Mrs. RICH. As I say, I don’t believe this has anything to do with this
at all. I told you merely because I was told to. Otherwise I would
never point it out.
Mr. HUBERT. Perhaps we ought to get for the record what the names of
these Secret Service and FBI agents are. I think you mentioned their
last names. Do you know their first names?
Mrs. RICH. No; I do not, sir. I would not know them if I saw them.
Mr. HUBERT. They just spoke to you on the telephone?
Mrs. RICH. That’s correct.
Mr. HUBERT. How did you know they were FBI agents?
Mrs. RICH. The first time when Mr. Fahety called me I was not sure, and
I would not answer any questions. So he said, “Call me back collect”
and I called the FBI back collect and it was true enough. Mr. Sweeny I
know it was, because he said he bought the tickets and had information
only the Secret Service would know, and that Mr. Milton would pick me
up subsequently, which he did.
Mr. GRIFFIN. You mentioned, I think, Mrs. Rich, that you were going to
use a boat to transport the guns to Cuba and the people back.
Mrs. RICH. That’s correct.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Where was this boat located?
Mrs. RICH. From what I understood; in Miami.
Mr. GRIFFIN. What kind of a boat was it?
Mrs. RICH. I don’t know. I was under the impression it might have been
an old picket boat.
Mr. GRIFFIN. What gave you that impression?
Mrs. RICH. Just the talk about it. I kind of got the impression that it
might have been one that had been—you know how the Coast Guard and the
Navy would sell them off sometime.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Had Dave Cherry been a friend of your husband’s?
Mrs. RICH. No; I don’t believe so. I do not know who his friends were
when he was in Dallas. Eddie Brawner and Youngblood were. Eddie Brawner
could probably tell you more on this than I could; because my husband
talked to him and wanted to go on the boat with him. He and Eddie used
to race stock cars and stuff. And he told me—my husband claimed he
used to work for Herb Noble in Dallas. There is something else. And Al
Meadows. Al Meadows claimed he never saw him. He is another underworld
character—back there in prohibition. And they used to run an Oklahoma
gin. My husband claimed he was the only one alive who knew who gunned
Herb Noble down, and that he never told. And I don’t know if it is
true. Eddie Brawner was supposed to be in on this with him. I think he
told Eddie all about this, more than I knew.
Mr. GRIFFIN. How soon after your husband came to Dallas did Dave Cherry
meet him?
Mrs. RICH. I could not really say, actually.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Well, what was the nature of his friendship for Dave
Cherry?
Mrs. RICH. How did he meet him?
Mr. GRIFFIN. No. To what extent were they friendly?
Mrs. RICH. I don’t know. They would go off some time and I would not
even be there. Actually a lot of the stuff that transpired I could not
tell you.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Was this before or after the meeting with the colonel?
Mrs. RICH. He know Dave before the meeting.
Mr. GRIFFIN. And how had he met him?
Mrs. RICH. Through me. And then again I am not clear whether I met
him—this is another point I am not clear on. I am not clear whether Bob
met Dave and introduced him to me or I introduced Dave to Bob. Here
again I am not clear. This may sound ridiculous, but I am not.
Mr. GRIFFIN. What was your husband’s experience with boats?
Mrs. RICH. Again, factually I cannot tell you. Supposedly he had been
in gun running before.
Mr. GRIFFIN. That is the only experience you know of that he had with
boats?
Mrs. RICH. He claimed he owned a big boat, he and Lee Dell owned a big
boat out in California. I guess he did because he had pictures of it
and him working around it. I still have the pictures. Now, Lee Dell,
there is another man could probably shed some light on this. But God
knows where he is. I never met the man. You see, I don’t know just
exactly what I was involved in.
Mr. GRIFFIN. And you don’t know what your role was to be in this?
Mrs. RICH. Oh, you mean in this gun-running stuff to Cuba?
Mr. GRIFFIN. Yes.
Mrs. RICH. Just by sheer force of will and apparently because they
wanted my husband, I was going to go along.
Mr. GRIFFIN. You were going to go along as a passenger?
Mrs. RICH. I was going to help working the boat, because I had
knowledge of boats.
Mr. GRIFFIN. What knowledge did you have of the boats?
Mrs. RICH. I was born and brought up in Biddeford, Maine. I have worked
on lobster boats a good many years off and on. My uncle owns them.
Mr. HUBERT. Do you recall any occasion on which you went to the
University Club and had some drinks and didn’t pay for them?
Mrs. RICH. I don’t think I ever paid for drinks at the University Club.
Mr. HUBERT. Why?
Mrs. RICH. Dave never took money.
Mr. HUBERT. Did you go alone?
Mrs. RICH. I don’t remember. I believe so. Maybe, maybe not.
Mr. HUBERT. But they would not take your money?
Mrs. RICH. Dave never charged me. He always told me it was all right.
And I don’t drink anyway. All I drink is coke. Once in a great, great
while I will drink either a grasshopper or like last night I was all
keyed up so I had a brandy Alexander before I went to bed. But I might
have done this five times in 10 years.
Mr. HUBERT. Do you remember an argument you had with your former and
deceased husband, Robert Perrin, in the University Club, which argument
was witnessed by Dave Cherry?
Mrs. RICH. I never had an argument with my husband in the University
Club or anywhere else.
Mr. HUBERT. Do you remember the manager of the University Club telling
you that neither you nor your husband could return to the club
thereafter?
Mrs. RICH. I do not.
Mr. HUBERT. Did you ever telephone Cherry advising him that you were
leaving for New Orleans and that you expected to work for the Playboy
Club there?
Mrs. RICH. I believe I did. I might have, because that is what my plans
happened to have been.
Mr. HUBERT. Did you in fact work for the Playboy Club?
Mrs. RICH. Yes, I did.
Mr. HUBERT. For how long?
Mrs. RICH. 2 or 3 nights.
Mr. HUBERT. What happened?
Mrs. RICH. I didn’t like it. For one thing, you were not allowed to
keep tips.
Mr. HUBERT. Where did you live in New Orleans?
Mrs. RICH. Part of the time down in one of the Sisters’ places, down
in the French Quarter, on St. Philip’s Street. And then 1713 Calhoun.
That is where my husband died. And various other places which I cannot
remember, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. What did your husband do for a living while you were in New
Orleans?
Mrs. RICH. The last time he had the best position I have ever seen him
hold. He was working for a construction company.
Mr. HUBERT. Which one?
Mrs. RICH. Oh, dear. Dickie Bennett, Mr. McHane, those were two of his
bosses—Mr. White.
Mr. HUBERT. What construction was he working on?
Mrs. RICH. Well, he was a mechanic for the heavy equipment. He was just
getting a raise and everything when this happened.
Mr. HUBERT. Do you know the location where he was working?
Mrs. RICH. Yes, out in Jeff Parish.
Mr. HUBERT. Was the building going up there?
Mrs. RICH. No, they had this contract for the phone company. They would
lay all their roads, and the poles and stuff, and various things. He
would go out on jobs. I got him the job through Dickie Bennett.
Mr. HUBERT. You did not work at that time?