The Truly Kooky Theories Of Jim Garrison
David Von Pein
RE-EVALUATING THE ASSASSINATION VIEWS OF JIM GARRISON......
======================================================
The more time that passes since the assassination of President John F.
Kennedy in 1963, the more it becomes clear that JFK was shot and
killed by just a single lone-nut assassin named Lee Harvey Oswald;
with this passage of time also unmasking more and more conspiracy
theories for just what they are -- i.e., Unsupported theories that
"prove" absolutely nothing.
Re. specifically Jim Garrison's case against Clay Shaw:
Jim Garrison's "case" against a completely-innocent man (Clay Shaw)
was filled with nothing but nonsense and a crazy hodge-podge of
Garrison-invented conspiracy-slanted theories that have never once
been sufficiently tied together nor proven by anybody (least of all in
the
eyes of the jury at Clay Shaw's trial, with Shaw's jury delivering a
"Not Guilty" verdict after deliberating for only a matter of mere
minutes).
Being an avid believer in Lee Harvey Oswald's lone guilt in the two
first-degree murders he was charged with carrying out on November 22,
1963, I have a difficult time dredging up any respect at all for the
late District Attorney Garrison, especially after hearing the
following grossly-inaccurate and vomit-inducing remarks made by Mr.
Garrison re.
Oswald......
"Lee Oswald was totally, unequivocally, completely innocent of the
assassination .... and the fact that history, or in the re-writing of
history, disinformation has made a villain out of this young man who
wanted nothing more than to be a fine Marine .... is in some ways the
greatest injustice of all." -- Jim Garrison; Spoken during an on-
camera interview for the A&E Cable-TV mini-series "The Men Who Killed
Kennedy" (Part 4; "The Patsy").
That Garrison quote above was placed at the very end of that fourth
installment of 1988's "TMWKK", and it came complete with Mr.
Garrison's pathetic attempt to hold back tears as he uttered that
sickening
sentiment about the double-murderer he claims was "unequivocally
innocent of the assassination".
For someone to say that Oswald might have been part of a conspiracy is
one thing -- but to elevate this wife-beating, Communist-leaning
double-assassin named Oswald to the stature of a fallen martyr (as
Garrison did in that quote I mentioned above) is just flat-out
ludicrous and reeks with disingenuousness. Such hollow glorification
and unjustifiable praise of Oswald turns my stomach.
There is so much physical and circumstantial evidence that paints Lee
Oswald as a killer of two men in 1963 it's almost incredible (and is
certainly a mountainous batch of evidence that is literally impossible
to simply "ignore", as many conspiracy theorists seem to want to do).*
* = And the very idea (postulated by many CTers) that every bit of the
evidence favoring Oswald's lone guilt in both 11/22/63 Dallas murders
could have possibly all been "faked" and "planted" and what-not by a
band of impossible-to-trip-up conspirators and after-the-fact cover-up
operatives is simply a notion that only a fool could even begin to
believe.
---------------
Anybody who wants to see a good overview of Jim Garrison's "case for a
JFK conspiracy" should read the article provided via the weblink
below:
http://www.jfklancer.com/Garrison2.html
That link features the text of Garrison's entire "Playboy" Magazine
interview that appeared in that publication's October 1967 edition.
Many portions of that lengthy interview are priceless in that they are
so incredibly hilarious....and it's truly funny how a man who was
supposedly "investigating" the murder of a U.S. President could be so
incredibly WRONG (and just plain goofy-sounding) at almost every turn
in the road.
Per Garrison's craziness, which is craziness that's been directly or
indirectly copied by many CTers ever since the 1960s, it would appear
that absolutely NOTHING was what it seemed to be with respect to the
entire batch of JFK assassination evidence (and the J.D. Tippit
evidence to boot).
Below are many of Garrison's quotes from that Playboy article, and my
responses to Mr. Garrison's brazen lunacy:
"Whatever his {Oswald's} knowledge of his role as a decoy, he
definitely didn't know about his role as a patsy until after the
assassination. At 12:45 PM on November 22nd, the Dallas police had
broadcast a wanted bulletin for Oswald -- over a half-hour before
Tippit was shot and at a time when there was absolutely no evidence
linking Oswald to the assassination." -- J. Garrison; 1967
Garrison must have been loopy on Conspiracy Gas to say such a
ridiculous thing. What he said above was at the time (and still is
today) nothing but pure nonsense and "CT spin", because no bulletin
"For Oswald" was relayed by the DPD at 12:45 PM on 11/22 and Garrison
must surely have known this. The 12:45 broadcast (APB) given out by
the DPD most certainly did NOT mention the name of "Oswald". The
broadcast
merely included a general physical description of the "suspect wanted
in the shooting at Elm & Houston Streets". Nothing was said at that
time about the name "Oswald".
