Bill Broussard This is Louisiana, chief! I mean, how do you know who your daddy is? Because your mama told you so? You're way out there, boss, taking a crap in the wind, and I for one am not going along on this ride!
Played by Michael Rooker 
JFK (1991) · 57 quotes
JFK (1991) · 57 quotes
3rd most-quoted character in JFK (1991): in 8 of its 57 quotes
Most scenes with: Jim Garrison (6), Lou Ivon (3)
Scenes with Bill Broussard
8 scenes Bill Broussard 
We are standing in the heart of the US government's intelligence community in New Orleans. That's the FBI. That's the CIA. That's the Secret Service. That's the ONI. Isn't this a strange place for a Communist to spend his spare time?
What are you driving at?
We're going back into the case. The murder of the President.
Bill Broussard Lord, wake me. I must be dreaming.
You're awake. I'm deadly serious.
Bill Broussard None of their testimony is gonna hold up in court, Chief. Hell all three of them have reputations as low as crocodile piss.
That bother you, Bill? I always wonder why it is in court if a woman's a prostitute she has to have bad eyesight. Find Clay Bertrand. Start by checking around the Quarter.
Bill Broussard The six of us, with almost no budget and in secret will solve a case the Warren Commission couldn't?
I didn't pick you for your legal skills.
Bill Broussard Thanks, boss.
You're a fighter. I like a man who's not afraid of bad odds.
Bill Broussard I'm lost. What are we saying?
That when Oswald went to Russia, he was not a real defector. He was an intelligence agent for our government and remained one till he died.
Bill Broussard So, because Oswald pulled the trigger the intelligence community murdered the President?
I'll go you one better. Maybe Oswald didn't pull the trigger. Nitrate tests indicate he hadn't fired a rifle on November 22. And they didn't bother to see if the rifle'd been fired that day.
Bill Broussard His palm print was on it.
It went to the FBI. FBI didn't find a goddamn thing. It comes back a week later and a Dallas policeman suddenly finds a palm print? It could've been taken at the morgue. There's no chain of evidence.
Al Oser
I can't figure out why he orders a traceable weapon to a P.O. box, when he can go into any store in Texas give a phony name and walk out with an untraceable rifle.
Susie Cox
To frame him, obviously!
A lot of smoke, but some fire.
Bill Broussard We're talking about our government!
We're talking about a crime. You must think on a different level, like the CIA does. We're through the looking glass. White is black. And black is white. Maybe Oswald is just what he said he was. A patsy.
Will you testify, Beverly?
Beverly Oliver
I don't think so.
Bill Broussard I thought we had an agreement.
Beverly Oliver
I don't want to be another statistic.
We could call you in.
Beverly Oliver
If they can kill the President of the United States, you think they'll think twice about a two-bit showgirl like me?
I understand the pressure you're under. Don't think that I don't.
The Zapruder film establishes three shots in 5.6 seconds. I'm Oswald. Time me.
Bill Broussard Go.
Bill Broussard Between six and seven seconds.
Without really aiming. The second and third shots came almost right on top of each other. It takes a minimum of 2.3 seconds to recycle this thing. The other problem is, there was a tree blocking the first two shots when fired in the Zapruder film.
Didn't Hoover say something about leaves falling in November?
It was Texas live oak, Chief. It sheds its leaves in early March. Take this Carcano, world's worst shoulder weapon and try to hit a moving target at 88 yards through heavy foliage. No way. FBI tried two sets of tests. Not one sharpshooter could match Oswald's performance. Not one. Oswald was at best a medium shot. The scope was defective on it too. This is the whole essence of the case to me. The guy couldn't do the shooting. Nobody could. And they sold this lemon to the American public.
The Zapruder film was the proof they didn't count on. We got to get our hands on it.
Bill Broussard It means we'll have to subpoena Time-Life.
Let me ask you something. Why not just shoot Kennedy on Houston? Plenty of time. He's out in the open.
I keep asking myself the same thing.
Frontal shot. Even if you miss him once, if he accelerates, you get a second shot.
The only reason to get him on Elm is you got him in a triangulated crossfire. You put a team there down at the fence. Frontal shot. Flat, low trajectory. Put a third team down in this building on a low floor. When Kennedy gets in the kill zone, it's a turkey shoot.
How many men?
One shooter. One spotter on a radio. Maybe three teams. These are professional riflemen. Serious people. Hunters. Patient. It takes skill to kill with a rifle. That's why no chief executive's been executed with one in 200 years.
Bill Broussard Frank, you're wasting your time here. Big Jim gave strict orders. No FBI.
FBI Agent Frank
It's you I want to talk to.
Bill Broussard Boss'd fry me in hog fat if he knew I talked to you.
FBI Agent Frank
Boss's got a problem. Real serious. We know what's going on at your office.
Bill Broussard I guess you do.
FBI Agent Frank
You got nothing. I'm a friend. You're riding on the Titanic. Time to jump off before you get destroyed, too.
Bill Broussard Enough!
FBI Agent Frank
We're talking about your career. You're young. You're working on the Castro thing.
Bill Broussard No, I'm not.
