by Joan Mellen
p. 183: attacked by Fred Vinson: “of serious concern to the Bureau”: Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, From: Fred M. Vinson Jr., Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, NARA.
p. 183: Ramsey Clark backs up Vinson: To: Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, From: Attorney General. 179-11, undated, NARA. Robert Rightmyer defended Kennedy, and pointed to the “variance of instructions.”
p. 183: “executive privilege”: Official routing slip, September 18, 1967, From: Lawrence Houston, NARA.
p. 183: Rightmyer defends his agent: FBI, To: Director, FBI, From: SAC, New Orleans, May 18, 1967, 124-10259-10078, 89-69- 3086, 3087, NARA.
p. 183: Bureau furnishing CIA with “data concerning several of the individuals of current interest to CIA”: To: Director, FBI, From: SAC, New Orleans, (Right-myer), May 5, 1967, 89-69-2066. Reply is: To: SAC, New Orleans, From: Director, FBI, May 8, 1967.
p. 184: Jack Rogers reports to the CIA: Angleton then reports to Hoover based on Jack Rogers’ information to the CIA office in New Orleans: Memorandum For: Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Attention: Mr. S. J. Papich, Subject: Garrison Investigation: Mr. Jack N. Rogers, June 19, 1967, 105-82-555-NR5584, NARA.
p. 184: Rogers confides in the CIA about what he learned at Garrison’s office: CIA. To: Director, Domestic Contact Service, Att’n: Operational Support Staff (Musulin), From: Chief, New Orleans Office, 5 June 1967, Subject: Case 49364— Garrison Investigation— Jack N. Rogers, NO-230-67, signed by Lloyd A. Ray, 104-10189- 10042, 80T01357A, NARA. (Rogers had security status of MI(b) dating back from February 1960 with the Office of Security and had been involved in Domestic Contact Cases; he was the source of contact on twelve reports acknowledged by June of 1967.) See also for Jack Rogers’ activities as a CIA asset, Document ID number: 1993.07.15.18.59.17:120630, JFK, 80T01357A, JFK box #: JFK 16. Vol/folder: F67, Office Memorandum, U.S. Government, 3/12/62, From: Wm. P. Burke, C/New Orls. Office, To: Chief, Contact Division, Support BR, 3 pages, NARA.
p. 184: “two Americas”: Jim Garrison, The War Machine (unpublished), AARC.
p. 184: WWL-TV: The transcript of Jim Garrison on Channel 4 (WWL-TV) is #22 in the file of Walter Sheridan manuscripts of interviews available at NARA. Or: HSCA 180-10099-10333, 004634, 15-page transcript.
p. 184: “Bay of Pigs sector”: Jim Garrison in John Barbour, The Jim Garrison Tapes.
p. 184: “on solid ground”: Minutes, June 5, 1967, MCC Executive Committee Meeting. By: Aaron Kohn, Managing Director, MCC.
p. 184: “hostile viewpoint”: FBI Memorandum, To: Mr. Tolson, From: C. D. DeLoach, April 4, 1967, 62-19060-5075, NARA. (Jack Anderson visits Cartha DeLoach at the FBI upon his return from New Orleans.)
p. 184: “sitting duck” for “Garrison’s wild accusations”: FBI, To: Mr. W. C. Sullivan, From: Mr. W. A. Branigan, April 26, 1967, 62- 109060-5139, NARA.
p. 185: the Agency formula for describing Jim Garrison: CIA, Memorandum, April 26, 1967, 104-10404-10448, RUSS HOLMES WORK FILE, 49 pages, NARA.
p. 185: “more vehemently, viciously, and mendaciously”: CIA Memorandum For: General Counsel, Via: ADDP, Subject: Garrison TV Interviews of 21 May 1967 and 28 May 1967, 6 June 1967, Signed: Raymond G. Rocca, Chief, CI/R & A, NARA.
p. 185: an agency policy: “Was Garrison Right After All?” Ibid. New Orleans magazine, June 1976, p. 31.
CHAPTER 12
p. 186, Epigraph: “They didn’t want to just discredit”: William Alford quoted in The Garrison Tapes.
p. 186: Sheridan enlists Gordon Novel: Interview with Gordon Novel.
p. 186: the day he knocked on Clay Shaw’s door: See the Clay Shaw Diary.
p. 186: “security approval”: Sheridan was “security approved”: CIA document, 1 December 1967, Subject: Sheridan, Walter James, NARA.
p. 186: Partin reported to Herbert J. Miller Jr.: Partin’s “JJC” reports to Herbert J. Miller, Memorandum January 16, 1967, Jeremy Gunn Records Collection, NARA.
p. 187: “You won’t sue me”: Interview with Lou Merhige, June 8, 2000.
p. 187: “Lotus Ford”: Interview with Jim McPherson, January 9, 2000. McPherson represented Partin in seven of his trials.
p. 187: Sheridan asks Ramsey Clark to intervene: “Information from Walter Sheridan, Re: Affidavit to be filed either January 24 or January 25, 1967,” Herbert J. Miller file, Jeremy Gunn Records Collection.
p. 187: Sheridan had put the Shaw defense team in touch with Herbert J. Miller Jr.: Interview with Gordon Novel, May 31, 2000. For Herbert J. Miller Jr.’s involvement with the Garrison investigation, see Nicki Kuckes to T. Jeremy Gunn, General counsel, Assassination Records Review Board, June 17, 1997, NARA and T. Jeremy Gunn to Nicki Kuckes, Re: Interview with Herbert J. Miller Jr., June 9, 1997. Submitting to a taped interview, Miller refused to discuss his role in sabotaging the Garrison investigation, claiming privilege since he had been Walter Sheridan’s attorney.
p. 187: Herbert J. Miller Jr., sends briefs from the Shaw defense team to CIA on a regular basis: See Herbert J. Miller Jr., To Richard H. Lansdale, March 21, 1968; March 26, 1968; May 31, 1968; June 27, 1968, for example. “Enclosed are the briefs in the Shaw case which I mentioned to you on the telephone,” is all Miller writes on June 27th. The March briefs deal with Novel, the May and June with Shaw. Shaw defense briefs go from Edward Wegmann to Herbert J. Miller Jr., to Richard Lansdale at CIA: May 31, 1968 and June 27, 1968, LHMs, NARA.
p. 187: Miller communicated information from Sheridan to Lansdale: Memorandum for the Record, May 8, 1967, Subject: Further on the Garrison Investigation Matter, NARA.
p. 187: Lawrence Houston’s efforts to help the Shaw defense team: 30 November 1967, To: New Orleans, From: Office of General Counsel, Cite: Headquarters 487, Ref: NO-406-7, signed by Lawrence R. Houston. See also Memorandum, To: Director, Domestic Contact Service, Att’n: Operational Support Staff (Musulin) 15 September 1967, From: Chief, New Orleans Office, Subject: Case 49364—Garrison investigation, Ref: Your memorandum dated 12 September 1967/our memorandum No-342-67, dated 7 September 1967. See also CIA from DCS/Operational Support Staff to Office of General Counsel, Title: Memo—Garrison Investigation— attached are copies of memorandum from our New Orleans office, September 18, 1967, 104- 10189-10049, Agency file: 80T01357A. These are but traces of what is obviously a copious correspondence between New Orleans and CIA headquarters in the CIA’s effort to aid Clay Shaw. See also 18 September 1967, Memorandum For: Executive Director- Comptroller, Subject: Garrison Investigation, signed by Lawrence R. Houston, NARA.
p. 187: “disposed over the personnel”: Hougan, Spooks: The Haunting of America—The Private Use of Secret Agents (New York: William Morrow, 1995), p. 128. 124ff.
p. 187: “his almost angelic appearance”: Robert F. Kennedy, The Enemy Within (New York: Da Capo Press, 1994), p. 174.
p. 187: Internal Revenue capabilities: Sheridan doubles as an IRS agent again: Memorandum to File; January 22, 1969, in re: Pershing Gervais, Naurbon L. Perry, Supervisor, Group III, NARA.
p. 187: Federal agents posing as journalists: See “Protest in Feds Posing As Reporters” by David Ho, September 7, 2000, United Press copyrighted story. See also Norman Kempster, “Oswald, CIA Trails Crossed: Shadowy Figure Emerges,” Washington Star, January 16, 1976.
p. 187: four times: Sheridan is quoted referring to “an old urge to become a journalist”: “NBC’s Supersleuth,” Newsweek, October 23, 1967, p. 16.
p. 187: Garrison perceived “the major opposition” to his investigation as coming from Bobby Kennedy: Jim Garrison on Nine at Noon, September 22, 1967, Radio-TV Reports, Inc., NARA. Garrison made similar comments on Page One and other programs, Page One, September 24, 1967, WABC-TV and the ABC-TV Network, Radio TV Reports, Inc., NARA.
p. 187: “If my brother were killed”: Jim Garrison interviewed by Joseph Wershba. Mike Wallace At Large, September 26, 1967, NARA.
p. 188: “never really wanted”: Harris Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings: Making Sense of the Sixties (New York: Farra
r, Straus & Giroux, 1980), p. 414.
p. 188: Edwin Guthman says that Miller sent Sheridan to New Orleans: Conversation with Edwin Guthman, May 16, 2000.
p. 188: Sheridan pretended to investigate the Kennedy assassination: Jim Garrison, On the Trail of the Assassins, p. 166.
p. 188: Richard N. Billings introduces Sheridan to Garrison: Interview with Richard N. Billings.
p. 188: “artillery”: Jim Garrison, Coup d’Etat, unpublished. Chapter 9, pp. 1–2 of 9. See also A Farewell to Justice, unpublished. Both manuscripts are available at AARC.
p. 188: “to spike Garrison”: Bud Fensterwald notes on meeting with Guy Johnson, August 24, 1967, AARC.
p. 188: “bury” Jim Garrison: “bury . . . a wild and dangerous man”: Memorandum for the Record, Subject: Further on the Garrison Investigation Matter, 8 May 1967, b-68-101, From: Richard H. Lansdale, Associate General Counsel, NARA. The notion that Garrison was “crazy” was repeated to the author by the local FBI in New Orleans, Interview with Warren de Brueys, January 15, 2000, as well as by CIA.
p. 188: “Garrison’s schemes”: Memorandum for Executive Director—Comptroller, Subject, Garrison Investigation, May 11, 1967, Signed Richard H. Lansdale, NARA.
p. 188: “under any terms we propose”: Memo from Richard H. Lansdale to Mr. Houston, May 11, 1967, copies went to Mr. Goodwin, Asst., To DCI, and Mr. Rocca, CI Staff, Director of Security, 67-2420, NARA.
p. 188: Miller represented the Sheridan family in keeping Sheridan’s papers from scholars: The family emerged with the papers in its possession.
p. 188: Sheridan sends the Agency Emilio Santana’s file: Memorandum, 15 June 1967, Subject: Garrison Investigation: Emilio SANTANA Galindo, signed: Raymond G. Rocca, Chief, CI/R & A, NARA.
p. 188: Rocca decides that Sheridan should not use Santana: Ibid., Memorandum, 15 June 1967, NARA.
p. 189: “I can make a lot of statements he can’t”: Conversation between Rick Townley, John George, and Morris Brownlee, May 22, 1967, transcription of a taped telephone call made on May 21st, NODA, NARA.
p. 189: “a squad of federal marshals”: Conversation between Morris Brownlee and Richard Townley, May 22, 1967, taped for the office of the District Attorney of Orleans Parish.
p. 189: “shoot him down”: FBI. To: Director, From: New Orleans, May 18, 1967, 89-69-2075. Sheridan himself was not shy about admitting his purpose was to destroy Jim Garrison, see CIA Memo From: Ray Rocca to ADDP, May 12, 1967, NARA.
p. 189: “would destroy the credibility”: FBI teletype, To: Director, From: New Orleans, May 12, 1967, 124-10259-10045, 89-69- 3053A, NARA.
p. 189: “a reporter named Ainsworth [sic]”: Investigative Report, May 31, 1967, Reported by Aaron M. Kohn, MCC.
p. 189: It was not determined by Jim Garrison whether Morrison and Dayries were indicted: interview with Judge Adrian Duplantier, February 6, 2001.
