Judge Herbert Christenberry held three days of hearings from January 25-27, 1971 to determine if Clay Shaw should stand trial for perjury. We've already posted highlights of Jim Garrison's testimony. Today, we post the entire testimony of Lt. Edward O'Donnell who conducted lie detector tests for Garrison in the 1960s.
Before we start, here is the report that O'Donnell submitted to Garrison regarding Perry Russo's lie detector test:
This was actually the second attempt to give Perry Russo a lie detector test More on the first test tomorrow.
Here is Lt. Edward O'Donnell's testimony from January 26, 1971:
In 1993, Patricia Lambert spoke to Captain James Kruebbe who confirmed that Vernon Bundy did indeed fail his lie detector test. Clay Shaw's attorneys were not notified of this until they were approached by Edward O'Donnell - and he only approached them after the trial started. O'Donnell ended up testifying on behalf of Clay Shaw in 1969.
Not surprisingly, you won't hear any of this in James DiEugenio's book, Destiny Betrayed. Joan Mellen does mention O'Donnell, but paints him as a bitter enemy of Garrison.
I love that line - "the man said to have the coldest eyes in New Orleans." As for O'Donnell's informing the FBI - well, good for him.
Except he didn't really inform the FBI. O'Donnell talked to a fellow polygraph operator, Leonard Harrelson, and Harrelson informed the FBI. Here is the FBI report (RIF# 124-10054-10413):
