22 years have passed since Vince Foster allegedly ended his life, by shooting himself in the head on July 20, 1993. Foster was said to have been depressed, at the time of his suicide, but don’t know whether to take those reports at face value.
There have been reports, that Foster knew too much about the shady dealings on the Clintons, and was shot and then staged to appear as if he had committed suicide.
BACKGROUND ON VINCE FOSTER – He was born Vincent Walker “Vince” Foster Jr. on January 15, 1945 in Hope, Arkansas. He was a childhood friend and neighbor of future president Bill Clinton as a youngster. Foster joined the Rose Law Firm in 1971 and later helped Hillary Rodham gain employment with the law firm.
He was chosen Outstanding Lawyer of the Year in 1993, by the Arkansas Bar Association. Foster was appointed as White House Defense Counsel, but that did not go that well, when he submitted the names of three people, who were rejected by Congress, as political appointees.
The Travelgate incident concerned the firings of seven employees and Foster and Hillary Clinton were reportedly involved in the firings.
Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster became worried about the firings about to take place and ordered the KPMG Peat Marwick review.The review started on May 14 and the report was given to the White House on May 17. KPMG was unable to do an actual audit, because there were so few records in the Travel Office that could be audited and because the office did not use the double-entry bookkeeping system that audits are based upon. One KPMG representative later described the office as “an ungodly mess in terms of records” with ten years of material piled up in a closet. When the review came back with its reports of irregularities, Watkins went ahead with the terminations on May 19.
It would be only two months after the firings, that Foster would allegedly end his life on July 20, 1993.
We may never know what happened the night that Foster is said to have committed suicide. One of the 101 peculiarities is that nobody heard gunshots, but that could be because Foster may have been killed elsewhere and then brought to the staged scene, where it would appear that he committed suicide. The closest house was 490 feet away, which equals to 163 yards, which is equivalent to a football field, plus another 63 yards of a second football field.
These are a few of the peculiarities mentioned in The Vince Foster Case:
1. The man who discovered the body in Ft. Marcy Park says he was curious about the cause of death and looked closely for a gun. He emphatically says there was no gun in either hand. The FBI put great pressure on this witness to change his testimony. Why? Did he interrupt the staging of a suicide that was only completed after he had left the scene?
15. Medical technician Richard Arthur was one of the first to reach the death scene. Arthur emphatically says he saw an automatic pistol in Foster’s hand. His description of the weapon is very precise and correctly matches the profile of an automatic. He adamantly swears it had a barrel with straight lines as opposed to a tubular shape and a hand grip that was “square in shape.” If his testimony is correct, it suggests an automatic was replaced with a revolver sometime after the police arrived.
18. Five homes are located an average of 490 feet from the crime scene, yet nobody in the neighborhood heard a shot. The residence of the Saudi Arabia ambassador is 700 feet from the crime scene. Guards at the residence heard no shot. Presumably the sound of a shot would greatly alarm trained bodyguards. This anomaly is neatly accounted for if (1) a silencer was used, or (2) Foster was shot at another location.
The complete list of peculiarities surrounding the Vince Foster suicide:
With Hillary Clinton about to announce her run, for the Presidency in 2016 we can expect fresh looks at the Whitewater scandal, the Travelgate scandal, and the Vince Foster suicide, This is in addition to the questions being raised, about her time as Secretary of State.
Pineville, Louisiana is located across the Red River from Alexandria, Louisiana. It has a population of 14,555 according to the 2010 census.
Front of Alexandria Hall the main building at Louisiana College.
Louisiana College where my father Dr. Paul R. Godfrey taught chemistry for 24 years was founded in 1906 and is now 108 years old.
I was one year old, when our family moved to Pineville, Louisiana from West Lafayette, Indiana in 1946. Our first home was located on 110 Lawrence Boulevard if I remembered the correct house number. We later moved to 1608 Holloway Drive and then moved to 313 Burns Street in February of 1952.
We started attending College Drive Baptist Church on College Drive in Pineville in 1948. The church was originally comprised, of Army barrack buildings moved from Camp Livingston. I remember apple boxes being used as pews in the early days of the church, before the modern building shown in the photo was built. The church was founded in 1947 and is now 67 years old. I can remember driving home for supper one night and the Masters V gospel singing group had their bus in front of the church. This was when James Blackwood, Jake Hess, J.D. Sumner, Rosie Rozell and Hovie Lister comprised the Masters V. We attended College Drive for many years and I later led the music there, from 1997-2007, before we moved to Tennessee.
The home at 1608 Holloway Drive was unusual, in that our home was only separated by only a ditch, from the railroad track that ran next to us.
My first year at Pineville Elementary started in 1950 and remember walking to school, with my older brother for about a mile to school each day. I can still remember the 10 cent school lunch back then. The price has probably gone up over the years since then.
Moved To 313 Burns Street
I can remember living at 313 Burns Street. We had a cow, some sheep and chickens back then. It was like living on a farm inside the city limits.
Radio Hall of Fame disc jockey Dick Biondi once worked for KSYL in Alexandria, Louisiana.
Dick Biondi lived in the house behind us for a while, and he worked for KSYL radio station. He would later become famous, as a disc jockey in Chicago and was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1998 and is now 82 years old. His main claim to fame is that he was the first disc jockey to play a Beatles song according to his Hall of Fame page. This is his Radio Hall of Fame page, which includes a very short clip of his radio program.
I can remember going to see Roy Rogers dock his motorboat on the Red River and he stayed at Hotel Bentley.
Earl K. Long once gave away free chickens at a political rally at the Trailways station in Alexandria.
Faith Ford
Kelly Ripka and Faith Ford
The best nationally known person from Pineville would probably be Faith Ford. She attended Pineville High School many years after I attended there. She is best known for playing Corky on Murphy Brown television show. She also appeared in Hope and Faith.
The middle building is drugstore where we bought our prescriptions.
Veteran’s Hospital where I still go for medical services many years after this photo was taken.
Vincent Price
I can remember the time Vincent Price made an appearance at Louisiana College, with protesters carrying signs that were protesting him appearing in a liquor commercial.
This photo was taken from the Pineville side of the Red River, that was adjacent to Alexandria, Louisiana. The pedestrian walkers going across the bridge had to be careful, to see if there were any missing planks, to avoid falling into the river. I walked across the bridge for many years as I walked to job at the Alexandria Daily Town Talk. One time I was walking across the bridge to work early in the morning, when I was stopped by police and questioned by police, since a murder had just been committed at a night club in Alexandria. I convinced them I was not a murderer and they let me proceed on to work.I never saw the Red River look as blue as depicted in the photo.
I attended this school from 1950-1958 and it burned down in 1959.
I can remember finding out about the fire that night and rode my bike the mile to school. A Town Talk photographer had climbed up the fireman’s ladder, that was attached to the fire truck to get a photo looking down into the fire. I was a sophomore in high school the night of the fire. Had a lot of memories over the years at Pineville Elementary School and it was sad that the building only lasted one year after I started high school.
Summary:
68 years have passed since we first moved to Pineville in 1946. We used to ride our bikes out Highway 28, without encountering much traffic, but today Highway 28 is not the safest place to ride a bicycle, with so many businesses along the route now and many cars traverse Highway 28 today.
