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FURTHER
FELICIANA RESEARCH
Compiled by Claude B. Slaton
24 June 1997
It has been reported that David W. Ferrie, the
eccentric character central to the Jim Garrison
investigation in New Orleans (1967-69), was present in a
New Orleans Federal courtroom on the morning of November
22, 1963.[1] The court case involved
Robert Kennedy (then U.S. Attorney General) and his
Justice Department's staff's repeated efforts to deport
Carlos Marcello (described by the Justice Department as a
powerful organized crime boss) as an undesirable alien.
Marcello's attorney, G. Wray Gill, had hired Ferrie
(mainly to fly to Central American countries to run
errands) as an investigator and pilot in an effort to
gather evidence favorable to Marcello's defense.
So far there is nothing new in this, but a sideline to
this court case extends back into the area of Louisiana
where Clay Shaw, David Ferrie, and Lee Oswald were said
by witnesses to have visited late in August, 1963, namely
the Clinton-Jackson-St. Francisville region of Louisiana,
highlighting previously unknown connections and raising
new areas deserving of further research.
The sideline to the deportation proceedings points to
one of the jurors at that trial, Randolph Heitler. Mr.
Heitler was approached during the proceedings by Joseph
Matassa, a New Orleans produce dealer, with an offer of
$1,000 to vote to acquit Marcello. This was apparently
considered jury tampering and the authorities later
charged Marcello and Matassa with that offense, according
to the Clinton newspaper, The Watchman.[2]
Mr. Edward T. Dwyer of near St. Francisville, La., was
the man who introduced Matassa to Heitler, but was
apparently not charged. Mr. Dwyer was, at that time,
residing on a small farm about 5-6 miles west of Jackson,
La., on Highway 10 in an area known as "Elm
Park". Almost within sight of Dwyer's home, to the
east up the highway, was the main entrance to a large
farm called Marydale.
In the summer of 1963, Marydale was owned by Lloyd J.
Cobb [3] of New Orleans (Clay Shaw's
superior at the Trade Mart and a close business
associate), and was originally an investment by Mr. Cobb
to start a starch production operation at the farm,
producing the starch by large amounts of potatoes grown
on the place. Marydale consisted of about 1,000 acres of
good Feliciana rolling farmland, and there were (and are)
plenty of trees and other cover providing good hunting
for deer, rabbit, turkey, or whatever was in season. It
boasted a cabin or hunting lodge, where, it was said in
the community, "big shots" from New Orleans
would occasionally gather, such as Mr. Louis J. Roussell
and Clay Shaw. Roussell, in fact, had at one time raised
race horses for Jefferson Downs racetrack on Marydale (or
the adjoining farm) about 1961 or 2.[4]
Ed Dwyer surfaced again when he met with two of Jim
Garrison's investigators in New Orleans on April 3, 1969.
During that interview Andrew Sciambra informs Garrison
that "DWYER said that there is a person by the name
of SYLVESTER in Clinton who is known as ED PARTIN's
'strong-arm' man and who would be able to give us some
very valuable information about SHAW if he wanted to
cooperate. He said he believes that SYLVESTER can tell us
who SHAW knew in Clinton and when he was there."[5]
On April 30, 1997, Sciambra and Bill Alford went to
Clinton and interviewed a man named Jerry Sylvester.
Sylvester, who worked as a teamster for Edward Grady
Partin's Local No. 5 in Baton Rouge, "seemed very
cooperative" and informed the investigators that he
was a "good friend" of John Manchester, the
Clinton Town Constable that had testified at the Shaw
trial that he had seen and talked to Clay Shaw in
Clinton, La., and identified David Ferrie as the man with
Shaw, while Lee Oswald was in line to register to vote in
late August, 1963. He said, "If MANCHESTER said that
SHAW was in Clinton, he [Sylvester] believed it."
Sylvester had no "personal knowledge" of Shaw
being in Clinton or St. Francisville, but that he would
"talk to some people" who might be able to
help, and call them back in a few days. If Sylvester ever
did call them back, no record to that effect has yet come
to the attention of the author.
He also told the investigators that he had
"checked with" Ed Partin before he spoke to
them and that he would "tell PARTIN what we
discussed. He said that he doesn't want to do anything to
hurt PARTIN, and I [Sciambra] assured him that all we
were concerned with was SHAW."[6]
Not long after talking to Garrison's men, on Saturday,
June 28, 1969, Jerry Sylvester and his brother-in-law,
James D. "Sonny" Brunt of Clinton, were killed
when their small private plane (serial# N3665K) crashed
just after takeoff from a small, privately-owned airstrip
next to the home of Mr. Carl Burlingame, who was also the
plane's owner. Mr. Burlingame lived in the beautiful
ante-bellum plantation home, Oaklawn, at Gurley, La.,
northwest of Clinton and about halfway between Clinton
and Jackson.
