I had dinner with Melvin Belli and Alex Haley in the spring of 1966. I was the president of a college fraternity and Belli was in town winning the largest civil liability suit to date in the states history. Belli was invited to our house by one of our members who was a law student and who knew that Belli had belonged to the same national fraternity . Haley accompanined Belli as he was writing an article for Playboy magazine about Belli. A third person was a very attractive young woman that Belli introduced as his " secretary " and who later became his fifth wife in a Shinto cermony in San Francisco.
Belli was representing Jack Ruby at the time and discussed Rubys deteriorating mental condition which sounded a lot like a dementia. Haley was the most interesting one there. He told us about writing Roots which if I recall correctly had not yet been published. He also described what happened when he was sent by Playboy to interview George Lincoln Rockwell ( head of the American Nazi Party ). He didn't tell Rockwell on the phone that he was Black which led to some extremely discourteous interactions wth Rockwells body guards. After the body guards left the room Rockwell was courteous and cooperative with the interview. Rockwell was later assasinated by one of his body guards.
I had heard Rockwell speak at our University . He had two barrel chested guards on stage with him who made sure we saw their shoulder holsters under their jackets. I went with a Jewish friend and we sat in the front row. My friend was understandably quite upset by the speech.
Interesting night.
Jack Ruby, Melvin Belli, and Alex Haley
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