cha , making his first public statement.

"He knew we were coming," he said. "We called him long distance and told him we were coming."

But on arrival in Dallas, they could not locate Arcacha until about 9 P.M., when they found him with two detectives in the Dallas police building. Arcacha refused to talk unless the detectives were present.

Gurvich said, "We told him we would speak with him only in the presence of his attorney. Then he told us his attorney was William Alexander of the Dallas DA's office. We told him that was no good."

The Cuban exiles learned their public relations fast, if they had no counsel by the elbow. No sooner did this story break than Arcacha was on the telephone to New Orleans, where most of the reporters were. Here are excerpts from the Washington Post story of February 27:

A former Cuban exile leader, wanted for questioning by District Attorney Jim Garrison, said today he was fearful of what might happen to him if he returns to New Orleans.

Sergio Arcacha Smith, one-time New Orleans delegate of the anti-Castro Cuban Revolutionary Democratic Front . . . voiced anxiety and frustration in a telephone interview . . .

"I just don't know anything," Arcacha told a reporter over the phone. "What's the man trying to do? Why doesn't he arrest somebody? Why doesn't he tell what he has? If you can't believe Earl Warren and the FBI, who can you believe in this Nation? . . .

Clearly nervous and upset, Arcacha refused to admit knowing Ferrie. "I can't recall," he said. "I studied the name in the papers the other day. I just can't place him."

The same story quoted Bringuier as saying he had gone to see Ferrie with Arcacha. The Associated Press quoted Arcacha's complaint: "It's a shame that in this country they do this to honest people."

Gradually over the weeks Arcacha began to sing a different tune. Although the racking of its brain February 26 and his "study of the name" led him to deny knowing Ferrie, according to the Dallas Morning News of April 4, "He has admitted knowing Ferrie but

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insists he 'knows of' nothing pertinent I could tell the New Orleans people." His initial statement that he knew and had done nothing was made ridiculous by what was then public knowledge. So he modified it, saying that "any activities I participated in while in New Orleans had absolutely nothing to do with any plot to assassinate President Kennedy."

Twenty days later the New York Times said Arcacha "was reported to have been training men for an invasion of Cuba." March 31 Arcacha was formally linked to the assassination investigation in an affidavit filed by Garrison's office placing a conspiracy charge against him, Ferrie and Gordon Novel. The affidavit sets forth that during August 1961, the same month Ferrie's home was raided while he was under sex charges and his car with the young men was found by the police near Arcacha's home, the three men "did wilfully conspire" to raid "a munitions bunker located at Houma, Louisiana," which is about 40 miles south-west of New Orleans.

By April 4 the press had a better idea of Arcacha's position in the New Orleans Cuban community. The Dallas Morning News said,

He was chief of Cuban revolutionary activities in the New Orleans area before the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. He collected money and coordinated the training of Cuban refugees preparing to take part in the invasion. New Orleans newspapers have said Ferrie was in the same work.

Honest or not, innocent or not, as the courts will decide when given the chance, Arcacha is a many faceted man with multitudinous links and associations, some yet to be publicly identified.

The FBI report of Agent Earl L Hassell, quoted above, is another proof of the FBI's early and active interest in Arcacha. It was on November 27, 1963, five days after the assassination (and two days after Wall's whirl wind exercise in getting no information about Arcacha while consulting the best-informed sources)

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that Hassell interviewed Manuel Gil. Gil is a modest man who always identifies himself merely as "an employee" or the production manager of the might-as-well-be official "Information Council of the Americas." I say this because if it is not connected with the CIA or the USIA, it should be for its function is indistinguishable from that of a government subsidiary or agency. It spreads propaganda, usually not unacceptable to those who find the John Birch perspective attractive. It is Gil who arranged for the Bringuier-Oswald debate that became so effective a propaganda device for the radical right. It was Carlos Quiroga who did the contact work for Bringuier. Bringuier is a slickie who does not normally require contact work done for him. He described himself, as we have already seen, as the anti-Castro propaganda chief for the New Orleans groups.

