CIIn the summer of 1974, Jim Garri- son, the former New Orleans district attorney who cried conspiracy in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy but couldn't prove it to a jury, seemed about to make a politi- cal comeback. Garrison was running for a seat on the Louisiana State Su- preme Court, and his chances seemed THE good. The fact that Garrison could com- mand votes in Louisiana, or anywhere else for that matter, seemed surpris- ing. He is the man accused by his critics—and they are legion—of virtu- ally crucifying Clay Shaw, a soft- spoken, meek-appearing businessman Garrison accused of conspiring with STRANGE others to kill JFK in Dallas in 1963. Garrison's almost daily revelations in 1968 leading up to the trial of Shaw attracted front-page space in every newspaper in the world, in addition to nightly coverage on network televi- sion. The long, complicated and in- decisive trial of Shaw received equal attention, but in the end, Garrison DEATH OF could not convince a jury that the aging, sympathetic gentleman was a part of a plot to commit the most monstrous political assassination of the century. Shaw was found innocent, and sud- denly Garrison's credibility had van- ished, as did his political future. After the trial ended in February 1969, Gar- rison disappeared from the headlines. Further, newspapers in New Orleans called for his removal from office, and he eventually was defeated for re- election. Garrison faded into political obscurity and Shaw filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against the former district attorney. Shaw had become the object of na- tional sympathy, seemingly an exam- ple of what one over-ambitious politi- cian could do to an innocent man. Shaw was seen as a man whose life was left in a shambles, emotionally and financially. (There are those too who hold that the media, in appear- ing to fawn over Shaw's plight, seemed to be cleansing itself for hav- ing run all those scurrilous Garrison accusations.) Then in December 1973, a small San Francisco news agency—Zodiac LAY SHAW News Service—published a report that Shaw's untimely death is just one of many seemed distinguished largely by the fact that few newspapers gave it any bizarre "coincidences" that stretch from the real play. The agency reported that a Bay of Pigs to the doorsteps of Watergate. former CIA official identified as Vic- tor Marchetti stated that Clay Shaw had, in fact, been a contact for the By Richard Boyle CIA and that the agency wanted to keep those connections quiet. Not many editors could be faulted for not rushing to publish a news story from a service with a name like Zodiac, particularly headquartered in San Francisco, despite the fact that the agency distributes daily to hundreds of radio stations around the nation. Marchetti's credentials would later be solidly established as genuine, but it was a story that was semi-reported. 54 TRUE/APRIL 1975 Meantime, two months later in political "hit," little different from February of 1974, Clay Shaw suffered the assassination of presidents in La- what was reported as a "seizure" and tin American banana republics. Only was hospitalized. He appeared to re- this time, Garrison believed, it was cover, was released from the hospital, done with the computerized efficiency but was again hospitalized in June. of a highly advanced technology, in- At the time, Garrison was cranking cluding Orwellian manipulation of up his campaign for a political come- public opinion and distortion of his- back. torical fact. And then, on August 15, two days Over the dinner table that night, before Garrison faced election, Clay Garrison remembered that he was Shaw died. The newspapers carried "leading in the polls," that he was extensive rehashes of the entire very pleased that his elderly mother Shaw trial. Perhaps to many voters, would see her son on the state's high- the recounting of that trial may have est court. And then, staring into his brought back memories of Jim Garri- martini, he said, "I thought they son leaning over the jury dock, speak- would let me have that much." ing dramatically of those dark "sinis- With Shaw's death, the complete ter forces" and America's "secret po- trial seemed to reappear in the news- lice" plotting a criminal coup d'etat. papers. "The press said I destroyed a In 1969, Garrison's public contention fine businessman." Garrison, with iro- that the President of the United ny in his voice, chuckled. "I thought States was assassinated "by em- they'd let me get away with it—win ployees of the CIA" seemed fantastic this election. I should have indeed. known ..." Two days later, on Saturday the "What was the reported cause of 17th, Garrison missed a runoff spot death?" I asked. on the ballot by a few thousand "Cancer," he replied. votes. I recalled aloud what attorney Mel- Is it hairbrained to