Jim Garrison, Former District Attorney Who Probed Jfk Assassination, Dies

NEW ORLEANS - Jim Garrison, whose theories about the assassination of President John Kennedy inspired a hit movie and overshadowed his three decades in Louisiana's judicial system, died today. He was 71.

Garrison served 12 years as New Orleans district attorney and 12 years as a judge on the state's 4th Circuit Court of Appeal, from which he stepped down last year at the mandatory retirement age of 70.

His death today, at his home in New Orleans, was announced in court by a former colleague, state Appellate Judge Patrick Schott.

Garrison had been ill for several months, but the nature of his illness was not disclosed.

His belief that Kennedy was the victim of a CIA plot and a government cover-up formed the basis for three books and the nationally publicized trial against businessman Clay Shaw, who was acquitted.

One of Garrison's books, "On the Trail of the Assassins," was the basis of the controversial 1991 movie "JFK." Directed by Oliver Stone, the movie stars Kevin Costner in the part of Garrison.

Garrison believed the Warren Commission report, which concluded Kennedy was slain by a lone assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was a hastily compiled document issued for the good of the country to quell unrest that might lead to war.

But critics said Garrison pursued the Kennedy investigation just to get publicity.

A series of coincidences led Garrison to believe in a CIA plot, and in 1969 he prosecuted Shaw on a charge of conspiring to kill the president.

The 34-day trial was an internationally publicized circus. One key witness died under mysterious circumstances. Others refused to say on the stand what they had told Garrison's investigators.

One witness, a psychologist, destroyed his credibility by testifying that he regularly fingerprinted his daughter to make sure a spy had not taken her place.

The jury took less than an hour to acquit Shaw.