People involved in the trial of Clay Shaw
Encyclopedia
New Orleans businessman, Clay Shaw
, was tried for the assassination of John F. Kennedy
from January 29, 1969 to March 1, 1969. The following people were major witnesses or participants in the trial.
Jim Garrison
District Attorney of New Orleans. He is the only person to bring a trial for the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Clay Shaw
A successful businessman, playwright, pioneer of restoration in New Orleans' French Quarter, and director of the International Trade Mart
in New Orleans.
New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison
prosecuted Clay Shaw on the charge that Shaw and a group of right-wing activists, including David Ferrie
and Guy Banister
, were involved in a conspiracy with elements of the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) to kill President Kennedy. Garrison arrested Shaw on March 1, 1967.
– 16 August 1995, New Orleans) was the key witness for the prosecution in the trial of Clay Shaw
in New Orleans in 1969.
Russo was an insurance salesman from Baton Rouge, Louisiana
. Following the untimely death of Garrison suspect David Ferrie
on February 22, 1967, the 25-year-old Russo sent a letter to the DA's office, saying that he had known Ferrie and would help the investigation in any way he could. He told reporter Bill Bankston that Ferrie had told him about a month before the assassination: "We will get him, and it won't be long," and on another occasion: "You know we can get Kennedy if we want him."
At the trial of Clay Shaw
, Russo testified that he had attended a party at David Ferrie
's apartment, where Lee Harvey Oswald
(who Russo said was introduced to him as "Leon Oswald"), David Ferrie, and "Clem Bertrand" (who Russo identified in the courtroom as Clay Shaw) talked about killing President Kennedy. The conversation included plans for the "triangulation of crossfire" and alibis for the participants.
David Ferrie
In the early 1960s, David Ferrie
became involved with Guy Banister
, former Special Agent In Charge (SAC) of the Chicago office of the FBI, right-wing political activist, segregationist, and private investigator
. Ferrie also worked with Banister's associate, Sergio Arcacha Smith, an anti-Castro
Cuban exile
. In early 1962, both Banister and Arcacha Smith maintained offices in the Newman Building at the corner address of 544 Camp Street / 531 Lafayette Street, New Orleans. Ferrie was often seen at Banister's office.
Ferrie claimed to be a liberal
on civil rights
issues, but he was "rabidly anti-Communist," often accusing previous U.S. Presidential administrations of "sell-outs" to communism
. According to the House Select Committee on Assassinations, Ferrie "...found an outlet for his political fanaticism in the anti-Castro movement."
Ferrie was Garrison's chief suspect in the murder of President Kennedy. However, Ferrie died less than a week after the New Orleans States-Item newspaper broke the story of Garrison's investigation.
private investigator
who worked at Guy Bannister's private investigation office in New Orleans. On the day John F. Kennedy
was assassinated, Banister and Martin were drinking together at a local bar. On their return to Banister's office, the two men got into a heated argument. According to Martin, Banister said something to which Martin replied, "What are you going to do — kill me like you all did Kennedy?" An angry Banister pistol-whipped Martin with his .357 magnum revolver.
In the ensuing days, Jack Martin told reporters and authorities that a man named David Ferrie
may have been involved in the assassination. Martin told police that Ferrie "...was supposed to have been the getaway pilot in the assassination." He said that Ferrie had outlined plans to kill Kennedy and that Ferrie may have taught Oswald how to use a rifle with a telescopic sight. Martin claimed that Ferrie had known Lee Harvey Oswald
from their days in the New Orleans Civil Air Patrol, and that he had seen a photograph, at Ferrie's home, of Oswald in a Civil Air Patrol group. That photograph was subsequently confirmed to exist, and is now distributed widely.
Guy Banister
William Guy Banister (March 7, 1900–June 6, 1964) was a career member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
and a private investigator. He was an avid anti-communist -- member of the Minutemen
, the John Birch Society
, Louisiana Committee on Un-American Activities and publisher of the Louisiana Intelligence Digest.
Based in part on information gained from Jack Martin (who was an employee of Banister), New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison
became convinced that a group of right-wing activists, including Banister, David Ferrie
, and Clay Shaw
, were involved in a conspiracy
with elements of the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) to kill Kennedy. Garrison would later claim that the motive for the assassination was anger over Kennedy's attempts to obtain a peace settlement in both Cuba and Vietnam. Garrison also believed that Banister, Shaw, and Ferrie had conspired to set up Oswald as a patsy in the JFK assassination.
