Jim Garrison took a big interest in Thomas Beckham. In the early 1960s, he was a young kid trying to make it in the music business, and Jack Martin tried to help him out. He taught Beckham a few tricks, and before you know it, Beckham was "raising money" for the anti-Castro cause while wearing a priest's habit.

Here's an early Garrison memo on Beckham.

Ultimately, they found him in Omaha, Nebraska.

The fact that Beckham was masquerading as a Doctor should have been a sign. Actually, Beckham only had a grade three education - he was a con man, who especially liked to forge University degrees.

He also had a bad reputation that was documented by Better Business Bureaus. Here is a report from the New Orleans BBB:

The Ricky Nelson scam was ingenious - finding another Ricky Nelson to sing to the crowd, and absconding with the cash!

Here is the report from the Omaha BBB:

Garrison had all of these reports. He also had these records of Beckham's commitment to a mental institution.

None of this deterred Garrison. Once he received the two anonymous letters (see my prior blog post), that discussed Crisman and Beckham, he knew he had to question Beckham. Garrison issued a subpoena with this paragraph:

You can read the rest of the story in my book, On The Trail of Delusion - Jim Garrison: The Great Accuser.

The big question - did the con man, Thomas Beckham, con Garrison, the conspiracy theorist? Here is a publication that Garrison had in his files.

Stay tuned for further posts on Thomas Beckham.