The JFK 100

Of course, as Oliver Stone acknowledges, "O'Keefe" is a fictional character, ostensibly a composite of four separate witnesses.

According to Stone,

"Willie O'Keefe" is a composite character drawn from four of Garrison's witnesses: Perry Russo, David Logan, Raymond Broshears, and William Morris. Three of them met Shaw through Ferrie; the fourth, Morris, was introduced to Shaw, who called himself "Clay Bertrand," by a mutual friend. Like O'Keefe, Logan and Broshears met Shaw/Bertrand at French Quarter bars. Broshears, who also had intelligence connections, reported seeing Shaw and Ferrie together on several occasions, including a time when Shaw handed Ferrie an envelope filled with cash. Logan and Morris became more intimate with Shaw, frequenting Shaw's restored carriage house on Dauphine Street. Russo's story -- that he met Shaw at a party at Ferrie's at which the assassination was discussed -- made him one of Garrison's key witnesses.⁽¹⁾

 

Former New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison claimed that

. . . Ferrie had introduced a young friend of his, David Logan, to Shaw at Dixie's, a watering hole on Bourbon Street at the corner of St. Peter. Earlier Ferrie had brought Logan to a bar called the Galley House, on the corner of Toulouse and Chartres Street, where they also met Shaw. Once again while with Ferrie, Logan met Shaw at a private party on Governor Nichols Street.⁽²⁾

 

In his interview, Logan did state that he believed both Ferrie and Shaw had been at the party on Governor Nichols Street; however, he was only informed later that the individual in question had purportedly been David Ferrie, and at any rate, he never did see Ferrie and Shaw together.⁽⁴⁾ (Alleged sightings of Shaw and Ferrie are slightly complicated by the fact that Clay Shaw had an associate who, apparently on more than one occasion, has been mistaken for David Ferrie.)⁽⁵⁾

Jim Garrison could say anything he desired about Logan's statement, it seems, as he claimed that the document had been stolen from his files.⁽⁶⁾ Following the former DA's death, however, the transcript was found among his personal papers. It is now available at the National Archives, and has been posted online in its entirety. Its contents not only discredit Jim Garrison's claims, but also cast serious doubt about Logan's credibility as a whole. For example, Shaw did not own the "9 foot table" Logan described, and which is depicted in JFK.⁽⁷⁾

Oliver Stone's next witness, William Morris, was a convicted felon interviewed in prison by two members of Garrison's staff on July 14, 1967 -- two weeks after Dean Andrews announced publicly that there was no "Clay Bertrand"; he had used "Bertrand" as a cover name for his friend, Eugene C. Davis.

Morris claimed that in 1958, Eugene C. Davis introduced him to a "Clay Bertrand," who paid him twenty dollars for sex. Morris had seen Shaw on television and identified him as Bertrand. Morris also claimed that Shaw once visited his home in the company of a man who resembled Jack Ruby; and that a friend of his, a yacht-owner named Bill Boone, once had Clay Shaw aboard his yacht and knew Shaw as "Bertrand." A month later, Boone was interviewed and denied Morris's claims.⁽⁸⁾

Gene Davis had already testified under oath to the Grand Jury that he had never spoken to Clay Shaw in his life, and he would testify to this again at Shaw's trial. Jim Garrison did not challenge him. William Morris was not called to testify. In fact, the District Attorney's office never acknowledged Morris as a viable witness; his existence was concealed from the public until the publication of Garrison's memoirs in 1988.

Why would "witnesses" like David Logan and William Morris come forward with false stories? One of Jim Garrison's most potent critics, journalist James Phelan, writes:

In the two years between the Shaw hearing and the trial, Garrison's staff interviewed hundreds of would-be witnesses. There are certain sensational cases that have a fascination for unstable people and fetch them forth in droves. A classic example was the "Black Dahlia" mutilation murder of playgirl Elizabeth Short in Los Angeles. Over the years, dozens of people came forward and confessed to this crime, which still remains unsolved. Celebrated cases also attract witnesses who are not psychotic, but who falsely identify key figures out of faulty memory or a desire to lift themselves out of dull anonymity into the spotlight. Chief Justice Frankfurter once commented that eyewitness testimony is the greatest single cause of miscarried justice. In a sensational case, a careful prosecutor often spends more time winnowing out false witnesses than he does working with authentic ones.

The Garrison investigation had a disastrously low threshold, across which trooped a bizarre parade of people eager to bolster his conspiracy scenario.⁽⁹⁾

 

As Jim Garrison relates in his memoirs, Broshears claimed to have once been a confidant and roommate of David Ferrie's, and alleged that Ferrie had confessed a role in the assassination to him. Broshears also claimed to have met both Lee Harvey Oswald and Clay Shaw through Ferrie.⁽¹⁰⁾

The information Garrison conceals about Broshears is equally interesting. For example, Broshears claimed to not only have known Lee Oswald, but also to have been acquainted with -- and had sex with -- an Oswald lookalike named "Leon Oswald," a character Broshears apparently picked up from the story of Perry Raymond Russo (discussed below).⁽¹¹⁾

Broshears was nothing if not eager to please. When Jim Garrison charged a California man, Edgar Eugene Bradley, as a JFK conspirator, a charge the DA would later (in an extraordinarily rare move) retract as a total mistake on his part, Ray Broshears leaped forward to implicate this new suspect, with such helpful allegations as the false claim that Bradley had been in Dallas on the day of the assassination.⁽¹²⁾

Researcher David Blackburst notes:

1. Broshears claims to have been Ferrie's roommate for a long period, during which Ferrie actually had another roommate, who does not recall ever meeting Broshears.

2. None of Ferrie's acknowledged friends ever remembers meeting or hearing about Broshears.

3. The things Ferrie allegedly told Broshears are completely the opposite of what he told his friends, and opposite of what he said in all statements to law enforcement officers.

   Feeling some doubt about the accuracy of Broshears statements, I phoned him several years ago and spoke with him for nearly an hour. He claimed things that I knew to be untrue (such as that Ferrie was a non-smoker), he failed to recognize the names of Ferrie's closest friends, he knew nothing at all about Ferrie's employers during those years, and he showed complete unfamiliarity with the layout of Ferrie's apartment, and with the city of New Orleans. I came away with the feeling that Broshears story was almost certainly untrue.

 

The Gay and Lesbian Historical Society of Northern California's Web site notes:

Little is known about Broshears before he was ordained as a minister in the Universal Life Church (1967) and the Orthodox Episcopal Catholic Church (circa 1968). By the early 1970s he was living in San Francisco, where he founded a local version of the Gay Activists Alliance. In 1972, he was instrumental in organizing the first San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade. During this event, he managed to alienate most of the lesbians present -- while keeping his own profile in front of the cameras all day. Full of contradictions, "Reverend Ray" (as he preferred to be called) helped many people and causes over time. He also attacked anyone who disagreed with him, using his newspaper, Gay Crusader, to spread rumors about people he considered his enemies. The newspaper also featured photos and profiles of his latest young protégés, and promoted various conspiracy theories.

 

In a confidential e-mail to this author, one San Francisco resident who participated in and helped in the planning of numerous gay pride events alongside Rev. Broshears reports mixed emotions about him. For example, Broshears "did a lot of work for the downtrodden by organizing a soup kitchen, as well as a gossip rag called the Crusader, which revealed some of the more unsavory things about the people who run this city." On the other hand, "What I saw was a hateful, vindictive man" who "was definitely one for getting headlines," ". . . and some people thought he was crazy."

"Broshears was an enigmatic man," another gay activist told this author in confidence. "He used his newspaper to champion many local politicians and gay leaders, before turning around and attacking them. Most people here during the 1970s came to dislike and distrust him."

