I ADDRESSED MARSHALL directly. “I first learned about the shooting when Helen Cole called me. Beth and I saw it on TV, probably much like you did. After the initial horror, the first thought that came to mind was—why? As far back as college, Woody respected, admired … hell, he’d walk through fire for Russell Robinson. He was Russell’s right arm, his confidant. A few weeks ago, Woody called to ask if my law firm would host an event for the senator—help get him connected with the power brokers in Washington. What could have happened in a matter of a few weeks to bring about this tragedy?
“Helen begged me to help, and I agreed to come to Little Rock. I told myself I owed it to Helen, but down deep, I think I came here to get answers. I just couldn’t shake off Woody’s earlier, upbeat call. Even before I arrived, people asked me not to come, specifically my law firm. They made loud noises about the firm’s reputation—how could I represent someone so undeniably guilty of assassination? What they didn’t tell me was that my own firm represented Russell.
“My best client, the Houston-based energy company Arcade Oil, also urged me to stay out of it, and when they couldn’t stop me, offered to send a corporate jet to fly me back—the sooner the better. Maybe I should have suspected something wasn’t quite right, but I didn’t.” I turned to Sam. “I wasn’t listening either.”
“Your honor, the point is, from the moment I arrived here, both Arcade Oil and my own firm hounded me to return to DC. Were they responsible for the series of threats on my daughter and me? I hope not. But the fact remains that someone wanted me out of Little Rock and was willing to kill me if I didn’t leave. Why?”
Marshall interrupted. “Enough with the rhetorical questions. Get wherever you’re going quickly or we’re headed to open court.”
Why can’t he just listen?
“I’m trying to present a complete picture, Your Honor. All this can’t be a coincidence.
“I asked Beth to research the donors to Russell’s campaigns, because I believe that’s exactly what Woody was doing those nights on his home computer. When I read the results of her research, I immediately realized why someone didn’t want me to dig too deep. At least thirty major donors to Russell’s senatorial campaign were executives of my client, Arcade Oil, or executives of its primary competitors. I know them well because I was Arcade’s lawyer when they and those same competitors reached an agreement with the Justice Department to cease anti competitive and manipulative practices.
“Now, making campaign contributions isn’t a crime, and anyone can find out who gives to a campaign—not a big deal. But I saw these contributions from a different point of view. I became suspicious because I’m an antitrust lawyer and sensitive to the appearance of collusion by competitors. It also surprised me for another reason—Russell had always been strongly pro-environment. I had to wonder why these five oil companies were pouring money into Russell’s campaign.”
I took a deep breath, a sip of water from the glass on the table, and tried to read my audience. Marshall and Sam seemed mildly engaged, but still confused as to what this had to do with murder.
“Maggie is giving you summaries of Russell’s key pieces of environmental legislation as governor. In one such instance, he made it easy for any landowner to recover damages to his property resulting from environmental contamination, without regard to whether the driller had a lease that excluded liability, whether the damage had been done a long time ago, or even whether the driller had caused the contamination. This is extremely beneficial legislation for landowners and is as anti-drilling as it comes.
“In the interest of saving time, Your Honor, I won’t burden the court with the many other examples of pro environment and pro landowner laws Russell Robinson passed. Most oil companies screamed bloody murder about his legislative agenda, but five specific oil companies, already under orders from the federal government not to collude in any way, contributed heavily to his coffers in every election. No other individual who worked for another oil company ever contributed to any of Russell’s campaigns. If anyone else had tried to find a link between the contributions and Russell’s environmental stance, he’d be puzzled and conclude there wasn’t one.
“However, I saw and understood the linkage. I learned Arcade’s business from top to bottom during the course of representing their company. The five companies in question all have one thing in common: They do nothing but buy oil from the Middle East and Latin America and import it to the U.S. The more expensive it is for other companies to drill in the U.S., the more they can charge for their imported oil. Because of their unique niche in the petroleum business, these five oil companies actually benefited greatly from Russell’s pro-environment legislation.
