Q. Has any State District Attorney ever investigated a high crime involving a president of the United States ouccuring outside his district?

A. YES

Jim Garrison

In 1921, Jim Garrison was born with the name Earling Carothers Garrison in Denison, Iowa. When he was still a child, his family moved to New Orleans, where he grew up.

In 1941, Jim Garrison joined the U.S. Army, and in 1942, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the field artillery. After receiving tactical flight training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, he served during World War II as an artillery pilot in France and Germany. After World War II, he attended Tulane Law School in New Orleans, where he obtained both Bachelor of Laws and Master of Civil Laws degrees. Soon after, Jim Garrison joined the FBI as a special agent in Seattle and Tacoma, where he checked out the loyalty and associations of applicants for employment in a defense plant. Being dissatisfied with this work, he later returned to New Orleans and the law profession. He held the post of assistant district attorney from 1954-58. From 1958-61, Jim Garrison worked as a trial attorney. In 1961, he entered the race for district attorney of New Orleans and won in a runoff.

On March 3, 1962, he took office as district attorney of New Orleans. He remained district attorney through 1973. Three days after President Kennedy was assassinated, D.A. Jim Garrison arrested David Ferrie as a possible associate of Lee Harvey Oswald and turned the investigation over to the FBI. In the fall of 1966, Garrison reopened his investigation into the JFK assassination, after speaking with U.S. Senator Russell Long from Louisiana. Long told Garrison that it was his opinion that Oswald could not have acted alone. Garrison soon connected Oswald to Guy Banister, David Ferrie, and Clay Shaw.

During the summer of 1963, Oswald worked in Banister's office and was seen with Clay Shaw and David Ferrie in New Orleans and Clinton, LA. In March of 1967, Jim Garrison arrested and charged New Orleans International Trade Mart director Clay Shaw with complicity in the murder of Pres. Kennedy. To see a brief summary of Clay Shaw's trial and his life, click on the link Clay Shaw.

From 1978-88, he was Judge of the Court of Appeal in New Orleans. In 1991, he contributed to the creation of the story used in the movie "JFK", which was about his investigation into the JFK assassination. On October 21, 1992, Jim Garrison passed away in New Orleans.

Thanks to Robert Hefner for this contribution