p. 189: Sheridan wants Kohn to go before the NBC cameras: Investigative Report, May 31, 1967, reported by Aaron M. Kohn, MCC.
p. 189: “no such credit had been established”: Investigative Report, June 15, 1967, MCC.
p. 189: Kohn sends Sheridan to Pershing Gervais: Investigative Report, August 23, 1967.
p. 189: Sheridan meets with Zachary (“Red”) Strate: “Testified Sheridan Offered Deal To Discredit Garrison,” States-Item, August 19, 1967. See also Orleans Parish grand jury, August 9, 1967, testimonies of Zachary A. Strate Jr., Malcolm O’Hara; Edward Baldwin, NARA.
p. 190: through the sound room of the FBI: FBI, To: SAC, From: SA Edward J. Carney Jr., August 25, 1967, 89-69-3464, NARA.
p. 190: “That’s a damned lie”: FBI Memorandum, To: Mr. Tolson, From: C. D. DeLoach, April 24, 1967, 124-10043-10456, 62-109060- 5154, NARA.
p. 190: ten and fifteen agents: Interview with William Walter, January 5, 2000; interviews with Louis Ivon.
p. 190: Hoover sends a daily report to Lyndon Johnson: The source is William Turner. He says an aide to Robert Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign, Richard Lubic, related that Hoover sent a daily report, “Progress of the Garrison Investigation.” Interview with William Turner, December 3, 2001.
p. 190: Gordon Novel: Perspective of Gordon Novel comes from a series of interviews with Novel beginning on January 16, 2000. See also Testimony before the grand jury, Orleans Parish, Rancier Ehlinger, August 16, 1967, AARC.
p. 190: to debug Garrison’s office: See Novel, Playboy deposition. p. 1520, AARC.
p. 190: FBI informant: for some of this history of Novel and the FBI, see FBI AIRTEL, To: Director, FBI, From: SAC, New Orleans, March 30, 1967, 124-10259-10170, 89-69-1922, NARA. See also FBI, To: Director, From: New Orleans, February 23, 1967, 124- 10256-10186, 89-69-1446, NARA.
p. 190: robbery at the Schlumberger ammunition dump: Later, in Ohio, Novel told his lawyer, Jerry Weiner, he had picked up the Houma ammunition at the request of his “CIA contact.” Novel, Playboy deposition, p. 1245.
p. 190: Banister and Novel: Interview with Gordon Novel, May 31, 2002.
p. 190: bolt cutters: Interviews with Marlene Mancuso, June 16, June 28, 2000. See also the testimony of Rancier Ehlinger before the Orleans Parish grand jury on August 16, 1967. Ehlinger talked about the key as well in the office on March 30th: See memorandum, To: Jim Garrison, From: William Gurvich, Special Aide, Subject: Rancier Blaise Ehlinger— Interview with on March 30, 1967, 2:35 p.m., NODA, NARA. See transcript of interview. Present are Louis Ivon, Jim Alcock, and Gurvich. Available from HSCA files as Exhibit no. 7. “A lot of what Gordon says is so rife with untruth that it is hard to separate one thing from another; it’s impossible,” Ehlinger told the grand jury.
p. 191: it was Sheridan who sent Novel into Garrison’s office: Interview with Marlene Mancuso, July 6, 2002. See also Interview with Gordon Novel, January 16, 2000. See also Gordon Novel, Plaintiff v. Jim Garrison and HMH Publishing Co., Incirca no. 67C 1895, Answers to interrogatories propounded by Defendant HMH Publishing Co., Inc., To Plaintiff, March 4, 1968, a CIA release. See also “I’m a former chief investigator”: Novel Playboy deposition, p. 1042.
p. 191: Novel reported to the FBI on the day he entered Garrison’s office: FBI, SA J. Peter Chase and SA Max M. Marr, February 21, 1967, 124- 10241-10084, 89-69-1456, NARA.
p. 191: Novel tells the Bureau that Garrison believes that Clay Shaw is Clay Bertrand: FBI, To: SAC, New Orleans, From: SA Robert J. Heibel, February 22, 1967, 89-69- 1460, NARA.
