The mobsters and politicos, nefarious criminals and popular icons, judges, juries and legal pundits who were part of the most celebrated courtroom dramas of the 1970s and ’80s have one thing in common: They were the subjects of a diminutive courtroom artist whose sketches conveyed what the lens of a camera could not.
"I sketched almost everybody," Ida Libby Dengrove said of the hundreds of famous and infamous figures whose likenesses she captured. "I found it very interesting."
That simple understatement belies a career during which Dengrove served as the public’s window into courtroom proceedings, which at the time were closed to news cameras.
"She was the camera in the courtroom before they were allowed," said Superior Court Judge Al Lehrer, a former Monmouth County prosecutor. "She worked in the courtroom when I was a prosecutor.
"She was extremely talented," he added. "Not only were her sketches accurate, but they captured the emotion of what was going on, the emotion of the moment, unlike cameras, which do not."
Dengrove was chief courtroom illustrator for NBC-TV and WNBC-TV for 15 years, from 1972-1987, during which time she garnered two Emmy awards for her work.
An exhibit of her courtroom sketches, including the Emmy-winning Son of Sam (the trial of David Berkowitz) and Murder at the Met, is currently open to the public at the Monmouth Beach Cultural Center. The exhibit will run through Sept. 16 at the center, which is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays.
Among the approximately 30 sketches on display are several others that have been recognized, including Dengrove’s sketch of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Caroline Kennedy at the trial of a New York paparazzo that won a New York Press Club Award and two others nominated for Emmys: the trial of the Rev. Sun Young Moon and the Brinks robbery trial.
Dengrove, of West Allenhurst, has been sketching people and events since she was a child. By the time she was 10, she and her twin sister were selling sketches to vacationers during summers spent in Cape May and Atlantic City.
The two would often practice at populous places such as the railroad station and even ventured into the courtroom, she recounted.
"When my sister and I were starting out, we used to practice by going to trials and sketching what we saw," said Dengrove, revealing the roots of her career as a courtroom artist.
While a student at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, Dengrove won a scholarship competition with sketches from the 1938-40 trial of the infamous members of the Murder Inc. crime syndicate, revealing her skill at capturing the character, intensity and drama of courtroom proceedings.
After graduation, she began work as a freelance illustrator for the Philadelphia Bulletin before the onset of World War II and met her physician husband while on assignment sketching new recruits at Fort Dix.
When her twin got a job sketching courtroom proceedings for ABC-TV, Dengrove followed suit.
"She was having so much fun that I thought I would try it," Dengrove explained.
Dengrove called rival network WNBC-TV, told them she’d be interested in working as a courtroom artist and was asked to come in for an interview.
"While I was waiting to be interviewed, I quickly sketched the news director’s secretary," she recalled. "When he saw my sketch, he looked at me and asked, ’Would you be able to work tomorrow?’ So I started yesterday," she quipped, "and ended up spending [almost] 20 years at NBC."
Dengrove made the daily commute into New York by train, leaving early each morning to get to the courtroom with time to spare.
"I would take my pencils and paper. If I came a little early, I would do the background," she explained. "I would get the feel of the building and the people."
Dengrove’s small frame and quiet demeanor became familiar to courtroom denizens.
"I sat as close to the front as I could. Many times I couldn’t put my things down. There was no room in the crowded courtroom, but you adapt," she noted. "People would make room for me because they got used to me being there. I was part of the process."
While dramatic moments often swirled around her, Dengrove remained focused.
"My eyes would go only to what I was supposed to do. I sketch so quickly and have a retentive memory. I can remember details if I work fast," she explained. "I tried to make the sketches as varied and interesting as I could. I didn’t just do a face; it was always with a feeling I got.
"The most important thing was to sketch the person who did the harm; that was foremost," Dengrove said. "Then I quickly get a lot of the other people — judge, attorneys, police — in the room."
And always the jury.
"Because they become very involved in the story," she explained.
The verdict reading was often the most intense moment, according to Dengrove, who admitted it was difficult to remain detached.
"All of a sudden you would see people cry," she recalled. "They seemed to know ahead of time. It was very sad."
Dengrove worked in pastels because she could work very quickly, using a large sketch pad.
"I carry them with me all the time," she said, pulling a pad and pencils from her bag."I still carry them. You never forget these things."
In the courtroom and during her travels, Dengrove’s subjects included the famous and infamous.
On John Lennon: "I got very friendly with him. He and Yoko were at a deportation hearing. He came over to look at the drawing I was doing and he said, ‘That’s beautiful. Can I buy it?’ I said, ‘I can’t sell it to you.’ He told me he’d studied at art school in Liverpool. ‘Let me borrow your pencil,’ he said. Then he wrote ‘with love’ on my sketch.
"I cried when he was killed," she added.
On David Berkowitz: "The Son of Sam trial was so mobbed. One of the people got up and gave up a seat for me and stood for the whole time, realizing how important it was for me to have a good view of what they were doing."
On the People’s Temple trial, Guyana: "They sent me to Guyana, where two cameramen had been killed. It was frightening, but I had a reporter with me. While I was sketching, soldiers came along. The reporter snatched my drawing and put it inside his shirt. I had a camera, and they took the film. The judge didn’t allow me to sketch in the courtroom, but my sketches went around the world. I would sit outside in my car and sketch from memory."
On John F. Kennedy: "I was going to Nantucket and Sen. Kennedy was on the ferry, talking with John Cardinal Cushing. I recognized the cardinal but not JFK. They were chatting, and I sketched them. JFK said, ‘That’s magnificent.’ He was only a senator [at the time]. I was not about to give him the sketch. If he were president, I would have."
Now retired and in her 80s, Dengrove recently reflected on a career that included winning the right for courtroom artists to work in New Jersey courts.
"I like to think my work was informative, that it showed that a camera is not the only way to record events," she explained.
"I remember coming home the day I [sketched at the] Son of Sam [trial]. The news was on the TV. I looked at it, and I said, ‘Oh, my God. Those are his eyes, that was his expression.’ I captured them. But I was not ever aware of it when I did it."