-----------
"I can't go into all the details on this, but the murder of Tippit,
which I am convinced Oswald didn't commit, was clearly designed to set
the stage for Oswald's liquidation in the Texas Theater after another
anonymous tip-off." -- J. Garrison; 1967
"Anonymous tip-off"?? If Mr. Garrison was still somehow of the
opinion, at the time of that 1967 Playboy quote (years after the
assassination), that the cops were tipped-off about Oswald's
whereabouts in the
theater via an "anonymous" informant, he couldn't be more incorrect.
Because
that's not the way things happened at all on November 22nd.
Garrison conveniently didn't bother to tell the Playboy readership
that the person who gave the police this "anonymous tip" was fully
identified immediately after the event -- that person being shoe-store
clerk Johnny Brewer. There was nothing sinister in the least about the
"tip" provided to police (by Brewer via theater cashier Julia Postal's
actual phone call to the DPD).
Brewer testified in front of the Warren Commission on April 2, 1964,
and told the Commission the entire story re. his encounter with Oswald
and LHO's subsequent arrest within the theater. Garrison, of course,
decided not to mention the Brewer story in his "anonymous" version of
the event. It sounded more "sinister" to just leave out the Brewer
connection, and pretend that the "tip" came from somebody who STILL,
as of 1967, was unidentified. Garrison obviously wanted people, by way
of
that magazine article, to think that something "conspiratorial" was
afoot with regard to the police arriving in mass at the Texas Theater
to arrest Oswald after the nearby Tippit murder.
Oliver Stone continued to perpetuate this so-called "mystery" of the
cops swarming the theater in his movie "JFK". But, in reality, there
was nothing sinister or conspiratorial at all in the entire theater
episode. Brewer watched the "suspicious-acting" man (Oswald) walk into
the theater without paying, and Mr. Brewer "tipped off" the cashier
(Postal), who then called the police. A few minutes later, many patrol
cars surrounded the theater.
It was a perfectly-natural sequence of events, considering one of
Dallas' finest (Officer J.D. Tippit) had just been slain on 10th
Street just a half hour before. Remember, too, the fact that the
police don't
take too kindly to having one of their own cut down like a mad dog in
the middle of the street. It peeves them greatly. So it's no big
surprise that every officer in the area of the theater would want to
get a crack at apprehending the man who might have killed their fellow
officer.
Garrison's (or anyone else's) attempt to exonerate Oswald for J.D.
Tippit's murder is, in my opinion, even more contemptible than trying
to get LHO off the hook for JFK's killing -- because, given the
impossible-to-overcome wealth of evidence telling the world Oswald's
guilty of murdering Officer Tippit, it's safe to say that the ONLY
person (literally) on the Earth who could possibly have killed J.D.
Tippit was Lee Harvey Oswald.
-----------
"The evidence we've uncovered leads us to suspect that two men,
neither of whom was Oswald, were the real murderers of Tippit; we
believe we
have one of them identified. The critics of the Warren Report have
pointed out that a number of the witnesses could not identify Oswald
as the slayer, that several said the murderer was short and squat --
Oswald was thin and medium height -- and another said that two men
were involved." -- J. Garrison; 1967
Another brilliant piece of pre-November 22 planning by these
crackerjack conspirators, huh? They need Oswald blamed for this second
(Tippit) murder too, so what do they do? They decide, for some
needlessly-complicated reason, to have TWO people kill Tippit in front
of several witnesses (who all SHOULD have certainly seen TWO different
killers at the scene of the crime...but, amazingly, not one of the
witnesses who saw the actual shooting saw more than one killer, and
virtually all of the witnesses fingered Oswald as the murderer or IDed
LHO as the lone man who fled on foot afterward).
-----------
"The Warren Commission's own chronology of Oswald's movements also
fails to allow him sufficient time to reach the scene of Tippit's
murder from the Book Depository Building." -- J. Garrison; 1967
100% wrong, Mr. Garrison. The WC chronology does no such thing. The WC
concluded (via multiple "re-enactments" of Oswald's probable
movements) that Lee Harvey Oswald could most definitely have arrived
at the
Tippit murder scene on 10th Street in Oak Cliff in ample time to have
encountered Officer Tippit there (WR: pages 157-165; and pages
648-650). Mr. Garrison just flat-out didn't want to believe the WC
concerning the timing of Oswald's movements.
An even more-detailed chronology of Oswald's 11/22 movements can be
found in Dale K. Myers' exquisitely-researched 1998 book "With Malice:
Lee Harvey Oswald And The Murder Of Officer J.D. Tippit". In that
excellent volume, Mr. Myers leaves no doubt at all as to the real
identity of Tippit's slayer (which was Oswald of course).
