Stephen Roy

Before we get too far afield on this photo... There is documentary evidence that Ferrie was guest trainer with the Moisant unit from June to September 1955. Oswald joined that unit on July 27, 1955, cadet serial 084965. Several people, some who testified before HSCA and several I have talked to, recall Ferrie and Oswald in that unit at that time. The cadet commander who kept the rolls still has a partial list of those on that SARCAP exercise, dated Sunday August 7, 1955. Oswald is listed as present. I also have a hi-res TIFF scan of the original picture. When blown up, there is much more detail than in a JPG or scan from print. None of the anomalies seem present in the TIFF scan. For these and other reasons, I am inclined to believe that this is a legit photo. Just my opinion, not looking to start a debate.

The guy who kept the rolls of that squadron, now a retired NO official, is sure Oswald was there. He says he had a partial roster of that event, but I've never seen it. (It was called a SARCAP, Search and rescue/CAP). He is one of the people I am going to see in a few weeks.

Ron: The same guy (bad memory) who thought the circled guy was Roy Tell also thought the third guy was Joe Lisman, a Delta pilot who commanded the squadron, but I think the insignia (bars) are wrong. Again, I'll try to clarify this when I see a couple of former members in a few weeks. Yes, Ferrie is the second guy, in a helmet (and a provocative position, given Ferrie's orientation!)

No definitive answer. I showed this Ciravolo pic to a CAP guy who should know, but he begged bad memory after all these years. He THOUGHT it might be Roy Tell. I showed it to another guy, VERY close to Ferrie but VERY insistent that I never quote or refer to him. He was not in the CAP, but he thought it looked like a Ferrie friend named Andrew Jerome Blackmon. However, Blackmon is described elswhere as swarthy, having curly black hair. So I'd doubt that it was him. I'm going to NO in a few weeks to interview some folks. I'll ask around. One interesting thing I found out: The smaller Moisant Squadron shown here apparently included occasional appearances by members of the larger New Orleans Cadet Squadron (Lakefront), from which Ferrie had been bounced a few months earlier, and to which he later briefly returned. The guy on the far left, for example, is Alvin C. Miester, from the NOCS. I've turned up a bunch of other photos of the CAP including or related to Ferrie, and later photos of his unchartered Metairie Falcon Squadron and IMSUs - Internal Mobile Security Units. If all goes well, I'll debut them in a forthcoming book and film.

James, you seem very adept at working with pictures online. Perhaps you can give me some guidance. I am working on AOL. I often have trouble saving JPGs found online, and it just happened with the Oswald pic. I right-clicked and selected "Save picture as", but when the work box popped up, my only save options were Bitmap or ART file. I can't open either type of file in any program, including PhotoShop7. What am I doing wrong?

Yes, that is one. Thank you James!

Friends, especially picture collectors: I believe that there are at least two photos of Lee Harvey Oswald in his Civil Air Patrol uniform, facial portraits (not the famoius Ciravolo bivouac piture, which I have). I would love to get a good scan of either or both of these. Anybody have one ready to go? Thanks!

Just a personal observation: There is no doubt that Morrow was involved with Kohly at the height of the great anti-Castro crusade. But in my research into David Ferrie, I have had to consider Morrow's writings. Not only have I been unable to confirm any of Morrow's claims about Ferrie; I also have reason to believe Ferrie was not where Morrow said he was on more than one occasion. I come away from Morrow believing that one cannot accept his accounts without corroboration. My personal feeling at this time (and it's only MY feeling, I don't wish to press it on others) is that Morrow has embellieshed his accounts in certain ways. Even the subtitle of his second book seems to show an eagerness to be involved in the JFK case.

Yes. As head of Operation Chaos he had access to the files of the CIA, FBI and army and navy intelligence. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Thanks for the reply. I hear what you're saying, but much of the speculation I've heard about DT shows him to be very in touch with both the FBI investigation of the break-in and the grand jury proceedings, almost on a daily basis. I'm not sure Ober, whose charge was essentially domestic CI, would have been in the loop on a criminal FBI investigation, and I'm even more unsure about him having current knowledge of a grand jury investigation. By the way, is Ober gravely ill, as is it rumored DT is?

It's been a while since I read All The President's Men, but I recall DT as having ready access to the FBI investigation and the Grand Jury activities. Would Ober have been positioned to know these?

Thanks for the replies. As I noted, in Ferrie's case, I "never say never"! As both were involved in anti-Castro activities at about the same time, it is certainly possible that they crossed paths. But I have never been able, through diligent research, to establish it one way or another. I was a bit alarmed that all the accounts trace back to one source, but nobody ever looked closely at that source to see if it was plausible. And even more alarmed that it was taken as gospel by a number of writers. That is why it is important to consider Jim Marrs' caution not to accept what one reads in books without some independent confirmation. And there are other examples in "both" directions. On the "disprove" side, it is widely accepted that Ferrie was a paid employee of William Guy Banister. Not so. Both Jack Martin and mistress/payroll master Delphine Roberts said Ferrie was never on WGB's payroll (although neither is a really great source.) Ferrie was working full-time for Gill, Bernstein, Schreiber and Gill. Ferrie engaged Banister to investigate in his grievance matter against Eastern Air Lines, and Banister offset his fee by asking Ferrie for advice regarding the autopsy of a small child (this from the testimonies of Ferrie and Banister). So in effect, Banister was "employed" by Ferrie! But it changes little: Ferrie and Banister had met when both were working with the FRD, and they "got together" as associates and friends in February 1962, continuing on through the assassination, and Ferrie was an occasional visitor to Banister's office. On the "prove" side, it is often denied that Ferrie had any connection to the CIA, but I draw out the facts in my book: Ferrie volunteered for the New Orleans branch of the Frente Revolucionario Democratico in November 1960. From then until the BoP, he was not fully accepted, being regarded as a gringo, but he was involved in certain activities, such as "shaking the cans" for the FRD at Mardi Gras 1961. AFTER the BoP, he became the great white hope for Arcacha and the FRD, and was involved in at least one episode to obtain arms (maybe two) and other activities, at least until he was arrested on morals cgarges in August of that year. Internal CIA documents make clear that the FRD ("nationally") was created, funded, and its activities to some extent directed by the CIA. Arcacha was appointed by Manuel Antonio de Varona y Loredo and reported to FRD headquarters (JMWAVE?) through a Coral Gables PO box to one Mario del Canal, and he reported occasionally to the local FBI and CIA. Thus, Ferrie WAS connected, heavily for at least several months, to a CIA organization. One internal CIA document says Ferrie was of no operational value to the CIA, and another makes the case that neither the FRD or CIA could have knowledge of people "taken on" by the movement at Arcacha's level. Maybe they're right, maybe it was serendipitous for Ferrie, almost a Walter Mitty thing, as he bragged to a few friends. But it is not accurate to say he had no connection to the CIA. For a period of time, he was "involved" in a very hot CIA project. And there are a few other interesting hints, examined in my book: Ferrie told a pal about a CIA recruitment in about August 1960. While some of the details seem exaggerated, there may be some truth, given the timing. Then another coincidence: Another friend recalled Ferrie training his "IMSUs" (actually, American boys in his "Falcon Squadron") for anti-Castro activities at Belle Chasse in the spring of 1961. Years later, it was revealed that CIA had trained Cubans at that location in that period of time! Then there were hints to a friend about a secret Operation Mosquito. I disagree with Bill Davy that this may have been Mongoose, but it is still interesting.

