DeLesseps Morrison and Hugh Ward 1964 Plane Crash: Links to Clay Shaw, Guy Banister and David Ferrie

/ Carter McLellan

Author: Carter McLellan – Date: January 12, 2026

Contents

  1. Intro
  2. The story of Chep Morrison
    1. Early Life 1912-1932
    2. Military and Public Service 1933-1946
    3. Mayor of New Orleans 1946-1961
    4. Kennedy Administration Years 1961-1963
  3. The Plane Crash in Mexico May 22, 1964
    1. Hugh F. Ward, Banister-Ferrie-Shaw ties
  4. Notes

Intro

Not a whole lot of information is easily available regarding Hugh F. Ward, a private investigator and pilot. For now, I’ve combined his story into a short biography of DeLesseps Morrison, Sr., the former mayor of Louisiana. The following was put together in haste, and will be a very short analysis.

The story of Chep Morrison

Early Life 1912-1932

deLesseps Story “Chep” Morrison, Sr. was born in New Roads, Pointee Coupee Parish, Louisiana, USA, on January 18, 1912. His father was Jacob Haight Morrison III (1875-1929), a district attorney for the 18th Judicial District, while his mother Anita Olivier (1997-1981) was described as a socoialite. He had an older sister named Virginia Lucille Morrison (1902-1981).1 He likely had more siblings in addition to this sister.

He was named after deLesseps Story, a New Orleans judge related on his mother’s side of the family, which tied back to Ferdinand de Lesseps and Sidney Story, an alderman for whom the New Orleans area of Storyville is named.2 In 1929, his father died at the age of 53 from a pistol wound.3

Currently I don’t have a lot of information about Chep’s educational background, but it is known that he graduated from Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, in 1932.4

Military and Public Service 1933-1946

In 1933, Chep was commissioned in the Army Reserve as a second lieutenant.5 He completed a law degree at the LSU Law Center in 1934.6 During the 1930’s, Chep moved to New Orleans where he became an attorney for the New Deal agency National Recovery Administration. He then became a law partner with his brother Jacob Morrison and Thomas Hale Boggs, Sr.7

From 1940 to 1946, Chep served as in the LA House of Representatives for Orleans Parish (Ward 12).8 From 1941 to 1946, he was active in the US Army, and would be promoted to colonel, becoming chief of staff of the occupation forces stationed in Bremen, Germany, his military service during WWII earned him several decorations.9

During this period, in 1942, Chep married Corinne Adele Waterman (1921-1959).10 In 1944, Chep and Bill Dodd both were reelected to the LA legislature in abstentia.11 That same year, Chep had a son named deLesseps Story “Toni” Morrison, Jr. (1956-1964), and would have two other children.12

After the war, Chep returned to New Orleans to practice law, remaining in the Army Reserves and attaining the rank of Major General. He served at the commanding general of the 377th Transportation Command and alter Deputy Chief of the Transportation Corps within the US Department of the Army.13

Mayor of New Orleans 1946-1961

In 1946, Chep was elected the 54th Mayor of New Orleans. During his mayorship, he supported the International Trade Mart (ITM) and traveled to Latin America to promote international trade with New Orleans, meeting men as Rafael Trujillo and Juan Peron.14

In 1949, Chep became the 21st President of the National League of Cities.15 In 1956, he ran a failed Louisiana gubernatorial campaign.16 In 1959, after his wife died, Chep was later seen with Hungarian-born actress Zsa Zsa Gabor.17 In 1960, Chep again failed to run for Louisiana governor.18 In 1961, Chep was supported of Alton Ochsner’s Information Council of the Americas (INCA).19

Kennedy Administration Years 1961-1963

Stepping down from has New Orleans Mayorship, from July 1961 to July 1963, Morrison was the US ambassador to the Organization of American States, appointed by President Kennedy.20 Four months after Chep’s role, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. In the aftermath, Chep again failed to run for Louisiana Governor in 1964.21

The Plane Crash in Mexico May 22, 1964

Google Earth capture of the general area, haven’t located the specific site of the crash.

With Chep Morrison’s political fortunes apparently on the decline, he planned to travel with his family and close friends to the Santa Clara Ranch near Tampico on a combination business pleasure trip in May 1964.22 This was exactly six months after the assassination of President Kennedy. By now, Oswald had been killed by Jack Ruby, with an ensuing wave of “strange death” cases occurring in Dallas. This period also included the death of former Dallas journalist Bill Hunter in California, and the “suicide” of J. Garret Underhill in Washington, D.C. Another wave of “strange deaths” soon began to hit New Orleans.

After Morrison’s party ate at an airport restaurant, they had hired a Piper Aztec piloted to one Hugh F. Ward. There were seven individuals on board, including Chep Morrison, his son Randy and their dog, Carolyn Cataldo Vandergrift, 52, a divorcee with her 7-year-old son Christopher and who was looking to marry Morrison, Ovide J. Cemac of Houma, La., a businessman, Riley Pellegrin of Montegut, La., an employing of the towing company owned by Cemac, and Hugh F. Ward, the pilot from Brownsville, Texas.23

At 5:05 P.M., on Friday, they took off from Matamoros, across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas. The weather at that location was good at the time, but storms had been predicted along the route. The plane had enough gasoline for a 4.5 hour flight, although it would take slightly more than an hour to make the trip.24

They were reportedly expected at Charles Miller Ranch at around 6:10 P.M., but apparently they ran into storms along the way. They reportedly detoured slightly toward La Guajolote Ranch, about 27 miles from Ciudad Victoria, Mexico.25

Farmhands and cowboys said that they had heard the plane overhead and that its engines seemed to be sputtering. They said it circled the ranch twice, apparently seeking a place to land, before eventually crashing at 6:15 P.M., killing all onboard. Responders could not immediately located the plane due to the weather, a “blinding rainstorm” which reportedly caused a dense fog.26

A man was sent on horseback to Ciudad Victoria to notify the owner of the ranch, Prof. Arturo Lerma Anaya, but the ride took most of the night. Early the next morning, on May 23, Prof. Anaya and a friend of Charles Miller named Bill Nelson, formerly of Corpus Christi, hurried to the scene with doctors, medicine and bandages.27

They found that the plane had slithered 200 feet through bushes on the edge of a small gorge, not far from a corn field, where they were likely attempting to land. The terrain was rugged and tropical, and the surrounding area was mostly rolling hills, with the area having been the subject of previous plane accidents. Investigators claimed the plan had not exploded or burned.28

The bodies were found near a mountain cornfield by the rescue squad after a Mexican official flying overhead identified the wrecked plane. The US Coast Guard flew the bodies to Corpus Christi, Texas, then to naval air station in New Orleans by May 24.29

Hugh F. Ward, Banister-Ferrie-Shaw ties

While this is one of the earliest post-JFK assassination strange deaths in, or connected to, New Orleans, Louisiana, it is not the first case I’ve covered here involving a plane crash. The other case occurred in 1967 during the Garrison investigation of Clay Shaw, involving Ferrie-Shaw linked lawyer and pilot (was not flying at the time) George Piazza. However, what stands out in the case here, is that it involved two individuals of interest. Furthermore, It was the first in a chain of strange deaths in New Orleans, including that of Guy Banister inn June 1964, Mary Sherman in July 1964, and so on.

It is not exactly clear yet how Ward ended up as the pilot of Morrison’s plane. In fact, very little information seems to easily available about who Ward was. What has been reported is that Ward had been a partner of Guy Banister. An employee of Banister, Shirley Basile, told Garrison’s office about Ward:

“In reference to Hugh Ward she states that Mr. Banister hired Hugh Ward, a real young fellow who worked mostly on domestic cases such as divorces and separations, while she was employed there. He worked there six to eight months. She states that Hugh Ward lived in Covington and commuted back and forth.”30

