Mrs. GRANT. He could write a book and retain $50,000 out of the book,
but he would like $25,000.
Mr. HUBERT. As soon as possible?
Mrs. GRANT. That I don’t know—he says for expenses on the case.
Mr. HUBERT. How much was actually paid to him; do you know?
Mrs. GRANT. Let me tell you this—the short stories were sold in
Europe and some in America through newspapers. Each paper paid
separately—$400, $300, $600, and the story said, “My story—Jack Ruby.”
I gave most of the story, Jack gave some of it, but I knew this
story—what would you call it—little incidents that happened in his
life, some of it, and some part of the story was right on Friday and
Saturday the 22d. I gave the whole story, you know, I have newspaper
stories of it, and I gave it to Belli, and all these little stories,
we were supposed to get $50,000 from all the different agencies that
bought this to put it in their papers—that’s how it’s done, but we
received, I would say to my knowledge, $23,000.
Mr. HUBERT. How was it handled?
Mrs. GRANT. Earl.
Mr. HUBERT. Earl controlled the funds at that time?
Mrs. GRANT. At that time, yes. It came to the writer and the agent,
Larry Schiller and Billy Woodfield. Larry sells the story, Billy wrote
the story. You know, you need a writer even though you write.
Mr. HUBERT. I’m talking about the money that came to you?
Mrs. GRANT. Well, they received some money on the west coast but they
deposited it in a bank with an escrow deal.
Mr. HUBERT. In what bank and under what name was it?
Mrs. GRANT. Earl will tell you—Earl has papers from the bank.
Mr. HUBERT. You don’t know that?
Mrs. GRANT. I know it’s in Hollywood and I know Earl says he received
about $23,000.
Mr. HUBERT. It was not handled in Dallas.
Mrs. GRANT. Not to my knowledge—1 cent of that.
Mr. HUBERT. But you say that Earl is the one who is handling the money?
Mrs. GRANT. At that time, Earl had power of attorney.
Mr. HUBERT. He had a power of attorney from Jack?
Mrs. GRANT. Yes.
Mr. HUBERT. In other words, this contract was made for the benefit of
Jack, as it were, and the money that came in was put into some escrow
agreement and then Earl was able to withdraw from that and sign checks
against it by virtue of the power of attorney; is that right?
Mrs. GRANT. That’s right, that’s right; these people received, I would
say, 35 percent.
Mr. HUBERT. Is that correct—the way I put it?
Mrs. GRANT. Yes; but we received ourselves, I think, $23,000—there may
have been $30,000.
Mr. HUBERT. What happened to the money you did receive?
Mrs. GRANT. Earl has checks that were made out directly to Belli, which
I think he himself cashed about $13,200.
Mr. HUBERT. Who is “he”?
Mrs. GRANT. Mr. Melvin Belli. I do know that the doctors were paid and
that may have run to $3,500, and we do know that Bob Dennison received
$4,000. I cannot give you step by step because I do not have it, but
Earl has an accounting of all the money received through the efforts of
that story; however, Earl has spent—I don’t know how many thousands. In
the first place, I think Earl put in $7,000 right away for things, but
he took it out later.
Mr. HUBERT. Do you know how much has been received all told—you say
about $23,000 as a result of the story?
Mrs. GRANT. That’s as much as I know. This is what I know. There may
have been some money—we were supposed to get money in later, but I
don’t know if we got it.
Mr. HUBERT. Were there any other people or organizations that
contributed any money?