I have noted before that there are some things about David Ferrie that turn out to be true, and some that turn out to be questionable. As this is an academic forum, I thought I’d give an example: Everybody knows that Eladio Sefarino delValle was David Ferrie’s paymaster, right? Why? Because it’s been written in many books. But all of those references track back, directly or indirectly, to one source: An article by Diego Gonzales Tendedera, the Miami correspondent for El Tiempo, a Spanish-language newspaper in New York. Most researchers have never read it. Here is the Ferrie material from his article: QUOTE ON: “Del Valle…set up a grocery store as a front for his operations. And after I fled to Miami in May 1960, I became a frequent visitor at the store. It was there that I met Ferrie. As a free-lance pilot, he was flying scores of missions with del Valle to drop bombs on Cuba. For six months, I saw Ferrie and del Valle together almost every day. They’d take off two or three times a week in del Valle’s twin engine Apache to drop incendiaries on strategic targets and rescue anti-Communist Cubans who wanted to escape. Del Valle told me he gave Ferrie $1000. to $1500. per flight, depending on whether they would just drop bombs or would have to land on some highway to pick up refugees, a far more dangerous mission. I never really trusted Ferrie. And del Valle didn’t either. He once said to me: ‘Ferrie has guts. We’ve saved dozens of our friends. But I don’t fully trust him. He’d sell us out if he could.’ No one knows who sold del Valle out. But U.S. Government agents put a stop to his raids early in 1961 by confiscating his Apache plane. After splitting up, del Valle stayed in Miami and Ferrie went to New Orleans…” QUOTE OFF Let me summarize a few points from Tendedera’s article: He says that, for a six month period between May 1960 and early 1961, Ferrie, a “freelance pilot“, and del Valle were together almost every day in del Valle’s store in Miami. A few problems here: David Ferrie was not a freelance pilot during this period. He was employed full-time with Eastern Air Lines, based at MSY in New Orleans. I have his flight and work records. He worked 5 days a week making numerous flights, but principally his 3-times weekly 379/506 run to Houston, Brownsville and Corpus Christi. There is simply NO WAY he could have spent “almost every day” in del Valle’s Miami store during this period. But this is the central thrust of Tendedera’s account. If THIS proves to untrue or unlikely, what are we to make of the rest of the account? Let alone the fact that none of his associates I have spoken with can confirm any knowledge of an association with del Valle, or any extended absences from New Orleans? Now, there is an account by Fabian Escalante that seems to support a Ferrie/del Valle partnership, but Escalante does not claim it from his own knowledge. In fact, his book relies heavily on facts sourced from other assassination books and published accounts. Did Ferrie work with del Valle? He was certainly involved in anti-Castro activities at that time (although not as intensely as the post-Bay of Pigs period) and del Valle was certainly involved in anti-Castro activities, but the single source for the claim that they worked together is inconsistent with Ferrie’s work record. So we would have to regard it as unproven. (As far as Ferrie is concerned, I “never say never”!) And if it IS untrue, what does it say that the story has bounced from book to book, giving the impression of multiple sources?

As for Gouzenko, there is a pic of him in some intelligence book. As I recall, he's with his wife in an airport or something, walking toward the camera. I'll try to find it. It might be in a Chapman Pincher book. Or one of the books about Intrepid. BTW, one cannot underestimate how the battle over Golitsyn, Nosenko, Fedora etc and the whole mole hunt must have affected the JFK matter. The inside accounts show that the mole hunt was at a peak in late 63, and the emergence of Nosenko in an assassination related role must have caused some deep suspicion in intelligence circles. (I am one of those who thinks that many intel people believed in Oswald's image as a lefty and were deeply alarmed about his time in the USSR and his Mexico City trip.)

Thanks James. The quotes are from my manuscript (unedited). Again, I caution readers that this will be more of a biography than a conspiracy book, although all the conspiracy stuff is covered and a lot of new stuff is introduced. Interested parties will find a lot of new material, in any case. A few Ferrie factoids proven and extended, a few open to question. I was originally going to call this "The Ferrie File", as it was initially based on the voluminous NARA holdings on Ferrie. I was surprised that nobody had done this yet: acquired most, if not all the NARA stuff, chronologized it and pulled all the details together. It took me about 5 years of just absorbing it all to finally start to see how it fit together. There are answers there to many questions. Then I went off looking for other documentary sources and live interviews. (Interesting note: The interviews are great for added details and context, but most people have a devil of a time nailing down dates! And, unlike biographies from earlier time periods, many of those connected to these events are still alive and "interviewable".) And, if anyone else is so inclined, there are enough materials at NARA for respectable biographies of Banister and DeMohrenschildt, among others.

Incidentally, the picture you posted was taken around February of 1962. Ferrie had been arested the previous year, and Buznedo had moved to Denver, but on a trip to NO, he looked up Ferrie and posed for this picture.

