RUSSO DENIED SHAW at PARTY--OFFICER L Lt
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RUSSO DENIED SHAW AT PARTY--OFFICER L Lt. O'Donnell Testifies About Interview A veteran New Orleans police officer testified Wednesday at the trial of Clay L. Shaw that in June, 1967, Perry Raymond Russo told him Shaw was not at the mid-September, 1963, party at the apartment of David p. m. when Judge Edward A. L. Ferrie. Haggerty recessed the trial un- t. 4'Donne til 9 a. m. Thursday. wh-3—fT assistant connman immediately be fore Lt. of the homicide division and O'Donnell's appearance, has been on the force for 17 Jesse Ga r, the former lan years, made the statement af- swald in New Orleans, ter being called as a witness testified thaterifesame to for the defense. her home eitharthenight of Shaw is standing trial on a the assassination or the night charge that he participated in after. a conspiracy to assassinate Mrs. Garner, 4911 Magazine, President John F. Kennedy. The conspiracy allegedly involved Cont. in See. 1, Page 14, Col. 1 Shaw, Ferrie and Lee Harvey Oswald. Shaw is expected to take the witness stand Thursday. Lt. O'Donnell said that he in- terviewed Russo — the state's star witness—June 19, 1967, and during the course of his conver- sation he asked Russo why he HANDWRITING EXPERT Charles A. All el testified as he did during the area of the Criminal Courts Building Wednesday after com- preliminary h ear ing three pleting testimony In the Clay Shaw trial. months earlier. Lt. O'Donnell said: "He told me that when he got to court (for the preliminary hearing) he came with all Inten- tions of telling the truth and you (F. Irvin Dymond, chief defense attorney) turned him on by ask- ing 11 he believed in God, and this was a sensitive point for him, and after you, as he said, turned him on, he decided he was going to bury you." LT. EDWARD M. "Bury me," asked Dymond. O'DONNELL "Yes," Lt. O'Donnell replied. Quotes Russo Interview. 'Garrison Was Told of Statement by Russo' Lt. O'Donnell said that as soon as he completed his inter- view with Russo he immediate- ly went to the office of District Attorney Jim 'Garrison and re- ported to him and James L. Alcock, the chief prosecutor in the Shaw trial, what Russo had told him, Lt. O'Donnell was undergo- ing cross examination at 5:35 ffed she saw Shaw sign me Continued From Page 1 name. Shaw's writing. was another of five defense wit- :Also, Jefferson Biddison, a nesses called Wednesday as rtial estate man and long-time Expert Points Out Shaw's attorneys attempt to ftiend of Shaw, who handled Differences in Letters batter down the state case. Shaw's mail while Shaw was in ' Appel, using a blow-up photo, • Called presumably to testify Europe in 1966, appeared. Bid- graph of the signature with a About Oswald's appearance, dison said he received no mail blow-up of a sample of Shaw's dress habits and behavior, Mrs: during the period addressed to writing of "Clay Bertrand," Garner was shown photographs either a Clem or Clay Bertrand. then went through each letter of of Oswald and Ferrie. She k postal worker testified he de- also testified she never saw liyered mail to the Biddison ad- Shaw prior to his arrest in dress during this period ad- the handwriting samples and March, 1967, and never in per- dressed M Clay Bertrand. pointed out differences between son until last week. .Much of Phelan's testimony the two. When she was shown Fer- and cross examination con- He asserted that Shaw leaves 'rie's picture she said she rec- cerned a memorandum written his "a's" open whereas the reg- :'iignized him as a man who by assistant district attorney ister signature had a closed "a" came to her home shortly Andrew M. Sciambra following saying "the writing act is such ',after the assassination. Sciambra's initial interview a delicate act of movement co- Oswald lived in an apartment with Russo. ordinating hands, fingers, and ih the same building as Mrs. -The "Sciambra memo" did arm wills the direction of the qarner. She said a lot of peo- not mention a conspiracy meet- eyes that all of these things ple, mostly federal agents, ing, as Russo later testified dur- have to he the same to produce were in and out of her home ing Shaw's preliminary hearing the same design." immediately after the assas- and during the current trial. He characterized S h a w's sination. The meeting allegedly took handwriting as being done rap- • She said Ferrie arrived, and place at Ferrie's apartment on idly "in what some teachers after n few minutes, when she Louisiana aye, pkwy. during would call a scribbling fashion," determined he was not there Mid-September, 