James E. "Bookie" Turner was a colorful and controversial law enforcement officer and politician in Hamilton County from 1958-1975.
He was one of eight children and was a student at Chattanooga Central High School. He was a Navy Veteran who served on the battleship USS Tennessee during World War II. His nickname “Bookie” allegedly came from his other siblings who claimed that, although he professed a love of reading, he also used that as an excuse to get out of family chores.
Bookie was co-founder of Turner Funeral Home with two of his brothers. Eugene Turner became a colorful and also controversial politician in his own right. In 1940 Bookie was appointed Hamilton County coroner and claimed to the youngest person to hold that position in the United States. He defeated Republican V.W.
“Red” Maddox in 1958 to become Sheriff of Hamilton County and served three two-year terms before being elected to the position of Fire and Police Commissioner for the City of Chattanooga in 1963. In 1971 he was defeated by former FBI agent Gene Roberts and lost his final race for mayor against Pat Rose in 1975.
He was re-elected for another term in 1967 while under indictment in Federal Court at Chattanooga for allegedly taking bribes for allowing the entry of moonshine whiskey into Chattanooga. According to the government, he was paid 50 cents per gallon for each quantity being delivered into the municipality without fear of criminal prosecution.
Turner was indicted for a conspiracy that included Gordon G. White, Sherill E. Penney, George G. “Buddy” Hendricks and 37 other unindicted (not charged) co-conspirators who were participants in the lucrative scheme.
Bookie hired famed Watergate and successful Jimmy Hoffa prosecutor James F. Neal of Nashville. His co-counsel was the widely respected civil attorney John K. Morgan of Chattanooga. The government was represented by two Department of Justice prosecutors from Washington, D.C. and local United States Attorney J.H. Reddy.
Because some of his three co-conspirators had lengthy criminal records and Turner had none his lawyers tried unsuccessfully to get a separate trial from them on the grounds of unfair prejudice. Bookie had refused to make any public statement but, on several occasions, claimed that “he would tell his story when he took the stand.”
The trial took over three weeks and the government presented a barrage of participants in the moonshine industry including manufacturers, drivers, distributors and purchasers of the illegal product that was sold in “good time houses” and to private citizens and clubs.
The government, relying upon Bookie’s repeated pronouncements that he would tell his story to the jury when he took the stand, made the fatal mistake of putting on just enough to overcome a Motion for Judgment of Acquittal at the end of the government proof to get the case to the jury and was saving all of its strong evidence to cross-examine Turner when he testified.
Senior District Judge Robert L. Taylor from Knoxville recessed the court until the next day and instructed the defense to meet and decide what would be their order of proof of witnesses. The defendants and their lawyers met as ordered and what occurred has been substantiated by two independent sources.
This history is not intended to be a criticism of Bookie Turners lawyers, James Neal and John Morgan. They had professionally attacked the government’s case. An old-time lawyer (Crawford Bean) suggested the strategy that had the effect of the government being unable to further prove the case against Bookie by cross-examining him or by putting on what is known as “rebuttal proof” to contradict his testimony.
Juries acquit defendants for two reasons: 1.) they believe the accused was not guilty; or 2.) the prosecution failed to prove the guilt of the defendants “beyond a reasonable doubt” pursuant to the instruction given to the jury by the judge.
According to sources in the room when the defendants and their lawyers met, Neal and Morgan asked each attorney if they were going to put their defendant on the witness stand. Crawford Bean, attorney for George G. “Buddy” Hendricks, replied that his client was not going to testify because he had a criminal record.
Bean, after stating that his client was not going to testify, shocked the group by saying that Turner would be a fool to testify because the prosecution had produced very little evidence against him. Bean said that if Bookie took the witness stand, he would be devastated and convicted on the evidence they were holding back to use on his cross-examination.
This statement produced a turmoil with Neal and Morgan stating that their client had to testify because of his “previous claims to exonerate himself from the witness stand.”
After much discussion and attempted efforts by his lawyers to have him take the stand, Turner shocked the crowd and said, “I’m going with Crawford” (Not to testify). Neal and Morgan, in order to protect themselves in the event Turner got convicted over their urging to testify, had Bookie write out a document that stated that they had advised him to testify and if he was convicted that he had not taken their advice. Said document has been lost in time.
Turner was acquitted and his co-conspirators were convicted.
The reader can reach his or her own conclusion as to whether Bookie would or would not have been found “guilty” if he had taken the stand to testify.
Neal and Morgan remained great lawyers throughout their illustrious careers. But for one case an old timer like Crawford Bean better understood the thinking of the 12 jurors who decided James E. Bookie Turner’s fate.
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