False Witness (54 page)

17
. Chandler, “The Devil's D.A.”; Chandler, “The Assassin's Trail”; Chandler Interview. The “mutual acquaintance” was photographer Matt Herron.

18
. Chandler, “The Assassin's Trail,” p. 18.

19
. Chandler Interview. Chandler recalled Billings's arrival date as December 7, 1966, and tied his recollection to Pearl Harbor; but Billings remembered the date as December 14, 1966 (Tom Bethell, “Excerpts from a Diary kept while working in the district attorney's office during the investigation of Kennedy's assassination” [hereinafter Bethell Diary], p. 42).

20
. Chandler, “The Assassin's Trail,” p. 19; Chandler Interview.

21
. Chandler, “The Assassin's Trail”; Chandler Interview.

22
. Chandler, “The Assassin's Trail”; Chandler Interview.

23
. Edward F. Wegmann, address at dedication of Clay Shaw's Spanish Stables memorial in 1975; “Biographical Sketch of Clay L. Shaw” (hereinafter Shaw Biographical Sketch), three pages, undated; Phelan-Shaw Interview; Brener,
The Garrison Case
, p. 63; Kirkwood,
American Grotesque
, pp. 18, 19; the
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, Feb. 28, 1994; Dymond et al. Interview.

24
. Shaw Biographical Sketch; Phelan–Shaw Interview; Dymond, et al. Interview. Shaw saw the non-profit Trade Mart as more than an opportunity to promote foreign trade through the Port of New Orleans. The war had instilled in him a concern for world peace. That could be strengthened, he believed, by closer relations between nations; understanding each other was the key, and trade was one way to bring that about (Kirkwood,
American Grosteque
, p. 18).

25
. Shaw Biographical Sketch; Phelan–Shaw Interview; “Carter,” teletype to
Newsweek
, March 2, 1967.

26
. Brener,
The Garrison Case
, pp. 61–62, vii (Gonzales narcotics charge); Memorandum, “Dean Andrews/Richard Townley,” regarding April 19, 1967, conversation between Robert A. Wilson, Charles R. Carson, Richard Townley and Dean Andrews at the New Orleans Press Club; Andrews NBC Interview; Epstein,
Counterplot
, p. 94. Garrison believed that Gonzales appeared in pictures taken of Oswald as he handed out Fair Play for Cuba leaflets on Canal Street (“Carter,” teletype to
Newsweek
, March 2, 1967).

27
. Shaw Journal, pp. 3–5; Shaw, NBC interview, Metropolitan Crime Commission transcript (hereinafter Shaw NBC interview), undated; Brener,
The Garrison Case
, p. 64; Kirkwood,
American Grotesque
, pp. 19, 20.

28
. Gurvich Conference, p. 14. The two newsmen Gurvich named—to whom Garrison exonerated Shaw—were “Bill” at WWL in New Orleans and Joe Wershba in New York.

1
. “Carter,” teletype to
Newsweek
, March 2, 1967; “Dick Billings[,] personal notes on consultations and interviews with Garrison” (hereinafter Billings Personal Notes), p. 5 (AARC).

2
. Tom Bethell, Memorandum to Garrison, Feb. 16, 1968 (living together); Brener,
The Garrison Case
, pp. 67 (“psychiatric” reasons), 69, 75, 85, 119; FBI, Memorandum to Mildred Stegall, The White House, March 24, 1967, David Lewis attachment, p. 2 (plastic gun); Lewis, NBC interview, undated transcript (Martin's urging).

3
.
Los Angeles Times
, Feb. 23, 1967; David Lewis, interview with David Chandler, Jan. 21, 1967; Lewis, Statement to D.A.'s office, Dec. 15, 1966, Q & A transcript attached; James and Wardlaw,
Plot or Politics?
p. 49;
Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
, Feb. 23, 1967.

4
.
Los Angeles Herald Examiner
, March, 5, 1967 (reporter declined); James and Wardlaw,
Plot or Politics?
p. 49 (primary witness); FBI, Memorandum to Mildred Stegall, The White House, March 24, 1967, Martin attachment, p. 3 (“information ‘made up' ”: Martin's statement was reported by Ray Berg, president of Pacesetter Publishing Co.); Carlos Quiroga, interview with Jim Garrison, Jan. 21, 1967; Sergio Arcacha Smith, statement to the press, April 1, 1967 (denied it); Garrison, memorandum, “Investigative Assignments,” Jan. 7, 1967, p. 2.

5
. Gurvich Conference, Tape #2, p. 21.

6
.
Ibid
., pp. 17–18; Kirkwood,
American Grotesque
, p. 538.

7
. Chandler Interview.

8
.
New Orleans States-Item
, “ ‘M'Keithen Agent,' Chandler Tells Judges,” Nov. 8, 1967 (subpoena); James and Wardlaw,
Plot or Politics?
p. 50; Chandler, “The Assassin's Trail” (“Get yourself a lawyer”); Chandler Interview (two factions). In addition to Malcolm McCombs (a “legendary
Life
editor”), Chandler named two other
Life
journalists who supported his position: Russ Sackett, “at the time an editor at the same level as Billings, working in New York, and Sandy Smith who at that time
was a contract hire from Chicago who specialized in organized crime.” Both men came in and out of New Orleans, Chandler said, “to monitor things and [they] did not report to Billings.”

9
. James and Wardlaw,
Plot or Politics?
pp. 33–34 (James–Garrison conversation); James Phelan (quoting Rosemary James), interview with author, June 8, 1993 (hereinafter Phelan Interview); Rosemary James, filmed interview with Stephen Tyler, “He Must Have Something,” 1992 (“print it”); Nicholas C. Chriss, “New Orleans Paper and DA at Odds Over Assassination Story,”
Los Angeles Times
, Feb. 21, 1967 (“Go ahead”: quoting
New Orleans States-Item
Managing Editor Walter G. Cowen).

10
.
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, Feb. 18, 1967 (“unprintable phrase”); Nicholas C. Chriss, “New Orleans Paper and DA at Odds Over Assassination Story,”
Los Angeles Times
, Feb. 21, 1967 (“substantially correct”: quoting
New Orleans States-Item
Managing Editor Walter G. Cowen).

11
. David Snyder, teletype to Time, Inc., Feb. 24, 1967 (AARC); Snyder, interview with author (hereinafter Snyder Interview), Sept. 4, 1993.

12
. Dr. Ronald A. Welsh, interview with author, Dec. 1, 1993 (hereinafter Welsh Interview). Dr. Welsh stated that the microscopic slides showed that in addition to vessel perforating there was “scar tissue indicating that Ferrie had had another bleed, a small one, previously . . . at least one or two of them at least two weeks before he died. This is a common occurrence with berry aneurysms,” Welsh said, “people have one or two before they blow out completely. . . . His headaches were from the . . . early bleeds.”

13
. Snyder Interview;
New Orleans States-Item
, Feb. 18, 1967;
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, Feb. 19, 1967, Feb. 23, 1967. Ferrie went a step further the following day—to another reporter he said Garrison's investigation was “a big joke.”

14
. Kirkwood,
American Grotesque
, p. 530 (“best defense”: Aaron Kohn quoting Jim Garrison); “Garrison Predicts Success for Probe,”
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, Feb. 19, 1967; “Oswald Didn't Act Alone, DA Says,”
Los Angeles Times
, Feb. 19, 1967.

15
.
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, Feb. 20, 1967.

16
.
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, Feb. 21, 1967.

17
. Aaron Kohn, managing director of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, who knew Garrison well, said about him: “He's a man who easily feels threatened. No matter how unreal it might look to other people, to him he is alarmingly threatened. And it may well be that he engages in extravagant diversions when he's threatened” (Kirkwood,
American Grotesque
, p. 530).

18
. Garrison claimed the Ferrie surveillance “was secured” at 11:00
P.M
., after Ferrie went to bed, but James Alcock said he and Louis Ivon were there “all night,” and that is the reason they were the first ones on the scene from the district attorney's office the next day (James Alcock, interview with author, Dec. 3, 1993 [hereinafter Alcock Interview]). Alcock's account fits with George Lardner's statement that Ferrie's light was on when he arrived at midnight.

19
. David W. Ferrie, Autopsy Protocol, Orleans Parish Coroner's Office, Feb. 22, 1967; Welsh Interview.

20
. When Garrison learned about Ferrie's association with this church, he developed an expansive theory about the use of fringe religions as fronts by the CIA and suggested
the CIA might have corrupted “legitimate churches” as well (Garrison, Memorandum to Louis Ivon, Feb. 6, 1968, re “Old Churches & CIA File”).

21
. HSCA Vol. 10, note 66, p. 117.

22
. By one account, the official basis for Ferrie's dismissal was his failure to pass his regular physical examination. But Ferrie's physical fitness was not the focus of the investigations conducted on behalf of Eastern Airlines and by the FAA. They focused on the molestation charges and Ferrie's “Moral Character.” (See letter from Carl F. Maisch, Chief, FAA Investigations Division, to James Clatterbuck, Dec. 13, 1963, and FAA report of same date by Richard E. Robey.)

