Something of a Shambles

For months, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison has been releasing the findings of his bizarre investigation into President Kennedy's assassination, one headline at a time. As his pile of clippings grew, so did the number of skeptics. Last week, in an hour-long program called "The J.F.K. Conspiracy," the National Broadcasting Co. joined the crowd, accusing Garrison of going to considerable lengths to pin an assassination plot on New Orleans Civic Leader Clay Shaw, 54.

Lie-detector tests, said NBC, had cast doubt on the testimony of two key witnesses: Vernon Bundy, a 29-year-old narcotics addict, and Perry Raymond Russo, 26, an insurance salesman. A test given Bundy "indicated he was lying," said NBC Anchorman Frank McGee, and "New Orleans Assistant District Attorney Charles Ward was informed of this." Though Ward told Garrison that "in view of the lie-detector test, Bundy should not be allowed to testify," he was overruled.

Star Witnesses. In Russo's case, McGee reported, reactions to a series of questions led a polygraph operator to suspect deception. Moreover, the test seemed to indicate that Russo had a psychopathic personality. But agents from Garrison's office took the list of questions away from the polygraph operator and told him not to say anything. When Garrison presented his case against Clay Shaw at a hearing, Russo and Bundy were his star witnesses. Garrison insists that Shaw, under the name of Clay Bertrand, met in 1963 with Lee Harvey Oswald and David W. Ferric, who committed suicide earlier this year, to plot the assassination. Clay Bertrand does exist, said McGee. He is a New Orleans homosexual who uses that name as a pseudonym. "For his protection," said McGee, "we will not disclose the real name of the man. His real name has been given to the Department of Justice. He is not Clay Shaw."

NBC's report--and charges that Garrison has offered to bribe witnesses in the investigation, prompted New Orleans' Metropolitan Crime Commission to call for an investigation of the D.A. himself. As for Garrison, he charged that NBC was trying to "torpedo the state's case." He also asserted that NBC had offered to pay Russo's expenses if he wanted to slip away to California before Shaw went on trial. NBC News President William R. McAndrew denied Garrison's charges, but the following day Russo told a news conference that he had indeed been offered such help if he agreed to "side with NBC" and help "wreck the Garrison investigation."

Even without Russo's help, the investigation--which is still generating headlines for Jim Garrison--seems something of a shambles.

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