James: This is based largely on Buznedo's statement to NODA, on the transcript of his phone call with Aynesworth, on a more recent interview and on fragments from other sources. (A suspicious person might doubt Buznedo, but I tend to accept his account. And he is really the only source we have for chronology.) "At the beginning of May Arcacha decided to take a trip to Miami to meet with the leaders of the FRD and to personally greet some of the survivors of the Bay of Pigs invasion. Ferrie was unavailable for the trip because of his regular flight schedule with Eastern, but he was willing to make his Stinson available to Hugh Ward. In Miami, Arcacha and Ward made the acquaintance of a young man named Julian Buznedo Castellanos. Formerly an amateur prizefighter in Cuba, Buznedo came to Miami in 1960 and was recruited for Brigade 2506. At the time of the invasion, he had been given a camera make a photographic record of the historic event. Buznedo was assigned to the vessel Barbara J and made it to the beach, where he took many photographs of the action, but was forced to retreat as the invasion collapsed. Arcacha was very interested in Buznedo's pictures. "Boy, you mean you got pictures?...No pictures have been released about the invasion...You know, we can publish a book and we can put some of these pictures in it. It's going to be terrific. We can make a lot of money out of it." Arcacha told Buznedo that he knew a writer in New Orleans, who was formerly a religious man, who would take on the project. (Arcacha may have been referring to Jack S. Martin, who fancied himself a writer and had been ordained as part of an investigation of phony religious documents.) He asked Buznedo to come with him to New Orleans. While still in Miami, Buznedo had mentioned to Hugh Ward that he was a civilian pilot in Cuba, but was about 90 hours short of flight time for his American license. Ward and Arcacha let him fly Ferrie's Stinson that day, and Arcacha offered to put Buznedo in contact with Ferrie. "Listen, if you go to New Orleans, you'll be able to get your license...This American boy [Ward] has been flying a lot and he's about to get his pilot's license, and it isn't costing him anything...You tell [David] Ferrie that you're a Cuban,..and boy, he's really going to help you. He really likes Cubans a lot, and he's also [very] sorry for what happened [at] the Bay of Pigs...So you make good friends with him. He's going to fly you...You'll be able to get your license." Buznedo replied "Well, hell, that sounds like it's pretty good, you know." The book concept was enticing enough, but the added lure of virtually free flying time was all it took to get Buznedo to decide to move to New Orleans. He convinced two other Bay of Pigs survivors, Carlos Lopez and Endrik Ceijas, to accompany him. The three Cubans made their way to New Orleans in early May and moved in with Arcacha and his family at 112 Egret Street. Almost immediately Arcacha invited David Ferrie over to meet the men and, as Arcacha predicted, he was very impressed to meet actual Bay of Pigs survivors. Ferrie took a liking to young Buznedo and offered to let him fly his Stinson for the cost of the fuel, about $6.00 per hour, much lower than the standard hourly flight fee of $18.00. Buznedo also took a liking to the fascinating Ferrie, and began calling him "El Capi". While Buznedo did, in fact, fly several times with Ferrie, he could be seen more often with Hugh Ward in Ferrie's plane." "Arcacha was right. Ferrie “really likes Cubans a lot, and…he’s really going to help you.” He certainly took a shine to young Julian Buznedo. When Buznedo’s Bay of Pigs book deal fell through because the writer (Jack S. Martin?) decided not to take the project, Ferrie went to great lengths to help him. Julian was a talented artist, and Ferrie took him to several places to try to obtain work as a draftsman, emphasizing the patriotic nature of hiring a veteran of the US-backed invasion. When that failed to materialize, he took Buznedo to the Times-Picayune/States-Item newspaper and actually had several of his cartoons published, at $5-10. each. But it was not enough for the young man to live on, so in early June, Buznedo and Endrik Ceijas moved back to Miami to seek employment there, leaving Carlos Lopez behind in New Orleans." "David Ferrie was clearly out on an emotional and political limb by this time, with an overblown ego and sense of urgency. Still the speeches before community groups continued, with an increasing level of stridency. In early June, Julian Buznedo Castellanos returned to New Orleans from an unsuccessful job hunt in Miami, and Ferrie now had a powerful visual aid to enhance the drama of his speeches: A genuine Bay of Pigs veteran, a hero. At lunchtime on Monday, July 24, 1961, Ferrie spoke before the Young Men’s Business Club, with Buznedo in tow. One of the attendees was so impressed by the presentation that he invited Ferrie to speak that same evening at a meeting of another group, for which he was the meeting chairman. That group was the Military Order of World Wars, and the meeting was at Lenfant’s Boulevard Room at 5236 Canal Boulevard, with seventy members in attendance." I have established to a reasonable certainty that Ferrie also brought Buznedo and Lopez to one of his IMSU/Falcon training exercises at Abita Springs sometime between May and August.

