James K Allen
Henry Wade makes mention of James K. Allen in his Warren Commission testimony:
Mr. Wade. Bill Alexander. There was another one of another man there, .Jim Allen, who was a former first assistant who is practising law there in Dallas, frankly I was a little surprised of seeing him there, he is a real capable boy but he was there in homicide with Captain Fritz. They were good friends. And I know there is no question about his intentions and everything was good, but he is just a lawyer there, but he had tried many death penalty cases with Fritz, of Fritz’s cases.
Later on during that same testimony Wade mentions him again as per Oswald’s guilt of assassinating The President.
Mr. Rankin: The conversation you described when Jim Alexander was there and the others?
Mr. WADE. Yes; I first asked Jim Allen, a man whom I have a lot of confidence in, do they have a case and he said it looks like a case, you can try.
Mr. RANKIN. Is that the case about the assassination?
Mr. WADE. Yes; we are talking entirely about the assassination. On the Tippit thing, I didn’t take the charge on that and I think they had some witnesses who had identified him there at the scene, but I was more worried about the assassination of them filing on somebody that we couldn’t prove was guilty.
James Allen seen close next to Henry Wade during his press conference early on Nov. 23rd.
In the book Evil Eyes, James Allen gets a mention: He was one of the top prosecuting attorneys in Dallas County. Allen, a first assistant district attorney, was considered one of the fiercest opponents against criminals in a Texas courtroom. His specialty? Death penalty prosecutions. Allen was considered “hardcore” when it came to the death penalty. Indeed, he oversaw twenty cases in which the jury returned death verdicts. District Attorney (DA) Allen was known for his impassioned speeches in the courtroom, practically demanding that juries find each and every defendant to be guilty and to consider them evil. At times he cried during his own closing arguments because he was so filled with fervor and disgust for the
criminals on trial. Allen was eventually elected to the state criminal district judgeship. Judge Allen continued his fervent opposition to defendants and was known to make defense attorneys’ lives a living hell. He had little patience for petulant lawyers and even less patience for their “scumbag” clients. Allen parlayed a successful tenure as a criminal judge to a position on the state appel late court in the Fifth District Court of Appeals.
I thought I’d save the best bit last. James Hosty’s memorandum on James K. Allen speaks volumes.