|
Post by Admin on Jun 15, 2014 9:01:54 GMT
1. THE SERENITY OF IGNORANCE
Jim Garrison knew Guy Banister fairly well. They used to have lunch together, occasionally.
Banister drank heavily on 22 NOV 1963. He was with Jack Martin.
Banister pistol-whipped Jack Martin with a .357 Magnum (NOPD K-12634-63)
Garrison heard that Lee Harvey Oswald had spent the summer in New Orleans. Garrison felt a responsibility to investigate the New Orleans connection.
He discovered Oswald had been seen with a man named David Ferrie.
Garrison had met David Ferrie, once, sometime in 1962.
Ferrie also had a reputation as an adventurer and pilot. Of being involved in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. He was well known in New Orleans.
Garrison discovered Ferrie had made a journey to Texas on the day of the Assassination. The source had learned this news from Jack Martin after he was pistol-whipped.
Garrison visited Ferries apartment on Louisiana Avenue Parkway. There were rifles and military paraphernalia as well as a large map of Cuba on the wall. Garrison met two men there waiting for Ferrie - they said he had headed for Texas in his car the afternoon of Nov 22. Garrison steak out of the apartment arrested Ferrie on 25 Nov and interviewed him.
Ferrie denied knowing Oswald but admitted driving to Houston - he said to go Ice Skating. Garrison later learned he did visit a skating rink but that he spent all his time at a pay telephone, both making and receiving calls. Garrison also learned he then continued on to Galveston.
Garrison ordered Ferrie held for the FBI. The FBI released Dave Ferrie.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jun 15, 2014 9:41:13 GMT
2. THE AWAKENING
Three years passed.
In the autumn of 1966 Garrison had a conversation with Russell Long, senator from Louisiana. Long claimed the Warren Commission was dead wrong.
Garrison ordered the Warren Commission volumes. Garrison found a mass of information, disorganised and confused. There was no adequate index.
Garrison discovered witness statements that did not support the official explanation: Lee Bowers, J.C. Price, S.M. Holland, O.V. Campbell, James Tague, Billy Lovelady, Abraham Zapruder, Forrest Sorrels, William Newman, L.C. Smith, Malcolm Summers, Jean Hill. He mentions that Julia Ann Mercer was never questioned by the Commission.
Garrison mentions that the Dallas Police Department - specifically Dallas Homicide Division, Captained by Will Fritz - interview Oswald fror 12 hours without any taping or shorthand notes by a stenographer. No attorney was present.
Garrison notes the FBI wrapped up its investigations within weeks.
Garrison discovered the testimony of Lieutenant Colonel Allison G Folsom, Jr. who described a grade in Russian Oswald had received at El Toro Marine Base. Garrison had been in the military and couldn't remember anyone having to demonstrate their proficiency in Russian. Garrison felt this meant Oswald was receiving intelligence training and Marine intelligence was overseen by the Office of Naval intelligence.
Garrison visited 544 Camp Street after finding it on a Warren Commission exhibit of material Oswald had been handing out. The entrance of 544 opened onto stairs leading to the second floor. Garrison discovered that 544 led to the same place as 531 Lafayette, which was an address around the corner. Back in 1963 it was the location of Guy Banister Associates Inc.
Guy Banister died in 1964.
Garrison had once played chess with an employee of Banister and had lived in the same apartment building as Maurice Gatlin as partner of Banisters in the Anti-Communist League of the Caribbean.
Garrison recognised that one of the young men photographed handing out pro-Castro leaflets with Oswald was the son of a fellow artillery officer of his in the National Guard called Charles Steel. The son claimed that he had been paid $2 per hour to hand out pamphlets.
According to the Warren Commission, when Oswald was arrested Aug 9 he asked to see the FBI. He was able to meet SA John Quigley in private. Quigley burned his notes of this meeting. Garrison notes when Oswald moved to Dallas, so did Quigley.
Garrison noticed that across the street from Banister office was the US Post Office building. He remembered learning that ONI occupied the top floor. Banister had been in the ONI.
