Stephen Roy

We really need to move this thread. Sorry I inadvertently hijacked it! Since I don't know how to do "official" quotes, I'll just copy and paste: "The fact that Ferrie lost a Ford in March and bought a Comet in November doesn't mean that he rode no cars in the summertime...Believe it or not: there are human beings out there who ride cars AND motorcycles in summertime." How did this change from Baker wrongly claiming Ferrie OWNED a car to Ferrie RIDING in a car? And there is more than the "fact" of losing the Ford/buying the Comet: His neighbors and friends SAID he didn't have a car that summer. And none was registered in his name. "That would be a childish conclusion...Your reasoning is poor." Why the put-downs? All the available evidence suggests that Ferrie had no car that summer, and he rode a motorcycle. "Your reasoning is..., I fear, not dedicated to the truth, but to discredit JVB." Another put down. Why would I want to offend truth to discredit Baker? Is it untrue that Ferrie had no car that summer? Is there any evidence that Baker was right? "Her story remains waterproved, except minor errors." Her story is far from watertight; it is porous, and the errors are not minor. Why do nearly all JFK assassination researchers mistrust her story? Why do those with knowledge of the New Orleans case mistust her story? "What about your long awaited FERRIE book? I would be one of the first readers." The one that I'm still writing? Glad you're looking forward to it. Maybe a year or two. "...or is there no such project any more? There never was one, eh?" Perilously close to calling me a xxxx. Ask some of my research associates about the book, they've read a lot of it. Or come over to my house. We'll have a few Coronas and you can see it.

I believe Ferrie had the Ford repossessed in March 1963 because he couldn't make the payments; that he rode a motorcycle (or bummed rides from friends like Mo Brownlee); and that he bought a Mercury Comet in November 1963.

We should probably let this thread go back to its original topic. Motorcycle: 1948 Harley, owned by Ferrie. Car: 1960 Ford, amount of loan not given, but GFC "lost about $600. on the transaction." The report does not do into detail on the condition. They must have given loans, as this is from a contemporaneous 1963 report. They repossessed it because they owned the loan. Baker: I don't know of any evidence that Baker ever rode in this car. The supposition that Ferrie owned the car she describes is hers, not mine.

Thanks, Steve. I'm not beyond making mistakes or learning new things, but it seems silly to take a pretty clear contradiction and try to nitpick it.

1) The car was in the possession of General Finance Corp. when the March 1963 report was written. 2) Back in the early 2000s, I had an exchange with Baker about the car, and I described it as written in the report, deplorable, etc. It was long after that, when her first book was published, that she described it in similar terms. 3) As for sources, there is a false equivalency here: One one side: the March 1963 report, a 1963 FBI interview with a reporter who heard this from Ferrie's neighbors, my interviews with his known acquaintances and the Louisiana DMV records. On the other hand: A late-arriving unproven claim from a person who has never offered evidence to prove an acquaintance with Ferrie. Is it naive blind faith to apply more weight to one than the other?

An extension of my earlier comments to you, offered in respect: Jim Marrs opened his classic "Crossfire" with "Don't trust this book," admonishing readers to always seek corroboration in primary sources. Sage advice. My first reaction in reading Barry and the Boys was that there were a number of errors dealing with Ferrie, but mostly minor. Then I dug a little deeper. One of his central claims is that Barry Seal attended a CAP bivouac at Barksdale in 1955 with Ferrie and Oswald. However... 1) Ferrie was not officially in the CAP on July 23, 1955. Having been essentially kicked out of the larger CAP squadron at Lakefront Airport at the beginning of the year, he was a volunteer lecturer at the smaller squadron at Moisant Airport during the summer of 1955. There is no record of Ferrie attending/not attending Barksdale, but not being a staff member suggests that he might not have attended. On the other hand, Ferrie might have met Seal (who was in the Baton Rouge squadron) at some other CAP event. (Info on Ferrie's CAP status: FBI interviews with Moisant Commander Joe Lisman, and cadet leader Gladys Durr) 2) Oswald didn't even join the Moisant group until July 27, 1955, a few days too late. Could he have attended anyway? Colin Hamer (mentioned in the HSCA report, later the NO librarian) was the cadet coordinator for the event, and he retained the listings of cadets who attended. Oswald's name does not appear on the list. So we have no way of knowing if Ferrie attended, and we can be pretty sure Oswald did not. 3) Both before and after Barry and the Boys, I interviewed some of the same people as Hopsicker did, and several of them were pretty mad at how he misquoted them. Specifically, among others, FBI agent Del Hahn, Colin Hamer and Gordon Novel. So at the least, I regard Hopsicker's book with a strong dose of caution. There are a few interesting nuggets in there, but I try to confirm them with the source. This is what I mean about going beyond assertions in books.

Not to take this thread off-topic a bit, but I have numerous other Ferrie issues with Baker's story. She has him (in April 1963) in a pilot's jacket and hat, apparently his Eastern Air Lines uniform. But Ferrie was suspended by EAL in September 1961, was officially terminated in March 1963, and was desperately trying to get his job back. Ferrie would be crazy to screw this up by wearing the uniform whan he was not authorized to do so. (And union steward Corny Kramer told me Ferrie's jacket was still in his locker when it was emptied in September 1963.) She has him in New Orleans at a party when EAL records place him in Miami waiting for a morning flight.

I don't know how to quote specific passages in this Forum. (Can somebody tell me how?) Reposession: Southern Research Report March 1963 - investigators learned this from the finance company. Car described in deplorable condition. License: Yes, valid Louisiana license. Borrowing? Baker described it as Ferrie's car, in deplorable condition. Who said...? Morris Brownlee, Layton Martens, but see also newsman Alec Gifford in CD75, based on neighbors' statements. How did he...? Motorcycle. See Gifford, for example. Supported? I didn't say he "could not have had access to a car." I said he didn't have his own car at the time, as Baker indicated

Robert: The question of Oswald's status as an agent is for another time and place, but the topic of Baker is in my wheelhouse. One of the principal characters of her story is David Ferrie, and I know a thing or two about Ferrie. A number of the claims she makes about Ferrie are inconsistent with what I have learned through years of primary research, some major, some minor. It would take a very long paper to list them all, but an example follows. I am left with the certainty that she cannot have ever even met Ferrie. It follows that the portions of her story dealing with Ferrie must be untrue. And if the Ferrie material is untrue, how can the Oswald material be true? Why fabricate one and not the other? I could (and will, if you want) give many examples, but here is just one: She vividly describes she and Oswald being driven all over the New Orleans area during the summer months in Ferrie's car. Not a rental or a loaner, but Ferrie's owned car, which she describes in colorful terms. But primary research shows that Ferrie did not have a car that summer. He had a car reposessed in March 1963 and he did not have another until he purchased one in November. Motor Vehicle records show that he did not have a car registered between March and November; there are contemporaneous documents specifically stating that he did not have a car; and several of his acquaintences whom I've interviewed recall that he had no car that summer. How can Baker recall a car which didn't exist? She describes a beat-up car in deplorable condition, just barely able to run. This sounds a lot like the car which was reposessed in March, which I told Baker about in the early 2000s. I cannot conceive of an innocent explanation for this. I hope I don't offend anyone for saying this: Reading books is not research. The books may be wrong, or misleading or incomplete in some way. Errors are repeated from book to book. Reading books is OK to draw preliminary theories, but fact-checking by primary research is the ONLY way one can state conclusions in unequivocal form.

This leaped right out at me: "Haslam...piles speculation on speculation and then draws firm conclusions..." This is exactly my problem with Haslam's methodology, with the reasoning he uses in his books. One searches in vain for verifiable evidence to support his conclusions. Certainly as regards my area of expertise (Ferrie), his books cannot be taken as presenting any verifiable evidence that Ferrie had a secret lab in his apartment or even worked with Dr. Mary Sherman.

To Jim DiEugenio: An unsolicited observation (although I note that you may be "leaving the room": It may be a pointless waste of time and energy to debate with Jim Fetzer on these issues. No citation of evidence or logic will discourage him from firing back on all cylinders. Several months back, in an epic thread on Judyth Baker, I came to realize that Jim, despite obvious talents, has a fatal flaw which prevents him from discussing matters without descending into childish putdowns of those who disagree with him. He may question your credentials, intelligence, familiarity with the subject, sincerity and/or motives, all while puffing his own perceived strengths. It will take much time and energy but ultimately accomplish nothing. I think it is best to make your case, let him make his, and be done with it. The rest of us know what the score is.

I think it's a bad idea, along the lines expressed by Greg Burnham. I'm for increasing the flow, not limiting it. Let the reader beware.

Classic definition: A person deliberately pretending to be something other than he really is, for the purpose of spreading false information, to lead people down false trails or away from certain things. In the classic cold war case, defector Anatoli Golitsyn claimed that future defectors would be disinformation agents to lead US/UK investigators away from Golitsyn's leads. Along came Yuri Nosenko, and Golitsyn denounced him as a disinfo agent. US investigators bought into this. I think some in the JFK field are too quick to suspect others of being disinfo agents, with little in the way of evidence of deliberately false information.

Michael, Barb and others have crystallized what has been concerning me about the Baker story (and to a large extent, the Haslam story.) Based on my long and detailed study of David Ferrie (and the related New Orleans milieu), I have concluded that it is very unlikely that Baker ever met Ferrie, much less worked on some secret medical project with Ferrie and Dr. Mary Sherman in Ferrie's apartment at 3330 Louisiana Avenue Parkway. And in the same regard, I don't believe that Haslam has provided evidence to show that Ferrie worked with Sherman (or Baker) or had anything resembling a medical laboratory in that apartment. Haslam does not corroborate Baker, and Baker does not corroborate Haslam. This is not a lightly-held opinion on my part; it is a deep conviction. And if parts of the story are untrue, what are we to think about the rest of the story? I can accept that a few other people believe Baker's story. They are so entitled, despite my feelings about the lack of evidence. What concerns me is that portions of her story are now filtering out into the body of knowledge about the JFK assassination, and mixing with proven knowledge. When I search Ferrie or Sherman on the Internet, I am horrified to see see unproven (and possibly untrue) information being cited as fact. It is hard enough for those familiar with the evidence to critically decide what is fact and what is not; It is nearly impossible for rookies and novices to make such necessary distinctions. History and truth suffer when this happens.

Yes, this is Ferrie, taken in about March 1962. He is standing with Julian Buznedo. Ferrie's appearance is about typical of that time. Yes, he did wear a hairpiece and hats to try to downplay his hair loss. I don't have many pictures of him in this hat. He preferred caps. While he did wear a helmet at that 1955 CAP SARCAP picture (with Oswald), he usually wore a cap at CAP. I'm not so sure that Ferrie knew Ruby.

Breck Wall (Billy Ray Wilson), a figure in the investigation of Jack Ruby and a suspect in the Garrison scenario. http://www.vegasreportnewswire.com/2010/11/las-vegas-legendary-entertainer-breck.html

Letter to the Editor published July 31, 2007 in the New Orleans area publication Gambit, by John Ochsner, MD: QUOTE ON: Mistreatment I was disheartened to see that Gambit Weekly has seen fit to print statements by Edward T. Haslam ("Missing Links," July 17) in which he implies my father, Dr. Alton Ochsner, was involved in creating a cancer-causing virus, which was to be given stealthily to Fidel Castro. This preposterous assertion alleges my father guided Mary Sherman and David Ferrie in the production of a cancer virus produced in monkeys. His book, Dr. Mary's Monkey, is ludicrous, and I am shocked that Gambit Weekly would print such false statements without proper journalistic scrutiny, particularly when there are so many medical professionals within this community from whom you could have sought advice as to the truth of the story. The article also contained numerous erroneous statements. To mention a few, Mary Sherman never performed experimental work with monkeys or any other animals. She was an orthopedic surgeon at the Ochsner Clinic and a pathologist, not at Tulane as the book suggested. Her laboratory prepared slides from bones and their pathology, from which doctors could study. Dr. Gordon McFarland, who works at the Ochsner Clinic, was Dr. Sherman's associate and close friend. He took over her laboratory after her death and assures me that there was no animal experimentation -- ever -- in the laboratory. The article also claims a laboratory accident with use of a linear particle accelerator at the U.S. Public Health Hospital caused the death of Dr. Sherman. The U.S. Public Health Hospital in New Orleans never had a linear particle accelerator. This can be easily documented. The author is so uninformed that he states that terms such as "carcinogenic" and "cancer causing chemicals" were not a part of the American vocabulary at that time, which is ridiculous. During the period of time in the 1960s when the story allegedly took place, I saw my father every day. I can assure you he did no experimental work during that time. He was a man who devoted his life to helping people rid themselves of cancer by surgical means. My father wrote three books on the prevention of cancer and the hazards of smoking. And, for decades, he stood alone in the medical profession teaching this theory, which is universally adopted today. Haslam admits in the article that he is only "one man with a word processor." It is a shame how such reckless and needless damage can be caused by someone who admits he is no investigator, and yet he takes liberties to condemn innocent people like my father. It saddens me to think Gambit Weekly would publish unauthoritative material and deprecate the name of a man who had done so much for this city, country and the world. The fact that you knew my father, his devotion and kindness to mankind is even more disappointing. John Ochsner, M.D. QUOTE OFF http://www.bestofneworleans.com/gambit/letters-to-the-editor/Content?oid=1248155

