This file was written before it was known that Garrison was investigating the JFK assassination. Money Quotes: JUDGE MACHAUER said that he is convinced that District Attorney JIM GARRISON is psychotic, and that his ability for clever political acting is concealing this reality from popular public consumption. ... MACHAUER stated that it is GARRISON'S completely immoral public accusations against other public officials using cleverly contrived charges without any regard for su

Jim Garrison was clearly not happy with Sylvia Meagher's extensive critique of his book. I found this Garrison letter that he wrote to his literary agent in the files of Richard Sprague, the Warren Commission critic who specialized in the photographs of the case, at the National Archives. This is the first time, to my knowledge, that it has been published on the internet. Garrison really goes after Meagher and says she was mistaken "on virtually every major point which she ma

Philip Pochoda Sylvia Meagher was hired by Prentice-Hall in 1986 to act as a referee for Jim Garrison's new book. Meagher accepted the job: Garrison then sent in his last chapter: Here is her report, and here. Meagher recommended that Prentice-Hall publish Garrison's book largely because he now believed that Lee Harvey Oswald was totally innocent. In 1967, Garrison had said that Lee Harvey Oswald was a co-conspirator with Clay Shaw, and that incensed Sylvia Meagher. In her a

Long John Nebel Here is an excerpt from a December 1970 letter sent by Sylvia Meagher to Mary Ferrell: Money Quote: I suppose, being the crude phony he is, Garrison will soon charge that because of CIA pressure on the media he was prevented from appearing on radio and TV to discuss the assassination -- just wait. Previous Relevant Blog Posts on Sylvia Meagher and Jim Garrison Sylvia Meagher on the Sewer Shot and Jim Garrison An excerpt from a letter Meagher sent to Thomas Sta

From the October 23, 1992, edition of the New York Times: Money quote: Mr. Garrison was a vulgar political survivor. And the perpetrator of what could have been a judicial tragedy. Previous Relevant Blog Posts on Jim Garrison Was Jim Garrison a Prophet of the American People? Mark Lane goes overboard. Jim Garrison's "Reign of Terror" William Gurvich said that Garrison wanted Walter Sheridan roughed up. Gaeton Fonzi's Notes from a Discussion with Jim Garrison Garrison feeds Fo

Penn Jillette, the talkative member of the magic act Penn & Teller, knows that people will find the duo’s new project a little surprising. It is a Supreme Court brief filed last month urging the justices to hear an appeal from Charles Don Flores, a death row inmate in Texas. A key piece of evidence in the case was tainted by a police officer’s “investigative hypnosis” of a witness, the brief said. Here is a summary of the case: The brief noted that there was no physical evide

From an interview with Mark Lane on WVUE-TV, New Orleans on April 29, 1978. Aaron Kohn of the Metropolitan Crime Commission produced a transcript and here is an excerpt about the JFK assassination: (the rest of the interview was about the Martin Luther King assassination, Lane was in town to promote his book, Code Name Zorro , which was co-authored with Dick Gregory) Kohn sent copies of the transcript to the FBI and to Robert Blakey. He made the transcript from a video tape c

Here is the HSCA Outside Contact Report with William Gurvich, who worked for Jim Garrison for a while but then quit when he realized the investigation was a fraud. Mike Ewing, the interviewer, did not spell Gurvich's name correctly. In regards to this paragraph on page two: Here is an interview with Gurvich with Shaw's attorneys in 1968 which elaborates on the "reign of terror." Here is Gurvich's report to Garrison about Owen Wright: Previous Relevant Blog Posts William Gurvi

Here are Gaeton Fonzi's notes from a discussion with Jim Garrison on June 28, 1976: The paragraph on Bill Turner is incredible. Garrison claims he was "deep cover." When Garrison tells Fonzi that "he even persuaded me to charge somebody and helped a guy who penetrated the office build up a totally false picture ..." he's talking about Bill Boxley who worked with Turner to finger Edgar Eugene Bradley as a conspirator in the JFK assassination. Garrison brings up Red Bird Ai

Conclusion Clay Shaw with his attorney Edward Wegmann at a press conference after his arrest for conspiring to kill President John. F. Kennedy. No one came to help Clay Shaw. The Department of Justice could have investigated the bribery allegations against Garrison and charged him with a variety of crimes. Perhaps that would have stopped the entire investigation and ended the prosecution of Clay Shaw. But President Johnson told Attorney General Ramsey Clark not to interfere,

