Page x of Tosh Plumlee's book, Deep Cover, Shallow Graves I think the above photograph is obscene. Like many people, I have visited Oswald's grave, but the last thing I would do is salute. After all, Oswald killed JFK, and he killed a policeman. So, here is what Plumlee has to say about Oswald in his book. In the spring of 1958, I was sent for training at the School of Illusionary Warfare in Nags Head, North Carolina, where I met a young Lee Harvey Oswald. [page 6] There are two problems with this statement. First, in the spring of 1958, Oswald was overseas in Japan. He was not stateside. Second, there was no such facility in Nags Head. I covered this extensively in this blog post. But in what has to be one of the biggest self-owns in history, check out this paragraph from Plumlee: We were taught how to infiltrate foreign countries, capture radio stations and use them to broadcast propaganda. They told us that if you lie well enough, people start to believe you. We'd been picked, they said, because we were talented actors, and talented actors make good liars. [page 6] Yes, talented actors make good liars. The next mention of Lee Harvey Oswald in the book is on page 28 when Plumlee describes Dealey Plaza on November 22nd. Ahead and to our right, about a hundred fifty feet away, stood the seven-story red-brick Texas Book Depository Building I saw someone I believed to be Lee Harvey Oswald standing near the entrance and wondered if he were part of the abort team. And, of course, Plumlee recognized Oswald because he had met him in Nags Head, right? But when did Plumlee first meet Lee Harvey Oswald. Well, it was all because of George Joannides. To set the stage, Plumlee talks about Fidel Castro sailing to Cuba and then heading to the Sierra Maestra mountains in 1956. [page 60] Meanwhile in Havana, student members of M-26-7 were being routinely arrested and executed by Batista's secret police. Some escaped to the Sierra Maestra mountains and joined Castro and his rebels. A number of them were reporting back to the CIA at Miami's Wave Station. Their point of contact (POC) was a CIA officer out of Washington, DC who called himself Jay Howard. Later, after he became chief of the Psychological warfare branch of the CIA's JM/WAVE station in Miami, I learned that Jay Howard's real name was George Joannides. It's through Joannides that I first met a young CIA cut-out like myself named Lee Harvey Oswald. I've seen no evidence that George Joannides used Jay Howard as a pseudonym. But, you have to give Plumlee credit for inserting Joannides into his story. And he learned Joannides' real name in the early 1960s, but this is the first time he has mentioned him. And Joannides found the time to introduce Oswald to Plumlee. In Chapter 8, Plumlee discusses his time with Oswald at Nags Head. The eight-week course was held for covert operatives from all over the world. Lee and I were part of a group of fifty-five students, separated into specialties. His were languages and infiltration, and mine were psychological operations. While stationed in Miami between flights to Cuba, I had been approached by CIA official Wild Bill Harvey and told to attend the course. I later learned that another CIA man I had met in Miami named George Joannides was running the psychology warfare program taught at Nags Head -- a program designed by the infamous Sidney Gottlieb, director of the MK-Ultra program under CIA director Allen Dulles. So, Harvey told Plumlee to attend the course with Joannides as the program director -- a program designed by Sydney Gottlieb! Is it possible to get any more famous names into a paragraph? In 1959, Plumlee claimed he was in Honolulu taking a jungle warfare course, and who did he run into? None other than Lee Harvey Oswald! Nights in Honolulu, I'd frequent the Shell Bar on Waikiki Boulevard. It's where all the second lieutenant trainees hung out. "Quiet Village" by Martin Denny with its nature sounds and bird calls was a popular song at the time. One night I walked in and saw Oswald was sitting there with some other young military-looking guys dressed in civilian clothes. Lee and I acknowledged one another, and I sat down with his party and ordered a Singapore Sling -- gin, lime and pineapple juice with a touch of grenadine -- which was a popular drink at the time. Our conversation was casual. How are you doing? Good to see you again. One of the guys in Oswald's group told me that they were about to take a ship to return to Atsugi Naval Airbase in Japan. There Oswald continued radar training at the U-2 base before defecting to the Soviet Union in October 1959. The hope was, according to former CIA officer Victor Marchetti, that the KGB would try to turn Oswald into an agent, which would give the CIA valuable penetration into the KGB. [page 98] Ah -- enjoying a Singapore Sling with Oswald. The only problem is that Oswald was not in Hawaii in 1959, he was there in 1957 on his way to Atsugi. And relying on Marchetti is problematic. Previous Relevant Blog Posts on Victor Marchetti Should We Believe Victor Marchetti?, Part Three Marchetti was a contributing editor to a homophobic newspaper in the 1980s. Should We Believe Victor Marchetti?, Part Two An examination of the hoax that implicated E. Howard Hunt in the JFK assassination. Should We Believe Victor Marchetti?, Part One Marchetti said that Clay Shaw was a domestic contact of the CIA. Chad Nagle and Dan Storper Lay an Egg Nagle and Storper use Marchetti as a source on Clay Shaw. Rob Reiner's Podcast Series, Part Two Marchetti wrote about a fake defector program, but actually knew nothing about it. Dr. Cyril Wecht: Was Gerry Patrick Hemming Oswald's Handler? Wecht uses Marchetti as a source about an ONI program. Plumlee next ran into Oswald in April 1963: I ran into Oswald again in 1963 after he had returned to the United States and was living in Dallas. I had just finished flying mobsters Johnny Roselli and John Martino from Houston to Galveston. My next trip was Houston to Dallas to coordinate arms shipments for the anti-Castro rebels, so my encounter with Oswald would have taken place somewhere in the month of April. The location was a CIA safehouse run Alpha ember Manuel Rodriguez Ocarberrio, which stood directly behind an apartment Lee and his family were renting on 214 W. Neely Street in a section of Dallas known at the time as Oak Cliff. [pages 99 - 100] Plumlee writes that "the two of us had maybe three conversations over the course of the next two months at various CIA safehouses in the Dallas area, including one on Beckley Avenue, one near Sunset High School and another on Hallendale." And then Plumlee saw Marina and Lee arguing from "the safehouse across the alley." Plumlee was convinced that Oswald was innocent: I have no doubt that Lee was innocent. He never tried to kill President Kennedy. He was a young patriot like me from a broken family who was recruited and trained to complete clandestine missions for the government. It was Kennedy's brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who arranged for Oswald's repatriation back to the United States (For reasons, I'll get into later.) [page 104] Robert Kennedy arranged for Oswald's return. Who knew? And, of course, Plumlee channels Judyth Vary Baker: In the summer of 1963, after this return from the Soviet Union, Lee spent time in New Orleans where he was very publicly presented as a member of the pro-Castro Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Why he was doing this, is another story that was never explored by the Warren Commission, involving a fast-acting cancer-causing virus developed by the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans that Lee was tasked with smuggling into Cuba for the purpose of infecting Fidel Castro. [page 154] I wonder why the Warren Commission did not explore this story. Is anybody going to take this book seriously? Previous Relevant Blog Posts on Tosh Plumlee Tosh Plumlee Writes Fiction! Plumlee's new book is quite the novel. 1991 Tosh Plumlee Interview, Part One Part One of two parts. 1991 Tosh Plumlee Interview, Part Two Second of two parts. Tosh Plumlee in 1959 Some of Plumlee's interesting activities in 1959. Tosh Plumlee Admits He is Not a Credible Source A bizarre story in which Plumlee writes to the FBI that he has provided bad information to an article about him in a Denver magazine. Tosh Plumlee Steals a Plane Plumlee steals a plane and writes some bad checks. Did Tosh Plumlee Try to Abort the JFK Assassination? Did Plumlee fly an abort team to Dallas or the actual assassins? Eugene Dinkin and Vince Palamara Plumlee writes to Palamara that Dinkin's messages might have been the intelligence to send the abort team to Dallas. Rob Reiner's Podcast Series, Part Two PBS Frontline investigated Plumlee's allegations about Nags Head, North Carolina and could not corroborate any part of his story Tosh Plumlee Finds an Important Photograph Wow, Tosh finds someone who has a photograph of Jack Ruby, Johnny Roselli, Sam Giancana, Ed McLamore, and Lee Harvey Oswald.

