THE BIZARRE DEATHS FOLLOWING JFK's MURDER! by David Martindale

Home , Lee Bowers

rnnac--I-. 1977 The appalling death rare stemming from the tragedy in Dallas is much more than a coincidence. THE BIZARRE DEATHS FOLLOWING JFK'S MURDER! By David Martindale

ose Cherami was not the kind of woman you'd invite to Louisiana State Police. She said she had been a stripper in a state dinner at the White House. A junkie and a Ruby's Carousel Club and was forced to smuggle dope for Rprostitute, she had been arrested at least 28 times on a him or else he'd harm her children. Asked if Ruby and Os- variety of charges, using as many as 19 different aliases to try wald knew each other, she said she had seen them together to camouflage her identity. in Ruby's club on several occasions, and that, in fact, they were even "bed partners." On November 20, 1963—two days before John F. Kennedy After she was released, Rose Cherami returned to Texas, was assassinated—Rose Cherami and a companion were only to die mysteriously within two years. On September 4, driving back from Florida with a shipment of dope that was 1965, her head and the upper part of her body were lying on bound for a Dallas nightclub owner named Jack Ruby. Rose Highway 155 near Big Sandy, Tex. at 3 A.M. when a car Cherami never made it to Dallas. Near Eunice. La.. she got struck her, crushing her skull. After a brief investigation, the into a fight with the driver of the car, and after being beaten police labeled her death an accident. severely, she was thrown out of the moving auto onto High- No one knows why Rose Cherami was lying on the road way 190, where she was left for dead. that night. Few people would have taken note of her death, Badly bruised but still alive. Rose Cherami was taken to except that Rose Cherami is only one of dozens of individu- Louisiana State Hospital in Jackson, where besides recover- als who have died mysteriously since the assassination of ing from her injuries, she also was suffering narcotic with- President Kennedy. Penn Jones, Jr., the feisty former editor drawals. While at the hospital, she told psychiatrist Dr. Vic- of the Midlothian (Texas) Mirror, was the first person to call tor Weiss, Jr., that President Kennedy was going to be killed attention to these strange deaths, and today his list includes during his forthcoming motorcade in Dallas. Weiss ignored well over 50 names. And although some of the victims had her remarks. Heroin addicts say a lot of things when they only a peripheral connection to the events in Dallas on haven't had a fix. Only later, after he learned of Kennedy's November 22. 1963, others were either important witnesses death, did Weiss recall his conversation with the seemingly or people who knew a great deal about Lee Harvey Oswald clairvoyant junkie. or Jack Ruby. Most died within a three year period following A few days later, Rose Cherami was questioned by Kennedy's death. 52

,VWF,417.,T. AA41,,Z..!,Mt.T.taWM4‘51tcr%TFRN clSr‘"':W. ' Yet according to the Warren Report, Ic to tamper with the light fixture on blood oozing from his neck. Before the Lee Harvey Oswald and only Oswald Reynolds' front porch. These events, ambulance reached the hospital, Hank was responsible for the death of Presi- coupled with his narrow brush with Killam bled to death. dent Kennedy. The Commission emphat- death, had their effect. When he finally Although the coroner ruled that Kil- ically denied there was any evidence of testified before the Warren Commission lam's death was a suicide, his wife was conspiracy. But even as the Warren in July 1964, Reynolds now was prepared openly skeptical. And little wonder. Few Commission was conducting its investi- to say what he refused to say in people ever kill themselves jumping gation, the mortality rate of witnesses January—namely that it was Lee Harvey through a plate glass window of an empty began to soar, causing even the most Oswald he saw running past his car lot department store at 4:30 in the morning. sober observer to wonder whether the that day. Besides, there was only one cut on Kil- ensuing bloodshed was more than just a lam's body: a three inch deep laceration mere coincidence. Unlike Reynolds, Hank