Tag Archives: JFK murder

crime news

Conspiracists are salivating

When in the world are the conspiracy theorists among us going to stop fishing for a quarry that they cannot ever catch?

Or … put another way: When will they stop looking for a second gunman who took part in President Kennedy’s murder nearly 60 years ago in downtown Dallas?

A new book by a former Secret Service agent now proclaims to have evidence of a “magic bullet” that he found in the president’s limousine. Sigh …

Paul Mathis was on duty that day in Dallas and has written an account of what happened.

As the Dallas Morning News said in an editorial published this morning: The investigation that led to the much-criticized Warren Report speculated that the bullet in question passed through Kennedy’s neck, then pierced Texas Gov. John Connally’s back, exited his chest, and also wounded his wrist and thigh. The theory was partly informed by the fact that the bullet was found on a stretcher that may have been the one holding Connally at Parkland Memorial Hospital later that day. The theory held that the bullet came to rest in Connally’s body or clothing after its miraculous journey, and fell out as he was being treated on the stretcher.

I do not believe in conspiracies. Especially not anything related to this dark and horrible incident. I have long believed that Lee Harvey Oswald was capable — given his military training — of firing three bullets from a rifle while sitting on the sixth floor of the School Book Depository building on Nov. 22, 1963. I also believe he was capable of hitting the president with a fatal rifle shot.

What’s more, I also know that bullets do strange and unexplainable things once they pass through human tissue.

Whatever. These conspiracy theories will live long past all of us who are alive today. As the Morning News noted in its editorial: But in 60 years, no tantalizing detail has managed to provide reliable evidence of a conspiracy or a second gunman. None likely ever will.

national news

I hate conspiracies

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I hate conspiracies, conspiracy theorists and I truly laugh out loud at times at those who keep conspiracies alive and kicking.

The latest conspiracy du jour is what has been called the Big Lie. It’s the one pitched, promoted and perpetuated by Donald J. Trump, the ex-POTUS who lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden. He keeps feeding the conspiracy that the election was stolen by rampant vote fraud. It wasn’t. That should be the end of it, but oh no-o-o-o!

The Big Lie lives on.

We know all about the other big conspiracy theories that do not die as dead as the victims of the original act.

Lee Harvey Oswald pulled the trigger three times and killed President Kennedy in Dallas in November 1963. A commission led by Chief Justice Earl Warren confirmed that Oswald acted alone. I believe the Warren panel. I do not buy into the nutty notions that have been kicked around for 58 years since since that terrible day. They talk about the mob conspiring to kill JFK; or the CIA; or it was President Lyndon Johnson. They talk about a second shooter that day in Dallas, or a third one, maybe even a fourth shooter.

Accordingly, Sirhan Sirhan shot Sen. Robert Kennedy in the head in June 1968, delivering a mortal wound after RFK won that state’s Democratic Party presidential primary. He was wrestled to the ground by those accompanying the senator. Now, though, comes the conspiracy theorists led by the late senator’s own son, RFK Jr., to suggest that Sirhan didn’t do it or that he didn’t act alone.

In both of those cases I am left only to ask what I consider the threshold question: How in the name of state secrets does anyone keep such a conspiracy hidden from public view for nearly 60 years? Answer: They don’t because there is no conspiracy to keep hidden.

We hear conspiracies all the time. Most of the time they make for silly entertainment. Nothing more.

The Big Lie, though, is a conspiracy theory that presents a serious danger to our cherished system of government.

That one needs to die a quick death.

national news

JFK’s final words ring so true

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Kennedy was scheduled to deliver these words 57 years ago this evening.

A gunman changed the course of history in front of the Texas School Book Depository building in downtown Dallas earlier that day.

The words that President Kennedy wanted to speak at the Trade Mart in Dallas that evening have an astonishing ring to them today, given the post-election turmoil the nation is enduring.

I encourage you to read them. Study them. Ponder their significance. Then ask yourself: Is this the best we can do so many decades later?

national security

Memories of JFK’s death came pouring forth

DALLAS — Exhibits such as the one my brother-in-law saw today have this way of triggering so many memories.

We ventured to the Sixth Floor Museum, the one overlooking Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, where the 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was murdered in front of the world.

The exhibit has been improved greatly since first time my wife and I visited it in the mid-1980s. It contains many more pictorial displays, more text, a wonderful audio tour, film and, of course, the window where the gunman fired on the president and Texas Gov. John Connally.

I was struck by the amount of attention paid at this museum to the slew of conspiracy theories that have kicked around since the Warren Commission filed its report in 1964. The new president, Lyndon Johnson, appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren to lead the panel to examine every detail it could about the assassination.

It returned with what I believe is the soundest plausible explanation: Lee Harvey Oswald, the disgruntled Marxist, sat in the window on the sixth floor of the Book Depository Building and fired three rounds from a bolt-action rifle, killing the president and wounding the Texas governor.

I was not quite 14 years of age when the world got the news.