“But again, there’s nothing inappropriate about supporting a governor who’s trying to improve the environment or benefit landowners, even if it does make you a buck or two. No one had any reason to think that Russell had anything but the environment at heart when he introduced and worked to pass this legislation. These contributions, which occurred over several years, raised no red flags for Woody or anyone else. The contributions were public, and Woody knew that oil executives were supporting Russell long before the events of the last few weeks. Therefore, Woody must have discovered something recently that caused him to start working late into the night and ultimately led to the argument with Russell.
“My old baseball coach had a saying: ‘Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.’ I knew that Woody was winding down the governor’s office, closing up the campaign, making sure all the bills were paid, et cetera. I wondered if Woody’s strange behavior could have been triggered by something he discovered during that winding-down process. I called Janis Harold and asked if Woody had given her anything else when he’d executed the trust on Wednesday. She remembered the envelope that contained the guest register—I got lucky.
“Bea Taylor says she received a call from Senator Robinson three weeks ago asking her to give the duck club’s register to Woody. That date corresponds almost exactly with the day Helen Cole noticed her son’s increasingly strange behavior; and if you look closely at the register Woody picked up from Bea, you can understand why he was troubled. Not only did it contain, shall we say, ‘unguarded’ comments by various guests, Woody had to wonder why Russell’s Texas contributors spent so much time at Russell’s duck club.
“Remember, Woody didn’t hunt. His father was killed on a duck hunt. Russell’s guests were a closely guarded secret, even from Woody. And, as the state trooper testified yesterday, the duck club was off-limits to the troopers as well. So when Woody saw the register the day he picked it up from Bea, it would have been the first time he had seen what had been going on for years, and with whom.
“Here’s the corker—Woody didn’t know there were two books and that Bea had held one back. She took it home with her after Russell’s death and gave it to me only yesterday. Bea was worried that Lucy would find out about the women who stayed at the club. But if Lucy had realized what the book revealed about Texas oilmen flouting the Justice Department and the law, she would have been more concerned that her husband’s legacy could be destroyed. Understand that I’m not making any accusations, just thinking out loud.”
I paused to look at faces. Even Sam’s deputies were listening now.
“Read in tandem, both books show that McAlvin, Cooper, Cunningham, Douglas, and Nobis, the chief executives of the five oil companies in question, were frequent guests at Russell’s duck club, and the entries in Russell’s journal document much more than a love for duck hunting. In fact, they hardly hunted at all. Russell made notes you might be surprised to see. For example, on page sixty-seven—’Discuss oil legislation, pricing, and political contributions.’ Some notes seem a little odd, such as on page forty-nine, ‘Arts Center leasing, provenance, and eminent-domain laws.’ Look for yourself at the entries that correspond to these five men. Not only were they frequent guests of Russell’s, they also met at the club several times a year without him. Taken together, the two books reflect a pattern of use of the duck club for private meetings during which these executives conspired to manipulate the price of oil and engage in other criminal behavior that I will soon explain.
“Once I saw the first register, I knew there had to be someone like Bea Taylor, someone who could give me more information about the guests at the duck club. As it turns out, Bea not only knows more than I could possibly have imagined, she also had Russell’s second register—the journal. She’ll say that Russell asked her to take special care of these five oil executives and their guests whenever they used the club. Their private and exclusive meetings occurred more and more often in the last couple of years. She cooked for them, did their laundry, and kept the lodge cleaned. They hunted every now and then, but mostly, they just talked. She told me that sometimes they wrote their names in the register and sometimes they didn’t, but she always remembered what they did and said.
“Since Russell only paid Bea when she worked, she also has pay records of the days she worked that correspond with the days these men were there. If Russell wasn’t there, he asked Bea what the men talked about, and then entered what she told him in his journal. She also took her own notes, which I now have, since Russell rewarded her handsomely for “listening.” For example, on page seventy-three of his private journal, Russell wrote the date, then ‘RR not present, Cooper, C, N, D, and Mac—talked about price of oil for summer.’”
