Merriman Smith was the UPI journalist in the press car in the motorcade who first reported that shots were fired at JFK. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for his coverage of the assassination.

He also wrote about Jim Garrison. He interviewed Garrison in late February 1967, and before he wrote his article, he called the FBI to tell them what he had learned:

This is a good early view of Garrison's thinking. You can see the homosexual angle played up where Garrison claims a "group of local perverts" infiltrated, and then took, over the anti-Castro training camp.

Here is his article from March 5, 1967 - in this case from the Boston Record American - note this is a UPI article and it appeared in many newspapers across the country.

Smith then wrote to the FBI with a copy of his wire story:

After Merriman Smith's article appeared, a complaint was filed by David Lewis:

You can read a more legible version here from an FBI Report.

Here is a picture of David Lewis:

I doubt this went anywhere. Here is David Lewis' statement from December 1966:

David Lewis sure saw Lee Harvey Oswald a lot. At Mancuso' Restaurant, in Banister's office, and even at David Ferrie's apartment. He realized he had seen Oswald right after he was killed by Jack Ruby. But, he never came forward until the Jim Garrison investigation.

Then in January 1967 he was back in Garrison's office, and David Chandler, a local reporter who was friendly with Garrison, was there:

A couple of points, first, note that Lewis now claims he saw Oswald with Quiroga in 1962 - which is impossible because Oswald had just returned from the Soviet Union, and was living in Ft. Worth. Second, he now claims he was just shot at. A future blog post will examine the supposed shooting in more detail. But, they administered a lie detector test on Lewis and he failed. That was enough to finish him off as a potential witness.

Here is what Tom Bethell wrote in his diary about David Lewis:

From September 9, 1967:

From October 2, 1967:

David Lewis met with the press in late February:

Boston Traveler, February 23, 1967

Here is a CIA report which quotes an FBI report on Lewis:

Not surprisingly, David Lewis is not mentioned in Jim Garrison's book, On The Trail of The Assassins. But, guess who actually believes Lewis is a credible witness? Yup, James DiEugenio, in his book Destiny Betrayed, writes:

"David Lewis, a former investigator for Banister, stated that he once met Oswald in the summer of 1963 in a restaurant housed at the Camp Street building. With Oswald was Sergio Arcacha Smith."

James DiEugenio doesn't even source primary documents - his source is Henry Hurt's book, Reasonable Doubt. And, besides the fact that Lewis has no credibility (and he was not an investigator for Banister) - DiEugenio should know that Sergio Arcacha Smith was not living in New Orleans in the summer of 1963.

Smith wrote another article about Garrison in 1969: