False Witness (52 page)

3
. Shaw Journal, pp. 12–14; Phelan–Shaw Interview;
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, March 2, 1967.

4
. Shaw Journal, pp. 14–15; James Kirkwood, “Surviving,”
Esquire
, Dec. 1968; Phelan–Shaw Interview. Shaw later recalled the test requested was a lie-detector test. But Salvatore Panzeca also said the first test Garrison mentioned to him was truth serum (F. Irvin Dymond, William J. Wegmann and Salvatore Panzeca, interview with author, Sept. 3, 1993 [hereinafter Dymond et al. Interview]).

5
. Shaw Journal, pp. 15–16; Dymond et al. Interview.

6
. Dymond et al. Interview.

7
. Shaw Journal, pp. 14–16; Dymond et al. Interview.

8
. Dymond et al. Interview; Shaw Journal, pp. 15–16; William Gurvich, grand jury testimony, June 28, 1967, pp. 18–20; Milton Brener, telephone conversation with author, Feb. 7, 1994. Regarding Garrison's decision to arrest Shaw, Brener said, “Shaw defied him,” referring to Shaw's refusal to take the test Garrison requested.

9
. Dymond et al. Interview; Shaw Journal, pp. 16–17;
New Orleans Times-Picayunee
, March 2, 1967.

10
. Shaw Journal, p. 16;
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, March 2, 1967.

11
. Cynthia Wegmann, interview with author, Nov. 3, 1993; Shaw Journal, p. 17.

12
. Shaw Journal, p. 17; William J. Wegmann, telephone conversation with author, July 23, 1998;
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, March 2, 1967; Dymond et al. Interview.

13
. Shaw Journal, pp. 17–19; Christenberry transcript, pp. 373 (Louis Ivon), 462 (Clay Shaw);
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, March 2, 1967.

1
. Jim Garrison,
On the Trail of the Assassins: My Investigation and Prosecution of the Murder of President Kennedy
(New York: Sheridan Square Press, 1988), p 8.

2
. FBI Memorandum, dated June 21, 1967, from W.A. Branigan to W.C. Sullivan. Earling R. Garrison's FBI Identification Division Record Number was 268658 (FBIHQ Main File 67-446884, James Carothers Garrison). See also “Records of Birth, Crawford County, Iowa,” p. 86;
History of Crawford County Iowa
, Vol. 2, pp. 67–69 (in the archives of the State Historical Society of Iowa); “Earling Garrison Lodged in Jail Here Sunday,”
Denison Review
, April 23, 1930; “Judge Peter S. Klinker Holds Court Here Sat.,”
The Denison Bulletin
, April 30, 1930.

3
. Pershing Gervais, telephone conversation with author, March 15, 1994.

4
. FBI Report by J. M. Lopez, regarding James Carothers Garrison, Bureau Applicant—Special Agent, Jan. 13, 1951. (FBIHQ Main File 67-446884, James Carothers Garrison.)

5
. When Garrison was making headlines about the Kennedy assassination sixteen years later, an enterprising agent noticed that five years after leaving the FBI Garrison wrote about his father on a military form: “address ‘unknown.' ” This anomaly prompted a routine identification check that turned up Earling R. Garrison and his criminal record.

6
. Judith Dorcas Garrison had been confined sometime prior to 1951 (see Jim Garrison's 1951 military medical history). One year later, after his background investigation had been completed and he had been accepted by the Bureau, Garrison listed his sister's name on one of his FBI appointment forms.

7
. Jim Garrison, military medical history, 1951.

8
. Dymond et al. Interview.

9
.
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, Jan. 15, 1962; Milton E. Brener,
The Garrison Case: A Study in the Abuse of Power
(New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1969), p. 5.

10
. James Phelan, “The Vice Man Cometh,”
The Saturday Evening Post
, June 1963.

11
. Rosemary James and Jack Wardlaw,
Plot or Politics?: The Garrison Case And Its Cast
(New Orleans: Pelican Publishing House, 1967), p. 19.

12
. Brener,
The Garrison Case
, p. 6. In the acrimonious run-off campaign that followed, both men leveled charges at each other. Garrison, in the first notable public display of his sensitivity to criticism, filed a libel suit against Dowling.

13
. Garrison's victory in the general election was a foregone conclusion. As explained in the
New Orleans Times-Picayune
on March 5, 1962: “Winning the Democratic primary in New Orleans, has been tantamount to election since the Reconstruction era of the last century.”

14
. David Chandler, “The Devil's D.A.,”
New Orleans
magazine, Nov. 1966, p. 31; Gene Roberts, “The Case of Jim Garrison and Lee Oswald,”
The New York Times Magazine
, May 21, 1967, p. 33. One of Pershing Gervais's “infractions” was stealing Police Department graft money twice and blowing it on two heady first-class trips to New York City.

