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Courtroom sketch of AP photographer Frank Johnston dated March 11, 1964
Courtroom sketch of AP photographer Frank Johnston dated March 11, 1964

Courtroom sketch of AP photographer Frank Johnston dated March 11, 1964

Object number2004.020.0004
Date03/11/1964
ClassificationsArt
Artist Charles Fisher
ObjectCourtroom sketch
Credit LineChuck Fisher Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumPaper
Dimensions14 × 17 in. (35.6 × 43.2 cm)
Collections
DescriptionCourtroom pencil sketch on paper by Charles Fisher. The sketch shows United Press International photographer Frank Johnston testifying during the trial of Jack Ruby on March 11, 1964. The sketch shows Johnston facing the viewer wearing a suit and tie. The caption in the top right reads "Frank Johnson/ AP Photographer 3/11/64," and the caption in the bottom right reads "Jack Ruby murder trial." The artist's signature: "C. Fisher" is at the bottom left, underneath the sketch. Charles "Chuck" Fisher was the art director at KRLD-TV in 1963. Fisher made the pencil sketches during the trial of Jack Ruby for KRLD-TV after the judge barred cameras from the courtroom.
Curatorial Commentary

State witness Frank Johnston was employed as a photographer with United Press International (UPI) News Pictures. This sketch by KRLD-TV art director Charles Fisher misidentifies him as an Associated Press (AP) photographer, the chief rival of UPI. His very brief testimony on March 11, 1964, focused solely on him allegedly hearing Jack Ruby say, "You S.O.B." just before firing his gun. This became a point of almost comical back-and-forth between the prosecution and defense. Johnston initially testified that he heard Ruby utter those words, only to admit to defense attorney Joe Tonahill during cross examination that he was not certain it was Ruby. D.A. Henry Wade then got Johnston to say that it was indeed Jack Ruby who spoke those words. Seconds later, during recross examination, Tonahill finally established that Johnston could not definitively state that Jack Ruby was the person who yelled, "You S.O.B." in the police basement.  

Forty-five years later, in a Museum oral history, Johnston reflected that "[t]o this day, really today... I thought it was Jack Ruby who said that." However, on the day of this interview with The Sixth Floor Museum - August 15, 2009 - Johnston appeared to change his mind after seeing a different video perspective of the Oswald shooting: "It was one of the detectives who knew Jack Ruby, and that's what he said: 'Jack, you son of a bitch.'" He continued: "I saw it in the video for the first time today after all these years...and he was apparently the one that said that, and I never knew that." -- Stephen Fagin, Curator