Rose Cherami's story is still being pimped
Rose Cherami’s story is indeed fascinating and it does not take more than a few leaps and twists to turn her into a mystical, if drug-addled, touchstone for entry into the world of JFK assassination modelling.
Her story was first pimped by New Orleans DA Jim Garrison and then picked up by JFK director, Oliver Stone to lead us into the movie’s rabbit holes.
More recently, it has been pimped in a book by Cherami’s son, Dr. Michael Marcades.
Cherami’s story is well-summarized by Jim di Eugenio in his review of Marcades book:
Garrison had been alerted to the case of a woman who—on the eve of the assassination—had been discarded by her cohorts on a drug run from Miami to Dallas. While hitchhiking on US Route 190 outside of Eunice Louisiana, she was struck by a car driven by one Frank Odom.
Odom took her to Moosa Memorial Hospital in Eunice. The hospital administrator, Louise Guillory, recognized she was in some kind of drug withdrawal. Since she was experienced in these kinds of cases, she called State Trooper Francis Fruge. Because of the manifest withdrawal symptoms, Fruge called for a doctor to give her a sedative and then for an ambulance to transport her to Jackson State Hospital.
It was on this drive, under routine questioning, that something stunning occurred. She gave her name as Rose Cherami, which was not her real name—it was one of the aliases she worked under in the drug and call girl trade. When asked what she was doing, she related the story of a heroin shipment she was working on. She also said she had been abandoned by the two Cubans whom she was working with on that assignment. But further, and most importantly, those two men had talked about how they were going to kill Kennedy when they got to Dallas. Even though Fruge told the House Select Committee on Assassinations that, under the influence of the sedative, Rose looked and sounded lucid to him, he did not take that statement seriously. (4/18/78 HSCA deposition of Fruge; parts of this are excerpted in Michael Marcades’ book Rose Cherami: Gathering Fallen Petals)
When he dropped her off at the hospital, she said the same thing to the two doctors who first checked her in and then talked to her. These were Dr. Victor Weiss and intern Wayne Owen. (Marcades, p. 327; Di Eugenio interview with Edwin McGehee, July of 2019 in Jackson, Louisiana) Even more startling is that Cherami mentioned the name of Jack Ruby before the assassination. She told Weiss that she had worked for Ruby. (Ibid, Marcades; Di Eugenio, p. 78)
Fruge was shocked when, as Rose predicted, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. He called up the hospital and told them not to release her to anyone until he picked her up. As a State Trooper, he understood just how important a witness she was. It turned out that Cherami predicted what was going to happen a fourth time. This was in the TV room after a news announcement that Kennedy was arriving in Dallas. (Memo from Frank Meloche to Lou Ivon, 5/22/67)
On November 26th, Fruge flew Cherami into Houston. On the flight, she picked up a newspaper. She glanced at a story which denied any connection between Oswald and Ruby. She giggled when she read it. She said that was utter baloney; they knew each other for a long time. (Marcades, p. 256)
Let’s ask some extremely relevant questions and see if they can be answered:
Was Rose affected by drugs?
This has never been questioned in the past, but in light of some medical history provided by Dr. Marcades, there is a viable alternative explanation. We also need to consider that it was not a medical person who made the drug diagnosis – but a hospital administrator!
According to Dr. Marcades, Rose had previously suffered encephalitis. To quote again from the di Eugenio review
At the age of 12, she was diagnosed with encephalitis. (Marcades, p. 23) Her son, Michael, believes this was responsible for many of her problems later in life. Encephalitis can cause personality changes, seizures, overall weakness, and other personality defects. She was in the hospital for one month at this time.
What the above misses among possible symptoms is hallucinations.
Individuals with encephalitis often show mild flu-like symptoms. In more severe cases, people may experience problems with speech or hearing, double vision, hallucinations, personality changes, and loss of consciousness. Other severe complications include loss of sensation in some parts of the body, muscle weakness, partial paralysis in the arms and legs, impaired judgment, seizures, and memory loss.
It is a pity that this symptom was left out as it seems to be the most relevant.