We left Pineville in 2007 to move to Tennessee, but it will always be home for us, since I spent most of my life here. It is the perfect size for me. Not too large and yet not too little. Pineville has a lot of businesses for a city of less than 15,000.
Maybe someday we can move back to Pineville. We do come back from time to time, for appointments at the Veteran’s Hospital. I have always been puzzled why the Veteran’s Hospital uses Alexandria as their address, when the buildings are in Pineville.
Thanks for the memories Pineville, since you will always be home to me.
The first Alexandria Daily Town Talk newspaper was published on March 17, 1883. I started working there in 1966, when the paper was 83 years old and today it is 131 years old, so 48 years have passed since I first set foot inside the Alexandria Daily Town Talk at the time. Today it is known as The Town Talk.
I had returned earlier from my tour of duty in Hawaii and Vietnam and was 21 and looking for work. The lady from the Louisiana Employment called and said there was an opening at the Town Talk. Found out later that the previous worker had drowned and they needed someone to take his place.
Earning $11.20 a Day
The interviewer told me they usually don’t start workers, as much pay as I was getting. I found out later, that I was making the minimum wage of $1.40 an hour, which came out to $11.20 an eight hour day and $56 a week. The pay for a typical 22 day month was $246.40 and $2,912 a year. Four years later I had worked my way up to $3 an hour.
This is the way we saw hot metal type when working with it – upside down and backwards.
First Job As a Dump Boy
My first job was as a dump boy and went to work on August 24, 1966, and received type from those working with the linotype machines. They would bring the trays called galleys with very hot metal slugs, with each slug being about an inch tall and a line of type printed on it. The proofreaders would read a proof of the story in that galley and if there was a mistake we would take out the old lines and insert the corrected lines. Then we would turn the galleys around, so the page compositors could place the type in the page forms, in the proper place according to a page layout designed by the wire desk or sports department.
Stopped By Police
When I first started working at Town Talk my starting time was 5:30 AM. One morning I was walking the usual two miles to work and was crossing the Murray Street bridge, when I was stopped by police. Someone had been killed at the Melody Grill Bar that morning, so they questioned me, before realizing I was just walking to work and had nothing to do with the murder.
Became A Page Compositor
After I had been dump boy for a while I became a page compositor. Our job was to place the ads in the page, then place photos and type to fill in the rest of the space on the page. Each page form was on a truck with wheels. that sometimes was called a turtle for some unknown reason.
We were using the hot metal process, so we used zinc photos or photos from scan-o-graver that would make photos. Things really got hectic around deadline time, as we rushed to get the pages ready for the press. After we finished the pages a pressman would process the pages in a mat rolling machine, that would make impressions of the page, that would be placed on the printing press.
Sunday Paper Starts in May of 1967
The first Sunday paper was published by the Town Talk in May of 1967 and has been published each Sunday, for the last 47 years since that date. I had been walking to and from work, but with the night hours finally bought my first car a 1954 Oldsmobile, so I wouldn’t have to walk through town at 1 AM in the morning.
Friday Night Football
To say nights at work during Friday night football were chaotic is putting it mildly. The sportswriters would return to Town Talk, to write-up their articles on that night’s game. It took time for them to write their articles and then sports desk person had to decide how to lay out the pages and what photos of the games to use. Those of us in page composition couldn’t do much, till the pages were designed and we received the layouts. The sportswriters would work with us on the page, in case we had any problems and if an article ran long they would tell us what part of the article to cut, so it would fit in the page form. It was always a relief to turn the last page over to the pressroom, so they could get it on the press, as soon as possible.
Election Night Fun
Elections were a lot of fun, if someone thought working way past time to leave work is fun. We had to wait till late at night, so we could get the latest results of the elections in the newspaper and we would make a second edition to get even later election results. Election nights would see many of the politicians gathering at the Town Talk, so they could see firsthand how many votes they were receiving.
Pressman Died At Work
I was talking to a pressman about a pro football game and it wasn’t long after, when I found out he had a heart attack and died at work. He had been a long time employee, but it still came as a shock to me, when learning he had passed away.
Married and Moved to Riverfront Street
In September of 1970 was married and moved to Riverfront Street in Pineville. I walked to work, so my wife could drive to her work and I remember there was a Russian lady living on Riverfront, that was living in a tent. Never did find out what had happened to her, after the last day I saw her.
Our $75 a month rent was too much to pay at once, so our landlord let us split it up into two $37.50 payments.
End of Hot Metal Composition
It was in 1972, that the Town Talk ended hot metal composition and started using cold type composition. Those of us working hot metal no longer had ink all over our hands, since we were working with paper. Working with the hot metal had caused most of us in hot metal composition, to have to have hernia surgery.
We would have to lift full pages of type from the bottom shelves of page racks, which was extremely heavy, since the full-page galleys were full of metal that was inch high. Imagine how heavy that is when you look at a page, in the newspaper and think of it being full of inch high metal.
Cold Type Composition
Now we were no longer working with metal, but worked with paper type. We now used scissors, glue sticks, X-Actos and razor blades, to work on the new technology. It took some getting used to the new technology, but thanks to Elvis Presley I wouldn’t be working in hot type composition from April of 1974 till March of 1976, except at the very end.
Elvis Presley Finds Me a New Job
We were watching television, once when we found out Elvis Presley was going to be in concert at Monroe, Louisiana. So we bought our tickets and drove to Monroe later to see the show. While we were driving to the concert we saw the local newspaper plant and my wife suggested I try to find a job there. I sent in my application and was called in for an interview and was hired. So if it hadn’t been for Elvis Presley I would have never worked for the Monroe Morning World.
Had worked for Town Talk for almost eight years, when I got the Monroe Morning World job and got a huge raise from $159 a week to $167 a week. I didn’t know at the time that I would earn $5,000 more in my first year at the Morning World, because they offered much more overtime. In fact I worked 49 days in a row, without a day off for one stretch. Boss kept asking if I wanted to work both my days off and I kept saying yes.
Frank Spencer Sutton was born October 23, 1923 in Clarksville, Tennessee. He is best known for his portrayal of Sgt. Carter on Gomer Pyle.
His father was a linotype operator for the Nashville Tennessean and died, when his son Frank was 14 years old.
Sutton tried to join the Marines, but was turned down for failing to pass the physical, because one arm was bent too far back at the elbow.
However, he was able to join the Army and participated in 14 assault landings, including those at Leyte, Luzon and Corregidor during World War II.
After the war he returned to work as an announcer on a Nashville radio station. However, that didn’t go so well, when his boss turned on the radio and heard silence, since Sutton had fallen asleep. That ended his radio career, but it helped launch his acting career, since he went to Columbia University and graduated cum laude in Dramatic Arts.
First Television Job
Sutton’s first television acting job was on Captain Video and His Video Rangers in 1949.
He appeared in his first movie The Glenn Miller Story in 1954, but it was an uncredited role. He had another uncredited role in 1955 in the movie Marty.
