My monograph, The Arrogance of Ignorance: A New Look at the JFK Cover-Up, available from The Last Hurrah Bookshop!
Winner of the 2001 JFK Lancer - Mary Ferrell Student of the Year Award
Table of Contents
2. Louisiana v. Clay Shaw
2.a Transcript of the Trial of Clay Shaw
2.b Transcript of Preliminary Hearing Testimony in the Shaw Case
2.c Selected Grand Jury Testimony in the Shaw Case
2.d Witnesses Who Did Not Publicly Testify Against Clay Shaw
3. Louisiana v. Kerry Thornley
3.a Warren Commission Testimony Relevant to Kerry Thornley
3.b NODA Witnesses Against Kerry W. Thornley 3.c Other Documents Related to Thornley
4. Original Articles and Analysis
5. Other Documents and Files
6. Articles of the Era
7. Recommended Reading on the Garrison Investigation
Introduction
v2.0 - January 2002
Even more than 30 years after it ended, the Jim Garrison investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy has remained one of the most controversial cases on legal history.
Garrison's 1967 arrest of businessman Clay L. Shaw gave credibility to the conspiracy debate. Sadly, the conduct of the probe and the outcome of Shaw's trial ended all hope of a reckoning in the Kennedy murder until the mid-70s.
This site has been around on the 'net since December 2000, and since that time my views on Garrison's investigation have evolved considerably. I was once comfortably secure of Shaw's guilt. Now, however, I found myself to be a "Garrison agnostic." I have cleaned up much of the site—removing the individual links to the Clay Shaw trial transcript and replacing them with one single link to Dave Reitzes' fine jfk-online.com website—in order to make the site more compact and give Dave more credit where it's due. The site is also in a transition stage, as I prepare to move it to a commercial server (rather than my web provider here in Mineral Wells, Texas) as *I* get ready to move to Lubbock, Texas for college.
My feeling now is that much of Jim Garrison's case against Clay Shaw was smoke and mirrors. Garrison, disturbed by the untimely death of David W. Ferrie, arrested Shaw in haste based solely on the testimony of Perry R. Russo. Garrison believed Russo (as I do, within certain limitations—Russo was telling the truth as he knew it, but his knowledge did not implicate Shaw, nor can we realistically conclude that his identification of "Leon Oswald" as Lee Harvey Oswald was accurate), who nevertheless proved a difficult witness because of his erratic personality. Garrison added to his case lying witnesses Vernon Bundy and Charles I. Spiessel, as well as the disreputable Clyde Johnson, out of expediency before gathering (in my opinion reliable) evidence that Shaw had perjured himself regarding his alleged alias and his association with Ferrie and the alleged assassin Oswald.
Garrison repeatedly told Harold Weisberg that the "smoking gun" evidence would be revealed at Shaw's trial, but when the trial came, the gun did not smoke.
It is also my opinion that Garrison's charges against Kerry W. Thornley and Dean Andrews had substantial merit and that Garrison was quite justified in bringing them.
Undoubtedly, some will disagree with me. But that is the nature of a reasonable debate, and in an objective search for the truth multiple viewpoints most be considered. For what it is worth, the purpose of this site is not to project my opinions, but rather to collect for posterity that true documentary record of the Garrison case. All users, from novice to expert researcher, and of all points of view, should find this site useful.
With that in mind, let the debate begin!
E-mail comments to biles@wf.net.
Evidence
- Shaw
On March 1, 1967, Clay Shaw was arrested and charged with conspiracy to murder President Kennedy. Shaw was tried during the February of 1969 and acquitted of all charges the first day of March, two years to the day from his arrest. The State alleged that during the summer of 1963, Shaw conspired with David W. Ferrie, ace pilot and alleged anti-Castro soldier of fortune, and Lee Harvey Oswald during a meeting at Ferrie's apartment at 3330 Louisiana Avenue Parkway. Their case hinged on the crucial testimony of Perry Raymond Russo.
Trial Transcript - Louisiana v. Clay Shaw
Available online courtesy of Dave Reitzes
Click Here
www.jfk-online.com
Preliminary Hearing Transcript - Louisiana v. Clay Shaw
Available online courtesy of Dave Reitzes
Frank
Hayward
Peter Schuster
John F. Reilly
Perry Raymond Russo
Antonio Edward Papale
Frank Joseph Stass
James J. Kenny
Endicott A.
Batchelder
Perry Raymond Russo,
resumed
Dwight W. Martin
Julian L. Levey
Perry Raymond Russo,
resumed
Harold Jerome Lidin
Perry Raymond Russo,
resumed
Nicholas J. Chetta
C. W. Johnson
Nicholas J. Chetta,
resumed
Esmond A. Fatter
Vernon J. Bundy, Jr.
Transcript of Jim
Kemp interview with Perry Raymond Russo
March 1, 1967
Selected Transcripts of Testimony Before the Orleans Parish Grand Jury
Available online courtesy of Dave Reitzes
Witnesses in order of appearance:
March 16, 1967
Dean A. Andrews, Jr.
Dean A. Andrews, Jr.
(resumed)
Thomas Louis Clark
Fenner O. Sedgebeer
March 22, 1967
Perry Raymond Russo
March 27, 1967
Perry Raymond Russo
June 28, 1967
Dean A. Andrews, Jr.
Eugene C. Davis (Gene
Davis)
Witnesses Who Did Not Testify at Trial
Clyde Johnson
Ed McMillan
Richard Case Nagell
J. Monroe Sullivan
William Morris
Raymond Broshears
David Logan
Fred Leemans, Sr.
Alfred Moran
Capt. Henry Spicer
Ernesto Gonzales
L.P. Davies, Jr.
Charles Krop
Thomas Breitner
Dave Ferrie
Ken Elliot
Jules Ricco Kimble
Edward Girnus
Joe Newbrough
Betty Rubio
Herbert Wagner
James Laurent
Jim Louviere
Mrs. Carlos Marquez
Mary Morgan
Sandra Anderson
Edward James Whalen
Henry Burnell Clark
Mrs. June A. Rolfe
Evidence
- Thornley
In February 1968, Kerry W. Thornley was arrested and charged with perjury for denying, during his February 8 Grand Jury testimony, that he associated with Lee Harvey Oswald in New Orleans during the summer of 1963. To some Warren critics, Thornley's earlier and perjured testimony before the Warren Commission was instrumental in creating a false portrait of Oswald as a Marxist loner capable of killing a president. To Garrison critics like David Lifton, he was merely a victim of a witch hunt orchestrated by Garrison. The charges against Thornley were dropped by Garrison's successor, Harry Connick, Sr., before Thornley could be brought to trial.
Warren Commission Testimony
Kerry W.
Thornley
Richard D. Call
Donald Camarata
Peter Connor
Nelson Delgado
John E. Donovan
Allen D. Graf
John R. Heindel
David C. Murray, Jr.
Mack Osborne
Daneil Powers
Henry J. Roussel
NODA Witnesses Against Thornley
Peter Deageano
Doris Dowell
Bernard Goldsmith
Jack Spencer
Other Documents Related to Thornley
Excerpts from HSCA Volume 10 Dealing with Kerry Thornley
Articles and Analysis
The VIP Room Revisited: Compelling Evidence or Dubious Forgery?
The Big Picture
My weekly column for the Mineral Wells Index, my hometown newspaper. Contains my thoughts and feelings on Texas and national politics. Look for one on how we should strengthen the JFK Act of 1992 in a few weeks...
March 18, 2001 - Bill Clinton: Leave Me Alone!
March 11, 2001 - No Easy Answers in School Shooting
March 04, 2001 - Lon Burnam and the Abolition of Heritage
Reader Input - Public Service
Everything in this category was contributed by visitors to the site or is included as a public service.
Regrouping - An Editorial by Edward Murch
Click here for the Sirhan Sirhan Defense Team's site.
Joe Cornejo in Wisconsin is selling much of his library of assassination books. I bought my copy of Garrison's A Heritage of Stone from this guy and it arrived promptly and in good condition at a reasonable price. Click here to take a look at what Joe has for sale.
