The JFK 100

As Oliver Stone tells it, David William Ferrie was one of John F. Kennedy's murderers, even though no evidence was ever produced linking Ferrie to the assassination. Stone suggests that Ferrie was murdered because of his involvement in the assassination, when there is absolutely no evidence that Ferrie died an unnatural death.

Worst of all, the filmmaker has Ferrie actually confessing to involvement in the murder of the John F. Kennedy, a president Ferrie greatly admired, and with whose assassination the real Ferrie vehemently and adamantly denied any complicity.

When Jack S. Martin, a onetime Ferrie associate with a burning grudge, tried to implicate Ferrie in the assassination, a shocked Ferrie denied all involvement, and an intensive investigation failed to uncover the slightest evidence against him.

Shown a photograph of Oswald by the FBI, Ferrie said that "to the best of his knowledge he does not know any individual named Lee Harvey Oswald nor has he ever known the individual represented by [a] photograph presented to him as that of Lee Harvey Oswald in the CAP, in any business connection or in any social capacity. He said he does not recognize the name or the photograph as being anyone he has ever had any contact with at any time." Shown Oswald's New Orleans mug shots of August 9, 1963, Ferrie "stated that the profile view has a very vague familiarity to him but the full face and full length photographs of Oswald are not familiar to him."⁽¹⁾ He said that, prior to his weekend trip to Houston, he had not been in the state of Texas since August of 1962.⁽²⁾

Ferrie further told the FBI that "he is not implicated in the assassination of President Kennedy in any manner and is willing to cooperate in any manner to prove that he was not implicated in the killing of the President. He stated that he offered to the District Attorney of Orleans Parish to submit to [polygraph and/or sodium Pentathol] examinations to prove his innocence."⁽³⁾

When Jim Garrison opened his investigation in late 1966, his office again interviewed David Ferrie, and Ferrie continued to protest his innocence. He again offered to take a polygraph examination or sodium Pentathol -- so-called "truth serum." When the DA sent his men to interview Ferrie yet again, Ferrie demanded a personal meeting with Jim Garrison, so he could "look him in the face" and settle the matter. (Garrison turned him down.)⁽⁴⁾

When the news of the DA's JFK assassination probe broke on February 17, 1967, Ferrie called journalist David Snyder and confirmed that the story was true; Ferrie added that he himself should know, as he was Garrison's prime suspect. Though physically ill and sounding unsteady, he invited Snyder to his home for an interview.⁽⁵⁾

Ferrie spoke to Snyder for almost five hours that night, explaining the way Garrison's office had been harassing him and outlining plans for a possible lawsuit against Garrison and Jack Martin. He repeated to Snyder that he did not know Lee Harvey Oswald, he'd had absolutely nothing to do with the President's assassination, and that Garrison's probe was "an utter waste of time."⁽⁶⁾

During his visit with Ferrie, Snyder also could not help but notice how ill Ferrie was. The ex-pilot's "steps were feeble" as they climbed the stairs to his second-floor apartment.⁽⁷⁾

NODA investigators Andrew Sciambra and Lou Ivon paid David Ferrie a visit on February 18, 1967. Towards the end of their interview, Sciambra asked Ferrie

if he would like to tell me some more about his trip to Hammond [on November 24, 1963] and [Ferrie] smiled and said "Go to hell." I then asked if he stayed with Clay Shaw. [Ferrie] said, "Who's Clay Shaw?" I [Sciambra] said, "All right, if that doesn't ring a bell, how about Clay Bertrand?" He said, "Who's Clay Bertrand?" I said Clay Bertrand and Clay Shaw are the same person.⁽⁸⁾

 

That evening, Ferrie called an assistant DA with whom he was friendly, Lou Ivon. He said that reporters were pestering him around the clock, and asked Ivon for help in temporarily getting away from them. With Jim Garrison's permission, Ivon got Ferrie a room at the Fontainebleau Motor Hotel.⁽¹⁰⁾

On the night of Monday, February 21st, Washington Post reporter George Lardner, Jr., paid Ferrie a visit at his Louisiana Avenue Parkway apartment. For the umpteenth time, Ferrie denied any involvement in a JFK assassination conspiracy and having ever known Lee Harvey Oswald. He called Garrison's probe a "witch hunt." Lardner was the last person to see the ex-pilot alive; the following morning Ferrie was found dead from a stroke.

