1969 "Chicago 7" Signed Subpoena
GUEST: Well, in 1968, I was a cameraman for CBS.
APPRAISER: Right.
GUEST: You know, the streets were full of the hippies and yippies who were gonna disrupt the convention and run a pig for president. And I was hit by the cops in, in '68.
APPRAISER: At the riots in '68, the convention riots.
GUEST: At the riots, yeah, yes.
APPRAISER: And that's you.
GUEST (chuckles): That's me, yes, it is.
APPRAISER: Poor guy, I mean, you really like you've been... battered up pretty bad, I mean, it was...
GUEST: Well, yeah, yeah. My, my correspondent was a guy named Jack Laurence, and he had just come back from Vietnam.
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: And he took his walkie-talkie and he says, "We're taking casualties." So... (laughs)
APPRAISER: It's serious stuff.
GUEST: We were walking with a group of people from Lincoln Park.
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: Who were pretty good. There were only, like, two cops...
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: Minding them on the, keeping them on the sidewalk.
APPRAISER: Right.
GUEST: But when division got to LaSalle Street, a whole a bunch of cops came running around the corner, and I had my back turned to them. So they didn't see me or any, they just...
APPRAISER: Just...
GUEST: Just took a swing at me.
APPRAISER: In August of '68, I mean, this, this was the epicenter of what was going on, with the riots...
GUEST: It was, yeah.
APPRAISER: And the anti-war protests. The yippies, like you said, Abbie Hoffman.
GUEST: Yeah, yeah.
APPRAISER: The Chicago Seven.
GUEST: The Chicago Seven.
APPRAISER: It was Chicago Eight.
GUEST: It was Chicago Eight, but, but one of the guys was sent out of court.
APPRAISER: Bobby Seale.
GUEST: Bobby Seale, yeah.
APPRAISER: Bobby Seale, who was a Black Panther, as well.
GUEST: Yeah, yeah.
APPRAISER: What is this document here?
GUEST: We used to cover the court trial every day. And I actually was subpoenaed to appear. I think was I subpoenaed by both people, eventually. And all during my testimony, everybody objected. So I may have had only two or three words.
APPRAISER: Two or three words.
GUEST (laughs)
APPRAISER: But what you did was very interesting.
GUEST: Well, here's what happened, when I walked into court, Abbie Hoffman put his arm around me and walked me up to the witness stand. I think that got the judge...
APPRAISER: He was creating havoc in the courtroom.
GUEST (laughs): Yes, he was. I had the subpoena with me.
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: When I left the witness chair, I walked down to their table and they, they were all sitting there.
APPRAISER: Yup.
GUEST: I just had an idea, just have them sign it if they would, and they all did. They were all very friendly.
APPRAISER: That you did that was really remarkable, because to get all the seven here-- it doesn't have Bobby Seale.
GUEST: Bobby Seale was...
APPRAISER: But you've got the whole group there. There's, there's Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman...
GUEST: Lee Weiner.
APPRAISER: Lee Weiner.
GUEST: Rennie Davis.
APPRAISER: Rennie Davis, yes. Dave Dellinger, Tom Hayden, and then John, uh...
GUEST: Froines.
APPRAISER: Froines. They were found guilty of not conspiracy, but crossing state lines to incite riot, I think. And they got five years, but then it was...
GUEST: But then it was...
APPRAISER: It was, it was lessened, I think in '72. Do you know what they're, they're doing now?
GUEST: Well, Tom Hayden went on to marry a movie star.
APPRAISER: Yeah, Jane Fonda.
GUEST: And Abbie Hoffman got plastic surgery and went underground for years and years and years.
APPRAISER: Yeah, he probably stayed the most radical out of them, I would think, yeah.
GUEST: Probably.
APPRAISER: Because of your, your instinct to do that, which was a great instinct, you've really kind of captured that moment historically. And that's what makes manuscripts valuable. That's what makes things interesting and collectible. An auction estimate that I would, I would feel comfortable putting on this would be $5,000 to $7,000 as an auction estimate. I would insure it for about $10,000.
GUEST: Really? It's not insured now.
APPRAISER: It's, I mean, it's just... You can't, you couldn't repeat that now. And you'd have to be at that right place at the right time, as you were.
GUEST: Yeah.
$7,000 Auction
$15,000 Insurance
$5,000 Auction
$10,000 Insurance
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