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Nonetheless, as Garrison quite properly points out, until the trial takes place the only one who knows the strength of his case is Jim Garrison himself. His friends in New Orleans like to remember that he has won many a tough one before. He cleaned out the well-entrenched B-girls on Bourbon Street and also took on eight local judges, winning the right to criticize them in the U.S. Supreme Court. On the other side, local enemies, of whom he has his share, recall that he was discharged from the Army for mental reasons and that he has a sister who has been hospitalized as a schizophrenic.
Though political gain has been suggested as a motive for his undertaking, almost everyone who takes the time to talk to him comes away with the impression that he is sincere. Charming and forceful, he presses his case with compelling ease. Despite being married and the father of two, he has been working on it seven days a week, for nearly two years. "It should be evaluated in a courtroom," he says. "If it's a fraud, I should be removed from office." No matter what the outcome, a courtroom can only be an improvement on the current wonderland.