The "Mysterious" Death of David Ferrie? The following message, from Compuserve, is reposted here with the permission of Bob Artwohl. It says quite a lot about Jim Garrison and his methods. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- #: 23564 S2/Books & Articles [JFK] 15-May-94 11:43:07 Sb: #23543-WHAT IS THE CASE???? Fm: Bob Artwohl 71712,2151 To: John McAdams [WPUSERS] 71333,2114 John, Seen in the BEST light, the Garrison handling of the proloid as cause of death evidence is the work of a completely incompetent investigator. In the very worse light (and more likely, IMO), the death by proloid is a completely bogus bit of fiction dreamed up by Garrison to subvert Ferrie's natural death to his own machinations. Futhermore, Oliver Stone's handling of this is "JFK" is yet more perfect example of the shoddy research and/or continuation of Garrison duplicity and deceit that can be found in this unfortunate piece of celluloid fantasy. One need look no further than Garrison's own book, On the Trail of the Assassins to uncover the dubious nature of Garrison's claims. According to his own account, Jim Garrison arrived at the scene after Chetta had already left with the body. Upon finding some bottles of medication in Ferrie's apartment, he POCKETS them and takes them back to office. (Fingerprints, anyone?) Once there, Big Jim "discovers" that one of bottles happens to be an empty bottle of thyroid medication, proloid, that, by one of those eerie JFK coincidences just so happens to be the exact same medication Garrison once took. Next, Big Jim does NOT call the coroner about his finding the empty Proloid and his suspicion of foul play. Instead, he calls an unnamed pathologist friend in Baton Rouge and make an inquiry as to how death by Proloid could be detected. According to Big Jim, the pathologist tells him the only way death by thyroid hormone could be detected would be analysis of blood or spinal fluid samples. He then he calls the coroner's office and asks if any blood or spinal fluid sample were saved. Upon finding that no samples were saved, Garrison throws the bottle of Proloid in his drawer, in disgust. "Many years later," Jim Garrison throws OUT the bottle of Proloid because he did "not want such a souvenir." Here's what Garrison did not do: 1. He did not hand over the bottle of Proloid to a crime lab technician so it could be duly noted into evidence. Jim Garrison arrives at the crime scene, "discovers a bottle of Proloid," that according to Big Jim, had been treated by the coroner's men "with disregard." So how does super sleuth Big Jim handle this? Although Ferrie left "suicide notes" he takes the medicine bottles down to his own office, and sometime AFTER the autopsy, decides to go through them. According to Big Jim, Ferrie had never been diagnosed with a thyroid problem. Now, every bottle of prescription medication has the following information on it: the date of the presciption, the pharmacy where the presciprtion was filled, and the doctor who prescribed the medication. A little routine police work, involving a few phone calls could have cleared up this matter one way or another. 2. He did not call Chetta and inform the coroner of his suspicions that Ferrie may have died from a Proloid overdose. It is not astonishing that the District Attorney Jim Garrison's entire investigation of a suspected death of "history's most important individual" was two phone calls, neither of which was to the man responsible for determining the cause of death? And now for the inconvenient facts: 1. Proloid is a thyroid replacement drug that was commonly used in the 1960's. It contains T4 (thyroxine) and T3, triidothyroxine). T4 is produced in the thyroid gland and is transported to peripheral tissues where it is converted to the active form, T3. A simple blood test, routinely performed in the late 1960's, or liver assay (even AFTER burial) could have detected abnormal levels of T3 and T4. 2. What's more, death by Proloid would not come quickly. Even if David Ferrie had been forced to ingest Proloid, it could not have been responsible for his death. T4, either taken orally, or injected subcutaneously will not begin to exert a metabolic effect for about one or two DAYS. T3 acts a little quicker, but will will not exert an effect until 6 to 12 HOURS after ingestion. Thus one must assume that whatever goons hung forced the proloid down Ferries throat, hung around his apartment 6-12 hours waiting for him to die. David Ferrie was last seen alive by George Lardner, Jr. at four am the day of his death. At that time, Ferrie was cool calm and collected, so it is safe to assume, no one had forced a bottle of Proloid down his throat before this. His body was discovered seven hours later, just about the time Proloid would BEGIN to exert an effect. However, Chetta, the coroner determined that Ferrie had been dead approximately SEVEN HOURS when discovered at 11 am that morning. Thus, Ferrie must have died SHORTLY after 4 AM, which was way too soon for any thyroid medication to even START to have an effect. Thus, it is simply not pharmakinetically possible for David Ferrie to have died by Proloid ingestion. This whole Proloid business is another inaccuracy in the "JFK." In the movie, Garrison is depicted as talking to the coroner at the murder scene about the the Proloid [not true], the coroner saying death would come "pretty quick" [not true], and the coroner responding by saying, "If we looked at the spinal fluid, there might be a high level of iodine. ." [not true, you could tell by a simple and readily available blood level thyroid hormone assay], then Jim/Kostner saying, ". . he kills himself in a way that leaves no trace." [definitely not true]. As mentioned before, even after burial the body could have been exhumed, and tissue assays for thyroid hormone could have been done. The entire "JFK" proloid scene has been engineered to "cover-up" the obvious disturbing facts: that Big Jim Garrison likes to raises suspicions, but does very little to confirm (or negate) them. Death by Proloid ingestion would come many hours after ingestion, it is easily detectable cause of death, and it sounds like he never discussed this possibility with the coroner, or made any serious effort to find out Ferrie's thyroid hormone levels. In "JFK", an attempt is made to sanitize this incompetence or concoction. Here's my scenario: Jim Garrison, familiar with Proloid, a drug he once took, decides to serve this up as a mechanism for Ferrie's death. He calls a friend, of course, because if he called the coroner, that would tip his hand, and the coroner would conduct the proper assasy and rule it out as a cause of death. His friend confirms that death might occur from a massive overdose of Proloid. (Actually, death by thyoid hormone overdose is quite rare, and massive overdoses are tolerated fairly well.) He then calls the coroner's office to determine whether or not there are any blood samples left and finds out there are none. Then after telling us he stashed potential evidence in his drawer for a few years, he throws it out, because he did not want to be left with such a "souvenir." With Ferrie safely buried, blood and spinal fluid samples discarded, with no bottle of Proloid left to examine, Garrison is now free to concoct this fiction of death by proloid. Bob A.