Just re-read Fahrenheit 451. Interesting tidbit I learned from the intro: first publication of the full novel was published in the very first 3 episodes of Playboy Magazine in 1953-54, the first publication rights purchased by Hugh Hefner for the not-so-princely sum of $450.00. This was a brilliant move by Hefner because the story is about censorship; something Playboy was certainly risking with its risque theme, and also because the 30 yr old protagonist falls in love with a 17 year old girl at the beginning of the tale (its an altruistic love, nothing sinful — though certainly to be considered weird by mainstream society).

So many terrific quotes in this book its almost worth re-reading again with a pencil and notebook in hand, but I particularly like this one:

Remember, the firemen are rarely necessary. The public itself stopped reading of its own accord. You firemen provide a circus show now and then at which buildings are set off and crowds gather for the pretty blaze, but it’s a small sideshow indeed, and hardly necessary to keep things in line. So few want to be rebels anymore. And out of those few, most, like myself, scare easily. Can you dance faster than the White Clown, shout louder than ‘Mr. Gimmick’ and the parlor ‘families’? If you can, you’ll win your way, Montag. In any event, you’re a fool. People are having fun.

I have always maintained that studying the JFK assassination is crucial to understanding many of the subsequent “deep events” in American history. Everybody should have at least a “Top 5″ of JFK assassination books in their personal library. The subject of this review should be one of those “Top 5″. Author Joan Mellen’s
A Farewell To Justice: Jim Garrison, JFK’s Assassination, and the Case That Should Have Changed History is a truly epic read. It is not a book about Dealy Plaza, or photographic analysis, or ballistics tests, or anything of that nature.
A Farewell to Justice
is primarily about New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison’s investigation and court case that served as the basis for the 1991 Oliver Stone film JFK.

Mellen’s vast book makes Stone’s otherwise admirable film (even the extended 2003 Director’s Cut) seem like a mere highlights reel. After the usual Acknowledgements and Preface sections, we begin proceedings with a list of historical personages — a Cast of Characters — that runs SEVEN PAGES in length. Further complicating matters is the fact that many of the listed people used aliases (sometimes more than one), and this becomes apparent as you read through the book.

Garrison began his investigation after a March 1965 Esquire magazine article refuting the claims of the official Warren Commission Report had sparked his interest. He then spent the bulk of 1966 reading the entire Warren Report and other literature that called into question the government claims of Lee Harvey Oswald as lone assassin. Garrison began his investigation in earnest by October 1966.

The reader is taken through a thoroughly labyrinthine world of New Orleans politics, FBI and CIA surveillance of the Garrison probe, subpoened witnessess, lie detector tests, double agents, Cubans, cops, Bourbon Street characters, the homosexual underground, road trips to rural Louisiana, false leads, promising leads, sudden deaths, etc. ad infinitum. There is so much going on in Mellen’s account of the Garrison investigation that it is almost too much to absorb.

The footnotes are gigantic — nearly a quarter of the thickness of the book. Many of these footnotes are the usual article or government document citations, but others read as follows:
“p. 329, line 15: Boasberg confides in Jim McPherson: Interview with Jim McPherson, January 9, 2000.” It becomes obvious very quickly that Mellen spent a lot of time in the field in the late 90’s and early 00’s tracking down and interviewing many of those involved in Garrison’s ever widening probe of JFK’s death. In this way Mellen has supplemented Garrison’s work with efforts of her own. In some ways, this book is a sequel to Jim Garrison’s own account from 1988 On the Trail of the Assassins: My Investigation and Prosecution of the Murder of President Kennedy.

Numerous stories concerning the target of the Garrison investigation, New Orleans socialite and businessman Clay Shaw, turn up in the form of witness interviews taken at Garrison’s office. Often we are taken to marathon lunch sessions at New Orleans restaurants were Garrison liked to discuss things in a more informal setting, either with his staff or potential sources of information. A picture begins to come into view: Shaw is seen with the bizarro, bewigged, fake-eyebrowed, contract pilot David Ferrie. Shaw is spotted with Lee Harvey Oswald. The three are seen together. The three are seen together in the company of militant Cubans. Clay Shaw is spotted in the company of known homosexuals. Oswald is seen handing out communist leaflets on the streets of New Orleans. Then Oswald is seen in the company of ex-FBI man Guy Banister - a fervant anti-communist. And so the story rolls on . . .

A large portion of the text is given over to the investigation of Jim Garrison’s investigation by government plants and spooks. Infiltration by initially enlightening witnessess often turns into disinformation and confusion for Garrison’s staff. Honest witnessess are blackmailed or discredited. Key witnessess turn up dead. Even members of Garrison’s own staff quit or turn on him.

The actual trial is a relatively short portion of the book. The proceedings of the State of Louisiana v. Clay Shaw finally concluded on March 1, 1969 with a “not guilty” verdict. The remainder of the book is a sort of post-trial Jim Garrison biography and general follow-up. Garrison never stopped discussing the JFK assassination. The finale of his life was a cameo appearrance in the Stone film JFK. Sadly, Garrison had begun to slip into dementia by the time the film was released and was unable to comment on it. Mellen’s book goes a long way towards vindicating both Garrison’s heroic efforts on behalf of the American people, and Oliver Stone’s excellent cinematic presentation of the same.

In addition to some new information on Lee Harvey Oswald we are also treated to a gigantic bombshell at the end of the book that I will not spoil. The information on a certain obscure person that Mellen uncovers is exclusive to this book as far as I know. If true, and it seems likely to be, it all but proves an U.S. intelligence connection to President Kennedy’s assassination.

A Farewell to Justice
is extremely tough reading and at times a tad boring. It’s like your brain is a machete and the pages of the book are a dense rain forest. But it is well worth the trek.

Published by Potomac Books, Inc. 2005, Paperback Edition 2007. 547 pages in length, also includes 32 pages of black and white photographs.

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