These are the wildest moments left out of The Trial of the Chicago 7 on Netflix

*Contains spoilers*

The Trial of the Chicago 7 is the latest film to be dropped onto Netflix and is easily one of the best movies that’s been released on there this year. It’s funny, sad and powerful. The film is also fairly accurate in its depiction of the true trial of The Chicago Seven.

The actual trial began in 1969 after eight individuals were charged with conspiracy to cross state lines to incite a riot after events that took place in the summer of 1968 in Chicago. The historic trial featured key activist figures from the time as the defendants and it’s remembered for the unfair treatment of Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale and the biased behaviour of Judge Hoffman.

The Netflix dramatisation of the trial is largely similar to what actually happened in 1969, however the trial was four months long, so naturally they couldn’t fit everything that went down leading up to and in the trial in a two hour movie slot. But some of the details they left out of the film were actually pretty wild, including famous names testifying, police officers charged and a pig being nominated for president.

These are the wildest moments Netflix’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 left out of the movie:

The Yippies nominated a pig for president

Kicking things off with a weird one. Funnily enough this part was left out of the movie. For the 1968 Presidential Election the Youth International Party or Yippies nominated a pig as their presidential candidate.

The pig was named Pigasus and Abbie and Jerry were two of the main people behind this decision. They demanded Pigasus be given the same treatment as any other presidential candidate with security and White House Policy briefings.

Jerry Rubin was in the process of making a speech for Pigasus when they were all arrested including the pig who was taken to the Chicago Anti-Cruelty Society.

Pigasus was even brought up in the trial and charged for disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace. The defendants were charged with bringing a pig to Chicago and their lawyer, William Kunstler argued the democrats had done the same thing.

Eight police officers officers were charged with civil violation rights

Over six months the Grand Jury deliberated on charges to be given to the defendants, but they were also considering charging police officers for violating the civil rights of demonstrators by use of excessive force.

After President Nixon took over office and John Mitchell was the Attorney General eight police officers ended up being charged with civil rights violations.

There were 16 other alleged co-conspirators who were not indicted

Along with the original Chicago eight, there were in fact 16 other people who were named as co-conspirators but were not indicted including Stewart E. Albert and Kathy Boudin.

Bobby Seale was bound and gagged for several days in the actual trial

In that one horrifying scene Bobby Seal was bound, gagged and chained to his chair for “disturbing the court” after not being allowed to defend himself when his lawyer was not present in court.

Thankfully the scene only went on for a few minutes, but in reality Bobby was bound, gagged and chained for several days in the court room before William Kunstler argued that the court room was now a “medieval torture chamber”.

Loads of famous names were called to testify

The cast list for The Trial of the Chicago 7 is incredibly impressive, but what’s more impressive is that actual famous people testified in the real trial.

The writers Normal Mailer and Allen Ginsberg testified as well as singers Phil Ochs and Judy Collins. Phil was responsible for acquiring Pigasus for their presidential candidate.

There were a few more interruptions made by Abbie and Jerry

Throughout the movie Abbie and Jerry provide comical moments by speaking out in court or turning up in those judge robes. But they didn’t just stop there in the real trial, they continued to make disruptions in court.

They brought in Vietnam flags to court one day and Abbie had a tug of war over one of the flags.

The defendants weren’t told they were being sentenced that day and so their families didn’t know to turn up

In the final scene of the movie we see David Dellinger’s family turn up at court on the day of sentencing, however in real life the defendants weren’t even told what day their sentencing was on. Judge Hoffman said the reason they weren’t told is because he claimed to have had a threat from one of the defendants’ families.

The trial didn’t actually end with Tom Hayden reading the list of names

Ngl pretty disappointed they didn’t end the actual trial like this. However David Dellinger did read out a few names of soldiers who died in the Vietnam War earlier in the trial before Judge Hoffman stopped him.

They all got to make a statement at the end of the trial

Rather than just a quick statement from one of them, they were all allowed to make statements at the end of the trial. All five of the Chicago Seven being sentenced used the opportunity to speak out on the war in Vietnam rather than appeal their sentencing or ask for a more lenient sentence.

They also spoke about being martyrs and the betrayal of the American dream.

Judge Hoffman ordered the defendants to have their hair shaved off after sentencing

As his final act of contempt towards the defendants Judge Hoffman ordered the barbers in the Cook County jail to cut off the defendants’ long hair. And in a press conference the Sheriff of the jail proudly showed off Abbie’s cut off hair.

There was an appeal and none of them faced jail time

In November 1972 all their convictions were reversed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. This decision was based on Judge Hoffman’s bias to not allow the defence lawyers to screen the jury and for the FBI’s surveillance of the defence lawyers’ office.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

Featured image credit: Netflix

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