Excerpt from Vince Bugliosi's book (re: Richard Nagell):
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"On January 3, 1967, Nagell got off a letter to U.S. Senator Richard Russell
in which he talked about Oswald coming under his scrutiny in 1962
and 1963. He proceeds to tell Russell that Oswald had no significant
contact with pro-Castro elements, or Marxist or racist groups, et cetera,
nor was Oswald "an agent or informant, in the generally accepted sense
of the words, for any investigative, police, or intelligence agency, domestic
or foreign."
He continued that Oswald was part of a conspiracy to murder
Kennedy that had nothing to do with a foreign government. He
concludes, "For what little it is apparently worth now, my opinion is
that the death of President Kennedy was indirectly, if not directly,
resultant from a conspiracy and also due in great part to the
stupidity or negligence of the FBI; that Mr. Oswald definitely was the
only assassin; and that his own demise was not attributable to any
conspiracy of which I was cognizant." (DOJCD Record 186-10001-10118)
Using Nagell's own words, he seems to be indirectly removing
himself from consideration by conspiracy theorists as being a player
on their field. But Nagell remained, and remains, a fixture in the
conspiracy firmament.
If there was anyone who had a wilder imagination about the
assassination than Richard Nagell, it was New Orleans DA Jim Garrison,
whose looney, conspiratorial theories knew no boundaries. As indicated
earlier in this endnote, in his investigation of Clay Shaw for the
murder of President Kennedy, Garrison actually flew to New York City
in May 1968. He met with Nagell on a park bench in Central Park,
hoping Nagell would help break the case wide open for him. (What a
conversation it must have been between someone almost certifiably
psychotic [Nagell] and someone [Garrison] symptomatically psychotic.)
But, for Garrison, Nagell answered very few questions and was
deliberately evasive, except to say, without providing any supporting
evidence, that Guy Banister, Clay Shaw, and David Ferrie were behind
the assassination and had manipulated Oswald.
Nagell also refused to discuss the CIA (the conspiratorial
devil behind the assassination in Garrison's eyes) or any other
federal agency except that he claimed he was ignored by the FBI when
he tried to warn them of Kennedy's assassination.
Nagell, wanting to testify, flew to New Orleans on his own
before the Shaw trial in 1969, but Garrison never called him to the
stand, not only because he had nothing to say, but also because, per
Garrison, "by the time [Shaw's attorneys] finished with Nagell, the
jury would have been left with the impression of a
crackpot" (Garrison, On the Trail of the Assassins, pp.213-216, 267).
When one is a crackpot even in the eyes of someone as screwy
and erratic as Jim Garrison, it's time for that person to go home.
A footnote to the Nagell story: The ARRB sent Nagell a letter
dated October 31, 1995, requesting that he contact the board to
discuss any documents or evidence he might have in his possession
relating to the assassination (e.g., Nagell told Russell he had a
Polaroid photograph of himself and Oswald in New Orleans, that he had
documentary proof of the letter he allegedly sent to the FBI in
September of 1963 warning of Kennedy's death, etc.). The ARRB learned
that Nagell died (from natural causes) in his Los Angeles apartment on
November 1, 1995. A member of the ARRB staff, with the assistance of
Nagell's son and niece, searched his apartment, and footlockers of his
kept in storage in Phoenix, and found none of the items Nagell claimed
he had. (Final Report of the ARRB, p.133)" -- VINCENT BUGLIOSI; PAGES
700-701 OF "RECLAIMING HISTORY: THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT JOHN F.
KENNEDY" (ENDNOTES ON CD)(c.2007)
