Jane moved the family to New Orleans. There, Garrison graduated from high school in 1939. As a senior, he joined the National Guard. He then entered Tulane. But anticipating World War II, he dropped out after his freshman year to join the service. Garrison flew low altitude planes called “grasshoppers.” These were meant to spot artillery targets. They were very dangerous to fly and had high fatality rates. Toward the end of the war, Garrison was in on one of the first details to liberate the German concentration camp at Dachau.5 On his return from the service in 1946, he legally changed his name from Earling Carothers Garrison to Jim Garrison. He then entered Tulane Law School. And here he began to show symptoms of his military service. For he would suffer from dysentery and serious back problems for the rest of his life.6
By 1950, Garrison had earned both a law degree and a Master’s of Civil Laws.7 It is interesting to note what happened next. Garrison was fortunate enough to join a large law partnership called Deutsch, Kerrigan, and Stiles. He didn’t like it. He quit and joined the FBI. (This motif, passing up a lucrative desk job for public service, will be repeated later.) When the Korean War broke out, Garrison reenlisted in the service. But he had recurrent nightmares about his previous grasshopper flights. On his first day at Fort Sill, he reported to sick call. From there he was dismissed within two weeks due to battle fatigue.8
Once dismissed, he returned to New Orleans and met up with his old law partner Eberhard Deutsch. Deutsch introduced him to Mayor DeLesseps “Chep” Morrison. Morrison was so taken by the young man that he appointed him to the Public Safety Commission that governed over Traffic Court.9 Garrison’s political career began with this appointment. He turned out to be an excellent and bold administrator who revolutionized that position. Garrison took the law seriously and fined those who did not show up in court. He also got legislation passed that gave him the power to suspend the licenses of those who habitually failed to appear. Consequently, in just a year, he nearly doubled the amount of revenue from traffic fines. In a preview of his future run-in with judges, he criticized those he felt were too lenient on failures to show in court. His administration was so successful that a new and separate traffic court, with its own judge, opened up.10 Morrison offered his young protégé that judgeship. Garrison turned it down. He said he would rather be appointed an assistant to the District Attorney. Morrison complied and Garrison confided to a friend at the time that his ambition was to be DA of New Orleans one day.11
He served as an assistant DA from 1955 to early in 1958. And here we address an important point that was, as in Orwell, rewritten after Garrison’s Kennedy inquiry went public. Many compromised journalists, plus Shaw’s lawyers, felt it was necessary to portray Garrison as an irresponsible and reckless DA. Therefore, to aid this agreed upon objective, they stated that Garrison did not actually try any cases as an assistant. Even though Garrison alluded to his experience doing just that in his book, some people still uphold this myth.12 In fact, in an interview in New Orleans in 1994, Irvin Dymond suggested that to this author. When asked if he ever faced Garrison in court, Dymond replied, “I don’t think he ever tried a case.” The implication being that his superiors did not trust Garrison to handle a trial. This is nonsense. Garrison handled a wide variety of cases: burglary, lottery operations, prostitution, homicide, and fraud.13 This is unusual since, in most large cities, the DA’s staff specializes in certain fields. Obviously Garrison was trusted enough to handle a wide array of cases. In fact, he was so trusted that by early 1958 he was made executive assistant. Then he did something that some people would call quixotic, but would foreshadow his behavior in the JFK case. When his friend in the office, Malcolm O’Hara, ran for election and won in 1958, there were charges of voter fraud. As executive assistant to incumbent Leon Hubert, Garrison supervised the investigation of the charges for the grand jury. He promised he would leave “no stone unturned.”14 He kept his promise. Which is a bit surprising. Because it cost him the first assistant job, which O’Hara had promised him if he won. His inquiry caused the election to be overturned and Richard Dowling was declared the winner.
