In April 1971, Perry Russo sat down with Shaw's defense team for one last interview. Here is the entire transcript:
Some highlights of this transcript:
Dymond: Did anyone else connected to the Garrison office offer you loans or money?
Russo: I guess I mentioned that Garrison slipped me some occasionally. I remember two one-hundred dollar bills one time, two hundred another time, $75 another. He told me after Shaw was convicted we'd all be rich. The press would be showering me with money to get me to recreate my testimony. I liked the idea, but was a little scared because I didn't know how much I remember and how much I was helped with. It all seemed so 'right,' that we should punish these killers. I always had trouble with the Shaw end though. I guess I always knew he had nothing to do with anything.
...
Dymond: Could you recount with a little more depth the scene at the Ramada Inn out on Tulane, the night before you were to testify in the preliminary hearing? Now as I recall it, they had given you sodium pentothal once and had hypnotized you four or five times? Who all were there? Did they want to hypnotize you again? What was going on that night?
Russo: Three times, maybe four. I don't think they hypnotized me five times. Lynn Loisel, Al Oser, Alcock, Louie Ivon and Sciambra were there asking me to repeat things over and over and over. Rat-a-tat, rat-a-tat ... non-stop. I was wondering what I had got myself into. It was several hours after the test in Dr. Chetta's office. The last hypnotizing deal. I told you, didn't I, about all of 'em wearing their guns. Sciambra had his out one time, wavin' it around and saying what this was going to do to Shaw and how it was going to force the government to admit it had lied to America about Kennedy's death. Sciambra, I guess I liked him until then, but he gave me a funny feeling. He made me read the transcript .. what I had said when I was under.
Gurvich: Do you remember afterward saying those things? Was it like ...
Russo: Like I told you before, it was my script and I was playing a part. I guess I played a too-good one, didn't I? Anyway it went on like that for about two hours and finally Alcock told 'em to cool it and most of 'em went home.
...
Gurvich: Did you ever talk to Alvin Beauboeuf after his run-in with Garrison and Loisel and Ivon?
Russo: I knew that they had pinched him good. They made him say nobody offered him anything. But they laughed about it, Ivon and Loisel, and said they offered him a job and money and that Garrison told him he thought Beauboeuf would eventually make a good lawyer and he'd help him get there. It was a big joke around the office, because they went out to his house and told him if he didn't deny the whole thing they'd tell everyone he was homosexual. He broke down and cried, I heard. He had just got married, I think.
An upcoming blog post will discuss Jim Garrison's attempt to bribe Al Beauboeuf.
Previous Blog Posts on Perry Russo
After David Ferrie died, Perry Russo went to the press in Baton Rouge with his story. He did not mention a meeting at which the assassination was discussed.
Matt Herron was present when Phelan asked Russo if it was true that he said nothing about a meeting until he came to New Orleans. He confirmed that Russo admitted he had not.
Russo talked to Clay Shaw's attorneys in 1971. He admits that the memory about the meeting was planted in New Orleans.
The Contradictions of Perry Russo's Story A memo written by James Phelan lists all the contradictions in Perry Russo's stories
Perry Russo's First Lie Detector Test... Russo's first lie detector test did not go well.
Lt. Edward O'Donnell Testifies about Perry Russo's Lie Detector Test... Russo's second lie detector test was a disaster.
At the hearings in 1971 to determine if Garrison could continue with his perjury indictment of Clay Shaw, Perry Russo plead the fifth amendment.
Russo makes some startling admissions in this interview with Shaw's attorneys.
Russo bumps into Martens and admits that he didn't know David Ferrie all that well.