Destiny Betrayed: JFK, Cuba, & the Garrison Case

by DiEugenio, James

  At the hearing, Garrison presented as his main witnesses Perry Russo and Vernon Bundy. Bundy was a drug addict who testified to seeing Shaw meet with Oswald on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain and pass him money. After the hearing, a three-judge panel held that there was enough evidence to charge Shaw with conspiracy to murder John F. Kennedy. Then, Garrison took his case to a grand jury, and it issued the indictment.

  “Big Jim Will be Dumped in the White Paper Can”

  There can be little doubt that Garrison’s success at the preliminary hearing drove Walter Sheridan into high gear. As we have seen, once Sheridan arrived in town he began to meet with some of Garrison’s witnesses, like Dean Andrews. He then met with Gordon Novel (who later wired the above sub head message to New Orleans Magazine).77 From the moment he arrived in town there was never any doubt about where Sheridan was headed. He had made up his mind about the DA within twenty-four hours of arriving in New Orleans.78 He was going to turn the tables on him. Garrison was now going to become the defendant. Sheridan was going to achieve this by using four major techniques:

  1. He was going to attempt to “flip” certain of the DA’s witnesses.

  2. He was going to accuse the DA of using unethical practices.

  3. He was going to give his production a bare bones stage play look to make it appear like an informal hearing, with Garrison as the accused.

  4. Offscreen, he was going to use certain allies of Shaw, his defense team, and the CIA to create his wildly skewed film.

  Regarding the last, we have seen how Sheridan met up with and began to exchange information with Gordon Novel. Further, Sheridan was going to use people like Hugh Aynesworth, James Phelan, and Gurvich to aid his show. But Sheridan, through his lawyer Herbert Miller, was also in contact with the CIA. The earliest known declassified document in this regard is dated May 8, 1967. This is a summary of two phone calls between Miller and Richard Lansdale. Lansdale was the assistant to CIA Chief Counsel Lawrence Houston. The topic of conversation was the trip arranged to Washington by Sheridan for Al Beaubouef, one of Ferrie’s companions to Texas the weekend of the assassination.79 After talking to Sheridan and Miller, Beau-bouef became quite malleable. For Miller advised Lansdale that, “Beaubouef would be glad to talk with or help in any way we want.” This is an example of technique number one: the reversal, or flipping, of a Garrison witness. For as Garrison noted in his Playboy interview, after his trip to Washington, “a change came over Beaubouef; he refused to cooperate with us any further and he made charges against my investigators.” The routing of this Lansdale memo prefigures the third phase of the subversive effort against Garrison by the Agency. For, among other places, the memo went to both the Office of Security and James Angleton’s Counterintelligence unit. But, what makes this so interesting is that Angleton already seemed aware of Beaubouef’s journey to Washington.

  It appears he was tipped off to this by Sheridan. Angleton relayed this information to his FBI contact Sam Papich and expressed his view of the importance of Beaubouef to Garrison’s case. The reason for the coziness between Angleton and Sheridan may be due to a fact revealed by Jim Hougan: Sheridan had worked for the National Security Agency prior to going to work for Bobby Kennedy.80 Sheridan worked the counterintelligence unit at NSA, which would suggest he had previous liaison ties to Angleton.81 Just seventy-two hours after this communication about Beaubouef, Miller wired another message to Angleton. Lansdale now wrote that Miller had told him that Sheridan would be willing to meet with CIA “under any terms we propose.” Further, Sheridan would be willing to make the CIA’s view of Garrison, “a part of the background in the forthcoming NBC show.”82