His next major role was in Town Without Pity in 1961, in which he portrayed Sgt. Chuck Snyder
First Big Break With Gomer Pyle USMC
Frank Sutton had acted in many movies and television shows from 1949-1964, but his big break came, when he was cast as Sgt. Vince Carter on Gomer Pyle USMC. He portrayed a tough guy sergeant, who encounters a green recruit in Gomer Pyle, who was portrayed by Jim Nabors. It was a classic match of a tough Marines sergeant, who was frustrated by a gentle Gomer time after time.
Both Sutton and Nabors were perfectly cast in their roles as Sgt. Carter and Gomer Pyle. Sgt. Carter is the sergeant, that most of us who served in the military encountered at some point, during our tour of duty, so was easy to identify with. We can all remember recruits like Gomer who didn’t have a clue, about what military life was all about. However, we also know that a recruit like Gomer would not have lasted through boot camp in real life.
Sgt. Carter helping Gomer Pyle through his first difficult days of military service.
Gomer infuriated Sgt. Carter by his actions, but Gomer never retaliated in kind. Gomer was a prime example of a soft answer turning away the wrath of Sgt. Carter.
The show was on television from 1964-1969. Sutton and Pyle both appeared in all 150 episodes of the show.
CBS originally rejected the show, since they were afraid the military theme would not go over well with their female viewers. However, when Danny Thomas the producer threatened to take the show to NBC, which caused CBS to rethink their decision and carry the show on the CBS network after all.
The show apparently used real Marines in some of the scenes, since Jim Nabors didn’t like watching the opening scene of the introduction to the show, which showed the Marines marching, since several of those soldiers had been killed in Vietnam later.
Gomer Pyle was never higher than private first class during the five-year run of the show.
Nabors decided to leave Gomer Pyle after five seasons, to star in the Jim Nabors Hour, which ran for 1969-1971. Sutton would appear on only 3 of the 51 episodes of the show.
The television of career for Sutton was over for the most part, after Gomer Pyle left the air. He appeared in five segments of Love American Style from 1970-1973. He acted in two TV movies Ernie, Madge and Artie (1973) and Hurricane (1974).
The role of Sgt. Carter not only made him a star, but it also ended his acting career, since he was too closely identified with the Sgt. Carter character.
Frank Sutton died of a heart attack at the age of 50, in Shreveport, Louisiana on June 28,1974 while rehearsing for a dinner theater production. Sutton had went from television stardom, to acting on the dinner theater circuit, which showed how fast his fame flamed out after being Sgt. Carter.
Sadly, Gomer Pyle is one of the more difficult shows to find in reruns today. Even when it was being shown in reruns it was being shown in the early morning hours like around 4:30 in the morning.
It was one of my favorite television shows ever and would like to be able to see those shows again, if they are ever shown again.
Red Skelton was born as Richard Bernard Skelton in Vincennes, Indiana on July 18, 1913. He could be heard in 349 radio episodes of his own show and other shows. He first was heard in 1939 on the Avalon Time radio program, of which he was in the starring role. He appeared in vaudeville at the age of 15.
Red Skelton and Esther Williams who starred in some movies together.
Red Skelton appeared in his first movie in Having A Wonderful Time in 1938.
He appeared exclusively in movies until 1955, when he appeared on the television series Climax. When his movie contract ended Red Skelton would start the long run of the Red Skelton Hour which would be seen on NBC from 1951-1953, then was shown on CBS from 1953-1970.
One of my favorite parts of the show was when Skelton would ad-lib unexpectedly and it was fun to see the reaction of his co-stars in that episode. My father watched almost no television, but on Tuesday nights he would make a point of watching Red Skelton.
I always enjoyed seeing Skelton portray his many famous characters like Freddie the Freeloader, Clem Kaddidlehopper, San Fernando Red, Cauliflower McPugg and George Appleby.
Bobby Rydell portrayed cousin Zeke Kadiddlehopper in 10 episodes from 1959-1969. Even Don Knotts appeared in five episodes as Steady Fingers Ferguson.
The following cast lists includes almost everyone in show business it seems:
Skelton married Edna Stillwell in 1931 and they divorced in 1943, which caused Skelton to be drafted, since he was no longer eligible for the married exemption. He married Georgia Davis in 1945 and they remained married till 1971 for a 26 year marriage.
His last marriage would be to Lothian Toland in 1973 till his death in 1997. He was married to his three wives for a total of 62 years.
Life dealt Skelton and his wife at the time Georgia Davis a tragic blow, when their son Richard was diagnosed with leukemia and given a year to live. They took him to London, so he could some of the world. The British papers mentioned their son’s impending death, which when found out by his son Richard caused Skelton to end the trip. He died on May 10, 1978 just 10 days before his tenth birthday.
18 years after her son’s death Georgia Davis shot herself and died and Skelton took the loss of his ex-wife very hard.
Fittingly, Red Skelton would make his last television appearance appearing as Freddie the Freeloader on Standing Room Onlyin 1981. He would not appear on television again the rest of his life.
Skelton died on September 17, 1997 in Rancho Mirage, California, with death caused by pneumonia.
Skelton was the son of a former circus clown, which explains his lithographs drawn of circus clowns. He started his career as an artist in 1943 and his artwork was valued as high as $80,000. Skelton himself said that he earned $2.5 million a year from his artwork.
Red Skelton – The Pledge of Allegiance
From the Red Skelton Hour, January 14, 1969
“Getting back to school, I remember a teacher that I had. Now I only went, I went through the seventh grade. I left home when I was 10 years old because I was hungry. (laughter) And .. this is true. I worked in the summer and went to school in the winter. But, I had this one teacher, he was the principal of the Harrison school, in Vincennes, Indiana. To me, this was the greatest teacher, a real sage of..of my time, anyhow.
He had such wisdom. We were all reciting the Pledge of Allegiance one day, and he walked over. This little old teacher … Mr. Lasswell was his name. He said:
“I’ve been listening to you boys and girls recite the Pledge of Allegiance all semester and it seems as though it is becoming monotonous to you. If I may, may I recite it and try to explain to you the meaning of each word?
I
me, an individual, a committee of one.
Pledge
dedicate all of my worldly goods to give without self-pity.
Allegiance
my love and my devotion.
To the Flag
[of the]
our standard, Old Glory, a symbol of freedom. Wherever she waves, there’s respect because your loyalty has given her a dignity that shouts freedom is everybody’s job.
United
that means that we have all come together.
States
[of America]
individual communities that have united into 48 great states. 48 individual communities with pride and dignity and purpose, all divided with imaginary boundaries, yet united to a common purpose, and that’s love for country.
and to the Republic
For Which It Stands
Republic … a state in which sovereign power is invested in representatives chosen by the people to govern. And government is the people and it’s from the people to the leaders, not from the leaders to the people.
One Nation
One Nation … meaning, so blessed by God.
Indivisible
incapable of being divided.
With Liberty
which is freedom, the right of power to live one’s own life, without threats, fear, or some sort of retaliation.
And Justice
the principle or qualities of dealing fairly with others.
For All
For all … which means, boys and girls, it’s as much your country as it is mine.
Interesting Trivia About Red Skelton
Inducted into International Clown Hall of Fame in 1989
Inducted into Radio Hall of Fame in 1994
Despite playing a drunk Freddie the Freeloader he never drank and was in fact allergic to alcohol.
