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Photograph of courtroom sketch of Little Lynn Bennet testifying at Ruby trial
Photograph of courtroom sketch of Little Lynn Bennet testifying at Ruby trial

Photograph of courtroom sketch of Little Lynn Bennet testifying at Ruby trial

Object number2014.034.0028
Date03/06/1964
ClassificationsArt
Artist Howard Brodie
ObjectCourtroom sketch
Credit LineTonahill Family Partners Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumPaper
Dimensions14 1/2 × 19 in. (36.8 × 48.3 cm)
Collections
DescriptionPhotograph of courtroom pencil sketch on paper by CBS News courtroom artist Howard Brodie. The sketch shows witness Karen Lynn Bennett, aka "Little Lynn," testifying during the Jack Ruby trial on March 6, 1964. The sketch shows Bennett, who was a dancer at Ruby's Carousel Club, sitting in the witness stand facing the viewer. Handwritten captions along the bottom edge of the image read "1st defense witness," "Little Lynn Bennett / stripper," and "3/6/64 / pregnant stripper." Brodie made the original pencil sketches for CBS News during the trial of Jack Ruby after the judge barred cameras from the courtroom. Brodie then gave Joe Tonahill this photograph of a courtroom sketch as part of a collection of more than 40 in 1964.
Curatorial Commentary
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
Nineteen-year-old Karen Lynn Bennett was nine months pregnant when she testified as the first defense witness at the Jack Ruby trial in 1964. Belli called Bennett "the little girl but for whose telephone call this wouldn't have happened." Bennett had called her boss, Jack Ruby, on the morning of November 24, 1963, asking for $25 so that she could pay her rent. Ruby told her that he would wire her the money at Western Union in downtown Dallas, which is where Ruby was just prior to entering the police basement where he shot Lee Harvey Oswald. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator