False Witness (59 page)

3
. Salvatore Panzeca, interview with author, Nov. 30, 1993.

4
. Jim Garrison, filmed interview, 1989, in Richard Cohen and Carol Kachmer's
Rough Side of the Mountain
, a documentary work-in-progress begun in 1971 about the Clinton witnesses.

5
. Edwin Lea McGehee later (after Marina Oswald testified that Oswald could not drive, owned no car and that she had never been to the Clinton area) tried to disassociate his “Oswald” from the old car and its female passenger. He speculated to this writer that the “black car” with those other men inside could have been parked around the corner from his barber shop, out of sight. Yet, although McGehee never said he saw “Oswald” exit the car, in his earliest statement to the D.A.'s office and in his trial testimony McGehee clearly indicated that he believed Oswald arrived in it. Also, the car and the woman passenger were reportedly seen at the home of Reeves Morgan as well. Both were an integral part of the Oswald-in-Clinton story, at least in the beginning.

6
. Kirkwood,
American Grotesque
, p. 612–613.

7
. Director of the FBI, letter to the Attorney General, Feb. 10, 1969.

8
. Richard H. Kilbourne, Sr., interview with author, Dec. 6, 1993.

9
. John Manchester, trial transcript, Feb. 6, 1969, p. 69; William Dunn, trial transcript, Feb. 7, 1969, pp. 19–20.

10
. Manchester, trial transcript, Feb. 6, 1969, p. 59; Palmer, trial transcript, p. 85.

11
. Manchester, trial transcript, Feb. 6, 1969, p. 72; Corrie Collins, trial transcript, Feb. 6, 1969, p. 118.

12
. Garrison,
On the Trail of the Assassins
, pp. 108–109; Garrison also recited the Oswald-record-switching explanation in the documentary film,
Rough Side of the Mountain
(see note 4).

13
. Anne Hundley Dischler, field notes (hereinafter Dischler Notes), entry dated May 18, 1967.

14
. The message in the Dischler Notes reads: “People in St. Francisville few months [ago?]—Oswald—tried reg. to vote—tried to work at hosp.—in company of Shaw and Ferrie—Cadillac Henry Earl Palmer—Registrar of Voters 504-683-5171—Clinton, LA.” The word “Jackson” appears after Palmer's name, but a line has been drawn though it (Dischler Notes, entry dated May 18, 1967). The meaning of the reference to St. Francisville, which is about twenty-five miles from Clinton, is unclear. But it is the home of Judge John Rarick (see note 28).

15
. Jack Rogers had his own relationship with Jim Garrison, as seen in this Dischler notation dated Aug. 29, 1967: “Spoke to Jack Rogers by phone—said he is going to [New Orleans] this
P.M
.—needs to see Garrison. . . .”

16
. The following entry in the Dischler Notes suggests that susceptibility to Garrison's rhetoric among Clinton's black community may have been a factor in their cooperation with him: “CORE people decided this year not to vote for [Clinton] Alderman [Willie Joe] Yarbrough because of his connection with Shaw (relative) who was mixed up with Oswald, so they may be of more help.” (Dischler Notes, entry dated Aug. 15, 1967). Yarbrough was married to Doris Shaw, Clay Shaw's first cousin.

17
. Anne Dischler, interview with author, Feb. 2–3, 1994 (hereinafter Dischler Interview); Billings Personal Notes, entry dated May 23, 1967, p. 81.

18
. Dischler Interview. Dischler, who had earlier explained that many of Garrison's files had been stolen, said if I didn't find this picture that it might have been among those that “came up missing.”

19
. Dischler Interview; Dischler telephone conversation, Feb. 4, 1994.

20
.
Ibid
.

21
. Corrie Collins said the car stayed there “10 or 15 minutes” (Dischler Notes, Oct. 3, 1967). But the other testimony placed it in that spot for five hours; at the trial Collins retreated, saying he could not recall how long it was parked there.

22
. In the Dischler Notes the name “Morgan” is accompanied by a question mark and then in parentheses: “(Is Zip Morgan related to Estus?).” That is followed by: “Note: This man may not be a Morgan—refer to Henry Earl [Palmer]” (Dischler Notes, Oct. 3, 1967).

23
. The identification of the man “in white” as Winslow Foster was provided to Dischler by Henry Earl Palmer (Dischler Notes, entry dated Oct. 3, 1967; Dischler Interview).

24
. Richard Stevens, telephone interview, April 8, 1995; Barney Lea, telephone interview, April 7, 1995.

25
. Nellie Louise Morgan, telephone interview, March 31, 1996. (She and Estus Morgan were married three years and had two sons.) Morgan's birth and military information are found in his hospital employment records.

26
. Andrew Sciambra, Memorandum to Garrison, June 1, 1967, re interview with Henry Earl Palmer on May 29, 1967.

27
. Bethell Diary, Oct. 2, 1967, p. 10.

28
. In Henry Earl Palmer's May 29, 1967, interview he stated that Judge John Rarick “may have been with him” when he saw the black car and that it “could have been” Judge Rarick who ran the license check on it. Notably, at that time John Manchester, who later provided the definitive identification of the car and its driver, was not yet a firm witness. This reference to Rarick suggests the role he might have played if Manchester had not firmed up. An ardent segregationist later elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, John Rarick's support of Jim Garrison is not widely known. But in 1971, when Garrison was under indictment on bribery charges, Rarick reportedly entered remarks into the Congressional Record supporting him. Described recently by a lifelong Clinton resident as “the spiritual leader” of the Ku Klux Klan, Rarick's 1963 rulings from the bench exacerbated the local strife. Then and later (while he was in Congress), Rarick reportedly maintained an extremely active interest and influence over all aspects of the Clinton community, especially East Louisiana State Hospital, and at least two of the Clinton witnesses had close ties to him: Palmer was regarded as Rarick's protègé, and barber McGehee in 1993 was still cutting Rarick's hair. It may be relevant that Rarick resides in St. Francisville, the first location mentioned in the initial tip about the black Cadillac (see note 14).

29
. In a memorandum dated Oct. 26, 1967 (thirteen days after Frugé and Dischler were removed from the case), Andrew Sciambra advised Jim Garrison that he had a tape recording of an interview with Collins and that Collins remembered seeing the black Cadillac. Conspicuously missing from this October memorandum by Sciambra is any reference to the occupants of the car. The two men—one in white, the other (possibly) in blue jeans—that Collins told Frugé and Dischler he saw exiting the car, had vanished permanently from Collins's testimony. Sciambra wrote that a transcript of the Collins tape recording would be done “later”; it has never surfaced. The story that Collins would tell at Shaw's trial began to emerge in a memorandum Sciambra wrote to Garrison on January 31, 1968, describing an interview with Collins conducted by Sciambra and James Alcock. At this point, the two men exiting the car had become one man, and Collins positively identified a picture of him. In this January memorandum, Sciambra also specifically disassociated Estus Morgan from the car and from Oswald, stating that Collins said he knew Morgan and saw him in the registration line, but was uncertain whether or not it was the same day.

30
. The trial testimony concerning Oswald's visit to East Louisiana State Hospital also materialized on Andrew Sciambra's watch. Maxine Kemp's claim that she saw Oswald's job application first appeared in a memorandum Sciambra wrote to Garrison two months after Frugé and Dischler were dismissed. Bobbie Dedon's claim that Oswald asked her for directions to the personnel office first appeared in another Sciambra memorandum written six days later, supposedly recapping an interview conducted on Aug. 4, 1967. But the Aug. 4, 1967, entry in the Dischler Notes describing that interview said only that Dedon found
Oswald's picture “very familiar” (she said the same about Shaw's), and made no mention of Dedon having seen or spoken to Oswald. (Andrew Sciambra, Memorandum to Garrison, regarding Guy Broyles, Personnel Manager, ELSH, Jan. 23, 1968; Sciambra, Memorandum to Garrison, regarding interview with Bobbie Dedon on Aug. 4, 1967, dated Jan. 29, 1968; Dischler Notes, Aug. 4, 1967.)

31
. The Committee members apparently accepted without question the statements made by Francis Frugé. But Frugé misled the Committee in several particulars: (1) Frugé said he was “detailed to work on the Garrison investigation in 1968.” In fact, he was assigned to the case in February 1967, when he and Dischler looked into the Rose Cheramie matter. The Dischler Notes on the Cheramie investigation, which are quite extensive, start on February 25, 1967, and begin “Garrison—New Orleans—called Frugé in connection with one Rose Cheramie . . .” (2) When asked “what trail” led to the Clinton witnesses, Frugé said that Andrew Sciambra “would know best,” that Sciambra had provided the list of “forty-five-plus potential witnesses.” In fact, the “tip,” as outlined in this chapter, went to Frugé and Dischler from the Sovereignty Commission. As for the names of potential witnesses, they were obtained by Frugé and Dischler in the course of their investigation. Many, perhaps most, appear to have come from Palmer's list of registrants. (3) Frugé told the Committee “one of the most believable” Clinton witnesses was Andrew Dunn, who died “in a jail cell before he could testify.” Dunn, an alcoholic, who was found hanged in his cell in the Clinton jail and ruled a suicide, was regarded by Anne Dischler as quite credible. But Dischler told me Frugé disagreed, claiming that Dunn's alcoholism hurt his reliability, and Dunn was never slated to testify. Frugé touting Dunn to the HSC was odd since Dunn's story was quite different from the official one told in court. He claimed, for example, that there were four men in the Cadillac, one of them Banister, and they “got out of the car and stretched their legs” (Frugé, HSCA Outside Contact Report, Dec. 19, 1978; Dischler Interview; Sciambra, memorandum to Jim Garrison, July 18, 1967, re July 17, 1967, interview with Andrew H. Dunn; Andrew H. Dunn Affidavit, July 13, 1967).