Jim Garrison had only a single witness to testify that Clay Shaw was guilty of the crime for which he had been charged: the DA's star witness, Perry Raymond Russo. When Oliver Stone claims that "Willie O'Keefe" is a composite of four witnesses, he does so with the knowledge that Jim Garrison declined to ask David Logan, William Morris, and Raymond Broshears to testify at the trial of Clay Shaw. As author Patricia Lambert notes in her landmark study of the Garrison case, False Witness, witnesses like Logan, Morris, and Broshears "played no part in the actual case. Only Russo counted."⁽¹³⁾

Let's see if we can figure out why Oliver Stone made the decision to omit Russo from his movie.

Following the untimely death of Garrison suspect David Ferrie on February 22, 1967, 25-year-old Baton Rouge insurance sales trainee Perry Raymond 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.⁽¹⁴⁾

He also contacted Baton Rouge reporter Bill Bankston and told Bankston that Ferrie had spoken about how easy it would be to assassinate a president.⁽¹⁵⁾ Russo recalled that a month or so before the Kennedy assassination, Ferrie had said, "We will get him, and it won't be long."⁽¹⁶⁾

Russo had not taken such remarks seriously, he explained, as he had heard other people express similar sentiments.⁽¹⁷⁾ "It was just general conversation," he said. Nevertheless, he was glad to "get the whole story down with somebody."⁽¹⁸⁾

The following day, Jim Garrison dispatched Assistant DA Andrew Sciambra to Baton Rouge to interview Perry Russo.⁽¹⁹⁾ Sciambra was a 31-year-old former boxer who had just graduated from law school and was known to most of his friends by his childhood nickname, "Moo Moo."⁽²⁰⁾ "I like Moo," Garrison would confide to an associate. "He's new [at the business of criminal investigation]. He doesn't know what can't be done."⁽²¹⁾

Sciambra brought with him a number of photographs to show Russo, including one of Clay Shaw, whom his boss believed to be the mysterious ""Clay Bertrand" described in Dean Andrews's Warren Commission testimony.⁽²²⁾

According to Sciambra's memorandum of his initial interview with Perry Russo, when he showed the witness the photograph of Clay Shaw, Russo volunteered that he had seen "this man twice. The first time," Sciambra writes, "was when he [Russo] pulled into Ferrie's service station to get his car fixed. Shaw was the person who was sitting in the compact car talking with Ferrie. He remembers seeing him again at the Nashville Street Wharf when he went to see JFK speak. He said he particularly remembers this guy because he was apparently a queer. It seems that instead of looking at JFK speak, Shaw kept turning around and looking at all the young boys in the crowd."⁽²³⁾

"Is his name Bertrand?" Sciambra asked him.

"I'm not sure," Russo replied. "Is that his name?"

"That's the name he went as," Sciambra told him.⁽²⁴⁾

Russo also described a roommate of Ferrie's, whom he said had "sort of dirty blond hair and a husky beard which appeared to be a little darker than his hair." He looked like "a typical beatnik, extremely dirty, with his hair all messed up, his beard unkept [sic], a dirty T-shirt on, and either blue jeans or khaki pants on. He . . . wore white tennis shoes which were cruddy and had on no socks."⁽²⁵⁾

Shown a photo of Lee Harvey Oswald, the witness "began shaking his head and said that he doesn't know if he should say what he's thinking. . . . He then said that the picture of Lee Harvey Oswald was the person that Ferrie had introduced to him as his roommate. He said the only thing that doesn't make him stand up and say that he is sure beyond the shadow of any doubt is the fact that the roommate was always so cruddy and had a bushy beard. He then drew a beard on the picture of Oswald and said this was Ferrie's roommate." He added that the name "Leon" rang a bell.⁽²⁶⁾

That evening the assistant DA met with Jim Garrison, along with Life editor Richard Billings, who was working closely with the office on the assassination case. Sciambra "came in excited," Billings would recall, "and told them that he had just interviewed Perry Russo in Baton Rouge. He was excited because Russo said he had seen Shaw and Ferrie together on one occasion, in a car at Ferrie's gas station; and he claimed he had seen Shaw on one other occasion, at the Nashville Street wharf on the occasion of President Kennedy's visit."⁽²⁷⁾

On Monday morning, February 27th, Sciambra phoned Russo and asked him to come to New Orleans. As Sciambra described it, "we went down to the Detective Bureau in order to draw a composite sketch of Lee Harvey Oswald, and then from there we went back up to the District Attorney's office . . . in an effort to get the beard of Lee Harvey Oswald properly drawn on the photograph."⁽²⁸⁾ It may have taken as long as six hours to complete,⁽²⁹⁾ as Oswald did not appear "dirty and disheveled" enough to suit the witness.⁽³⁰⁾

It did not seem to bother anyone that Perry Russo's description of the roommate sounded nothing at all like Lee Harvey Oswald, who had short, neatly trimmed, dark hair; was extremely neat in his appearance; was always well groomed and clean-shaven; and was wholly unlike anyone's physical conception of a "beatnik."

Following further questioning about Oswald, Ferrie, Shaw, and "Bertrand,"⁽³¹⁾ Perry Russo underwent the first step in a process Jim Garrison called "objectifying" his testimony.⁽³²⁾ The witness himself would later refer to his experience with the DA's office as a "complete brainwashing job."⁽³³⁾

In the emergency room operating ward of Mercy Hospital, coroner Nicholas Chetta administered to Russo a dose of sodium Pentathol -- so-called "truth serum."⁽³⁴⁾

However, as Patricia Lambert notes in her groundbreaking study of the Garrison case, False Witness, sodium Pentathol only tends to suppress inhibitions, "including those against fantasizing. If a person is trying to hide something, he may be more likely to reveal it because he is more relaxed. But if a person is inclined toward fantasizing, the drug may encourage that."⁽³⁵⁾

Dr. Edwin A. Weinstein of the Washington School of Psychiatry writes, "The drug is not a 'truth serum.' Its action on recall is profoundly influenced by the stress of the situation in which it is administered and the relationship between the subject and his questioners." "Under the influence of sodium Pentathol," Dr. Weinstein states, "subjects may give highly fictional accounts of past events and describe incidence that never happened."⁽³⁶⁾

Perry Russo would later recall lying on a table as the Pentathol bottle was attached, causing an immediate and violent reaction. "My head started spinning 'round and 'round," he said. "Things started closing in on me and tightening up and I started getting violent and upset. . . . I didn't want to be bothered, didn't want anybody to touch me and I didn't want anybody close to me." At first "the doctors were holding me down. . . . I felt like I was kicking at them. . . . It seemed like they strapped my whole body [down for restraint], they strapped the right arm down and they held the left arm . . . and they strapped me around the waist and around the legs." "I just kept swinging and twisting and squirming away" and "the needle came out once, at least, maybe more. . . . [Assistant DA Alvin] Oser . . . was holding me down right at the waist. He's big!" "He just physically got on top of me and I kept saying, I remember saying, 'Get away you motherf*****s, get away,' and I kicked at them and I was swinging at them."⁽³⁷⁾

The interrogation that followed would be the turning point in Jim Garrison's investigation. By this time, Perry Russo had heard enough about Clay Shaw and his alleged alias to make the connections his interrogators needed.⁽³⁸⁾ As the witness described to Saturday Evening Post reporter James Phelan, he "had picked up a lot of information from Garrison's people . . ." The DA's staff "asked me a lot of questions and I'm a pretty perceptive guy. I was able to figure out what they wanted to know from the questions they asked."⁽³⁹⁾

