About two weeks after Garrison received the second anonymous letter (see my earlier post with the two anonymous letters), a shadowy figure from Seattle, Bob Lavender contacted Garrison's office and investigator Bill Boxley was sent to San Francisco to interview him.
A picture of Bob Lavender released by the HSCA.
Lavender revealed the secret of the JFK assassination. Here is Boxley's memo:
Let me clarify the beginning of the last paragraph. It reads "Lavender who is approximately 27 or 28 years of age, stand about 6'2" of 3" and weighs approximately 190 pounds, bears a remarkable facial...."
Let me clarify the bottom of the second to last paragraph. It reads, "....to New Orleans and Dallas, that he made a number of trips with Beckham to the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans for meetings. He states that Crisman has described himself...."
Quite the story!
Boxley wasn't fooled. He had "the distinct feeling that Lavender was on stage reiterating a story which he had been encouraged to tell us." At some point, Garrison wrote on one version of this memo that "this is Boxley speaking here. The discreditation line is SOP [standard operating procedure] for him." Boxley wrote it should all "be taken with a generous portion of salt" because no one would leave large amounts of money to someone like Beckham.
Beckham was a notorious con man, and I will be postings lots more on him. Garrison disagreed with Boxley's comment, saying his remark was a "gratuitous observation" and complained that the original Crisman file "departed with Boxley."
If you read my book, On The Trail of Delusion - Jim Garrison: The Great Accuser, you will se that Garrison's staff convinced him that Boxley was a CIA plant.
By the way, Fred Crisman testified before the New Orleans grand jury in November 1968. He was asked about Bob Lavender:
There's a whole lot more to this story. But, Lavender convinced Garrison that Fred Crisman and Thomas Beckham were suspects of the highest order.
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