The JFK 100
David Ferrie and Eladio del Valle
Was a Miami murder related to the JFK assassination?
Was a Miami murder related to the JFK assassination?
These are ironic words indeed, when one considers that in reality, David Ferrie did not know Eladio del Valle, del Valle never was Ferrie's "paymaster" for anything, and that Ferrie certainly never "flew missions into Cuba" for anyone, and Ferrie actually described Jim Garrison's probe as "a big joke" and "an utter waste of time."(2)
JFK's documented screenplay makes the claim that author Paris Flammonde "reports that Ferrie told Garrison he was paid $1,500 per mission by Del Valle [sic],"(3) but this is false; Ferrie never said that, and Flammonde never claims he did.
What Flammonde states is that Jim "Garrison believes that [Ferrie] was paid $1,500 per mission by . . . del Valle."(4) Why did Garrison believe this? For the same reason Garrison believed, as he told Flammonde, that Eladio del Valle had his head split open with a hatchet on February 22, 1967(5) -- because the DA read it in an April 30, 1967, National Enquirer article written by Diego Gonzales Tendedera. (There was no hatchet wound on del Valle's body; the Enquirer article originated the claim.(6))
Eladio del Valle
David Ferrie
It was Diego Gonzales Tendedera, who reportedly enjoys a reputation among Cuban and Latin American readers as a rumormonger, who started the fable about Ferrie and del Valle associating with one another and working together on spooky missions into Cuba.
As Ferrie expert David Blackburst observes,
nearly all published accounts of [an alleged Ferrie-del Valle association] track back to a newspaper article by del Valle's friend, Diego Gonzales Tendedera. There is no corroboration for Tendedera's information, and at least parts of his story are questionable. The relationship as reported probably took place in late 1960-early 1961, but the claim that Ferrie and del Valle were together every day for a sixth month period seems to conflict with Ferrie's work record with Eastern Air Lines. None of the thousands of documents I have found relating to Ferrie mention del Valle, and none of his friends seem to remember him.Tendedera's tale seems to have been inspired by the fact that Ferrie and del Valle died within twenty-four hours of each other, as mentioned in JFK.(7) But, contrary to Jim Garrison's own personal mythology, Ferrie's death was indisputably a natural one, while del Valle is believed by authorities to have been murdered in connection with "underworld activities" of del Valle's.
In Jim Garrison's October 1967 Playboy interview, the DA admits he had been unable to confirm that Ferrie and del Valle were associates, and one presumes he never could, as del Valle's name appears in neither one of Garrison's two books on the Kennedy assassination.
This did not stop Oliver Stone from inserting the claims into his film, however.
You may wish to see . . .
The JFK 100: Who Was David Ferrie?
NOTES:1. Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar, JFK: The Book of the Film (New York: Applause, 1992), p. 89. All quotations are from the shooting script and may vary slightly from the finished motion picture.
2. "A big joke": Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, February 20, 1967. "An utter waste of time": Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 58.
3. Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar, JFK: The Book of the Film (New York: Applause, 1992), p. 89.
4. Paris Flammonde, The Kennedy Conspiracy (New York: Meredith, 1969), p. 19. The JFK documented screenplay mistakenly lists the page number as 119.
5. Paris Flammonde, The Kennedy Conspiracy (New York: Meredith, 1969), p. 19.
6. The DA's office knew of the article. At least one unnamed NODA source was interviewed for it, and it is mentioned in NODA investigator Tom Bethell's journal.
7. Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar, JFK: The Book of the Film (New York: Applause, 1992), p. 103.
The JFK 100: Who Was David Ferrie?