The Death of David Ferrie

Some rarely seen pictures of David Ferrie and his apartment after his death. That is a wig and fake eyebrows on Ferrie.

You can see that David Ferrie was reading Edward Jay Epstein's book, Inquest.

You can read Ferrie's autopsy report here.

I previously wrote about Ferrie's last week here - he believed he was seriously ill with encephalitis.

Ferrie died of natural causes - he had a berry aneurysm which is a congenital defect.

The autopsy was done by Dr. Ronald Welsh, and "It burned him up" that Ferrie's name was continually on the lists of mysterious deaths,

To make sure there was no controversy, Dr. Welsh preserved the brain and brought it to Dr. Paul McGarry, a neuropathologist. The brain was cut open and the artery was dissected. They could see "scar tissue indicating that Ferrie had another bleed, a small one, previously, not fatal, at least one or two of them at least two weeks before he died. This is a common occurrence with berry aneurysm - people have one or two before they blow out completely."

Welsh told Patricia Lambert that "everything here is exactly like what you see with any berry aneurysm. Nothing suspicious."

One last item. Frank Minyard, who was coroner after Nicholas Chetta (who oversaw Welsh), believed that there was bruising on Ferrie's mouth which might have indicated someone trying to force down pills, etc. Patricia Lambert asked Welsh about this, and he was quite dismissive, saying that "Minyard is not a pathologist. He is an obstetrician/gynecologist and not interested in the anatomical aspects." Welsh was a professional pathologist with a background in anatomical pathology.

The autopsy report does not mention any bruising, but does mention a small area of dryness. Welsh concluded, "It is absurd for anyone to try to construe an imaginary scenario."