System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Melvin Mouron Belli, Attorney/actor
July 29, 1907 - July 09, 1996
Melvin Mouron Belli was born to a pioneer family on July 29, 1907 in Sonora, Tuolumne County, the heart of California's Gold Rush region. His father, Caesar Belli, was born in Eureka, Nevada, and became a prominent banker in California's Mother Lode region. Doctors and educators were among his maternal forebears. His grandmother, Anna Mouron, was California's first woman druggist. His grandfather, Henri Mouron was professor of languages at St. Augustine's College and headmaster of the Young Ladies Seminary of St. Mary's of the Pacific, one of the first schools in California.
Mr. Belli attended elementary schools in Sonora and Stockton, California. University of California, Boalt Hall School of Law, Berkeley, LLB, 1933. Subsequent studies in Europe. Admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court; U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit; U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California; U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California; other U.S. district courts; Tax Court of the United States; and to all California courts.
Nicknamed "The King of Torts", the flamboyant lawyer Mr. Belli built his stellar career by defending the rights of the individual. After graduating from law school, he posed as an indigent for the Federal Government and rode the rails to observe the Depression's impact on the country's vagrant population. His findings were later used as the basis for transient relief programs throughout the nation.
He was admitted to the California Bar in November 1933, and served as counsel for the Catholic priest at San Quentin Prison. He took up the challenging task of defending men on Death Row. His work in representing victims of personal injury and in raising personal injury awards to then-unprecedented heights earned him the title of "The King of Torts" by Life Magazine writer Robert Wallace in a 1954 profile. Wallace later wrote a book about Mr. Belli and his work, entitled Life and Limb. Mr. Belli won dozens of multi-million-dollar verdicts, totalling more that 700 million for his clients.
He has also been called the "Father of Demonstrative Evidence" for his pioneering work in illustrating in court the nature of his clients' injuries. His early use of photographs, movies, scale models, human skeletons, animals, prostheses, and other devices was dramatic, riveting and highly effective.
His most famous and controversial criminal case was his defence of Jack Ruby, on trial in 1964 for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President John F. Kennedy. He won a reversal of Ruby's death penalty conviction from the Texas Appellate Court and a new trial outside of Dallas, but Ruby died of brain cancer soon after. Mr. Belli's book, Dallas Justice, chronicles his perspective of the Ruby case.
Other high-profile clients and cases followed: the so-called "Angel of Death, " the Nevada nurse accused of murdering patients; former television evangelist, Jim Bakker and his wife, Tammy Faye; Jerry and Helen Barr, the parents of television star, Roseanne Barr Arnold; the shooting of Korean Air Line Flight 0007 by a Soviet jet fighter; torture and beating cases against the late Philippine President, Ferdinand Marcos; MGM Grand Hotel fire in Las Vegas; Union Carbide chemical disaster in Bhopal, India; Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska; defective silicone gel breast implants by Dow Corning and other implant manufacturers; product liability suits against the makers of the dietary supplement L-Tryptophan; and sexual assault and harassment lawsuits against the Tailhook Association, Las Vegas Hilton and the U.S. Navy.
Mr. Belli's association with the rich and famous and flair for courtroom theatrics earned him his own niche in the entertainment industry. He appeared in several feature films, including "Gimme Shelter" with The Rolling Stones and "Wild in the Streets. In 1968 he appeared as the Evil Gorgon on an episode of "Star Trek" with his son, Caesar. Other television shows in which he appeared include "Murder She Wrote" and "Hunter." He was featured in several commercials and advertisements, and was a guest on countless television and radio talk shows throughout the country. Mr. Belli's legal practice, writings and lectures took him to all corners of the world, but he made his home in San Francisco with his four beloved dogs. He was married six times and had six children and 13 grandchildren. Bello died on July 9, 1996 in San Francisco, California at age 88 from pancreatic cancer.
