p. 35 - A reporter at large: Garrison Edward Jay Epstein 35 A R.EPOR.TER. AT LARGE GARRISON

GREAT many Americans curtly told him, "At this stage, we are bridge was crossed, a whole new set of must have responded with some supposed to be closing doors, not open- clues to why Oswald killed the Presi- A measure of bewilderment when, ing them." It later turned out that dent might have been found. on March 1, 1967, they heard the news some of the doors left ajar but un- Could Garrison have discovered such that Jim Garrison, the District At- opened led to associates of Oswald's in a bridge? Skeptics tended to dismiss torney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana, New Orleans, so it seemed entirely the possibility on the ground that Gar- had arrested a prominent New Orleans conceivable to me that Garrison just rison was a flamboyant and extreme- citizen, Clay L. Shaw, for "participa- might have stumbled upon some valu- ly ambitious politician. According to tion in a conspiracy to murder John F. able information that the Commission Aaron M. Kohn, the managing direc- Kennedy." The conclusions of the had, for one reason or another, side- tor of the Metropolitan Crime Com- Warren Commission, published some stepped. mission of New Orleans, "Garrison two and a half years before, had of- Consider, for example, a story at never lets the responsibilities of being fered the authoritative judgment that the root of Garrison's investigation, a prosecutor interfere with being a poli- Lee Harvey Oswald alone was respon- which involved a meeting among Os- tician." However, the fact that Gar- sible for the assassination. And although wald and three men—David William rison was politically motivated did not a host of doubts were subsequently Ferrie, Carlos Quiroga, and W. Guy necessarily—to my mind, at least— raised concerning the adequacy of Banister—all of whom the Warren preclude the possibility that he might the Warren Commission's investigation Commission had had reason to be in- be on to something. Whereas it might and the reliability of its conclusions, it terested in. Ferrie, who, according to not always have been in the interests of seemed incredible that the New Or- the testimony of one Commission wit- the Warren Commission, which was leans District Attorney could declare, as ness, commanded a unit of the Civil Garrison had, "My staff and I solved concerned as much with dispelling Air Patrol in which Oswald may have doubts as with ascertaining facts, to the assassination weeks ago. I wouldn't been a member briefly, had been ar- say this if we didn't have the evidence pursue leads that might generate fur- rested in New Orleans shortly after the ther doubts, or possibly damage the ef- beyond a shadow of a doubt." Indeed, assassination, on a tip that he was in- fectiveness of federal agencies, an am- the possibility that a local prosecutor volved with Oswald, and then released. bitious politician, it seemed to me, had found the answers to questions that Carlos Quiroga, a prominent Cuban might well pursue leads to their con- had baffled the investigative resources exile, had visited Oswald's home several clusion, especially since solving "the case of the federal government seemed so times in New Orleans, for the purpose, of the century," as Garrison called it, remote to most journalists that, soon he alleged, of appraising Oswald's pro- after the initial stir provoked by Shaw's would certainly enhance his reputation. Castro activities. W. Guy Banister, a Convinced that it was possible—indeed, arrest, news of the "assassination plot" private detective known to be associated was generally relegated to the back probable—that Garrison could find de- with anti-Castro activists in New Or- tails of Oswald's affairs that the Com- pages and treated about as seriously as leans, had an office in a building whose mission had missed, I went to New Or- flying-saucer reports. address appeared on some of the pro- leans shortly after Garrison announced I, for one, however, was prepared to Castro literature that Oswald occasion- that he was getting to the bottom of believe that District Attorney Garri- ally handed out on the streets. All son's claims might have some substance the "assassination plot" and arrested this information was in the hands of the Shaw. to them. In the course of writing my Commission, yet none of these three hook "Inquest," I had found that the men was questioned by the Commis- Warren Commission's investigation had VE R since he was first elected Dis- sion or its staff. It seemed to me that E trict Attorney, in 1961, Jim Gar- been severely constrained both by bu- leads such as these, if they had been reaucratic pressures exerted from with- rison—he legally changed 'his given pursued, could have provided a possible name to Jim from Earling Carothers— in and by limits of time imposed from bridge between the known and un- without. Far from being the rigor- has been a controversial figure in New known worlds of Lee Harvey Oswald Orleans. He has fought long and hard ous and exhaustive examination that in New Orleans. And once such a it was taken to he, the Commission's against prostitutes, homosexuals in the work was, at certain crucial points, French Quarter, and the more vul- reduced to little more than an ex- nerable purveyors of vice, hut, according ercise in the clarification of super- to his critics on the Metropolitan Crime ficial evidence. When one delved more Commission, he has neglected the deeply, some far more difficult problems problem of organized crime in New than any acknowledged by the Com- Orleans. "People worry about the mission began to appear. Even members crime 'syndicate,' " Garrison once said, of the Commission's own staff found "hut the real danger is the political this to be true. For example, when one establishment, power massing against staff lawyer suggested, late in the in- the individual." When the city's eight vestigation, that it might be worthwhile criminal-court justices exercised their to look further into the partly cor- statutory right to oversee the financing roborated claim of one witness that of his anti-vice campaign, Garrison Oswald had been associated not long charged that their actions "raised in- before the assassination with two un- teresting questions about racketeer in- identified Cuban exiles, his superior fluences." A court subsequently con- victed Garrison of criminally libelling 36 JULY 13, 1968 the eight judges, but the conviction was conspiracy? "It's exactly like a chess said that the District Attorney's staff reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court, problem," he explained. "The War- had yet to examine all this material, in a decision that held that individuals ren Commission moved the same pieces and he suggested that Harris and I have the right to criticize public offi- hack and forth and got nowhere. I look through Shaw's address hooks and cials even though the charges may turn made a new move and solved the financial records in hopes of discover- nut to be unfounded. Garrison is popu- problem." The move he meant was the ing some information that might inter- larly referred to in New Orleans as arrest of Clay Shaw. He pointed out est Garrison. We were left alone with the Jolly Green Giant—an image con- that after Shaw was arrested men from the evidence. jured up by his imposing physical the District Attorney's office searched Though none of these materials, as stature (six feet six inches) and his Shaw's home, in the French Quarter, far as I could see after examining them, political glad hand. When I met him, and found in it a cache of new evi- had anything directly to do with the in mid-April, his welcome was gra- dence, which he suggested that I should assassination, the odd way in which cious, if slightly fulsome; he told see, because it would give me "a new Garrison treated them did give me, me, almost solemnly, that it was his perspective on the case." when I thought about it later, "a new reading of my book that first set him Early the next morning, I went to perspective on the case." I recalled that thinking about launching an investiga- the District Attorney's office, which is a judge's order had forbidden discus- tion of his own. (Later, I learned housed, next to the Parish Prison, in sion or disclosure of any evidence in that this was a standard greeting, ex- the Criminal District Court Building, the case. The very fact that Harris and tended to almost all critics of the a massive structure at Tulane Avenue I were allowed to examine objects Warren Commission.) Over a leisure- and South Broad. Garrison had not yet seized from Shaw's home and desig- ly dinner at Broussard's, Garrison be- arrived, but one of his assistants, James nated "evidence" seemed to be a direct gan to tell me about the conspiracy he C. Alcock, told me that Garrison had violation of that order. Why, I won- had uncovered. It was a diffuse nar- left word that I should "start going dered, should the District Attorney rative, in which it appeared that Os- through the evidence." I did so with risk having his case thrown out of wald had only been feigning the role Jones Harris, a New Yorker of inde- court on a technicality by letting he went to considerable lengths to es- pendent means who has devoted the outsiders go freely through the evi- tablish for himself as a pro-Castroite better part of the last three years to a dence? Moreover, it seemed curious and had in fact been part of an anti- private investigation of the assassina- that Clay Shaw's papers had not al- Castro assassination team trained by tion. Six ca rd hoard cartons were ready been rigorously scrutinized by David Ferrie. Ferric, in turn, was in brought nut containing personal be- Garrison or his staff, especially s;nce some important way—Garrison never longings of Clay Shaw : letters, photo- Garrison had told several people, in- explained exactly how—personally in- graphs, financial records, blueprints for chiding me, that one of the main rea- volved with Clay Shaw. When a plan renovating houses in the French sons for arresting Clay Shaw on March to shoot Castro was aborted because Quarter, the manuscripts of plays he 1st was to prevent him from destroy- Oswald could not obtain a visa to Cuba, had written years ago, calendars, ing his personal papers. Six weeks had the assassination team turned its atten- checkbooks, address hooks. In one box passed, and yet from what I saw it tion to President Kennedy, and, on were a black costume, a net mask, and appeared that no real investigation of November 22, 1963, carried out its some plastic slippers—all of which Clay Shaw was going on at all hitt mission. Shaw had claimed were part of his only a search for peripheral characters How had Garrison discovered this 1965 Mardi Gras costume. Alcock connected with David Ferrie. If Gar- rison believed that Shaw had openly conspired to kill the President, why was the inquiry into his activities - being treated with such ap- - parent nonchalance? A discovery that Jones Harris made while we were going through the papers provided considerable in- sight into the nature of Garrison's investigation. What Harris found was a five-digit number that was common to both Shaw's and Oswald's address hooks. The entry in Shaw's hook was "Lee Odom, PO Box 19106, Dallas, Tex." In Oswald's book, the number 19106 was pre- ceded by the Cyrillic letters A ( which, like other Russian letters on the page, the Warren Com- mission had assumed were made during Oswald's two- THE NEW YORKER 37 and-a-half-year stay in the Soviet Union). ‘40s=zo■-._ Though the coinci- dence of numbers proved nothing in it- self, it was striking, and \\N\N Garrison decided that further investigation -'---. was merited. Shortly thereafter, Garrison announced to the press that he had found the entry "PO 19106" in both Oswald's and Shaw's address hooks, and that the num- ber was a "nonexistent or fictional number," which removed "the possibility of coinci- dence." Moreover, Garrison said that "PO 19106" was a code that, when deci- phered, produced Jack Ruby's unlisted tele- "One liberal Old-Fashioned for one old-fashioned liberal." phone number, WH 1-5601, and "no oth- • • er number on earth." The method by which Garrison "deci- fore it was assigned to Odom, in to Mr. Shaw, how many bullfights phered" the code is worth following. 1965—long after Oswald's death, in Mr. Odom has actually produced"— Starting with the "scrambled" number 1963. It was clear that Garrison had as if this fact were relevant to his in- 19106, Garrison "unscrambled" it (by done some questionable interpolating of vestigation—and "We are particularly choosing the nearest digit, then the his own in moving from a coincidence interested in clarifying now why there farthest, then the next nearest, etc.) to a conspiracy. First, he had told news- is also coded in Lee Oswald's address to produce the number 16901. Ruby's men that the number in Oswald's hook book the local phone number of the number was 15601, so by unscram- was PO 19106, although in fact it Central Intelligence Agency." Using bling the digits Garrison managed to was j 19106. (When a television an entirely different system of deci- match the last two digits in the two interviewer later asked him how he pherment, Garrison managed to con- numbers. The next step was to subtract had determined that the prefix was vert the number 1147, which appeared 1300 from 16901, and—presto- PO, rather than jl ,11, he answered, in Oswald's book, to 522-8874, the 15601. Finally, Garrison converted the with perfect aplomb, "More or less by C.I.A.'s phone number. Oswald's codes prefix "PO" to "WH" by a system looking at it.") Then, on the basis of were "subjective," Garrison said, in that, according to the prominent cryp- his deductions, he had announced that that they varied from number to num- tographer Irwin Mann, yields at least the post-office-box number was fic- ber. There seemed little point in Os- six different prefixes; Garrison chose tional. And, finally, he had converted wald's having gone through such an Ruby's. the number in Shaw's book into Jack elaborate procedure, however, because A few days after Garrison an- Ruby's phone number by rearranging the C.I.A. number that Garrison re- nounced that he had deciphered the the digits, subtracting an arbitrary ferred to was—and is—listed in the code, it became known that the num- number, and changing the letters "PO" New Orleans telephone book. ber 19106 in Shaw's address book was to "WH." Garrison had constructed What was Garrison's purpose in all by no means "nonexistent or fictional." a piece of evidence against Clay Shaw this? He himself noted, in an extended PO Box 19106 had been, as Shaw's and had disclosed it to the press. Yet interview in Playboy for October, address book indicated, the address in the District Attorney did not seem 1967, that pre-trial publicity prejudicial Dallas of a man named Lee Odom. particularly perturbed when questions to the defendant "could get our whole Odom stated that he had been intro- were raised about the logic of his de- case thrown out of court," yet he him- duced to Shaw in 1966 by the manager ductions. When he was asked on a lo- self had jeopardized his case by releas- of the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans, cal television show how the number of ing information that was not only and had briefly discussed with Shaw a post-office box that didn't exist until prejudicial to Clay Shaw but un- the possibility of bringing bloodless bull- 1965 could have been used to represent founded. fights to New Orleans; he had left Jack Ruby's phone number in 1963, his business address—PO Box 19106, he replied, "Well, that's a problem for T was aboard a jet flight between Dallas, Texas—with Shaw. In fact, you to think over, because you obvious- I New Orleans and New York in Odom's post-office box could not pos- ly missed the point." Indeed, Garrison late November of 1966 that the Gar- sibly have been the number in Oswald's counterattacked in a press conference, rison investigation started taking shape. hook, because the post-office-box num- saying, "We are very interested in Prompted by a cover story in Life ber 19106 did not exist in Dallas be- knowing who introduced Mr. Odom that called for a new investigation into THE NEW YORKER 39 and his friends were questioned about what had been two secret training activity did not justify the expense. To- his activities. Little came of this sur- camps in St. Tammany Parish. Ferrie ward the end of January, the Florida veillance. For further information, was rumored to have used one of them manhunt was called off. Garrison turned hack to Martin, whose to train his corps of commandos. In But Garrison had other leads to fol- tip had first linked Oswald and Ferrie. the hope of identifying the men under low—notably an old clue from a New Martin, who told Secret Service agents Ferrie's command, Garrison hired Ber- Orleans lawyer named Dean Adams that he suffers from "telephonitis" nardo Torres, a private detective from Andrews, Jr. Andrews' original story, when he has taken a drink and that Miami who claimed to have assisted which he told to the Secret Service it was on such an occasion that he the Secret Service by spotting poten- shortly after the assassination, was that telephoned the District Attorney's of- tially dangerous Cubans during a visit Oswald had come to his office a few fice about Ferrie, continued to narrate President Kennedy made to Miami in times during the summer of 1963 in a vast number of disconnected yarns 1963. In December, 1966, and Janu- the hope of finding some means by about Ferric and the assassination. Ac- ary, 1967, the investigation was broad- cording to a typical one of these, Ferrie ened to include various efforts to track hypnotized Oswald and then dispatched down, with Torres's help, any Cubans him on the assassination mission. Ac- in Miami who might have known Fer- cording to another, Ferrie had a work- ric. These efforts turned out to he un- ing association with certain anti-Castro productive but quite expensive—more activities conducted by the private de- than half the total expenditures—and tective W. Guy Banister. Garrison Garrison began to suspect that Torres's found this connection especially pro- vocative, because Banister, up to the time of his death, in 1964, main- tained offices in a building at 544 Camp Street, a block from the Wil- liam B. Roily Company, where Oswald worked, and one of the questions the Warren Commission had left unan- swered was why the address "544 Camp St." appeared as Oswald's headquarters on some pro-Castro literature that he handed out. Since Banister's office was, as Gar- rison put it, "a mare's-nest of anti-Castro activity," Garri- son postulated that Oswald might he an "agent provoca- teur" in Banister's employ. Garrison followed up this lead by systematically ques- tioning Banister's former em- ployees. One of them, a ship- ping clerk and sometime pri- vate investigator named David F. Lewis, Jr., added richly to the developing drama. Lewis claimed that he had been wit- ness to a meeting among Ban- ister, Ferrie, the anti-Castro leader Carlos Quiroga, and a person he called Leon Os- wald, who lie later thought might he Lee Harvey Oswald. Although Lewis said he was certain that this meeting had occurred in 1962, a time when Oswald was known to he liv- ing in Texas, and although Quiroga categorically denied that such a meeting had ever taken place, Garrison intensi- fied his efforts in this direction. He began digging into the ac- tivities of anti-Castro Cubans, and discovered the sites of "One of us is fast." 4H name to protect his client, would give the client's correct first name. In any event, Shaw was brought in for questioning in late December, on the pretext that Garrison was attempting to tie up a few loose ends in the Warren Report. Accord- ing to Chandler, it quickly be- came apparent that Shaw had no information to offer about Ferrie or his activities, and the matter was dropped. The Dis- trict Attorney told his staff to "forget Shaw." In January, when asked if he knew the identity of Clay Bertrand by Richard N. Billings, another member of Life's staff, Gar- rison replied, "His real name is Clay Shaw, but I don't think he's too important." Ferrie was still, at this time, the only suspect. By February, 1967, the in- vestigation seemed to he at a standstill. Ferrie obviously knew that he was tinder sus- "Good morning, vice-presidents!" picion, and it was highly un- • • likely that he would do any- thing to incriminate himself. The Cuban-exile trail had petered out which the "undesirable" discharge he down on homosexuals that Garrison had been given by the Marine Corps had carried nut in 1962 was generally in Miami. The Bertrand matter had been shelved. Garrison's chief witness could be converted into an honorable thought to have produced a number of one. The day after the assassination, informers, but Sciamhra was unable to was David Lewis, and, of the four Andrews, who was in the hospital tin- find anyone who had ever heard of participants in the meeting that Lewis der sedation recovering from pneumo- Clay Bertrand. Garrison reasoned that described, Oswald and Banister were nia, said he received a phone call from Dean Andrews was probably protecting dead, Quiroga (according to Garrison) could not be found, and Ferrie un- a man he knew as Clay Bertrand, a wealthy client with homosexual as- whom he described as "a lawyer with- sociates, and came up with the idea that equivocally denied everything. out a briefcase" for local homosexuals. Clay Bertrand was in reality Clay At this point, Gordon Novel, a According to Andrews, Bertrand asked Shaw, a socially prominent retired di- specialist in anti-eavesdropping devices, him to go to Dallas and defend Os- rector of the International Trade Mart was recommended to Garrison by Wil- wald. When Andrews was questioned in New Orleans. David L. Chandler, lard E. Robertson, a New Orleans by the F.B.I., he gave several dif- a Life reporter who worked closely automobile dealer who was one of ferent descriptions of Bertrand, and with Garrison in the early days of the Garrison's political supporters. (Gar- finally said that the character hearing investigation, was present when Gar- rison had been so concerned that the that nam.e was merely a figment of his rison first put forward this hypothesis F.B.I. might be tapping his telephones imaginatinn. A few months later, lie to his staff. According CO Chandler, that he had made plans a few weeks be- again changed his story, telling the Garrison offered three arguments for fore to execute a midnight raid on the F.B.I. field office in New Orleans, Warren Commission that he had re- it. First, Shaw had the same first name using a water pistol loaded with a cently seen Bertrand in a bar, and de- as Bertrand. Second, Shaw was ru- scribing him as "a boy" who was "5 mored to have friends in the homo- charge of red pepper to disarm the of- ficer on duty; he even invited Chan- foot 8 inches" and had "sandy hair." sexual world. And, finally, Shaw spoke dler, the Life reporter, to accompany No other clues to Bertrand's identity fluent Spanish and, although Andrews turned up, however, and Wesley J. had never said that Bertrand spoke him on the mission, but for some reason the plan was scrapped.) Upon learning Lieheler, a Commission lawyer who Spanish, Garrison was looking for a that Ferrie was under suspicion, Novel conducted the investigation in this area, conspirator involved in anti-Castro ac- told Garrison that he knew a good deal said he was convinced that no such tivities. Garrison brushed over the fact about Ferrie's activities in 1961. Ac- person existed. that Shaw—six feet four and a quarter cording to Garrison, Novel claimed Garrison nevertheless now decided inches tall, fifty-four years old, and that Ferrie, a Cuban-exile leader to pursue the matter further, and gave white-haired—hardly fitted Andrews' named Sergio Arcadia Smith, and two Assistant District Attorney Sciamhra, a description of a five-foot-eight-inch unidentified Cubans had been involved former boxer known by the nickname boy with sandy hair. He also ignored in a "pickup" of arms from a bunker Moo, a task he referred to as "squeez- the question of why Andrews, having in Houma, Louisiana, belonging to the ing" the French Quarter. A crack- given a false description and a false last 42