  From viewing the final product, there can be no doubt that this happened. And, in fact, because Sheridan’s show took awhile to produce—it was actually once planned to be in two parts—the CIA seems to have been eager to help defray production costs. William Martin had learned from Clay Shaw’s friend David Baldwin, that some of the money for Sheridan’s show was being funneled through the large law firm of Monroe and Lemann in New Orleans.83 This would seem natural since Stephan Lemann, a partner in the firm, was General Counsel for WDSU TV, the TV station Sheridan was working with in New Orleans. The owners of this station, Edith and Edgar Stern, were big backers of Shaw. There can be little doubt that 1.) Sheridan needed the covert money, and 2.) NBC had little problem with what Sheridan was doing. Regarding the former, Sheridan put Novel on a 500 dollars per day retainer.84 Regarding the latter, Andrews was promised a recording studio if he cooperated with Sheridan. Andrews told British television he had been personally pledged this by Bobby Sarnoff. Robert Sarnoff was the NBC president, and son of the founder of the TV network, David Sarnoff.85 Capping all this is information given to a local FBI agent by WDSU reporter Rick Townley. Townley also worked with Sheridan on the show. Townley said he had received instructions from NBC in New York that the special Sheridan had in preparation on Garrison had instructions to “Shoot him down.”86

  With this large budget, plus a rubber stamp from NBC, Sheridan began to utilize his skills as a former intelligence operative on Garrison’s witnesses. But first, he understood that he had some natural allies to help him in the Crescent City. One was Shaw’s lawyers. A second was the Metropolitan Crime Commission. The MCC was a private group of wealthy individuals who wanted to keep a vigilant eye on any spurt in crime in the area. Its director at this time was former FBI employee Aaron Kohn. Kohn was still close to the man he had worked for, J. Edgar Hoover. He also despised Italian-Americans.87 Therefore he was eager to deflect attention away from any FBI failures in the Kennedy case, and to try and place culpability on the Mafia. He was also a close ally of Shaw’s lawyers, and was willing to help Sheridan.

  Now that we have noted this covert team assembled around Sheridan, and outlined their four techniques, let us now detail some of the things this motely crew did, all the time accusing Garrison of using unethical, extralegal methods.

  Marlene Mancuso was Novel’s estranged wife. She had been talking to Garrison. She had detailed knowledge of Gordon’s Agency activities with people like Ferrie and Sergio Arcacha Smith. Plus she was fully informed about the transfer of arms from the Schlumberger bunker for the Bay of Pigs. In May of 1967, Townley found her working as a cashier in the Quarter at a place called Lucky Pierre’s. Townley told her bluntly that Garrison was going down. They wanted her to say, on camera, that the DA had coerced her into giving him testimony about the Schlumberger munitions transfer. When that did not work, a friend of Gordon’s called and warned her about facing federal perjury charges if she did not turn on Garrison. Finally, Sheridan showed up in person. He also said that Garrison was going down the drain, and she was going with him. But if she would talk to him, he would get her a job at NBC. This also failed. So Sheridan started following her around. Once he followed her to church. His excuse was that he wanted to say a prayer inside. One day both Sheridan and Townley showed up at her front door. They said they were looking for Gordon. The next day Townley called her and said if she did not get away from Garrison, she could get killed.88 Mancuso did not turn on Garrison. She signed a statement for the DA revealing the threats and extortion by Townley and Sheridan.

  Jules Ricco Kimble was a Garrison witness who said he traveled once on a flight to Canada with Ferrie as the pilot and Shaw as a passenger. Sheridan paid him 500 dollars for papers and tapes spirited out of Ferrie’s apartment by Kimble’s friend Jack Helms. Sheridan then told Kimble to stop talking to Garrison and go to Canada where he would be “safe.” If he was subpoenaed by Garrison, the FBI would help him out in exchange for his cooperation with Sheridan.89 According to former Banister investigator, and future Southern Research employee Joe Oster, Kimble actually did go to Canada.90

  One of the more startling declarations that the ARRB uncovered was an affidavit by a man named Fred Leemans. Leemans was a Turkish bath owner who originally told Garrison that a man named Clay Bertrand had frequented his establishment. Leemans was th
e climactic interview for Sheridan’s special. He testified on the show that the DA’s office had actually approached him first, that he never knew that Shaw used the alias Bertrand, that everything he had previously said to the DA’s office were things he was led to say by them, and that they had offered to pay him 2,500 dollars for his affidavit in which he would now say that Shaw was Bertrand and that Shaw came into his establishment once with Oswald. In other words, all the things Novel had been saying in his public declarations about Garrison were accurate. At the end of his interview, Leemans told Sheridan and the public that everything he had just revealed on camera was given to NBC freely and voluntarily. Leemans even said that he had actually asked Sheridan for some monetary help but Sheridan had said he did not do things like that.