My own theory in the moment was cut and dried: The Russians killed the president and were going to attack and invade the United States at any moment. That was how a 13-year-old mind worked in real time way back then. I guess I forgot that we would have a new president within minutes of the 35th president’s declaration of death. That’s what happened aboard Air Force One, when U.S. District Judge Sarah Hughes swore in President Johnson, who then asked for strength and prayers from the nation he was about to lead through this horrific tragedy.

I never have paid attentin to the idiotic conspiracy theories. I don’t believe any of them. I have retained faith in the commission headed by the nation’s chief justice.

Still, I was impressed to realize that the museum organizers saw fit at least to give many of those conspiracies a sufficient airing to at least present the many “other sides” of this most intriguing tragedy.

I remain convinced today, though, that Lee Harvey Oswald pulled the trigger … and that he did it all by himself.

national news

Conspiracy theories live forever and ever

They will never die. Not ever. They will live far beyond all of our time on Earth. They’ll outlive my sons’ time, too.

What are “they”? Conspiracy theories! That’s what I’m talkin’ about!

Jeffrey Epstein’s death in the Manhattan, New York City jail cell has spawned ’em by the dozens. Already! You see, Epstein was supposed to stand trial after he pleaded not guilty to charges that he peddled young girls for sex.

Epstein had some high-powered friends. Two of them became “former friends” for reasons that aren’t exactly clear. Their names are Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. 

Now that Epstein is dead, the conspiracists have developed some hideous notions that Clinton might have been involved in killing him. Others have suggested Trump played a role in murdering Epstein.

These theories are going to take root. Their roots will run deep.

We’ve had our share of eternal conspiracy theories.

  • President Kennedy’s murder in Dallas couldn’t possibly have been committed by a lone rifleman.
  •  The 9/11 terrorist attacks were the work of those within the George W. Bush administration looking for reasons to go to war.
  •  President Barack Obama was born in Africa and was not qualified to run for the office to which he was elected twice.
  •  Those pictures from the moon’s surface were shot in a studio somewhere on Earth.
  •  Good grief, there are those who have suggested that President Roosevelt goaded the Japanese into attacking us at Pearl Harbor.

And so they have gone. They’ll go on forever.

Indeed, conspiracy theories already exist involving former President Clinton. They involve bogus allegations of people with dirt on the president and his wife ending up dead. Indeed, those phony rumors are thought to be the source of the latest defamatory rumors surrounding the death of the miserable pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Are there questions that need answering? Surely, yes.

However, I believe I can predict today that no matter how thorough the explanation, or how much evidence they produce to back whatever conclusions they draw about Epstein’s death, there will be those who will purport to disbelieve what they see and hear.

They will trade on conspiracy theories. What’s worse is that there will be those who are willing to take the bait.

Disgusting.

national news

Here come the Epstein conspiracy theories

If I were a betting man I might be willing to wager a lot of real American money on the prospect of conspiracy theories exploding all over the place in connection with the weird death of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

The former friend of presidents and assorted high rollers was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell this morning. He had been on suicide watch, which supposedly would have made a suicide a virtual impossibility. The lockup took him off the suicide watch, reportedly.

And then he hanged himself. Poof! Just like that the guy allegedly with tons of secrets about what he did with whom was gone. Forever. He’s deader’n a doornail.

Can’t you just imagine now how the conspiracy theories can develop?

I mean, he was friends with Bill Clinton and Donald J. Trump. He was worth many millions of dollars. He had been convicted already of a sex charge involving underage girls in Florida. The alleged prosecution of that case cost Labor Secretary Alex Acosta — who was a federal prosecutor in Florida when Epstein got caught — his job in the Trump administration.

As for former President Clinton, let’s just say he’s a conspiracy/scandal magnet. He’s been vilified amid myriad phony conspiracies dating back to when he was governor of Arkansas. Why stop concocting goofy conspiracies now?

Yep, there can be little doubt that the so-called theories are going to start flying. Who knows? They might rival the John F. Kennedy assassination, moon landing and Jimmy Hoffa conspiracies in their longevity.

Frankly, these theories sicken me.

I do, though, want answers on just how this low-life managed to kill himself while in the custody of law enforcement and corrections officials whose job was to ensure Jeffrey Epstein lived long enough to have this case adjudicated one way or another.

Talk to us. Now!

national news

A feud ended 55 years ago today

Ex-Presidents Truman and Eisenhower outside St. Matthew’s Cathedral after President Kennedy’s funeral, 55 years ago today.  According to , this picture was taken after they saw young JFK Jr. salute his father. On this day, Truman and Ike ended their 11-year feud.

This Twitter message came from presidential historian Michael Beschloss, who posted it with this picture I am sharing here.

The photo was taken at JFK’s funeral. It shows his two immediate predecessors, President Harry Truman (left) and President Dwight Eisenhower. The “ClintHill_SS” referenced in the above tweet is the name of the Secret Service agent who climbed aboard the limousine carrying the president and first lady as gunshots rang out in downtown Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

The two men disliked each other intensely. Their domestic and foreign policy differences became personal between them. Ike succeeded Give ‘Em Hell Harry in January 1953 and the two men barely spoke to each other for the decade that preceded President Kennedy’s brutal murder.

