New Chapters in Assassin's Diary?

Six months ago, at the request of a dying Wallace, the Alabama attorney general's office contacted Judge Femia. "They were calling on behalf of `The Governor,'" recalls Femia. "They still called him that -- `The Governor.' They wanted to know if there is any evidence of some sort of conspiracy. He asked me for my read of Bremer and I told him, `Bremer was a basic nut case who vowed to get attention and wanted to write a book. This guy was a zealot driven for his own profit to do an act so outrageous. I don't think George Wallace necessarily was the target. He happened to be a target of opportunity.'"

Prosecutor Marshall is not convinced. What bothers him is Nixon's obsession with the case, particularly the failure to turn over Bremer's original diary, which the FBI had and provided to the White House. Or, as Marshall always prefaces it: "If you believe Bremer wrote the diary."

The thousands of pages Insight reviewed in the WalShot Files suggest Marshall's concern may be well-founded. The files show Nixon ordered the FBI to take charge and get the Secret Service out of the case. They show acting FBI Director Gray provided Nixon with daily briefings on the case. And they show the president personally ordered all materials seized inside Bremer's apartment be taken not to FBI headquarters but to the White House.

When Nixon learned the FBI made copies of the transcripts of the diary and provided them to the Secret Service, he ordered those copies surrendered and destroyed. He then told Gray not only to destroy all records indicating that the White House saw the diary but to issue a directive that "no one is allowed access to the subject, even [Bremer's] lawyer." According to the file, Nixon was concerned Bremer might be tied to the White House "plumbers." He told Gray to chase down any plots to kill Bremer and to rule out all conspiracy theories beyond doubt.

And there were many theories. One prompted the FBI to issue a three-page memo to the Domestic Intelligence Division. Writing in the John Birch Society's American Opinion magazine in 1972, Alan Stang had suggested a Maoist radical who later was murdered in Canada had paid Bremer to shoot Wallace. This prompted calls for a congressional investigation and nearly every facet of the story eventually was targeted. Stang claimed that Bremer lacked finances to pay for his extensive travel, for instance. But FBI files characterize Bremer as a "miser" who saved every penny he earned, and had $1,459 between March 14, 1972, and May 15, 1972, spending about $928 and leaving more than enough to cover his trips. Maybe.

Stang tells Insight he remembers nothing of the preparation and details of his sensational story -- giving rise to concern about speculation suggested in the WalShot Files that the White House may have leaked stories to the press to help Nixon. The FBI apparently was furious when someone leaked Bremer's manuscript to Newsweek at a time when only the FBI and the White House had copies.