I was raised in a family that discussed politics and I was always included. I basically just listened to others because in 1960, I was only 10 years old. But on a rudimentary level, I was aware.
I remember the debates between Nixon and Kennedy. My family were Kennedy supporters. And it was an exciting time.
I got to stay up late on Election Day/Night. This was a big deal for a 10 year old.
In school, the Kennedy White House was talked about a lot. It was the first time I remember being aware of national politics.
And then in 1962, the Cuban missile crisis scared the bejeezus out of me. I was petrified. I watched the news as much as possible. And my mother and father spent several nights in my bedroom, late at night, because of my nightmares.
When it was over, I felt traumatized. It was my first dose of new world reality. I realized that Russia and America were enemies. I watched TV as they showed all the idiots building fallout shelters. I asked my parents if we needed to build one?
My mother, who was very ill, had a knack for calming me down. This was a lot to take in at my age.
I was at school when it happened. It was the 8th grade. I was 13. It was lunch time and as kids poured on to the lunch area outside, a friend came up to me and asked if I had heard that Kennedy was killed? He quickly walked away.
I had a friend named Steve Kennedy and I asked everyone that passed “Who killed Steve?” Moments later, my reality shifted as the real scenario was explained.
Back in class, a black and white TV was perched on a rolling stand. We spent the rest of the school day watching and wondering what had happened.
The president being murdered caused anxiety that far surpassed the Cuban Missile Crisis. The talking heads, on TV, brought all sorts of scenarios to light about the government being taken over, who was in charge? And were we at war?
I spent the whole weekend in my bedroom watching the news. Then right in front of me, in real time….I watched as Jack Ruby assassinated Lee Harvey Oswald. I ran into the living room screaming that Oswald had been shot.
We spent the next couple of days in the den, watching TV. My mother cried. I cried. My father was stoic.
Six years passed and the conspiracy theories were at their height. I researched it extensively; reading every book about it I could find.
I wrote dozens of letters to every branch of the U.S. government asking why the assassination was being covered up.
I was shocked when I started receiving letters back from the White House, the FBI, the CIA, etc. They were form letters of course. And then I freaked a little. I realized I had just made sure that a file was made out with my name on it.
In the past week or so, there have been some outstanding documentaries on TV. Theories abounded but most made sense. Now, 50 years later, I feel some closure on the assassination. The documentaries were solid and so was the research.
Do you remember where you were? Were you even born yet?
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A friend and I were rehearsing for a show we were going to be playing in…We heard that Kennedy had been assassinated, and that our show was being cancelled because of the assassination..I was angry about the death of the President and angrier about the show being cancelled…Fifty years later it still bugs me that we didn’t get to play…Fifty years later it still bugs me that we probably will never have all the answers regarding the killing of the President…Who is Jack Ruby ? Who is Lee Harvey Oswald ? Why was our show cancelled ? It was a lousy day all around !
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You should have caught all the shows that were on last week. The History Channel, Discovery, etc. They had all these current experts espousing all the details that had remained mysteries all these decades.
All the experts talked in great detail about Oswald. They tore him down psychologically until there was no question that he got off at least 2 shots. And why he did it.
But the real kicker is that the last shot that took off Kennedy’s head was perpetrated by a Secret Service agent in the car behind the president’s. He had an AR-15 on the floor of the back seat. When Oswald took his shots, he grabbed the rifle and turned towards the Book Depository. His car sped up quickly and he fell backwards pulling the trigger accidentally, killing the president. All the forensics proved the direction of the last shot.
The experts, on all the different shows, had unequivocal evidence that this is how the president was killed. The two Oswald shots were not kill shots.
And that’s why the Secret Service, just like the police, did a major cover up. How could the agency charged with protecting the president be responsible for killing him? They showed in depth stills and home movies. And they had testimony that none of the Commissions used, or wanted to use.
But the big question never answered: Why? No one was sure. Was it the mob? Was it Cuban ex-patriates? Was it the CIA? The mob theory is the strongest as Ruby was a low level mobster. And we all know how the mob bought the election for Kennedy because of Sinatra’s association with Sam Giancana. And then Bobby turning on the mob and making it his soul goal in life to tear the mob apart. The mob was angry for this betrayal.
Bottom line? We will probably never know.
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