The committee stands in recess until 2:30.

(Whereupon, at 12:28 p.m. the hearing recessed, to reconvene at 2:30 p.m. the same day.)

(Members present at time of recess: Senators McClellan, Mundt, and Curtis.)

AFTERNOON SESSION

(The subcommittee reconvened at 2:48 p.m., Senator John L. McClellan, chairman of the subcommittee, presiding.)

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order.

(Members present at time of reconvening: Senators McClellan, Mundt, and Curtis.)

Mr. BRACKETT. Mr. Chairman, I have a procedural request, if I may, very briefly.

The CHAIRMAN. Just a moment.

Counsel, we will recognize you.

Mr. BRACKETT. I have a procedural request, Mr. Chairman.
The CHAIRMAN. What kind of request?

Mr. BRACKETT. Procedural, sir.

I have a procedural request which I would like to give to the committee. Reverend Fry was here and he will be happy to answer your questions, of course. But I ask that he be excused after today, after your questions are completed today. It seems to me it is demeaning for him to be forced to sit here with other witnesses

The CHAIRMAN. It is what?

Mr. BRACKETT. It is demeaning and it is really not a confrontation. I would like the opportunity to have Reverend Fry come back after all the prosecution witnesses have been presented so that we can gather a case and make the statement as you said. But I think Reverend Fry has an extremely busy schedule. He has responsibilities in Chicago. If other witnesses are being called now, we would ask respectfully that he be excused after your questions today.

He will return in answer to all of the other charges which are made in subsequent days, if there are any, and will be, of course, available for your questions at that time.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you mean he doesn't want to be present when these others testify?

Mr. BRACKETT. I don' think it is necessary, Your Honor. We would be happy to examine the transcript, have other people here, gather our answers, make the further denials. I think it is very clear that Reverend Fry has denied categorically the charges against him and will continue to do so.

The CHAIRMAN. That is a good speech. What you are asking, to say it in simple words, is you would like, after today, to have Reverend Fry relieved from further immediate attendance so he can go home and attend to his churchwork, or whatever his problems are.

Is that correct?

Mr. BRACKETT. Yes, sir; subject to the right to return and answer the charges at another day.

The CHAIRMAN. Subject to return if we want him, if he wants to come back. The Chair will consider that. I have been doing my best to get through with him, and I was hoping that we could. We are going

to try to do as much as we can today, taking into account the circumstances.

We have been expecting a vote every minute, but we came on over here to try to move on and expedite the hearings, if we could.

Where did we close? With your getting a lawyer for your sons, is that right?

TESTIMONY OF MRS. ANNABELLE MARTIN-Resumed

Mrs. MARTIN. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. Did you ever succeed in getting a lawyer for your boys?

Mrs. MARTIN. Yes; I did.

The CHAIRMAN. What lawyer did you get?

Mrs. MARTIN. A lawyer that Reverend Fry got for me.

The CHAIRMAN. Is it the same one you were talking about this morning?

Mrs. MARTIN. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. Is that the only lawyer you had for them?

Mrs. MARTIN. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. Your boys are not now under any charge, are they? Mrs. MARTIN. No.

The CHAIRMAN. So you are not testifying in a way to help them get out from under a charge?

Mrs. MARTIN. No; they had the charges dropped against them about maybe a week or 2 weeks.

The CHAIRMAN. It was established at the trial that your boys didn't actually do the shooting?

Mrs. MARTIN. Yes. They are not guilty of any crime.

The CHAIRMAN. They what?

Mrs. MARTIN. They wasn't guilty. All the charges was dropped on them the day that the lawyer was there in the court. The judge dropped all the charges.

The CHAIRMAN. The judge dropped all the charges after getting these facts?

Mrs. MARTIN. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. Were you in court during the trial

Mrs. MARTIN. No

The CHAIRMAN (continuing). The trial of Hairston?

Mrs. MARTIN. No more than when I testified. They didn't allow me in there. I didn't hear.

The CHAIRMAN. The witnesses were under the rule. You were not present and unable to hear all of the testimony.

