False Witness (32 page)

*
One of those “other witnesses” was New Orleans Police Lt. Edward O'Donnell, who was present during the Bundy conference (see chapter 14).

*
In an infamous 1935 incident at the Desoto Hotel in New Orleans, Herbert Christenberry was the “shorthand expert” who jotted down the surreptitiously gleaned conversation that Huey Long later described on the floor of the U.S. Senate as a plot to murder him. Long's supporters had used a Dictagraph on the end of a pole extended between two windows to overhear the discussion by anti-Longites in the adjoining room (T. Harry Williams,
Huey Long
[New York: Vintage Books, 1981], p. 840).

†
In the 1960s he issued an injunction ordering the Ku Klux Klansmen to cease all “acts of terror”; decreed unconstitutional a series of laws passed by the state legislature to prevent integration of Louisiana's school system; and ordered school desegregation in Plaquemines Parish, a particularly pro-segregation region.

*
Mostly the defense claimed the testimony was irrelevant because it didn't bear directly on the perjury charge.

*
In March 1967 Garrison called late one night from Las Vegas and told Gurvich to fly out and “bring him six bullets and a green sports shirt,” which Gurvich did. He also attended a show at the Las Vegas Thunderbird Hotel, called “Bottoms Up,” whose star performer (Breck Wall) had been in Dallas the day of the assassination and was regarded by Garrison as a suspect. As James Phelan later described, a
Life
photographer with a hidden camera snapped pictures of that show while Gurvich recorded the audio on a hidden tape recorder (
Scandals
, pp. 154, 164).

*
A transcription of the recording, authenticated by the court reporter who typed it, was placed into evidence.

†
Struggling to understand why Garrison targeted him, Shaw once told his cousin that he and Garrison had not been friends for years, and Shaw thought the animosity was caused by their disagreement over the French Quarter. Shaw wanted to preserve it, and Garrison wanted to develop it (telephone conversation with Willie Joe Yarbrough, Jr., July 16, 1996).

*
This is described in chapter 16.

*
Judge Christenberry, responding to an objection from Asst. D.A. William Alford, inquired why, if Garrison's representatives wanted Russo to testify, they didn't grant him immunity from prosecution. “We can't do that,” Alford replied (Christenberry transcript, p. 484).

†
What would this crusty judge have said, I wonder, had Garrison's “silly syllogism” been recited in his courtroom and the truth been revealed—that Garrison's suspicions about Shaw were based on casual marginalia jotted by Asst. D.A. Frank Klein in a paperback copy of the Warren Report (see note p. 47).

*
One of those pictures is today in the National Archives.

†
Christenberry's decision broke new ground in the area of equitable estoppel and is today taught in law schools.

*
Over the years, whenever it suited his purpose, Russo reverted to his fabricated story. He was able “to get away with it” because only a handful of people knew about his wide-ranging admissions to the defense team in 1971.

*
In 1994 Perry Russo took me to see this plaque. Sitting behind the wheel of his taxi, he recited the inscription from memory.

*
Louis Ivon, when asked if he had ever stated that the Clinton witnesses weren't credible, replied that he would never make such a statement about anybody, “whether I believed them or not.” Asked directly if he believed the Clinton witnesses, Ivon replied, “That's a difficult question for me to answer. I don't know if I believe them. I just don't know” (telephone conversation with author, June 28, 1996). When the subject of the Clinton witnesses arose during an interview with James Alcock, he insisted that he had nothing whatsoever to do with the Clinton investigation, that it was
entirely
the responsibility of Andrew Sciambra (Alcock Interview). Ivon made a similar statement.

In late February, Garrison confided to various reporters that the plotters first planned to assassinate Fidel Castro, with Lee Harvey Oswald as the shooter. But when Oswald was denied entry to Cuba, they switched to President Kennedy.
¹

In March, Garrison said the assassination was the work of “one master planner, a few idiots, and the passive involvement of many others.” The “mafia” was not involved.
²

That same month, he explained that besides anti-Castro Cuban refugees and homosexuals, masochists (who would do anything for a thrill) were a part of the plot. “If you placed a masochist in a room along with a button that would blow up the White House,” Garrison said, “he probably would press that button for the thrill of it.”
³

By May, Garrison was claiming that “it was not that hard to find out what happened and how President Kennedy was killed. . . . We have even located photographs in which we have found the men behind the grassy knoll and stone wall before they dropped completely out of sight. . . . Although they are not distinct enough [that] you can make an identification from the faces.”
⁴

Also in May, he said there were “at least two pairs of men in the front—apparently two men behind the stone wall and two behind the picket fence.” The job “of the second man in each case was to pick up the actual cartridges, taken on the bounce so to speak, so that the cartridges could be disposed of as quickly as the guns. . . .” And there was “at least one man in the back who was shooting, [but not from] the sixth floor of the book depository.”
⁵

In his television broadcast in July, Garrison stated that there were at least three assassins in Dallas at Dealey Plaza, two firing from the rear and one from the right front.
⁶

In a letter written in August, he told Bertrand Russell that at the higher levels of the plot were conspirators with “Neo-Nazi” political views, and among them was Clay Shaw.
⁷

“There are elements of the Dallas establishment that are deeply involved [in the assassination],” he said in September, “and some of the members of the White Russian community are part of it. Now, they had total control of Marina [Oswald].” Also deeply involved were “elements of the Dallas police,” a Minutemen controlled element, and some members of the John Birch Society. Sponsoring the operation was a group of “insanely patriotic oil millionaires.” The “corroborating evidence” to support these charges, Garrison said, “is in our files.”
⁸

He concluded the year with descriptions of the events at Dealey Plaza. “Just a little bit in front of where the President was killed there is a sewer opening” that is accessible through a manhole, he said in early December. “The man who killed President Kennedy fired a .45 caliber pistol” from that manhole, then “fled” through the sewers “to another part of the city.”
⁹

At a press conference the day after Christmas, Garrison said there was “an infinitely larger number [of people involved in the conspiracy] than you would dream,” and in Dealey Plaza alone, there could have been as many as fifteen, including lookouts, men operating radios, supervisors, and so on. “It was very large and very well organized,” he said.
¹⁰

C. F. Weber/Joe Bergeron

Clay Shaw, the accused—
“I was inclined to tell Garrison's men,
‘Gentlemen, this is a very bad joke.' ”

Matt Herron/Black Star

Jim Garrison, the district attorney—
“There is a certain tendency to climb where opportunity presents itself.”

National Archives

Jack Martin, the tipster—
Described himself as: “Author, former newspaperman, professional soldier, adventurer, and philosopher.”

Courtesy Alvin Beaubouef

David Ferrie, the pilot, Garrison's favorite suspect—
“Martin has a special vendetta for me.”

AP/Wide World Photos

Dean Andrews, the Runyonesque attorney—
“I can't let Shaw get convicted—the Giant is trying to put the hat on this poor bastard because of me.”