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Garrison began by exposing the contradictions in the Warren Report, which concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was an unstable pro-Castro Marxist who acted alone in killing Kennedy. A FAREWELL TO JUSTICE reveals that Oswald, no Marxist, was in fact working with both the FBI and the CIA, as well as with U.S. Customs, and that the attempts to sabotage Garrison's investigation reached the highest levels of the U.S. government. Garrison interviewed various individuals involved in the assassination, ranging from Clay Shaw and CIA contract employee David Ferrie to a Marine cohort of Oswald named Kerry Thornley, who was also a CIA asset. Garrison's suspects included CIA-sponsored soldiers of fortune enlisted in assassination attempts against Fidel Castro, an anti-Castro Cuban asset, and a young runner for the conspirators, interviewed here for the first time by the author.

Building upon Garrison's effort, Mellen uncovers decisive new evidence and clearly establishes the intelligence agencies' roles in both a president's assassination and its cover-up, set in motion well before the actual events of November 22, 1963.

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Close, But Still, Not Quite "Case Closed"

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Although this book is a credible continuation of Garrison's impressive work, unlike Garrison's three books, which are beautifully, coherently and convincingly written, the style of this one is self-destructively disjointed, gossipy, and just barely coherent. Sadly, it has adopted a style reminiscent of the very CIA disinformation tracts that have been used over the last 40 years to discredit Garrison and his impressive work. Despite its self-destructive style, this is still an important book --among only a handful that seem to have a secure handle on the events and people that led to JFK's assassination. It correctly ridicules the Warren Commission Report as an exercise in "exorcism," a fantasy that at least for a while, accomplished its task of "pinning the tail of the assassination donkey" on "everybody's favorite Commie," Lee Harvey Oswald. Importantly, it recognized (as did District Attorney Jim Garrison) that the epicenter of the plot that ended in JFK's death was probably hatched in Langley, but finalized in New Orleans and carried out by "hired mechanics" in Dallas. It was New Orleans and its environs where most of the dots could be connected that led up the chain to offices in Langley and inevitably on to Dallas. It was there that Clay Shaw, as the Managing Director of the "CIA front," the New Orleans International Trade Mart, was also the apparent "second line" manager of the JFK assassination plot. The New Orleans International Trade Mart was itself but one link in a longer and tighter chain connected directly to a similar "CIA front" in Rome called "Centro Mondiale Commerciale," which was a replacement for the more notorious "CIA Front" PERMINDEX, based in Switzerland. All three apparently were at Shaw's disposal for among others nefarious things, funneling untraceable money to fund CIA activities. Jim Garrison went to his death with the belief that the same team within the CIA that had carried out the overthrow of Arbenz in Guatemala, namely, Lawrence Houston, Richard Helms, James Jesus Angleton, E. Howard Hunt and David Atlee Phillips, also planned the JFK assassination. And although there is only scant circumstantial evidence presented here that this was in fact the case, it is powerful evidence nonetheless. This book demonstrates "guilty and conspiratorial connections" all along the chain of the plot: from the ground grunts, the actual shooters (probably rabid anti-Castro Cubans or hired foreign professional hitmen), to the third line managers and planners of the mechanics of the assassination (Guy Bannister and David Ferrie), to the second line manager, Clay Shaw (Bannister's handler), on up the chain to the first line managers in Langley mentioned above. It was New Orleans where the den of vipers, headed by ex-FBI SAC and CIA asset, Guy Bannister, at 544 Camp Street was engaged in all manner of nefarious activities designed to undermine and embarrass JFK and his Cuban policies: from directing Cuban exile attacks against Castro, to purchasing and storing weapons, to managing the activities that would advance the "legend" of Oswald as a patsy. New Orleans was where the mysterious but central player David Ferrie operated ubiquitously engaged in all manner of activities associated with assassination planning and execution. It was also New Orleans where mobster Carlos Marcello, lived. Recall that it was Marcello (as well as Santos Trafficani) who had accurately predicted that "JFK would be hit." It was Clinton, Louisiana, near New Orleans, where Shaw, Ferrie, Bannister and Oswald were spotted together during the summer of 1963, apparently in an effort by them to "darken" Oswald's record as a "Communist Pro-Castro malcontent." We also discover here (on page 43) that Lee Harvey Oswald at the age of 16, was recruited into the CIA via the Marine Corps by (CIA Asset) David Ferrie, who was at the time Oswald's Civil Air Patrol (CAP) Commander. Recently released document also reveal that Oswald also went on to become both a CIA, FBI, ONI, and a Customs undercover agent and asset. These are a few of the many isolated facts that are unnecessarily thrown together willy-nilly in this book. Undoubtedly one of the reasons it may have been done has been to protect anonymous sources, but it could have been done also as a way of "stretching tenuous facts." However, without the necessary connective tissue, without a context, without a convincing theory of the assassination, throwing facts together willy-nilly does not add up to a convincing case against those who are "probably guilty." This case, very much is presented like the O.J. Simpson case was presented: the evidence against "the guily" is overwhelming, but the case is so badly botched, that any sensible jury would have to give the accused (the CIA in this case) "a pass." There is no theory, no overarching theoretical framework, no hypothesis in which to place this mosaic. It gives hints and suggestions that mere hatred of the Kennedys was sufficient for CIA's clandestine services, to begin the wheels turning of a "vast right wing conspiracy" that ended in JFK's murder. How credible is that? It is simply left up to the reader to draw his own conclusions. Well, the fact is that most of us have drawn our own conclusions, what we needed but did not get here was an author who could put together a coherent and logically sound case that refuted the "cock-and-bull story" sold to us in the Warren Commission Report. This book came close, and gets "an A" for effort, but still gets no bananas. Five stars for the research, three for the writing, and four for the book as a whole.

Comprehensive and Thought-Provoking	Customer Rating:
The book could use some editing (the writing is ponderous and repetitious at times) but the research supporting Garrison's "trail of assassins" is edifying and compelling.

Excellent information, horribly disorganized and written

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Joan Mellen takes on the Jim Garrison/Clay Show trial in New Orleans in this highly frustrating book on the JFK Assassination. While she presents much worthwhile information and makes a very strong case that Shaw was a CIA employee involved in the assassination, her conclusions are dragged down in a morass of poor writing. Much is out-of-order chronologically, years are not given to orient the reader, aliases are used interchangeably with real names, etc. The organization at times seems random. All in all, combined with the vast amount of information presented, this ends up being extremely difficult to read. Troublesome also is that Mellen includes well over 100 pages of end notes but many, many quotes and other salient points have no citation listed. Worthwhile, but be prepared to put in a lot of work.

Book gave me whip-lash	Customer Rating:
While the information contained in this book is very interesting, it is presented so poorly, I could not finish it. There is virtually no structure to the book. Follow a timeline, or a character or anything, but pick something and give me linear story. This book made me dizzy.

An open secret

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For J. Mellen, it is an open secret that US intelligence services were directly involved in JFK's assassination. For their deadly feud with JFK, the latter himself gave the reasons: he wanted to `curb activities of spook outfits' and `splinter them in thousand pieces and scatter them to the winds.' He put all local intelligence offices under control of the US ambassadors. Beside intelligence (`the clandestine arm of warfare interests in the US government'), the war machine corporations wanted in no way to attach their fortunes to the Kennedys. The only legal action against the alleged perpetrators of the assassination came from a courageous district attorney, Jim Garrison. That he was very near (part of ) the truth is proven by the frontal vicious attacks launched against him and his investigation by intelligence itself. All legal and illegal means were good enough to destroy him. But he was only near a part of the truth: the ground staff, not near those who ordered the murder, the upper level of the plotters. Joan Mellen shows profusely how Oswald was continuously surrounded by intelligence agents and how the latter shared their beds with the Mafia. J. Garrison knew that he fought against `a secret state of its own' and `a major menace to the democracy we live in'. The author reveals also that there was an alternative scapegoat in the wings, if the framing of Oswald would not succeed, and, more controversially, that Bob Kennedy was against Garrison's investigation, because he thought he needed `to gain the presidency to deal with the facts of his brother's death.' This book throws a shrill light on the Pravda-like media (C. Johnson) who are creating a Kafkaesque world which has nothing to do with this world's political and economic realities. Another example in this book: the U2 Powers incident in 1956 was a provocation to kill détente between Eisenhower and Khrushchev. This book is a must read for all those who are interested in the most important coup d'état of the 20th century and who want to understand the world we live in.