64 Parishes

Episode 2: Jim Garrison’s Dangerous Fairy Tale

When President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22nd, 1963, people around the country quickly rejected their government’s conclusion that a sole assassin committed the crime. A slew of conspiracy theories took hold, but only one conspiracy theorist transferred his theories into actual arrests. Jim Garrison, District Attorney of New Orleans, was media savvy, and skillfully attracted TV cameras, reporters, and supporters with his giant claims. In 1967, the world watched Garrison insist that he had “solved the assassination.” But who was at fault?

Sticky Wicket: Louisiana Politics Versus the Press, hosted by Laine Kaplan-Levenson, is an award-winning miniseries out of WWNO New Orleans Public Radio and WRKF Baton Rouge that takes on four historic clashes between Louisiana politicians and the media. Turns out, these relationships have always been love/hate in the Pelican State. 

The series is a collaboration between WWNO, WRKF, and the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (LEH), which funded the project as part of the Democracy and the Informed Citizen initiative of the Federation of State Humanities Councils. Democracy and the Informed Citizen seeks to deepen the public’s knowledge and appreciation of the vital connections between democracy, the humanities, journalism, and an informed citizenry. Sticky Wicket complements four Democracy and the Informed Citizen feature articles on Huey Long, Jim Garrison, Ernest “Dutch” Morial, and Kathleen Blanco that ran in the summer, fall, and winter 2018 issues of 64 Parishes magazine. 

Listen on iTunes