David Ferrie's Involvment With Cuban
Exiles
On July 18, Cuban exile leader Sergio Arcacha Smith wrote a letter to
Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, the Chairman of the Board of Eastern
Airlines, on behalf of his close friend David Ferrie. Arcacha
requested leave of absence for Ferrie and explained his reasons:
"When the FRD (Frente Revolucionario Democratica/Cuban Democratic
Revolutionary Front) was originally organized, under the demands of
the US Government, the FRD was to front for the effort of the CIA to
reinstate democratic government in Cuba. The effort of April 17
failed, as you know thereafter, the morale of the Cubans in exile and
the Underground within Cuba fell to zero. Then along came Captain
Ferrie. He strongly prodded our whole organization until it was
revitalized. Thereafter, dissident elements were removed. Fund
collecing began. The underground was reorganized and the re-
harassment of Castro has begun.
The reinvigorating of our program was the result of the prodding of
Captain Ferrie, and his associates, here in New Orleans. Through him
we've been able to get the best advice in affairs political, economic
and military. In addition Captain Ferrie has been assisting in
obtaining needed equipment....
Since events are approaching a climax we thoroughly need his advice on
a day-to-day basis....we are requesting that Captain Ferrie be given
either a 60 or 90 day leave with pay so that the work at hand can be
completed. At this time he hold in his hands so many threads which
pertain to the security of the Caribbean area that no reasonable
subsitution can be made."
David Ferrie was not given with pay and continued to work for Eastern
Airlines. A short time later Ferrie was arrested and charged with a
"crime against nature" involving a 15-year-old boy and indecent
behavior with three other males. Ferrie was suspended from Eastern
Airlines and removed from the payroll indefinitely.
(For the remainder of 1961, 1962, and 1963 Ferrie never held a full-
time job, although he always had plenty of money. He was able to pay
for his apartment, car, airplane, living expenses, and provide Arcacha
with numerous loans.)
Dave Ferrie filed a grievance against Eastern Airlines and the Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) conducted an investigation. At the
grievance hearing Guy Banister testified as a character witness for
Ferrie, whom he praised, and also spoke about his own activities.
Banister told the FAA, "I have had high-ranking Cuban refugees in my
office asking me how to go underground, and I gave them diagrams for
that. I have talked to military leaders from the various provinces of
Cuba that have slipped out and slipped back." Despite Bannister's
efforts Ferrie's employment with Eastern ended, and he then turned all
of his attention and energy against Castro and Cuba. Ferrie's godson,
Morris Brownlee, recalled that Ferrie encouraged him to join the CIA,
an organization with which Ferrie had a long relation****p.
On August 30 Arcacha Smith's chief deputy, Layten Martens, was
arrested by the New Orleans Police. The police re****t stated, "Layten
Martens is second-in-command to one Arcacha Smith...who is conducting
a counter revolution movement in New Orleans against Fidel Castro of
Cuba. Also connected with this organization is one Captain David
Ferrie, of New Orleans."
"Marguerite Oswald" Moves To Crowell
and Vernon Texas
On June 3 "Marguerite Oswald" left 1612 Hurley and left a forwarding
address of "General Delivery, Cromwell, Texas." She began working for
Otis Crafford, owner of McAdams Ranch, as a housekeeper and cook. On
June 8, "Marguerite" wrote to Lee HARVEY Oswald in Russia, and listed
her return address as Box 608 Cromwell, Texas. Her employment at the
McAdams Ranch ended two months later, on Aug. 1, 1961 because she
argued continuously with Otis Crafford's mother-in-law.
While "Marguerite" was living at the McAdams Ranch, FBI Agent John
Fain was busy interviewing people who had known "Lee Harvey Oswald" in
Fort Worth. Fain interviewed various informants, landlords, and two
days later interviewed James P. Meek, "Marguerite Oswald's" former
neighbor at 3124 W. 5th in Fort Worth (in 1959) and summarized his
re****t on July 3rd.
On August 22, FBI SA Vincent Dunn reviewed the US Pass****t Office file
on "Lee Harvey Oswald." If SA Dunn found any any discrepancies in
Oswald's file or discovered that pass****ts were issued to two
different "Lee Harvey Oswalds," he did not include that information in
his re****t.
(Following President Kennedy's assassination Colonel Philip James
Corso, a former Army Intelligence officer, was asked by Warren
Commission member Senator Richard Russell to conduct a discreet
investigation into the assassination. Colonel Corso first contacted
his good friend William Sullivan, who was head of the FBI's Domestic
Intelligence Division. Sullivan told Corso that two birth
certificates, both in the name of Lee Harvey Oswald, had been used by
two different people prior to the assassination. Corso next contacted
the head of the US pass****t office, Francis Knight, who Corso had
known personally form many years. According to Corso, Knight told him
that two pass****ts were issued in the name of "Lee Harvey Oswald, and
they had been used by two different people."