Mrs. MARTIN. I was not present.

The CHAIRMAN. You then didn't see some things that took place in the courtroom.

Senator MUNDT. Mrs. Martin, you testified this morning about what the lawyers had told your sons, and the advice they had given you to get out of town.

Did Reverend Fry give you any advice himself as to your sons or what they should say or what you should do?

Mrs. MARTIN. They wanted first for us to get out of town only.

That money was coming from Reverend Fry, from the First Presbyterian Church.

Senator MUNDT. I didn't get that.

Mrs. MARTIN. The money was to be coming from Reverend Fry, from the First Presbyterian Church, for us to get out of town. We were supposed to have left that day by train. The lawyer was going to take us to the train. But I got an excuse to go out. I pretended Ĭ was sick, so I could talk to the policeman that was with me.

Senator MUNDT. How do you know the money was to come from Reverend Fry?

Mrs. MARTIN. The lawyer called Reverend Fry at the time we was in the office.

Senator MUNDT. Suggesting that Reverend Fry pay for your getting out of town?

Mrs. MARTIN. Yes.

Senator MUNDT. You heard him say that?

Mrs. MARTIN. We could hear Reverend Fry talking. The police heard him and myself, too. We could hear Reverend Fry talking. We were not far from the phone.

Then the man stopped talking to Reverend Fry for a while and he asked me could I leave right then, right away.

Senator MUNDT. Who asked you?

Mrs. MARTIN. The lawyer asked me could I leave right away. If the children would stay in town and they would testify, that Jeff will kill them.

Mr. BRACKETT. Could we establish at some point that we are still talking about the legal aid bureau lawyer? I think that would be helpful.

Senator MUNDT. No question about that.

Mr. BRACKETT. You will establish that, sir?

Senator MUNDT. That is the only lawyer she ever talked to.
Was he a legal aid lawyer?

Mrs. MARTIN. He was a legal aid lawyer, but Reverend Fry did get the lawyer for me. That is why I say it was his lawyer. He got it.

Senator MUNDT. It was the lawyer that was obtained as a result of Reverend Fry's phone call he mentioned this morning.

Did Reverend Fry, himself, to you, ever make any suggestions about what you should say at the trial, what your sons should say at the trial, or as to whether you should leave town?

Mrs. MARTIN. I was made a suggestion on this, it really indicated a lot, for my children to change their testimony and we to say that Paul Martin told them to do the killing instead of Eugene Hairston. Then I would be provided with money and I would have friends for a long time and I could live anywhere I wanted to live.

Senator MUNDT. Who told you that?

Mrs. MARTIN. Some coworkers from Reverend Fry's church.
Senator MUNDT. Do you remember the name?

Mrs. MARTIN. Yes, I do.

Senator MUNDT. Who told you?

Mrs. MARTIN. Mae Rose and Mr. Felton.

Senator MUNDT. Mae Rose?

Mrs. MARTIN. Yes, sir; Mae Rose Shelton and a white guy they call Felton. He came to the hotel where I was, at the Ranch Hotel on Stony Island.

Senator MUNDT. They represented themselves to be speaking for Reverend Fry?

Mrs. MARTIN. Yes, from Reverend Fry.

Senator MUNDT. Are they employed in Reverend Fry's church? Mrs. MARTIN. Yes.

Senator MUNDT. At the time you tell us that you heard the lawyer talking to Reverend Fry on the telephone, were there other people in the room besides your lawyers and you? Were there any policemen or anybody else who might also have heard this talk?

Mrs. MARTIN. Yes, the police from gang intelligence, Steve I call him. I never did know his last name. He was from Lieutenant and them Buckney's office.

Senator MUNDT. He was in the room?

Mrs. MARTIN. No. Steve. I called Lieutenant Buckney in gang intelligence and told them this lawyer called me and asked me to come over to the office.

When I found out he was Reverend Fry's lawyer, I didn't trust him too much. So I called and asked him did he have any police there that didn't really look like a police, that could pass for my husband. I explained to them why that I wanted them to go.

So when I got in there, I told the lawyer he asked me who was it. I said, "This is my husband. This is Reverend Martin."

