Interview with PERRY RAYMOND RUSSO at the Mercy Hospital on February 27, 1967. --------------------------------------------------------- On February 27, 1967 Al Oser and I, after talking with Dr. Nicholas Chetta of the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office, took PERRY RAYMOND RUSSO over to the Mercy Hospital located on Bien- ville and Jefferson Davis Parkway. Present in the Emergency Ward Operating Room were Al Oser, Dr. Nicholas Chetta, Dr. James Wall, Dr. Richard Zepernick, PERRY RUSSO and myself, At this point, Dr. Chetta began getting PERRY RUSSO ready to undergo sodium pentothal. After the preparations were over Dr. Chetta and Dr. Wall began administering glucose into his arm and at 3:28 p.m. the actual injection of sodium pentothal into RUSSO began. After a few minor questions such as: what was his name, where does he live, where does he work and did he know other individuals, I got into the main stream of questioning My first question pertained to his relationship with AL LANDRY. He said that AL LASERS was a friend of his and he had known him for five years. I asked him if he knew DAVID FERRIE and he said yes, he knew DAVID FERRIE and that he had first met him at FERRIE'S house in 1962. He said that it was through AL LANDRY that he had the occasion to come into contact with PERRIE, as FERRIE was queer and was in love with AL LANDRY. He said that LANDRY'S mother had asked him to try and break the relationship that existed between LANDRY and PERRIE and that he thought that he would intercede and try to do this. He then began to tell us of an event that he experienced at FERRIE'S apartment with AL LANDRY. He said that he went to FERRIE'S apartment near Kenner with LANDRY and FERRIE introduced him to his mother and about eight or ten boys that were in the Civil Air Patrol unit of FERRIE'S. He said this was more or less an informal meeting and FERRIE took this occasion to demon- strate his hypnotic powers. He did this by using LANDRY as a subject and after putting him in a deep hypnotic trance he began sticking pins into LANDRY'S body and LANDRY did not feel any pain whatsoever. He also said that FERRIE used post-hypnotic suggestion on LANDRY. He also said that at one time FERRIE had also hypnotized him and that when he came out of it he felt like a fool because everybody was laughing at what he had done under hypnosis. He did not remember what he had done but whatever it was it must have been funny because everybody was laughing at him. I then asked him if he remembered seeing any Cubans with FERRIE and he told me that he could remember when he was living on Elysian Fields Avenue, FERRIE came to his apartment one day with two very thick, husky Cubans. He said FERRIE introduced them to him but that he didn't remember the names because they were Spanish-sounding names. He could remember that they were very strong and rough looking and that they did not speak any English. ----------------------------------------------- RUSSO Interview (Continued) page Two He then-said that FERRIE used to always drop over to his apart- ment on an average of two times a week and that he believed that FERRIE may have been trying to hawk him but he never actually made any advances towards him. I then asked him if he remembered telling me in our previous interview in Baton Rouge that he went up to FERRIE'S apartment on Louisiana Avenue Parkway and met FERRIE'S roommate. He said that he did remember and then I asked him to describe him and tell me all that he could remember about this roommate He said that he had seen the roommate on about three different occasions in FERRIE'S apartment and that FERRIE at first told him that it was his roommate and called him LEON. He said LEON seemed to be around 25 years old and that what he noticed most about him was that he was very dirty and a beatnik-type guy. He said that the guy appeared to be a little nuts to him and that he would never talk to anyone. FERRIE had told him that he did not like to talk to anyone and that he was a bug on history and all he did was sit down on the porch in a rocking chair and also he read a lot. He said that he remembered FERRIE telling him that LEON was a real nut about guns and RUSSO remembered one time as he went into the apartment, LEON was sitting on a chair with his leg up cleaning a rifle. He said the rifle had a telescopic sight mounted right on top of the rifle and it was a bolt-action rifle. He also said that LEON had a pistol. I asked him could he pinpoint the times that he saw the roommate with PERRIE and he said it was September 20 until around September 25, 1963. I asked him could he be sure of this and he said he is pretty sure - that he knows it had to be in September. I then asked him if the picture that we had drawn up this morn- ing in my office resembled FERRIE'S roommate whom he referred to as LEON, and he said yes, the picture did. He said the room- mate had a bushy beard and his hair was all messed up and he was extremely dirty. He said the picture we had drawn up this morn- ing was very, very close to FERRIE'S roommate except maybe the guy was a little dirtier. He also said another thing he remembered about the roommate was that OSWALD wore a wedding band on his left hand and it appeared to be gold or brass. I then pointed out to him that he had referred to the roommate as OSWALD and asked him if there was any particular reason why he now referred to FERRIE'S roommate as OSWALD. He said that he didn't know - that seems to be what he was called or what somebody said his name was. I then returned to talking about the picture of LEE HARVEY OSWALD that we had added a beard to and messed up his hair and he said that that was very similar to how the roommate looked. He said ------------------------------------ Page 3 that the guy did not talk to him and when he asked the roommate where he was from, the roommate said "Everywhere". He said FERRIE had told him that his roommate did not like to talk to people and did not even get along with his (FERRIE'S) Cuban friends. I then asked him if he knew CLAY SHAW. He said that he did not know CLAY SHAW . I then asked him if he knew CLAY BERTRAND and he said that he did know a BERTRAND and he is a queer. RUSSO said that FERRIE had introduced him to BERTRAND while he was at FERRIES apartment on Louisiana Avenue Parkway. I then asked him to describe CLAY BERTRAND and he said that CLAY BERTRAND was a tall man with white kinky hair, sort of slender and that he had seen BERTRAND on two other occasions. One occasion when his car had some trouble and he pulled into FERRIE'S service station on the Veterans Highway and on another occasion when he went to see President Kennedy speak at the Nashville Street Wharf. He said that he remembered BERTRAND because BERTRAND was hawking some kid who was not too far from him at Kennedy's speech. I then asked him if he could remember any of the details about CLAY BERTRAND being up in FERRIE'S apartment and he told me that he was in FERRIE'S apartment with CLAY BERTRAND and FERRIE and the roommate and he remembers FERRIE telling him that "We are going To kill John F. Kennedy" and that "it won't be long". He said FERRIE again repeated his earlier statement that he could plan the perfect assassination of the President because he could fly anything that had wings on it and he had perfect availability of exit out of the country. When I asked him who FERRIE was referring to when he said "we", he said "I guess he was referring to the people in the room". He said this was not the first time that FERRIE had talked to him about how easy it would be to assassinate the President. He said that FERRIE, in September and October of 1963, became obsessed with the idea that he could pull off a perfect assassination. He also repeated the previous story about FERRIE telling him that he knew more about drugs and autopsies than any doctor in the world. Also that FERRIE had told him of how he had given this drug, which was similar to an aphrodisiac, to his roommate and his roommate became very aggressive and had sexual relations with him. Be said that he had also used this drug on AL LANDRY before. My last question to RUSSO was something to this effect, "Is all that you are telling us true and to the best of your knowledge?" He said, "Yes, it is, as much as I can remember". Dr. Chetta then informed us that he had been under sodium pento- thal for over a half-hour and the administration of sodium pentothal was concluded at 4:10 p.m. ANDREW J. SCIAMBRA 2/28/67 AJS: lcs