Judge William Alsup Oral History

The concept of a fictional trial for accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald has been explored almost since the moment Jack Ruby stepped into history in the basement of Dallas police headquarters on November 24, 1963. The first feature film about the Kennedy assassination, produced in Dallas and released in 1964, was entitled The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald. Directed by Larry Buchanan, the low-budget film was not a financial success and generated some controversy. A play, The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, written by Amram Ducovny, premiered on Broadway in November 1967 and closed after nine performances. An ABC television miniseries, The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, followed in 1977 starring John Pleshette as Oswald and Lorne Greene as his defense attorney. London Weekend Television took a unique approach in 1986 with the documentary, On Trial: Lee Harvey Oswald, with included actual eyewitnesses, a Texas judge and jury, and prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi versus defense attorney Gerry Spence. The 20+ hour trial was edited into a five-hour miniseries that aired on the Showtime cable network in the United States. A number of books have also explored the concept, including The People V. Lee Harvey Oswald (Walt Brown, 1994) and Lee Harvey Oswald On Trial (Keith and Rebekka Pruitt, 2015). A variety of mock trials for Lee Harvey Oswald have also taken place in classrooms, courtrooms and other venues around the world, including a 2011 mock trial here at The Sixth Floor Museum - recorded as part of the Oral History Project - during a Library of Congress "Teaching With Primary Sources" Institute. Local schoolteachers functioned as prosecutors, defense attorneys, witnesses and members of the jury with a former history teacher from the Richardson, Texas ISD serving as the presiding judge. This particular mock trial resulted in a hung jury. - Stephen Fagin, Curator