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Kennedy Mystique and Conspiracy Theories Thrive

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Kennedy Mystique and Conspiracy Theories Thrive Sunday November 20, 1988 2-star edition Herald Kennedy mystique and conspiracy theories thrive By Mike Cochran stop on a whirlwind tour de- Associated Press signed to end the left-right JFK squabbling among bitterly fac- tionalized Texas Democrats and 25 YEARS LATER DALLAS — As Air Force One secure the state for the presiden- began its descent into Carswell tial election the following year. Associated Press correspondent Air Force Base, President John A crowd estimated at 6,000 Mike Cochran covered the F. Kennedy glanced down greeted Kennedy and his wife. assassination of President through the darkness. Amber Jacqueline, at Carswell, and Kennedy in Dallas and reported lights silhouetted the Fort Worth thousands more lined the motor- skyline and gave the city a on the slaying and burial of cade route to the old Hotel friendly, festive glow. Texas, where the president Lee Harvey Oswald. Here, he "Spectacular," Kennedy told would spend his final night. explores the significance of Congressman Jim Wright. A 26-year-old Associated the 25th anniversary of The date was Nov. 21, 1963, Press reporter caught his first Kennedy's death. and the presidential party had flown to Fort Worth for the third JFK, A-10 1- Weather Fair, warmer/A2 Examiner 75 cents AP In the final moments before shots rang out, President and Jackie Kennedy acknowledge the crowd. could be retried. Through the years, there were interludes with Oswald's widow, JFK Marina, and turbulent, intriguing II- From A-1 bouts with his mother, Marguer- ite, whose favorite pastime was glimpse of an American president haranguing Fort Worth reporters. that .evening arid, in that era of And always the conspiracy innocence, was every bit as ex- buffs, the researchers dedicated cited as a small-town West Texan to proving the Warren Commis- should have been. sion's basic conclusion a lie, and • Hours later, that AP reporter not a very convincing one at that. joined other numbed and dis- They insisted Oswald was not mayed colleagues in covering the the killer or, at the very least, was death of his president and the not the sole triggerman. wounding of Gov. John Connally. Just :days later, he covered the In 1981, the conspiracies staying of Lee Harvey Oswald peaked with a trip to Rose Hill apd. *.draRed for the task, helped Cemetery to dig up the body carry his body to its grave. buried 18 years before in Os- Then came the 1964 murder wald's grave. A British author trial .of Jack Ruby, the Ides of had claimed we had buried an March conviction, a death sen- impostor, a Russian spy in fact. tence and an appellate court He was wrong. Forensic tests at ruling that set the verdict aside. Baylor University Medical Center Ruby died of cancer before he proved it was indeed Oswald. Although the echoes of gunfire in Dealey Plaza grow fainter with each passing autumn, the events of November 1963 continue to touch us all in mystifying ways and to different degrees. This month, there will be net- work and cable documentaries, Ballroom. That group totaled new books, an all-night Capitol 2,050, with 50 extra tickets allot- vigil and memorials by former ted at the last minute to the black Peace Corps volunteers and PT community. boat veterans. Millions of words No blacks, no breakfast speech, will be written. the White House said when told Still, Kennedy family members the president would be address- would prefer that remembrances ing an all-white audience. of the slain president be changed. It was Kennedy's final speech, "They have tried to get away but Jackie stole the show, looking from commemorating the day of lovely and self-assured in a two- his death and try to celebrate the piece pink suit with matching day of his birth," says Melody pillbox hat. Miller, an aide to Sen. Edward Kennedy and his entourage Kennedy. then returned to Carswell for the What is the significance of this short flight to Dallas, where the 25th anniversary and the anniver- president was to address a lunch- saries that preceded it? Do we eon at the Trade Mart. know the legacy of Dallas? Or the In Dallas, 200,000 people, lessons of 1963? many on lunch breaks, jammed Historians might one day pin- the streets to see the 46-year-old point all this and more. president and his 34-year-old But don't bet on it. wife. Smiling and waving, Jackie sat at her husband's side as the ANYONE 01.0 ENOUGH to read motorcade rolled through the or watch television 25 years ago canyons of downtown Dallas. can recite from memory the Delighted and relieved by the events of Nov. 22. big, friendly reception, Nellie