Should We Believe Victor Marchetti?, Part One
- Fred Litwin
- 7 minutes ago
- 11 min read
Jefferson Morley's Substack recently touted the importance of Victor Marchetti, author of The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence.
Morley writes this about Clay Shaw:
Marchetti said that [CIA Deputy Director of Plans Tom] Karamessines told him that Shaw was a long-time high-level asset who assisted in operations. Another CIA man, Ray Rocca, said he thought Garrison would obtain a conspiracy conviction. The CIA’s cover story, still believed by credulous reporters and historians, was that Shaw was merely an unpaid source.
In 1993, CIA historian Ken McDonald essentially confirmed Marchetti’s story, reporting that a review of Shaw’s file showed Shaw was a “highly-paid contract source” in the 1950s. (McDonald also said the file showed no CIA involvement in JFK’s assassination.)
There is no footnote for the claim that Karamessines told Marchetti that Shaw was a "long0time high-level asset who assisted in operations."
So, what did Marchetti actually say about Clay Shaw?
Here is a Zodiac News Service press release from 1973:
There is nothing in this press release about Shaw being an operative -- only that he was a "paid contact." Marchetti also alleged that Clay Shaw and David Ferrie worked together on the Bay of Pigs planning operation. There is no evidence at all to sustain that allegation, and it's interesting that Marchetti said "he did not know all of the specifics."
Actually, he didn't know ANY of the specifics.
Here is a later interview with Victor Marchetti:
Money Quote:
I was then told "Well .. Shaw, a long time ago, had been a contact of the Agency .... He was in the export-import business .. he knew people coming and going from certain areas - the Domestic Contact Service - He used to deal with them ... and it's been cut-off a long time ago ... and then I was told well of course, the Agency doesn't want this to come out know [sic] because Garrison will distort it, the public would misconstrue it."
The document above was produced by Mark Lane's Citizen's Commission of Inquiry, and was conducted by K. R. Walsh. And Clay Shaw was a domestic contact of the CIA from 1948 - 1956.
True Magazine's April 1975 article "The Strange Death of Clay Shaw," quoted from the interview, and also conducted it's own interview with Marchetti.
Marchetti reiterated that Shaw was a domestic contact of the CIA:
Marchetti's answer wasn't well received at the Citizen's Commission. Here is their follow-up question:
Marchetti says he "accepted these explanations on face value" until he "began to get connected with the Committee to Investigate Assassinations." He was clearly affected by assassination buffs.
His comments on David Ferrie are ridiculous - Marchetti was not even sure if Ferrie was a "contract agent" or just a contact. And there is absolutely no evidence that he was involved in the Bay of Pigs nor is there any evidence of a relationship with the CIA.
The memo doesn't say why Rocca believed Garrison would obtain a conviction of Shaw. Lots of people felt that way -- Garrison was a very powerful D. A., and had some of the New Orleans judges in his pocket.
Here is an excerpt from Milton Brener's The Garrison Case: (page 24 - 25)
In August, 1963, Executive Assistant Frank Shea was one of the eleven candidates that qualified for a Criminal Court judgeship vacated by the death of Judge Shirley Wimberly. Many of the other candidates had political support in varying strength. Shea had no support, save that of his boss, Jim Garrison. He led the field in the first primary and entered a second primary with the runner-up Guy Johnson. In the second primary, almost to a man, the defeated candidates threw their support to Johnson, who also garnered practically all organized political support, as well as the endorsement of the city's newspapers. Unabashed, Garrison scheduled a victory party for election night at one of the city's major hotels. The gathering was not to be disappointed. Shea's margin of victory was just enough to discourage a contest of the results. Garrison now had a friend on the bench.
This was the first public test of Garrison's popularity. The significance was not lost on the judges, as was soon to be demonstrated.
Here is another excerpt from Brener's book (page 33)
Later that summer, Rudolph Becker, a veteran criminal attorney and former Assistant District Attorney, ran for the Judgeship of Division "E" of the Criminal District Court in opposition to Judge Cocke. A number of Becker's newspaper advertisements, as well as his campaign literature, bore the unmistakable imprint of Garrison's clever and fertile creativity. Cocke was an inept campaigner, and his support by several former District Attorneys, State legislators and other city officials, as well as many members of the Bar was scarecly adequate to answer the ridicule heaped upon him. Toward the end of the campaign, Garrison actively and openly supported Becker, who entered a second primary with Cocke. Cocke was ultimately defeated. Becker became the second judge to be elected with Garrison's support.
And here is a third excerpt from Brener's book (page 39)
In March, 1966, a vacancy was created on the Criminal Court Bench by the retirement of Senior Judge George Platt. Under State law, Governor McKeithen could fill the vacancy with his own appointee. At the urging of the District Attorney, the Governor selected Matthew Braniff, a close friend of Garrison. He was the third man to ascend to the bench through Garrison's efforts.
I see no reason to believe that Rocca's belief was based on the evidence since the memo was written in September 1967 and the only information about Garrison's evidence, at that time, was from the preliminary hearing. And that was pretty thin gruel.
In addition, there was no discovery in the courts of Louisiana back then and that meant that Clay Shaw's attorneys had no access to Garrison's case file. The first witnesses in the case were from Clinton, Louisiana and they testified that Shaw, Oswald and Ferrie were there in the late summer of 1963. Had Shaw's attorney's had access to the investigative reports about the Clinton witnesses, they would have had incredible material for cross-examination. But they didn't and so they had to go in blind.
A good summary of my multi-part series on Clinton
Of course, conspiracy theorists will say that Rocca believed Garrison would get a conviction because the CIA 'knew' he was involved. But again, there is no evidence to support this.
For example, here is another CIA document from the same time period:
Money Quote:
The fact that Garrison's charges against CIA are false, like most of his charges against other elements of the federal government as well as many private citizens, does not mean that when he goes to court his case will collapse like a house of cards.
Here is another excerpt from an April 1967 CIA memo:
The CIA describes Garrison's case as flimsy. But still they were concerned because of way Garrison used the press.
Here is an excerpt from a CIA memo from September 1967:
Money Quote:
Louisiana law is based on the Napoleonic Code, not British common law. The charge is conspiracy. Garrison will be permitted to spin inference and conjectures at length ... The crescendo of Garrison's false accusations, mounting since last spring, will continue to rise.
There are no CIA memos in which they say that Garrison's charges have any merit.
Lastly, Morley mentions Ken McDonald's summary of documents in the CIA segregated collection. He most certainly made a mistake when he said that the underlying documents show that Shaw was a "highly-paid contract source." The terminology itself is incorrect -- there is no such thing as a contract source.
I covered this in this blog post.
But that article was based on a hoax!
You can read all about it in Part Two of Should We Believe Victor Marchetti?
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There were some good reasons why Shaw never admitted to being a domestic contact.
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