Peggy Fortson stood up. “Your Honor, I apologize for interrupting, but may I ask counsel the present whereabouts of Bea Taylor and her records?”
I told her she was with my daughter at Ms. Lawrence’s home, well protected.
At that, Peggy looked relieved and took her seat.
“As for other criminal activity, I also discovered that these men were involved in more than oil pricing—as if that weren’t enough. The senator’s final press conference was supposed to be about the Townsend Arts Center, although I still can’t find anyone, not even his staff, who knows exactly what the announcement was to be. Unless Woody decides to talk, we may never know. I’ve asked my team to look into anything concerning the Arts Center that might raise a red flag. We found one oddity that was included in a state transportation-appropriation bill three years into Russell’s first term as governor. It was a small, hidden provision that modified this state’s eminent-domain laws.
“It provided that, if a work of art—broadly defined to include paintings, artifacts, coins, or antiquities—was openly displayed in a public art gallery for ten years, then that display was deemed to be ‘open and hostile’ under the state’s laws. In other words, had I loaned a painting to the Townsend Arts Center for a period of ten years, during which it was on display indicating that I owned it, after ten years, it belonged to me, no matter how I’d obtained it. In the language of the art world, my ‘provenance’ would have been established.
“No one seemed to notice this inclusion into an appropriation bill for transportation, and it passed both houses unanimously. But—almost immediately after its passage, a new wing of the Arts Center was built specifically to house antiquities from the Middle East. I understand that the overall collection is one of the finest in this country. Many of its major pieces are on personal loan from Arcade Oil’s collection and the personal collections of Mr. McAlvin, Mr. Cooper, and Mr. Cunningham. One has to wonder why these people wouldn’t keep their art close to home. I find it interesting that these Texas oilmen would instead choose to house their collections in the Townsend Arts Center—right after this legislation became law.
“Your Honor, our guest today is Ms. Peggy Fortson, the chief deputy at the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. She can tell you that illegal trafficking of cultural property is the third-most-prominent business on the black market. The FBI estimates that trafficking in stolen art and antiquities represents over six billion dollars of losses annually.
“These crimes have intensified during the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The looting of priceless art has become a major international issue for many countries. Since the Iraq war, thousands of priceless artifacts have disappeared. Not surprisingly, the original owners of these treasures—whether individuals or states—want them back. The Iraqi government estimates that more than ten thousand artifacts and antiquities are still missing. In Afghanistan, the government estimates that more than ninety thousand artifacts are missing from only one museum, even after more than three tons of artifacts were returned by the British government. More than twenty-five hundred artifacts sit in a US customs warehouse in New York, seized as they were being smuggled into our country.
“If stolen art isn’t enough, and I don’t know as much about this as Ms. Fortson, there are major concerns that terrorist groups in the Middle East are either stealing or otherwise obtaining valuable antiquities, selling them for pennies on the dollar, and using the cash to fund their activities. What’s more, the ultimate purchasers of these antiquities have also used their connections with terrorists to engage in illegal trade with the Iranians—and we’re not talking olives here—we’re talking oil. Ms. Fortson is probably not at liberty to discuss the ongoing investigations underway at main Justice involving the linkage between oil and stolen antiquities. She would say she can’t discuss them because of national security. But I know the connection exists. A simple web search will confirm that what I’m telling you is true.”
Marshall had only to look at Peggy and Rodney to know I wasn’t exaggerating.
“Governor Robinson’s legislation made it a whole lot easier for those who exhibited their art in Little Rock to keep it, regardless of its origin. In essence, whether Russell intended it or not, he created a safe haven for individuals who want to ‘park’ stolen art—and nobody parked more art at the Townsend Arts Center than the people who met regularly at Russell’s Duck Club and fueled his campaigns with cash. You can draw your own conclusions as to their motives.
