killing whites in hyperpublicized crimes. Both had been fingered by lowlifes. Both were articulate and thoughtful. Both were without funds to counter powerful prosecutors. And, most important, I thought both were innocent after one long afternoon meeting. There were differences, of course. Tony had an ethereal, free-floating quality even when imprisoned. John, although convicted, was “free” when I met him, and was much more down to earth. What was was, and he was making the best of it until somehow the truth would emerge, and he would be free. Until then, however, he would do things their way if that would make life more tolerable. Maynard, on the other hand, much like Rubin Carter, I later learned, wanted things his way, and had no give no matter what the consequences. At least with John, I thought, I would not have to worry about him in prison, and I could just concentrate on getting him out. As with Maynard, I knew a tough struggle lay ahead. The authorities needed a black killer behind bars when the victim was white in a highly publicized crime. The public demanded it. Someone had to pay to calm the fears of white people who lived way too close to the ever-invading and -expanding black masses.
* * *
Myron Beldock and I meshed immediately. Like me, Myron was a sucker for near-hopeless cases. A balding, work-addicted man fighting a middle-age bulge, Myron was the kind of lawyer who followed every strand of evidence to its most obscure conclusion, and that quality garnered the respect of his colleagues and adversaries alike.
Getting to work, first we checked the 1967 trial transcript to follow up on the revelation that DeSimone made Bello and Bradley a promise in return for their testimony.
During that trial Bello had denied that anyone in law enforcement had made him any promises in exchange for his testimony. Contrary to their obligations, the prosecutors never told the defense about DeSimone’s promises, and they didn’t turn over the tape recording as a prior statement of one of their witnesses. The value of the tape should not have escaped Judge Larner, but instead Larner’s opinion justified the prosecutor’s failure to turn it over.
Appeals courts don’t go out of their way to do favors for prisoners who accuse a prosecutor of failing to disclose evidence, especially when it comes to a street crime. Their rulings generally say something to the effect that this or that undisclosed evidence would have been unlikely to change the verdict. But most appeals happen with zero outside interest, so judges need not concern themselves with public oversight. However, when the press is skeptical about the guilt of someone doing hard time, the New York Times runs a front-page story, and famous people start taking an interest, judges sometimes evaluate cases more carefully. Fueling the controversy in this case, Carter had just published a book, The Sixteenth Round, about his life, the trial, and his years in prison. Not since Claude Brown’s Manchild in the Promised Land, an acclaimed autobiographical coming-of-age story about life in Harlem during the sixties, had anyone written so powerfully about ghetto life and the struggle to survive in prison. Also, a defense committee was organized by George Lois—a well-known art director, mover and shaker, and man-about-town. Bob Dylan wrote a hit song, performing “The Hurricane” at a fund-raiser at Madison Square Garden, as part of his Rolling Thunder Revue tour, which included Joan Baez. Another concert at the Houston Astrodome featured Stevie Wonder, Ringo Starr, and Dr. John. At the Garden concert, Carter rallied the crowd by a telephone hookup from prison.
Asked to pardon Carter and Artis, New Jersey governor Brendan Byrne tapped a black state assemblyman, Eldridge Hawkins, who had a foot in both camps and was not trusted by our black contacts, to look into the case. Soon we got word that Bello had concocted a brand-new story—that he and Bradley were actually inside the Lafayette when the shootings occurred, instead of walking toward it when they heard the shots, as they testified in 1967. In the new story Bello and Bradley went outside after the shots were fired and saw Carter and Artis with no firearms standing near the tavern door. Bello told Hawkins he thought they were involved, but that others he didn’t see had committed the murders.
Hawkins visited John Artis with an offer of freedom if he admitted to being an accomplice. Artis declined. A few months later Bello testified before a grand jury in Newark,