It is often stated, especially by Mafia did it theorists, that Walter Sheridan was really a “Kennedy man.” And that everything he did had RFK’s sanction. Yet, we know from Mort Sahl that Kennedy did not buy Sheridan’s anti-Garrison special. In the summer of 1968, as RFK was campaigning in California, there was a gathering at the house he was staying at. Sahl, who was an investigator for Garrison, was there with his then wife China Lee. Sahl had a performance that evening and left early. When he got back, his wife said words to the effect that she wished he had not left. Sahl asked her: Why not? She replied that all Bobby did the rest of the night was ask her questions about what Sahl and Garrison were digging up.167
In this regard it is important to note a rather remarkable declassified CIA file on Robert Maheu. It states that in the fifties Maheu “rented desk space in a suite occupied by Carmine S. Bellino, a former Bureau agent, Certified Public Accountant, and currently employed on Capitol Hill with one of the Congressional Committees.”168 As the document notes, this is at the same time that Maheu had formed Robert A. Maheu and Associates in Washington, D.C. As a wide variety of authors have shown, this “company” was really a CIA “fix it” operation which provided cover for Maheu to migrate from the FBI to the CIA. One of the assignments the CIA eventually gave him was to recruit a team of assassins from the Mafia to kill Fidel Castro. In fact, Maheu was undergoing clearance procedures from the CIA to do this particular job at the time he was occupying space with Bellino.
Before Guy Banister moved south to New Orleans, he had been stationed in Chicago. More than one writer has speculated on whether or not Banister knew Maheu in Chicago. Whether or not this is true, Maheu’s evolution from FBI agent to “private investigator” does recall Banister’s similar evolution going on at around the same time. But another ARRB declassified document makes the seemingly odd pairing of Maheu and Bellino seem not so odd. Joe Oster had been an acquaintance and partner of Banister’s in the late fifties. He later worked for Southern Research, which became the giant detective service Wackenhut Corporation. In Oster’s interview with the HSCA, he revealed that one of the people who helped Banister get his “private detective” firm off the ground at the time was none other than Maheu’s roomie, Carmine Bellino. Which is a coincidence of almost cosmic proportions. When Sheridan went to work for the McClellan Committee he met Bellino. It was Sheridan who wanted to bring in Bellino to the RFK Justice Department for the Hoffa investigation.169 It seems a bit ironic that a trusted aide of Robert Kennedy had been the partner of the man who helped set up the fall guy in the murder of his brother.
As noted above, Sheridan did all he could to scuttle Garrison’s investigation of what was, at the time, largely a CIA/Cuban exile conspiracy. Therefore one would think that Sheridan would probably favor a Mafia oriented conspiracy. After all, Sheridan and RFK accused Hoffa of being closely linked to the Mob. In fact, as mentioned above, the polygraph examination that Sheridan faked was done on Hoffa associate Edward Grady Partin. It concerned an attempt to assassinate Robert Kennedy by Hoffa. The final HSCA Report made all kinds of accusations about the Mob plotting to kill Kennedy. In fact, Robert Blakey, the HSCA Chief Counsel, even announced at a press conference that although the report was neutral, his opinion was that the Mafia, particularly Carlos Marcello and Santo Trafficante, had killed Kennedy. Since Sheridan was consulted by Blakey for the report, one would think that he would agree with that thesis. Not so. The day the report came out, Marcello’s lobbyist Irving Davidson made a phone call. He said that he had just talked to Sheridan. Sheridan said that the report was all bullshit.170 Which leaves us with a final question about Sheridan. If he wanted to scuttle Garrison’s CIA oriented conspiracy, and he thought that Blakey’s Mafia conspiracy was BS, did he really do what he did to Garrison because he thought the Warren Commission was right? Or was he not really a “Kennedy Man” after all?
The sustained media attack was not just jackal journalism. For Garrison— and the public’s right to know—it went deeper than that. As in political campaigns, the person who attacks first has the advantage. The other is forced on the defensive and has to waste precious time denying absurd accusations. In Garrison’s case, the story he had to relate was complex, long, and detailed and did not lend itself to TV sound bites as does political sniping. It is no coincidence that Garrison’s most compelling appearance was in the long Playboy interview in October of 1967. Allowed the freedom of dialogue, the DA gave a tour-de-force performance—penetrating, comprehensive, masterful in detail, sardonically humorous about himself and his critics. But what chance did he have against the multinational forces of the networks, the newsweeklies, and the giant newspapers?