“Back to the case at hand: I believe that prior to his last argument with the senator, Woody discovered that Russell had been betrayed by his oil friends. The word art is buried in his note to me, and the locker contained a replica of an ushabti, a small figurine traditionally buried with the Egyptian dead. The original of this artifact is on display at the Townsend Arts Center and is owned by the president of Arcade Oil. You’ll find it featured on the Arts Center’s website and in their brochures. Replicas, like the one I found in the locker, can be purchased at the museum store or online. Moreover, Jerry Maguire, the movie Woody left in the locker, is known for the line, ‘Show me the money.’ Nobody showed Russell the money more than five Texas oil men.”
Sam interrupted. “Don’t you think that’s a bit of a stretch?”
“It might be, but look at the last page of Russell’s journal—you’ll see he wrote an entry less than a month before he was shot.”
What they read was this: 3/02/2011—RR, Mac, Coop, C, D, and N—need for confidential hold on Int. arts treaty, delay Justice Dept. appropriation for art theft, contributions to Super Pac, B&T to coordinate hold and opposition to funding.
“On November fourteenth, right after the election, he noted, RR not present, Mac, N, C, C, & D—Price of oil during winter. Probably most everyone in the state knows this, but I didn’t until my friend Clovis told me—neither November fourteenth nor March second fell during duck season last year. In other words, these oil executives were using Russell’s duck club as a secret meeting place to fix the price of oil and to oppose legislation and investigations into stolen antiquities.
“We might ask ourselves, Did the senator know that his friends were violating the law by colluding on oil prices? Did he realize they’d been laundering stolen art through his beloved Arts Center? Why in the world would he write all this down if he thought they were criminals? I’m not sure. I’ve met all of these men myself. They’re good old boys, very wealthy good old boys. Russell would feel right at home with them. Their first visits were probably social, a politician hosting wealthy contributors to a weekend at his club. Then, as they became friends, they helped him build his Arts Center and make it a showcase. If they needed a ‘little ol’ bill’ to help with the provenance, it was no skin off his back. Certainly no one in the legislature or the media saw a problem at the time.
“Doing small favors would have been a small price to pay to people who were going to launch a Super PAC to support his future plans. Isn’t that what Washington is all about these days? But his knowledge is not the point. The senator isn’t here to defend himself, and we will never know what he knew.
“The points for us to consider are, what did Woody discover and what did that knowledge lead him to do? I think Woody discovered the same thing I’ve been able to piece together, plus a whole lot more. Whatever Woody turned up after he read the register, I bet it was more than what I’ve been able to discover in just a few days. He knew all the governor’s issues and knew many of the other visitors to the duck club. If the oilmen got what they wanted, who else benefited from their visits to this special club? Sure, Woody left me clues, but if I could discover the oil and art connection in a single day, what could Woody have found in three weeks?
“Personally, I tend to think that Woody still had faith in Russell. Remember, he didn’t have Russell’s private journal. He probably held Russell largely innocent and believed that the senator could and would fix whatever had gone wrong. That’s why he spent night after night going over the register, filling a file cabinet full of documents—not to crush the senator, but to help him.
“If he was angry at Russell after reading the register, why go to Russell except to get him to change course? He could have leaked it all to Bob Woodward, Ron Fournier, or any other reputable journalist, which for Russell would mean a political fate worse than death. And if he did plan to kill Russell, then why bury the book in the opposition research? Why hide the document that would destroy Russell’s reputation? Doesn’t make sense, does it?”
I watched them both, but still couldn’t get a read on what Sam or Marshall were thinking.
“Russell sent him to retrieve the register, probably because of the women’s names that appear. Once he saw the register, I think Woody was more concerned by the actual guests. The names of the oilmen were familiar to me, quite by coincidence, but we don’t know what the other names meant to Woody. Regardless, Woody decided to store the register with the opposition research where neither Lucy nor some curious journalist could get to it. Why didn’t Russell ask Woody to get both books? Maybe he planned to burn his journal, or maybe he planned to keep it as insurance. We’ll never know.
