The JFK 100

In the movie, jury foreman Sidney Hebert (Loys Bergeron) says to a reporter, "We believe there was a conspiracy, but whether Clay Shaw was a part of it is another kettle of fish."⁽¹⁾

But is even this claim accurate?

New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (portrayed in Stone's film by Kevin Costner) always claimed that the jury had been convinced there was a conspiracy; his source is researcher Mark Lane, who claims to have "questioned a number of those who had served at the Shaw trial. Each juror agreed that the prosecution had established that Kennedy had been killed as the result of a conspiracy."⁽²⁾

Yet it was jury foreman Sidney Hebert who told author James Kirkwood, "I didn't think too much of the Warren Report either until the trial. Now I think a lot more of it than I did before . . ."⁽³⁾ (Emphasis added.)

When Kirkwood mentioned Mark Lane's claim about interviewing jurors, Hebert said he hadn't spoken to Lane or any other writer aside from Kirkwood, and added, "He [Lane] never talked to any juror that I know of."⁽⁴⁾

Of course, the jury held Jim Garrison's case against Clay Shaw in even lower esteem.

But that didn't stop Oliver Stone, now did it?

NOTES:

1. Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar, JFK: The Book of the Film (New York: Applause, 1992), p. 179. All quotations are from the shooting script and may vary slightly from the finished motion picture.

2. Mark Lane, Plausible Denial (New York: Thunder's Mouth, 1991), p. 221.

3. James Kirkwood, American Grotesque (New York: Harper, 1992), p. 511.

4. James Kirkwood, American Grotesque (New York: Harper, 1992), p. 510.