Sylvester, who was originally from Ville Platte, La.,
could fly a plane and had borrowed the plane that weekend
from Mr. Burlingame to go hunting with Brunt around Ville
Platte. The newspaper reported that, "Parish Sheriff
Arch Doughty said both men were killed instantly when the
plane nosed down from about 100 feet. The plane made a
poor takeoff, narrowly missing a tree before gaining
altitude, according to observers. After making a circle
the plane suddenly went into a nosedive." The FAA
determined the crash to have been the result of the lack
of lift on the extremely hot, humid day, combined with an
overloaded plane. One of the pallbearers for Jerry
Sylvester was Edward G. Partin of Baton Rouge.[7]
James "Sonny" Brunt, the other crash victim,
worked for his father, James B. Brunt, at the J. B. Brunt
Lumber Co. in Clinton, and was married to Vicki Van
Buskirk, the daughter of attorney Richard G. Van Buskirk,
also of Clinton.[8]
Naturally, the untimely and tragic deaths of these two
people, one of whom had just been interviewed about Clay
Shaw's visits to Jackson and Clinton several weeks before
his death, may be just one of those
"coincidences" that seem to occur from time to
time during the investigation of the assassination of
JFK. Still, one has to wonder, though...
Footnotes
[1] Davis, John H. The Kennedys:
Dynasty and Disaster. New York: S.P.I. Books, 1992.
Expanded rpt. of McGraw-Hill ed., 1984, p. 204. Davis'
account of the bribing of juror Heitler doesn't mention
Ed T. Dwyer.
[2] Full text of the article:
Feliciana Jury Chief Once Appeared in Marcello
Trial
Edward T. Dwyer of St. Francisville was named foreman by
20th Judicial Dist. Judge William T. Bennett in the
jury's initial selection. In August, 1965, Dwyer was a
foreman of the West Feliciana Parish Grand Jury impaneled
Tuesday is a man who once testified in New Orleans
racketeer Carlos Marcello's jury tampering trial.
Marcello and Orleans produce dealer Joseph Matassa were
charged with offering Randolph Heitler $1,000. Heitler
was a juror in Marcello's 1963 federal court trial for
conspiracy and fraud involving a Guatemalan birth
certificate, was allegedly paid to vote for acquittal.
Dwyer testified two years ago last month he introduced
Heitler to Matassa and was present when Heitler was asked
to vote for Marcello's acquittal in the 1963 trial.
Heitler and the U.S. government claimed Matassa paid
Heitler two $500 payments for his vote. A witness called
by Marcello's attorneys in the 1965 trial, L. L. Taylor
of San Antonio, Tex., later testified he had known Dwyer
since 1957. From: The Watchman, Clinton, La., 8 Sep 1967,
p. 2, col. 4-5.
[3] St. Francisville, West
Feliciana Parish Courthouse documents re: purchase and
sale of farm "Marydale", copies in possession
of the author. For many years, Mr. Cobb's brother, Alvin
Cobb, was a member of several New Orleans right-wing
extremist groups and was an extremely vocal critic of the
Kennedy administration.
[4] Interview with the widow of
"Boss" Daniels of St. Francisville, author and
Jeff Caufield; geophysical map of a portion of West
Feliciana Parish, "Elm Park Quadrangle"; St.
Francisville, West Feliciana Parish Courthouse documents
re: purchase and sale of farm "Marydale",
copies in possession of the author; interview with
employee (name withheld by requst) of the Department of
Agriculture, St. Francisville, La.
[5] Confidential Memorandum, April
3, 1969, from Andrew Sciambra, Assistant District
Attorney, to Jim Garrison, District Attorney, re: Shaw in
St. Francisville and Clinton; copy from Jeff Caufield in
possession of the author.
[6] Memorandum, April 30, 1969,
from Andrew Sciambra, Assistant District Attorney, to Jim
Garrison, District Attorney, re: Shaw Leads II (Shaw in
St. Francisville); copy from Jeff Caufield in possession
of the author.
[7] Author's telephone
conversation with David Brunt, brother of James
"Sonny" Brunt; "Funeral Rites Held Jointly
For Victims Of Crash", The Watchman, Clinton, La.,
Friday, July 4, 1969, p. 1. Photo of crashed plane with
serial number visible published with the article.
[8] Richard Van Buskirk was
well-known for his activities to stop the CORE
organization from assisting the local black residents to
assert their legal rights (such as voting and equal
educational opportunities) in the long, hot summer of
1963. He received repeated injunctions from District
Court Judge (later Senator) John R. Rarick of St.
Francisville to prevent CORE from doing anything in East
or West Feliciana Parishes throughout that fall and into
the winter because CORE, according to Van Buskirk and
Rarick, was a Communist controlled organization bent on
subverting America from within by creating tensions
between the races. Van Buskirk was seriously injured in a
one-car accident south of Clinton on November 8, 1963,
and required months of recuperation.
E-mail any
questions of comments to the author
Copyright Claude B.
Slaton, 1997
Reprinted with permission of the
author.
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