Killam was not an eyewitness to the events in Dallas of the lower left side of his throat. Hank Killam's jugular vein had been cut. For example, consider what happened the day of the assassination. However, to Warren Reynolds. The day of the as- his wife, Wanda, did work as a stripper On November 24, 1963, two days after sassination, Reynolds was at work in his in Jack Ruby's club, and Killam had met Kennedy was shot and just hours after used car lot in Dallas when someone shot Ruby on several occasions. He also Ruby had gunned down Lee Harvey Os- and killed police officer J.D. Tippett. worked as a housepainter with a man wald, five men gathered in Ruby's Reynolds heard the shooting and shortly named Jack Carter. And in one of those apartment. They included George afterward, saw a man running down the curious coincidences which surround the Senator, Ruby's roommate, Winfred street carrying a revolver. He pursued Martin and Tom Howard, attorneys for the assailant for a block until the man Ruby, and Jim Koethe and Bill Hunter. fled out of sight. Within an hour, the Dal- both reporters covering the assassina- las police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald 4 0 tion. To this day, no one has discovered and later charged him with the slayings the reason for that meeting, let alone of both Tippett and Kennedy. Yet two what was said. Yet within 18 months, months passed by before Reynolds was three of the five persons who attended finally questioned by the FBI. And al- that meeting were dead. though he still recalled the incident, he Bill Hunter was the first to die. A re- said he was unable to positively identify porter for the Long Beach Independent Oswald as the man he chased in Press Telegram, Hunter had flown to November. Dallas upon hearing of the assassination. On January 23, 1964, two days after Later, he returned to Long Beach where his FBI interview, Reynolds was shot in he was a veteran police reporter. the temple with a rifle in a basement on On April 22. 1964, Hunter was sitting his used car lot. Miraculously, he lived. in the press room of the Long Beach Since nothing was taken, police ruled out police station reading a mystery novel robbery as a motive. Shortly after the when two police officers walked into the shooting, authorities picked up Darrell room. Without warning, one of the cops Wayne Garner, who admitted he was at shot Hunter in the heart at a range of no the scene at the time of the shooting. He more than three feet, killing him almost was held on a charge of assault to mur- instantly. der. Yet on February 5, Nancy Jane Under questioning, the officer first Mooney, 23. signed an affadavit saying said he had dropped his gun and it fu-ed that Garner couldn't have shot Dallas patrolman, J.D. Tippett. accidentally when he picked it up. Yet, Reynolds, since she was in lied with the since the trajectory of the bullet dis- suspect at the time of the shooting. On proved this account, he later switched the strength of her alibi and subsequent Kennedy case, Carter lived at the same stories and said he had merely been prac- polygraph test, the charges against rooming house as an employee of the ticing his "quick draw" when the gun Garner were dropped. Interestingly Texas School Book Depository—an went off. Both police officers were later enough, Mooney told Detective Ramsey employee named Lee Harvey Oswald. convicted of involuntary manslaughter. of the Dallas police she had once worked Following Kennedy's death, Killam The sentence was suspended. as a stripper for Jack Ruby. became increasingly despondent and Jim Koethe had worked for the Dallas On February 13. 