p. 191: Novel informed on the 23rd as well: AIRTEL, To: Director, FBI, From: SAC, New Orleans, February 23, 1967, 124-10256-10190, 89- 69-1450, NARA. Varying versions of the information in this memo are in interviews with Novel, and in the Playboy deposition.
p. 191: “find the loop holes”: To: SAC, New Orleans, From: Director, FBI, February 28, 1967, 124-10241- 10149, 89-69-1525, NARA.
p. 191: “Mafia look like altar boys”: Interview with Gordon Novel, January 16, 2000.
p. 191: Luis Angel Castillo: See ARRB. Agency: FBI, Record Number: 124-10187-10208, Record Series: HQ, Agency File Number: CR 100-446775-60, From: Deputy Director for Plans, To: Director, FBI, 05-09-67, 16 pages, Subjects: DF, interrogations, Castillo, Luis Angel, NARA.
p. 191: “Novel tells the FBI that Garrison is exploring whether Marcello is connected to the assassination”: FBI, To: SAC, From: SA J. Peter Chase, March 28, 1967, 89-69- 1907, NARA.
p. 191: Garrison planned to indict Marcello: FBI, To: Director, From New Orleans, March 28, 1967. The original went from Mr. DeLoach to Director, 89-69-1907. The internal document was FBI To: SAC, From: SA J. Peter Chase, as above.
p. 191: Novel steals memos from Garrison’s office: See Gordon Novel, Playboy deposition, p. 1085. Novel also gave copies of lie detector tests administered to Garrison witnesses to Sheridan: FBI teletype, To: Bureau, Dallas, From: New Orleans, March 27, 1967, FBI, 124- 10237-10297, NARA. Here Novel reports to Regis Kennedy.
p. 191: letters were sent by the FBI to the members of Truth and Consequences: Interview with William Walter, January 5, 2000.
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br /> p. 191: Kohn requested that Dr. Lief call Jim Garrison a “paranoid schizophrenic”: To: Irvin Dymond: Investigative Report: Confidential, April 19, 1967, Date information received: April 7 and 10, 1967, MCC. See also Memorandum for File, July 28, 1967, Reported by Aaron M. Kohn, MCC. Lief says “none of it is true.” Interview with Dr. Harold Lief, November 13, 2001.
p. 192: Novel sells the photograph to Sheridan: Interview with Gordon Novel, January 16, 2000. See also Playboy deposition.
p. 192: “everybody is going down”: Interviews with Marlene Mancuso, June 28, 2000; August 23, 2001.
p. 192: a job on the “Tonight Show”: Interview with Marlene Mancuso, June 28, 2000.
p. 192: Garrison violated no one’s rights: Interview with John Volz, June 13, 2000.
p. 193: “behaved like gentlemen”: Interview with Marlene Mancuso, June 10, 2000. See also Interview of Marlene Mancuso by Jim Garrison and Louis Ivon, May 20, 1967, NODA, NARA. Affidavit by Marlene Mancuso, May 20, 1967, courtesy of Marlene Mancuso.
p. 193: Jules Ricco Kimble and Sheridan: Statement of Jules Ricco Kimble, October 10, 1967, Office of the District Attorney, NODA, NARA.
p. 193: Sheridan persuades Kimble to stop talking to Jim Garrison: William Turner, “The Garrison Commission,” Ramparts, vol. 6, number 6, January 1968, p. 68. Joe Oster eventually tracked Kimble down in Canada: interview with Joe Oster, October 11, 2001.
p. 193: Williams didn’t trust Sheridan: Interview with Fred Williams, July 22, 2002.
p. 193: “on the wrong team”: Nina Sulzer interferes with witness Vernon Bundy, Statement of Samuel Michael Davis Jr., May 22, 1967, Statement of Arthur King, May 22, 1967, NODA, NARA.
p. 193: “extortion”: Statement of Jack Martin, June 5, 1967, NODA, NARA.
p. 193: “if you say it was a hoax”: Jack Martin with Richard Townley on May 28, 1967, transcribed June 2, 1967, NODA, NARA.
p. 193: “Marcellos had nothing to do with the assassination”: Tape transcription of conversation between Jack Martin and Richard Townley, June 1, 1967, transcribed June 16, 1967, NODA, NARA.