1963. and said there was a completely on official government business,- •■ Appel, Biddison and Phelan different style of writing be- she asked him to leave. She were called during the morn- tween the two signatures. said he was alone. ing session, but only the ques- After going through each let- Ferrie reportedly lett the city tioning of Appel and Biddlson ter, Appel said, "It can be seen the afternoon of the assassina- was completed. these are distinctive forms; tion when he said he went to Appel, who was qualified as neither of these entries are Houston. an expert in the field of hand- carefully composed," and he Other witnesses called in- writing prior to the trial's re- added that in making copies of cluded ja.naza-lalaelan, free-lance cess Tuesday, was the first wit- signatures, "it is necessary to magazine writer, who said on ness called. make much slower move- c(irect-examination that Russo, On direct questioning by Dy- ments." after the preliminary hearing, mond he told the court that he Of the "Clay Bertrand" sig- backed out of a meeting with ekamined photographic samples nature in the register, he said: Shaw, though Shaw agreed to of Shaw's handwriting as well Phelan said Russo told him, "It is more formal, slower, but as a photographic reproduction nevertheless natural to the per- tie wanted to be sure Shaw was of the Clay Bertrand signature the man he claimed he was. son doing the writing. Because found in the Eastern Air Lines of these differences, I conclud- '..1Phelan alleged Russo told him VIP register. the reason he backed away was ed they were not written by the Be said that he performed ex- same person." `.;if word got back to Jim Gar- aminations and comparative Dymond asked Appel if he rison, he would clobber me." tests on the handwriting sam- confined his study to just one Later, testified Phelan, Russo ples to determine the written told him that he lied about the sample of Shaw's handwrit- motion habits which causes the ing, and he said his study in- reason. Phelan quoted Russo as of letters. design cluded "a good many other" ,spying that "the reason I didn't He said the first thing he did was that if I got into a room samples, some written in was to copy the design of the 1e66. "And then I asked that With Shaw, I would know it was signature from the register "so not him." lie be requested to write on a as to make sure I was receiving number of sheets, each inde- :Phelan said Russo told him the hand movements." hi. could run some where "but pendent of the other so he He said he also did this with Leould never run from myself." could not see the writing on a "Clay Bertrand" signature the previous sheet." }handwriting Expert signed by Shaw "to compare Dymond asked what these each and every design caused comparisons revealed, and Ap- Testifies of Signature by the motion of the pen." pel replied: "The entry in the :Charles A. Appel Jr., a retired He said that Shaw writes book was made by some other handwriting expert for the larger than the person who writer entirely." Federal Bureau of Investigation, signed the register, and tha t He said that the various sam- testified the signature "Clay the proportion of one letter size ples of Shaw's handwriting Bertrand" on the guest register to another is larger in Shaw's which he studied showed no sig- at New Orleans International handwriting, and pointed ou t nificant differences, "just nat- Airport was not written by that the "C" in the register ural variations." Shaw. was smaller than a "C" l" "Did you came to a firm con- ' A state witness earlier testi- exact science there is," replied viction?" asked Dymond. not, but he asked that they be Appel, adding that his specialty "Yes, I did." written a certain way and as- is as exact as chemistry, and And what was that, Mr. Ap- sumed that was the way the added: "Certainly the compari- pel?" signatures were written. son of the design is scientif- ic . ." "That the defendant Shaw did He told Alcock he asked that the signatures be written with Alcock then asked if mis- tot write the entry in the book." takes are made In his field; On cross-examination, Alcock Shaw seated in a normal writing and Appel said, "Mistakes are asked Appel if he had occasion position, and he asked him to made in any kind of endeavor it any time to do similar hand- write the content of the entry in the register. After Shaw did that a human undertakes." He writing studies for the Federal quickly added his conclusions Bureau of Investigation in con- this, the paper was removed, and he was asked to do it again, have never been proven wrong nection with the assassination of in court.