Harry 44ivinstone 12/17/91

3025 abell ave., Baltimore, ild. 21218

Maar liar: y,

Your use of the old zip de lyed your letter. I regret.)that once a

done what I suggested, not discussed it with me, and after the waste of Infl my yet have to go back and do what I suggested if as I suspect after re

cHapter there is no other practise approach.

ioq do have problems that are sometimes not east to cope with. The

for us before. If thee is anything can take to ease them I suggest

then, when and if it is possible for us to return to them, you do it ag

I do not deprecate your prob Wand icnow they are real. But this

to have to accomodate with mine, which are also real and very pressing.

tion to added =o1 consultations, having to spend more than six addi

,2hysical therapy1and I'm having trouble staying asaaeep. It is almost su

been up working since 1 :30 a.m. I au more tharikeremly tired. And I am d

what means much to me and that also is very pressing and it may get wo

don see and write more about atones film.

So ,I, begin with bluntness and please understand that I am not tryi

or to insult you. I think your publisher made an unreasonable demand on

simply are not able to do what this chapter reflects he wants you to do.

the appearance of the book, too,

Fikst, and again this is not to insult you: you are grossly ignor

material and this time, in Whitewash, it is not at all incomprehensi4'

dubious and 'trivial sources and remarkably few of them. Whatlyou use is

toilet tissue, Some is just wrong and some is without any credibility

IIve read and highlighted the first 7Aplus page.% and made a few

so velbad it is not possible to annotate it in the margins.

You have been put in the position of having to write about what you

except the ravings of the lunatic fringe. I can't help or eliminate that.

If you had done as -L. asked it might have worked if after I read a i

taped it and Went from them but there is so much wrong in these few pa

would not really have worked because you do not have the factual basis

I do appreciate the check for 4A00 but as you know, I've never ask

any help. Hore, if I'd know what this chapter really is, I'd- not have s

you, certainly not for that money.

Jo, let me think aloud with you and see if we can in some way salv

do not look like an ignoramus to your publisher and so that he may per

But in thinking of this J- have to know preciselt what he demands of you.

in you have not

onsiderable time

g some of this

have made problems

f you do now and

sae you are going

am now, in addi-

onal hours in

rtime and I've

ply involved in

e once people

to/out you down

ou and that you

I gather it delays

od the basic

You use the most

ot fit for use as,

all.

tuitions. this is

know nothing about

marked this you

I think that

bggin with,

for any pay for

d I'd try to help

e this so you

s be satisfied.

Please understand that from what I've read you heed the nuts who not ever dependable

o sense.

our publisher who

is he gets his

past, I won't

light be better

e wand base 1,01,44-

a correct', minor

o end can't get

t, use our new

2

and flint ignorance and make serious factual errors and nkae little or

From as far as I've goffe you do not want to use any of this stuff.

knows nothing at all about the case may not be all that disappointe4 bu

ass kicked often enough he may be a bit disenchanted. as you know f9G.m

do any of that kicking.

You belin with no understanding at all of what (arrison did so i

to address that in a different way. You have all the contrivanges that

Iiiss and that is no help.

Some of the writing is ne good but all this that .1 noticed is eas

in context, but I think it reflects your uncertainty and apprehension.

I'll continue readini this wheN I can. You see that with all I'm i

to I began the day I got it. I was delayed a day befause again you did

zip, 21702.

Off the top of the head, and with no as13uranee I will do it after read more and thnk

more. I am inclined to believe that with a better understanding of what our publisher wants

I fight be able to dictates that for you. If this turns out to be somet ng we can all

agree with, you can attribute the information but not the writing o me (and it will

probably require editing anyway, it has been that long since I've diet. a444..

I agree in ad(nace to any Chang not of fatt of substance.

I might even let you use my correspondence with ''tone. Uuth 'arri

'fact and truth that is so ridiculous you'll have them laughing aloud,.

gritty. I may even give you, and t have to think of this, one of the m

one of his innurable ccinspircies to use if the )ublisher would like ti Li(

you my own work product but I may and probablY would/raw on some.

But for this, at this stage of my life and what have to give up

do it, I will Opect decent compemsation.

a anything) and

I can give you

the nitty-

farout charts of

I will not give

ing to be able to

ions with your

s are on the same

ut it from me.

that perhaps

or Graf, I can

o use good offices.

n earlier I am

e can be dia9

w if I were.

sor I would give.

s Kennedy took

left New Qrlean.