-----------
"The clincher, as far as I'm concerned, is that four cartridges were
found at the scene of the {Tippit} slaying. Now, revolvers do not
eject cartridges, so when someone is shot, you don't later find
gratuitous
cartridges strewn over the sidewalk -- unless the murderer
deliberately takes the trouble to eject them. We suspect that
cartridges had been
previously obtained from Oswald's .38 revolver and left at the murder
site by the real killers as part of the setup to incriminate Oswald."
-- J. Garrison; 1967
Absolutely incredible! Garrison obviously could not read. Because
Oswald DID, based on observations of witnesses, "take the trouble to
eject" the empty cartridges from his revolver, and the Warren
Commission said this plain as day on page #168 of the WR. For some
reason, Garrison totally ignored the unimpeachable evidence of
multiple witnesses re. the fact that the killer (later positively
identified as
Lee Oswald) was "shaking shells from the gun" as he fled the Tippit
murder scene on foot.
Mr. Garrison's built-in pro-conspiracy bias vividly shines through via
his remark about the Tippit bullet shells. For, he had to have known
(or should have known) that there were witnesses at the Tippit murder
scene who watched the killer shaking shells out of his revolver,
rendering Garrison's above remarks completely worthless.
But Jim obviously liked his own version of events better than that of
the official WC rendition of what happened. Shouldn't this blatant
distortion of the official record of the Tippit murder cloud just
about everything else Mr. Garrison has to say with respect to the JFK
case? In my view, yes, it should.
-----------
"The Warren Commission concluded with a straight face that the bullets
{taken from Tippit's body} were fired not only from Oswald's gun but
"to the exclusion of all other weapons". They simply chose to ignore
the fact that revolvers don't eject cartridges and that the cartridges
left so conveniently on the street didn't match the bullets in
Tippit's body." -- J. Garrison; 1967
I wonder how Garrison could keep a "straight face" while speaking such
laughable garbage. .... The WC didn't "ignore" the fact that revolvers
don't eject cartridges. The WC knew full well the bullet shells
weren't automatically "ejected" from Oswald's gun. The shells were
PHYSICALLY DUMPED (by Oswald's own hands) from the weapon in the front
yard of Barbara and Virginia Davis, who saw Oswald dump the shells out
of the gun.
And the "to the exclusion" conclusion was arrived at by the WC as a
result of mainly the bullet SHELLS being traced to Oswald's revolver
"to the exclusion", not the actual bullets taken from Officer Tippit.
The bullets themselves were consistent with having come from the
Oswald gun, but not "to the exclusion".
One firearms expert, however, Joseph Nicol, disagreed with the FBI
findings in this regard, claiming that one of the four Tippit bullets
could be declared as having been fired from Oswald's revolver "to the
exclusion of all other weapons". See Page 172 of the Official Warren
Report for this info.
-----------
"Oswald was involved in the conspiracy; shots were fired at Kennedy
from the Depository but also from the grassy knoll and apparently from
the Dal-Tex Building as well -- but not one of them was fired by Lee
Harvey Oswald, and not one of them from his Mannlicher-Carcano." -- J.
Garrison; 1967
-- And: --
"In summation -- There were at least five or six shots fired at the
President from front and rear by at least four gunmen, assisted by
several accomplices, two of whom probably picked up the cartridges and
one of whom created a diversion to draw people's eyes away from the
grassy knoll. At this stage of events, Lee Harvey Oswald was no more
than a spectator to the assassination -- perhaps in a very literal
sense. The {James} Altgens photograph indicates the very real
possibility that at the moment Oswald was supposed to have been
crouching in the sixth-floor window of the Depository shooting
Kennedy, he may actually have been standing outside the front door
watching the
Presidential motorcade. ... Somehow or other, the Warren Commission
concluded that this man was actually Billy Lovelady, who looked very
little like Oswald." -- J. Garrison; 1967
Boy! That was some great "Frame The Patsy" plot huh? -- Per Garrison,
several gunmen (not one of them Oswald however) were firing at JFK
from a variety of locations (front and rear), while Oswald (the
plotters'
ONE AND ONLY PATSY) stood watching the killers' handiwork from the
front steps of his workplace! So not only don't the "creators" of this
"Patsy Plot" keep Oswald on the sixth floor at the precise time of the
shooting (as they should have) -- but these dumbbell plotters don't
even give a damn if Oswald is INSIDE THE BUILDING or not when JFK is
killed!
And: These Patsy-framing plotters also don't seem to realize (or care)
that by letting their Patsy roam around loose at 12:30, he will
probably be creating for himself a perfect alibi for his whereabouts
at the crucial time in question. Plus, these Homer Simpson-like
conspirators don't seem to care if Oswald gets himself PHOTOGRAPHED
during the assassination, providing additional exculpatory evidence ON
FILM proving that the Patsy is innocent!