Disliked blue humor and wouldn’t let it be used on his show. This quote explains how he felt about off-color humor:
I think most of today’s comedians are victims of laughter…they get nervous and resort to an insult or a four-letter word for a quick, cheap laugh. That goes on night after night until the whole act is cheapened. But that doesn’t last. Usually, a couple of years later they are remembered only as the old what’s-his-name who used all the dirty words.
He never forgave CBS for cancelling his show and may be why we are not able, to see Red Skelton shows in re-runs, even though it ended 44 years ago.
His birth year is usually listed as 1913, but he reportedly told associates, that his true birth year was 1906.
These two quotes by Red Skelton sum up his life nicely:
I always believed God puts each one of us here for a purpose and mine is to try to make people happy.
If I can make people smile, then I have served my purpose for God.
Little Boy atomic bomb facsimile of the bomb which hit Hiroshima.
Little Boy Atomic Bomb (Mk I Series):
Another Little Boy Atomic Bomb casing can be found at the US Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH
Length: 120 inches Diameter: 28 inches Weight: 8,900lbs Weight of Fissionable Uranium-235: 141lbs, 1.5lbs of which actually fissioned Explosive Yield: 15-16 kilotons Configuration: Gun type heavy uranium bomb Delivery Method: Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay Est. # of Mk 1 Atomic Bombs Produced: 5 Target: Hiroshima, Japan Delivery Date: August 6, 1945 8:15am JSP
This is an empty bomb casing of the Mk I or Little Boy series of atomic bombs. About 5 were produced in the series and when they were deemed obsolete the fissionable Uranium 235 was removed along with the triggering explosives. The casings were then either scrapped or distributed to other museums.
The bomb casing pictured above represents the Little Boy atomic bomb, that was delivered by the USS Indianapolis on July 26, 1945.
Atomic Bomb Pit #1 and Memorial The No.1 bomb loading pit on Tinian where the atomic bomb, “Little Boy” was stored before being loaded onto the B-29 “Enola Gay” 44-86292. This area was heavily guarded and a tent erected over the bomb before this top-secret weapon was loaded onto the bomber, and was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.
Today, a single coconut palm and a plumeria tree grow in it. Locals have always observed misshapen coconuts on this tree, normal ones have never been produced on this tree. This hole is probably one of the most historically charged remain of the island’s past.
Atomic Bomb Pit #2 Next to it is pit “No.2”, where “Fat Man” atomic bomb was loaded into B-29 “Bockscar” 44-27297 and dropped over Nagasaki. Today, the two concrete lined pits are filled in with dirt.
Just four days after the Little Boy atomic bomb was delivered, to the Ushi Point Airfield on the island of Tinian the USS Indianapolis was hit by two Japanese torpedoes, which resulted in the ship sinking, in only 12 minutes and it still has not been found to this day.
If the ship had been hit with the atomic bomb aboard it would have almost certainly ended the lives, of every American sailor aboard the ship. The sailors who had to abandon the ship experienced shark attacks, exposure and dehydration before being spotted by a patrol aircraft four days later.
One of the sailors who lived through the experience told of seeing his friends eaten by sharks. He said sharks would dive at them and next thing he knew he would only see blood in the water.
History could have been changed, if the torpedoes would have hit the USS Indianapolis, before it delivered the atomic bomb to the airfield.
On August 6, 1945 the Little Boy atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima. 90,000 – 160,000 were killed by the atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima.
President Truman said later, that we were fortunate that Hitler was unsuccessful in developing an atomic bomb.
It will be argued for years, whether it would have been better to fight a ground battle in Japan, which may have taken years or months, or to end the war abruptly with the least loss of American life, by dropping the bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline Kennedy arriving at Love Field in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
President John F.Kennedy riding in motorcade with Jacqueline Kennedy and Governor John Connally moments before the president and governor were both shot.
Jacqueline Kennedy crawling on the back of the limousine after President Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Texas on Friday, November 22, 1963..
It is hard to believe that 50 years have passed since President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on Friday, November 22, 1963. It is ironic that November 22 of 2013 also fell on a Friday.
My day started like any other day at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. I was subbing for the regular company postal clerk, who had taken leave to New York. I happened to have my transistor radio playing that morning, when I heard a news flash saying that President Kennedy had been shot. I immediately told the commanding officer and then shortly after heard that President Kennedy was dead.
Air Force One touched down at Love Field in Dallas at 11:40 PM CST and President Kennedy and his wife Jackie were greeted enthusiastically at the airport. The motorcade cars were lined up at the airport, but the motorcade started late because of the late arrival of Air Force One.
President Kennedy was slated to make a speech at the Dallas Trade Mart at 12:15 PM, but the motorcade didn’t enter Dealey Plaza till 12:29 PM. The first shot hit President Kennedy at 12:30 PM and chaos ensued in Dealey Plaza as those there to see the motorcade ran to safety or fell to the ground to protect their children from the gunfire.
Jacqueline Kennedy started crawling on the back of the limousine, after literally holding her husband’s brains in her hands.
Governor Connally was also seriously wounded, by what some would say was the same bullet that hit President Kennedy. The bullet entered Connally’s back, hit his ribs and exited through his chest and his right arm’s wrist bone was shattered into seven parts, plus he had an entry wound in his left thigh.
James Tague, a bystander was hit by a ricocheting fragment of a bullet in the right cheek.
12:33 PM -Lee Harvey Oswald, who was later charged with the assassination of President Kennedy was seen in the second floor lunchroom about 90 seconds after the shots were fired, from the sixth floor window, of the Texas School Book Building. Oswald was questioned by Dallas motorcycle policeman Marion Baker,in the lunchroom and said Oswald showed no sign of being under duress or breathing heavily.
1236 PM – The first national network to broadcast the news of the assassination was ABC radio. when Don Gardiner announced, that three shots had been fired at the presidential motorcade.
12:38 PM – The presidential limousine bearing President Kennedy arrives at Parkland Hospital. We can only imagine the chaos there, as the physicians and nurses scrambled, to see if they could save the life of the president.
12:40 PM – CBS is the first television network to report the assassination.
1:00 PM – Lee Harvey Oswald arrived at his boarding room and left again soon after.
1:00 PM – President Kennedy was pronounced dead at Parkland Hospital and spokesman said that there was never a chance of saving his life.
1:15 PM – Officer J.D. Tippit is gunned down by Lee Harvey Oswald, according to witnesses at the scene, which was only 0.86 miles from Oswald’s boarding room.
1:33 PM – White House Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff makes the official announcement of the death of President Kennedy.
1:35 PM – Johnny Brewer, the manager of a shoe stores sees Lee Harvey Oswald heading toward the Texas Theater.
1:40 PM – Brewer notices that Oswald entered theater, without paying and notified Julie Postal the clerk, who then called the Dallas police.
1:50 PM – Oswald is arrested by Dallas police, after attempting to shoot a policeman and punching one inside the Texas Theater.
2:00 PM – The body of President Kennedy is driven to Air Force One after a confrontation, between Secret Service agents and Dallas authorities, who wanted to perform an autopsy, before releasing the body of President Kennedy.
2:38 PM – Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in by Sarah T. Hughes,as the 36th President of the United States aboard Air Force One.
500 PM – Air Force One arrives at Andrew Air Force Base near Washington, D.C., with the body of President Kennedy and with President Johnson as the new president.
7:05 PM – Lee Harvey Oswald is charged with the murder of Officer J.D.Tippit.
11:26 PM – Lee Harvey Oswald is charged with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
That ended a day in which President Kennedy was assassinated and Governor Connally was seriously wounded, James Tague a bystander was injured and Officer J.D. Tippit was murdered.
A day which had started out so well with the adoring crowds welcoming President Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline ended in tragedy. The day was to have ended with the noon speech at the Trade Mart, a speech in Austin and a weekend with Vice President Johnson at his ranch. Instead the day ended with President Johnson in the White House and the Kennedy presidency had come to an end.
Marilyn Monroe Could Have Saved JFK’s Life
It was only 15 months before when Marilyn Monroe threatened to expose the Kennedys. She was planning to expose the Kennedys and tell of the philandering ways of both President Kennedy and his brother Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
If she hadn’t found dead due to an overdose of pills she would have told, of the philandering ways of President Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy.
If she had been allowed to tell the truth,about the Kennedy brothers there would have been no Dallas visit by President Kennedy, who almost certainly would have been removed from office and no presidential campaign in 1968 by brother Bobby,who also would have been out of politics, as early as 1962 or 1963.
However, Marilyn Monroe died a mysterious death and her death may have kept the Kennedy brothers secrets safe from political death, but in the end may have cost both of them their lives.
Jackie’s Pink Suit
The pink suit that Jackie Kennedy wore during the assassination won’t be seen by the public, for another 90 years and by the time it is seen it will be 140 years after the assassination. By 2103, when it is made public there will be few that lived in the 1900’s that will still be around to see it.
More importantly it is time to release all records, that have anything to do with the Kennedy assassination. 50 years is long enough to hold onto the assassination documents, since most people who were 50 in 1963 would now be 100, if they are fortunate enough to be alive.
This is the 1,000th post, since I started writing this blog in April of 2009. There have been some long gaps, when there were no articles written, due to financial problems, when there was no internet service and two or three months last year, when I had to have cancer surgery in Houston VA hospital.
I want to thank each reader, that has taken time to read, even one of the articles, which have been written in the last four and a half years.
The early articles had a more nostalgic bent to them, but eventually I started running out of nostalgic things to write about, so wrote more about what is in the news today.
I have tried to avoid writing about politics, since writing about politics is the fastest way to end a friendship. I have relatives who are polar opposites, when it comes to politics so try, to avoid angering any of them.
However, I have found writing about the JFK assassination has sparked some controversy. I am still not sure exactly what happened on November 22, 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in the streets of Dallas Texas or the circumstances surrounding the murder of Officer J.D. Tippit only about 45 minutes later in a Dallas neighborhood.
A certain author wrote a book about the Kennedy assassination saying the case was closed, that was published in 1993. Here it is 20 years later and I still have seen no concrete proof that Lee Harvey Oswald killed the president that day. I am not even sure he was in the sniper’s nest in the sixth floor, when the fatal shots were fired. Knowing the fingerprint of LBJ’s personal hitman Mac Wallace was found on a box in the sixth floor makes me question, if Oswald was there only to be seen and blamed for the assassination, while Wallace may have done the actual shooting.
Brought Back Memories
Writing about growing up in Pineville, Louisiana in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s brought back a lot of memories. Memories like the railroad train set on top of our bed and the elementary school burning down one night and watching television in store front windows, before we had television. I have been enthusiastic about watching train sets in action since then.
Readers will find the bulk of the nostalgic articles posted in the first few months of the blog back in April and May of 2009.
Comments Welcomed
The comments of the readers have been valued and very interesting. I wrote an article about Max “Jethro” Baer of the Beverly Hillbillies and an actress who appeared with him wrote and mentioned that in her comment.
When I wrote about the film Battle of Chosin in Korea and the brutal conditions the soldiers experienced, one of the producers of the movie Chosin wrote and commented on the article.
Readership Stats
594,620 readers have visited this site as of this minute, since April of 2009. The most read article has been an article about Lizard Lick Towing Boss Arrested with 48,421 readers. 24,928 readers read an article about 1950’s Prices, which showed a newspaper ad, for a restaurant serving a Thanksgiving Dinner with all the trimmings for $1. Try finding that deal today.
17,555 read the Classic Television: Leave It To Beaver article. The most controversial article written was probably The Voice: Alright If You Like To See Bald-headed Women Sing, which 4,022 read.
This article was written about one of the nights that Elvis appeared in Alexandria, Louisiana late in March of 1977, which was about four-and-half months before his death.
I want to thank each reader, who has visited the website and want to encourage everyone, to continue reading the articles and all readers are welcome to comment on the articles. Only caveat is that no cursing or mean-spirited comments will be allowed.
Thank you very much for reading the posts and have a Happy Thanksgiving.
Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson was riding in a limousine two cars behind the presidential limousine, in which President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline were riding.
Johnson apparently knew that his limousine was in the killing zone, as he was reportedly ducking down before the first shots were fired.
When the first shots hit President Kennedy at 12:30 on November 22, 1963 and resulted in his death about 30 minutes later, then it changed the life of LBJ forever.
LBJ would be sworn in at 2:38 PM aboard Air Force One, which was only two hours and eight minutes after the first shot was fired an an hour and 38 minutes after the nation learned that President Kennedy had succumbed to the fatal wounds incurred by an assassin or assassins.
If someone asked who would have the most to gain, from the death of JFK the answer would overwhelmingly be LBJ, who went from being a figurehead in the Kennedy administration to being the president of the United States. Another reason LBJ needed to be president on November 22, 1963 was that his name was about to be mentioned,in the Bobby Baker hearings currently going on in Washington that day.
Testimony from those hearings would implicate LBJ and expose the fact that he was getting kickbacks, which would be a felony and he would have risked being sent to prison.
However, by becoming president the hearings were stopped suddenly and President Johnson’s reputation was not sullied, because he was a sympathetic figure having just assumed the presidency, at a time when the nation was in mourning over the death of their president.
President Johnson died 10 years later in 1973 and apparently took his secrets regarding his kickbacks in the Bobby Baker scandal and the Billie Sol Estes scandal and his alleged part in the assassination planning to his grave.
This is my opinion for what it is worth as to who masterminded the assassination of President Kennedy on that November day 50 years ago: Lyndon Baines Johnson was very unhappy being a second banana in the Kennedy administration and he teamed up with the CIA, FBI and the underworld to conspire to kill the president.
The CIA was infuriated with the president, because he abandoned the CIA plot to seize power from Fidel Castro in Cuba. Kennedy called off air support for the invading anti-Castro forces on the Isle of Pines. Then to make matters worse the president stated, that he would like to break the CIA into a thousand pieces. His actual words reportedly were that he would like to “splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds.”[17] Wikipedia
When President Kennedy fired Allen Dulles the director of the CIA later that year it worsened the relations, between the president and the CIA.
