The Secrets of Anne Dischler

This photograph was given to Patricia Lambert by Anne Dischler.

Eunice News, July 18, 1967

Francis Fruge played a major role in Garrison's investigations - he worked with Anne Dischler on the Clinton/Jackson witnesses, and he also investigated Rose Cherami and her supposed foreknowledge of the assassination. There are also indications in Anne Discher's notes that Fruge was on the scene before they were teamed together.

Here is the first page from Anne Dischler's steno pad.

From February 1967 to May 18, 1967, Dischler and Fruge were investigating Rose Cherami and the supposed sighting of Oswald in Lafayette, Louisiana. Click here to read about the various sightings of Oswald in Louisiana. They then worked on the Clinton/Jackson witnesses until mid-October 1967, when Dischler was pulled off the case.

In March, 2020, I traveled to Dallas to visit the Sixth Floor Museum to examine the papers of Patricia Lambert. This research was for my book On the Trail of Delusion -- Jim Garrison: The Great Accuser. I was there for three days and took photographs of hundreds of pages of her papers.

I went back on September 23, 2021 to examine additional files. The purpose of my second visit was to make copies of Anne Dischler's steno pads and other documents related to the Clinton/Jackson witnesses.

I discovered that Anne Dischler had told Patricia Lambert some secrets about Francis Fruge but had sworn her to secrecy. Lambert did not put these secrets into her book False Witness.

I found myself in a quandary. Do I reveal these secrets to the world? If Patricia Lambert kept this material secret, then should I reveal this information? On the other hand, any researcher examining Lambert's papers would also see this material. At some point, these secrets would become public.

Since all the principals in this story -- Dischler, Lambert, and Fruge -- are deceased, I have decided that the time is right to reveal these secrets.

First, Anne Dischler and Francis Fruge had an affair while they were investigating for Garrison. In and of itself, this might mean little. However, given the affair, it was less likely that Dischler would tell Garrison's people about issues with Fruge's investigations. In addition, it might have made her less likely to question his interpretations of what was going on:

As you can see, Lambert suspected that they had an affair. In a later note on February 4, 1994, after an interview at Dischler's home, Lambert wrote "she also told me that she had had an affair with him. She thought Jack Fruge [a distant relative of Francis Fruge who told Lambert that Fruge was quite the ladies man] had told me already, or "said something" but I told her he hadn't, which is true, but I suspected."

During their affair, Francis Fruge confessed that he had manufactured evidence in a murder case:

The Barker murder case took place in Jena, Louisiana.

In addition, Francis Fruge embezzled money from Anne Dischler:

In light of this, we have to reevaluate the credibility of Francis Fruge and his part in the Cherami and Clinton investigations.

In addition, Dischler told Lambert that she believed that Fruge had been to Clinton before their investigation. She also told Lambert and Mellen that there was a picture of men in a black car which included Clay Shaw and Lee Harvey Oswald, and that this picture was shown around Clinton before she got there. Of course, this picture has never materialized -- and it seems quite likely that it was Fruge who was showing the picture around.

Tom Bethell wrote a letter to Sylvia Meagher on March 13, 1969 in which he stated that "Incidentally, the Clinton witnesses were to a large extent put together by Lt. Fruge, a state trooper."

Edward Wegmann told Patricia Lambert that the Clinton witnesses "had to be a complete fix." She wrote in her notes that "the most likely 'fixer' was Fruge."

In 2006, Lambert was planning to write a biography of Clay Shaw. She was planning to include this material in her book, but because Anne Dischler was still alive, she was going to say the information came from a "Garrison investigator."

An excerpt from page one of Patricia Lambert's book proposal.

She actually conferred with Vincent Bugliosi about this. He provided the legal justification for including these stories:

Had they known about Fruge's actions, Shaw's attorneys could have used that information to defend against the perjury charges. Specifically they would have been able to include the information in the documents they were filing with the DOJ in Washington and later with the federal court in New Orleans.

Unfortunately, Patricia Lambert never completed her biography of Clay Shaw. She died on May 10, 2016.

The Series on the Clinton/Jackson Witnesses

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