Garrison visited Reily Coffee Company and Crescent City Garage, which was next door. Operator of the Garage was Adrian Alba and he says Oswald had spent a great deal of time there. Garrison says it had been the official parking lot of the FBI for years. Garrison notes CIA offices were a few blocks away in the Masonic Temple.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jun 15, 2014 12:35:14 GMT
3. WAR GAMES
Garrison tracks down Jack Martin again. Martin admits to Garrison the police report which says his pistol-whipping was about phone bills was not true, actually he had threatened Banister that he knew about all those people who had visited his office. Banister reacted by attacking him. Martin told Garrison David Ferrie was there all the time and Lee Harvey Oswald as well, occasionally. Martin says that Banister wasn't doing detective work - if any came in it would be given to him (Martin).
When asked what was going on Martin was coy. He said he can't go into that stuff. He said it would bring the federal government down on his back and he might get killed.
An assistant of Garrison named Frank Klein suggested local newspaper articles about bomb material seized by the FBI August 1 and 2, 1963, may have something to do with Banister.
Guy Banisters widow believed she remembered coming across leaflets about either Fair Play for Cuba or Hands Off Cuba, while going through his possessions. She believed Federal Agents had arrived a few hours after Banisters death and taken locked filing cabinets. She also mentioned some material was taken by state police.
Garrison obtained what remained of Banisters index cards from the state police. They contained references to: the CIA; Arms; Anti-Soviet Underground; Fair Play for Cuba and the International Trade Mart, among others.
Eventually Jack martin began to talk to Garrison about what really went on at Banisters, he claimed the newspaper articles about the seized explosives were related to Banister. Garrison promised to protect Jack Martins name because he as a very important witness.
During the FBI explosives raid, 11 people had been arrested, 9 Cubans and 2 Americans. The two Americans were Rich Lauchli and Sam Benton.
Martin explained that Banister was part of a supply line for arms and explosives to be used against Castro. Garrison would later learn from Gordon Novel thats Dave Ferrie removed ammunition and explosives from a Schlumberger bunker in Houma, Louisiana. Banister was also part of the handling of anti-Castro trainees passing through the city.
Garrison got a Secret Service report on 544 Camp Street which claimed that no one at the address recalled seeing Lee Oswald. Garrison thinks they should have questioned Delphine Roberts, Banisters secretary.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jun 15, 2014 13:34:22 GMT
4. THE SOCIAL TRIUMPHS OF LEE HARVEY OSWALD
Garrison wanted to know if Oswald had a commitment to Marxism - as the Warren Commission had said. He read the testimony of fellow marines.
He says that Jason Delgado was closest to Oswald and had bunked next door to him 11 months. But Delgado said that Oswald never said any subversive things and had been a terrible rifle shot. He admitted Oswald was proficient in Spanish and they would have conversations in Spanish, but he says not about Socialism.
Daniel Powers, who served with Oswald in four military locations, didn't recall Oswald expressing any Communist principles or sympathies.
Other Oswald associates statement all recording no political or Communist sympathies: John E. Donovan; Donald Peter Camarata; Peter Francis Conner; Allen D. Graff; John Rene Heindel; Mack Osborne; Richard Dennis Call.
Only one man who had been at Marine Base with him testified he had Marixst leanings, says Garrison. Kerry Thornley.
Oswald was assigned to Atsugi Air Base in 1957 before he came to El Toro. Garrison discovered Atsugi was the base for the U-2 intelligence flights over China.
In the summer of '59, five moths after the Russian examination, Oswald applied for premature discharge from the Marine Corps because his mother was undergoing physical hardships. In Sept 1959 he was given an honourable discharge for hardship/dependency. He spent 3 days with his mother in Fort Worth then left for New Orleans.
Oswald obtained a steamship ticket to England from Lykes at the International Trade Mart. There is some confusion about when and how he left England, on Oct 9 or 10, for Helsinki, Finland. Oswald arrived in Moscow, Oct 16 1959, by train from Finland.
