CIIn the summer of 1974, Jim Garri- son, the former New Orleans district attorney who cried conspiracy in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy but couldn't prove it to a jury, seemed about to make a politi- cal comeback. Garrison was running for a seat on the Louisiana State Su- preme Court, and his chances seemed THE good. The fact that Garrison could com- mand votes in Louisiana, or anywhere else for that matter, seemed surpris- ing. He is the man accused by his critics—and they are legion—of virtu- ally crucifying Clay Shaw, a soft- spoken, meek-appearing businessman Garrison accused of conspiring with STRANGE others to kill JFK in Dallas in 1963. Garrison's almost daily revelations in 1968 leading up to the trial of Shaw attracted front-page space in every newspaper in the world, in addition to nightly coverage on network televi- sion. The long, complicated and in- decisive trial of Shaw received equal attention, but in the end, Garrison DEATH OF could not convince a jury that the aging, sympathetic gentleman was a part of a plot to commit the most monstrous political assassination of the century. Shaw was found innocent, and sud- denly Garrison's credibility had van- ished, as did his political future. After the trial ended in February 1969, Gar- rison disappeared from the headlines. Further, newspapers in New Orleans called for his removal from office, and he eventually was defeated for re- election. Garrison faded into political obscurity and Shaw filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against the former district attorney. Shaw had become the object of na- tional sympathy, seemingly an exam- ple of what one over-ambitious politi- cian could do to an innocent man. Shaw was seen as a man whose life was left in a shambles, emotionally and financially. (There are those too who hold that the media, in appear- ing to fawn over Shaw's plight, seemed to be cleansing itself for hav- ing run all those scurrilous Garrison accusations.) Then in December 1973, a small San Francisco news agency—Zodiac LAY SHAW News Service—published a report that Shaw's untimely death is just one of many seemed distinguished largely by the fact that few newspapers gave it any bizarre "coincidences" that stretch from the real play. The agency reported that a Bay of Pigs to the doorsteps of Watergate. former CIA official identified as Vic- tor Marchetti stated that Clay Shaw had, in fact, been a contact for the By Richard Boyle CIA and that the agency wanted to keep those connections quiet. Not many editors could be faulted for not rushing to publish a news story from a service with a name like Zodiac, particularly headquartered in San Francisco, despite the fact that the agency distributes daily to hundreds of radio stations around the nation. Marchetti's credentials would later be solidly established as genuine, but it was a story that was semi-reported. 54 TRUE/APRIL 1975 Meantime, two months later in political "hit," little different from February of 1974, Clay Shaw suffered the assassination of presidents in La- what was reported as a "seizure" and tin American banana republics. Only was hospitalized. He appeared to re- this time, Garrison believed, it was cover, was released from the hospital, done with the computerized efficiency but was again hospitalized in June. of a highly advanced technology, in- At the time, Garrison was cranking cluding Orwellian manipulation of up his campaign for a political come- public opinion and distortion of his- back. torical fact. And then, on August 15, two days Over the dinner table that night, before Garrison faced election, Clay Garrison remembered that he was Shaw died. The newspapers carried "leading in the polls," that he was extensive rehashes of the entire very pleased that his elderly mother Shaw trial. Perhaps to many voters, would see her son on the state's high- the recounting of that trial may have est court. And then, staring into his brought back memories of Jim Garri- martini, he said, "I thought they son leaning over the jury dock, speak- would let me have that much." ing dramatically of those dark "sinis- With Shaw's death, the complete ter forces" and America's "secret po- trial seemed to reappear in the news- lice" plotting a criminal coup d'etat. papers. "The press said I destroyed a In 1969, Garrison's public contention fine businessman." Garrison, with iro- that the President of the United ny in his voice, chuckled. "I thought States was assassinated "by em- they'd let me get away with it—win ployees of the CIA" seemed fantastic this