question the vin Belli had told me about one of timeliness of Clay Shaw's death as the last visits he paid his client, Jack nothing more than a coincidence? Ruby, in his prison cell. Ruby was Perhaps, but I decided to go to New sick, and pleaded with his lawyer to Orleans a month later and check into get him out of jail before it was too the story further, starting with Jim late. Ruby later won a request for a Garrison himself. new trial, based largely on the fact that he announced he had something to say. But he was afraid he'd never For the past two years, Garrison live to talk while in prison. Jack Ru- has refused to talk very much with by died not much later. The cause of the press, but after some persuasion, death, according to prison authorities: Jim Garrison he agreed to meet me for dinner at a cancer. Bourbon Street hotel. I recognized And now Clay Shaw was dead. The 6 the big, heavy-set man in a well-tail- last principal in Garrison's alleged Garrison still carries ored blue suit as he entered the cock- conspiracy was dead—joining Oswald, tail lounge. gunned down while under police pro- with him a tremendous Apologizing for being nearly two tection; David Ferrie, Garrison's tout- bitterness, a conviction hours late, he ordered a drink and ed star witness who died of a strange then complained that he had been illness before his court appearance; that he was fighting a "dirty-tricked" before, even by seem- and Ruby. It was too much like a one-sided battle against ingly sympathetic journalists, and was piece of paperback spy fiction. now reluctant to talk to anyone. Af- Garrison suggested I look further the CIA . . 9 ter a few drinks, he loosened up, and into the death of Shaw. we went into the dining room. "Like what?" I asked. Garrison still carries with him a "I hear the coroner wants to have tremendous bitterness, a conviction Clay Shaw's body exhumed." that he was fighting a one-sided bat- tle against the CIA and something he refers to as the "warfare state." Gar- After that conversation, I decided rison says that since he first got a tip to poke around New Orleans. I would shortly after the assassination of JFK need police reports, coroner's reports that Lee Harvey Oswald and David and a check of the daily newspaper Ferrie had been associated together in morgue, where old clippings'are kept. the Civil Air Patrol, and since he first In New Orleans, as in most cities, ordered his DA's staff to begin its when a person dies, even if it appears own investigation, he has been the to be from natural causes, the police victim of a slander campaign. Garri- are called in. But in the case of Clay son said he was accused of everything Shaw, that was not done. from beating his wife to working for New Orleans Parish Coroner Dr. the Mafia, in addition to what he Frank Minyard, a physician, said a calls vicious personal attacks at the few days after the death: "No police hands of the news media. were called to Shaw's residence to But the more he looked into the ascertain if there was evidence of foul case, he recalls, the more he became play. Instead, Shaw's personal physi- convinced that Kennedy, who in 1963 cian played the part of coroner and was trying to reverse the U.S. war police investigator and pronounced policy in Vietnam, was the target of a the man dead." TRUE/APRIL 1975 55 There was never an official exami- and I are very friendly, but I have nation of Clay Shaw's body. It was not received a call from him about taken from his home to the funeral this," the press continued to imply parlor, his blood drained, and a few that the controversy over Shaw's days later he was buried. The case death was political. aroused the suspicions of some news- Then, suddenly, Minyard called off men, and Minyard, at a press briefing, the investigation. I called him to ask expressed "great annoyance" over the why the investigation was being ter- physician's actions. minated, and he answered, "No com- "How can we know for sure the ment." man didn't commit suicide, wasn't "Are you going to have Mr. Shaw's given a mercy-killing shot, or wasn't body exhumed so there can be an of- murdered?" The coroner added that ficial autopsy to determine cause of in this case, Shaw 'had not been pro- death?" tected at his death, as required by "No comment." law. "All we're trying to do," he said, The case of the death of Clay "is prevent someone from dying at Shaw, as far as the coroner of New the discretion of someone else and Orleans Parish was concerned, was of- not by that of the Good Lord." ficially and finally over. Cause of Did Mr. Shaw die naturally, or at death: "Natural." the hands of someone who wanted to silence the last central figure in the alleged Kennedy assassination con- But I still wasn't fully convinced spiracy? that the case of the' seemingly strange A few days after the election, a