James Louviere - the Story of a Garrison Witness

Here is a very good case study in the duplicity of Jim Garrison's investigation. Somehow, a witness statement from 1967 is turned on its head in 1971.

In 1971, Jim Garrison filed papers to dismiss Clay Shaw's attempt to stop his prosecution for perjury. His filing listed his prospective witnesses, and one witness was James Louviere, who worked for David Ferrie and Al Beauboeuf (they had gone into business together with a service station that was open for about ten months in 1964).

Here is the paragraph from the court filing:

Excerpt from Garrison's motion to dismiss Clay Shaw's complaint (court case 71-135) regarding perjury charges.

The above document was filed sometime in 1971. Here is a Garrison document from March 1967 about an interview with James Louviere:

Note that Louviere even gets the date of his employment with Ferrie wrong.

When shown a picture of Clay Shaw, "Louviere said he didn't recall of seeing this man in the service station." They then note that the picture they had shown Louviere was three years old, and they show hm a new photograph of Shaw. He still demurs: "Louviere said that he wouldn't want to say that this was the man."

The discussion then turned to a white T-Bird which used to come into the station. Clay Shaw used to own a T-Bird. But Louviere "said that this is not the man from this picture that was driving the car."

The court filing claims that Louviere saw Shaw in a big black car at the station and at David Ferrie's house. The car was similar to the one used in Clinton. But Louviere never identified Clay Shaw, never said anything about a black car, and never said anything about meeting Shaw at Ferrie's house.

So, did Garrison convince Louviere to change his testimony? If the court filing accurately represents Louviere's thinking in 1971, then something happened. Of course, had Clay Shaw gone to trial he would not have access to the 1967 interview because there was no discovery in Louisiana Courts. Louviere's testimony could have been damaging.

Interestingly, Jim Garrison sent the James Louviere lead to the HSCA (Item C).

There is no credible evidence that Clay Shaw knew David Ferrie.

Did Clay Shaw Know David Ferrie?