Ef4TERTAINMENT FOR MEN OCTOEtER 1967 7:6 *,„4.1\11.5

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741 & 'hViN Ii i. itc UN .MPPIES • • • BALLOT . - • .; : SINCE FEBRUARY of 1958, when we pub- his research by taking a cram course in computer program- PLAYBILL lished a tripartite takeout on the beat ing: "I seem to have passed, and the course taught me to he world, the striving of youth to transcend ethical, social and happy in my career as a writer; I'd rather be almost anything artistic convention has become a far-flung and highly diver- than a computer programmer." sified phenomenon, often referred to as a "revolution." Our lead fiction, The Pop-Op Caper—a private-eye Some of the avant-gardesmen of 1958, however, are still on stunner that spoofs its own genre—comes from the busy to what's happening. Herbert Gold, who authored one of pen of William F. Nolan, whose novel Logan's Run (his 15th the pieces in our survey of the Beats, provides us with book since 1958) was recently published by Dial. Nolan has the insightful text for The New Wave Makers, this month's finished a screenplay based on the book and is writing a novel portrait (with ten pages of photos by Eugene Anthony) of the about the exploits of Bart Challis, The Pop-Op Caper's hard- self-styled Love Generation—the hippies who fight the estab- nosed hero. Also at work on a screenplay is Ray Russell, lishment by dropping out of its constrictive mores. Gold— whose Ripples—a sci-fi tale with a surprise ending, crafted in whose fictional evocation of the Bay City hippie scene, Pea- less than a thousand words—provides us with another memo- cock Dreams, appeared in last June's PLAYBOY—claims to have rable fancy. Ray's been helping MGM adapt Washington witnessed not only "the first great be-in" (with his onetime Irving's classic Rip Van Winkle for the screen. fellow college student, now grand guru Allen Ginsberg) but The lighter side of this month's PLAYBOY includes Would also "the first rock-dance-light-show celebration where acid was You Do It for a Penny?, in which Harlan Ellison and Haskell put in the Jell-o." During recent travels in North Africa, Barkin describe the wiles of a young man who picks up, in Europe and the U.S. S. R., Gold explored the global aspects addition to his victuals, a companion at his neighborhood of this upheaval, on which he touches in his impressionistic supermarket; and Cleaner than Dirt, wherein D. G. Lloyd prose portrait. shows how Supreme Court rulings on prurience can work for The Crazy One, an eloquent account of the brief, mercurial or against lit'ry classics, real and imaginary. Barkin has been career of a magnetic, maladroit Mexican bullfighter, bears the fashioning a novel while writing public-relations material by-line of Norman Mailer, the adult terrible of American for a land-investment firm; co-author Ellison—author of 15 letters. Mailer's latest novel, Why Are We in Vietnam?, a books, more than 500 stories and articles and an tipper-echelon scathing survey of our national neuroses, was released last TV and movie scriptwriter—was recently selected by Cosmo- month by Putnam; he is currently laboring on another major politan, for whatever it may be worth, as one of Hollywood's four most eligible bachelors. Lloyd is a comedy writer for the New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, whose investi- Johnny Carson show and has just finished a play that he gation of an alleged plot to assassinate John F. Kennedy has modestly claims is "being scrutinized with feverish apathy by made him a messiah to some and a madman to others, is the any number (one) of producers." subject of our exclusive, explosive Playboy Interview. Garrison Enough? Hardly. Herein are the ballot for our annual was quizzed by free-lance writer Eric Norden, who helped us Jazz Poll, revised, renamed—it's now the Jazz and Pop Poll interview Mark Lane last February. —and expanded this year to include the stars of superpop; Diverse opinions about man's mechanical servants in the Robert L. Green's Fall csr TVinter Fashion Forecast; the latest age of automation are examined in Ernest Havemann's in leather accessories: and a guide to the gustatory glories of Computers—Their Scope Today and Max Gunther's Comput- the English breakfast. In addition to The New Wave Makers, ers—Their Built-in Limitations. Havemann began work on our pictorials include an uncensored preview of The Fox, his article the day after sending two manuscripts to his editor the Mark Rydell–directed film version—starring Anne —a volume on birth control and a college psychology text. He Heywood, heir Dullea and Sandy Dennis—of D. H. Law- found his subject "a refreshing change not only from contra- rence's probing tale of awakening libidos and erotic libera- ceptives and conditioned reflexes but also from horse racing, tion; plus an unhurried rendezvous with our statuesque the subject of my last PLAYBOY piece" (June 1967). Gunther October Playmate, Reagan Wihon. Altogether, a tidal wave —author of The Sonics Boom in last May's issue—augmented of delights from our own estimable gang of wave makers. 3 S1 ff04./C. NOK0c."1 SLE t.3

PLAYBOY INTERVIEW: JIM GARRISON a candid conversation with the embattled district attorney of new orleans

On February 17, 1967, the New him "pegged as the getaway pilot in an Shaw, a wealthy New Orleans business- Orleans States-Item broke a story that elaborate plot to kill Kennedy." Ferrie, a man and real-estate developer, on would electrify the world—and hurl bizarre figure who wore a flaming-red charges of conspiring to assassinate John district attorney Jim Garrison into a wig, false eyebrows and make-up to con- F. Kennedy. One of New Orleans' most bitter fight for his political life. An enter- ceal burns he had suffered years before, prominent citizens, Shaw was a founder prising reporter, checking vouchers filed denied any involvement in a conspiracy and director of the city's prestigious with the city by the district attorney's to kill the President. Garrison, he said, International Trade Mart from 1917 office, discovered that Garrison had spent was out to frame him. Four days later, to 1965, when he retired to devote his over 138000 investigating the assassina- Ferrie was found dead in his shabby time to playwriting and restoring his- tion of President Kennedy. "Has the three-room apartment in New Orleans, district attorney discovered valuable toric homes in the old French Quarter. ostensibly of natural causes—though he additional evidence," the States-Item The day after Shaw's arrest, Garrison left behind two suicide notes. asked editorially, "or is he merely saving declared that "Shaw was none other some interesting new information that The press had greeted Garrison's ini- than Clay Bertrand," the shadowy will gain for him exposure in. a national tial claims about a conspiracy with a queen bee of the New Orleans homo- magazine?" Stung, Garrison counter- measure of skepticism, but Ferrie's death sexual underworld, who, according to attacked, confirming that an inquiry into was front-page news around the world. attorney Dean Andrews' testimony be- Kennedy's assassination was under way Garrison broke his self-imposed silence fore the Warren Commission, called and charging that the States-Item's "irre- to charge that Ferrie was "a man who, in him the day after the assassination and sponsible" revelation "has now created a my judgment, was one of history's most asked him to rush to Dallas to defend problem for us in. finding witnesses and important individuals." According to Oswald. Shaw heatedly denied his guilt: getting cooperation from other witnesses Garrison, "Mr. Ferrie was one of those "I never heard of any plot and I never and in at least one case has endangered individuals I had in mind when I said used any alias in my life." But New Or- the life of a witness." there would be arrests shortly. We had leans society, which had long counted On February 18, newsmen from all reached a decision to arrest him early Shaw one of its own, was stunned. over the world converged on New Orleans next week. Apparently we waited too On March 14, a panel of three judges to hear Garrison announce at a press long." But Garrison vowed that Ferrie's heard Garrison's case in a preliminary conference: "We have been investigat- death would not halt his investigation, hearing to determine if there was ing the role of the city of New Or- and added, "My staff and 1 solved the enough evidence against Shaw to bring leans in the assassination of President assassination weeks ago. I wouldn't say him to trial. Perry Raymond Russo, a 25- Kennedy, and we have made some this if we didn't have the evidence year-old life-insurance salesman from progress-1 think substantial progress. . beyond a shadow of a doubt. We know Baton Rouge who had once been Ferrie's What's more, there will be arrests." As the key individuals, the cities involved "roommate," testified that in mid-Septem- reporters flashed news of Garrison's and how it was done." ber of 1963, he had attended a meeting statement across the world, a 49-year-old On March 1, Garrison eclipsed even the at Ferrie's apartment where Shaw, Lee New Orleans pilot, David Ferrie, told headlines from his previous press confer- Harvey Oswald and Ferrie discussed newsmen that the district attorney had ence by announcing the arrest of Clay means of assassinating the President in a

"To read the press accounts of my investi- `A number of the men who killed the "President Kennedy was killed for one gation, I'm a cross between Al Capone President were former employees of the reason: because he was working for a rec- and Attila the Hun—bribing, threaten- CIA involved in its anti-Castro under- onciliation with the U.S.S.R. and Castro's ing innocent men. Anybody who employs ground activities in the New Orleans area. Cuba. His assassins were a group of fa- those methods should be disbarred." The CIA knows their identity. So do 1." natic anti-Communists and Cuban exiles." 59 OM "CS " a a Oer , vol. 14, no. /0—october, 1967

CONTENTS FOR THE MEN'S ENTERTAINMENT MAGAZINE

PLAYBILL 3

DEAR PLAYBOY 9

PLAYBOY AFTER HOURS 25

THE PLAYBOY ADVISOR 49

PLAYBOY'S INTERNATIONAL DATEBOOK —travel PATRICK CHASE 53

Hippie Scene P. 128 THE PLAYBOY FORUM 55

PLAYBOY INTERVIEW: JIM GARRISON—candid conversation 59

THE POP-OP CAPER—fiction 'WILLIAM F. NOLAN 76

THE FOX—pictorial 81

RIPPLES—fiction._ RAY RUSSELL 87

THE ENGLISH HUNT BREAKFAST—food THOMAS MARIO 88

THE CRAZY ONE—memoir NORMAN MAILER 91

COMPUTERS—THEIR BUILT-IN LIMITATIONS—article Music Poll P. 121 MAX GUNTHER 94

COMPUTERS—THEIR SCOPE TODAY—article ERNEST HAVEMANN 95

CLEANER THAN DIRT—satire D. G. LLOYD 98

REAGAN FOR PLAYMATE!—playboy's playmate of the month 102

PLAYBOY'S PARTY JOKES—humor 110

PLAYBOY'S FALL & WINTER FASHION FORECAST—attire ROBERT L. GREEN 113

THE 1968 PLAYBOY JAZZ & POP POLL—iarx/pop 121

DO IT FOR A PENNY?—fiction. HARLAN ELLISON and HASKELL BARKIN 127 Fox Filmed P. 81 THE NEW WAVE MAKERS—article HERBERT GOLD 128

LUST OF THE HOLY MAN—ribald classic 139

THE LUXURY OF LEATHER—accouterments 142

HUGH M. HEFNER editor and publisher

A. C. SPECTORSKY associate publisher and editorial director

ARTHUR PAUL art director

KESSIE Fashion Forecast P. 113 JACK J. managing editor VINCENT T. TA JIRI picture editor

GENERAL OFFICES: PLAYBOY BUILDING. 919 N. SHELDON WAX assistant managing editor; MURRAY FISHER, NAT LEHRMAN senior RICH MAR AVE., CHICAGO. ILLINOIS 60611. RETURN POSTAGE MUST ACCOMPANY ALL MANUSCRIPTS. editors; ROBIE MACAULEY fiction editor; JAMES GOODE articles editor; ARTHUR DRAWINGS AND PHOTOGRAPHS SUBMITTED IF THEY KRETCHMER, MICHAEL LAURENCE, DAVID STEVENS, ROBERT ANTON WILSON associate ARE TO BE RETURNED AND ND RESPONSIBILITY CAM BE ASSUMED FOR UNSOLICITED MATERIALS. CON. editors; ROBERT L. GREEN fashion director; DAVID TAYLOR fashion editor; THOMAS TESTS COPYRIGHTED 1907 RR HMH PUBLISHING MARIO food drink editor; PATRICK CHASE travel editor; J. PAUL GETTY contribut- CO.. INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NOTHING NAY CE REPRINTED IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT WRITTEN ing editor, business 6- finance; KEN W. PURDY contributing editor; RICHARD KOFF PERMISSION FROM THE PUBLISHER. ANY SIMILARITY administrative editor; ARLENE BOURAS copy chief; DAVID BUTLER, HENRY FEN WICK, BETWEEN THE PEOPLE AND PLACES IN THE FICTION AND SEMIFICTION IN THIS MAGAZINE AND ANY REAL JOHN CABREE, LAWRENCE LINDERMAN , ALAN RAVAGE, CARL SNYDER, ROGER WIDENER PEOPLE AND PLACES IS PURELY COINCIDENTAL. assistant editors; BEV CHAMBERLAIN associate picture editor; MARILYN cRanowsKi CREDITS: COVLM: FEMUR SCULPTURE BY AUSTIN POE. JR., PHOTOGRAPHY BY J. BARRY ROURKE. assistant picture editor; MARIO CASILLI , J. BARRY O'ROURKE, POMPEO POSAR, ALEXAS OTHER PHOTOGRAPHY BY: MAGGIE ANTHONY, P. 3: UREA, JERRY YULSNIAN Stall photographers; STAN NIALINOWSISI DOH BRONSTEIN, P. 3; CHARLES PRITCH. P. 31 contilbitti/Ig photog- LARRY GORDON, P. 3; REELER PHOTOGRAPHY, P. ✓apher; RONALD BLUME associate art director; NORM SCHAEFER, BOB POST, ED WEISS, 9: J. BARRY 0 MOURNE, P. 121, 122; POMPED POSAR. P. 3 (31; ROBERT SIMMONS. P. 59: JERRY GEORGE KENTON, BERM POPE., JOSEPH PACZEK assistant art directors; WALTER YULSMAN. P. 3. P. BB-101 ILLUSTRATIONS BY, KRADENYCH, LEN WILLIS art assistants; MICHELLE ALTMAN assistant cartoon editor; RON RAE (2), DOUG JOHNSON (2), MOZELLE THOMPSON (I). WALLY NEIBART (2), GEORGE JOHN MASTRO production manager; ALLEN VA RC.0 assistant production manager; SUYEOKA (9). BOB MILNAZIE, MICHAEL SALIS- PAT PAPPAS rights and permissions • HOWARD W. LEDERER BURY, DOB BRUNTON 13). PHOTOGRAPH ON PAGE advertising director; 115 TAKEN AT GILMAN GALLERIES. CHICAGO. JULES KASE associate advertising manager; SI 'ERMAN KEATS Chicago advertising manager; JOSEPH GUENTHER detroit advertising manager; NELSON ruTcH PLAYBOY, OCTOBER, 1067, VOL. IA, NO. 10. promotion PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY IIMH PUBLISHING CO„ director; HELMUT LORSCH publicity manager; BENNY DUNN public relations man- INC , CH NATIONAL AND REGIONAL EDITIONS, ager; ANSON MOUNT public affairs manager; TI)EO FREDERICK personnel director; PLAYBOY RU ILDI NG. 919 N. MICHIGAN ATE, CHICAGO, ILL. 60E1 C. SECOND CLASS POSTAGE PAID AT CHI. JANET PILGRIM reader service; ALVIN WIEM OLD subscription manager; ELDON SELLERS CAGO, ILL., AND AT ADDITIONAL MAILING OFFICES. special projects; ROBERT S. PREUSS SUBSCRIPTIONS, IN THE U.S., 55 FOR ONE TEAR. business manager and circulation director. a cv . s f=.2-7---, .77. 7. NC.

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PLAYBOY INTERVIEW: JIM GARRISON a candid conversation with the embattled district attorney of new orleans

On February 17, 1967, the New him "pegged as the getaway pilot in an Shaw, a wealthy New Orleans business- Orleans States-Item broke a story that elaborate plot to kill Kennedy." Ferrie, a man and real-estate developer, on would electrify the world—and hurl bizarre figure who wore a flaming-red charges of conspiring to assassinate John district attorney Jim Garrison into a wig, false eyebrows and make-up to con- F. Kennedy. One of New Orleans' most bitter fight for his political life. An enter- ceal burns he had suffered years before, prominent citizens, Shaw was a founder prising reporter, checking vouchers filed denied any involvement in a conspiracy and director of the city's prestigious with the city by the district attorney's to kill the President. Garrison, he said, International Trade Mart from 1947 office, discovered that Garrison had spent was out to frame him. Four days later, over to 1965, when. he retired to devote his f8000 investigating the assassina- Ferrie was found dead tion of President Kennedy. "Has the in his shabby time to playwritin.g and restoring his- three-room apartment district attorney discovered valuable in New Orleans, toric homes in the old French Quarter. ostensibly of natural causes—though he additional evidence," the States-Item The day after Shaw's arrest, Garrison asked editorially, "or is he merely saving left behind two suicide notes. declared that "Shaw was none other some interesting new information that The press had greeted Garrison's ini- than Clay Bertrand," the shadowy will gain for him exposure in a national tial claims about a conspiracy with a queen bee of the New Orleans homo- magazine?" Stung, Garrison counter- measure of skepticism, but Ferrie's death sexual underworld, who, according to attacked, confirming that an inquiry into was front-page news around the world. attorney Dean Andrew? testimony be- Kennedy's assassination was under way Garrison broke his self-imposed silence fore the Warren Commission, called and charging that the States-Item's "irre- to charge that Ferrie was "a man who, in him the day after the assassination and sponsible" revelation "has now created a my judgment, was one of history's most asked him to rush to Dallas to defend problem for us in finding witnesses and important individuals." According to Oswald. Shaw heatedly denied his guilt: getting cooperation front other witnesses Garrison, "Mr. Ferrie was one of those "I never heard of any plot and I never and in at least one case has endangered individuals 1 had in mind when I said used any alias in my life." But New Or- the life of a witness." there would be arrests shortly. We had leans society, which had long counted On February 18, newsmen from all reached a decis. ion to arrest him early Shaw one of its own, was stunned. over the world converged on New Orleans next week. Apparently we waited too On March 14, a panel of three judges to hear Garrison announce at a press long." But Garrison vowed that Ferrie's heard Garrison's case in a preliminary conference: "We have been investigat- death would not halt his investigation, hearing to determine if there was ing the role of the city of New Or- and added, "My staff and I solved the enough evidence against Shaw to bring leans in the assassination of President assassination weeks ago. I wouldn't say him to trial. Perry Raymond Russo, a 25- Kennedy, and we have made some this if we didn't have the evidence year-old life-insurance salesman front progress-1 think substantial progress. beyond a shadow of a doubt. We know Baton Rouge who had once been Ferrie's What's more, there will be arrests." As the key individuals, the cities involved "roommate," testified that in mid-Septem- reporters flashed news of Garrison's and how it was done." ber of 1963, he had attended a meeting statement across the world, a 49-year-old On March. 1, Garrison eclipsed even the at Ferrie's apartment where Shaw, Lee New Orleans pilot, David Ferrie, told headlines from his previous press confer. Harvey Oswald and Ferrie discussed newsmen that the district attorney had ence by announcing the arrest of Clay means of assassinating the President in a

"To read the press accounts of my investi- "A number of the men who killed the "President Kennedy was killed for one gation, I'm a cross between Al Capone President were former employees of the reason: because he was working for a rec- and Attila the Hun—bribing, threaten- CIA involved in its anti-Castro under- onciliation with the U.S.S.R. and Castro's ing innocent men. Anybody who employs ground activities in the New Orleans area. Cuba. His assassins were a group of fa- those methods should be disbarred." The CIA knows their identity. So do I." natic anti-Communists and Cuban exiles." 59 "triangulation of cross /ire." Garrison's poll of May 29 revealed that 66 percent New Orleans to work as an assistant second witness, Vernon Bundy, a 29- of the American public now believes district attorney until 1961, when he re- year-old former narcotics addict, testified there was a conspiracy to assassinate signed with a scorching attack on Mayor that in the summer of 1963, he saw Shaw Kennedy, and "a major contributor to Victor H. Schiro, whom he charged with pass a sum of money to Lee Harvey Os- this swelling doubt is the investigation corruption and failure to rigorously en- wald on the shore of Lake Pontchar- into the assassination by New Orleans force the law. train. On March 17, after a four-day district attorney Jim Garrison." Even Garrison entered the race for district hearing, Judges Malcolm V. O'Hara, with public opinion on his side, Garrison attorney as a fiercely uncompromising Pi Bernard J. Bogert and Matthew S. Bra- was running into difficulties on several reform candidate, lambasting the "po- niff ruled there was sufficient evidence to fronts by early summer. Three witnesses litical machine" of Mayor Schiro and hold Clay Shaw for trial. Garrison's hand he wished to question about their coin- characterizing the incumbent district Teas further strengthened on March 22, plicity in the assassination het? fled Loui- attorney. Richard Dowling, as "the great when a 12-member grand jury of promi- sierra, and he was unable to obtain their emancipator—he let everybody go free." nent New Orleans citizens, em paneled to extradition to New Orleans—a seldom- Garrison, six feet. -six, and 2-10 pounds, hear Garrison's case, also ruled there encountered roadblock he credits to the was quickly dubbed the "Jolly Green were sufficient grounds to bring Shaw to CIA. "which knows that some of its Giant." He had no political organization court. Pending trial—which is scheduled former employees were involved in the and not M to begin sometime this month—Shaw itch money, butt his personal Kennedy assassination and is doing Wag), et ism and refusal to compromise was allowed to go free on V0.000 boil. everything possible to frustrate my in- appealed to the New Orleans elector- The American press remained dubious vestigation in order to preserve the ate. He defeated Dowling handily and about Garrison's ability to prove his Agency's good name." The CM refuses promptly began convicting charges in court, and domestic coverage Men on to comment on Garrison's charges. charges his predecessor had dropped. of and commenter'', on. the district attor- Garrison was also under heavy fire Garrison's five years ney's case thereafter was, at best, low-key as district attor- over the improper methods allegedly em- ney have been stormy. He outraged —at worst, contemptuous. But as News- ployed by his staff. The most blistering many of his former supporters in the week reported on. March 20, "In Europe, indictment of his probe was an NBC business community by launching a where thousands still cling to the con- television special on June 19, charging campaign against vice on Bourbon spiracy theory in spite of the Warren that Garrison's investigators had tried to Street, charging that B-girls were merci- Commission's conclusion that Lee Har- bribe three potential witnesses—Alvin lessly fleecing naive tourists. Garrison vey Oswald acted alone . . Garrison Beauboeuf, Miguel Torres and Fred Lee- cleaned up Bourbon Street himself, per- and his investigation have been the stuff mans—to testify against Shaw; that Gar- sonally padlocking many honky-tonks of page-one headlines." "lima encouraged rison's staff had attempted to induce a and striptease clubs. But his toughest by the support Europe is bringing me," burgles-, John Cancler, to plant false evi- fight—until the current one—came in- he told a Paris-Match reporter. "Every dence• in Clay Shaw's home; and that clay, I receive letters and telegrams from 1962, when he announced that the re- Garrison had allowed Perry Russo and fusal of lire city's eight criminal-court all the capitals. I've even had six tele- Vernon Bundy to testify against Shaw phone calls from Moscow." One was from judges to approve funds for• his in- even though they had previously failed vestigations of organized crime "raised Literaturnaya Gazeta, a prestigious Mos- lie-detector tests. NBC added that its in- interesting questions about racketeer in- cow literary magazine, which ran an in- vestigators had also unearthed the real fluences." The judges promptly charged terview with Garrison concluding that "Clay Bertrand"; and though NBC didn't there was a conspiracy to kill Kennedy Garrison with defamation of character name him, it said that he was not Clay and criminal libel—and a stale court but that Oswald "definitely wasn't the Shaw. Subsequently, NBC might have fined him fI000. Garrison appealed key figure in it." had second thoughts about its expose, for the case all the way to the .Supreme Garrison also had his supporters in the the network granted Garrison an unprece- U.S. Boston's Richard Cardinal Cushing, dented 30 minutes of prime Saturday- Court, and on November 23, 1964, in a father-confessor to the Kennedy family, evening time to rebut its own findings. landmark decision on the right to criti- said of the New Orleans probe on March Garrison charged that the three wit- cize public officials, the nation's highest 16: "I think they should follow it through. nesses who claimed his aids had tried to tribunal reversed Iris conviction., contend- . • . I never believed that the assassina- bribe them were perjurers. He also de- ing that "speech concerning public affairs tion was the work of one man." And nied that his office had approached John is more than self-expression; it is the essence of self-government." Never one Representative Roman Pucinski. an Gander to burglarize Shaw's home, and to turn the other check, Garrison sub- Illinois Democrat, said: "I'm surprised stated flatly that both Russo and Bundy sequently employed his political influence more attention hasn't been paid to the had passed their polygraph tests. On the key point of the "real" Clay Bertrand, to unseat a number of the judges when ruling that Clay Shaw go on trial for par- Garrison said that he knew the identity they came up for re-election. ticipating in a plot to assassinate Presi- of the individual NBC was talking about The district attorney's independence dent Kennedy. These aren't nuts but and that he was definitely not the man has at times nettled both left and right in three judges talking. It's a new ball who called attorney Dean Andrews to New Orleans. T-Vhen the game." Senator Russell Long of Louisi- police depart- gain legal aid. for Lee Harvey Oswald. ment tried to prosecute a bookdealer for ana also backed up Garrison—an old po- Undismayed--and undeterred—by all selling James Baldwin's "Another Coun- litical ally—contending that he was only the charges and countercharges, Garri- try," Garrison stepped in with a broad- doing "what a district attorney should son still says, "We are going to win this side against censorship and won the do." And perennial Warren Report critic case, and anyone who bets against us is man's release—promptly bringing down Mark Lane (himself a PLAYBOY inter- going to lose his money." The embattled on his head the wreath of the local White viewee last February), whose best-selling district attorney may be overconfident, Citizens Council. At the other end of the "Rush to Judgment" helped persuade but he has a history of winning every political spectrum, he has been criticized Garrison to launch his investigation, said fight he starts. Born in Dennison, Iowa, by the liberal American Civil Liberties after a conference with Garrison in New on November 20, 1921, Garrison flew an Union, which once accused him of try- Orleans that the D. A.'s probe would unarmored spotter plane for the artillery ing an alleged rapist "in the press rather "break the entire case wide open." in France and Germany during World than in the courtroom." But Negro If nothing else, Garrison was certainly War Two and then attended Tulane leaders in the city say Garrison has been affecting public opinion. A Louis Harris 60 University Law School. He then went to a fair and impartial district attorney; in his last bid for re-election, he polled as to believe that where there's smoke, unprecedented step in jurisprudence: in- well in the Negro precincts as he did in there's fire—although I find it difficult to stead, the press turned around and hinted the white. believe that the public will put much that we had drugged our witnesses or The years 1965 and 1966 were—by credence in most of the dastardly deeds given them posthypnotic suggestions to Garrison's standards—relatively quiet. I've been accused of in the past few testify falsely. After arresting Mr. Shaw, His only major public controversy during months. Just recently, for example, the we filed a motion for a preliminary hear- this period flared up when he interceded rumor went around that my staff was ing—a proceeding that essentially oper- with Louisiana Governor John McKeith- peddling marijuana to high school stu- ates in the defendant's favor. Such a en to win a pardon for a local stripper dents and that one of our major witnesses hearing is generally requested by the named Linda Birgette, who had been had just confessed that his testimony was defense, and it was virtually unheard of convicted on a charge of lewd dancing. based on a dream induced by an overdose that the motion be filed by the state, Garrison claimed it was impossible to of LSD. We've also been accused of which under the law has the right to define obscenity in literature or the arts planning an attack on the local FBI charge a defendant outright, without any and argued that jailing Miss Birgette office with guns loaded with red pepper, would be a "gross miscarriage of jus- evaluation by a judge of the pending having stolen money from our own in- charges. But I felt that because of the tice." McKeithen acceded to his pleas vestigative files and having threatened to and, despite cries of protest from local enormity of this accusation, we should shoot one witness in the derriere with an lean over backward and give the defend- bluenoses, the incident served to in- exotic gun propelling truth-serum darts. crease Garrison's popularity. ant every chance. A three-judge panel I just hope they never find out about my heard our evidence against Mr. Shaw and The same could hardly be said of his involvement in the Boston Brinks rob- current probe, which has made him both his attorneys' rebuttals and ordered him bery. I must admit, however, that I'm indicted for conspiracy to assassinate the a target for abuse—justified or other- beginning to worry about the cumulative wise—that has tended to obscure rather President. And I might add here that it's effect of this propaganda blitzkrieg on a matter of record that my relationship than clarify the issues involved in the potential jurors for the trial of Clay investigation, and a victim of often one- with the judiciary of our fair city is not Shaw. I don't know how long they can a Damon-Pythias camaraderie. Once the sided press coverage that NBC's half withstand the drumbeat obbligato of hour of equal time has done little to rec- judges had handed down their decision, charges exonerating the defendant and we could have immediately filed a charge tify. In PLAYBOY'S opinion, Garrison has convicting the prosecutor. For months not yet had the chance to present his against the defendant just by signing it now, the establishment's artillery units and depositing it with the city clerk—the side of the case—in court or out—with- have been pounding away at the two out expurgation or editorializing. We customary method of charging a defend- themes NBC focused on—that my office ant. Nevertheless, out of concern for feel he ought to have that chance. uses "improper methods" with regard to Toward this end, in mid-July, we ap- Mr. Shaw's rights, we voluntarily pre- witnesses and that we don't really have a sented the 'case to a blue-ribbon grand proached the embattled district attorney case against Mr. Shaw and he should with our offer of an impartial, open- jury. If this grand jury had failed to in- never be brought to trial. I hope you'll dict Mr. Shaw, our case would have been ended interview. The I2-hour cross- give me the chance to answer each of examination that followed—in the midst dead as a doornail. But the grand jury, these charges in detail; but first, let me composed of ]2 eminent New Orleans of Garrison's round-the-clock investigation elaborate a bit on the methods we employ —was conducted in the living room of citizens, heard our evidence and indicted in this or any other investigation. My the defendant for participation in a con- the two-story home he shares with his office has been one of the most scrupulous blonde wife and three young children in spiracy to assassinate John Kennedy. In a in the country with regard to the protec- a tree-lined residential neighborhood of further effort to protect the rights of the tion of individual rights. I've been on New Orleans. As the dog-tired district defendant, and in the face of the endless- record for years in law journals and attorney stretched his long legs across a ly reiterated accusation that we have no books as championing the rights of the couch, battered briar pipe (a political individual against the oppressive power case against him—despite the unanimous trademark) in one hand, a vodka martini of the state. My office moved in and verdict of the grand jury and the judges (his favorite drink) in the other, PLAYBOY prevented police seizure from bookstores at the preliminary hearing—I have studi- interviewer Eric Norden began by asking of books arbitrarily labeled "obscene." I ously refrained from making any public him to answer the most damaging charges intervened and managed to persuade the statement critical of the defendant or pre- of his critics. Louisiana legislature to remove a pro- judging his guilt. Of course, this puts me PLAYBOY: You have been accused—by vision from its new code of criminal pro- at a considerable disadvantage when the the National Broadcasting Company, cedure that would allow judges to reach press claims I have no case against him, Newsweek, the New Orleans Metropoli- out from the bench and cite newsmen for because the only way I could convince tan Crime Commission and your own contempt if they penned anything em- them of the strength of my case is to former investigative aide William Gur- barrassing to the judges. My office has throw open our files and let them exam- vich—of attempts to intimidate witnesses, investigated cases where we had already ine the testimony of all our witnesses. of engaging in criminal conspiracy and obtained convictions; and on discovering Apart from the injustice such an act of inciting to such felonies as perjury, new evidence indicating that the defend- would do Mr. Shaw, it could get our criminal defamation and public bribery. ant was not guilty, we've obtained a whole case thrown out of court on the How do you respond to these charges? reversal of the verdict. In over five years grounds that we had prejudiced the de- GARRISON: I've stopped beating my of office, I have never had a single case fendant's rights by pretrial publicity. So wife. All the charges you enumerate reversed because of the use of improper I won't fall into that particular trap. have been made with one purpose in methods—a record I'll match with any whatever the provocation. I only wish mind—to place our office on the defen- other D. A. in the country. In this par- the press would allow our case to stand sive and make us waste valuable time ticular case, I've taken unusual steps to or fall on its merits in court. It appears answering allegations that have no basis protect the rights of the defendant and that certain elements of the mass media in fact. Also involved is a psychological assure him a fair trial. Before we intro- have an active interest in preventing this by-product valuable to those who don't duced the testimony of our witnesses, case from ever coming to trial at all and want the truth about Kennedy's assassi- we made them undergo independent veri- find it necessary to employ against me nation to become known: The very repe- fying tests, including polygraph exami- every smear device in the book. To read tition of a charge lends it a certain nation, truth serum and hypnosis. We the press accounts of my investigation— 62 credibility, since people have a tendency thought this would be hailed as an my "circus," I should say—I'm a cross between Al Capone and Attila the Hun, also be bought by the other side. So —both failed polygraph tests prior to ruthlessly hounding innocent men, tram- 0 it's rather naïve, apart from being ethi- their testimony before the grand jury. In pling their legal rights, bribing and cally objectionable, to assume that our the case of Russo, who claimed to have threatening witnesses and in general vio- investigators travel around the country attended a meeting at David Ferrie's lating every canon of legal ethics. My with bags of money trying to bribe wit- apartment where Shaw, Oswald and God, anybody who employs the kind of nesses to lie on the witness stand. We just Ferrie plotted the assassination, NBC methods that elements of the news media don't operate that way. said that "Russo's answers to a series of attribute to me should not only not be a PLAYBOY: On an NBC television special, questions indicate, in the language of district attorney, he should be disbarred. "The J.F.K. Conspiracy: The Case of Jim the polygraph operator, 'deception cri- This case has taught me the difference Garrison," a former Turkish-bathhouse teria.' He was asked if he knew Clay between image and reality, and the operator in New Orleans, Fred Leemans, Shaw. He was asked if he knew Lee power of the mythmakers. But I know claimed that one of your aides offered I've done everything possible to conduct him money to testify that Clay Shaw had Harvey Oswald. His 'yes' answer to both this investigation with honesty and in- frequented his establishment with Lee of these questions indicated 'deception tegrity and with full respect for the civil Harvey Oswald. Do you also deny this criteria.' " Did Bundy and Russo fail rights of the defendant. But a blanket charge? their lie-detector tests? denial of charges against me isn't going GARRISON: Yes; and it's a perfect illus- GARRISON: No, and NBC's allegations in to convince anyone, so why don't we tration of the point I was just making this area are about as credible as its consider them one by one? about how easy it is for the other side other charges. The men who adminis- PLAYBOY: All right. The May 15th issue to buy witnesses and then charge us tered both polygraph tests flatly deny of Newsweek charged that two of your with its own misconduct. Mr. Leemans that Russo and Bundy failed the test. investigators offered David Ferrie's former came to us in early May, volunteering I'll offer right now to, make Russo's and roommate, Alvin Beauboeuf, $3000 and testimony to the effect that he had often Bundy's polygraph tests accessible to any an airline job if he would help sub- seen a man named Clay Bertrand in his reputable investigator or reporter the day stantiate your charges against Clay Shaw. bathhouse, sometimes accompanied by Clay Shaw's trial begins; I can't do it How do you answer this accusation? men he described as "Latins." In a sworn before that, because I'm restrained from GARRISON: Mr. Beauboeuf was one of affidavit, Leemans said he had also seen releasing material pertaining to Shaw's the two men who accompanied David a young man called Lee with Bertrand guilt or innocence. Just for your informa- Ferrie on a mysterious trip from New on four or five occasions—a man who fits tion, though, the veracity of Bundy and Orleans to Texas on the day of the assas- the description of Lee Harvey Oswald. sination, so naturally we were interested Leemans also identified the Clay Ber- Russo has been affirmed not only through in hint from the very start of our investi- trand who had frequented his establish- polygraph tests but through hypnosis and gation. At first he showed every willing- ment as Clay Shaw. Now, this was the administration of sodium amytal- ness to cooperate with our office; but after important testimony, and initially we truth serum. I want to make a proposi- cc Ferrie's death, somebody gave him a free were favorably impressed with Mr. Lee- tion to the president of NBC: If this trip to Washington. From that moment charge is true, then I will resign as a_ 7 mans. But then we started receiving calls on, a change came over Beauboeuf; he from him demanding money. Well, I've district attorney of New Orleans. If it's refused to cooperate with us any further told you our policy on this, and the an- untrue, however, then the president of and he made the charges against my swer was a flat no. He was quiet for a NBC should resign. Just in case he thinks investigators to which you refer. Fortu- while and then he called and asked if we I'm kidding, I'm ready to meet with him nately. Beauboeuf had signed an affidavit would approve if he sold his story to a at any time to select a mutually accept- on April 12th—well after the alleged magazine, since he badly needed money. able committee to determine once and bribe offer was supposed to have been We refused to give him such approval. for all the truth or falsehood of this made—affirming that "no representative Apparently, the National Broadcasting 'charge. In all fairness, however, I must of the New Orleans Parish district attor- Company was able to establish a warmer add that the fact Bundy and Russo passed ney's office has ever asked me to do any- relationship with Mr. Leemans. In any their polygraph tests is not, in and of it- thing but to tell the truth. Any inference case, he now says that he didn't really lie self, irrefutable proof that they were tell- or statement by anyone to the contrary to us; he just "told us what he thought ing the truth; that's why we administered has no basis in fact." As soon as his we wanted to hear." I'm sure he was attorney began broadcasting his charges, equally cooperative with NBC—although the other tests. The lie detector isn't a we asked the. New Orleans police de- he's beginning to spread his favors foolproof technique. A man well re- partment to thoroughly investigate the around. When a reporter asked him hearsed and in complete control of him- matter. And on June 12th, the police for more information after the broadcast, self can master those reactions that department—which is not, believe me, Leemans refused, explaining that he was would register on the polygraph as de- in the pocket of the district attorney's saving himself for the Associated Press, ception criteria and get away with office—released a report concluding that "since I want to make something out of blatant lies, while someone who is ex- exhaustive investigation by the police in- this." I would like to make one personal tremely nervous and anxiety-ridden could telligence branch had cleared my staff of remark about Mr. Leemans. I don't tell the truth and have it register as a lie. any attempt to bribe or threaten Beau- know if he was lying to us initially or not Much also depends on who administers boeuf into giving untrue testimony. There —though I suspect from other evidence the test, since it can easily be rigged. For was no mention of this report, predicta- in my possession that his statement as he example, Jack Ruby took a lie-detector bly enough, in Newsweek. Let me make first gave it was accurate—but anybody, test for the Warren Commission and told one thing clear, though: Like every po- no matter what his financial straits, who lie after outright lie—even little lies that lice department and district attorney's tries to make a fast buck off the assassi- could be easily checked—and yet the office across the country, we have sums nation of John Kennedy is several rungs Warren Commission conduded that he set aside to pay informers for valuable below the anthropoid ape on the evolu- passed the test. So the polygraph is only information—but we would never suborn tionary scale. one weapon in the arsenal we use to perjury. This isn't because we're saints— PLAYBOY: On this sante NBC show, verify a witness' testimony, and we have short cuts like that could be awfully newsman Frank McGee claimed that never considered it conclusive; we have tempting in a frustrating case—but be- NBC investigators had discovered that abundant documentation to corroborate cause we're realistic enough to know that your two key witnesses against Clay their stories. 64 any witness who can be bought by us can Shaw—Perry Russo and Vernon Bundy PLAYBOY: Two convicts, Miguel Torres and John Cancler, told NBC that Vernon PLAYBOY: The NBC special also claimed for years and have been seen frequently O Bundy admitted having lied in his testi- to have discovered that "Clay, or Clem, in each other's company. Andrews has mony linking Clay Shaw to Lee Oswald. Bertrand does exist. Clem.. Bertrand is O lied so often and about so many aspects Do you dismiss this as just another NBC not his real name. It is a pseudonym of this case that the New Orleans Parish fabrica Lion? used by a homosexual in New Orleans. grand jury has indicted him for perjury. gc GARRISON: Messrs. Cancler and Torres For his protection, we will not disclose I feel sorry for him, since he's afraid of were both convicted by my office, as were the real name of the man known as getting a bullet in his head, but lie's almost half the men in the state peni- Clem Bertrand. His real name has been going to have to go to trial for perjury. tentiary, and I'm sure the great majority given to the Department of Justice. He is [Andrews has since been convicted.] of them have little love for the man who not Clay Shaw." Doesn't this undermine PLAYBOY: You expressed your reaction to sent them up. I don't know if they your entire case against Shaw? the NBC show in concrete terms on July fabricated their stories in collusion with GARRISON: Your faith in NBC's veracity seventh, when you formally charged Wal- NBC or on their own for motives of is touching and indicates that the Age ter Sheridan, the network's special inves- revenge, but I'm convinced from what of Innocence is not yet over. NBC does tigator for the broadcast, with attempting noi I know of Vernon Bundy that his have the real Clay Bertrand; the to bribe your witness Perry Russo. Do man whose name NBC so melodramati- testimony was truthful. NBC manipu- you really have a case against Sheridan, cally turned over to the Justice De- lated the statements of Cancler and or is this just a form of harassment? partment is that of Eugene Davis, a New GARRISON: The reason we haven't lost a Torres to give the impression to the Orleans bar owner, who has firmly de- viewer that he was watching a trial on major case in over five years in office is nied under oath that he has ever used that we do not charge a man unless we television—my Irial—and that these "ob- the name Clay, or Clem, Bertrand. We can make it stick in court. And jective" witnesses were saying exactly not know from incontrovertible evidence in in the business of harassing anybody. what they would say in a court of law. our possession who the real Clay Bertrand Sheridan was charged because evidence Actually—and NBC scrupulously avoided is—and we will prove it in court. But to was brought to us indicating that he revealing this to its audience—their "tes- make this whole thing a little clearer, let attempted to bribe Perry Russo by offer- •timony" was not under oath, there was no me tell you the genesis of the whole ing him free transportation to California, opportunity for cross-examination or the "Clay Bertrand" story. A New Orleans free lodgings and a job once there, pay- presentation of rebuttal witnesses, and the lawyer, Dean Andrews, told the Warren ment of all legal fees in any extradition statements of Gander, Torres and all the Commission that a few months before the proceedings and immunity from my rest of NBC's road company were edited assassination of President Kennedy, Lee office. Mr. Russo has stated that Sheri- so that the public would hear only those Harvey Oswald and a group of "gay dan asked his help "to wreck the Garri- elements of their story that would dam- Mexicanos" came to his office and re- son investigation" and "offered to set me age our case. The rules of evidence and quested Andrews' aid in having Oswald's up in California, protect my job and adversary procedure, I might add, have Marine Corps undesirable discharge guarantee that Garrison would never been developed over many years precisely changed to an honorable discharge; Os- get me extradited." According to Russo, to prevent this kind of phony side show. wald subsequently returned alone with Sheridan added that both NBC and the Of course, these two convicts have been other legal problems. Andrews further CIA were out to scuttle my case. used against my office in a variety of re- testified that the day after President I think it's significant that the chief in- spects. Miguel Torres also claims I offered Kennedy was assassinated, he received a vestigator for this ostensibly objective him a full pardon, a vacation in Florida call from Clay Bertrand, who asked broadcast starts telling people the day he and an ounce of heroin if he would testi- him to rush to Dallas to represent Os- arrives in town that he is going to "de- fy that Clay Shaw had made homosexual wald. Andrews claims he subsequently saw stroy Garrison"—this at the same time overtures to him on the street. What on Bertrand in a New Orleans bar, but he is unctuously assuring me that NBC earth that would have established rele- Bertrand fled when Andrews approached wanted only the truth and he had an en- vant to this case I still don't know, but him. This was intriguing testimony, al- tirely open mind on my case. Let me tell that's his story. I think it was actually though the Warren Commission dis- you something about Walter Sheridan's rather cheap of me to offer Torres only missed it out of hand; and in 1964, background, and maybe you'll understand an ounce of heroin; that wouldn't have Mark Lane traveled to New Orleans his true role in all this. Sheridan was one lasted out his vacation. A kilo would be to speak to Andrews. He found him of the bright, hard young investigators more like it. After all, I'm not stingy. visibly frightened. "I'll take you to din- who entered the Justice Department un- Torres' friend John Cancler, a burglar, ner," Andrews told Lane, "but I can't der Bobby Kennedy. He was assigned to has also charged that one of my investi- talk about the case. I called Washington nail Jimmy Haifa. Sheridan employed a gators tried to induce him to burglarize and they told me that if I said anything, wide variety of highly questionable tac- Clay Shaw's house and plant false evi- I might get a bullet in the head." For the tics in the Justice Department's relentless dence there, but he refused because he same reason, he has refused to cooper- drive against Hoffa; he was recently sub- would not have such a heinous sin on his ate with my office in this investigation. poenaed to testify in connection with conscience. I suppose that's why Cancler's The New York Times reported on Feb- charges that he wire-tapped the offices prison nickname is "John the Baptist." I ruary 26th that "Mr. Andrews said he of Hoffa's associates and then played can assure you, if we ever wanted to bur- had not talked to Mr. Garrison because back incriminating tapes to them, warn- glarize Shaw's home—which we never did such talk might be dangerous, but ing that unless they testified for the Gov- —John the Baptist would be the last man added that he believed he was being ernment, they would be destroyed along on earth we'd pick for the job. By the way, 'tailed.' " Andrews told our grand jury with Hoffa. A few years ago, Sheridan left that he could not say Clay Shaw was Mr. Cancler was called before the grand the Justice Department—officially, at least Clay Bertrand and he could not say he jury and asked if he had told the truth —and went to work for NBC. No honest wasn't. But the day after NBC's special, to NBC. He replied: "I refuse to answer reporter out for a story would have so Andrews broke his silence and said, yes, completely prejudged the situation and on the grounds that my answer might Clay Shaw is not Clem Bertrand and been willing to employ such tactics. I incriminate me"—and was promptly identified the real Clay Bertrand as think it's likely that in his zeal to destroy sentenced to six months in prison and Eugene Davis. The only trouble is, An- my case, he exceeded the authority 66 a $500 fine for contempt of court. drews and Davis have known each other granted him by NBC's executives in New York. I get the impression that the majori- couldn't care less as long as I can shed tinued to wax enthusiastic about every ty of NBC executives probably thought some light on John Kennedy's assassina- aspect of our case, and I have a dozen Sheridan's team came down here in an tion. As a matter of fact, after this last witnesses who will testify to that effect. uncompromising search for the truth. murderous year, I find myself thinking I guess this was something that should When Sheridan overstepped himself and more and more about returning to private have tipped me off about Bill: He was it became obvious that the broadcast was, life and having time to read again, to always enthusiastic, never doubtful or to say the least, not objective, NBC real- get out in the sun and hit a golf ball. cautionary, even when 1 or one of my ized it was in a touchy position. Cooler But before I do that, I'm going to break staff threw out a hypothesis that on heads prevailed and I was allowed to pre- this case and let the public know the reflection we realized was wrong. And I sent our case to the American people. For truth. I won't quit before that day. I began to notice how Ile would pick my that, at least. I'm singularly grateful to wouldn't give the bastards the satisfaction. mind for every scrap of fact pertaining to Walter Sheridan. PLAYBOY: According to your own former the case. So I grew suspicious and took PLAYBOY: How do you respond to the chief investigator, William Gurvich, the him off the sensitive areas of the investi- charge of your critics—including NBC truth about the assassination has al- gation and relegated him to chauffeuring —that you launched this probe for politi- ready been published in the Warren Re- and routine clerical duties. This seemed cal reasons, hoping the attendant pub- port. After leaving your staff last June, to really bother him, and every day he licity would be a springboard to a Senate he announced, "If there is any truth would come into my office and pump me seat or to the governorship? to any of Garrison's charges about there for information, complaining that he GARRISON: I'd have to be a terribly cyni- being a conspiracy, I haven't been able wasn't being told enough about the case. cal and corrupt man to place another to find it." When members of your own I still had nothing concrete against him human being on trial for conspiracy to staff have no faith in your case, how do and I didn't want to be unjust, but I murder the President of the United you expect the public to be impressed? guess my manner must have cooled States just to gratify my political ambi- GARRISON: First of all, I won't deny for perceptibly, because one day about two tion. But I guess there are a lot of people a minute that for at least three months I months before he surfaced in Washing- around the country, especially after trusted Bill Gurvich implicitly. He was ton, Bill just vanished from our sight. NBC's attack, who think that's just the never my "chief investigator"—that's his And with him, I'm sorry to confess, van- kind of man I am. That rather saddens own terminology—because there was no ished a copy of our master file. How do me. I'm no Albert Schweitzer, but I such position on my staff while he worked you explain such behavior? Its possible could never do a thing like that. I derive for me. But two days before Christmas that Bill joined us initially for reasons no pleasure from prosecuting a man, 1966, Gurvich, who operates a private of opportunism, seeing a chance to get even though I know he's guilty; do you detective agency, visited my office and told in at the beginning of an earth-shaking think I could sleep at night or look at me he'd heard of my investigation and case, and subsequently chickened out myself in the mirror in the morning if I thought I was doing a wonderful job. He when he saw the implacable determina- hounded an innocent man? You know. I presented me with a beautiful color-TV tion of some powerful agencies to destroy always received much more satisfaction set and asked if he could be of use in any our investigation and discredit everyone as a defense attorney in obtaining an ac- capacity. Well, right then and there, I associated with it. But I really don't be- quittal for a client than I ever have as a should have sat back and asked myself a lieve Bill is that much of a coward. It's D. A. in obtaining a conviction. All my few searching questions—like how he had also possible that those who want to interests and sympathies tend to be on heard of my probe in the first place, since prevent an investigation learned early the side of the individual as opposed to only the people we were questioning and what we were doing and made a decision the state. So this is really the worst a few of my staff, as far as I knew, were to plant somebody on the inside of the charge that anyone could make against aware of what was going on at that time. investigation. Let me stress that I have no me—that in order to get my name in the We had been under way for only five secret documents or monitored telephone paper, or to advance politically, I would weeks, remember. And I should also calls to support this hypothesis; it just destroy another human being. This kind have recalled the old adage about seems to me the most logical explanation of charge reveals a good deal about the Greeks bearing gifts. But I was desper- for Bill's behavior. Let me put it this personality of the people who make it; to ately understaffed—I had only six aides way: If you were in charge of the CIA impute such motives to another man is to available to work on the assassination and willing to spend scores of millions of imply you're harboring them yourself, inquiry full time—and here comes a dollars on such relatively penny-ante But to look at a different aspect of your trained private investigator offering his projects as infiltrating the National Stu- question, I'm inclined to challenge the services free of charge. It was like a gift dents Association, wouldn't you make an effort to infiltrate an investigation that whole premise that launching an investi- from the gods. So I set Gurvich to work; could seriously damage the prestige of gation like this holds any political advan- and for the next couple of months, he your agency? tages for me. A politically ambitious man did an adequate job of talking to wit- PLAYBOY: How could your probe dam- would hardly be likely to challenge the nesses, taking photographs, etc. But then, massed power of the Federal Govern- age the prestige of the CIA and cause around March, I learned that he had them to take countermeasures against ment and criticize so many honorable been seeing Walter Sheridan of NBC. figures and distinguished agencies. Actu- you? Well, this didn't bother me at first, be- GARRISON: For the simple reason that a ally, this charge is an argument in favor cause I didn't know then the role Sheri- number of the men who killed the Presi- of my investigation: Would such a slimy dan was playing in this whole affair. But dent were former employees of the CIA type, eager to profiteer on the assassina- after word got back to me from my wit- involved in its anti-Castro underground tion, jeopardize his political ambitions if nesses about Sheridan's threats and har- activities in and around New Orleans. he didn't have an ironclad case? If I were assment, I began keeping a closer eye on The CIA knows their identity. So do l- really the ambitious monster they paint Bill. I still didn't really think he was any and our investigation has established this me, why would I climb out on such a kind of a double agent, but I couldn't without the shadow of a doubt. Let me limb and then saw it off? Unless he had help wondering why he was rubbing stress one thing, however: We have no the facts, it would be the last thing a elbows with people like that. Now, don't evidence that any official of the CIA was politically ambitious man would do. I forget that Gurvich claims he became involved with the conspiracy that led to was perfectly aware that I might have totally disgusted with our investigation the President's death. signed my political death warrant the at the time of Clay Shaw's arrest— PLAYBOY: Do you lend no credence, then, 68 moment I launched this case—but I yet for several months afterward he con- to the charges of a former CIA agent, J. Garrett Underhill, that there was a work of the Women's Christian Temper- aged man published without explanation 0 conspiracy within the CIA to assassinate ance Union or the New Orleans Chamber or identification in the 26 volumes of the Kennedy? of Commerce. Warren Report. There's a significant story GARRISON: I've become familiar with the PLAYBOY: That's hardly conclusive evi- behind Exhibit number 237. Throughout case of Gary Underhill, and I've been dence. the late summer and fall of 1963, Lee able to ascertain that he was not the GARRISON: I'd need a book to list all the Oswald was shepherded in Dallas and type of man to make wild or unsub- indications. But let's start with the fact New Orleans by a CIA "baby sitter" who stantiated charges. Underhill was an in- that most of the attorneys for the hostile watched over Oswald's activities and Cis telligence agent in World War Two and witnesses and defendants were hired by stayed with him. My office knows who he an expert on military affairs whom the the CIA—through one or another of its is and what he looks like. Pentagon considered one of the country's covers. For example, a New Orleans top authorities on limited warfare. He lawyer representing Alvin Beauboeuf, PLAYBOY: Are you implying that Oswald was on good personal terms with the top who has charged me with every kind of was working for the CIA? brass in the Defense Department and unethical practice except child molesting GARRISON: Let me finish and you can the ranking officials in the CIA. He —I expect that allegation to come shortly decide for yourself. When Oswald went wasn't a full-time CIA agent, but he before Shaw's trial—flew with Beauboeuf to Mexico City in an effort to obtain a occasionally performed "special assign- to Washington immediately after my visa for travel to Cuba, this CIA agent ments" for the Agency. Several days office subpoenaed him, where Beauboeuf accompanied him. Now, at this partic- after the President's assassination, Under- was questioned by a "retired" intelligence ular time, Mexico was the only Latin- hill appeared at the home of friends in officer in the offices of the Justice De- American nation maintaining diplomatic New Jersey, apparently badly shaken, partment. This trip was paid for, as are ties with Cuba, and leftists and Commu- and charged that Kennedy was killed by the lawyer's legal fees, by the CIA—in nists from all over the hemisphere traveled a small group within the CIA. He told other words, with our tax dollars. Another to the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City for friends he believed his own life was in lawyer, Stephen Plotkin, who represents visas to Cuba. The CIA, quite properly, danger. We can't learn any more from Gordon Novel (another of Garrison's key had placed a hidden movie camera in a Underhill, I'm afraid, because shortly witnesses], has admitted he is paid by the building across the street from the em- afterward, he was found shot to death in CIA—and has also admitted his client bassy and filmed everyone coming and his Washington apartment. The coroner is a CIA agent; you may have seen that going. The Warren Commission, knowing ruled suicide, but he had been shot be- story on page 96 of The New York hind the left ear and the pistol was found this, had an assistant legal counsel ask the Times, next to ship departuresPlotkin, FBI for a picture of Oswald and his com- under his left side—and Underhill was incidentally, sued me for $10,000,000 right-handed. panion on the steps of the embassy, and for defaming his client and sued a group the FBI, in turn, filed an affidavit saying PLAYBOY: Do you believe Underhill was of New Orleans businessmen financing they had obtained the photo in question murdered to silence him? my investigation for $50,000,000—which from the CIA. The only trouble is that GARRISON: I don't believe it and I don't meant, in effect, that the CIA was suing disbelieve it. All I know is that witnesses us. As if they need the money. But my the CIA supplied the Warren Commission with vital evidence in this case are cer- attorney filed a motion for a deposition with a phony photograph. The photo- tainly bad insurance risks. In the absence to be taken from Novel, which meant that graph of an "unidentified man" pub- of further and much more conclusive evi- he would have to return to my juris- lished in the 26 volumes is not the man dence to the contrary, however, we must diction to file his suit and thus be liable who was filmed with Oswald on the steps assume that the plotters were acting on for questioning in the conspiracy case. of the Cuban Embassy, as alleged by the their own rather than on CIA orders Rather than come down to New Orleans CIA. It's perfectly clear that the actual when they killed the President. As far as and face the music, Novel dropped his picture of Oswald and his companion we have been able to determine, they suit and sacrificed a possible $60,000,000 was suppressed and a fake photo sub- were not in the pay of the CIA at the time judgment. Now, there's a man of prin- stituted because the second man in the of the assassination—and this is one of ciple; he knows there are some things picture was working for the CIA in the reasons the President was murdered; more important than money. 1963, and his identification as a CIA I'll explain later what I mean by that. But PLAYBOY: Do you also believe Clay Shaw's agent would have opened up a whole the CIA could not face up to the Ameri- lawyers are being paid by the CIA? can of worms about Oswald's ties with can people and admit that its former em- GARRISON: I can't comment directly on the Agency. To prevent this, the CIA ployees had conspired to assassinate the that, since it relates to Shaw's trial. But presented the Warren Commission with President; so from the moment Kenne- I think the clincher, as far as Washing- fraudulent evidence—a pattern that re- dy's heart stopped beating, the Agency ton's obstruction of our probe goes, is the peats itself whenever the CIA submits attempted to sweep the whole conspir- consistent refusal of the Federal Govern- evidence relating to Oswald's possible acy under the rug. The CIA has spared ment to make accessible to us any in- connection with any U.S. intelligence neither time nor the taxpayers' money formation about the roles of the CIA, agency. The CIA lied to the Commission in its efforts to hide the truth about the anti-Castro Cuban exiles and the para- right down the line; and since the War- assassination from the American people. military right in the assassination. There ren Commission had no investigative In this respect, it has become an accessory is, without doubt, a conspiracy by ele- staff of its own but had to rely on after the fact in the assassination. ments of the Federal Government to keep the FBI, the Secret Service and the CIA PLAYBOY: Do you have any conclusive the facts of this case from ever becoming evidence to support these accusations? known—a conspiracy that is the logical for its evidence, it's understandable why GARRISON: I've never revealed this be- extension of the initial conspiracy by the the Commission concluded that Oswald fore, but for at least six months, my office CIA to conceal vital evidence from the had no ties with American intelligence and home telephones—and those of every Warren Commission. agencies. member of my staff—have been moni- PLAYBOY: What "vital evidence" did the PLAYBOY: What was the nature of these tored. If there is as little substance to this CIA withhold from the Warren Com- ties? investigation as the press and the Govern- mission? GARRISON: That's not altogether clear, ment allege, why would anyone go to all GARRISON: A good example is Commis- at least insofar as his specific assign- that trouble? I leave it to your judgment sion Exhibit number 237. This is a ments are concerned; but we do have 70 if the monitoring of our phones is the photograph of a stocky, balding, middle- proof that Oswald was recruited by the

SitC9fS a 4.,SG rai CIA in his Marine Corps days, when he CIA documents classified top secret in been attached to a State Department was mysteriously schooled in Russian the National Archives pertaining to Lee letter on Oswald's Russian stay, word and allowed to subscribe to Pravda. And Oswald and Jack Ruby. Technically, the came back that the Agency was terribly shortly before his trip to the Soviet members of the Commission had access sorry, but the secret memo had been de- Union, we have learned, Oswald was to them: but in practice, any document stroyed while being photocopied. This trained as an intelligence agent at the the CIA wanted classified was shunted unfortunate accident took place on No- CIA installation at Japan's Atsugi Air into the Archives without examination vember 23, 1963, a clay on which there Force Base—which may explain why no by the sleeping beauties on the Commis- must have occurred a great deal of spon- disciplinary action was taken against him sion. Twenty-nine of these files are of taneous combustion around Washington. when he returned to the U. S. from particular interest, because their titles PLAYBOY: John A. McCone, former di- the Soviet Union, even though he had alone indicate that the CIA had exten- rector of the Central Intelligence Agen- supposedly defected with top-secret in- sive information on Oswald and Ruby cy, has said of Oswald: "The Agency formation about our radar networks. before the assassination. A few of these never contacted him, interviewed him, The money he used to return to the U.S., documents are: CD 347, "Activity of Os- talked with him or received or solicited incidentally, was advanced to him by the wald in Mexico City"; CD 1054, "Infor- any reports or information from him or State Department. mation on Jack Ruby and Associates"; communicated with him in any manner. PLAYBOY: In an article for Ramparts, CD 692, "Reproduction of Official CIA Lee Harvey Oswald was never asso- ex–FBI agent William Turner indicated Dossier on Oswald"; CD 1551, "Conver- ciated or connected directly or indirectly, that White Russian refugee George De sations Between Cuban President and in any way whatsoever, with the Agency." Mohrenschildt may have been Oswald's Ambassador"; CD 698, "Reports of Trav- Why do you refuse to accept McCone's CIA "baby sitter" in Dallas. Have you el and Activities of Oswald"; CD 943, word? found any links between the CIA and "Allegations of Pfc. Eugene Dinkin re GARRISON: The head of the CIA, it seems De Mohrenschildt? Assassination Plot"; and CD 971, "Tele- to me, would think long and hard before GARRISON: I can't comment directly on phone Calls to U. S. Embassy, Canberra, he admitted that former employees of his that, but George De Mohrenschildt is cer- Australia, re Planned Assassination." had been involved in the murder of the tainly an enigmatic and intriguing char- The titles of these documents are all we President of the United States—even if acter. Here you have a wealthy, cultured have to go on, but they're certainly intri- they weren't acting on behalf of the White Russian emigre who travels in guing. For example, the public has heard Agency when they did it. In any case, the highest social circles—he was a per- nothing about phone calls to the U.S. the CIA's past record hardly induces sonal friend of Mrs. Hugh Auchincloss, Embassy in Canberra, warning in ad- faith in the Agency's veracity. CIA Jackie Kennedy's mother—suddenly de- vance of the assassination, nor have we officials lied about their role in the over- veloping an intimate relationship with been told anything about a Pfc. Dinkin throw of the Arbenz Guzman regime in an impoverished ex-Marine like Lee Os- who claims to have knowledge of an as- Guatemala; they lied about their role in wald. What did they discuss—last year's sassination plot. One of the top-secret the overthrow of Mossadegh in Iran; season at Biarritz, or how to beat the bank files that most intrigues me is CD 931, they lied about their role in the abortive at Monte Carlo? And Mr. De Mohren- which is entitled "Oswald's Access to In- military revolt against Sukarno in 1958; schildt has a penchant for popping up in formation About the U-2." I have 24 years they lied about the U-2 incident; and the most interesting places at the most of military experience behind me, on ac- they certainly lied about the Bay of Pigs. interesting times—for example, in Haiti tive duty and in the reserves, and I've If the CIA is ready to lie even about its just before a joint Cuban exile–CIA ven- never had any access to the U-2; in fact, successes—as in Guatemala and Iran— ture to topple Duvalier and use the island I've never seen one. But apparently this do you seriously believe its director as a springboard for an invasion of Cuba; "self-proclaimed Marxist," Lee Harvey would tell the truth in a case as explosive and in Guatemala, another CIA training Oswald, who we're assured had no ties to ground, the day before the Bay of Pigs as this? Of course, CIA officials grow so any Government agency, had access to in- used to lying, so steeped in deceit, that invasion. We have a good deal more in- formation about the nation's most secret formation about Oswald's CIA contacts after a while I think they really become high-altitude reconnaissance plane. Of incapable of distinguishing truth and in Dallas and New Orleans—most of course, it may be that none of these CIA which we discovered by sheer chance— falsehood. Or, in an Orwellian sense, files reveals anything sinister about Lee but there are still whole areas of inquiry perhaps they come to believe that truth Harvey Oswald or hints in any way that blocked from us by the CIA's refusal to is what contributes to national security, cooperate with our investigation. For he was employed by our Government. and falSehood is anything detrimental to public consumption, the CIA claims not But then, why are the 51 CIA documents national security. John McCone would to have been concerned with Oswald classified top secret in the Archives and swear he's a Croatian dwarf if he prior to the assassination. But one thing inaccessible to the public for 75 years? I'm thought it would advance the interests of is certain: Despite these pious protesta- 45, so there's no hope for me, but I'm al- the CIA—which he automatically equates tions, the CIA was very much aware ready training my eight-year-old son to with the national interest. of Oswald's activities well before the keep himself physically fit so that on one PLAYBOY: Let's get down to the facts of President's murder. In a notarized affi- glorious September morn in 2038 he can the assassination, as you see them. When davit, State Department officer James D. walk into the National Archives in —and why—did you begin to doubt the Crowley states, "The first time I re- Washington and find out what the CIA conclusions of the Warren Report? member learning of Oswald's existence knew about Lee Harvey Oswald. If GARRISON: Until as recently as Novem- was when I received copies of a tele- there's a further extension of the top- ber of 1966, I had complete faith in the graphic message from the Central In- secret classification, this may become a Warren Report. As a matter of fact, I telligence Agency dated October 10, 1963, generational affair, with questions passed viewed its most vocal critics with the which contained information pertaining down from father to son in the manner same skepticism that much of the press to his current activities." It would cer- of the ancient runic bards. But some- now views me—which is why I can't con- tainly be interesting to know what the day, perhaps, we'll find out what Oswald demn the mass media too harshly for their CIA knew about Oswald six weeks be- was doing messing around with the U-2. cynical approach, except in the handful fore the assassination, but the contents Of course, there are some CIA documents of cases where newsmen seem to be in of this particular message never reached we'll never see. When the Warren Com- active collusion with Washington to tor- the Warren Commission and remain a mission asked to see a secret CIA memo pedo our investigation. Of course, my 72 complete mystery. There are also 51 on Oswald's activities in Russia that had faith in the Report was grounded in ignorance, since I had never read it; as Weisberg and Mark Lane—sparked my terest and asked us to turn the three men Mark Lane says, "The only way you can general doubts about the assassination; over to them for questioning. We did, believe the Report is not to have read it." but more importantly, they led me into but Ferrie was released soon afterward But then, in November, I visited New specific areas of inquiry. After I realized and most of its report on him was clas- York City with Senator Russell Long; that something was seriously wrong, I sified top secret and secreted in the Na- and when the subject of the assassination had no alternative but to face the fact tional Archives, where it will remain came up, he expressed grave doubts about that Oswald had arrived in Dallas only a inaccessible to the public until Septem- the Warren Commission's conclusion that short time before the assassination and be 2038 A. D. No one, including me, can Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin. that prior to that time he had lived in see those pages. Now, this disturbed me, because here was New Orleans for over six months. I be- PLAYBOY: Why do you believe the FBI the Majority Whip of the U. S. Senate came curious about what this alleged report on Ferrie is classified? speaking, not some publicity hound with assassin was doing while under my juris- GARRISON: For the same reason the Presi- an ideological ax to grind; and if at this diction, and my staff began an investiga- dent's autopsy X rays and photos and late juncture he still entertained serious tion of Oswald's activities and contacts other vital evidence in this case are clas- reservations about the Commission's de- in the New Orleans area. We inter- sified—because they would indicate the terminations, maybe there was more to viewed people the Warren Commission existence of a conspiracy, involving the assassination than met the eye. So I had never questioned, and a whole new former employees of the CIA, to kill the began reading every book and magazine world began opening up. As I studied President. article on the assassination I could get my Oswald's movements in Dallas. my mind PLAYBOY: When you resumed your in- hands on—my tombstone may be in- turned back to the aftermath of the as- vestigation of Ferrie three years later, scribed "CURIOSITY KILLED THE D. A."--- sassination in 1963, when my office ques- did you discover any new evidence? and I found my own doubts growing. tioned three men—David Ferrie, Alvin GARRISON: We discovered a whole mare's- Finally, I put aside all other business Beauboeuf and Melvin Coffey—on sus- nest of underground activity involving and started to wade through the Warren picion of being involved in the assassi- the CIA, elements of the paramilitary Commission's own 26 volumes of sup- nation. I began to wonder if we hadn't right and militant anti-Castro exile portive evidence and testimony. That dismissed these three men too lightly, groups. We discovered links between was the clincher. It's impossible for any- and we reopened our investigation into David Ferrie, Lee Oswald and Jack one possessed of reasonable objectivity their activities. Ruby. We discovered, in short, what and a fair degree of intelligence to read PLAYBOY: Why did you become interested I had hoped not to find, despite my those 26 volumes and not reach the in Ferrie and his associates in November doubts about the Warren Commission— conclusion that the Warren Commission 1963? the existence of a well-organized con- was wrong in every one of its major con- GARRISON: To explain that, I'll have to spiracy to assassinate John Kennedy, a clusions pertaining to the assassination. tell you something about the operation conspiracy that came to fruition in Dal- For me, that was the end of innocence. of our office. I believe we have one of las on November 22, 1963, and in which PLAYBOY: Do you mean to imply that the the best district attorney's offices in the David Ferrie played a vital role. Warren Commission deliberately con- country. We have no political appoint- PLAYBOY: Accepting for a moment your cealed or falsified the facts of the ments and, as a result, there's a tremen- contention that there was a conspiracy to assassination? dous amount of esprit among our staff assassinate President Kennedy, have you GARRISON: No, you don't need any ex- and an enthusiasm for looking into unan- been able to discover who was involved planation more sinister than incompe- swered questions. That's why we got —in addition to Ferrie—how it was tence to account for the Warren Report. together the day after the assassination done and why? and began examining our files and Though I didn't know it at the time, GARRISON: Yes, I have. President Ken- the Commission simply didn't have all checking out every political extremist, nedy was killed for one reason; because the facts, and many of those they had religious fanatic and kook who had ever he was working for a reconciliation with come to our attention. And one of the were fraudulent, as I've pointed out— the U.S.S.R. and Castro's Cuba. His names that sprang into prominence was thanks to the evidence withheld and man- assassins were a group of fanatic anti- ufactured by the CIA. If you add to this that of David Ferrie. When we checked him out, as we were doing with innu- Communists with a fusion of interests the fact that most of the Commission in preventing Kennedy from achieving members had already presumed Oswald's merable other suspicious characters, we discovered that on November 22nd he peaceful relations with the Commu- guilt and were merely looking for facts to nist world. On the operative level of the confirm it—and in the process tranquilize had traveled to Texas to go "duck hunt- ing" and "ice skating." Well, naturally, conspiracy, you find anti-Castro Cuban the American public—you'll realize why this sparked our interest. We staked out exiles who never forgave Kennedy for the Commission was such a dismal failure. his house and we questioned his friends, failing to send in U.S. air cover at the But in the final analysis, it doesn't make and when he came back—the first thing Bay of Pigs and who feared that the a damn bit of difference whether the he did on his return, incidentally, was to thaw following the Missile Crisis in Octo- Commission members were sincere pa- contact a lawyer and then hide out for ber 1962 augured the total frustration of triots or mountebanks; the question is the night at a friend's room in another their plans to liberate Cuba. They be- whether Lee Oswald killed the President town—we pulled him and his two com- lieved sincerely that Kennedy had sold alone and unaided; if the evidence panions in for questioning. The story of them out to the Communists. On a high- doesn't support that conclusion—and it Ferrie's activities that emerged was rather er, control level, you find a number of doesn't—a thousand honorable men sit- curious. He drove nine hours through a people of ultra-right-wing persuasion— ting shoulder to shoulder along the banks furious thunderstorm to Texas, then ap- not simply conservatives, mind you, but of the Potomac won't change the facts. parently gave up his plans to go duck people who could be described as neo- PLAYBOY: So you began your investiga- hunting and instead went to an ice- Nazi, including a small clique that had tion of the President's assassination on skating rink in Houston and stood wait- defected from the Minutemen because nothing stronger than your own doubts ing beside a pay telephone for two hours: it considered the group "too liberal." and the theories of the Commission's he never put the skates on. We felt his These elements had their canteens ready critics? movements were suspicious enough to and their guns loaded; they lacked only GARRISON: No, please don't put words justify his arrest and that of his friends, a target. After Kennedy's domestic in my mouth. The works of the critics- and we took them into custody. When moves toward racial integration and his 74 particularly Edward Epstein, Harold we alerted the FBI, they expressed in- (continued on page 156) aware of what awaits them if convicted. ning as early as 1889. 11 be so effectively deterred that the To assume, finally, t castration PLAYBOY INTERVIEW (continued from page 74) cr • e of rape will be reduced almost to would serve as a dete lit is to assume exti tion. that the rapist has as [trona! mind. Many attempts to forge a peaceful foreign poli- (Name withheld by request) rapists act in psychiatrists call a cy, as exemplified by his signing of the New York, New York fugue state carcely aware of what Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, they found that target. So both of these groups had a vital Psychian is reject this proposal be- they are ng, much less of what the stake in changing U.S. foreign policy— cause rape is ie act of a sadist. not of a conseqt ces of their behavior will be. ideological on the part of the para- normal man h an excess of sexual Crue nd unusual punishments will no energy. What nee to be changed is his military rightists and both ideological 117 slop them. than will eloquent and personal with the anti-Castro exiles, mental attitude. not s ability to have an -eachments. "Rape will be reduced at- many of whom felt they would never see erection; the average re 'st is a man who most to extinction" only when a truly their homes again if Kennedy's policy of will walk past a house of ostitution rational society is evolved, in which Mente was allowed to succeed. The leave a loving wife at ho to ce children's sexual Attitudes are not dis- CIA was involved with both of these himself on a frightened and fling groups. In the New Orleans area, where torted. Meanwhile, the only humane way victim. because the creation of r and society can protect itself from the rapist the conspiracy was hatched, the CIA was training a mixed bag o[ Minutemen, the use of violence are the r. gra Ica- is to con fine him„ and the only humane lions that he seeks. Cuban exiles and other anti-Castro ad- cure society has devised for the rapist— Clinical evidence sh that rostra- venturers north of Lake Pontchartrain imperfect as it may be—is psychotherapy. for a foray into Cuba and an assassina- lion is 100-percent e live in reducing tion attempt on Fidel Castro. David Ker- erectile potency onl f performed before `The Playboy Forum" offers the oppor- rie, who operated on the "command" puberty. When e operation is per- tuni for an extended dialog between level of the ultra-rightists, was deeply formed on adttl their ability to have an reader and editors of this publication involved in this effort. The CIA itself erection fre ntly will not wane for on subje s and issues raised in Hugh apparently did not take the détente some time, ten not for years. Whether too seriously until the late summer of M. Hefner continuing editorial series, or not e castrated rapist retains his "The Playbo hilosophy." Four booklet 1963, because it maintained its financing and training of anti-Castro adventurers. pot en the desired results are seldom reprints of "T Playboy Philosophy," .chi ed: If he is made impotent. he There was, in fact, a triangulation of including installs •tits 1-7, 8-12. 13-18 of shifts to nonsexual and therefore CIA-supported anti-Castro activity be- and 19-22, are avail le at 30¢ per book- more bizarre forms of assault; if he re- tween Dallas—where Jack Ruby was let. Address all cones ■ involved in collecting guns and am- mains potent; he becomes more vicious ndence on both munition for the underground—and Mi- out of a desire for revenge against so- "Philosophy" and "Fo re to: The ami and New Orleans, where most of the ciety. These conclusions have emerged Playboy Forum, Playboy Bit ling„ 919 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Illin 's 60611. training was going on. But then. Kenne- from several attempts in various nations dy, who had signed a secret agreement to employ this dubious "remedy," begin- with Khrushchev after the Missile Crisis pledging not to invade Cuba if Russia would soft-pedal Castro's subversive ac- tivities in the Americas, began to crack clown on CIA operations against Cuba. As a result, on July 31, 1963, the FBI raided the headquarters of the group of Cuban exiles and Minutemen training north of Lake Pontchartrain and con- fiscated all their guns and ammunition —despite the fact that the operation had the sanction of the CIA. This action may have sealed Kennedy's fate. By the early fall of 1963, Kennedy's plan for a dé- tente with Cuba was in high gear. Ambassador William Atwood, a close personal friend of the late President, recounts that a thaw in U.S.-Cuban rela- tions was definitely in the works at this time and "the President more than the State Department was interested in ex- ploring the [Cuban] overture." One of the intermediaries between Castro and Kennedy was the late television com- mentator Lisa Howard, who met secretly with Ernesto Che Guevara to prepare peace terms between the U. S. and Cas- tro. Miss Howard was arranging a con- ference between Bobby Kennedy and Guevara when the President was shot in Dallas. In a United Nations speech on October 7, 1963, .Adlai Stevenson set "Wonderful news, Peter! There's going forth the possibility of a termination of 156 to be another Crusade!" hostilities between the two countries, and on November 19th. Presidential aide McGeorge Bundy, who was acting as an intermediary in the secret discussions, told Ambassador Attwood that the Presi- dent wanted to discuss his plans for a Cuban-American detente in depth with him right after "a brief trip to Dallas." Now The rest is history. One of the two heads of state involved in negotiating that th:- en Ir is now dead, but the survivor. Fi- del Castro, said on November 23rd that Get behind an the assassination was the work of -ele. 111C111.ti ill the U. S. opposed to peace." and the Cuban Foreign Ministry official- A&C. ly charged that "the Kennedy assassina- tion was a provocation against world A well played round? Now you deserve somethino• special— peace perfectly and minutely prepared and you've got it. A Mild tasting A&C cigar. In LigNht or by the most reactionary sectors of the dark wrappers, A&C's unique blend of fine imported and United States." Most Americans at the choke domestic tobaccos gives you real flavor—and time, myself included, thought this was flavor's the reason A&C sales are really soaring these days. just Communist propaganda. But Castro Get behind an A&C Grenadier (shown actual sin), knew what he was talking about. A few or choose a Panetela, Tony or any one of A&C's nine other weeks after the assassination, the Cuban sizes and shapes. Pack or box, you're ahead behind an A&C. ambassador to the UN, Dr. Carlos Le- chuga. was instructed by Castro to begin "formal discussions" in the hope TA that Kennedy's peace plan would be car- ried on by his successor. Ambassador Antonio y Cleopatra Attwood writes that "I informed Bundy the cigar that's going places and later was told that the Cuban exer- cise would be put on ice for a while— which it was and where it has been ever since." The assassins had achieved their aim. PLAYBOY: This is interesting speculation, but isn't that all it is—speculation? GARRISON: No, because we know enough about the key individuals involved in the conspiracy—Latins and Americans alike —to know that this was their motive for the murder of John Kennedy. First of all, you have to understand the mentality of these people. Take the Cuban exiles in- volved; here are 111C11. some of whom sur- vived the Bay of Pigs, who for years had been whipped up by the CIA into a frenzy of anti-Castro hatred and who had been solemnly assured by American in- telligence agencies that they were going to liberate their homeland with American support. They had one disappointment after another—the Bay of Pigs debacle. the failure to invade Cuba during the Missile Crisis, the effective crushing of their underground in Cuba by Castro's secret police. But they kept on hoping. anti the CIA kept fanning their hopes. Then they listened to Kennedy's famous speech at American University on June U. 1963, where he really kicked oil the new drive For a detente. and they heard the President of the country in which they'd placed all their hope saying we must make peace with the Communists. since "we both breathe the same air." Well, this worries them. but the CIA con- tinues financing and training their under- ground cadres, so there is still hope. And then suddenly, in the late summer of 1963, the CIA is forced by Presidential pressure to withdraw all funds and ,„„g X6 A. T. Co. 157 .24'eu'cieh"rwer assistance from the Cuban exiles. Think 0 of the impact of this, particularly on the group here in New Orleans, which had 00 been trained for months to make an as- P.1 sassination attempt on Castro and then found itself coolly jettisoned by its bene- factors in Washington. These adventurers were worked up to a fever pitch; and when the CIA withdrew its support and they couldn't fight Castro, they picked their next victim—John F. Kennedy. That, in a nutshell, is the genesis of the assassination. President Kennedy died because he wanted peace. PLAYBOY: How many people do you claim were involved in this alleged conspiracy? GARRISON: Too many fbr their own se- curity. If they had let fewer men in on the plot, we might never have stumbled onto it. But let me add one additional point here: The brief account I've just given you shouldn't be construed to indi- cate that any of the legitimate anti- Castro organizations were involved in the assassination—or that all Minutemen All over the world King George IV sells at the were implicated. Nor should the fact same price as the other lop12' Scotches (London $7.28) that there was a conspiracy from the para- military right be used to start a witch- But here, it is the only lop 12' you can buy hunt against conservatives in general, any more than Oswald's phony pro-Commu- for about 35.00 nist record should have been used to The Scots produce it, we bottle it...and purge leftists from our national life. In pass the savings on to you. Why are we this case, the very terminology of "right" so generous? We want to become the and "left," which is essentially an eco- largest selling Scotch around. King6eorigefil nomic definition, has little validity as a 100% BLENDED SCOTCH WHISKIES, 80 PROOF. SOLE DISTRIBUTOR U. S. A. MUNSON G. SHAW, NEW YORK, N. Y. description of those fanatic war lovers who were ready to assassinate a Presi- dent because he worked for peace. If you go far enough to either extreme of the teaming up political spectrum, Communist or fascist, you'll find hard-eyed men with guns who The Playboy warm-up shirts. On the believe that anybody who doesn't think beach, the campus, it's the newest as they do should be incarcerated or exterminated. The assassination was less action-ready gear for guys and gals. an ideological exercise than the frenzied The rugged good looks revenge of a sick element in our society of fine cotton outside, on a man who exemplified health and soft, absorbent decency. PLAYBOY: You've outlined the genesis of double-brushed the alleged conspiracy as you see it. Will fleece inside. you now tell us how it was carried out— Machine washable. and by whom? The rollicking Rabbit GARRISON: I won't be able to name names in all instances, because we're is embroidered in white building cases against a number of the on black or black on individuals involved. But I'll give you a white, chili, bright gold and brief sketch of how the conspiracy was organized, and then point by point we emerald. S, M, L, XL sizes. can go into the participants we know WA106, short sleeve, about so far and the role we believe $4.50ppd. each played. Let me stress at the outset WA107, long sleeve, that what I'm going to tell you is not idle speculation; we have facts, docu- $5 ppd. ments and reliable eyewitness testimony Shall we enclose a gift card in to corroborate much of it—though I can't your name? Please send check or money order to: PLAYBOY lay all this evidence before you without PRODUCTS, The Playboy Building, jeopardizing the investigation. But there 919 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611. are many pieces of the jigsaw puzzle still Playboy Club credit missing. Not one of the conspirators has keyholders may charge confessed his guilt, so we don't yet have an 158 "inside" view of all the pre-assassination planning. In order to fill in these gaps Attorney General Ramsey Clark an- us. The natural reaction of many people for you, I'll have to indulge in a bit nounced that Shaw "was included in an across the country to Clark's statement. of informed deduction and surmise. It investigation in November and Decem- which was carried prominently on TV may sound melodramatic, but you can ber of 190 and on the evidence that the and in the press. was, "Well, if the FBI best envisage the plot as a spider's web. FBI has, there was no connection found cleared him, there can't be anything to At the center sit the organizers of the between Shaw and the President's assas- this whole conspiracy business." Most operation, men with close ties to U.S. sination." Why do you challenge the defendants have to wait for trial before and western-European intelligence agen- Attorney General's statement? they're allowed to produce character cies. One of them is a former associate of GARRISON: Because it was not true. The witnesses. When, three months later, the Jack Ruby in gun-smuggling activities FBI did not clear Clay Shaw after the Justice Department finally admitted and a dedicated neo-Nazi in close contact assassination. You don't have to take my Clark was "in error." the story appeared with neo-fascist movements in Great Brit- word for it; The New York Times report- in only a few newspapers and wasn't ain, Germany, France and Italy. Radiat- ed on June third that "The Justice De- picked up by the radio or TV networks. partment said today that Clay ing out from these key men, the strands Shaw, New But what was even more significant about Orleans businessman, was riot investigat- of the web include the Justice Department's attempt to bail a motley group of ed by the Federal Bureau of Investiga- political adventurers united only in their out Shaw was the fact that the day after tion. . . . The statement contradicted Clark's statement. The New York Times' detestation of Kennedy and their dedica- Attorney General Ramsey Clark. . . . A tion to the reversal of his foreign policy. Washington correspondent. Robert B. Justice Department spokesman said that Semple, Jr.. reported that he had been One such man was David Ferrie. Another Mr. Clark's statement last March second told by an unnamed Justice Department member of this group is an individual was in error." Now, the Attorney Gener- spokesman that his agency was con. who deliberately impersonated Lee Os- al's attempt to whitewash Shaw via the vinced "that Mr. Bertrand and Mr. Shaw wald before the assassination in order to FBI, as you pointed out, was made imme- were the same man"—and that was the incriminate him: we believe we know diately after our office arrested him, and reason Clark released his untrue story his identity. Several others, about whom it really constituted the first salvo of the about the FBI's having cleared Shaw! ht we have evidence indicating that they propaganda barrage laid clown against other words, knowing that our case was helped supply weapons to the plotters. were the right-wing extremists I men- tioned earlier who broke off from a fa- natic paramilitary group because it was becoming "too liberal." Also involved is a band of anti-Castro adventurers who functioned on the second, or "operative," level of the conspiracy. These men in- clude two Cuban exiles, one of whom failed a lie-detector test when he denied knowing- in advance that Kennedy was going to be killed or having seen the weapons to be used in the assassination— and a number of men who fired at the President from three directions on No- vember 22nd. The link between the "command" level and the Cuban exiles was an amorphous group called the Free Cuba Committee, which with CIA sanc- tion had begun training north of Lake Pontchartrain for an assassination at- tempt on Fidel Castro, as I mentioned earlier. It was this group that was raided by the FBI on July 31st, 1963, and tem- porarily put out of commission. Our in- formation indicates that it was shortly after this setback that the group switched direction and decided to assassinate John Kennedy instead of Fidel Castro. after the "betrayal" of the Bay of Pigs disaster. That's it in a nutshell, but 1 think the development of the conspiracy will be- come clearer if you ask me one by one about the individuals involved. PLAYBOY: All right, let's begin with Clay Shaw. What was his role in the alleged conspiracy? GARRISON: I'm afraid I can't comment even inferentially on anything pertaining to the evidence against Mr. Shaw, since Ire's facing trial in my jurisdiction. PLAYBOY: Can you answer a charge about your case against him? On March second "Marcia, y011 could have just said no instead of telling of this year, shortly after Shaw's arrest, me this was the door to the bathroom!" 159 based on fact, the Justice Department era! Edwin Walker, eight months before in the conspiracy. After "defecting" to deliberately dragged a red herring across the assassination? Russia, where he served as an agent for the trail. GARRISON; If he did it, his motive—which the CIA—perhaps this is where his PLAYBOY; Are you free to discuss Oswald's is to say the motive of those behind him— knowledge about the U-2 becomes rele- vole in the conspiracy? was a simple one: to ensure that after the vant—he returned to this country in June Al GARRISON: Yes, but before you can un- assassination, people would ask this very 1962, lived in Fort Worth and Dallas un- derstand Oswald's role in the plot, question and assume that because Oswald til April l963, and then went to New you've got to jettison the image of him had shot at General Walker, he must Orleans, where he resumed his friendship Re ;is a "self-proclaimed Marxist" that the have been a left-winger. It was just an- with David Ferrie, whom he had met mass media inculcated in the public con- other part of Oswald's cover; if you several years before when he belonged sciousness after his arrest on November defect to Russia, pass out pro-Castro to a Civil Air Patrol unit led by Ferrie. 22nd. Oswald's professed Marxist sym- leaflets on street corners and take a pot We have evidence that Oswald main- pathies were just a cover for his real shot at General Walker, who on earth tained his CIA contacts throughout this activities. I don't believe there are any would doubt you're a Communist? Of period and that Ferrie was also employed serious students of the assassination who course, if you really look deeply into this by the CIA. l u this regard, we will pre- don't recognize that Oswald's actual incident, there is no real proof that Os- sent in court a witness—formerly a CIA political orientation was extreme right wald was the man who did it; the whole courier—who met both Ferrie and Os- wing. His associates in Dallas and New charge rests on the unsupported testimo- wald officially in their CIA connection. Orleans---apart from his CIA contacts— ny of Marina Oswald, after she had been Parenthetically, Ferrie gave his name as were exclusively right wing, some covert, threatened with deportation if she didn't Ferris to this witness—a name recorded others overt: in fact, our office has posi- "cooperate." It makes little difference, without further explanation in Jack tively identified a number of his associates though, whether this incident was pre- Ruby's address book. In 1953, Ferrie and as neo-Nazis. Oswald would have been pared in advance to create a cover for Oswald worked together closely. They more at home with Mein Kampf than Oswald or fabricated after the assassi- were two of the organizers of the group Dos Kopitol. nalion to strengthen his public image as of anti-Castro exiles and Minutemen PLAYBOY: 11. Oswald wasn't a leftist, what a Marxist. But we've gotten ahead of who trained north of Lake Pontchartrain motivation would he have had for shoot- ourselves. Let's backtrack a bit to fill in for a foray into Cuba to assassinate Cas- ing at another right-winger, Major Gen- the background of Oswald's iovolvement tro—the venture that changed direction in the summer of l963 and chose John Kennedy as its new victim. Toward this end—for reasons that will become clear —it became Oswald's role to establish his public identity as a Marxist. It ap- pears that it was with this plan in mind that Oswald was sent to Mexico City in order to get a visa for travel to Cuba, where he planned to solidify his Marx- ist image, perhaps by making himself conspicuous with a few incendiary anti- Kennedy speeches, and then return to Dallas in time [or the assassination. How- ever, this end of the plot was frustrated because the Soviet and Cuban intelli- gence services apparently had Oswald pegged as an intelligence agent, and he was refused visas at both embassies. An- other way in which Oswald tried to establish his procommunist was by set- ting up a letterhead Fair Play for Cuba Committee—of which he was the only member—and distributing on street cor- ners leaflets praising Castro: He made two blunders here, however. First, one of the men helping him hand out leaflets was a fanatic anti-Castro Cuban exile whom we've subsequently identified from TV footage of a street incident. Second, Oswald "blew his cover" by using the wrong address for his phony New Orleans Fair Play for Cuba Committee. PLAYBOY: Will you elaborate on this second point? GARRISON: Yes, because this incident ties together some of the strands of the spider's web. At the time Oswald started his so-called Fair Play for Cuba Commit- "He works much too hard, the dear. I'd feel so much tee. two men—Hugh Ward and Guy Ban- 151:1 better if he insured himself to the MC' nister—operated a private investigative agency at 544 Camp Street in downtown New Orleans. There are some intriguing aspects to their operation. For one thing. Guy Bannister was one of the most militant right-wing anti-Communists in New Orleans. He was a former FBI official and his headquarters at 544 Camp DUI HICKORY Street was a clearinghouse for Cuban exile and paramilitary right-wing activities. Specifically, he allowed his office to be used as a mail drop for the anti-Castro Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front; Feels nice police intelligence records at the time reported that this group was "legitimate in nature and presumably had the un- official sanction of the Central Intelli- gence Agency." It did. Bannister also published a newsletter for his clients that inside you. included virulent anti-Kennedy polemics. My office also has evidence that Bannister had intimate tics with the Office of Naval Intelligence and the CIA. Both Bannister and Ward were deeply involved in covert anti-Castro exile activities in New Or- leans. Bannister in particular seemed to have had an almost messianic drive to fight communism in every country in Latin America: and he was naturally of value to Cuban exiles because of his in- timate connections with American intelli- gence agencies. In the Ram parts article von mentioned earlier. ex–FBI agent Bill Turner revealed that both Bannister and Ward were listed in secret Minutemen files as members of the Minutemen and operatives of a group called the Allti• SINGH 80811881 WIIISKY•86 PlOOF -61.8 HINNY 1118111.1.ERS CO. P1111. Communism League of the Caribbean. which was allegedly used by the CIA in the overthrow of the Guatemalan gov- ernment in 1954. So. in other words. these are the last guys in the world you'd expect to find tied up with left-wing or pro-Castro activities. Right? And yet. when Lee Harvey Oswald set up his fictitious branch of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee its New Orleans, he distributed leaflets giving the commit- tee's address as 544 Camp Street—Guy Bannister's office! Somebody must have pointed out to Oswald shortly afterward that he was endangering his cover by using this address, because he subse- quently changed it to 4907 Magazine Street. But it's certainly significant that at the inception of his public role as a pro-Castro activist, Oswald was utilizing the mailbox of the most militantly con- ERE ARE."' servative and anti-Communist outfit in the city. I might add that we have several ACIEETN witnesses who will testify in court that they saw Oswald hanging out at 544 AND THERE Camp Street. I want to stress, however, that I have no evidence that Bannister •s THE and Ward were involved in the plot to kill Kennedy. Their office was a kind of MANTEIE This one moves with you. The sturdy all- way station for anti-Castro and rtlit- weather "Mustang." Tailored of an exclusive Buoy Cloth 2x2 poplin of 65% Dacron* and 35% wing extremists passing through New cotton. The rain-and-stain treatment: ZEPEL. The moving touches: an action-back pleat, full Orleans, and it's perfectly possible that lining, raglan sleeves with adjustable cuffs, zipper front, stand-up collar. The extras: brawny pockets hidden they were completely unaware of the con- under the front yoke, bold stitching at collar and cuffs. In short, a jacket that moves well, "The Mustang." spiracy being hatched by men like Ferric Harbor Master Ltd. A Division of Jonathan Logan, and Oswald. 1290 Avenue of the Americas, N. Y. 10018. Featured at all B&B Lorry's Metropolitan N.Y. stores and other fine stores from coast to coast. PLAYBOY: Were any of the other figures *Dupont reg. T. M. for its Polyester Fiber Dupont reg. T. M. for its Fabric Fluoridizer 161 in the alleged conspiracy connected with there was anything sinister about the Moreover, some of Oswald's anti-Castro O Bannister? crash, though rumors always spring up friends from Miami and New Orleans GARRISON: Yes, David Ferrie was a paid in a case like this. The only thing I will ta showed up in Dallas in October of 1963. investigator for Bannister, and the two say is that witnesses in this case do have In a "Supplementary Investigation Re- men knew each other very well. Dur- a habit of dying at the most inconvenient port'. filed on November 2l, 1963, by ing 1962 and 1963, Ferrie spent a good times. I understand a London insurance Dallas policeman Buddy Walthers, an a deal of time at 544 Camp Street and firm has prepared an actuarial chart aide to Sheriff Bill Decker, Walthers he made a series of mysterious long- on the likelihood of 20 of the people stated: "I talked to Sorrels, the head of distance phone calls to Central America involved in this case dying within three the Dallas Secret Service. I was advised from Bannister's office. We have a record years of the assassination—and found that for the past few months at a house of those calls. the odds 30 trillion to one. But I'm at 3128 Harlandale, some Cubans had PLAYBOY: Where are Bannister and Ward sure NBC will shortly discover that one been having meeting's on the weekends now? of my investigators bribed the computer. and were possibly connected with the GARRISON: Both have died since the as- PLAYBOY: Was Oswald involved with Freedom for Cuba Party of which Oswald sassination—Bannister of a heart attack paramilitary activists and anti-Castro was a member." No attention was paid to in 1964 and Ward when the plane he was Cuban exiles in Dallas, as well as in New Walthers' report, and on November 26th, piloting for New Orleans Mayor De Les- Orleans? he complained: "I don't know what ac- seps Morrison crashed in Mexico in GARRISON: Oh, God, yes. In fact, many tion the Secret Service has taken, but I 1964. De Les.seps Morrison, as it hap- of his New Orleans contacts overlap with learned today that some time between pened, had introduced Clay Shaw to those in Dallas. Jack Ruby, who played seven days before the President was shot President Kennedy on an airplane flight a key role in smuggling guns to the anti- and the day after he was shot, these Cu- in 1963. Castro underground—on behalf of the bans moved from this house. My inform- PLAYBOY: Do you believe there was any- CIA—was one of Oswald's contacts in ant stated that subject Oswald had thing sinister about the crash that killed Dallas. Furthermore, Oswald was virtual- been to this house before." This was the both Morrison and Ward? ly surrounded by White Russians in Dal- last that was ever heard of the mysteri• GARRISON: I have no reason to believe las, some of whom were CIA employees. ous Cubans at 3128 Harlandale. A sig- nificant point in lAtalthers' report is his mention of the Freedom for Cuba Par- ty. This appears to be a corruption of the anti-Castro Free Cuba Committee of which Oswald. Ferrie and a small cadre of neo-Nazis—including the man we believe was the "second Oswald"—were members. You may remember that on the night of the assassination, Dallas D.A. Henry Wade called a press confer- ence and at one point referred to Oswald as a member of the "Free Cuba Commit- tee" instead of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Jack Ruby, who just hap- pened to be there, promptly chimed in to correct him. Ruby was obviously in the jail that night on a dry run prior to his successful murder of Oswald on Sunday —a possibility the Warren Commission never bothered to consider—and could hardly have been eager to draw atten- tion io himself. However, he must have been afraid that if the press reported Os- wald was a member of the "Free Cuba Committee," somebody might begin an investigation of that group and discover its anti-Castro and ultra-right-wing ori- entation. And so he risked his cover to set the record straight and protect his fellow conspirators. PLAYBOY: In regard to Oswald's role in the conspiracy, you have said that "he was a decoy at first and then he was a patsy and then he was a victim." Would you explain what you meant by that? GARRISON: Oswald's role in the pro- posed assassination of Kennedy. as far as he seems to have known, was strictly political: not to fire a gun but—for rea- sons that may not have been explained to him by his superiors at their planning sessions—to establish his left-wing bona CY/Pa N fides so unshakably that :titer the assassi- nation. quite possibly unbeknownst to 162 "Well, all the sign said was, `Joe's Topless Restaurant.' " him, the President's murder would appear to be the work of a sharpshooting left- likely that he was aware of his role as a when there was absolutely no evidence wing fanatic and thus allow the other decoy. But even if he was, it's probable plotters, including the men who actually linking Oswald to the assassination. The that lie would have been given some Dallas police have never been able to shot Kennedy, to escape police attention cock-and-bull assurances about being and flee Dallas. Though he may not have explain who transmitted this wanted richly rewarded and smuggled out of the notice or on what evidence it was based; known why he was instructed to do so, country after Kennedy's death. But it's this was undoubtedly why he got the and the Warren Commission brushed even more probable, in my opinion—if aside the whole matter as unimportant. I job at the Texas School Book Depository he did know the true nature of his role ' Building; we've learned that one of the think it's obvious that the conspirators —that he wouldn't have felt the necessity tipped off the police, probably anony- members of the conspiracy was in a posi- to escape. He would have known that no tion to learn from perfectly innocent Dal- mously, in the hope—subsequently real- jury in the world—even in Dallas— ized—that all attention would henceforth las business contacts the route of the would have been able to find him guilty Presidential motorcade more than a be focused on Oswald and the heat of the assassination on the strength of would be taken off other members of month before Kennedy's visit. The con- such transparently contrived circumstan- spirators—more than probably not in- the plot. We have evidence that the plait tial evidence. was to have him shot as a cop killer in cluding Oswald—knew this would place PLAYBOY: That's debatable. But even if him on the scene and convince the world the Texas Theater "while resisting ar- Oswald had been brought to trial for and rest." I can't go into all the details on that a demented Marxist was the real acquitted of the assassination, what rea- assassin. this, but the murder of Tippit, which I son would he have had to believe that am convinced Oswald didn't commit, was PLAYBOY: Even if Oswald was unaware of he would also be exonerated of involve- his role as a decoy, didn't he suspect that clearly designed to set the stage for Os- ment in the conspiracy—which you've wald's liquidation in the Texas Theater he might be double-crossed by his co- admit ted yourself? conspirators? after another anonymous tip-off. But here GARRISON: I don't want to evade your the platters miscalculated, and Oswald GARRISON: We have uncovered substantial question, but I can't answer it without evidence that he was influenced and ma- was not shot to death but was merely compromising my investigation of a cru- roughed up and rushed off to the Dallas nipulated rather easily by his older and cial new area of the conspiracy. I'm more sophisticated superiors in the con- jail—where, you may remember, he afraid I can't discuss it until we've built shouted to reporters as the police dragged spiracy, and it's probable that he trusted a solid case. I can say, however, that what- them more than lie distrusted them. But him through the corridors on November ever his knowledge of his role as a decoy, 22nd: "I didn't kill anyone—I'm being even if the opposite were true, I think he definitely didn't know about his role he would have done what he was told. made a patsy." The conspiracy had gone as a patsy until after the assassination. seriously awry and the plotters were in PLAYBOY: Even if he suspected that he At 12:45 P.M. on November 22nd, the danger of exposure by Oswald. Enter might be arrested and convicted as the Dallas police had broadcast a wanted President's assassin? jack Ruby—and exit Oswald. So first bulletin for Oswald—over a half hour Oswald was a decoy, next a patsy and GARRISON: As I said, I don't think it's before Tippit was shot and at a time finally—in the basement of the Dallas jail

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100% BLENDED SCOTCH WHISKY EIGHTY PROOF IMPORTED BY INVER HOUSE DISTILLERS, LTD., PHILA. 163 on November 24, 1963—a victim. right hand but not on your left. I'm dow of the Book Depository. who did? PLAYBOY: Even if Oswald was a scapegoat smoking a pipe, which I interchange be- GARRISON: in the alleged conspiracy, why do you Our office has developed evi- tween my hands, so I'll have traces of dence that the President was assassinated believe he couldn't also have been one nitrate on both hands but not on my by a precision guerrilla team of at least of those who shot at the President? cheeks. The morning of the assassina- seven men, including anti-Castro adven- GARRISON: If there's one thing the War- tion, Oswald was moving crates in a turers and members of the paramilitary ren Commission and its 26 volumes of newly painted room, which was likely to right. Of course, the Ministry of Truth supportive evidence demonstrate conclu- have left traces of nitrate on both his concluded—by scrupulously ignoring the sively, it's that Lee Harvey Oswald did hands. Now, of course, if the nitrate test most compelling evidence and carefully not shoot John Kennedy on November had proved positive, and Oswald did selecting only those facts that conformed 22, 1963. Of course, the Commission have nitrate on one hand and on his to its preconceived thesis of a lone assassin concluded not only that Oswald fired at cheek, that would still not constitute —that "no credible evidence suggests the President but that he was a marks- proof positive that he'd fired a gun, that the shots were fired from . . any man, that he had enough time to "fire because the nitrates could have been left place other than the Texas School Book three shots, with two hits, within 4.8 by a substance other than gunpowder. Depository Building." But anyone who and 5.6 seconds," that his Mannlicher- But the fact that he had no nitrate what- takes the time to read the Warren Report Carcano was an accurate rifle, etc —but soever on his cheek is ineluctable proof will find that of the witnesses in Dealey all these conclusions are actually in direct that he never fired a rifle that clay. If he Plaza who were able to assess the origin contradiction of the evidence within the had washed his face to remove the nitrate of the shots, almost two thirds said they Commission's own 26 volumes. By culling before the test was administered, there came from the grassy-knoll area in front and coordinating that evidence, the lead- would have been none on his hands and to the right of the Presidential lim- ing critics of the Commission have either—unless he was in the habit of ousine and not from the Book Depository. proved that Oswald was a mediocre washing with gloves on. This was a sticky which was to the rear of the President. A shot; that the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle problem for the Warren Commission, but number of reliable witnesses testified he allegedly used was about the crum- they resolved it with their customary that they heard shots ring out from be- miest weapon on the market today; aplomb. An expert was dug up who hind the picket fence and saw a puff of that its telescopic sight was loose and testified that in a Mannlicher-Carcano smoke drift into the air. Additional evi- had to be realigned before Commission rifle, the chamber is so tight that no dence supporting this can be found in the experts could fire it; that the 20-year-old nitrates are emitted upon firing; and Zapruder film published in ammunition he would have had to use Life, which the Commission used this testimony to reveals that the President was slammed could not have been relied on to fire dismiss the whole subject. However, the backward by the impact of a bullet; un- accurately, if at all; that the rifle quite inventor of the nitrate test subsequently less you abrogate Newton's third law of possibly was taken from Oswald's home tested the Mannlicher-Carcano and found motion, this means the President was shot after the assassination and planted in that it did leave nitrate traces. He was from the front. Also—though they were the Depository; that the Commission's not called to testify by the Warren Com- contradicted later—several of the doctors own chronology of Oswald's movements mission. So the nitrate test alone is incon- at Parkland Hospital who examined the made it highly implausible for him to trovertible proof that Oswald did not fire President's neck wound contended it was fire three shots, wipe the rifle clear of a rifle on November 22nd. We've also an entrance fingerprints—there were none found on wound, which would cer- found some new evidence that shows that tainly tend to indicate that Kennedy was it—hide the rifle under a stack of books Oswald's Mannlicher-Carcano was not the shot from the front. In the course of our and rush down four flights of stairs to only weapon discovered in the Depository investigation, we've uncovered additional the second floor, all in the few seconds Building after the assassination. I recent- evidence establishing absolutely that there it took Roy Truly and Officer Marrion ly traveled to New York for a conference were at least four men on the grassy Baker to rush in from the street after with Richard Sprague, a brilliant man knoll, at least two behind the picket the shots and encounter Oswald stand- who's been independently researching fence and two or more behind a small ing beside the vending machine in the technical aspects of the assassination, stone wall to the right of the fence. As I employees' cafeteria. 1 could cite ad- and he showed me a hitherto unpub- reconstruct it from the still-incomplete ditional evidence proving that Oswald licized collection of film clips from a evidence in our possession, one man fired didn't fire a rifle from the sixth floor motion picture taken of the assassination at the President from cads location, while of the Depository, but it would just be a and its aftermath. Part of the film, shot the role of his companion was to snatch recapitulation of the excellent books of shortly after one P. m., shows the Dallas up the cartridges as they were ejected. the critics, to which I refer your readers. police carrying the assassination weapon Parenthetically, a book on firearms There are a number of factors that we've out of the Book Depository. They stop characteristics was found in Ferrie's apart- examined independently during the for the photographers and an officer holds ment. It was filled with underlining and course of our investigation that also the rifle up above his head so that the marginal notations, and the most heavily prove Oswald didn't shoot at the Presi- inquisitive crowd can look at it. There's annotated section was one describing the dent. For one thing, the nitrate test ad- just one little flaw here: This rifle does direction and distance a cartridge travels ministered io Oswald on the day of the not have a telescopic sight, and thus can- from a rifle after ejection. Scribbled on a assassination clearly exonerated him of not be Oswald's rifle. This weapon was bookmark in this section, in Ferrie's having fired a rifle within the past 24 taken from the building approximately handwriting, were the figures, not men- hours. He had nitrates on both hands, 20 minutes before Oswald's Mannlicher- tioned in the text, "50° and 11 feet"— but no nitrates on his cheek—which Camino was "discovered"—or planted— which indicates the possibility that Fer- means it was impossible for him to have on the premises. To sum up: Oswald was rie had test-fired a rifle and plotted the fired a rifle. The fact that he had nitrates involved in the conspiracy; shots were distance from the gunman to where the on both hands is regarded in the nitrate fired at Kennedy from the Depository ejected cartridges would fall. But to re- test as a sign of innocence; it's the same but also from the grassy knoll and appar- turn to the scene of the crime, it seems as having nitrates on neither hand. This ently from the Dal-Tex Building as well virtually certain that the cartridges, along is because so many ordinary objects leave —but not one of them was fired by Lee with the rifles, were then thrown into the traces of nitrate on the hands. You're Harvey Oswald, and not one of them trunk of a car—parked directly behind smoking a cigar, for example—tobacco from his /vlannlicher-Carcano. the picket fence—which was driven from contains nitrate; so if you were tested PLAYBOY: If Oswald didn't shoot Presi- the scene some hours after the assassina- right now, you'd have nitrate on your dent Kennedy from the sixth-floor win- tion. If there had been a thorough search 165 )4 of all vehicles in the vicinity of the grassy who was not involved in the shooting but Lion of the President's skull and killed 0 knoll immediately after the assassination, created a diversionary action in order to him. Like most of the other conclusions this incriminating evidence might have distract people's attention from the snip- of the Commission, this one contradicts been uncovered—along with the real ers. This individual screamed, fell to the both the evidence and the testimony of authors of the President's murder. In ad- ground and simulated an epileptic fit, eyewitnesses. The initial shot hit the dition to the assassins on the grassy knoll, drawing people away from the vicinity of President in the from of the neck, as at least two other men fired from behind the knoll just before the President's mo- the Parkland Hospital doctors recognized the President, one from the Book Deposi- 0. torcade reached the ambush point. So —though they were later contradicted by tory Building—not Oswald—and one. in you have at least seven people involved, the military physicians at the Bethesda all probability, from the Dal-Tex Build- with four firing at the President and autopsy, and by the Warren Report. Mg. As it happens. a man was arrested catching him in a crossfire—just as the The second shot struck the President in right after the assassination as he left assassins had planned at the meeting in the back; the location of this wound can the Dal-Tex Building and was taken David Ferric's apartment in September. be verified not by consulting the official away in a patrol car. but like the titre: It was a precision operation and. was car- autopsy report—on which the Commis- other men detained after the assassina- ried out coolly and with excellent coordi- sion based its conclusion that this bullet tion—one in the railroad yard behind nation; the assassins even kept in contact hit Kennedy in the back of the neck and the grassy knoll. one on the railroad by radio. The President. of course, had exited from his throat—but by perusing overpass farther clown the parade route, no chance. It was an overkill operation. the reports filed by two FBI agents who and one in front of the Book Depository As far as the actual sequence of shots goes, were present at the President's autopsy Building—he then dropped out of sight you'll remember that the Warren Com- in Bethesda, Maryland. Both stated un- completely. All of these suspects taken mission concluded that only three bullets equivocally that the bullet in question into custody after the assassination re- were fired at the President—one that hit entered President Kennedy's back and did main as anonymous as if they'd been de- just below the back of his neck, exited not continue through his body. I also re- tained for throwing a candy wrapper on through his throat and then passed fer you to a photograph of the President's the sidewalk. We have also located an- through Governor Connally's body; one shirt taken by the FBI, and to a drawing other man—in green combat fatigues— that missed; and one that blew off a por- of the President's back wound made by one of the examining physicians at Be- thesda; the location of the wound in both cases corresponds exactly—more than three ihches below the President's neck. Yet the Commission concluded that this wound occurred in his neck. This, of course, was to make it more believable that the same bullet had exited from the President's throat and slanted on down through Governor Connally. Even if this bullet had entered where the Conn mission claims and then exited from the President's throat, it would have been possible for it to enter Governor Connal- ly's upper back at a downward angle. exit from his lower chest and lodge fi- nally in his thigh—fired, as the Commis- sion says it was, from the elevation of the sixth-floor window of the Book De- pository--only if Connally had been sitting in the President's lap or if the bullet had described two 90-degree turns on its way from President Kennedy's throat to Governor Connally's back. Clearly, the President's throat wound was caused by the first shot, this one from the grassy knoll in front of the limou- sine; and his back wound came from the rear. I've already given you my reasons for reaching this conclusion. PLAYBOY: If the first bullet was firet. 1 From the front, why wasn't it found in the President's body, or somewhere in the Presidential limousine? GARRISON: The exact nature of the Presi- dent's wounds, as well as the disposition of the bullets or bullet fragments, are among the many concealed items in this case. I told you earlier about the men on the grassy knoll whose sole function we believe was to catch the cartridges as they were ejected from the assassins' rifles. We also have reason to suspect that other members of the conspiracy may have been assigned the job of removing other evi- 166 "Tinnily Juts to tinkle." dence—such as traceable bullet fragments —that might betray the assassins. In the chaos of November 22nd. this would not have been as difficult as it sounds. We know that a bullet. designated Exhibit number 399 by the Warren Commission, was planted on a stretcher in Parkland Medico 21/4" _Hospital to incriminate Oswald. The Commission concluded that this bullet allegedly hit both Kennedy and Governor Connally, causing seven wounds and breaking three bones—and emerged with- filters do it out a dent! In subsequent ballistic tests with the same gun, every bullet was squashed completely out of shape from give pleasure and peace of mind impact with various simulated human targets. So. if the conspirators could fabri- cate a bullet, they could easily conceal MEDICO one. But to return to the sequence of shots: Governor Connally was struck by a FILTER PIPES third bullet—as he himself insisted, not 66-baffie absorbent replaceable Medico Fil- the one that struck Kennedy in the back ters trap juices, tars, nicotine — keep your mouth cleaner, cooler. Change filter and your —also fired from the rear. A fourth shot pipe is clean. Selected, imported briar; nylon missed the Presidential limousine com- bits guaranteed bite-proof. pletely and struck the curb along the For beautiful color catalog, Write Medico, 18 R. 54th St., south side of Main Street, disintegrating Y. 10022, Dept. A-23. Please enclose Loe for handling. into fragments; the trajectory of this bullet has been plotted backward to a point of origin in the Dal-Tex Building. The fifth shot, which struck the President in the right temple. tore olf the top of his skull and snapped him back into his seat —a point overlooked by the Warren Com- mission—had to have been fired front the Insist on MEDICO FILTERS /illustrated 10 for 104 grassy knoll. There is also medical evi- GOLD CREST dark claret $8 dence indicating the likelihood that an Also Menthol-Cool 10 for 154 ( light cafe finish $9) additional head shot may have been fired. The report of Dr. Robert McClelland at Jet Streant Ebony Ancient Bruyere Sterling Silver Parkland Hospital, for example, states $3.95 $4.50 $7.50 Filigree $17.50 that "the cause of death was due to mas- sive head and brain injury from a gun- Other Medico shot wound of the left temple." And Filter Pipes vet another shot may also have been $2.50 up fired; frames 208 to 211 of the Zapruder Prices higher outside U.S.A. film, which were deleted from the War- MEDICO • World's Largest Selling Pipes ren Report—presumably as irrelevant— reveal signs of stress appearing suddenly on the back of a street sign momentarily stir her to romance obstructing the view between the grassy knoll and the President's car. These stress PLAYBOY COCKTAILS FOR TWO SET signs may very well have been caused by the impact o[ a stray bullet on the sign. Perfect mixer for a perfect evening. Emblazoned We'll never be sure about this, however, in 22k gold. 16-ounce glass mixer, stirrer and two cocktail glasses. because the day after the assassination, Deluxe set includes walnut snack tray with knife the sign was removed and no one in Dal- and tile for cheese cutting. las seems to know what became of it. Cocktails for Two Set, $5 Sonic of the gunmen appear to have Deluxe Set, 115 used frangible bullets, a variant of the Both prices ppd. dumdum bullet that is forbidden by Shall we enclose a gift card in your name? the Geneva Treaty. Frangible in.11ets ex- Send check or money order to: plode ott impact into tiny fragments, as PLAYBOY PRODUCTS 919 N. Michigan Ave. did the bullet that caused the fatal Chicago. Illinois 60611 wound in the President's head. Of Playboy Club keyhalders may charge by enclosing key no. course. frangible bullets are ideal in a political assassination, because they almost guarantee massive damage and assure that no tangible evidence will remain that ballistics experts could use to trace the murder weapon. I might also men- tion that frangible bullets excise( be fired front a Mannlicher-Carcano. such as the Commission concludes 167 Oswald used to kill the President. Connally was hit—this is crystal clear origin of the shots; along with the major- Also parenthetically, this type of bullet from their own reactions—but it requires ity of the witnesses to the assassination, was issued by the CIA for use in anti- 2.3 seconds just to work the bolt on a he said the shots Caine from the grassy Castro-exile raids on Cuba. In summa- Mannlicher-Carcano rifle. To escape this knoll, on which he was standing—from don, there were at least five or six shots dilemma, the Commission produced the behind the stone wall, which was only a fired at the President from front and magical bullet, Exhibit 399, which I few dozen feet from him, in the opposite rear by at least four gunmen, assisted by referred to earlier. Apart from the pris- direction from the Depository. Like the several accomplices, two of whom prob- tine condition of 399, the whole time Warren Commission, CBS was scrupu- ably picked up the cartridges and one of sequence was the weakest link in the lously selective in its choice of evidence. whom created a diversion to draw people's Commission's shaky chain of evidence, Its broadcast wasn't a hatchet job like eyes away from the grassy knoll. At this and CBS seems to have taken it upon its the NBC show, but it was equally mis- stage of events, Lee Harvey Oswald was shoulders to resolve the problem by in- leading and, however unintentionally, no more than a spectator to the assassina- venting a new time sequence. What they dishonest. I'm not imputing sinister mo- tion—perhaps in a very literal sense. As did was to have a photo analyst, Charles tives to CBS; it appears that its greatest the first shot rang out, Associated Press Wyckoff, examine the Zapruder film and handicap was its own ignorance of the photographer James Altgens snapped a find that certain frames were blurred. assassin a tio n. picture of the motorcade that shows a Wyckoff arbitrarily decided that these PLAYBOY: To return to your own inves- man with a remarkable resemblance to blurs were caused by Zapruder's physical tigation of the assassination: Have you Lee Harvey Oswald—same hairline, same reaction to the sound of shots ringing out discovered the identity of any of the face shape—standing in the doorway of —although by the same logic, Zapruder conspirators you say were involved in the the Book Depository Building. Somehow could just have sneezed. Now, the actual shooting? or other, the Warren Commission con- Warren Commission had concluded that GARRISON: I don't want to sound coy or cluded that this man was actually Billy Kennedy would not have been visible to evasive, but I'm afraid 1 can't comment Nolan Lovelady, an employee of the De- Oswald until Frame 210 of the Zapruder on that. All I can say is that this is an pository, who looked very little like film; until then, he was obscured by an ongoing case and there will be more Oswald. Furthermore, on the day of the oak tree—and was first hit in Frame 222 arrests. assassination, Oswald was wearing a white or 223. But Wyckoff detected a blur in PLAYBOY: Let's move on to the events T-shirt under a long-sleeved dark shirt the vicinity of Frame 186; and on the that followed the assassination. What opened halfway to his waist—the same basis of this, CBS speculated that Zaprti- reason do you have for believing that outfit worn by the man in the doorway— der heard a shot at Frame 186--the first Oswald didn't shoot Officer Tippit? but Lovelady said that on November shot in CBS' revised time schedule— GARRISON: As I said earlier, the evidence 22nd he was wearing a short-sleeved, red- which Oswald allegedly fired at Kenne- we've uncovered leads us to suspect that and-white-striped sport shirt buttoned dy through the branches of the oak tree. two men, neither of whom was Oswald, near the neck. The Altgens photograph CBS even speculated that the bullet were the real murderers of Tippit; we indicates the very real possibility that at lodged in the trunk of the oak tree, and believe we have one of them identified. the moment Oswald was supposed to sent a team of men with metal detectors The critics of the Warren Report have have been crouching in the sixth-floor scurrying up it, but to no avail; the pointed out that a number of the window of the Depository shooting Ken- commentator explained that maybe witnesses could not identify Oswald as nedy, he may actually have been standing someday more sophisticated detection the slayer, that several said the murderer outside the front door watching the devices would be developed and the bul- was short and squat—Oswald was thin Presidential motorcade. let would be found. Sure. This scenario, and medium height—and another said PLAYBOY: Between June 25th and 29th, of course, gave Oswald several extra sec- that two men were involved. The War- CBS telecast a series of four special onds in which to take careful aim and ren Commission's own chronology of shows revealing the