Inside the DA's office, it was common knowledge that there had never been any evidence of any sort linking David Ferrie to the Kennedy assassination, nor had any other evidence of a New Orleans conspiracy been uncovered.⁽¹¹⁾ Several of Garrison's assistants tried in vain to persuade their boss to drop the case.⁽¹²⁾

Instead, Garrison fanned the flames of publicity with an announcement to the press that his staff knew was not true: that the very morning Ferrie died, the DA and his men had made a decision to arrest Ferrie. In 1994, Assistant DA James Alcock, lead prosecutor at the Clay Shaw trial, broke his silence and admitted the truth. Although Garrison specifically named Alcock as one of the assistants in on the decision, Alcock states, "To my knowledge, there was no intent to arrest David Ferrie."⁽¹³⁾

Over three decades later, Oliver Stone was conducting research in preparation for JFK, and contacted Lou Ivon. Ivon now made a most startling claim, one which the filmmaker accepted without question: that David Ferrie had confessed to having known Lee Harvey Oswald and Clay Shaw, as well as to having been involved in CIA activities.⁽¹⁴⁾

Ivon claims that Ferrie made these admissions during that night at the Fontainebleau. Yet Jim Garrison never mentioned anything about this to the press when Ferrie died; it was never brought up at the 1969 Shaw trial; it was never mentioned at the 1971 hearing for Clay Shaw's civil suit against Garrison, in which Shaw alleged there was no basis for Garrison's claim that Shaw had committed perjury when he denied knowing David Ferrie and Lee Oswald; and it is not mentioned in either of Jim Garrison's two books on the John F. Kennedy assassination.

Here is how Jim Garrison refers to the Fontainebleau episode in his first book, ironically entitled, A Heritage of Stone:

Finally, Ferrie turned to the New Orleans District Attorney's office for sanctuary from the incessant visits of the press to his apartment, an indication that he was becoming weary of the pressure he felt, and a room was obtained for him at the Fontainebleau Hotel. The staff felt that Ferrie's deterioration portended a break in the case, that perhaps here at last was one man with enough humanity left from the dehumanizing processes of the warfare state to provide more information on the accomplishment of the President's execution. It did not work out that way.

On February 22, 1961, surrounded by empty and half-empty medicine bottles and containers, Ferrie was found dead. . . . With Ferrie's death, there most likely faded into oblivion the possibility of uncovering in the immediate future the full meaning of the assassination.⁽¹⁵⁾

 

I don't know whether it was the words Ivon used, or the way he used them, but within 24 hours Ferrie called again -- this time asking for help. The media somehow had sniffed out that he was one of the targets of our investigation [sic], and they were surrounding his apartment on Louisiana Avenue Parkway like bees on a candy bar.

Ivon told him to wait by the phone. Within ten minutes he would call back with a solution to Ferrie's problem. Lou immediately called the Fontainebleau Motel and reserved a first-class suite under an assumed name. He then called Ferrie back and told him to go to the Fontainebleau, where a suite would be waiting for him. He brushed aside Ferrie's attempts to thank him. "Don't worry about it," Lou had said. "You call us anytime you need us, and we'll give you a hand."

As recently as several nights before, just before midnight, Ferrie had called Ivon at his home and said that the press was still keeping his home surrounded. Ivon had picked him up at a bar on Tulane Avenue, driven him over to the Fontainebleau and again had obtained a suite for him. He also suggested that Ferrie order whatever room service he wanted and try to relax.⁽¹⁶⁾

 

But let's back up a moment. Even if, for the sake of argument, we accept that Ivon's unaccountably late-arriving claim were true, let's review what Ivon claims Ferrie told him: that Ferrie had admitted knowing Oswald, admitted knowing Clay Shaw, and admitted involvement in unspecified CIA activities.⁽¹⁷⁾

He filled in a few more details in a 1995 interview with pro-Garrison research William Davy: ". . . Ferrie was 'very scared -- a wild man.' Ferrie confided to Ivon that he had done work for the CIA and had known Oswald. He admitted he knew Clay Shaw and that Shaw too worked for the CIA. He added that Shaw hated Kennedy. However, he did not yet admit any involvement in the assassination." (Emphasis added.)⁽¹⁸⁾

Of course, he never did.

So how does Oliver Stone explain having David Ferrie confess to taking part in a conspiracy to cold-bloodedly murder the President of the United States?

"At times," Stone explains in his annotated JFK screenplay, ". . . we had to put words in Ferrie's mouth to write this scene and used our own best judgment based on Ferrie's biography."⁽¹⁹⁾

In other words, screenwriters Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar just made the confession up.

During the Jim Garrison's infamous and lengthy Playboy interview of October 1967, he made a remark that casts considerable light upon Oliver Stone's flights of fancy. We "don't yet have an 'inside' view of all the pre-assassination planning," the DA explained, because "Not one of the conspirators has confessed his guilt . . ." (Emphasis added.)

This might come as something of a surprise to some members of Oliver Stone's viewing audience; but not to Oliver Stone. Stone knew precisely what he was doing.

NOTES:

1. FBI Interview of David Ferrie, November 25, 1963, Warren Commission Document 75, pp. 285-97.

2. FBI Interview of David Ferrie, November 25, 1963, Warren Commission Document 75, pp. 285-97.

3. FBI Interview of David Ferrie, November 25, 1963, Warren Commission Document 75, pp. 285-97.

4. Memorandum from Andrew Sciambra to Jim Garrison, February 28, 1967, re: Interview of David Ferrie by Andrew Sciambra and Louis Ivon, February 18, 1967; Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 62 fn.

5. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 57.

6. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), pp. 57-58.

7. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 57.

