The Death of JFK: Discrediting Jim Garison

Garrison believed that the C.I.A. had a big role in the assassination. And he relied too much on witness Perry Russo, who went to the press after David Ferrie’s death, to say that one Clay Betrrand was talking to {Leon} Oswald about assassinating Kennedy. Two psychiatrists questioned Russo several times under hypnosis and sodium penethal. Some experts later insisted that Russo was being led under hypnosis, but a careful reading of the transcript suggests the opposite.

When he revealed that Bertrand was Shaw, massive efforts were made to discredit Russo. Leading the effort to discredit the Garrison investigation and Russo was James Phelan, a journalist who had written a biography of Howard Hughes. He was a close friend of Robert Maheu and an of C.I.A. agents. He was also working for the F.B.I. according to two released documents ((62-109060) The federal government refused to give Garrison any information it had, including over 50 C.I.A. documents on Oswald.

The case Garrison constructed against Clay Bertrand was strong, but without Russo it became weak. Had Garr4ison been able to prove without a doubt that Shaw was tied to the C.I.A., his case would have gone better. In 1975, Victor Marchetti, a former C.I.A. official , showed that both Shaw and Ferrie had C.I.A. ties. He also claimed that Director Richard Helms said he would help Shaw in his troubles with Garrison.

Subsequently, NBC and Newsweek attacked Garrison with stories that his staff had attempted to bribe witnesses. The NBC special claimed Russo twice failed a polygraph test, a fact denied by the two people who administered it. NBC claimed another man who testified that Oswald knew Shaw later said he had lied. He was able to refute the charges, but the damage was done.The Newsweek attack was written by Hugh Aynesworth. A 1967 telegram Aynesworth to LBJ press secretary George Christian announced that he was sending the president an advanced copy of the attack on Garrison.

It is difficult to assess how much damage one Gordon Novell did to the Garrison investigation and to Jim Garrison’s good name. Novel was trained in aeronautical engineering but had considerable expertise in electronic surveillance. In 1966, the Johnson White House instructed Gordon Novell to join Jim Garrison’s staff and to disrupt the investigation. Novel was working for the White House Chief of Staff at the time and went on the F.B.I. payroll on November 22, 1966. He was a fascinating and colorful man who had been a Neo Nazi and then worked for the C.I.A., probably as an asset, around the time of the Bay of Pigs. Probably working for thea geency, he burgularized its secret weapons stash held at Schlumberg Well Services to get arms for the Cuban who wanted to invade Cuba. He was a personal friend of David Ferrie and they seemed to share interests in anti-gravity and cancer research as well as black magic. At the time of the Bay of Pigs invasion, he was running a C.I.A. front in New Orleans, the Evergreen Advertising Agency. In 2009, he admitted that he worked for the Johnson White House doing black ops.

His ties to Ferrie made it possible to become Garrison’s main security person. He admitted feeding damaging information to NBC. Garrison said that Novel stole important records and fled to McLane, Virginia. After being polygraphed there, he fled to Ohio. Governor James Rhodes stood in the way of his extradition but eventually imposed conditions for this to uccur which Garrrison did not meet. At this time, May, 1967, he showed policeofficials C.I.A. credietials.

Novel was on the F.B.I. payroll but he always identified strongly with the C.I.A., and was once probably an agent at some point. He sued Playboy for saying he worked for the C.I.A. but then refused in court to ansedr questions about that involvement because he was protected by the National Security Act of 1947. Interestingly, J. Edgar Hoover, who had reasons to distrust the man, wanted Novel to drop the suit. James Jesus Angleton wanted the litigation to continue.
Novel did not believe the Warren Commission Report was truthful and thought Jim Garrison was working for the F.B.I., trying to deflect blame on the C.I.A.. He has said that most people in the C.I.A. have the qualities of Eagle Scouts and that the agency is innocent of the murders and black deeds attributed to it. He has also claimed to have been involved in back-engineering alien space craft.

Soon before Clay Shaw was acquitted, Garrison was set-up in what appeared to be a homosexual frame. The dirty work was done by Novel. He fled New Orleans with many of Garrison’s files.

The story gets stranger. Novel briefly worked for Charles Colson, entgrusted with the task of manufacturing a degaussing gun that would erase the Nixon tapes. Novel was arrested and convicted on arson charges in 1978, and was defended by Garrison. The alleged arson was tied to a job he was doing for a Carols Marcello lieutenant. When released, he was under the supervision of Walter Jenkins, a former Johnson aid who had become a probation officer It has been reported that Novel is the illigitmate son of song-writer Billy Rose. Today, he is working for Ramsay Clark, investigating what happened at the assault on the Waco compound of the Branch Davidians. Of courses, the C.I.A. would not be displeased if he contributed to documenting the F.B.I.’s record of incompetence.