Perry Raymond Russo (May 14, 1941 – August 16, 1995)[1][2] was an American insurance salesman who became the key witness for the prosecution in the trial of Clay Shaw in New Orleans in 1969.
Russo claimed that in September 1963, he witnessed businessman and civic leader Clay Shaw conspiring with Lee Harvey Oswald and David Ferrie to assassinate U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
[3] Russo came forward after his friend David Ferrie died on February 22, 1967, while being investigated by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison in regard to Kennedy's death.
George Lardner of The Washington Post who reported on the story said a week or two earlier that Russo solicited a bribe from him in order to divulge "weaknesses" in his testimony.
[13][14] Garrison had Russo testify two years later at the Clay Shaw trial, which ended in a not-guilty verdict after less than an hour of jury deliberation.
In August 1970, Perry Russo and another man were arrested for burglarizing a New Orleans residence, stealing property valued at eight thousand dollars, and being in possession of a stolen safe-deposit key.
[21] Journalist James Phelan, who covered the Garrison investigation for The Saturday Evening Post, later explained, Oliver Stone's 1991 film JFK has Russo's testimony given by a character named "Willie O'Keefe".
Stone has said that in addition to Perry Russo, O’Keefe was a composite of three other Garrison witnesses — David Logan, Raymond Broshears, and William Morris.
[23] In addition, Russo made a cameo appearance as an angry bar patron in the scene where news of the President's death is received.