False Witness (58 page)

4
.
New Orleans States-Item
, Feb. 14, 1969.

5
. Kirkwood,
American Grotesque
, p. 311.

6
. Buell Wesley Frazier, and Lyndel Shaneyfelt, trial transcript, Feb. 14, 1969, pp. 11 (Frazier), 82, 78 (Shaneyfelt);
New Orleans States-Item
, Feb. 14, 1969.

7
. Trial transcript, James Simmons, Feb. 15, 1969, pp. 8, 10; William Eugene Newman, Jr., Feb. 17, 1969, p. 11; Billy Joe Martin, Feb. 14, 1969, pp. 51–54; Roger Craig, Feb. 14, 1969, pp. 75–81; Richard E. Carr, Feb. 19, 1969, pp. 17–18, 20; Mrs. Elizabeth Carolyn Walton, Feb. 14, 1969, pp. 94–95.

8
. Dr. John Marshall Nichols, trial transcript, Feb. 17 and 19, 1969, pp. 33–35, 40, 43–44, 45, 50–57.

9
.
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, Feb. 20, 1969 (Mrs. Jessie Parker); Kirkwood,
American Grotesque
, pp. 348–350.

10
. Garrison claimed a local television reporter was at fault for the publicity surrounding
the fingerprint card. Garrison supposedly locked up the records after Shaw's arrest and the matter of the alias on the card was forgotten until July of 1968 when Habighorst told his story on television and released a copy he had kept of the card. But an internal investigation by the Police Superintendent revealed the truth: Habighorst's televised interview was cleared by Garrison's office (
New Orleans States-Item
, Feb. 20, 1969). Why did Garrison do it? Perhaps he realized the judge would disallow the card as evidence under any circumstances, and that even if admitted, Habighorst's story would be discredited. By putting Habighorst on television, Garrison insured that his constituents—the potential jury pool—knew about Habighorst's story and heard only his version of it.

11
. Trial transcript, Feb. 19, 1969, pp. 53, 69 (Aloysius J. Habighorst), 79, 82–84, 99–101 (Louis J. Curole), 109–111, 121 (Jonas J. Butzman), 124–125, 128–129 (John N. Perkins, Jr.), 132–135, 144 (Edward F. Wegmann), 147, 148 (Salvatore Panzeca), 155–157, 167–169 (Clay Shaw); Kirkwood,
American Grotesque
, pp. 353–359.

12
. Judge Edward A. Haggerty, Jr., trial transcript, Feb. 19, 1969, pp. 179–180;
Los Angeles Times
, Feb. 20, 1969.

13
.
New Orleans States-Item
, Feb. 21, 1969.

14
. The testimony regarding the consistent ninety-degree temperature in the Clinton area has been challenged and probably rightly so. Gerald Posner in
Case Closed
, for instance, cited records of the U.S. Weather Bureau indicating that the daily temperature occasionally dropped into the eighties.

15
. Robert A. Frazier, trial transcript, Feb. 21–22, 1969, pp. 49, 68–69.

16
. Col. Pierre A. Finck, trial transcript, Feb. 24, 1969, pp. 11, 40.

17
.
Ibid
., pp. 71 (“higher”), 48 (“in charge”), 117–120 (“not to,” “probe”) 17 (exited), 125 (“major bones”), 196–197, 207, (Feb. 25, 1969) 30–32 (rectangular structure), 137 (metallic fragments), 24–25, 192, (Feb. 25, 1969) 22, 28 (three inches too high). The
New Orleans Times-Picayune
(Feb. 25, 1969, p. 17, col. 3) reported Finck's description of the throat wound's exit point as “at the approximate level of the tie knot.” The trial transcript (p. 17) contains the word “know” instead of “knot.”

18
. Following the trial, in a memorandum he submitted to Shaw's attorneys, Dr. Finck addressed several of the issues that had given him difficulty on cross-examination. One was “why the neck wound was not dissected.” Finck wrote: “An attempt was made to probe this wound; however, the president had been transported from Dallas, Texas, to Washington, D.C., in a position other than that at the time he was shot and rigormortis had congealed the muscles in a manner different from the position at the time the bullet track or the missile track was made and this accounts for the inability to probe the wound.” A new item Finck mentioned was the backward movement of the president's head at the time of the fatal shot. He wrote: “The Zapruder film shows the president extending back following the head wound. Some have used this as evidence that he was struck from the front. A better explanation is that (due to the severance of his brain from his spinal cord as described in the autopsy report) he experienced decerebrate rigidity due to loss of cerebral control” (six-page memorandum, undated and unsigned [from the files of William J. Wegmann]).