In the Hassell interview there is no indication of Gil's own similar myriad connections. In addition to those already noted, the New Orleans States-Item of February 20, 1967, referred to him as "New Orleans delegate to the Miami-based Movimiento Insurrecional de Recuperacion Revolucionaria" and quoted his newest efforts at confusion and misinformation: "The hand of Castro was behind the suspected plot." That is a pretty cute one, even for the skilled Gil. The plot is only "suspected," but he is sure the Red hand was there. The paper said he believed "that Oswald had other people working with him at the tune of the assassination."

Gil's connection with the MIRR puts him on both sides with the government -- as an instrument of policy with the INCA and as the representative of groups whose most hare-brained adventure got its leader arrested and indicted by the same federal government.

The former Cuban Senator Rolando Masferrer, proudly called "El Tigre" by his associates for his vicious Batista regime excesses, is the MIRR " inva -

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sion " chief. His helter-skelter parlay invasion of Cuba -- via a Haitian revolution which he and a ragtag band of 50 kept as secret as yesterday's front page -- was stopped when the U.S. Treasury's agents intercepted it in November 1966. Masferrer was allowed to escape. While his motley crew was being rounded up, he was being interviewed by the press. His inflammatory opinions got wide publicity. His venture was so ridiculous and futile, gagsters in Florida dubbed it "The Bay of Piglets."

After the Garrison publicity the Associated Press did a roundup story of the Cuban groups in Florida and their activities. AP called the MIRR "most noisily busy" and identified its titular head as Dr. Orlando Bosch.

This zany "expedition," in the opinion of the Customs men who broke it up, was so inadequate that with it "they could not successfully have invaded Burdine 's" (a large Miami department store). Before his falling out with Masferrer, Napoleon Vilaboa , former Cuban rebel officer, agreed to be the military head on the understanding "the operation had CIA support." It was so clandestine that CBS News had set up two months earlier to cover its launching. The Haitian consul in Miami, Eugenio Maximilian, makes as much sense of it as anyone. He let it be known, according to the Associated Press, "that Masferrer had offered to call the invasion off for $200,000." This, of course, is high principle.

Masferrer was known to all the characters in the story of The False Oswald, according to File 1553.

So among Gil's connections and official relationships were some interesting people with violent and unscrupulous capabilities.

Young Carlos Quiroga, everybody's busy, unofficial press agent, was well connected to Arcacha, Gil, Bringuier and numerous others. He was not alone. Later,

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Quiroga complained of police and FBI indifference to his offer of stool pigeonry . That they would not want a " stoolie " inside a left-wing group is not comprehensible. That they considered they needed none with Oswald is understandable.

As he had supposedly sought anonymity from federal and local police, Quiroga, while playing little bonnet filling bee when the press poured into New Orleans after the Garrison publicity, again asked that his name never be mentioned. Thus, while his own special propaganda was filling the papers of the world, the source of it was obscured from those who might understand and reveal the special interests and connections of this bright and eminently successful young man. His request that his name not be disclosed meant little: the description that was invariably used fit Quiroga more uniquely than his name, for while there may be more Carlos Quirogas , there is only one man who was sent by Bringuier to "infiltrate" Oswald. Had his request for obscurity been serious, it would have been self-defeating, for it attracted more interest than the open printing of the name. It also augmented reporter attention in Carlos and what he had to say, made him seem more genuine and a little mysterious.

Quiroga was on the ground floor all over, with both feet firmly planted. The indifference of the FBI, especially Wall, to his identity, is not normal. The reference by Banister to this one Arcacha associate, who knew and was involved with them all, is a special kind of mystery. Why should Banister have so provocatively singled out only one and, if we can trust Wall, then pretended he could not identify him? And what kept Wall from making the identification, from his own report, of the person who was always with the man he was investigating, Arcacha?

It is difficult to conceive of this talented and capable young man, Quiroga, as no more than everybody's errand boy.

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All of the mixed bag of oddly assorted men of different cultures, ages and stations had something in common besides their connections with Arcacha, Ferrie, other Cubans and exile groups and thus to Oswald or those impersonating him. They had a flair for public relations and enjoyed a good and a friendly press. Considering the nature of the charges and what, ultimately, these involved, it is surprising that whatever was said was -- however improbable, overtly false or ridiculous accepted and played straight. The adverse editorial comment in the news stories was reserved for the other side. To stand accused by public authority of having in some way been involved in the assassination of a President, somehow became respectable, almost a badge of honor. The frankly editorial comment -- in the editorials, where it belongs -- was similar. If one were looking for conspiratorial federal opposition to Garrison one might contemplate the uniformly good and successful public relations advice these men got, from themselves or others, suggestive of professional services.

Each witness called to an official proceeding was greeted by the TV cameras and a not unfriendly press corps, said whatever served his purposes, got abundant attention with it and, leaving a sweet taste in the public mouth, went his way.

No one was more successful in his public relations than 29-year-old Gordon Novel. He was so successful some of the press made his arrangements and paid their cost, and this while he was a fugitive. The things he did and said would have evoked severe criticism had almost anyone else in the world said and done them.

Novel, too, knew many people. He acknowledged knowing Shaw, "but not as related to this thing." No reporter asked, "What is 'this thing?' " Not one story indicates the nature of this relationship -- business, social or what. He knew Ferrie, but "indirectly," how-

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ever that is. He knew Arcacha well enough to be called to testify about him. Before entering the grand jury's chambers on March 16, he told reporters his testimony would be "about activities during 1961 which are related to Mr. Sergio Arcacha Smith." To Dean Andrews, Novel is a "good friend and a client," but not in this case. As assistant district attorney of Jefferson Parish, according to the Times-Picayune of March 21, Andrews nolle prossed (or dropped) four of the five speeding and reckless-operation charges following Novel's traffic arrests. The fifth was dropped without the records indicating by whom.

On the day he was called to testify, Novel told reporters that in addition to his Jamaican Village bar he owned an electronics company specializing in "anti-surveillance equipment," a more polite way of saying devices to prevent "bugging," or electronic eavesdropping. The grand jury did not finish with him that day. A new subpoena calling for his appearance the following Wednesday, March 22, was issued. By then, Novel had left town. His lawyer, Steven R. Plotkin , told the Times-Picayune that Novel was in Washington on "personal business," that he had not expected to be called until Thursday, and that he would return.

When sheriff's deputies sought to serve the subpoena Tuesday night at the Jamaican Village, they were told that Novel had sold the bar on Sunday, three days after his first appearance before the grand jury. He had also left his apartment. But his absence was said to be "temporary."

Not in Washington nor in New Orleans, but in Columbus, Ohio, Novel surfaced March 23, the day after his scheduled grand jury appearance and of Shaw's indictment, to begin a series of running attacks on Garrison and an effort to dictate the terms under which he would return. The Associated Press quoted his demand for "immunity from 'harassment,' " and his description of the investigation as "political" and a

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"fraud" and of Garrison as a "double crosser." He had, at first, "helped" Garrison, Novel said.

To United Press International, which the same day, March 23, claimed to have located Novel, he was more explicit. His real complaint was that Garrison would not let him be district attorney, judge and jury:

At the request of Mr. Garrison's chief financial supporter, I helped him (Garrison) all along in the thing and I told him all along I don't believe what he has is real and I don't to this day.

"I don't believe his case and from the methods he's used I think he's a fraud," Mr. Novel said. What my friend, Mr. Garrison, is conducting is not a normal investigation but is a political, police state inquisition.

"His borrowed 'rush to Whitewash' theory of the assassination puzzle is being solved by his forced hammering, like an egotistical child, of the wrong people and pieces in the right place and visa versa (sic).

"I'll go back to New Orleans when I'm positive what Mr. Garrison has planned for me," he said.

That day Garrison ordered Novel's arrest as a "material witness" and fugitive. Judge Matthew Braniff ordered arrest if Novel did not return voluntarily under a $50,000 bond.

Thursday Novel was reported to be in Chicago. In checking out of the Columbus motel early that morning, he left a note saying he was going there because of "pressure from New Orleans." When he did not appear by Friday, Judge Braniff ordered his arrest, setting bail at $50,000. Attorney Plotkin said he knew where Novel was but would not say.

When Novel's lawyer said his client was in Washington, he was instead in Columbus, Ohio. When Novel said he was going to Chicago, he went instead to Washington. He turned up in suburban McLean, Virginia -- home of the CIA -- with well-connected Private Detective Lloyd B. Furr , to take a special kind of "lie detector" test. While Novel was a fugitive, NBC and Hearst Headline Service made a deal for this special "lie detector" test, with NBC paying Novel's expenses. It taped an interview with Novel Saturday afternoon. Before it was aired, he was out of Washington. This

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time there was a choice of rumored destinations, including Canada.

The magic of "lie detector" was exploited to the maximum. As the story came out in the Washington Star of Sunday, March 26, Furr is quoted as saying Novel "passed" the test, whatever that means. UPI used the same wording, " 'passed' the lie test." "He showed no deception," the Great Lie Detector declared. If one is to judge from the Star, passing the test consisted of convincing Furr that "Garrison's conspiracy prosecution is a fraud."

For its issue of Monday, March 27, the New Orleans Times-Picayune wanted more detail. It phoned Private Detective Furr. This sentence in the story puts this "impartial," "scientific" test into perspective. "Although he said Novel 'answered the questions satisfactorily,' Furr stressed he was not at liberty to discuss test findings." He of course loaded the paper with dubious opinions, such as that what Novel "passed" was in fact a valid "test." But the questions Furr asked? We do not know. That he is "not at Liberty to disclose." Assuming the validity of the procedure, which is unwarranted, what is Furr giving us? The assurance that Novel told him the truth in stating that the cow did not jump over the moon? Or that the moon over which the cow did not jump is not made of green cheese? What kind of spurious "test" is this? It was designed to make a headline that the district attorney is a "fraud," to give a pseudo-scientific endorsement to the fugitive who dared not return not to face a charge in open court but only grand-jury questioning!

Furr said he "was not at liberty" to disclose what he termed the test "findings," so he did, to make a headline. He was not "at liberty" to disclose the questions, so he quoted three: They reveal the integrity of his "science" and purpose, his "impartiality."

The first question is, "Did District Attorney Garrison agree to a bizarre plan to obtain a confession from

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David W. Ferrie?" Not just a plan, but a "bizarre" plan. Just how "neutral" can "science" be? What does "bizarre" mean -- to Furr, to Novel?

The wording of the question, as it appeared in the New Orleans paper, is otherwise pretty slick. Did Garrison "agree" to a "plan." Does this mean Garrison offered it or that Ferrie asked it, if anything like it really happened? It is not impossible that the district attorney, as so many thousands have before him, make a deal to get a witness to talk. But what does this mean as part of a "question"? And is Novel saying that Ferrie was going to confess when he was innocent?

The second question is, "Did Garrison threaten you (Novel) in any way to obtain your cooperation?" We do not know the answer, but need we, knowing how meaningless the question is? Is it a threat to tell a witness, "If you do not start telling the truth, I'm going to ask for a perjury indictment?" Is a demand for the truth or the whole truth "cooperation"?

And the remaining question is a pip: "Did you know Clay Shaw in connection with any Presidential assassination conspiracy?" Here is the acknowledgment that Novel knew Shaw. Inherent in the question is the presumption that Novel had instant knowledge, that he knew, and understood thoroughly, everything Shaw was up to or might have planned, if anything. Inherent, also, is the pretended accusation that Novel was charged with being part of an "assassination conspiracy." At the time of this depraving of "science" and contemptuous display toward the courts and law and order, the only charge pending against Novel had to do with his abuse of the subpoena.