Senator MUNDT. This was the undercover agent, the policeman, whose name is Steve, who was posing as your slightly

Mrs. MARTIN. He was supposed to be mentally unbalanced, but he was my husband.

Senator MUNDT (continuing). Mentally unbalanced husband. Did this Steve overhear the same conversation?

Mrs. MARTIN. Of course he did.

Senator MUNDT. He heard this? Let's have it clearly. Is Steve his last name or his first name?

Mrs. MARTIN. I don't know. Lieutenant Buckney would know. All I know is Steve. I was just with him that one day.

Senator MUNDT. It is your testimony that Steve overheard your lawyer on the telephone talking to Reverend Fry about getting out of town?

Mrs. MARTIN. Yes.

Senator MUNDT. There is no doubt in your mind about that?

Mrs. MARTIN. No doubt.

The CHAIRMAN. Did you have occasion to observe any extortion from this gang, this gang extorting any money?

Mrs. MARTIN. I was telling you about this hall that I opened up called the Home of the Rangers.

The CHAIRMAN. Home of the Rangers?

Mrs. MARTIN. Yes. Up over the Chicken Coop. Some police own it, Ted and Howard. I talked to Bobby Vaughn. She is a very nice person in the community. She works out of the fifth district.

Bobby Vaughn said she knows Commander Griffin and we were talking about getting somewhere for the children to have to go to keep them out of the streets and maybe that would keep them from the First Presbyterian Church, too.

So Bobby taken me in the car and we went over to see Commander Griffin to ask him if it would be all right for me to have this hall.

He replied yes, but he didn't want no drinking in there and he did not want no weapons inside of that place. "If they do, they see me."

I opened the place and the place was going good. We bought hotdogs. We couldn't sell no hamburger because there wasn't no place to cook them. We boil the hotdogs. We sold hotdogs and pop in the place. We had dancing. I had bands coming in.

I was teaching the Rangerettes how to dance. Some of them already knew how to do some, different dancing teams. The ones that could sing, we had them before the mike. We had them out trying to sing.

Some of the mothers came down to look at the place. I opened the place about 3 weeks and the next thing I knew the Main 21's was at the door collecting the money. I asked them what was they doing, and they said Jeff said for them to collect the money.

They collect the money. They stayed behind the counter and they taken the money. They said if I stayed open, I had to pay. I said, "Well, I am not going to buy this food and let you all take money from it." They said, "Well, you are closed." So I said, "To keep me straight with Commander Griffin, I am going to lock it up and I am not coming back no more."

I locked it up and one way or the other they got it open. They went in there again and Commander Griffin, I think, ran them out of there. But I locked it. I couldn't get all of my money.

The money for the sandwiches I had taken from my own pocket so I thought at least they would give me that back. But they didn't give me the money back that I spent for the sandwiches and coke and stuff. They taken the money and I closed it up.

They went up there and I don't know what reason Commander Griffin run them out of there, because I didn't go back.

The CHAIRMAN. What about a place called Easy Lounge. Do you know anything about that?

Mrs. MARTIN. I was at the Easy Lounge. They was spinning records in there.

The CHAIRMAN. Where is that place?

Mrs. MARTIN. I can't remember the address, but it is on 63d Street. It is closed now.

The CHAIRMAN. It is closed now. What did you see take place in there?

Mrs. MARTIN. Paul Martin supposed to have been a bouncer in there.
The CHAIRMAN. Did what?

Mrs. MARTIN. Paul Martin was supposed to be a bouncer.
The CHAIRMAN. What happened?

Mrs. MARTIN. There is a young man that owned the place, that did own the place. So they had me there because the Rangers they thought would take orders from me, the younger ones that was trying to get into the place, and if I tell them don't come in, I know the ones that were young and the ones old enough to come in, not to come in, that they wouldn't come in.

So everyone who would come in would have to pay a quarter to come in the door. So one night that I wasn't at the door, I was on the floor. So they was beating up Edward, the man that owned the place. The CHAIRMAN. They beat up Edward?