JFK assassination

[roadman65]

I was hearing about that a railroad tower operator that was working in the rail yard next to  Dealy Plaza saw two strange individuals near a picketed fence right around where Kennedy was shot!  The funny thing is that this man died in a car wreck on US 67 someplace where it is now a freeway, but at the time it was a two lane highway.  A news story told us, that his remains were instantly cremated.

The same story also stated that a total of 18 people connected to the Kennedy assassination died mysteriously.  The rail tower man, even though ruled out as a simple accident could have been a situation where he was run off the road by another vehicle.  We do not know.

As far as conspiracy goes, I think it definitely was.  The only thing is why to this day they will not release the culprit who put out the hit as he (or she) must be dead by now.   Even if it were Hoover or LBJ who many suspect, both have died decades ago.

In addition, I think Marilyn Monroe was murdered as well.  Her suicide was fixed that way and most likely the same organization or persons involved in both JFK and RFK that ordered her death.

[jeffandnicole]

Biggest jolt in this manner of thing I have experienced was the loss of Space Shuttle Challenger.

That for me would probably count as my first big 'memory' of something big happening.  Making it a little closer - a teacher in my school at the time had applied to be the teacher going to space, so she was thinking that it could have been her up there...

[NE2]

oh my god vince foster

[corco]

Making it a little closer - a teacher in my school at the time had applied to be the teacher going to space, so she was thinking that it could have been her up there...

An elementary school teacher in my hometown, Barbara Morgan, was actually McAuliffe's backup. She ended up joining NASA later as a normal astronaut and went up in 2007. I never had her as a teacher though I had classmates who did- she had stopped teaching to focus on space by the time I moved to town, but that was pretty exciting. Our local ham radio guy set up something in the school gym so we were able to talk to her. Pretty exciting for a town of 2,000.

We built a new elementary school a couple years ago and named it after her.

[Scott5114]

JFK's assassination still resonates because lots of people who were alive back then are still alive AND because the nation was able to live through it together.  Even in McKinley's time, news often took days to reach newspaper readers.  No radio, no TV, no Internet.  This time, news was virtually instantaneous and unfolded before our eyes, even without Abraham Zapruder's film, which was only made available to the general public decades after that day in Dallas.

Another thing to keep in mind is that McKinley's administration was greatly overshadowed by his successor's, such that by the 50th anniversary of his death, McKinley's time in office was viewed as just a prelude to Roosevelt's. JFK wasn't overshadowed by LBJ like that.

Personally, the first time I had ever heard the name William McKinley, it was as a result of looking up who was on the $500 bill. (I wish they'd bring it back–it would certainly make my job easier–although I would probably replace McKinley with someone else, probably Theodore Roosevelt or Martin Luther King Jr.)

[bugo]

On November 20, a customer spent 17 JFK half dollars.  On November 22, 50 years after his assassination to the day, a customer spent 29 halves.  This equals 46 Kennedy halves.  He was 46 when he was assassinated. Of course I bought the halves.

[SP Cook]

The cult of Kennedy was born the day Kennedy died.  It is made, more than anything, by revisionist amateur historians who today are about 60 to 70 that want to believe that, really, Kennedy would not have ordered them to Vietnam like Johnson did, "forcing" them to run away, literally or figurativly.  Had he lived, the 60s would have played out pretty much the same.  To echo his (ghost written) inaugural address, a "new generation, born in this century", was handed a nation a peace with the world and at peace with itself, and they managed to inflict wounds upon it that have still not healed.

The nutty conspiracy theories are just a symptom of that disease.

[hbelkins]

My friend and co-worker Mac Kilduff, who made the death announcement, always theorized that Oswald's real target was Connally. Connally had signed Oswald's dishonorable discharge papers and denied his appeal, and Oswald had written Connally threatening letters.

[Brandon]

My friend and co-worker Mac Kilduff, who made the death announcement, always theorized that Oswald's real target was Connally. Connally had signed Oswald's dishonorable discharge papers and denied his appeal, and Oswald had written Connally threatening letters.

That's plausible, and has precedent in the so-called attempted assassination on FDR.  It is highly suspected by many, particularly around Chicago that Zangara was aiming for Mayor Anton Cermak, not FDR.  I mean, how the hell do you miss a guy that is in a wheelchair?

[xcellntbuy]

As far as I am concerned, it's overdone.  It was 50 years ago, people need to get over it.  It was not anywhere on-par with September 11, 2001 or Pearl Harbor.  I don't see people commemorating 50 years since Lincoln or 50 years since Garfield or McKinley.  Hell, McKinley's 100th (last assassination prior to Kennedy) came and went without so much as a peep.

JFK's assassination still resonates because lots of people who were alive back then are still alive AND because the nation was able to live through it together.  Even in McKinley's time, news often took days to reach newspaper readers.  No radio, no TV, no Internet.  This time, news was virtually instantaneous and unfolded before our eyes, even without Abraham Zapruder's film, which was only made available to the general public decades after that day in Dallas.

It was also important because the American people felt as if they really knew him on an almost intimate level.  He was the first president to master the use of TV and we saw constant images of a young, vital, vigorous man with a gorgeous wife and two children who were almost as photogenic as their parents were.  He was the first president to have won a Pulitzer prize, meaning that he had an intellectual depth too many politicians lack.  But, far from being merely an academic, he was wise enough to be able to stare down the Soviet Union and keep us out of what could have been the final world war, fought with nuclear weapons.  All of this and more explains why his murder was taken personally by so many.