Does anyone suppose the fugitive would have enjoyed such immunity and services if he had been some kind of a left-winger?

In the circumstances, the statement by New Orleans Assistant District Attorney James Alcock in an AP story dated March 28 is a modest understatement: "I

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think it is very odd that Novel can be found by newspaper and television media and not by the people who are trying to arrest him." The next sentence in the AP story is, ". . . an FBI spokesman declined to comment . . . ," followed, two paragraphs later, with, "Some federal authorities are known to look upon Garrison's investigation with a cold eye." That, too, is an understatement.

While busily engaged in denigrating the legal processes of the nation, Novel was also busy bugging. Leslie H. Whitten 's story in the New York World-Journal-Tribune of March 29 discloses that Novel apparently intercepted and recorded conversations between Garrison and his major backer, Willard E. Robertson, a New Orleans auto distributor. Robertson was chairman of and the largest single contributor to the public fund that financed the investigation.

"As Robertson told it," Whitten wrote, "and as a tape recording made by Novel confirms, Novel called from his hideaway to Robertson in New Orleans a week ago to find out what Garrison was up to. Robertson assured Novel that he had spoken with the flamboyant district attorney about Novel. The auto man gently suggested to Garrison that Novel thought the subpoena against him was 'uncalled for.' . . ." Garrison then told Robertson, "I'm calling the shots," and asked, "How would you like to be indicted?" Another tape "indicates that Robertson and Garrison were heated in their exchange," Whitten says. He quotes Robertson as saying he was "shocked and upset that Novel, whom he has known since 1961, had taped their conversation."

Quite obviously, there is a law against this, and quite obviously, the tapes were made available. Aside from what this delineates as a self-portrayal of Novel, it reveals Garrison as not deferring to pressure from any source, perhaps one of the reasons more newspapers did not carry this story.

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Incredibilities continued. While all of this was going on, Lawyer Plotkin appeared in court to demand that the arrest order be quashed. In denying the legal move, the judge actually bargained, saying that he would consider reducing the size of the bond were Novel to return to the jurisdiction of the court and that he might even release Novel on his, Novel's, own recognizance -- or entirely without bond -- if he did return. While this may have been a realistic gesture in view of the uncooperativeness of the Department of Justice and others, it is a degrading one for local court to feel it had to make.

Far from bargaining, Garrison followed this up the next day, the last of that strange month, by filing charges against Novel, Ferrie and Arcacha. His affidavit alleged that the trio "did wilfully and unlawfully conspire" to burglarize "a munitions bunker located at Houma, Louisiana, in order to obtain explosives and other forms of munitions . . ." during August 1961. The burglary actually took place, according to Garrison's chief aide, Private Investigator William Gurvich, but occurred outside the jurisdiction of the New Orleans court, thus "conspiracy" is all that could be charged there. Others not named were involved and their identities were known, Gurvich said, and they would soon be arrested.

After extradition proceedings were instituted, Novel pulled another switch On April 7, he offered to return to New Orleans if guaranteed immunity from prosecution. The District Attorney rejected the offer; Grand Jury Foreman Albert V. LaBiche termed it "impossible."

So, two surviving members of the alleged conspiracy were arrested, Arcacha in Dallas and Novel in Columbus, Ohio (where he said on April 6 he had been all the time). His bail was set at $10,000 and until it was raised he was jailed. He appeared before Municipal Judge Wilbur Shull on April 3 and began to argue his

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case for a low bond without a lawyer.

"I used to do work for Garrison," he said. "In fact, I did some of the investigating in this so-called plot. I've got a lot of charges of my own to make about him."

The judge interrupted this outpouring which had nothing to do with the issue before him. At some point not made clear by the news dispatches, Jerry Weiner appeared as Novel's lawyer. Novel continued. He planned to return to New Orleans, he said, forgetting that the courts were going to guarantee it, "but I did not intend to do that because of this Cuban . . ."

Weiner silenced Novel at this point. So, temporarily, there is this additional mystery.

On April 3 the States-Item thought Novel had just made himself "as much trouble" as in "his refusal to testify in the Kennedy assassination." A wallet-size card did it. In Columbus, Novel flashed to reporters a card that said he is a brigadier general on the staff of Louisiana Governor John J. McKeithen, "apparently as supporting evidence he is telling the truth."

Only the governor immediately denied he had ever made the appointment or issued the card. During his term he has personally issued only about 40, usually to armed forces generals.

"I've never heard of him," the governor said. "This has got to be a forgery."

William Redmann, the governor's chief counsel, called it "fantastic" and recalled the theft of some blank cards about two years earlier.

In disclosing the appearance before the grand jury of Rancier Blaise "Ranny" Ehlinger, the same paper noted that he and Novel had each been arrested on June 12, 1959, in New Orleans, as fugitives from a Baton Rouge auto-theft charge. The stolen car was found in the garage of a house the two men rented. Charges were dropped "when a third youth admitted the theft."

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Ehlinger was represented by Lawyer Steve Plotkin, who told reporters he also represented Jack Martin and David Lewis.

Outside the courtroom, Novel continued gushing to the reporters of Garrison (he said he "knows" him) and of the extra special role in the investigation Novel staked out for himself. ("Ask him. My code name was 'Alexander' and electronics was my field.") He promised, with the proper touch of mystery, "I'm going to tell my story when the time comes." Here Weiner again interrupted to say, "The first thing I want to do is hear the whole story for myself."

A professional bondsman was obtained and Novel was released with the posting of $10,000 bail.

But all of this "chatter," as Judge Hagarty termed it in ordering its end, suggests more intrigue.

Who is "this Cuban"? Could it be Arcacha? What had "this Cuban" done that, Novel felt, justified his ignoring and insulting the courts and arrogating to himself the decisions of the judicial process? This pompous and soap-operatic behavior did not end in mid-proceeding with the appearance of a lawyer to represent him. It was merely interrupted for the day, passing strange for a man then represented by a lawyer, and because of what became public in the intervening day.

Although Ferrie's former roommate, Layton Martens, was not one of the companions on that "goose hunt" commemorating the assassination and he rather than Melvin Coffey was arrested and indicted for perjury. The alleged perjury came in his testimony about Novel and the robbery of the munitions bunker. This part of Martens's testimony was cited in the charge:

Q:	How often, how well do you know Gordon Novel?

A:	I don't recall ever hearing or meeting Gordon Novel.

Q:	Are you telling me that even when the boxes were being removed from the bunker, you did not know the purpose of this trip?

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A:	No. As best I can remember, I was there. Yes, I do remember being there. The purpose of the trip was not revealed to me.

Q:	Do you remember Sergio Arcacha Smith being on the trip?

A:	No, I don't.

With this acknowledgment that "boxes" were removed from the munitions bunker, Novel changed his tack. Back in Columbus he called it "the most patriotic burglary in history."

Patrick Henry, Sam Adams, George Washington -- make room for Gordon Novel!

Novel further altered his representation of his relations with the District Attorney's office (which, according to reporter Whitten, he had "bugged"), saying that he was enlisted to prevent its "bugging." This is not quite the same as his earlier, "in fact, I did some of the investigating."

Undeterred by the burglary revelation, in Novel's next daily claim to attention (by this time palling on many newspapers but still getting an electronic play), he stipulated anew how, in his exalted judgment, the courts were to operate in this inquiry.

Although ignored in most papers, the case against Arcacha and Novel was fortified April 4 when the District Attorney at Houma, Wilmore Broussard, ordered their arrest, charging them with burglarizing the munitions bunker. The States-Item identifies this depot as an abandoned military air base. It notes that "almost two years to the day later federal agents seized more than a ton of explosives and war materials at a secluded frame house in St. Tammany Parish, between Mandeville and Lacombe," or the secret Cuban invasion training camp I discovered in the Commission's suppressed files. The explosives had been found crated for shipment to Cuba.

Still in Columbus, Novel ordained at his (by then regular) press conference on April 6 that he would, indeed, return to New Orleans, but only when certain assurances were made -- for example, that the District

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Attorney not appear before the grand jury or adduce evidence for it, when the grand jury was separated from legal assistance, and, generally, that they find him no less saintly than Joan of Arc. This incredible and somewhat insane display of gall was sedately and respectfully spread by the news media.

He demanded immunity from everything, even embarrassment (he called it "harassment"). And to be absolutely impartial, he made the same demands on the Houma District Attorney. With all of this, he said, "I would like to go back and testify to a grand jury that isn't loaded."

Weiner's major contribution was, "If Mr. Novel is as important as Mr. Garrison seems to think he is, then he should be allowed these immunities to go back to testify."

Assistant District Attorney Alcock and LaBiche both rejected Novel's demands.

The perjury indictment of 24-year old Layton Martens was an additional blow to him as it was to his former associate, Gordon Novel.

Each of the several young men who as boys had been "uplifted" and "assisted" by Ferrie was thereby touched with tragedy. At the time of their association, they were but impressionable boys. They were overwhelmed by Ferrie's erudition, passion, strength of corrupted character, determination, and by his exotic and thereby appealing approach to the life they were not yet prepared to face. The George Piazza, Jr., who fellow aviator Captain Magyar said was one of Ferrie's best friends in earlier years when Ferrie knew him in the Civil Air Patrol, was well connected. He grew up to be a respected young lawyer, devoted to the law, and to flying as well. He became an assistant on Garrison's staff and after leaving it represented Dante Marachini, one of the early witnesses before the grand jury. But he had decided on aviation, with an occasional fling at the law, and was completing his "pure jet"

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training with Delta Airlines in late March, 'midst all this, when the plane in which he and others were being "checked out" mysteriously plunged into the Howard Johnson airport motel, killing vacationing Wisconsin high school seniors and all the flyers. This newest tragedy was at Kenner, Louisiana, Ferrie's haunt when Piazza was a boy. Alvin Beauboeuf, Ferrie's assassination-day companion, then 19 years old, is his legal heir, a dubious honor.

Because he had been picked up with Ferrie on November 26, 1963, Martens could not avoid some public attention. Overshadowed by the others more violent and more vocal, he received less public attention until the Shaw hearing. During his cross-examination of Russo, F. Irwin Dymond asked if Martens had been Ferrie's roommate in 1963. It was true, of both Martens and Beauboeuf.

The day Judge Braniff ordered Novel's arrest, a grand jury subpoena was issued for Martens. Without federal denial, the newspapers said what the Secret Service reports of the time ardently denied, that the two younger men "were arrested by Garrison's men at the request of the Secret Service and the FBI on November 26, 1963. The charge was relative to vagrancy, under investigation of subversive activities."

In early March, Martens taped a television interview. It was held up, to be released to coincide with his grand jury appearance. In it he said that he had been questioned by Garrison's office twice and had undergone a lie-detector test. He was, he represented, the soul of cooperation. He said he too had met Ferrie through the Civil Air Patrol; they became good friends. Martens believed he knew all of Ferrie's other friends. He had never heard of Clay Shaw or Clay Bertrand, or of Lee Harvey Oswald. In defense of his dead friend, he said he knew Russo and that Russo had a grudge against Ferrie. Russo had said he did not know Martens.

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Anticipating what he must have known was inevitable, Martens expressed the hope that he would not be subpoenaed and his name "dragged through the streets" -- a reaction not quite in keeping with the public record, or with Martens's residence with Ferrie and participation in his activities; nor was it consistent with his own claim to have been Sergio Arcacha's second in command.

After the airing of the TV interview, Martens told reporters he was "cooperating now as I have consistently cooperated with the District Attorney's office. In my presence, my attorney was advised by the District Attorney's office that I am not suspected of any criminal activity whatsoever. The District Attorney is interested only in my knowledge of certain individuals in the case."