1964, just eight days downright paranoid. His wife told federal Times Herald for two years. He, too, later, Nancy Jane Mooney was arrested authorities that Hank feared someone was present at the meeting in Ruby's for quarreling with her roommate in a was trying to kill him. Running for his apartment on November 24, and in col- parked car and was taken to the Dallas life, Hank Killam moved to Pensacola, laboration with two other reporters, was City Jail at 2:45 A.M. Within two hours, then to Tampa, and finally back to Pen- writing a book on the assassination. she was found dead, her toreador pants sacola, trying to escape what he called On September 18, 1964. a witness saw wrapped around her neck, her body "agents and plotters." Every time he Koethe drinking beer in the patio of his dangling limply off the floor of her cell. took a job, he was fired after authorities apartment building with an unidentified The coroner ruled her death a suicide. hounded his employers. By March, he man. Later that same evening, neighbors For reasons which remain unclear, the was quoted as saying. "I'm a dead man. heard a disturbance in Koethe's apart- Dallas police never informed either the I've run as far as I'm going to run." ment. Three days later, Koethe's body FBI or the Warren Commission of this At 4 A.M. on March 17, 1964, Hank Kit- was found on the floor of his bedroom. bizarre Reynolds-Garner-Mooney chain lam received a phone call at his mother's The apartment had been ransacked, and of events. home. When he hung up the phone, he among the missing items were the notes Meanwhile, Warren Reynolds. al- dressed and went outside. His mother for Koethe's book. The coroner ruled though lucky to be alive. continued to then heard an auto drive off, and she that Koethe's death resulted from a bro- have problems. Three weeks after he thought it was unusual since her son did ken neck bone, possibly the result of a was released from the hospital, someone not own a car. Thirty minutes later, two karate chop to the neck. tried to entice his 10-year-old daughter downtown street cleaners heard a loud On September 27, the police arrested into a car. She refused. On another occa- crash and turned to see a man staggering Larry Earl Reno for selling some of sion, someone went to considerable troub- in front of a broken display window, Koethe's possessions. He was later 53 ;,: ,,,,n7mmsTRA,scmg,,t,r,070,-T4mMtIrrScA7,3',*i',.',WMMS§IRWhA7OrMM `MS`M.AW.L "415.,,MATMRMWW'rP-7`.1MM!*giSrM6.--

charged with the killing, but the grand rest to take him to Washington so he assassination expert Sylvia Meagher ob: jury, under secret instructions from Dis- could tell all he knew about the assassi- serves in her book Accessories After the trict Attorney Henry Wade, refused to nation. Warren refused. Fact, "A wealth of discrepancies, distor- return an indictment. Reno was released No one knows what was discussed tions, and omissions impels one to con- and Koethe's death remains unsolved. during Kilgallen's interview with Ruby; clude that the official autopsy report is Tom Howard was Ruby's first lawyer. but later in the year, she did release the unreliable . . and that the evidence in Flamboyant, hot-tempered. and still testimony which Ruby gave to the War- fact constitutes proof of a conspiracy." smarting from an earlier conviction on ren Commission a full month before it Lt. William Pitzer was the Navy photo income tax evasion, Howard finally left was officially made public. When ques- technician who filmed the autopsy of Ruby's case after quarreling with Melvin tioned by the FBI, she refused to divulge President Kennedy at Bethesda the eve- Belli over Ruby's defense. In 1964, Ruby her source. ning of November 22, 1963. Pitzer was in told another lawyer, Joe Tonahill, "Joe, On November 8,1965, Dorothy Kilgal- a unique position to view the wounds in- you should know this. Tom Howard told len was found dead in her apartment. flicted on the slain President and deter- me to say that 1 shot Oswald so that After a week of exhaustive study, the mine whether the shots originated solely Caroline and Mrs. Kennedy wouldn't Medical Examiner's Office finally con- from behind, as the Warren Commission have to come to Dallas to testify, OK?" cluded that she died of a fatal combina- later concluded they had. Once the au- Like Hunter and Koethe, Howard at- tion of alcohol and barbituates. Dr, topsy was completed, Pitzer was de- tended the same meeting the night that James L. Luke, assistant examiner, said briefed by his superiors in what he later Oswald died. that although the quantity of each was described as "a horrifying experience."

Jade Ruby .. Tom Howard was Jock Ruby's first attorney. Veteran journalist, Dorothy Kilgallen.