Under the influence of the drug, Russo denied knowing Clay Shaw. But when asked by Sciambra whether he knew "Clay Bertrand," Russo said that he did know a "Bertrand." "Russo said that Ferrie had introduced him to Bertrand while he was at Ferrie's apartment on Louisiana Avenue Parkway," Sciambra writes. At Sciambra's prompting, Russo described "Bertrand" as a "queer," and "a tall man with white kinky hair, sort of slender." He said that "Bertrand" was the man he'd seen once at Ferrie's service station and once at the Nashville Street Wharf.⁽⁴⁰⁾

At Sciambra's prompting, Russo described being in Ferrie's apartment with "Bertrand" and "Leon Oswald." According to Russo, Ferrie had stated, "We are going to kill John F. Kennedy" and "it won't be long." Sciambra asked whom Ferrie had meant when he said "we," and Russo responded, "I guess he was referring to the people in the room."⁽⁴¹⁾

When the sodium Pentathol wore off, Russo forgot much of what he had said under its influence.⁽⁴²⁾ That evening over dinner at the Royal Orleans Rib Room with Jim Garrison and Richard Billings, Russo found that he was "the star of the evening."⁽⁴³⁾ Garrison "seemed charged up," Russo would later recall. "He started introducing me to Billings as his prize, his secret weapon."⁽⁴⁴⁾

The witness was puzzled, however, when Garrison brought up the subject of "Bertrand." To Billings's surprise, Russo denied knowing anyone by that name.⁽⁴⁵⁾ "I don't remember [the] name 'Bertrand' now," Russo told them, "so I'm very skeptical of what I'm saying [under the influence of the sodium Pentathol]."⁽⁴⁶⁾ The DA suggested that the "truth serum" had jogged his memory.⁽⁴⁷⁾

"Garrison kept offering me suggestions of what to tell Billings," Russo recounted later. "It was pressure, boy. I felt like I had to convince Billings of things I hadn't even convinced myself of yet."⁽⁴⁸⁾ His willingness to do so may have been facilitated in part by a financial incentive floated by the District Attorney that evening.⁽⁴⁹⁾

The following day, Perry Russo was brought to Clay Shaw's house. He knocked on the door, posing as a door-to-door insurance salesman. After a brief exchange, he took his leave, and informed the DA's office that Shaw was definitely "Bertrand."⁽⁵⁰⁾ Shaw was arrested the following day, March 1, and charged with conspiracy to assassinate John F. Kennedy.

That same day, Russo underwent another step in the "objectifying" process when he was interrogated under the influence of hypnosis by Dr. Esmond Fatter and Andrew Sciambra. Jim Garrison would later claim that these procedures were conducted in order to verify that the witness was telling the truth.⁽⁵¹⁾

The DA and his men seemed unaware that in a hypnotic trance, "False ideas and beliefs can be implanted upon the mind of a subject . . . if the subject thinks that the examiner or hypnotizer desires him to entertain such beliefs or if such beliefs seem to be necessary to support other beliefs or to please the hypnotizer or whomever he represents." Hypnosis is, by definition, a "trance-like state of altered awareness that is characterized by extreme suggestibility."⁽⁵²⁾

Remarkably, though Clay Shaw had been arrested on the basis of Perry Russo's testimony alone,⁽⁵³⁾ it is Dr. Fatter, having been fully briefed about the case by the DA's men,⁽⁵⁴⁾ who introduces the key elements into the witness's interrogation.

Russo fails to describe anything but himself and "Dave Ferrie just sitting around,"⁽⁵⁵⁾ until Dr. Fatter explicitly sets the scene. Using the visual device of an imaginary television screen, Fatter tells the witness, "A picture is going to come on and you are in Ferrie's apartment on Louisiana Avenue Parkway. Would you look at that picture and tell us the story that you see?"⁽⁵⁶⁾

"[Ferrie] introduced me to his roommate who was a kook!" Russo replies. The roommate "Looked like he would be about as tall as I and he had sandy brown hair, dirty white shirt and dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty [sic]."⁽⁵⁷⁾

"And Perry, his name was -- ?" "Leon." "His last name?" "Oswald."⁽⁵⁸⁾

"Who else is in the apartment?" Fatter asks. "Nobody," Russo says, "just me and him." "Just you and -- Ferrie?" "And Oswald."⁽⁵⁹⁾

Despite Dr. Fatter's prodding, the witness still fails to volunteer any recollection of the man he had identified as a conspirator in the Kennedy assassination. Fatter instructs him to "continue to go deeper and deeper. Now, picture that television screen again, Perry, and it is a picture of Ferrie's apartment and there are several people in there and there is a white-haired man."⁽⁶⁰⁾ (Emphasis added.)

Russo says, "We are having a party and I came in and everybody is drinking beer. There are about ten of us and I am there, the roommate, Dave, some young boys and some other friends of Dave's . . ."⁽⁶¹⁾

"And how about the white-haired man?" Fatter prompts him. (Emphasis added.) "That is a friend of Dave's." "His name?" "Clem [sic] Bertrand," Russo responds, garbling the purported alias. "Had you seen him before?" "Yes, I saw him at the Nashville Street Wharf." "I wonder where else --" "Nowhere." "Is that the same white-haired gentleman in the service station?" "I don't remember the service station."⁽⁶²⁾

At this point Fatter abruptly changes the subject to introduce another key element of the story: "I wonder who that is sitting on the sofa with the rifle?" (Emphasis added.) "Leon." "What is he doing with the rifle, Perry?" "He always had a rifle; he liked guns and many times he would have a rifle."⁽⁶³⁾

"Continue looking at the television program," Dr. Fatter instructs him, "Clay, the white-haired man, is going to come into the room."⁽⁶⁴⁾ . . . See that television screen again, it is very vivid. [Now] notice the picture on the screen.⁽⁶⁵⁾ There will be Bertrand, Ferrie and Oswald, and they are going to discuss a very important matter . . . they are talking about assassinating somebody. Look at it and describe it to me."⁽⁶⁶⁾ (Emphasis added.)

What is left to describe? Esmond Fatter has unwittingly fed the witness the entire story. For the first time on record, Russo now describes a full-blown "assassination plot" involving Dave Ferrie, Ferrie's supposed roommate, "Leon," and the white-haired "Clem Bertrand."⁽⁶⁷⁾

Russo was again hypnotized and interrogated on March 9, 1967. No transcript or report of this session is known to exist. Apparently, the witness only came up with one "new" item of information: that "Clem Bertrand" had purportedly stated he would establish an alibi for the assassination by being "in the public eye" on the West Coast, far from the scene of the crime. The New Orleans press had reported on March 2nd that Clay Shaw had been in San Francisco on business the day of the assassination.⁽⁶⁸⁾ (It never seems to have occurred to the DA or his men to wonder why someone would travel from New Orleans to San Francisco for an alibi in Dallas.)