tel- death of Clay Shaw was over. During evision reporter investigating the sto- his conspiracy trial in 1969, Shaw's ry got a call from a woman who said defense lawyers pictured him as noth- she had seen something strange on ing more than a respectable business- the morning of Shaw's death. The man, certainly not the secret plotter caller would not identify herself, but with a double life, as portrayed un- told the reporter she saw an ambu- successfully by Garrison. lance pull up in front of Shaw's house it im '""" at 1024' St. Peter about 1 a.m. and that a dead body covered with a We In 11.11 white sheet was removed on a carrier. NE es I:I 3 LI David Ferrie After the body 'was brought into 8 111111 6 4 Shaw's house, she claimed, attendants Lila al In 1966, David Ferrie returned to the ambulance with an .• empty carrier and drove away. The told a friend, 'I'm a official time of Shaw's death was giv- dead man.' Less than a en as 12:40 a.m. After the story was reported in the year later, he was indeed press, New Orleans police canvassed the neighborhood in an effort to find dead. The signatures on the mystery witness. At this writing, two suicide notes, she remains anonymous—if she was genuine at all. "If we come up with a however, were typed." lady who will testify to this, we will take legal steps to exhume the body," Minyard told reporters. Although some in New Orleans speculated it was a crank call, Garri- son told me he would not be surprised at the reluctance of any witness to come forward in the case. Everyone in New Orleans knows what bad luck has befallen those who had important information. David Ferrie told a friend in late 1966, "I'm a dead man." In its coverage of the trial, the On February 22, 1967, Ferrie was press often seemed to be putting Gar- found dead in his apartment. The rison, not Shaw, on trial. (On Janu- cause of death was certified as "natu- ary 22, the New Yprk Times reported: ral," due to massive brain hemor- "But also on trial, to some extent, is rhage.On Ferrie's piano and table,how- Mr. Garrison, who has contended that ever, were two typed suicide notes. the CIA concealed the conspiracy "What was really strange," Garri- that resulted in Mr. Kennedy's son told me, "was that each signature death.") on the notes was also typed. I Garrison, as the Times duly report- wouldn't blame a witness for shutting ed, produced at least 10 witnesses to up." testify they had seen Shaw with The police never located the miss- either Oswald or Ferrie in 1963. Some ing witness in the Shaw case. Then of Garrison's witnesses, under cross- the press started hitting Minyard, examination, appeared to be shakable. speculating that his interest in Shaw's C.I. Speisel, for instance, testified death was politically motivated by his that he was hypnotized by New York friendship with Garrison. Although City police as part of a Communist Minyard told newsmen, "Mr. Garrison conspiracy.

56 TRUE/APRIL 1975 Other witnesses, including a police Novel disappeared until 1970, when officer and an ex-airline hostess, he was arrested and subsequently seemed more creditable. Ferrie never convicted in Reno, Nevada, on a took the stand, and another Garrison charge of interstate transportation of witness, Gordon Novel, simply van- an unlawful eavesdropping device. ished. Novel then dropped out of sight again Novel, who Garrison asserted was a but, according to columnist Jack CIA agent, was subpoenaed before the Anderson, continued his clandestine grand jury to testify about the activi- activities at levels reaching all the ties of Cuban exiles in the early way to the White House. Anderson 1960s. Novel had been linked to the last year, in a syndicated column, re- burglary of a munitions dump in 1961, ported that Novel worked with form- in connection with-Cuban exile activ- er Presidential aide Charles Colson on ity centered around the Bay of Pigs a scheme to erase the Nixon tapes. invasion. Slated for a second appear- The two, Anderson reported, also dis- ance before the grand jury, Novel in- cussed leaking a phony tape in hopes stead left the state and resisted all of discrediting the Watergate investi- "Garrison produced at efforts by Garrison to get him back. gation. least 10 witnesses who said they had seen Shaw with either Oswald or Ferrie in 1963. "