SchIumberger Well Surveying Corpo- measure, added that he was conducting ration. Some of the arms were re- his own inquiry into the assassination. Swim with the portedly deposited in the offices of W. For two days, shortly after the Guy Banister. The purpose of the State's-Item broke the news of Gar- "Day People" raid was to acquire arms for an anti- rison's investigation, Ferrie was kept Castro militia, and Novel stated that a under "protective custody," Billings C.I.A. contact had indulgently pro- has reported, at the Fontainebleau vided a key to the bunker. Novel Motor Hotel in New Orleans. Ac- later claimed that one of Garrison's cording to a member of Garrison's ideas for breaking the stalemate his in- staff, this was done at Ferrie's request. vestigation had apparently reached in- In any event, he returned to his own volved a plot to kidnap Ferrie. Accord- apartment on the evening of February ing to this story, Ferrie was to he shot 21st. The next day, Ferrie was found with an atropine dart, injected with dead. An autopsy indicated that he had sodium pentothal, and forced to con- died of a cerebral hemorrhage caused fess. Novel has said, "Garrison asked by the rupture of a blood vessel. The me to order him such a dart gun so coroner, Dr. Nicholas Chetta, ruled that it wouldn't appear on his out suicide, because a person is office purchase records" after the rarely aware that an aneurysm, District Attorney "had read or weak spot, exists in a blood about the idea in one of the books vessel, and it would he virtually Dance with the about the C.I.A." impossible to induce a "blow- "Night People" The entire investigation might out." He also ruled out murder, have expired quietly for want of on the ground that if the rupture any truly tangible leads if it had had been caused by an external not been for some resourceful blow there would necessarily moves by three reporters for the have been tissue damage, and New Orleans States-Item— Rosemary none was found. He concluded that James, Jack Dempsey, and David Ferrie had died from natural causes. Snyder. In New Orleans, the financial But the mere fact that a man suspected vouchers of the district attorney's of- of having conspired to assassinate the fice are a matter of public record. By President had died five days after piecing together information gleaned he was publicly implicated in the from these records and through various crime was sensational news, and re- leaks from Garrison's office, the re- porters flocked to New Orleans. Gar- porters were able to come up with a rison, without waiting for the results fairly accurate picture of the investiga- of the autopsy, had proclaimed Fer- tion, even though it was still being kept rie's death a suicide and had interpreted Come with the secret. Mrs. James wrote an article on a somewhat ambiguous letter that Fer- the subject and showed it to Garrison ric wrote to a friend shortly before "Fun People" on February 16, 1967. He simply his death as a "suicide note." Garrison to the shrugged and told her, "I will called Ferric "one of history's most im- neither confirm nor deny it." The portant individuals," and claimed that Puerto Rico Sheraton next day, the story broke. Garrison's in- an arrest had been only days away. vestigation into the assassination of "Apparently, we waited too long," he from $1150ta day President Kennedy was now a public said. No mention was made of the fact Let time take a holiday while you take a issue. Garrison charged that the news that Ferrie had already been placed swim... off our palm-fringed beach or in our story had seriously interfered with his under protective custody for two days. beautiful pool a few steps from the lobby. efforts; arrests that were to have been Ferrie's death brought a windfall of Dance away romantic nights and watch ex- citing shows in Salon Carnaval. Swing in made immediately, lie claimed, had publicity, but Garrison had lost his the Zanzibar Lounge. Dine in our rooftop now to he deferred for months. More- prime suspect. And the hundreds of Alhambra overlooking San Juan. Explore over, he announced that he would seek newsmen who had come to New Or- Old San Juan, shop for bargains. Go deep- sea fishing nearby. Play tennis, golf. Or sim- private financing in order not to have leans could hardly be expected to con- ply relax in your air-conditioned room or to conduct the inquiry in a "fish-. tinue reporting cryptic comments from suite with a private balcony. bowl." Two political allies, Joseph Garrison such as "The key to the • ROMS from 511,50 a day, per person, rwa o a room dim Dec. 14. 4'so Acrarryar Fun Package from RauIt, Jr., and Willard Robertson, whole case is through the looking glass. $144.45 for 7 days and 6 nights. thereupon organized fifty New Or- Black is white; white is black." When For Insured Reservations at Guaranteed Rates, call a travel agent, any Sheraton Hotel leans businessmen into a group that they asked for hard news, Garrison told or Reservation Offices: in New York—CH 4- 0700. Chicago — SU 7- called itself Truth or Consequences, them that he had "positively solved the 4585. Los Angeles— assassination of President John F. Ken- DU 2-8408. Inc. Its function was to supply Gar- SanFrancisco—EX 2.-8690 rison with both . funds and moral nedy," and he added that "in the support. Meanwhile, David Ferrie told course of time" he would' make arrests. puerto rico a newspaperman that Garrison's inves- At that point, most of the out-of-town tigation, in which he was suspected of reporters left. U SAN JUAN being Oswald's getaway pilot, was Garrison bad promised that arrests Sheraton Hotels and Motor Inns in Major Cities, nothing but "a big joke." He denied would be forthcoming, and apparent- A World Wide Service of nrr that he knew Oswald, and, for good ly a number of possible suspects were 44

considered. Some were drawn from second photograph he recognized was Ferrie's twilight world of adventurers of Clay Shaw. Russo said that he and self-styled secret agents. Others, thought he had seen this man twice be- p..63 according to William Gurvich, were fore but that he had never met him. prominent citizens of New Orleans. At The last photograph showed Lee Har- this point, Garrison received a brief vey Oswald, Russo thought this person letter from Perry Raymond Russo, a was a roommate of Ferrie's, who had twenty-five-year-old Baton Rouge in- a heard. surance salesman, who claimed to have The next day, hack in New Orleans, f known Ferrie. Russo had previously Sciamhra gave Garrison a preliminary approached a number of local reporters, oral report on his interview with Russo but they had shown no interest in him in the presence of Richard Billings, of after he said that he had never seen Life. Garrison then asked Sciambra to Oswald and knew nothing specific arrange a test for Russo using "truth about the assassination. Garrison, how- serum," or sodium pentothal. The ever, was very much interested in Rus- "truth serum" was administered to so's assertion that lie possessed useful Russo the next day by Dr. Nicholas information on Ferrie. On February Chetta. While under the influence of 25th, the day after Garrison received the drug, Russo was again questioned Russo's letter, Moo Sciambra was sent by Sciambra, though no transcript was to Baton Rouge to question Russo. made of the interrogation. Afterward, The greater part of the interview Russo had dinner with Garrison, was confined to uncovering Russo's re- Sciarnhra, and Billings, and Sciambra lationship with Ferrie. Russo told Sci- told Russo that after taking truth se- ambra that he had first met Ferrie in rum he had identified a tall man with 1962, when he attempted to get a white kinky hair, and that he had also young friend of his in Ferrie's Civil said that he had been introduced to Air Patrol unit out from under what this man as "Bertrand." According to he called the commander's "spell." Billings, Russo insisted that he did not Russo said that at one point, after he remember ever having met anyone had succeeded in breaking Ferrie's hold named Bertrand. Garrison attempted over his friend, Ferric had threatened to resolve this embarrassing discrepancy to kill him. Later, however, he and by suggesting to Billings that the truth Ferrie became friends, and worked as serum probably jogged Russo's mem- partners in selling pornographic films ory. "They asked me a lot of ques- imported from Cuba. Ferrie's main in- tions," Russo is reported to have re- terests, Rosso confirmed, were, first, called later. "I could figure out what instructing members of his Civil Air they wanted to know." Patrol outfit in "the art of fighting The following day, Garrison brought jungle warfare" and, second, Russo to Shaw's home in the his medical research; lie was French Quarter for a look at developing an aphrodisiac as Shaw, and on March 1st well as a cure for cancer. Garrison summoned Shaw to But Ferrie had said very lit- his office and had him inter- tle to him on the subject of rogated for two and a half Wear a watch that speaks for your assassination, except for some hours. Shaw categorically de- personality. Masculine, good- nied that he knew either Fer- looking, virile—Wyler Tri-Sport. vague remarks about how Set the E.T I. (elapsed time indi- easy it would be to shoot a ric or Oswald and that he cator) and it reminds you of that President and flee by air- knew anything about the as- important date, times sporting plane to Cuba or Brazil. sassination. When the topic events or your parking meter, Russo indicated that Ferric of using truth serum came Exclusive Incaflex balance wheel probably had in mind either up, Shaw sent for a lawyer, is guaranteed against shock for Eisenhower or the President of Mexi- Salvatore Panacea. Panzeca agreed to the life of the watch, replaced co. He did remember, however, that let Shaw take a lie-detector test, pro- free if ever broken. Renewable Ferrie had said a few times in the vided that the defense had the right to lifetime waterproof guarantee. summer of 1963 that lie would "get" approve the wording of the questions, Trl-Sport with Biotic or White Dial Steel Bend $55.00. Also Self-Winding $75.00 Kennedy. Sciambra then showed Russo that the results of the test were not dis- some photographs. The first one he closed except at a duly authorized court identified was of Sergio Arcacha Smith, proceeding, and that Shaw had a day's Wyler the Cuban-exile leader, Russo said it rest before the test. Garrison replied incaflex resembled an actor in one of the por- that be did not have to agree to any nographic films. "To he perfectly hon- conditions. A moment later, he de- WIN est," he said, "I looked at the film clared that Shaw was under arrest, had At your Jewelers or write Wyler Watch Corp.. quite a hit." (Russo was mistaken in him handcuffed, and led him before 316 Park Avenue South. New York, N.Y. 10010 his identification. Garrison's investiga- news photographers to he hooked. This tors later ascertained that the actor in move, Garrison later told me, was "a the film was not Arcadia Smith.) The command decision." He said he was 49

apprehensive that if he released Shaw in attendance, the hearing began on the suspect might "destroy vital evi- March 14th, before a panel of three dence." This explanation made little judges, with the testimony of Per- sense, for Garrison could have ob- ry Russo. Russo stated that he had tained a search warrant without arrest- attended a meeting at Ferrie's apart- ing Shaw; no more cause was required ment in September, 1963, at which than that he have a confidential in- the assassination of President Ken- formant, and he had—Perry Russo. nedy was planned by three men; Moreover, he had questioned Shaw in Ferric, a man he called "Leon Os- December, and if Shaw had had in- wald," and another he called "Clem criminating evidence in his home it Bertrand." Russo identified Leon Os- would seem likely that he would have wald as Lee Harvey Oswald from disposed of it then. But, whatever Gar- a photograph. Then Garrison asked rison's motives were, on March 1, Russo whether he recognized the man 1967, a week after the death of Fer- he called Clem Bertrand in the court- rie, Clay Shaw was arrested for con- room. Russo pointed out Clay Shaw. spiring to murder John F. Kennedy. He testified that after the three men had discussed such details as the need TN Louisiana, after an arrest has been for "diversionary tactics," the "trian- -1 made, the district attorney either gulation" of crossfire, and the selection presents the case to a grand jury or files of an appropriate "scapegoat," they a "bill of information," which, under ended the conversation by bickering the Louisiana code of criminal pro- over various methods of escape. cedure, allows a district attorney to Under cross-examination the follow- Treat Your bring a case to trial without a grand- ing day, Russo admitted that he had not jury indictment. In the case of Clay been able to identify Oswald positively Family to Shaw, however, Garrison decided to do until after an artist in the District At- a Week of something that was, in his own words, torney's office spent six hours drawing "virtually unheard of." Instead of go- different beards on photographs of Os- Breezy •E:. ing before a grand jury meeting in wald. It was also revealed that, before Summer closed session, he requested a prelimi- Garrison interrogated him, he had de- nary hearing, which takes place before nied in a number of interviews that he Sun Days a judge and is public. The purpose of a had ever seen Oswald or that Ferrie at Dorado Beach preliminary hearing under Louisiana had ever specifically discussed the as- law is to determine whether or not the FAMILY VACATION PLAN FROM $106.75*) sassination of President Kennedy. WEEKLY, INCL. BREAKFAST & DINNER state has sufficient evidence to warrant Many of the details of Russo's story, ( a trial. Although it is not unusual for Our twin golden crescent beaches it turned nut, were developed under have sheltered lagoons for carefree the defense to request a preliminary hypnosis—a method that Garrison said swimming with the youngsters ... hearing, if only to attempt to compel he used in order to "objectify" testi- yet there's excitement enough for the state to tip its hand and disclose mony. Moreover, it was learned that anyone with water-skiing, snorkel- vital evidence before the ac- ing, and Sunfish sailing, too. Russo had been under psy- Biking and exploring on 1500 lush tual trial, such a hearing is chiatric treatment for eight- tropical acres; two salt-water rarely, if ever, requested by een months, ending in late swimming pools; 36 holes of cham- the prosecution. Why, then, 1960, and had last consulted pionship seaside golf. Children's should Garrison, the prose- a psychiatrist just two months day camp with experienced coun- cutor, have elected to dis- selors for swimming, snorkeling before he went to see Gar- and nature study. Evenings, you close some of his evidence rison. dine with a view of the gleaming before the trial—an appar- The District Attorney surf and dance beneath the stars. ently gratuitous favor to the found his only other witness, Babysitters are available. defense? Garrison has said Vernon B. Bundy, in the *Family Vacation Plan-8 days, that he did so in order to 7 nights, $106.75 per person for Parish Prison after the hear- parents and two children sharing "lean over backward and give the de- ing had begun. Assistant District At- large air-conditioned room. In- fendant every chance." A preliminary torney Charles Ray Ward and other cludes all breakfasts and dinners, hearing, however, has at least one ex- members of Garrison's staff strenuously 50% discount on all water-sports tralegal consequence that a political- objected to using Bundy as a witness, equipment, airport transportation minded prosecutor might find advan- on arrival and departure. Effective but Garrison put him on the stand any- May I to October 20. (Vacation tageous: it provides the prosecution way. Bundy, a narcotics addict and plans for golfers, honeymooners with a dramatic opportunity to reveal petty thief, testified that in the summer and sightseers also available.) publicly far in advance of the trial some of 1963, while he was preparing to 'DorSAE:NM- .1-14Crr4C4... of the more sensational aspects of the inject the contents of two capsules of DORADO BEACH • PUERTO RICO • U.S.A. case, thus helping to stimulate public heroin into his arm, he saw two OPERATED BY ROCKRESORTS, INC. interest. Whether or not Garrison's men meet on the shore of Lake See your travel agent for color extraordinary move did, as he claimed, Pontchartrain, on the outskirts of New brochure: New York. 5864141; Chicago, 9224139; Dallas, 741-6814; enhance the defendant's prospects for Orleans. One, whom Bundy described Washington, D.C., 347.4951; LOS Angeles, 626-7581; San Francisco, justice, it unquestionably worked to as "a junkie or beatnik type" with a 434-0660; Seattle, 682-1981. focus national attention on the case, light growth of beard, he had later With a full complement of reporters recognized from photographs as Lee