When I get to my office on Mondy, I'll have more detail. it is based mainly on comments by Julian Buznedo Castellanos. In a nutshell, Arcacha ran into BoP veteran Buznedo (Barbara J, as I recall) in Miami and learned that he had photos and other material fo a book, and that he was an aspiring pilot. He invited him to NO to meet a newspaperman (from the description, Jack S. Martin) and a pilot flight teacher (Ferrie) who "loves Cubans". Buznedo came to NO with Carlos Lopez and Endrik Ceijas around May-June 1961, lived briefly with Arcacha, got flight training on Ferrie's plane (but mostly from Hugh Samuel Ward) and Ferrie used him as a dog and pony show at speeches, including the infamous Military Order of World Wars. Ferrie also tried to get him a gig as a cartoonist for the Picayune, and a few things were published, but not enough money to live on. Buznedo returned to Miami to job hunt, unsuccessfully, then back to NO where he got a job at a supermarket. Later in the year, he moved to Denver. That's a quickie, but let me check my notes.

This day in Ferrie history, February 22, 1967: George Lardner Jr. interviewed Ferrie from about midnight to about 4am. At 11:45am, Jimmy Johnson arrives at Ferrie's apartment and knocks. No answer. he knocks for an additional 3 minutes or so, but still no answer. He peeks in through the missing pane of glass and pushes the curtain outward. He sees Ferrie lying in bed. He calls to him repeatedly but Ferrie does is unresponsive. Worse, Ferrie's eyes are open. At about 11:50, Johnson runs downstairs to get the landlord, and the two return to break-in the lock on the back door. They quickly determine that Ferrie appears to be deceased in his bed. Johnson first phones Lou Ivon of the NO District Attorney's office (a call slip still exists) but Ivon does not get it for several minutes. He next phones the NOPD, and the police arrive at 12:05pm. Ivon arrives at 12:10 and other NODA staff arrive shortly. Ten medicine bottle are found on the coffee table in the living room. A police officer finds an envelope taped under a dining table, marked "To be opened in the event of my death". It contains a "letter of farewell" to a friend and a will, dated July 1966. Sometime later, a longer "farewell letter" is found in a pile of papers in the hall. Representatives of the coroner's office arrive at about 12:30, and Ferrie is pronounced dead at 1pm. His body is removed at about 2:30 and the autopsy begins at about 3pm. (The FBI was able to determine by about 6pm that the coroner's cause of death was a burst aneurysm, but that NODA was pressing for a finding of suicide.) Garrison issues a statement calling Ferrie "one of history's most important individuals". Based on a note found in Ferrie's apartment, George Lardner is called in for a statement. At about the same time, NODA is taking a statement from Rancier Blaise Ehlinger and Gordon Novel. At 8:54pm Lardner's story runs on the wire, substantially similar to the statement he gave earlier to NODA.

