Garrison v. the People

The only clear-cut aspect of the conspiracy case against retired New Orleans Businessman Clay Shaw was the verdict. After pumping the case for two years in public and six weeks in the courtroom, District Attorney Jim Garrison got less than an hour of the jury's time in deliberation before they unanimously acquitted Shaw of plotting to kill President Kennedy. A less obsessed prosecutor might have reasoned from those circumstances that the jury believed he had no case. Not Big Jim. Said he: "The jury verdict simply indicates that the American people don't want to hear the truth."

With the public machinery for prosecution at his disposal, Garrison still has ample means to force his version of the truth into the limelight. Last week he began Round 2 of his increasingly fanatical fight by charging Shaw, 55, with two counts of perjury. Garrison claimed that Shaw had lied when he testified that he knew neither of the two alleged coconspirators, Lee Harvey Oswald and David W. Ferrie. This was the only point in the original case that Garrison could produce credible witnesses to substantiate, though it could prove nothing about a conspiracy. For Shaw, who says that he will have to come out of retirement to pay for his already fierce legal fees (estimated to be $100,000), it meant more lawyers, more fees and the possibility of another prison sentence to face--up to ten years on each count.

All Bull. Garrison also filed charges of perjury against Dean Andrews, the Runyonesque little lawyer who once claimed to have talked to a mysterious "Clay Bertrand" about defending Oswald. The D.A.'s accusation is somewhat stronger in Andrews' case--since he has told three official panels as many different tales, including one version (at Shaw's trial) calling the whole thing "bull." Garrison also charged a member of his own staff, a 32-year-old former school teacher named Tom Bethell, with surreptitiously slipping the defense a copy of the prosecution's trial plan. In fact, the defense team did manage to secure such an outline and used it to full advantage in gathering background on Garrison's witnesses.

There seemed to be no way of preventing Garrison from rehashing the Shaw case in court. Nor is he likely to jettison his whole investigation, which is largely bankrolled by a group of wealthy businessmen that melodramatically calls itself "Truth and Consequences." However, Garrison could get clipped several ways. Shaw has announced that he is considering legal action, which could be either against Garrison or his group of backers. The American Bar Association has hinted that it might want to investigate the D.A.'s "motives." Garrison's real test will take place outside the courtroom. He is up for reelection next November.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.