He grabbed my arm and put a gun to my head.
"Let's get one of them now," he said, "so they know we mean business."
But instead - amid the shouting and chaos in the Marin County courtroom that day 35 years ago - gunman Ruchell Magee helped usher Judge Harold J. Haley, several jurors and others out the door, leaving me unhurt face-down on the floor.
I was the courtroom reporter there, Aug. 7, 1970, taking notes for a trial transcript. Everything started out normally. Well, maybe not quite.
Judge Haley had allowed defendant James D. McClain, a prisoner at San Quentin, to represent himself. He had been charged with possession of a knife and stabbing a prison guard.
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