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Jim Garrison

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Jim Garrison
District Attorney of Orleans Parish
In office
1961–1973
Preceded byRichard Dowling
Succeeded byHarry Connick, Sr.
ConstituencyNew Orleans, Louisiana
Personal details
BornNovember 20, 1921
DiedOctober 21, 1992(1992-10-21) (aged 70)
NationalityAmerican
Political partyDemocratic Party (United States)
Alma materlaw degree from Tulane University in 1949
The Garrison investigation had largely faded into obscurity, until Oliver Stone's film, JFK was released in 1991, which depicted Garrison as a hero

Earling Carothers "Jim" Garrison (November 20, 1921 - October 21, 1992) — who changed his first name to Jim in the early 1960s — was the Democratic District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana from 1962 to 1973. He is best known for his investigations into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Garrison remains a controversial figure. Opinions differ as to whether he uncovered a conspiracy behind the John F. Kennedy assassination but was blocked from successful prosecution by federal government cover up, whether he bungled his chance to uncover a conspiracy, or whether the entire case was an unproductive waste of resources.

Early life and career

Earling Carothers Garrison was born in Denison, Iowa.[1][2][3] His family moved to New Orleans in his childhood, where he was reared by his divorced mother. He served in the U.S. National Guard in World War II, then got a law degree from Tulane University in 1949. He worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for two years and then returned to active duty with the National Guard. After fifteen months, he was relieved from duty. One Army doctor concluded he had a "severe and disabling psychoneurosis" which "interfered with his social and professional adjustment to a marked degree. He is considered totally incapacitated from the standpoint of military duty and moderately incapacitated in civilian adaptability."[4] As it turned out, Garrison was suffering from an anxiety and exhaustion that was perfectly understandable considering the fact that, during World War II, he had flown 35 dangerous reconnaissance missions over France and Germany. He had also witnessed the horrors of totalitariansim first-hand when his unit entered the Dachau concentration camp one day after its liberation. Although one doctor did recommend that Garrison be discharged from service and collect 10% permanent disability, Garrison would not hear of it. Instead he applied for the National Guard where his record was reviewed by the army surgeon general who “found him to be physically qualified for federal recognition in the national army.”[5]

District Attorney

Garrison worked for the New Orleans law firm Deutsch, Kerrigan & Stiles from 1954 to 1958, when he became an assistant district attorney. Garrison became a flamboyant, colorful, well-known figure in New Orleans, but was initially unsuccessful in his run for public office, losing a 1959 election for criminal court judge. In 1961 he ran for district attorney, winning against incumbent Richard Dowling by 6,000 votes in a five-man Democratic primary. Despite lack of major political backing, his performance in a televised debate and last minute television commercials are credited with his victory.

Once in office, Garrison cracked down on prostitution and the abuses of Bourbon Street bars and strip joints. He indicted Dowling and one of his assistants with criminal malfeasance, but the charges were dismissed for lack of evidence. Garrison did not appeal. Garrison received national attention for a series of vice raids in the French Quarter, staged sometimes on a nightly basis. Newspaper headlines in 1962 praised Garrison's efforts, Quarter Crime Emergency Declared by Police, DA. — Garrison Back, Vows Vice Drive to Continue — 14 Arrested, 12 more nabbed in Vice Raids. Garrison's critics often point out that many of the arrests made by his office did not result in convictions, implying that he was in the habit of making arrests without evidence. However, assistant DA William Alford has said that charges would more often than not be reduced or dropped if a relative of someone charged gained Garrison’s ear. He had, said Alford, “a heart of gold.”[6]

After a conflict with local criminal judges over his budget, he accused them of racketeering and conspiring against him. The eight judges charged him with misdemeanor criminal defamation, and Garrison was convicted in January 1963. (In 1965 the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction and struck down the state statute as unconstitutional.) At the same time, Garrison indicted Judge Bernard Cocke with criminal malfeasance and, in two trials prosecuted by Garrison himself, Cocke was acquitted.

Garrison charged nine policemen with brutality, but dropped the charges two weeks later. At a press conference he accused the state parole board of accepting bribes, but could obtain no indictments. He accused the state legislature of the same, but held no investigation. He was unanimously censured by the legislature.

In 1965, running for reelection against Judge Malcolm O'Hara, Garrison won with 60 percent of the vote.

Kennedy assassination investigation

Further information: Trial of Clay Shaw

New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison began an investigation into the assassination of President Kennedy in the fall of 1966, after receiving several tips from Jack Martin that anti-Castro activist David Ferrie may have been involved in the assassination. The end result of Garrison's investigation was the arrest and trial of New Orleans businessman, Clay Shaw. Garrison's key witness against Clay Shaw was Perry Russo, a twenty-five year old insurance salesman from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. During the trial, Russo testified that he had attended an "assassination party" at David Ferrie's apartment, where Shaw, Ferrie, and Lee Harvey Oswald had discussed killing President Kennedy.