http://www.ochsnerjournal.org/doi/full/10.1043/1524-5012(2007)7[140:OIL]2.0.CO;2 An article on Ochsner in Literature by Dr. Frank A. Riddick Jr. of the Ochsner Journal, excerpt dealing with Haslam thesis: QUOTE ON: 18. Mary, Ferrie & the Monkey Virus: The Story of an Underground Medical Laboratory. Edward T. Haslam. Albuquerque, NM: Wordsworth Communications, 1997. 19. Dr. Mary's Monkey: How the Unsolved Murder of a Doctor, a Secret Laboratory in New Orleans, and Cancer-Causing Monkey Viruses are Linked to Lee Harvey Oswald, the JFK Assassination, and Emerging Global Epidemics. Edward T. Haslam. Walterville, OR: TrineDay, 2007. Edward T. Haslam grew up in New Orleans, the son of an orthopedic surgeon on the faculty of Tulane Medical School. The Mary in the title of both books is Mary S. Sherman, MD, an orthopedic surgeon and distinguished bone pathologist on the staff of Ochsner Clinic. A native of Chicago, born in 1913, she was recruited to Ochsner Clinic by Guy Caldwell in 1952. She was deeply involved in Ochsner's residency program in orthopedics, and founded what is now named the Mary S. Sherman, MD, Bone Pathology Laboratory. She chaired the Committee on Pathology of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. In April 1964, she was brutally murdered, and her body and apartment on St. Charles Avenue were set afire. Her murder remains unsolved. The frontispiece of Mary, Ferrie & the Monkey Virus proclaims it a nonfiction work; however, some readers may find “fable” to be a more accurate description. Haslam has taken myriad events—the leftovers of former New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison's probe into the Kennedy assassination; the presence of Lee Harvey Oswald in New Orleans; Mary Sherman's murder; anti-Castro sentiment in New Orleans Cuban community; the Bay of Pigs fiasco; John F. Kennedy's assassination; Alton Ochsner's leadership role in the Information Council of America (INCA), an anti-Communist group; a statement from someone that David Ferrie, a Garrison suspect, once kept white mice in his apartment; the fact that Tulane University had a primate research center in St. Tammany Parish; and the appearance of the AIDS virus in the early 1980s—and has created a single unitary conspiracy/cover-up theory tying all these together. The subtitle of Dr. Mary's Monkey is the capsule version of Haslam's theory, which runs somewhat like this: Alton Ochsner, fierce anti-Communist and cancer expert, is enlisted by the CIA to create a virus that causes cancer, so that this can be given surreptitiously to Fidel Castro to rid the Western hemisphere of the Communist menace. Ochsner directs David Ferrie, an ex-airline pilot and a non-scientist, and Dr. Mary Sherman, a cancer researcher who works for him (at Tulane, perhaps at the primate center) each to start working on altering viruses (borrowed from Tulane, or, alternatively, diverted from Alton Ochsner Medical Foundation's animal lab in the 1963 move from Prytania Street to Jefferson Highway) to cause cancer. At some time, the two labs are consolidated at a secret site, determined by Haslam to be the U.S Public Health Service Hospital (then called the Marine Hospital) on State Street at Tchoupitoulas, where a high-powered gadget (presumably a linear accelerator) was located. A laboratory accident there creates an explosion which claims the life of Dr. Sherman. Those in charge of security transport Dr. Sherman's body to her apartment and attempt to cover up the nature of her injuries by stabbing the body and setting it afire. The explosion causes further mutation of the virus and disseminates it beyond the laboratory into the community, from which it appears a decade later as the HIV virus, initiating the AIDS pandemic. The scope of this article does not allow for detailed refutation of what this author finds to be the preposterous claims, underlying misinformation, skewed presentation, and flawed conclusions in this scenario. Haslam presents a long chapter on Alton Ochsner, the factual components cited from Wilds and Harkey with embellishments from the author. There is a fairly full entry on Dr. Sherman, largely from a 1993 Gambit Weekly article written by Don Lee Keith. Mary Sherman was a valued colleague and a superb physician. She was not a virologist at all, nor a basic scientist in cancer research. In this author's opinion, none of Haslam's speculations concerning Dr. Sherman have validity or credibility. As Dr. Sherman's colleague, it is my belief that she deserves better treatment than she receives in these two books. The treatment of Ochsner and its physicians in nonfictional literature ranges from the historical to the personal to the paranoid. QUOTE OFF

