Hugh Snodgrass and the moon
[page 49, line 10]
I don’t know if you — some of you know Hugh Snodgrass, Hugh was trying a little rape/robbery one time and had an old gentleman on the stand. And he must have been 85. You’ve heard the proverbial coke-bottle glasses. He had these real thick glasses. He was the only witness, and we were a little leery of his identification. And he identified Johnny McBrown, the only cowboy in Dallas County without a horse. And had identified him. And Hugh took him on cross and started talking about his glasses and went through his glasses with him and everything and how thick they were. He said, “You have a problem seeing, don’t you?” And the old gentleman said, “Yes, sir, I sure do.” And Hugh asked him that last question. He says, “Well, how far can you see?” The old man looked around and thought a minute. He says, “I can see the moon. How far is that?” And needless to say there was nothing else on the identification.
Hugh tried a lot of cases, and there’s an old gentleman named Henry Tyre, and Henry was in his 80’s at that time. And Hugh would always come in and say, “Mr. Tyre has taken this case, and we just need to plead it if we can. Can you give us anything?” He had given a plea. He tried to get Mr. Henry out of it, but he couldn’t. We said, “Hugh, we just can’t do it.”
So we were trying a burglary one time and Hugh used to say, “Well, Mr. Tyre — Mr. Henry takes cases on Ellis County depression prices, and he gets these clients and he has to try them.” So we’re trying this case and we’re over in the old courthouse over there in the criminal courts building on the second floor. It’s in the summer, the windows are up, it’s hot, and you can’t hear. And Mr. Tyre is stone deaf. And so Mr. Tyre leans over to Hugh and says, “Tell him to speak up.” Hugh says, “Would you speak up, sir, a little bit.” Mr. Tyre can’t hear him again, and he looks over at High and says, “Tell the son of a bitch to speak up.” So the jury is looking around, you know. And about that time he looks over, leans over to Hugh and says, “Tell the lying son of a bitch to speak up.” J. Henry King did the kick-off play as many of you have seen with that right shoulder when he got nervous.