I just received my copy of Tosh Plumlee's new book, Deep Cover, Shallow Graves. It's one of the finest pieces of fiction I've read in a long time, and for those of you who like fantasy, well, you can't go wrong. Kris Millegan wrote a publisher's foreword which immediately gives you a sense of the seriousness of this book: I heard about Tosh from the intrepid Jim Marrs. I was working on Judyth Vary Baker's book, Me & Lee: How I Came to Know, Love and Lose Lee Harvey Oswald, and she was talking about Lee being on an "abort" team, and Jim told me she had heard about that from only one other person, Tosh. But then Millegan met Tosh at a JFK conference and signed a contract for this book. It didn't happen. "They" reached out and put a hand on Tosh's shoulder -- typical spycraft protocol -- threatening his pension, employment, character assassination, and general trouble. I love that term "general trouble." But thank God, we now have Tosh's book! Dick Russell wrote the foreword -- not surprising since he used Plumlee's story in the Rob Reiner podcast series on the assassination. Even if it was only a Hollywood thriller, it would be compelling. But I'm convinced that Plumlee's saga is for real -- and verification has surfaced over the years with various federal investigative bodies. His specific claims regarding the "abort" operation were recorded under oath by the FBI on April 6, 1964, as the Warren Commission was nearing completion of its probe (thought it never saw fit to call Plumlee as a witness or even mention him in the ensuing 26 volumes of testimony. First, the Warren Commission was nearing completion in early April. And where is this supposed Plumlee testimony? It's not included in the book. Russell also writes that Plumlee testified under oath before the House Select Committee on Assassinations. Where is that testimony? It's not included in the book. However, he was interviewed by Gary Hart's staff: The Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee decided to ignore Plumlee's allegations, or at the very least, did not seem to be interested in having him testify. The ARRB took an interest and didn't find anything: The only time that Plumlee mentions being interviewed by the HSCA is this passage: Soon after that, I was visited by the FBI and then two investigators from the CIA. They warned me to keep my mouth shut and not say anything further to the Church Committee. They also told me if I revealed specific CIA methods or procedures, I would be subject to criminal prosecution. At the same time lawyers from the Church Committee and the newly formed House Select Committee on Assassinations were asking me more questions about my trips to Cuba, Operation 40 and what I had experienced in Dallas on November 22nd. I was trying to walk a fine line between the two. The FBI and CIA were telling me to keep my mouth shut, and the Church Committee investigators were urging me to talk. What was I supposed to do? The only thing I could think was to try and discredit myself as a reliable witness -- someone who couldn't remember dates and names. Wow! Plumlee decides to discredit himself. That sounds like a very good strategy, no? Well, he certainly succeeded. There is lot more to come from this book. E. Howard Hunt, Frank Sturgis, Johnny Roselli, Chauncey Holt, Bill Harvey, Jack Ruby ... there is enough for several blog posts! Stay tuned. Update:' This the letter that got Senator John Kerry interested in Plumlee: Previous Relevant Blog Posts on Tosh Plumlee 1991 Tosh Plumlee Interview, Part One Part One of two parts. 1991 Tosh Plumlee Interview, Part Two Second of two parts. Tosh Plumlee in 1959 Some of Plumlee's interesting activities in 1959. Tosh Plumlee Admits He is Not a Credible Source A bizarre story in which Plumlee writes to the FBI that he has provided bad information to an article about him in a Denver magazine. Tosh Plumlee Steals a Plane Plumlee steals a plane and writes some bad checks. Did Tosh Plumlee Try to Abort the JFK Assassination? Did Plumlee fly an abort team to Dallas or the actual assassins? Eugene Dinkin and Vince Palamara Plumlee writes to Palamara that Dinkin's messages might have been the intelligence to send the abort team to Dallas. Rob Reiner's Podcast Series, Part Two PBS Frontline investigated Plumlee's allegations about Nags Head, North Carolina and could not corroborate any part of his story Tosh Plumlee Finds an Important Photograph Wow, Tosh finds someone who has a photograph of Jack Ruby, Johnny Roselli, Sam Giancana, Ed McLamore, and Lee Harvey Oswald.