It is the source you've quoted in the past. Lambert's source on Ferrie's condition is Dr. Ronald A. Welsh, whom she interviewed in 1993. Welsh told her that microscopic slides of Ferrie's brain tissue indicated that in addition to blood vessel perforating, there was "scar tissue indicating that Ferrie had had another bleed, a small one, previously . . . at least one or two of them at least two weeks before he died. This is a common occurence with Berry aneurysms," Welsh told her, "people have one or two before they blow out completely . . . His headaches were from the early bleeds" (Lambert, 302 fn.). The above is from your archived newsgroup posts held on Mr Reitzes anti-Garrison website. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> ___________________________________________ Patricia Lampert's trash Garrison book "False Witnesses" is of course going to be backed-up by equally- anti- Garrison Dave Reitzes. An excellent review of this "false" book is in JimDiEugenio's Probe Magazine Vol 6 No. 4, entitled "False witness: Aptly Titled", article written by Jim D (" Destiny Betrayed") and another Garrison author Bill Davy ("Let Justice Be Done") Just thought I'd add some balance in here. This article is well worth the read. Dawn <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Lambert's work was strongly anti-Garrison. But all of the citations for documents I own check out, and none of the people I've interviewed who also spoke with Lambert claim to be misquoted. (Joan Mellen's forthcoming Garrison biography is rumored to contain new material from Anne Dischler, who says Lambert misquoted her. I look forward to this book. I walk a middle course. I recommend that interested persons read both anti-and pro-Garrison books, such as DiEugenio, Davy, Pease, Probe, etc. I think both are flawed by special pleading, leaving out significant material. I think Garrison sincerely thought he had solved the assassination, but I also think he made some serious errors. As for Ferrie, he has been portrayed in a decidedly one-dimensional way for too long. I hope to prove what is true and disprove what is untrue. This is not a black and white matter, heroes and villains. Truth has its claim to history.

MORE FERRIE HISTORY: FEBRUARY 19: GARRISON MAKES HIS FIRST PUBLIC COMMENT ON THE CASE, PREDICITNG SUCCESS. NODA INTERVIEWS JAMES R. LEWALLEN (WITH ATTORNEY GEORGE PIAZZA). FERRIE MISSES A FLIGHT INSTRUCTION APPOINTMENT WITH ALAN SHEAR. FERRIE PHONES DAVE SNYDER AND TELLS HIM THAT, WHILE HE HAD HAD SOME DOUBTS ABOUT THE WC SHOOTING SCENARIO, HE HAD JUST RESOLVED IT IN HIS OWN MIND: THAT THE AUTOPSY "SLAB" DISTORTED THE POSITIONING OF THE WOUNDS. HE ALSO TELLS SNYDER THAT HE PLANS TO CONSULT AN ATTORNEY ABOUT SUING MARTIN AND GARRISON. HE LATER CALLS LOU IVON, WHO SETS FERRIE UP AT THE FONTAINBLEU, BUT FERRIE DOES NOT STAY PUT. FEBRUARY 20: FERRIE AT DOCTOR'S OFFICE. FERRIE VISITS THE FBI OFFICE, SPEAKS WITH REGIS KENNEDY WHO TELLS HIM THAT THIS IS ALL A JACK MARTIN THING, THAT KENNEDY HIMSELF SAW FERRIE IN FEDERAL COURT AT ABOUT THE TIME JFK WAS SHOT. FERRIE WALKS THE CUBAN SECTION OF NO AND VISITS CARLOS JOSE BRINGUIER. HE AGAIN PHONES SNYDER AND TELLS HIM HE IS AT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE PREPARING A SUIT. HE PHONES JIMMY JOHNSON (ACTING AS A NODA DOUBLE-AGENT) AND INVITES HIM OVER TO 3330. JOHNSON DECLINES. AARON KOHN SPEAKS WITH FBI ABOUT A VISIT BY FERRIE. GORDON DWAYNE NOVEL CONTACTS FBI. FEBRUARY 21: NOVEL IS INTRODUCED TO GARRISON. FERRIE TRIES TO CONTACT TOMMY COMPTON. FERRIE AGAIN VISITS BRINGUIER, AND ALSO ORESTES PENA. FERRIE GOES TO LIBRARY TO READ WARREN REPORT AND PICKS UP MEDICATION AT BROADMOOR. AT 4:30, HE RETURNS HOME TO FIND A NOTE FROM GEORGE LARDNER JR. JIMMY JOHNSON PHONES AND COMES OVER TO 3330, AND AGREES TO COME TOMORROW TO HELP FERRIE MOVE BOXES. FERRIE PHONES SNYDER. AT 11PM, NODA WATCHERS SEE LIGHTS GO OUT AND LEAVE FOR EVENING. BUT FERRIE PHONES LARDNER, WHO COMES OVER AND TALKS TO HIM UNTIL ABOUT 4AM.

