MYSTERY WIRE — For years people thought sealed federal documents related to the murder of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 would give them answers as to what really happened 57 years ago. But when the government released some of those documents in the spring of 2018 there was no smoking gun.
The National Archives released its last batch of more than 19,000 records on Thursday. But an undisclosed amount of material remains under wraps because Trump said the potential harm to U.S. national security, law enforcement or foreign affairs is “of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure.”
The Associated Press April 26, 2018
He ordered the CIA and other agencies to take yet another look at each blacked-out section of their documents during the next three years to see what more can be released.
For one man, the anniversaries bring back memories about the only criminal case ever brought to trial in connection with the JFK assassination.
If you were watching television in the 1970’s, you saw John Barbour. He was not only a friend and writer for the likes of Frank Sinatra but produced and co-hosted the most popular tv show in America, Real People.
The one story that still haunts Barbour decades later is former New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison’s probe of the JFK murder.
Barbour twice tried to get Jim Garrison’s story told to a wide audience. Both times he was thwarted.
He ended producing his own documentary based on the most intensive interview Garrison ever gave. Garrison came to focus on the assassination simply because so many of the key figures had operated in Las Vegas, his hometown, prior to the dark events of November 22nd.
Barbour studied the Warren Commission report which put the sole blame on Lee Harvey Oswald. “He realized that, to believe the Warren Report, you couldn’t read it, so he reopened the investigation into the assassination,” Barbour said during a 2009 interview.
Garrison focused on a CIA connected New Orleans businessman named Clay Shaw. His prosecution of Shaw was portrayed in Oliver Stone’s controversial movie, JFK.
Shaw was not convicted, in large part because of overt interference from the CIA, including a smear campaign against Garrison and the infiltration of his office by government agents. “If he had nothing, they would have just stepped aside and let him fall on his face,” Barbour said. “Instead, they spent two years throwing roadblocks in the way.”
Among the most compelling arguments developed by Garrison was the absurdity of the so-called magic bullet theory. More importantly, Garrison used the FBI’s own files to prove that Oswald wasn’t the shooter.
Barbour says the mafia was involved, but only at the direction of those in the government who wanted Kennedy dead. “If the federal government thought that the Mafia had killed Kennedy, there wouldn’t be a pizza parlor in America.”
He believes the plot has its roots in Las Vegas. It began when the CIA asked the late Robert Maheu to recruit mobsters to kill Fidel Castro.
Later, some of those same gangsters were tasked with the Dallas operation. Garrison said there is ample proof of more than one shooter that day, a conclusion also reached by the House Select Committee.
(Original Caption) Texas Governor John Connally adjusts his tie (foreground) as President and Mrs. Kennedy, in a pink outfit, settled in rear seats, prepared for motorcade into city from airport, Nov. 22. After a few speaking stops, the President was assassinated in the same car. 
President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy smile at the crowds lining their motorcade route in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Minutes later the President was assassinated as his car passed through Dealey Plaza. 
Prior to the assassination, President John F. Kennedy, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and Texas Governor John Connally ride through the streets of Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. Included as an exhibit for the Warren Commission. (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images) 
UNITED STATES – NOVEMBER 22: November 22, 1963. Just after John F. KENNEDY, president of the United States, has been hit by bullets, Jacqueline KENNEDY stands up in the presidential car to lift up the body of her husband. In the foreground, the body guard riding on the back fender leans toward them. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images) 
Photographers running shortly after assassination of John F. Kennedy. (Photo by Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images) 
23rd November 1963: Mugshot of Lee Harvey Oswald (1939 – 1963), alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy, taken by the Dallas Police department, Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) 
(Original Caption) New York, New York: Headlines announcing Kennedy’s assassination from three New York newspapers, the Times, the Daily News, and the Herald Tribune. November 23, 1963. 
(Original Caption) Twenty-four-year-old ex-marine Lee Harvey Oswald is shown after his arrest here on November 22. He received a cut on his forehead and blackened left eye in scuffle with officers who arrested him. Oswald, an avowed Marxist, has been charged with the murder of President John F. Kennedy, who was killed by a sniper’ bullet as he rode in motorcade through Dallas. 
A Dallas policeman holds up the rifle used to kill President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Lee Harvey Oswald has been charged with the murder. | Location: Police Headquarters, Dallas, Texas, USA. 
Lee Harvey Oswald holds a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle and newspapers in a backyard. This photograph is one of the controversial backyard photos used in the assassination of John F. Kennedy investigation in 1963. (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images) 
Rifle Allegedly Used in Kennedy Assassination (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images) 
Cliff Michelmore pointing to the path of gun shots which killed President John F Kennedy, on a model reconstruction of the Dealey Plaza, Dallas, in the USA. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images) 
Passport, rifle, bullets and other items belonging to assassin Lee Harvey Oswald being displayed by the National Archives during 25th anniversary of Pres. John F. Kennedy’s assassination. (Photo by Terry Ashe/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images) 
379570 24: Lyndon B. Johnson takes the oath of office as President of the United States, after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy November 22, 1963. (Photo by National Archive/Newsmakers)
Of all his TV memories, Barbour treasures his time with Jim Garrison. “It was the most compelling, disturbing, thrilling, heartbreaking 3 and a half hours I have ever spent.”
John Barbour’s film, The JFK Assassination: The Jim Garrison Tapes, was shown at a couple of film festivals and can still be watched online.
In April 2019 John Barbour published an autobiography, Your Mother’s Not a Virgin!: The Bumpy Life and Times of the Canadian Dropout who changed the Face of American TV!, telling stories of his life and his time in Hollywood.
