David Ferrie

David Ferrie
David W. Ferrie in the early 1950s
Born	David William Ferrie March 28, 1918 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Died	February 22, 1967(1967-02-22) (aged 48) New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Cause of death	Cerebral hemorrhage due to intracranial berry aneurysm (official ruling)
Resting place	Saint Bernard Memorial Gardens
Nationality	American
Education	St. Ignatius High School
Alma mater	St. Mary's Seminary Baldwin-Wallace College
Occupation	Pilot
Known for	Allegations made by Jim Garrison during the investigation of the John F. Kennedy assassination

David William Ferrie (March 28, 1918 – February 22, 1967) was an American pilot who was alleged by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison to have been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. Garrison also alleged that Ferrie knew Lee Harvey Oswald. Ferrie denied any involvement in a conspiracy and said he never knew Oswald. Decades later, photos emerged establishing that Ferrie had been in the same Civil Air Patrol unit as Oswald in the 1950s, but critics have argued this does not prove that either Ferrie or Oswald was involved in an assassination plot.

Ferrie was born in Cleveland, Ohio. A Roman Catholic, Ferrie attended St. Ignatius High School, John Carroll University, St. Mary's Seminary, where he studied for the priesthood, and Baldwin-Wallace College. He next spent three years at the St. Charles' Seminary in Carthagena, Ohio. He suffered from alopecia areata, a rare skin condition, which results in the loss of body hair and whose severity increases with age. Later in life, to compensate for his hair loss, Ferrie wore a reddish homemade wig and fake eyebrows.

In 1944 Ferrie left St. Charles because of "emotional instability." He obtained a pilot's license and began teaching aeronautics at Cleveland's Benedictine High School. He was fired from the school for several infractions, including taking boys to a house of prostitution. He then became an insurance inspector and, in 1951, moved to New Orleans where he worked as a pilot for Eastern Air Lines, until losing his job in August 1961, after being arrested twice on morals charges.