I can't verify that, but it could be true... in much the same way that various socialist groups detested each other... so it may have been with these various sects that sprang from common sources. THE SOUTHERN RESEARCH REPORTS DEATAL SOME INFIGHTING WITH THESE SPECIFIC GROUPS. I would have thought you'd done some research on them of your own for your book? AND YOU WOULD HAVE THOUGHT CORRECTLY. I HAVE A FAIR AMOUNT OF MATERIAL ON THESE SPECIFIC GROUPS, AND I'VE LOCATED AND SPOKEN TO A FEW PARTICIPANTS. IT ISN'T EASY, SO MANY YEARS LATER, AS DOCUMENTS ARE NOT AS EASY TO FIND AS IN NARA. BUT I'VE MADE SOME HEADWAY. WHAT I WAS ASKING FOR WAS YOUR SOURCE(S) REGARDING THSES PARTICULAR GROUPS, AND THE RIGHT-WING ORIENTATION. IN THE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN FERRIE AND OTHERS IN THESE GROUPS, I'VE SEEN NOTHING OF ANY POLITICAL NATURE, RIGHTIST OR OTHERWISE. ALL THEOLOGICAL. AND I'M TRYING NOT TO CONFUSE THEM WITH DIFFERENT GROUPS WITH SIMILAR SOUNDING NAMES. FERRIE'S RELATIONSHIP WITH THESE SPECIFIC GROUPS IS COMPLEX. AT FIRST, HE SEEMED TO BE INVESTIGATING THEM; THEN HE SEEMED TO SHIFT TO A SINCERE INTEREST, POSSIBLY DUE TO HIS BURNING DESIRE TO PURSUE A CALLING. ONCE HE WAS WITH THE BASILIAN SECT, THEY SEEMED TO SPEND MANY MONTHS TRYING TO CONTACT HIM. It's not exactly any big secret that the Order of Saint John is one and the same as The Knights of Malta. The Catholic Encyclopaedia gives a fairly detailed history up until the 1800s. The Old Catholic Church itself is one source for its historical links to the Russian Orthodox Church. We will examine the traditions of the Western and Eastern lineage herein. The Old Catholic Church of the United States bears its Apostolic lineage from the Ancient Catholic Church of the Netherlands, the Syrian Orthodox (Oriental) Church of Antioch, and the Russian Orthodox Church. http://www.oldcatholic.com/ochistory.html Basilians still laud Father Charles Coughlin - known to history as The Father of Hate. We might mention here as well, the great work of a former Basilian, Father Charles E. Coughlin, in the area of social justice. http://www.basilian.org/Publica/Opapers/2003August_num32.htm There are many examples of anti-Communist activities of these churches, as there are of ties between some of them and various hate groups. Of course the letter "appears" genuine. His collection of forged documents likewise "appeared" genuine. Like I said... something confirming it from the records of HEW would do the trick. You've got the fox corroborating the coyote. AS I NOTED, THERE ARE NUMEROUS INSTANCES OF MARTIN HAVING CONTACT WITH LONG. AND HE SENT THIS PARTICULAR LETTER TO AN FAA INVESTIGATOR AS A LETTER OF INTRODUCTION. IF IT WAS PHONY, HE COULD GET IN A HEAP OF TROUBLE. AND IT DOES REFER TO CONTINUING WORK WITH HEW. BUTTRESSED BY THE FERRIE AND BANISTER STATEMENTS, MADE UNDER OATH. AND THERE WAS AN HEW INVESTIGATION GOING ON CONCURRENTLY. MY INQUIRIES TO HEW HAVE NOT BEEN MET WITH GREAT SPEED. How relevant could they be to his his death if they did not warrant a mention in the autopsy report? Why no mention of them at all until a 1993 interview with Lambert? LAMBERT DOES QUOTE HIM AS SAYING IT WAS RELEVANT. Ironic's one word... I could think of more apt ones... Confirmation from other doctors that Ferrie had those minor bleeds, or general interpretations of his medical and autopsy reports? ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT HIS MEDICAL CONDITION, COMPLAINTS, PRESCRIPTIONS, HOSPITALIZATIONS, ETC., AS WELL AS INTERPRETATIONS OF HIS MEDICAL HISTORY AND DEATH. If the latter is the case, would Robert Artwohl be one the doctors you're going to rely upon for an opinion? <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for the correction and the addional information. The same applies, though. Right wing. anti-Semitic and with common lineage to Old Catholics and Russian Orthodox. I have the impression from the investigative materials that there was a fair amount of infighting within and between some of these groups. Any source on the orientation of these specific groups? These fringe churches were, at times, used