FBI director J. Edgar Hoover disliked both President Kennedy and his brother Attorney General Bobby Kennedy. He had secrets about the Kennedy brothers and their womanizing. When Marilyn Monroe threatened to expose their secrets she died a mysterious death in August of 1962. If she had been allowed to tell the media, what she know about the Kennedy brothers, then they both may never have been assassinated, since they would be out of power and cooling their heels at Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, instead of being assassinated in 1963 and 1968.
Underworld figures had their own motives to assassinate President Kennedy, since his brother Bobby, in his role as attorney general was waging a war against organized crime, who were the same people, that enabled his brother the president to win the 1960 election, through their dirty politics.
LBJ allegedly conspired with some of his Texas oilmen friends to bankroll the operation. Spartacus Educational has this to say about a meeting held the eve of the assassination and who was present:
Rumours began to circulate that Murchison might have been involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. A friend of Murchison, Madeleine Brown, claimed in an interview on the television show, A Current Affair that on the 21st November, 1963, she was at his home in Dallas. Others at the meeting included Haroldson L. Hunt, J. Edgar Hoover, Clyde Tolson, John J. McCloy and Richard Nixon. At the end of the evening Lyndon B. Johnson arrived. Brown said in this interview: “Tension filled the room upon his arrival. The group immediately went behind closed doors. A short time later Lyndon, anxious and red-faced, reappeared. I knew how secretly Lyndon operated. Therefore I said nothing… not even that I was happy to see him. Squeezing my hand so hard, it felt crushed from the pressure, he spoke with a grating whisper, a quiet growl, into my ear, not a love message, but one I’ll always remember: “After tomorrow those goddamn Kennedys will never embarrass me again – that’s no threat – that’s a promise.”
If Madeleine Brown was telling the truth, then this is evidence, that LBJ was heavily involved with the assassination.
Questions About JFK Assassination
That Still Need to Be Answered
The proponents of the Warren Commission Report may think the mystery,of who assassinated President John F. Kennedy was solved with the release of the Warren Report in 1964, but I still have questions, that I would like to know answers to, before making a decision one way or the other.
What part did Lee Harvey Oswald play in the assassination? I am still not sure he was even in the sixth floor sniper’s nest,when the fatal shots were fired. He was seen in the second floor break room 75 seconds,after the shots were fired and was drinking a Coca-Cola. The motorcycle policeman who questioned Oswald said that Oswald was very calm and not out of breath. Not the reaction of someone,who had just shot the president of the United States. I figure that Oswald did bring his rifle to the sixth floor window that day, so naturally had his fingerprints on it and was probably seen by a witness before the shooting. The deal breaker for me was that LBJ’s hitman Mac Wallace had his fingerprint found on a box on the sixth floor. I think Oswald was set up to look like he was the shooter, while Wallace fired the fatal shots, but Wallace was not even on the sixth floor at the time.
Why would the Dallas police department send a lone policeman to stop Oswald, knowing he was a suspect in the assassination of the president, instead of having two or three cars at the scene before accosting Oswald? Officer J.D. Tippit may still be alive if this precaution had been taken.
Why was Jack Ruby allowed into the Dallas Police Station and why did he gain admittance while carrying a firearm? I can’t help but wonder if Ruby had inside help to gain entrance into the police station, without being searched by someone.
Why wasn’t the transfer vehicle already backed into place, which would have likely prevented Ruby from getting an easy shot at Oswald and why wasn’t Oswald moved during the night? Ruby was allegedly told by his crime bosses, to kill Oswald, so their names wouldn’t be mentioned during the interrogation.
Why did the Warren Commission single out Oswald as the lone conspirator, when he had a long history of being involved in double agent work? I believed Oswald, when he stated that he was a patsy. The lone conspirator theory may have satisfied some Americans, but there is still an overwhelming majority, that thinks he was only a small part of a huge conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy.
Why wasn’t more attention paid to Rose Cherami when she told authorities in Louisiana, that she was traveling with two men on the way to Dallas to assassinate the president two days before the assassination? If someone had taken her seriously it could have affected the way the motorcade was conducted on November 22. The top would not have been lowered, if the Secret Service knew there was a viable threat that the president might be assassinated. Still wonder why LBJ insisted on the top being down that day according to some reports and why he also insisted that Jackie Kennedy ride with him in his vice presidential limousine. The people along the motorcade route didn’t come to see Jackie Kennedy riding with LBJ. They wanted to see her with her husband the president.
Why would a bullet be found on Governor Connally’s stretcher unless it was planted there? The magic bullet theory was crucial to the Warren Commission’s theory that Oswald was the lone gunman. I won’t go into detail, since my knowledge of ballistics is very limited.
Why haven’t there been more assassination records released 50 years later? There probably are very few people involved with the assassination still alive. LBJ died 40 years ago. J. Edgar Hoover died 41 years ago. Carlos Marcello, who has been linked with the assassination died 20 years ago. One of the few people still alive today is James Leavelle, who escorted Lee Harvey Oswald on his rendezvous with death, as Jack Ruby ended his life two days after he assassinated the president.
Why did presidential limousine driver stop the vehicle after the shooting began? The delay allowed the shooter or shooters more time to fire their next shot.
Why was the presidential limousine cleaned before it could be examined, since it was the crime scene of the assassination? Evidently, someone didn’t want to risk an investigator finding evidence, that might not jive with the lone gunman theory.
Why did Lee Harvey Oswald work with both anti-Castro and pro-Castro forces? This tells me he was a double agent working for both sides. I think personally, that Oswald was being groomed by the CIA to look like he was a kook, that hated President Kennedy and was good enough of a marksman to assassinate him.
Why didn’t Earl Warren agree to Jack Ruby testifying in Washington, when Ruby had told him he would talk in Washington, but not in Dallas? This may be Earl Warren’s way of making sure that Ruby’s testimony wouldn’t ruin the lone gunman theory, that was the cornerstone of the Warren Report.
Why did a large number of witnesses or witnesses preparing to testify in JFK assassination die mysterious deaths?The debunkers will say there was nothing unusual about any of the deaths, but a case by case study will show there were many mysterious deaths. The mysterious death of Dorothy Kilgallen came shortly after she said she had information that would blow the JFK assassination case sky-high. She had interviewed Jack Ruby shortly before her death and probably in the process of writing the article about her interview with Ruby.
In conclusion….there are many more questions that could be asked about the assassination, but the ones are above are questions that I hope to see answered someday.
Nobody on either the conspiracy side or the non-conspiracy side is going to convince me, what the truth is till I know beyond a doubt. what actually happened that day. My best guess right now is that LBJ was the mastermind behind the JFK assassination.
Abraham Zapruder was born in Russia in 1905 and didn’t move to the United States, until his family emigrated to Brooklyn, New York in 1920.
Zapruder worked his way up in the fashion industry and co-founded Chalet and Jennifer Juniors in Dallas and his office was located in the Dal-Tex building in Dealey Plaza.
He had no plans of taking his movie camera, to film the motorcade with President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, but his secretary Lillian Rogers talked him into driving the 14 mile trip home to pick up his camera. If he had left his movie camera at home he would have been just another spectator that day, but having his camera made him an integral part of the events of that day.
