David Ferrie

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David William Ferrie (born March 28, 1918 in Cleveland , Ohio , † February 22, 1967 New Orleans , Louisiana ) was a pilot and private investigator, who was the chief witness in the investigation of the businessman Clay Shaw because of the assassination of John by District Attorney Jim Garrison F. Kennedy was employed.

Life

Ferrie began a career as a candidate for the priesthood, but was dismissed from two seminars due to behavior and then became bishop of the "Orthodox Old Catholic Church of America", which is not recognized by the Vatican . Ferrie suffered from alopecia and masked his hairlessness with a wig and glued-on eyebrows. Due to a cancer, he dealt extensively with chemistry and made corresponding experiments with mice. In addition, he worked as an amateur psychologist, acquired a controversial doctorate via correspondence course and appeared as a hypnotist.

During World War II , Ferrie proved to be a talented pilot. From 1944 he tried as a flight instructor at a college in Cleveland, from which he was dismissed because of his advances to young flight students. Ferrie trained in the Civil Air Patrol initially in Cleveland, where his employment was not extended after a fatal accident of a student pilot. Ferrie then worked as an insurance inspector, flew for Eastern Air Lines from 1951 and taught between 1958 and 1960 in the Civil Air Patrol of New Orleans , in which he included the then 15-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald and later in the Iran-Contra Affair involved teaching Barry Seal to fly. In the 1950s, Ferrie had supplied rifles to Fidel Castro, whom he admired at the time , until the latter confessed to Marxism and was hated from then on. After Ferrie left the Civil Air Patrol in 1960 in dispute, he raised his own flight organization Metairie Falcon Cadet Squadron . From this later emerged the right-wing Internal Mobile Security Unit that fought against Fidel Castro. In 1961, Ferrie lost his job at Eastern Air Lines on charges of moral offenses and was sentenced to prison for relationships with underage boys, which resulted in the end of the unit.

In the trial against his employer, Ferrie was represented by G. Wray Gill, a lawyer who noticed Ferrie's intelligence and intrigue. Gill hired Ferrie as a private investigator and introduced him to his key client, Carlos Marcello , the godfather of the southern mafia. At the time , Marcello financed Cubans in exile who had fled the gambling paradise of the mafia. As a mercenary, Ferrie flew to Cuba as part of Operation Mongoose , which was co-sponsored by the CIA , for secret sabotage operations in Cuba financed by Marcello. The tricky Ferrie also built two mini-submarines with which he wanted to block the port of Havana . From a three-week vacation with his airline, it is concluded that Ferrie was already involved in the Bay of Pigs invasion . Ferries public tirades against Castro-hostile groups against Kennedy's Cuba policy had to be broken off by the organizers. In a letter he offered the defense minister to kill any Russian or communist and to train killers.

Ferrie also worked for the FBI retiree and respected private investigator Guy Banister , whose New Orleans office was at 544 Camp Street. This address was also given on an apparently Castro-friendly leaflet that Lee Harvey Oswald had distributed at the time. Neither Oswald's Fair Play for Cuba committee nor Oswald himself were known to Castro supporters. According to Oswald's attorney Dean Andrews, who also worked for Marcello, Oswald is said to have been paid to distribute the leaflets, which indicates a COINTELPRO operation. The Warren Commission refused to ask Andrews about the donor for no reason. Witnesses reported seeing Oswald, Ferrie and Banister in this building with the exiled Cuban leader Sergio Arcacha Smith. According to witnesses, Ferrie and Oswald were said to have openly discussed the possibility of a coup at a private party in the summer of 1963. Oswald was also often seen in the Banisters company, who was also in contact with Marcello.

Trial of Carlos Marcello

Marcello hated the Kennedys not only because of their Cuba policy, but also because Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy personally had him illegally deported to Guatemala in the dispute over Marcello's US citizenship in order to become the high-ranking and influential boss of the American Get rid of mafia .

In the run-up to the existential trial for Marcello on suspicion of immigration fraud, which was supervised by Gill, the mafioso used all kinds of tricks such as elaborately forged documents. Gill's intrigue specialist Ferrie was on a $ 7,000 contract in Guatemala believed to be dealing with Guatemalan documents for Marcello. During the trial, the mafioso spent the weekends of 9/10. November and 17./18. November 1963 with Ferrie, which allows conclusions to be drawn about the importance of Ferries. Although Ferrie had so far attended most of Marcello's trial dates, he preferred to go ice skating at night to Houston for the decisive day on November 22, 1963, despite a strong thunderstorm . Ferrie's presence on the rink was confirmed, but he did not skate there, but sat on the phone non-stop.