Kennedy spoke twice in Fort Connally, the governor's wife, Worth that morning, first to a turned from her seat in front of crowd of 5,000 who had gathered Kennedy and said: in the rain in the hotel parking "No one can say Dallas doesn't lot. Vice President Lyndon John- love and respect you, Mr. Presi- son and Connally joined him, but dent." • Jackie did not. "You sure can't," he replied. "It takes a little longer to put Seconds later, the motorcade herself together, that's why she's passed in front of the Texas AP prettier than we are," the presi- School Book Depository and into JFK's death and persisten dent joked with the cheering a sniper's cross hairs. allegations about conspiracies crowd. Inside, Kennedy addressed a THE FIRST YEAR after the have lett an indelible mark sold-out Chamber of Commerce assassination was difficult for on the American conscious breakfast in the hotel's Grand most Americans. It was a night- mare for Texans, particularly lion of a cultural center in Wash- "There's nothing new. My view those living in Dallas. ington to be named in Kennedy's is the same — Oswald did all the A number of publications honor, and Harvard University shooting," retired District Attor- found much to dislike about announced plans for a Kennedy ney Henry Wade said in an Texas and most were mightily Memorial Library. interview last month. "I haven't concerned with the so-called By the end of the year, it seen anything to change my mind. "mood of Dallas" and the accom- seemed certain that more Ameri- I feel like somebody might have modation granted its far-right can streets, avenues and boule- planted the seed or thought that fanatics in the conservative main- vards would be named Kennedy somebody ought to kill him (Ken- stream. than Main. nedy) while in town. But there is In an editorial headlined "A absolutely no proof of anything Year Later." the Dallas Morning THE DALLAS ceremony mark- like that." News touched on the "scathing ing the fifth anniversary of the Fifteen years ago, Wade, who and unjust criticism" of Dallas assassination was so brief and would have prosecuted Oswald and observed how the city stood simple it almost slipped past had he lived, was less certain. alone "in the spotlight of unfavor- unnoticed. "I find it hard to believe that able conspicuousness." Fifty people gathered for the Oswald didn't have help," he told The editorial did not mention prayer service near the spot the AP in 1973. "Call it a. gut the small but noisy element of where Kennedy was slain. A city feeling on my part. I don't have right-wingers whose agitation had official laid a wreath of red and any evidence to back it up. But I prompted Kennedy's visit 12 white carnations beside the believe there was a conspiracy. months before. bronze marker that tells the You just don't go downtown one Perhaps it was unimportant. assassination story. morning and kill the president." What seemed to matter to the The news was dominated by The widow of J.D. Tippit, the newspaper was that hysteria and the Vietnam War and the 1968 police officer Oswald shot after shock had subsided and the city election. Pain still lingered from fleeing the school book ware- could move ahead with new re- the slayings earlier that year of house, had remarried by the lath solve and high purpose. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. anniversary. A lawyer said the Nov. 22 that year fell on a Robert F. Kennedy. $600,000 she received from a Sunday, and a still sorrowful By the 10th anniversary in sympathetic public after Tippit's nation remembered Kennedy in 1973, reporters were getting lath- death went into a trust for their prayers and memorial services ered up over Watergate. In Dal- three children. across the country. las, 500 people gathered near the It had been a year of memori- assassination site, but the top UNLIKE THE SPARTAN fifth als. news story of the day was an 18- anniversary, the landmark 20th The U.S. Space Flight Center minute gap in a Nixon White touched all bases. at Cape Canaveral, Fla., was House tape recording. Movies, television specials, renamed Cape Kennedy, but later The JFK focus in 1973 was documentaries, books, magazine was changed back. New York shifting to conspiracy theories, articles and news stories explored changed the name of its interna- fed by books and a movie called the assassination anew. tional airport from Idlewild to "Executive Action" that laid In 1963, Marina Oswald, at age John F Kennedy. blame for the Kennedy killing on Congress authorized construe a group of greedy Texas oilmen continued on next page ► Horse-drawn caisson bearing the body of President Kennedy turns onto Memorial bridge before entering Arlington National Cemetery.
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