as cover by government agaencies and private groups for various covert activites. Ollie North, for instance, used a "priest" named Tom Dowling of the Celtic Catolic Church (a branch of Old Catholics) to give false testiminy to counter claims of massacres conducted by Contras. The Order of Saint John was AKA the Knights of Malta... according to Phillip Agee's Covert Action Information Bulletin, The Knights of Malta helped Hitler to power and had ties to Ghelan's organisation. The Knights of Malta also helped in counter-insurgency and counter-revolutionary projects in Latin America under guise of humanitarian aid. I am aware of the note. Martin was known to have a lot of forged documents. If you have any HEW records confirming Martin was hired as an investigator by them, I'd accept it. The note is worthless as evidence on its own. I wouldn't dismiss it entirely. Martin was on friendly terms with Long. The letter appears genuine (but as of yesterday, I wasn't able to upload it. I'll be glad to email it to someone who can upload it.) There is some corroboration in Ferrie's statement to the FBI, and in both Ferrie's and Banister's testimony at Ferrie's EAL hearing, where both also expressed surprise that Martin would have an HEW connection. Do you believe Ferrie obtained his "degree" from Bari as part of the HEW investigation? If so... on what basis? No. I think he saw it as a way to bolster his academic credentials, and it is ironic that he later claimed to have been involved in an investigation that was targeting mills like Phoenix. If not, then you have someone who was part of the problem (ie a "customer" of a degree mill) hired to investigate those very same organisations. And I was just relating how meaningless those bleeds are in trying to determine the manner/cause of Ferrie's death. I was just relating that the man who performed the autopsy did think they were relevant. It is the source you've quoted in the past. Things have changed since then. I have new medical information concerning Ferrie. Lambert's source on Ferrie's condition is Dr. Ronald A. Welsh, whom she interviewed in 1993. Welsh told her that microscopic slides of Ferrie's brain tissue indicated that in addition to blood vessel perforating, there was "scar tissue indicating that Ferrie had had another bleed, a small one, previously . . . at least one or two of them at least two weeks before he died. This is a common occurence with Berry aneurysms," Welsh told her, "people have one or two before they blow out completely . . . His headaches were from the early bleeds" (Lambert, 302 fn.). The above is from your archived newsgroup posts held on Mr Reitzes anti-Garrison website. <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sorry, upload of the Martin-Long document failed again. I might try emailing it to John Simkin, for posting. On this day in Ferrie history, February 18, 1967: On the previous day, Rosemary James had published her NOSI article, making public that Garrison was investigating the Kennedy assassination. Dave Ferrie phoned Lou Ivon to complain bitterly. At 5:30, he called Pershing Gervais, who suggested that he contact the press. Ferrie then phoned Dave Snyder of the NOSI/NOTP and said he wanted to give him info about the probe. Snyder sat with Ferrie from 6-10:30pm. Just after Snyder left, Ferrie received a call from Sam DePino of channel 12 and spoke with him for about 20 minutes. On this day, the NOTP headline was "DA Won't Confirm JFK Plot Probe On". The NOSI headlined "Definite JFK PLOT, DA Aide Is Quoted". In this atricle, Snyder brought Ferrie's name to full public attention for the first time and quoted his comments from the previous night. Ferrie called Lou Ivon to see how the probe was going. Ivon and Andrew Sciambra went to Ferrie's aprtment and interviewed him. (Ferrie was complaining of not feeling well. He also suggested that he did not know Clay Bertrand or Clay Shaw.) Ferrie began formulating plans for a lawsuit against Garrison and Jack Martin. Back at Tulane and Broad, Garrison's staff was questioning friends and acquaintences of Ferrie, including Mel Coffey and Dante Marochini.