MIIIMEIMMIAlaa•M■aPrtz. Tr.: • 511 JULY 139 19 48

Harvey Oswald. The other man Bundy Sciamhra could have neglected to in- identified as Clay Shaw. Like Russo, chide it in the memorandum. More- Architecturally Bundy had never before told anyone over, according to Billings, Sciambra about his encounter with Oswald. The did not mention the alleged "third en- Straight three-judge panel ruled that there was counter" in an oral report he made to sufficient evidence for a trial. The deci- Garrison the day after the interview. sion was by no means startling; it mere- Sciambra reported that Russo said he ly established that there was evidence had seen Shaw only twice—once at that merited judgment, Yet to many Ferrie's service station and once at the people the ruling suggested that Garri- Nashville Street Wharf. In fact, the son had won some sort of legal victory. first time Billings heard of the third As it turned out, the evidence used encounter, during which Russo was at the preliminary hearing was even less supposed to have overheard Bertrand, sound than it may have appeared at Ferric, and Oswald planning the as- the time. About six weeks after the sassination in Ferrie's apartment, was hearing, James R. Phelan reported in when Sciamhra himself told Russo that the Serturdery Evening Post that Russo he had mentioned the name Ber- had told two contradictory stories—one trand and had described the meeting in his first interview with Sciamhra, the in Ferrie's apartment. This was after other in court, after being questioned Russo had taken the "truth serum." under hypnosis. Phelan discovered the And Russo still, at this time, said that discrepancy when Garrison, with his he could not remember anyone named customary generosity to journalists, Bertrand. supplied him with a memorandum If a witness tells two contradictory of Russo's first interview. Nowhere stories, external evidence may make it in this document, which ran to thirty- possible to choose between them. In five hundred words, was the supposed Russo's case, the corroborative evidence meeting among Shaw, Ferrie, and available casts doubt on his second sto- Oswald mentioned, either directly or ry—the one he told in court. He tes- implicitly. Yet two weeks later, in tified that Oswald was Ferrie's room- court, Russo stated that it had definite- mate in early September, 1963, yet ly taken place. In his first interview, there is evidence that at that time Os- moreover, Russo did not state that wald was living with his wife and their he had ever met Shaw, and he him- infant daughter on Magazine Street in self made no mention whatever of New Orleans. Russo described Oswald a Bertrand—either Clay or Clem. as having a heard in early and mid- Assistant District Attorney Sciambra, September, yet generally reliable wit- who conducted this first interview and nesses reported that Oswald was clean- wrote up the memorandum, later said KOW shaven at that time. Russo claimed that that Russo did tell him he saw Oswald in Fer- of the assassination plot rie's apartment in the but that he forgot to first week of October, include it in his report. yet Oswald was known Yet Sciambra's own to have been in Mexico words in the memo- and Dallas during this randum would appear period. Russo said that to belie this explana- a friend of his, Niles tion: "The next picture Peterson, was at a par- that he [Russo] identi- ty at Ferrie's apartment by Susan Thomas fied was that of Clay the night that he saw s Shaw. He said that he Oswald and Shaw saw this man twice. The first time I\ /CDP. there, yet Peterson flatly denies that he was when he pulled into Ferrie's serv- saw anyone fitting the description of The new straight leg Ban-Lone doubleknit ice station to get his car fixed. Shaw either Shaw or Oswald. (Peterson did, checked pant with a turtle topping ... was the person sitting in the compact however, recall a bearded man who black/white, in sizes 8 to 18. $19. The top, car talking with Ferric. He rememhers was six feet tall and otherwise fitted black and nine tangy colors, sizes 8 to 16. seeing him again at the Nashville Street the description of the man who was $12. All in Ban-Lan knits of Textrallzed* Wharf when he went to see J.F.K. known to he Ferrie's roommate at the DuPont nylon. speak." Here Sciambra specifically states time—James R. Lewallen.) Russo BEST and CO., New York and branches that Russo said he saw Shaw twice, and claimed, further, that a young woman, L. L. BERGER, Buffalo G LADDI NGS, Providence neither occasion involved a rendezvous Sandra Moffitt, accompanied him to NEUSTETER'S, Denver in Ferrie's apartment during which Ferrie's apartment the night of the DESMONDS, Los Angeles Shaw, Ferric, and Oswald planned the and other line stores meeting, yet she denies this, and says assassination. If Russo went on to de- Slightly higher in west. that she did not meet Ferrie until 1964. scribe a third encounter, and that was VIVO BY SUSAN THOMAS, INC. In sum, Russo's court testimony ap- 498 SEVENTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 10018 the only one relevant to Garrison's pears to he at odds with a great many case, it is difficult to understand how of the external points of reference he THE NEW YORKER 51 himself provided. After the preliminary hearing, Russo began expressing doubts about his identification of Shaw. He told James Phelan, who had spent more than forty hours questioning him for his Saturday Evruing Post article, that he wished he could have an "op- portunity to talk to Shaw for a few When we say hours so I can he sure he was the right man." He told Richard Townley, a reporter for WDSU-TV, in New Or- Curacao is cordial leans, that he was unsure of his testi- mony. The testimony of Garrison's other witness, Vernon Bundy, also raised a we don't mean number of questions. One of Bundy's fellow-inmates in the Parish Prison, Miguel Torres, told an N.B.C. inter- the8iqueur. viewer that Bundy had admitted to him that he was testifying for Garrison "because it's the only way that I can get cut Loose"—indicating that unless he did testify, his probation would he revoked and he would have to com- The people of Curapo are as warm and friendly as the famous plete a five-year sentence in prison. liqueur which bears its name. For many good reasons: its ideal Bundy was subsequently arrested on a year-round climate, its lovely surroundings, its Dutch-Spanish charge of robbery. Another inmate, traditions, its lighthearted, lei- John (the Baptist) Cancler, said in an surely way of life. Even the lan- interview that Bundy had told him guage, Papiamento, is a happy, that his account of the events at Lake romantic blend of Portuguese, Pontchartrain was a fabrication. Of Spanish, Dutch, African, English course, felons are not known for their probity, and Garrison dismissed the and French, Curacao is the va- statements of Torres and Candler "in cation spot that offers you old view of their criminal records." But if Dutch charm in a Caribbean is- no credence is to be placed in the testi- land setting ... plus wonderful mony of Bundy's fellow-convicts, what free port shopping, glittering ca- of the testimony of Bundy himself? sinos, elegant restaurants, and Garrison's entire case at the prelimi- hospitable luxury hotels where nary hearing, then, was based on the low summer rates are in effect allegations of two witnesses who had May 1- December 15. No pass- both waited four years before disclos- ports needed by U.S. citizens. ing uncorroborated stories and who Only $150 jet round-trip from both subsequently cast considerable New York, $135 jet round-trip doubt on their own testimony. from Miami, $35 jet round-trip A few months after the hearing, from San Juan, P.R. Year-round there was another legal skirmish that cruises from New York and New strengthened the appearance, if not the Orleans. See your travel agent. substance, of Garrison's case: Dean Andrews, the New Orleans lawyer who had claimed that shortly after the assassination a shadowy figure named NETHERLANDS Clay Bertrand appealed to him to go Curacao ANTILLES to Dallas and defend Oswald, became involved in perjury proceedings. An- The neat Dutch Treat in the Caribbean". drews, after telling a number of stories 0 000 about Bertrand, and at one point claim- • • • • * oePt. 106 ing that Bertrand was a figment of 00000000 • • - so• oo his imagination, had nevertheless stated • • • CURAcA0 TOURIST BOARD, • • *********** categorically when Garrison questioned • 604 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10020 203 S.W. lath SI, Miami, Fla. 33130 • him in December that Shaw was not • I like friendly places. Please send me more information • • about Curacao. • Bertrand. In late February, after Russo • • s had come forward, Garrison again e Name • met with Andrews. According to An- se • Address • drews, the District Attorney said he • • City State Zip had other evidence that Shaw was in- volved, and asked Andrews not to deny s • *********** • 41.• • • • • that Shaw and Bertrand were one and phase had no single specific objective. the same. Andrews agreed—because, he It was, in effect, a hunt without a VAN CLEEF has said, he was afraid that "otherwise quarry, a search for any information the Jolly Green Giant would pounce from any source that might relate to on me like a thousand-pound canary." Bic any aspect of the assassination. For When called before a grand jury in this desultory pursuit, Garrison re- March and asked if Clay Shaw was inforced his permanent staff with ARPELS Clay Bertrand, he replied, under oath, Volunteer recruits from the growing "I can't say that he is and I can't say corps of critics of the Warren Com- that he ain't." Three months later, on mission. A number of these people June 28th, Andrews volunteered to ap- who might best he described as peri- pear again before the grand jury. This patetic demonologists found in New time, he told of a "deal" with Garrison Orleans an unexpected rallying point; and testified that he had never thought they were attracted to Garrison like the Your Own for a moment that Shaw was Bertrand. children of Hamelin to the Pied Piper. Bertrand, he admitted, was a fictitious Coat of Arms At the head of the line stood Mark name he had used in order to protect Lane, the author of "Rush to Judg- a friend of his, a bartender in the ment," who, together with NVilliam French Quarter. Andrews acknowl- Today's fashions bring back Turner, a staff writer for Ramparts, edged that he had perjured himself spent months assiduously combing Gar- Heraldic symbols of the past. previously, and said, "It doesn't make rison's files on the case for new clues Let our Double Eagle any difference to me if I'm convict- and devising ingenious schemes to pro- become your personal ed.... Clay Shaw is not Clay Ber- duce new disclosures. (When one as- trand. Indict me if you want to." emblem. ln 18 kt. gold, with sistant district attornetn21sgesl that Andrews was subsequently ar- by making Xerox copies of the evi- piercing diamond eyes raigned, tried, and convicted for per- dence Lane might be jeopardizing the and glowing cabochon coral jury. Although the conviction is being case, Garrison replied that Lane and appealed, Garrison declared that this body, round coral in Turner were "writing the official his- represented "a major conviction .. . in tory of the investigation.") Reports on crown, $390. Available with connection with this case." It was, if developments in Texas came from other gems. Heavy 18 kt. anything, a Pyrrhic victory. Assistant Penn Jones, Jr., the editor of the Mid- gold chains, from $250. District Attorney Alcock charged that lothian, Texas, Mirror and the author the name Bertrand had been "foisted of a series of booklets called "Forgive Designs ( Actual size. on the world" by Andrews, licit if My Grief," the most celebrated feature Bertrand was indeed a fiction, invented of which was a death count of indi- by Andrews after the assassination, how viduals who were even peripherally could Russo testify that he had met connected with the assassination, and Shaw before the assassination under from Allan Chapman, a knight-errant the pseudonym Bertrand? in a two-hundred-year-old According to the Sciambra crusade against the Illuminati memorandum, Russo had (supposedly a worldwide not mentioned the name conspiracy of intellectuals Bertrand in his initial inter- who now control the tele- view. It was only after Sci- vision networks). Harold ambra told Russo that he Weisberg, the author of a had identified one of the par- numerically consecutive series ticipants at the meeting in of books called "White- Ferrie's apartment as Ber- wash," was charged with the trand while under the influ- task of going through the ence of sodium pentothal—an twenty-six volumes of the identification which, accord- Warren Commission's testi- ing to Billings, Russo did not mony and evidence for new recall at the time—and after Russo leads relevant to Garrison's investi- was allowed to ask leading questions gation. Two specialists in photographic about the case so that, in his own interpretation, Raymond Marcus and words, he "could figure out what they Richard Sprague, scanned films of wanted to know," that the name Ber- the assassination to detect previous- trand found its way into his story. ly neglected pieces that might fit into what Garrison calls his "jigsaw FTER the preliminary hearing, puzzle." Three trouble-shooters-at- A there was a second notable shift large also assisted—Jones Harris, with in the nature of the investigation. whom I had gone through the evi- Whereas the first phase had concentrat- dence when I first arrived in New ed on the activities of David Ferrie, Orleans; Richard H. Poplcin, a profes- and the second was devoted principally 746 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK sor of philosophy at the University of to efforts to substantiate Russo's al- California at San Diego and the author legations about Clay Shaw, the third of "The Second Oswald," a con ject- JULY 13, I968

ural essay originally published in the New York Review of Books which suggests that the assassination was per- formed not by Oswald but by his Doppalgeinger; and the night-club comedian Mort Sabi. Although these amateur sleuths, who sometimes refer to themselves as the Dealey Plaza Ir- regulars, have provided Garrison with the hulk of the new "evidence" that he has cited in numerous public ap- pearances—he appeared on numerous radio and television shows in the course of a coast-to-coast tour arranged in connection with the Playboy inter- view—they have occasionally proved a source of friction for the professional investigators on Garrison's staff. A member of Garrison's staff who has worked on the investigation since its inception has described the contribu- tion of the amateurs this way: "The trouble with these third-rate students is that the only way they can make a strong impression on Garrison is by coming up with flamboyant nonsense, thus hoping to be hired as someone with original ideas. They therefore represent a serious threat to the sanity CRAIG/ CRAELY . . . imported sheared rabbit fur skirt in wild natural of the investigation. One of them has colorings. Sizes: S and M. About $35. Crepe turtle neck shirt in grey, amber, white and a had habit of steering Garrison into brown. About 518. At: Bonwit Teller, Neiman Marcus, I. Magnin; and fine stores every- crackpot directions, such as the 'Storm where. Or write Craig/Craely, 498 Seventh Ave., NYC. Sfightly higher in the West. Drain Theory,' to which Garrison tends to he susceptible." When Allan Chapman, the Illuminati specialist, lent his support to the theory that a shot had been fired from a storm drain in Dealey Plaza that day in Dallas, Garrison stated on television that the bullet that killed President Kennedy was "fired by a man standing in a sewer manhole." Thus, Garrison add- ed a sixteenth man to the team that he claims carried out the assassination and a fifth spot from which he has said the shots were fired. Six months before, Garrison had theorized that there were only two assassins—one in the Texas School Book Depository Building and one on the so-called grassy knoll, just beyond the building and on the same side of the street. After discussing the case with Weisberg, who believes that there was another rifleman in the near- by Dal-Tex Building, Garrison accom- modatingly added a third rifleman there, and also exonerated Oswald from having fired any of the shots. Then Marcus came along with a blow- up of some trees and shadows on the grassy knoll, claiming that this revealed A title on the door ...rates a Bigelow on the floor. four gunmen in cowboy hats, and Gar- When you've made it big, stake your claim with the Bigelow brand. A Bigelow rison added four more assassins to the adds the rich personal touch that makes your office your very own territory. hand. (Two of them, he has suggested, Bigelows are available in special designs, colors and textures. Write for our color- were there to pick up stray cartridge ful free brochure on commercial carpet. Bigelow Sanford. Inc., Dept. A, 140 Madi- cases.) Next, Jones Harris showed son Avenue, New York, New York 10016. People who know... buy BIGELOW. Garrison a blowup of a truck parked (Adversisement) THE NEW YORKER 5 5 behind a picket fence, and the "com- mando team" grew by two. By mid- June, Garrison was saying that the assassination was performed by a four- teen-man team of Cuban guerrilla fighters. Finally, after discussing the matter at some length with Professor Popkin, Garrison posited a "second Oswald," who was sent to impersonate VEN the first Oswald at the scene. (This un- THE derstandably disconcerted some mem- bers of his staff, since the presence of ELIERS a second Oswald would tend to vitiate the legal case against Clay Shaw: Did Shaw conspire with Oswald, as he is accused of doing, or with an imper- WINGING. sonator?) The assassins were support- ed, according to Garrison, by Jack Ruby and some members of the Dallas Police Department. Although the exact number of as- sassins changed from one public state- Stkgis ,*of ment to the next, the "forces behind the conspiracy" grew steadily. In the IS OPEN AGAIN FOR early stages of the investigation, Garri- son told Senator Russell Long that only SUMMER. a few insignificant men were involved. Get going and keep going. Up 20 Then, after Ferrie's death, Garrison elegant stories to the only hotel began to specify the guilty parties, rooftop in New York City. Where identifying them as a hand of perverts everything glitters, from the rose and anti-Castro Cubans. With the ar- and gift decor to the dazzling rival of the demonologists, however, view of the city at your feet. the conspiracy was rapidly escalated to What happens starts happening include Minutemen, C.I.A. agents, oil at 6:30. Come for dinner before millionaires, Dallas policemen, muni- the theatre. And try to tear tions exporters, "the Dallas establish- yourself away! Because once ment," reactionaries, White Russians, everything starts moving, and certain elements of "the invisible nothing stops. Nazi substructure." Music from high society to hot On what sort of evidence was this Latin to very, very now. Without extraordinary conspiracy predicated? letup. Dance what you will until Garrison's method of deducing the last 2:00 in the morning. (And if you member of the team is perhaps indica- don't get enough. come back the tive. The figure of what may be reck- next night and start the chandeliers oned as the sixteenth assassin was ex- swinging again.) trapolated from two photographs taken Air-conditioned, of course. about ten minutes after the assassina- Reservations advisable. The man to tion. The first shows a man in a dark call is Rudy. At PL 3-4500. Nightly suit apparently examining a curb near except Sunday and Monday. the spot where President Kennedy was Joseph Sudy and his Orchestra. shot, with two policemen shown look- The Singing Strings. ing on. Garrison claims that he can Quintero and his Latin Band. detect in this photograph a pehhlelike The lyrical dancing of object partly concealed by the heavily Ed Sims and Audre Deckmann. matted grass, and he states that this object is a .45-calibre bullet "which killed John Kennedy, which has mark- ings on it that would show [that] the automatic gun from which it came [was a] handgun." The bullet is not readily visible to the naked eye; in fact, Fifth Avenue at Fifty-fifth Street, New York according to one member of Garrison's staff, the photograph is so grainy that it is difficult even to distinguish the curb Cocktails in the Penthouse from 5 p.m. from the grass. The other photograph, taken seconds later, shows the man in the dark suit walking away with his ▪ ▪ • ▪

56

hands closed. Flashing this photograph statements he continued to say that he in front of television cameras in Dallas, had located this seventh member of the Garrison declared that the man (from commando team. his appearance Garrison has somehow A prosecutor who wants to insure surmised him to be a "federal agent") that the story of his investigation re- ‘1, ,,ATER had "got the bullet clutched in his mains newsworthy must produce new hand, the bullet that killed John Ken- evidence constantly. Garrison's corps of nedy." Garrison has never explained Irregulars proved helpful not simply AS Ire e 7 `- AT ‘/4 how he could determine from a photo- in digging out new evidence but, on 1:1.\ COOPERSTOWN graph that a bullet was being held in a occasion, in finding opportunities for man's closed fist—and even discern its N.Y. Garrison to present it. When Mort calibre. However, this was the "evi- SahI appeared on the Johnny Carson dence" that Garrison cited in support television show last January and com- of the theory that an assassin was in a plained about the coverage that the sewer, and of his own charge on tele- various media had given the District vision that "the bullet which killed Attorney and his case, Carson agreed ao,rmel I • John Kennedy, which fell in the grass to have Garrison on his program, with pieces of the President's head, provided that he would not merely was in the hands of the federal govern- reiterate old charges but would present ment ten minutes after the President new evidence. Garrison telegraphed was dead." And Garrison went even Carson accepting the impromptu offer. further. "This means that the federal And on the evening of last January government knowingly participated in 31st Carson devoted most of his show framing Lee Oswald," he said. "Lyn- to an interview with Garrison. When don Johnson had to know this." Carson asked Garrison to reveal the Although most of the assassins were new evidence that he claimed he had, identified only as projections of con- Garrison reached into a black leather nected dots in enlargements of photo- portfolio he held in his lap and pulled graphs of trees and shrubbery, the man out some photographs, which, he said, whom Garrison identified in Playboy showed suspects being arrested im- as the seventh member of the assassina- 0 mediately after the assassination. "Here 4-> tion team turned out, much to the Dis- are the pictures of five of them being trict Attorney's embarrassment, to he arrested," he said, "and they've never • F4 o 40 .H .7:1 0 a real person. Garrison alleged that this z z been shown before." He went on to -0 o 0.1- seventh man "created a diversionary say, "Several of these men arrested 0 4-, (1) rl -P 0 action in order to distract people's at- have been connected by our office with 7-1 .1 4-, 41 tr"\ tention from the snipers," explaining, the Central Intelligence Agency." The • CD CI S-1 CO "This individual screamed, C) ;-1 new evidence Garrison pre- 0) 0 .t -1-i 4-1 fell to the ground, and simu- sented that night had been 4-, ion lated an epileptic fit, draw- o C) s 0 found by Allan Chapman ti F.4 Cl) 1=1 ✓ ing people away from the vi- d 1=-1 is CI-I 0 .--1 some weeks before, in the CO cinity of the knoll just before

