The Unsolved Murder of Dr. Mary S. Sherman

/ Carter McLellan

Author: Carter L. McLellan – Date: November 23, 2025

Content

  1. Intro
  2. A bio in brief
  3. The JFK assassination
  4. The Strange death of Dr. Mary Sherman
  5. Notes

Intro

What follows is a brief overview of the 1964 death of Dr. Mary Sherman, including a short biography. This case has several books already and could be much more thoroughly investigated. I already put together preliminary notes for this article earlier this year, but have been sitting on that info until swiftly putting this together.

A bio in brief

On April 21, 1913, Mary Carline Stults was born in Evanston, Cook County, Illinois, USA.1 Her parents were Edith Monica Graham (1882-1961) and Walter Allen Stults (1882-1976), both singers with the father being a founder of Pi Kappa Lambda. The couple would later have two more daughters.2

Mary graduated from Evanston High School in 1930. At the age of 16, she went to France to study at L’Ecole de M. Collnet.3 From 1934 to 1935, she obtained a bachelor of arts degree from Northwestern University, followed by a Master of Arts degree from the University of Chicago, studying French.4 Sherman was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi and Alpha Omega Alpha.5

From 1935 to 1936, Mary was an instructor at the University of Illinois French Institute in Paris.6 She married Dr. Thomas Watson Sherman in 1936, both became medical students in 1937 at the University of Chicago. According to Edward Haslam, Sherman researched botanical viruses that lived in soil here.7

In 1941, Sherman returned to the US from Paris to receive a medical degree from the University of Chicago. She then interned at Bob Roberts Hospital there.8 In 1942, Mary accepted an offer from Howard Hatcher to join an orthopedic residency, where she worked closely with Hatcher and Dallas Phemister in the Department of Surgery.9 In 1944, Mary was promoted to instructor at the University of Chicago and published a study on polio the same year.10

A few years later, from 1947 to 1948, Sherman was appointed to assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at Billings Hospital, an affiliate of the University of Chicago, where she published various works on orthopedic research.11

It is perhaps important to mention at this point that some time in the 1940s, Mary became a widow following the apparent suicide of her husband, but the details are currently unclear.12 In 1948, Sherman became a certified orthopedic surgeon.13 From 1949 to 1950, Sherman traveled through Alaska performing medical surveys in remote communities.14

In 1950, Sherman was a speaker at St. Clair County Medical Society’s sixth annual Clinic Day focused on cancer.15 In August 1950, Sherman, part of the discovery division at the University of Chicago, was aboard toe North Star to visit Sitka, Alaska, where she conducted clinics at various villages by ship.16 In October 1950, Sherman returned on the North Star from Barrow to Edgecumbe and held conference before flying back to Chicago.17

Arrival in New Orleans, 1952

It was in 1952 that Dr. Mary Sherman relocated from Chicago to New Orleans, Louisiana. By 1956 she became the director of the bone pathology laboratory at the Ochsner Clinic Medical Foundation. Her work had gained the attention of Dr. Alton Ochsner, who invited her to become a partner at his clinic where he was carrying out research on cancer.18 In 1953, Sherman became an associate professor at Tulane Medical School for orthopedic surgery at Tulane University.19

In September 1953, Sherman was a speaker at the seventh annual Southwest Regional Cancer Conference at Hotel Texas.20 The following year, Sherman was elected as the first woman to the American Orthopaedic Association (AOA).21 In January 1963, Sherman was the first woman to be awarded the Kappa Delta Award by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS).22

Some additional information about Sherman’s activity in New Orleans includes here reported contact with the “literary set” in New Orleans.23

The JFK assassination, 1963

Mary Sherman’s links to the JFK assassination initially appear through her involvement in the 1950s with Tulane University and the Ochsner Clinic Medical Foundation of Dr. Alton Oschsner. But in addition to that is the a report that she was a minor financier of an outfit founded in 1961 by Dr. Ochsner called the Information Council of the Americas (INCA).24