Penn Jillette, the talkative member of the magic act Penn & Teller, knows that people will find the duo’s new project a little surprising. It is a Supreme Court brief filed last month urging the justices to hear an appeal from Charles Don Flores, a death row inmate in Texas. A key piece of evidence in the case was tainted by a police officer’s “investigative hypnosis” of a witness, the brief said. Here is a summary of the case: The brief noted that there was no physical evidence against Flores. The witness who identified him at trial, Jill Barganier, had initially described someone who looked nothing like him. That changed after she underwent hypnosis. Barganier at first told police that she had seen two white men with long hair who resembled one another pull up in a Volkswagen bug in the driveway of her neighbor, Elizabeth Black, shortly before Black was murdered. Barganier identified one of them, Richard Childs, from a photo array. He was a white man with long hair and a lanky frame. He pleaded guilty to the murder, served about 18 years and was paroled in 2016. The police were also interested in Flores. But he was a large Hispanic man with short hair. A few days after the murder, Barganier met with a police officer, telling him again that the men she had seen both had long hair. The officer, who had never hypnotized anyone before, told Barganier that he would help her summon a memory by pressing a play button on a mental “recorder” that would allow her to see “a film of the events that occurred on that day.” During the hypnosis session, the officer asked suggestive questions. “Is his hair short? Is it shaved? Is it neatly cut?” he asked of the driver. “Does he have it neatly cut or is it trimmed?” he asked of the passenger. Presented with a photo array of six Hispanic men, Barganier did not identify Flores. But at the trial 13 months later, she said Flores was one of the men she had seen on the morning of the killing. She was, she said, “over 100 percent” sure. The trial judge was not convinced, noting that Barganier by now knew Flores’s name. “Honestly, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to pick out who is the Hispanic individual in the courtroom,” the judge said. But the judge allowed Barganier’s testimony. Flores was convicted and sentenced to die. Here is their Amici Curiae about hypnosis: I posted this because of Jim Garrison's use of hypnosis in his investigation. He had Perry Russo hypnotized three times and he was fed leading questions which managed to construct a false memory [along with the use of sodium pentothal. Previous Relevant Blog Posts on Hypnosis A Tape Recording of Perry Russo's Third Hypnosis Session Links to transcripts of Russo's hypnosis sessions and link to an actual recording of his 3rd session. Niles "Lefty" Peterson - Another Forgotten Witness Under hypnosis, Perry Russo remembered that Lefty Peterson and Sandra Moffett were also at the party with Ferrie, Bertrand and Oswald. The only problem is that both Peterson and Moffett denied being there. Jim Garrison Tries to Pull a Fast One On the HSCA Garrison tried to mislead the HSCA by mislabeling the transcripts of Perry Russo's hypnosis sessions to hide the fact that he was asked leading questions.

Washington Post, March 4, 1969 Here ia an editorial from the March 4, 1969 edition of the Arkansas Gazette: And the Miami Herald:

Warren Commission critic Harold Weisberg played an important role in shaping Jim Garrison's thinking. Here is an excerpt from Dean Andrews' interview with NBC for their special from June 1967: Question: No, just tell the story (over Dean's laughter) what you ... what you ... Andrews: ... best as I can recall, sometime in October [1966], maybe the first part of November, I got a phone call to meet him [Garrison] in Brouss ... Question: meet him where? Andrews: Broussard's ... it's a tourist restaurant ... sometimes a less ... scratch that ... everybody eats there (laughing). So I met him there and he had a book called Whitewash and he told me that the office thought very highly of me and apparently I had some information they did not have. We generally discussed the Warren Report and the book and we met off and on since then. Here are two paragraphs from Dean Andrews' lawsuit from April 1967 against Jim Garrison: Garrison bought into a number of concepts from Whitewash, notably the belief of a second Oswald, or as Weisberg called him, the false Oswald. The Dean Andrews story about Clay Bertrand was played up by Weisberg. And Oswald's belief in communism was just a cover. Weisberg, like most conspiracy critics, was a leftist, and he not only wanted to prove the existence of a conspiracy, but he wanted it to be a right-wing plot. That mean that he had to hide Lee Harvey Oswald's interest in Marxism, which began when he was a teenager. Here is what Harold Weisberg wrote in Whitewash: (page 265 in the Dell edition) "From boyhood on, with a record in the Commission's possession going back to when he was but sixteen, Oswald was anti-Communist. When he left Russia, as even Marina makes clear, he was anti-Soviet." Let's examine the record: In early 1956, Oswald worked for the Pfisterer Dental Laboratories making deliveries. He worked with Palmer McBride who shared an interest in classical music. During Oswald's first visit to McBride's home, the discussion turned to politics: "At this time I made a statement to the effect that President DWIGHT EISENHOWER was doing a pretty good job for a man of his age and background, but that I did feel more emphasis should be placed on the space program in view of Russian successes. OSWALD was very anti-Eisenhower, and stated that president EISENHOWER was exploiting the working people. He then made a statement to the effect that he would like to kill president EISENHOWER because he was exploiting the working class. This statement was not made in jest, and OSWALD was in a serious frame of mind when this statement was made. LEE OSWALD was very serious about the virtues of communism, and discussed these at every opportunity. He would say that the capitalists were exploiting the working class and his central theme seemed to be that the workers in [of?] the world would one day rise up and throw off their chains. He praised KRUSHCHEV'S sincerity in improving the lot of the worker." In the summer of 1956, Lee Harvey Oswald, who was 16 years old, contacted William Wulf, though Palmer McBride. Wulf was the President of the New Orleans Amateur Astronomy Association. Here is an excerpt from Wulf's testimony before the Warren Commission: In March 1968, one of Garrison's investigators spoke to Wulf. Here is a brief excerpt: In October 1956, Oswald enlisted in the Marine Corps. In 1959 Oswald left the Corps and then defected to the Soviet Union. Here is an article on his defection: Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, November 15, 1959 According to the article, Oswald "told the U.S. embassy he was a devoted believer in communism and had read books on the subject since he was 15." Karl Marx's book Das Kapital "set him on the road to communism and he began to read all he could find out about it." Aline Mosby's notes can be found in Volume XXII, page 701 (CE 1385). Here are some comments: He told Mosby that he was a bookworm. What did he read? "Marx," he said, "I'm a Marxist," He became interested in Marxism when he was 15 when an "old lady handed me a pamphlet about the Rosenbergs." Then he found Das Kapital in the New Orleans library. "It was like a very religious man opening the Bible for the first time ... I continued to indoctrinate myself for five years. My mother knew I was reading books but she didn't know what they were about." He told Mosby that he continued to read Marxist books in the Marines and then made plans to go to the Soviet Union. Oswald called Mosby to complain about her coverage saying, "We weren't poverty-stricken. I am here because I believe in Marxist ideals. It's a matter only of ideology. You don't understand." Priscilla Johnson also interviewed Oswald. Here is her article from 1959: Here is her report from the Columbia Dispatch of November 25, 1963: Columbus Dispatch, November 25, 1963 Many of the same points are made by Johnson: "Lee was struck, in particular, by Marx's "Das Kapital." He concluded that, as an American, "I would become either a worker exploited for capitalist profit, or an exploiter or, since there are many in this category, I'd be one of the unemployed." Lee became a Marxist. Later, as a Marine Corps private in Japan and the Philippines, he "had a chance to watch American imperialism in action." Oswald's sojourn in the Soviet Union left him disillusioned, and he returned to the United States in 1962. He wrote: "The Soviets have committed crimes unsurpassed even by their early day capitalist counterparts; the imprisonment of