Famed New Orleans district attorney’s information on the JFK murder may finally become public thanks to award-winning journalist and documentary producer.
By Donald Jeffries
John Barbour, the Emmy award-winning journalist and show business veteran, has announced his intention to release long-suppressed files from the investigation conducted by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison. The renegade district attorney drew the ire of the entire establishment with his investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which began in 1967 and inspired Oliver Stone’s award-winning 1991 film “JFK.” Barbour was granted the only interview Garrison gave after losing the Clay Shaw trial and would produce the documentaries “The Garrison Tapes” and the recent, groundbreaking “The American Media and the 2nd Assassination of President John F. Kennedy.”
When Harry Connick took over as district attorney in New Orleans, he ordered a police officer to destroy all of Garrison’s files. That officer felt the records were historically important and had them copied. Geno Munari, owner and proprietor of Houdini’s Magic Shop in Las Vegas, found the Garrison files for sale on eBay and bought them. After viewing Barbour’s new film on the media and the JFK assassination, he was so moved that he sent him $500. He followed that up by giving him the massive treasure trove of Garrison files—67 boxes in all.
Barbour was drawn in by the very first file he read, which was David Ferrie’s admission that he was affiliated with the CIA. Barbour actually mentioned another one of these files in his film, which dealt with a 1967 CIA memorandum to its legal staff instructing them to render all possible aid to Shaw, the man Garrison was prosecuting.
Garrison was attacked relentlessly in the mainstream media, with a furor that was unmatched until the election of President Donald Trump.
This included Johnny Carson dropping any pretense of impartiality during Garrison’s appearance on “The Tonight Show” and an NBC special that was so overtly biased the network was forced to grant the embattled district attorney air time to respond. Garrison was left to try Shaw alone, after all his most important witnesses either died unnaturally or were protected by governors of other states (including California’s Ronald Reagan and, ironically, Texas’s John Connally), who denied Garrison’s extradition orders.
Garrison attempted to charge Shaw with perjury immediately after the trial, but a typically biased judge issued an injunction forbidding the district attorney and his office from further prosecution of him.
Barbour told this reporter that he felt a historical responsibility to release such important information to the public.
“Jim Garrison chose me, quite by accident, to give his only interview in all the years following the Shaw trial,” Barbour said. “I was honored to be his Boswell, and to tell his whole story to the American people.”
Barbour said he was pleasantly surprised by all the attention he garnered from a recent appearance on the popular “SGT Report” podcast, inspiring him to share the files.
Garrison had explained to Barbour that, while the Warren Commission files were sealed for 50 years following the release of the long-discredited Warren Report, his own files weren’t scheduled for release until 20 years after that.
Barbour had a long career in the entertainment field, as a screenwriter for various 1960s television shows, as a standup comic, and as creator and co-host of the number one show “Real People.”
He has been called the “godfather of reality television.” Barbour also was Frank Sinatra’s personal writer, until their relationship ended over Barbour’s support for beleaguered “coroner to the stars” Thomas Noguchi, whose findings had contradicted the official conclusions in the assassination of JFK’s brother, Robert F. Kennedy.
Barbour’s interest in the assassination was initially piqued when he read Garrison’s first book on the subject, Heritage of Stone, and he later attempted unsuccessfully to chronicle the actual story of his investigation on “Real People.”
Barbour plans a gradual release of the files, beginning with all the information Garrison compiled on Shaw. While it is unlikely there is a “smoking gun” in Garrison’s files, Barbour’s announcement comes at a time when Trump has waffled back and forth on releasing the remaining classified government documents relating to the Kennedy assassination. Initially, Trump boasted about making all the files public but in April of this year was pressured by the intelligence agencies to withhold some of them until the year 2021.
“The continued withholdings are necessary to protect against identifiable harm to national security, law enforcement, or foreign affairs that is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure,” Trump declared.
Trump did not explain just what “national security” concerns there could be, if the government’s long discredited theory that JFK was killed solely by minimum-wage loser Lee Harvey Oswald without any help from anyone connected to “national security,” is correct.
Donald Jeffries is a highly respected author and researcher whose work on the JFK, RFK and MLK assassinations and other high crimes of the Deep State has been read by millions of people across the world. Jeffries is also the author of two books currently being sold by the AFP Online Store.
Lets hope they are real and not phonies designed to mislead like those other files “renegade” Trump put out.
An encouraging read, Mr. Jeffries, thanks for sharing. Two thumbs up @ Mr. Barbour. What a difference this world would be if courageous souls like Mr. Garrison was the norm rather than the exception. Thanks for doing your part to shed light, truth and justice.
This is a great opportunity . I am happy to help with reviewing and organizing …
After such a nicely detailed and fact filled informational article, why tacked on to the end would you put in the quirky loser quip is beyond me. Sometimes writing it isn’t enough.