Russo was interrogated a third time under hypnosis on March 12th.⁽⁶⁹⁾ The following day, no less than five of the DA's men helped him prepare for his testimony at Clay Shaw's preliminary hearing, in a lengthy session conducted at the Ramada Inn on Tulane Avenue. The witness was asked "to repeat things over and over and over. Rat-a-tat, rat-a-tat . . . non-stop," as Russo later described it.⁽⁷⁰⁾ With the hypnosis transcripts in hand, the DA's men would recite the questions Dr. Fatter had asked, with Russo reciting his responses. "It was like a script to play," Russo recalled later. "You say your lines and I'll say mine."⁽⁷¹⁾

Learning his lines was precisely what the witness was doing. By this time, as he would later admit to several people, he found it difficult to distinguish for certain between what was true and what was false in his testimony.⁽⁷²⁾

In his 1988 memoir, On the Trail of the Assassins, Jim Garrison claims that Perry Russo had already told the full story of the "assassination plot" to a reporter for the Baton Rouge State-Times, prior to the time he came forward to the District Attorney's office. In "an interview the morning of Friday, February 24," Garrison writes, Russo told the reporter "about a meeting he had attended at Ferrie's apartment at which the assassination of President Kennedy had been discussed. The story, written by Bill Bankston, appeared in the State-Times that afternoon."⁽⁷³⁾

However, in that interview, Russo made no mention whatsoever of a conspiratorial meeting at David Ferrie's apartment, a party, a Lee or "Leon" Oswald associating with Ferrie, a white-haired man, a "Clay" or "Clem Bertrand," Clay Shaw, or an assassination plot.⁽⁷⁴⁾ In a filmed interview that day, Russo stated, "Oswald didn't exist in my mind until the assassination. I read about him in the papers. I heard about him on TV. I don't know anything at all about Oswald. If [Ferrie] mentioned Oswald, I don't remember it."⁽⁷⁵⁾

Two days prior to this, on the day David Ferrie died, Russo told two acquaintances in Baton Rouge the same story he would tell Bankston -- that he had heard Ferrie say it would be easy to assassinate the President, and on one occasion, Ferrie had said, "We are going to get him." There was no mention of a conspiratorial meeting, no party, no Lee or "Leon" Oswald associating with Ferrie, no white-haired man, no "Clay" or "Clem Bertrand," no Clay Shaw, and no assassination plot.⁽⁷⁶⁾

Hours after his February 24 interview with Bankston, Russo was interviewed by the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate. He mentioned no conspiratorial meeting, no party, no Lee or "Leon" Oswald associating with Ferrie, no white-haired man, no "Clay" or "Clem Bertrand," no Clay Shaw, and no assassination plot.⁽⁷⁷⁾

He was interviewed again that day by New Orleans's WDSU. In a filmed interview, he discussed David Ferrie, but mentioned no conspiratorial meeting, no party, no Lee or "Leon" Oswald with Ferrie, no white-haired man, no "Clay" or "Clem Bertrand," no Clay Shaw, and no assassination plot. "I never heard of Oswald until on television [after] the assassination," he said.⁽⁷⁸⁾

In the letter Perry Russo mailed to the District Attorney's office that day, offering his assistance, he had mentioned no conspiratorial meeting, no party, no Lee or "Leon" Oswald, no white-haired man, no "Clay" or "Clem Bertrand," no Clay Shaw, and no assassination plot.⁽⁷⁹⁾

These accounts of Russo's are absolutely consistent with the memorandum written by Andrew Sciambra of their initial Baton Rouge interview the following day, February 25. The first person outside the District Attorney's office to read that memorandum was Saturday Evening Post reporter James Phelan. It was handed to him personally by Jim Garrison during a weekend trip to Las Vegas, on or about March 6, 1967. When Phelan later pointed out that no assassination conspiracy was to be found in that document, Sciambra explained that he had been "awfully busy with a half dozen other things." "Maybe I forgot to put it in," he said.⁽⁸⁰⁾

As Phelan observed, this would mean that Sciambra had composed a 3,500-word memorandum on the crime of the century -- and neglected to mention the crime.⁽⁸¹⁾ Also, Phelan pointed out, Sciambra had specified in the memo that Perry Russo had allegedly seen Clay Shaw twice -- once at the Nashville Street Wharf and once at David Ferrie's service station -- not three times. This "was an error on my part," Sciambra would testify under oath at trial.⁽⁸²⁾

In court, both Andrew Sciambra and Perry Russo insisted they had discussed the assassination plot, including the meeting with "Leon Oswald" and "Clem Bertrand," at their initial interview in Baton Rouge.⁽⁸³⁾ Defense attorney William Wegmann questioned Sciambra about the one item of evidence that could prove Russo had indeed mentioned "Bertrand," the party, and an assassination plot in his original interview.

 

WEGMANN. Now, Mr. Sciambra, you took notes [of this interview], is that correct?

SCIAMBRA. I did.

WEGMANN. Where are those notes today?

SCIAMBRA. Those notes were burned.

WEGMANN. When did you burn those notes?

SCIAMBRA. Sometime after I completed the memorandum.

WEGMANN. How long after?

SCIAMBRA. Very shortly, shortly and may I explain why I burned my notes? . . . Ever since this case began we have had tremendous problems in the District Attorney's office trying to keep information from flowing out of the District Attorney's office to others. . . .

WEGMANN. Isn't it a fact that James Phelan subsequently . . . came to you and asked you for those notes?

SCIAMBRA. That is exactly right and I went to look for them and couldn't find them there.

WEGMANN. There weren't any leaks in the District Attorney's office at that time?

SCIAMBRA. We always had leaks in the District Attorney's office.

WEGMANN. From the very inception?

SCIAMBRA. From the inception.

WEGMANN. If you knew you had burned them why did you go look for them?

SCIAMBRA. I wanted to see if -- the main reason is I wanted to see that I had done it.⁽⁸⁴⁾

During his testimony, Sciambra called James Phelan a "prostitute" for what he termed Phelan's misrepresentation of the facts of Garrison's assassination probe.⁽⁸⁵⁾ The following exchange brought Sciambra's testimony to an end:

 

WEGMANN. You said that Phelan was a prostitute . . . for not having objectively reported [the facts]?

SCIAMBRA. That was obvious.

WEGMANN. And do you feel you objectively reported what Russo told you on February 25 in Baton Rouge?

SCIAMBRA. I reported it to the best of my ability. That would make me a sloppy memorandum writer but it doesn't make me a prostitute.

WEGMANN. What?

SCIAMBRA. Some twenty-six inaccuracies, twenty-six inconsistencies, differences between my interpretation and Perry's words.

WEGMANN. How many omissions?

SCIAMBRA. It had some omissions but the obvious omission was the fact I did not report in that memorandum that Perry had told me about a meeting in Ferrie's apartment between Shaw, Ferrie and Oswald and that was the big omission and that I pointed out.⁽⁸⁶⁾

Had the credibility of Perry Russo's claims not been problematic enough, NBC developed information further impeaching Russo's testimony.

In Sciambra's memorandum of Perry Russo's sodium Pentathol interrogation of February 27, the document universally acknowledged as the first written account of the "assassination plot," Russo describes the party at Ferrie's apartment as having occurred between September 20 and September 25, 1963.⁽⁸⁷⁾ In the previous memorandum describing the February 25 interview, Russo names a number of witnesses who could ostensibly verify his statements about David Ferrie's roommate, "Leon." Two of the people he mentioned were Niles "Lefty" Peterson and Kenny Carter.

