What do you think?
Rate this book
American Grotesque: An Account of the Clay Shaw-Jim Garrison Affair in the City of New Orleans
American History & Studies, Current Affairs
669 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1970
2 people are currently reading
52 people want to read
About the author
James Kirkwood Jr.
13 books46 followersJames Kirkwood, Jr. was an American playwright and author born in Los Angeles, California. His father, James Kirkwood, Sr. was an actor and director in silent films and his mother was actress Lila Lee. He died in 1989 of spinal cancer.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 8, 2022
A Creole madhouse, only it's all true. Imagine A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES crossed with Oliver Stone's JFK and you're halfway in enjoying this wacky account of Jim Garrison's prosecution of Clay Shaw in New Orleans for the murder of Kennedy. You can ignore the JFK assassination altogether if you like and instead concentrate on the bizarre set of characters who appeared in the courtroom plus Garrison's use of everything from numerology to forced injections of truth serum to secure a conviction. Junkies, homosexual prostitutes, and just plain prostitutes all got their 15 minutes in the spotlight. This is American comedy at its finest.
September 9, 2020
Kirkwood's lengthy treatment of the Clay Shaw trial presents one of the most striking examples of confirmation bias you'll find in a nonfiction work. This is a stridently pro-Shaw take on the Jim Garrison investigation. Written in a lively first-person narrative style, Kirkwood is fully transparent about his friendship with Shaw and his sympathies with the defendant during the latter's JFK conspiracy trial in the late '60s.
If you are looking for a day-by-day account of the Shaw trial — from jury selection to witness testimony to closing arguments to the verdict and beyond — this book is without equal. Kirkwood covered the trial in New Orleans, intending to write up a piece for Playboy magazine. (Playboy rejected his manuscript.) As he describes his daily vigil in the press section, you can practically hear the guffaws from the weathered old newsmen on hand as each bizarre character traipsed into court and regaled listeners with wild tales of sinister plots and second shooters. It's a window into the past that's unmatched, and even Oliver Stone, in the published script for his pro-Garrison movie "JFK," had to acknowledge that Kirkwood's work is indispensable. (Indeed, some of the story beats in Stone's movie seem to be lifted directly from the trial transcripts and investigative documents reprinted by Kirkwood — Garrison's own book wasn't this detailed.)
The problem is Kirkwood really isn't the right person to document a criminal court proceeding. Nor is he very knowledgable about the Kennedy assassination. On one level, it's oddly refreshing to find someone utterly unimpressed with all the old grassy knoll yarns and the conspiratorial theatrics of the Garrison prosecutors. A little more skepticism about the Garrison investigation is perfectly appropriate — after all, the jury acquitted Shaw after only an hour of deliberation. On the other hand, what can you say for a writer like Kirkwood who won't even concede that the Zapruder film shows JFK’s head snapping to the rear after the fatal bullet strike?
The book isn't just an account of the trial — it's also the recollections of an out-of-town writer making his home in New Orleans and recording all his experiences, from endless dinner parties to the debauchery of Mardi Gras to behind-the-scenes carousing with the denizens of the press gallery. How much of this is relevant to the Shaw case? Debatable. But it's in these passages that Kirkwood ends up telling on himself. He hobnobs with Shaw and his defense team, mingles among Shaw's social circle, and seemingly can't go more than a few feet without someone (a cabdriver, a maitre d, a barkeep) volunteering their belief in Shaw's innocence. All of which Kirkwood accepts with blissful credulity. Well, why not? Wouldn't want a good party to go to waste.
Naturally, Kirkwood views Garrison as the devil incarnate and likens him to Hitler more than once. The Garrison that emerges in these pages is an eccentric but aloof politician who drifts in and out of frame, a gone-to-seed Orson Welles cameo as opposed to the do-gooder Kevin Costner caricature. The fact that the Garrison case collapsed so ignominiously would seem to weaken Kirkwood's charge that the D.A. was an all-powerful autocrat who needed to be stopped at all costs.
In the end, Kirkwood is blinded by his own devotion to the defendant and myopic approach to the subject matter. Any student of history will find value in the gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Shaw trial, but — as with most accounts of the Garrison case — they should proceed with caution.
If you are looking for a day-by-day account of the Shaw trial — from jury selection to witness testimony to closing arguments to the verdict and beyond — this book is without equal. Kirkwood covered the trial in New Orleans, intending to write up a piece for Playboy magazine. (Playboy rejected his manuscript.) As he describes his daily vigil in the press section, you can practically hear the guffaws from the weathered old newsmen on hand as each bizarre character traipsed into court and regaled listeners with wild tales of sinister plots and second shooters. It's a window into the past that's unmatched, and even Oliver Stone, in the published script for his pro-Garrison movie "JFK," had to acknowledge that Kirkwood's work is indispensable. (Indeed, some of the story beats in Stone's movie seem to be lifted directly from the trial transcripts and investigative documents reprinted by Kirkwood — Garrison's own book wasn't this detailed.)