Of course, in reality, Garrison's claim of Oswald possibly being in
the doorway of the Depository is totally bogus; and he had to have
known
it was a bogus claim when he uttered that quote in '67, which was
three
years after the "doorway man" was positively identified as TSBD
employee Billy N. Lovelady on April 7, 1964, by way of Lovelady's own
Warren Commission testimony, with Lovelady HIMSELF drawing an arrow to
himself in the Altgens photograph during his WC session.
So, for Garrison to say "somehow or other, the Warren Commission
concluded that this man was actually Lovelady" is for Jim to also
admit one of two things -- he either didn't read any of Lovelady's WC
testimony verifying it was Billy standing in the doorway ... or ... he
was deliberately skewing the evidence re. this matter for the purpose
of promoting an unfounded conspiracy theory. (I'll vote for the latter
option.)
Nobody with a brain could possibly believe a "Frame The Patsy"
assassination plot would have been pre-planned and pre-organized in
such a ludicrous and haphazard "Oh Well, Whatever Happens, Happens!"
manner -- a crazy plot which features multiple gunmen (NONE of whom
has the real Oswald rifle in his hands, assuring the plot's immediate
collapse right there, by the fact that none of the ballistics from ANY
of the killers' guns is going to implicate Oswald and his own weapon).
And then, added to that obvious ballistics flaw in the plan, the
Henchmen/Real Assassins just don't care at all where Patsy Oswald is
located during the actual assassination (per the Jim Garrison/Oliver
Stone theory anyway)!
Just think about these Garrison remarks for a moment longer too -- "At
least five or six shots were fired at the President from front and
rear ... by at least four gunmen".
Doesn't a "4-Shooter, 6-Shot, 1-Patsy" assassination plot seem a bit
unlikely to anyone else but this writer? Would any professional
killers actually attempt to "frame" a lone fall guy in that type of
overkill
fashion? In my opinion, no pro hit men would go about the complicated
task of setting up Oswald (or anybody else) in such a
needlessly-reckless way.
A single "pro" hit man could (and would) have easily killed JFK with
one or two shots (probably just one) from Oswald's "nest", without the
need to clog the works with needless back-up gunmen hiding all around
Dealey Plaza.
There is no possible way the conspirators could have ensured the
success of a multi-shooter plot to frame JUST Oswald in the minutes
during and after the shooting. No way. There are way too many
uncontrollable factors that could block the success of that One-Patsy
venture that Jim Garrison placed his faith in.
"Uncontrollable" items such as:
1.) A frontal shooter might very well have been seen by witnesses (and
to think that EVERY witness under the sun could be easily "bought",
"taken care of", and/or coerced by these plotters is, again, just too
much wishful thinking on the conspirators' part, IMO).
2.) A frontal shooter might strike other occupants in the car, or
strike somebody else in Dealey Plaza. But even if ONLY Kennedy is hit
by a frontal gunman, there are massive problems to be "corrected" by
the conspirators....bullets to be hidden and, of course, who knows how
many obvious frontal wounds on the victim to be (somehow) eliminated
-- and eliminated immediately before any non-conspirators can spill
any beans. .... Only a person straight out of the booby hatch could
believe that anyone, regardless of "power" or "pull", could get away
with such a thing. It's just plain loony.
3.) The one "Patsy" (Oswald) could have easily, by pure accident and
happenstance, established a perfect alibi for himself at the time when
he was supposed to be on the 6th Floor shooting the President (as Mr.
Garrison apparently DID think occurred, with Oswald being seen in a
photo taken as the bullets were flying; even though all reasonable
researchers know full well that "Doorway Man" was actually Billy
Lovelady, and not Oswald; Lovelady even testified to that effect in
1964). ....
Plus -- If Oswald had really been in that doorway at 12:30, WHY ON
EARTH DIDN'T HE SAY HE WAS THERE?! If he's got an ironclad alibi like
that, why wouldn't he use it? Instead, he says not a word about being
outside on the steps at 12:30, and even tells the police a provable
lie re. his whereabouts (the lie about "having lunch with Junior
{Jarman}"
at the time of the shooting). How much sense does that make if Oswald
had really been in the Depository doorway? ....
And the very fact that Oswald did NOT have a usable, provable alibi
for exactly 12:30 PM is absolutely remarkable IF he had really been
wandering around on the lower floors of the Depository (or was outside
the building), as many CTers firmly believe; and even the most rabid
of conspiracy theorists have got to admit, that from the "CT/Patsy"
POV,
Oswald's not having a usable/believable/solid alibi is certainly, by
far, the biggest piece of LUCK in the whole "Patsy Plot". ....
