Subject: Ferrie's Library Card
Date: 14 Apr 1998 22:08:58 -0500
From: blackburst@aol.com (Blackburst)
Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.assassination.jfk

David Ferrie's Library Card

Several writers and commentators have made reference to an 11/25/63 FBI
interview with Ferrie's friend Layton Martens, and Martens' assertion that
he was told by Ferrie's lawyer and employer G. Wray Gill that Ferrie's
library card had been found on Oswald when he was arrested. This is a
reference to Commission Document 75. Let us follow the assertion through
the other pages of the document.

Martens told the FBI that Gill had stopped by Ferrie's apartment at about
1:00pm on 11/24/63, and that "Gill stated that he had gotten word that Lee
Oswald, when he was picked up, had been carrying a library card with David
Ferrie's name on it."

When the FBI asked Gill about this, he replied that he had spoken to a man
named Hardy Davis, who "informed him that he had learned through hearsay
when Oswald was arrested by the Police Department in Dallas, Texas, he had
in his posession a library card of David Ferrie."

The FBI then questioned Hardy Davis, who said that he had spoken to Jack
Martin, who "told Davis that (a) television program had reported that the
library card of David Ferrie had been found in the possession of Oswald in
Dallas, Texas upon the latter's arrest."

This led the FBI to Jack Martin, who told the agents that "he had several
phone conversations with Hardy Davis...regarding a television program
which mentioned the possibility that David Ferrie was associated with Lee
Harvey Oswald in the Civil Air Patrol, and Martin and Davis may have come
to the conclusion that Oswald had used or carried Ferrie's library card."

Let us reverse this evidence trail and follow it forward: Jack Martin came
to the conclusion that Ferrie's library card had been found in Oswald's
possession, and he told this to Hardy Davis. Davis repeated this assertion
to G. Wray Gill. Gill repeated the information to Layton Martens.

While there were references on New Orleans TV stations that Oswald may
have served under Ferrie in the Civil Air Patrol, there is no record of
any reference to Oswald having Ferrie's library card. Could Jack Martin
have made the story up? Martin had briefly been a friend of Ferrie's but
had developed a grudge after Ferrie threw him out of Gill's office the
previous May. Over the years Martin gave numerous statements to
investigators about Ferrie which are filled with demonstrably erroneous
information. By any measure, Martin had a peculiar background. One
investigator wrote that "Martin is considered extremely unreliable and on
several occasions this man has himself been involved in matters which
bordered on extortion." Could these words have been written as part of a
cover-up/smear? Not likely - they were written nearly a year before the
assassination.

When Ferrie was questioned by the FBI, Ferrie said that "he has never
loaned his library card to Lee Harvey Oswald or any other person at any
time." It is not unreasonable to speculate that the FBI's reason for
asking this question was the assertion of Jack Martin, reported to the
Bureau by Martens, Gill, Davis and Martin himself. The Secret Service may
have obtained this information from the FBI.

After Ferrie's 1967 death, Oswald's landlady and a former neighbor told
Jim Garrison's investigators that Ferrie had visited them and inquired
about a library card. (The landlady said Ferrie's visit was on the night
of the assassination, but his whereabouts during that evening are
accounted for.) Presumably, Ferrie did visit the women a few days later in
response to the allegation made by Jack Martin.

oo
Dave