The problem is Kirkwood really isn't the right person to document a criminal court proceeding. Nor is he very knowledgable about the Kennedy assassination. On one level, it's oddly refreshing to find someone utterly unimpressed with all the old grassy knoll yarns and the conspiratorial theatrics of the Garrison prosecutors. A little more skepticism about the Garrison investigation is perfectly appropriate — after all, the jury acquitted Shaw after only an hour of deliberation. On the other hand, what can you say for a writer like Kirkwood who won't even concede that the Zapruder film shows JFK’s head snapping to the rear after the fatal bullet strike?
The book isn't just an account of the trial — it's also the recollections of an out-of-town writer making his home in New Orleans and recording all his experiences, from endless dinner parties to the debauchery of Mardi Gras to behind-the-scenes carousing with the denizens of the press gallery. How much of this is relevant to the Shaw case? Debatable. But it's in these passages that Kirkwood ends up telling on himself. He hobnobs with Shaw and his defense team, mingles among Shaw's social circle, and seemingly can't go more than a few feet without someone (a cabdriver, a maitre d, a barkeep) volunteering their belief in Shaw's innocence. All of which Kirkwood accepts with blissful credulity. Well, why not? Wouldn't want a good party to go to waste.
Naturally, Kirkwood views Garrison as the devil incarnate and likens him to Hitler more than once. The Garrison that emerges in these pages is an eccentric but aloof politician who drifts in and out of frame, a gone-to-seed Orson Welles cameo as opposed to the do-gooder Kevin Costner caricature. The fact that the Garrison case collapsed so ignominiously would seem to weaken Kirkwood's charge that the D.A. was an all-powerful autocrat who needed to be stopped at all costs.
In the end, Kirkwood is blinded by his own devotion to the defendant and myopic approach to the subject matter. Any student of history will find value in the gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Shaw trial, but — as with most accounts of the Garrison case — they should proceed with caution.
March 8, 2020
There are many wonderful parts of this book. The author explains how he became involved in the story, he tells great stories about life in New Orleans, paints a vivid picture of the preparations leading up to the trial and the trial itself.
Kirkwood presented the account in an understated way, which makes the story more powerful. Everyone should have been horrified that Garrison got away with persecuting an innocent man. He did so by bribing witnesses, intimidating witnesses, and presenting evidence that was false. He was supported by local newspapers that refused to criticize him and local businessmen who, for some inexplicable reason, financially supported Garrison's legal abuses.
The reason I gave the book three stars is that the author presents too many documents unedited. He gives one document that was introduced into the trial, it goes on for probably eight pages. Most of it is irrelevant. In the last 10% of the book he gives what appear to be unedited transcripts of interviews he had with key people involved in the trial.
Overall though it is worth reading, I would skim through much of the last 25% to 30% of the book.
Kirkwood presented the account in an understated way, which makes the story more powerful. Everyone should have been horrified that Garrison got away with persecuting an innocent man. He did so by bribing witnesses, intimidating witnesses, and presenting evidence that was false. He was supported by local newspapers that refused to criticize him and local businessmen who, for some inexplicable reason, financially supported Garrison's legal abuses.
The reason I gave the book three stars is that the author presents too many documents unedited. He gives one document that was introduced into the trial, it goes on for probably eight pages. Most of it is irrelevant. In the last 10% of the book he gives what appear to be unedited transcripts of interviews he had with key people involved in the trial.
Overall though it is worth reading, I would skim through much of the last 25% to 30% of the book.
February 10, 2015
This book is a great antidote to the disgusting lionization of Jim Garrison. The book reveals Garrison to have been a corrupt fantasist who violated Clay Shaw's constitutional rights as part of his own campaign for reelection. As a movie entertainment, Oliver Stone's JFK is beautiful and compelling. As history, it is worse than garbage. It is fortunate that Kirkwood, who actually attended the sham trial of Clay Shaw, has provided this account showing that the real establishment conspiracy was Jim Garrison's railroading of an innocent man motivated almost certainly by Garrison's homophobia.
March 28, 2015
I gave this book one star on the basis of some of the content being entertaining and even informative. That being said this book is NOT to be taken seriously. The author makes it clear he is biased and is merely cooking up a hack job in favor of Shaw.
March 29, 2009
Totally missed the mark...but the chapter on Mardi Gras Day is the best description I have ever read of that crazy, often mind altering day!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews