Episode 180 Houma Heist (Or Transfer?)

Episode 180 covers the The Houma bunker raid, of the Schlumberger  Wells Company munitions and arms cache, which took place in the late summer of 1961. Later it was found that  participants  in the raid included  some individuals who were also implicated in the assassination plot related to  President Kennedy.

The participants in the raid included David Ferrie, Sergio Aracha Smith, Rancier Blaise Ehlinger, Carlos Quiroga, Layton Martins, Luis Rabel Nunez, Gordon Novel, Novel’s wife Marlene Mancuso and Andrew Blackmon, an ex-Marine.

The munitions  stored at the compound were thought to have been placed there by the CIA under a contract with Schlumberger and were thought to have originally been designated for use in  a diversionary portion of  the Bay of Pigs, or to be used in the OAS revolt of the French Generals against Charles  DeGaul.  It turns out that they were not used in  either event,  and the CIA made a decision to remove them from the bunker after Schlumberger expressed their unhappiness over the Bay of Pigs outcome. As a result the CIA directed a  group of covert operatives which included David Ferrie to remove the arms cache over a period of several months, in several different trips to Houma. They munitions were distribute to several locations including David Ferrie's apartment,  the New Orleans offices of Guy Bannister at 544 Camp Street, and to the Lake Pontchartrain anti-Castro Cuban training camp owned by William McClaney, which was raided by the FBI in July, 1963.

Even as early as 1964, rumors and serious concerns over  the lone gunman theory and the evidence that might contravene it,  were becoming a major concern for the government and the commission. Conspiracy theories were contrary to the government's stated narrative from the very beginning. This  real-life story is more fascinating than fiction. No matter whether you are a serious researcher or a casual student, you will enjoy the fact filled narrative and story as  we relive one of the most shocking moments in American History. An event that changed the nation and changed the world forever.