Thank you for your time, David. I'm sorry this has to end inconveniently for you but I am going to have to detain you for further questioning by the FBI.
Why, what's wrong?
David, I find your story simply not believable.
Really? What part?
Jim Garrison
Kevin Costner · 36 quotes
X
Donald Sutherland · 10 quotes
Bill Broussard
Michael Rooker · 8 quotes
Willie O'Keefe
Kevin Bacon · 5 quotes
David Ferrie
Joe Pesci · 4 quotes
Lou Ivon
Jay O. Sanders · 4 quotes
Dean Andrews
John Candy · 3 quotes
Most scenes together: Jim Garrison & Bill Broussard (6), Jim Garrison & Lou Ivon (4), Jim Garrison & X (3)
JFK quotes
Page 2 of 4The things you said will be attacked by many people.
Bring them on. Bring their college degrees in here, I got nothing to hide. No one can buy me. I don't even need this parole.
What parole?
You're liberal, you don't know shit 'cause you never been **** in the ass. This ain't about justice! No, this is about order! Who rules? Fascism is coming back.
Nobody wants to buy you. No one's promising you parole. What I need to know is why are you telling us this.
'Cause that mother****er Kennedy stole that mother**** election, that's why. Nixon was going to be a great President until Kennedy wrecked this country. **** wanting rights! Why do you think we have all this crime. He promised those mother****ers too much! Revolution's coming, bullshit! Fascism's coming back! The day that Communist son of a bitch died was a great day! A great day for this country. I hate to think they blame it on silly, **** Oswald. Didn't know shit, anyway. People got to know. People got to know why he was killed. Because he was a Communist. You go ahead, put me on the stand, I'll tell the same goddamned story! Don't matter to me!
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.
Lord, wake me. I must be dreaming.
You're awake. I'm deadly serious.
Will you testify, Beverly?
Beverly Oliver I don't think so.
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.
Liz Garrison
Where you been?
I'm sorry, the meeting took much longer than expected.
Liz Garrison
We waited for hours, Jim! You could've telephoned.
I can only say I'm sorry. I just don't have rabbits on my mind.
Liz Garrison
You know what I think? You care more about John Kennedy than your own family. All day the kids asked, "Where's Daddy?" What should I tell them?
I don't know! The truth! I'm doing my job to make sure they grow up in a country where justice won't be a vanished idea in history books like dinosaurs or Atlantis.
Liz Garrison
It doesn't replace a husband or a father on Easter Sunday.
Liz Garrison
You're the DA of New Orleans. Isn't the Kennedy assassination a bit out of your domain? All those important people studied it.
I can't believe a man as intelligent as Earl Warren read those volumes.
Liz Garrison
Maybe you're right. You got an hour to solve the case while I get the kids in bed. Then you're mine. Mr. Kennedy will have to wait until morning.
I guarantee the boss will protect you. He likes you. He likes your mind.
I just don't know who to trust anymore. I suppose I could use a pot of hot coffee and a few packs of Luckys. So, you got anything new in the investigation?
Who are you scared of?
Everybody. The Agency, mob, Cubans. Follow the Cubans. Check them out. Here. In Miami. Dallas. Check out Eladio del Valle. He used to be my paymaster when I flew missions into Cuba. Somewhere in Miami, you're on the right track. Don't write this down! I ain't cooperating with no one! What's going on here! There's a death warrant for me! Don't you get it? Damn! Wait a minute! You ain't bugged, are you? Son of a bitch, Lou! Are you?
Dave, I play it square. No bugs. I'd love you to go on the record, but I'm in no hurry.
I haven't slept since that shit article come out. Why'd you guys have to go and get me involved in this?
Did we involve you? Or did Clay Shaw?
Cocksucking ****. He got me by the balls.
What do you mean?
You know, photographs, compromising stuff. He'll use 'em, too. Agency plays for keeps. I knew Oswald, he was in my Civil Air Patrol unit. I taught him everything. He was a wannabe. Nobody really liked him 'cause they thought he was a snitch. But I treated him good. He talked about his kid he really wanted her to grow up with a chance but
...
My neck is killing me. I've had cancer for years. Been working with mice trying to find a cure.
Did you ever work for the CIA?
You make it sound like it's some remote **** experience in ancient history. Man, you don't leave the Agency. Once you're in, they got you for life.