19
. Dean Andrews, trial transcript, Feb. 25, 1969, pp. 3, 7, 11.

20
.
Ibid
., pp. 8, 11, 13–16.

21
.
Ibid
., pp. 17–34, 52, 55, 123, 126.

22
.
Ibid
., pp. 127–128, 138, 130, 132, 131.

23
.
Ibid
., pp. 132, 137.

24
.
Ibid
., pp. 138, 147, 149, 157, 160, 148. During his direct examination by Dymond, Andrews said, “I believe my office investigator came to visit me and we talked about whether or not he remembered Lee Oswald,” and Andrews placed the investigator's visit after the call to his secretary. But this conflicts with the earliest 1963 statements of Andrews and his investigator both as to the timing of the visit (it
preceded
the call to the secretary) and the content of their discussion (they talked about the upcoming election in which Andrews was running for a judgeship).

25
. Kirkwood,
American Grotesque
, p. 395.

26
. Charles A. Appel, Jr., trial transcript, Feb. 25, 1969, pp. 30–31.

27
. Lt. Edward O'Donnell, trial transcript, Feb. 26, 1969, pp. 8, 7.

28
. Clay L. Shaw, trial transcript, Feb. 27, 1969, pp. 5–6, 14–15, 7–8, 19–23; 15–17.

29
.
Ibid
., pp. 11–12, 24–28.

30
. Shaw referred to a letter dated Sept. 11, 1963, from the representative of the Columbia Basin World Development Conference in Portland, Oregon, confirming arrangements for him to speak there on Nov. 26. The Bermúdez letter soliciting the San Francisco speaking engagement was dated Nov. 11, prompting a telephone conversation between Shaw and Sullivan. Sullivan recalls that Shaw placed the call but Shaw's recollection was that Sullivan initiated it. Shaw's custom was to travel by train and he did so on this occasion. He stayed in Los Angeles from Nov. 18 to Nov. 20, 1963, and took the overnight Lark to San Francisco. He arrived there on the Nov. 21, left on Nov. 23, and traveled to Portland. The conference there was canceled but the sponsors arranged for him to address the Rotary Club (trial testimony, Feb. 27, 1969, pp. 24–25, 30–32; Monroe Sullivan, telephone conversation with author, June 21, 1995).

31
. Clay L. Shaw, trial transcript, Feb. 27, 1969, pp. 55–56, 59, 42–43.

32
.
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, Feb. 28, 1969; Kirkwood,
American Grotesque
, pp. 413–414.

33
. Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas M.Tadin, trial transcript, Feb. 27, 1969, pp. 12–13, 10, 18–19, 29–31; Kirkwood,
American Grotesque
, p. 417.

34
. Dr. John Marshall Nichols, trial transcript, Feb. 28, 1969, pp. 4–8, 35–41.

35
. Kirkwood,
American Grotesque
, p. 423; Elizabeth McCarthy, trial transcript, Feb. 28, 1969, pp. 86, 92.

36
. Jim Garrison, closing statement, trial transcript, Feb. 28, 1969, pp. 138–141; 146; 157. (Page 150 is missing in the available transcript but the text of it may be found in Kirkwood's
American Grotesque
at p. 458.)

37
. Kirkwood,
American Grotesque
, p. 301.

38
.
Ibid
., pp. 550, 557;
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, March 2, 1969; “Press Interviews of the Jury Immediately Following the Acquittal of Clay A. Shaw on March 1, 1969,” eight-page memorandum (from the files of Edward F. Wegmann).

39
.
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, March 2, 1969.

40
. Kirkwood,
American Grotesque
, pp. 492–493.

1
. Perry Russo's statement to this writer that he may have been hypnotized as many as five times is supported by the charges Dr. Fatter billed to Garrison's office for his services. (See Daniel J. Jones, Christenberry transcript, p. 411.)

2
. Jim Garrison, Christenberry transcript, p. 235.

3
.
Ibid
., p. 226.

4
.
Ibid
., pp. 246–247.

5
.
Ibid
., pp. 269–270.

6
.
Ibid
., pp. 275–276 (“a warm feeling”); p. 272 (“I cannot”).

7
. F. Irvin Dymond, interview with author, Nov. 2, 1995.

8
. Christenberry transcript, p. 23.

9
. Willard E. Robertson, Christenberry transcript, pp. 50, 51.

10
. Nor did the founders of T & C have any information about Governor McKeithen's two
5,000 contributions. But when the news reached the governor that his generosity had been revealed in Christenberry's courtroom, McKeithen admitted to inquiring reporters that his donation had come from public funds; and
that
information was presented to the citizens of New Orleans in a banner headline.

11
. William Gurvich, Christenberry transcript, pp. 337–346, 354.

12
. Clay Shaw, Christenberry transcript, p. 465.

13
. Perry Russo, interview with author, Dec. 4, 1993.

14
. F. Irvin Dymond, interview with author, Nov. 2, 1995; Wegmann Memorandum; Russo–Defense Team Interview; Russo–Gurvich Interview; Russo–Wegmann et al. Interview.

15
. Perry Russo, interviews with author, Dec. 4, 1993, Feb. 7, 1994.

16
. Judge Christenberry's opinion, May 27, 1971,
Clay L. Shaw v. Jim Garrison
, Civil Action No. 71–135, 328 F.Supp. 390–404. Louis Ivon had confirmed that a
Life
magazine photographer took Shaw's picture unbeknownst to him through a two-way mirror (Christenberry transcript, pp. 443–444).

17
.
New Orleans States-Item
, Aug. 15, 1974.

18
. Edward O'Donnell, Confidential Report, to Joseph I. Giarrusso, Superintendent of Police, Aug. 10, 1970.

19
. Conversation with David Snyder, Aug. 15, 1995.

20
. Shaw Journal, pp. 37, 1; David Snyder, “The Ordeal of Clay Shaw: Character Assassination,”
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, July 28, 1996.

21
. Shaw Journal, pp. 106, 71; David Snyder, “The Ordeal of Clay Shaw: Character Assassination,”
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, July 28, 1996.

22
. HSCA Report, pp. 142; G. Robert Blakey and Richard N. Billings,
The Plot to Kill the President
(New York: Times Books, 1981), p. 46.

1
.
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, Feb. 25, 1967; Nicholas C. Chriss, “Melodrama, but the Plot is Obscure,”
Los Angeles Times
, March 26, 1967; Paris Flammonde, “Why President Kennedy Was Killed,”
Evergreen
, Jan. 1969, p. 73 (citing the Associated
Press and the
Washington Post
of Feb. 25, 1967, and the
Washington Sunday Star
of Feb. 26, 1967).

2
.
Newsweek
, March 20, 1967, citing
Paris-Match
quoting Garrison.

3
. Nicholas C. Chriss, “Melodrama, but the Plot is Obscure,” Los Angeles
Times
, March 26, 1967.

4
.
Baton Rouge Morning Advocate
, May 22, 1967, citing Garrison interview with Bob Jones on WWL-TV.

5
.
Baton Rouge Morning Advocate
, May 24, 1967, and
New Orleans States-Item
, May 23, 1967, both citing Associated Press interview with Garrison.

6
.
New York Times
, July 17, 1967, describing Garrison's July 15, 1967, speech on NBC television.

7
. Garrison, letter to Bertrand Russell, Aug. 27, 1967 (included in transcript of Assassination Records Review Board hearing in New Orleans on June 28, 1995, pp. 78–79).

8
. Garrison, interview, “Mike Wallace at Large,” NBC, Sept. 26, 1967.

9
. Paris Flammonde, “Why President Kennedy Was Killed,”
Evergreen
, Jan. 1969 (quoting Garrison interview on WFAA-TV in Dallas, Dec. 9, 1967), p. 76; Brener,
The Garrison Case
, p. 223 (citing the
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, Dec. 19, 1967).

10
.
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, Dec. 27, 1967.

1
. Dymond et al. Interview.

2
.
Ibid
.