What exactly did Rose Cherami tell Francis Fruge in the early morning hours on November 21, 1963 - after she had gotten over a heroin overdose and was under sedation? Here is an excerpt from an interview of Francis Fruge with the HSCA:
According to Fruge, she said "We're going to kill President Kennedy when he comes to Dallas in a few days." That was the extent of their conversation.
He elaborated further in his deposition to the HSCA: (courtesy of the Larry Hancock website)
This hardly sounds like a plot, no?
Fruge's next interview with Cherami was on November 25, 1963, and here is what she said:
Hardly more details. Fruge then called his supervisor:
How did they follow up on this information? They called up customs. And they end up taking Cherami to Houston to work a narcotics deal. The guys who were going to kill Kennedy on Friday, then had to complete a narcotics deal in Houston. She did not want to talk to the FBI:
To be honest, I am not sure if Fruge was asking her about sharing her information on the JFK assassination or the narcotics deal. At one point, they called up Captain Fritz of the Dallas police and he wasn't interested - but did they tell him about Cherami's foreknowledge of the assassination or just the dope deal?
Nonetheless, Fruge did not call the FBI, nor did he ever contact the Warren Commission. But the narcotics case was important to him - he flew her to Houston to work with customs to complete the deal. And this makes me think he didn't take her seriously about the JFK assassination. He did take her seriously about narcotics.
After the dope deal fell through, "The Agent in charge of Customs in Houston called the Agents, probably F.B.I., and asked them if they wanted to talk to Cherami." Probably the FBI? Again, it appears that they called about the dope deal and not the assassination.
If any of this is confusing, well, Jonathan Blackmer could have done a much better job of deposing Fruge. He doesn't appear to be that interested in the story, to be honest, and the HSCA never contacted Fruge's supervisors.
And so, Fruge's April 4, 1967 report to Jim Garrison starts to make more sense. He didn't mention the JFK assassination in the memo because he was never convinced it was important. Garrison might have thought it was important, but not Fruge.
As you can see, he mentions the Ruby - Oswald connection, but nothing about the JFK assassination. And everything that Cherami said about Ruby and Oswald was said after the assassination, and after Ruby shot Oswald.
I love the last line, "Other statements made by subject, relative to your inquiry, are hear-say [sic], but are available, upon your request."
Here is an article about Francis Fruge from the Eunice News, July 18, 1967:
Note the last line - "He thinks she could have had direct knowledge of the assassination plot." This is far from definitive, no? He says he picked her up four days before the assassination, but he actually picked her up on November 20, 1963. Has the event already become hazy in his mind?
Also, note that, once again, Fruge spends more time talking about dope smuggling than the JFK assassination.
And in an upcoming post, you will see that not everything she said about the shipment of heroin checked out.