Newspaper Article: a Reporter at Large

7
claimed, further, that a _\1\un_g wotnan,
I
\\'.1ld \\.z\ lzunq uzth his uric and their
;,\(_m( ,{_,.;:;,\_t¢|- an ,\lt;.t: '~.e .\:teet in
New (ltlcanx Rt1,\\a\ dt\‘t-\\*\l (l\wahl
at h.1-ting i.t
heartl in earit‘ and mid-
Septemhcr. wt ge_t1er.\lZr tel-_tl\lc \~il-
nesws nqnrtetl that (\i\".ald twat clean-
gluven at that time. Rugs» c-Ltimed thati
he saw ()s\\-ald in Fer-
t~ie's apartment in the
first neck nf (l\‘toher,
\et ()_catm;_ ti t lH'\L\\
he did testify, his prohation \\\\ttl.tl he
'revoln disntissed the
*‘Q
I
\t.1te|nt"nt< wt . -.=\-t and kit ~ '
“ut
£ 7.Vichy: nl their eiinténal I’l‘\‘~i?'cl\ tit if
no credence is tn he |-l.:t‘ei*l t-~. the tt'~ti~
ntouy of litzntlt is t:"llt\\r-t‘-\n\\'!‘§. what
of the testitttont" of litlndt hzzzzszlti
(iarrisnnis entire case at the pit-lmti~
nary hearing, then, was lvvexl on the
allegations ol tux» Witttcxscs whtv lt.ttl
hoth waited four _\ears l~et'-we tl=\"lt\¢-
ing tincoirroln-tat<\l .<tur‘it“s and Wltn
hoth s_uhsn.tuentl_\" cast eotwelerahle
douht on their ovnt testimnm".
A few months alter the h_e.m'n;_;,
there was another legal slcinnish that
strengthened the appe.\r.znct~. it not the
snhstaitee, of G:ttrisutt'.= t~.:~=::_l-1e.m-_
Antlrewg the .\'cw Orleans lawter
who had claimed that shortly alter the
assassination -I sh.tdovr_\' figure named
Clay llertrand appealed to h-Tm to go
to l)a|la.\ and defend Osw.ti-tl, \-catue
involved in perjury pnieeetiiiwgs. .~\|t-
tlrews, alter telling a number of stories
almnt llertrand, and at one pint t'l.iitn-
ing that Bertrand was a tigtoettt of
his imagination, had net-ertht-l<~.e= <tatcd
-categorically when Garrisnn qucstiuttetl
him in Ileeemher that Shaw was not
llertrand. ln late l'“el~ruan", after Rum»
had come t'-vrtvard, Garrsm ‘again
'met with .-\ndre\\~s .\ceot-ding t-a .~\n-
drews, the llisttiet :\ttnrne_\" NA! he
had other evidence that Shaw was in-
volved, and .t.~itcd :\ndre\\~s nnetttt deny.
‘that Shaw and llertrand were one and
the stmc. .-\ndre\vs .1greed-hoc.utse. he
has said, he was afraid that “nthet\\'@I:
the jolly Greenliuttt would t\\uncc'
on me like .1 thousand-poitnd t".tttar_\‘.”_7
\Vhen called before :4 grand jury in
March and asked if Clay 5h..t\\‘ was
Clay llrrtrand, he replied, under tuth,
“l can't say that he is and l e:n‘t s"t_\‘
that he ain‘t." Three months later, on‘
jtnu: Zlith, .-\nd:e\\s mlunteerml tn ap-
ipvar again helore the grand jt:t'y_ This
itime, he told nt':t "deal" with Garrist-rt
and testified that he had net-er thought
inf .1 moment that $h.1\\' was Rertrztnd.
llt'rtr.1nd, he admitted, \\‘.ts .1 fictitious
name he had used in order tn p'rt\te\‘t.
it friend of his, a lurtender in the
l"r<-nch Quarter. .-\n‘dre\t-s acknmt-l<
edged that he had petjured himself
previously, and said, “It th\esn't nuke
:tny dilierenee tn me if I'm t\\nrict-
ed. . . . Clay -Shaw is not Clay Bec~
trand. lndict me if you want rm”
Andrews was $Ul1°<‘qtl<‘fl!l'_¥‘ ar-
raigned, tried, and Convicted for pen
jury. Aithnugh the mnriction is being
appealed; Carrfinn declared that thk
represented “.1 m:tjo_r cnnrictioz: . . . in
connection with this cast." It \\'.L\ it
anything, a Pyrrhic victtvry. .~\s&*1nt
District Attorney .-\la-elt charged that
the name Bertrand had been “inked
on the world" hy".-\r_tdrews, but ii
llvrtntntl \\'.1\ indeed .t tit-t»t\n_ invented
ht" .*\ndrru-s aftrr the :ts\t.s\$|t.tt§nn, how
could l{tt\u\ tt'.<tify that he had met
Shaw hcforc the .1\\t\\i|1.\(iun “min-
the |\\c\|tlo|tt'|n liertrand?
Acciirding to the Sciatnhm
Illctmvramltlm, Rum» had
not mentioned the name. -
llertrand itt his initial inter-
view. -lt was only after Sci-
amhra (nltl Russo that he
had identified one of the par-
tiCi|\:tflt.\ at the meeting in
Ft-rric'.t .tpartmt'nt as Ber-
trand while under the “influ-
ence id’ sodiutn pentoth.\l——an
identification which, aecord- i
ing twllillings, Russo did not
recall at the time—and after Rum;
was allowed tn ask leading questiona-
about the ease so that, in his own
words, he “cnuld figure out ‘what they
wanted to know," that the natnc llcr~
trantl fotuul its way into his story.
IAITTICR the prelimimry hearing,i
t
there was a second nntaltle shift
in the ttature nl the in\‘esti;_;ation.
\Vherra.t the first phase had cnnt'entrat-
ed on the activities nf l).t\~id Ferric,
and the second was tlevotctl principally
to efforts to suhstantiate Rusvfs al-
legations about Cla Shaw, the third
phase had no singfi specific oltjective.
It was, in rtli-ct, .1 hunt without .1
quarry, n search for any information
from any source that might rt.-late to
any :t.<|u.-ct of the assassination. For
this dcsullory pursuit, G.-ttrismt rt.‘-
in[_orecd his pcrinanein stall with
voluntecr recruits from the growing
corps of critics of the \\':trren Com-
missiolt. A nmnhcr of these people
who' ntight ht-.\t he di.-scrihed as peri-
patetie duittonologists found in i\’c\\_'
Orleans an tint-.\pcctcd rallying point;
they were attractt-tl to Garrisott like the
children of ll.'unt-liu to the Pied Piper.
.~\t the ht-ad nl the line stood ;\lark
Latte, (ht: author of “Rush to Judg-
ment," who, togetlier with \\'illia|n
Turnt'r,' ;t stall writer for Ramp:-'rlt,
spent muntlts assitluottsly conthing Gar-
rison's files mt the case for new ehies
and tlt‘\‘i\l|Ig ingenious scltetnes to pm-
duce new zliselostircs. (\\'hi:n um: .1.»
sistant district :tttorne_\' protested that
by making Xerox Copies of the e\'_i-
dcncc Lane mi|_;ht he jmpartlilittg the
case, Garrison replied that Lane and
Turner were “writing the official hiv
tory of the im'cstigation_") Reports on
developments in Texas came from
Penn Jones, _lr., the editor of the .\lid-
lothian, 'l't-.\'.ts, .lIirror and the :utthor
of .1 series of booklets called “Forgive
My Grief," the most celehratetl feature
of. which was :t death count of indi—
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