These amazing Patsy Plotters just lucked out, evidently, in that
Oswald was not seen by a single person inside or outside the TSBD at
precisely the time of the assassination -- except by Howard Brennan,
Ron
Fischer, and Robert Edwards, of course, who saw Oswald or a nicely-
arranged
Oswald "imposter" in the Sniper's Nest at 12:30 or just seconds before
12:30.
4.) And the likelihood that all of the non-TSBD bullets are going to
somehow get swept under the rug is extremely remote, especially in a
Bob Groden-like scenario. Mr. Groden (per his book "The Killing Of A
President"), incredibly, has ZERO of the shots coming from the Oswald
window, and a total of up to TEN shots being fired...and ALL OF THEM
coming from rifles other than the one rifle these idiot plotters are
going to attempt to frame Oswald with! Could Groden's scenario BE any
more reckless and preposterous?! I doubt it.
5.) And a biggie, that most CTers evidently don't think could have
ever happened before 12:30 on November 22nd -- The one Patsy (Mr. LHO)
could "get wise" to the plot that is brewing all around him and take
measures to guarantee he could never be blamed for the actual
assassination of
John Kennedy.
When thinking about any "Frame Lee Oswald As The One Patsy" plan, I
just cannot visualize any professional assassins (even for a minute)
contemplating the use of multiple shooters; let alone some gunmen
firing from the Grassy Knoll, i.e., the exact opposite direction from
where their single dupe is supposed to be located.
Gomer Pyle and his cousin Goober could have mapped out a "Patsy Plot"
more skillfully than these bozos did on November 22, 1963 (per
Garrison's and Stone's, et al, version).
-----------
"If there's one thing the Warren Commission and its 26 volumes of
supportive evidence demonstrate conclusively, it's that Lee Harvey
Oswald did not shoot John Kennedy on November 22, 1963." -- J.
Garrison; 1967
Now, after having lifted my jaw up off the floor due to being stunned
by the sheer ridiculousness of the quoted passage above -- I am truly
curious to know what Warren Report Mr. Garrison was reading, because
my copy proves exactly the opposite. About all I can add to that
breathtakingly-preposterous remark by JG is -- Huh??!!
-----------
I think it's also interesting to note that even many people who are
firmly entrenched in the "Conspiracy Camp" themselves think that Jim
Garrison's case against Clay Shaw was intolerable nonsense. One such
CTer (who possesses his own unique and strange theories when it comes
to the JFK assassination) is author David Lifton, who said the
following about Mr. Garrison:
"Jim Garrison was one of the biggest frauds that ever came down the
pike. ... His resurrection by Oliver Stone's 'JFK' has the quality of
'Nightmare On Elm Street'. And the only good that has come out of that
is the JFK Records Act. (Well, sometimes good things happen because of
bad people.)" -- David S. Lifton; August 6, 1995
-----------
"Though he {Oswald} may not have known why he was instructed to do so,
this was undoubtedly why he got the job at the Texas School Book
Depository Building. The conspirators knew this would place him on the
scene and convince the world that a demented Marxist was the real
assassin." -- J. Garrison; 1967
The above Garrison gem totally distorts (or just flat-out ignores) the
true and documented facts about how Oswald got his job at the
Depository in mid-October of '63. It was suburban Dallas housewives
Linnie Mae Randle and Ruth Paine who were directly responsible for
placing Lee Harvey Oswald in the TSBD, by way of ordinary
garden-variety happenstance.
Garrison must, therefore, believe that Mrs. Paine, who arranged
Oswald's job interview with Depository boss Roy Truly, was one of the
main "conspirators" who was setting up Oswald to take the fall for
JFK's murder the following month (which would also have to mean that
Paine had detailed knowledge of the President's motorcade route more
than a month before November 22). Garrison must also think that Roy
Truly was a big part of the patsy plot, because it was Mr. Truly who
actually hired Oswald (even though nobody was holding a shotgun to
Truly's head forcing him to hire Lee).*
* = Or maybe Garrison thinks something like this occurred to Mr. Truly
in 1963:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/a893216f84ce90be
The commonly-held belief that Lee Oswald was "placed" in the Texas
School Book Depository by evil plotters prior to 11/22/63 is a
desperate attempt by CTers like Mr. Garrison to attach unprovable and
unsupportable conspiratorial "strings" to a random event that involved
several individuals...individuals whose collective and synchronized
actions could not possibly have been foreseen and controlled by a
group of behind-the-scenes conspirators.
---------------
"Anyone who takes the time to read the Warren Report will find that of
the witnesses in Dealey Plaza who were able to assess the origin of
the shots, almost two-thirds said they came from the grassy-knoll area
in
front and to the right of the Presidential limousine and not from the
Book Depository." -- J. Garrison; 1967
This is pure nonsense. There were, indeed, several witnesses who said
they heard shots coming from in front of JFK's car, but Garrison has
severely skewed the stats to support his claim of Knoll shooters. His
"almost two-thirds" figure is not even close to being accurate when
talking about the number of witnesses who said they heard frontal
shots. And even amongst other CTers, virtually no other pro-conspiracy
author has ever rigged those stats in such an out-of-whack manner.
