Business as usual or meet the lone gunman(UA-66627984-1)

Otto B Mullinax

 

Otto Mullinax 1938-41.

Otto Mullinax was part of Mullinax Wells which was established in 1947 in Dallas, Texas, as a general law practice. It also served as general counsel to the Texas State Federation of Labor. The cases in this collection involved labor unions and/or labor union members vs. corporations, cases which challenged state anti-labor legislation, and cases which questioned the application of federal labor laws. Besides that he also practiced civil rights law. George Schatzki, founder of the Dallas ACLU was also a partner in Mullinax Wells.

Below are some documents, from the Mary Ferrell website, about Otto Mullinax and the ACLU.

 

Otto Mullinax was one of the four lawyers, alongside Greg Olds, Grier Raggio and L.N.D. Wells that made their way to City Hall on Friday eve. trying to determine whether Oswald had any form of legal representation. In an article called The Legacy of a Texas Legal Triumvirate by Mary Alice Robbins it states that lawyers from the firm also had a brush with history following the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas, recalls Dave Richards, currently of counsel at Wiseman Durst & Owen in Austin. He says the American Civil Liberties Union asked Mullinax to see if the accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, needed legal representation. But “Oswald sent back word that he didn’t need any ACLU lawyer,” Richards says.

This of course came from the mouths of the DPD, and not Lee Harvey Oswald, who was kept almost 24 hours from making a call to obtain legal representation. The so called press conference which happened very early in the morning of the 23rd has Oswald asking for “someone to come forward to offer legal assistance”. Mullinax, Wells and Raggio had by that time left already. Only Greg Olds stayed behind.

More importantly Otto Mullinax was a member of the G.I. Forum, whether that was in a professional capacity as a lawyer is unclear. But I  found out that he assisted Joe Molina with his severance from the T.S.B.D. in Dec. 1963.

Otto Mullinax.

Mullinax died in 2000.

Sources:

International Molyneux Family Association.

End of an Era: The Legacy of a Texas Legal Triumvirate.

Mary Ferrell Foundation.