findings of the net- fire his subsequent shots—and thus let Oswald's movements also tails to allow work's own seven-month investigation the Commission off the hook. The only him sufficient time to reach the scene of the assassination. CBS agreed with trouble here is that the people who con- of Tippit's murder from the Book De- ducted the CBS study—like most defend- t he Warren Commission's conclusion that pository Building. The clincher, as far ers of the Warren Report—didn't do all Oswald was the assassin, that he acted as I'm concerned, is that four can alone and that only three shots were of their homework. They forgot, or tridges were found at the scene of the fired; but it theorized that the first shot chose to ignore, that by the Commis- slaying. Now, revolvers do not eject car- was fired earlier than the Warren Com- sion's own admission, the bullet that tridges, so when someone is shot, you mission believed, thus giving Oswald suf- missed Kennedy—the second bullet in ficient time to fire three well-aimed shots the Commission's sequence—hit the don't later find gratuitous cartridges at the President with his Mannlicher- curb on Main Street near the railroad strewn over the sidewalk—unless the Carcano—and overcoming the implausi- underpass 100 yards ahead of the lim- murderer deliberately takes the trouble bility of the Commission's conclusion ousine, shattering into fragments and to eject them. We suspect that cartridges that he had scored two hits out of three causing superficial wounds on the face of had been previously obtained from Os- shots in only 5.6 seconds. Don't you con- a bystander, James Tague. But the tra- wald's .38 revolver and left at the mur- skier this a logical explanation of the jectory of any bullet fired from the sixth der site by the real killers as part of the discrepancies in the Commission's time floor of the Depository through the setup to incriminate Oswald. However, sequence? branches of the oak tree is such that it somebody slipped up there. Of the four GARRISON: I'm afraid it's neither logical could not conceivably hit within a city cartridges found at the scene, two were nor an explanation. In case your readers block of the underpass. So please excuse Winchesters and two were Remingtons aren't familiar with all the ramifications me if I'm not overwhelmed by the in- —but of the four bullets found in Officer of this question, the Commission's entire eluctable logic of CBS' presentation. And Tippit's body, three were Winchesters lone-assassin theory rests on the fact that just let me add a footnote here: CBS and one was a Remington! The last all three shots were fired, as you point made a great deal out of its assumption time I looked, the Remington-Peters out, within a period of 5.6 seconds. Now, that the blurs on Zapruder's film indi- Manufacturing Company was not in the the film taken of the assassination by cated a reflexive reaction to shots ring- habit of slipping Winchester bullets Abraham Zapruder proves that a maxi- ing out. But they never asked Zapruder into its cartridges. nor was the Win- mum of 1.8 seconds elapsed between the about his statement to Secret Service chester-Western Manufacturing Com- 168 time Kennedy was first hit and Governor agents after the assassination about the pany putting Remington bullets into its instance, a man went to an auto sales- room, gave his name as Lee Oswald, test-drove a car at 80 miles an hour— Oswald couldn't drive—and, after creat- ing an ineradicable impression on the salesman by his speeding, gratuitously remarked that he might go back to the Soviet Union and was expecting to come into a large sum of money. Parentheti- cally, the salesman who described this "second Oswald" was subsequently beaten almost to death by unknown assailants outside his showroom, He later lied Dal- las and last year was found dead; it was officially declared a suicide. In another instance, this "second Oswald" visited a shooting range in Dallas and gave a virtuoso demonstration of marksman- ship; hitting not only his own bull's-eye but the bull's-eyes of neighboring targets as well—thus leaving an unforgettable impression of his skill with a rifle. The real Oswald, of course, was a mediocre shot, and there is no evidence that he had fired a rifle since the day he left the Marines. Consequently, the fact that he couldn't hit the side of a barn had to be offset, which accounts for the tableau at the rifle range. I could go on and on re- counting similar instances, but there is no doubt that there was indeed a "sec- ond Oswald." Now, the Warren Com- mission recognized that the individual involved in all these activities could not be Lee Oswald; but they never took the next step and inquired why these inci- "Here comes our analyst. A few more visits and dents of impersonation occurred so sys- we should have him straightened out." tematically prior to the assassination. As it turned out, of course, the organizers of the conspiracy needn't have bothered to cartridges. I don't believe that Oswald sion concluded with a straight face that go to all this trouble of laying a false shot anybody on November 22nd—not the bullets were fired not only from Os- trail incriminating Oswald. They should the President and not Tippit. If our in- wald's gun but "to the exclusion of all have realized, since Oswald was a "self- vestigation in this area proves fruitful, I other weapons." They simply chose to proclaimed Marxist," that it wasn't nec- hope we will he able to produce in a ignore the fact that revolvers don't eject essary to produce any additional evidence court of law the two men who did kill cartridges and that the cartridges left so to convict him in the eyes of the mass Tippit. conveniently on the street didn't match media; any other facts would simply be redundant in the face of such a convinc- PLAYBOY: How do you explain the fact that the bullets in Tippit's body. ing confession of guilt. the Warren Commission concluded that PLAYBOY: You mentioned earlier that a so-called "second Oswald" had imper- PLAYBOY: You've given your reasons the bullets in Officer Tippit's body had for believing that Oswald, despite his all been fired from "the revolver in the sonated the real Lee Harvey Oswald be- leftist "cover," was involved with the possession of Oswald at the time of his fore the assassination in an attempt to conspirators and with the CIA. Do you arrest, to the exclusion of all other incriminate him. What proof do you have any evidence indicating that he weapons"? have of this? was also connected with the FBI, as GARRISON: The Warren Commission's con- GARRISON: I hesitate to use the words some critics of the Warren Report have clusion was made in spite of the evidence "second Oswald," because they tend to alleged? and not because of it. To determine lend an additional fictional quality to GARRISON: Let me preface my answer by if Oswald's gun had fired the bullets, a case that already makes Dr. No and saying that I believe the FBI was not it was necessary to call in a ballistics Goldfinger look like auditors' reports. given the full picture of Oswald's CIA expert who would be able to tell if the However, it is true that before the assas- involvement. I have nothing but respect lines and grooves on the bullets had a sination, a calculated effort was made to for the Bureau and feel that if it weren't relation to the barrel of the revolver. The implicate Oswald in the events to come. for the FBI reports still available in the Commission called as its witness FBI A young man approximating Oswald's Commission exhibits, the door would description and using Oswald's name— ballistics expert Cortlandt Cunningham, have been closed forever. While the CIA we believe we have discovered his iden- has behaved like a cross between the and he testified, after an examination of tity—engaged in a variety of activities the bullets taken from Tippit's body, that Gestapo and the NKVD, the FBI has designed to create such a strong impres- worked assiduously in many different it was impossible to determine whether sion of Oswald's instability and culpa- areas and gathered facts that have proved or not these bullets had been fired from bility in people's minds that they would of great value to those interested in Oswald's gun. Yet, on the basis of this recall him as a suspicious character after uncovering the truth about the assassina- 171 expert testimony, the Warren Commis- the President was murdered. In one tion. It isn't the FBI's fault that dozens of its reports have been classified top describes a police interview with Mrs. information on subversion and it's going secret in the Archives by order of certain Teofil Meller, a White Russian tnligree to get what it needs not from Rhodes officials in the Department of Justice. in Dallas who had befriended Oswald and scholars and divinity students but from The trouble I face today is that, after Marina. Mrs. Meller revealed, according apparently marginal figures like Lee Os- four years, not only are these documents to the report, that "she saw the book wald with an entree into the political unavailable but the trail has grown cold Kapital, which was written by Karl underworld. in many areas. Ruby is dead. Ferrie is Marx, during one of these visits at Os- PLAYBOY: If you see nothing sinister in dead. Many other witnesses with valuable wald's house and became very worried the FBI's relationship with Oswald, why information have either been murdered about it. Subject [Mr. Meller said he did you subpoena FBI agents Regis Ken- or fled the country. checked with the FBI and they told him nedy and Warren De Brueys to testify PLAYBOY: You still haven't answered the that Oswald was all right." So here you before the New Orleans Parish grand question: Was Oswald involved with the have this "self-proclaimed Marxist," who jury? FBI? had defected to the Soviet Union, tried GARRISON: Regis Kennedy is one of GARRISON: Well, I just wanted to phrase to renounce his American citizenship and the FBI agents who interrogated David my reply in such a manner that it was now allegedly active in pro-Castro Ferrie in November 1963, and I hoped wouldn't be misconstrued as a broadside activities, being given a clean bill of to learn from him what information the against the entire FBI. Oswald may health by the FBI. It's quite possible that Bureau had elicited from Ferrie. But on have been a petty informer for the Bu- this clean bill of health was originally the instructions of our old friend Attor- reau, receiving small sums of money in issued by the State Department, which, ney General Ramsey Clark, Kennedy return for information about left-wing in reply to an FBI request for informa- refused to answer the questions put to activities in the Dallas–New Orleans tion about Oswald's activities in Russia him by the grand jury on the grounds of area. But I must stress that there is no —this was shortly after his "defection"— executive privilege. Warren De Brueys is indication of any connection between assured the Bureau that he was a solid a former FBI agent based in New Orleans Oswald and the FBI with regard to the citizen. So I don't see anything sinister who also questioned Ferrie in 1963. Be- assassination, and that his position with in all of this, at least as far as the FBI tween 1961 and 1963, De Brueys was the FBI was in no way analogous to is concerned. The Bureau has to obtain involved with anti-Castro exile activities his position with the CIA; the FBI re- tains hundreds, perhaps thousands of such informants across the country and is no more responsible for their over-all pattern of political activity than the In- ternal Revenue Service is responsible for the behavior of its confidential inform- ants on tax-evasion matters. Oswald's possible ties to the Bureau are never mentioned in the Warren Report, but a member of the Commission, Congressman Gerald Ford, revealed in his otherwise undistinguished book, Portrait of an. As- sassin, that the Commission was informed by Texas Attorney General Waggoner Carr and Dallas D. A. Henry Wade that Oswald had been employed by the FBI as an informant since September of 1962; his salary, they revealed, was $200 a month and his FBI code number was 179. The Warren Commission acted promptly on this information from two responsible Texas officials: Chief Coun- sel Rankin told the members of the Commission that "We have a dirty rumor that is very bad for the Commission . and it is very damaging to the agen- cies that are involved in it and it must be wiped out insofar as it is possible to do so by the Commission." The Commission then launched one of its typically thor- ough investigations: J. Edgar Hoover was asked if the alleged assassin of the President of the United States had been an employee of his: Mr. Hoover said "No"; and the Commission closed the case. If Congressman Ford hadn't devel- oped writer's itch, we would never even have heard of the incident. Once again, the Commission made an unwise choice between tranquility and truth. There is also other evidence linking Oswald to the FBI—though, again, not in any conspira- torial context. A Dallas police investi- gative report dated February 17, 1964, "Prop man!" 171 W in New Orleans and was seen frequently afraid, in this case, we weren't as efficient estingly enough, the DIA is the abbrevia- at meetings of the right-wing Cuban O as two young girls who moved into Nov- tion for the Defense Intelligence Agency, Democratic Revolutionary Front. I'd like el's apartment a few weeks later and, a top-secret group set up after the Bay 111 to find out the exact nature of De Brueys' during a thorough house cleaning, found of Pigs to supervise the CIA and en- • relationship with Lee Oswald. As long as a penciled rough draft of a letter under a sure increased Administration control of Oswald was in New Orleans, so was De strip of linoleum on the kitchen-sink ▪ CIA activities—a task at which it has Brueys. When Oswald moved to Dallas, drainboard. One of the girls gave it to proved spectacularly unsuccessful. ▪ De Brueys followed him. After the assassi- her boyfriend, a student at Tulane Uni- 14 nation, De Brueys returned to New versity, and he in turn passed it on to PLAYBOY: Novel subsequently Red New Orleans. This may all be coincidence, one of his professors. who subsequently Orleans and took refuge in Ohio. but I find it interesting that De Brueys showed the letter to Hoke May, a report- Why were you unable to obtain his extradition? refuses to cooperate with our office— er for the New Orleans States-Item. May significant and frustrating, because I feel had the letter examined by an independ- GARRISON: The reason we were unable he could shed considerable light on Os- ent handwriting analyst, Gilbert Fortier, to obtain Novel's extradition from Ohio wald's ties to anti-Castro groups. who compared it with other samples of —the reason we are unable to extradite PLAYBOY: On March 23, 1967, you or- Novel's writing and determined that the anyone connected with this case—is that dered the arrest of Gordon Novel as a draft had been written by Novel—a fact there are powerful forces in Washing- material witness in the conspiracy to as- that was confirmed by Novel's attorney, ton who find it imperative to conceal sassinate President Kennedy, and you who said that "everything in the letter as from the American public the truth have subsequently sought his extradition far as Novel is concerned is actually the about the assassination. And as a re- from Ohio. What role do you believe truth." This letter makes fascinating sult, terrific pressure has been brought to Novel played in the alleged conspiracy? reading. It is addressed to a Mr. Weiss, bear on the governors of the states in- GARRISON: I can't go into all aspects of Novel's apparent superior in the CIA. volved to prevent them from signing the Novel's activities, because we have a live Novel tells Weiss: "I took the liberty of extradition papers and returning the case against him. Novel worked closely writing you direct and apprising you of defendants to stand trial. I'm sorry to say with David Ferric and the anti-Castro current situation expecting you to for- Cuban exiles. In 1961, he raided a muni- that in every case, these Jell-o–spinet. ward this through appropriate channels. governors have caved in and "played the tions bunker in Houma, Louisiana, with Our connection and activity of that pe- game" Washington's way. To give them David Ferrie and a prominent anti-Castro riod involved individuals presently about the benefit of the doubt. I suppose it's exile leader, and the weapons seized were to be indicted as conspirators in Mr. also possible that they just didn't want subsequently shipped by CIA agents to Garrison's investigation." Novel goes on the counterrevolutionary underground in to warn that my probe was in danger of to aid and abet an investigation that Cuba. He also worked for the Evergreen exposing his ties to the Double-Chek every official effort, overt and covert, has Advertising Agency in New Orleans, a Corporation in Miami, which the book been made to discredit as irresponsible CIA front that alerted and-Castro agents The Invisible Government exposes as a and unfounded. Whatever his motivation, to the date of the Bay of Pigs invasion by CIA front that recruited pilots and sabo- Governor Rhodes of Ohio, to name one, placing coded messages in radio commer- teurs for the Bay of Pigs and subsequent has said that he would allow me to extra- cials for Christmas trees. Novel himself anti-Castro adventures. Novel writes in dite Novel to stand trial on charges aris- was a paid employee of the CIA. As I the letter: "Mr. Garrison . . is unaware ing from the CIA-inspired burglary of mentioned earlier, Novel's own lawyer, of Double-Chek's involvement in this the ammunitions bunker in Houma, Stephen Plotkin, has admitted that his matter but has strong suspicions." He Louisiana—but that I would not be client is a CIA agent. On May 23, also adds that he lied to the FBI: "I have allowed under the stipulations of the 1967, Plotkin was quoted in the New been questioned extensively by local FBI extradition agreement to question him Orleans Stales-Item as saying that "his recently as to whether or not I was in- about the assassination! In other words, client served as an intermediary be- volved with Double-Chek's parent hold- it's OK for me to send a man to jail on tween the CIA and anti-Castro Cubans ing corporation.. . My reply on five in New Orleans and Miami prior to the queries was negative. Bureau unaware of a burglary rap, but I mustn't upset him April 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion." And Double-Chek association in this matter." by inquiring if he killed the President. that same day, the Associated Press, The letter indicates that Novel was grow- I'm all in favor of protecting a de- which has hardly served as my press agent ing edgy, because he complains: "We have fendant's civil rights, but this is straight in this case, reported: "When Novel first temporarily avoided one subpoena not to out of Alice in Wonderland. fled from New Orleans, he headed reveal Double-Chek activities. . . We PLAYBOY: The New Orleans States-Item straight for McLean, Virginia, which is want out of this thing before Thursday, of June 14, 1967, quoted Novel as say- the Central Intelligence Agency suburb. 