When
Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy in 1963, an East
Texas lawyer soon found himself thrust into history.
Joe Tonahill of
Jasper, who by then was already
a noted attorney, became the lawyer for Jack Ruby, who shot Oswald as he was being
transferred while in police custody.
National news photographers caught
Oswald’s shooting at the instant it happened.
Today, Tonahill’s life and
his law practice has been preserved with a display of his old office at the Jasper
County Museum in Jasper.
Museum
Director Nina Smith had placed with care Tonahill’s eyeglasses, his papers, a
magnifying glass, and other everyday objects Tonahill used when he was alive.
But Tonahill’s daughters Anne Tonahill Smith and Susie Tonahill Hile, piled the
papers and scattered other objects. “Too neat,” they said, making the office look
more like the one they remembered as children.
Tonahill’s old office had
a photo mural of Jack Ruby’s slaying of Oswald, but the mural had to be put on
the wrong wall in the museum replica because it was too large for the replica
wall.
Framed sketches from the Ruby trial are originals from the legal
proceedings in Dallas. And elsewhere
are dozens of other sketches by courtroom artists since photographers were not
permitted in the courtroom.
Some of the original sketches, however, were
destroyed when the CBS offices in New York became debris as the twin towers went
down on 9/11/2001.
Ruby’s trial made Tonahill famous, but he was already
respected throughout Texas legal circles.
The Jasper County Museum is
open on Fridays and Saturdays, but will soon expand to include Wednesday through
Saturday.
Bob Bowman's East Texas
June 6, 2010 Column
A weekly column syndicated in 109 East Texas newspapers
Copyright
Bob Bowman |
