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Show answer, "No, he's in two beds!" Waiting at the courthouse crane that would lift for theiwnderous patient was a n window. the two beds and their load through a second-floAlas, this production never got off the ground. Just as the crane started to swing into action, the defense lawyer threw up his hands and a $10,000 settlement was effected. Exhibit D: The Case of the Soundless Siren. Belli was representing a California fireman who was an institutionalized psychotic because of an accident in which his fire engine had been hit by a truck. The defense tried to prove that the truck driver didn't hear the sound of the engine's siren, but Belli's investigators rounded up witnesses who had. A plane was then hired and an aerial photograph of the entire scene was taken. In the courtroom Belli produced a giant aerial photo (10 feet by 10 feet) and had each of the 29 witnesses pinpoint his whereabouts at the time he heard the siren. Then he located on the map the positions of the witnesses who said the truck driver was speeding when they saw him. By this time the jury had a fine mental picture of what had taken place. It took them just 53 minutes to award history at $225,000, the largest verdict in personal-injur- y the time. Exhibit E: The Case of the Merciless Motorboat. A young airline hostess had been struck by a motorboat at Lake Arrowhead, Calif., and had lost her left leg and left arm. Once again Belli wanted to use demonstrative evidence, and when it was discovered that the boat couldn't be moved into the courtroom, he parked it outside on the sidewalk. There the jury could see and feel the cruel blades of the craft's propeller. The award of $265,000 set a record (since shattered several times) for Belli. Exhibit F: The Case of the Celestial Champion. Belli's client in this case was Maureen Connolly. She had been America's leading woman tennis player but had suffered a Conleg injury in an accident Movies were shown of Miss the nolly playing earlier with two good legs while Belli told been jury solemnly: "She, of all of us in this room, has brushed with celestial fire." The jury figured her tumble to the status of mere mortal was worth $95,000. Exhibit G: The Case of the Frigid Fan. When a season boxholder for the Giants' baseball games at Candlestick Park in San Francisco found he wasn't getting the "radiant heat" promised, he sued. Photographs showed the frigid fan in a fur coat in a meat cooler, getting ready for a night at Candlestick. This time Belli kept all the money awarded, $1,597 because he was the frigid fan. The above are some of the more colorful cases, but there are others just as important. In 1961 Belli won an award California boy who had been of $675,000 for an paralyzed by a defective vaccine injection. In Montana, settlement had been where the record personal-injur- y $30,000, he won an award of $186,000. of the cases, Belli's fee is one-thiIn personal-injur- y award if he wins, nothing if he loses. He wins enough to earn upward of $250,000 a year. He works hard for.the money often 18 hours a day when involved in a case and maintains offices in Los Angeles, Rome, and Tokyo, besides his home base in San Francisco. Some 1,800 persons, including Erskine Caldwell and protegee, Beverly Aadland, Errol Flynn's were on hand for the party when Belli's current San Francisco office was opened three years ago. Many of those 1,800 were not sure whether they had come to the restaurant. Their opening of a law office or a new bewilderment is understandable. Located in a restored three-stor- y building on Montgomery Street, the office features charcoal-blac- k window shutters, red damask wallpaper, n great chandeliers, a velvet window seat, a black wrought-iroon gate, fireblack brick walls, a refrigerator bricked three sides because Belli can't stand white enamel exmahogany bar like those the '49ers teriors, a 10-to- or 11-year-- rd much-publiciz- off-be- at 15-fo- ot ed red shipped around the Horn, a clutch of rolltop desks, velour armchairs, a pool of goldfish and the tusks of a female walrus. All this color might be enough for an ordinary man, but Belli always has an extra side show handy. Years ago, a large green parrot that lived on coffee and whiskey would to his clients. For perch on his shoulder while he, talked a while, Sergei, a Russian valet who spoke only Russian, was another attraction. Belli, who does not speak Russian, them to explains that he wrote out instructions and mailed the Tolstoi Foundation in New York, where they were translated into Russian and" returned to Belli, who then gave, them to Sergei. Two permanent members of the Belli cast of characters are Elmer, the skeleton, who often goes to the courtroom and is most useful for demonstrative evidence, and Elmer's wife, a plastic female torso with removable parts, who is often featured in Belli's productions. There is some zaniness left over for Belli's home a penthouse apartment on Telegraph Hill high above San Francisco Bay. The bathroom features a marble tub and a steam room whose entrance is marked with the warning, "Cave Volcanus" (Beware the Volcano). Other Latin sayings decorate the floor tiles. It should surprise no one to hear that, between trips, trials, and idiosyncrasies, Belli has had trouble in the marital league. Married three times and divorced twice, Tur-ne- y. he is now married to former airline stewardess Joy They have a son, Caesar, named for Belli's deceased Vf 1 si A U A I if ever coming to the surface." A person meeting Melvin Belli for the first time could salesman. easily believe he'd be a ready mark for an ll Belli always seems as bewildered as Dagwood Bumstead, and there is nothing about his handsome, running-to-jow- ls face that would suggest it is a bland front for a steel-tra- p mind. The Texans who had heard of his past feats were as gentle exterior when he taken aback by Belli's first came to Dallas as their grandfathers were when a gunfighter ordered milk. cowboy When they noticed that Belli wore ankle-hig- h boots that clashed with his Savile Row suits, they figured he was playing the psychology game again. His explanation that he had worn such boots for 30 years did not soften their hostility. One Dallas official told me: "Ruby would be better off with a local Texas lawyer. We figure all this trouble is caused by two outsiders, Ruby and Oswald, and then they have to bring in another outsider, this lawyer." Belli has his own explanation for defending Ruby: "Ruby may look dapper, but he has shown me his pitiful self. This man worshipped President Kennedy. I am convinced he was driven by his love for the man to do this act. I have,the greatest compassion for him. "I abhor the mob, the lynch mob. So how can I defend a man whose action was, in a sense, a lynching? That's easy. If Ruby were without a lawyer, he'd be in the same position Oswald was in when he was shot." But perhaps the real explanation for his involvement can be found in a statement Belli often makes when he is asked to explain his unusual patterns of behavior. "I am a Leo (July 29, 1907)," he will tell you. "A Leo is wild, enthusiastic, and he loves people." At this writing, no one knows the ultimate fate of Jack Ruby. But anyone who has been paying attention knows one certain result Melvin Mouron Belli has become the n trial lawyer in America. oil-we- sofl-spok- ttit ::: t Family Weekly, March 29, 196 h When your stomach feels uncertain from indigestion, heartburn, , gas, nausea or other symptomSLOJL excess acidity, remember this: Each small PHILLIPS' TABLET consumes 37 more excess acid roll than the leading candy-typ- e antacid tablet I',;' en best-know- Y qp "UNCERTAIN STOMACH banker-fathe- r. There is more to add to the idiosyncrasy file. Belli, the brilliant lawyer and wringer of blood from stone, is a sap for a rig an oil rig. In his words, "If they'd put all the holes of all the oil wells I've invested in end to end, you could go from Los Angeles to Texas underground without if L ::: I n I I I I mm i IMUt phillips: TADLCTS unarT KlUtf HKM iiotMCH-Momanc- w HCAKTMMN vnaoitMi ::: tat NO WATER tJbUlL NEEDED KSVER GET HOOKED... 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