“What we do know is that Woody met with Russell on Tuesday. They argued, and then Woody left the office in a huff and bought the gun. The prosecution presents the theory that they argued over Woody’s being fired. I believe that such a theory is totally inconsistent with the facts.
“What’s more likely, is that Woody confronted Russell with what he had discovered about the oilmen—price-fixing and trafficking in stolen art. Russell must have been shocked. I hope he was. Maybe Woody found evidence of a link between the illicit art sales and terrorists. Maybe he found something even worse. Regardless, he presented his suspicions to Russell, but to no avail—Russell’s loyalty to McAlvin was unshakable. The effect on Woody was profound. He went first to Janis Harold and then to Mr. Massie’s to purchase a gun. The prosecution argues that Woody was so furious at the senator that he decided to kill him. But Woody had been angry with Russell before. They’d argued hundreds of times and never came to blows once. There could be another explanation, but let’s consider this one.
“Woody is devastated. He knows he betrayed me long ago. More recently, he betrayed you, Sam. Now, he’s betrayed himself and his principles by letting Russell get into this situation and by being unable to convince Russell to take action. Woody can’t believe how naïve he and Russell have been—how they’d been used. Now their dream is over. So he decides to end his own life.”
I looked at Woody. We were all looking at him. His head was in his hands, and he was shaking. Micki reached over and put her arm around his shoulder.
I said, “You were wrong, my friend. You didn’t betray anyone.”
Woody didn’t look up, so I continued.
“So Woody buys a gun. What didn’t come out yesterday is what the store owner says in the affidavit Maggie is about to give you. Woody had no idea how to handle a gun. Mr. Massie had Woody pull the trigger several times to see if it was too tight. It was. He didn’t have a very strong grip, and he had never handled a gun before, so Woody had a hard time and his hand jerked. It was easy for Mr. Massie to adjust the trigger to make it easier to squeeze. I believe that’s called giving the gun a ‘hair trigger.’ Second, he says he showed Woody how to operate the safety several times, but he didn’t think Woody understood, even when he left the store.
“What did Woody do after he bought the gun? He went to a bar and got drunk. I say got drunk because, as you can see on the copy of the bar bill Maggie is giving you, he had quite a few drinks and left the waitress a hundred dollar tip. The next day he apologized to his mother, wrote a ten thousand dollar check to his ex-wife, signed a will and a trust that gave away all his assets to the trust, wrote a note to me, and brought home two unbelievably expensive bottles of wine. He drank wine and reminisced with his mother about the past until he went to bed.
“Now back to the argument between Russell and Woody—what Russell did or who he might have called after the argument no one knows. Until someone subpoenas the phone records from his Little Rock office, I can only speculate that Russell told someone about the argument. The staffers who overheard the argument on Tuesday say that Russell was on the phone almost immediately after Woody left. We won’t know whether he called Lucy, McAlvin, or my former law firm unless the phone records tell us.
“Someone knew about Woody’s suspicions. They didn’t question Mr. Massie by accident. Whoever they were, they knew the make and model of the gun that allegedly killed the senator before it was even fired.
“Within an hour of the shooting, these same unidentified men showed up at Helen Cole’s home in a van and carted away Woody’s computer and file cabinet. His car was cleaned out and wiped clean of prints.”
I had reached the homestretch. Feeling sick to my stomach at what would come next, I took a drink of water. I asked the judge if I could set up the video equipment.
Almost knocking over his chair, Marshall rose suddenly and called for a break. This time he was even firmer in his admonition. “No one is to talk about what they’ve heard until today’s hearing is concluded. If anyone does, you will not pass go, you will not collect $200, and you will go directly to jail, and not for just one night.” He looked pointedly at the bailiff and then left the room.
Woody, who seemed lost in thought, was allowed to remain in his chair.
While Maggie set up the video equipment, I whispered to Micki. “Is this right? Should I show the video?”
She looked at me and smiled. “You’ve laid it out, but you’ve still got to make them believe. Besides, you haven’t shown them your curve ball.”