Raymond Broshears

[Nic Martin]

I remember reading that Raymond Broshears shared an apartment with Ferrie in 1965, and remembered talking to Clay Shaw with Ferrie present several times. In August 1968, Broshears said on a Los Angeles tv program that Ferrie admitted to be involved with JFK's death, and that the actual assassins crashed off the coast of Corpus Christi and were killed. He also claims Ferrie told him that "no matter what," Ferrie would never kill himself.

What evidence is there against him and these claims?

[Ron Ecker]

Broshears also said that Ferrie told him that one of the shooters shot "from a sewer opening along the parade route" (TMWKTM, p. 576). That may not add credibility to his story.

Also, if the purpose of Ferrie's "mad dash through a driving rainstorm from New Orleans" was to meet the assassins at an airstrip and fly them to Mexico, as claimed by Broshears, it doesn't sound like very good planning by the conspirators. Wouldn't Ferrie be there with the plane well ahead of time, instead of having to make a mad dash for it?

The fact that Broshears was gay reminds me of an absurdly funny remark attributed to Jim Garrison in a CIA document dated April 26, 1967 (in the Russ Holmes Work File). According to a purported interview with Garrison about his investigation in the German magazine Quick, Garrison claimed that "homosexuals lie so much that he had to use hypnosis and truth serum."

Ron

[Larry Hancock]

Nic, it would be extremely difficult to corroborate Broshear's remarks but Dick Russell did an interesting follow up interview with him in 1975. Many of his remarks remained consistent, interestingly enough he did not point Dick at the CIA in regard to Ferrie but rather to a plot driven by Marcello. And in a familiar theme is stated that the whole idea was to kill Kennedy and blame it on the Communists.

All in all Broashear's seems to be a total wild card, the only thing that ever struck me that might be testable was something that I ran into while researching Beckham and Crisman and the religious credentials scam....Broashears ended up helping draft dodgers in California representing himself as a priest, and apparently turned some of them in as an informant. In the materail relating to that he stated that he left New Orleans because Ferrie had also told him something about Johnson being involved and that Broshears had spoken out against Johnson in public and had been questioned, harrassed and perhaps even charged by the Secret Service for threatening the President. An interesting tangent made more interesting by the fact that he named one of the agents that called on him.....an agent named Youngblood. It's that sort of thing that can drive you to distraction.

-- Larry

[Nic Martin]

Thanks. Yeah, he doesn't sound very credible, but has anyone ever been able to prove for sure that he did or didn't live with Ferrie? It'd be an interesting look at Ferrie's character, even if all of his stories about the assassination are indeed just stories.

[Stephen Roy]

Thanks. Yeah, he doesn't sound very credible, but has anyone ever been able to prove for sure that he did or didn't live with Ferrie? It'd be an interesting look at Ferrie's character, even if all of his stories about the assassination are indeed just stories.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

In connection with my Ferrie biography, Broshears was one of the first persons I contacted in the late 70s by telephone. Some of the things he said initially seemed in conflict with other documented information (example: that Ferrie flew for Eastern Air Lines when Broshears roomed with him in the 1965 period), so I decided to slip in a few "test questions". I made a reference to the layout of Ferrie's apartment and he replied with incorrect information. I asked a follow-up and he avoided answering. I pressed a bit harder and he again seemed completely unfamiliar with Ferrie's apartment ("When you came up the back stairs, the door opened into the kitchen, wasn't it?" "Yeah, the kitchen."). I then pressed a bit about the general layout of streets in the neighborhood and New Orleans, and he seemed completely unfamiliar with the city. I came away from the call thinking he had never even been to New Orleans.

In subsequent interviews with acknowledged friends of Ferrie, I could find nodody who even recalled him.

This feeling was strengthened when the HSCA and other interviews with Broshears became available in the early 90s. I think it is very unlikely that Broshears was ever Ferrie's roomate.

[Nic Martin]

Thanks. Yeah, he doesn't sound very credible, but has anyone ever been able to prove for sure that he did or didn't live with Ferrie? It'd be an interesting look at Ferrie's character, even if all of his stories about the assassination are indeed just stories.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

In connection with my Ferrie biography, Broshears was one of the first persons I contacted in the late 70s by telephone. Some of the things he said initially seemed in conflict with other documented information (example: that Ferrie flew for Eastern Air Lines when Broshears roomed with him in the 1965 period), so I decided to slip in a few "test questions". I made a reference to the layout of Ferrie's apartment and he replied with incorrect information. I asked a follow-up and he avoided answering. I pressed a bit harder and he again seemed completely unfamiliar with Ferrie's apartment ("When you came up the back stairs, the door opened into the kitchen, wasn't it?" "Yeah, the kitchen."). I then pressed a bit about the general layout of streets in the neighborhood and New Orleans, and he seemed completely unfamiliar with the city. I came away from the call thinking he had never even been to New Orleans.

In subsequent interviews with acknowledged friends of Ferrie, I could find nodody who even recalled him.

This feeling was strengthened when the HSCA and other interviews with Broshears became available in the early 90s. I think it is very unlikely that Broshears was ever Ferrie's roomate.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks so much, that's exactly what I was looking for.