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| Dan |
Wikipedia
Melvin Mouron Belli (b. 29 July 1907, Sonora, California - d. 9 July
1996, San Francisco, California) was a prominent United States lawyer
known as 'The King of Torts'-and by detractors as 'Melvin Bellicose'.
He had many celebrity clients, including Zsa Zsa Gabor, Errol Flynn,
Chuck Berry, Muhammad Ali, Sirhan Sirhan, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker,
Martha Mitchell, Lana Turner, Tony Curtis, and Mae West.
Education and early career
Belli graduated from the University of California, Berkeley's Boalt
Hall School of Law in 1933. After graduation, his first job was posing
as an hobo for the Works Progress Administration and riding the rails
to observe the Depression's impact on the country's vagrant population.
His first major legal victory came shortly after graduation, in a
personal injury lawsuit representing an injured cable car gripman. Over
insurance lawyers' objections, Belli brought a model of a cable car
intersection, and the gear box and chain involved in the accident, to
demonstrate to jurors exactly what had happened.
King of Torts
Besides his famous personal injury cases, which earned for him his
'King of Torts' nickname, Belli was also instrumental in setting up
some of the foundations of modern consumer rights law, arguing several
cases in the 1940s and 1950s that formed the basis for later lawsuits
and landmark litigation by such figures as Ralph Nader. Belli argued
(in cases such as Escola v. Coca-Cola, in 1944, which arose from an
incident in which a restaurant manager from Merced, California was
severely injured by an exploding Coca-Cola bottle) that all products
have an implied warranty, that it is to be foreseen that products will
be used by a long chain of people, not just the direct recipient of the
manufactured product, and that negligence by a defendant need not be
proven if the defendant's product is defective. Belli also was one of
the first major attorneys to prominently use demonstrative evidence and
courtroom exhibits (such as graphics, charts, photographs, and films).
In his best known case, Belli represented Jack Ruby, for free, after
Ruby shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald. Belli attempted to prove that
Ruby was legally insane and had a history of mental illness in his
family. On 14 March 1964, Ruby was convicted of 'murder with malice',
and later received a death sentence. However, in late 1966, Ruby's
conviction was overturned, on the grounds that he did not receive a
fair trial and a retrial was scheduled outside of Dallas, but Ruby died
of a stroke before the retrial could take place. Belli became very
critical of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover; the agency compiled at least
367 pages of evidence about Belli's activies accessible here.
Film and television roles
Belli appeared in numerous films and television shows, frequently as
himself, and is set to be played by Brian Cox in the 2006 film Zodiac
(Belli received a letter from the Zodiac Killer in 1969).
In perhaps his best-known role, other than as himself, Belli appeared
in a 1968 episode, "And the Children Shall Lead", of Star Trek, which
has often been labeled "the worst Star Trek episode of the entire
series." In it he played Gorgan, an evil being who corrupted a group of
children.
In 1970, he appeared in the Rolling Stones movie Gimme Shelter,
reprising his real-life role as the person responsible for the
disastrous decision to stage the rock group's concert at Altamont.
Belli enjoyed his frequent television and movie appearances; in 1965,
he told an interviewer for Playboy that he "might have been an actor"
if he had not become an attorney.
Author
Belli was the author of several books, including the six-volume Modern
Trials (written between 1954 and 1960) which has become a classic
textbook on the demonstrative method of presenting evidence. Belli's
unprecedented -- and some thought undignified -- use of graphic
evidence and expert witnesses later became common courtroom practice.
His autobiography, "My Life on Trial" is an entertaining account of his
life and famous events he was involved in during most of the 20th
century.
Personal life and finances
Belli was married five times. His marriage to the former Lia Triff
ended with a scandalous, acrimonious and bitter divorce proceeding in
1988, in which Belli was fined $1000 for calling his wife "El Trampo",
accused his wife of throwing their pet dog off the Golden Gate Bridge,
and was ultimately compelled to pay her an estimated $15 million. Belli
married his fifth wife, Nancy Ho, eleven weeks before he died of
pancreatic cancer at the age of 88.
Belli's firm filed for bankruptcy protection in December, 1995, not
long before his death. Belli was representing 800 women in a class
action lawsuit against breast implant manufacturer Dow Corning. Belli
won the lawsuit, but when Dow Corning declared bankruptcy, Belli had no
way to recover the $5,000,000 (USD) his firm had advanced to doctors
and expert witneses.
In June, 1996, two weeks before his passing, Melvin Belli recited the
oratory to David Woodard's brass fanfare setting of Mark Twain's "The
War Prayer", at San Francisco's Old First Church.
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| Bruno |
I read he represented Charles Manson, is it true? |
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| Gazza |
quote:
Bruno wrote:
I read he represented Charles Manson, is it true?
he certainly didnt represent him at his murder trial, anyway (I;d imagine if he ever did represent him, it would have been mentioned in the above bio)
very interesting info - thanks for posting it. |
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| Mel Belli |
A pernicious influence on the American legal system, no doubt. |
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| jb |
A great man... |
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| Joey |
< ----- A great man...
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| jb |
quote:
Joey wrote:
< ----- A great man...
As a tort attorney, I pride myself in protecting the rights of those injured by the negligenc of others . To see my cleints faces after I win them a large settlement is very moving.
[Edited by jb] |
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| pdog |
quote:
jb wrote:
As a tort attorney, I pride myself in protecting the rights of those injured by the negligenc of others . To see my cleints faces after I win them a large settlement is very moving.
[Edited by jb]
The money is nice too! |
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| Joey |
quote:
pdog wrote:
The money is nice too!
Always necessary to win gross . |
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