INCA has already been mentioned on this site in various JFK assassination articles. Lets review some points about INCA mentioned on this site:

  • August 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald, the prime suspected assassin of JFK, participated in a televised debate with Carlos Bringuier of the CIA-backed DRE and Edward Butler, director of INCA.
  • 1961, Clint Murchison (Dallas Petroleum Club member; Texas Crusade for Freedom supporter; financial backer of of Alton Ochsner’s hospital), financially backed the founding of Ochsner’s INCA. George de Mohrenschildt (Dallas Petroleum Club, Dallas Council on World Affairs), who was in direct contact with Oswald in 1962 to 1963, had worked for Murchison.
  • May-July, 1963, Oswald worked at the Reilly Coffee Company, the owners being donors to INCA by 1965.
  • INCA member Georges Albertini had heavy ties to the Cercle complex in Belgium and France.
  • Ochsner was a friend of Clay Shaw (International Trade Mart (ITM), manager 1946-1965; Permindex, board; International House, manager director 1961-1962; Foreign Policy Association (FPA), speech 1961;}, a suspect in the JFK assassination.

More sensational claims about Mary Sherman’s connection to the JFK assassination have been made by people as Judyth Vary Baker (extreme Oswald loyalist, highly questionable credibility) and Edward Haslam, author of Dr. Mary’s Monkey. In April, 1963, according to Baker, she interned with Mary Sherman and claims to have had an affair with Oswald after meeting him at the Reilly Coffee Company. She also claimed to have been introduced to David Ferrie, another suspect in the JFK assassination, by Oswald. 25 Haslam also claims a connection between Sherman and Ferrie in anti-Castro operations involving alleged bioweapon research.

In August 1963, there was a reported break in at Sherman’s apartment.26 The Kennedy assassination occurred in November 1963. The Warren Commission was established and actively investigating the assassination from December 1963 to September 1964. In June 1964, Sherman was the only female delegate from the US attending the conference of Orthopedic Surgeons of the English-Speaking World and France.27

The Strange Death of Dr. Mary Sherman, 1964

The first indication that something unusual was occurring with Mary Sherman was the reported break in to her apartment in August 1963. This was three months before the JFK assassination in Dallas, and in that period the suspected assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was living in New Orleans. He had direct encounters with a CIA-backed anti-Castro group, including with Ed Butler of INCA, after he was passing out pro-Castro literature. In late August 1963, he was preparing to make an attempt to travel to Cuba, or the Soviet Union by way of Mexico, which he attempted in September in vain, only to return to Dallas. A fuller timeline sketch of Oswald activities can be found here.

On July 21, 1964, Mary Sherman was found dead in her apartment at the Patios at 3101 St. Charles Avenue, Apt J.28 Her body was badly burned and there were apparent stab wounds. The police report classified the death as a murder, and the autopsy performed by Monroe S. Samuels concluded it was a homicide, dying from a fatal stab wound to the heart. The right side of Sherman’s body was charred, with eight stab wounds in the chest, stomach and left arm. An inflammable solution had apparently been poured over her body and ignited in her bed, the body later rolled onto the floor.29

Her nude body was found by responding firefighters beneath a burning mattress in her apartment. They had to enter the apartment with special equipment because it was filled with smoke.30 The person who apparently initially discovered Sherman’s body at 4:10am was her maid, Elmner Peterson, who had worked for her for over a decade and was the last known person to have seen Sherman alive.31

The police report indicated the motive to have been a case of robbery, the front door having been forced open, the lock broken. Sherman’s purse was empty and her car missing. The car was found 10 blocks from the apartment. Inside the car, police found several items including a small tear-gas-firing pen, but were unable to connect to the crime. An attempt to open a jewelry box was made, and it was suggested that Sherman may have interrupted the intruder.32