Garrison was also somewhat restricted because Edward Haggerty, the trial judge, limited his pre-trial comments in public in order not to prejudice the case, a stricture Garrison referred to often in the Playboy interview.171 Sheridan, however, was not limited by any such order, and, since he was working with Shaw’s lawyers, he could comment at will on the evidence in the upcoming trial.
Rosemary James’s exposé provided an opening for those who wished to trash Garrison and hide the truth about the crime from the American public. After February 17, 1967, a pall was cast over the investigation that the DA could never dispel.
There were some liberal-left publications that came to Garrison’s defense: Ramparts, the New York Review of Books, and The New Republic.172 Of course, the combined circulation of those three magazines was about one-thirtieth that of just Newsweek. Garrison tried to press the case himself on July 15, 1967, by appearing on a thirty-minute “equal-time spot” ultimately granted him by the FCC to answer the hour-long NBC show. After this he appeared on TV’s “Issues and Answers” and, on January 31, 1968, for forty-five minutes on Johnny Carson’s “The Tonight Show.” It was all too little, too late. Garrison had been seriously wounded. As we shall see, the bloodletting was not over. Not by a long shot.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Shaw Will Never Be Punished”
“The Shaw case will end without punishment for him, because federal power will see to that”
—Tommy Baumler
Under the impact of the May-June media blitz, Garrison had fallen from a position of strength in early February of 1967 to a position of weakness by summer. The press disclosure of his secret investigation and the death of his prime suspect, David Ferrie, had been twin disasters. But some of his problems had been of his own making. Not arresting Ferrie earlier was a key error. In fact, Garrison’s staff had been friendly with the pilot up to the day of his death. When Ferrie’s behavior became erratic and manic, Garrison’s assistants arranged for a room for him at the Fountainbleau Motel.1 Had they taken him into custody, the entire case might have turned out differently.
Garrison’s overstated remarks to the international press corps also served as ammunition to be shot back at him later. His precautions in verifying witnesses’ testimony with the use of polygraphs, Sodium Pentothal, and hypnosis were successfully distorted as “mind control” by his attackers, and were much too exotic for the public to understand.
But, the press coverage notwithstanding, Garrison had done fairly well in spite of his missteps. He had convicted Dean Andrews of perjury for reversing his Warren Commission testimony and for denying that a Clay Bertrand existed or that he knew who he was.2 He had won the preliminary hearing in the Clay Shaw case and had obtained an indictment. He had discredited Aynesworth’s May 15 Newsweek story by producing a retraction from Alvin Beaubeouf, who Aynesworth said had been bribed and intimidated by Garrison’s staff. In fact, a subsequent police investigation demonstrated that a tape recording supposedly proving the bribery attempts had been doctored. He had secured contempt citations against two of the witnesses who appeared on the NBC show, and faced down Sheridan and Phelan by challenging them in court, the former for attempted bribery of witnesses.
One point man for the Johnson Administration in damaging Garrison’s case was Ramsey Clark. In March of
1967, right after his confirmation as Attorney General by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Clark made an extraordinary intervention into the case: he told a group of reporters Garrison’s case was baseless. The FBI, he said, had already investigated Shaw in 1963 and found no connection between him and the events in Dallas. When pressed on this, Clark insisted that Shaw had been checked out and cleared.3
But in his haste to discredit Garrison, Clark had slipped. The obvious question, though not pursued by the Washington press corps, was why back in 1963 the upstanding citizen Shaw had been investigated concerning the assassination. Shaw and his lawyers realized the implication of Clark’s gaffe even if the Attorney General did not. When one of Shaw’s attorneys, Edward F. Wegmann, requested a clarification of Clark’s statement, a Clark subordinate tried to control the damage by asserting that the original statement was without foundation: “The Attorney General has since determined that this was erroneous. Nothing arose indicating a need to investigate Mr. Shaw.”4
Things got even worse for Clark. The same day he made his original announcement, a New York Times reporter, Robert Semple, wrote that the Justice Department was convinced that “Mr. Bertrand and Mr. Shaw were the same man.”5 Semple had gone to the National Archives seeking Warren Commission references to Clay Shaw. Finding zero, he was told that the Justice Department believed that Bertrand and Shaw were actually the same person, and that this belief was the basis for the Attorney General’s assertion.
Clark had come to praise Shaw but instead had implicated him. However, Clark was not through trying to aid Shaw and sandbag Garrison. The AG would have a surprise for the DA at the upcoming trial.
Although Garrison had been cut up and severely wounded, he was still walking. Like Gordon Novel had said, he had been dumped in the NBC White Paper can. But he was trying to fight his way out of it. For instance, on July 15, 1967, he had been granted 30 minutes by the FCC to respond to Sheridan’s wildly one-sided program.6 And he did a highly effective interview in Playboy in October of 1967. There he did much to refute the charges in the NBC program. And he made some pungent remarks about the CIA being behind the assassination. He also made certain comments about the media, his inability to subpoena witnesses from out of state, and his suspicions about certain attorneys for both witnesses and suspects in his case.7 The declassified files of the Assassination Records and Review Board make it hard to argue with him on these points.
“Clandestinely Remunerated”
As previously stated, when Gordon Novel fled to Columbus he made a side trip to Virginia. On this trip he was accompanied by Sheridan for the express purpose of finding a polygraph expert to administer his test. This was being done to give a baseline for the compromised journalists to carry the rest of his anti-Garrison stories with.8 Novel and Sheridan first visited the offices of private investigator John Leon. Leon declined doing the test and referred them to the aforementioned Lloyd Furr in McLean. This was about two miles from CIA headquarters in Langley.9 When Novel said he passed the test, and then called Garrison’s inquiry a fraud, this declaration was broadcast on NBC and printed by Hearst Headline Services—who had shared the cost of the examination.10 Novel was then safe housed in Columbus where he began working with numerous compromised reporters defaming Garrison. He was also guarded by an unmarked car outside which was monitoring what he said inside. Electronics expert Novel didn’t like this. So he sent his patron out one night to get a list of electronics equipment. When he returned with the shopping list, in short order, the wizardry of Novel had put together a short range receiver set. They were now listening to the men in the car.11
In addition to being the source for bizarre stories about Garrison, Novel now served another purpose. Since Garrison’s interview in Playboy was both highly effective and read by hundreds of thousands of people, the CIA wanted to counter it. Since Novel was mentioned in the interview, he was now pushed into filing a libel suit against the DA. In addition to Dulles, one of the people involved in this was James Angleton.12 How intent was Angleton in trying to discredit Garrison through this lawsuit? According to Gordon, FBI Director Hoover did not want him to file the suit. In fact, he was strongly against it. He feared what the proceedings would expose what the FBI was doing to keep tabs on Garrison.13 (We will discuss that operation next.) So Angleton gave Novel photos of Hoover and Hoover’s assistant Clyde Tolson in a compromising sexual position. He told Gordon to show the photos to the pair at a restaurant they frequented. Novel did so. This was supposed to prove to Hoover that the CIA had something on him and he had better not interfere in any way with what Angleton and Dulles had planned for Garrison.14 (Hoover got his revenge on Novel in 1970 by having him arrested in Reno, Nevada for transport of illegal eavesdropping devices across state lines.15 Novel later explained how flimsy this was since the electronic devices were purchased at a department store in Columbus.)16
How could the out of work, itinerant Novel afford to finance an expensive civil suit against both a large company like Playboy, and a veteran attorney like Garrison? Especially since the suit would drag on for over three years, until 1971. David Krupp, attorney for Playboy, twice posed this question to Novel in the process of the legal proceedings. The second time, the plaintiff answered that his attorneys “refused fees for this matter, but it is my understanding that they were clandestinely renumerated by a party or parties unknown to me.