What sleazy tactics of Shaw's defense team.
As you know, there was no discovery in Louisiana Courts at the time.
https://www.onthetrailofdelusion.com/post/clay-shaw-s-lawyers-faced-an-unfair-fight
Shaw had to finance detectives to run down every lead in the press. They had no access to Garrison's
investigative files. So, they talked to Holland McComb who gave them information, which was
reported by Wegmann.
Garrison wouldn't dare call Cummings as a witness in the Shaw trial. And Garrison didn't
mention him in his book.
The Criminal Intelligence file speaks to Cummings' credibility.
His whole story was ridiculous from start to finish.
fred
Given the considerable evidence that Ferrie and Oswald knew each other and worked together at times, I don't see anything automatically ridiculous about Cummings' straightforward account that he drove Oswald and Ferrie in his cab to Ruby's club. Cummings never claimed he heard them talking about anything sinister. He declined to ID Clay Shaw as the third passenger. There was nothing exotic or unusual about his account.
When Cummings came forward, he did so only after seeing Ferrie's picture in a newspaper and reading that Ferrie denied being in Dallas in 1963. Cummings sought no publicity, and his videotaped statements make it clear he wanted no publicity. His account contained no exotic claims, just a brief report that he once drove Ferrie and Oswald to Ruby's club and that on a previous occasion he had happened to pick up Oswald at a bus station and drove him to a house. He also mentioned that during the second cab ride, Oswald mentioned that he remembered Cummings from the previous ride a few weeks earlier--again, entirely ordinary and plausible.
What's more, when Cummings spoke with the New Orleans DA's office, he admitted to having been arrested, and he gave his side of the story. Also, Cummings volunteered to take a polygraph if Garrison's office would pay his fare to New Orleans. People who are trying to pawn off a false story rarely volunteer to take a polygraph. Additionally, no actual cab records were ever produced that disproved Cummings' account. Claims were made to this effect, but Cummings' attackers never managed to produce any actual cab records that refuted his account.
Garrison later changed his mind about Cummings after he realized that the polygrapher who had done his poly exam was questionable.
I find Cummings' videotaped statements convincing evidence that he was a sincere witness who was reluctantly coming forward because he thought it was the right thing to do. HIs videotaped interviews certainly give no indication that he was any kind of a "nut."
I find it curious that those who choose to disbelieve Cummings' account and to attack his character are willing to accept Jack Ruby's claims about why he shot Oswald, about whether he was involved in the assassination, about whether he was at Parkland Hospital soon after the shooting, about how he entered the police station, and about why he was following Oswald around with a gun in his pocket. Ruby was a violent thug with a long history of criminal activity, far worse than Cummings' life history, yet WC believers take his word even when several reputable witnesses contradict it.