Other Documents and Files
November 25, 1963 - FBI Memo on Ferrie
November 25, 1963 - FBI Interview of David Ferrie
February 18, 1967 - NODA Interview of David Ferrie
March 7, 1968 - CIA Memo: Garrison and the Kennedy Assassination - Cubans and Other Latin Americans Allegedly Involved
April 9, 1968 - CIA Document on 544 Camp Street / Banister
April 9, 1968 - Harold Weisberg Interview with Tommy Baumler, Jack Burnside and Barbara Reid
Bud Fensterwald / J. Gary Shaw Interview with Tommy Baumler
Garrison's 30 Minute "Equal Time" Rebuttal to the NBC Special
Letter to Richard A. Sprague from Dimitri L. Contostavlos, M.D. on the Death of David Ferrie
Courtesy Arch Stanton, original court decisions authored by Judge Jim Garrison.
Herbert v. Huber - 1978 page 1 page 2
Dyna International Corporation v. Michael Mashburn - 1981 page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4
Pamela Falvora v. Joseph Falvora - 1980 page 1 page 2 (and Thibodeaux v. Schwegmann Bros. Supermarket) page 2 (and DeBoisblanc v. Moseley) page 2
Articles of the Era
Louisiana v. Clay Shaw
May 15, 1967: SOLON CALLS GARRISON'S EVIDENCE
'IMPORTANT'
Summer 1967: PLAYBOY INTERVIEW OF JIM GARRISON Part 1
Summer 1967: PLAYBOY INTERVIEW OF JIM GARRISON Part 2
Summer 1967: PLAYBOY INTERVIEW OF JIM GARRISON Part 3
January 1968: THE GARRISON COMMISSION ON THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY - William Turner
February 1968: MARINA IS ORDERED TO TESTIFY IN ORLEANS
Louisiana v. Dean Andrews
August 14, 1967: GARRISON WINS PERJURY CASE
June 10, 1972: COURT UPSETS 1967 CONVICTION
Louisiana v. Kerry Thornley
February 22, 1968: OSWALD MARINE BUDDY CHARGED
May 31 and June 6, 1968: IS
JIM GARRISON OUT OF HIS MIND? - David Lifton
May 31 and June 6, 1968: IS
JIM GARRISON OUT OF HIS MIND? - Kerry Thornley
Recommended Reading
Davy, William. Through the Looking Glass: The Mysterious World of Clay
Shaw (Self Published, 1995).
---. Let
Justice Be Done: New Light on the Jim Garrison Investigation (Jordan
Publishing, 1999). Official Homepage
DiEugenio, James. Destiny Betrayed: JFK, Cuba and the Garrison Case
(Sheridan Square Press, 1992).
Garrison, Jim. A Heritage of Stone (Berkley Publishing Corp, 1970).
---. On the Trail of the Assassins (Sheridan Square Press,
1988).
James, Rosemary and Wardlaw, Jack. Plot
or Politics?: The Garrison Case & Its Cast (Pelican Publishing House, 1967).
Lambert, Patricia. False
Witness: The Real Story of Jim Garrison's Investigation and Oliver Stone's Film JFK (M. Evans and Company, Inc., 1998).
Turner, William. Rearview Mirror (Penmarin Press, 2001).
Weisberg, Harold. Oswald in New Orleans (Canyon Books, 1967).
Vea, Peter. The Peter Vea Index: Chronology and Summaries of Files from the
Garrison Investigation (CTKA, 1995).
Coming Soon
The manuscript for my first full-length book, In History's Shadow: Lee Harvey Oswald, Kerry W. Thornley & the Garrison Investigation, is finished. With a little bit of luck the book will be available in the second half of 2002.
Joan Mellen's biography of Jim Garrison is scheduled for release on November 22, 2003, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the assassination.
A note on availability: With the exception of Let Justice Be Done, the above books either out of print or in limited quantities. Luckily, as far as I know, all are available from The Last Hurrah Bookshop, a small bookstore specializing in hard-to-find political and conspiracy titles.
Online Articles
William Davy - LJBD Excerpt - "The Return of Lee Harvey Oswald"
---. Case Distorted: Posner, Connick and the New York Times
William Davy and James DiEugenio - False Witness: Aptly Titled
Gilles, Roger - Sophistic Analysis in JFK Assassination Rhetoric (excellent analysis of Garrison's book)
Martin Shackelford - Garrison's Case Finally Coming Together
Joan Mellen - False Witness: The JFK Assassination Revisited
Dave Reitzes - Who Speaks for Clay Shaw?
---. Impeaching Clinton