One of the least-publicized conspiracy theories centers on the three "hoboes" (above), rounded up at the railyard behind Dealey Plaza minutes after JFK was shot, and taken to a command post where they were questioned. However, no record of their arrest and/or booking, nor a record of their names, has ever surfaced. So what? Theory 1: If they're bums, why do they have barbershop haircuts (photo left)? Why is there no record of their interrogation? Is the "hobo" outlined in the box above the same man as pictured below? If so, the man below turned up years later in connection with the investigation of a right- Lee Harvey Oswald wing group in the U.S. For the photo that created the most excitement among conspiracy theoreticians, turn to page 78 . . . Not only did Garrison have trouble bringing witnesses back to Louisiana, but he also had difficulty securing vi- tal evidence he needed to debunk the Warren Commission's assertion that Oswald was the lone assassin. He had to fight to win court ap- proval to subpoena an 8-mm film of the assassination taken by an ama- teur. Life magazine had purchased rights to the film and had refused un- til then to allow its complete show- ing. The jury in New Orleans eventu- ally saw the film, which Garrison claimed left no doubt that the fatal shot slammed Kennedy backward and to his left. "Unless the laws of physics have been revised," Garrison said, "the Za- pruder film clearly indicates that the fatal shot came at the President from in front and to the right of him." Coupled with the fact that the over- whelming majority of witnesses in Continued on page 78 TRUE/APRIL 1975 57 haps 30 years as I realized that he cover in a shower of clipped debris. his upper chest at the base of his was probably looking for me! He had Silence. Before the second smoking neck. He looked at me, made a low, completely faked me out by circling hull hit the ground, I had the bush guttural sound and sank down, his the whole grove and coming in from covered, finger on the trigger, slipping head . resting on his forepaws like behind me where the thick grass cov- forward with something that would some immense Great Hound on a sab- ered him instead of the far side where be called less than confidence. There batical from Hell. The light went out I expected him, only luck placing me was a small swish of grass, or with of his amber, dilated eyes and he was just down-wind so he didn't scent me. the shots still ringing in my ears, was dead. I drew my skinning knife and I felt like a gift-wrapped salami at it my imagination? I took another paid the insurance with a cut through the zoo. Then, the shadow disap- step toward the gray and yellow the top of his spinal column, just be- peared like an undernourished wraith, clump and he erupted, catching me in hind the head. as silent as a puff of smoke as it mid-stride, a hurtling gold and black It took three matches to get the moved across the ground in a short blur of whitish claws longer than cigarette lit, my hands and fingers do- leap. I realized that if I was to have a shark hooks and long, very long, yel- ing the samba on their own. I walked chance at him, it would have to be low teeth floating straight at my over to the hide and finished the wa- now or never. Preferring never, I de- moustache. Six feet from me, some- ter bottle, popping the finger back cided on now. body fired the shotgun and I saw the into place just like Steve McQueen In an explosion of flying branches concentrated charge of buckshot would have done it. It didn't hurt and grass, I rolled to my feet shout- smash into his outstretched right leg then, but two hours later, it felt as if ing the first thing to come to mind, near the shoulder. He actually swung six Gestapo men were amputating it certainly unprintable, counting on the in the air from the force as I tried to with a dull tack hammer. In 15 min- shock effect of my voice to confuse work the pump, but too slow as his utes, most of the camp was there, in- the man-eater while I could round side and pelvis caromed into the muz- cluding the Texan who, Lord save his the anthill and dust him off with the zle of the gun and caught me across soul forever, had brought along a bot- shotgun. As I cleared it, I was aston- the hips. I went down, scared fit to tle of bonded Kentucky Drain Open- ished to find the ground empty, not a wet my pants, the shotgun twisting er. Debalo climbed the tree with Si- trace of the big cat. Safety off, the painfully in my hand, the trigger mone and maneuvered the pathetic gun pushed well back on my hip so guard dislocating my right forefinger. little corpse of Xleo into a plastic fer- Ingwe couldn't come between me and On my knees, I finished pushing the tilizer bag, lowering it to July. No- the muzzle, I ran forward into the pump forward and for the longest body said anything when the old grass trying to head him off. I have half-second on record, we stared into man, tears streaming down his face, never been known for my intelligence. each other's eyes across three feet of went over to the leopard and, kicking Fifteen yards away, there was a Kalahari gusu sand. He started to him onto his back, castrated him with streak of movement as something flit- snake his hind legs under him, the one slash of his knife. Blood for blood ted between two thick clumps of pellet holes where I had clipped him has been Africa's way for a very long thorn bush. Instantly, I fired twice, with my first two shots bloody and time and I was just as pleased that, the shots blending almost into one as covered with dirt. The shotgun fired for once, none of mine was the big pellets sleeted through the again, the burst of lead ripping into involved. w &mit galleries presents MAGNIFICENT full-color LIMITED EDITION PRINTS of "ANTICIPATION" & "EXASPERATION" an (3-RATED bit of WESTERN AMERICANA by the one and only FRAME SIZE CHARLES M. RUSSELL 17ve by 24” Here is the opportunity of your lifetime to have in- credibly fine reproductions of these two paintings, depicting a "Pause on the Plains" ... created by this great master painter with a twinkle in his experienced eye. 