Howard Chamberlain Oral History

Following two weeks of jury selection, testimony in the Jack Ruby trial began on March 4, 1964. Two days later, on the afternoon of Friday, March 6, a Dallas County jailbreak unconnected with the Ruby trial occurred on an upper floor of the Dallas County Criminal Courts building. One of the seven escapees, who had carved a fake pistol out of a bar of soap covered with shoe polish, briefly took county employee Ruth Thornton hostage on his way out of the building. She was released unharmed. Although all seven escapees were apprehended by the following day, the jailbreak--captured on film by the national news media who were covering the Ruby trial--brought further ridicule to the city of Dallas. The front page of The New York Daily News the following day read simply, "Oh, Dallas!"

A photograph of one of the seven prisoners, Frank Crocker, in custody on March 7, 1964 may be found here: https://emuseum.jfk.org/objects/28145. - Stephen Fagin, Curator   

Howard Eugene Chamberlain passed away on July 28, 2013 at the age of 89. After serving in the U.S. Army Air Force in the Pacific Theater during World War II, Chamberlain spent his entire professional career at KRLD-TV (later KDFW-TV) in Dallas. - Stephen Fagin, Curator