By: Carter L. McLellan – Date: December 21, 2024
Contents
- Intro
- Preliminary study of Rose Cheramie
- Possible connections
- Notes
Introduction
This article is a work in progress, it will be expanded when I get my hands on more source material, in the meantime here is an analysis of a strange death that took place in Big Sandy, for this one we begin to move beyond Dallas.
Preliminary study of Rose Cheramie
Melba Christine Youngblood was born on October 14, 1923, in Texas, to Thomas Jefferson Youngblood (1896-1977) and Minnie Belle Stroud (1899-1987). Her siblings were Grace Youngblood (1919-1996) and Gladys Mozelle Youngblood (1926-1996). Reportedly, around the age of 22, in 1945, Melba got married to Willard Steven Nichols (1921-1992), of Michigan. (1) Details about her early life are lacking, but this author has not acquired some of the books on her life yet. So this section is likely to be updated in the future.
Melba eventually got the surname of Marcades, and had one son, Michael Marcades. By around 1954, Marcades, 31, became a heroine addict. At some point, she got into prostitution, and acquired a history of arrests. She had many aliases, one of them becoming Rose Cheramie. She lived in Houston, Texas, with her mother, but also lived for many years in both Texas and Louisiana. She had reportedly met her husband at the Blue Angel in New Orleans, LA. At some point, she allegedly worked in Dallas at Jack Ruby’s Carousel Club.
Before the Assassination
The above contextual information is important to underscore that Cheramie had been active during her live between Texas and Louisiana, with particular focus on Dallas and New Orleans. By March 1961, Rose Cheramie, 37, was committed to the East Jackson Hospital in Louisiana. At this point she had a history of drug and alcohol abuse, prostitution, arrests on numerous occasions. She was diagnosed to be without psychosis, but because of her previous record of drug addiction she may have mild integrative and pleasure defect. She had intervals of good behavior, but episodes of psychotic behavior.
The exact events following are not entirely cleared up. About 2 and a half years later, Cheramie, 40, found herself in a very unusual situation. At about 2:00pm, November 20, 1963, Cheramie had made a heroine injection. Later that evening, she was found lying in a road in Eunice, Louisiana, bruised and disoriented. She had been picked up and taken to a private hospital in Eunice, where she was treated for minor abrasions. She appeared to be under the influence of drugs, but sense she had no financial basis, would be released. The administrator contacted State Police Lieutenant Francis Fruge, who picked her up and put her in a jail cell to sober up.
However, Cheramie began to show signs of severe withdrawal. He called a doctor, who sedated her, and Fruge transported her to the State Hospital in Jackson. Around 10:30pm, she began to become coherent and allegedly spoke to the coroner in Eunice. During the trip from Eunice to Jackson, Fruge attempted to ask Cheramie some routine questions. Later before the HSCA in 1978, Fruge explained:
“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 [Silver Slipper, a prostitution house reportedly]… 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. … She said she was going to, number one, pick up some money, pick up her baby, and to kill Kennedy.”
Cheramie was admitted to the East Louisiana State Hospital in Jackson at 6:00am, November 21, 1963. Reportedly, here too she told the attending physician that President Kennedy was going to be killed on his trip to Dallas the following day. No one took her seriously.
Post-assassination
On November 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President Kennedy. Two days later, Jack Ruby assassinated Oswald, on November 24. Fruge had immediately called the hospital to make sure she was not released until he could question her. They said that he’d need to wait until the following Monday until she would be coherent enough. She had required close medical attention and medication.
On November 25, 1963, Cheramie was transferred to the ward. Dr. Victor Weiss was asked by Dr. Bowers to see Rose and allegedly told Weiss that she had predicted the Kennedy assassination. Weiss questioned her. She did not have any specifics on the plot, but said that the “word in the underworld” was that Kennedy would be assassinated. She allegedly stated that she had been traveling from Florida to her home in Houston, Texas, when a man threw her from the automobile they were riding in.
Cheramie was questioned by Fruge around the 25 or 26 of November, and released to Fruge on November 27. Hospital records made no indication to her alleged statements or why she had been handed over to Police Lt. Fruge.
During questioning, Cheramie told Fruge that the two men traveling with her from Miami were going to Dallas to kill the President. For her part, she was to obtain $8,000 from an unidentified source in Dallas and proceed to Houston with the two men to complete a drug deal. She was also supposed to pick up her baby from friends who had been looking after him. She supplied details about the arrangement for the drug transaction in Houston. She claimed reservations had been made at the Rice Hotel in Houston. The trio was to meet a seaman who was bringing 8 kilos of heroin to Galveston by boat. She had the name of the seaman and the boat. Once the deal was completed, the trio was to proceed to Mexico.