23
. George Lardner, Jr., interview with David Ferrie, in cable from “Angeloff” to “Lang for Orshefsky” (hereinafter Lardner–Ferrie Interview), Feb. 22, 1967 (AARC); Perry Russo, interview with Bill Bankston,
Baton Rouge States-Time
, Feb. 24, 1967.

24
. Brener,
The Garrison Case
, pp. 48–49. Cuban expatriate attorney Carlos Bringuier, disturbed by what he had been hearing about Ferrie, insisted on meeting him. When Sergio Arcacha Smith took Bringuier to Ferrie's apartment, they found him in the company of two young boys. The two men left immediately and Bringuier urged Smith to stop seeing Ferrie. In Bringuier's opinion Ferrie was not the sort of man who could do their cause any good. Two years later, on Nov. 25, 1963, Ferrie told the FBI that he was associated with Smith's organization from “approximately Nov. 1960 until Aug. 1961.” Ferrie said he “collected food, money and medicine for it and gave talks to citizens groups” but had had no contact with “any” anti-Castro organization since Aug. 1961, though he had “social” contact with Smith (Ferrie, FBI interview, Nov. 25, 1963). Smith's organization was CIA supported but there is no evidence of any contact between that agency and Ferrie.

25
. Welsh Interview. Welsh said that since Ferrie suffered from high blood pressure, and because anxiety and stress “make the blood pressure rise,” that “being harassed and in fear of being arrested” could certainly have brought on the stroke.

26
. David and Barbara Snyder, conversations with author, Sept. 4 and 5, 1993.

27
. Lardner–Ferrie Interview (“to give him some rest”). See also note at p. 216.

28
. Snyder, teletype to Time, Feb. 24, 1967.

29
. Snyder Interview; Snyder, teletype to
Time
, Feb. 24, 1967;
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, Feb. 23, 1967.

30
. George Lardner, statement to New Orleans district attorney's office, Feb. 22, 1967; Lardner–Ferrie Interview.

31
. Alcock Interview.

32
. The former letter began, “To leave this life is, for me, a sweet prospect,” and closed, “If this is Justice, then Justice be damned.” The latter, addressed “Dear Al,” began, “When you receive this I will be quite dead, so no answer will be possible.”

33
. Secret Service Memorandum, from Donald L. Hughes, to Special Agent in Charge, New Orleans, Feb. 23, 1967 (this outlined the pressure Garrison put to Dr. Chetta “to find a suicide angle”); Welsh Interview. That Proloid could be fatal under any circumstances is unlikely but, if possible, the experts say it would require massive doses over a prolonged period. Garrison questioned
Ferrie's taking this medication at all and stated in his memoir that Ferrie had no condition requiring it. But he did (see Appendix A, item #28).

34
.
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, Feb. 23, 1967; Alcock Interview; Garrison,
On the Trail of the Assassins
, pp. 137–140.

35
. Lardner–Ferrie Interview.

1
. Perry Russo, interview with Edward F. Wegmann, F. Irvin Dymond, and William Gurvich, transcript, April 16, 1971 (hereinafter Russo-Wegmann et al. Interview), p. 1 (from the files of William J. Wegmann).

2
.
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, Feb. 25, 1967; “The Garrison Investigation: How and Why It Began,”
New Orleans
magazine, April 1967. Truth and Consequences founders were: Joseph M. Rault, Jr., president of Rault Petroleum Company, Willard E. Robertson, a Volkswagen dealer, and Cecil Shilstone, owner of a chemical firm. Members named: real estate executive Harold E. Cook, attorney Eberhard Deutsch, Aviation Board member John Mmahat, Homestead President Edmond G. Miranne, and bank president Lawrence Merrigan.

3
.
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, Feb. 25, 1967.

4
. Perry Russo had written a letter to Jim Garrison and mailed it the same day Garrison declared Ferrie “one of history's most important individuals.” It said, essentially, “I had occasion to meet Ferrie and some of his friends and I'm willing to tell you what I know about them.” When told in 1994 that Garrison claimed he never received the letter, Russo seemed surprised (Russo, interview with author, Feb. 7, 1994.) His reaction supports the view that Garrison withheld the letter because its contents were so innocuous.

5
. Bill Bankston, “Local Man Reports Ferrie Threat on Life of Kennedy,”
Baton Rouge State-Times
, Feb. 24, 1967. Russo also told Bankston Ferrie had said Castro was “not such a bad guy and that he could be an ally of the United States” (Bankston, WWL-TV interview, undated transcript).