FBI Agent Frank
You are. We know Oswald didn't pull that trigger. Castro did. If it comes out, there'll be a war. Millions of people will die. That's more important than Jim Garrison. Look at me when I talk to you! You're too selfish!
Bill Broussard Shut up!
FBI Agent Frank
If you got a brain in your thick skull, listen to me. Listen real hard. Get in the car.
Bill Broussard [after hearing the FBI/Oswald story]
I don't buy it, Chief. Why would the FBI cover it up? A telex that disappears from every single FBI office in this country?
There's a word, Bill. Orders.
Susie Cox
Or a cover up. Jesus, Bill. Don't you have enough proof of the FBI's complicity yet?
Bill Broussard I respect this country's institutions, like you do, Susie! How the hell can you keep a conspiracy going between the mob, the CIA, the FBI, the Army Intelligence, and who the hell knows what else when you can't keep a secret in this room between 12 people? I mean, we got leaks everywhere. We are going to trial, y'all! What the hell do we really got? Oswald, Ruby, Bannister and Ferrie are dead. Shaw? Maybe he's an agent, I don't know. But, as a covert operator in my book, he is wide open for blackmail because of his homosexuality.
Shaw's our toehold, Bill. I don't know exactly what he is or where he fits, and I don't really care. But I do know he's lying through his teeth and I'm not gonna let go of him.
Bill Broussard And that's why, for those reasons, you're going to trial against Clay Shaw, chief? Well, you're gonna lose! Let's investigate our Mafia leads here in New Orleans. Now, I can buy that a hell of a lot easier than I can the government. Ruby's all mob, knows Oswald, sets him up. Hoffa, Trafficante, Marcello, they hire some guns and they do Kennedy. And, uh, the government doesn't want to open up a whole can of worms because it used the mob to try to get to Castro. Castro assassinated by the mob, by us, sounds pretty wild to John Q. Citizen. So they close the book on JFK. Makes perfect sense to me.
I don't doubt their involvement, Bill, but at a low level. Could the mob change the parade route? Or eliminate the protection for the President? Could the mob send Oswald to Russia and get him back? Could the mob get the FBI, the CIA, and the Dallas Police to make a mess of the investigation? I mean, could the mob get the Warren Commission appointed to cover it up? Could the mob wreck the autopsy? Could the mob influence the national media to go to sleep? And since when has the mob used anything but .38s for hits up close? The mob wouldn't have the guts or the power for something of this magnitude. Assassins need payrolls, schedules, times, orders. This was a military style ambush from star to finish. A coup d'etat with Lyndon Johnson waiting in the wings.
Bill Broussard OK. So now you're saying Lyndon Johnson was involved? The President of the United States?
I know this, Bill. Lyndon Johnson got $1 billion dollars for his Texas friends, Brown and Root, to dredge Cam Ranh Bay for the military in Vietnam.
Bill Broussard Boss...
That's just for openers...
Bill Broussard [yelling]
Boss, are you calling the President a murderer?!?
If I'm so far from the truth, why is the FBI bugging our offices? Huh? Why are our witnesses being bought off and murdered? And why are the federal agencies blocking our extraditions and subpoenas like we were never before?
Bill Broussard I don't know. I don't know. Maybe there's some rogue element in the government or something, but you're not...
With a full-blown conspiracy to cover it up? You ever read Shakespeare, Bill?
Bill Broussard Yeah, I do.
Julius Caesar? "Brutus and Cassius, they, too, are honorable men." Who killed Caesar? Ten or twelve senators. All it takes is one Judas, Bill. A few people on the inside. Pentagon, CIA, you name it.
Bill Broussard This is Louisiana, chief. How the hell do you know who your daddy is? 'Cause your mama told ya so. You are taking a crap in the wind, boss. And I, for one, am not going along on this one.
[Bill grabs his briefcase and angrily throw some things, including a telephone, out of the way and slams the door behind him]
Boss, I've had my doubts all along about Bill. He's been fighting us all along.
Well, we need him back.
Al Oser
Boss, Broussard wasted a whole damn month trying to prove that mob boys like Jack Ruby and Brady are kind of hooked up with Hunt Oil.
I don't trust this guy.
I will not hear this, gentlemen. Now, I value Bill as much as any person here. It's time we all made room for someone else's ideas, including me. Maybe Oswald is what everybody says he is and I'm just plain dumb about it.
Al Oser
[trying to discuss this situation]
I've seen him copying files, leaving here late at night.
I just don't trust him.
Didn't you two hear what I said?! I said I will not tolerate infighting among the staff!
Then I'm afraid I cannot work with Bill Broussard anymore.
Is this an ultimatum you're giving me, Lou?
What?!
Are you giving me an ultimatum?
Well, if that's what you want to call it. I never thought it would come to this. [sighs] I guess I am.
Well, then I won't have any more ultimatums put to me, Lou. I'll accept your resignation.
Well, you sure got it. You are one stubborn son of a bitch. And you... are making a very big mistake.
Susie Cox
[Lou walks away, Jim and his staff are stunned.]
Boss, aren't you being a little hard?
No, I don't think I am, Susie. Anyone else?