Two weeks later Oswald appeared at the American Embassy and handed over his passport, a letter about switching allegiances and a confession that he was going to inform the Soviets all he knew about radar operations. Oswald was sent to Minsk in January 1960. He was give special privileges while there.
In Feb 1961 Oswald applied to return to the US at the American Embassy in Moscow. In March 1961 he meets Marina Prusakova. In April 1961 they married.
The State Department finds no evidence that Oswald is a Communist, does not object to his return and orders the Embassy in Moscow to lend him money. A loan of $436 was granted after a few months. Also the Passport Office in the State Department renewed his passport. Garrison says there was no lookout card in Oswald's file and he was given a clean bill of health.
He arrived in New York in June 1962 where he was met only by Spas T. Raikin, the leader of an Anti-Communist operation and an employee of Traveler's Aid Society.
Oswald and wife moved to Fort Worth Texas and Oswald got a job at Leslie Welding company.
On October 7, 1962, Oswald met George de Mohrenschildt. The next day he moved to Dallas and started looking for a new job. Before the end of October he had one at Jagger-Stovall-Chiles, who were under contract with the Pentagon. The job required a security clearance which Oswald got.
Garrison notes the White Russian community in Dallas was helping the Oswalds. Garrison found that George de Mohrenschildt was Oswald's most frequent associate in Dallas. A dinner guest at the Oswald's apartment was Max Clark, a retires Air Force Colonel, whose wife Katya, was a member of the Russian Royal family.
Teofil Meller reported Oswald to the FBI after his wife saw a copy of Karl Marx's Das Kapital in his apartment.
During his investigation, Garrison established phone contact with de Mohrenschildt. Garrison claims neither he nor his wife believed Oswald shot the president.
Late April 1963, Oswald left Dallas for New Orleans. By May 9 Oswald had a job at Reily Coffee, near Guy Banisters building. Oswald had applied for many different jobs around New Orleans according to Warren Commission exhibits.
Garrison learned that two men claiming to represent Friends of Democratic Cuba arrived at the Bolton Ford dealership on North Claiborne Ave. on Jan 20 1961. They wanted to buy ten Ford pickup trucks and said the bid had to be in the name of Oswald. Garrison points out Oswald was in the Soviet Union at this time. Garrison finds that one of the names incorporating Friends of Democratic Cuba was Guy Banister. Garrison wonders how long Banister and Oswald have been connected.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jun 15, 2014 14:48:06 GMT
5. SETTING UP THE SCAPEGOAT
Marina Oswald left New Orleans for Dallas Sep 23, 1963. She was driven by a Mrs Ruth Paine. Oswald seems to have left a day later, possibly by bus.
The Oswald's had met Ruth Paine in Feb 1963 at a party they were brought to by George de Mohrenschildt. Garrison found that Michael Paine did classified work for Bell Helicopter, a Defence Department contractor. Ruth Paine had knowledge of the Russian language. Her father had worked for USAID.
Ruth Paine had been on vacation in Washington DC before she picked up Marina on her way back. Marina and her daughter stayed at Ruth's house. Ruth and Michael had temporarily separated.
Oct 4 1963, Lee returns to Dallas. He said he had been in Houston looking for work. Ten days later Ruth Paine gets him an interview at the Texas School Book Depository.
While his wife is at the Paine's, Oswald rents a series of small rooms around Dallas. Garrison doesn't know why.
Garrison finds that the income tax returns of Ruth and Michael Paine are classified. Other Warren Commission documents relating to these Paine's are sealed under national security.
CIA memo dated Oct 10, 1963 reports that in late Sep through early Oct 1963 a Lee Oswald had repeatedly phoned and appeared at the Soviet embassy in Mexico City. During the Warren Commission the CIA informed the Commission about this, however were unable to provide any further evidence. They also produced a statement from Silvia Duran, who worked at the Cuban Embassy, alleging Oswald had appeared there. At the time the Commission was unaware she was secretly detained by the CIA when she made that statement. When interviewed later by Anthony Summers she claimed that this man was blond and 5'3.
Warren Commission did not question Eusebio Azcue who had three angry interactions with Oswald. The HSCA did and Azcue said the man was blond and not Oswald.
Mrs Fenella Farrington and Mrs Lillian Merilh were questioned by the FBI - did they see Lee Oswald or Jack Ruby in Mexico City. Both denied seeing either.
Garrison says while working at the Texas School Book depository, Oswald was offered a job at an airport, but the Paine's failed to pass on the offer to him an he knew nothing about it.
Garrison started investigating Kerry Thornley. He had been in the Marines with Oswald in 1959 and had arrived in New Orleans in 1961. `he had been arrested for a minor offence in New Orleans in August 1962. Garrison also learned Thornley was in New Orleans in 1963, only leaving a few days after the assassination. Garrison found a witness, Barbara Reid, who saw Thornley and Oswald together at Bourbon House Sept 1963.
It took Garrison a year to locate Thornley, it was early 1968 and Garrison subpoenaed him from Tampa. Thornley admitted arriving in New Orleans Feb 1961 and living there until Nov 1963, he had no explanation for why he left at that time. He admitted he had met Guy Banister and David Ferrie but denied having met Oswald. Fishing, Garrison asked Thornley about a box key for Lafayette Square post office. He admitted he had possessed such a key. Garrison believed all members of Banister's operation possessed these keys.
Garrison then learns that while in new orleans he was writing a novel inspired by lee Harvey Oswald. He finished the book Feb 1963.
Thornley said he had travelled to California by bus in late May 1963. He said the bus stopped in Dallas and he had visited Dallas briefly. Thornley said he returned from California by way of Mexico City - this would be close to the time the Warren Commission said Oswald was in Mexico City.
By Nov 1963, Thornley was renting an apartment in New Orleans from John Spencer, a friend of Clay Shaw. Spencer was surprised Thornley left suddenly for Alexandria, Virginia, the week after the assassination. He found paper torn into small pieces covering the floor of the apartment. The ink had been watered down before the paper was torn to make it unreadable.
Garrison traced Thornley in Alexandria. He had become a doorman at an apartment complex - Shirlington House - Garrison says the rent was more than his entire salary. He stayed there 6 months before testifying to the Warren Commission. Thornley later told Garrison he had left Washington for California where he met and became friends with John Rosselli.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jun 15, 2014 17:48:20 GMT
6. DEEP COVER
Dean Andrews a lawyer was called by a man named Clay Bertrand in the summer of 1963. Bertrand had called numerous times before asking for legal help for his young friends, thuds time he wanted Andrews to help the Oswalds. As a consequence of helping with Marina citizenship, Andrews had met Lee Oswald several times. He had also been called he said, a day after the assassination, about providing legal help to Oswald. The FBI concluded the calls were a figment of his imagination.
Garrison knew Andrews well, he was at law school with him. However Andrews wouldn't answer Garrisons questions about Clay Bertrand honestly. He said if he did it would mean a bullet in his head. He mentioned the government.
Garrisons staff asked around bars in the French quarter about Clay Bertrand. Garrison says he found many people who identified Clay Bertrand as an alias that Clay Shaw went by, and that this was common knowledge.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jun 15, 2014 18:18:08 GMT
7. THE FRONT PAGE
Roger Craig saw Dallas police questioning a Latin man on Elm Street a few minutes after the assassination. He then saw a Nash Rambler station wagon pull up in front of the Depository - he believed the driver was the Latin man he had seen. Then he saw a man he later identified as Lee Oswald jump into the station wagon and it speed off. Craig told Garrison he went to Dallas police headquarters to see if he could help, he met Will Fritz about the Nash Rambler incident and Fritz took him to meet Oswald. Oswald claimed the car belonged to Ruth Paine. Deputy Sheriff Buddy Walthers drove to the Paine residence and confirmed she did own a Nash Rambler. Garrison says Fritz later lied and denied Roger Craig had been at police HQ, however a photograph of him there emerged six years after the assassination, proving Craig's story.
