Inherit the mint; how Edward Bennett Williams made legal prostitution respectable - excerpt from 'The Man to See: Edward Bennett Williams - Legendary Trial Lawyer, Ultimate Insider

Connally was, his biographer James Reston Jr. wrote, "a dream witness: coherent, succinct, immensely impressive. His denial was total and it was spoken unhesitatingly, as if from the heart." In the jury box, Foreman O'Toole believed that his task had been made simple. He had been instructed about the standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt." As O'Toole understood his instructions, he was not to guess at what really happened, but only to consider the evidence presented. It was the difference between truth and legal truth. Whatever the real truth, O'Toole knew when he heard Connally's testimony that he had "reasonable doubts."

Judge Hart would, Williams knew, instruct the jurors that testimony of good character could, by itself, create a reasonable doubt. Williams was eager to sow those doubts by putting on a stunning parade of character witnesses to testify for Connally. One by one, they took the stand: LBJ's widow, Lady Bird Johnson; former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara; former Secretary of State Dean Rusk; presidential advisors James Rowe and Robert Strauss. They were all Democrats, speaking of "Mr. Roosevelt" and Harry, Jack, and Lyndon. No one ever mentioned Richard Nixon. Particularly effective with the mostly black jury was Congresswoman Barbara Jordan of Texas, whose husky eloquence had helped to impeach Nixon when she served on the House Judiciary Committee in the Watergate summer of 1974. (In 1968, Jordan had responded to Connally's favorite-son presidential candidacy by remarking, "Why that son of a bitch. How does he think he can be anyone's favorite anything?") Jordan agreed to appear as a character witness for Connally as a political favor for Democratic Party Chairman Bob Strauss.

Williams had been a little apprehensive about putting on another witness, Reverend Billy Graham. A white preacher and a black jury? A southern baptist? Graham's "a little flaky isn't he?" Williams asked his associates. Didn't he say that Nixon had been brainwashed in Red China?

Williams was still feeling uneasy when Graham, wearing pancake makeup and a rub-on suntan, climbed into the witness box.

"What is your work at the present time, sir?" asked Williams.

"I am an evangelist, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ all over the world," replied Graham.

From the jury box came a distinctly audible "A-a-men." It was the elderly black lady who had come to the jury voir dire carrying a Bible. Williams had to turn away from the jury to hide his smile. "I thought that 'A-a-men' was a good sign," he later dead-panned to reporters. Eugene McCarthy told Williams, "You ought to put that show on the road. You wouldn't lose a case."

Spoiled Victor

Tuerkheimer was a beaten man. His closing argument was apologetic, almost pleading. He asked the jury to "understand that this is not a contest among lawyers. It is your job to determine the facts of the case, not to decide whether Edward Bennett Williams or any of us is a better lawyer. I don't think there'd be much contest on that point. I hope you don't hold any inadequacies on our part against the government or prosecution in this case." The judge had to ask him to use a microphone so the jury could hear him.