Indeed, Garrison even told the press that he could ignore Judge Haggerty's guidelines on pre-trial publicity: New Orleans Times-Picayune, March 30, 1967 Money Quote : The DA, after Robertson had left, was asked about a statement that he, as district attorney, was not bound by guidelines set by Judge Haggerty as an attempt to prevent pre-judicial publicity concerning Shaw's trial. Garrison said it was his opinion that "the judge was just making a suggestion when he handed out

Sylvia Meagher was writing Thomas Stamm. Money Quote : He [Garrison[ changes theories as often as I change linens, growing less responsible (if that is possible) with each public utterance. What a buffoon. Previous Relevant Blog Posts on the Sewer Shot Josiah Thompson on Jim Garrison's Shot from the Sewer Thompson thought the idea was ridiculous. Was JFK Shot From a Sewer? Jim Garrison sent Stephen Jaffe to Dallas to investigate the possibility of a shot from the sewer on E

Newsweek, March 17, 1969 Money Quote: The papers -- and in particular, the States-Item (circulation: 134,707) -- constantly trumpeted Garrison's charges (headlines above). On Feb. 9 The Times-Picayune (circulation: 196,345) ran one story on Charles I. Spiesel, a state witness, who led the jury to the French Quarter in search of a building he contended was the site of a party hosted by Shaw in 1963. It was not until the 28th paragraph on page 10 that readers learned Spiesel be

Vincent Salandria I've written before about Sylvia Meagher's falling out with Vincent Salandria because of his support of Jim Garrison. Well, just before the Clay Shaw trial, Salandria had a proposition: Here is Sylvia Meagher's reply: When Sylvia Meagher mentions "the code" she is referring to Garrison's cryptologic abilities. Jim Garrison's Code and Sylvia Meagher A complete look at the code nonsense. Jim Garrison, the Cryptologist Garrison's codes and a nice spoof on Gar

March 6, 1969 This cartoon appeared after the not guilty verdict in the Clay Shaw case and the subsequent indictment of Shaw for perjury. Here is a reference to this cartoon. Previous Cartoons on this Blog Bull Sessions - L. A. Times Cartoon on the Shaw Trial A reference to Perry Russo's testimony. Which Fairy Tale Will it be Tonight? A cartoon from the Chicago Tribune about Oliver Stone's film JFK . If at first you don't succeed A cartoon from the Houston Chronicle that I f

This is part two of my series on Eugene Dinkin. You can read part one here . Jim Garrison mentioned Eugene Dinkin in his September 1967, interview in Playboy Magazine : Tom Bethell had supplied Garrison a list of secret Warren Commission documents . That list included CD 943 , "Allegations of Pfc. Eugene Dinkin re Assassination Plot." Here is CD 943 : Here is the attachment: Various segments of the letter were redacted over the years, largely because of some sensitive sourc

Here is a Tom Bethell article from the American Spectator of December 1998: A couple of quotes stuck out: First Money Quote : People have said to me: He can't have just arrested Clay Shaw with no evidence. But that is what he did. The evidence produced at his trial was manufactured by unscrupulous people, using witnesses who were either mentally unbalanced (as in the case of the man who fingerprinted his own children to make sure that the government did not substitute ringer

Note: This is a very long post. I have tried to type out the important sections of Tom Bethell's memo below. I have included all of these documents for historical purposes. In August of 1968, Tom Bethell leaked a memo that listed the witnesses to be called in Clay Shaw's trial to Sal Panzeca, one of Shaw's attorneys. Here is that memo: This memo is proof of Garrison's extremely weak case against Clay Shaw. Many of these witnesses would not be used - Thomas Breitner , Clyde J

Many people wrote Jim Garrison with tips and information on the assassination. Tom Bethell put together some of the zanier letters and sent them to Sylvia Meagher. Here is an excerpt from a letter he sent her : Meagher replied : Here is Bethell's memo on letters to Garrison: (the unfavorable letter referenced by Meagher is on page 4, and the letter from the student from Staten Island is on page 7) By the way, whenever I go through HSCA boxes at the National Archives, I come a

Here is an excerpt from his 1993 book, Trust Your Mother, But Cut the Cards : This section of Zion's book appeared in an opinion piece in the New York Times right after the acquittal of Clay. Shaw. Money Quote : This is not to suggest that the plot theorists will close up shop, for they are missionaries with all that the word implies in terms of resiliency. It is not too much to expect that the world will soon be treated to a revisionist treatise or two on the Clay Shaw tri