their own people, with the mass extermination so typical of Stalin." But Oswald was still a man of the left. He noted that: "We have no interest in violently opposeing [sic] the U.S. government, why should we manifest opposition when there are far greater forces at work, to bring about the fall of the United States Government, than we could ever possibly muster." Here was Oswald's goal: "The emplacement of a separate, democratic, pure communist sociaty [sic] is our goal, but one with union-communes, democratic socializing of production and without regard to twisting apart of marxist communism by other powers" Oswald's interest now turned to Cuba and Fidel Castro. He started a New Orleans chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. When interviewed on the radio by Bill Stuckey, he said: "You cannot say Castro is a communist at this time because he has not developed his country, his system, thus far. He has not had the chance to become a Communist. He is an experimenter, a person who is trying to find out the best way for his country." Oswald saw Cuba as a chance for that "pure communist society," and he wanted to play a part and influence Castro in the revolution. Oswald even had a picture of Castro on the mantelpiece of his apartment. "That evening, Dutz Murret stopped over at Oswald's apartment to make sure his nephew would show up for the trial which was scheduled for Monday. Seeing a picture of Fidel Castro on the mantelpiece, he asked Oswald whether he was mixed up with Communists. Oswald answered no." Here is a short excerpt of Marina Oswald's testimony: Senator Cooper: But my question is what makes you think might have talked to Mr. Paine about Cuba. Mrs. Oswald: I think, sir: because after returning from New Orleans this was his favorite subject. Cuba, and he was quite -- a little bit cracked about it, crazy about Cuba. So, he had to get to Cuba. To help him achieve his goal, he tried to infiltrate anti-Castro groups in New Orleans, where he proceeded to hand out pro-Cuba leaflets on the streets. When anti-Castro Cubans got wind of this, an altercation ensued. Oswald was arrested, and his arrest made the newspapers, and he was on the radio. New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 13, 1963 When Oswald went to the Cuban embassy in Mexico City in late September 1963 to get a visa, he showed them his "dossier" to help prove his commitment to the revolution. It didn't work. The Cubans consulted the Russians, and he was turned away. He ended up having a meltdown at the Russian embassy, and he moved to Dallas a deeply bitter and angry man. Harold Weisberg ignored a lot of the evidence about Oswald's leftism and wrote that "from boyhood on ... Oswald was anti-Communist" (see above for the entire quote) and wondered if he had simply pretended to be pro-Castro. His opinion was that it was all a ruse. Oswald's activities did not make sense "except in terms of what is known in the intelligence trade as 'establishment of a cover.'" (page 268 in Oswald in New Orleans) Jim Garrison quickly picked this up as a core theme of his investigation. Here is an excerpt of an interview with the BBC: Question: Can you confirm that they were directed against Cuba, for example ... Garrison: I ... I can't ... I can't make any ... statement at this time as to what the ... as to what the objective of this apparatus was, but I will say, there was in existence in New Orleans, in 1963, an apparatus which was lethal in nature, of which Lee Harvey Oswald was a part, was assigned a role essentially as a decoy. I think I can tell you now, that, I know I feel like saying for the first time, that the Fair Play for Cuba, which he pretended to be so interested in was a cover, for the operation. Oswald was not a communist, Oswald was not pro-Castro, and, as a result of the operation, which was working here in the summer of 1963, a spin-off occurred. An unexpected change of direction occurred which, in the fall of 1963, which resulted in that lethal apparatus being turned against Kennedy and that's what happened, and that's the first time I've ever said that in public." Garrison went further in his October 1967 interview with Playboy magazine: "I don't believe there are any serious students of the assassination who don't recognize that Oswald's actual political orientation was extreme right-wing. His associates in Dallas and New Orleans -- apart from his CIA contacts -- were exclusively right-wing, some covert, others overt, in fact, our office has positively identified a number of his associates as neo-Nazis. Oswald would have been more at home with Mein Kampf than Das Kapital." All of this is quite amusing except that Garrison's beliefs had real-world consequences. He became interested in Kerry Thornley who served briefly with Oswald in the Marines in California. Garrison was convinced that Thornley had met Oswald while in New Orleans in September of 1963. In January of 1967, Garrison subpoenaed Thornley to appear before the grand jury: Some comments on this press release: The reason that the Mr. Jenner didn't go into detail about Thornley and Oswald in September 1963, is that they only overlapped in the city for about three weeks. Thornley returned to New Orleans in the beginning of September, and Oswald left in the last week of September. Had Thornley bumped into Oswald, he most certainly would have wanted to interview him about his defection, particularly since Thornley was already writing about him. Here is what Thornley wrote right after the assassination. Garrison takes exception to Thornley's description of Oswald's politics. "all of which conveniently supported the official fiction being manufactured for the American people that Oswald was a lonely, demented Marxist assassin who naturally was destined to shot at one president or another." Actually, Thornley just reported what he heard. Thornley appeared before Garrison's grand jury in February, 1968, and was immediately indicted for perjury: This press release is quite the document. Garrison says that "Inasmuch as Oswald really was never at any time a "Communist" -- nor even inclined in that direction -- and inasmuch as he was sent to Russia as an employee of the United States Government, it was necessary to have a major witness testify in great detail to create an early image as a Marxist so that there would not be too much public curiosity about the real reasons for Oswald's abrupt departure from the Marine Corps to sail to Russia." Really? There were many people who could so testify. Even if Thornley had never met Oswald, there is still a substantive amount of evidence regarding his political orientation. Garrison goes off the deep end in talking about Thornley's post office box: "Like a number of young men who have been identified as CIA employees, Thornley had a post office box in the federal building across from Banister's office. Such post office boxes are customarily used by federal employees with clandestine assignments as "message drops" as well as an acceptable excuse for regular visits into a federal building. Another of the young men having such a post office box was Lee Harvey Oswald. What this means is simply that Kerry Thornley and Lee Oswald were both part of the covert federal operation operating in New Orleans. The only difference between Oswald and the other young CIA employees was that, having performed a flamboyant Russian assignment for his country, he had a beautiful potential as a decoy in the assassination -- a potential which, as it happened, his employers did not waste." Garrison wrote a memo about the CIA usage of post office boxes here. But why wouldn't Thornley have a post office box in that building? After all, it was only a block or two from Thornley's apartment. His friend Greg Hill wrote, "nearly every writer in the French Quarter had a box in that post office, since publisher's checks sent to home mailboxes were notoriously subject to being ripped off by desperate junkies." Garrison then claims the CIA created a "Communist image for Oswald": "The Central Intelligence Agency elements which accomplished the execution of President Kennedy included, in addition to the ambush squad of presidential assassins used in Dallas, individuals working on custodial assignments and on image-creating assignments. The techniques used in creating a Communist image for Oswald were: persuading him by means of a pretext to engage in certain activities (such as handing out "Fair Play for Cuba" pamphlets), having other employees play his part in more inculpatory tableaux (such as appearing at the Mexican consul here and inquiring as to whether he could "bring a rifle into Mexico" or ostensibly receiving money being paid to him in the courtyard of the Cuban Consul [sic - consulate?] in Mexico City) and testifying, after the assassination, that Oswald