Where to begin? Baker has written so much, in several books, in various video appearances, in various Internet writings, that it would take almost another book to respond to it. In the broad sense, I've been unable to find any trace of her among the many documents I've seen, or among the many proven acquaintances of Ferrie I've communicated with. Moreover, I've been unable to find any trace of a Ferrie relationship with Dr. Mary Sherman, or of a medical lab at his apartment at 3330 Louisiana Avenue Parkway. It is hard for me to believe that the level of activity she describes could have been completely hidden from people who spent a great deal of time with Ferrie. And the notion that they're all lying is ridiculous. Keeping to "Me and Lee," there are many problems. She has Ferrie as an open, almost flamboyant homosexual, but all other indications are that he was discreetly in the closet, even denying homosexuality, so that even many friends still don't believe he was homosexual. She has him driving all over the New Orleans area at a time when he had no car registered, in between the March 1963 repossession of his 1960 Ford and the November 1963 purchase of his 1961 Mercury. She has him wearing an airline pilot's jacket and hat, at precisely the time that such a thing would imperil his burning desire to be reinstated as an airline pilot. She has him being called "Dr. Ferrie" by Sherman and others, when that appellation merely represented a contested correspondence degree in psychology, contested at that moment by the airline with whom he sought reinstatement. She has Ferrie telling her that he was going to visit his brother in Illinois at a time when he lived in Allison Park, PA, at least two years before he moved to Illiois. She prints a picture of Ferrie at a seminary but misidentifies the seminary he was attending at the time. She has all this medical lab business going on at a time when Ferrie knew his apartment was being surveilled by a detective agency hired by the airline. And on and on. This is from a quick pass through the book, and does not address the many people she claims Ferrie was associating with at the time. BTW, thanks to Dixie, too!

Thanks to Michael, Barb, Jack, Bernice and others for the notes of support. Let me address the false equivalence issue brought up by another poster. It is true that I did not live through these events or know Ferrie, but I have spoken with numerous people who did know him well, and can prove that they knew him. I don't see how this equates to one person who claims to have known him but has never offered any proof of this.

Since I first encountered Judyth Baker’s story in about 2000, I have said that I would refrain from stating any final conclusions until I read her definitive account. (I have stated all along, however, that extraordinary allegations require extraordinary proof, and I have indicated a certain degree of skepticism as to whether or not that standard was being met.) I have now read her official book, “Me and Lee: How I Came to Know, Love and Lose Lee Harvey Oswald,” her unofficial book “Lee Harvey Oswald: The True Story of the Accused Assassin of President John F. Kennedy By His Lover,” TMWKK “The Love Affair” and other Baker videos, Edward Haslam’s “Dr. Mary’s Monkey,” as well as many e-mails from Baker and her associates, numerous Baker posts from various forums on the Internet, and other materials posted on the Internet. The time has come to state my conclusions about her story. These are my conclusions, and they should not unduly influence those who may see things differently. My conclusions are based on an unusually deep knowledge of David Ferrie; I began gathering information on Ferrie many years ago for my own knowledge base. This eventually led to obtaining virtually every available document about or related to Ferrie in government collections and from other sources, and to contacts with many people who knew Ferrie. This knowledge base has led me to help other researchers and authors and to speak about Ferrie at conferences. It finally occurred to me some years back to write it all up as a manuscript and share it with others. The manuscript is about ¾ written and although I have limited time to work on it, I hope to have it available in some form in the next couple of years. I have been called an expert on David Ferrie, but I see myself more as a specialist. (In fact, Baker or someone writing for her referred to me repeatedly as a “Ferrie expert.”) In any case, it is fair to say that I know more about Ferrie than most people, and I offer the following conclusions in that context: It is my firm opinion that Judyth Baker did not know, associate with or work with David Ferrie. For this reason, it is my firm opinion that the portions of her book detailing her alleged association with Ferrie are not true. (And if the portions relating to such a central character are untrue, what are we to make of the rest of her story?) It is my firm opinion that there is no credible evidence that David Ferrie had any sort of relationship with Dr. Mary S. Sherman or had a medical laboratory at his apartment at 3330 Louisiana Avenue Parkway. (“Dr. Mary’s Monkey” cannot be regarded as corroborative evidence, as Haslam fails to provide evidence to support either assertion.) I expect to be attacked for saying these things, but these are my conclusions based on years of research. Others may feel differently.