But what was also missed is that encephalitis can return because of trauma and stress. I would imagine that being abandoned half way through a drug run and then being hit by a car while hitch-hiking might well be both traumatic and stressful.
Finally, crucially, encephalitis, among other conditions, can be misdiagnosed as drug withdrawal (Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal, p32 by Dr. Peter R. Breggin, 2012)
Did Cherami overhear a plot?
Whilst almost anything may be possible, some things are certainly more likely than others.
What is more likely is that not only did Rose suffer a possible recurrence of encephalitis, but because of all of her hardships and rough-living, she was also a prime candidate to have suffered Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder (PTSD). At the time, this would not have been diagnosed. The trauma suffered by being hit by the car may have triggered not just the return of encephalitis, but a flashback to past trauma. This is indicated by her supplying one of her many past aliases instead of her real name – suggesting she was having a flashback to a time when she did in fact use the name Cherami.
Given the circles that Rose moved in, she most likely did hear idle threats against Kennedy – as opposed to actual plots. The Warren Commission volumes are full of documents showing the FBI chasing down information received on threats leading exactly nowhere because those making them were just talking shit – as people do. It is more than possible that if Rose was not hallucinating because of encephalitis, she was having a flashback to a time when she did overhear such braggadocio.
But even if what she told Fruge was not the result of a flashback or hallucination, the same scenario applies. Her confreres were simply talking shit. What assassins would talk about plans to kill a sitting president in front of someone like Rose and then abandon her – thus potentially pissing her off enough to inform on them? What plotters moreover, would plan an assassination attempt on a sitting president as an addition to a drug run? That alone not dangerous enough? Not a big enough adrenalin rush?
The final nail in the story?
This has to be her claim that Ruby and Oswald had been “shacking up” for years. This information has all the hallmarks of someone now feeling for the first time, a little bit special and being treated – perhaps for the first time – with some degree of respect. As we have seen with Judyth Vary Baker (whom Dr. Marcades cites in his book as an authoritative witness, telling us all we need to know about his judgement!) , the way to the heart of any conspiracy addict is to give them what they want to hear, while simultaneously embedding yourself in the history. The story is total trash. In this instance, her son and biographer Michael knew full well how damaging to his mother’s credibility those words were – which is why he changed it to the less damaging “they knew each other for a long time.”
In fact, it is so bad that Garrison’s office tried to buttress the story by obtaining an affidavit from Blanch M. KREISCHER.
Blanch was the wife of Armour E Kreischer who penned a letter to the FBI on Nov 28, 1963 outlining 4th or 5th hand information that Oswald worked for Ruby and lived in an Oak Cliff boarding house. The FBI tracked the rumor to it’s source – a Humble Service Station at 1030 North Zangs where they interviewed owner Jerry Duncan, The story that Duncan relayed was that a customer advised him that Ruby shot Oswald, and that her mother worked at a cafe in the same building as the Carousel and that she (the mother) knew Ruby as a result. In hindsight, he mistook references to “he” and “him” as being in regard to Oswald when they were actually all references to Ruby and that as a result, he (Duncan) was the source of misinformation to Oswald’s landlady that Oswald may have worked for Ruby.
One could easily get the impression that something is being covered up here OR that it was a typical case of Chinese Whispers where information got twisted or misunderstood as it passed from person to person. This was not Duncan’s only encounter with the FBI on the case. He also claimed at one stage that Oswald had gone out drinking with one of his employees. This turned out to be not Oswald but a boarder at 1026 N Beckley named Floyd de Graffenreid.
There is a vague possibility that Ruby employee Larry Crafard stayed at the boarding house for a short period close to the time of the assassination and it was Crafard that was the subject of the Kreischer rumor. Larry wanted to move out of the Carousel and Ruby did know the sister of the boarding house housekeeper. But even if this vague possibility were true, it in no way, shape or form, confirms Cherami’s story about Oswald and Ruby.
It is about time we all allow Rose to Rest in Peace.
For anyone interested in actual foreknowledge of what was about to happen in Dallas, please see The Oxnard Riddle Explained
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