Al Beauboeuf's booking photo from the assassination weekend.
I spoke to Al Beauboeuf on the telephone back in May 2020 when I was writing my book On the Trail of Delusion -- Jim Garrison: The Great Accuser.
Beauboeuf traveled with David Ferrie and Mel Coffey to Houston and Galveston during the assassination weekend. They arrived back on Sunday, November 24th, and Beauboeuf and Layton Martens were brought in for questioning. arrested at Ferrie's apartment for vagrancy.
He was an expert roller skater but had never gone ice skating. They were originally going to go to Baton Rouge to ice skate but the rink was closed because of the assassination. But the rinks in Houston were open, and the decision was made to drive there.
Jim Garrison made much of the fact that they drove through a rainstorm to get to Houston. But Beauboeuf told me that Ferrie would fly through anything -- right through thunderstorm -- so that driving on a highway through some rain was nothing.
He was still very fond of David Ferrie.
Beauboeuf was also bribed by Garrison's men. HIs lawyer was smart enough to tape the conversation. The tape has disappeared but there are transcripts. We know the tape existed because there was a police investigation into the bribery and their report discusses what was on the tape. Beauboeuf told me that Lynn Loisel, one of Garrison's men, stuck a gun in his face. He threatened to blow his ass off if he didn't recant. In addition, Loisel said that he had some naked photographs of Beauboeuf that he would show around town (taken from the police raid on Ferrie' apartment on November 24th).
Beauboeuf did back off the allegation and signed a statement that he was not bribed. But he told me that it was very much a bribe and that the tape is accurate word for word.
Wire service photograph from May 10, 1967
In August 2023, I was going through the Garrison papers that Harry Connick had found when he took office in 1973. Amongst the papers were three naked photographs of Al Beauboeuf. You can imagine my surprise when I found them in the Beauboeuf file folder. Garrison had kept those photos for years.
At some future date, I will be posting a major blog article on the bribery attempt.
My new book, A Heritage of Nonsense: Jim Garrison's Tales of Mystery and Imagination, has the story of the David Ferrie trip to Houston and Galveston.
Previous Relevant Blog Posts on Al Beauboeuf
An older blog post about my interview.
The trip to Houston and Galveston
An in-depth look at Breck Wall
The weather during the trip