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Worth City Attorney’s Office. It paid $550 (it
was 1960) per month and he was only one of
two attorneys in that position permitted to have
two law clients on the side for extra money. “I
really enjoyed that job,” King said. He was able
to meet and make friends with a vast variety of
people from police officers to judges, other attor-
neys and some just plain folks. After 10 months
in that position, the city attorney approached
King, saying that the other attorneys found that
he was allowed to take clients so he decided to
take that option from King. He resigned.
King, along with another former assistant
city attorney, rented an office and hung out
their shingles. King received a number of refer-
rals from the friends he’d made during his stint
with the City Attorney’s Office The first year he
doubled his income, over what his position with
the city had paid. The next year he nearly tripled
that. “It wasn’t bad for a young lawyer in the
early ‘60s,” King said.
Loyal Client — Bar None
One loyal client that gained fame for the
young lawyer was Pat Kirkwood, owner of The
Cellar Club.
“I actually inherited Pat as a client,” King
said, adding that when another lawyer in his
building was disbarred, he tossed his handful of
clients to King.
Kirkwood was delighted. He thought it was
funny that his lawyer was an ultra- conservative
Baptist, who taught Sunday school. Kirkwood
told everybody that King was his lawyer. The
Cellar was a beatnik bar famous for great music,
unconventional format (no dance floor in front
of the stage, just wall-to-wall sofa cushions so
patrons could lounge as they listened to the
music and look at bikini-clad waitresses. Patrons
paid a $1 cover charge to lounge, listen to music
and drink all the sodas they wanted; what they
put in them was your own business.
Initially, King represented Kirkwood in a
palimony case, but as other issues popped up
here and there, he would retain King for those
as well. King also began to represent Kirkwood’s
employees, including pregnant waitresses in
private adoption cases, musicians with DWIs,
and bouncers (there were lots of bouncers) in
assault cases.
The Cellar gained international fame after
November 22, 1963— the Kennedy assassina-
tion. While JFK spent the last night of his life at
the Texas Hotel, off-duty Secret Service agents
took in the sights and sounds of The Cellar
blocks away. Reports indicated that the agents
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