TRIALS: Big John at the Bar

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In October 1973, Jacobsen went on, when the pair learned that Lilly had told the special prosecutor's office of the payola, they concocted a story that Jacobsen had offered the money to Connally for political candidates but that he had turned it down and the cash had remained in Jacobsen's safe-deposit box at an Austin bank. To make good their story, Jacobsen told the court, Connally gave him $10,000, handing it over in a cigar box. Jacobsen said that he then deposited the money in the Austin safe-deposit box.

Their story, said Jacobsen, began to unravel when Connally remembered that some of the bills he had paid back had been circulated after 1971. (They bore the signature of George Shultz, Connally's successor as Treasury Secretary.) The pair tried to replace them with older bills but, if Jacobsen's story is true, Connally somehow messed up. When

FBI agents opened the safe-deposit box in November 1973, they found 16 bills in the cache that had not been in circulation in 1971. Confronted with this evidence, Jacobsen said, he decided to spill the whole truth.

Jacobsen's clear, forthright testimony did not seem to shake John Connally, who afterward smiled, squeezed hands and moved easily through the crowd outside the court. Which man's confidence was truly justified may be revealed as Jacobsen faces cross-examination this week from fabled, relentless Defense Counsel Williams. Surely he will raise the question of why his client, a man worth millions, would jeopardize his political future for $10,000. And Connally may have something to say about that when he takes the stand, probably next week.