`PLAYED ALONG WITH SCHEME'

sonnel was involved. NBC Offered 'Deal' to Ruin Russo said he was in con- stant contact with the DA's office while Townley, Phelan and Sheridan made repeated DA's Case, Russo Claims visits to attempt to persuade Star witness Perry R. Rus- the late David W. Ferrie and him to appear on last night's Richaid Townley of WDSU- program. so said today he "played Lee Harvey Oswald to kill TV at New Orleans and Sat- "Sheridan offered to set me President John F. Kennedy. urday Evening Post writer along" with a National Broad- up in California, protect my casting Co. team whose mem- Today, Russo said he had James Phelan. never made that statement. job and guarantee that Garri- bers told him they were out son would never get me ex- He identified the three per- HE SAID TOWNLEY told to wreck Dist. Atty. Jim Gar- tradited back to Louisiana," sons who contacted him on him the group had been rison's Kennedy death plot in- he said. behalf of NBC as Walter Sher- "working closely with the de- RUSSO SAID Sheridan vestigation. idan of the NBC news staff, See PROBE—Page 7 made the promises if the wit- Russo met the press in the ness would "side with NBC DA's office shortly before 2 and the defense." p. m. and told newsmen an Russo quoted Phelan as Continued from Front Page NBC representative offered to warning him that Garrison fense" and had been swapping would "leave me standing in "set me up in California" if the cold all alone and that I he cooperated with the net- information with Shaw's attor- neys. would be the only one who work's attack on Garrison. Russo indicated that Town- would get hurt. The -witness's press confer- ley threatened hi m with Garrison appeared briefly ence came in response to an wrecking his personal reputa- at the start of the news con- NBC special report last night tation unless he cooperated ference, but said he had with the NBC staff and its nohting more to say about which questioned the authen- NBC and its critical presenta- ticity of his evidence against program. "He said that Mr. Dymond tion. Clay L. Shaw. (defense lawyer F. Irvin Dy- EARLIER, HE charged that mond) was going to tear me NBC is using "the big lie" T H E PROGRAM. quoted apart on the stand, and that as its "main weapon" to de- Russo as saying he had not after the trial was over I stroy the Kennedy inquiry. told the truth when he ac- would be discredited in every- "There really should not be cused Shaw of conspiring with I one's eyes." much question left about where NBC's orders are com- HOWEVER, THE witness ing from," he declared. said he was told nothing The "would be held against me" NBC documentary, "The JFK Conspiracy: The if be cooperated in the anti- Case of Jim Garrison," de- Garrison program. clared that Garrison used tes- Russo said he was told by timony which "did not pass a members of the trio that both lie detector test" to hold Shaw NBC and the Central Intelli- for trial on charges that he gence Agency were "out to conspired to kill John F. Ken- wreck the Garrison investiga- nedy. tion." FURTHERMORE, THE net- Russo said the CIA was work commentary said Gar- mentioned "repeatedly" dur- rison ordered the polygraph ing his conversations with test and knew his witness did Sheridan. He quoted Sheridan not pass. as saying that a number of The DA jumped the gun on persons involved in the inves- NBC Saturday by filing an tigation were present or for- official complaint with the mer CIA employes. Federal Communications Com- GARRISON HAS charged mission "for activities inter- that Kennedy was murdered fering with the prosecution of by anti-Castro Latins who an open case." once worked for the CIA. He The network used Alvin said the powerful intelligence Beauboeuf, Dean A. Andrews service covered up the cir- Jr., convicted burglar John cumstances of Kennedy's "John the Baptist" Cancler, death because its former per- Saturday Evening Post writer James Phelan, Layton Patrick Martens, a Yale psychology j professor and a New York ' code expert in its attack on case. the Garrison investigation. Times. Cancler several times NBC commentator Frank Beauboeuf's charge repeat- talked with reporters here McGee summed up the pro- ed earlier charges which the who attempted to have him gram by asserting: New Orleans police depart- sign a sworn statement back- "We cannot say that the ment has said were not true. ing up his story. Cancler re- murder of John F. Kennedy Asst. Police Supt. P. J. Tros- fused. did clair announced last week Phelan, the magazine writer not happen the way Jim that an "intensive investiga- Garrison says it did. We can- whose story in The Saturday not say he does not tion" by his department had Evening Post, kicked up a have the cleared both Dets. Lynn Loi- evidence to prove it. small storm of controversy sel and Louis Ivon of the ac- last month, repeated the "We can say this: The case cusations that they attempt- he has built against Clay Shaw charges he made in the ar- ed to bribe or intimidate is 'based on testimony that did ticle. Beauboeuf. He said he was given con- not pass a lie detector test ANDREWS, A SUSPENDED Garrison ordered — Garrison flicting reports on Russo by DA's assistant in Jefferson the DA's office. Russo is the knew it. One prospective wit- Parish, said he could not iden- ness admitted he was going witness who testified in the tify Clay Shaw as the mys- preliminary hearing for Shaw. to lie." terious "Clay Bertrand." The DA, responding to ques- HE SAID HE overheard The hip-talking lawyer, Shaw, Ferrie and Oswald plot- tions this morning, said he wearing his inevitable sun- did not watch the NBC pro- ting Kennedy's murder follow- glasses, told the television ing a party at Ferrie's Loui- gram last night. audience: "I had