• o dm CO 0 4-, photographic department of o co .ri to Cl) the President's motorcade the Dallas Times Herald. CO CO d a (f) reached the ambush point."

n -P -P 0 Robert Hollingsworth, man- a '0 0 ..a" Garrison further described • 0) aging editor of the Times

• ri kla 0 this man, presumably one of a 4 C 0 07 4-' Herald, has told me that he C.) number of anti-Castro Cu- personally inspected with a ti Par 0 -0 ban paramilitarists, as being magnifying glass the photo- • 4-' clad in green combat fa- graphs given to Chapman, ,c! L.r. • r-1 tigues. As it happened, how- a) and that they showed noth- ct5 cr3 ever, the person Garrison I-I g ing more than some bystand- S-1 Ycl -P was talking abc9[ was Jerry C's `..K; • • 0 0 ers, two of whom were em- a. CO Boyd Belknapr an employee ployed in the building in of the Dallas Morning which Oswald worked, being News, who had fainted in routinely questioned by po- Dealey Plaza about twenty minutes be- licemen. Carson, who was, of course, fore the motorcade arrived. Belknap seeing the pictures for the first time, explained to the F.B.I. that he had had had no way of knowing who the frequent fainting spells since he suf- individuals in the pictures were or E fered a serious head injury in an auto- whether they were in fact "being ar- TEMGA mobile accident in 1960, and that he rested," and he had no way of chal- had been receiving daily medication to lenging Garrison's claim that they prevent these spells. When Garrison were connected with the C.I.A. What 140 Lake Road • Cooperstown, New York learned that the man who fainted was Garrison presented to the public that Kenneth Arnold, V.P. ei Gen. Mgr. not the paramilitarist he had presumed inder same Management: Cooper InJ night, then, was not actually new him to he, he told his staff to forget evidence—witnesses pictured in his C n about the matter. Yet in his public photographs had testified before the 5;7c JULY 1 39 1 9 (2 8 Warren Commission—but a new and totally unsubstantiated interpretation of Greater old evidence. future income Any sensational murder case attracts its share of crank letters, publicity seek- ACCEPTED can be the goal ers, and bogus tips, and, whereas most EVERYWHERE of a $5,000 portfolio district attorneys regard such offers of help as a nuisance, Garrison found insist on placed under them a rich source of new witnesses, management now ready to provide allegations and dis- closures of the sort required to keep his If the money you have today is to grow in story current in the press. Although it C0 0 K 'S the future toward more income, or for edu- cation, travel, leisure, retirement, it must is extremely doubtful whether any of be kept working full time to achieve your these volunteer witnesses will ever WORLD FAMOUS goals. testify in court, the case of a man Yet you may find that you are actually TRAVELERS losing ground due to inflation, taxes or lack named Donald Philetus Norton illus- of time for investment decisions. trates the use to which the testimony of CHEQUES To help solve this problem, clients in 55 such "secret witnesses" can be put in countries have turned to The Danforth Associates Investment Management Plan. the open arena of public opinion. Nor- It has, we believe, proved especially effi- ton, a thirty-four-year-old night-club N1(17S1(11:1 cient in providing continuing capital growth °I4.1..1.!PM■uwaurr supervision for portfolios of from $5,000 entertainer, got in touch with Gar- to $50,000-on behalf of people who recog- rison in June, 1967, claiming that he nize and can share the risks and rewards of had been a C.I.A. courier, and that he common stock investments. The cost is modest, as low as $100 per year. had delivered fifty thousand dollars to For a complimentary copy of a 42-page a man who was "a dead ringer for only 7se per $100 report describing this tested plan, its com- Oswald" in Mexico in 1962 and had plete I 0-year"performance record," and how ON THE ISSUANCE CHARGE it may help you now, simply write Dept. A-82. received a hundred-and-fifty-thousand- dollar "pickup" from David Ferrie in WHY Pol V MORE? THE DANFORTH ASSOCIATES 1958. He said, further, that he would WELLESLEY HILLS, MASS., U.S.A. 0318 1 like to work as an investigator for THOS. COOK & SON Investment Management . Incorporated 1936 Garrison. Norton was immediately brought to New Orleans from Van- couver, where he was living at the time, and was interrogated by Garri- DISCOVER THE CAREFREE LIFE! son's pseudonymous intelligence expert Bill Boxley. Though Norton was more WHEN YOU THINK OF YOUR VACATION than willing to identify Oswald, Ferrie, IT'S THE and even Shaw as C.I.A. agents, his fIllarlborougbiBlenbeim ON THE STORYBOOK ISLAND OF story contained so many contradictions Completely modern with original charm. MARTHA'S VINEYARD Play on our beach —splash in our pool or and implausibilities that Boxley and ocean. Adults' and children's game rooms, Overlooking picturesque Edgar- town harbor. Go sailing, fish- other staff members concluded that he ocean front decks, fashionable Edwardian ing, riding. Swim in ocean or would be totally ineffective as a wit- Cocktail Lounge, famous food, renowned pool Play golf. Enjoy tradi- tional New England fare in ness. (It was later revealed that he Trio, planned entertainment. Write for Navigator Restaurant. Dance or color brochure and rates. relax in Boathouse Bar. Free was a convicted hank embezzler with a TV in every guest room. Write for brochure 47 or prison record.) But even though Nor- special honeymoon folder. ton was turned down in July as a pos- NEW YORK 758-2188 MIAMI 532-6477 sible court witness, Garrison referred MONTREAL 866-3391 or see your travel agent to him as a "secret witness" in the HARBORSIDE INN interview that appeared in the October EDGARTOWN, MASS. issue of Playboy. "We have evidence Tel: (617) 627-4321 that Oswald maintained his C.I.A. 67 Years White Family Ownership— Management Boardwalk at Park Place & Ohio Aye., Atlantic Lily contacts ... and that Ferrie was also Elliot S. Ryan, General Manager employed by the C.I.A.," he an- nounced. "In this regard, we will pre- sent in court a witness—formerly a C.I.A. courier—who met both Ferrie PAINITSH and Oswald officially in their C.I.A. connection." This "courier" was sub- AVILIC01■1 sequently identified by a member of RESTAURANT f Garrison's staff as Norton. C.1f rare and valuable FORMERLY AT THE WORLD'S FAIR Another witness who was found in .thipment of antique; Alta Cecina Espanola the mail—this one with Professor Pop- Seafood Zarzuela Costa Brava kin's assistance—was Richard Case Braised Partridge Catalina Nagell, an inmate of a federal institu- Rotunda Gallery Striped Bass World's Fair tion for the criminally insane in Spring- field, Missouri. Nagell had been arrest- 475 PARK AVE. (57-58 Sr.) Res. 421-5690 CitU Paris ed while he was attempting to rob a San Frani./ I ig; z athforgia A 11111 ...114444164.1- 101.051,4414

THE NEW YORKER 59

bank in El Paso in September, 1963, and had been sent to prison. After the assassination, he claimed that he had purposely got himself arrested in order to provide himself with an alibi for his involvement in the assassination con- spiracy; his part in it, he said, had been to kill Oswald, who was the "patsy." Although the court records indicated that Nagell had suffered brain damage Jeacoall in an airplane crash in 1957, Garrison thought his story worth pursuing, and sent a former assistant district attorney, William R. Martin, to Missouri to question him. Nagell insisted that he aoun6 7 had proof of the conspiracy in the form of tape recordings stashed away in a steamer trunk in California. When no Pick a pair of Sheraton Islands. recordings could he found, however, MAUI AND KAUAI. Nagell told Martin, "They've stolen the tapes," and refused to discuss the SHERATON-MAUI matter any further. Though Nagell, ON KAANAPALI BEACH, ISLE OF MAUI like Norton, was rejected as a court A stunning hotel, with a championship witness, Garrison continued to use Na- golf course on one side and one of gell's story to holster his case in public. Hawaii's most beautiful beaches on Explaining Oswald's role as a patsy in the other. Rates from $11.25 to the conspiracy, Garrison stated in his $14.25 per person double Playboy interview, "We have evidence occupancy. that the plan was to have him [Os- wald] shot as a cop killer in the Texas SHERATON-KAUAI ON POlPU BEACH, ISLE OF KAUAI Theatre 'while resisting arrest.' " Gar- An enchanting, rambling rison said he was unable to divulge the hotel nestled amongst evidence at the time, but the whole swaying palm trees on an thing was one of Nagell's tales. unspoiled, Jewel-like beach. Another confidential witness with Close to all the scenic splen- whom Garrison has spent a good deal dors of Kauai. Rates from of rime is a Dallas ex-convict who was $10.50 to $12 per person double recently under suspicion in Texas for at- occupancy. tempted murder. According to Thomas Bethell, this witness "drops into the Only $5 * by jet from Honolulu to office at fairly frequent intervals and either Maui or Kauai! readily identifies almost anyone you (*On new common air fares.) show him a photograph of." He has proved more cooperative than accu- SHERATON HOTELS IN HAWAII ROYAL HAWAIIAN / PRINCESS KAIULANI / MOANA rate. Of thirteen new witnesses found SURFRIDER / SHERATON•MAUI / SHERATON-KAUAI through the mail or with the help of For Insured Reservations at Guaranteed Rates, the Irregulars assisting Garrison, nearly call your Travel Agent or Sheraton "Reservatron" at any Sheraton Hotel for seven-second confirmations. all have turned out to have criminal Diners Club, American Express, BankAmerlcard, Shell Oil and Sheraton Credit Cards honored for all hotel services. records or to have been under psychi- Sheraton Hotels and Motor Inns in Major Cities. A atric care. World•WIde Service of ITT, The "mailbag," as all of the unso- licited tips and offers to testify arc called around the District Attorney's office, has led to one arrest. William Turner, the Ramparts staff writer (and a for- mer employee of the F.B.I.), ran across an anonymous letter alleging that a Californian named Eugene Bradley had once made inflammatory comments on President Kennedy. Checking through a file he keeps on right-wing extremists, Turner found an Edgar Eugene Brad- ley, who raised funds for a radio pro- gram called "20th Century Reforma- tion Hour," and who happened to have been in Texas on the day of the asas- sination—though in El Paso, not in 60

Dallas. On the basis of this informa- if the charge happens to be more ap- xquisite styling. Unequaled edge. Gerber tion, Garrison, who at the time was e pealing than the truth it is entirely Blades are handmade from a jewel steel so in Los Angeles raising funds himself, possible that it, rather than its refuta- fine, that nobody ever dreamed of using it telephoned his office in New Orleans tion, will win general credence. This for cutlery before. We did, and the result is and ordered Assistant District Attor- is especially likely to occur if the dem- a lifetime of carving pleasure. Three blades ney Alcock to issue a warrant for agogue's charge offers a more or less in solid walnut chest, 538.50. At fine stores Bradley's arrest, charging him with plausible explanation of disturbing conspiracy to kill President Kennedy. everYwhere' events, and if its refutation depends on fashioned Bethel reported concern among the the word of government officials, from staff members; there since was nothing in the people most apt to accept the files on Bradley except the anony- conspira- jewel steel torial interpretations of history are those to last a mous letter, and no one in the office who are most suspicious of both com- had even heard of Bradley as a suspect. plexity and authority. As Rovere points lifetime The warrant was issued anyway, and out with regard to McCarthy, the Bradley was arrested in dem- Los Angeles agogue soon learns that "the penalties and then released in his own recogni- for a really audacious mendacity are zance. When Garrison returned to not as severe as the average politician fears New Orleans, he remarked that he them to be, that, in fact, there may he saw little prospect of Bradley's ever no penalties at all, but only profit." being extradited by Governor Reagan. in a sense, the man who exploits After leaving Garrison's staff, William popular fears builds his reputation on Gurvich said, "Jim has a philosophy the prestige of his adversaries. The about national headlines. He believes more impressive the list that everyone reads the headlines con- of detractors he can cite, the more important his charges cerning arrests and charges but few appear to he. "Why are they trying to people read denials or correcting state- destroy me?" the demagogue asks. But ments." the surest benefit he derives from being publicly criticized is the "right to re- HE principal consideration oper- ply"—a right that is greatly enhanced Tating to restrain a duly elected by the demands of day-to-day report- district attorney from making indis- ing, which cause the press to focus more criminate arrests and charges—aside directly on the individual under attack from normal ethical considerations—is than on the general issue at stake. fear of exposure If by the press if sup- the demagogue is challenged on radio porting proof should not be forthcom- or television, he can ing. Yet, despite cogent evidence demand "equal of time" to respond. And, of course, his malfeasance on Garrison's part report- reply need not restrict itself to a defense ed by a number of journalists, public- of his original position. Indeed, to ob- opinion polls indicate that there has ac- fuscate the issue further and mitigate tually been a substantial increase in the the attack on him, the demagogue may number of people, not only in Louisi- strike out in an altogether different di- ana but throughout the country, who rection. For he is, typically, concerned share Garrison's belief in a conspiracy. not with substantive If in fact his case is based on issues but with ways of manipulating the little more than wild rumors emotions and the unsubstantiated testi- of the electorate. One way Garrison has re- mony of unstable witnesses, sponded to attacks why has the press been so made on his thesis that there was a ineffective in checking Gar- conspiracy to kill President rison? In his study of the Kennedy has been by talk- late Senator Joseph R. Mc- ing about Carthy, Richard H. Rovere a second conspiracy that grew out of the first demonstrates how a certain one—a conspiracy of secre- kind of demagogue, when he cy dedicated to concealing is assailed by the press, can turn the the truth about the assassination. As hostile criticism to his own advantage. in a speech he gave last December Such a demagogue builds his political in New Mexico jocularly entitled base on the systematic exploitation of "The Rise of the Fourth Reich, or inchoate fears, and sets about organiz- „ GERBER How to Conceal the Truth About an ing a popular flight from reality. To Assassination Without Really him, even the most vocal censure, how- Trying," vicnu° Garrison often seems more deeply pre- 13 BLADES ever adverse its ostensible effect, repre- occupied with exposing sents useful publicity, for the more rig- an insidious . . fashioned for those who enjoy misprision on the part of federal au- extraordinary orously he is assaulted by the press, the quality. thorities than with establishing the facts more prominently he figures in the of the assassination itself. To he sure, Other blades from $4.50 Request free catalog. popular imagination. A false charge has GERBER/14200 S.W. 72nd, PORTLAND. ORE. 97223 such an obsessional concern with gov- , to be repeated if it is to be refuted, and ernmental suppression is not a new o 2 JULY 1 .3 1 9 G 8 phenomenon, nor is it limited to the assassination issue. The political-sociolo- DeLuxe a. I A .1 a ' gist Edward Shils has pointed to a high- Hoet l muuummumuubm ly suggestive link between the general- at attractive rates IN OUR NATION'S CAPITAL ized fear of secrecy and the Populist on New York's exclusive tradition in America. In his hook "The Central Park South Torment of Secrecy," he argues that a repugnance toward secrecy is so deep- ly ingrained in American political life that even in matters involving national security secrecy is tolerated only as a necessary evil. To exploit this fear of secrecy, a truly Machiavellian politician Renaissance of could be expected to portray himself as engaged in a life-and-death struggle to ...YOURS FOR THE ASKING! graciousness wrest secrets from some powerful elite That's why it's the favorite of travelwise that controls the government and the men and women. Superb midtown loca- tion, continental check-in, exclusive A luxury hotel in the great news media, and to interpret all criti- 100% fresh air conditioning system, cism levelled against him as part of fine cuisine, 24-hour operator attended European tradition. a elevators and warm personalized service Elegant, quiet, unruffled— plot to conceal the dark truth from thy make The Barbizon-Plaza one of New populace. York's finest luxury hotel values never a convention. The first full-scale criticism of Gar- The Barbizon-Plaza rison came in the last week of April, _A twilttLi gkiel2 1967, in the THE MADISON Saturday Evening Post, 106 Central Park South, N.Y., N.Y. when, in an article entitled "A Plot to Niithitupon's Ctwrrct Addrtss RESERVATIONS AT GUARANTEED RATES Kill Kennedy? Rush to Judgment in 15th & M Streets, N.W. New Orleans," James Phelan revealed Choice Singles: $14.50 to $20.00 Washington, D.C. Choice Doubles: $19.50 to $27.00 that the crucial part of Russo's testi- Tower Studio Suites: $29.00 to 533.00 in New York ask operator for mony—the section incriminating Clay TREE INDOOR GARAGE—includes pick up and de livery. Available only tel de luxe singles ENterprise 6402 from Shaw—was contradicted by a state- 51HD0 up and doubles horn $25.00 up Nol in- or see cluded on package lours or Special group feet your travel agent. 6'1 ment Russo had made earlier to Assist- '1'11111e Marshall B. Coyne, President run 'wet MANN Pnuununt N ant District Attorney Sciambra. The Tel: CI 7-7000 • Teletype 212 040 4099 day Phelan's story appeared, a bold headline in the New Orleans States- COCKTAILS • DINNER • SUPPER Item announced, "MOUNTING EVI- arrie 31tb: DENCE LINKS CIA TO 'PLOT' PROBE." The article under this head, which im- Dress plied that the C.I.A. was attempting to Moccasin block Garrison's efforts, because for- mer agents were involved in the con- spiracy, had been prepared by several • States-Item reporters, including Hoke ip May and Ross Yockey, who at the 4 BROCHURE teree) 1 time were working closely with Gar- ON REQUEST Nice 'n easy...that's rison on the investigation. Whether Made from line-grained calf • (Anther lininlp throughout • Expertly handatitchod vamp • Flexible leather sole and rub- Stanley's style . ber heel • Hand maligned end polished • in Golden by design or by accident, the charges Tan 0 Elegant music with a gentle bounce Dark Chestnut Brown ❑ or Black 0 • 324.95 postpaid, Come dance to Stanley Worth's band... against the C.I.A. effectively over- Order by mail, care shoe size. Barrie Ltd., Dept. N. New Hewett and listen to the romantic songs 01 shadowed the Phelan story, at least in OR at BARRIE LTD. SHOE SHOPS: 260 YORK STREET. NEW HAVEN, CONN. Ellen Harwicke at the piano New Orleans. 22 TRUMBULL STREET, HARTFORD, CONN, FIFTH AVENUE AT 61ST STREET • 1338-800 152 EAST BROAD STREET, COLUMBUS, 01110 11 Two weeks later, in an article writ- AND WASHINGTON, D.C. FALL 1968 ten by Hugh Aynesworth, Newsweek reported that a friend of David Ferrie's had been offered a three-thousand-dol- LUNCHEON COCKTAILS DINNER OPEN SUNDAY' lar bribe to implicate Clay Shaw in the conspiracy. The offer had been tcio 'VANS secretly tape-recorded by the witness's rr. at MADISON AVE, N.Y.C. .TE 8-0591 lawyer. Although the tape left it un- clear whether the money was to be in payment for true information or false, 010 CONTIN/NTAL OMAN( Of it was damaging under any circum- DISTINCTION fa ILUNCNEDNI WS.,11...0WWW.41 stances. (At one point, Garrison's rep- AND Men 13 E.55TH, P13-7296 resentative said, "We can change OPEN MOATS the story around.") When Garrison say 49f49SINIT ifintA( unlit NEW YORK'S PRIME STEAK HOUSE...SUPERLATIVE learned of the impending Newsweek San* STEAKS, CHOPS, ROAST BEEF, LUSCIOUS LIVE TROUT disclosure, he prepared a memorandum AND LOBSTER ... ALL SERVED SEVEN DAYS A WEEK AT THE CONVENTIONAL HOURS AND AFTER-THEATRE, on C.I.A. participation in the assassina- TOO. FOR RESERVATIONS, PHONE Pl. 1.1960. IRAN Ivaciate PAVILION tion; this document promptly found its 24 W. 55TH. N Y cocktails olantir THE NEW YORKER 63