The fact is that more than half of all earwitnesses heard shots coming
from the direction of the Book Depository, and not from the Knoll. And
an even more illuminating statistic reveals that less than 5% of all
earwitnesses heard shots from more than just a single general location
(front vs. rear). That stat speaks volumes....because even CTers admit
to SOME rear shots.
An interesting tabulation of this data can be found below:
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/images/shots4.jpg
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/earwitnesses.htm
---------------
"The second shot struck the President in the back; the location of
this wound can be verified not by consulting the official autopsy
report,
but by perusing the reports filed by two FBI agents who were present
at the President's autopsy. Both stated unequivocally that the bullet
in
question entered President Kennedy's back and did not continue through
his body." -- J. Garrison; 1967
Therefore, Mr. Garrison is, in essence, saying that he is much more
likely to trust the word of FBI agents (who, of course, were not
doctors and were not conducting the President's autopsy) rather than
take the word of the three physicians who each signed the official
autopsy report. After all, why believe the autopsy doctors when you
COULD just trust as Gospel the word of a bystander? ~sarcasm alert~
Plus: Why didn't these two FBI agents get the conspirators' memo
which, if CTers are right about the success of the Patsy Plot, must
have been
passed out to nearly everyone in Officialdom on 11/22, a memo that
probably said: "Attn. All Agents -- We're framing Oswald tomorrow; so
remember to falsify as much evidence as humanly possible to ensure
conviction of patsy".
Evidently some people who needed to see it never received that
important document.
---------------
"We have also located another man who was not involved in the shooting
but created a diversionary action in order to distract people's
attention from the snipers. This individual screamed, fell to the
ground, and simulated an epileptic fit, drawing people away from the
vicinity of the knoll just before the President's motorcade reached
the ambush point." -- J. Garrison; 1967
Yet another outright lie from the lips of District Attorney Garrison.
The man who had the so-called "simulated epileptic fit" was fully
identified by the FBI on May 26, 1964. His name was Jerry Belknap, a
man who had a history of epilepsy since childhood. Belknap also proved
to the FBI that he had paid the ambulance bill ($12.50) after he was
taken to Parkland Hospital. (Would a conspirator have bothered to pay
that ambulance bill and would a conspirator have given his real name,
running the risk of possibly being exposed?)
---------------
"President Kennedy was killed for one reason: because he was working
for a reconciliation with the U.S.S.R. and Castro's Cuba. His
assassins were a group of fanatic anti-Communists with a fusion of
interests in
preventing Kennedy from achieving peaceful relations with the
Communist world." -- J. Garrison; 1967
Any solid, verifiable proof of such accusations, Mr. Garrison? Any
physical evidence whatsoever that shows JFK was killed by more than
one gun? .... The answers to those two questions are: No and No.
But the lack of physical evidence never stopped a hard-boiled
CTer....that's been proven over and over again by a vast assortment of
conspiracists who have more theories up their sleeve than a dog has
fleas.
==============================================
MORE GARRISON TALK:
On January 31, 1968, on NBC-TV's "The Tonight Show", Johnny Carson
conducted a lengthy interview with New Orleans District Attorney Jim
Garrison. The purpose of the special interview was to discuss the JFK
assassination.
Mr. Garrison, as of that date in early 1968, was in the process of
putting together his extremely-lightweight case against Clay Shaw.
When the Shaw trial finally took place in 1969, the jury took less
than an hour to arrive at the only possible (reasonable) verdict in
the
case against Mr. Shaw -- Not Guilty.
I'd advise anyone interested in the details of JFK's assassination to
watch (or just listen to) the 1968 Garrison/Carson interview, which
lasts for about an hour and consumes the bulk of the 01/31/68 "Tonight
Show" broadcast.
It's a fascinating glimpse into history -- and, to put it quite
bluntly, it's also a rather fascinating glimpse into the mind and
inner conspiratorial thoughts of a total kook by the name of Garrison.
Mr. Garrison, I will admit, handles himself quite well on the NBC
broadcast with Johnny Carson....he doesn't lose his cool (even though
Mr. Carson interrupts Garrison's theory-spouting on numerous
occasions, and it becomes very evident that Johnny isn't buying one
single thing
that Jim is telling him during the entire program).
Johnny Carson was later accused of being overly rough and brusk and
rude toward Garrison on the program in question. But, IMO, Johnny did
not exhibit those characteristics at all. John was very low key and,
in my view, handled himself exceedingly well under the circumstances
(i.e., the circumstances of being placed in a position where he had to
act as an investigative reporter for the evening, instead of the late-
night comedian and witty interviewer of movie stars that America had
become accustomed to seeing since Carson began hosting "The Tonight
Show" in October of 1962).