The movie camera used by Abraham Zapruder to film the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
It is amazing that Zapruder picked the precise best spot, to record the assassination of President Kennedy. He took the film of the assassination, which won’t be shown here because the film is very disturbing. The 18 second film was almost certainly the most important evidence, when determining the sequence of the shots.
The movie camera was a 8 mm Bell & Howell Zoomatic Director Series Model 414 PD. Zapruder had his receptionist call the police, since he knew the film contained some very important footage. He later would reportedly sell a copy of the film, to Life Magazine for $150,000. He donated $25,000 of that money to the widow of Officer J.D. Tippit, who was killed less than an hour after the assassination.
This is an interview Zapruder participated in on WFAA TV in Dallas, which was shown on the evening of the assassination:
JAY WATSON(Station WFAA Dallas): […] And would you tell us your story please, sir?
ABRAHAM ZAPRUDER: I got out in, uh, about a half-hour earlier to get a good spot to shoot some pictures. And I found a spot, one of these concrete blocks they have down near that park, near the underpass. And I got on top there, there was another girl from my office, she was right behind me. And as I was shooting, as the President was coming down from Houston Street making his turn, it was about a half-way down there, I heard a shot, and he slumped to the side, like this. Then I heard another shot or two, I couldn’t say it was one or two, and I saw his head practically open up [places fingers of right hand to right side of head in a narrow cone, over his right ear], all blood and everything, and I kept on shooting. That’s about all, I’m just sick, I can’t…WATSON: I think that pretty well expresses the entire feelings of the whole world. ZAPRUDER: Terrible, terrible.WATSON: You have the film in your camera, we’ll try to get… ZAPRUDER: Yes, I brought it on the studio, now. WATSON: We’ll try to get that processed and have it as soon as possible.[6]
November 22, 1963 was the last time that Zapruder owned or used a camera, probably due to him seeing President Kennedy assassinated through the lens.
Zapruder’s testimony before the Warren Commission:
His appearance before the Warren Commission, since he had to relive what he had seen that 22nd day of November in 1963 was very trying. He lost his composure when recalling the events of that day before the commission.
Abraham Zapruder set up his movie camera, in hopes of filming the motorcade of President John. F. Kennedy. But what he saw in his lens was the brutal assassination of President Kennedy. He may have taken the most important home movie ever made.
It was less than seven years, after the assassination when Abraham Zapruder succumbed to cancer on August 30, 1970 at the age of 65.
The 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination has sparked many new books on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, but the one book among this latest wave of books about the assassination is Who Really Killed Kennedy?: 50 Years Later: Stunning New Revelations About the JFK Assassination, which stands out above the others.
It was written by Dr. Jerome Corsi Ph.D and his 383 page book was released on September 17, 2013. It is currently one of the best-selling books on Amazon.
Dr. Corsi has pored over many of the assassination files, that have been released in recent years and some of his newest findings include:
The shot in the back of the head was an exit wound, which opens up new questions, about if there was more than one shooter involved with the assassination.
That two other attempts to assassinate President Kennedy had taken place earlier in the month of November of 1963.
That Lee Harvey Oswald had ties with both the CIA and the KGB.
This article on the book lists even more revelations in the book:
This is perhaps one of the best accounts of what REALLY happened that ill-fated day in Dallas and how our own country killed a beloved president. I was shocked and amazed at the cast of characters who all participated in the covering up. Oswald never was a part yet, he was the fall guy. Dr. Corsi gives a very easy reading list of the events leading up to and during and after the assassination. This book is a must read for all who blindly follow whatever their govt. tells them to do
This review is from: Who Really Killed Kennedy?: 50 Years Later: Stunning New Revelations About the JFK Assassination (Kindle Edition)
This book held my attention. Took me a few days to read it as I had to put it down sometimes because of the volume of information Mr. Corsi presented. It also presents a sad commentary on American political history of the latter 20th century. The convoluted ties between politicians, the mob and the CIA and certain doctrines concerning globalism and American business interests actually predate WW2 with shades of the New World Order thrown in. Reading this book also gives one insight to why we are viewed by foreign governments the way we are.
It is hard to believe that 50 years after the JFK assassination, that there are still so many unanswered questions about that day in November in 1963, when our president was gunned down in Dealey Plaza.
The multitude of questions still being asked today tells me that this was a conspiracy of the first magnitude and that Lee Harvey Oswald may not only not have fired shots from the Texas Schoolbook Depository building, but may not have even been on the sixth floor when the shots were fired.
The fact that he was being questioned by a Dallas Police motorcycle officer 75 seconds after the shots on the second floor, while drinking from a Coca-Cola bottle and not out of breath according to the police officer tells me Oswald was in the 6th floor window prior to the shooting then asked to leave, before the shooting actually began.
This may seem like a far out analysis of the situation, but there is no reason to believe that it couldn’t have happened exactly that way.
Hopefully, Dr. Corsi’s book will answer some of the unanswered questions and give us a clearer perspective of who was behind the assassination of President Kennedy.
There have been so many conspiracy theories about the assassination, that Americans may take years to sort out what is real and what was made up to sell books.
Nobody has proved that there wasn’t a conspiracy, but to me the preponderance of information points toward a conspiracy.
The problem is that so many witnesses with knowledge about the JFK assassination, that may have pointed to a conspiracy have met mysterious and untimely deaths, while those supporting the findings of the Warren Commission Report seem to have avoided dying under mysterious circumstances.
Lyndon Johnson has a long history of illegal activities, from finding “missing votes” in his 1948 election to the Senate, the elimination of witnesses in the Billie Sol trial, his connections with Bobby Baker scandal and most of all being part of a conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy.
Billie Sol Estes was raking in $21 million a year from “growing” and “storing” non-existent cotton. When Henry Marshall was investigating Estes and his illegal activities Johnson ordered his hitman Mac Wallace to kill Marshall. The hit didn’t go well and Wallace ended up shooting Marshall five times and it was called a suicide and Wallace was set free, when he received assistance from Johnson’s cronies. The judge admitted he ruled it a suicide, only because the sheriff told him to rule the murder a suicide. Besides LBJ needed Wallace to finish off more of his enemies in the following years. The fingerprint of Wallace was reportedly found, in the 6th floor “sniper’s nest” in the Texas Schoolbook Depository building, so that raises the question of whether he was the one that shot JFK.
On 3rd June, 1961, Marshall was found dead on his farm by the side of his Chevy Fleetside pickup truck. His rifle lay beside him. He had been shot five times with his own rifle. County Sheriff Howard Stegall decreed that Marshall had committed suicide. No pictures were taken of the crime scene, no blood samples were taken of the stains on the truck (the truck was washed and waxed the following day), and no check for fingerprints were made on the rifle or pickup. – Spartacus Educational
The following paragraph states that Lyndon Johnson was not adverse to having his enemies killed:
On 4th April, 1962, George Krutilek, Estes chief accountant, was found dead. Despite a severe bruise on Krutilek’s head, the coroner decided that he had also committed suicide. The next day, Estes, and three business associates, were indicted by a federal grand jury on 57 counts of fraud. Two of these men, Harold Orr and Coleman Wade, later died in suspicious circumstances. At the time it was said they committed suicide but later Estes was to claim that both men were murdered by Mac Wallace in order to protect the political career of Lyndon B. Johnson. -Spartacus Educational
Bobby Baker (pictured) scandal left LBJ no choice but to have President Kennedy assassinated.