way into the hands of Yockey and May, who wrote it up in an exclusive story in the States-Item. Upon being asked about the Newsweek charges, Garrison answered by confirming the States-Item report on the C.I.A. "The federal agents who concealed vital knowledge regarding President Ken- nedy's assassination, and their superiors who are now engaged in a dedicated effort to discredit and obstruct the 100 Pipers. gathering of evidence, are guilty of being accessories after the fact to one of the cruelest murders in our history," he declared, and he went on to warn that "the arrogant totalitarian efforts e you of these federal agencies to obstruct the discovery of truth is a matter which I intend to bring to light." An article in the New York Times the following day attested to Garrison's success in blurring issues; although the tuned Times article focussed on the Newsweek re- OtPe0 port, the headline read, "GARRISON \r,irtit v CHARGES C.I.A. AND F.B.I. CONCEAL. 410"'' EVIDENCE ON OSWALD." 0-n-LEfo 0 tN scoT1— ,— • Garrison continued his offensive by issuing a subpoena for Richard Helms, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, demanding that Helms pro- duce a photograph showing Oswald in the company of a C.I.A. agent in Mexico. Subsequently, it was made 61/4 plain that Garrison had no reason to believe that a photograph showing Oswald with a C.I.A. agent had A fine, ever existed, but Garrison's subpoena gentle Scotch drew national coverage and tended to dilute further the effect of the News- smooth-crafted week story. It is worth noting that before Garrison suhpoenaed the direc- in the Scottish tor of the Central Intelligence Agen- Highlands. cy he had considered another move— arresting Regis Kennedy, an F.B.I. By Seagram. agent in New Orleans who had taken part in the government's investigation Sounds of the assassination. Garrison explained to Gurvich that although the agent splendid. would deny the charge., the denial would only add to the effect of crim- inally charging an F.B.I. agent. But Garrison had second thoughts about attacking the F.B.I. and, according to Gurvich, chose the C.I.A. because, as Garrison himself put it, "they can't afford to answer." On the evening of June 19th, N.B.C. devoted an hour to a critical examination of Garrison's investigation, entitled "The J.F.K. Conspiracy: The Case of Jim Garrison." The first part of the program dealt with Russo's allegation that he had seen Oswald, Shaw, and Ferric plotting the assassina- tion at a party in Ferrie's apartment in September of 1963. The N.B.C. re- Seagram's 100 Pipers Scotch Whisky porters demonstrated that at least one Every drop bottled in Scotland at 86 proof. Blended Scotch Whisky. Imported by Seagram Distillers Co , N.Y.C.

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other person present at the party had are in the process of uncovering their not seen Shaw or Oswald there and hoax." To account for N.B.C.'s inter- If she says that Ferrie's bearded roommate, who est in his investigation, he told an in- Russo claimed was Oswald, had been terviewer that the network "is owned identified by other people at the par- by Radio Corporation of America, one ty as James Lewallen. The program of the top ten defense contractors in `Perhaps' the country." (It is actually twenty- then concentrated on Garrison's inves- tigative methods, and a parade of wit- seventh, according to the Department buy the nesses was presented to allege that of Defense.) Garrison added, "AII of Garrison representatives had attempted these ladies of the evening are very to bribe or intimidate them. In ad- much alike—the preferred customer is perfume. dition, N.B.C. revealed that both of the one with the big bankroll and any Garrison's key witnesses, Russo and position he suggests is eagerly as- Bundy, had failed lie-detector tests be- sumed." Moreover, Garrison implied fore testifying at the Preliminary hear- that the program had been secretly ing. Frank McGee, the N.B.C. anchor financed by the C.I.A. man, concluded, "The case he has built Garrison demanded equal time, and against Clay Shaw is based on testi- N.B.C. granted him a half hour of mony that did not pass a lie-detector prime evening time on July 15, 1967, test Garrison ordered—and Garrison to reply to the charges. Once on the knew it." The lie-detector evidence air, however, he said, "I am not even that N.B.C. used to cap its case against going to bother to dignify the foolish- Garrison was almost certainly the ness which Newsweek and N.B.C. and weakest part of that case. The lie-de- some of the other news agencies have tector test carries a certain authority in tried to make you believe about my the popular imagination, because it ap- office," and went on to denounce the pears to give an unambiguous answer— media for manipulating the news. After the 111.71J1 is either lying or telling the giving five specific examples of "sup- pressed news," he presented his fa- _ ANN NAVILANI:q truth—and Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune, and the Hearst Headline miliar argument that the attacks on his Service also used lie detectors to dem- case attested to its validity: "... if our onstrate that Garrison's case was based investigation was as haywire as they AT SAKS FIFTH AVENUE on untruths. But the lie detector is in would like to have you think, then you fact merely a device for measuring the would not see such a coi4dinated bar- emotional stress that a witness is under- rage coming from the news centers in going while he is being questioned. Such the East." And he concluded, "... as stress may indicate nervousness over de- long as I am alive, no one is going to ception or it may indicate any of a stop me from seeing that you obtain the full truth, and nothing less than the Follow me! Right to where number of ()they emotional responses. A's all happening in Ace, J. Edgar Hoover had informed the full truth, and no fairy tales." Gar- puica, Op the ocean et the P1..41_ u Lt. _ • Warren Commission in a memoran- rison had an audience of some twenty dum that lie-detector tests were un- million, and fur that, he said in his reliable and of dubious value. Playboy interview, he was N.B.C. had assembled a "singularly grateful to Waiter good deal of cogent, if com- Sheridan," one of those who a plex, evidence to show that had prepared the N.B.C. cri- r. Pi cd r Russo's allegation was un- tique of his case. A- true. But for it to resort Garrison's gratitude was -1-> i •rt n finally to a simple indictment less than total. Not long A e) .a) rt: rr based on evidence drawn after the N.B.C. program, Mr—. r +a) i tAlC6 0•1 • from a source as dubious as he issued warrants for the 01 •• 1.4 a.) Pi 1.L.C3 lie-detector tests left the pro- arrest of Sheridan and also r0 .1:0) 0 . gram's conclusions open to Richard Townley, who had gi 0 serious criticism. assisted in the preparation of . r..4 -r, rm. cp Garrison, however., did the show, charging them .., 0 c.)_---.0,3 ▪ O -I-, 0 az nut bother with serious with attempted bribery. Spe- A 0 4-1 ill a) ;-1 a) criticism of the program's cifically, Garrison alleged .4-, .4 a) • 0 -1-, 0 > di 4-1 content; instead, he launched his coun- that they had offered Perry Russo ca $-1 •P a) • t terattack by denouncing N.B.C. as a a free trip to California. But if this +, o . 4-, ro o party to an "Establishment" conspiracy offer technically constituted an act of 1.1 di d 4-1 Ci) to destroy him. "All of the screaming bribery, Garrison himself had taken PIERRI Tdi la •' r--1 and hollering now being heard is evi- considerable pains to bait the trap. He DI IIES 0 ALI ID c..) g cri F-i • dence that we have caught a very large told me himself that he bad directed MART 00 0. 4 1 cA el 4-1 ta fish," he proclaimed the morning after Russo to speak to the reporters over HOTEL ANN BUN! .H cd .ri cd ACAPULCO, MEM • c...) cd I-1 ,N rt:t4 the N.B.C. show. "It is obvious that a monitored phone and inquire a) r—I F-1 La there are elements in Wrashington, what protection they could offer of) .1-i rd C.1 ..N P, U D.C., which are desperate because we him if he were to change his testi- THE NEW YORKER 65

molly. The purpose was, as he put it, "to give N.B.C. enough rope to hang itself." In his public statement on the matter, Garrison charged that the N.B.C. program "will probably stand What kind for many years to conic as a symbol of the length to which some powerful out- s ,Ie interests are willing to go in order of people live in to interfere with state government." The cases are still pending. Shortly after Garrison's skirmish with N.B.C., William Gurvich re- this kind of house? signed as one of his investigators, after telling Senator Robert F. Ken- nedy that there was no basis in fact and no material evidence in Garri- son's case, Gurvich's private-detective agency had conducted most of the lie- detector tests that Garrison had or- dered, and at the time of his resignation Gurvich had in his possession a master file of the principal evidence in the case. This defection not only made for em- barrassing headlines but opened up the possibility that Garrison's fund of con- fidential information—or his lack of such a fund—would he made public. In a statement to the press, Garrison described Gurvich's resignation as "the latest move from the Eastern head- quarters of the Establishment to at- tempt to discredit our investigation." It was all part of a coiirdinated plot against him. In another press release, he said, "All they are doing is proving two things: first, that we were correct when we uncovered the involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency in the assassination; second, that there is something very wrong today with our government in Washington, D.C., in- asmuch as it is willing to use massive economic power to conceal the truth from the people." Later, in his Playboy interview, Garrison implied that Gur- vich had been a C.I.A. infiltrator from the shirt. He also charged Gurvich with petty larceny, claiming the file that he had was worth nineteen dollars. And, for good measure, he charged on People with a lot of living to do. Weekdays, weekends, vacations. In the the A.B.C. "Page One" television suburbs, in the country, at the seashore. Big family people with 2- show that Senator Robert Kennedy story, split-level requirements. New family people with economy ideas. "has made a real effort to stop the in- Retirement people with leisurely objectives. vestigation." After it had become quite clear that That's what Techbuilt houses are all about — flexibility. Gives you criticism of Garrison's case could be your pick of as many or as few rooms as you want — where you want used to generate a spectre of con- — the size you want. Unlimited combinations with Techbuilt's post- spiracy, Garrison took the logical next and-beam construction — modular panels — sky-high windows — step and started creating pseudo-attacks crisp, clean, contemporary lines—and handsomely carefree materials. on himself. When reporters in Tokyo If this sounds like your kind of living, send for Techbuilt's fascinating, asked Chief Justice Earl Warren his fact-filled brochure. Bulging with photographs, architectural draw- opinion of the Garrison investigation, ings, floor plans, room ideas. The complete story of how Techbuilt he replied, "I want to skirt this very custom-designs to fit your needs, tastes, lot, price. Only $1 from carefully, because the case could some- Techbuilt, Inc., 127 Mount Auburn Street, Dept. N713, Cambridge, day come before the Supreme Court." Mass. 02138. Pressed as to whether Garrison pos- sessed any evidence that might contra- C'21 u 1 LT 66 JULY 13, 1 9 G 8

diet the findings of the Commission he Playboy interview Garrison insisted, had headed, the Chief Justice an- "The reason we were unable to obtain swered, "I've heard that he claims to Novel's extradition from Ohio ... is have such information, but I haven't that there are powerful forces in seen any." Garrison immediately char- Washington who find it imperative to Front our acterized this "new counterattack" as collection of conceal from the American public the interesting "heavy artillery whistling in from truth about the assassination." He went scats Tokyo," and said in a press release, "It on to indicate that Novel was now a is a little disconcerting to find the Chief material witness in his case and, ac- Justice of the United States on his cording to attorneys for Novel, implied hands and knees trying to tie some that his former "investigator" was Very French ... very beautiful . .. our sticks of dynamite to the case. How- Directoire Bench done in pale French ma= somehow. connected with the con- hogany (acalou) A replica of the unique ever, the Chief Justice is a practical spiracy. (Novel is suing Garrison and original, with a most comfortable saddle man and I expect he knows what he is Playboy for ten million dollars in seat and handsome ormulu mounts on both doing.... The last time he was called sides. Can be used in so many places. Shown punitive and compensatory damages.) here in a breathtaking olive green Scala- into action to perform a service was And in a speech to the Radio and mandre crushed silk velvet. Also available when the President of the United Television News Association of in other colors and in black or gold woven States was assassinated by men who had linen. Available in antiqued Southern California, in Los Angeles, fruitwood. 14" x19"x 17" high. $1.1.0 been connected with the Central In- Garrison cited his failure to obtain F.O.B. New York City. Add $8 crating charge telligence Agency." Garrison predicted Novel's extradition as evidence that beyond 110,11112, delivery area. a new broadside from the federal au- President Johnson was putting pres- Lloyds has been called one of the most un- thorities: "Judging from the careful usual shops in New York ... and for good sure on local officials to secrete wit- reason. This is one of those rare places coiirdination which the Establishment nesses from him. He went on to ac- where you can browse to your heart's con- showed in its last offensive against the tent through a wonderful collection of fine cuse President Johnson of preventing antique and reproduction furniture, decora- case, it is safe to expect that other ele- "the people in this country from seeing tive accessories and estate pieces. Your own ments of the federal government and the evidence," and asserted, with the sense of good taste will be pleased ... your national press will now follow up with sense of values will be delighted ... and logic of cui bow, ". . the fact that he you'll find the things you want most to live a new effort to discredit the case and has profited from the assassination with. Stop in soon. the prosecution." most, more than any other man, makes NEW 64 PAGE CATALOGUE $1.00 Another example of Garrison's tech- it imperative that he see that the evi- nique involved Gordon Novel, LLOYDS the dence is released, so that we can know electronics expert, who had told him 116 EAST 60th ST., N. Y. 22, N. Y., Pl. 9.7313 that he is not involved ..." about Ferric's participation in a "pick- up" of munitions from the Schlum- ARRISON'S technique in expounding The herger Well company, in Houma, Lou- G the so-called second conspiracy is isiana. Novel rapidly advanced from typical of what Richard Hofstadter has OCEAN advising Garrison on anti-eavesdrop- classified as "the paranoid style in ping techniques, the business that had American politics," to which "the feel- DUNE first brought him to Garri- Apartments ing of persecution is central," son's attention, to become a and which is "systematized in PRIVATE BEACH AND witness against Ferrie and, at THERMAL SWIMMING POOL grandiose theories of conspir- least in Garrison's mind, an Amagansett, acy." Still, the fact that Gar- "investiga tor." Then, ac- An attractive resort residence in a setting of rison expresses his ideas in a unspoiled colonial charm: luxuriously fur. cording to one account, Gar- paranoid style does not of it- nished, 2 and 4 roam suites with fully equipped rison was told that his inves- kitchenettes, sun decks, daily maid service. self rule out the possibility Tennis and Golf Privileges. Reservations by tigator had been furnishing that there is substance to his application only. Seasonal, monthly, weekly information to N.B.C. re- claims. Is the C.I.A., for ex- and weekend rates on request. Phone or write porters, and Novel was suh- for brochure. ample, really concealing some (516) AM agansett 7-3406 poenaed to appear before a involvement of its agents in grand jury, Instead of ap- Q% the assassination, as Garrison pearing, Novel left the state has claimed? In May, 1967, and went to Ohio. Garrison filed bur- Garrison declared on the A.B.C. "Is- glary charges against Novel, alleging sues and Answers" television program, that he had participated in the conspir- "Of course the Central Intelligence GRACE MARKAY acy to steal arms from the Schlumher- Agency had no role in the planning or ger Well company in Houma, and he has the world on a sing intending the assassination of President was arrested in Ohio. After some ini- from July Kennedy. I think that would he a 8-July 27 tial reluctance, Governor James Mon.—Timm. 10:00 P.M. ridiculous position for anyone to take." Frt. Er Sal., 9:00 & 11:43 P.M. Rhodes, of Ohio, finally agreed to ex- He has, however, taken precisely that For reservations call tradite Novel to Louisiana if Garrison position on several occasions. His al- Plaza 9-3000 would complete the papers within sixty legations regarding the culpability of days. Garrison, however, did not take the C.I.A. have varied widely. On PERSIAN the steps that were necessary. As the May 9, 1967, the C.I.A. was accused deadline approached, Assistant District of merely concealing evidence; by May ROOM 4.;$ Attorney Alcock asked if he should re- 18th, Oswald and Ruby were them- L AT THE PLAZA turn the papers to Ohio, and Garrison selves identified by Garrison as C.I.A. told him not to bother. And yet in the employees; on May 21st, the District THE NEW YORKER 67