In a 1967 interview with NBC, Niles Peterson confirmed that he had briefly dropped by Ferrie's apartment on one occasion with Perry Russo and others, and that Russo had stayed when he and the others departed. Peterson recalled that this took place in September 1963, because the group was coming from a football game at Tulane University, "either the first or second game of the season, one of the two," he said.⁽⁸⁸⁾

NBC learned that Tulane had played two football games in 1963, one on September 20, and the other on October 4. Kenny Carter also remembered attending a Tulane football game with Perry Russo. (He thought it was the Miami game on October 4th.)⁽⁸⁹⁾

The date is crucial. Lee Harvey Oswald is documented to have been in Dallas, Texas, on October 4, 1963, not in New Orleans. He had registered at the YMCA in Dallas the previous night. He applied for a job at the Padgett Printing Company in Dallas around 2:00 PM on the 4th, and visited his wife, Marina, at the residence of her friend, Ruth Paine, in Irving, a suburb of Dallas, that evening.⁽⁹⁰⁾

Oswald's whereabouts of September 20, 1963, are also known. He was in New Orleans, but he spent that evening with his wife Marina and their houseguest, Mrs. Paine, who arrived in town that afternoon.⁽⁹¹⁾ "[Oswald] was there the entire time," Mrs. Paine recalled.⁽⁹²⁾

Mrs. Paine also testified that Oswald's appearance that weekend, as always, was very clean, neat, and clean-shaven.⁽⁹³⁾ Shown the sketch of a bearded Oswald drawn to Perry Russo's specifications, Mrs. Paine denied ever having seen him in such a state.⁽⁹⁴⁾ At trial, Marina Oswald too said she had never seen her husband look that way.⁽⁹⁵⁾ The Oswalds' New Orleans landlady, Mrs. Jesse James Garner, said that Oswald had never appeared unshaven, unkempt or dirty to her.⁽⁹⁶⁾

Of course, Lee Harvey Oswald had never roomed with David Ferrie either, and not a single witness corroborated Russo's claim about Oswald being at David Ferrie's apartment. But a man named Jim Lewallen had roomed with Ferrie on occasion, and he spent a great deal of time at Ferrie's apartment in September 1963.⁽⁹⁷⁾ Lewallen had a beard, and Ferrie friend Layton Martens was struck by the resemblance between Lewallen and Perry Russo's altered photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald.⁽⁹⁸⁾ Because of his job as an airplane mechanic, Lewallen generally wore blue jeans or khakis, as did the roommate described by Russo,⁽⁹⁹⁾ and these were often grease-stained and dirty from his work.⁽¹⁰⁰⁾

Niles Peterson did not recognize the altered photograph of Oswald,⁽¹⁰¹⁾ but he did recall meeting Ferrie's roommate whom he agreed fit the general description of the roommate in Russo's account.⁽¹⁰²⁾ Peterson remembered the roommate being a good deal taller than him. Peterson was 5'9", as was Lee Oswald. He estimated the roommate's height at about 6' or 6'1", the approximate height of James Lewallen.⁽¹⁰³⁾

At first, Perry Russo could not remember the name of Ferrie's roommate, but told Andrew Sciambra that "the name Leon really rings a bell."⁽¹⁰⁴⁾ Layton Martens recalled that people would sometimes address Jim Lewallen as "Lew" or "Lee."⁽¹⁰⁵⁾

Russo initially claimed that both Niles Peterson and another witness, a former girlfriend, Sandra Moffett, could corroborate that "Leon Oswald" and "Clem Bertrand" had been at Ferrie's apartment that evening, as both had attended the party with him.⁽¹⁰⁶⁾ Peterson, however, could recall no one resembling Clay Shaw or Lee Harvey Oswald in attendance,⁽¹⁰⁷⁾ and Moffett denied attending the party at all, stating in a sworn affidavit that she never even met David Ferrie until 1965.⁽¹⁰⁸⁾

Prior to Shaw's preliminary hearing, Garrison ordered a polygraph examination for Perry Russo; the test indicated "deception criteria" when Russo claimed to have known Lee Oswald and Clay Shaw.⁽¹⁰⁹⁾ When NBC learned of this from polygraph operator Roy Jacob, Garrison ordered a second polygraph examination. Perry Russo was too nervous for the test to be completed, however, and this time he confessed to polygraph operator Lt. Edward O' Donnell that his testimony was not true.⁽¹¹⁰⁾ This would not stop him from repeating essentially the same story at trial two years later.⁽¹¹¹⁾

Jim Garrison would later claim that the Shaw jury voted to acquit because "they could not find any motivation for Shaw to have participated in a conspiracy to kill Kennedy, whom he always publicly professed to admire."⁽¹¹²⁾ But jury foreman Sidney Hebert told journalist James Kirkwood, "Actually the whole case rested on the testimony of Perry Russo. And his testimony didn't prove a thing to me."⁽¹¹³⁾

Juror Oliver Schultz also scoffed at the idea that anyone would plot an assassination with Perry Russo listening in. "[W]e all had the same opinion, that it wasn't enough to convict him," Schultz said. "As far as -- you know you had to have -- beyond a reasonable doubt. Well, to me, I still had plenty of doubts. . . . beginning with Perry Russo."⁽¹¹⁴⁾

Two years following the trial, Perry Raymond Russo recanted his entire story in a series of tape-recorded interviews with Clay Shaw's defense team.⁽¹¹⁵⁾ Two decades after that, he revived his tale for Oliver Stone, who hired him as a consultant for JFK. But Russo would continue to confide to interviewers that he believed Clay Shaw had been innocent, and had he himself been a member of the Shaw jury, he would have voted to acquit.⁽¹¹⁶⁾

Now, what conceivable reason could Oliver Stone have had to omit Jim Garrison's star witness, Perry Raymond Russo, from his movie about the Garrison investigation of John F. Kennedy's assassination?

NOTES:

1. Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar, JFK: The Book of the Film (New York: Applause, 1992), p. 66.

2. Jim Garrison, On the Trail of the Assassins (New York: Warner Books, 1992), pp. 138-39.

3. Transcript of telephone interview between David Logan and James Alcock, April 13, 1968.

4. Transcript of telephone interview between David Logan and James Alcock, April 13, 1968.

5. Josephine Hug, a former secretary to International Trade Mart Public Relations Director Jesse Core, told friends in February 1967 that she believed, based on a newspaper photograph, David Ferrie was an individual she had seen enter Clay Shaw's office unannounced on numerous occasions. Upon being shown Ferrie's mug shot and other photographs by the District Attorney, she immediately realized the man had not been Ferrie. She later saw the man walking on Canal Street, this being several months after Ferrie's death. See Orleans Parish Grand Jury testimony of Josephine Hug, March 9 and August 23, 1967, and Jasper Joseph Hug, August 23, 1967.

An FBI teletype of March 5, 1967 (JFK Document No. 124-10101-10017), reports that a confidential informant "advised this date that Aura Lee [sic] (Last Name Unknown), Clay Shaw's former secretary [sic] at International Trade Mart, New Orleans, who is employed by the Heart Fund at Ochsner Clinic, stated in front of Dr. Charles B. Moore and others at Ochsner Hospital 31 last, after Shaw's press conference where he advised he never met David Ferrie, that she had seen Ferrie go into Shaw's office in the International Trade Mart building on a number of occasions, and believed Ferrie had privileged entry into Shaw's office."

"Aura Lee" was identified to Memphis researcher Don Carpenter by former International Trade Mart public relations specialist Jesse Core; to date, she has refused the interview attempts of both Mr. Carpenter and this author. (In deference to her apparent desire for privacy, her name is omitted here.) Comparing the description of "Ferrie" in the FBI teletype to Josephine Hug's description of Shaw's unknown associate, it seems clear they are one and the same.

6. Jim Garrison, On the Trail of the Assassins (New York: Warner Books, 1992), p. 377; see also p. 363.

7. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), pp. 218, 281.

8. Louis Sproesser, The Garrison Investigation: November 1966 to February 1968 (Sturbridge, Mass.: Southern New England Research, 1999), p. 143, citing Peter Vea's notes on William Martin's memorandum to Jim Garrison, August 14, 1967.

9. James Phelan, Scandals, Scamps, and Scoundrels (New York: Random House, 1982), p. 169.

10. Jim Garrison, On the Trail of the Assassins (New York: Warner Books, 1992), pp. 139-40.

11. Dick Russell, The Man Who Knew Too Much (New York: Carroll and Graf, 1992), p. 576.

12. Steve Burton, Memorandum to Jim Garrison, re: interview with Raymond Broshears of April 12, 1968.

13. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 328 fn. 15.

14. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 304 fn. 4. While it has been confirmed that Russo visited Ferrie on at least one occasion in the fall of 1963, it is an open question how much time Russo actually spent with Ferrie. Ferrie friend Layton Martens told one researcher, "Between Morris [Brownlee, Ferrie's godson], Al [Beauboeuf], and Allen [Campbell], one or more of us were at Dave's apartment practically every night that year, and none of us ever heard any talk of killing Kennedy, none of us ever saw Clay Shaw, and none of us remember a Perry Russo." Brownlee, Beauboeuf and Campbell each confirmed this. (Gus Russo, Live by the Sword [Baltimore: Bancroft, 1998], p. 411.)

15. Bill Bankston, "Local Man Reports Ferrie Threat on Life of Kennedy," Baton Rouge State-Times, February 24, 1967. During the summer months, according to Russo, Ferrie "never referred directly to JFK, and always used the President of Mexico or President Eisenhower as an example." In an FBI interview of November 27, 1963, conducted in response to allegations made by Jack S. Martin, Ferrie said he had "been critical of any president riding in an open car and had made the statement that anyone could hide in the bushes and shoot a president."

16. Bill Bankston, "Local Man Reports Ferrie Threat on Life of Kennedy," Baton Rouge State-Times, February 24, 1967. Russo told essentially the same thing to Assistant DA Andrew Sciambra the following day. (Andrew Sciambra, Memorandum to Jim Garrison, February 27, 1967, re: Perry Russo interview on February 25, 1967 [in Baton Rouge].) Russo told Sciambra that by "him," Ferrie meant President Kennedy, but admitted later, under oath at the Shaw trial, that he was not certain whether Ferrie had been referring to Kennedy or Cuban premier Fidel Castro, a common subject of conversation for Ferrie. (Shaw, February 11, 1969, [2011] p. 356.) Oddly, Russo claimed on numerous occasions that David Ferrie, at least in some respects, approved of Fidel Castro and, even moreso, Che Guevara. This is contrary to the recollections of virtually every other Ferrie acquaintance on record. Ferrie was considered vehemently and outspokenly anti-Communist and anti-Castro, and the writings he left behind support this.

17. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 68. See also Transcript, State of Louisiana v. Clay Shaw, hereafter Shaw, February 10, 1969, (2010) p. 139.

18. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 68.

19. Shaw, February 12, 1969, (2013) pp. 39-41.

20. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 69.

21. Mark Lane, interview with Stephen Tyler, He Must Have Something, documentary film, 1992.

22. See The JFK 100: Was There a "Clay Bertrand"?

23. Andrew Sciambra, Memorandum to Jim Garrison, February 27, 1967, re: Perry Russo interview on February 25, 1967 [in Baton Rouge]. As developed at the Shaw trial, Russo's description of this individual does not fit Clay Shaw, although Shaw was present at that same event.

24. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 72. This comes not from Sciambra's memorandum, but from a later interview with Perry Russo. Russo did not remember for certain when Sciambra said this to him; it was either during their initial interview of February 25th or early in the day of their next encounter on February 27th. He was certain it was prior to their sodium Pentathol session on the afternoon of the 27th. Sciambra testified that he did not mention the names of any of photograph subjects to Russo on February 25th. (Shaw, February 12, 1969, [2014] p. 24.) It would not be unusual for Sciambra to inform a prospective Shaw witness that Shaw was "Bertrand," however, as Sciambra, by his own admission, told the same thing to David Ferrie in their interview of February 18, 1967. He also told Ferrie, falsely, that Dean Andrews had identified Shaw as "Bertrand."

25. Andrew Sciambra, Memorandum to Jim Garrison, February 27, 1967, re: Perry Russo interview on February 25, 1967 [in Baton Rouge].

26. Andrew Sciambra, Memorandum to Jim Garrison, February 27, 1967, re: Perry Russo interview on February 25, 1967 [in Baton Rouge].

27. Edward Jay Epstein, The Assassination Chronicles (New York: Carroll and Graf, 1992), p. 209; Tom Bethell diary, March 15, 1968. Sciambra later denied that Billings or any other reporter was present at this meeting. (Shaw, February 12, 1969, [2015] p. 9.)

28. Shaw, February 12, 1969, (2013) pp. 54-55.

29. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 71. Perry Russo said six hours; Andrew Sciambra testified it was more like one or two. (Shaw, February 12, 1969, [2015] p. 19.)

30. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 71.

31. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 72; see also Perry Russo, interview with Shaw defense team, January 26, 1971.

32. Paris Flammonde, The Kennedy Conspiracy (New York: Meredith Press, 1969), p. 295.

33. Perry Russo, interview with Shaw defense team, January 26, 1971.

34. Andrew Sciambra, Memorandum, February 28, 1967, "Interview with Perry Russo at Mercy Hospital [under influence of sodium Pentathol] on Feb. 27, 1967."

35. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 72.

36. Letter to The Washington Post, March 27, 1967.

37. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), pp. 72-73.

38. Andrew Sciambra, Memorandum to Jim Garrison, February 27, 1967, re: Perry Russo interview on February 25, 1967 [in Baton Rouge].

39. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 79.

40. Andrew Sciambra, Memorandum, February 28, 1967, "Interview with Perry Russo at Mercy Hospital [under influence of sodium Pentathol] on Feb. 27, 1967."

41. Andrew Sciambra, Memorandum, February 28, 1967, "Interview with Perry Russo at Mercy Hospital [under influence of sodium Pentathol] on Feb. 27, 1967."

42. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), pp. 79-80.

43. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), pp. 79-80.

44. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), pp. 79.

45. Richard Billings, "Dick Billings's personal notes on consultations and interviews with Garrison," February 28, 1967 (p. 17).

46. Richard Billings, "Dick Billings's personal notes on consultations and interviews with Garrison," February 28, 1967 (p. 17).

47. Richard Billings, "Garrison's Star Witness: Heard 'Plot' Plans," Miami Herald, April 23, 1968; Edward Jay Epstein, The Assassination Chronicles (New York: Carroll and Graf, 1992), p. 202; Lambert, pp. 79-80.

48. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), pp. 79.

49. Russo would later recall Garrison peeling off hundred-dollar bills for him and "telling him not to worry about expenses." (Perry Russo, interview with Shaw defense team, January 26, 1971.) He was given $3,000 for "expenses." (Shaw, February 11, 1969, [2011] pp. 442-43.) Russo also said that Life had promised Garrison $25,000 in exchange for what was to be their exclusive entrée into his investigation, and that Russo was told he'd be receiving "a lot" of that for his trouble. (Patricia Lambert, False Witness [New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998], p. 80.) He would grumble later that he never got all he was promised. (Perry Russo, interview with Shaw defense team, January 26, 1971.)

50. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 73.

51. NBC White Paper, "The JFK Conspiracy: The Case of Jim Garrison," broadcast June 19, 1967.

52. The American Medical Association's Encyclopedia of Medicine (Random House, 1989); Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 77.

53. James Alcock testimony, Clay L. Shaw v. Jim Garrison, et al., Civil Action 71-135, US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, New Orleans Division; Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 167.

