FALSE WITNESS: The Real Story of Jim Garrison's Investigation and Oliver Stone's Film 'JFK,' " by Patricia Lambert; M. Evans & Co.; $24.95, 352 pages.As New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison's biographer, I confess to an interest in Patricia Lambert's "False Witness." Jim Garrison, who in 1969 prosecuted Clay Shaw unsuccessfully for conspiracy to murder President Kennedy, was a complex man and no saint.
"False Witness," alas, is little more than an unpleasant one-sided diatribe, a belated, curious valentine to the elusive Shaw. Lambert's named sources (most are unidentified) are primarily Shaw's own lawyers. Her tone is venomous, the word "fraud" a verbal tic. "Reportedly" is a constant adverb.
Jim Garrison began his investigation with the Warren Report testimony of his classmate, lawyer Dean Andrews, who told government investigators that one "Clay Bertrand" had urged that he travel to Dallas to defend accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
Department of Justice spokesmen soon confirmed that "Clay Bertrand" and Clay Shaw were the same person. The officer booking Shaw reported that Shaw admitted to the alias "Clay Bertrand," an admission not admissible in court, but no less true for that.
No matter. Bent on asserting that Clay Bertrand did not exist, a point necessary to exonerate Shaw -- the goal of this book -- Lambert without foundation suggests that these witnesses were either bribed or mentally deficient.
Near the end of the book, Lambert admits that Shaw did indeed lie on the stand. He lied not to the prosecutors but to his own lawyer, who asked him whether he worked for the Central Intelligence Agency.
The author description on the book jacket and press release describes Lambert, cryptically, as a "writer/editor." Yet no book that she ever wrote is mentioned. Not a single magazine or newspaper article is cited. Her book twists the facts, suppresses an enormous amount of material and offers so distorted a picture as to render it of scant historical merit.