Attorney stated that the C.I.A. knew "the name of every man involved and the name of the individuals who pulled the triggers;" on May 24th, he added that the C.I.A. was presently hiding the killers' whereabouts; tin November 14th, he decided that "employees—a limited number—of the Central Intelli- gence Agency of the U.S. government are involved in the assassination ;" on January 31, 1968, he said on the Johnny Carson show that "the Central Intelligence Agency was deeply in- volved in the assassination ;" and in February he said in an interview filmed for Dutch television that "President Kennedy was killed by elements of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States government," going on to explain, "The Central Intelligence Agency • .. had worked for a long time creating the tableau—the cover scene— beforehand. This is standard for a Cen- tral Intelligence Agency assassination. As a matter of fact, the C.I.A., when it conducts an assassination, describes it as an executive action. This takes the sin out of it. As a matter of fact, to Glencoe. Sailboats at the front door. charming, informal waterside inn. Reggie the C.I.A. employees, the sin then be- Breakfast on your terrace overlooking love- Cooper, owner-manager. Hetland & Stevens, comes failing to do your job properly, ly Salt Kettle inlet. Dine at the free-form Inc., Representative, 211 East 43rd St., in the executive action. Of course, even pool. Sail, swim, water ski, fish at this New York. TN 7-1450. as I describe it, I'm conscious of the parallels with regard to Germany tin- der Hitler. What I'm talking about is What's so special about nothing less than Fascism, which has arrived in America...." these five Bermuda Resorts? Just how solid the basis for these Their house party atmosphere. charges is can he deduced from Gar- rison's twenty-six-page interview in There are certain Bermuda resorts that have own, there are special pleasures that all Playboy, which is doubtless the fullest a special something, quite unique among provide you. Glorious views of blue-green and most coherent single presentation resorts anywhere in the world. water and tropical flowers. Fine food, atten- of his case to date. When he was Call it a house party atmosphere. Or an tive service, excellent swimming pools, pressed by Playboy's interviewer, Eric air of congeniality. Whatever it is, people dancing under the stars. Norden, for the evidence on which fall in love with these resorts. And keep Wherever you stay, in a cottage-for-two his charges of C.I.A. complicity were returning to them. or for all the family, or a room-with-terrace based, Garrison mentioned eight specific Perhaps it's their size. These are not huge, at the inn, you can be private and secluded impersonal hotels. Four are cottage colo- items: (1) .a missing C.I.A. photo- when you wish. Yet chances are you'll be nies; one is a small waterside hotel. Each is caught up in the house party spirit and find graph that shows Oswald in the com- privately owned and individually operated. congenial company for lunch, cocktails, din- pany of a C.I.A. agent in Mexico be- So the welcome is personal, the feeling re- ner and evening entertainment. fore the assassination, (2) classified laxed and friendly. It's almost like being These are your entree into Bermuda's files on David Ferrie, which "would taken into a private club. world of pleasures. Why not speak to your indicate the existence of a conspiracy Although each resort has a charm of its travel agent today? involving former employees of the C.I.A. to kill the President," (3 ) sup- Cambridge Beaches. White beaches, Pink Beach Club & Cottages. sparkling water on three sides. 250 pressed autopsy X-rays and photo- year old On its own south shore beach in Smith's main house, charming cottages. Excellent Parish. De luxe pink cottages with patios. graphs. of President Kennedy's body cuisine, calypso entertainment. Large pool, Gourmet fare. Magnificent pool and tennis and "other vital evidence," which also game, reef and shore fishing. Sailing, tennis. courts. Golf nearby. Manager, Sig Woll- reveal that former C.I.A. agents took Hetland and Stevens, lnc., Representative, mann. Representative, Leonard P. Brickett, part in the murder, (4) C.I.A. files 211 East 43 St., New York. TN 7-1450. I Palmer Sq., Princeton, N.J. (609) 924-5084. that reveal, it is implied, that Oswald was involved in the C.I.A.'s U-2 Lantana Colony Club. Beautiful Horizons in Bermuda. Atop a hill cottages and clubhouse, on the Great Sound project, ( 5 ) overlooking Coral Beach. Luxurious old the fact that the C.I.A. at Somerset Bridge. Choice cuisine. Pool, destroyed a document that the War- Bermuda mansion with elegant cottages. private beach, sailing, all water sports. New Large pool, tennis courts, golf, marvelous ren Commission had requested, (6) tennis courts. Golf nearby. Manager, John ocean swimming—and the mood is relaxing. the identification of Oswald's C.I.A. Young. Leonard P. Brickett, Representative, Robert F. Warner, Inc., Representative, 630 "bahysitter," (7) the identification of 1 Palmer Sq., Princeton, N.J. (609) 924-5084. Fifth Ave., New York. JU 6-4500. a C.I.A. "courier," and (8) "the con- 6$ JULY 13, 1 9 0 8

MORE COMFORT THAN BAREFOOT sistent refusal of the federal govern- yer Wesley J. Lieheler, who was trying ment" to provide Garrison with "any to clarify the incident for the Warren information" about the role of the Commission, inquired of the C.I.A. C.I.A. in the assassination. This last whether a photograph showing Oswald Belgian piece of "evidence" Garrison calls "the in Mexico City did in fact exist. He Shoes clincher." never received an answer. Garrison MR. HENRI BENDEL At least half of the "evidence" on Owner-President postulated that the C.I.A. had for- which Garrison's repertory of charges warded the picture of a man who was against the C.I.A. is based is itself de- Soft-soled casuals for men not Oswald and had withheld a photo- duced from evidence that Garrison has known the world over. graph that did show Oswald leaving Available in America never seen. He has accomplished this the Cuban Embassy. Furthermore, he only at our salons trick by simply sketching in on the conjectured that the most likely reason or by mail. tabula rain of missing (or nonexistent) for suppressing such a photograph was evidence facts that appear to incrimi- that it revealed Oswald to be in the nate the C.I.A. If the evidence is company of another man—and since missing, a revelation of its contents is the identity of this man was being con- For him not, of course, easily refuted. And the cealed, he must have been working for MR. CASUAL old suspicion of secrecy qua secrecy also the C.I.A. It seems unlikely that Gar- $30 plays a part. "If there's nothing to rison had any knowledge of this photo- 0 Black Calf hide," people wonder, "why is the 0 Brown Calf graph other than what he gathered ❑ Brown Calf/trim black thing missing in the first place?" Con- from the account of it in my book, be- 0 White Buckskin sider Item No. 1 O Patent Leather , the missing C.I.A. cause he repeats the details of that ac- photograph, on which Garrison based My regular shoe size Is count, including a certain erroneous de- his original charge that the C.I.A. Send pairs @ $30. each tail. As Lieheler, who originally told Add 75c per pair mailing charge was concealing vital evidence. When 0 Check enclosed me the story, pointed nut a few weeks Garrison subpoenaed Richard Helms, after "Inquest" was published, the pic- Warne the director of the C.I.A., he in- ture in question had been taken of a Address structed him to produce a photograph man in front of the Soviet Embassy in that C.I.A. agents had taken in Mexico City State Mexico City, not the Cuban Embassy. City about seven weeks BELGIAN SHOES before the as- Yet Garrison repeated the erroneous sassination and that, Garrison claimed, 60 East 56th St., New York 10022 information (my own ) to contrive an (212) Plaza 5-7372 showed Oswald in front of the Cuban ominous piece of "evidence" that was In California: I. Magnin & Co. Embassy in the company of a C.I.A. not simply "missing" but nonexistent. agent. The supposed facts conveyed Garrison relied on a similar device by this missing snapshot were what led in his second and third items of "evi- Garrison to assert that the C.I.A. dence," asserting that files on Ferric knew the identity of Kennedy's as- and the President's autopsy X-rays sassins and was concealing the truth. and photographs and other vital evi- But how had this information been de- dence were classified because they duced from a missing "would indicate the ex- photograph, which Gar- istence of a conspiracy rison admits that he has involving former em- never seen? A sitting in ployees of the C.I.A." Actually, the story black and white Exactly how Garrison of the C.I.A. photo- plus six glossies, could specify what graph had its origin in only $42.50. would he indicated by Color from $150. an incident I myself evidence he had never first reported, in my viewed is left problem- hook "Inquest," as a atical, but again the 48 East 50th Street. ach Flinch means of illustrating New York Plaza 5-6233 tabula ram the problems that the of missing evidence gives him an Warren Commission It you opportunity to sketch in can't be lawyers faced in communicating with unverifiable details of a C.I.A. conspir- n house guest the C.I.A. According to my account, acy. (Every once in a while, the evi- in Bateks County, a man in front of the Cuban Embassy dence proves to be existent and Garri- be ours. in Mexico City before the assassination son is caught in the act. For example, Thr sifts HOUK' is an ertrty Amerierin inn—worthy of had been routinely photographed by a medal note [seance of the Mort dorrrailiklion ci Ilrp he stated in his holism Playboy interview that give viol tors a Aare In stay that is quiet. charming hidden C.I.A. camera and identified as and memorable. four frames of a film taken of the as- Twenty-four air•ennditinned bedrooms, each with bath Lee Harvey Oswald; the information anti termer, on the Delnwure Him. Swimming. fishing. sassination—frames 208-211—were boating and ten nu. And proprietors who know a thing or had subsequently been forwarded to the two shout malenit you welrome. missing from the frame-by-frame re- Wr'll Im glnit In send you our brochure and driving F.B.I. However, as it turned out, I to rn•Iiions. production of the film in the testimony continued, the man in the photograph and evidence published by the Warren (which was published in Volume XX Commission, and he went on to claim 17 40 of the Warren Commission's testimony HOUSE that these frames "reveal signs of stress and evidence) was obviously not Os- appearing suddenly on the hack of a 1,114.111 -NVILLEL. *not. TUCK!. car 147.1 wald but a heavyset individual who Telt 2111-287-41181 street sign" and to suggest that "these could not he identified. The staff law- signs of stress may very well have been THE NEW YORKER 69 caused by the impact of a stray bullet on the sign." But frames 208-211, while missing from the Warren vol- umes, are not missing from a copy of the film that Life holds, and they re- veal no "signs of stress.") In his fourth item, Garrison sup- posedly reveals the contents of classified C.I.A. documents in the National Archives. These documents were pre- pared for the Warren Commission by the C.I.A. And although the title of each of these reports—usually refer- ring to the general topic on which Commission lawyers requested that the C.I.A. provide information or answer queries—is listed in the index of Com- mission documents, the reports them- selves are classified, as are all C.I.A. reports containing the names of opera- tives, informers, and foreign sources. Garrison customarily rattles off the titles of the "suppressed C.I.A. files," as he calls them, and then sets forth their "contents" in his own terms. For example, in Playboy he cited Commis- First name for the martini sion Document No. 931, entitled "Os- wald's Access to Information About the U-2," and then ominously suggest- ed that Oswald was involved in the U-2 program. He amplified on this BEEFEATER' "evidence" in a speech he made after IMPORTED GIN FROM ENGLAND BY KO8RAND, N.Y. • 94 PROOF • TRIPLE. DISTILLED • !W.I.:GRAIN NEUTRAL SPIRITS the Playboy interview appeared, stat- ing, "The reason you can't see that [Commission Document No. 931] for many years is because you will then realize that Lee Oswald was then working for the United States govern- ment, as a C.I.A. employee, and they What kind don't want you to know that." Garri- son used this classified document, which, of course, he had not seen, to of a car substantiate the charge that Oswald acted as a C.I.A. agent. Yet testimony in the Warren Report indicates that it would you pick may well contain information on what Oswald heard when, during his stay in the Soviet Union, he dropped in for your kid on the trial of the U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers. In any event, it seems highly unlikely that if the C.I.A. were to have indeed as sinister as Garrison alleges, it would admit in a report to the Com- mission that Oswald was a C.I.A. an accident in? agent, especially since its reports were to he read by lawyers working for We won't apologize for asking the question. We asked the Commission who were not (as it first of our engineers. (They have kids, too.) my own interviews with them dem- Their answer: "A car he can walk away onstrate) particularly inclined to be from—alive. secretive. And, hopefully, unhurt." The fifth item of evidence—that the We told the engineers to build one, and the car they Warren Commission was never able to came up with was the Rover 2000. It isn't perfect, but we've obtain "a secret C.I.A. memo on Os- been told it's close. It isn't cheap either—but there are things wald's activities in Russia" that was at- we can think of that are dearer. Your own kid, maybe? tached to a State Department document, Write: Leyland Motor Corporation of North America, because the memorandum had been 11 I Galway Place, Teaneck, New Jersey 07666, and we'll tell "destroyed" the day after the assassina- you all about it. The Rover 2000. a-TIM•70■

JULY 13, 1 9 68 tion—is simply untrue. While it is true proof that the C.I.A. is withholding that one copy of this memorandum was evidence of its guilt. destroyed while being photocopied, an- other copy was duly forwarded to the ARRIsoN has also charged that the Commission on May 8, 1964, as is evi- G press has furtively controlled the dent from Volume XVIII of the Com- news as a means of suppressing known mission's testimony and evidence. facts about the assassination. "Behind When Sylvia Meagher, who has in- the facade of earnest inquiry into the dexed the twenty-six volumes of the assassination is a thought-control proj- Reiocatinn sans tears Warren "Your personal Commission testimony and ev- ect in the hest tradition of `1984,' " he interest made this idence, and has tried earnestly to cor- undertaking much easier" writes a has written. "Because of their role in midwest executive recently transferred rect the mistakes of the critics as well the Establishment and their failure to to the New York area. One of our "very as those of the Commission, pointed conduct an effective inquiry, major efficient" Realtors impressed him out to Garrison that his charge was news agencies have a vested interest in greatly by helping his family "select based on a fallacy, he acknowledged fixtures and flooring". Actually, it's the maintaining public ignorance." Most kind of intensive care we try to provide the error, but, even so, he went on of what Garrison has had to say on this in each of the 4,000 communities we using the non-fact to support his charge subject has been vague philippics, but cover. Where some families stress the that the C.I.A. was "incinerating" evi- in his half-hour N.B.C. rebuttal he did schools their kids will attend or the dence. social climate, and others worry about give five specific examples of news sup- room size and commuting convenience, The sixth item of evidence, the iden- pression, and they are worth examining we take everything into consideration. tity of Oswald's C.I.A. "hahysitter," in detail. Of "powerful news agencies," Including tas rate and mortgage situa- was extrapolated from a purchase order Garrison alleged: tion. We relocate 60 families weekly, for ten Ford trucks. Oscar Deslatte, so satisfactorily that they recommend the assistant manager of a New Or- They do not tell you that Lee Harvey us enthusiastically to transferring Oswald's fingerprints were not found on leans Ford agency, who wrote up the friends. Our services cost you nothing. the gun which was supposed to have Phone or write A. Patterson. order on January 20, 1961, subse- killed the President. quently reported to the F.B.I. that his And they do not tell you that nitrate customers told him the trucks were to tests exonerated Lee Oswald from the he used by an organization known as actual shooting by showing that he had 710 not fired a rifle that day. "Friends of Democratic Cuba." Des- And they do not tell you that it was 200 Park Avenue 1901 Ave. of Stare latte listed the purchaser of the trucks virtually impossible for Oswald to have New York 10017 1212) 961.3111 Los Angeles 90067 as "Oswald" taken his fingerprints off the gun, hidden (213) ( no first name given) 500 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 60611 (312) 277'31105274111 and said that the individual with "Os- the gun and gone down four flights of stairs by the time he was seen on the wald" called himself Joseph Moore. second floor. When F.B.I. agents asked Deslatte Above all they do not tell you of the about the incident, he said that he overwhelming eyewitness testimony that could "neither describe nor identify shots were coming from behind the stone wall on the grassy knoll.... either of the men." Garrison believes, You have not been told that Lee however, that the purchase was made Oswald was in the employ of U.S. intel- Presenting for the C.I.A., and that Moore, who ligence agencies, but this was the case. has never been located, was in fact It is true that the public had not "PLAY IS Oswald's C.I.A. chaperon. It is pos- been told any of these things, except by sible, of course, that Moore was Garrison, but there is a good rea- THE THING" the C.I.A. "babysitter" of some (with n1,0100101 to W m. Shakorpearr) son for that. All five of the In the "play" at Hotel Hershey YOU are Oswald, but in 1961, at the the star. Just be yourself (no previous charges are either false or captious. time the purchase order was experience needed). All you need do is relax. Fingerprints were found on "Discover yourself" why Hotel Hershey is filled out, Lee Harvey Oswald the rifle "which was supposed to was working at the Belorussian "incomparame" have killed the President," but Radio and Television Factory in the prints could not be positively identi- Minsk. fied. Sebastian F. Latona, a nationally The seventh item of evidence, con- Hershey, Pennsylvania recognized fingerprint expert, testified cerning a C.I.A. "courier," refers to For reservations: 'ROOT, F. WARNER INC. before the Warren Commission that New York: 566-4500 • Wash., D.C.: 737-2440 Donald Philetus Norton, the hank em- '•,Chicago, III.: 939-1040 • Boston, Mass.: 523-44974 because of the unpolished finish of the bezzler and night-club entertainer who rifle, which allowed it to absorb mois- had been thoroughly discredited as a ture, it was highly unlikely that an iden- witness and was jettisoned by Garrison tifiable fingerprint would have been left himself even before he gave ST. the Play- on the weapon. Contrary to boy interview. the pop- ular impression regarding fingerprints, Garrison's "clincher," the assertion Latona noted, they are usually discern- that the government has not revealed to ible only on highly polished surfaces. him any information of the C.I.A.'s What Garrison does not say is that a complicity in the assassination, is a palmprint was discovered on the under- Searohe perfect example of Garrison's own side of the barrel of the rifle in question brand of logic, in which the fact that and that three different experts posi- 25 West 56th St., N.Y.C . he has not found or been given any tively identified it as Oswald's. evidence of C.I.A. complicity is itself Aege" Garrison's assertion that the nitrate THE NEW YORKER 71

tests "exonerated" Oswald is equally questionable. In the tests to which Garrison referred, the Dallas police made paraffin casts of Oswald's hands and right cheek, and these casts were then checked for traces of nitrates. Ni- trates were found on the casts of both hands but not on the cast of his cheek. The test, however, in no way proves that Oswald did or did not fire a rifle. The nitrates found need not have come from gunpowder; many other sub- stances—tobacco, matches, or urine— will leave such residues. Conversely, the absence of nitrates indicates just as Sometimes things happen so quickly little, because a rifle (which, unlike a that it's nice to be prepared in advance. revolver, has no gap between the To have a what-if dress for chamber and the barrel ) is not as like- unexpected invitations to dinner, ly to leave nitrate traces on the cheek. shopping trips that turn into theater parties or an unforeseen opportunity to meet In fact, the rifle in question was experi- your idol. To have a dress like this one, mentally fired three times by an F.B.I. wool flannel (Charcoal or Navy) agent and no traces of nitrates were de- trimmed with Banana linen and lace. tected on his hands or cheek. Accord- Misses sizes. ing to one F.13.I. expert, Cortlandt About $36 at good stores Cunningham, the so-called paraffin test and college shops. is completely unreliable, and its princi- Shoes by Tire Villagers pal 1154: in police work is S)11ply to in- timidate suspects; it produces more apprehensi4m than valid evidence. Gar- '431A10- rison's suggestion that such tests could have proved that Oswald "had not fired a rifle that day" plays on the gul- libility of the general public regarding 111418 TNt ipoc 0”0.1460U. WES r. 194.153 meta eluaKTLY woman TNt MRfT the reliability of scientific-sounding data. As for Garrison's statement that it was "virtually impossible" for Oswald to have been on the second floor of the Depository Building a few minutes aft- er the assassination, it, too, is specious. A Secret Service agent, simulating Os-

