On the Trail of the Assassins

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16. ESCAPE OF THE ASSASSINS

Roger Craig told a story of four men fleeing in a Nash Rambler station wagon.

Witnesses behind the motorcade thought they heard shooting from the Dal Tex building. A man was arrested coming out of the building- claims Garrison - but no information about him is available. Another man arrested at the Dal Tex building was Jim Braden, real name Eugene Hale Brading. He had an oil business in LA and had come to Dallas on business with the approval of his parole officer. He had had an appointment with one of the sons of H.L Hunt.

Officer Tom Tilson and off duty cop saw possible assassins escaping and chased them in his car, he took down their registration number and handed it to Dallas police, says Garrison.

A man from New York named Richard E Sprague told Garrison about 500 photographs taken at Dealey Plaza that day, especially ones featuring three tramps. Garrison brought copies of these photos to the Johnny Carson Show and showed them on TV.

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17. THE RELUCTANT INVESTIGATORS

One day in 1968 the husband of Julia Ann Mercer called Garrison and offered to meet with Garrison. When they met Garrison handed her the statement she made in the Warren Commission exhibits. She said they had been altered to be the opposite of what she really said. Mercer saw a pickup truck acting suspiciously shortly before the assassination and later positively identified Jack Ruby a the driver. The FBI altered her statement so it said she did not ID Ruby. She also claimed the Dallas Sheriff's office forged her signature.

Jim Garrison's friend Mark Lane happened to meet former FBI employee William S. Walter, who mentioned that on 17 Nov 1963 he received a warning about a possible assassination attempt through the teletype machine at the New Orleans office. The message was retrieved by FOIA and said that the bureau had determined a revolutionary group may attempt an assassination of President Kennedy in Texas on November 22/23.

C.A. Hamblem, early night manager of Western union's Dallas office had told people that Oswald was in the Western union office approximately 10 days before the assassination, sending a telegram to the secretary of the Navy in Washington D.C. Hamblem had seen Oswald there other times collecting money orders, he said Oswald used a library card and a Navy card for ID.

Garrison learned long ago that Oswald's address book contained the name of FBI Agent James Hosty. Garrison thinks the number next to the name was Hosty's unlisted home number. When the FBI gave the Warren Commission the contents of Oswald's address book, it omitted Agent Hosty's name and number.

Shortly before the assassination Oswald had visited the Dallas FBI, he left a note there for Agent Hosty. Hosty claims SA Gordon Shanklin ordered the note destroyed. Hosty said he was instructed by the FBI not to volunteer information to the Warren Commission, so never mentioned it to them.

Early in 1964, Waggoner Carr, the attorney general of Texas told a secret Warren Commission session on 22 January 1964, that evidence he had acquired from Allan Sweatt, chief of the criminal division of the Dallas Sheriff's office, indicated Oswald had been an undercover informant for the FBI on $200 month, agent number 179 and that this continued up to the day of the assassination.

Years later Garrison heard from a Jim Gochnour, whose former landlord was ex FBI agent Carver Gaten, a friend of James Hosty. Hosty had told him that Oswald was paid regularly for information but provided little.

Garrison says the first FBI agent to float Oswald's name as a possible assassin of the President, was James Hosty.

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18. THE TRIAL OF CLAY SHAW

Very late in the investigation a man named Charles Spiesel came to Garrison and claimed to have met Ferrie and Shaw and heard them discussing the possible assassination of the President.

Garrison decided to call Spiesel and at trial under cross examination Spiesel claimed to have been hypnotised on visits to New Orleans between 1948 and 1954. Spiesel also believe New York City Police had hypnotised him. He also admitted to fingerprinting his daughter when she left for university to make sure she was still the same daughter when she returned.

Shaw's chief counsel was F. Irvin Dymond. A close associate of Shaw's in courtroom was an attorney named Richard Matthews. Garrison knew Matthews from years earlier.

1 March 1969, jury acquitted Clay Shaw.

3 March 1969 Garrison charged Shaw with Perjury for lying on the witness stand during his trial, however the district court enjoined him from prosecuting Shaw.

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19. THE MAJESTY OF THE LAW

Early morning, 30 June 1971, IRS agents arrested Garrison. He was charged with participating in organised crime, payoffs on pinball gambling.

Garrison had been investigated by more than 40 IRS agents from 5 states for several years.

Garrison had loaned $5000 to Pershing Gervais. Gervais was pretending to fix cases and taking payoffs for it, claiming the money would go to the DA. He also collected money for authorising operations. Garrison had taken some money from Gervais as payment for his $5000 loan, these payments were recorded by the feds.

The trial began August 20 1973. Garrison was found not guilty. Garrison claimed the government had doctored audio recordings of him.

Another trial in 1974 also led to Garrison being found not guilty.

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20. THE SECRET SPONSORS

Garrison believes rouge elements of the CIA are behind Kennedy's assassination.

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