Plot or Politics: The Garrison Case and Its Cost

By Jack Wardlaw and Rosemary James

Over forty years ago, an American president was gunned to death as his motorcade rolled through the streets of Dallas, Texas, and to this day, the identity of his assassin(s) remains a mystery. The president, of course, was John F. Kennedy, and from the circumstances of his murder, many have generated their own theories as to how and why the life of this young, charismatic commander in chief was terminated.

One of these theories, put forth by former New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison, held that the president's assassination was a conspiracy involving those in and out of the U.S. government, and that Lee Harvey Oswald could not have worked alone. Garrison brought New Orleanian Clay L. Shaw to trial in 1967, convinced that he had helped to plot the president's death, but with little result. The Garrison case grabbed national attention again in the early 1990s, spurred by the Oliver Stone movie JFK, which was based on Garrison's relentless quest for truth about Kennedy's murder.

But was Garrison out for only the truth? In the first book published about the Kennedy assassination, Plot or Politics?, Rosemary James, a crack reporter for the New Orleans States-Item during the Garrison investigation and the first to bring the investigation to public notice, and Jack Wardlaw, a well-known New Orleans newspaperman, give a factual account of the characters and circumstances of Garrison's case. Some believe that Garrison's motive was not truth or justice seeking, but rather, political, as he may have been considering a run at national office. But whatever the motive, the gumbo of colorful individuals involved in the investigation, including the district attorney himself, make an already intriguing story even more so.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0911116117
• ISBN13: 9780911116113
• Release Date: January 1967
• Publisher: Pelican Publishing Company
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.