Documents / FOIA release
This CIA-held copy of a 13 July 1968 magazine article, "A Reporter at Large," was written by the author of the book "Inquest." It examines New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison's investigation into the Kennedy assassination and his arrest of Clay Shaw. The author concludes that Garrison mishandled evidence and decoded address book numbers without sound basis. It also says the only evidence the author saw connecting Shaw to the assassination was fraudulent. Flying saucers come up only in passing.
"?%“;; 1;‘ Nu other clues to licrtr.ind's itlentitv tutnctl up, l|ow\7\t"r, and \\'etnigltt he tapping his telephoneS that hi: had tnatle planis .1 few weeks be- fore to execute .1 mitlnight raid on the F.li.l. field office in New Qrlt-ans, using a water pistol loaded with :1 charge of red pepper to tlisartn the of- licer on duty; he even invited Chan- dler, the Li/c reporter, to accompany him on the mission, hut lior some reason the plan was scrapped.) Upon learning that Ferric was under suspicion, Novel told Garrison that he knew a good deal about l"errie's ai;tivities in l96l. /\c- Ctirtling tn Gflfflfitlll, Novel Cl.1lmL'd that Ferric, at Cuban-exile leader named Sergio /\reacha Stnith, and two unidentilit-tl Cubans had been involved in a "pickup" of arms from .1 buulter in lloutna, Lotiisiatia, belonging to the Sclilutttbergcr \\'ell .Sut'\'e_\'ing Corpo- ration. some of the arms were rc- portetlly tleptisited in the oflices of \V. Guy lianister. I'l'he purpose "..t- the taid was to acquire arms for an anti- Castro militia, and l\'o\/cl statetl that .1 C.l.r\. contact h_.1d intlulgenll_v pro- vided a key to the bunker. Novel later claimed that one of (_;;trri."»on's ideas for brealtittg the stalemate his in- vestigation had app.trentl_v reached in- volved .1 plot to kidnap l"errie. .'\ccord- ing to this story, Ferric was to be shot with an atropine dart, injected with sodium pentothal, and forced to con- fess. Novel has said, "Garrison asked‘ ‘tract Attorney ‘told l"$ Fm“ l" lmc to order himisuch a ‘dart gun so' . , I . - forget Shaw. ln january, when asked if he knew the identity of Clay Bertrand by Richard N. Billings, another ‘ member of Li/r’: staff. Gar- rison replied, "His. real name it Clay_Shaw, but I don’! that-it wouldnt appear on =u$ oflice purchase records" after the - District Attornt-y' “bad read _ about the idea in one of the, lioolts ' about the C.l.A.” The entire in\'csiig.1tion might have expired quietly for_want of-' _5.. ant" truit t.io-gable l<:.uls-if it had not l\t‘t‘t\ for ‘sonic resourceful tIlt\\'t‘$ lw thrcc reporters for the 't\'cw ()rlcan.~' Starri-I1rm———Rost-tnary _laine<, _l.1clc l)etnps¢-y, and David Snider. ln New (Frlcans, the financial \‘tIltt‘l\t‘l‘$ of the district attortte_t"s of- fice are a matter of public record. lly piecing together information glt-anetl .fl'ult‘l these records antl-through various .le.1lts from Garrison’: ofiicc, the re- 'portcrs were able to come up with a ‘fairly accurate picture of the in\'cstig'.-t- lion, even though it was stillbeittg ltept secret. t\ll‘$.. jamcs wrote an article on ithc subject and showed it to Garrison on l'_ehruar_t' lb. i967. llc simply shrugged and told her, “l will neither confirm nor tlem’ it." The nt-.\t tlay, the story broke. Ga|'|'isot:'s in- vt-stigation into the assassin.-ttiott of llresitlent Kennedy was now a public _ issue. Garrison charged that the news story had seriously interfered with his elforts; arrests that were to‘ have been made imntctli:ttt"l_t', he claimed, had now to be tlelierretl for months. More- over, he annouttced that he would seek private lin.ut-ring itt order not to have to conduct the inquiry in .1 “Ii.~h- bowl.” 'l'wo political allies, _luseph Rault, _]r., and \\"ill;u'tl Robertson, thereupon organized fifty l\'e\_v Or- leans businessmen into a group that ‘.e.'tlled itself Truth or Cunsetpti-nces, Inc. lts function was to supply Gar- :rison with both funds and moral lsupport. .\le;tnwltilt', l)a\'itl Ferric told .1 newspapernian that Garrison 's inves- ‘ tigation, in which he was suspected of being Oswald's getaway pilot, was nothing but "a big joke.” He denied that he ltnew Oswald, and, for good me.1sure, added that lte was conducting , his own inquiry into the rtssassittatinn. F For two days, shortly after the Slnlrr-Irrm broke the news of Gar- rison's in\'t:stw:\tion, Ferrie was kept under “protective custody," Billings ; has reported, at the Ft\ttt:tinehle;ttt il\-lutor llotel in New Orleans. .-\c- ‘cording ‘tn ;t member of Garrison's stali, this was done at l"errie's_req\tl-st. § In any event, he returned toliis own apartment on the wetting of Fehrttary Zlst. The nc.\t day, Ferric was found dead. An €lUll\P$_\' indicated that he ltad died of_a cerebral heiuorrltage caused by. the rupture of .1 blood vessel. The 'c0roncr,il)r. Nicholas Chetta, ruled ‘ ' out suicide, because a person is rarely aware that an 1t\eur)'$m, or weak spot, exists in at blood vessel, and it would he virtually imptmible to induce a “blow- out.” He also ruled uut murder, 0" the ground that if the rupture had been caused by an external blow there would necessarily t t
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 19 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.