So far, we have posted a variety of reasons for believing Jim Garrison was behind the QUICK article from April 1967. In addition, there was a story in QUICK which was not in the press, and could only have come from Jim Garrison. It concerned James Dondson, who spent part of the weekend of the assassination with Clay Shaw in San Francisco.
"The questioning of Shaw's male lover James Dondson made me even more certain that Shaw was head of the plot. At the very hour Kennedy was killed, Shaw was in bed with Dondson in the same hotel room. A few minutes after the assassination, a certain Richard Randoff called the hotel and told Shaw that Kennedy had been shot. Even though the caller only used the word "shot," it was immediately clear to Shaw that Kennedy was dead. He hung up the phone, turned to Dondson, and said, 'Now I have to call a few people right away.'"
Very few people knew that Clay Shaw was with James Dondson the weekend of the assassination. One person who did know was writer and part-time Life Magazine photographer Lawrence Schiller. Here is an FBI report with the details:
The story in the FBI report about Dondson matches the QUICK story almost word for word. Even the story about the phone call from Richard Randoff is in both.
Shaw received a telephone call at the hotel room on the morning of November 22, 1963, apparently from one Richard Randoff, 435 Frederick Street, San Francisco. In the call, Shaw was advised that President Kennedy had been shot. In Dondson’s opinion, Shaw reacted as though it was an accepted fact that the President had been killed although the news media did not announce the death of the President until about one hour later. Shaw immediately made several telephone calls from the hotel room.
The phone call was from a Dick Randolph, not Randoff. Here is an excerpt from the journal of Richard Billings:
"Garrison reveals Dondson told him Shaw got word of assassination from a Dick Randolph, who works for the May Company . . . Having Angeloff checking Seattle HQ of hotel chain to locate St. Francis records . . ."
And the story about Dondson meeting Jim Garrison was true - here are two pictures of him with Garrison in Las Vegas:
Dondson contacted the defense team after Schiller brought him to Las Vegas where he met Garrison:
Very few people knew about Shaw and Dondson. There was no mention of Dondson in the New Orleans newspapers in March and April 1967.
There is another part of the QUICK article that again points to Garrison:
"But I have reason to believe that Shaw, as the inventor of the plot, tried to keep his active participation in the plot to a minimum, when he learned about Oswald's political connections. It may have been these political reasons or the jealousy of Oswald - in any case, Shaw was not involved in the last phase of the attack.
The fact that he planned the plot with Ferrie should be enough to get him ten years in prison. But I am more than happy to let him go if he would help me find the real shooter: Manuel Garcia Gonzales."
Schiller's interview of Garrison was written up as a memo. Unfortunately, a copy of that memo is at the Assassination Archives and Research Center (AARC) which is currently closed. But we do have a description of that memo from the Peter Vea Index of Garrison materials at the AARC:
This memo confirms the FBI report, and has many of the familiar Garrison tropes we have been talking about - the "Pinky" nickname for Jack Ruby; the Breck Wall order to Ruby to kill Oswald; and the JFK assassination as a "thrill killing" like the Leopold and Loeb murder.
The story in QUICK points directly to Jim Garrison, and provides clues as to the origin of the article. But more on that later.
Our Next Blog Post on the QUICK article
Jim Garrison disavows authorship.
Previous Posts on the QUICK Article