Oswalds fingerprints were never found on the Manlicher Carcano. FBI lab technicians in DC found no fingerprints or partial prints identifiable as Oswalds. Dallas police would later announce they found Oswalds palm print on the rifle. Garrison points out Warren Commission counsel J. Lee Rankin suspected the palm print may have been added deceptively.
The rifle was so well hidden under boxes it was missed several times according to officer Seymour Weitzmann, who had identified the weapon as a Mauser. Garrison says no ammunition clip for a Manlicher Carcano was ever found. Garrison mentions a third rifle recorded by the Dallas Cinema Associates shortly after the assassination as police officers came down the fire escape with a rifle which was neither a Manlicher nor a Mauser.
Oswald passed a nitrate test. He had no nitrate on his cheeks.
Garrison discovered the front page of the Dallas Morning News showed a different parade route from the one taken, one which didn't go passed the book depository. Garrison had never heard this before. He sent an assistant to research Earle Cabell, the Dallas mayor. She discovered lots about a General Charles Cabell, a deputy director of CIA, fired by Kennedy. Garrison found out they were brothers.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jun 15, 2014 18:59:02 GMT
8. COVERT OPERATIONS
Early in 1967 Garrison got a lead that Oswald had been seen in Clinton, Louisiana, late summer 1963 with two older men in a black Limousine. Following up this lead Garrison found two witnesses who saw the men there in September 1963. Other witnesses remembered the scene and identified David ferrie. Descriptions of the other man matched Clay Shaw and when thee town marshall had the licence plates checked by state police he found the car was registered to the International Trade Mart.
Edwin McGehee, the town barber, remembered cutting Oswalds hair. Oswald mentioned getting a job at a hospital in Jackson. McGehee recommended Reeves Morgan, state representative, as a possible help. Oswald turned up at Morgans house. Garrison investigators found that Oswald did apply for a job at the mental hospital in Jackson and was interviewed there, however the file was missing.
Garrison visited Wray Gill, a top city lawyer, because David Ferrie had worked part time for him 1962/63. Wray gave Garrison a list of Ferries long distance phone calls. Ferries employment ended Jan 1964, and all the bills for 62/63 were in place except Nov 63 which were missing. Ferrie called outside the country often, places such as Guatemala, Mexico and Canada, says Garrison.
Garrison found that Ferrie called Chicago number WH 4-4970 on Sep 24 1963, a day before Oswald left New Orleans. He found the same number in the Warren Commission exhibit number 2350, the exhibit said the caller reached room 1405 and a Miss A. Asie. Garrison discovered that a Jean Aase accompanied Lawrence V Myers to Dallas Texas Nov 20, 1963 according to an FBI report. On Nov 21 the visited the Carousel Club where they met with Jack Ruby. Garrison found she was also called Jean West. She did not appear before the Commission.
By serving a subpoena in Ferrie's bank account, Garrison's staff discovered he had deposited more than $7,000 into his account in the weeks preceding the Kennedy assassination.
Garrison obtained a report from a private detective agency on Ferrie. The report mentioned he had been visited frequently by a Dante Marachini. Marachini was listed in the phone book at 1309 Dauphine Street which was next door to Clay Shaw. Looking up other residents of 1309 Dauphine, Garrison found James Lewallen. Lewallen had once lived with Ferrie, also.
While investigating Reily Coffee company Garrsion discovered people who worked with Oswald were all gone, they left within a few weeks of Oswald leaving. One of those people was Dante Marachini, who had started the same day as Oswald and left several weeks after him for a job a Chrysler Aerospace. The man who hired Oswald, Alfred Claude, had also left to work at Chrysler Aerospace. Garrison checked into James Lewallen and found he now worked for Boeing.
Melvin Coffee who had gone to Texas with Ferrie now worked at Cape Canaveral.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jun 16, 2014 8:51:24 GMT
9 THE BONDS OF FRIENDSHIP
Garrison found Jules Ricco Kimble, a member of the Minutemen and the KKK, he says David Ferrie introduced him to Clay Shaw in the Golden Lantern in Vieux Carre. He flew to Canada with Ferrie and Shaw. Kimble met Shaw on many occasions and learned of his alias Clay Bertrand. Kimble claimed to work for the CIA and said he would often receive instructions from a post office box on Lafayette Street, the same post office Banisters operatives used.