more important siana ave. pkwy. apartment "I wouldn't know Clay' during September, 1963. things to do," he said, "and Shaw if I fell over him on the the program does not justify street dead." comment." ANDREWS TOLD THE Ferrie, a one-time airline He said he might have Warren Commission a man pilot, died Feb. -22—five days something further to say to- he knew as Bertrand asked after the Garrison investiga- day or tomorrow. him to represent Lee Harvey tion became public. Oswald, Meanwhile, the man who Oswald after the president whom the Warren Commis- was in charge of giving a lie was killed. sion holds responsible for detector test to star Garrison Garrison has charged that Kennedy's murder, was shot witness Perry R. Russo said Bertrand and Shaw are the to death by Dallas nightclub Russo proved incapable of same man, and the Orleans owner Jack Ruby two days taking a polygraph examina- Parish Grand Jury has indict- after the President was killed. tion. ed Andrews for refusing to Garrison has contended that LEONARD GURVICH, a connect the two. Ruby was a party to the con- •partner in Gurvich Brothers Last night, however, NBC spiracy. In formal pleadings, Detective Agency, said Russo commentator McGee said the DA has charged that was "highly nervous" when a NBC knows who Clay Bert- Ruby and Oswald met with polygraph test was attempted rand is and that he is not Shaw at Baton Rouge during several months ago. Clay Shaw. The network the fall of 1963 to plot the identified Bertrand as a homo- President's slaying. sexual and said it was with- PHELAN SAID AN original The test was halted, Gur- holding his real identity to report given Garrison by one vich said, and he and Asst. save him embarrassment. of his assistants failed to note DA Andrew Sciambra attempt- McGee said the information any testimony about a con- ed to calm Russo by talking about Bertrand has been spiracy from Russo. He said with him. turned over to the U.S. Jus- Russo delivered his courtroom "After this short pause," tice Department in Washing- story only after it was sug- the detective said, "a second ton. gested to him under the in- attempt was made and again "JOHN THE BAPTIST" fluence of sodium pentathol. the polygraph operator ad- Cancler said Garrison investi- Martens, another Ferrie vised he was unable to get gators Loisel and Ivon at- roommate under indictment specific readings." tempted to persuade him to for perjury in connection with Gurvich said he is not enter Shaw's apartment on what Garrison claims was a aware that any further at- Dauphine st. and place some- burglary of munitions at tempts were made. thing in it. Houma, said he was never Garrison contends Kennedy Gander, a convicted bur- aware that Ferrie had a room- was murdered at Dallas in glar serving time in Parish mate named Lee Harvey 1963 by "Latin adventurers" Prison, said the attempt was Oswald. and others who were angry made before Shaw was ar- He said James Lewallen of with Kennedy over his han- rested March 1, the same day New Orleans had roomed dling of the Bay of Pigs in- his home was searched by with Ferrie and on occasion vasion and the Cuban missile DA's men who seized five was called "Lew" or `Lee." crisis. boxes full of papers and per- The Martens statement was Beauboeuf, a former room- sonal belongings. an obvious reference to Rus- mate of the late David Fer- The same charge was print- so's testimony at the prelimi. rie, said two Garrison inves- ed last week in The New York tigators tried to bribe him to give false testimony in the frequently have difficulty de- termining the difference be- nary hearing. tween facts and fantasy. He WHEN HE WAS here dur- gave the opinion that Russo ing the spring and summer of was asked "very leading" 1963, Oswald lived with his questions under the influence wife and child in the 4900 of the drug and hypnosis. block of Magazine st; A New York cryptographer, The Warren Commission Irvin Mann, said he had ana- branded Oswald a confused, lyzed the code which Garri- Communist-oriented youth son announced he had found who killed Kennedy out of in the notebooks of Oswald sense of frustration and a de- and Shaw. sire for public attention. MANN SAID IT was "not Garrison has said Oswald necessarily" a code and that was a dupe of the conspira- the deciphering method used tors who used him as a diver- by Garrison might have sion while other men shot the turned up any one of several President from a grassy knoll numbers. overlooking Elm st. in Dal- Garrison said his office had las. deciphered two identical num- The DA has claimed that bers found in the Shaw and Oswald was no Communist— Oswald address books. The but a federal undercover result, he told Criminal Dis- agent working on behalf of trict Court in an official plead- anti-Castro Cuban groups ing, was the unlisted 1963 here. He said Oswald's pro- Dallas telephone number of Castro activity was a blind Jack Ruby. for his true activities. The witness who NBC com- AN ASSOCIATE professor mentator McGee said failed a of law and clinical psychol- lie detector test was Vernon ogy at Yale University, 'Dr. Bundy, an admitted dope ad- Jay Katz, reviewed two man- dict serving time at Parish uscripts of what the net- Prison. Bundy told judges at work said was Russo's tests Shaw's preliminary hearing under truth serum. that he saw Shaw and Oswald Katz said subjects under together on the New Orleans hypnosis and truth serum lakefront in the fall of 1963. He said he saw Shaw give Oswald money. M'GEE SAID Garrison was_ told Bundy failed a polygraph test and added: "Despite this, Bundy was put on the witness stand by Garrison." Judge Edward A. Haggerty Jr., who had issued stiff guidelines concerning public comment on the Shaw case, declined to comment.