False Witness: The Real Story of Jim Garrison's Investigation and Oliver Stone's Film, JFK

by Patricia Lambert

Book Overview

This text presents the story of the arrest and trial of Clay Shaw, charged with conspiracy in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Headline news for almost three years in the 1960s, the investigation... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0871318792
• ISBN13: 9780871318794
• Release Date: February 1999
• Publisher: M. Evans and Company
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

False Witness

This book is easy to read. It's convincing and believable . It flows nicely, and seems to be researched well. The suspense was so real I felt like cheering when we got to Judge Christenberry and his rulings. It was like the truth wins out and the bad guys get their just deserts. And then to know it was true life stuff was just added fuel for the fire. It also reflects much about our whole social structure. This is a very good book. But truly it is more. It should be required reading for everyone. It's like reading current events from the past. The many varied and colorful characters that are presented make it interesting to read. Those characters alone are what make the JFK film work well. It's a shame his film presented them in such a false manner. But, at least this book sets the record straight.We need more books from this Lambert girl. Sincerely - T. Michaels

False Witness should be required reading

It's unfortunate that many people's only education regarding the JFK assasination is from Oliver Stone's film, JFK. This book should be required reading for anyone who has seen that film or who followed Garrison's investigation. False Witness tells the true story, which is basically that Garrison was an evil megalomaniac who persecuted innocent people for his own agrandizement.... It's a shame that a film hasn't been made to tell the real story as it is an interesting one. There is an excellent documentary based on this book that will never be seen by the number of people that would see a regular feature film. As a point of interest, Stone cast John Candy in the role of Dean Andrews, which was perfect casting, but John Candy, at Stone's direction, misplayed the affable, jolly Andrews as a dark, sinister character.The only complaint I had about this book is that the author chose to make a shallow, flimsy attack on Gerald Posner, the JFK conspiracy debunker, which left a feeling that Ms. Lambert had a personal axe to grind regarding Posner.

Lambert Destroys Garrison and Stone

It is almost unthinkable, but after more than 30 years New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison still has a small but loyal following that believes he was on the right track in his investigation of the Kennedy assassination and prosecution of New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw. Garrison charged Shaw with conspiring to kill the 35th President along with Lee Harvey Oswald (who, by the way, did have something to do with the crime) and David Ferrie, a pilot and self-appointed cancer researcher. After a trial that captured world-wide coverage and nearly bankrupted Shaw, he was found not guilty in less than an hour. The folly of Garrison's investigation has been well-documented through books such as American Grotesque by James Kirkwood and The Garrison Case: A Study in the Abuse of Power by Milton Brener. Most conspiracy-oriented researchers who initially embraced Garrison dropped him like a hot potato, some even before the case came to trial.However, with the 1991 release of Oliver Stone's film JFK (which fictionalized the New Orleans investigation), Garrison has made a comeback that would have made Richard Nixon proud. Stone portrays Garrison as an American hero battling the military-industrial complex (and Lyndon Johnson and the CIA and the Mafia and God knows who else) in an effort to learn the truth about the assassination. His own account of the investigation, On the Trail of the Assassins (one of two books Stone used as the basis for his film), was on the New York Times Paperback Best Sellers list for 13 weeks following the film's debut.Considering the apparent level of credibility given to Stone's film by the majority of the movie-going public (seeing is believing), the need for an ongoing evaluation of Garrison's (and now Stone's) abuses is clear. Enter Patricia Lambert and her 1998 book False Witness: The Real Story of Jim Garrison's Investigation and Oliver Stone's Film JFK (M. Evans and Company Inc., New York-ISBN 0-87131-879-2). Her book provides that evaluation while offering new evidence concerning both Garrison's methods and his own dubious background. It also provides a sharp look at Stone's personal reasons for wanting to make JFK and his choice of Garrison as his protagonist.Lambert devotes a full chapter to Stone's film and makes some solid observations. The complete list of falsehoods and distortions in JFK is beyond the scope of this review and could be a book in itself, but some discussed by Lambert are:1. The beating of Jack Martin by Guy Banister. Stone exaggerated the severity of the beating and changed the reason for it from an argument over phone calls to Martin's comment that he could "write a book" about the comings and goings of characters at Banister's office.2. The cause of David Ferrie's death is suggested by Stone to be murder while in truth he died of natural causes.3. Stone uses dialogue and flashbacks to suggest that Dean Andrews really did know a "Clay Bertrand" (and he and

A Breath Of Fresh Air

After book after book and a movie about how Clay Shaw just sliped through Jim Garrison's fingers, this book was a revelation. Lambert sheds light on the facts that Garrison supporters ignored or glossed over. One of finest non-fiction works I have ever read.

A book of great historical value!

This story was brand new to me (I am too young to remember Garrison). I found what happened schocking and fascinating at the same time. I especially liked the description of what happened in the various court rooms, especially the last one in Federal Court. This is a tragic story but one with inspiring heroes. I think everyone interested in our country's history will enjoy this book.