wald's movements, reached the second '47;-'914Z51-112r31131 LITO R . 16.1Mt e 1:11 (0 floor from the sixth in one minute and 3 TO ,f1:5 eighteen seconds. In any case, it is im- possible to ascertain exactly what time Oswald was seen on the second floor; it could have been as long as five min- utes after the assassination. Garrison's next assertion—that the press failed to report that there was perfectionist? "overwhelming eyewitness testimony" If you are such a latter-day Phineas Fogg our new that the shots came from behind a stone DIGITAL CLOCK/RADIO will give you much pleasure and satisfaction. The 10 transistor RADIO provides full wall—is also sophistical. None of the AM-FM coverage with drift-free FM assured by Automatic Frequency Control. It hundred or so Warren_Commission wit- has volume, range and fidelity that will amaze you In a unit of such compact size. nesses who testified on the matter or were The DIGITAL CLOCK allows exact time "read-out" at a glance! It's never off questioned by the F.B.I. said that they so much as a second. The alarm will rouse you with music or with a most saw .a rifle being fired from behind the authoritative buzz. All this "perfection" in a slim, trim case (10x3x6") to discreetly stone wall. The earwitness testimony, grace a bedside table, kitchen shelf, desk and add fine music and the right time to any room in your home, And the price! Even Ebenezer Scrooge couldn't resist. which is undependable in determining

the source of any shots where there is 'At* a possibility of echoes, was divided. More ID Send me the DIGITAL CLOCK/AM-FM RADIO. My check for $50.95 ($49.95 than half the witnesses thought the shots plus $1 post. & ins.) is enclosed. Guaranteed for 1 year. Return for refund in originated in some spot other than the 10 days if not delighted. (California residents add 5% tax,) Depository Building, but only a few of NAME NY 0713 the earwitnesses thought the shots came ADDRESS from the direction of the stone wall. ZIP Finally, the assertion that Oswald 554 Washington, San Francisco, Ca. 94111. haverhE JULY I3, 196 8

was a C.I.A. agent, as has already been telephoned the Dallas field office of the shown, was based on Garrison's own F.B.I. five days before the assassina- Summer private interpretation of "missing" or tion and gave details of the plot, which classified documents that he had never were then forwarded by interhureau seen. Of the five examples of "news sup- telegram to Hoover in Washington. Fun pression" that Garrison cited, then, not This, Garrison claimed, was proof that one was based on accurate information. President Johnson had "actively con- cealed evidence about the murder of NOTHER of Garrison's sweeping his predecessor." 1,Vhen a reporter A charges about a "second conspira- asked him what evidence he had that et' is that the federal government— such a telegram ever existed, he an- through its agents Lyndon Johnson, swered, "If you and I were in a closed . .. only 100 miles from the city Robert Kennedy, j. Edgar Hoover, room, I could prove it. But I'm not go- Earl Warren, and Ramsey Clark—has ing to allow any evidence to get out been involved in a sinister plot to quash now." His evidence, it later turned out, Swim in a huge pool that sparkles his investigation. It would have been was simply a story that Mark Lane had in the clear, fresh Pocono air. it's difficult to gainsay Garrison's imputa- told him. just part of the fun at Buck Hill. Golf on uncrowded 27-hole course. tion of federal obstruction if he had Apart from such speculation by Gar- Enjoy tennis, riding, lawn bowling. charged merely that the government rison and Lane, the charge of federal Nights are lively with movies, con- was hindering his case. Certainly feder- complicity is based almost solely on the certs, entertainment, dancing week- al agencies have been less than coopera- fact that there is government secrecy. ends. Camp Club for children. Air- tive, and important federal officials, in- According to Garrison's logic, the gov- conditioned rooms in the new wing. chiding Attorney General Clark, have ernment would not classify information Daily flights via Pocono Airlines. openly (and often harshly) criticized pertinent to the assassination unless it Reservation Offices: New York: 30 the New Orleans investigation. But had something to hide. Garrison has Rockefeller Plaza W. (212) 245-5620; Garrison's allegations have gone far be- persistently exploited popular suspicions In Philadelphia: (215) 922-2180. yond the charge of interference in this about secrecy, accusing those who Make vocative rciervations now. sense. He has accused the federal gov- would, in his estimation, benefit most ernment of conspiring to wreck his in- from the maintenance of such secrecy. ((:1371CK H I LL vestigation specifically because it harbors For example, after noting that part of INN & GOLF CI a motive of its own in concealing the the Warren Commission's documents BUCK HILL FALLS • PA. truth about the assassination, and he are classified in the National Archives, TELEPHONE (717)555-7441 has levelled his accusation in no un- Garrison claimed on a Texas television certain terms: "... the United States show last December, "They destroyed government—meaning the present evidence in every possihle way. The administration, Lyndon Johnson's ad- President of the United States, the man ministration—is obstructing the inves- who has the most to gain, the man who tigation—any investigation. It has con- gained more than any other human cealed the true facts—to he blunt about from the assassination, is the man who it—to protect the individuals involved issued the executive order concealing in the assassination of John Kennedy." vital evidence for seventy-five years so In other words, he is charging that the that we can't look at it, so that you government knows the truth and, in can't look at it, so that no American concealing it, is itself con- can see it for seventy-five spiring to protect the con- years. Now, this was an No. 553 Magnetic Desk spirators. executive order by Lyndon Take a letter, Miss Jones. So far, Garrison has of- Johnson, the man who fered only two specific items gained the most from the Playskool creates the playtools to stimulate preschoolers: helps de- of "evidence" to support assassination." velop social, mental, physical this charge. The first item No such executive order skills. is the photograph of the as- has ever been issued. Many /rtaiT\i•DX sassination site showing a investigative files are with- PLAYski:* man with a closed fist, which by Gar- held from use by law for seventy-five rison's surmise conceals the bullet that Playskool Manufacturing Company years—a number arbitrarily selected to 3720 No. Kathie Ave./Chicago, III. 60618 killed the President. From this conjec- exceed the life-span of persons likely to ture he goes on to postulate that the he mentioned in the reports—in order man in the photograph is a federal to safeguard confidential information agent, that me utter nas been turned (such as tax returns), to protect con- over to the federal government, and fidential informers, and to avoid em- —OIJI I R?VERcr. INN- that the government consequently barrassing innocent persons mentioned Dovit:PIAINf-NY knows the assassin's identity. The sec- incidentally. But in the case of the ond item of evidence he mentions is a Warren Commission's documents Mc- telegram that was supposedly sent to George Bundy, acting on behalf of J. Edgar Hoover before the assassina- President Johnson, sent a special re- tion. Garrison charged last December quest to the Archivist of the United

LUXURY COUNTRY DINING that this telegram, which he has been States that the seventy-five-year ban be Omrrtight Accommodation, R. MO Temple 2-1111 • CLOSED WED. unable to obtain, proves that Oswald waived wherever possible and much of THE NEW YORKER 73 the material be opened to the public. kvies.1-100A- 4triTYckiku_; Following guidelines approved by Bun- 4).-0,64.,1 q2igftri:'-eMaklit?-glISW?k> dy, all the agencies involved in the in- vestigation were to review their files ga and declassify everything except pages containing the names of confidential in- formers, information damaging to in- nocent parties, and information about the agencies' operating procedures. There was to he a periodic review by all the agencies concerned. By the time Garrison had begun his own investiga- tion, virtually all the documents that could he declassified according to these guidelines had been opened to public scrutiny. Garrison's claim in Playboy that "any document the C.I.A. wanted tic classified was shunted into the Archives without examination" by the Commis- sion is simply untrue. All the relevant documents relating to the inquiry which arc now in the Archives were sent Ne„etv Rah, diz,„, re,(04.3 there hy the AVarren Commission after A fretien6 mom Tian SOO the Warren Report was published. 5afxViej mod riesiraile eie4ein.s.P.00. Most of the C.I.A. reports were pre- pared to answer specific questions put to the Agency by Commission lawyers, C-101°eM and there is no reason to assume that €CABILNTET MAKE 011) they went unread. 307 MILLING ROAD. HOLLAND. MICHIGAN 40423 The distinguishing mark of the para- noid style, Hofstadter writes, is "the NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LOS ANGELES • PHILADELPHIA • CLEVELAND SAN FRANCISCO • ST. LOUIS • DALLAS • ATLANTA • GRAND RAPIDS curious leap in imagination" between fact and fantasy which is made at sonic r-44AMASWJ critical point in an argument to cover a 4T" g14-4AW4RYVt al. gap in reasoning. Consider in this light the following remarks by Garrison, taken from one of the many speeches Great excuses for giving yourself a present: he delivered during the fall of 1 96 7:

Is this a Great Society which allows innocence to he butchered as Oswald was, with ao concern, no interest? Which al- lows the guilty, the murderers et) walk the streets, knowing without any question who they are, knowing what happened, is this a Great Society? Is it a Great So- ciety which causes blackouts in news cen- JULY 14: "LET ters like New York when there's a de- velopment in the case? Is this a Great Society which monitors your phone if it has the slightest hit of curiosity about you? This is not a Great Society—this is a Dangerous Society. a society which de- spite the lip service to populism ... is so morally threadbare that the futures of 'EM EAT CAKE" your children are in danger.

Here "the curious leap in imagina- tion" is made between the fact that some investigative files are still classified and the fantasy that the government is protecting the assassins by censoring the news, monitoring telephone calls, and threatening the futures of children. (It is worth noting, incidentally, that the image of "innocence • butchered as For Bastille Day, serve it to them from our .ilverplaied Oswald was" creates complications in Provincial cake stand. We call it Joanne, and it's $37.50.French the case of Clay Shaw, who was, after indicted for it conspiracy that in- Webster Wilcox"' volved Lee Harvey Oswald.) In Gar- Mode by The Internniional Silver Co., Meriden, Conn. Price auldrii to change. rison's ease against the news media, a JULY 139 1968

EXECUTIVES leap is made between the fact that the pretation of any event as historically media failed to broadcast some un- momentous as the assassination of Relocating? truths about the assassination and the President. Indeed, earlier Harris sur- fantasy of a conspiracy to suppress the veys showed that at least thirty per cent Corporate timetable? Right neighborhood? news. In his charges against the C.I.A., of the population believed from the out- saltatory advance is made from miss- Right price? a set that Oswald had not acted entirely How long will it take? ing or nonexistent evidence to the alone, and continued to believe this Right home? fantasy of C.I.A. complicity in the as- after the Warren Commission ren-

Can I meet sassination. For Garrison, the C.I.A. dered its verdict. Moreover, Harris my schedule? Will my family be happy? epitomizes all that is feared in govern- concluded from the questionnaires filled Schools? mental secrecy: an invisible govern- out by his respondents immediately Ease of commuting? Houses of ment, answerable to no one, with un- after the Warren Report was issued ,Worship? limited resources and unlimited power. that eleven per cent of the population Re-sale Since all its acts are veiled in secrecy, may he considered "chronic doubters Recreational values? it may be postulated to he the "real who tend to feel that the 'real' story force" behind any event. The govern- about almost any important public Previews Executive Homesearch can solve your househunting problems quickly... ment, Garrison claims, "is the C.I.A. event is never quite told." The fact easily_ efficiently—and without charge to you! and the Pentagon"—an elite that per- that there was a marked increase— petuates its power by concealing the from thirty-one per cent to forty-four, Our seven branch offices and network of mem- ber brokers offer the fastest individualized truth about the assassination, and creat- according to Harris surveys—in the personal attention to your homefinding prob- ing, through the "manipulation of the number of people who believed in a lems. We screen specific neighborhoods and mass media," what he calls "a con- conspiracy when the Warren Commis- match your requirements; fit community centration camp of the mind." sion became the subject of heated con- facilities to your needs. Relocating becomes a troversy, owing to the publication in pleasure, not a problem. NEVER A FEE 1 , • . backed by Previews' 34 years of dedication, s. his investigation continued, Gar- the latter half of 1966 of a number of experience, and integrity. Literature on re- A rison appeared to become increas- books and articles by critics of the Re- quest. Write or call. (212) PL 8.2630. ingly obsessed with governmental se- port, may reflect a certain resistance by Execu-nve crecy, and less directly concerned with the genera] public against accepting a Utews HOMesearEH' the issues of his court case. His obsession purported "truth" that is neither clear- A MEMBER OF THE REEVES BROADCASTING GROUP with the "second conspiracy" might be cut nor obviously irrefutable. The idea 49 East 53rd Street, New York, N.Y. 10022 more easily dismissed if it were not for that even a few points in the Warren Boston • Wash., D. C. • Palm Beach • Chicago the fact that a considerable portion of Report were subject to dispute, or that Denver • Los Angaies • San Francisco the population appears to believe his even a few of its facts could he differ- claims. The extent of his popular sup- ently interpreted, probably led many port leads one to wonder if there may people to reject, or at least doubt, the not be some political calculation behind over-all conclusion that the Commission his choice of chimeras. had put forward so emphatically. In Early in 1967, before the New any event, the change in public opinion Orleans investigation became public seems to have been substantial after knowledge, a poll conducted by Louis Garrison appeared on the scene. Be- Harris and Associates indicat- tween February and May of ed that some forty-four per • 1967, Harris surveys indi- cent of the American people cated nearly half (sixteen out thought that the murder of of thirty-five per cent, to he not for sale President Kennedy was the exact) of the people who had (in any market, that is) result of a conspiracy. In believed that Oswald was These primest of filet mignon are not sold May, 1967, shortly after the lone assassin were now in any market. Yet, you've probably enjoyed Garrison had announced the changing their minds. In oth- them in luxury restaurants. They're Prime discovery of a plot, had gone Plaelzer steaks—tender, flavorful, aged. En- er words, once Garrison be- joy them at home, or have them sent as gas on to arrest Clay Shaw, and had charged gan issuing his charges some thirty mil- with personalized card. Quick-lrozen, packed the C.I.A. with concealing evidence, lion Americans who had apparently in dry ice for guaranteed perfect arrival. a Harris survey indicated that sixty- been neither predisposed to believe in a Box of 16— six per cent of the American public conspiracy nor moved by earlier criti- 6 oz. each, 11,:'," thick. iu"5 '35 ShtepadPrapatd now believed that the assassination had cism of the Warren Report started rtit,11. r, ,log 11Slin more than 200 gill Items been carried out by a conspiracy. A having second thoughts on the question pfaralzer BROTHERS third Harris survey, taken in Septem- of a lone assassin. tonolemesee mums ber, revealed that despite the fact that In presenting to the public his Dept. "-II • Chicago, III. 60632 • YARDS 7-7100 Garrison's inquiry had produced no own conclusions about the assassination P.B. 1951 tangible results, sixty per cent of the of President Kennedy, Garrison has people still believed that Kennedy had enjoyed some strong advantages over been killed by a conspiracy, To be sure, all other critics of the Warren Com- Some Fine Day it is by no means clear that Garrison mission. The first and most obvious is You'll Come the was chiefly responsible for effecting this simply the authority of his office: he is To dent remarkable change in public opinion. the district attorney of a major Amer- Waterville It can he argued that a considerable ican city. Garrison has been able to In Maine woman number of people are naturally dis- make news at will, merely by submit- RESTAURANT posed to make a conspiratorial inter- ting charges, issuing subpoenas, and THE NEW YORKER

making arrests. Moreover, to many people it must seem almost inconceiv- able that an elected prosecutor's care- fully worded "factual" statements— for example, that "at 12:45 P.M. on November 22nd, the Dallas police had broadcast a wanted bulletin for Os- wald"—could he demonstrably false. Still another important henefit that Garrison derives from being a public prosecutor with a case pending is the right to refuse to divulge the evidence on which his charges are based. And Garrison has exercised this right with stunning effect, particularly in the Play- boy interview. Take, for example, his statement that "we know from incon- trovertible evidence in our possession who the real Clay Bertrand is—and we will prove it in court." Since Gar- rison has charged that Clay Shaw used the alias of Clay Bertrand, this is an extremely important claim, but al- though the question of the identity of Clay Bertrand was a central issue in the perjury trial of Dean Andrews, which took place well after the Playboy inter- view was conducted, Garrison failed to introduce any evidence at that time concerning it. Later, a source in Gar- From Portugal comes this palate-pleasing distinctive rose wine, winning new rison's office suggested that the only friends from coast to coast. A perfect accompaniment to any meal. Try it soon. evidence to which Garrison could have been referring in the Playboy interview ANOTHER FINE IMPORT OF.1"-.52V09/4,•-.C41/9 ?eWe." NEW YORK, N Y was a library card taken out under the name Clay Bertrand and bearing Clay Shaw's former business address. GP This card hardly qualifies as incon- trovertible evidence. For one thing, the card turned up well after Shaw was ar- Take off for a rested, and, for some reason, pore no date of issuance or expiration. For an- other, the signature on the card was CARIBEACH ISLAND definitely not in Clay Shaw's hand—a fact that Garrison's own staff con- L3 vacation this summer firmed. In other words, it appears that someone other than Clay Shaw filled Fly away for an island-hopping holiday to three out a library card tinder the alias that colorful West Indian hideaways. Jolly Beach Hotel Garrison has claimed Shaw used and on Antigua. St. Lucia Beach Hotel on St. Lucia. put Shaw's former business address on Grenada Beach Hotel on Grenada. Hotels feature it. all the civilized amenities and favorite resort activities Garrison has also enjoyed the ad- (hint: "beach" is our middle name! ). Each vantage of what might he called stra- island excitingly different. Our color brochure tegic plausibility. As Hannah Arendt really does them justice. points out in her essay "Truth and SEE ALL THREE—FOR $15-$16 A DAY Politics," the liar is usually more per- One round-trip air fare to Grenada buys you Antigua, suasive than the truthteller, simply be- St. Lucia and Grenada. All three Caribeach cause lie can fashion his facts to meet Hotels, with breakfast & dinner, for $15-$16 his audience's expectations. Since Gar- per person per day double. See your Travel Agent, rison is under no compulsion to reveal write for free color brochures to Leonard Hicks, Inc., his evidence, there is nothing to prevent 532 Madison Ave., New York: 688-0123. Other offices in him from contriving his own explana- Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Miami, Washington, D.C., tion of the assassination. Whereas nei- San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu and Toronto. ther the Warren Commission nor its JOLLY BEACH HOTEL on ANTIGUA critics could offer a definite motive for ST. LUCIA BEACH HOTEL on ST. LUCIA the murder of the President, Garrison GRENADA BEACH HOTEL on GRENADA can. He states categorically in Playboy, "President Kennedy was killed for one CARIBEACH HOTELS 76

