James Day's Interview with Frank J. Chalona, Jr.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to start just by a simple question. Uh, Frank,

can you uh, you just state your name for the record.

Speaker 2: Frank J. Shlona junior and.

Speaker 1: We are you are? I'm calling you from. Where are

you located right now?

Speaker 2: Memphis, Tennessee? Okay?

Speaker 1: And then in nineteen sixty well, where were you born

and raised?

Speaker 2: New Orleans, louis.

Speaker 1: And Uh, in nineteen sixty three, where were you located?

Speaker 3: I was a student at Southeastern Louisiana College in Hamon, Louisiana, in.

Speaker 1: Hammon, Louisiana. And in the fall of nineteen sixty three,

what year were you in in.

Speaker 2: The fall of nineteen sixty three? Let me think I

was a junior.

Speaker 1: And yeah, goodhe you were junior fall of nineteen sixty three,

I think you were you were an English major?

Speaker 2: Correct, Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1: And do you remember in the fall of nineteen sixty

three who your roommate was?

Speaker 2: I guess it was Tommy Compton.

Speaker 1: Did you know Tommy before that year? Can you recall?

Speaker 2: No? I did not.

Speaker 1: It was just kind of one of those random roommate placements.

Speaker 2: Correct, Okay?

Speaker 1: And there was and I remember us talking about Tommy's eye.

He had kind of had an irregular schedule that you

you just go ahead and just just kind of summarize

what that was.

Speaker 2: Tommy's.

Speaker 3: Tommy stayed up day and night all week long. He

went to classes and then he ran the psychology rat

lab at night. And I don't know what his duties

were there, but it kept him, It kept.

Speaker 2: Him going all night long.

Speaker 3: He would he would wander down into town to drink

coffee at the local cafe and then wander back up

and do what he had to do with the rats.

And that was his that was his schedule. And he

went to class as well, of course, but that he

would just crash all weekend long. He would just be

exhausted and he would just fall asleep on sleep most.

Speaker 2: Of the weekend.

Speaker 1: Did he say much about his background to you? Did

you get to know him at all in those first

few months of the fall semester.

Speaker 2: I got to know him, but not really well.

Speaker 3: I knew, for example, that he was an amateur astronomer

and that he had built his own telescope.

Speaker 4: I don't remember of any other details.

Speaker 2: If you asked questions, I could probably answer them.

Speaker 1: I understand he did he mentioned anything about the Civil

Air Patrol?

Speaker 3: Yeah, I believe he was a member of the Civil

Air Patrol and I think that's where he met David Ferry.

Speaker 1: Well that's a perfect segue. Uh, let's talk about let's

talk about Ferry and you're in your role with him.

First off, before we get into that, let's go let's

jump ahead to a few years after. This is the

late sixties. Now when Jim Garrison, who's the New Orleans

DA is conducting an investigation into the assassination of the president. Uh,

you're you remind tell me the story you're are you

having coffee with some friends and the and that's when

you decide to go down and make the statement or

how did the statement come about?

Speaker 5: First off, I was you know, I was having coffee, hit,

I have a cat, what's with some sense an acquaintances,

And somebody brought.

Speaker 2: Up the Kennedy assassination. I guess at and maybe David

Ferry's name, And.

Speaker 3: I said, hey, you spent the night of the the

weekend of the assassination or something like that, uh, at

our at our dog groom. And it happened that one

of the people in the booth was a a woman

who had I guess she maybe she was still a student,

but she was also working for the local newspaper. And

uh that's when everything just uh kind of kind of

started coming apart. I mean, I sh you know. She

of course wanted all the information that was available, and.

Speaker 2: It it was it seem like.

Speaker 3: There was some some reason to suspect that witnesses were

beating untimely deaths, falling through plate glass windows and the wipe.

Speaker 2: So I decided, man, I better go down. I better go,

you know, and get this on record.

Speaker 3: So a friend of mine, a student there. His older

brother was a judge who worked with Garrison, and through him,

I got in touch with Garrison's office and then went

down and made a statement to his chief investigator in

this regard.

Speaker 2: I think the fellow's name was Lewis Ivon. So that

was it.

Speaker 1: I have the statement here. But before I go into that,

do you happen to remember that young lady's name who

was very interested in the.

Speaker 2: Case, Allie Madison. Oh?

Speaker 1: Interesting, I don't did you ever have any contact with

her after that? I don't know the name.

Speaker 2: I don't think that I did.

Speaker 1: Interesting. So here it's a short statement. I'm going to

just I'll read it and then we'll review your memory

of it. This was March third, nineteen sixty seven, statement

of Frank J. Clona, Junior and your address. This is

your two two zero eight North Chestnut Street address from

him in Louisiana.

Speaker 2: You right.

Speaker 1: In the fall of nineteen sixty three, my roommate was

Thomas Compton. We were residing in Holloway Smith Hall, Southeastern

Louisiana College. I think that on approximately November twenty second

or twenty third, he told me that a friend of

his would be staying in our room. The reason for

this person's staying was said to be so that he

could be where many people could see him. I was

told his name was Dave. I don't remember for certain

whether I was ever told his last name. I was

told that he was a psychologist. On the twenty third

of November, in the afternoon or perhaps the evening, I

went to my room and found the man sleeping in

my roommate's bed. His back was to me, so I

couldn't see his face at the time. I noticed, however,

that he was sleeping fully clothed and with his hat on.

At this time, I also noticed that his hair was

very strange looking. I believe that I was introduced to

him later on in the evening, but I don't remember

the nature of the introduction or what was said, except

that not much was said at all. I asked my

roommate about this man, and in particular about his hair.

I was told that he was bald, and that he

pasted theatrical hair at the point where his hat met

his head. I am not certain that he spent the

entire night in the room, or that he even se

spent more than a few hours in the early evening.

The next time I saw him was Sunday morning in

the lobby of the dormitory. It was very crowded as

everyone was watching the funeral on television. I believe I

saw him anymore after Sunday morning. Later that day, my

roommate told me that Dave had gone back home. I

don't know how he got home. Perhaps my roommate drove him.

At a later date, my roommate disclosed to me that

he had either known or had heard of Lee Harvey

Oswald through the Civil Air Patrol, of which he was

a member for a short time. And that was the statement,

and then you signed it. Is that how you remember

the events?

Speaker 2: Yeah? It sounds pretty much the way it was.

Speaker 1: So he says to you that he was going to

give you heads up of that someone was coming to

stay with someone's going to be in your room. Pardon

he Thomas Compton basically gave you a heads up, very

a very short heads up. It seems to me that

on approximately November twenty second or twenty third he told

me that a friend of his would be staying in

our room. Did he say why? Other than just that,

did he say why?

Speaker 3: Well, as I said, he said something about wanting to

be in a place where people could, you know, observe him,

know that he was there, place him there rather than elsewhere.

Speaker 2: I suppose.

Speaker 1: Now in the statement, it says in the twenty third

of November, in the afternoon or perhaps the evening. This

this is Saturday. By the way, November twenty third, you said,

I went, I went to my room and found the

man sleeping in my roommate's bed. Now your recollection, I

just wanted to check on that. When we chatted in January,

you said.

Speaker 2: You got this.

Speaker 1: You noticed him sleeping when you got up Saturday morning.

Speaker 2: That's I guess that's the case. I don't recall.

Speaker 1: You said it was about eight am. No, so so

here's what you said. You got up, there was about

eight am. There's nobody in the room, which didn't surprise

you because Compton wasn't always there at that time. You left,

got some breakfast, You returned between nine and ten o'clock,

to your surprise, a man was sleeping in your in

Tommy's bed, on his side facing the wall.

Speaker 2: It sounds right.

Speaker 1: So that so at some point in that morning between

you getting up, going to eat, coming back, this man

showed up. Yeah, that would have been to your story.

Then that would have been Saturday morning, November twenty third.

Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I guess so. I mean it's still a

long time. Well.

Speaker 1: The significance of that, though, is that the fairy said

he was in Galveston and Houston. That his story was

he drove on the night of the twenty second, the

night the president was shot. He drove from New Orleans

to Houston and stayed at a motel in Houston. He

only came to the Hammond who only came to your

college after that Sunday morning, like five am. And the

story he says is that he goes and rouses Tommy

Compton from his bed and says, they've taken away my

things this New Orleans meeting. New Orleans police went went

through my things. They've gone through my things. And he's

panicking and he's telling and he's kind of rousing Tommy

Compton from his bed. That's one story. The other story

is that his lawyer, Gray Gill, said, go hang out

in Hammond with a guy named Tommy Compton. So there's

already contradictions in Fairy's story about how he ended up

in Hammond. Anyway, Whereas you're saying, Compton told you ahead

of time, very although it wasn't too far ahead of time,

but he did tell you, Hey, there's gonna there's gonna

be a guy that's gonna be staying in our room,

you see. Okay, so there's there's contradictions there. Now you're

now do you want to so you can?

Speaker 2: Can you do?

Speaker 1: You do you think you can remember walking into your

room and seeing this guy on that on that morning?

I do, yes, Okay, this was not the morning of

the funeral or or anything like that. This was just

this was just a normal Saturday morning.

Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess it was.

Speaker 1: And so he's sleeping with his back to his wall.

Do you remember like like like how tall he may

have been, or or or like his physical other than

his hair, like how tall he was or how much

he weighed any idea.

Speaker 2: Do you remember.

Speaker 4: He seems against an average sized person.

Speaker 2: I really don't. I really don't.

Speaker 4: I don't think he was in straught doing in any way, I.

Speaker 2: Mean in that sense.

Speaker 1: But what you took notice of was his hair. Yeah,

do you remember sleeping with a hat or with his hair,

you know, with this think hair? Do you remember the

kind of hair? Like it wasn't a baseball cap, was

it more of like do you remember what kind of

hat it was?

Speaker 4: I think I think it was, well, I think it

was a stat real hat.

Speaker 2: Okay.

Speaker 1: Do you remember the kind of clothes he had on?

Speaker 2: Was it like I believe he had on it?

Speaker 4: What did we used to call them all weather coats?

Something like that?

Speaker 1: Gotcha?

Speaker 2: Well?

Speaker 3: Like, uh, I don't suppose it was a raincoat, but

it was something like that, well, you know, like a freak.

Speaker 2: Water leads coat.

Speaker 1: Yeah, like a like a London fog like overcoat kind

of correct. And you just let him sleep. You didn't say, hey,

who are you? But you did run into him later

on in the kind of residence hall lounge?

Speaker 2: Correct?

Speaker 1: Do you do you remember what he was doing in

that lounge.

Speaker 3: Just sitting in the electric watching TVs? I recalled, but

I didn't. I don't have a real clear memory of that.

Speaker 1: So other there was like the statement was you didn't

really have any interaction with him?

Speaker 2: No? Not really.

Speaker 3: I mean I guess Tommy introduced this to something, but

that was about.

Speaker 1: It, okay. And following this little weekend visit from this guy,

did you ever hear about him again? Did you ever

you know, in the in the immediate in the immediate

weeks after this incident, Frank, did you have any follow

up with with him? Or did Tommy ever mentioned what?

Speaker 2: What? What? What was that about? Kind of thing? No? Really,

I don't think so, Frank.

Speaker 1: One off, yeah, one off the time. The timing, Frank,

I mean, you know, if the timing is correct, then Frank,

what the reason why I wanted to talk to you

about it was because it throws Fairy's story uh in

the air for for debate about whether he was telling

the truth or not. You know, was he was he

was he arriving at Hammond earlier. You know that he's

saying was the whole, this whole Houston Galveston trip in Alibi,

and was he really spending more time in your door

room than the than than what we're thinking. And if

it's so, then why was he lying? That's what That's

why we're That's why I wanted.

Speaker 2: To talk to you.

Speaker 1: That's why your statements important. Just to clarify, years later,

there was a guy I spoke with in the in

the months in the since you and I spoke in January,

a fellow from New Orleans, a writer H. L. R.

Lidge don't know me, said he spoke to you in

nineteen eighty one about this. But when you and I

spoke in January, I asked you, Frank, has anyone ever

approached you about your experience with the weekend? You know?

Speaker 2: And do you.

Speaker 1: Remember what she said?

Speaker 2: No?

Speaker 1: Yeah, you said no, but no one never has talked

to you about it from like a research author perspective.

Speaker 2: Well, I don't. I don't recall that anyone has.

Speaker 1: So that's why I wanted to get your statement down, Frank,

because or you know, get your memories down, because like

I said, I mean, you know, if we can prove

Fairy was not where he was, then it throws the

whole timeline into out of whack, and your recollection, if

we go with this, is that you know, you walked

in on Sadaturday morning and there he was, uh so

when he should have been in in Houston. So we're

gonna so you will. Do you want to stand by

that memory then? Of uh, well, I think that's it.

I mean, I don't. I don't know if there is

there anything else that you want to mention that you

recall about the about the weekend or do you think

we have it pretty much covered?

Speaker 2: I think you've got it