Sam Moran, special investigator for the coroner, stated that the weapon used to stab Sherman was never found.33 An unusual aspect is that neighbors heard no unusual sound that night, and an alarm had not sounded but may have been turned off. Mrs. Peterson did state that her apartment had been burglarized on several occasions in recent years, so an alarm had been installed for that reason Investigators were unable to determine if Sherman had left the apartment after her maid left at 4:30pm the previous day.34

No evidence of a scuffle was found, and her neighbor below, Mrs. Levy, had not heard any commotion that night.35

A preliminary examination by Dr. Lloyd F. LoCascio was performed for the coroner’s office.36 An interesting individual because they attended the 1968 funeral for coroner Dr. Nicholas Chetta, alongside Jules E. Delaune and Henry M. Delaune,37 a victim of an unsolved murder. Read more about these three men here.

Highly unusual link the Oswald

Thing begin to get strange with the entrance of Victoria and Owen Hawes and their next-door neighbor Juan Valdes, who resided at the Patios. According to Victoria, during August 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald frequently visited Valdes at his apartment.38 Valdes and Oswald allegedly made phone calls to Miami and Cuba, and she heard them talking in the bathroom and repeatedly flushing the toilet. Victoria claimed that Valdes and Oswald were friendly with Mary Sherman. Valdes has been described as a gay latino orchid grower. In 1964, the relations between Sherman and Valdes apparently deteriorated, fighting over garbage.39

Homicide detective Frank Hayward felt that Valdes should be considered a prime suspect. Victoria Howes claimed that Valdes would make “mysterious” late night walks returning at 4am, and his neighbor Helen Wattley would hear him returning at dawn. Valdes had also reportedly called police in after seeing the smoke coming from Sherman’s apartment.40

In 1967, Jim Garrison subpoened Juan Valdes and apparently found that the FBI had various files on him. In 1969, Valdes apparently left New Orleans and it was learned that Ed Butler had known him.41 Interestingly, Valdes had worked at an All Transport, Inc. at the International Trade Mart , and had seen Clay Shaw around there on various occasions.

This analysis of the Mary Sherman case is extremely brief. Various books have been written on her case, with a common theory being that Sherman died as the result of an accident from some secret science research and that her death had to be staged. There are other claims connecting her with Ferrie in cancer research in an attempt to make a bioweapon as part of anti-Castro efforts. This will not be analyzed here for now, for time.