reason: because he was working for a support. The logic of Ramparts has not The following Diners/Fugazy reconciliation with the U.S.S.R. and Travel franchises have already begun. been significantly different; William Castro's Cuba." And he goes on to de- Turner concluded one of his articles clare that this is not mere speculation, on Garrison in the magazine by saying Albany, N. Y. Minneapolis, Minn. insisting, "... we know enough about that the anti-Garrison tactics of N.B.C. Colome Center Midwest Plata Bldg. Atlanta, Ga. Room 1516 the key individuals involved in the con- and the daily press "smack of despera- 807 Peachtree St., N.E. Montreal, Canada Austin. Texas 01 Place Ville Marie spiracy—Latins and Americans alike— tion—and indicate that there is much Driskill Hotel New Haven, Conn. to know that this was their motive for 'Baltimore, Md. 265 College Street to hide." The Councilor goes along Berkeley. Calif. New Orleans, La. the murder of John Kennedy." To 2328 Bowdltch St. 124 Camp Street with most of the details of the plot the- Birmingham, Mich. New York, N. Y. those who expect a momentous event ory outlined in 4084 West Maple Rd. 24 Broadway Ramparts, differing Boston. Mass. 342 Madison Ave. to have some significant cause, Gar- onlY in its belief that New York Com- 8 Newberry Street Niagara Faits. N. Y. Calgary. Alberta, Can. 151 Buffalo Avenue rison's explanation naturally sounds munists, rather than right-wing ex- 433 Fifth St. S.W. 'Ottawa, Ont., Canada Cedarhurst, N. V. 'Palo Alto, Calif. more logical than the explanation that tremists, were behind the conspiracy. 125 Spruce Street Philadelphia, Pa. a lone assassin acted out of personal Chicago. UL 230 So. 15th Street (Perry Russo, always accommodating, 75 E. Wacker Drive 'Port Huron, Mich. disaffection. Clayton, Mo. Portland, Me. told the Councilor in an exclusive in- 8409 Maryland Avenue 155 Set Street Moreover, Garrison has found ready terview that David Ferric was really Cleveland. Ohio Rid eld Park, N. J. 1290 Euclid Ave. 23 Mt. Vernon Street allies, eager to proselytize on his behalf, n "Marxist" and a follower of Che Dallas. Texas Rochester, N. Y. 266 Garden Mall. 3349 Monroe Ave. among dissident political writers. His Guevara.) Exchange Pk. San Antonio, Texas Detroit, Mich. 11 I Commerce Street charge that there is a conspiracy be- Garrison's cause has also found 2761 East Jefferson San Diego, Calif. East Orange, N. J. 2927 A Canon tween the government and the mass champions in more highly respected 134 Evergreen Place San Francisco, Calif. media to conceal the truth from the El Segundo, Calif. 106 Sutter Street journals that pride themselves on their 999 No. Sepulveda ' San Mateo, Calif. people accords perfectly, after all, with Encino, Calif. Santa Ana. Calif. intellectual credentials—notably the 16661 Ventura Blvd. 1509 N. Main Street what such journals see as their raison New York Reveu, of Books, Fargo. No. Dakota 'Santa Clara, Calif. which has 617 Gate City Bldg. 'Santa Monica, Calif. d'etre. It is therefore hardly surprising rejected the Warren Commission's Forest Hills, N. Y. Schenectady, N. Y. 116.55 Queens Blvd. 434 Stare Street to find his speeches printed verbatim in conclusions because the Commission's Fr. Worth, Texas Scranton, Pa.. 5800 Comp Bowie Northeastern Pa. Nat'l such papers as the Los Angeles Free investigation was defective but has em- Glenview , Bank & Trust Co. Press, and to find his portrait on the 1530 E. Lake Avenue Annex braced Garrison's investigation despite Great Neck, N. Y. Staten Island, N. Y. cover of Ramparts, with the words: 425 Northern Blvd. 4127 Hylan Blvd. its far more glaring defects. Professor Green Bay, Witte. Sr. Laurent, Que.,Can. 906 E. Walnut Street 750 Laurentian Blvd. "Who appointed Ramsey Clark, who Richard Popkin, in a lengthy defense Hartford, Conn. Syracuse, N. Y. has done his best to torpedo the investi- of Garrison's investigation in the New 179 Allyn Street Midtown Plaza, gation of the case? Who controls the Hollywood, Calif. Suite 100 York Review, argues that Garrison /723 No. Nat Avenue 'Tampa, Fla. C.I.A.? Who controls the F.B.I.? Who Houston. Texas Temple. Texas should he given a "fair hearing" in 824 McKinney Street 9 West Avenue A controls the Archives where this evidence Huntington. N. Y. Toronto, Canada is locked up for so long that it is unlike- cnurt, and not have his case "pre- 210 B Wall Street 121 Richmond St. West Indianapolis, Ind. Trenton, N. J. ly that there is anybody in this room who judged" by the press. He claims that Riley Center 660 Whitehead Road will be alive when it is released? This is while Garrison has "studiously avoided 700 North Alabama St. "Tulsa, Okla. really your property and the property of Jackson, Miss. 'Vancouver. B.C. any discussion of Shaw and the spe- 227 E. Capitol Virginia Beach, Va. the people of this country. Who has the Jacksonville, Fla. 4580-7B Pembroke Mall cific evidence against him," the press Barnett First National Waco, Tex,* arrogance and the brass to prevent the Bank Bldg. 524 Golden Triangle people from seeing that evidence? Who has interviewed "potential witnesses," Jersey City. N. J. Mclennan County 2184 Kennedy Blvd. Westfield. N. J. indeed? The one man who has profited evaluated the evidence, made "charges Killeen, Texas 112 E. Broad Street most f rum the assassina- 318A No. Gray Avenue Westwood. Calif. against the District At- Los Angeles, Calif. White Plains, N. Y. tion—your friendly Presi- 9116 Sunset Blvd. 193 Mein Street dent, Lyndon Johnson!" torney and his office ... in 'Memphis, Tenn. Wilmington, Del. Miami, Fla. 1102 West Street effect, trying the case out 150 S.E. Secnnd Ave., 'Winnipeg, Canada Among Garrison's most Suite 1104 Winter Park, Fla. of court." The "wave of Milwaukee, Wisc. 104 E. Park Ave. So. ardent supporters is the 208 E. Wisconsin Ave. Worcester, Mass. attacks in the press and 21 Elm Street Councilor, the himnnthly TV" against Garrison, official journal of the Citi- Popkin contends, "surely zens' Council of Louisiana, prejudices a fair trial." He which claims a circulation V concludes that no investi- of some two hundred and DIN ERS/FUGAZ Y TRAVEL ,.grare, gation of Garrison is nec- sixty thousand, and which essary, for "if the evidence actively campaigns against is as contrived and cock- Communism, the suppres- eyed as the press and TV "Soon to be opened. sion of news by the mass viii allege, they should expect media (supposedly con- that twelve jurors along trolled by Zionist interests), with [the judge] will see race mongrelization (a plot aided by through it." It is true that the the C.I.A. and the Rothschilds), and right of a defendant not to he pre- the insidious intrusion of federal author- judged is a fundamental principle of ity into the sacred domain of states' jurisprudence. And pre-trial publicity, rights. That Garrison had been by prejudicing public opinion, can cer- "fought by Sterns, .Newhouse papers, tainly deny the defendant his right to and Agnes Meyer" (i.e., the N.B.C. a fair hearing'' Jim Garrison, how- affiliate in New Orleans, WDSU-TV; ever, is not the defendant. Clay Shaw the Times-Picayune and States-Item; is. The rights of the defendant have _ and the Washington Post and News- been established precisely to counter- week) was for the Councilor sufficient balance the powers of the state. Pop- reason to lend Garrison its enthusiastic kill's plea that the press suspend scrutiny and criticism of the methods by which Garrison is gathering evidence and bringing the case to trial would, if it were taken to heart, undermine a de- fendant's legitimate protection against the possibility of a prosecutor's using his power and resources to fabricate We are happy to report that evidence and intimidate witnesses. Moreover, Popkin's contention that in the course of a brief reverie Garrison has "studiously avoided" on the theme of capital gains A ,Nit discussing the evidence is disingenu- ,,,,,indulged in by a New York psychologist ous, at hest. The fact is that an D s c...,,s of interview that Popkin had with Per- &HA during the playing of r. 7c, ry Russo, Garrison's star witness Eine Kleine Nachtmusik against Clay Shaw, was arranged by (K, Y.25) the District Attorney himself. It was of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Garrison, too, who told reporters that by the Boston Symphony Orchestra he had found Jack Ruby's coded tele- phone number in both Shaw's and at the Berkshire Festival Oswald's address books, and repeat- Tanglewood ed the allegation on television and to newspaper reporters even after it was Lenox, Massachusetts shown to be false. It was Garrison who on Saturday, July 6 stated in the National Observer, As "There is no way that Clay Shaw the name Hentz came up. can get an acquittal." It was Garrison who allowed Mark Lane and William Turner to photostat evidence in his files. And it was Garrison who, in his H. HENTZ & CO. Playboy interview and on his subse- quent coast-to-coast tour, made numer-

ous references either to evidence in the 72 WALL STREET • FOUNDED 1856 • MEMBERS NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE Shaw case or to Shaw himself (includ- ing the demonstrable falsehood that Shaw was with President Kennedy "on an airplane flight in 1963"). Indeed, Garrison has gone on about the case in speeches, radio talk shows, television programs, press conferences, and inter- views almost without pause. Of course, most of the evidence Garrison has dis- cussed is spurious, but surely that makes it all the more imperative for the press Got enough not to waive its responsibility for ex- amining it closely. Popkin's notion that there is no need for the press to scrutinize Garrison's techniques for recruiting witnesses and assembling evidence because if the evi- ball? dence is contrived a judge and jury will see through it and "destroy Garri- Get the most from son at the trial" shows an unusual con- any shot, any club, fidence in the legal process. While it is any swing in your true that a judge and jury can detect game — you'll contradictions in testimony and other never know how incongruous evidence, there is no cer- good yov are tainty at all that they can uncover until you play perjury that has been systematically ar- Ma xf I i. Sold ranged for, with one perjurer corrob- only by golf orating another's testimony, or that they professionals. can recognize artfully fabricated "facts" purposely designed to fit into the pat- tern of evidence. Exposure of such sys- VATZ/01:. tematic fraud would, in fact, depend . everywhere in the worlds on an outside investigation of the pros- of 9011, tenors and Ores ecutor's means and methods. Gene Roberts, of the New York Times, and JULY 1 31 1 9 6 8

Walter Sheridan, of N.B.C., have stated that in separate inquiries they discovered at least six witnesses who Beauty Spot of the said that they had been offered bribes, blackmailed, or otherwise coerced by Champlain Valley Garrison's representatives. All were, in one way or another, vulnerable people. William Gurvich said that while he was working for Garrison he saw the way the powers of a district attorney's of- fice could he used "to intimidate and coerce witnesses." Popkin intimates that Sheridan and Gurvich may have had some ulterior motive in revealing in- formation about Garrison's mode of operation. One can, as the British phi- The secluded Basin Harbor Club, nestled on the lovely eastern shore losopher A. 3. Ayer points out, always of Lake Champlain, offers a great sustain one's beliefs in the face of ap- deal for the entire family: 18-holes parently hostile evidence if one is pre- of unhurried golf, tennis, all water sports, fine fishing, a new tempera- pared to make the necessary ad-hoc as- ture-controlled pool, a supervised sumptions, and in this case supporters of children's playground and delicious Garrison seem all too ready to assume food in abundance for all. A friendly welcome awaits you from the Beach 'Copenhagen's Stock Exchange has been that everyone who criticizes Garrison's family, owners since 1909. open since 1620. But since 1869 women conduct is part of a plot to conceal the For reservations and information: New York Reservation Office, 30 Rockefeller have been making pretty wise investments truth. But such rationalization explains Plaza West, Telephone ( 212) LT 1-6S95. at Birger Christensen. Our opulent furs nothing. In the year I have been study- can make you an attractive dividend, too. ing Garrison's investigation and have BIRGER CHRISTENSEN had access to his office, the only evi- BASIN HARBOR 38 Ostergade-Copenhagen-Denmark dence I have seen or heard about that could connect Clay Shaw with the as- zw CLUB Az sassination has been fraudulent—some Robert H. Beach. Manager devised by Garrison himself and some By Appointment to rbe VERGENNES • VERMONT Royal Danish Court cynically culled from criminals or the emotionally unstable. To fail to report this information so that Garrison might have a "fair hearing" in court could WE'VE MOVED preclude the possibility of the defend- ant's ever receiving his fair hearing in One of the 7 court. To see the issue of the assassination Wonderful Inns ANGEL LOFIZ as of such overwhelming importance C11121/4:C .A.C.4 of the world! that the juridical rights of the defend- ler Luxurious accommodations for 600 cr),AL61216, Year 'round resort activities ant may be neglected, the Constitu- Write for Color Brochure & Weekend Plain tional rights of witnesses disdained, the Yma Los Chavales scrutiny and criticism of the press sus- • pended, and the traditional methods of Sumac de Espana Route 32 Val Haddonfield Rd. the state's prosecution ignored is to ac- Never a 15 min. from downtown Phila. cept a curious sort of ethics. It is to say cover charge N.J. Turnpike Exit 4 • Cherry Hill, N.J. Reservations: (609) NO 2-7200 that in a search for facts the means can he disregarded if the ends—the facts— NOW AT 48th ST. IIP"•111PIIMIPwql are of enough consequence. Fred just e. of Lex. Ave. in Hotel Lexington Powledge, writing in the New Repub-

lic, suggests the dilemma: "...I had A TRULY REMARKABLE RESTAURANT 14.)e keep ,..SanTranciscoBeautifui the irrational feeling that he [Garri- LUNCHEON • COCKTAILS • DINNER son] was on to something. I had the • equally startling feeling that it did not Private rooms Hubert Braun Manfred Pohl really matter if Garrison were paranoid, available les coiffures for cocktails internaihn2ales opportunistic, flamboyant, or if his wit- or dinner. 445 sutler st., san francisco Closed Sat. and Sun nesses were not candidates for The 9 EAST 48 STREET, N.Y.C.— Pt. 3-5852 Defenders. Was he right?" But can the process of establishing the truth ever he separated from its end product— Recommended by Holiday, Gourmet, Cue and the truth? Facts must be selected, in- Town & Country terpreted, and arranged in the context and tws Royal Fani;ly of Fish lunch 53.25 5015* ROSI ADDIPti provided by other information before Prix fix* dinner $6.50 rd Ave., neor 53rd St. they take on meaning. Factual evidence Closed Sunday AIR (ONDItIONEO • EL 5.9309 reservations El. 5-9342 can he established as truth, as Hannah 141 Eatt 52nd Street, N.Y. THE NEW YORKER 8l

Arendt points out, only "through testi- mony by eyewitnesses—notoriously un- reliable—and by records, documents, The Britisher—a Doornkaat gin and tonic is crisper. Stays and monuments, all of which can be refreshing first sip to last. suspected as forgeries." If one has rea- son to doubt the process by which "facts" have been ascertained or con- firmed, how can one ever be certain that they hear any relation to the truth, or even that the "facts" themselves are The Callfornlan—with Doornkaat not outright fabrications? Questions a Bloody Mary really lives up to her smooth reputation. such as these have been taken tinder consideration by a federal court in New Orleans. On May 28th, United States District Judge Frederick Beebe, after considering a forty-five-page complaint The Continental—this from Clay Shaw's attorneys alleging you will really appreciate —chilled Doornkaat that Garrison had conducted a "reign and a good beer. of terror by the misuse and abuse of the powers of the public office," issued a temporary restraining order that pro- The American—discover hibited Garrison from any further Doornkaat to make the prosecution of Clay Show until a fed- driest Martini ever. eral court has had the opportunity to decide the merits of the charges filed against Garrison. Doornkaat-the international gin In view of the shortcomings of the Any way you like gin, you'll like what Doornkaat does to your favorite Warren Commission's investigation, it gin drink. We know. We've been distilling Doornkaat in its famous green becomes apparent that there is no easy bottle since 1805. Last year we sold over 30 million bottles. Our secret is a way to devise a process for ultimately smooth, gentle taste that blends in but never takes over. Try Doornkaat. answering such complex and elusive historical questions as those provoked by You'll see how it upholds its reputation—and yours, too. the assassination of President Kennedy. 94 Proof • Distilled From Grain • Sole U.S. Agents: German Distilleries, Ltd,, lime-Life Building, N.Y. 10020 Indeed, there can be no certainty that such a process is even within our in- Nov York Airways,Heliport atop the Pan Am Blinding. stitutional means. But there can be certainty that as long as the means by which an investigation has been con- Old world ducted remain suspect the truth will elegance and never he fully established. —EDWARD JAY EPSTEIN new world

• conveniences A butler wailing for you at the heliport? THE JUDGES SAID MRS. HARPER WILL BE Almost! He's waiting only a few blocks away di DECLARED THE WINNER OF THE ELECTION at the Sheraton Russell ready to be of service to you. Actually, he's just part of the IF HER COMPLAINT IS SUSTAINED. OTHER- old world service offered at the Sheraton WISE, THE WINNER OF TODAY'S ELECTION, Russell, We also have a. concierge whom we IF THERE IS A SINNER, WILL GET THE JOB. call 'the-chap-who-can-get-you-anything- —4. P. dispatch. you-can't-find-anyone-else-lo-get-you" and we A shoo-in, if we ever heard of one. serve afternoon tea in the lounge at four. We like to think of it as Mayfair in Murray Hill. • Even with today's fast pace of living, we firmly believe in the old idea of relaxed elegance. Icarus, technically known as an aster- oid, or minor planet, will miss the The best of both, Earth by "about 4 miles"—something like 3,950,000 miles to be more precise—in its worlds at the closest approach to Earth in 19 years, iTteraton-ittmett Navy and other astronomers said. 371h and Park Phone 6135-71176 —Tursrm Arizona Daily Star. Anyway, it's a miss. •

MOST FASCINATING NEWS STORY OF THE WEEK [The following item, reprinted in its entirety, is from the Times] NEWPORT,ORE. (AP)—Wal ter O'Brien of Milwaukie, Ore., was fishing for crabs off the Oregon coast when his sunglasses fell into the water. Fa' Sheraton Hotels and Motor Inns in Major Cafes. A World Wide Service Of ITT