Despite receiving much help from NARA, I've felt for some time that they are behind the curve in processing and preserving the things that we have entrusted to their care. It would suck big-time if some important elements of JFK evidence were lost or damaged. They need to get in front of this, or get out and let others come in and do it right. The part about people stealing originals chills me a bit. I've seen lax security there, and we've all heard stories about overzealous people (this case does inspire emotion) replacing originals with copies. I hope they can prevent this while maintaining accessibility to those of us who want to use the materials honestly. I'm sure it's a daunting task, NARA, but this is our history.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/audit-shows-records-national-archives-ri Washington (AP) - An audit prompted in part by the loss of the Wright Brothers' original patent and maps for atomic bomb missions in Japan finds some of the nation's prized historical documents are in danger of being lost for good. Nearly 80 percent of U.S. government agencies are at risk of illegally destroying public records and the National Archives is backlogged with hefty volumes of records needing preservation care, the audit by the Government Accountability Office found. The report by the watchdog arm of Congress, completed this month after a year's work and obtained by The Associated Press, also found many U.S. agencies do not follow proper procedures for disposing of public records. Officials at the National Archives, which houses the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and other treasured documents at its Washington rotunda, had no immediate comment Tuesday on the findings. The report comes more than a year after news reports of key items missing at the nation's record-keeping agency. Some of the items have been missing for decades but their absence only became widely known in recent years.

To the best of my knowledge: Ferrie had a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Bari (Phoenix) in Italy. It was basically a correspondence school. Ferrie became affiliated with it in about 1954, and traveled there for some sort of finals in July 1957, the date of his degree. This institution did not follow the conventional US (or Italian) norms for the awarding of degrees. The US HEW investigated it (among others) in 1960, and described it as a something of a "degree mill." When Ferrie was fighting his suspension/dismissal from Eastern Air Lines between 1961-63, the company's investigators challenged the authenticity of that degree. Nevertheless, as his temp job with G. Wray Gill (related to the Marcello case, among others) was winding down in 1963, Ferrie tried to set himself up as a psychologist, both at his home and at an office building on Perdido. Neighbors reported young teen boys coming and going from Ferrie's home, but it is unclear which were patients and which were not. By January 1964, Ferrie had pretty much abandoned this a a means of making a living, and opened a service station. I don't believe he was ever licensed. And I presume the Polk's listing was out of date.

"Marachinis Chrysler File maybe is a hoax..." It's hard to believe that this 55-page employment file on Dante Americo Marochini, delivered to HSCA by Chrysler, is some kind of hoax. For what purpose?? "(BTW: Standard Coffee isn't Reilys...)" Yes, it is. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Coffee "Garrison not only says Marachini started working the same day as Oswald (and Judyth Vary Baker), he says he left Reilys several days after the assassination for a NASA Job..." No, Marochini left Standard on June 10, worked at a restaurant for about 2 months, and started at Chrysler's plant out in Michoud/Gentilly (a NASA contractor) on August 26, 1963. "just like Alfred Claude, who hired Oswald at Reilys, Emmet Barbee Oswalds superior at Reilys, and James Lewallen (Ferries and Marachinis friend)another Reily employee..." No, James Ronald Lewallen never worked at Reily/Standard. "they all left Reilys several days after the assassination, to start working for NASA...even Melvin Coffee started working at a NASA facility(Aerospace Operation) at Cape Canaveral..." I see you're in Austria, so maybe you don't recall that there was a defense/aerospace hiring boom in the late 50s/early 60s. In Louisiana, it was a series of plants at Michoud (pronounced mee-zhoo) near Gentilly. Where I live, it was General Dynamics and Electric Boat. In Seattle, it was Boeing, and so on. Karl, it is pointless to to debate this. Garrison made mistakes on the Marochini spelling and Reily dates, and you have confused it further, with the Lewallen mistake. Marochini did not start at Standard/Reily on the same day as Oswald, or leave just after the assassination; and Lewallen never worked there. I have the records. There are enough real mysteries here without making new ones up.