Don's Blog: Slowing Interest in the Jim Garrison Investigation?

Clay Shaw/Man of a Million Fragments: The True Story of Clay Shaw/Dueling Voices/I Lost It at the Beginning/101 Reasons Not To Murder The Entire Saudi Royal Family/He Knew Where He Was Going (?)

Thursday, April 28, 2022

Slowing Interest in the Jim Garrison Investigation?

 Over the years since 1967-69, when interest in what came to be known as the Jim Garrison Investigation, the high point of which was the arrest, trial, and prosecution of Clay Shaw, was at its peak, the case has vanished completely from the news and been resurrected several times. The two year period between arrest and trial was very intense, but after the acquittal of Clay Shaw, interest diminished quickly, even though during the 1969-71 period. Shaw was re-arrested on perjury charges two days after his acquittal, and that case limped along for two years before a Federal court prohibited any further prosecution. Shaw filed an a civil suit against Garrison and others, and it, too, progressed very slowly, seeming to pick up steam only shortly before Shaw's death in 1974. It was quite a tangled mess, one that I explain in much detail in the context of Shaw's life in my biography of him, Man of a Million Fragments: The True Story of Clay Shaw.

Now, 55 years after it all began, I sensed a diminished interest in Shaw, even among conspiracy theorists. Since Shaw was the only person ever tried for the assassination, it was natural that many would cling to him as a suspect or person of interest. Even if he wasn't technically guilty, many said, he must have known Oswald, must have shepherded him around New Orleans. And Shaw surely knew David Ferrie, the somewhat strange, shadowy man also allegedly present at the all-important "party" or meeting where the assassination was discussed.

I haven't seen the recent Oliver Stone documentary about the assassination, but my understanding is that there is very little mention of Shaw, perhaps more of Garrison (but not as much as in Stone's 1991 movie JFK.

What does it all mean? Does it signify that the Garrison case and any suspicions of Shaw are dying out? Or is it a temporary resting point, as has happened in the past? There are reasons for believing that this time, it might be different. But I don't think so.

Labels: ,

0 Comments :

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< RETURN