Stephen Jaffe and Mark Lane paid a visit to Reverend Raymond Broshears in Long Beach, California in July 1968. Here is the memo that Stephen Jaffe wrote to Jim Garrison about this first interview with Broshears.
Quite the story, huh? Let's review some the salient points:
- Hale Boggs was part of the conspiracy, and Clay Shaw was responsible for keeping Boggs in office.
- Two men from Garrison's office threatened Ferrie in 1965.
- Ferrie was working for a group of people who wanted to take over the United States.
- Ferrie told Broshears that Lyndon Johnson killed JFK.
- Broshears repeated the story about the two assassins being killed in a place crash in Corpus Christi - they were supposed to have been flown by Ferrie from Houston to South Africa.
- Broshears said that Ferrie said that Oswald was one of the best lays he ever had.
- Broshears said he threatened the life of Lyndon Johnson, and he was then detained in a VA psychiatric hospital in New Orleans.
- Perry Russo stole $2,300 from Clay Shaw.
- Broshears was threatened by Secret Service agents after appearing on the Bohrman TV show.
- Three people who worked in the TSBD were part of the cell that Oswald had infiltrated. Tippit was sent to kill Oswald because Oswald had infiltrated the cell for the FBI. Oswald had gone to Russia on work for the FBI.
- Ferrie met Jack Ruby in New Orleans.
Now, if I had heard all this from Raymond Broshears, I would have said thanks and gone straight to a bar and laughed my head off. But, not Lane and Jaffe. They would go back for one more interview, and then have Broshears taken to New Orleans for further questioning.
What did Garrison think? The Jim Garrison notation at the top of page two reads as follows "Broshears' reference to Hale Boggs in this connection is but one example that he is too haywire to add up to ever being a source of evidence - on the other hand, Ferrie seems to have reached a stage of intimacy with him - supported with the apparent use of alcohol + pills - so that Broshears should not be totally disposed with as a source of information and possible leads. For example: see Broshears {xx] RE' F. Lee Crisman and re: Odd Churches."
And so while Garrison realized something was funny, he thought that Broshears would be source of information on people like Crisman.
By the way, here is the letter that Broshears gave to Mark Lane:
Coming up: The second Broshears memo; what Broshears thought of Garrison; what Harold Weisberg thought of Broshears; and a look at how Garrison and the conspiracy theorists have treated Broshears in their respective books.
Oh, and a look at Broshears' interview with the HSCA!