was indeed a deranged Communist." However, the CIA goofed in regard to Thornley. He moved from New Orleans and he "remained on ice in Arlington, Virginia until it came time for him to testify that Oswald had been a Communist way back in their Marine days." But Thornley's move to Arlington was not suspicious. He had a standing offer from a friend to stay there and he felt it was time to get away from New Orleans. Kerry Thornley testified before the grand jury in February 1968, and so Garrison knew this. Garrison would go on and make this sound very suspicious in his book On the Trail of the Assassins: (page 76) "I later sent Andrew Sciambra to the Washington area, where he traced Thornley's path. Thornley had wound up at Arlington, a Washington suburb, and had moved into Shirlington House, a first-class apartment building where he worked as a doorman. Thornley stayed at Shirlington House for six months, until he testified before the Warren Commission. Oddly enough, his salary was less than the rent of his Shirlington House apartment." Of course, the great investigator Jim Garrison could not figure out that Thornley's room and board were part of his doorman gig. All he had to do was to ask Thornley. In the spring of 1964, Kerry Thornley testified before the Warren Commission. "... Thornley testified not only that he had been a "Marxist" but that he "had a persecution complex", "was emotionally unstable" and "wanted a place in history". Inasmuch as the defendant had already safely been executed -- the standard fate of the decoy in presidential assassination -- these works now became part of the official picture of Lee Oswald and his years as a CIA employee were buried with him." Garrison included an addendum to his press release which listed other Marines who knew little about Oswald's Marxist beliefs. This is not surprising since Oswald largely kept to himself while in the Marines. Garrison goes to write: "It is thought provoking that the only one of Oswald's former Marine comrades who testified that he was a "Marxist" -- one of the star witnesses for the Warren Commission -- is also the only one who was in personal association with Oswald in New Orleans in 1963 just before he returned to Dallas before the assassination." None of this was true. Thornley did not meet Oswald in New Orleans in the fall of 1963. But, more importantly, other Marines got a glimpse of Oswald's political beliefs. For some reason, Garrison missed them in the 26 volumes of the Warren Report. Here is a sampling: Nelson Delgado: (Volume VIII) Mr. Liebeler: Did you mention to the FBI the fact that Oswald had a copy of Das Kapital? Mr. Delgado: Yes. Mr. Liebeler: You mentioned that in your testimony previously too? Mr. Delgado: Yes. Oswald talked to Delgado about going to Cuba, even after it was starting to become clear that Castro was heading in the wrong direction: Their friendship began to wane because of Castro: Oswald did talk to Delgado about socialism: (Volume VIII) John Donovan: (Volume VIII) James Botelho: (Volume VIII) Paul Murphy: (Volume VIII) Richard Dennis Call: (Volume VIII) Erwin Donald Lewis: (Volume VIII) And, of course, there is the testimony of Kerry Thornley, who probably talked to Oswald more than most other Marines. You can read his testimony here. There is no question that Lee Harvey Oswald was a man of the left. It is true that he became disillusioned with Soviet communism after his defection. Harold Weisberg drew the wrong conclusion to say that Oswald was an anti-communist. He was anti-Leninist. But he was still a Marxist. James DiEugenio continues in the same vein as Jim Garrison. But he has added a twist. Here is a paragraph from his book, The JFK Assassination: (page 178) "For if Oswald was really a communist, why would he be associated with both Ferrie and Banister?" Of course, Oswald never associated with either Ferrie or Banister. Here are some posts about David Ferrie's and Guy Banister's supposed links to Lee Harvey Oswald: Did David Ferrie Know Lee Harvey Oswald? Did Lee Harvey Oswald Have David Ferrie's Library Card? Did a Cabbie take Oswald and Ferrie to Ruby's Nightclub? Did Vernon Gerdes See Oswald with Ferrie and Banister? Did David Ferrie Introduce Jack Martin to Lee Harvey Oswald in Banister's office? Did Delphine Roberts see Oswald in Banister's Office? Did Delphine Roberts See Lee Harvey Oswald in Banister's Office? (Part Two) Jean Davison, author of Oswald's Game (which I heartily recommend), considered Garrison's hypothesis that Oswald's beliefs were part of a ruse: (page 285) "How can we be certain, even so, that Oswald wasn't working for American intelligence or a similar group all along? I return to the principle that, in order to be plausible, a theory must fit the available evidence into a reasonable chronology of events. As we have seen, Oswald was capable of playing a double role for his own purposes and of risking his life for his beliefs. This inner-directedness gives us no reason to think that he would have staked his life for the beliefs of anyone else. To argue, as some critics have, that Oswald was merely posing as a leftist from the time he was 16 until, literally, the day he died, one must unravel the story of his life presented in this book and attempt to rewrite it into an entirely new pattern. I can't say that it is impossible to do so, but thus far it hasn't been done." For anyone to claim that Oswald was a man of the right, well, they have their work cut out for them. Update: Here is an excerpt from an FBI report on Nelson Delgado:

John Corbett discusses the JFK assassination on the JFK assassination forum. You will find that his posts are intelligent and that he really knows the case. It was a pleasure to talk with him. Previous Episodes of On the Trail of Delusion: Episode 1 My first guest was Robert Reynolds who is an expert on the JFK assassination files. Episode 2 Robert A. Wagner discusses his new book, JFK Assassinated. Episode 3 Gerald Posner discusses the JFK assassination and conspiracy theories. Episode 4 Dr. Martin J. Kelly, Jr. discusses conspiracy theories and the medical evidence in the JFK assassination. Episode 5 Steve Roe discusses the life of General Edwin Walker and Oswald's attempt to kill him. Episode 6 Gus Russo discusses his participation in the PBS Frontline documentary on Lee Harvey Oswald. Episode 7 Dave Perry tells some great stories about debunking JFK conspiracy nonsense. Episode 8 Nick Nalli explains some of the science behind the assassination. Episode 9 Alecia Long discusses Jim Garrison and his non-existent case against Clay Shaw. Episode 10 Don Carpenter discusses the life of Clay Shaw. Episode 11 Bill Brown discusses the murder of Officer J. D. Tippit. Episode 12 Eric Dezenhall discusses the relationship between the mob and JFK. Episode 13 Nick Nalli discusses the acoustics evidence and the Zapruder Film. Episode 14 Scott Maudsley discusses Lee Harvey Oswald's antisocial personality disorder. Episode 15 Document expert Robert Reynolds discusses what to expect in the upcoming JFK assassination file releases. Episode 16 A panel discussion on the document releases with Fred Litwin, Gus Russo, Robert Reynolds, Larry Haapanen, Mark Allen, and Steve Roe. Episode 17 An interview with author Michel Gagné about conspiracy theories. Episode 18 An interview with Phil Tinline about his book, Ghosts of Iron Mountain. Episode 19 An interview with Janet Banister, grand-niece of Guy Banister. Episode 20 The Marina Oswald Tapes. Episode 21 Dr. Chad Zimmerman discusses JFK's autopsy X-rays and photographs. Episode 22 Tour guide Daniel Evans talks about his years of researching the JFK assassination. Episode 23 Adam Gorightly discusses Fred Crisman, Thomas Beckham, Raymond Broshears and Kerry Thornley. Episode 24 A fun interview with Larry Haapanen who discusses the Garrison investigation, and his involvement with Project Blue Book. Episode 25 Dale Myers discusses the Tippit shooting and shows us some nifty animation. Episode 26 Brian Roselle discusses the timing of the first shot. Episode 27 Dr. Martin J. Kelly, Jr. talks about the psychology of Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby. Episode 28 Gus Russo talks about what happened to Lee Harvey Oswald in Mexico City. Episode 29 John-Paul Pagano discusses conspiracy theories, conspiracism and antisemitism. Episode 30 Dr. Robert Vitt talks about conspiracy theories, the early JFK researchers, and how to evaluate evidence. Episode 31 Josh Sundloff discusses conspiracy theories and his TikTok channel. Episode 32 A panel discussion of the single-bullet theory with Dr. Martin Kelly, Dr. Nick Nalli, Fred James and Scott Maudsley. Episode 33 Ernest Kearney discusses conspiracy theories and how to evaluate evidence. Episode 34 Steve Barber discusses the acoustics evidence and his visits with Robert Groden.

