Mr. Hubert. Did they make any remarks to him or ask him questions?
Mr. Johnston. They were asking questions—yes, sir; “Did you do it? Did they get the gun? Was that your gun?” Everything imaginable—that’s what your newspaper people were calling to him as he would go out of there. Every time I would leave to get a drink or get a cup of coffee or anything, it was the same thing. “What’s happened? Tell us what’s going on? Has he said anything? Has he admitted anything?”
Mr. Hubert. Was there real pressure brought in the sense that the press was being denied any rights or that they thought that Chief Curry was curbing their rights as press people?
Mr. Johnston. I think maybe to a degree some of the press might have thought they were being curbed, because they were not being allowed into the homicide office. It is a small office. It consists of an entrance office, the lieutenant’s office and the captain’s office, and an interrogation room, and a small office with a detective’s desk. There were some 25 or 30 officials that were in this office and it was pretty crowded. You couldn’t have let the press in. I think personally that pressures were put on Chief Curry by the news media.
Mr. Hubert. In what way? Do you remember anything significant along that line?
Mr. Johnston. Well, I think the chief bent over backwards to them, giving them every opportunity he could within reason to allow them to get their stories and to get their pictures and to get their live television. They even moved a live camera down to the detail room or the assembly room.
Mr. Hubert. Was it used there?
Mr. Johnston. Yes, sir; it was in operation when I walked in that room.
Mr. Hubert. It was televised?
Mr. Johnston. Yes, sir. Now, whether they taped it, whether it was live at that point—they had a live camera there set up.