Garrison now went into private practice and ran for a judgeship. He lost. He then secured a position in the City Attorney’s office. From here, he had a good window on Dowling’s practices. He did not like what he saw. Dowling sold off cases. In fact, David Ferrie bought one for 500 dollars.15 Garrison decided to run for the office. In a televised debate in January of 1962, he did well enough to win the endorsement of the New Orleans Times Picayune. Garrison ran close to Dowling in the primary and this forced a runoff election in March of 1962, which Garrison won. He was helped by published letters showing that Dowling had been accepting contributions from strip club owners as part of a shakedown racket, one in which the police were also involved16
Garrison delivered on his promise of reform. He allowed no police beatings of African-Americans. Refusing to enter into an alliance with the Catholic Church, he prosecuted priests for soliciting sex and for child abuse. (This is in opposition to what his successor Harry Connick did in the infamous Dino Cinel case.17) He vigorously pursued illegal lottery operations. He broke the gender barrier by bringing the first woman into the office, Louise Korns. He even went after his predecessor for selling off cases.18
Perhaps due to the timely exposure of Dowling and his ties to the strip club racket, Garrison quickly moved to perform a crackdown on the Bourbon Street “B” girl drinking business. In brief, this was a swindle in which a tourist was suckered into buying an expensive bottle of liquor. It was profitable since the split was 2/3 for the house and 1/3 for the “B” girl. When drinking by the glass, the girl’s drinks were always diluted. In fact, when the mark was drunk enough, the girl’s drink was replaced with water. The Washington Post described what happened next: “During the party, champagne at 30 dollars a bottle gets you all kinds of promises, and sometimes, a little more than promises.”19 Toward the end of the night, the waiter would start to shortchange the drunken guest after each champagne bottle. Inevitably, the mark would be led out in the wee hours of the morning, just about penniless. The house would then call for a cab.20
As evidenced by the Dowling contributions, the practice was usually condoned by previous DA’s. And the police were also bought off, or sometimes they took a piece of the action. There had been prior attempts at breaking up this racket, but they were half-hearted ones that did not get far. And, in May of 1962, when Garrison began his version, many people doubted its staying power. One commentator said, “In this town a reformer is just an outsider who wants to get in on the inside. So he hoots and hollers and wins office. And gets gentled down.”21 But Garrison, the experienced administrator, had planned his crackdown in advance, both thoughtfully and effectively. First, since he did not trust the police, he hired many of his own investigators. The DA was going to use teams of undercover agents to sit down in these bars. They would be well dressed and well groomed, suggesting high rollers. They would make a record of their dealings, and then a day or so later, the DA would arrest all those involved. This method was terrifically effective. For example, in one night of these undercover operations, Garrison arrested 33 people.22 Often, the DA would use civil court since he could get stiffer penalties enacted. It went on for months, stretching out over a year. At its peak, the DA shut down nine clubs in two days. Seven clubs were closed permanently.23
Over this extraordinary crackdown, unprecedented in the Crescent City, Garrison now got into a dispute with the local judges who had to sign off on expenditures for the ongoing campaign. The actual money came from a fines and forfeiture fund the DA kept. Garrison would have to make requests for the judges to sign off on a reimbursement or an expenditure. The dispute was multifaceted. One issue was whether or not the police or the DA should be operating this big of a vice investigation. Garrison felt that he had to since the police were too sullied to do something of this magnitude. Also, Garrison sometimes went from judge to judge to get a request approved. There was also the
matter of the haphazard records submitted by Garrison’s staff.24 The dispute escalated when the judges called a temporary halt to the process. Garrison took out a personal loan to keep the crackdown going. The judges then threatened not to reimburse him. Further, they dismissed a case against three Bourbon Street clubs.25
The DA now began to engage in a war of rhetoric with the judges. This included two statements which were provocative in their overtones. The first was this: “The judges made it eloquently clear where their sympathies lie in regard to aggressive vice investigations by refusing to authorize use of the DA’s funds.” The second was: “This raises interesting questions about racketeer influences on our eight vacation-minded judges.”26
