Photograph of courtroom sketch of Henry Wade in final argument of Ruby trial

Howard Brodie (1915-2010) was a sports artist for the San Francisco Chronicle when he enlisted in the U.S. Army with America's entry into World War II. He ultimately became one of the best-known sketch artists of the war, frequently published in the weekly U.S. military magazine, Yank, which ran from June 1942 to December 1945. After the war, Brodie spent the next thirty-five years as a courtroom artist, attending several notable trials including the Chicago Seven, Charles Manson and, of course, the Jack Ruby trial in 1964. For the Ruby trial, Brodie worked as a CBS-TV artist correspondent. Mr. Brodie recorded an oral history with the Museum in 2006. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator

Henry Wade (1914-2001) served as Dallas County District Attorney from 1951 to 1987. During the weekend of the Kennedy assassination, Wade became a familiar face on national television, frequently interviewed by the news media in the hallways of Dallas police headquarters. He gained further media attention for prosecuting Jack Ruby for Lee Harvey Oswald's murder in 1964. Though Wade supervised the prosecution closely, Assistant D.A. Bill Alexander handled most of the courtroom proceedings.

In 1970, Wade was named defendant in a constitutional challenge to Texas abortion laws that ultimately went to the Supreme Court. Ten years after the Kennedy assassination, Henry Wade's name was once again etched into history with the Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 which made abortion legal in the United States.

Wade recorded an oral history with The Sixth Floor Museum in 1992. His son, William Kim Wade, who witnessed the Kennedy motorcade as a ten-year-old, also recorded an oral history in 2013. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator