NEW ORLEANS -- Former New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, whose investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy riveted the nation in the 1960s, has died at 71.
Garrison's accusation that Clay Shaw was a co-conspirator with Lee Harvey Oswald and others in the assassination of Kennedy was never proven in court, but raised questions that remain in dispute to the present day.
Dr. Frank Minyard, Orleans Parish coroner, said Garrison died about 10 a.m. CDT Wednesday at his residence of apparent natural causes. He said Garrison had been ill for the past year and a half and an autopsy would be performed Thursday.
Minyard said funeral arrangements were tentatively planned for Friday.
Hollywood director Oliver Stone's controversial motion picture 'JFK' was based on Garrison's 1966 prosecution of Shaw and the flamboyant district attorney's boast that, 'I have solved the mystery of the assassination.'
On hearing of Garrison's death, Stone said, 'Jim Garrison was a great American who will be recognized as such in time.'
Critics said although 'JFK' depicted Garrison's investigation and trial of Shaw as a noble endeavor, in reality it was a fatally flawed case built on flimsy evidence that featured a chorus of dubious and even wacky witnesses.
Controversy swirled around Garrison, a pipe-smoking, towering 6-foot, 6-inch man who took office in 1962 as a crusader dedicated to stamping out crime. He was later tried but acquitted on public corruption charges.
Garrison was succeeded in office by District Attorney Harry Connick Sr., who recalled Wednesday, 'from the standpoint of this office, I think Garrison's JFK investigation was a most unfortunate incident.'
Garrison's place in history will be viewed as mixed, Connick said, because 'a lot of people resent' what he did to New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw. He said many believe Shaw had 'absolutely nothing' to do with the assassination.
'The Clay Shaw case is regarded as a travesty of justice in modern criminal justice history,' the DA said. 'It ranks high as a transgression because a lot of witnesses were not even known to Garrison at the time of the indictment.'
Connick said Stone asked his opinion of the Shaw investigation when the director was in New Orleans to film 'JFK.'
'I said it was a travesty, a miscarriage of justice and very unfair to Clay Shaw,' Connick said. 'Stone said, 'I will make the movie anyway.''
Stone was in Thailand Wednesday preparing to shoot his next film, 'Heaven and Earth,' and had not been notified of Garrison's death, said a spokeswoman at Stone's production company, Ixtlan Corp.
Garrison's former first assistant district attorney, James Alcock, who now practices law in Houma, La., said Wednesday his former boss had properly proceeded in the prosecution of Shaw.
'We went forward as a result of an indictment and a finding by a three-judge panel of probable cause,' Alcock said. 'Given those events, were were obligated to try the matter.
'We did so, Clay Shaw was found not guilty, therefore he is not guilty,' Alcock said. 'That's our system.'
Garrison himself was most recently in the news in July, when it was disclosed that he and his first wife, the former Liz Ziegler, had been quietly remarried to one another in a civil ceremony.
Garrison himself played a role in the film as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren. Kevin Costner played Garrison, the leading role in the film.
Garrison was author of several books on the assassination, including 'Heritage of Stone,' in which he further developed his theories that Kennedy died as a result of an assassination conspiracy.
Shaw, who later died of lung cancer, testified during his trial that he did not know Oswald, who the Warren Commission said killed Kennedy, or any others involved in the case.
Garrison subsequently prosecuted Shaw for perjury by testifying he did not know Oswald, setting off a lengthy court battle that continued into the early 1970s when a federal court ruled the prosecution was baseless and ordered Garrison to stop.
Garrison, who went on to become a judge of the state 4th Circuit Court of Appeal, retired from the bench in November 1991.