On November 25, 1963 (the day after Oswald's murder by Jack Ruby
), Andrews informed the FBI that two days earlier he received a telephone call from a man named Clay Bertrand who inquired if he would be willing to defend Oswald in the murder and assassination case. Andrews described him as a "swinging cat" who occasionally guaranteed fees for some of Andrews' homosexual clients. Andrews subsequently repeated his claims regarding the phone call in testimony before the Warren Commission
in July 1964.
Neither the FBI nor the New Orleans Police Department were able to locate a "Clay Bertrand" in New Orleans. According to the FBI, Andrews admitted that Bertrand was a "figment of his imagination". However, Andrews would later deny the FBI report, claiming that he had never suggested that Bertrand might not be real. Later Andrews would claim that "Bertrand" was a cover for his friend Eugene Davis. In later years, Andrews continued to maintain that he had, in fact, received the phone call asking him to defend Oswald, but claimed that he was afraid to reveal the caller's true identity.
There is an alleged copy of Russo's admission that he did not hear Clay Shaw discuss killing President Kennedy in Patrica Lambert's "False Witness." However, in several public interviews, such as one shown in the video, The JFK Assassination: The Jim Garrison Tapes, Russo reiterates what he said at the trial of Clay Shaw
: that Shaw attended a meeting at David Ferrie
's apartment where Kennedy's assassination was discussed.
O'Donnell's credibility remains questionable. He was a bitter enemy of Jim Garrison, who had brought up police brutality charges against him and Tony Polito, his partner. According to Wendall Roache of US Customs, O'Donnell an INS operative with "detailed knowledge of Cuban exile activities in New Orleans".
O'Donnell was close to the Gurvich family, who were known in New Orleans as "character assassins and black-mailers" according to Dean Andrews, a lawyer involved in the case. William Gurvich was hired by Garrison as an investigator after he offered to work for a modest wage. He would later make every attempt to discredit Garrison in the press. Lou Ivon, Joe Oster, and others at the office had suspected Gurvich of being a "plant". Gurvich was a detective who specialized in security for government-subsidized shipping in the Port of New Orleans. His father was an FBI agent who, according to [J. Edgar Hoover], "violated all manner of Bureau rules and regulations."
, to cover the investigation and trial. He was the first to report discrepancies in Perry Russo's story. He called Jim Garrison at home and when he met with the D.A., he pointed out that Russo's original testimony made no mention of the "plot party."
Assistant D.A. Andrew Sciambra, the man who questioned Russo, said that "he must have left that detail out." When Sciambra could not produce notes from the original conversation, saying he burned them, Phelan went public with the story.
, in exchange for Bundy's assistance, Garrison quietly sprung Bundy from prison.
on his drive from New Orleans to Houston, Texas on the night of the assassination. According to attorney Milton Brener, Beauboeuf was offered $3,000 and a position with an airline by Garrison investigator Lynn Loisel if he would "fill in the missing links" of Perry Russo's story.
and, in the early 1960s, was head of the New Orleans chapter of the CIA-backed Cuban Revolutionary Council
, an anti-Castro group. The forerunner of the Cuban Revolutionary Council was a group called the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front
, known in Spanish as the Frente Revolucionario Democrático (FRD). Arcacha Smith had served under Castro's predecessor, the military ruler, Fulgencio Batista
. Garrison believed that Arcacha Smith could link David Ferrie
, Clay Shaw
and Oswald together at the Trial of Clay Shaw
in New Orleans, Louisiana
. Texas Governor John Connally
refused to extradite Arcacha Smith to Louisiana for the trial. Jim Garrison
continued his prosecution without Arcacha Smith's testimony.
Clay Shaw
Clay Laverne Shaw was a businessman in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the only person prosecuted in connection with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and was found not guilty.-Biography:...
, was tried for the assassination of John F. Kennedy
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...
from January 29, 1969 to March 1, 1969. The following people were major witnesses or participants in the trial.
Jim GarrisonJim GarrisonEarling Carothers "Jim" Garrison — who changed his first name to Jim in the early 1960s — was the District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana from 1962 to 1973. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best known for his investigations into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy...