David Logan, a friend of Ferrie's, met Shaw through Ferrie, came to know him well and was even invited to dinner at his house, 1313 Dauphine St.
Nicholas and Mathilda Tadin saw Ferrie with Clay Shaw at New Orleans Airport.
Raymond Broshears was a friend of Ferrie's and saw Shaw and Ferrie together on multiple occasions. Shaw once told Ferrie the FBI were looking for Broshears. Broshears said Ferrie would talk about being tangentially uninvolved in the assassination when drunk. Ferrie told Broshears he was told to drive to Texas and wait until joined by two members of the assassination team, one named Carlos. Ferrie says they never showed up. The assassins apparently felt Kennedy had sold them out to the Communists.
In Sep 1967 Garrison met Edward Whalen a professional criminal. Whalen said he had been offered a job by Ferrie in early 1967. Ferrie introduced him to Clay Bertrand and said they wanted someone killed. They offered him a total of $25000 to kill the DA Jim Garrison. Whalen refused. The next day Whalen met Dean Andrews at Clay Shaws apartment. Shaw told Whalen he knew his daughter suffered from Polio and offered him medical treatment money and college money if he killed Garrison. Still Whalen refused. Ferrie told Whalen Shaw had done a lot for Lee Oswald, who only had to be killed because he made a mistake.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jun 16, 2014 9:06:04 GMT
10. THE IDES OF FEBRUARY
Garrisons chief investigator was a man named Pershing Gervias. Gervais was also a source for the Metropolitan Crime Commission. Gervais never investigated the Kennedy Assassination for Garrison. Garrison later learned that since late 1966 Gervais was pressuring Frank Klein, Chief Assistant DA, to get the Kennedy investigation stopped.
Feb 17 1967 was the day the New Orleans States-Item revealed that Garrison was probing JFKs death. Garrison received a lot of public support as a result of this.
A man named John Miller who said he was an oil man from Denver offered financial help. When Garrison met with him he knew about Guy Banisters operation. He offered Garrison an appointment to the bench in federal district court and said it could be arranged easily - if he stops his investigation. Garrison refuses.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jun 16, 2014 9:38:17 GMT
11. CHECKMATE
February 22 1967, Garrison was meeting with his team to decide if Ferrie should be called before a Grand Jury.
When the story that Garrison was probing JFKs death leaked, Ferrie had called Garrisons office. He had asked if Garrison planted the story. Ferrie announced the story meant that he (Ferrie) was a dead man. A few days late Ferrie called again asking for help as newsmen had surrounded his apartment. Garrison had Ferrie put up in the Fontainbleau.
Supposedly while the meeting about what to do with Ferrie was taking place they received the phone call that Ferrie was dead. Garrison visited Ferrie's apartment and noted that it smelled of mice. There were faded priestly garments. The apartment was a mess. Two typed suicide notes were found. There were several empty medical bottles on the table.
On Feb 25 the coroner announced Ferrie died of natural causes. Garrison notes one of the empty medical bottles was Proloid, he was told it would cause death by heart storm or brain aneurism, if over consumed by someone suffering hypertension like Ferrie. Ferrie did indeed die of a brain aneurism.
On March 1, 1967 in the evening, Garrison obtained a warrant for Shaw's arrest and search of his house. Shaw's attorney was Salvadore Panzeca. When shaw was booked he was asked if he had any aliases and he responded Clay Bertrand.
Garrison seized Shaw's address book, it contained names such as: Baron Rafaelo de Banfield (Villa Tripcovich, Triesta, Italy); Marquesse Giuseppe Rey (Vicenza, Italy); Sir Stephen Runciman (66 Whitehall Court, London) Princess Jacqueline Chimay (2 Rue Albert Thomas, Paris); Lady Margaret D'Arcy (109 Earl's Court Road, London); Sir Michael Duff (Bangor, Wales); Lady Hulse (7 Culross Street, London).