C ourtesy of the Malcolm Blunt Archive . The document is contained in the CIA folder within the Garrison folder. Here is a link to the actual document. The document is referenced on the last page of a just-released unredacted CIA chronology of Mexico City. See the last page. That comment can be more conveniently seen in of the searchable copies released earlier. Note written by COS: This guy GARRISON is so far gone that would not be acceptable in any luny [sic] bin!! "COS" evidently refers to the Chief of Station in Mexico City. The Chief of Station of Mexico City at that time was Win Scott. Previous Relevant Blog Posts about Garrison's Interview in Playboy Garrison's Playboy Interview - What Couldn't Be Printed Eric Norden, the journalist who interviewed Garrison, wrote a memo to Playboy Magazine with information from Garrison that could not be printed Garrison's Playboy Interview - More Secret Information Garrison also wrote a memo to Playboy with additional information and Norden wrote a second memo with secret information. Perry Russo's First Lie Detector Test... Garrison lied in his Playboy interview about lie detector tests given Perry Russo and Vernon Bundy. Jim Garrison (and others) on Rose Cherami Garrison mangles the story of Rose Cherami in Playboy

In July and August 1977, Jim Garrison was interviewed by staff members of the House Select Committee on Assassinations. I have five tapes of his interviews and, over the next several weeks, I will be publishing them here for the first time ever. Here is page one of the HSCA memo on the interviews: Here is the first of five tapes. And guess what? It's Jim Garrison at his craziest: This was not the first tape - it was recorded towards the end of the week with Garrison. Here is a Word document with the transcript: Here is a .pdf file: The "Watch on Youtube" link points to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA0-m2bwf6E . The auto-generated closed-caption transcript there is less accurate, but it can be searched, and includes time stamps which are live links to the audio. Here are the highlights: Thornley lied before the New Orleans grand jury when he said he was not in New Orleans when Oswald lived there in spring-summer of 1963. Neighbors would see him with Marina Oswald. (see below for one such document) Garrison saw Thornley at Georgia State University in the mid 1970s and thought he was on drugs. Garrison called him "a beatnik of the lowest order." In 1976 Thornley had a friend give Garrison a 50-page affidavit in which Thornley says he briefly met Guy Banister (to discuss his book) and David Ferrie in the early 1960s. Here is the affidavit. Thornley is Garrison's candidate for the second Oswald. Garrison is flummoxed by Thornley's description of Oswald's height. Garrison claims that both men were 5'11" and that Thornley said Oswald was only 5'5" tall. To Garrison this is proof that Thornley was trying to "disassociate" himself from Oswald. Garrison believes that it is Thornley's body in the Oswald backyard photographs. The FBI interviewed Thornley for a long time the day after the assassination. Garrison claims that their interviews are usually short, so why was this one so long? Thornley left after the assassination for Alexandria, Virginia, even though he still had ten days left on his lease before his rent was due. The landlord found his apartment in disarray with papers everywhere, and some of papers had been watered so that you could not read them. NBC offered Thornley a lot of money for the last chapter of his book, The Idle Warrior. Garrison tries to create an issue with when Thornley started and finished his book. Garrison brings up the statement of Harvey Wade who claimed he saw Oswald at the Carousel Club in Dallas. He might have seen the second Oswald. Discussion Garrison seems totally off his rocker. He makes a huge deal out of Thornley's description of Oswald's height. Garrison doesn't realize that Oswald was not 5'11" but was 5'9". The fact that Thornley described him as being shorter than he himself was is actually correct. Garrison makes a big deal out of the interview with his landlord, John Spencer. Here is the Spencer document: Garrison had Thornley testify before the grand jury on February 8, 1968. He could have asked Thornley about why he left his apartment with 10 days left in the month and why the apartment was such a mess. He didn't. The reason was simple. Thornley had a messy breakup with his girlfriend. He changed the locks, but she broke and in damaged a bunch of stuff. Here is what Thornley says about that: (page 59 in Caught in the Crossfire: Kerry Thornley, Lee Oswald and the Garrison Investigation , by Adam Gorightly) "When I moved out of the place after the assassination I was having a full-scale war with Jeanne, who was drawing money (it was turning out) of our joint checking account faster than I (working 12 hours a day under enormous strain as a waiter at Arnaud's) could put it in, without telling me, and Jeanne had just come by and broken in and stolen back her things (which I was keeping as ransom until she paid back some of what she owed me) and so when I left the apartment it looked like a hurricane had struck it. And although I had been planning the move for about a week, for some reason or other I did not tell (my landlord), so I just left him a note apologizing for the mess and telling him he could keep whatever was valuable in the stuff I left behind, as a cleaning fee. So it APPEARED as though I had cleared out in a sudden panic ..." There was no mystery about Thornley leaving New Orleans. He had a standing offer from a friend to stay at his place in Virginia and he felt it was time to get away from New Orleans. And Garrison knew this because Thornley discussed this with the grand jury. Garrison made a huge deal in his interview about Thornley telling the Warren Commission that Oswald was 5'5", when, in fact, they were both 5'11". Of course, he is wrong - Oswald was only 5'9". Here is his exact testimony before the Warren Commission : Does that sound nefarious to you? This is where Garrison got the height nonsense from: Garrison believed he found some witnesses who claim that Thornley was seen with Marina. It's interesting that when Thornley testified before the grand jury, Marina was also there, and they didn't recognize each other. Here is a fun document about Thornley and Marina: Here is the only other document I could find that mentions the Oswalds and Kerry Thornley: For some reason, Mrs. LaSavia never gave a statement, nor did Garrison call her before the grand jury. Garrison had a complete list of people who lived on the 4900 block of Magazine street and yet he couldn't find anybody to give a statement about seeing the Oswalds with Kerry Thornley. Harvey Wade brought out more craziness from Garrison. Click here for an entire blog post on Mr. Wade and his allegations. During his interview, Garrison told the HSCA that Thornley's father was a photo