David Ferrie's Autopsy

Fred Litwin
17 minutes ago
6 min read

*David Ferrie on the right with an unidentified person.*

I have visited the Sixth Floor Museum twice to examine the papers of Patricia Lambert, author of False Witness, one of the best books on the Garrison fiasco. She spoke to many people in New Orleans and her notes provide a wealth of information. For the first time ever, here are her notes from a conversation with Dr. Ronald Welsh, the pathologist who performed David Ferrie's autopsy.

Frank Minyard was elected coroner of New Orleans in 1974 and he was a good friend of Jim Garrison. In fact, he spearheaded efforts to get Garrison re-elected as District Attorney. Here is an ad from the March 18, 1968 issue of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and Minyard is second on the list:

Minyard weighed in on David Ferrie's death in Stephen Tyler's excellent documentary, He Must Have Something: (8:30)

Here is an excerpt from a transcript:

Narrator: On February 22, 1967, just five days after Garrison's investigation was publicly announced, David Ferrie was found dead in his Louisiana Avenue Parkway apartment,

Frank Minyard: And he died of, my records show that he died from a ruptured, berry aneurysm, which is like a stroke, a blowout of an artery in the brain, but it's alleged that he left a typewritten suicide note, which I don't have,

Nicholas Chetta [Coroner in 1967]: Gentlemen, this is the much sought after note that I just read the first paragraph to you the other day.

Rosemary James [Journalist]: He was weird in his his living habits too. He was drinking only black coffee and diet Jello. I mean, this was, this was his diet.

Nicholas Chetta: It [one of Ferrie's notes] reads as follows, believe this life is, for me, a sweet prospect. I find nothing in it that is desirable, and on the other hand, everything that is loathsome.

Rosemary James: When he had an aneurysm and died, it's not surprising that he died, although Garrison tried to say that he was murdered.

Frank Minyard: I have pictures of Mr. Ferrie showing the inside of his lips being badly bruised. Mr. Ferrie was a known person who had hypertension.

Nicholas Chetta [reading a Ferrie note]: All I got in return, in the end, was a kick in the teeth.

Rosemary James: In fact, the autopsy showed that he had an aneurysm. He lived in such a way, it's not surprising to me that he had an aneurysm.

Frank Minyard: Mr. Garrison discussed it with me at the time. If someone who had hypertension and took a lot of thyroid medicine, could it precipitate a blowout in an artery in the brain?, and I said not only a blowout of an artery in the brain, but a blowout of an artery anyplace.

Nicholas Chetta: [reading a Ferrie note] Hence I die alone and unloved.

Frank Minyard: Mr. Garrison's thoughts at that time was that someone had passed a tube down David Ferrie through his mouth, down through his esophagus, into his stomach and pumped in a large quantity of thyroid tablets. It was called Proloid.

Nicholas Chetta: [reading a Ferrie note] As you sow, so shall you reap. Goodbye. Dave.

Frank Minyard: There was no sign of struggle, no lesions on his body, no contusions, no bumps, no nothing, other than on the inside of his lip. And I don't think he got that from being punched, because it would have showed something on the outside. This had to be something that was traumatically inserted into his mouth,

Rosemary James: Although Garrison said he was his star witness, of course, and when he died mysteriously, you know, his case was ruined.

Jim Garrison: That is what's so unfortunate about picking out an individual and putting his picture on the front of the paper and in effect, implying that he's involved in the assassination when no law enforcement authority has mentioned his name or charged him or said a word about it.

Layton Martens: Later, of course, after Ferrie died, Garrison then decided to tell the press that this was one of the most important men in history. Of course, he only did this subsequent to Ferrie's death, so therefore Ferrie was never able to defend himself, which made him a perfect target.

At 7:06 in the Tyler film, Minyard says that Ferrie "had a grotesque physical appearance."

Very few books mention the dissection of David Ferrie's brain and its subsequent examination by neuropathologist Dr. Paul McGarry.

When the brain was cut and the artery was dissected, that all showed -- and the microscopic slides -- not only had it perforated, it had "scar tissue indicating that Ferrie had had another bleed, a small one previously, not fatal, at least one or two of them at least two week before he died. This is a common occurrence with berry aneurysm -- people have one or two before they blow out completely."

Welsh is very clear that Proloid did not cause Ferrie's berry aneurysm. He told Lambert the idea was an "absolute fantasy it doesn't jive with anything."

At the bottom of the page, Welsh tells a story about Garrison and his work in a councilman's office. One thing we do know from Garrison's psychiatric record is that he easily tired and would never do that much work in a day. Even when he became District Attorney, he would spend most of the week at the New Orleans Athletic Club.

Money Quote:

"The facts are clear -- a ruptured berry aneurysm had bled one or two times before his fatal bleed. He had longstanding high blood pressure. A natural thing. Everything is a sign of a natural death. The idea that one big slug could have been forced down him to cause it is baloney."

Previous Relevant Blog Posts on David Ferrie

Did David Ferrie Want to Kill Eisenhower?

Perry Russo told the press that Ferrie wanted to kill Eisenhower.

Chad Nagle and Dan Storper Lay an Egg

They claim that Ferrie was a CIA agent.

Paul Bleau's Reign of Error

Bleau makes errors out the New Orleans characters on DiEugenio's website.

Exclusive: Jim Garrison Talks to Jack Martin

Martin tells Garrison stories about David Ferrie.

"JFK: Destiny Betrayed" Misleads on David Ferrie and the CIA

There is no evidence that Ferrie had a connection to the CIA.

Is this the Smoking Gun that ties Oswald to Ferrie and Shaw?