Who Killed Dr. Mary Sherman?

     It was around four o'clock on the morning of July 21, 1964 that the fire department was called to the Patios Apartments on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans.  A neighbor, Juan Valdez, had alerted the fire department after he smelled smoke.  The firefighters who entered the apartment of Dr. Mary Sherman were not prepared for what they would discover inside.

     The fire itself was minimal, only a mattress smoldering.  However, they discovered Dr. Sherman lying dead.  She was badly burned on her right side, her right arm gone, and some organs exposed.  She also had multiple stab wounds.  She was nude but had several articles of clothing piled on top of her.

     Neighbors reported that her car wasn't in its usual parking spot so perhaps the killer had stolen it as well.  However, the white Valiant was located nine blocks away just a few hours later.  A tube of lipstick, a perfume container, and a soda can were found near the car.  The keys were found the following day by someone mowing his grass.  So, it appears Mary's car wasn't stolen so much as it was moved to a different location.  Why did the killer do this?

     The other thing that baffled investigators was Mary's severe burns.  The fire in the apartment didn't appear to have ever been hot enough to have caused such expensive burns to Mary's body.  This led some people to question whether Mary had been killed in a different location.  Was the apartment fire staged?  Who could have wanted Dr. Mary Sherman dead?

     She was born Mary Stults in Evanston, Illinois in 1913.  Mary was always highly intelligent, excelling at science in particular.  At the age of sixteen Mary traveled to France to study at L' Ecole de M Collnot.  Mary then returned home to study at the University of Illinois where she married Thomas Sherman.  Mary continued her studies at the University of Chicago where she worked on nuclear, bio-chemical, and genetic research.  Dr. Sherman's work eventually came to the attention of Dr. Alton Ochsner and he invited Mary to become a partner at the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans.  Dr.  Sherman also became an associate professor at Tulane Medical School after she made the move to New Orleans in 1952.  I'm not sure if Mary's husband died or if they were divorced, but he is not in the picture at the time of her death in 1964.

     Investigators failed to uncover any real leads in the murder of Dr. Mary Sherman.  Their top suspect was Juan Valdez, the neighbor who first called in the fire.  However, Mr. Valdez was never arrested or charged with the crime.  Dr. Sherman's murder case turned cold and remains unsolved.

     In the years since Dr. Sherman's murder allegations have been made that she was a part of an underground medical lab.  Some believe that the burns on Mary's body were the result of an accident that occurred at the lab.  The fire was started to cover up the accident and location of the lab.  Other allegations involve Dr. Sherman working on a secret CIA backed program to develop a bioweapon and her knowledge of and involvement in this project led to her murder.  There are even allegations that Lee Harvey Oswald, accused assassin of President Kennedy, had been involved in this secret underground medical lab.

     A woman named Judy Baker has claimed that she was recruited to work on a top-secret research program with Dr. Sherman and Dr. Ochsner in the spring and summer of 1963.  Baker claims she was involved romantically with Lee Harvey Oswald and that she and Oswald along with a man named David Ferrie were involved in the bioweapon project.  She claims that Oswald discovered the plot to kill Kennedy and tried to stop the assassination from taking place.  Baker says David Ferrie called and threatened her shortly after the assassination telling her if she ever told anyone about the bioweapon or Oswald that she would be killed.  Baker kept this information to herself for decades, not speaking publicly until 1999.

     So, you be the judge.  How credible is Judy Baker?  Was Dr. Mary Sherman the victim of a sinister CIA plot?  Was she the victim of a tragic accident in a secret underground lab? Or was she the victim of a random act of violence?  Will the mysterious death of Dr. Mary Sherman ever be solved?