From: jmk@cbnews.cb.att.com (joseph.m.knapp)
Subject: Rose Cheramie
Organization: AT&T
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 02:32:45 GMT
Summary: Report of House Select Committee on Assassinations, volume X

I don't know if Rose Cheramie has been discussed here much. Anyway, this is
what the HSCA had to say:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

       Investigation of the Assassination of President John. F. Kennedy

                            Appendix to Hearings
                                 before the
                     Select Committee On Assassinations
                                   of the
                        U.S. House of Representatives
                            Ninety-fifth Congress

                               	second session
                                 ___________

                                   VOLUME X

                     Anti-Castro Activities and Organizations
                        Lee Harvey Oswald in New Orleans
                            CIA Plots Against Castro
                                 Rose Cheramie

                                 ___________

                                  March 1979
                                 ___________

... [p. 197]

                                ROSE CHERAMIE

According to accounts of assassination researchers, a woman known as Rose
Cheramie, a heroin addict and prostitute with a long history of arrests,
was found on November 20, 1963, lying on the road near Eunice, La., bruised
and disoriented. She was taken to the Louisiana State Hospital in Jackson,
La., to recover from her injuries and what appeared to be narcotic with-
drawal. Cheramie reportedly told the attending physician that President
Kennedy was going to be killed during his forthcoming visit to Dallas. The
doctor did not pay much attention to the ravings of a patient going "cold
turkey" until after the President was assassinated 2 days later. State police 
were called in and Cheramie was questioned at length. She reportedly told
police officers she had been a stripper in Jack Ruby's night club and was
transporting a quantity of heroin from Florida to Houston at Ruby's
insistence when she quarreled with two men also participating in the dope
run. Cheramie said the men pushed her out of a moving vehicle and left her
for dead. After the assassination, Cheramie maintained that Ruby and Lee
Harvey Oswald had known each other well. She said she had seen Oswald at
Ruby's night club and claimed Oswald and Ruby had been homosexual partners.

Ironically, the circumstances of Rose Cheramie's death are strikingly
similar to the circumstances surrounding her initial involvement in the
assassination investigation. Cheramie died of injuries received from an
automobile accident on a strip of highway near Big Sandy, Tex., in the
early morning of September 4, 1965. The driver stated Cheramie had been
lying in the roadway and although he attempted to avoid hitting her, he ran
over the top of her skull, causing fatal injuries. An investigation into the
accident and the possibility of a relationship between the victim and the
driver produced no evidence of foul play. The case was closed.

Although Cheramie's allegations were eventually discounted, her death two
years later prompted renewed speculation about her story. It was noted, 
for example, that over 50 individuals who had been associated with the
investigation of the Kennedy assassination had died within three years of
that event. The deaths, by natural or other causes, were labeled 
"mysterious" by Warren Commission critics and the news media. The skeptics
claim that the laws of probability would show the number of deaths is so
unlikely as to be highly suspect. As detailed elsewhere, the committee
studied such claims and determined that they were erroneous. Nevertheless,
allegations involving Rose Cheramie, often counted among the "mysterious"
deaths, was of particular interest to the committee, since it indicated
a possible association of Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby; an association
of these individuals with members of organized crime; and possible
connection between Cheramie's confinement at the State Hospital in Jackson,
La., and Oswald's search for employment there in the summer of 1963.

The committee set out to obtain a full account of the Cheramie allegations
and determine whether her statements could be at all corroborated. The
committee interviewed and deposed pertinent witnesses. Files from U.S. 
Customs and the FBI were requested. Information developed during the
investigation by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison was examined.
Records of Cheramie's hospitalization at East Louisiana State Hospital
were studied.

Hospital records indicate Melba Christine Marcades, alias Rose Cheramie,
was brought to the State Hospital in Jackson, La. by police from Eunice
on November 21, 1963 and officially admitted at 6 a.m. She was originally
from Houston, Tex., where her mother still lived. She was approximately
34 years old in 1963, had used many aliases throughout her lifetime and
had lived many years in Louisiana and Texas.

According to the clinical notes, the deputy accompanying Cheramie said the
patient had been "picked up on [the] side of [the] road and had been given
something by the coroner." The coroner in Eunice was contacted by doctors
at the hospital and he told them Cheramie had been coherent when he spoke
with her at 10:30 p.m., November 20, but he did administer a sedative. He
further indicated that Cheramie was a 9-year mainlining heroin addict, whose
last injection had been around 2 p.m., November 20. The doctors noted that
Cheramie's condition upon initial examination indicated heroin withdrawal
and clinical shock.

Relevant to Cheramie's credibility was an assessment of her mental state.
From November 22 to November 24, Cheramie required close attention and 
medication. On November 25, she was transferred to the ward. On November
27 she was released to Louisiana State Police Lieutenant Fruge.

The hospital records gave no reference as to the alleged statements made by
Cheramie or why she was released to Lieutenant Fruge on November 27, 1963.
These records do indicate Cheramie had been hospitalized for alcoholism
and narcotics addiction on other occasions, including commitment to the
same hospital in March 1961 by the criminal court of New Orleans. During
this stay, the woman was diagnosed as "...without psychosis. However, 
because of her previous record of drug addiction she may have a mild
integrative and pleasure defect." Her record would show she has "intervals
of very good behavior" but at other times she "presents episodically
psychopathic behavior" indicative in her history of drug and alcohol abuse,
prostitution, arrest on numerous, if minor, charges.

The committee interviewed one of the doctors on staff at East Louisiana
State Hospital who had seen Cheramie during her stay there at the time
of the Kennedy assassination. The doctor corroborated aspects of the
Cheramie allegations. Dr. Victor Weiss verified that he was employed as
a resident physician at the hospital in 1963. He recalled that on Monday,
November 25, 1963, he was asked by another physician, Dr. Bowers, to see
a patient who had been committed November 20 or 21. Dr. Bowers allegedly
told Weiss that the patient, Rose Cheramie, had stated before the
assassination that President Kennedy was going to be killed. Weiss
questioned Cheramie about her statements. She told him she had worked for
Jack Ruby. She did not have any details of a specific assassination plot
against Kennedy, but had stated the "word in the underworld" was that
Kennedy would be assassinated. She further stated that she had been
traveling from Florida to her home in Texas when the man traveling with
her threw her from the automobile in which they were riding.

Francis Fruge, a lieutenant with the Louisiana State Police in 1963, was
the police officer who first came to Cheramie's assistance on November
20, 1963, had her committed to the State Hospital, and later released her 
into his custody following the assassination to investigate her allegations.
As such, he provided an account further detailing her allegations and the
official response to her allegations.

Fruge was deposed by the committee on April 28, 1978. He told the committee
he was called on November 20, 1963 by an administrator at a private hospital
in Eunice, La. that a female accident victim had been taken there for 
treatment. She had been treated for minor abrasions, and although she
appeared to be under the influence of drugs since she had "no financial
basis" she was to be released. Fruge did what he normally did in such
instances. As the woman required no further medical attention, he put her
in a jail cell to sober up. This arrangement did not last long. The woman
began to display severe signs of withdrawal. Fruge said he called a doctor,
who sedated Cheramie and Fruge transported Cheramie to the State Hospital
in Jackson, La.

Fruge said that during the "1 to 2 hour" ride to Jackson, he asked Cheramie
some "routine" questions. Fruge told the committee:

	She related to me that she was coming from Florida to Dallas
	with two men who were Italians or resembled Italians. They had
	stopped at this lounge... and they'd had a few drinks and had
	gotten into an argument or something. The manager of the lounge
	threw her out and she got on the road and hitchhiked to catch a
	ride, and this is when she got hit by a vehicle.

Fruge said the lounge was a house of prostitution called the Silver Slipper.
Fruge asked Cheramie what she was going to do in Dallas: "She said she was
going to, number one, pick up some money, pick up her baby, and to kill
Kennedy." Fruge claimed during these intervals that Cheramie related the
story she appeared to be quite lucid. Fruge had Cheramie admitted to the
hospital late on November 20.

On November 22, when he heard the President had been assassinated, Fruge
said he immediately called the hospital and told them not to release
Cheramie until he had spoken to her. The hospital administrators assented
but said Fruge would have to wait until the following Monday before
Cheramie would be well enough to speak to anyone. Fruge waited. Under
questioning, Cheramie told Fruge that the two men traveling with her from
Miami were going to Dallas to kill the President. For her part, Cheramie
was to obtain $8,000 from an unidentified source in Dallas and to proceed
to Houston with the two men to complete a drug deal. Cheramie was also
supposed to pick up her little boy from friends who had been looking after
him. Cheramie further supplied detailed accounts of the arrangement for
the drug transaction in Houston. She said reservations had been made at
the Rice Hotel in Houston. The trio was to meet a seaman who was bringing
in 8 kilos of heroin to Galveston by boat. Cheramie had the name of the
seaman and the boat he was arriving on. Once the deal was completed, the
trio would proceed to Mexico.

Fruge told the committee that he repeated Cheramie's story to his
supervisors and asked for instructions. He was told to follow up on it.
Fruge promptly took Cheramie into custody -- as indicated in hospital
records -- and set out to check her story. He contacted the chief Customs
agent in Galveston who reportedly verified the scheduled docking of the
boat and the name of the seaman. Fruge believed the customs agent was 
also able to verify the name of the man in Dallas who was holding Cheramie's
son. Fruge recalled the customs agent had tailed the seaman as he 
disembarked from the boat, but then lost the man's trail. Customs closed 
the case.

Fruge had also hoped to corroborate other statements made by Cheramie.
During a flight from Houston, according to Fruge, Cheramie noticed a 
newspaper with headlines indicating investigators had not been able to
establish a relationship between Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald. Cheramie
laughed at the headline, Fruge said. Cheramie told him she had worked for
Ruby, or "Pinky," as she knew him, at his night club in Dallas and claimed
Ruby and Oswald "had been shacking up for years." Fruge said he called
Capt. Will Fritz of the Dallas Police Department with this information.
Fritz answered, he wasn't interested. Fritz and the Louisiana State Police
dropped the investigation into the matter. Four years later, however,
investigators from the office of District Attorney Garrison in New Orleans
contacted Fruge. Fruge went on detail to Garrison's office to assist in
the investigation into the Kennedy assassination.

During the course of the New Orleans D.A.'s investigation Fruge was able
to pursue leads in the Cheramie case that he had not checked out in the
original investigation. Although there appeared to be different versions
as to how Cheramie ended up by the side of the road, and the number and
identity of her companions, Fruge attempted to corroborate the version
she had given him. Fruge spoke with the owner of the Silver Slipper Lounge.
The bar owner, a Mr. Mac Manual since deceased, told Fruge that Cheramie
had come in with two men who the owner knew as pimps engaged in the 
business of hauling prostitutes in from Florida. When Cheramie became 
intoxicated and rowdy, one of the men "slapped her around" and threw her
outside.