And Shaw?
Shaw's an untouchable. Highest clearance. Shaw, Oswald, the Cubans, all Agency.
What about Ruby?
Jack was a pimp. A bagman for the Dallas mob. Ran guns to Castro when he was on our side. Castro was almost with us till we tried to whack him. Everybody keeps flipping sides. It's fun and games.
How does the mob figure in this?
They're Agency too. The CIA and the Mafia worked together for years trying to whack out the beard. There's more to this than you could dream! Check out something called "Operation Mongoose." Government, Pentagon stuff. They're in charge. But who the **** pulls whose chain? Who knows? "Oh, what a deadly web we weave when we practice to deceive."
Who killed the President?
Why don't you **** stop it? Shit! This is too big for you, you know that? Who did the President? ****! It's a mystery. It's a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma! The shooters don't even know! Don't you get it? ****, man! I can't keep talking like this! They'll **** kill me! I'll **** die! Son of a bitch!
It's all right.
I don't know what happened. ****! All I wanted in the world was to be a Catholic priest. Live in a monastery. Pray. Serve God. I had one terrible **** weakness. And they defrocked me! Then I started to lose everything.
You'll be okay, Dave. You just talk to us on the record. We'll protect you, I guarantee it.
They'll get to you too. They'll destroy you. They're untouchable. I'm so **** exhausted, I can't see straight.
The Zapruder film establishes three shots in 5.6 seconds. I'm Oswald. Time me.
Go.
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.
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.
Man at Firing Range
I didn't pay two bits for a target just to have someone else shoot at it!
Lee Harvey Oswald Hey, I'm sorry buddy- I thought I was, uh, shooting at that son-of-a-bitch Kennedy.
Senator Long **** out of control. All of these hippies running around on drugs. You can't tell a boy from a girl anymore. I saw a girl the other day. Pregnant. You could see her whole belly. You know what she had painted on it? "Love Child." It's a mess down there, Jim. We've bitten off more Vietnam than we can chew. It figures with that polecat Lyndon in the White House.
I sometimes think things have gone downhill since Kennedy died.
Senator Long Don't get me started on that. Those Warren Commission fellows were picking gnat shit out of pepper. Nobody's going to tell me that kid shot like he did from that bookstore.
But the FBI test-fired the rifle to see if it could be done.
Senator Long Three experts and not one of them could do it. They say that Oswald got off three shots with world-class precision from a manual bolt-action rifle in less than six seconds. According to his Marine buddies, he got Maggie's drawers. That means he wasn't any good. Average man would be lucky to shoot twice. And the first would be the best. Here the third shot's perfect. And they got that bullet zigzagging all over the place hitting Kennedy and Connally seven times. One pristine bullet? That dog don't hunt.
Something's always bothered me about that from day one. Think other men were involved?
Senator Long If I was investigating the case, I'd round up 100 of the world's best riflemen and find out which ones were in Dallas that day. You been duck hunting. Oswald's an old-fashioned decoy. What did he say? "I'm just a patsy!" Believe it.
Garrison?
Yes.
I'm glad you came. Sorry about the precautions.
I just hope it was worth my while, Mr...?
I could give you a false name, but I won't. Just call me "X".
[after watching a damning NBC special report]
At least my reputation is still fine with people watching "Laugh In".
[to his son, Jasper]
Telling the truth can be a scary thing sometimes. It scared President Kennedy, and he was a brave man. But if you let yourself be too scared then you let the bad guys take over the country. Then everybody gets scared.
An American naturalist wrote: "A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against its government." I'd hate to be in your shoes today. You have a lot to think about. You've seen evidence the public hasn't seen. Going back to when we were children I think most of us in this courtroom thought justice came automatically. That virtue was its own reward. That good triumphs over evil. But as we get older we know this isn't true. Individual human beings have to create justice, and this is not easy because the truth often poses a threat to power and one often has to fight power at great risk to themselves.
Could the Mob change the parade route, Bill, 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? Could the Mob appoint the Warren Commission 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 .38's for hits, up close. The Mob wouldn't have the guts or the power for something of this magnitude. Assassins need payrolls, orders, times, schedules. This was a military-style ambush from start to finish... a coup d'etat with Lyndon Johnson waiting in the wings.