Russo’s version of events has been questioned by some historians and researchers, such as Patricia Lambert, once it became known that part of his testimony was induced by hypnotism, and by the drug, Sodium Pentothal, sometimes called "truth serum."[7] Indeed, the early version of Russo's testimony, before he was subjected to Sodium Pentothal and hypnosis, fails to mention an "assassination party" and says that Russo met Clay Shaw on two occasions, neither of which occurred at the "party."[8][9]

The jury took less than one hour before acquitting Clay Shaw.

In the years that followed, some claim that Perry Russo later denied meeting Oswald or Shaw. However, by the time the Oliver Stone film JFK was released in 1991, Russo was again giving his original account of being at a party with David Ferrie, Lee Harvey Oswald, and Clay Shaw. Author Gerald Posner claims Russo privately admitted, "I believe Shaw was innocent. I do not disagree with the jury. I agreed with it. The bottom line is that history must recall that Shaw was innocent. If I were on the jury, I would have come to the same conclusion."[10] However, in many public interviews, such as one shown in the video The JFK Assassination: The Jim Garrison Tapes, Russo reiterates the same account of an assassination party that he gave at the trial.

Aftermath

Garrison was able to subpoena the Zapruder film from Life magazine and show it to the public for the first time. Until the trial, the film had hardly been seen, and bootleg copies made by assassination investigators working with Garrison led to the film's wider distribution.

In 1978, the House Select Committee on Assassinations found that Lee Harvey Oswald's stint in the New Orleans Civil Air Patrol fit the timeline of David Ferrie's Civil Air Patrol service. Committee investigators also found six witnesses whose statements led them to believe that Oswald had been present at Civil Air Patrol meetings headed by David Ferrie.[11] A group picture, taken in 1955, eight years before the JFK assassination, shows Oswald and Ferrie at a cookout with other Civil Air Patrol cadets.[12] However, there is no evidence that Oswald and Ferrie knew each other, or had any significant contact while Oswald was in the CAP, or at the time of the assassination.

HSCA Chief Council G. Robert Blakey wrote, in his book The Plot to Kill the President, that the Committee "...was inclined to believe that Oswald was in Clinton [Louisiana] in late August, early September 1963, and that he was in the company of David Ferrie, if not Clay Shaw" and that witnesses in Clinton, Louisiana "...established an association of undetermined nature between Ferrie, Shaw and Oswald less than three months before the assassination."

A memo from HSCA investigator S. Jonathan Blackmer to Robert Blakey dated September 1, 1977 states: "We have reason to believe that Shaw was heavily involved in the anti-Castro efforts in New Orleans in the 1960's and possibly one of the high level planners or "cut out" to the planners of the assassination."[13]

In the 1962 edition of Who's Who in the South and Southwest, Shaw gave biographical information that he was on the board of directors of a firm named Permindex.[14] Garrison believed, based on a report in the Italian Communist newspaper Paesa Sera, which was then repeated in French and Canadian papers, that Permindex and its parent company, Centro Mondiale Commerciale were tied to the CIA. Some researchers, including journalist Max Holland, claim that Paesa Sera was an outlet for "disguised Soviet propaganda."[15] Nevertheless, the Italian government saw fit to expel both Permindex and Centro Mondiale Commerciale in 1962 for subversive activities.[16]

In a 1992 interview, Edward Haggerty, who was the judge at the Clay Shaw trail, stated: "I believe he [Shaw] was lying to the jury. Of course, the jury probably believed him. But I think Shaw put a good con job on the jury." -- Beyond "JFK": The Question of Conspiracy [1]

Later career

In 1973, Garrison lost his bid for another term as District Attorney to Harry Connick, Sr.. He was elected as a State of Louisiana Appeals Circuit Court Judge in 1978 and served in this capacity until his death.

After the Shaw trial, Garrison wrote three books on the Kennedy assassination, A Heritage of Stone (1970), The Star Spangled Contract, and the best-seller, On The Trail of The Assassins (1988).

The 1991 Oliver Stone film JFK was largely based on Garrison's book On The Trail of The Assassins as well as Jim Marrs' Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy. Kevin Costner played a fictionalized version of Garrison in the movie. Garrison himself had a small on-screen role in the film as United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren.

Garrison appeared as himself in the 1987 film The Big Easy starring Dennis Quaid.

Garrison was also the subject of the song "Keep A Workin' Big Jim" by Johnny Rebel.

Despite being the only district attorney to bring a suspect to trial for conspiring to murder President Kennedy, Garrison was later viewed as an embarrassment by many conspiracy researchers.[17] However, other researchers have defended Garrison including, Jim DiEugenio, William Davy, and Joan Mellen.

According to a number of critics, Garrison was cruel and mistreated witnesses in his attempt to prove an assassination conspiracy. Witnesses, including Perry Raymond Russo later claimed to have been bribed and threatened with perjury and contempt of court charges by Garrison in order to make his case against Shaw.[18] However, in seeming contradiction to this, Perry Russo, in an interview with public radio station reporters Will Robinson and Marilyn Colman, had this to say: "...[NBC News reporter] Walter Sheridan tells me and threatens me that he's gonna take Garrison out and take me with him."[19]

The Garrison investigation had largely faded into obscurity, until Oliver Stone's film was released in 1991, which depicted Garrison as a hero.

