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The 1991 release of the Oliver Stone film JFK led to the release of pre­vi­ously clas­si­fied gov­ern­ment doc­u­ments about the Kennedy assas­si­na­tion. Rely­ing on some of this recently released doc­u­men­ta­tion and his own exten­sive prob­ing of the case, author Bill Davy has crafted a bril­liant and thor­oughly read­able vol­ume that does much to vin­di­cate New Orleans Dis­trict Attor­ney Jim Garrison.

In this pro­gram, Davy dis­cusses his book Let Jus­tice Be Done: New Light on the Jim Gar­ri­son Inves­ti­ga­tion (Jor­dan Pub­lish­ing, copy­right 1999.) Gar­ri­son was clearly onto some­thing. The broad­cast begins with dis­cus­sion of a House Select Com­mit­tee on Assas­si­na­tions memo indi­cat­ing that Clay Shaw (indicted by Gar­ri­son) may have been one of the high-level plan­ners (or a cut-out to the high-level plan­ners) of the assas­si­na­tion of Pres­i­dent Kennedy. After high­light­ing a memo from the CIA chief in New Orleans to Lan­g­ley indi­cat­ing that Garrison’s inves­ti­ga­tion was on the right track, the dis­cus­sion turns to David Ferrie’s mys­te­ri­ous hunt­ing trip on the week­end of the assas­si­na­tion. (A sus­pect almost from the begin­ning of Garrison’s inquiry, Fer­rie also claimed that his mys­te­ri­ous ven­ture was under­taken for the pur­pose of ice-skating. His alibi is full of holes and not credible.)

Next, the pro­gram sets forth the mys­te­ri­ous 544 Camp Street / 531 Lafayette Place address that housed both Lee Har­vey Oswald’s Fair Play for Cuba Com­mit­tee and the Guy Ban­nis­ter Detec­tive Agency. (The alleged com­mu­nist Oswald was the only mem­ber of the New Orleans chap­ter of the FPCC, which shared an address with the oper­a­tions of the vio­lently anti-communist Bannister’s office. Ban­nis­ter appears to have been deeply involved with the anti-Castro efforts in the New Orleans.) Fer­rie worked with Ban­nis­ter against the Cas­tro regime.

The pro­gram doc­u­ments numer­ous con­nec­tions between prin­ci­pal fig­ures in the case and, in turn, con­nects them to the intel­li­gence com­mu­nity. Par­tic­u­lar empha­sis is on the high level gov­ern­men­tal obstruc­tion of Garrison’s probe and the role of the media in sub­vert­ing and dis­cred­it­ing the investigation.

Pro­gram Higlights Include: Ferrie’s and Shaw’s involve­ment in the Freeport Sul­phur endeavor (link­ing both of them to each other and the anti-Castro effort); the Clin­ton Louisiana inci­dent con­nect­ing Oswald, Shaw and Fer­rie in an appar­ent sur­veil­lance of black voter reg­is­tra­tion efforts in that city; the Houma muni­tions bur­glary (con­nected to the Bay of Pigs inva­sion); a CIA plan to stage a fake attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Guan­tanamo as a pre­text to invade Cuba; the Deputy Chief Coun­sel of the House Select Committee’s state­ment that the com­mit­tee saw a film of an anti-Castro train­ing facil­ity that linked Oswald to Ban­nis­ter and CIA offi­cial David Atlee Phillips; Oswald’s attempt to gain employ­ment at a Louisiana hos­pi­tal that was involved in the CIA’s MKULTRA pro­gram; con­nec­tions of Dr. Alton Ochsner to that same facil­ity; CIA con­nec­tions of Lloyd Cobb, Shaw’s supe­rior at the Inter­na­tional Trade Mart; the mys­te­ri­ous Mary­dale Farm (a prob­a­ble train­ing site for the assas­si­na­tion); Ku Klux Klan con­nec­tions of Lloyd Cobb’s brother Alvin; con­fir­ma­tion of Shaw’s use of the alias “Clay Bertrand;” attor­ney Dean Andrews’ con­nec­tions to Oswald; Clay Shaw’s numer­ous con­nec­tions to the intel­li­gence com­mu­nity; Jus­tice bepart­ment efforts to under­mine Garrison’s inves­ti­ga­tion; the mur­der of Fer­rie asso­ciate Ela­dio Del Valle (like Fer­rie, involved in the anti-Castro effort; hos­tile fig­ures who infil­trated Garrison’s inves­ti­ga­tion includ­ing Tom Bethell, William Wood (a.k.a. Bill Box­ley) and Bernardo de Tor­res; attempts at intim­i­dat­ing Garrison’s wit­nesses; writer James Phelan’s hit-piece on Gar­ri­son; jour­nal­ist Hugh Aynesworth’s con­nec­tions to the CIA and his smear­ing of Gar­ri­son; Wal­ter Sheridan’s NBC attack on Gar­ri­son and Sheridan’s con­nec­tions to the intel­li­gence com­mu­nity; Ban­nis­ter asso­ciate Aaron Kohn’s attack on Garrison’s inves­ti­ga­tion; rebut­tal of the spu­ri­ous but oft-repeated alle­ga­tions that Gar­ri­son was tied to orga­nized crime. (Recorded on 1/9/2000.)