[Sample B: Approval/Signature Sheet] - George Mason University

whether Shaw was involved was unclear. That is a question unanswered throughout the
film: what was international businessman Clay Shaw’s actual role in the assassination?
He is seen discussing the plot in Oswald’s presence but we are not told his role. Shaw is
depicted as someone associated with the CIA, but Stone had to contend with the simple
fact that Shaw was acquitted. Perhaps the most telling line in the film, in this regard, is
spoken by the trial judge after he bars a policeman from testifying about Shaw’s alleged
alias Clay Bertrand. Garrison objects that the judge is ruining his case against Shaw.
The judge responds that “If that’s your case, you didn’t have a case.” 709
Stone also included some of the suspect testimony of a character called Charles
Goldberg – based on a real life witness called Charles Spiesel – who claimed he met with
Ferrie and Shaw and the two discussed the plot to kill Kennedy. Goldberg admits under
cross examination that he fingerprinted his daughter to ensure her identity, and that he
was “subject to hypnosis and psychological warfare.” Stone shifted the blame for this
questionable testimony from Garrison to a character named Jim Broussard, a composite
character who had wondered whether the mob had killed Kennedy and eventually quit the
case. Stone has one of Garrison’s assistants explain “He [Goldberg] was one of
Broussard’s witnesses.” 710 The implication is that Broussard was undermining the case
through a questionable witness. In reality, of course, Garrison had put Spiesel on the
stand only to have his credibility severely shaken. Stone used the Garrison prosecution
of Shaw as a vehicle to explore the assassination and give voice to the conspiracy theory
709 Sklar and Stone, 150.
710 Sklar and Stone, 149.
311