54. James Phelan, "Rush to Judgment in New Orleans," Saturday Evening Post, May 6, 1967.

55. Transcript of March 1, 1969 hypnotic interrogation ("First Hypnotic Session, Exhibit F"), p. 1.

56. Transcript of March 1, 1969 hypnotic interrogation ("First Hypnotic Session, Exhibit F"), p. 4.

57. Transcript of March 1, 1969 hypnotic interrogation ("First Hypnotic Session, Exhibit F"), p. 4.

58. Transcript of March 1, 1969 hypnotic interrogation ("First Hypnotic Session, Exhibit F"), p. 4.

59. Transcript of March 1, 1969 hypnotic interrogation ("First Hypnotic Session, Exhibit F"), p. 4.

60. Transcript of March 1, 1969 hypnotic interrogation ("First Hypnotic Session, Exhibit F"), p. 5.

61. Transcript of March 1, 1969 hypnotic interrogation ("First Hypnotic Session, Exhibit F"), p. 5.

62. Transcript of March 1, 1969 hypnotic interrogation ("First Hypnotic Session, Exhibit F"), p. 6.

63. Transcript of March 1, 1969 hypnotic interrogation ("First Hypnotic Session, Exhibit F"), p. 6.

64. Transcript of March 1, 1969 hypnotic interrogation ("First Hypnotic Session, Exhibit F"), p. 6.

65. Transcript of March 1, 1969 hypnotic interrogation ("First Hypnotic Session, Exhibit F"), p. 6.

66. Transcript of March 1, 1969 hypnotic interrogation ("First Hypnotic Session, Exhibit F"), p. 6.

67. Transcript of March 1, 1969 hypnotic interrogation ("First Hypnotic Session, Exhibit F"), p. 8. Less significant a fabrication, but similar in method, was the addition of two short-lived Garrison suspects to Russo's story. Prior to the time Russo came forward, the DA was seeking two individuals for questioning in connection with the assassination. Julian Buznedo, a veteran of the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion attempt, was being sought as a known associate of David Ferrie's in the early Sixties. From such slender "evidence," Garrison had decided that Buznedo was probably the "field general" of the assassination squad in Dealey Plaza. (Richard Billings, "Dick Billings's personal notes on consultations and interviews with Garrison," February 25, 1967 [p. 15]. "Field general": Richard Billings, "Dick Billings's personal notes on consultations and interviews with Garrison," February 27, 1967 [p. 16].)

The other individual being sought was one Manuel Garcia Gonzales. This was actually a name Dean Andrews had invented, based on the similar name of a client of his. During one of several meetings with Garrison in late 1966, in which the DA tried to convince Andrews to identify Clay Shaw as "Clay Bertrand," Andrews devised a ploy to test Garrison's intentions. The DA had been after him for the names of the individuals Andrews claimed had accompanied Oswald to his office during the summer of 1963. Andrews had fabricated this story, so he had no names to offer. But he told Garrison that Manuel Garcia Gonzales was one of these men, describing him as a "Cuban guerrilla fighter." Within days, the DA publicly announced that he had identified the "trigger man" in Dealey Plaza as one Manuel Garcia Gonzales. (Edward Jay Epstein, The Assassination Chronicles [New York: Carroll and Graf, 1992], p. 228; Patricia Lambert, False Witness [New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998], p. 50.) An intensive search for "Gonzales" followed, including several trips by the DA and his men to Miami, where someone with that name had been reported. Andrews eventually informed Garrison that he had invented the name, and the DA may well have believed him, as "Gonzales" is not mentioned in either of Garrison's books on the assassination. Some assassination researchers still consider "Gonzales" a valid suspect, however. Henry Hurt's Reasonable Doubt (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1985) even includes a photograph of him!

Perry Russo's first two interviews for the DA's office refer to two Cuban friends of David Ferrie's. In both cases Russo stated he could not remember the name of either man. (Andrew Sciambra, Memorandum to Jim Garrison, February 27, 1967, re: Perry Russo interview on February 25, 1967 [in Baton Rouge]; Andrew Sciambra, Memorandum, February 28, 1967, "Interview with Perry Russo at Mercy Hospital [under influence of sodium Pentathol] on Feb. 27, 1967.") During his first hypnosis session of March 1, 1967, Russo named the Cubans for the first time. One was "Manuel," he said, and the other was named "Juliana," "Julie," "Jules," or something similar. By the time of his third hypnosis session of March 12, the witness was referring to the men as "Manuel" and "Julien [sic]."

During Clay Shaw's preliminary hearing, the DA's office was granted subpoenas for information from the New Orleans office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service on Julian Buznedo and Garcia Manuel [sic] Gonzales. Soon, however, the NODA succeeded in locating Buznedo himself. (Richard Billings, "Dick Billings's personal notes on consultations and interviews with Garrison," March 22, 1967 [p. 27].) Garrison soon lost interest in both "suspects."

68. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 93.

69. Transcript of March 12, 1969 hypnotic interrogation ("Second Hypnotic Session, Exhibit G").

70. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 94.

71. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 94.

72. James Phelan, Scandals, Scamps, and Scoundrels (New York: Random House, 1982), p. 166; NBC White Paper, "The JFK Conspiracy: The Case of Jim Garrison," broadcast June 19, 1967; Report of Lt. Edward O'Donnell on Russo's second failed polygraph examination. (Patricia Lambert, False Witness [New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998], p. 289.)

73. Jim Garrison, On the Trail of the Assassins (New York: Warner Books, 1992), p. 176.

74. Bill Bankston, "Local Man Reports Ferrie Threat on Life of Kennedy," Baton Rouge State-Times, February 24, 1967. Russo affirmed the article's accuracy at trial. (Shaw, February 10, 1969, [2010] pp. 190-9, 230.)

75. He Must Have Something, documentary film, 1992.

76. Milton E. Brener, The Garrison Case [New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1970], p. 90.

77. "Local Man Says He Recalls Remark By David Ferrie About Getting JFK," Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, February 25, 1967.

78. Shaw, February 10, 1969, (2010) pp. 201-21. At trial, Russo affirmed the overall accuracy of the transcript. (Ibid., 221.) At Clay Shaw's preliminary hearing, he explained this discrepancy by insisting it had been Leon Oswald he had known, not Lee Oswald, and had never suspected the two were one and the same. (Criminal District Court for the Parish of Orleans, State of Louisiana, No. M-703, Clay L. Shaw, Arrestee [Preliminary hearing transcript, March 15, 1967], p. 182.) But at trial, he stated that he did connect the two alleged individuals, Lee and "Leon," in November 1963. "I told a couple of friends of mine that I knew [Lee Harvey Oswald] or I had known him," he testified. (Shaw, February 11, 1969, [2011] p. 333.)

79. Jim Garrison claimed that his office never received this letter. (Jim Garrison, On the Trail of the Assassins [New York: Warner Books, 1992], p. 176.) Russo described its contents during his testimony at the Shaw trial. (Shaw, February 10, 1969 [2010], p. 180.)

80. James Phelan, "Rush to Judgment in New Orleans," Saturday Evening Post, May 6, 1967.

81. James Phelan, "Rush to Judgment in New Orleans," Saturday Evening Post, May 6, 1967. Garrison aide William Gurvich was present when Phelan confronted Sciambra and Garrison. "Man, you have just blown up the only witness we've got," Gurvich told Phelan afterwards. "I'll never forget Sciambra sitting there lying to you. This little son of a bitch, this [memo] was his little magnum opus and he sits there telling you he had a half-dozen other things to do. This was the one big thing that this little SOB did and he sat there saying, 'Maybe I forgot!' Man, he worked that memo over and polished it and repolished it." (James Kirkwood, American Grotesque [Simon & Schuster, 1970], p. 164.) Perry Russo privately confirmed to Phelan and photographer Matt Herron that the memorandum was an accurate record of his interview with Sciambra, but denied this under oath at the Shaw trial. Herron and Sciambra himself each confirmed Russo's statement to NODA investigator Tom Bethell. (Kirkwood, p. 165. Russo denial: Shaw, February 10, 1969, [2010] p. 126. Herron and Bethell: Tom Bethell diary, June 25, 1967. Sciambra and Bethell: Tom Bethell diary, March 5, 1968.)