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TRUE/APRIL 1975 77 CLAY SHAW Continued from page 57

Dallas' Dealey Plaza distinctly heard gunfire in front of the President's car, Garrison tried to build a case that there were at least three gunmen fir- ing from two directions. The most critical evidence Garrison sought was to be found in the secret autopsy photos of the President's body, locked up in the National Ar- chives. Garrison, blocked by the feder- al government, was unsuccessful in his attempts to subpoena the photo- graphs. In frustration, he at one point considered dropping the case, but went ahead anyway. Without that evidence, and without his vital witnesses, his case was cer- tainly weakened, yet he pleaded for a guilty verdict as a sign that the citi- zens of the United States were finally fighting against the "secret police." In an impassioned final summation, Gar- rison warned the jury that the gov- ernment could get away with killing anyone it wanted by conjuring up an elaborate cover story. During the trial, however, Garrison A number of writers contend that the officer leading the three hoboes, above, rounded was never able to link Shaw with up after JFK was shot, could not be identified by Dallas police as a member of that these "sinister forces," and the jury department. The corker: Look closely and you'll see that there is something in the voted to acquit the New Orleans busi- officer's ear that appears to be a hearing device, or radio communication device. Two nessman. months ago, the officer in charge of this detail refused to discuss anything about the In an interview published at the "hoboes" incident with TRUE magazine. Another officer involved in the roundup said he end of the trial, Garrison said that knew of no Dallas policeman who used a hearing aid. the Cold War was worth $79 billion a year and that some forces, primarily landed on the beach, it was quickly Kennedy reportedly vowed to the CIA, wanted Mr. Kennedy killed overwhelmed by the Cuban militia. "splinter the CIA in a thousand to preserve it. As the mercenary force was being pieces and scatter it to the winds," Why wouldn't the jury buy his the- flattened, the CIA pleaded with Ken- and one of his early targets was Ma- ory? he was asked by the reporter. nedy to save the 1,400 men by order- jor General Charles Cabell, the Depu- "I was forced to present a James ing carrier-based fighter planes to ty Director of the CIA. Cabell came Bond novel type conspiracy in a trial provide air cover for the mission. from a long line of Dallas politicians bound by the old rules," he said, "in Kennedy refused, and the mercenaries and, Garrison claimed, it was Cabell an Anglo-Saxon courtroom." were wiped out. Some were killed and who ordered the President's motor- At the time much of Garrison's the- others were captured, paraded cade route changed at the last minute ory did in fact seem like a plot from a through the streets of Havana. so that it would pass the grassy knoll badly written spy story. Most Ameri- There were elements of the CIA near Dealey Plaza. It was from this cans in 1969 simply wouldn't accept which were furious with Kennedy for grassy knoll, Garrison charged, that Garrison's hypothesis that "sinister declining to call in U.S. air strikes. two and possibly three crack marks- forces"—namely CIA operatives who The men who planned the Bay of men waited in ambush for the Presi- were disgruntled with President Ken- PigS operation were outraged with dent's car to pass. nedy's handling of the Bay of Pigs their President, who they believed Shortly after the President was invasion—were conducting covert op- had betrayed them. Kennedy, accord- shot, press photographers took pic- erations in the United States. ing to several historians, also felt be- tures of Dallas police arresting three To understand Garrison's James trayed by the CIA and planned to get "tramps" behind the grassy knoll and Bond scenario requires a brief exami- rid of those he felt to be disloyal. marching them off to jail. While they nation of the political situation dur- During the 1962 Cuban missile cri- wore