engraver. Perhaps he retouched the backyard photographs? A week after his interview, Garrison sent the HSCA a memo about this. Jim Garrison was delusional when it came to Kerry Thornley. He charged Thornley with perjury for denying he met Oswald in New Orleans in September 1963. Here is the HSCA conclusion about Thornley: "Thornley firmly denied contact with Oswald at 544 Camp Street in New Orleans or at any time since his Marine Corps Days. His statements have been corroborated and no evidence has been found to contradict him." I am working on four more Garrison tapes. I hope to put one tape a week online. Previous Relevant Blog Posts on Kerry Thornley Was the New Orleans Post Office a CIA Front? Garrison believed that people like Kerry Thornley had a post office box at the main post office because it was a CIA front. Was Kerry Thornley the Second Oswald? A crazy memo that Jim Garrison sent to the HSCA about Kerry Thornley Jim Garrison's Memo on the Military Industrial Complex Garrison's crazy memo on the military industrial complex with information on Kerry Thornley. Kerry Thornley writes Sylvia Meagher Sylvia Meagher realized that Garrison's charges against Thornley were ridiculous. They exchanged many letters - I present a five-page letter he wrote Meagher along with her reply. Did RFK Tell Garrison that there were guns between him and the White House? Kerry Thornley debunks Mark Lane Jim Garrison's Fascination with Odd (and Old) Churches... Was there a link between Kerry Thornley and the Jewish Civic Press? Reverend Raymond Broshears Makes a Startling Revelation! The good Reverend claims he met Thornley in a gay bar. Was Thornley the Second Oswald? Yes, Again! More proof that Thornley was the second Oswald! Kerry Thornley on Oswald right after Assassination Kerry Thornley's article on Lee Harvey Oswald just a few days after the assassination. Was Jim Garrison Napoleon or Rasputin? Another Sylvia Meagher letter to Kerry Thornley. Jim Garrison Writes to Arch Kimbrough... Why did Kerry Thornley leave New Orleans for Virginia? Was Lee Harvey Oswald a Man of the Right? Jim Garrison claimed that Oswald was a man of the right. But was he?

San Francisco Chronicle, December 29, 1967

In March 1967, Frank Manning, chief investigator for Louisiana Attorney General Jack Gremillion, was attending the Midyear Meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General. He informed H. L. Edwards of the FBI that he was concerned about "the activities of New Orleans District Attorney Garrison." Here is an unredacted copy of the FBI memo written about Manning's concerns: [hat tip Malcolm Blunt] The FBI had little interest in investigating: I don't think anybody wanted to rattle the cage of Jim Garrison: There was no investigation into Manning's allegations, despite the fact that letters like this were sent to the U.S. Attorney General, Ramsey Clark: The Department of Justice sent this to the FBI: The FBI sent it to Frank Manning: You won't find any of this in James DiEugenio's Destiny Betrayed . In fact, when reading this in my book, DiEugenio's reaction was to giggle! "At the beginning of Chapter 2, Litwin prints an FBI memo. It originates with someone in Louisiana state Attorney General Jack Gremillion’s office. It strikes the same chord that Stuckey does above: Garrison was somehow doing a shakedown operation with homosexuals in New Orleans. Gremillion’s office wanted the FBI to do something about it. I had to giggle while reading this. For two reasons. First of all, back in 1967, who would go to J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI on such an issue? If the point was genuine one would go to an agency like the ACLU. Or, since the state AG was above the local DA in New Orleans, why not pursue the case oneself? Which leads to my second reason for chuckling. Jack Gremillion was one of the most reactionary state AG’s there was at the time. Considering the era, that is really saying something (go here and scroll down). If there was a Hall of Shame for state AG’s not standing up for minority groups, he would be in it." The allegation didn't just originate with "someone in Louisiana state Attorney General Jack Gremillion's office." It originated with Frank Manning, his chief investigator. Clearly, he felt that Gremillion, because of past skirmishes with Garrison, would do nothing about the allegation. In fact, the memo notes that "After the Garrison case was reversed on appeal, Attorney General Gremillion washed his hands of any further efforts to "get" Garrison, and therefore, Manning's file on Garrison was closed." And so Manning decided to go to the FBI. Because Manning did not go to the ACLU, DiEugenio can dismiss the allegations, and even giggle. Shame on Frank Manning for not handling it like James DiEugenio. Of course, the ACLU only became supportive of homosexuality in 1966. They issued a major statement about homosexuality in August 1967 , well after Manning contacted the FBI. It's telling that the major issue to James DiEugenio is not the allegation but how it was handled by Manning. In any event, Manning's allegations were never investigated. Here is another example of a gay person being shaken down in New Orleans : For some reason, I don't find myself giggling. If you want more information on the Garrison investigation and homosexuality, please read Alecia Long's important new book, Cruising for Conspirators: How a New Orleans DA Prosecuted the Kennedy Assassination as a Sex Crime .

This is from a partial transcript of a discussion between Mark Lane and James Phelan. I don't have an exact date for this discussion, but it was probably in 1967. Phelan refers to Breck Wald, who was Breck Wall, an entertainer whom Ruby phoned on the evening of November 23d. Garrison believed he ordered Ruby to kill Oswald. The idea that homosexuals were "used" was also mentioned by Garrison to journalist Jack Anderson. A paragraph from On the Trail of Delusion: (page 78) "Muckraker Jack Anderson, the partner of syndicated columnist Drew Pearson, also spent some time talking to Garrison. According to Pearson's March 24, 1967, diary entry, Garrison told Anderson, "The CIA definitely had a plot to assassinate Castro and had approached Clay Shaw, a reputable, wealthy homosexual businessman, as a man who could execute the plot. Shaw was part of the homosexual ring, including Ferrie and Ruby in Dallas." At this point, Garrison thought the plot was to assassinate Castro, but "when Oswald was refused his visa to Cuba, the conspirators then turned around and decided to assassinate Kennedy. They used Oswald as a patsy. He was the only non-homo member of the ring. They figured he was so mentally disturbed, and so at odds with the world, that he could be used as the fall guy." Further corroboration comes from Merriman Smith: And where did these people go after they left the camp? According to Garrison, they went to Dallas. Here are some notes from journalist Hoke May: More about Theodore Brent here.