On March 28, 1965, Howard suffered a not excessive, the combination had Afterward, he was repeatedly reminded massive coronary infection. He was caused "a fatal depression of the central that he was never to reveal what he saw taken to Parkland Hospital where he died nervous system, which in turn, caused that night for reasons of national security. 30 minutes after being admitted. Howard her heart to stop." Although the was 48 and had had no prior history of Examiner's Office indicated there were A few years later Lt. Pitzer made plans heart trouble. no signs of violence or suicide, it did say to retire. He had served 28 years in the Of all the people who had some con- that the exact circumstances of Miss Kil- Navy and had been offered a $45,000 nection to Jack Ruby, Dorothy Kilgallen gallen's death were "undetermined," a-year post with a network television sta- was probably the most famous. A veter- adding that an overdose "could have tion. Yet on October 29, 1966, just before an journalist, Kilgallen's "Voice of been accidental." he was to make the transition to civilian Broadway" column in the New York Yet shortly before her death, Dorothy life, Pitzer was found dead with a bullet Journal-American and frequent appear- Kilgallen told her makeup man she was in his brain. A gun was found in his right ances as a panelist on "What's My going to New Orleans in five days and hand, and the coroner concluded that his Line?" made her a national celebrity. In "crack the Kennedy case wide open." death was a suicide. Yet according to an the spring of 1964, she joined hundreds Unfortunately, she never made it, For anonymous source who worked with that matter, neither did the makeup man. of other reporters from all over the world Pitzer, the Navy photographer was, in He died shortly afterward. And who converged on Dallas for the trial of fact, left-handed. Dorothy's best friend, Mrs. Earl Smith, Jack Ruby. Yet as she often did in the "We were told there was going to be died the day after Kilgallen did, of a past, Dorothy Kilgallen managed to out- an investigation of his death," said the cause which even the coroner was un- scoop them all. Against the strenuous ob- source, "but we never heard anything. able to determine. jections of her colleagues in the press, I've always believed he was murdered." she was granted a 30-minute private in- Within hours after Kennedy was killed Of course that's what some people terview with Jack Ruby in the office of in Dallas, the body of the slain President thought about Gary Underhill, whose Judge Joe B. Brown. was flown back to Washington aboard death bore a frightening similarity to Such an interview, conducted in the Air Force One and then taken to Pitzer's. A writer and a researcher in relative safety of a judge's chamber, was Bethesda Naval Hospital for an autopsy. military affairs. Underhill's great-great- particularly significant since Ruby had Certainly the autopsy performed on grandfather had been a general in the long feared that his Dallas jail cell was Kennedy that night should have been Revolutionary War, and ever since that bugged. In fact, when Earl Warren came one of the most thorough and exhaustive time, his family remained active in mili- to question him there, Ruby begged War- ever conducted in history. Yet as noted tary and political affairs. He was an au- 54

7,s.-rmms.,:srssss.•19-.)s-. .Rtf,sss,vmsm§.3MMIWAWIRA RM tharity on limited warfare and conven- compensate for his lack of body hair by Valle, a friend of Ferrie's in the anti- tional arms, and frequently did assign- wearing a red wig and gluing bits of car- Castro movement, died a brutal death in ments for the CIA. pets to his eyebrows, touching them up Miami. Del Valle's body was found in a Soon after Kennedy was killed. Un- with mascara. Like his appearance, his parkihg lot, a bullet wound in the heart, derhill left his home in Washington, interests were equally as bizarre. He was his head split open, apparently with an D.C., and arrived in New York. There, a self-ordained priest in a church of his ax. Later, another.friend of Ferries, Dr. greatly agitated, he begged friends to own creation, a would-be cancer re- Mary Sherman, who had assisted Ferric keep him out of sight, saying he knew searcher who harbored hundreds of with cancer research in New Orleans, who killed Kennedy. On November 23, white mice in his apartment, and a roving was also found shot to death. Leaving 1963, he visited a friend's home in Tom's detective who often used his credentials nothing to chance, her killers then River, N.J., and told her that "Ken- io find out what other people knew about burned her body. nedy's killing wasn't as cut and dried as him. Yet David Ferrie was also a CIA it seemed." According to the friend, Un- pilot who had flown numerous sorties derhill indicated that a small group in the into Castro's Cuba. And in 1956, he had Murders. Accidents. Suicides. Heart CIA had killed Kennedy because he dis- commanded a Civil Air Patrol unit in attacks. covered a very lucrative business they New Orleans. One of his students was Untimely deaths occur every day, and were running in guns, contraband, and Lee Harvey Owald. they were bound to befall at least some possibly drugs in the Far East. He also In early 1967, Ferrie came under the of the people who had a connection with told her that he feared for his life, since scrutiny of New Orleans District Actor- Kennedy's assassination. Yet could the

Hui id Ferrie was a CIA pilot. One of his ster Rep. Harry Boggs of Louisiana disappeared Clay Shaw (right) was accused and later acquit- dents was Lee Harvey Oswald. October 1972. ted of murdering JFK. ***.

