David T. Beddow's Books

A Ferrie Tale

By: David T. Beddow

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What a long, strange trip it was. Through the night after JFK was assassinated, a quirky New Orleans man named David Ferrie drove from the Big Easy, rain beating on his windshield, to a deserted ice skating rink in Houston, arriving at three fifteen in the morning. After nervously making several payphone calls then and the next day from the rink, Ferrie turned around and headed home, where he was immediately arrested for conspiring to murder the president. Why? And why, thirty-nine months later, on the verge of being rearrested for the same crime, did he suddenly and suspiciously die? A Ferrie Tale paints a picture of the life of this complex man—commercial pilot, amateur Catholic priest, weekend scientist, hypnotist, detective, pianist, practicing psychologist, criminal. Appearing throughout the mosaic of his improbable story are the likes of mobster Carlos Marcello, Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby, a crafty Cuban exile named Sergio Arcacha Smith, cancer researcher Dr. Mary Sherman, DA Jim Garrison. Strippers. Gamblers. Popping in and out is an unlikely trio bound together by their tangled connections to JFK—Frank Sinatra, Chicago kingpin Sam Giancana, and JFK girlfriend Judith Campbell. The seductive and decadent city of New Orleans, the most unique and operatic city in America, provides the beat to this tale. Over time New Orleans’s citizens have been suffused with an amuse-yourself attitude—sometimes reasonable, sometimes not—that affected events in Ferrie’s life. “In this town,” as Ferrie was wont to say, “the craziest things make perfect sense.” David Ferrie was a conflicted figure who would’ve been remarkable even had he not been involved in a plot to assassinate President Kennedy. But his long tumble into this plot made him, as Orleans Parish DA Garrison publicly announced, “one of history’s most important individuals.”

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Page Count

441

Publisher

Archway Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1480865354

ISBN 13

9781480865358

A Ferrie Tale

By: David T. Beddow

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

A Ferrie Tale

By: David T. Beddow

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

441

Publisher

Archway Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1480865354

ISBN 13

9781480865358

King David, Innocent Blood, and Bloodguilt

By: David J. Shepherd

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King David, Innocent Blood, and Bloodguilt

By: David J. Shepherd

Of all the characters bequeathed to us by the Hebrew Bible, none is more compelling or complex than David. Divinely blessed, musically gifted, brave, and eloquent, David's famous slaying of Goliath also confirms that he is a redoubtable man of war. Yet, when his son Absalom rebels, David is dogged by the accusation than he will lose his kingdom because he is not merely a man of war, but a man of 'bloods' - guilty of shedding innocent blood. In this book, for the first time, this language of 'innocent blood' and 'bloodguilt' is traced throughout David's story in the books of Samuel and 1 Kings. The theme emerges initially in Saul's pursuit of David and resurfaces regularly as David rises and men like Nabal, Saul, Ishbosheth, and Abner fall. Innocent blood and bloodguilt also turn out to be central to David's reign. This is seen in a surprising way in David's killing of Uriah, but also in the subsequent deaths of his sons, Amnon and Absalom, his general, Amasa, and even in David's encounters with Shimei. The problem rears its head again when the innocent blood of the Gibeonites shed by Saul comes back to haunt David's kingdom. Finally, the problem reappears when Solomon succeeds David and orchestrates the executions of Joab and Shimei, and the exile of Abiathar. Attending carefully to the text and drawing extensively on previous biblical scholarship, David J. Shepherd suggests that innocent blood is not only a pre-eminent concern of David, and his story in Samuel and 1 Kings, but also shapes the entirety of David's history.

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