Truth or Consequences (New Orleans)

Truth or Consequences was a private fund formed in late February 1967, shortly before the arrest of Clay Shaw, by the New Orleans businessmen Willard E. Robertson, Joseph M. Rault Jr., and Cecil M. Shilstone to pay for District Attorney Jim Garrison's investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.¹

A federal court found in 1971 that Garrison's office spent more than 99,000 dollars on the Shaw case. About 25,000 came from the office's audited fines and fees account. About 70,000 came from an unaudited "J.G. Safi Account" that Garrison had opened at the Bank of Louisiana. The fund's money was transferred at Robertson's request into a "Garrison Fund" on which Garrison could draw at will. Rault "managed the fund and wrote numerous checks payable to Garrison and members of Garrison's staff at their request." Robertson borrowed 30,000 dollars on two notes, dated November 9, 1967, and January 17, 1968, to contribute, and testified that he and Garrison were "close personal friends" and that he understood Garrison would repay him. During the trial Robertson employed the prosecution witness Roger Craig at his automobile business. No money was given or spent after the trial. "When Shaw was arrested the money came in; when he was acquitted, it stopped," Judge Herbert Christenberry wrote. He found also that Garrison had a contract for three books and that continued prosecution of Shaw would promote their sale.¹