Further reading

  • William Hardy Davis, Aiming for the Jugular in New Orleans (Ashley Books, June 1976)
  • James DeEugenio, The Assassinations (Los Angeles: Feral House, 2003) ISBN 0-922915-82-2
  • James DeEugenio Destiny Betrayed: JFK, Cuba, and the Garrison Case (New York: Sheridan Square Press, 1992) ISBN 1-879823-00-4
  • William Davy, Let Justice Be Done: New Light On The Jim Garrison Investigation (Jordan Pub, 1999) ISBN 0-9669716-0-4
  • Edward Jay Epstein, Counterplot (Viking Press, New York: 1969)
  • Paris Flamonde, The Kennedy Conspiracy
  • Paris Flamonde, The Assassinastion of America (2007)
  • Jim Garrison, A Heritage of Stone (Putnam Publishing Group, 1970) ISBN 0-399-10398-8
  • Jim Garrison, On the Trail of the Assassins (New York: Sheridan Square Press, 1988) ISBN 0-446-36277-8
  • James Kirkwood, American Grotesque: An Account of the Clay Shaw-Jim Garrison-Kennedy Assassination Trial in New Orleans
  • Patricia Lambert, False Witness: The Real Story of Jim Garrison's Investigation and Oliver Stone's Film JFK. ISBN 0-87131-920-9
  • Jim Marrs, Crossfire: The Plot that Killed Kennedy (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1989) ISBN 0-88184-648-1
  • Joan Mellen, A Farewell To Justice: Jim Garrison, JFK's Assassination, And The Case That Should Have Changed History (Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, Inc., 2005) ISBN 1-57488-973-7
  • Nomenclature of an Assassination Cabal AKA "The Torbit Document" republished as NASA, Nazis & JFK: The Torbitt Document & the Kennedy Assassination, AUP, US, 1996 paperback, ISBN 0-932813-39-9
  • Gerald Posner, Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK (New York: Random House Publishers, 1993)
  • Oliver Stone (2000). JFK: The Book of the Film. Applause Books. ISBN 1557831270. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  • Anthony Summers, Not in Your Lifetime (New York: Marlowe & Company, 1998) ISBN 1-56924-739-0
  • Harold Weisberg, Oswald in New Orleans: Case for Conspiracy with the C.I.A. (New York: Canyon Books, 1967) ISBN B-000-6BTIS-S
  • Christine Wiltz, The Last Madam p. 145-150 ISBN 0-571-19954-2

References

  1. ^ "Jim Garrison", Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2003.
  2. ^ "Jim Garrison", The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Volume 3: 1991-1993. Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001.
  3. ^ "Jim Garrison", Newsmakers 1993, Issue 4. Gale Research, 1993.
  4. ^ Associated Press, "Garrison Record Shows Disability", December 29, 1967. Warren Rogers, "The Persecution of Clay Shaw", Look, August 26, 1969, page 54.
  5. ^ Davy, William. Let Justice Be Done: New Light on the Jim Garrison Investigation, p. 82. ISBN 0-96697-160-4
  6. ^ Mellen, Joan. A Farewell To Justice: Jim Garrison, JFK’s Assassination, and the Case that Should Have Changed History, p. 11. ISBN 1-57488-973-7
  7. ^ "Perry Raymond Russo's Hypnosis: Making Testimony More Objective?" (HTML). mcadams. 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
  8. ^ The Sciambra Memo
  9. ^ Perry Raymond Russo: Way Too Willing Witness
  10. ^ Posner, Gerald Case Closed, p. 451
  11. ^ Summers, Anthony. Not in Your Lifetime, (New York: Marlowe & Company, 1998), p. 234. ISBN 1-56924-739-0
  12. ^ Frontline "Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald", broadcast on PBS stations, November 1993 (various dates).
  13. ^ HSCA (2007). "Jerry P. Shinley Archive:[[HSCA]] Memo on Clay Shaw 9/77 (plus Thomas Beckham)" (HTML). pub. Retrieved 2007-12-18. We have reason to believe that Shaw was heavily involved in the anti-Castro efforts in New Orleans in the 1960's and possibly one of the high level planners or "cut out" to the planners of the assassination. {{cite web}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  14. ^ Marrs, Jim. Crossfire: The Plot that Killed Kennedy, (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1989), p. 499. ISBN 0-88184-648-1
  15. ^ The Lie that Linked the CIA to the Kennedy Assassination.
  16. ^ Marrs, Crossfire, p. 500.
  17. ^ Garrison and JFK Conspiracy Writers
  18. ^ Posner, Gerald Case Closed, p. 441.
  19. ^ Robinson, Will, "The Last Testament of Perry Raymond Russo", The Lighthouse Report, 10 October 1992.

External links

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