they knew he knew what really happened ney Jim Garrison, who was preparing to appalling death rate stemming from the in Dallas. Although Underhill had a repu- launch his own investigation into the tragedy in Dallas actually be nothing tation for being rational and levelheaded, Kennedy assassination. Eventually, more than a bizarre coincidence? the talk of a CIA-conspiracy to kill Ken- Garrison picked up Ferric for question- In 1967, an actuary commissioned by nedy was, in 1963 anyway, a bit too wild, ing, quizzing him about his whereabouts the London Sunday Times was provided Reluctantly, friends concluded he had the weekend of November 22, 1963. Gar- with a list of 17 individuals who had died gone mad. rison was convinced that Ferric had been mysteriously since the assassination. Still visibly upset, Underhill eventu- targeted to fly the getaway plane for the Based on the facts supplied, he com- ally returned to Washington, D.C. On conspirators. Reasonably certain that he puted that the odds against these persons May 8, 1964, his body was found in his would turn state's evidence, Ferric was all being dead within three years were apartment with a bullet wound in released and allowed to return to his 10,000 trillion to one! the head. According to Police Chief John apartment. Yet to this day, the defenders of the Clayton, there was a pistol in his right A few days later, on February 21, Warren Report (including Gerald Ford hand. Yet at least two people who first 1967, Ferrie's body was found by a youth who served on the Commission) insist examined the body said that Underhill who police said was a friehd of Ferrie's that Oswald acted alone and that there had been shot behind the left ear, the bul- and one of his co-workers. An unsigned was no conspiracy. But if, in fact, there let traveling from left to right through his suicide note was discovered in the was no conspiracy, then something aw- brain. Nevertheless, after conferring apartment, but only part of the text was fully strange happened to many of the with the homicide squad, the coroner ever released to the public. Reports still people who were connected to the events eventually ruled the shooting a suicide. differ on whether the note was handwrit- in Dallas. As Penn Jones points out, even A prominent Washington-based editor. ten or typed. if three-quarters of these mysterious who was a friend of Underhill's, later In any event. Corciner Dr. Nicholas deaths were unrelated to the assassina- charged the Washington police with Chetta ruled that Ferrie died of a rup- tion of Kennedy, then what about the bungling the investigation, adding that it tured blood vessel which caused a others? was hard to believe they could have been hemorrhage in his brain. The death was Why were they silenced? Who chose so stupid. labeled a suicide, although the coroner to silence them? What did they really Perhaps the most colorful of all the gave no hint as to how Ferric had man- know? characters to surround the investigation aged to induce such a massive hemor- Unfortunately, a corpse reveals few into Kennedy's death was David Ferric. rhage. secrets. On the other hand, a trail of A victim of alopecia, Ferrie tried to That same day, Eladio Cerfino del corpses can often speak volumes. 55 AND THE LIST GOES ON . . . Bowers seemed to be in a strange HAROLD RUSSELL, S3 kind of shock, the likes of which DIED: July 23, 1965 Besides the individuals already Bohl had never seen before. Russell worked at Warren mentioned, at least a dozen others Reynolds' used car lot the day of the have died under similarly strange DR. NICHOLAS CHETTA, 50 assassination, and like Reynolds, circumstances. They include: DIED: May 25, 1968 saw a man flee the Tippett scene with Chetta was the New Orleans a revolver. After returning to his coroner who died as mysteriously as home in Davis, Okla.. Russell at- EDDY BENA VIDES many of the victims he viewed in the tended a party in which he began to DIED: February 1964 morgue. Chetta had performed the act strangely, saying he should be Domingo Benavides was the autopsies on Ferrie and Dr. Mary hidden and that he would be killed. closest witness to theTippettslaying. Sherman, as well as on Robert Per- When the police arrived to subdue When first questioned by authorities rin, a CIA operative who many be- him, an officer struck Russell in the he said he did not think that Oswald lieve did not really die at all. Less head with his revolver. He died a was the killer. Two months later, than a year after Chetta died, Prof. few hours later in an