Investigation into the attack

On the afternoon of November 22, 1963, when John F. Kennedy was shot dead and Marcello was acquitted of immigration fraud charges on the basis of a bribed jury, Banister got into a violent argument with his colleague Jack Martin, who then accused Ferrie of being involved in the assassination attempt . Ferrie taught Oswald to shoot with a telescopic sight, flown him to Texas and worked out murder plans. Martin told the FBI that he thought Ferrie hypnotized Oswald to murder Kennedy. Although the FBI did not believe the alcoholic Martin, Ferrie was questioned twice about his contacts. Martin also stated that Ferrie had been informed that his library card had been found in Oswald's possession when he was arrested. Although Ferrie had actually missed the ID, the claim could not be confirmed according to the Warren Report. On the contrary, Ferrie was able to present the ID to the FBI on November 27, 1963. The FBI had extensive information on Ferrie, but it was withheld from President Lyndon B. Johnson . Ferrie came into the light of the public briefly through the investigation of the police. Marcello gave Ferrie a branded gas station and let him work for various of his companies until 1966.

New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison , who had interrogated Ferrie after the assassination attempt, took up the case again in late 1966 and learned from Martin of the connection Ferries and the now deceased Banister to militant Cubans in exile. Garrison suspected a group of Ferrie, Banister, Carlos Bringuier and CIA resident Clay Shaw of being involved in a plot to kill Kennedy because Kennedy wanted to end hostilities with Cuba and CIA operations in Vietnam. Ferrie became Garrison's main witness in his investigation into Shaw, a well-known businessman.

death

However, there was no more testimony. On February 22, 1967, Ferrie, who had feared for his life, was found dead next to two unsigned farewell letters made on a typewriter. The autopsy revealed a berry aneurysm as the cause of death . An opened bottle of the hormone drug Proloid was found in the house, which could have caused this symptom in Ferrie. A day later, the Cuban exile Eladio de Valle, who was a close friend of Ferrie, was found dead with a smashed head and shot in the heart. Three months later, Ferrie's closest friend, Dr. Mary Stults Sherman murdered on.

Films and documentaries

proof

  1. ↑ John H. Davis: Mafia Kingfish. 1988, Chapter 22, German edition: Mafia. US shadow history. , Zurich 1989. Missing page
  2. ↑ HSCA Appendix to Hearings - Volume X, p. 8
  3. ↑ Anthony Summers: Conspiracy. 1980, pp. 364-365.
  4. ↑ John H. Davis: Mafia Kingfish. 1988, 23rd chapter, German edition: Mafia. US shadow history. , Zurich 1989. Missing page
  5. ↑ Marcello's acquittal ( memento of January 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Statement by Jack Martin to FBI SA Regis Kennedy and SA LN Shearer, 11/27/63
  7. ↑ Jack Martin statement to Maj. Presley J. Trosclair of New Orleans PD 11/23/63
  8. ↑ HSCA Appendix to Hearings - Volume X, p. 117
  9. ↑ HSCA Appendix to Hearings - Volume X, p. 118
  10. ^ Warren Report, Appendix 11: Reports Relating to the Interrogation of Lee Harvey Oswald at the Dallas Police Department , Reports of Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation . Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 24, p. 17, CE 1986, FBI report dated November 25, 1963 concerning items in possession of Lee Harvey Oswald when apprehended . Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 26, p. 587, CE 3042, FBI report of laboratory examination of items possessed by Lee Harvey Oswald for possible espionage significance . Oswald had his own New Orleans library card, and used it to check out thirty-four books between May and September 1963, when he moved back to Dallas. Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 25, p. 928, CE 2650, Secret Service report dated December 10, 1963, and FBI report dated February 25, 1964, of checks of public libraries in New Orleans, La., And Dallas, Tex., And a list of books knowns to have been checked out by Lee Harvey Oswald .
  11. ^ Warren Commission Document 75 , pp. 199-200, 294. Poser, p. 142n. Dave Blackburst, David Ferrie's Library Card , 1998.
  12. ↑ John H. Davis: Mafia Kingfish. 1988, Chapter 44, German edition: Mafia. US shadow history. , Zurich 1989

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Ferrie, David
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ferrie, David William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American private investigator; Main witness in investigations into the assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Cleveland , Ohio
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1967
Place of death New Orleans , Louisiana