Johnny asked some hard-hitting questions of Mr. Garrison, some of
which I'm going to write out in word-for-word fashion in just a
moment.
Carson displayed a good deal of knowledge about many of the details
surrounding the JFK murder case, and (IMO) deserves nothing but
applause for his actions during his interview with Mr. Garrison.
The main reason I applaud Mr. Carson so loudly with respect to this
particular interview is because I was glad to see John ask such hard
questions which cast doubt on the notion of conspiracy in the JFK
case, instead of merely nodding in agreement with everything this
fruitcake
named Garrison had to say. (Which were all things, by the way, that
haven't a shred of truth to them whatsoever re. the vast "Let's Frame
Lee Harvey Oswald As A Patsy" conspiracy plot that Garrison said was
afoot in Dealey Plaza in '63.)
The audio portion of the Garrison/Carson interview is available to
listen to (for free) at various locations on the Internet. Again, I'd
recommend looking it up. It's worth a listen.
Allow me now to print out some interesting excerpts and snippets from
that Jim Garrison interview (interjections by this author will be
denoted by the initials "DVP")......
JG (Jim Garrison) -- "We have found that the Central Intelligence
Agency, without any question, had individuals who were connected with
it involved {in the assassination of JFK}."
JC (Johnny Carson) -- "You have absolute facts and proof of that?"
JG -- "Without any question. I wouldn't say so otherwise.
~~~~~~
DVP -- Mr. Garrison had no "proof" of the above allegation re. the
CIA. He was merely theorizing. He was good at theorizing about murky,
unverifiable conspiracy plots, such as the one involving Clay Shaw,
Guy Banister, and David Ferrie. But "proving" these crackpot theories
was
another matter. In short, he couldn't do it. And a jury in 1969
"proved" that Garrison couldn't do it in a court of law.
-------------------------------------
JG -- "They {the Warren Commission} concluded that Lee Oswald was the
lone assassin....and the evidence is clear that Oswald never fired a
shot....never fired a shot."
~~~~~~
DVP -- The above comment by Mr. Garrison is totally laughable. Such an
asinine remark by a person in Mr. Garrison's position at the time
(that of a District Attorney) deserves nothing but utter contempt from
anyone who has looked even superficially into the facts surrounding
John
Kennedy's tragic murder.
-------------------------------------
JG -- "There was never an investigation. .... I'm not at all impressed
with the fact that they {the Warren Commission} could find no evidence
of a conspiracy. After going through their inquiry, I doubt if they
could find a streetcar if they had a transfer in their hands and it
was pointed out to them."
~~~~~~
DVP -- The above comment by Jimbo was indeed humorous, and elicited a
chuckle from Mr. Carson's studio audience. I kind of wish, though,
that Carson had followed up Jim's witticism with a comment about Mr.
Garrison not being able to locate his 'common sense'....because it's
fairly obvious that Jim had very little of that particular trait when
it came to his absurd theories concerning the JFK case.
-------------------------------------
JC -- "Now, you say 'the fact remains' again....as if it IS a fact.
You keep saying 'we know' and 'the fact is'....but that's not a fact,
is
it?"
JG -- "Yes."
JC -- "What makes it a fact? Because you say so?"
~~~~~~
DVP -- A great retort by Johnny above. I loved it!
-------------------------------------
JC -- "Jim, aren't you taking inconsistencies in testimony during the
emotional time, even self-contradictory testimony, from even sometimes
the most truthful of witnesses....and using THAT as tainting
everything else that is very well explained?"
~~~~~~
DVP -- An excellent observation by Mr. Carson. And also a correct one,
IMO. Conspiracy theorists are experts at using selective pieces of
seemingly-contradictory evidence or witness statements and then
twisting those things into their own unique brand of "proof" that a
conpiracy had taken place on 11/22/63.
But the fact is that the things mentioned by Garrison (which I didn't
print out verbatim, but which prompted Johnny's comment above) were,
as John said, being used by Mr. Garrison to attempt to taint the
overall
Lone-Assassin conclusion.
One thing, in particular, that Garrison is certainly dead-wrong about
(that he mentioned in the Carson interview) involves the actions and
observations of Roy Truly and Marrion Baker (who both saw Lee Oswald
on the 2nd Floor of the Book Depository approx. 90 seconds after
Oswald
shot JFK from a 6th-Floor window).
Garrison erroneously assumes that since Truly and Baker saw Oswald on
the second floor shortly after the shooting, this therefore must
indicate that Oswald was innocent. But what Jim didn't tell the
audience that night in 1968 is that the Warren Commission conducted
multiple "re-enactments" of Oswald's alleged movements from the 6th to
the 2nd Floor of the building, and those re-creations proved beyond
any doubt that a person WAS capable of travelling that distance in
less
than 80 seconds. Which indicates that the assassin (Oswald) could very
well have been on the 6th Floor at 12:30 PM and also on the 2nd Floor
by approx. 12:31:30 PM.
-------------------------------------
JG -- "There is no 'overwhelming' evidence that Oswald shot from the
Book Depository. The only evidence available indicates that he did
NOT."
~~~~~~
DVP -- That last line deserves a replay (just to emphasize the sheer
size of Garrison's gall at having spouted such nonsense) -- "The only
evidence available indicates that he did NOT".
Incredible, isn't it? Both times.
Mr. Garrison thinks the "ONLY evidence available" suggests that Lee
Oswald did NOT fire any shots from the TSBD. About the only thing left
to do after hearing (or reading) such total garbage from JG is to
throw up one's hands and scream "WTF?!". I think I'll go do that now.
Excuse me. :)
-------------------------------------
JC -- "You are asking us and the American public to believe that a
team of seven gunmen carried this out with precision, firing from
various
points that day in Dallas, which is a remarkable feat in itself, and
disappeared into thin air, with no witnesses who ever saw any other
gunmen or getaway vehicles....and a gigantic conspiracy in which
nobody seems to have yet proved anything....you ask us to believe
that....I
find that a much larger fairy tale than to accept the findings of the
Warren Report."
~~~~~~
DVP -- Bravo, Mr. Carson! Well said! I applaud ye (again). I couldn't
have said that better myself.
-------------------------------------
JG -- "Having gone through the twenty-six volumes, Johnny, I CAN say
that it is not possible for a reasonable man to conclude that the
Warren Commission was right."
~~~~~~
DVP -- Another outlandishly-ludicrous statement by Jim G. in my
opinion, and in the opinion of a JFK assassination expert/author who
possesses probably more common sense and reasoned-thinking skills than
anybody I can personally think of -- former Deputy D.A. Vincent
Bugliosi, who made the following bold (but spot-on accurate)
declaration many years ago:
"Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of President
Kennedy. The evidence is absolutely overwhelming that he carried out
the tragic shooting all by himself. In fact, you could throw 80
percent of the evidence against him out the window and there would
still be
more than enough left to convince any reasonable person of his sole
role in the crime. The Warren Commission looked at a tremendous amount
of evidence and concluded that Oswald acted alone. I've studied the
evidence, and I agree." -- Vince B.; 1986
-------------------------------------
As the previously-mentioned quotes from the mouth of Mr. Garrison
amply demonstate, if anyone has a desire to set out "On The Trail Of A
Lunatic Conspiracy Theorist" -- look no further than Earling Carothers
(Jim) Garrison.
It's undeniable that virtually every scrap of hard, physical evidence
in the JFK and J.D. Tippit murder cases shows one man, Lee Oswald, to
be responsible for the two murders he was charged with in '63.
This evidence runs the gamut from the guns used in the crimes ... to
the whole bullet from Oswald's rifle found at Parkland ... to multiple
bullet fragments from Oswald's rifle found in JFK's limo ... to the
bullet shells from Oswald's weapons found at both the Kennedy and
Tippit murder sites ... to fingerprints of Oswald's all over the place
where a gunman was seen in the Depository ... to the paper bag found
in the Sniper's Perch ... to clothing fibers linked to Oswald ... and
also extending, of course, to the multiple eyewitnesses who watched
Oswald pulling the triggers of his guns during both 11/22 Dallas
murders.
And if "all of the above" was somehow "faked" and/or "planted" in
order to make a totally-innocent person named Oswald look guilty, then
I'm a monkey's uncle!
Doubting the authenticity of virtually every speck of
Oswald-incriminating physical evidence in the JFK and Tippit murder
cases (as many conspiracists do, indeed, doubt) is to play Jim
Garrison's and Oliver Stone's game -- a game highlighted by mystery
killers firing from the Grassy Knoll, unexplainable disappearing
bullets, and a series of bullet holes (made by THREE different gunmen)
in TWO different victims that mirror a SINGLE-BULLET EVENT so closely
as to be deemed "perfect" for the adoption of the "Single-Bullet
Theory" by an official U.S. Government commission assigned to
investigate the assassination.
And the act of casting doubt upon the validity of ALL of the "Oswald
Is Guilty" evidence, sans proof of a large amount of foul play, is
merely
the cowardly act of hardened conspiracy buffs (such as the late Mr.
Garrison) who simply cannot face the raw fact that the totality of
evidence in the JFK murder case hangs Mr. Oswald as surely as the Pope
is Catholic.
David Von Pein
February/March/November 2006