Fruge repeated this information to his supervisor and asked for instructions. He was told to follow up on it, so her took Cheramie into custody on November 27. He contacted the chief customs agent in Galveston who reportedly verified the scheduled docking of the boat and the name of the seaman. Fruge also believed the customs agent was able to verify the name of the man who was holding Cheramie’s son in Dallas. The customs agent had reportedly tailed the seaman as he disembarked from the boat in Galveston, but had lost the man’s tail. The case was closed.
But Frugé continued to investigate. During a flight from Houston, Cheramie noticed a newspaper headline indicating there was no relationship established by investigators between Ruby and Oswald. Cheramie laughed and told Fruge that she had worked for Jack Ruby, or “Pinky”, as she knew him, at the Carousel club in Dallas and claimed “Ruby and Oswald had shacking up for years.” Fruge called Dallas Police homicide and robbery bureau Captain Will Fritz with this information, but he allegedly said that he wasn’t interested. Fritz and the Louisiana State police dropped the investigation.
The car accident
About August, 1965, the FBI investigated a trip by Rozella Clinkscales/Cheramie, like 1963, she claimed individuals associated with a syndicate were running prostitution rings in several southern cities such as Houston and Galveston, Texas, Oklahoma City, Texas, and Montgomery, Alabama, by transporting hookers, including Cheramie, from town to town. She also claimed to have 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 she made could not be verified. Further investigation into Cheramie revealed that had apparently revealed she had furnished false information to the FBI concerning her involvement in prostitution and narcotics matters and that she had been confined to a mental institution in Norman, Oklahoma on three occasions. The FBI dropped the case.
Almost two years after the Kennedy assassination and a month after she contacted the FBI, on September 4, 1965, Cheramie was found dead on a strip of highway from injuries sustained from an automobile accident near Big Sandy, Texas. The driver involved stated that Cheramie had been lying in the road and although he tried to avoid hitting her, he ran over the top of her skull, causing fatal injuries. No evidence was found connecting the driver to Cheramie, foul play was ruled out and the case was closed. The FBI was unaware of her death and the Louisiana State Police was never made aware that the FBI had just been investigating her allegations. She was buried at Wheatland Cemetery, in Dallas, Texas, in the front, far left.
Later investigations
“The Critics”, skeptics, or “conspiracy theorists,” began making their voices heard immediately after the assassination and after the Warren Report came out in late 1964. A number of deaths took place in Dallas and New Orleans of persons close to the assassination in that time period. Most of them connected to Oswald or Ruby, or Guy Banister.
A number of deaths followed, including that of Cheramie on September 4, 1965. The Midlothian, Texas, author Penn Jones came out with his Forgive My Grief series in 1966, identifying the “strange deaths” phenomenon of witnesses connected with the Kennedy assassination. Besides at least three auto-related accidents covered on this site, there was one other auto involved accident hitting a witness. The month prior to the death of Cheramie, in August 1965, in Dallas, Mona B. Saenz was fatally struck by a bus. She had briefly been a landlady of Oswald in Dallas, and saw Oswald on a bus on the day of the assassination after the shooting.
A few years later, in 1968, during the New Orleans DA Jim Garrison’s investigation, Fruge was contacted to assist. Sense the last investigation, about five years prior had evidently been inexplicably obstructed, Fruge agreed to join.
Fruge was able to check up on the case. Although there appeared to be different versions of how Cheramie ended up on the side of the road, and the number and identity of her companions, Fruge attempted to corroborated the version she had given him.
Fruge spoke with the owner of the Silver Slipper Lounge, Mac Manual, who said 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 he showed the owner of the bar a stack of photographs and mug shots to identify. The bar owner chose photos of a Cuban exile, Sergio Arcacha Smith, and another believed to be named Osanto.
When questioned Smith denied knowing Cheramie. US customs was unable to locate documents related to the original investigation or find the agents named by Fruge, who had since left the agency. The FBI has not been notified about the allegations and had no information, but did have information on a trip by Marcades/Cheramie in Ardmore, Oklahoma, that she was en route to Dallas to deliver $2,600 worth of heroin to a man in Oak Cliff, Texas. She was then to proceed to Galveston, Texas, 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 of individuals, names, places and amounts distributed, but investigations by narcotics bureaus in Oklahoma and Texas found her information to be “erroneous in all respects.” Therefore, Cheramie’s testimony was considered discredited.
About ten years after the Garrison investigation, in 1978, HSCA called Fruge for testimony, as they reviewed the Cheramie case as well.