The references to “vacation-minded judges” referred to the two and a half months off the judges had in the summer due to a Louisiana statute which predated air conditioning. Although the air conditioning had been installed in the 50s, the judges still took the long vacation.27 The insinuation about racketeer influences had some underpinning. Two of Garrison’s assistants had drinks with one of the judges, Judge Haggerty, who would preside over the Shaw trial. Haggerty introduced them to Francis Giordano. Giordano was a Carlos Marcello associate. He complained to them that when Dowling took away their illegal gaming machines, he returned them. Garrison did not. “How come,” Giordano asked?28
In the first week of November, 1962 the judges requested an ethics investigation of Garrison’s office. Garrison then requested an independent probe of the judges’ “real motives for blocking and ending our investigation of B-drinking and other vice in New Orleans.”29 It appears that this last remark—which clearly echoed his previous one about racketeer influences—provoked the defamation lawsuit to be filed on November 8. The judges also now demanded that each further request out of the fines and fees fund be signed off on by the majority of the judges. In advance. When the case went to trial, Garrison’s lawyer asked for a jury to hear it. This was refused. When that happened the DA felt it was a hopeless cause. The judge’s decision was handed down on February 6, 1963, with the DA on the losing end. He also lost the state Supreme Court appeal in June of 1963. In April of 1964, the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court. The month previous, the court had decided the New York Times v. Sullivan case in favor of free speech. This aided Garrison. The court sided with the DA, a decision Garrison always cherished.
After this decision, Garrison pushed the police to aid his campaign. His office and the police joined to raid two clubs operated by Carlos Marcello and his brother. The one Garrison raided was actually across the county line in Jefferson Parish.30 He did this to goad the Jefferson County DA into doing something. Garrison then attacked the state Attorney General for being lax on the county.
Because of his campaign against Bourbon Street, and his controversial legal dispute with the local judges, Garrison had now raised his profile in the city, the state, and even garnered some national exposure. He was now about to use that capital to show that he was one of the most powerful politicians in Louisiana. He had already helped two judges get elected in New Orleans: Frank Shea and Rudolph Becker.31 In 1964, he decided to show he had statewide influence. He backed John McKeithen, a dark horse, for governor. Of the nine candidates running for office that year, McKeithen was considered in the bottom half of the field. Garrison vigorously backed him, to the point of taking out a full page ad in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Surprisingly, McKeithen won. Garrison now had an ally in the statehouse. If Garrison wanted to be Lieutenant Governor or Attorney General, the office was his. He never asked. According to a 1995 interview the author did with assistant Bill Alford, Garrison actually turned down the Lieutenant Governor offer when it came. At the time, he was too busy investigating the Kennedy case. The actual circumstances were this: Alford walked into Garrison’s office. The DA was on one phone, with the receiver from another phone in the trash can. Alford could hear someone’s voice speaking out of the trash. He asked Garrison who it was. He replied, “It's that damn McKeithen. He wants me to run for Lieutenant Governor with him. I can’t get involved with that penny ante political crap while I’m investigating the Kennedy case!” Undoubtedly, if he had said yes to McKeithen, Garrison would have been Lieutenant Governor since McKeithen was so popular he ran unopposed in the general election. From there, Garrison could have easily been governor, and then realized his dream of being a senator. This incident should finally end the fabrication that Garrison was using the JFK case to further his career. Since that case actually ended a most promising political career.
Garrison’s association with McKeithen also puts to death another baseless charge tossed around about him. Namely that he was somehow in bed with the Mafia. As we have seen above, Garrison went out of his way to raid a Marcello establishment in Jefferson County. In his raids on the Bourbon Street rackets, he shuttered bars that were either owned by Marcello or his associates.32 But the grateful McKeithen offered Garrison something that further undermines this whole Mafia influence angle. Namely, he offered Garrison a free ticket to riches and retirement. He first offered him a state bank charter. Garrison turned it down. The governor then awarded it to another of his bigger backers. Who turned around and sold it for 750,000 dollars. The equivalent of 2–3 million today.33 The governor then offered the DA a plum position as legal representative of a Savings and Loan. A desk job that would have made him a lot of money. He turned that down also. McKeithen then offered him state business as part of a large law firm that would later make him managing partner when he retired. Garrison turned that down also. Garrison really liked being DA.
When Garrison had backed McKeithen, his political power stemmed not just from the Bourbon Street battle. He had actually made his office into a much improved organization. As he once said about the legal battles with the judges, “All I want to do is run my own office. If I can’t run it my way, I don’t want it.”34 As we have seen, Garrison was a gifted administrator, so he ran his office quite well compared to Dowling. By 1964, each assistant was now made a full-time position, there was no moonlighting in private practice. Courts were now open every Friday. There was stricter foreclosure on bail bonds. These reforms, and others, produced results. In Dowling’s final year in office, he had tried seventy cases and lost forty-two. In approximately eighteen months, Garrison had tried 101 cases and won eighty-six.35 In 1965, the performance was even better. His office prosecuted twenty-two jury trials that year without an acquittal. Interestingly, both the New Orleans Times Picayune and Aaron Kohn of the Metropolitan Crime Commission backed his performance with accolades.36 With his reformed office working at high efficiency, Garrison now went after the state legal establishment for the selling of paroles. He was so forceful on this issue that 13 lawyers resigned the Criminal Courts bar association upon hearing Garrison’s evidence.37 When the police attempted to prosecute a bookstore owner for selling James Baldwin’s Another Country, the DA interceded with a powerful denunciation of censorship and managed to win the owner’s release. This brought him the ill will of the White Citizen’s Council. They accused him of being soft on “Negroes” and pornography.38 Garrison also went after the state legislature for bribery. In 1964, Garrison won re-election and he revealed at this time that he wished someday to become a senator.39
It is important to add one other point about Garrison before his Kennedy inquiry was made public. The above would seem to make him out to be a law and order liberal. But that would actually be a mischaracterization. Garrison was surely a reformer but he was really a moderate. For instance he was anti-ACLU. He once said about that group that it had “drifted so far to the left that it is now almost out of sight.”40 He also favored the Cold War. In a speech he said that the United States had to act against Communist aggression in places like Korea and Vietnam.41
From the above, before his Kennedy inquiry of 1966, we can say that Garrison was a real reformer who was not at all afraid of taking on the local and state Establishment. We can also say he was pretty much incorruptible
. As a former resident of the area once said, “Jim Garrison? That guy cannot be bought for any price.”42 Money did not mean a lot to him. His job meant a lot to him. Third, he was a talented administrator who understood how to run a bureaucracy and instill pride in his office. This meant not just buying better equipment and tools, but making the surroundings more attractive. For Garrison spent much money on redecorating the DA’s office. He also did not make political appointments to his staff. He recruited the top graduating law students from the local universities like Tulane and Loyola.43 And there is little or no doubt from any quarter, Garrison could have gone about as high as he wanted to go in state politics. That is, until he decided to open his full court inquiry into the Kennedy assassination.
Not that he was not warned about this in advance. Pershing Gervais was a raffish scoundrel. Yet a man Garrison, who had poor judgment about people, employed and trusted for years. The realist Gervais tried to play Claude Rains to Garrison’s Jimmy Stewart. He told the DA this one was not worth it. That he was signing onto a suicide mission in which he would be telling the world the American government was lying. Gervais said he was not one to enlist for what he called “kamikaze flights” since he had acquired “this habit of breathing.”44 Even though Gervais was correct, Garrison was not listening. As he told both Alford, and also Dutch television during his investigation, nothing else mattered to him.
It is important to draw this accurate picture in advance. If only to contrast it with the lurid portrait that the mainstream press would later draw of the DA. And also to show how certain entities and persons who previously backed the DA would later turn on him with a vengeance. And, in fact, they would now portray the man they had previously praised as a fine DA as a deluded, power mad megalomaniac; a Captain Ahab who would destroy an innocent man—Clay Shaw—to either find his Holy Grail and/or advance his political ambitions.
Destiny Betrayed: JFK, Cuba, & the Garrison Case Page 26
