On The Trail Of Delusion

[Fred Litwin]

Delighted to see Gerald Posner has reviewed my book, "On The Trail of Delusion - Jim Garrison: The Great Accuser."

https://quillette.com/2020/11/22/on-the-trail-of-delusion-a-review/

[Bill Brown]

I gotta say Fred, regarding Garrison and New Orleans, you are the man.  Keep up the great work.

[John Tonkovich]

Delighted to see Gerald Posner has reviewed my book, "On The Trail of Delusion - Jim Garrison: The Great Accuser."

https://quillette.com/2020/11/22/on-the-trail-of-delusion-a-review/

Well, if you want to be praised by a known plagiarist and fabulist, ..so be it.

[Jerry Freeman]

Jim Garrison used the grand jury to terrorize people. He had the subpoena power
to get people into the grand jury room where they would not have access to a lawyer. Then he would charge them with perjury, which is a felony.

Shows what people know about a grand jury...Witnesses are not heard by a grand jury....defense attorneys are not present at a grand jury---Only a DA and 12 people are present in a grand jury. How ludicrous can you get?
https://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-law-basics/difference-between-grand-jury-and-trial-jury.html

[Jerry Freeman]

Clay Shaw was found not guilty... therefore there was no conspiracy and Oswald remains the assassin..... The logic of the Kool-Aid drinking, lone nut dwelling, bottom feeders.

[Joffrey van de Wiel]

Harold Weisberg believed that Thornley, posing as 'Mr. Osborne' ordered and picked up the FPCC handbills Oswald distributed in New Orleans. The employees of the printing shop didn't recognize photos of Oswald, but identified (apparently) this Thornley character.

[Fred Litwin]

Not exactly true. Weisberg claims that they picked out pictures of Thornley. But, later one, he felt that this couldn't be true. He believed
that their clashing politics indicates Thornley would have have hung out with Oswald and vice versa. His later letters show he felt it was NOT
Thornley who picked up the leaflets.

[Steve M. Galbraith]

Not true. Thornley decided to write a book that would explain "the particular phenomenon of
disillusionment with the United States after serving in the Marine Corps overseas in a peacetime
capacity." The main character, Johnny Shellburn, was to be based on several marines, including
Oswald. But before Thornley could finish his book, The Idle Warriors, Oswald defected to the
Soviet Union, and Thornley had to reconsider his ending.

Check out my book, "On The Trail of Delusion, Jim Garrison: The Great Accuser" for
the full story on Kerry Thornley.

Fred, I think Oswald was a more influential person on the Thornley book - certainly the main idea behind it - then you seem to. Yes, the Shelburn character was a mix of people that he met; but his interaction with Oswald was, Thornley said, a key factor in his decision to write the book

For example, after reading about Oswald's defection to the USSR, Thornley said this:

"It was not until then [i.e., Oswald's defection] that I really believe his commitment to communism was serious. I was surprised. I wondered how he had come to his decision. I began to ponder the problem, And then I sat down and began work on 'The Idle Warriors.' I had my theme."

Remember that Oswald told Thornley about the abuses by his fellow Marines when he (Oswald) was stationed in Japan. Thornley said he later saw the same arrogance, the same mistreatment of Japanese citizens, by his Marines when he was sent to Atsugi. But the idea behind the book - the behavior of these "idle warriors" - didn't emerge, he said, until he was shocked to learn about Oswald's defection. It seems that without Oswald you really don't have the book. Or at least in the form that Thornley developed.