Sylvia Meagher's Critique of Jim Garrison's Book
- Fred Litwin
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Here is her report, and here.
Meagher recommended that Prentice-Hall publish Garrison's book largely because he now believed that Lee Harvey Oswald was totally innocent. In 1967, Garrison had said that Lee Harvey Oswald was a co-conspirator with Clay Shaw, and that incensed Sylvia Meagher.
In her analysis, Meagher couldn't help but make a joke about Garrison's chapter on New Orleans:
Here is the paragraph she was referring to:
Garrison spelt Coffey wrong.
Here is what Garrison wrote in his first chapter:
Here is Prentice-Hall's rejection letter:
By the way, when I was researching my book, On the Trail of Delusion -- Jim Garrison: The Great Accuser, I spoke to Phil Pochoda. Here is an excerpt from my book: (page 298 in the Kindle edition)
Philip Pochoda, the publisher of Prentice Hall, wrote to Garrison in January 1987 and said that two “insuperable problems made any attempt at rewriting useless for our purposes.” Pochoda agreed with Meagher that Garrison had misrepresented the evidence on the motorcade. He wrote to me in 2020 and said that “it was far too big a blunder to allow into a Simon & Schuster book, much less a manuscript by the person who should have at least known that to be false.”
The bigger problem was that Garrison had promised that he “would specify an actual CIA hand in and during the assassination itself: the cut-out agent, Fred Lee Crisman.” But Pochoda found that “the Crisman material was much too flimsy to permit inclusion in the book.” Thus “without the ‘smoking gun’ I do not think anybody who doesn’t now believe in CIA coordination and involvement will be persuaded by your text.” As such, “the evidence you present is really to be found in all the well-known books on the conspiracy.” The result is that “what we now have is polemics grappling for confirmation, and a manuscript that is unpublishable.” Garrison was told to return his advance.
Here is Garrison's reply to Pochoda:
That she would want Prentice-Hall to publish a charlatan just because he now claimed Oswald was innocent speaks to Meagher's delusional beliefs. That she would countenance the victimization of Clay Shaw for a second time was contemptible.
But wait, there's more.
Garrison was not happy with Meagher's analysis and he wrote a letter to his literary agent with several complaints. Stay tuned.
Previous Relevant Blog Posts on Sylvia Meagher
My review of Meagher's book.
My review of Kaitlyn Tiffany's new book.
Meagher comments on Garrison's failure to appear on a radio show.
An excerpt from a letter Meagher sent to Thomas Stamm.
Salandria tries to make up with Meagher.
Philippe Labro was a French journalist who covered the JFK assassination for France-Soir.
Fensterwald invites Meagher to join his organization. She refuses because of Jim Garrison.
A scathing review of Flammonde's book about the Garrison investigation.
An exchange of letters about Jim Garrison.
Garrison comes up with a crazy code and Sylvia Meagher calls him out.
Meagher also wrote poetry.
Meagher's very good idea shows that Garrison didn't care to learn the truth.
Thornley tells Meagher about an article illustrating Garrison's pre-occupation with the JFK assassination.
Bethell wrote Meagher about Charles Spiesel and his ridiculous testimony at the Clay Shaw trial.
Sylvia Meagher's terrific letter to Look Magazine in response to their article "The Persecution of Clay Shaw."
She was very pleased with his acquittal.
Meagher writes Clay Shaw a letter and his response is just terrific.
Dr. Wecht didn't think too much of Garrison, either.
Meagher educates Farrell on Jim Garrison.
A plea to Oliver Stone with a compilation of Meagher's writings about Jim Garrison.
Howard Roffman writes a letter to Harold Weisberg about Sylvia Meagher.
This phone call broke their relationship.
An unpublished Meagher memo on the trial of Clay Shaw.
Another unpublished Meagher memo on the Garrison investigation and Warren Report critics.
Sylvia Meagher's letter to the Editor regarding Garrison's interview in Playboy Magazine.
Meagher writes Harold Weisberg with her comments on the verdict.
James Phelan and Sylvia Meagher write Garrison letters about his book.
An exchange of letters between Thornley and Meagher.
Meagher writes Thornley about Lane's comment on RFK.
Meagher writes Thornley with an opinion.
Exchange of letters between Meagher, Arnoni and Garrison.
Meagher writes Weisberg about the damage Garrison is doing to critics of the Warren Report.
Meagher replies to the New York Review of Books regarding Popkin's article on Garrison.
An exchange of letters between Popkin and Meagher.