It also contained: Lee Odom, PO Box 19106; Dallas, Texas. Garrison notes a PO 19106 appeared in Oswalds address book as well. Shaw's attorneys Edward Wegmann and Salvadore Panzeca found a Lee Odom in Irving, Dallas. Garrison says Lee Oswalds notation was written in 1963 and Dallas had no post offie box as high as 19106 then.
In Banisters carriage house, Garrisons investigators found five whips, several lengths of chain, a black hood and cape as well as two hooks screwed into the bedroom ceiling.
Shaws address book had a page when nothing was written except "Oct Nov Dallas."
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jun 16, 2014 10:08:52 GMT
12. CONFRONTATION
Attorney General of the United States, Ramsey Clark, announced that the government had checked out and exonerated Clay Shaw. Garrison says Shaw's name does not appear in the Warren Commission. The Justice Department corrected Ramsey Clark's statement saying nothing arose indicating a need to investigate Mr. Shaw.
A Grand Jury indicted Clay Shaw for conspiracy to murder the president. Garrison points out he made a motion for a preliminary hearing on the defendants behalf. He says its the first time in Louisiana history a prosecutor has done this.
The preliminary hearing began 14 March 1967. Garrison called Perry Russo. Russo had been interviewed by the Baton rouge State-Times on Feb 24 1967 and revealed he had attended a meeting at Ferries apartment where the assassination of Kennedy had been discussed. Garrisons investigators interviewed him and he ID'ed Clay Shaw as having been at Ferrie's, though he knew him as Bertrand, as well as some Cubans.
Garrison says he used hypnosis and Sodium Pentothal on Russo to see if he was telling the truth. On the witness stand, Russo said he attended a party at Ferrie's in the middle of Sept 1963 with his girlfriend Sandra Moffett. After the party broke up Ferrie was left with some anti-Castro Cubans and a man introduced to Russo as Clem Bertrand. He remembered meeting a Leon Oswald there. After they discussed assassinating Castro the Cubans left until there were only four people: Ferrie; Bertrand: Oswald; Russo. Then Ferrie started talking about getting rid of Kennedy and blaming it on Castro - then they could invade Cuba. Ferrie emphasised a triangulation of crossfire to get Kennedy. Bertrand said it was important to be in the public eye when it happened, so they discussed where they were going to be. Russo felt as if the decision to take out Kennedy had already been made.
Garrison says Shaws lawyers focused on the hypnosis and Sodium Pentothal treatments imagining that Russo had been induced somehow into telling this story.
The other witness was Vernon Bundy, a heroin addict who had gone to lake Pontchartrain on a July morning in 1963 to prepare a heroin injection where he saw two men he ID'ed as Lee Oswald and Clay Shaw.
The hearing concluded March 17 with the three judge panel ordering Clay Shaw to be held for jury trial.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jun 16, 2014 10:31:51 GMT
13. THE ASSAULT
On 04 Sept 1967, Earl Warren announced that Garrison had presented absolutely nothing publicly to contradict the Warren report. Garrison says Shaw's trial had yet to begin.
Life magazine revealed Garrison had Las Vegas connections, visiting casinos from time to time. Garrison admits visiting Vegas twice a year but denies any gambling.
Perry Russo was contacted by the media, Richard Townley of WDSU TV told Russo he was working with Clay Shaw's lawyers. Walter Sheridan of NBC, upon learning Russo was going to go on vacation to California, offered to help him get a job there and protect him from extradition, if he agreed to sabotage Garrisons probe. Sheridan told him NBC flew Gordon Novel to Virginia and protected him from Garrison. Sheridan wanted Russo to go on TV and say he lied and was doctored by the DA's staff. James Phelan told Perry that he was conspiring with Townley and Sheridan to destroy the Garrison probe.