  In January of 1969, Leemans signed an affidavit in which he declared the following as the true chain of events:

  I would like to state the reasons for which I appeared on the NBC show and lied about my contacts with the District Attorney’s office. First, I received numerous anonymous threatening phone calls relative to the information I had given to Mr. Garrison. The gist of these calls was to the effect that if I did not change my statement and state that I had been bribed by Jim Garrison’s office, I and my family would be in physical danger. In addition to the anonymous phone calls, I was visited by a man who exhibited a badge and stated that he was a government agent. This man informed me that the government was presently checking the bar owners in the Slidell area for possible income tax violations. This man then inquired whether I was the Mr. Leemans involved in the Clay Shaw case. When I informed him that I was, he said that it was not smart to be involved because a lot of people that had been got hurt and that people in powerful places would see to it that I was taken care of. One of the anonymous callers suggested that I change my statement and state that I had been bribed by Garrison’s office to give him the information about Clay Shaw. He suggested that I contact Mr. Irvin Dymond, attorney for Clay L. Shaw, and tell him that I gave Mr. Garrison the statement about Shaw only after Mr. Lee [Garrison’s assistant DA] offered me 2,500 dollars. After consulting with Mr. Dymond by telephone and in person, I was introduced to Walter Sheridan, investigative reporter for NBC, who was then in the process of preparing the NBC show. Mr. Dymond and Mr. Sheridan suggested that I appear on the show and state what I had originally told Mr. Dymond about the bribe offer by the District Attorney’s office. I was informed by Mr. Dymond that should the District Attorney’s office charge me with giving false information as a result of the statement I had originally given them, he would see to it that I had an attorney and that a bond would be posted for me. In this connection Mr. Dymond gave me his home and office telephone numbers and advised me that I could contact him at any time of day or night should I be charged by Garrison’s office as a result of my appearing on the NBC show. My actual appearance on the show was taped in the office of Aaron Kohn, Managing Director of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, in the presence of Walter Sheridan and Irvin Dymond.91

  This is one of the most revealing documents portraying the lengths to which Sheridan would go in tampering with witnesses. It also demonstrates that Shaw’s lawyers—Bill and Ed Wegmann, Irvin Dymond, and Sal Panzeca—knew almost no boundary in what kind of help they would accept to win their case. Third, it reveals that Shaw’s lawyers had access to a network of attorneys that they could hire at any time for any witness they could pry loose from Garrison. Because, as the declassified ARRB documents reveal, there was a CIA cleared attorneys’ panel that was at work in New Orleans.92 Attorneys that the Agency vetted in advance so they would be suitable for their covert use and could be trusted in their aims. The fact that Shaw’s lawyers were privy to such CIA secret knowledge, and were utilizing it, shows just how willing and eager they were to indulge themselves in covert help—and then lie about it. For when the author discussed this issue with Irvin Dymond in his office in New Orleans, this is what he did. He tried to feign that he knew nothing about it. This is ludicrous. Because Shaw’s boss, Lloyd Cobb, was given a Provisional Security Approval for this very panel at the time Sheridan’s show was broad-cast!93 In fact, Dymond knew so much about it that, as the Leemans affidavit shows, he used it. He even made referrals to it.94 This important point, Shaw’s lawyers’ ties to the intelligence community, and their dissembling about it, will be returned to later.

  With the above in mind, let us now note how Sheridan was intent on flipping Garrison’s two preliminary hearing witnesses. Jane Lemann and Nina Sulzer were two New Orleans Parish prison workers. Lemann was related by marriage to Steven Lemann of the previously noted Monroe and Lemann, the CIA related law firm funneling money to Sheridan and representing WDSU. Nina Sulzer knew Clay Shaw through her husband Jefferson Sulzer, a friend of Shaw’s.95 At the preliminary hearing, Bundy had noted that he had seen a man fitting Shaw’s description meeting with a man he thought was Oswald near the Lake Ponchartrain seawall. The tall white haired man got out of his black sedan and walked in Bundy’s direction. Bundy, who was about to inject himself with narcotics, started to walk away. But the man only said something about the weather to him. Bundy watched as the two men met. The man who Bundy identified as Shaw gave some money to the man who Bundy later identified as Oswald. Oswald put the money in his pocket, but as he did so, some leaflets fell out. After both men left, Bundy walked over and looked at the leaflets. They had something about Cuba printed on them and were yellow in color. And in fact, as assistant DA John Volz later discovered, some of the leaflets passed out by Oswald were yellow in color.96 Of course, this would indicate that Shaw was involved with Oswald’s agent provocateur activities that summer.