8. Memorandum from Andrew Sciambra to Jim Garrison, February 28, 1967, re: Interview of David Ferrie by Andrew Sciambra and Louis Ivon, February 18, 1967.

9. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 62-63.

10. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 63.

11. From investigator Tom Bethell's journal: "[Assistant DA James] Alcock discussed Ferrie and pointed out he saw no reason to believe Ferrie was involved." (October 2, 1967.) "I had been boiling up for a row with Mark Lane and his lieutenant Gary Sanders, and it burst today. I confronted Lane with his right to read and xerox our files -- he was in the process of reading the Ferrie file when this occurred. I asked him how he felt that xeroxing the files contributed to the investigation. He kept quite calm and replied that Garrison set policy in the office, not me, and that therefore he could xerox them if he wanted to, which was I suppose a reasonable answer. I also told Lane that it was my belief he had lied to me about some information provided him by David Lifton. Lifton, a friend of Wesley Liebeler in Los Angeles, had managed to get some information from Liebeler about the classified pages on David Ferrie in the National Archives. Liebeler worked on this area for the Warren Commission and had copies of the classified pages, which he read out to Lifton one evening. (He would not let Lifton have copies of them.) Lifton ran home and wrote down all he could remember. He then later met Lane and told him he had this material written down. Lane told him that he had to have it because he was on his way to New Orleans and Garrison would like to see it. Lifton gave him the material, as well as some info from some columnist. Lane says he only got the columnist material, not the other. Lifton was quite surprised to hear this, and surprised to hear that we did not have the Ferrie material in the office by now. Their stories are in flat contradiction, and there is no doubt in my mind that Lane is lying. The fact is the Ferrie material is worse than useless to Garrison, because it indicates that the FBI is not hiding anything significant about Ferrie, and thus deprives Garrison of an excuse to talk about governmental secrecy, etc. Lane is smart enough to realize this, and no doubt decided that the best thing would be simply not to show the Lifton material to Garrison at all." (November 3, 1967.) "I saw Lane later in the afternoon, and we more or less agreed to stop the feud. I told him, however, what it was that concerned me more than anything: some of the files, which I was supposed to be in charge of, were something of an embarrassment to me. The Ferrie file contains no evidence that Ferrie knew Oswald, which is the relationship which the investigation was originally predicated on. The Ferrie file is, in fact, simply a report on a negative investigation. Under the circumstances then, it was somewhat embarrassing to have outsiders like Gary Sanders coming round reading the file. Lane reacted as though he appreciated my problem and then said: "Well, in future, if anyone looks at the Ferrie file, just tell them that the important material from it has been put into a confidential file somewhere." By saying this, of course, Mark Lane was acknowledging the lack of basis for the investigation." (November 4, 1967.) "When I arrived in the office in the morning, Steve Burton was already there, going through some of the files in my office. Evidently Ivon had let him in. Of course, most of the sensitive files (Shaw, Bradley, Thornley) are not there, but in Louis Ivon's office. Burton had, however, made a bee line for the next most interesting file -- Ferrie (actually two files on Ferrie.) He had looked through them already and was looking at something else. I started to talk to him a bout something and then he said: "I think it's a good idea not keeping the Shaw file here where people could see it. I notice you have got all the important material withdrawn from the Ferrie file as well." I said nothing, just vaguely nodded. Of course, he had seen the Ferrie file in its entirety." (February 26, 1968.) "Billings feels that Garrison was in possession of important and convincing information implicating Ferrie early on in the investigation -- information which he has never made available to anyone. Billings feels this because Garrison was so positive, so sure, so convincing, about Ferrie. I do not believe this is true for a minute. Garrison has a way of being very sure and very convincing about things on precious little evidence." (March 15, 1968.)

12. Former Assistant DA John Volz states, "There was an autopsy [for David Ferrie]. [Assistant DA] Al Oser was present at the autopsy. It was natural causes. The death was natural causes. And that's what was reported to Jim. The death was natural causes. . . . So we went to Jim. We said, Jim, look, if you want to save face, here is your opportunity to do it. Your main witness is dead. David Ferrie is dead. You can't go any further. He looked at us and said, 'Are you crazy?' He said, 'Are you crazy? We're just really getting onto something.'" (Time Machine: False Witness, History Channel documentary, 2000.)

13. Patricia Lambert, False Witness (New York: M. Evans and Co., 1998), p. 65.

14. Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar, JFK: The Book of the Film (New York: Applause, 1992), p. 88. See also William Davy, Let Justice Be Done (Reston, Va.: Jordan, 1999), pp. 66, 150-51.

15. Jim Garrison, A Heritage of Stone (New York: Berkley, 1975), p. 110-11.

16. Jim Garrison, On the Trail of the Assassins (New York: Warner Books, 1992), p. 161.

17. Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar, JFK: The Book of the Film (New York: Applause, 1992), p. 88.

18. William Davy, Let Justice Be Done (Reston, Va.: Jordan, 1999), pp. 66.

19. Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar, JFK: The Book of the Film (New York: Applause, 1992), p. 88.