election. I should have indeed. known ..." Two days later, on Saturday the "What was the reported cause of 17th, Garrison missed a runoff spot death?" I asked. on the ballot by a few thousand "Cancer," he replied. votes. I recalled aloud what attorney Mel- Is it hairbrained to question the vin Belli had told me about one of timeliness of Clay Shaw's death as the last visits he paid his client, Jack nothing more than a coincidence? Ruby, in his prison cell. Ruby was Perhaps, but I decided to go to New sick, and pleaded with his lawyer to Orleans a month later and check into get him out of jail before it was too the story further, starting with Jim late. Ruby later won a request for a Garrison himself. new trial, based largely on the fact that he announced he had something to say. But he was afraid he'd never For the past two years, Garrison live to talk while in prison. Jack Ru- has refused to talk very much with by died not much later. The cause of the press, but after some persuasion, death, according to prison authorities: Jim Garrison he agreed to meet me for dinner at a cancer. Bourbon Street hotel. I recognized And now Clay Shaw was dead. The 6 the big, heavy-set man in a well-tail- last principal in Garrison's alleged Garrison still carries ored blue suit as he entered the cock- conspiracy was dead—joining Oswald, tail lounge. gunned down while under police pro- with him a tremendous Apologizing for being nearly two tection; David Ferrie, Garrison's tout- bitterness, a conviction hours late, he ordered a drink and ed star witness who died of a strange then complained that he had been illness before his court appearance; that he was fighting a "dirty-tricked" before, even by seem- and Ruby. It was too much like a one-sided battle against ingly sympathetic journalists, and was piece of paperback spy fiction. now reluctant to talk to anyone. Af- Garrison suggested I look further the CIA . 9 ter a few drinks, he loosened up, and into the death of Shaw. we went into the dining room. "Like what?" I asked. Garrison still carries with him a "I hear the coroner wants to have tremendous bitterness, a conviction Clay Shaw's body exhumed." that he was fighting a one-sided bat- tle against the CIA and something he refers to as the "warfare state." Gar- After that conversation, I decided rison says that since he first got a tip to poke around New Orleans. I would shortly after the assassination of JFK need police reports, coroner's reports that Lee Harvey Oswald and David and a check of the daily newspaper Ferrie had been associated together in morgue, where old clippings'are kept. the Civil Air Patrol, and since he first In New Orleans, as in most cities, ordered his DA's staff to begin its when a person dies, even if it appears own investigation, he has been the to be from natural causes, the police victim of a slander campaign. Garri- are called in. But in the case of Clay son said he was accused of everything Shaw, that was not done. from beating his wife to working for New Orleans Parish Coroner Dr. the Mafia, in addition to what he Frank Minyard, a physician, said a calls vicious personal attacks at the few days after the death: "No police hands of the news media. were called to Shaw's residence to But the more he looked into the ascertain if there was evidence of foul case, he recalls, the more he became play. Instead, Shaw's personal physi- convinced that Kennedy, who in 1963 cian played the part of coroner and was trying to reverse the U.S. war police investigator and pronounced policy in Vietnam, was the target of a the man dead." TRUE/APRIL 1975 55 There was never an official exami- and I are very friendly, but I have nation of Clay Shaw's body. It was not received a call from him about taken from his home to the funeral this," the press continued to imply parlor, his blood drained, and a few that the controversy over Shaw's days later he was buried. The case death was political. aroused the suspicions of some news- Then, suddenly, Minyard called off men, and Minyard, at a press briefing, the investigation. I called him to ask expressed "great annoyance" over the why the investigation was being ter- physician's actions. minated, and he answered, "No com- "How can we know for sure the ment." man didn't commit suicide, wasn't "Are you going to have Mr. Shaw's given a mercy-killing shot, or wasn't body exhumed so there can be an of- murdered?" The coroner added that ficial autopsy to determine cause of in this case, Shaw 'had not been pro- death?" tected at his death, as required by "No comment." law.