32
. Joe Newbrough, a private detective who worked for Guy Banister, described the building's layout on the television program,
Frontline
, Nov. 16, 1993 (transcript, p. 12). Reporter David Snyder recently verified that the Lafayette Street offices were not linked interiorly with those at 544 Camp.

33
. Gurvich Conference, tape #3, p. 4.

34
. Jack Martin tried to share the blame for the library card story with his friend Hardy Davis, telling the FBI that during several telephone conversations with Davis the two of them “may have come to the conclusion that Oswald had used or carried Ferrie's library card” (Martin, FBI interview, Nov. 27, 1963). David Ferrie categorically denied the library card story at its 1963 inception. At that time his card was in the New Orleans Police Department's First District property room, having been confiscated with the rest of his personal effects when he was arrested following his ice skating trip to Houston (Ferrie, FBI interviews, Nov. 25 and Nov. 27, 1963). Ferrie was so baffled by the story that he paid a visit to Oswald's former New Orleans apartment in a futile effort to resolve the mystery (Mrs. Jesse Garner, deposition, June 14, 1978, pp. 19–24,
33–37, 39–41). But the explanation, which follows, was buried in the files of the FBI, and wouldn't be released to the public for many years: Jack Martin passed the library card story on to Hardy Davis. Davis repeated it to Ferrie's employer, Attorney G. Wray Gill. Gill repeated it at least twice, to Ferrie's roommate, Layton Martens, and to Ferrie himself (Hardy Davis, FBI interview, Nov. 27, 1963; Gill, FBI interview, Nov. 27, 1963). But the Committee's references to the story begin and end with Gill, which is rather like omitting the first two acts of a three-act play (HSCA, Vol. 10, p. 113; HSCA Rpt., p. 144). By omitting Martin's role as author of the story, and Davis's as conduit of it, the Committee created the impression that Gill's knowledge came from some mysterious, authoritative source. This curious presentation, cutting it off from its false roots, made the story sound like an
authentic possibility
instead of what it actually was—one of the most effective falsehoods Martin ever told.

35
. HSCA outside contact report, Nov. 22, 1977; HSCA Vol. 10, pp. 130, 131.

36
. Richard Billings, letter to Garrison, April 22, 1968; Garrison, letter to Billings, April 29, 1968; Billings, letter to Edward F. Wegmann, Jan. 8, 1969 (in the files of James Phelan).

1
. Sgt. Edward O'Donnell, report to Jim Garrison, June 20, 1967, regarding “Perry Russo Interview,” conducted June 19, 1967. O'Donnell's report is included in this book as Appendix B, and discussed in chapter 9. The test by Roy Jacob, which is mentioned in O'Donnell's report, was administered on March 8, 1967, and is discussed in chapter 7.

2
. Garrison,
On the Trail of the Assassins
, p. 152.

3
. Garrison interview,
Playboy
, Oct. 1967, p. 64.

4
.
Ibid
.

5
. Garrison,
On the Trail of the Assassins
, p. 156.

6
. Kruebbe Interview; Kruebbe's Work Report, dated March 18, 1967, regarding Bundy polygraph administered March 17, 1967 (in the files of James Kruebbe); Edward O'Donnell, Christenberry transcript, p. 301; Jim Garrison, Christenberry transcript, p. 247.

7
. Hugh Exnicios, Lynn Loisel, and Al Beaubouef, “Conference,” twenty-nine-page transcript, March 10, 1967; Hugh Exnicios and Mrs. William C. Super, Christenberry transcript, pp. 118–119 (Exnicios), 131–132 (Super); Trosclair Report; see also: Billings Personal Notes, pp. 35–38;
New Orleans States-Item
, May 10, 1967;
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, May 11, 1967; Hugh Aynesworth, “The JFK ‘Conspiracy,' ”
Newsweek
, May 15, 1967; Exnicios, letter to the Louisiana State Bar Association, May 9, 1967.