JFK Page #40

FERRIE:

Yeah, yeah. But leave me alone for

awhile. I got to make some calls.

His eyes are going again. Deals... intrigue - thru the tears.

LOU:

Whatever you say, Dave. I'll be

home. Okay?

Lou and Jim share a look.

CORRIDOR OF GARRISON'S OFFICE - A FEW DAYS LATER(1967)

A mob scene. Press from the U.S. and all over the world are

filling the corridor. A French reporter tries to get past

the receptionist as Numa passes him with a stack of mail.

Also in the hall are many individual citizens who have come

to give tips and theories. One of them is dressed as Satan

in a red jump suit with mask, horns, tail and a pitchfork.

FRENCH REPORTER:

(waving credentials)

Paris Match. We are the largest

magazine in all of France.

SOVIET REPORTER:

My name is Bulgarinov. I am with

Literaturnaya Gazeta of Moscow.

AMERICAN REPORTER

Bill Turner. Ramparts.

A mailman, black, comes through lugging three sacks of mail.

MAILMAN:

Coming through, out of the way.

RECEPTIONIST:

You know who killed the President?

Mr. Garrison is busy but his

assistant...

A camera moves by into the interior offices.

MONTAGE OF OFFICE SHOTS:

BILL BROUSSARD'S OFFICE

A man with the demeanor of Julius

Caesar walks into Bill's office.

CAESAR:

(raising arm)

Hail! Et tu, Brutus?

BILL:

And you, too, my friend.

Bill escorts him out before he gets the chance to sit down,

and then heads for Jim's office.

JIM GARRISON'S OFFICE

Numa joins Jim with a stack of new

mail.

NUMA:

Love a duck! It takes twenty minutes

to get into this office these days.

Are we famous or what?

Jim is reading Newsweek, deeply hurt. There are newspapers

all over his desk.

JIM:

Notorious is more like it. "Jim

Garrison is right. There has been a

conspiracy in New Orleans - but it's

a plot of Garrison's own making"...

and this - "one of the D.A.'s

investigators offered an unwilling

witness $3000 if only he would fill

in the facts of the alleged meeting

to plot the death of the President"...

How can they write that? Where did

they come up with this? ...

(sorting through others)

"A charlatan," "power-mad," a "hulking

D.A."

(New York Post)

"Morbid Frolic in New Orleans."

Bill has come in during this, completely frazzled.

BILL:

The crazies have taken over the

asylum! It's a zoo out there.

NUMA:

Sensational garbage sells newspapers,

Jim. What else is new? Look at the

thousands of letters you're getting.

That's where the heart of the country

is.

(reads from one)

"Dear Mr. Garrison, God bless you

for having the courage to go after

the murderers of President Kennedy.

Please don't stop till they're behind

bars. I am a beautician here in

Hannibal, Missouri, and my husband

is a janitor in the local high school.

We have four kids and not an extra

lot of money but we enclose a

contribution to help with your work.

We are praying for you. God bless,

Judith Hardy, Hannibal, Missouri."

Numa pulls a dollar bill from the envelope.

NUMA:

That's what it's about, boss. For

every lousy article in the press

there's a hundred of these.

Jim is moved. Bill is not.

BILL:

That's fine, Numa, but what about

all the people who aren't writing

letters. They're sitting home reading

all these lies. I just heard NBC

crew's in town to do a "White Paper" -

not on the Kennedy killing, but on

us. One of their top guys, Harry

Stoner, is talking to everybody he

can find about you, boss...

JIM:

Oh Jesus, Stoner!... Why doesn't he

call me?

NUMA:

(to Bill)

What do you want to do, Bill - fold

up and close the store? You sound

like it.

BILL:

Look, this is bigger than all of us.

We can't try a case in this

atmosphere.

Sharon has come in during this, signalling to Jim.

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