The quickest form of media communication on September 6, 1901 when William McKinley was shot was the telegraph.  The telephone was much more limited in use.  Marconi's first radio signal from North America to Europe had only occurred in the same year.

[elsmere241]

Bad as 9/11 and Columbia and the others assassinations, Challenger was for me, by far the worst thing* I've experienced. 

*for a shared national tragedy.  I've had some personal losses of more devastating impact than Challenger.

Challenger happened the day that was the beginning of the end for my sister's leukemia.  A few days before September 11th was the beginning of the end for the job I had at the time.  Columbia didn't just remind me of Challenger but everything else that happened for me that week.

[oscar]

On November 20, a customer spent 17 JFK half dollars.  On November 22, 50 years after his assassination to the day, a customer spent 29 halves.  This equals 46 Kennedy halves.  He was 46 when he was assassinated. Of course I bought the halves.

Any of them silver, to increase your luck?

[xcellntbuy]

On November 20, a customer spent 17 JFK half dollars.  On November 22, 50 years after his assassination to the day, a customer spent 29 halves.  This equals 46 Kennedy halves.  He was 46 when he was assassinated. Of course I bought the halves.

Nice!  (Fellow collector here.)

[bugo]

On November 20, a customer spent 17 JFK half dollars.  On November 22, 50 years after his assassination to the day, a customer spent 29 halves.  This equals 46 Kennedy halves.  He was 46 when he was assassinated. Of course I bought the halves.

Any of them silver, to increase your luck?

No, but I did find a silver bicentennial quarter last night.

[SidS1045]

how the hell do you miss a guy that is in a wheelchair?

FDR rarely, if ever, appeared in public in a wheelchair.  He had leg braces and an assistant (Louis Howe) to lean on.  On that particular day he was, as just about always, standing when he was shot at.

[J N Winkler]

One important distinction to be made among the four Presidential assassinations, all of which were by gunshot wound, is that only Kennedy and Lincoln succumbed within 24 hours of the initial attack.  McKinley lived for eight days after being shot (immediate cause of death was gangrene), while Garfield lived for 80 days (immediate cause of death was rupture of the splenic artery).  Of the four, Kennedy lived for the shortest time (by far) after being shot:  first wound probably at 12.29 PM, pronounced dead at 1.00 PM.

[dirtroad66]

I'm not old enough for JFK thing. Was at the lauch of the challenger that day, we knew something didn't look right but did not realize it exploded till we heard on radio like an hour later.

[JMoses24]

I was not alive yet, my mom was barely 6 months old. My dad, on the other hand, was 14... yes my mom married young. I should've asked my dad earlier tonight where he was when JFK was assassinated, but missed the opportunity.

[on_wisconsin]

Neither myself nor my parents where alive when JFK died. (I'm in my 20's)

[elsmere241]

My father was in Pakistan when JFK happened and didn't hear about it until the next day.  OTOH, my grandmother saw Ruby kill Oswald on either live or almost-live television.

[bugo]

JFK is on the half dollar now, and they even allowed the half dollar to have Kennedy on the half dollar so soon after his death (normally it's not allowed). Nothing happened with the others (Lincoln didn't get his face on the penny immediately).

Not true.  FDR was put on the dime in 1946 and Eisenhower was put on the dollar in 1971.

[english si]

Kennedy looked youthful riding in the open car in Dealey Plaza, but in reality was already middle-aged

And suffering from a degenerative illness that meant that he was high on the drugs to deal with it when he made decisions on the Cuban Missile Crisis (thankfully the right ones!).

JFK's youth was his brand. It helped him win the election (it's debateable whether he won the popular vote, so close was it), not least thanks to the vigour he appeared to have on the TV debate.

One suspects that, if he wasn't assassinated, he would be remembered as a pretty bad president. He'd have won in '64, but his ill health would have caused issues later in that term. JFK was more aggressive on 'nam than LBJ, so he would have certainly had that to tarnish his name. Plus the veneer of glamour would have come off 'Camelot' and there wouldn't have been this cult of JFK that helps us bury his being a total sleezeball.

Over on this side of the pond, friends of CS Lewis, who died about an hour before, didn't get to hear of his death until after the funeral, as the news was solely focussed on events in Dallas for several days. That's a very rare event to get such blanket coverage, but it was the height of the Cold War, and JFK was leader of the free world (something that is nowhere near as true now) - the President is assassinated, therefore the threat of mutally assured destruction coming into play is high.

[hotdogPi]

JFK is on the half dollar now, and they even allowed the half dollar to have Kennedy on the half dollar so soon after his death (normally it's not allowed). Nothing happened with the others (Lincoln didn't get his face on the penny immediately).

Not true.  FDR was put on the dime in 1946 and Eisenhower was put on the dollar in 1971.

This was a response to "Why Kennedy and not Garfield or anyone else". I was only referring to the 4 assassinated people.

[corco]

Wait, so presidents that die of natural causes or leave office normally can have their face on coins right after they leave the presidency but it is normally disallowed for assassinated presidents?

[hotdogPi]

Wait, so presidents that die of natural causes or leave office normally can have their face on coins right after they leave the presidency but it is normally disallowed for assassinated presidents?

No. The point is that he's one of the important ones because they made an exception for him. (Compared to Garfield).

Note: Even if this doesn't happen, that doesn't automatically mean that person is not one of the important ones.