Rose Cherami

Rose Cherami.
New Orleans arrest photo.

One of the most well-known stories of foreknowledge in the Kennedy assassination is that of Rose Cherami (often spelled "Cheramie"), whose real name was Melba Christine Marcades.

On November 20, 1963, Cherami was struck by a car on Highway 190 near Eunice, Lousiana. She told police Lt. Francis Fruge she had been traveling with two men from Florida to Dallas, as part of a drug run, but had been thrown out of the Silver Slipper Lounge after an argument, after which she had been run over. After exhibiting drug withdrawal symptoms, Fruge took her to Jackson East Louisiana State Hospital.

On the journey there, Fruge later told the HSCA, Rose Cherami told the story of her companions and the argument, and then when asked about her business in Dallas, she said she intended to "number one, pick up some money, pick up her baby, and kill Kennedy." She reportedly subsequently told hospital nurses, moments before JFK was killed, that the murder was about to happen. A few days later, she told Fruge that Oswald was a friend of Jack Ruby, for whom she said she worked as a stripper and dope runner.

Dr. Victor Weiss, who treated Cherami, told Jim Garrison's investigators in 1967 that he had heard Rose's predictions about the Kennedy assassination. In his testimony to the HSCA Dr. Weiss was clear that he had heard this before Kennedy's assassination, though the initial 1967 contact report notes that "Dr. Weiss states that he doesn't recall whether this was told to him before or after the assassination."

While working for the Garrison investigation, Lt. Francis Fruge tracked down the owner of the Silver Slipper Lounge, Mac Manual. Manual remembered the incident clearly, and picked out as Rose's companions mug shots of Cuban exile Sergio Arcacha Smith and a man Fruge remembered as "Osanta" (Emilio Santanta?).

On September 4, 1965, Rose Cherami was again a victim of a car accident. This time her skull was crushed and she was killed, near Big Sandy, Texas.