"Marguerite" then moved to another ranch in Vernon, Texas owned by Mr.
Phillips and was hired to care for the elderly parents of his and was
photographed standing by her 1954 Buick in front of Vernon Bicycle
Shop, and included the photo she wrote to her "son" in Minsk, Russia.
SA Fain was not successful in locatinig "Marguerite" but was told by
Robert Oswald that his "mother" was living in Vernon. On October 13,
"Marguerite" was interviewd by SA Jarrell Davis in Vernon.
(The real Marguerite was much taller, over a half-foot, and good
looking. She worked at jobs that usually dealt with fa****on or things
that were more sophisticated like insurance companies, and wore very
nice fa****onable clothes).
August - Harvey
Oswald In Minsk
On August 10, 1961 three female American tourists arrived by car in
Minsk around 5:00 P.M. The tourists were Mrs. Marie Loretta Hyde,
Miss Rita Naman, and Mrs. Monika Kramer of ****t Angeles, Wa****ngton.
After registering at their hotel the women were told an Intourist
guide was waiting to take them on a tour of the city. The women
recalled that their female Russian guide was about 19 years olf, had
beautiful blond hair, and spoke English very well. They drove through
the city and finally arrived at Central Square around 6:00 P.M, where
the Palace of Culture was located.
They spent less than 15 minutes in the Central Square, but during that
time each took several photographs. Mrs. Hyde took a photograph that
included Mrs. Kramer, the guide, their automobile, a young boy, an
older man, and Lee HARVEY Oswald. Miss Naman also took a picture that
included Mrs. Hyde, the Palace of Culture, a young boy, an older man,
and Lee HARVEY Oswald. The following morning at 9:00 A.M, the three
women departed Minsk by automobile.
It is highly coincidental that two American women, who spent less than
15 minutes in the Central Square in Minsk, both managed to take
photographs that included Lee HARVEY Oswald. It is also highly
coincidental that after they returned to the US, their photographs
miraculously found their way into CIA files. Two years later these
photographs were provided to the Warren Commission.
On August 12, Marina Oswald sought medical treatment for "occasional
unpleasant sensations of the heart." Her heart tones were clear, but
she was diagnosed as 2 months pregnant. It is interesting to note
that Oswald flew fo Moscow (without police permission) according to
his diary on July 8th, and explained to Snyder at the embassy that he
wanted to return to the US. Oswald telephoned Marina to fly to Moscow
on Monday, and unknown to Oswald Marina went out on a date with an old
boyfriend that evening, Leonid Gelfant. She spent the evening with
him at his friend's apartment in Minsk and enjoyed French champagne.
August - The
Munitions At Schlumberger
Guy Bannister learned that some of the munitions intended for use at
the Bay of Pigs were still in storage at the Schlumberger Tool Company
(a French company) in Houma, Louisiana. Bannister wanted to
"appropriate" the materials so they could be used in future operations
against Cuba, but he did not want to get into trouble with the local
police if he was caught stealing them.
Banister resolved the problem when he traveled to Wa****ngton, D.C. and
met with a high official in the justice department. He obtained a
"Letter-Marque," which is a legal instrument that grants authority to
the named party who intends to commit a quasi-legal act. In this
particular case the letter granted Banister authority to "seize
munitions or arms, the property of a foreign government
(Schlumberger), that are illegally located within the United States,
using any and all means to do so."
In August, David Ferrie, Gordon Novel, Carlos Quiroga, possibly
Arcacha Smith, and others appropriated the materials from
Schlumberger. According to some accounts the materials were waiting
for them on the Schlumberger dock when they arrived. Novel believed
he was partiipating in a govenment operation, and was later told by
FBI agents that the Houma munitions transfer had been a "CIA
operation."
Over the next few months more of the materials were removed from
Schlumberger and loaded into Novel's 1959 Lincoln, while others were
loaded into a borrowed laundry truck. Some of the munitions were
taken to Guy Banister's office for safekeeping and were seen by
Banister's secretary, Delphine Roberts, hidden behind a panel in the
ladies room. Jack Martin saw some of the stolen materials in
Banister's office as did the building owner Sam Newman, George
Higgenbotham, and others. The boxes had 'DGSS' on them, which stood
for the French Intelligence Agency.
Banister's close associate and friend, Jack Martin, learned that Dave
Ferrie was the leader of the group who appropriated the arms. He said
the arms were supposed to be ****pped to Guatemala in preparation for
the revolution. Carlos Quiroga agreed, and told New Orleans D.A. Jim
Garrison that some of the Schlumberger weapons "went to Richard
Davis's MDC group." Some of the munitions were sent to the exile
training camps north of Lake Ponchartrain, and were confiscated a year
later when the FBI raided the McLaney Camp.
