NELSON BENTON - AUTOGRAPHED SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH - HFSID 174067

NELSON BENTON
Signed photograph of the longtime CBS News reporter who testified against Jack Ruby in the Lee Harvey Oswald murder trial. A rare signature.
Photograph signed: "Best wishes/Nelson Benton". B/w, 7x9. Nelson Benton (born Joseph Nelson Benton, Jr. in 1924, died in 1988) was an American reporter and journalist, longtime correspondent for CBS News for 20 years. Originally from Danville, Virginia, Benton began his broadcasting career on radio in Charlotte N.C. In 1960 he joined CBS News New York as an assignment editor and report where he was stationed for 3 years. He was reporting in Dallas in 1963 when President Kennedy was assassinated, and later he voluntarily gave testimony in the investigation of Jack Ruby, killer of Lee Harvey Oswald. His testimony placed Jack Ruby posing as a reporter at the Dallas City Police jail the day before Oswald was murdered, saying that Ruby had corrected information on the JFK assassination. In a debriefing at the jailhouse, District Attorney Henry Wade stated Oswald was part of the Free Cuba Group, which is when Ruby (as testified) interrupted and said, "No, it's the Fair Play for Cuba and there's a great difference between the two and I wanted to point that out." In addition to reporting the JFK trials, Benton covered the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. In the 70's he moved to Washington where he remained at CBS news until 1982 when he joined WMAR-TV in Baltimore as an anchorman. Later in 1984 he worked for the Mutual Broadcasting System as a White House correspondent. Fine condition.