  There were three people that Sheridan recruited to try and flip and discredit Bundy. They were Sulzer, plus convicts Miguel Torres and John Cancler. Cancler, a convicted burglar and pimp, was shown first on the show. He said that Bundy had previously told him he was going to lie to Garrison. Bundy even asked him for advice about the best story to tell. Miguel Torres had a record that included burglary, assault and suspected murder. He said pretty much the same thing: that Bundy told him he was going to make up a story about Shaw to get “cut loose.” Towards the end, the men later returned on camera. Both now said that members of Garrison’s staff had also tried to recruit them into their unethical crusade to convict Shaw. Cancler said he was supposed to “plant” incriminating materials in Shaw’s house. Torres said he was supposed to say that Shaw made homosexual advances to him, and also that Shaw’s alternate name was Clay Bertrand.97

  As Garrison noted in his Playboy interview, Cancler and Torres were later called before the grand jury to repeat these charges under oath. They both declined and took the fifth amendment against self-incrimination.98 Both were cited for contempt and got added time to their sentences. (Irvin Dymond got a former associate of his, Burton Klein, to represent Torres99.)

  But this was not all that Bundy had to endure. For Sulzer was also fully involved with Sheridan’s efforts to subvert Garrison. From inside the prison, she began to talk to Bundy about his preliminary hearing testimony against Shaw. It was the same message that Sheridan had delivered to the others. As Bundy’s cellmate told Garrison’s office, Sulzer told Bundy “that he was riding the wrong horse, that he was on a losing team.”100 She then started giving Bundy magazines which featured anti-Garrison articles by people like Hugh Aynesworth. She then asked him what Garrison was doing for him, to which Bundy replied the DA was doing nothing for him. Sulzer then said that Bundy was going to get in trouble on the outside. She then went further by saying that someone was actually going to kill Bundy. She culminated this harangue with the threat that once Bundy got out, he would be as good as gone.101 When Garrison put a tail on Sulzer, it was revealed that after one of her attempts to dissuade Bundy, she went to a residence at which Shaw was staying and spent about three hours with him.102

  Alvin Beaubouef appeared on the program and, as predicted above—after his trip to Washington—said what Sherid
an wanted him to say. On camera he said that he felt that Garrison’s investigator Lynn Loisel had tried to bribe him for information that Garrison wanted to make his case. The problem is that in a sworn statement that Beaubouef signed predating the show he said that this was not the case. He wrote that “no representative of the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office has ever asked me to do anything but to tell the truth.” What had happened was that Beaubouef had said that he could not spend any more time talking to the DA’s office since he was in dire financial straits. Loisel said to him that if he told the whole truth about the case as he knew it, and if those facts led to the capture of the real killers of President Kennedy, then he probably would not have to worry about a job or money. This was then construed by the likes of Aynseworth and Sheridan as being bribery.103 On the program, Sheridan tried to explain why Beaubouef had altered his story. The witness said that Garrison’s staff had compromising photos of Beauboeuf and threatened to pass them out if he had done so. There is no evidence outside of Sheridan’s fevered imagination that anything like this ever occurred.

  James Phelan Declassified

  Journalist James Phelan also appeared on Sheridan’s program. In the May 6, 1967, issue of the Saturday Evening Post, Phelan wrote an article entitled “Rush to Judgment in New Orleans.” From the title (borrowed from Mark Lane’s book on the Warren Commission) on to the last sentence, the article was a one-sided attack on almost every aspect of Garrison’s probe—written in a belittling, amused style that revealed the author’s supercilious attitude toward the subject. Garrison, about whom Phelan had written a favorable piece in 1963, was pictured as an egocentric megalomaniac whom Phelan called a “one-man Warren Commission.”104