Cover of New Orleans Magazine, March 1971
This issue of New Orleans Magazine, with its cover story by Rosemary James, was in the papers of Clay Shaw at NARA.
Money quote:
The persecution continued while a city went about business as usual, conclusively re-electing Shaw's adversary to one of the most powerful offices in the United States. If members of the community were concerned, the community as a while demonstrated what can only be described as an historic unconcern.
Many of those who did get involved did care, have called it a crucifixion.
Money Quote:
The folk wisdom resurfaced again with cries of "Where there's smoke, there's fire." Commenting on that cliche, Shaw said, "Where there's smoke, there might well be a very efficient smoke producing machine ... which is the case here."
Money Quote:
Shaw is fond of quoting the French abbe, who, after the terror had abated, was asked what he had done during the French Revolution. "I survived," said the abbe succinctly.
Shaw things that Garrison did not expect him to survive.
"He may well have thought he would get the world's attention by arresting me and never have to bring the case to trial.
"He said he thought I would commit suicide, so he might well have thought the case would never come to trial."
"He didn't know it, but I'm a tough old bird."
Money Quote:
Shaw theorizes that the only sin a Louisiana politician cannot commit if he wants to retain approval and his office, is the sin of boring the populace. And he believes that much of Garrison's appeal likes in the fact that he has never committed this sin.
Money Quote:
Nor was he surprised at the testimony of some witnesses brought against him during his trial, those who offered up allegations that they had seen him with Oswald and/or Ferrie.
"I was not shocked a bit. Throughout the trial there had been testimony by perjurers, psychopaths, convicts ... I was not at all shocked. You must bear in mind that a prosecutor has many levers he can push to make people say anything he wants them to say. What these people said was quite untrue but I assume there was some reason they felt they had to say it."
Money Quote:
The chief trial assistants ... James Alcock and Alvin Oser ... are now Criminal Court Judges. Garrison, whose pull with Governor John McKeithen has resulted in other judgeships for loyal allies, was successful in getting Oser appointed to a new seat and Alcock appointed to the seat left vacant by the trial's presiding jurist, Edward Haggerty, when he was removed for a thing called "gross misconduct."
Shaw's terse comment:
"They were paid off. And doesn't this say something about our system of justice in Louisiana .. when a prosecutor controls half the criminal judges who must rule on the cases he presents."
Money Quote:
The bombshell of the hearing came when Perry Raymond Russo took the Fifth Amendment. James Alcock already had testified that Russo was the only witness in hand when Shaw was first arrested. Russo was the man, who after several sessions with a hypnotist, said at Shaw's preliminary hearing and at his conspiracy trial that he saw Shaw with Ferrie and Oswald in 1963 at Ferrie's New Orleans apartment. When he took the stand in federal court, defense attorney F. Irvin Dymond asked Russo, "Did you see Clay Shaw at David Ferrie's apartment in 1963?" Russo replied, "I refused to answer on the grounds that my testimony might incriminate me."
Money Quote:
"People keep assuring me that Jim Garrison has ruined my life, but that simply isn't true. No man's life is ruined by outer circumstances, unless, at some level of his being, he consents to his own ruination. And that consent I have never given, nor will I ever give."
Money Quote:
Shaw feels that his long ordeal might serve some useful purpose to society if people everywhere can understand that what happened to him could happen to them .. that the individual rights granted all of us under the constitution must be guarded with continual vigilance if they are not to be lost. He says his feelings can best be summed up in eleven words spoken by John F. Kennedy:
"When any man's rights are violated, every man's rights are threatened!"
Previous Relevant Blog Posts
A letter written just before Shaw's death.
Shaw writes about the Supreme Court decision stopping his prosecution.
Oliver Stone needs to apologize for re-victimizing Clay Shaw.
A lovely tribute read at Clay Shaw's funeral.
Here is Jim Garrison's full statement on the ruling.
Here is Judge Christenberry's ruling on Garrison's prosecution of Clay Shaw for perjury.
Judge Wisdom upheld Judge Christenberry's decision.