officers and entered the basement along with reporters and TV personnel, and shot Oswald in the stomach. The shooting of Oswald was captured by live television and seen by millions of people throughout the country. Oswald was rushed to Parkland Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 1:07 p.m.

Dallas Police detectives then contacted me. They wanted a warrant to search Jack Ruby’s apartment on Ewing Street in Oak Cliff. A search warrant was issued and officers proceeded to his apartment. The only evidence found was a copy of the morning newspaper opened to pictures of the President’s assassination.

Jack Ruby was indicted by the Grand Jury for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald and the case was filed in the Criminal District Court No. 3, which was the court presided over by my father, Joe B. Brown, Sr. The trial was held in 1964. Melvin Belli, who used a defense of psychomotor epilepsy, did not save Ruby from being found guilty. His punishment was fixed at death in the electric chair. On appeal, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed Ruby’s conviction, holding that the case should have been transferred to another county for trial because of all the pre-trial publicity. Jack Ruby died of cancer while awaiting a new trial.

The preceding account is based on my memory at the time and when exact times and places were hazy, I relied upon the findings of the Warren Commission.

Acknowledgements

This book involved the effort of many people, but most importantly Judge Joe B. Brown, Sr., who wrote his memories of the trial of Jack Ruby. Judge Brown enlisted the help of others to write his memoir. After his death, the manuscript was in the hands of his widow for many years until it was given to his son, Judge Joe B. Brown, Jr. His son tried to publish the book for some time without success.

When my daughter, Kathleen Wagoner worked for Judge Brown, Jr., she told him of my work on the assassination, which culminated in The Mind of Oswald: Accused Assassin of President John F. Kennedy, published in 2000. He asked me to develop his father’s memoir into a book. I asked him for his own recollections of the assassination which he included in this work. He also supplied previously unpublished photographs and documents such as the search warrant he issued for police to confiscate Oswald’s belongings as evidence. The rest of the photographs come from the public domain such as the National Archives or the Warren Commission report.

I also obtained the transcript of the court trial of Jack Ruby for the murder of Lee Oswald. In addition, I relied on the Warren Commission records for some facts, including the Warren Commission interrogation of Ruby and the Federal Bureau of Investigation polygraph of Ruby.

In addition, I used research and documents from my own book. But most importantly, I had the added assistance of my husband, historian Bob Cheney, who wrote a Civil War book, Interrupted Lives: Hood’s Texas Brigade, published 2001. He supplied endless hours of help in manuscript preparation and moral support.

Introduction

Jack’s Ruby’s Death

On January 3, 1967, I was sitting in my office when an attorney rushed in and said, Jack Ruby has just died. Since word had spread that Ruby was a victim of cancer, it was apparent that he was doomed. However, his quick demise shocked everyone who was connected with the trial. The triangle was now complete. First there had been President John Kennedy, then Lee Harvey Oswald, and now Jack Ruby. All passed away within the antiseptic walls of Parkland Hospital.

After the Ruby trial, I jotted down my story. My son, Joe B. Brown, Jr., then a Justice of the Peace, and I were involved in events following the assassination of President Kennedy. But because of criticism from one of the attorneys for Ruby, who stated that a judge should not write about a case until it is finally decided, I delayed publication indefinitely.

My story is an attempt to add a little to the history of a tragic event, an event that helped to shape the course of the United States. This is a Judge’s eye view of one of the most famous cases of this century.

Ruby’s conviction was reversed by the Court of Criminal Appeals, primarily based upon the ground that I should have ordered a change of venue to avoid the bias of local jurors. Had Jack Ruby lived, his second trial would have been held in Wichita Falls, Texas, a community situated about 150 miles from Dallas.

Jack Ruby is gone. During his trial, while lawyers on both sides shouted and argued, Ruby’s demeanor was excellent. Jack often insisted upon talking with newsmen. He always stated that he wanted to tell his story to the jury, but his attorneys felt that it was better strategy to keep him off the stand.

Personally, I would like to have heard Jack Ruby’s story from his own lips. Had he been tried again, I believe he would have faced the jury and told them of his feelings after the death of President Kennedy. What the jury would have done had they heard Ruby’s story will always remain an unanswered question.

Editor’s Note: Judge Joe B. Brown, Sr., died of a heart attack a year after Ruby’s death, on February 20, 1968.

One of the fondest moments in the relationship between father and son Browns was when Judge Joe B. Brown, Sr. administered the Oath of Attorney to Joe B. Brown, Jr. in 1954.

Memoir of Judge Joe B. Brown, Sr.

Chapter 1

The City of Hate

I tried Jack Ruby for shooting down Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy. After the trial, I was called the hanging judge because of the death sentence brought in by the jury.

President Kennedy came to Dallas on November 22, 1963, on a sunny Friday morning after a rain. Police Chief Jesse Curry and Police Captain Glenn King were at the airport to greet the President. The President’s limousine had been flown in from the White House for the parade.

In view of the improvement in the weather, the President chose to do without the bubble top that was always used on rainy days. The great crowd that met the President at Dallas Love Field Airport was more than friendly. It was overly affectionate. The President moved unprotected among the crowd laughing, chatting, obviously in high spirits, possibly because within 24 hours he had all but succeeded in uniting a splintered Texas Democratic Party. He could not know that his appointment with death was hardly 30 minutes away. This morning in his hotel room, he had joked about how easy it was to be shot by someone with a rifle in a high window from some building.

A nervous police force escorted President Kennedy through the downtown area, past crowds that were within arm’s length of the motorcade. But the warmth and friendliness of this excited crowd was palpable and living. As the Presidential car emerged at the foot of the downtown area, all danger seemed gone. The car jogged right, then left, as it turned to enter an underpass beneath the railroad tracks, through which the President was to travel to a luncheon in the Trinity River industrial district at the Dallas Trade Mart.

As the car slowed for its turns, Lee Harvey Oswald, sitting by a window on the sixth floor of the nearby Texas School Book Depository, fired three bullets. One hit a curb and ricocheted off, apparently splintering upon contact with cement. The other two killed the President. One passed through his body and wounded Governor John Connally of Texas, who was riding in the Presidential limousine in front of Kennedy, lined up slightly below and just a bit left of him, seated on a small jump seat. (John Connally died in 1993.)

When the President was shot, I was in my office on the second floor of the County Hall of Records, not 200 feet away. My office has no windows on that side of the building, and I did not hear the shots. I had an invitation to the President’s luncheon as did my son, but I had become interested in briefing some material bearing on a case in my court, and I had let time get away from me. My office staff was on the street, watching the parade. A lawyer who happened to pass the office rapped on the door