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Pistol
shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall.
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood,
Cries out, "My God, they killed them all!"
-- from "Hurricane"
by Dylan/Levy
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Murdered:
James Oliver
Bob Nauyoks
Hazel Tanis
Wounded:
Willie Marins
Two
eyewitnesses,
Al Bello and
Patty Valentine, independently describe the getaway car --
it looks like Carter's car.
Carter's
alibi has changed
significantly over the years:
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June
17, 1966
Two-thirty in the morning
The Lafayette Bar and Grill, Paterson, NJ
Four
people are shot down. Two die instantly. One man is shot in the eye
but survives. A woman is shot five times and dies a month later of her
wounds.
"It was nearly
closing time at the Lafayette Grill on Paterson's E. 18th St. The
bartender and part owner, James Oliver, 51, was standing by the cash
register counting the day's receipts.
Oliver's establishment
was reputed to be a haven for anti-black sentiments at a time when
racial tensions in the city were high. It was located on the fringe
of the city's Riverside section, which then was predominately white.
Earlier in the
evening, a black man had been killed elsewhere in the city by a white
man. They had argued over business matters.....
(click
here to read the rest of this article on Cal Deal's website)
(For more on the
connection between the earlier shooting of a black bartender, and
the Lafayette Grill murders, click here)
Two-forty
in the morning -- the police stop a white car
Around 12:34 a.m. on
July 17, 1966, a call went out to all police squads to look out for
a white car with two "colored" occupants. Sgt. Theodore Capter and
his partner.... saw and stopped Rubin Carter's white car at 2:40
a.m.
20-year-old John Artis
was behind the wheel and Rubin "Hurricane" Carter was lying down in
the back seat. A third man, "Bucks" Royster, (a well-known local barfly)
was sitting up front beside Artis. Sgt. Capter checked the car's registration
and let them go. Artis and Carter dropped off Royster shortly afterward.
Meanwhile, the two policemen travelled to the Lafayette Bar &
Grill where they got a better description of the car from eyewitness
Alfred Bello. They realize the description matches Carter's car. They
"took off looking for the car again."
For more on how
Carter came to be a suspect, click here.
Carter
and Artis are taken to see one of the survivors
The
witness, Willie Marins, shakes his head "no." According
to the police, this means, "I can't tell." According to
Carter, this means, "he ain't the guy," that is, Marins
indicated that Carter and Artis weren't the ones who shot him.(At
the first trial, Marins testified that he couldn't tell.)
For
more on the eyewitness testimony, click
here.
Carter
and Artis are questioned at the police station
They give conflicting
alibis.
They are given
lie detector tests. The polygraph expert says that they
have some knowledge of the crime.
Live ammunition
matching
the calibers of the murder weapons is found in Carter's car.
Patty
Valentine id's Carter's car as the getaway car. So does Al Bello.
Carter and Artis
are released for the time being while the police search for more evidence.
130 policemen
are put on the case.
Lieutenant
Vince DeSimone thinks Al Bello
knows more than he's telling
But
Al Bello won't talk to the police, he's afraid that he'll be charged
with burglary. But he's more afraid of Carter, so after four months,
he goes to the police and asks for protection. He
names "Hurricane" Carter as one of the killers. Carter
and Artis are arrested and put on trial.
For more, see
Cal Deal's "The
Case Against Carter"
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