shabby clothing, the tramps, ing President Kennedy's three-year sis, Kennedy worked out a secret deal oddly enough, all had neatly trimmed term of office. with the Soviet Union in which the haircuts. When Kennedy took over the United States promised not to invade Some investigators of the Kennedy White House in 1961, plans were al- Cuba if the Soviets would agree to assassination claim it was these men ready in operation for the overthrow remove their missiles from the island. who fired on the President, and that of Fidel Castro's revolutionary Com- Soviet leader Nikita S. Khruschev one of the policemen escorting them munist government in Cuba. The CIA later revealed that Attorney General wasn't a policeman at all. Some pho- planned to land a mercenary force of Robert F. Kennedy had told the Sovi- tos showed that the "policeman" had Cuban exiles on the coast of Cuba, et ambassador to the U.S. that the some kind of listening device in his with air cover to be provided by U.S. President was fearful of some sort of ear. One of the "tramps" later was fighter planes. Although Kennedy coup by the military. When Kennedy identified as having been seen at the went along with the early plans, he learned that the CIA was still run- same CIA training camp on Lake was reluctant to order U.S. combat ning two secret training bases for Cu- Ponchatrain where Ferrie was report- planes into action, fearing that direct ban exiles in Florida and Louisiana, edly seen with Oswald. While that involvement could bring the United he ordered the FBI to close them. hasn't been verified, Dallas police States into a full-scale war. That was in the summer of 1963, only have never released the names of the When the CIA mercenary force a few months before his death. three men, or explained what hap- 78 TRUE/APRIL 1975 pened to them. by Jim Garrison. At these confer- Garrison tried to prove that Shaw, And then one night, police in ences, he said, it was determined to Oswald and Ferrie were all linked to Washington, D.C., found several men "give help" in the trial. the Bay of Pigs operation. When I in the act of burglary at the Demo- "I sure as hell knew they didn't asked. Marchetti if it were possible cratic Party headquarters in the Wat- mean Garrison," Marchetti said. that Hunt, Shaw and the others ergate Hotel complex on June 17, Whenever they talked about the stayed in contact after the Bay of 1972. Later it was discovered that a trial, they spoke "in half-sentences," Pigs invasion failed, he replied, "Sure, key figure in the burglary was E. he said, cutting off discussion before I think it's possible. Many of them Howard Hunt. getting to the main point. "They'd who were involved would stay in con- The Watergate affair would have say, 'We'll talk about it later,' mean- tact. Friendships were formed," he remained a low-level burglary, as the ing a private chat after the meeting," said, "binding links." White House claimed, if it were not Marchetti recalled. While working for the CIA, Mar- discovered that Hunt was a former When Marchetti tried to find out chetti said, he sometimes grew curious CIA operator, and even one of the what was going on, he was informed about the more bizarre activities of key planners of the Bay of Pigs oper- that Clay Shaw at one time had been the agency, but he was always told, ation. a contact for the CIA. His job, Mar- "Don't worry about that." A bombshell exploded early this chetti was told, was to monitor busi- Since leaving the agency and con- year when the New York Times re- nessmen going behind the Iron ducting his own research into the vealed that Hunt testified before the Curtain—"you know," Marchetti said, CIA, Marchetti said, he has begun to Senate Watergate Committee, in still "to try to find out if so-and-so was have doubts about what he was told. unpublished testimony, that he served going to a denied-access area." The "The more I have learned, the more as the first chief of covert action for businessmen would then be debriefed concerned I have become that the the CIA's Domestic Operations Divi- by the CIA and questioned about government was involved in the assas- sion. The super-secret unit was set up what they had seen and done. Often sinatioh of President John F. Ken- shortly after the failure of the Bay of this was very useful in gaining infor- nedy. Maybe it was just in the cover- Pigs operation, and many agency men mation about activity in Communist ing up," he added, "but sometimes I were shunted into the new domestic countries. wonder if it doesn't go deeper than "dirty tricks" section, it was reported. But Marchetti and the others were that." Hunt's disclosures, while not sub- told that the CIA's connection with While working for the CIA, he "ac- stantiating Garrison's theory, do sup- Shaw was to be top secret. The agen- cepted the company line" about the port at