27 Facts About Jim Garrison

Jim Garrison wrote three published books, one of which became a prime source for Oliver Stone's film JFK in 1991, in which Garrison was portrayed by Kevin Costner, while Garrison himself made a cameo appearance as Earl Warren.

Jim Garrison was the first child and only son of Earling R Garrison and Jane Anne Robinson, who divorced when he was two years old.

Jim Garrison's family moved to New Orleans quite early into his childhood, where he was raised by his divorced mother.

Jim Garrison served in the US Army Air Forces during World War II, having joined the year before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Jim Garrison then worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation for two years where he was stationed with the Seattle office.

Jim Garrison was considered totally incapacitated from the standpoint of military duty and moderately incapacitated in civilian adaptability.

Jim Garrison became a flamboyant, colorful, well-known figure in New Orleans, but was initially unsuccessful in his run for public office.

Jim Garrison lost a 1959 election for criminal court judge.

Once in office, Jim Garrison cracked down on prostitution and the abuses of Bourbon Street bars and strip joints.

Jim Garrison indicted Dowling and one of his assistants for criminal malfeasance, but the charges were dismissed for lack of evidence.

Jim Garrison received national attention for a series of vice raids in the French Quarter, staged sometimes on a nightly basis.

The eight judges charged him with misdemeanor criminal defamation, and Jim Garrison was convicted in January 1963.

Jim Garrison charged nine policemen with brutality, but dropped the charges two weeks later.

Critical of the state legislature, Jim Garrison was unanimously censured by it for "deliberately maligning all of the members".

In 1965, running for reelection against Judge Malcolm O'Hara, Jim Garrison won with 60 percent of the vote.

The result of Jim Garrison's investigation was the arrest and trial of New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw in 1969, with Shaw being unanimously acquitted less than one hour after the case went to the jury.

Jim Garrison was able to subpoena the Zapruder film from Life magazine.

However, in his book On the Trail of the Assassins, Jim Garrison says that Russo had already discussed the party at Ferrie's apartment before any "truth serum" was administered.

Jim Garrison charged Thornley with perjury after Thornley denied that he had been in contact with Oswald in any manner since 1959.

Theorizing that a plot to kill the president was masterminded out of New Orleans in conjunction with the CIA, with cooperation from the Dallas police department and city government, Jim Garrison allegedly tasked his former chief investigator, Pershing Gervais, to look into the possibility that General Cabell had stayed in the city's Fontainebleau Motel at the time of the assassination.

The very same reasonings as to why he thought that President Kennedy was killed were espoused by Jim Garrison in filmed television appearances that he would make leading up to his death, the year after Stone's release of his cinematic film JFK, largely based on Jim Garrison's pioneering role in the lone prosecution in the case of President Kennedy's assassination.

In 1973, Jim Garrison was tried and found not guilty by the jury for accepting bribes to protect illegal pinball machine operations.

In 1987, Jim Garrison appeared in the film The Big Easy where he essentially played himself, and the next year he was featured in The Men Who Killed Kennedy series, airing in the United States beginning in 1988.

Jim Garrison himself had a small on-screen role in the film, playing United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren in two scenes; one interrogating Jack Ruby in prison with the commission, and one facing the press disputing Jim Garrison's theory of a conspiracy in favour of the lone-gunman theory on the steps of the Supreme Court.

Garrison appears live and comments on the Shaw Trial in the documentary The JFK Assassination: The Jim Garrison Tapes, written and directed by actor John Barbour.

Jim Garrison died in 1992 and is survived by his five children.

Jim Garrison is interred at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans.