David William Ferrie (March 28, 1918 – February 22, 1967) was an American pilot who was alleged by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison to have been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President John F.

A Roman Catholic, Ferrie attended St. Ignatius High School, John Carroll University, St. Mary's Seminary, where he studied for the priesthood, and Baldwin Wallace College.

[5] He then became an insurance inspector and, in 1951, moved to New Orleans where he worked as a pilot for Eastern Air Lines, until losing his job in August 1961, after being arrested twice on morals charges.

He was asked to be a guest aerospace education instructor at a smaller squadron at Moisant Airport, and lectured there from June to September 1955.

[10] Over the years, he used both his official and unofficial squadrons to develop improper relations with boys ranging in age from 14 to 18, and his August 1961 arrests caused the Falcons to fold.

[10] Ferrie described himself as a liberal on civil rights issues, and he was "rabidly anti-Communist", often accusing previous U.S. presidential administrations of being "sell-outs" to Communism.

According to the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations, Ferrie "found an outlet for his political fanaticism in the anti-Castro movement."

In July 1961, Ferrie gave an anti-Kennedy speech before the New Orleans chapter of the Military Order of World Wars, in which "his topic was the Presidential administration and the Bay of Pigs Invasion fiasco.

"[5] In his speech, Ferrie attacked Kennedy for refusing to provide air support to the Bay of Pigs invasion force of Cuban exiles.

"[14] In the early 1960s, Ferrie became involved with Guy Banister, former Special Agent In Charge (SAC) of the Chicago office of the FBI, right-wing political activist, segregationist, and private investigator.

[13] On a related matter, the House Select Committee on Assassinations stated that "An unconfirmed Border Patrol report of February 1962 alleges that Ferrie was the pilot who flew Carlos Marcello back into the United States from Guatemala after he had been deported in April 1961 as part of U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy's crackdown on organized crime.

[20] It was later reported that Ferrie was "intensely interrogated by the district attorney's office in 1963 after the assassination" and "talked also to the FBI and the Secret Service.

[23] Martin also told bail bondsman Hardy Davis that he had heard on television that Ferrie's New Orleans library card had been found in Oswald's possession when he was arrested in Dallas.

"[28] Another explanation for the trip appeared in a 1967 newspaper article, in which Ferrie said he and two friends went to Texas "for relaxation after he had completed a job of investigative work for a local attorney on a federal case.

"[21] In another newspaper, Ferrie describes the trip as a "spur-of-the-moment" decision by him and two friends at about 3:20 p.m. Nov. 22, 1963: "We drove by car to Vinton, La., then to Houston and Galveston, where we hunted geese.

[30] Ferrie admitted that he had made public and private statements criticizing Kennedy's actions during the Bay of Pigs, but he denied ever stating that the President should be killed.

"[35] Some of this information reached Jim Garrison, the district attorney of New Orleans, who had become increasingly interested in the assassination after a chance meeting with Louisiana Senator Russell Long in late 1966.

Martin claimed that during the summer of 1963, Ferrie, Banister, Oswald, and a group of anti-Castro Cuban exiles were involved in operations against Castro's Cuba that included gun running activities and burglarizing armories.

"[38] As Garrison continued his investigation, he became convinced that a group of right-wing extremists, including Ferrie, Banister, and Clay Shaw, were involved in a conspiracy with elements of the CIA to kill Kennedy.

Garrison later claimed that the motive for the assassination was anger over Kennedy's attempts to obtain a peace settlement in both Cuba and Vietnam.

[41] On February 22, 1967, less than a week after the now-defunct afternoon newspaper the New Orleans States-Item broke the story of Garrison's investigation, Ferrie was found dead in his apartment.

[46] They concluded that there was no evidence of suicide or murder and that Ferrie died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage due to a congenital intracranial berry aneurysm that had ruptured at the base of his brain.

[42][47][48][49] Upon learning of the coroner's findings, Garrison said, "I suppose it could just be a weird coincidence that the night Ferrie penned two suicide notes, he died of natural causes.

[50] Jack Wardlaw, then with the States-Item, and his fellow journalist Rosemary James, a native of South Carolina, co-authored Plot or Politics, a 1967 book which takes issue with the Garrison investigation.

[62] In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations stated that available records "lent substantial credence to the possibility that Oswald and [David] Ferrie had been involved in the same [Civil Air Patrol] unit during the same period of time.

"[8] Committee investigators found six witnesses who said that Oswald had been present at Civil Air Patrol meetings headed by Ferrie.

[63] In 1993, the PBS television program Frontline obtained a group photograph, taken eight years before the assassination, that showed Oswald and Ferrie at a cookout with other Civil Air Patrol cadets.