About 28 years after the assassination, in 1991, Cheramie featured prominently in the opening of Oliver Stone’s JFK movie.
Since then, Cheramie has been the subject of several books, including two written by her reported son, Michael Marcades.
Possible connections
Jack Ruby & Lee Oswald
Rose Cherami allegedly claimed to have at some point been a dancer for Jack Ruby’s Carousel Club in Dallas at least once and told people this. She even allegedly claimed to Fruge that Ruby and Lee Oswald had known each other, even “shacking up for years.” Although a relationship, either long or short term, has never been proven. However, there are a number of indirect connections that are certainly noteworthy. These claims underscore a rumored homosexual undertone to these events, as well as the nightlife/underworld of Dallas.
Other speculation about a connection between Cherami and Oswald came in Cherami’s stays at East Jackson Hospital, where Oswald was at some point allegedly seeking a job and had allegedly been spotted at a nearby city, Clinton, Louisiana.
Sergio Arcacha-Smith
The Eunice story of Cherami just prior to the assassination, had two names come up in the 1967 Jim Garrison investigation that Fruge took part in. On November 21, 1963, she had been at the Silver Slipper Lounge, with two unidentified men.
Fruge contacted the owner of the Silver Slipper, Mac Manuel, whom he showed a number of photographs asking him to pick out the two men Cherami was with. He chose Sergio Arcacha-Smith and an Osanto, two Cuban exiles, whom Manuel understood to be pimps.
On January 22, 1923, Sergio Arcacha Smith was born in Havana, Cuba. In 1945, Arcacha moved to the United States, attending college in Texas. He served as Cuba’s consul to India under Batista. In 1954-1957, marrying Shelia Duarte he left the diplomatic service and became Assistant Manager of the Lago Hotel in Caracas, Venezuela (1954-57). He returned to Cuba but left after Castro came to power. An FBI report indicated Carlos Marcello had offered Arcacha-Smith money in return for gambling concessions in a post-Castro Cuba.
In August 1960, Arcacha arrived in Miami, Florida. He agreed with Antonio Varona, a director of the CRC, to establish a chapter in New Orleans, Louisiana. Initially he was offered free office space in the “Balter Building,” but later rented space at 544 Camp Street, a place where Guy Banister was active. Arcacha Smith primarily helped raise funds. Around 1961, Arcacha reportedly set up the Cuban Democratic Liberation Front with David Ferrie.
On June 14, 1961, according to testimony in 1967 of Herbert R. Wagner, Jr., David Ferrie introduced him to Sergio Arcacha Smith. Ferrie told Wagner that Arcacha was a government agent and that government cheques were delayed, that Smith needed a loan and he wanted to guarantee it. In the process of taking the application, it showed that Smith was a New Orleans delegate for the Cuban Revolutionary Front and his previous employment was at the Diplomatic Corps of the Cuban government for ten years. The loan was $338.82, he gave three references: Captain Von Mayer, 6942 Canal Blv., personal friend; Richard St. PE, 6971 Louis XIV Street, friend; Naomi Marshall, 408 Camp Street, personal friend. He saw Archacha’s diplomatic ID. It became a trouble to collect. “ARCACHA came into the office of my company, the Herb Wagner Finance Service, on several occasions with other Cubans, also, with DAVID FERRIE, ARCACHA and Cubans.”
Wagner recognized Guy Banister, David Ferrie, Sergio Arcacha Smith, Layten Martens, Al Beaubouef and might have seen Clay Shaw. Wagner had been intimidated up to five times since the assassination, his house had been ransacked but nothing taken; four different times his office was ransacked with nothing taken. One time his camp on Blind River was ransacked and nothing taken. He also stated Ferrie, while running the service station, had asked if he’d spend a weekend across the lake to teach men how to damage engines. He recalled Ferrie tried to get him to join the Civil Air Patrol, but that he was surrounded by boys.
In October 1961, Arcacha introduced Ferrie to Carlos Bringueir of the DRE. Arcacha also worked with Edward Butler of INCA. In December 1961, the Crusade to Free Cuba Committee was founded by Sergio Arcacha Smith and involved Eladio del Valle in Florida. Its Purpose was to raise funds and support for the CIA-backed Cuban Revolutionary Council in New Orleans. Formerly known as the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front (FRD), it was backed by the CIA and allegedly involved David Ferrie. It allegedly maintained an office in the same building as Guy Banister and had a military wing Brigade 2506 that fought in the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
While in New Orleans, Arcacha not only knew David Ferrie, Guy Banister, Edward Butler, Carlos Bringueir, he met Clay Shaw with Martin Mackaulif, in the coffee shop at the International Trade Mart, in which they describe the crusade to free Cuba. He also met Gordon Novel, discussing Cuba. He is also said to have know Richard Case Nagell and Dick Russell.
