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Comedian Lenny Bruce: “Rather Get Gas Chamber in L.A. than Jail in Chicago”

Mar. 26, 1963 - Lenny Bruce, the comedian, surrendered today in a Los Angeles court on a fugitive warrant issued in Chicago after his conviction and sentence there on a charge of an obscene nightclub performance. He commented, “I’d rather get the gas chamber in Los Angeles than spend a day in jail in Chicago.” He had been convicted for giving an obscene performance in Chicago, sentenced to a year and a day in jail, and fined $1,000. Mr. Bruce told Municipal Judge Maurice T. Leader today he did not surrender to the Chicago authorities because he would have to wait in Cook County jail until the trial judge, Daniel J. Ryan, returned from a Florida vacation. Mr. Bruce was booked into county jail in Los Angeles and then freed on $2,500 bail pending a hearing April 25 on the Chicago warrant.


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