Fruge claims that he showed the owner of the bar a "stack" of photographs
and mug shots to identify. According to Fruge, the barowner chose the
photos of a Cuban exile, Sergio Arcacha Smith, and another Cuban Fruge 
believed to named Osanto. Arcacha Smith was known to Kennedy assassination
investigators as an anti-Castro Cuban refugee who had been active in 1961
as the head of the New Orleans Cuban Revolutionary Front. At that time, he
befriended anti-Castro activist and commercial pilot David Ferrie, who was
named and dismissed as a suspect in the Kennedy assassination within days
of the President's death. Ferrie and Arcacha Smith were also believed to
have ties with New Orleans organized crime figure Carlos Marcello. Arcacha
Smith moved from the New Orleans area in 1962 to go to Miami and later to
settle in Houston. The weekend following the assassination, Ferrie took a
trip to Houston and Galveston for a little "rest and relaxation," while
police searched New Orleans for him after receiving a tip he had been
involved in the assassination. The committee has found credible evidence
indicating Ferrie and Oswald were seen together in August 1963 in the
town of Clinton, La., 13 miles from the hospital in Jackson where Cheramie
was treated and where Oswald reportedly sought employment. Allegations 
involving Arcacha Smith and Ferrie and the committee's investigation are
set forth in detail elsewhere in the Report. Clearly, evidence of a link
between Cheramie and Arcacha Smith would be highly significant, Arcacha Smith,
however, denied any knowledge of Cheramie and her allegations. Other avenues
of corroboration of Fruge's identification of Cheramie's traveling 
companion as Sergio Arcacha Smith and further substantiation of Cheramie's
allegations remain elusive.

U.S. Customs was unable to locate documents and reports related to its
involvement in the Cheramie investigation although such involvement was not
denied. Nor could customs officials locate those agents named by Fruge as
having participated in the original investigation, as they had since left 
the employ of the agency.

Since the FBI had never been notified by the Louisiana State Police and U.S.
Customs of their interest in Cheramie, the FBI file did not have any
reference to the Cheramie allegations of November 1963. FBI files did give
reference to the investigation of a tip from Melba Marcades, actually Rose
Cheramie, in Ardmore, Okla. that she was enroute to Dallas to deliver 
$2,600 worth of heroin to a man in Oak Cliff, Tex. She was then to proceed
to Galveston, Tex., to pick up a load of narcotics from a seaman on board
a ship destined for Galveston in the next few days. She gave "detailed
descriptions as to individuals, names, places, and amounts distributed."
Investigations were conducted by narcotics bureaus in Oklahoma and Texas
and her information was found to be "erroneous in all respects."

A similar tale was told in 1965: FBI agents investigated a tip from
Rozella Clinkscales, alias Melba Marcades, alias Rose Cheramie. Like the
stories told in 1963, Cheramie-Clinkscales claimed individuals associated
with the syndicate were running prostitution rings in several southern cities
such as Houston and Galveston, Tex., Oklahoma City, Okla., and Montgomery,
Ala. by transporting hookers, including Cheramie-Clinkscales, from town
to town. Furthermore, she claimed she had information about a heroin deal
operating from a New Orleans ship. A call to the Coast Guard verified an
ongoing narcotics investigation of the ship. Other allegations made by
Cheramie-Clinkscales could not be verified. Further investigation into 
Cheramie-Clinkscales revealed she had apparently previously furnished the FBI 
false information concerning her involvement in prostitution and narcotics
matters and that she had been confined to a mental institution in Norman,
Okla. on three occasions. FBI agents decided to pursue the case no further.
The FBI indicated agents did not know of the death of their informant on
September 4, 1965, occurring just 1 month after she had contacted the FBI.
Louisiana State Police investigating Cheramie's fatal accident also 
apparently did not know of the FBI's interest in her.

Submitted by,

                                                Patricia Orr,  Researcher

[end of excerpt]
------
Joe Knapp    jmk@cbvox.att.com

"Was the John F. Kennedy assassination a conspiracy involving anti-Castro
 Cuban exiles? The committee found that it was not easy to answer that
 question years after the event, for two reasons. First, the Warren 
 Commission decided not to investigate further the issue despite the urging
 of staff counsel involved with that evidence and the apparent fact that
 the anti-Castro Cuban exiles had the means, motivation, and opportunity to
 be involved in the assassination. In addition, the area of possible Cuban
 exile involvement was one in which the Warren Commission was not provided
 with an adequate investigative background."

                                                      HSCA, volume X, p. 5
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