This claim is not supported by his testimony cited in the perjury charge made March 31, just two days later, in which he admitted that he had been present at what Garrison called the burglarizing of the Houma munitions dump.

Coinciding with indictment, Martens was on nation-wide television, where he was introduced as a music student, to protest that he had been nothing but truthful, and that he was being abused. The judicial injunction to silence in order to assure Shaw a fair trial was one-sided in observation. Garrison it inhibited only. Others could and did say what they pleased, and what they pleased always came out as part of a nationwide attack on the investigation.

Its most ostentatious form was a three-hour press conference on April 3 that the April 4 States-Item described as "more of a reception than a press conference." The court order suited Shaw's desires admirably: he could refuse to comment on the case while, martini-in-hand, he built his public image. The States-Item thought it worth a four-column-wide picture of a beaming Shaw surrounded by microphones and his

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happy attorney. Under the picture, the remainder of almost three entire columns was on Shaw, all favorable and humanizing in the absence of indelicate references to whips and chains and black gowns and hoods: he could not comment on the case.

Thus was the ultimate selection of an impartial jury assured.

With the failure of the press to fulfill its traditional function and the continued willful failure of the government to investigate, there is too much about which we are still left in the dark.

There are names tat appeared briefly and disappeared, like that of a 31-year-old Miami Cuban on parole, Emile Santana. Santana was flown to New Orleans February 14, returned, and reported missing by his parole officer. He then quietly reappeared at his place of work, the Standard Auto Bumper Corp., on March 8.

There is the "physically powerful and dangerous" Cuban the February 18 States-Item reported was being sought, Manuel Garcia Gonzalez, who is "believed to be one of a group of Cubans who reportedly hid behind a billboard in Dallas at the time of the motorcade. I hope some of the pictures the Commission, through the FBI, avoided and that I believe I will be responsible for bringing to light may show this, one way or the other. This man, according to the same newspaper, is now believed to have fled the country, one of the consequences of premature release of news of the investigation that others, including me, kept secret in order to try to prevent just this.

Garrison and some of his staff were in Miami early in the year looking for Gonzalez, equipped with a photograph. I understand they were within 30 miles of their quarry when he heard of the quest and disappeared. This man is believed to have been with Oswald on his handbill operation in the summer of 1963. In the

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London Daily Telegraph of February 19, Dominick Harrod quotes the Miami Herald as saying that this man was in the picture and also was behind the Dallas billboard.

In early March a number of papers again identified the behind-the-billboard Cuban as Manuel Garcia Gonzalez. It was also reported that Garcia Gonzalez received help from the Catholic Cuban Relief in New Orleans.

This name attracted transitory attention when Russo testified that at the party where the assassination was discussed he recalls two Latin-looking men named "Julien" and "Manuel." Immediately Shaw's counsel secured a subpoena for the Immigration and Naturalization Service records of Manuel Garcia Gonzalez and one Julien Buznedo, then reported living in Denver. George Lardner reported March 16 that Garrison had been seeking these two men since mid- January. They were not found.

Here again there was existing evidence connecting Oswald with other people -- left uninvestigated by the Commission. Liebeler, who boasts of "thoroughness," asked about similar pictures and, having complied with the formalities in asking, was satisfied to learn nothing. Yet the resemblance between Dean Andrews's pungency of speech -- in referring to the man who could go to "fist city" and the Garrison object of search for the "powerful and dangerous" Cuban, is strong.

And still another official void. It involves the story that comes from several sources, that Ferrie delighted in dressing up his young men in green fatigues and helmet liners and marching them around as a sort of military male harem-to-be or would-be harem. Confirmation is in Russo's testimony. The Commission would have had Russo available as a witness had it conducted the most rudimentary but serious investigation in New Orleans. It could not have avoided Jack Martin had it wanted to, if it had really investigated,

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