The New Orleans States Item, in 1967, re****ted there were 50-100
crates of ammunition in Banisters' office, all labeled
"Schlumberger." The article re****ted, "Five or six boxes were open.
Inside...were rifle grenades, land mines, and some little missiles of
a kind he (the source) had never seen before."
(The refernce to "little missiles" is noteworthy. The February 1962
issue of Popular Mechanic (pp. 106-11) contained an article "Bizarre
Weapons in Today's Little Hot Wars." The article described and
pictured a small, hand held pistol that was under development for the
Department of Defense. The pistol, which looked similar to a military
issued .45 caliber weapon, fired a self-propelled one inch long
"rocket" made of hardened nylon. The miniature rockets were hollow
and filled with a solid fuel propellant that was ignited by a 9-volt
battery. After ignition the nylon rocket was propelled out of the gun
at twice the speed of a .30 caliber bullet, but was noiseless, nearly
smokeless, and had a range of 1000 feet. If the silent missiles were
coated with a lethal poison, they were capable of killing with near
complete anonymity. One of these rockets, known as a "fleshette," was
pictured on page 38 of SWAT Magazine in September 1988. A carton of
these "miraculous missiles" was stored in Guy Banister's office in the
summer of 1963.)
Richard Davis, who was head of the MDC exile group, lived two blocks
from Arcacha Smith in the Parkchester Apartments in New Orleans. In
1961, Davis met David Ferrie at Arcacha's home and saw him there
several times. Davis also saw Ferrie and Arcacha together at several
other places, and the last time was at Arcacha's office. Not only
were Arcacha and Ferrie close friends, they were united in their
effort to overthrow Castro.
Davis also became aware of Ferrie, Arcacha, and Novel's participation
in the theft of munitions from Schlumberger. He discussed the
burglary with his friend, Luiz Rabel, who was one of the people
authorized to sign checks for the CIA sponsored "Cuban Democratic
Revolutionary Front" at 544 Camp Street. Rabel asked Davis, "If it
(the burglary) had been cleared with the FBI."
In 1961 the CIA, FBI and Cuban exiles who frequented Guy Banister's
office were united in one common cause---the elimination of Fidel
Castro. One individual who was occasionally seen in New Orleans
during this time was LEE Harvey Oswald and he was among friends.
October - Lee Oswald Is Arrested
in New Orleans
In October, Levee Board Police Officer Charles Noto helped Immigration
and Naturalization Officers (INS) surround a house on Spanish Fort
Boulevard in the Lakeview area of New Orleans. The INS agents were
looking for Cuban refugees who they believed were waiting to be flown
to Cuba by David Ferrie.
The same month Officer Noto and his partner, Eldrid Mackie, noticed
two men sitting together in a white panel truck late one night on
Broad Street. The black and white truck had a sign that read "TV
Electronic Parts and Service," and Noto decided to find out what the
two men were up to. The driver of the truck was a thin Latin with
black hair, a mustache, and about 6 feet tall who he later identified
from photographs as Celso Hernandez.
(On August 9, 1963 Celso Hernandez was one of four people, including
Lee HARVEY Oswald, who was arrested and charged with disturbing the
peace after passed out Fair Play for Cuba literature. Hernandez was
described in the New Orleans arrest re****t of August 9, 1963 as 5'10"
tall, 130 lbs, black hair, with a mustache.)
The passenger of the truck identified himself to Officer Noto as LEE
Oswald. When Noto began to question the two men, he said Oswald
became very belligerent and went into a spiel about Gestapo tactics,
and identified himself as being with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee.
(Only 5 months earlier, in May, 1963, LEE Oswald was in Havana, Cuba
with one of the founding members of the Fair Play For Cuba Committee,
Robert Tabor.
When LEE Oswald demanded to see the officer in charge Noto took both
men to the Levee Board Police Headquarters on the Lakefront. When
they arrived at the station, Noto's partner, Eldrid Mackie, Patrolman
Albert Mancuso, Jack Gleber, and David Lousteau were there. Officer
Noto remembered that LEE Oswald had a "closed-door session" with
Marcel Champon, the officer in charge, and then decided to release the
men.
David Lousteau recalled the officer in charge that evening was Marcel
Champon, who was filling in for Superintendant Joseph Cronin. When
questioned later about the incident involving Oswald, Lousteau
recalled that Cronin had been dismissed from the Orleans Levee Board
in May of 1962, but Oswald's arrest had occurred before his
dismissal. Lousteau remembered that Oswald was brought to the Levee
headquarters in "late 1961."
(Charles Noto and other officers at Levee Board Police Headquarters
were witnesses that both the FBI and the Warren Commission ignored.
Their statements placed LEE Oswald in New Orleans in the fall of 1961,
while HARVEY Oswald was in Russia.)
Pages 361-65, Harvey and Lee
CJ
|