Another source, reportedly a certain Jerry Milton Brooks, who was said to be a defector of the Minutemen with access to their files, told William Turner that both Banister and Ward were in the files as members of both the Minutemen and an organization called the Anti-Communism League of the Caribbean, which was headed by Banister and allegedly used by the CIA in its role in the 1954 overthrow of the leftists Arbenz government in Guatemala. He also stated that the Minutemen included anti-Castro exiles among its members. Furthermore, it was said that Ward had been trained to fly by none other than David Ferrie.31

Consistent with these lines of connections, as already mentioned, is the fact that as Mayor Morrison had backed the creation of the International Trade Mart (ITM), established in 1946 at the start of his mayorship, and the Information Council of the Americas (INCA), established in 1961 at the end of his mayorship. Both organizations with heavy connections to the New Orleans background to the JFK assassination. In addition to that and Morrison’s role in the Kennedy administration, his son DeLesseps Morrison, Jr., was an executive vice president of the Cordell Hull Foundation for International Education, founded in 1951 and located at the International Trade Mart, and later the International House by 1954. The foundation was reportedly linked to the CIA and ran a Latin American exchange program for school teachers.32

Notes

  1. *) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5833861/delesseps_story-morrison; *) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/207447736/jacob_haight-morrison: ; *) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/243670384/anita-morrison; *) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/211840248/virginia_lucille-seibert ↩︎
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLesseps_Story_Morrison#Early_life_and_education ↩︎
  3. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/207447736/jacob_haight-morrison ↩︎
  4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLesseps_Story_Morrison#Early_life_and_education ↩︎
  5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLesseps_Story_Morrison#Military_service ↩︎
  6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLesseps_Story_Morrison#Early_life_and_education ↩︎
  7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLesseps_Story_Morrison#Law_and_political_career ↩︎
  8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLesseps_Story_Morrison ↩︎
  9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLesseps_Story_Morrison#Military_service; *) ibid., received the Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit, and served in England, France, and Belgium. Decorated with the Legion of Honour and the Belgian Order of Leopold ↩︎
  10. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5833861/delesseps_story-morrison ↩︎
  11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLesseps_Story_Morrison#Military_service ↩︎
  12. *) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5833861/delesseps_story-morrison ; *) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLesseps_Story_Morrison#Marriage_and_family ↩︎
  13. ibid. ↩︎
  14. *) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5833861/delesseps_story-morrison; *) o https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLesseps_Story_Morrison ↩︎
  15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLesseps_Story_Morrison ↩︎
  16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLesseps_Story_Morrison#Gubernatorial_election_of_1956 ↩︎
  17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLesseps_Story_Morrison ↩︎
  18. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLesseps_Story_Morrison#Gubernatorial_election_of_1960 ↩︎
  19. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLesseps_Story_Morrison ↩︎
  20. *) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5833861/delesseps_story-morrison; *) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLesseps_Story_Morrison ↩︎
  21. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLesseps_Story_Morrison#Gubernatorial_election_of_1964 ↩︎
  22. https://web.archive.org/web/20241212183716/https://www.nytimes.com/1964/05/24/archives/crash-kills-delesseps-morrison-and-6-others-on-mexico-flight.html ↩︎
  23. *) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5833861/delesseps_story-morrison; *) https://isgp-studies.com/misc/death-list/articles/1964_05_23_Hugh_Ward_Guy_Banister_associate_airplane_crash; *) https://web.archive.org/web/20241212183716/https://www.nytimes.com/1964/05/24/archives/crash-kills-delesseps-morrison-and-6-others-on-mexico-flight.html ↩︎
  24. ibid. ↩︎
  25. ibid. ↩︎
  26. ibid. ↩︎
  27. ibid. ↩︎
  28. ibid. ↩︎
  29. ibid. ↩︎
  30. https://isgp-studies.com/misc/death-list/articles/1964_05_23_Hugh_Ward_Guy_Banister_associate_airplane_crash ↩︎
  31. ibid. ↩︎
  32. *) ibid.; *) https://isgp-studies.com/ngo-list-foundations-and-think-tanks-worldwide#jfk-related ↩︎

Leave a comment