In January 1962, Arcacha-Smith was expelled from the Cuban Democratic Liberation Front after being accused of misappropriating funds. He was replaced by Luis Rabel and later that year he made a secret trip to Mexico.
In October 1962, Arcacha moved from New Orleans to Miami, Florida, settling in Tampa. By 1963, he moved to Houston, TX, where he sold air conditioners. Later he became Assistant Manager of the America Hotel in Houston.
In November 20-21, 1963, the Cherami incident in Eunice, LA, at Silver Slipper Lounge took place. However, on November 22, 1963, Calvin Clausel claimed that “On the day, at the hour and moment President Kennedy was killed in Dallas, Mr. Arcacha was with me in my office at Suite 107, 3100 Audley Street, Houston, Texas. This fact can also be corroborated by Mrs. Art Magee, formerly Mrs. Rima Bredelhoeft, who at that time was my secretary.”
In any case, Arcacha allegedly Carousel Club pass holder. At one point he moved into the apartment of Sue Blake, who vacated her apartment at 10746D Lake Gardens, Dallas. Allegedly he had been an agent of E. Howard Hunt and Maurice Bishop (David Attlee Philips). Jim Garrison had two witnesses, Jack Martin and David Lewis, who had seen Oswald and Arcacha together in 1963 at Mancuso’s restaurant at the corner of the building. But the witness’s credibility is in question.
Between 1963 to 1967, Arcacha’s name had apparently already came up in early JFK conspiracy literature. On September 4, 1965, Rose Cheramie was killed in an unusual car accident in east Texas. It was in 1967, during the New Orleans DA Jim Garrison investigation, that Arcacha’s name resurface. As we already saw in the case of Herbert Wagner’s story and the work of Mr. Fruge. Fruge interviewed a bar owner during the Garrison investigation, at the Silver Lounge, where he identified Smith and an Osanto as the two men with Cheramie. Osanto is speculated to have been Emilio Santana, a CIA agent 1962-1963 and a friend of Miguel Torres, who once had dinner with Smith
However, when confronted Smith denied knowing her or anything about her allegations. Garrison was unsuccessful in having Arcacha-Smith extradited from Dallas, Texas, where he was living at that point, to New Orleans. In Texas he became friends with Edwin Walker and H. L. Hunt. Arcacha died on July 5, 2000.
Underworld
The major key factor to put the Cherami case in context, is her contact with the “Underworld” of Texas and Louisiana. By 1961, at the age of 37, she garnered a history of drug and alcohol abuse, prostitution, and arrests on numerous, if minor charges.
All this lines up with her own allegation that she once worked as a dancer at the Carousel Club, Jack Ruby’s nightclub in Dallas, Texas. Ruby worked with many girls and allegedly had numerous high level mafia contacts. I’m some ways, Cherami’s story parallels those of certain other alleged Carousel workers, such as Nancy Perrin Rich and Betty Mooney MacDonald. However, it’s never been established for a fact that Cherami had worked for Ruby, or that Ruby was intimately connected to the mafia, for that matter. What does seem certain is that she was a prostitute and had knowledge of the Dallas-New Orleans underworld.
She was born in Houston, Texas, and lived between Texas and Louisiana. She allegedly met her husband at the Blue Angel, in New Orleans, Louisiana. She’d later show up at the Silver Slipper Lounge, before somehow ending up on the street before the Kennedy assassination. As described already, Fruge investigated her claims after the assassination and was able to verify elements of her drug traffic involving a ship, as well as a prostitution network, but Customs didn’t seem serious about the investigation. Afterward she’d become an informant to the FBI, but deemed not credible. She died before the 1967 Jim Garrison investigation, which followed up on her story but was unable to question her.
The car accident
Almost two years after the Kennedy assassination and a month after she contacted the FBI, on September 4, 1965, Cheramie was found dead on a strip of highway from injuries sustained from an automobile accident near Big Sandy, Texas. The driver involved stated that Cheramie had been lying in the road and although he tried to avoid hitting her, he ran over the top of her skull, causing fatal injuries. No evidence was found connecting the driver to Cheramie, foul play was ruled out and the case was closed. The FBI was unaware of her death and the Louisiana State Police was never made aware that the FBI had just been investigating her allegations. She was buried at Wheatland Cemetery, in Dallas, Texas, in the front, far left.
[will try expanding this section in future]
Conspiracy Dossiers 