A gay person is the last person the CIA would chose as one of its agents. It’s too easy to turn them by threatening to expose them.
A gay person is the most logical person for Jim Garrison to choose to prosecute with a bogus case. Such a person cannot present any character witnesses because they may be asked, by the DA, under oath, if they know anything about the defendant being a homosexual. A disaster for the defense given the attitude of the public in the 1960’s towards gays. The people that the defense can call upon to testify is greatly restricted.
All true but that's assuming that the CIA knew Shaw was gay. I'm not sure that, in particular during the late 1940s and 1950s, that it was known to any degree. If you read Donald Carpenter's book on Shaw, "Man of a Million Fragments", you'll see that some close friends of Shaw's, especially women, knew he was gay but some others, also close, were surprised to learn about it. And again, it seems that during that 1950s period that Shaw was more discreet about his personal life. It was only during the 1960s that he was more open about it. At least that's the view I got from the book.
And remember that Shaw served with distinction in the Army during WWII. So it was kept secret at least during that period.
Question: Wouldn't there be some indication in a CIA file about this? Such as, "We'd like to use Shaw more but his homosexuality makes it risky"? I'm not aware that the CIA documented such a matter.