82. Shaw, February 12, 1969, (2015) p. 40.

83. Under oath, Sciambra now claimed there had been no need to include this information in the memorandum of the February 25th interview (dated February 27, 1967). By the time he got around to dictating it, he explained, he had already reported the full story in the memorandum documenting Russo's February 27th sodium Pentathol interrogation at Mercy Hospital (dated February 28, 1967). Sciambra claimed that while he began writing the memorandum of the February 25 interview on February 27, as the memo is dated, he did not complete it until sometime between approximately Saturday, March 4, and Tuesday, March 7. Recall that Jim Garrison personally handed a copy of the document to James Phelan on or about March 6th in Las Vegas. (Shaw, February 12, 1969, [2013] pp. 57-59; [2015] pp. 39-45; James Phelan, "Rush to Judgment in New Orleans," Saturday Evening Post, May 6, 1967; James Kirkwood, American Grotesque [Simon & Schuster, 1970], pp. 301-04; Patricia Lambert, False Witness [New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998], pp. 137-38.) As a practicing criminal attorney, defense attorney William Wegmann asked Sciambra, didn't he know that a memorandum of interrogation under the influence of sodium Pentathol would be inadmissible in court whereas the memorandum on the initial interview would be admissible? "I didn't think about it," Sciambra replied. (Shaw, February 12, 1969, [2015] p. 17.)

84. Shaw, February 12, 1969, (2015) pp. 9-20.

85. Shaw, February 12, 1969, (2015) pp. 42-43.

86. Shaw, February 12, 1969, (2015), pp. 44-45.

87. Two days later, under hypnosis, he would give the date as September 16. At Clay Shaw's preliminary hearing and at trial two years later, Russo would only state that the party took place towards the middle of September.

88. NBC White Paper, "The JFK Conspiracy: The Case of Jim Garrison," broadcast June 19, 1967.

89. NBC White Paper, "The JFK Conspiracy: The Case of Jim Garrison," broadcast June 19, 1967.

90. NBC White Paper, "The JFK Conspiracy: The Case of Jim Garrison," broadcast June 19, 1967; see Warren Commission Report, p. 737.

91. NBC White Paper, "The JFK Conspiracy: The Case of Jim Garrison," broadcast June 19, 1967.

92. NBC White Paper, "The JFK Conspiracy: The Case of Jim Garrison," broadcast June 19, 1967.

93. Shaw, February 22, 1969, (2034) pp. 9-10.

94. Shaw, February 22, 1969, (2034) pp. 9-10.

95. Shaw, February 21, 1969, (2031), p. 10.

96. NBC White Paper, "The JFK Conspiracy: The Case of Jim Garrison," broadcast June 19, 1967. See also Milton E. Brener, The Garrison Case (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1969), p. 93. There is not a single photograph in existence of Oswald with anything even close to a beard. The closest thing is his New Orleans mug shot of August 9, 1963, which shows a barely perceptible bit of stubble on his chin and a wispy hint of a mustache.

97. NBC White Paper, "The JFK Conspiracy: The Case of Jim Garrison," broadcast June 19, 1967. See also Milton E. Brener, The Garrison Case (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1969), p. 93.

98. NBC White Paper, "The JFK Conspiracy: The Case of Jim Garrison," broadcast June 19, 1967.

99. Andrew Sciambra, Memorandum to Jim Garrison, February 27, 1967, re: Perry Russo interview on February 25, 1967 [in Baton Rouge].

100. Milton E. Brener, The Garrison Case (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1969), p. 86.

101. Milton E. Brener, The Garrison Case (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1969), p. 94.

102. NBC White Paper, "The JFK Conspiracy: The Case of Jim Garrison," broadcast June 19, 1967.

103. Peterson recollection: NBC White Paper, "The JFK Conspiracy: The Case of Jim Garrison," broadcast June 19, 1967. The author's estimate is based upon the photograph published in Rosemary James and Jack Wardlaw, Plot or Politics? (New Orleans: Pelican, 1967), p. 75.

104. Andrew Sciambra, Memorandum to Jim Garrison, February 27, 1967, re: Perry Russo interview on February 25, 1967 [in Baton Rouge].

105. NBC White Paper, "The JFK Conspiracy: The Case of Jim Garrison," broadcast June 19, 1967.

106. Andrew Sciambra, Memorandum to Jim Garrison, February 27, 1967, re: Perry Russo interview on February 25, 1967 [in Baton Rouge]. Trial testimony re: Peterson and Moffett: Shaw, February 6, 1969, (2005) p. 6; February 10, 1969, (2010) pp. 53, 237, 240-5, 299, 314, 381-5, 387. At trial, Russo equivocated about whether Peterson and/or Moffett had been there, even going so far as to accuse counsel Irvin Dymond of goading him into testifying falsely at the preliminary hearing (Shaw, February 10, 1969, [2010], pp. 239-46).

107. NBC White Paper, "The JFK Conspiracy: The Case of Jim Garrison," broadcast June 19, 1967.

108. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 78 fn.

109. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), pp. 92-93.

110. Report of Lt. Edward O' Donnell; Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), pp. 287-89.

111. While Russo testified at trial that Clay Shaw had conspired with David Ferrie and Lee Harvey ("Leon") Oswald to assassinate President Kennedy, his testimony was surprisingly equivocal. He affirmed that he had overheard Ferrie discussing the assassination of President Kennedy with Shaw and Oswald, but denied that Shaw himself agreed to commit any such crime. (Shaw, February 11, 1969, [2011] p. 257.) When defense counsel Irvin Dymond referred to the three men as conspirators, Russo snapped, "I don't call them conspirators. . . .I have never used that word." (Shaw, February 11, 1969, [2011] p. 315.) When Dymond referred to the gathering as a "conspiratorial meeting," Russo interjected, "I never said anything about a conspiracy; I didn't sit in on any conspiracies." (Shaw, February 11, 1969, [2011] p. 502.) He preferred the terms "shooting the bull" or "bull session," as he affirmed over a dozen times. (Shaw, February 10, 1969, [2010] pp. 154-6, 158, 188, 196-9; February 11, 1969, [2011] pp. 372, 451-2.)

112. Jim Garrison, On the Trail of the Assassins (New York: Warner Books, 1992), p. 294.

113. James Kirkwood, American Grotesque (Simon & Schuster, 1970), p. 508.

114. James Kirkwood, American Grotesque (Simon & Schuster, 1970), p. 512.

115. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 173. The commencement of these interviews coincided with Russo's appearance as a witness in the US district court case, Clay L. Shaw v. Jim Garrison, et al, where, instead of delivering his expected testimony in support of Garrison, Russo repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment.

116. Later in life, Russo seemed to tailor his story to the preferences of his listener, affirming its integrity to pro-Garrison conspiracy theorists like Oliver Stone, while insisting to others that Clay Shaw had been innocent of the charges against him. For example, Russo strongly reaffirms his trial testimony in the 1992 interview entitled, "The Last Testament of Perry Russo." In a 1993 interview with William Matson Law, Russo goes even farther, embellishing his story in new and novel ways. On the other hand, he told Patricia Lambert that Shaw "was in fact innocent" and "he did not conspire to kill the president"; that "there was no conspiracy" and "in retrospect I don't think they should have prosecuted him." "Garrison never should have done it." (Patricia Lambert, False Witness [New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998], p. 173-74.) He told Gerald Posner, "I believe that Shaw was innocent. I do not disagree with the jury. I agree with it. The bottom line is that history must recall that Shaw is innocent. If I was on the jury, I would have come to the same conclusion." (Posner, Case Closed [New York: Random House, 1993], p. 451 fn.)