Notes

  1. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133669332/mary-sherman ↩︎
  2. *) ibid.;
    *) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_S._Sherman;
    *) https://www.newspapers.com/image/376262508/ ↩︎
  3. *) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133669332/mary-sherman;
    *) https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKshermanM.htm ↩︎
  4. *) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133669332/mary-sherman;
    *) https://www.newspapers.com/image/376262508/;
    *) https://archive.org/details/annualcommenceme1936nort/page/31/mode/1up?q=stults;
    *) https://www.newspapers.com/image/492370837/?terms=%22Dr.%20Mary%20S.%20Sherman%22&match=1 ↩︎
  5. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133669332/mary-sherman ↩︎
  6. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133669332/mary-sherman ↩︎
  7. *) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_S._Sherman#Early_life_and_career;
    *) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/134180228/thomas-sherman;
    *) https://www.aoassn.org/mary-s-sherman-md-faoa/;
    *) https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKshermanM.htm, “As Edward Haslam points out in Dr. Mary’s Monkey: “In 1937, it (University of Chicago) produced the first sustained nuclear reaction for UC physicist Enrico Fermi. This is where Mary Sherman did her post-graduate work. She was trained at the headquarters of nuclear, bio-chemical, and genetic research in America.” During this period Sherman did ground-breaking research into botanical viruses which lived in soil.” ↩︎
  8. *) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133669332/mary-sherman;
    *) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_S._Sherman;
    *) https://www.newspapers.com/image/376262508/
    *) https://www.newspapers.com/image/492370837/?terms=%22Dr.%20Mary%20S.%20Sherman%22&match=1;
    *) https://campub.lib.uchicago.edu/view/?docId=mvol-0447-1941-0610#page/14/mode/1up/search/Sherman ↩︎
  9. https://www.aoassn.org/mary-s-sherman-md-faoa/ ↩︎
  10. *) https://www.aoassn.org/mary-s-sherman-md-faoa/;
    *) https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/268207 ↩︎
  11. *) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133669332/mary-sherman;
    *) https://www.aoassn.org/mary-s-sherman-md-faoa/ ↩︎
  12. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133669332/mary-sherman ↩︎
  13. https://www.newspapers.com/image/376262508/ ↩︎
  14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_S._Sherman#Early_life_and_career ↩︎
  15. https://www.newspapers.com/image/209861406/?terms=sherman&match=2 ↩︎
  16. https://www.newspapers.com/image/9455299/?terms=sherman&match=1 ↩︎
  17. *) https://www.newspapers.com/image/9458848/?terms=sherman&match=1;
    *) https://www.newspapers.com/image/16437822/?terms=sherman&match=1;
    *) https://www.newspapers.com/image/16437822/?terms=sherman&match=1 ↩︎
  18. *) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133669332/mary-sherman;
    *) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_S._Sherman#Early_life_and_career;
    *) https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKshermanM.htm ↩︎
  19. *) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133669332/mary-sherman;
    *) https://www.aoassn.org/mary-s-sherman-md-faoa/ ↩︎
  20. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133669332/mary-sherman/photo#view-photo=305634138 ↩︎
  21. https://www.aoassn.org/mary-s-sherman-md-faoa/ ↩︎
  22. *) https://www.aoassn.org/mary-s-sherman-md-faoa/;
    *) https://www.newspapers.com/image/104372472/?terms=sherman&match=1 ↩︎
  23. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133669332/mary-sherman ↩︎
  24. *) https://isgp-studies.com/ngo-list-foundations-and-think-tanks-worldwide#jfk-related;
    *) https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKochsner.htm ↩︎
  25. https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKshermanM.htm ↩︎
  26. 2014, Haslam, ‘Dr. Mary’s Monkey’, suggests that Juan Valdez had spoken to police and told them Owen Hawes had spotted Mary’s door open. Alleges this was the same day that Oswald drove Baker to Jackson and Mary went to London ↩︎
  27. https://www.newspapers.com/image/492370837/?terms=%22Dr.%20Mary%20S.%20Sherman%22&match=1 ↩︎
  28. https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKshermanM.htm ↩︎
  29. *) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133669332/mary-sherman;
    *) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_S._Sherman#Death, Cites: Monroe S. Samuels, Autopsy Protocol, Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office (Jul. 21, 1964), p. 1, coroner classified Sherman’s death as a homicide citing lethal stab wounds and severe burns to her upper torso and right arm;
    *) https://www.newspapers.com/image/376262493/ ↩︎
  30. *) https://web.archive.org/web/20240907022921/https://www.nytimes.com/1964/07/22/archives/woman-expert-in-cancer-slain-in-burned-louisiana-apartment.html;
    *) https://www.newspapers.com/image/376262493/;
    *) https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKshermanM.htm ↩︎
  31. https://www.newspapers.com/image/376262493/ ↩︎
  32. *) ibid.;
    *) https://images.findagrave.com/photos/2024/290/133669332_1c89082c-46f0-4d83-9844-4b04b85dd8b7.jpeg ↩︎
  33. https://www.newspapers.com/image/104372472/?terms=sherman&match=1 ↩︎
  34. ibid. ↩︎
  35. July 21, 1964, New Orleans Times-Picayune ↩︎
  36. *) https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKshermanM.htm;
    *) 2005, Joan Mellen, ‘A Farewell to Justice’ ↩︎
  37. May 27, 1968, New Orleans States-Item, ‘Services Held For Coroner Nicholas Chetta’ ↩︎
  38. 2005, Joan Mellen, ‘A Farewell to Justice’ ↩︎
  39. ibid. ↩︎
  40. ibid. ↩︎
  41. ibid. ↩︎

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