District Attorney of New Orleans. He is the only person to bring a trial for the assassination of John F. Kennedy.Clay ShawClay ShawClay Laverne Shaw was a businessman in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the only person prosecuted in connection with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and was found not guilty.-Biography:...
A successful businessman, playwright, pioneer of restoration in New Orleans' French Quarter, and director of the International Trade MartInternational Trade Mart
The International Trade Mart is an organization promoting international trade and the Port of New Orleans.The World Trade Mart was chartered in 1945, first opened its doors in 1948, and in 1985, merged with International House to form the World Trade Center New Orleans, a private, non-profit...
in New Orleans.
New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison
Jim Garrison
Earling Carothers "Jim" Garrison — who changed his first name to Jim in the early 1960s — was the District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana from 1962 to 1973. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best known for his investigations into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy...
prosecuted Clay Shaw on the charge that Shaw and a group of right-wing activists, including David Ferrie
David Ferrie
David William Ferrie was a pilot who was alleged to have been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison later claimed to have proven Ferrie's involvement and that he knew Lee Harvey Oswald. Ferrie denied such involvement.-Early...
and Guy Banister
Guy Banister
William Guy Banister was a career member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a private investigator. He gained notoriety from the allegations made by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, after Banister's death, that he had been involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy...
, were involved in a conspiracy with elements of the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA) to kill President Kennedy. Garrison arrested Shaw on March 1, 1967.
Perry Russo
Perry Raymond Russo (14 May 1941, New Orleans, LouisianaNew Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
– 16 August 1995, New Orleans) was the key witness for the prosecution in the trial of Clay Shaw
Trial of Clay Shaw
On March 1, 1967, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison arrested and charged New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw with conspiring to assassinate President Kennedy, with the help of Lee Harvey Oswald, David Ferrie, and others. On January 29, 1969, Shaw was brought to trial in Orleans Parish...
in New Orleans in 1969.
Russo was an insurance salesman from Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...
. Following the untimely death of Garrison suspect David Ferrie
David Ferrie
David William Ferrie was a pilot who was alleged to have been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison later claimed to have proven Ferrie's involvement and that he knew Lee Harvey Oswald. Ferrie denied such involvement.-Early...
on February 22, 1967, the 25-year-old Russo sent a letter to the DA's office, saying that he had known Ferrie and would help the investigation in any way he could. He told reporter Bill Bankston that Ferrie had told him about a month before the assassination: "We will get him, and it won't be long," and on another occasion: "You know we can get Kennedy if we want him."
At the trial of Clay Shaw
Clay Shaw
Clay Laverne Shaw was a businessman in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the only person prosecuted in connection with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and was found not guilty.-Biography:...
, Russo testified that he had attended a party at David Ferrie
David Ferrie
David William Ferrie was a pilot who was alleged to have been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison later claimed to have proven Ferrie's involvement and that he knew Lee Harvey Oswald. Ferrie denied such involvement.-Early...
's apartment, where Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...
(who Russo said was introduced to him as "Leon Oswald"), David Ferrie, and "Clem Bertrand" (who Russo identified in the courtroom as Clay Shaw) talked about killing President Kennedy. The conversation included plans for the "triangulation of crossfire" and alibis for the participants.
David FerrieDavid FerrieDavid William Ferrie was a pilot who was alleged to have been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison later claimed to have proven Ferrie's involvement and that he knew Lee Harvey Oswald. Ferrie denied such involvement.-Early...
In the early 1960s, David FerrieDavid Ferrie
David William Ferrie was a pilot who was alleged to have been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison later claimed to have proven Ferrie's involvement and that he knew Lee Harvey Oswald. Ferrie denied such involvement.-Early...
became involved with Guy Banister
Guy Banister
William Guy Banister was a career member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a private investigator. He gained notoriety from the allegations made by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, after Banister's death, that he had been involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy...
, former Special Agent In Charge (SAC) of the Chicago office of the FBI, right-wing political activist, segregationist, and private investigator
Private investigator
A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...
. Ferrie also worked with Banister's associate, Sergio Arcacha Smith, an anti-Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
Cuban exile
Cuban exile
The term "Cuban exile" refers to the many Cubans who have sought alternative political or economic conditions outside the island, dating back to the Ten Years' War and the struggle for Cuban independence during the 19th century...
. In early 1962, both Banister and Arcacha Smith maintained offices in the Newman Building at the corner address of 544 Camp Street / 531 Lafayette Street, New Orleans. Ferrie was often seen at Banister's office.
Ferrie claimed to be a liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
on civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
issues, but he was "rabidly anti-Communist," often accusing previous U.S. Presidential administrations of "sell-outs" to communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. According to the House Select Committee on Assassinations, Ferrie "...found an outlet for his political fanaticism in the anti-Castro movement."
Ferrie was Garrison's chief suspect in the murder of President Kennedy. However, Ferrie died less than a week after the New Orleans States-Item newspaper broke the story of Garrison's investigation.
Jack Martin
Jack S. Martin was an AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
private investigator
Private investigator
A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...
who worked at Guy Bannister's private investigation office in New Orleans. On the day John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
was assassinated, Banister and Martin were drinking together at a local bar. On their return to Banister's office, the two men got into a heated argument. According to Martin, Banister said something to which Martin replied, "What are you going to do — kill me like you all did Kennedy?" An angry Banister pistol-whipped Martin with his .357 magnum revolver.
In the ensuing days, Jack Martin told reporters and authorities that a man named David Ferrie
David Ferrie
David William Ferrie was a pilot who was alleged to have been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison later claimed to have proven Ferrie's involvement and that he knew Lee Harvey Oswald. Ferrie denied such involvement.-Early...
may have been involved in the assassination. Martin told police that Ferrie "...was supposed to have been the getaway pilot in the assassination." He said that Ferrie had outlined plans to kill Kennedy and that Ferrie may have taught Oswald how to use a rifle with a telescopic sight. Martin claimed that Ferrie had known Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...
from their days in the New Orleans Civil Air Patrol, and that he had seen a photograph, at Ferrie's home, of Oswald in a Civil Air Patrol group. That photograph was subsequently confirmed to exist, and is now distributed widely.
Guy BanisterGuy BanisterWilliam Guy Banister was a career member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a private investigator. He gained notoriety from the allegations made by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, after Banister's death, that he had been involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy...
William Guy Banister (March 7, 1900–June 6, 1964) was a career member of the Federal Bureau of InvestigationFederal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
and a private investigator. He was an avid anti-communist -- member of the Minutemen
Minutemen (anti-Communist organization)
The Minutemen was a militant anti-Communist organization formed in the United States in the early 1960s. The founder and head of the right-wing group was Robert Bolivar DePugh, a biochemist from Norborne, Missouri. The Minutemen believed that Communism would soon take over all of America. The group...
, the John Birch Society
John Birch Society
The John Birch Society is an American political advocacy group that supports anti-communism, limited government, a Constitutional Republic and personal freedom. It has been described as radical right-wing....
, Louisiana Committee on Un-American Activities and publisher of the Louisiana Intelligence Digest.
Based in part on information gained from Jack Martin (who was an employee of Banister), New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison
Jim Garrison
Earling Carothers "Jim" Garrison — who changed his first name to Jim in the early 1960s — was the District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana from 1962 to 1973. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best known for his investigations into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy...
became convinced that a group of right-wing activists, including Banister, David Ferrie
David Ferrie
David William Ferrie was a pilot who was alleged to have been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison later claimed to have proven Ferrie's involvement and that he knew Lee Harvey Oswald. Ferrie denied such involvement.-Early...
, and Clay Shaw
Clay Shaw
Clay Laverne Shaw was a businessman in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the only person prosecuted in connection with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and was found not guilty.-Biography:...
, were involved in a conspiracy
Conspiracy (political)
In a political sense, conspiracy refers to a group of persons united in the goal of usurping or overthrowing an established political power. Typically, the final goal is to gain power through a revolutionary coup d'état or through assassination....
with elements of the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA) to kill Kennedy. Garrison would later claim that the motive for the assassination was anger over Kennedy's attempts to obtain a peace settlement in both Cuba and Vietnam. Garrison also believed that Banister, Shaw, and Ferrie had conspired to set up Oswald as a patsy in the JFK assassination.
Dean Andrews
Oswald had visited Andrews' office on approximately three occasions in June and July 1963, seeking legal advice from Andrews relative to his citizenship status, his wife's status and his undesirable discharge from the Marine Corps.On November 25, 1963 (the day after Oswald's murder by Jack Ruby
Jack Ruby
Jacob Leon Rubenstein , who legally changed his name to Jack Leon Ruby in 1947, was convicted of the November 24, 1963 murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy. Ruby, who was originally from Chicago, Illinois, was then a nightclub operator in Dallas, Texas...
), Andrews informed the FBI that two days earlier he received a telephone call from a man named Clay Bertrand who inquired if he would be willing to defend Oswald in the murder and assassination case. Andrews described him as a "swinging cat" who occasionally guaranteed fees for some of Andrews' homosexual clients. Andrews subsequently repeated his claims regarding the phone call in testimony before the Warren Commission
Warren Commission
The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established on November 27, 1963, by Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963...
in July 1964.
Neither the FBI nor the New Orleans Police Department were able to locate a "Clay Bertrand" in New Orleans. According to the FBI, Andrews admitted that Bertrand was a "figment of his imagination". However, Andrews would later deny the FBI report, claiming that he had never suggested that Bertrand might not be real. Later Andrews would claim that "Bertrand" was a cover for his friend Eugene Davis. In later years, Andrews continued to maintain that he had, in fact, received the phone call asking him to defend Oswald, but claimed that he was afraid to reveal the caller's true identity.
Eugene Davis
When Dean Andrews refused to name Clay Shaw as "Clay Bertrand" to the Orleans Parish Grand Jury, Garrison indicted, and convicted, Andrews of perjury. Andrews then said that he had used the phony "Bertrand" name as a cover for his friend and client, Eugene Davis, operator of a gay bar in the French Quarter. Davis did not know Oswald, Andrews explained, but a phone conversation with him had given him the idea to represent the accused assassin. Eugene Davis later denied being "Clay Bertrand."Aloysius Habighorst
Aloysius Habighorst was an officer of the New Orleans police department. Habighorst testified that when he booked Clay Shaw for the assassination of President Kennedy, he asked Shaw if he used any aliases, and Shaw responded, "Clay Bertrand." However, Captain Louis Curole had assigned Sgt. Jonas Butzman to guard Shaw during the procedure, and Sgt. Butzman testified that Habighorst had not questioned Shaw, and that the name "Clay Bertrand" had not been spoken by either man. Habighorst also stated that he had allowed Shaw to have his lawyer present for the procedure, a claim contradicted by several eyewitnesses.Edward O'Donnell
Lieutenant Edward O'Donnell was an officer of the New Orleans police department. O'Donnell claimed that Perry Russo told him that Russo's testimony against Clay Shaw was false.There is an alleged copy of Russo's admission that he did not hear Clay Shaw discuss killing President Kennedy in Patrica Lambert's "False Witness." However, in several public interviews, such as one shown in the video, The JFK Assassination: The Jim Garrison Tapes, Russo reiterates what he said at the trial of Clay Shaw
Trial of Clay Shaw
On March 1, 1967, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison arrested and charged New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw with conspiring to assassinate President Kennedy, with the help of Lee Harvey Oswald, David Ferrie, and others. On January 29, 1969, Shaw was brought to trial in Orleans Parish...
: that Shaw attended a meeting at David Ferrie
David Ferrie
David William Ferrie was a pilot who was alleged to have been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison later claimed to have proven Ferrie's involvement and that he knew Lee Harvey Oswald. Ferrie denied such involvement.-Early...
's apartment where Kennedy's assassination was discussed.
O'Donnell's credibility remains questionable. He was a bitter enemy of Jim Garrison, who had brought up police brutality charges against him and Tony Polito, his partner. According to Wendall Roache of US Customs, O'Donnell an INS operative with "detailed knowledge of Cuban exile activities in New Orleans".
O'Donnell was close to the Gurvich family, who were known in New Orleans as "character assassins and black-mailers" according to Dean Andrews, a lawyer involved in the case. William Gurvich was hired by Garrison as an investigator after he offered to work for a modest wage. He would later make every attempt to discredit Garrison in the press. Lou Ivon, Joe Oster, and others at the office had suspected Gurvich of being a "plant". Gurvich was a detective who specialized in security for government-subsidized shipping in the Port of New Orleans. His father was an FBI agent who, according to [J. Edgar Hoover], "violated all manner of Bureau rules and regulations."
