Mary Brengel worked for Guy Banister for a short period in 1963. In May 1967, she wrote Jim Garrison a letter offering to be interviewed about her knowledge of what went on in Banister s office. Here is her letter to Jim Garrison:
Here is my transcription (please help fill in the blanks):
Dear Mr. Garrison:
I am aware from the publication in the newspapers + his picture, with an arrow pointing to his office door, that Guy Banister may possibly figure somewhere in the case you are building.
I worked in his office from the latter part of October until about the 10th of December, 1963, during which occurred several rather strange or unexplained (to me) things (however much associated with Cubans). If you feel that anything I might tell you should help [..} I would appreciate talking with you confidentially - though naturally I would like to stay away from the limelight.
Bill Turner Goes Through Clay Shaw s Address Book From:
Ramparts Magazine.
What on earth do you do with such a memo? For instance, William Spratling was killed in an auto accident - but Thayer Waldo says he was more liberal than anything. Of course, Turner was looking for arch-conservatives because Garrison was convinced that Shaw was not a liberal.
There s been no shortage of people coming forward who claim to have inside information about the assassination of JFK. Two of these people contacted the Garrison investigation in 1967 - Richard Case Nagell and David Kroman. Nagell would go on and become a staple of conspiracy theorists while Kroman has been largely forgotten. But their stories intertwine, at least at the beginning.
Garrison s office received an intriguing letter in March of 1967:
You can see Garrison s notation on the left regarding Long Beach: 1. To which Harry Olsen moved 2. which Darryl Garner recently visited 3. where reporter friend of Ruby was killed. (Question: What is significance of Long Beach?
Some pretty incredible stuff in this memo:
- Russo said Shaw was definately not at the supposed conspiracy meeting at Ferrie s apartment. Perhaps it was Guy Banister. Interestingly, Russo is not ready to admit that the meeting never happened.
- Garrison s office wanted to pin other murder charges on Shaw.
- Russo says he was upset that Shaw was arrested only on the basis of what Russo s statements. He was led to believe there was other evidence against Shaw.
- There was a terrible scene when Lt. O Donnell gave his report on Russo s lie detector test.
- Russo said Garrison s office knew how Judge Haggerty would rule on admission of documents. The staff were completely shocked when Officer Habighorst s fingerprint card showing that Shaw had admitted his alias was Clay Bertrand was not allowed (we ll be doing a post on this).
John Manchester said in his statement to Jim Garrison that the black Cadillac, seen in Clinton, was identified as being with the International Trade Mart. Here is his statement:
Here is a very telling memo written by Jonathan Blackmer of the HSCA:
Donald Carpenter, in his book
Man of a Million Fragments, writes that: (page 365-366) Shaw testified at trial that the International Trade Mart had never owned any vehicles. A review of balance sheets and other financial records for the Mart, from its inception through the 1960s, also shows no evidence of vehicle ownership or leasing by the Mart.