15
. Chandler, “The Devil's D.A.,” p. 32.

16
. Roberts, “The Case of Jim Garrison and Lee Oswald,” p. 33.

17
. James and Wardlaw,
Plot or Politics?
p. 22; Brener,
The Garrison Case
, pp. 24, 25, 33.

18
. Dymond et al. Interview.

19
. David Chandler believed Garrison originally was a genuine reformer but that “something happened” during the summer of 1966 which changed him. Chandler insisted that the evidence of Garrison's organized crime connections, which were spelled out in a series of
Life
magazine articles published in the fall of 1967, was conclusive (David Chandler, telephone interview with author [hereinafter Chandler Interview], July 15, 1993).

20
. Jack Wardlaw had previously published the first national article on Garrison in the
National Observer
(James and Wardlaw,
Plot or Politics?
p. 32).

21
. Brener,
The Garrison Case
, pp. 2–3.

1
. Jack Martin, Mercy Hospital records, December 27, 1956. Martin made the remark during his psychiatric confinement.

2
. Dean Andrews, Clay Shaw trial testimony, Feb. 25, 1969, p. 142.

3
. W. Guy Banister, “Biographical Sketch,” HSCA Vol. 10, pp. 126–127.

4
. This account is based solely on Jack Martin's version of the event, as recorded in New Orleans Police Department Report No. K-12634-63, dated Nov. 25, 1963.

5
. Sam Newman, Affidavit, Jan. 24, 1967.

6
. W. Hardy Davis, FBI interview, Nov. 27, 1963.

7
. Jerry Phillip Stein, FBI interview, Nov. 25, 1963; Secret Service Report, December 13, 1963 (describing telephone calls from Stein and Donald Mitchell); Alec Gifford (WDSU), FBI interview, Nov. 25, 1963; David Ferrie, FBI interviews, Nov. 25, 1963, and Nov. 27, 1963; Jack S. Martin, FBI interview, Nov. 25, 1963; and G. Wray Gill, FBI interview, Nov. 27, 1963.

8
. The police, who knew Martin, ignored his call, but television news director Bill Reid sent two representatives to David Ferrie's apartment. They began making inquiries in the neighborhood after learning from Ferrie's house guest that Ferrie was gone. Reid also contacted Ferrie's employer, attorney G. Wray Gill, and informed him about Ferrie's “possible involvement” with Oswald (Reid, FBI interview, Nov. 25, 1963; Martin, FBI interview, Nov. 27, 1963; Ferrie, FBI interview, Nov. 25, 1963; Gill, FBI interview, Nov. 27, 1963).

9
. Jim Garrison and Pershing Gervais had been the object of a lawsuit filed by Martin the previous summer, which Martin later withdrew.

10
. Jack Martin reached Herman Kohlman at home. (Martin insisted that his name be withheld, and Kohlman honored this promise at first, until he was pressed by his superior. Kohlman also was forced to reveal Martin's identity to the Secret Service.) A meeting was convened at Tulane and Broad to decide what should be done. Garrison wasn't there but “was kept informed.” According to Kohlman, the local Secret Service didn't seem concerned about Martin's “information” until Kohlman called Dallas Homicide Chief Will Fritz. Kohlman later learned that a Dallas FBI police liaison contacted Washington concerning the information. After that, Kohlman said, the local FBI and Secret Service representatives were suddenly interested (Kohlman, telephone conversation with author, July 29, 1996).

11
. New Orleans Secret Service Field Office Report, regarding investigation in New Orleans during period of “Nov. 24–29, 1963,” dated Dec. 13, 1963, pp. 1–3. Herman Kohlman's telephone call to the Secret Service at 11:10
P.M
. on Nov. 24, 1963, is described in this report. While Jack Martin told the FBI he spoke to Kohlman on Saturday, Nov. 23, it is clear from the Secret Service chronology of calls from Kohlman, Jerry Stein and Donald Mitchell, and the FBI interview with Stein, that Martin did not reach Kohlman until Sunday, Nov. 24, 1963, sometime after 10
A.M
. (see also CD 87, item 61).

12
. A number of people remembered Ferrie being in court on Nov. 22, 1963, including the presiding judge, Herbert W. Christenberry, FBI agent Regis
Kennedy, and attorney G. Wray Gill (Herbert W. Christenberry, Jr., telephone conversation with author, Aug. 16, 1997; HSCA Vol. 10, p. 105). Also, in early 1967 William Gurvich was told by a federal marshal present at the trial that Ferrie was there.

13
. At least a week before, Alvin Beaubouef had suggested going ice skating. He was a near-championship-class roller skater but had never been on ice skates and Ferrie had promised him that, at the conclusion of the trial, they would go ice skating (Ferrie, FBI interview, Nov. 25, 1963; Beaubouef, interviews by New Orleans D.A.'s office, Dec. 15, 1966, and Dec. 28, 1966; Melvin Coffey, FBI interview, Nov. 29, 1963; Beaubouef, interview with author, Sept. 5, 1993 [hereinafter Beaubouef Interview]).

14
. Chuck Rolland, FBI interview, Nov. 28, 1963 (Ferrie's call to the skating rink); Ferrie, FBI interview, Nov. 25, 1963; Beaubouef Interview.

15
. Ferrie, FBI interview, Nov. 25, 1963; Gill, FBI interview, Nov. 27, 1963.

16
. Brener,
The Garrison Case
, p. 51; Ferrie, interview by New Orleans D.A.'s Office, Feb. 18, 1967.

17
. Alvin Beaubouef, telephone conversation with author, July 9, 1998; Fenner Sedgebeer report (signed by Raymond Comstock) to Joseph I. Giarrusso, Superintendent of Police, Nov. 25, 1963, describing arrest of Beaubouef, Martens and Ferrie. The police also recovered from Ferrie's apartment “a page from a yellow pad” said to detail Ferrie's flying Carlos Marcello from Guatemala (where he had been unceremoniously deported by the U.S. government) “back into the United States.” This was turned over to the FBI (Comstock, telephone interview with author, March 27, 1996).

18
. New Orleans Secret Service Field Office Report, regarding investigation in New Orleans during period of “Nov. 24–29, 1963,” dated Dec. 13, 1963, p. 4; Fenner Sedgebeer report, p. 2. Herman Kohlman would later tell FBI Agent Regis Kennedy that “an unknown police officer,” reportedly in the Civil Air Patrol with Oswald, had said “that Ferrie knew Oswald” and “because Ferrie must have known Oswald and because it appeared [Ferrie] had lied when he denied knowing Oswald, Ferrie was arrested.” But when the “unknown police officer,” Vice Squad detective Frederick O'Sullivan, was interviewed that same day by the FBI, he said he thought Oswald had attended CAP meetings during the same time-frame that Ferrie was Squadron Commander but “could not say for certain that Oswald ever met Ferrie” (Fred O'Sullivan, FBI interviews, Nov. 25, 1963, and Nov. 26, 1963).

19
. Ferrie, FBI interviews, Nov. 25, 1963, and Nov. 27, 1963; Ferrie, Secret Service interview, Nov. 25, 1963, described in Secret Service Report dated Dec. 13, 1963. Ferrie said that “to the best of his knowledge Oswald was never a member of the CAP Squadron in New Orleans during the period he was with that group.” Shown some photographs of Oswald, Ferrie stated “that the profile view . . . has a very vague familiarity to him but the full face and full length photographs of Oswald are not familiar to him.” When he was arrested, David Ferrie's New Orleans Public Library card # M.L. 89437 was among his personal items placed in the police department property room. It was returned to him when he was released and he showed it to the FBI agents who interviewed him on Nov. 27, 1963.

20
. The manager of Winterland Skating Rink, Chuck Rolland, said that he and Ferrie “had a short general conversation” but denied that they discussed “the cost of equipping or operating an ice skating rink” (Rolland, FBI interview, Nov. 28, 1963). But Melvin Coffey told the FBI that Ferrie did talk to the “owner” of the rink about the cost of “installation and operation” (Coffey, FBI interview, Nov. 29, 1963).

21
. Jack Martin also outlined his version of how it all came about, how he had seen rifles in David Ferrie's home; had heard on television that Oswald was in the CAP; and knew that Ferrie had been in the CAP too. Martin, the agents wrote, “after turning all these thoughts over in his mind” telephoned the D.A.'s office “and told his story as though it was based on facts rather than on his imagination” (Martin, Secret Service Interview, Nov. 29, 1963).

22
. Jack Martin claimed that his speculation about David Ferrie began that Saturday evening when he saw the television program that revealed Oswald had been in the CAP with Ferrie. But Martin saw that broadcast
after
he and Hardy Davis had already engaged in their initial conjecture about Ferrie. After Davis went home, Martin telephoned “and told him that he heard a television program which had tied Ferrie in as Civil Air Patrol instructor with Lee Harvey Oswald” (Hardy Davis, FBI interview, Nov. 27, 1963; Martin, FBI interview, Nov. 25, 1963).