James Phelan
Jim Phelan was a staff writer for The Saturday Evening Post who came to New Orleans, at the request of New Orleans D.A. Jim GarrisonJim Garrison
Earling Carothers "Jim" Garrison — who changed his first name to Jim in the early 1960s — was the District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana from 1962 to 1973. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best known for his investigations into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy...
, to cover the investigation and trial. He was the first to report discrepancies in Perry Russo's story. He called Jim Garrison at home and when he met with the D.A., he pointed out that Russo's original testimony made no mention of the "plot party."
Assistant D.A. Andrew Sciambra, the man who questioned Russo, said that "he must have left that detail out." When Sciambra could not produce notes from the original conversation, saying he burned them, Phelan went public with the story.
Vernon Bundy
Bundy testified that he saw Clay Shaw meet with Lee Oswald by the seawall at Lake Pontchartrain in 1963. When Bundy failed a polygraph examination, assistant DAs James Alcock and Charles Ward tried in vain to convince Garrison not to use Bundy as a witness. According to author James KirkwoodJames Kirkwood, Jr.
James Kirkwood, Jr. was an American playwright, author and actor. In 1976 he received the Tony Award, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the Broadway hit A Chorus Line.-Biography:Kirkwood was born in Los Angeles, California. His father...
, in exchange for Bundy's assistance, Garrison quietly sprung Bundy from prison.
Alvin Beauboeuf
Al Beauboeuf was one of two men who accompanied David FerrieDavid Ferrie
David William Ferrie was a pilot who was alleged to have been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison later claimed to have proven Ferrie's involvement and that he knew Lee Harvey Oswald. Ferrie denied such involvement.-Early...
on his drive from New Orleans to Houston, Texas on the night of the assassination. According to attorney Milton Brener, Beauboeuf was offered $3,000 and a position with an airline by Garrison investigator Lynn Loisel if he would "fill in the missing links" of Perry Russo's story.
Sergio Arcacha Smith
Sergio Arcacha Smith was a Cuban exileCuban exile
The term "Cuban exile" refers to the many Cubans who have sought alternative political or economic conditions outside the island, dating back to the Ten Years' War and the struggle for Cuban independence during the 19th century...
and, in the early 1960s, was head of the New Orleans chapter of the CIA-backed Cuban Revolutionary Council
Cuban Revolutionary Council
The Cuban Revolutionary Council was a group formed, with CIA assistance, three weeks before the April 17, 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion to "coordinate and direct" the activities of another group known as the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front. Both groups were composed of Cuban exiles dedicated to...
, an anti-Castro group. The forerunner of the Cuban Revolutionary Council was a group called the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front
Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front
The Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front was founded in May 1960 by anti-Castro Cuban exiles and was initially headquartered in Mexico. It was known in Spanish as the Frente Revolucionario Democratico and was composed of five major anti-Castro groups...
, known in Spanish as the Frente Revolucionario Democrático (FRD). Arcacha Smith had served under Castro's predecessor, the military ruler, Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was the United States-aligned Cuban President, dictator and military leader who served as the leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1944 and from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown as a result of the Cuban Revolution....
. Garrison believed that Arcacha Smith could link David Ferrie
David Ferrie
David William Ferrie was a pilot who was alleged to have been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison later claimed to have proven Ferrie's involvement and that he knew Lee Harvey Oswald. Ferrie denied such involvement.-Early...
, Clay Shaw
Clay Shaw
Clay Laverne Shaw was a businessman in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the only person prosecuted in connection with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and was found not guilty.-Biography:...
and Oswald together at the Trial of Clay Shaw
Trial of Clay Shaw
On March 1, 1967, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison arrested and charged New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw with conspiring to assassinate President Kennedy, with the help of Lee Harvey Oswald, David Ferrie, and others. On January 29, 1969, Shaw was brought to trial in Orleans Parish...
in New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
. Texas Governor John Connally
John Connally
John Bowden Connally, Jr. , was an influential American politician, serving as the 39th governor of Texas, Secretary of the Navy under President John F. Kennedy, and as Secretary of the Treasury under President Richard M. Nixon. While he was Governor in 1963, Connally was a passenger in the car in...
refused to extradite Arcacha Smith to Louisiana for the trial. Jim Garrison
Jim Garrison
Earling Carothers "Jim" Garrison — who changed his first name to Jim in the early 1960s — was the District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana from 1962 to 1973. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best known for his investigations into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy...
continued his prosecution without Arcacha Smith's testimony.