;) its I told you I have a dear and cherished friefywho has some conn

publisher, perhaps only of friendship and proximity. I think their off

floor. I've not mentioned you or this book to him so he knowe nothing E

I Will dot mention this to him now unless you want me to.If you ti

what I suggest will help you and are unwilling to discuss it with Carr

with this friend, who is also a lawyer, and perhaps he would be willin

Please understand that when I am always awake by 2 now and today

weaker and less able to do what means much to me. So understand that t

cussions but no arguments. I am not up to them and would not want them

.r'lease understand too that you w some shit that if I were a pro

a student hell for, like that Oliver impossibility./And she says that

her camera (Ira not convinced she had one or was even there) when he ne

47ou also have him, unsour4d, in activities in which he did not enag

gird ray loins and

pleasure and work.

'red to Lead and

han from real need,

tine as if it were

ed you'll be

ep control over

est cover your

Frankly I shudder to think of what follows. I may or may no

read it in the early a.n., wnich I have enjoyed reserving for reading fo

iIt is suppertime. I've been up and working for 13 hours, I'mm to

correct this, but if it is not too cold for me to be out tomorrow other

like medical, I'll try to get it in the nail that leaves tomorrow, the s

in my mailbox. I'll have to drive it to be mailed.

I urge yo to avoid anger because if and when I detail what I've no

ashamed about writing with such ignorance and inaccuracy and to try to k

yourself, particularly your thinking, and to try to figure out what can

very naked ass.

I think this cna be salvaged, but not with this Buck I've read.

don't fret: think.

Best, ty

Resumed 12/18, to be helpful, at 2 a.M, before I get too tired. after a few coral:Lents I'll

read and correct what I wrote you last evening. A student came to help e a little last

evening after supper. I hat her make copies of the pages I'd read and d licAte the high-

lighting and make my marginal notes more legible. If we talk about these pages by phone

you'll begin to appreciate - and to be helpful I must be blunt - the ext•nt of your ig-

norance and perhaps some carelessness and your reading of the nutty literature while ig-

noring the little that is factual, correct and dependable. this, obvuous to me, should be you

clear to yy from the paucity and nature of your sourcing. Mxplaining sore of these markings

will not take all that long but giving you the understanding for respon-ible writing would.

On the first, Perrie as a matter of act was not active in the Chg

it for a short while. Ferrie had been and he was again later.

From recollection, I'm not rereading what 4. did because I just do

you lived in N.O. and yejT you say that Camp and liagazine, which were p

It was Lafayette, not Magazine.

After reading what I wrote to the bottom of page 2 I have the imps:

really go for the nuttiest Of the nutty fabrications and drivvel. This

you know so little that is factual if you care about your book and repu

very real problems here. Bluntness again is the only way this can be wo

tell yourself and believe the ttuth, that you are so ignorant of all of

ask youself how you can get away with it, what you can substitute for wI

have on paper. I could not begin to rake all the time required for corr

the similar pages I anticipate. Perhaps one way would be to simplify i

on Garrison and Stone, which is what 1 had in mind last night. For that

all this mythology, w ich is just frightful as you have it.

I've r ad a bit more to see if it gets any better, to the nottom

hen Oswald was in

of have the time,

rallel, intersected.

scion that you XX

s to say again that

ation, you have

ed out. Ion must

this you have to

at you have done,

cting these and

into a chapter

you do not need.

page 8. Word of

Garrison's investigation was not leaked. It wa first of all impos:ible

when he and his staff spoke to so many people. Garrison spoke to the rep

to him in a way that persuade them not to write anything. He was a firs

way the story actually broke is that Jack Dempsey found the exTenditure

public while checking on something Oise.

While you may like Crouch's imagery and he may be quite sincere in

Garrison was his own worse enemy.' "e had a theory of the day for each da

days ridiculing himself to sophisticated reporters. The nature of the st

sending of t e best reporters. The Times sent my dear friend and one of

iiartin Waldron. Ho, his nickname, was quite serious. lie had a list of go

several pages of them and he could not get sensible responses from Garri

un 9 it was Garrison, not his business friends, who decided on the

Consequences.

Ferrie knew before the story broke and was talking about it while h

own investigating of what could happen to him. Dean iindrews told me he 1

ovember when ''arrison walked into his office, threw a copy of the Dell

desk and toldhtt he should read it.

On 10, what do you mean by g big hands, referring to Lardner?

Who you refer to, 2errie or Lardner, is not clear in the second gra

that the coroner changed his report, corrected it. He had been wrong. ho

Ferrie's apartment under surveillance that in the end led to discovery o

Perhaps your publisher knows that you know nothing about this aspen

really care how accurate it is. He should have asked you and learned bef

is now quite topical.

But understand that with few exceptions the reporters did only what

o keep it secret

rters who spoke

—rate con man. The

ecords that are

t it is plain shit.

and he was within

ry justified the

he best of reporters,

d questions, Bum

ono

ame Truth and

tried to do his

ies the previo&s

dition on his

. and the fact is

e, Garrison had

his death.

and does not

re demanding what

they usually do

and should do. find that it was Garrison himself who triggered them to greater activity.