Then the two former presidents came to pay their respects to their slain successor.

And while there they buried the hostility they held toward each other. As Beschloss noted in his tweet, the picture was taken as the two men saw John Kennedy Jr. salute his father’s casket as it wheeled past him.

I had learned long ago about the Truman-Eisenhower feud. It ended when they sat together and listened to the tributes to the young president who succeeded Ike in 1961. The youngest elected president was laid to rest and the two old warriors laid their antipathy toward each other to rest at the same time.

It’s a long-forgotten, but still poignant testimony to the fragility of Earthly life. Ike and Truman got to live to become old men, something denied to JFK. The two presidents came to that realization when President Kennedy was laid to rest.

It’s one of life’s most valuable lessons.

State news

How do foes become such good ‘friends’?

Politicians have this uncanny and maddening knack of burying the hatchet — and not in each others’ backs or skulls.

They campaign against each other, say some highly critical — even hurtful and hateful — things to and about each other. Then they declare winners and losers and all is forgiven. Ostensibly, at least.

They all do it. Democrats do it to each other, as do Republicans.

The latest example of this is in Texas, where GOP Sen. Ted Cruz is fighting for re-election to his seat against Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke.

Cruz is enlisting the aid of a man he once labeled as “amoral,” a “pathological liar” and a “coward.”

Yes, I refer to the president of the United States, Donald Trump, against whom Cruz campaigned for the presidency in the 2016 GOP primary. You see, candidate Trump had called Cruz “Lyin’ Ted,” he implied that Cruz’s father might have been involved in President Kennedy’s murder and then he posted that hideous photo on Twitter of Cruz’s wife, Heidi.

Cruz was rightfully enraged, outraged and aghast at the treatment. That’s when he hung those epithets on his GOP foe.

Now he’s wanting Trump to campaign for him. All is forgiven. The sniveling sucking up that Cruz is performing hasn’t gone unnoticed out here in the rest of the state and the nation.

Frankly, he was right to say what he said about Trump during the GOP primary campaign. He is demonstrating a lack of spine now as he seeks the president’s help in his fight for re-election.

Sickening, man.

national news

25th Amendment: closer to being invoked?

If you thought a presidential impeachment made our stomachs churn while it was in progress, consider what reportedly has been discussed within the walls of the White House.

According to the anonymous op-ed published today in The New York Times, senior White House officials have discussed openly the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That’s the one that enables the “temporary” removal of the president who a majority of Cabinet members believe is unfit to carry out the duties of his office.

As the film director and political activist Rob Reiner noted via Twitter: Now we have it. From inside the Trump WH. Conservative Republican WH officials considered invoking 25th Amendment to remove the President from office. We’re a huge step closer to seeing this national nightmare come to an end. GOP electeds, handwriting is on the wall.

I’m not going to endorse the notion that we’re a “huge step” closer to seeing the amendment activated. Having endured a presidential impeachment, though, the idea of seeking to wrest the power away from this president gives me the serious heebie-jeebies.

The amendment was ratified in the 1967 after being proposed in 1965. It was drafted in reaction to the assassination of President Kennedy. It spells out the appointment of a vice president … as well as the removal of the current president.

The amendment sets a high bar for enactment. Most Cabinet members have to agree; so must two-thirds of both congressional chambers.

However, to think that a senior administration official has said out loud that others of his or her colleagues have discussed this option openly is a profoundly chilling notion.

It’s not that I would oppose it. It’s that it would constitute a political act none of us has any experience witnessing unfold in real time.

State news

How does Cruz embrace Trump … and vice versa?

I cannot get past the news that Donald John Trump plans to stage a h-u-u-u-u-ge campaign rally on behalf of a guy he used to call Lyin’ Ted.

Trump says he is coming to Texas to campaign for Ted Cruz, the Republican U.S. senator who once challenged Trump for the GOP presidential nomination.

The campaign got really nasty, man.

Trump hung the Lyin’ Ted nickname on Cruz. Then he insulted Heidi Cruz, the senator’s wife. Oh, and then the future president thought to link the senator’s father to possible complicity in President Kennedy’s murder.

The insult to Mrs. Cruz and the idiotic “fake news” lie about the elder Cruz was too much for the senator. He called Trump “amoral,” a “narcissist,” a “pathological liar” with no sense of decency.

Now he welcomes the president to Texas to campaign for him as he seeks to fend off a challenge from Democratic contender Beto O’Rourke?

Give me a break.

Trump already has tweeted disparaging comments about Cruz’s service to Texas in the Senate. Cruz’s statements about Trump stand on their own.

So these two men now intend to persuade us that all is well with them both? That they didn’t really mean all those nasty things they said about each other? That they have buried the hatchet … and not in each other’s back?

I still intend to be in the crowd at the Trump rally if it occurs anywhere near us in the Metroplex.

No, I won’t cheer the Liar in Chief.