3/—/67. Our attorneys have been told to ing that if he were granted immunity This is not surprising, because Gordon expect another subpoena to appear and from the assassination investigation, he Novel was a CIA employee in the early testify on this matter. The Fifth Amend- would be willing to testify on a number Sixties." There is no doubt that Gordon ment and/or immunity and legal tactics of points, including "international fraud, Novel was a CIA operative. will not suffice." In case the CIA decided mysterious intelligence activities from PLAYBOY: If the CIA, as you charge, Novel was expendable, he seems to have November 1959 to date in the Southern not only refuses to cooperate with you taken out a kind of insurance policy: quadrant of the U. S.A. and certain is- but has actively obstructed your investi- "Our attorneys and others are in posses- gation. how are you in a position to sion of complete sealed files containing lands off Florida, seditious treason, hot know about Novel's activities on behalf all information concerning this matter. war games and cold munitions transfers, of the Agency? In the event of our sudden departure, ten 1950-model Canadian surplus Vam- GARRISON: The people of Louisiana pay either accidental or otherwise, they are pire jet supporter fighter aircraft and my investigators to investigate. But in instructed to simultaneously release same certain Cuban-Anglo-French sabotage this specific instance, we've benefited for public scrutiny in different areas." affairs of early 1961." Why did you re- by sheer luck. After Novel fled the city Novel concludes his little billet-doux ject his offer? in March, my investigators and the city by urging the CIA to take "appropriate GARRISON: These are all intriguing aspects police both scoured his apartment for counteraction relative to Garrison's in- of Novel's career as a U. S. intelligence evidence, but Novel appeared to have quisition concerning us through military agent, and I'd love to hear about them 172 covered his trail pretty effectively. I'm channels, vis-a-vis the DIA man." Inter- —especially his knowledge of seditious in Dallas in 1961 with her husband. Robert Perrin, a gun runner and one- Gel time narcotics smuggler and, through police intervention, secured a job as a bartender at Ruby's Carousel Club. She quit soon after and didn't see Ruby again 1,4 until one night when she and her hus- ffp band. as she tells it, attended a confer- ence of anti-Castro exiles presided over by a lieutenant colonel—an Army colonel. she thought. She testified that Robert Per- rin was offered $10,000 if he would run guns to the underground in Cuba. and she haggled the sum up to $25,001!. When Perrin demanded a cash retainer. ;1 call was made aml, shortly alter. Mrs. Rich recounts. "1 had the shock of my life A knock comes on the door and who walks in but my little friend Jack Ruby. ... You could have knocked me over with a feather . . . and every- body looks like . . here comes the Savior." Ruby was the CIA bag man- or paymaster—for the operation, and he left immediately after handing over a large sum in cash to the colonel. Mrs. Rich and her husband subsequently bowed out of the gun-smuggling deal. because, in her words, "I smelled an element that I did not want to have any part of." Afraid of retaliation, she and Perrin fled from Dallas and hid mit in several different cities, winding up finally "They just don't make two-way mirrors like they used to." in New Orleans. A year later. he was found dead of arsenic poisoning. Though it would be difficult to pick a slower and more excruciating way to kill yourself. it was officially declared a suicide. There are treason—but that isn't the subject of my I have solid evidence indicating that too many other instances of Ruby's anti- investigation. Ruby, Ferric. Oswald and others involved Castro activity to go into here. Ruby PLAYBOY: Let's move on from Gordon in this case were all paid by the CIA to appears to have been the CIA's bag man Novel to Jack Ruby, who you claim perform certain functions: Ruby to smug- for a wide variety of anti-Castro adven- murdered Oswald to "silence" him. Do gle arms for Cuban exile groups, Ferrie to tures. In this connection, let me point out you have any evidence that Ruby and train them and to fly counterrevolution- that one of the documents classified top Oswald knew each other? ary secret missions to Cuba, and Oswald secret in the Archives is a CIA file entitled GARRISON: Though Ruby and the Warren to establish himself so convincingly as a "The Activities of Jack Ruby." Perhaps Report denied it vehemently, there is Marxist that he would win the trust of this will become a Book-of-the-Month simply no question about it. We didn't American left-wing groups and also have Club selection in September 203S. even have to do a great deal of investiga- freedom to travel as a spy in Communist PLAYBOY: tive digging: connections popped up Even if Ruby was associated countries, particularly Cuba. But I have everywhere we scratched the surface. with certain Cuban exile groups, as you reason to believe that none of them claim, couldn't all of this be totally un- PLAYBOY: What evidence do you have was a salaried agent operating tinder related to the assassination? to support your charge that Ruby was a direct chain of command. In this involved in anti-Castro exile activities GARRISON: It could be, but it isn't. As particular case—though, as with the oth- with Oswald and Ferrie? a result of our investigation, I can say, ers involved. it seems to have been unre- with the same certitude that I can say GARRISON: We have evidence linking lated to his CIA work—Ruby was up to the son will rise in the cast tomorrow Ruby not only to anti-Castro exile activi- his neck with the plotters. Our investiga- ties but, as with almost everyone else morning, that jack Ruby was involved tors have broken a code Oswald used and in the conspiracy to kill John Kennedy. involved in this case. to the CIA itself. found Ruby's private unlisted telephone Never forget that the CIA maintains a Much of the evidence we've uncovered number, as of 1963, written in Oswald's great variety of curious alliances it feels about Ruby's involvement relates to our notebook. The same coded number was serve its purposes. It may be hard to court case against Clay Shaw. so the found in the address book of another imagine Ruby in a trench coat, but he canon of legal ethics prevents me from prominent figure in this case. We have seems to have been as good an employee broadcasting it before trial. But I will further evidence linking Ruby to the of die CIA as he was a pimp for the give you one bit of evidence, recently conspiracy, but it involves testimony to Dallas cops. just let me add parentheti- uncovered by our office, that links Ruby be given in court in the future, so I can't cally that I stress the word "employee" to the conspiracy. Four clays before the reveal it here. On the broader point of here as opposed to "agent." The CIA assassination. on November 1801, 1963, a Ruby's involvement with anti-Castro exile employs many people in many different young woman from Dallas named Rose activity, there can be no doubt what- capacities, sometimes just on a retainer Cheramie was thrown from a moving car soever. Let me refer you here to the tes- basis, and these individuals do not on a highway outside Eunice, Louisiana. fall timony of Nancy Pen 174 under the over-all authority of the CIA. -in Rich before the Warren Commission. This lady arrived She was badly bruised and taken to the East Louisiana Hospital in Jackson, Loui- siana. When she came out of sedation, no doubt in Ruby's mind that he would forced over a year later to beg Earl War- on November 19th, she was distraught be arrested, he could very well have en- and sobbed that she had been thrown ren to take him back to Washington, be- tertained hopes of escaping conviction. cause he wanted to tell the truth about out of the car by associates of a man You've got to remember the atmosphere "why my act was committed, but it can't named Jack Ruby in Dallas. She claimed in Dallas and across the country at that be said here . . . my life is in danger to have been sent by Ruby from Dallas time; when word was flashed to the crowd to Miami to pick up a shipment of outside the jail that Oswald had been here." But Ruby never got to Washing- narcotics. When asked by a hospital shot, they burst into wild applause. ton, and he's joined the long list of wit- attendant—who fortunately took notes of Ruby's lawyer, Tom Howard, spoke for a nesses with vital information who have her remarks, in case the police had to be sizable segment of public opinion when shuffled off this mortal coil. called in--why she had been hurled he said, "I think Ruby deserves a Con- PLAYBOY: Penn Jones, Norman Mailer from the car, she replied that narcotics gressional Medal," and the largest- and others have charged that Ruby was smuggling was one thing, but she drew circulation newspaper in the country, the injected with live cancer cells in order to the line at murder. The President, she New York. Daily News, editorialized after silence him. Do you agree? said, was going to be killed in Dallas Oswald's death that "the only good GARRISON: I can't agree or disagree, since within a few clays. At this point, sadly murderer is a dead murderer and the I have no evidence one way or the other. enough, the hospital authorities seemed to only good Communist a dead Commu- But we have discovered that David dismiss her as hysterical and lost interest nist." In the two days between his arrest Ferrie had a rather curious hobby in addi- in her story. although she repeated it in and his liquidation, Oswald had been detail the next clay. After the assassina- tion to his study of cartridge trajectories: convicted by the mass media as the Presi- cancer research. He filled his apartment tion, of course. people in the hospital be- dent's assassin and as a Communist, and came interested once more, but she had with white mice—at one point he had Ruby may well have felt that he would already checked out, leaving no forward- almost 2000, and neighbors complained— be acquitted for murdering such a uni- ing address other than Dallas. Texas. wrote a medical treatise on the subject versally despised figure. It turned out, of There the story stood until a few months and worked with a number of New Or- ago, when we began searching for Miss course, that he was wrong, and he be- leans doctors on means of inducing came a prisoner of the Dallas police, Cheramie, but it was too late. After the cancer in mice. After the assassinatiou, assassination, she was killed by a hit-and- run driver on a highway outside Dallas. PLAYBOY: If Jack Ruby was really the sinister and cunning figure you paint him, why would he kill Oswald in the Dallas city jail, where his own appre- hension and conviction for murder were inevitable? Wasn't. this more logically the act of a temporarily deranged man? GARRISON: First of all, let me dispose of this concept of the "temporarily de- ranged man." This is a catchall term, employed whenever the real motive of a crime can't be nailed clown. In the over- whelming majority of instances, the ac- tions of human beings are the direct consequences of discernible motives. This is the fatal flaw of the Warren Report —its conclusion that the assassination of President Kennedy was the act of a tem- porarily deranged man, that the murder of Officer Tippit was equally meaningless and, finally, that Jack Ruby's murder of Oswald was another act of a temporarily deranged individual. It is, of course, wildly improbable that all three acts were coincidentally the aberrant acts of tem- porarily deranged men—although it's most convenient to view them as such, because that judgment obviates the ne- cessity of relentlessly investigating the possibility of a conspiracy. In Jack Ruby's case, his murder of Lee Oswald was the sanest act lie ever committed; if Oswald had lived another clay or so, he very probably would have named names, and Jack Ruby would have been convicted as a conspirator in the assas- sination plot. As it was, Ruby made the best of a bad situation by rubbing out Oswald in the Dallas city jail, since this act could be construed as an argument that he was "temporarily deranged." But "Stone walls do not a prison make, but throw in I differ with the assumption of your ques- armed guards and a general lack tion, because, while there could have been of amenities, and 'you've got something:" 175 one of these physicians, Dr. Mary Sher- in the Archives. Then we'll all have a hemorrhage. Have you subsequently re- man, was found hacked to death with a chance to see for ourselves how clear solved the discrepancy in your points of kitchen knife in her New Orleans apart- it is that Ferrie wasn't involved. Every view? ment. Her murder is listed as unsolved. scrap of evidence we've uncovered—and GARRISON: Dr. Nicholas Chetta is an Ferrie's experiments may have been pure- it hasn't been difficult to find—reveals excellent coroner, and inasmuch as he ly theoretical and Dr. Sherman's death not only the fact of his involvement but completely unrelated to her association found a total absence of traceable poi- the reasons for it. His politics were ultra- sons or barbiturates in Ferrie's system, I with Ferrie; but I do find it interesting right wing, as I indicated earlier, but would respect his opinion that it was a that Jack Ruby died of cancer a few we've been able to determine conclu- natural death. On the other hand, I can't weeks after his conviction for murder sively that his motivation was closer to had been overruled in appeals court and that of the Cuban exiles on the "op- help but lend a certain weight to two he was ordered to stand trial outside of erative" level—a burning hatred of suicide notes Ferrie left in his apartment, Dallas—thus allowing him to speak Fidel Castro. When Castro was a guerrilla one of which said how sweet it was to freely if he so desired. I would also note in the Sierra Maestra, Ferrie is reliably finally leave this wretched life. I suppose that there was little hesitancy in killing reported to have piloted guns for him. it could just be a weird coincidence that Lee Harvey Oswald in order to prevent But in 1959, when Castro started to the night Ferrie penned two suicide hint from talking, so there is no reason to show his Marxist colors, Ferrie appears notes, he died of natural causes. suspect that any more consideration to have felt betrayed and reacted PLAYBOY: Your critics have charged that would have been shown Jack Ruby if he against Castro with all the bitterness of a your relentless investigation of Ferrie had posed a threat to the architects of suitor jilted by his girl. From that mo- and the publicity the press gave to your the conspiracy. ment on, he dedicated himself to Castro's charges against him induced the state PLAYBOY: You've claimed that many of overthrow and began working with of hypertension that was said to have the people involved in the conspiracy exile groups such as the Cuban Demo- caused his fatal hemorrhage. Do you feel were "neo-Nazi" in their political orien- cratic Revolutionary Front and planning in any way responsible for Ferrie's death? tation. What would motivate Ruby, a airborne missions against Castro's military GARRISON: I had nothing but pity for Jew, to work with such people? installations. He was reported to have Dave Ferrie while he was alive, and I GARRISON: Money. As far as my office been paid up to $1500 a mission by an have nothing but pity for him now that has been able to determine, Jack Ruby ex–Batista official named Eladio del had no strong political views of his own. he's dead. Ferrie was a pathetic and tor- Valle. But I haven't been able to check tured creature, a genuinely brilliant man Historically, of course, there have been a out Del Valle's involvement with Ferrie, whose twisted drives locked him into his number of self-hating Jews who abetted because on February 22, 1967, the same own private hell. If I had been able to their own tormentors: Adolf Hitler's day Ferrie died in New Orleans, Del mentor in Vienna, Karl Lueger, was born Valle's head was split open by a hatchet help Ferrie, I would have: but he was a Jew, and I understand that one of the and he was shot through the heart in Mi- in too deep and he was terrified. From leading pro-Nazis in New York City, a ami. His murder is listed as unsolved by the moment he realized we had looked retired millionaire who finances anti- the Miami police. In any case, Ferrie was behind the facade and established that Jewish activity across the country, is the recruited by the CIA, which employed Lee Oswald was anything but a Commu- son of a rabbi. But I don't believe Jack hundreds of such people in their network nist, from the moment he knew we had Ruby falls into this category; he was just of anti-Castro exile activities. From the discovered the role of the CIA and anti- a hoodlum out for a buck. I will say— Bay of Pigs on, he hated Kennedy as much Castro adventurers in the assassination, with the understanding that it's pure as he did Castro; he felt that J. F. K. Ferrie began to crumble psychologically. speculation—it's not impossible that Jack had betrayed the invasion brigade by not So, to answer your question directly—yes, Ruby developed certain guilt feelings in sending in air cover. As the events I I suppose I may have been responsible for prison over his role in the plot. Remem- described earlier led to a détente between Ferrie's death. If I had left this case ber his repeated lament, "Now there will Russia and America, and as the FBI— alone, if I had allowed Kennedy's mur- be pogroms. They will kill all the Jews."? under Kennedy's orders—started crack- derers to continue to walk the streets of Most people assumed this was just the ing down on the CIA-supported anti- America unimpeded, Dave Ferrie would fantasy of a crumbling mind. But maybe Castro underground, Ferrie's hatred for probably be alive today. I don't feel per- Jack Ruby knew better than the rest of Kennedy grew more and more obsessive. sonally guilty about Ferrie's death, but I us what the master-racist authors of the Let me add here that this isn't just specu- do feel terribly sorry for the waste of an- assassination had in mind for the country. lation on my part; we have a number other human being. In a deeper sense, PLAYBOY: Let's move on from Jack Ruby of reliable witnesses who were privy to though, Dave Ferrie died on November to David Ferrie. Wesley Liebeler, the Ferrie's thoughts at this period and saw 22, 1963. From that moment on, he Warren Commission counsel who handled his hatred of Kennedy develop into a couldn't save himself, and I couldn't the New Orleans end of the inquiry, said driving force. After the assassination, as save him. Ferrie could have quoted as Ferrie "was picked up shortly after the a matter of fact, something psychologi- his epitaph the last words of the Serb assassination and questioned by local cally curious happened to Ferrie: He partisan leader Draja Mikhailovitch be- officials of the FBI. I remember spe- dropped out of anti-Castro exile activi- fore Tito shot him for collaboration: "I cifically doing up a substantial stack of ties, left the pay of the CIA and drifted was swept up in the gales of history." FBI reports on Ferrie that we reviewed aimlessly while his emotional problems PLAYBOY: Many of the professional critics in order to make our determination." He increased to the point where he was of the Warren Commission appear to be states that the FBI reports on Ferree were totally dependent on huge doses of tran- prompted by political motives: Those on not included in the Commission's 26 quilizers and barbiturates. I don't know the left are anxious to prove Kennedy volumes of evidence, "because it was so if Ferrie ever experienced any guilt was murdered by a conspiracy within the clear he wasn't involved." Why do you about the assassination itself; but in his establishment; and those on the right are refuse to accept this explanation? last months, he was a tortured man. eager to prove the assassination was an GARRISON: I think it's a lovely explana- PLAYBOY: After Ferrie's death, you called act of "the international Communist con- tion. Now perhaps Mr. Liebeler will in- it "an apparent suicide," but the coroner spiracy." Where would you place your- tercede with the Department of Justice announced that the autopsy showed death self on the political spectrum—right, to release 25 pages of the FBI report on was due to a ruptured blood vessel at the left or center? 176 Ferrie that have been classified top secret base of the brain, which caused a fatal GARRISON: That's a question I've asked myself frequently, especially since this is my profession, I've always wondered now dominates every aspect of our life. O investigation started and I found myself about the judges throughout Germany The power of the states and Congress in an incongruous and disillusioning who sentenced men to jail for picking pl has gradually been abandoned to the battle with agencies of my own Govern- pockets at a time when their own govern- Executive Department, because of war ment. I can't just sit down and add up ment was jerking gold from the teeth conditions; and we've seen the creation my political beliefs like a mathematical of men murdered in gas chambers. I'm of an arrogant, swollen bureaucratic a sum, but I think, in balance, I'd turn up concerned about all of this because it complex totally unfettered by the checks somewhere around the middle. Over the isn't a German phenomenon; it's a hu- ik and balances of the Constitution. In a years, I guess I'ye developed a somewhat man phenomenon. It can happen here, very real and terrifying sense, our Gov- conservative attitude—in the traditional because there has been no change and ernment is the CIA and the Pentagon, libertarian sense of conservatism, as op- there has been no progress and there with Congress reduced to a debating posed to the thumbscrew-and-rack con- has been no increase of understanding society. Of course, you can't spot this servatism of the paramilitary right— on the part of men for their fellow man. trend to fascism by casually looking particularly in regard to the importance What worries me deeply, and I have seen around. You can't look for such familiar of the individual as opposed to the state it exemplified in this case, is that we in signs as the swastika, because they won't and the individual's own responsibilities America are in great danger of slowly be there. We won't build Dachaus and to humanity. I don't think I've ever tried evolving into a prow-fascist state. It will Auschwitzes; the clever manipulation of to formulate this into a coherent political be a different kind of fascist state from the mass media is creating a concentra- philosophy, but at the root of my con- the one the Germans evolved; theirs don camp of the mind that promises to cern is the conviction that a human grew out of depression and promised be far more effective in keeping the popu- being is not a digit; he's not a digit in bread and work, while ours, curiously lace in line. We're not going to wake up regard to the state and he's not a digit enough, seems to be emerging from one morning and suddenly find ourselves in•the sense that he can ignore his fellow prosperity. But in the final analysis, it's in gray uniforms goose-stepping off to men and his obligations to society. I was based on power and on the inability to work. But this isn't the test. The test with the artillery supporting the division put human goals and human conscience is: What happens to the individual who that took Dachau; I arrived there the above the dictates of the state. Its origins dissents? In Nazi Germany, he was day after it was taken, when bulldozers can be traced in the tremendous war physically destroyed; here, the process were making pyramids of human bodies machine we've built since 1945, the is more subtle, but the end results can outside the camp. What I saw there has "military-industrial complex" that Eisen- be the same. I've learned enough about haunted me ever since. Because the law hower vainly warned us about, which the machinations of the CIA in the past year to know that this is no longer the dreamworld America I once believed in. The imperatives of the population explosion, which almost inevitably will lessen our belief in the sanctity of the individual human life, combined with the awesome power of the CIA and the defense establishment, seem destined to seal the fate of the America I knew as a child and bring us into a new Orwel. lian world where the citizen exists for the state and where raw power justifies any and every immoral act. I've always had a kind of knee-jerk trust in my Govern- ment's basic integrity, whatever political blunders it may make. But I've come to realize that in Washington, deceiving and manipulating the public are viewed by some as the natural prerogatives of office. Huey Long once said, "Fascism will come to America in the name of anti-fascism." I'm afraid, based on my own experience, that fascism will come to America in the name of national security. PLAYBOY: Considering all the criticism that has come your way, would you still launch your investigation into the assas- sination if you had it to do over again? GARRISON: As long as the men who shot John Kennedy to death in Dallas are walking the streets of America, I will continue this investigation. I have no re- grets about initiating it and I have no regrets about carrying it on to its con- clusion. If it takes me 30 years to nail every one of the assassins, then I will continue this investigation for 30 years. I owe that not only to Jack Kennedy but to my country. 178 ". . . What time do you go on duty, Lily?" IZ