…”17 This is remarkable, because by the time his sojourn in Ohio was over, Novel had employed no less than four attorneys: Steve Plotkin, Jerry Weiner, Elmer Gertz, a libel specialist, and most importantly Herbert Miller. Previously, local New Orleans reporters Hoke May and Ross Yockey had reports that Weiner and Plotkin, Novel’s lawyers in Columbus and New Orleans respectively, had been on CIA retainer.18 But Miller and Gertz were qualitative leaps. For example, Miller founded the Washington law firm of Miller, McCarthy, Evans, and Cassidy. Miller knew Sheridan through their mutual work on, first the McClellan Committee, and then in the Justice Department.19 (In fact, Sheridan had an office at this firm when it evolved into Miller, Cassidy, Larocca, and Lewin.20 ) Miller had been close to Sheridan throughout the making of his NBC program. In fact, former Justice Department lawyer Miller was communicating with the CIA about Alvin Beaubouef’s upcoming visit to Washington in May of 1967.21 Miller was also the attorney who successfully defended Novel against Garrison’s attempts to extradite him back to New Orleans.22 Throughout that process, Miller served as a conduit between Shaw’s lawyers and the CIA. For example, he was dropping off documents from Ed Wegmann to Richard Lansdale at Langley.23 Quite naturally, Novel was in almost continuous contact with the man who recruited him into this effort, Allen Dulles. When Miller helped rescue Novel from going back to New Orleans, Gordon forwarded Dulles the newspaper clipping and suggested the former CIA Director could use this precedent to prevent Garrison from requesting his appearance in New Orleans. (As we will see, Dulles used a different technique.) How “clandestine” were the calls between Dulles and Novel at this time? In February of 1969, Novel sued Ohio Bell so that Garrison could not get any of the conversations between Dulles and his Ohio asset.24 As mentioned previously, Novel testified in his lawsuit that he and Dulles talked “a lot.” Krupp then asked Novel if he was correct in assuming that Dulles was in private practice in New York at the time of the exchanges. Novel now showed how close he was to the spymaster. He said that Krupp was wrong. Novel knew for a fact that he had his office on Q Street in Washington.25
Hoover’s Total Surveillance
As mentioned above, J. Edgar Hoover did not want Novel to file his lawsuit. Novel stated that the FBI Director was worried that a counterintelligence operation the FBI had going could be exposed. This likely did not just mean Novel’s debriefing of numerous FBI agents at his home. It more likely referred to the fact that Hoover had more or less complete surveillance on Garrison’s office. (In his Playboy interview, Garrison thought his phones were being monitored, but he did not know by whom.) In 1973, former FBI employee William Walter calle
d Garrison’s Chief Investigator Lou Ivon and told him about some of the FBI subterfuges regarding the Kennedy case and Garrison. The reader will understand that it is Hoover’s prime role in the cover up of the former, that caused his worries about Garrison’s investigation.
Walter first said that he did not like Garrison personally. But he thought he was sincere since he knew what went on in the New Orleans FBI office concerning the JFK case. He said messages were sent to the office that FBI reports were to be altered so that there would be no questions about the conclusions of the Warren Report. He also stated that there “were complete statements from various individuals which were eliminated by the agents.”26 He then said that the Bureau had assigned ten to fifteen agents to follow Garrison’s investigators to see what leads they were checking out. (The author should interject here to offer the following: this FBI detail may have been used by Aynesworth so that the Bureau could get to leads before Garrison actually did.27)
In 1977, Garrison interviewed Walter in person, as he was contemplating filing a lawsuit against the federal government for illegal surveillance. Which is what Hoover likely feared Novel’s lawsuit would provide an opening for. In this interview, since he was more professionally established, Walter went further than he had in 1973. He positively stated that Garrison’s office was wired. He named several of the former FBI agents and an undercover agent who had been transferred to the phone company’s security office. He then outlined a long standing agreement the Bureau had with the phone company in which the FBI could patch anyone’s phone line into the Bureau’s local cable to produce self-activated recordings.28 This team was working under the supervision of a former technical wiretapping wizard for the Bureau. A man named Charles Carson. Carson was then employed by Wackenhut. And since the Wegmanns had hired Wackenhut to work for Shaw, it seems logical to assume that some of this illegal eavesdropping material was being relayed to them. Walter then revealed that these audio surveillance tapes were transcribed nearly every day in the New Orleans FBI office. He knew this as a fact because he later married the Bureau secretary who typed up the transcripts! Another Wackenhut agent, Bob Wilson, moved into a New Orleans hotel from his home in Mississippi as part of the surveillance operation. One of his duties was to personally tail Garrison.29
Destiny Betrayed: JFK, Cuba, & the Garrison Case Page 39