Oklahoma hos- someone shot and killed his look- Henry Delaurie. Chetta's brother- pital. alike brother, Eddy Benavides, pos- in-law who assisted with many of sibly in a case of mistaken identity. Chetta's autopsies, was murdered CLAY SHAW, 60 The killer was never found. with a handgun on January 26, 1969. DIED: August 15, 1974 A wealthy businessman with CIA ALBERT GUY BOGARD, 41 REV. CLYDE JOHNSON, 37 ties, Shaw was accused and later DIED: February 14, 1966 DIED: July 23, 1969 acquitted of conspiring to murder Bogard was the salesman at Rev. Johnson was to have been John Kennedy. In January• 1974, Downtown Lincoln Mercury in Dal- one of the key witnesses at Jim Gar- former CIA man Victor Marchetti las who testified that a few weeks rison's trial of Clay Shaw in New revealed that during the Garrison before the assassination, a man re- Orleans. Like both Ferric and Shaw, investigation, Richard Helms had sembling Oswald and using Os- Johnson was an admitted homosex- instructed his CIA subordinates to wald's name took a high-speed test ual, and planned to testify that he give Shaw "all the help he needs." drive in one of Bogard's cars. The attended parties at which Shaw, In February 1974, Shaw was hos- real Oswald did not know how to Ferrie, Ruby, and Oswald were pres- pitalized for a blood clot. A few drive. After Kennedy's death, ent. On February 18, 1969, Johnson months later, he was found dead in Bogard was severely beaten and was beaten so badly he was unable his home. His body was embalmed hospitalized. Later, he was found even to talk. A few months later, he so quickly Parish Coroner Dr. dead in his car in Hallsville, La., a was shot to death near Greensburg. Frank Minyard was unable to de- victim of carbon monoxide poison- La. termine the exact cause of death. ing. His death was listed as a suicide. EARLENE ROBERTS, 60 WILLIAM WHALEY, 60 DIED: January 9, 1966 DIED: December 18, 1965 HALE BOGGS The housekeeper at the rooming Whaley was the Dallas cabdriver DISAPPEARED: October 16, 1972 house where Oswald lived, Roberts who said he took Oswald from a site A United States Senator from testified that Oswald had stopped not far from Dealey Plaza to his Louisiana, Boggs had been a there between the time that Ken- rooming house shortly after the as- member of the Warren Commission. nedy and Officer Tippett were killed. sassination. His testimony before A week before he vanished, he pub- Her testimony was considered cru- the Warren Commission was riddled licly voiced his skepticism of the cial since it cast considerable doubt with contradictions, and he even Warren Report and called for a new on the Warren Commission's as- told the Commission staff that "a investigation into Kennedy's death. sumption that Oswald had enough good defense attorney could take me Boggs was flying in a small plane time to walk to the site where Tippett apart." Whaley died in a head-on from Anchorage to Juneau. Alaska was slain. After being hounded into collision while driving his cab. It when his aircraft disappeared in virtual seclusion by the police fol- was the first fatality of the City rugged terrain. lowing her testimony, Earlene Transportation Co. in 37 years. Roberts died of a heart attack. LEE BOWERS, 41 DIED: August 9, 1966 JACK RUBY, 55 JAMES WORRELL, 23 A tower switchman for the Union DIED: January 3, 1967 DIED: November 23, 1966 Terminal Co. at the time of the Nightclub owner and small time A spectator in Dealey Plaza the shooting, Lee Bowers testified he hood, Jack Ruby managed to sneak day of the assassination, Worrell saw three cars enter the area behind into the basement of the Dallas told the Warren Commission he saw the picket fence in Dealey Plaza police station and murder Lee Har- a man rush out of the side entrance shortly before the killing. He also vey Oswald before a national TV of the Texas School Book Deposi- saw a flash of light near the grassy audience. Ruby lived for three years tory shortly after the killing. The man knoll at the time the shots were after the shooting, always in the cus- did not resemble Oswald. Three fired. Bowers died in a single-car tody of Dallas authorities. In De- years later, Worrell lost control of his crash when his auto went out of con- cember 1966, Ruby entered the hos- motorcycle as he was rounding a trol near Midlothian, Tex. On the pital with cancer and died a few corner, and was thrown head first in way to the hospital. Dr. Ray Bohl, weeks later of a blood clot to the a concrete curb. He died of severe the attending physician, noted that heart. head injuries.