The Case of Jim Garrison was broadcast on NBC. In it a number of people made allegations against Garrison. After the program two of them were called before a Grand Jury to repeat there allegations, they both took the fifth. Another one, Dean Andrews, was indicted for committing perjury. He was found guilty August 1967.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jun 16, 2014 11:32:55 GMT
14. THE COMPANY
Garrison picked up volunteers to work alongside him, he had a whole team of assistants by Spring '67. One was William wood, an ex-CIA man, who Garrison's staff called Bill Boxley to conceal his background from the media. Another CIA man, Jim Rose, was accepted after recommendation from Boxley. Rose had trained anti-Castro guerrillas at No Name Key.
Garrison discovered a National Security council memo from 1952 which stated Communist control of Southeast Asia would jeopardise US interests in the far east. In 1954 Dulles, Twining and Radford proposed a plan to invade Vietnam but Eisenhower rejected it. Instead he cancelled elections creating a division of the country.
Garrison tried to extradite Gordon Novel from Ohio in April 1967. Novel apparently admitted to the press he was linked to the CIA. He also named david Ferrie and Sergio Arcacha Smith as involved. Ohio refused to extradite Novel. Garrison says other extradition cases were also blocked.
Garrison tried to subpoena FBI Agent Warren DeBrueys, after an informant told him DeBrueys was involved with Banister and had a special office on Canal Street. DeBrueys pleaded executive privilege on orders of the Justice Department and refused to testify.
Garrison tried to subpoena Allen Dulles but the US Attorney in Washington refused to serve it.
Relatives of Richard Case Nagell contacted Garrison. Garrison was able to find the FBI report on Nagell in Warren Commission files. Garrison flew to New York and met him in a Central Park. His story was that he had been working for the US government in the summer of 1963. He was assigned to investigate Lee Oswald and discovered ate August 1963 that a large operation to assassinate Kennedy was under way. He wrote to the FBI but got no reply. He decided the safe course was to be in jail when the assassination happened. He fired shots into the ceiling of a bank in El Paso and waited to be arrested. He was sentenced to 10 years, but 2 years later the sentence was overturned. He told Garrison that the other men connected to Oswald were Guy Banister, Dave Ferrie and Clay Shaw.
Garrison thinks Bill Boxley tried to set him up. He says Vincent Salandria discovered that Boxley was working for the Federal government and that when they called Boxley to confront him he fled. They found his room on Canal Boulevard was never occupied.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jun 16, 2014 14:36:28 GMT
15. SHELL GAME
Dallas police officer J.D.Tippet was shot half an hour after Kennedy's assassination in the Dallas suburb of Oak Park. Garrison found the evidence against Oswald didn't hold up.
Garrison says Tippet was shot between 1:06pm and 1:10pm. Oswald was at his fuming house around 1:00pm and at northbound Beckley Avenue bus stop at 1:04pm. Garrison says Tippet was killed a mile to the south.
Domingo Benavides was the closest of all witnesses and didn't see Oswald. Helen Markham's testimony conflicted with other witnesses, he said for example that she tried to talk to Tippet for 20 minutes while other witnesses say Tippet died instantly.
Garrison says witnesses such as T.F.Bowley, who called for help on Tippets radio, Donald Higgins and the ambulance workers were never called before the Commission.
Witnesses Acquilla Clemons and Frank Wright and Mrs Wright are also important too. Frank Wright saw the shooter drive off in an old, gray car.
Garrison read the transcripts of messages sent over Dallas police radio in the aftermath of the killing. The initial reports were that an automatic weapon was used. But Oswald was arrested carrying a revolver.
Dallas coroner removed four bullets from Tippets body, three copper coated made by Winchester, one a lead bullet made by Remington-Peters. Dallas homicide sent only one of these bullets to the FBI lab. The FBI found the bullet did not match Oswald's gun. The Warren commission sent the other there bullets for testing but the lab was unable to match them to Oswald's revolver.
Six days after sending a single bullet for analysis, Dallas homicide sent four cartridges supposedly found at the Tippet scene for analysis. The lab concluded they matched Oswald's revolver. The FBI found two of these cartridges were by Remington and two by Western. Also the original cartridges were marked by the officer who fond them and his Sergeant, yet these four cartridges had no marks.
Garrison blames Will Fritz and his Dallas homicide unit for concealing and manipulating evidence.
|
|