least one element of his thesis cy did not want "even a remote con- assassination of the President, "but that was discounted six years ago. nection with Shaw" to leak out, Mar- now I am very dubious." Marchetti Hunt's testimony confirmed that the chetti said. now believes that the Warren Com- CIA did in fact conduct clandestine Marchetti now states that Shaw's mission, which included Gerald Ford, missions in the United States against links with the CIA could have been then the Republican minority leader U.S. citizens. And that is in violation much more extensive, and that he in the House of Representatives, was of the charter governing the CIA. and the others could have been given "a whitewash." One of the difficulties in checking a "cover story" to explain the agen- Now Mr. Ford, who has since been into Garrison's claims is that no high- cy's interest in the Clay Shaw trial. elevated to the Presidency by Richard level official of the CIA has been will- "They often lied to us," he said. M. Nixon, has appointed a commis- ing to talk openly about what really "They use the term 'need to know.'" sion to look into charges that the went on in the halls of the CIA secret The branch of the CIA that inter- CIA may have violated the law. That complex at Langley, Virginia. viewed U.S. travelers who might pick commission is headed by Vice Presi- That was until Victor Marchetti, a up interesting information abroad was dent Nelson Rockefeller. 14-year veteran of the CI,A, deci#led called the Domestic Contact Service. It is Marchetti's opinion that the to call it quits. An expert on the"So- Although the name sounds innocuous reason Ford "moved so fast" to set up viet military, Marchetti had be6n re- enough, the unit may have been a the Rockefeller Commission was actu- cruited to the agency by a CIA-con- cover for illegal and covert domestic ally to suppress the truth, in much nected college professor. He rose missions. the same way he contends that the through the ranks to become execu- Hunt, for example, went to CIA Warren Commission whitewashed the tive assistant to the Deputy Director supply officer Cleo Gephart with a re- Kennedy assassination. of the CIA and finally made it to the quest for the equipment he used for The U.S. Congress is also conduct- agency's executive suite, sitting in on what became known as "dirty ing its own investigations of the CIA. the CIA's most secret, highest-level tricks"—a reddish wig, glasses, a Marchetti, who lives in a suburb of staff meetings. But the more he speech-alteration device, a tape re- the nation's capital, is now heavily in learned, especially about the dirtier corder concealed in a portable type- demand as a lecturer since his book aspects of the CIA murder campaign writer case, two microphones, and a has become a best seller. He is also a in Vietnam, the more disenchanted he camera disguised in a tobacco pouch. favorite in the Washington cocktail became. In late 1969 he resigned from Gephart, according to columnist Jack circuit, where Congressmen are now the CIA. Anderson, testified under oath that openly speculating that their probe When he decided to write about his he thought Hunt was a member of into illegal, covert CIA missions may experiences in The CIA and the Cult the Domestic Contact Service. turn up evidence even more explosive of Intelligence, his book became the Gephart did not explain why Hunt than the Watergate scandal. first in U.S. history to be censored by would need such weird James Bond People now feel that much has the government before publication. paraphernalia to conduct interviews been swept under the rug, he said, The CIA felt that Marchetti knew with businessmen returning from but "once they begin to dig, there is too much, would compromise the abroad unless the Domestic Contact going to be real embarrassment at agency, and arranged to have key Service was indeed an elaborate cover what they'll find." passages deleted. Although he is un- for more sinister operations. Will Congress really probe into der strict court restrictions as to While Marchetti held a high posi- those dark, hidden secrets that have what he can reveal about his tenure tion in the CIA, there was a lot that been protected for so long? with the CIA, Marchetti did agree to he didn't know, such as exactly what "Now is the time to clear the air," discuss the Kennedy assassination kind of secret missions Hunt's men he said. But, he added, many in with TRUE magazine. performed. "That was a weird divi- Washington sense a "smell of fear," Marchetti was attending high-level sion," Marchetti said of the Hunt which clouds even Congress itself. staff conferences in early 1969 when covert-activity section. "They were in "People are damn scared," W Clay Shaw was being brought to trial the dirty part of the business." the ex-CIA man said. 4/F TRUE/APRIL 1975 79