This interview is from 1976 and contains some really ridiculous stuff: There's no shortage of crazy material in this interview. Whereabouts of Shaw and Ferrie on November 22nd. Q: But I think that the charge against you, more specifically, was that you failed to show any real link between Clay Shaw and the Kennedy assassination. A: We showed his connection with Lee Harvey Oswald and we had him in specific conversation about the assassination, even up to such details as where he would spend the day when it was going to happen. Ferrie said that he would go to a university -- he had one in mind -- and sure enough that's where he ended up. Shaw said that he would made arrangements to make a speech -- and sure enough, he did schedule a speech at the World Trade Center, I think that's the approximate name, in San Francisco, for noon on the 22nd of November. So I contacted the Center in the course of this case and asked them how the date had been selected. They informed me that a friend of Shaw's wrote them and said that Shaw (managing director of the Trade Mart in New Orleans) was going to be in the vicinity about that time and would be happy to speak to businessmen if they would set it up. I asked them if they would send me a copy of the letter and, to my surprise, they did. And the letter's got a beautiful phrase in it. It says, "My friend Clay Shaw will be in San Francisco between Nov. 21 and Nov. 23rd." Have you ever heard anybody describe a date like that? In other words, he can't say Nov. 22. You speak about a Freudian problem, a block ... it merely confirmed what we had been able to develop earlier. I never understood why two people who live in New Orleans need to go out of town or to a University to establish an alibi. Garrison gets his facts wrong about Ferrie, who was in New Orleans on Friday, November 22, 1963. He spent most of the day in a courtroom. In the early evening, he drove to Houston and Galveston and didn't come back until the 24th. Upon arrival at his apartment, Ferrie could see there was a commotion and he drove out to Southeastern Louisiana College to visit his friend Thomas Compton. arriving at about 5 AM. Is that supposed to be some sort of alibi? Here are the letters about Clay Shaw's trip that Garrison refers to: Does this sound suspicious to you? Garrison pats himself on the back for protecting Clay Shaw's rights. A: These people who make these criticisms of me simply don't have the facts; they don't know what they're talking about. A person criticizing me (Garrison asked us not to mention names when he discussed his disagreement with other Commission critics) has got some incredible smears in one of his New Times articles. He said that all I seemed to have developed down there was the fact that Shaw was a homosexual. This is the same guy who admits later on (in a recent book on the Kennedy assassination) that a lot developed out of the Shaw trial. As a matter of fact, my instructions to my staff, in keeping with the policy of our office, was that no evidence of any kind would be introduced in front of a jury that indicated that Clay Shaw was a homosexual. I thought that was his own business and had nothing to do with the case. And I didn't want a conviction if we had to prejudice it. I could have probably gotten one if I had wanted to, but I wouldn't let anything in like that and I never did. I don't expect a parade to be held in my honor, because that should be the normal procedure for a district attorney to protect the rights of a defendant. This is standard operating procedure for Garrison - to feign indignation about the issue of homosexuality. In this case, the interviewer did not even bring it up. Jim Garrison Feigns Indignation at the Mention of Clay Shaw's Homosexuality Of course, Jim Garrison told several journalists (Hugh Aynesworth, James Phelan, Merriman Smith, Lawrence Schiller, and Max Lerner) that there was a homosexual conspiracy. Garrison also told Jerome Footlick that Oswald and Ruby were "co-operating homosexuals." Well, who was the at the heart of that conspiracy? Clay Shaw aka Clay Bertrand. Check out the entire series on QUICK Magazine. And, while Garrison didn't directly bring up homosexuality in the Shaw trial, does he really believe the jurors did not know that Shaw was gay? Homosexuality was brought up several times in the trial -- notably in the reading of Andrew Sciambra's memorandum on Perry Russo. But there may have been a reason why Garrison avoided the topic directly. Here is an excerpt from an interview of Irvin Dymond, one of Shaw's attorneys, by author James Kirkwood: Dymond : I had a little secret weapon. Kirkwood: Well, what about—what was the secret weapon? Can you tell me? Dymond : I don’t want to put it on tape. BREAK IN TAPE Dymond : And I let them know that we were prepared to use that. We'll never know exactly what information Dymond possessed. The "incredible smears" in New Times Magazine. Cover of New Times, April 18, 1975, with story by Robert Sam Anson Here is what Anson wrote about Garrison: Garrison was also more than just a little paranoid: Q: But many of your strongest detractors are Commission critics. Are you saying that these people might possibly be part of a CIA-inspired discreditation operation? A: Oh, no. I don't think there's any serious origin there. I'm not paranoid. I've spent too much time dancing with the agency. I think a lot of it, though, is too orchestrated, too steady and too strong. It's fed the free-lance investigators, and then they write a story. That's all. But again, I've been through so many battles with these people (CIA), why give in now, especially after I've accomplished a major gain. To hell with 'em. I've got to be extra careful. I know them (CIA) well enough to know that ... well, I don't think I have the problem to the extent that I had when I was DA when they created a series of problems I won't go into because it takes too long to explain. But when I go to my hotel tonight, I'll stay there, just to keep things simple. Because, after all, I'm still the only one pounding away at the CIA's involvement. Now, maybe if a few other people would join me, I'll feel a little more freedom to go out on my own when I'm away from home. Q: You don't go out at night when you're on the road? A: Well, I do from time to time, but I kinda minimize it; because I know how they operate. Q: You believe there's a possibility that the CIA might still find it necessary to kill you? A: Not probably, but possible. Once I [...] probable (sic). Was Jim Garrison Jealous of Clay Shaw? Q: How do you deal with Commission critics who still label your investigation in New Orleans a hoax? A : Well, if that's the case, I think I deserve some kind of prize, because if that was a political hoax ... keep in mind that it was nine years ago this February that I said that an element of the CIA was involved in Jack Kennedy's murder. Now within the last 24 months, Victor Marchetti, the former right-hand man of (CIA) director Richard Helms, has announced in the most specific of terms that Clay Shaw was a former (CIA) agent. So, that right there would seem to answer the question. What a longshot that charge is, that I have a hoax, that I'm craving conspiracy. So I seek this man here (Clay Shaw), this poor fellow (sarcastically) -- he was a member of the establishment! He had been patting wealthy ladies' behinds for years, he was on the cocktail circuit, invited to places I never was! I wasn't the establishment's man, he was. When I grabbed him, I knew I'd start hearing everybody screaming. If I was going to hoax, I'd pick some raggedy-ass guy and they'd say 'Fine, Hooray,' You know, some poor fellow with no money. Then everything would be hunky-dory. Rosemary James also made the point that Garrison might have been jealous of Clay Shaw in an article in the Advocate . "There are any number of theories as to why Garrison singled Clay out, but I don't pretend to know what goes on in the mind of someone who I think needs psychiatric help. You have to remember this was the '60s, and things were not as open as they are now in regard to sexual preference. It was widely known that Clay was homosexual. He didn't flaunt it; he was very discreet in his personal life. At the same time, he led a very active social life. Some people felt that Garrison was actually jealous of Clay's success and the fact that he lived as a homosexual without any repercussions."