Thomas Beckham was a con man who had lived in New Orleans in the early 1960s. He tried his hand in the music business with Jack Martin as his short-lived manager. He liked costumes and regularly wore a priest's collar. Here are some of our other blog posts on Thomas Beckham:
The above post looks at Beckham's con.
The above two blog posts have excerpts from Beckham's deposition to the HSCA - if you want a laugh, check them out.
The above post is the first memo Garrison wrote to the HSCA about Beckham and Crisman.
Here is another memo that Garrison wrote to Jonathan Blackmer, along with questions for Beckham. It's quite the memo!
This is insane. Garrison writes "I do believe it would be a productive working hypothesis (until and unless further inquiry should require its abandonment) to regard Crisman as, as [sic] the very least, a cut-out or go-between at a very high level. The geographical remoteness of his base of operation is a standard operating procedure of a major cut-out in a professional, highly organized clandestine operation."
Had Garrison been watching too many spy movies?
Here are some prior blog posts on Fred Crisman:
Here is Garrison's list of questions for Thomas Beckham:
The questions reflected Garrison's view of the assassination. He wanted the HSCA to ask Beckham about his cast of characters (Clay Shaw, Kerry Thornley, Guy Banister, etc), and he continued to take an inordinate interest in Crisman's and Beckham's sex life. He even wanted to know if Crisman and Beckham knew Larry Crafard (who worked for Jack Ruby for several weeks in 1963 cleaning the Carousel Club).
Don't forget both Thomas Beckham and Fred Crisman testified before Garrison's grand jury. Didn't he know the answer to these questions? Garrison didn't even show up for Crisman's appearance, and it only lasted about twenty minutes.
Not surprisingly, the HSCA did not ask a lot of these questions when Beckham testified. Upcoming blog posts will be looking at additional excerpts from his deposition before the HSCA.