Then as if Johnson didn’t have enough to contend with the Billie Sol Estes situation his problems worsened, as the Bobby Baker scandal was being investigated by the Senate Rules Committee. The following three paragraphs tell why it was in the best interest of Vice President Johnson to conspire to assassinate President Kennedy.
According to the president’s secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, Kennedy had decided that because of this emerging scandal he was going to drop Lyndon B. Johnson as his running mate in the 1964 election. He told Lincoln that he was going to replace Johnson with Terry Sanford.
On 22nd November, 1963, a friend of Baker’s, Don B. Reynolds told B. Everett Jordan and his Senate Rules Committee that Johnson had demanded that he provided kickbacks in return for this business. This included a $585 Magnavox stereo. Reynolds also had to pay for $1,200 worth of advertising on KTBC, Johnson’s television station in Austin. Reynolds had paperwork for this transaction including a delivery note that indicated the stereo had been sent to the home of Johnson.
Don B. Reynolds also told of seeing a suitcase full of money which Baker described as a “$100,000 payoff to Johnson for his role in securing the Fort Worth TFX contract”. His testimony came to an end when news arrived that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. – Spartacus Educational
In conclusion the only way out of this political quagmire was for LBJ to have the president assassinated, since if he hadn’t he would have likely not been the vice-presidential candidate in 1964 and if he did nothing he wouldn’t have had the power to stop the Bobby Baker scandal investigation, before his part in the scandal was made public record. President Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy would have loved to see LBJ twisting in the wind, so there is no way they would have brought the investigation to an end.
Some of the facts about LBJ’s involvement with the Bobby Baker scandal were leaked to the press, but the press played the stories down, since President Johnson was a sympathetic figure, that was having to deal with a citizenry that was mourning the tragic loss of their president.
It is a miracle to me that Lyndon Johnson went to his death, with so many of his secrets unexposed starting with the corrupt 1948 Senate election, but then his enemies knew that Johnson not only vilified his enemies with his tongue, but his enemies had a way of ending up in the obituary column, soon after angering Johnson.
To summarize, LBJ saw that assassinating JFK was his only way out of a very bad situation, that could have sent him to prison for his illegal activities with Billie Sol Estes and Bobby Baker. I am surprised that President Johnson didn’t try to win a second term, if for no other reason than to protect his secrets from coming out another four years.
It was a surprise that President Johnson didn’t run for re-election in 1968, but maybe his pollsters were telling him, that there was no way he could win the election, so he may have decided discretion was the better part of valor and quietly faded away from the political scene. LBJ took a lot of secrets to his grave, but we can only hope that those who are still alive and know those secrets will tell us what he never told us.
Jack Ruby with gun seconds before shooting Lee Harvey Oswald, who had been charged with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy with Oswald. Oswald and the two policemen didn’t see Ruby holding the gun.
Jack Ruby reportedly shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald, so Jackie Kennedy wouldn’t have to return to Dallas for the trial of Oswald, but I think that Ruby was ordered by underworld bosses to silence Oswald. The Warren Commission stated that Ruby had no underworld ties, but it is well-known, that he had many ties to the underworld. The Warren Commission was intent on pushing their lone gunman theory, so Ruby having underworld ties would render that theory useless.
Earl Warren and the Warren Commission were not curious enough about Ruby to let him testify in Washington, about the murder of Oswald. Ruby stated that he wanted to prove to President Johnson, that he was not part of a conspiracy, so why not let him testify, if he wanted to. Maybe the commission was worried about what Ruby would say if he had the chance to talk.
It is a coincidence that President Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby all died at Parkland Hospital. It is strange that a new trial had been given to Ruby in December, 1966, after initially being sentenced to death for the murder of Oswald and then he dies the 3rd day of January of 1967. Somebody didn’t want to take the chance of a conspiracy being exposed during the new trial. .
It seems impossible that Jack Ruby could have been in all the places he was reportedly seen during the assassination weekend.
I have read reports of him being in Dealey Plaza at the time of the assassination, but he was reportedly in the Dallas Morning News building at that time placing his weekly ad for his nightclub when he heard about the assassination.
The Warren Commission disputes the account of Seth Kantor, a White House correspondent, when he testified that he spoke to Ruby at Parkland Hospital, after President Kennedy had arrived there. The Warren Commission said there was no video of Ruby being present at Parkland. It has been mentioned that Ruby may have left the pristine bullet on a stretcher in Parkland Hospital, that has been the subject of controversy.
There have also been reports that Ruby was parked down the street, from the scene of the Officer Tippit murder and others even have him with Oswald before Oswald or someone looking like Oswald murdered Tippit. The problem with Ruby being there to see the Tippit shooting is that it is at same time as Seth Kantor placed Ruby at Parkland Hospital, so even Ruby cannot be in two places at one time.
Some reports even say that Ruby was in the Texas Theater when Oswald was arrested. I have only seen this reported from one source, so that needs more verification. Any reader with more on the whereabouts of Ruby that weekend is welcomed to comment with their information.
There is no doubt that Ruby was at the Dallas Police station, while Oswald was being held there on the Friday night of the assassination. There is even less doubt that he returned to the police station on Sunday morning, with the sole purpose of killing Oswald.
The timing had to be perfect for Ruby to accomplish his mission. If he had arrived at the police station a minute later Oswald would have already been in the transfer vehicle and taken to another correctional facility.
Jack Ruby after being arrested for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Ruby was born on March 25, 1911 in Chicago and died January 3, 1967 in Dallas, Texas at the age of 55. He would be 102 if still alive today and was 52 on the day of the JFK assassination.
The Spartacus Educational website states in his biography, that Ruby connected with Sam Trafficante and Carlos Marcello in the summer of 1963. Since both Trafficante and Marcello have been mentioned as the two most prominent underworld bosses connected with the JFK assassination it makes sense that they would order Ruby to kill Oswald, to protect them from prosecution.
Of course the Warren Commission doesn’t include this information in their report, since it would show Oswald to be part of a conspiracy.
Ruby reportedly met with Joe Campisi a Carlos Marcello associate at Campisi’s restaurant the day before the assassination, which may have been the time, when Ruby was ordered to kill Oswald as soon as possible after the assassination.
The underworld had to know that Ruby had an inside connection with the members of the Dallas Police department and it has been reported that a policeman called Ruby to let him know that Oswald’s transfer was imminent.
We will never know how much Oswald knew about the conspiracy, because Ruby decided for the American people, that we didn’t need to hear Oswald’s story and made sure of that, on the morning of November 24, 1963.
Oswald was shot by Ruby at 11:21 AM CST, which was almost two days, after the assassination of JFK.
Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa says in the Wikipedia biography of Ruby, that Ruby was to have seen that police officers loyal to Ruby would see that Oswald was killed while in custody. When that didn’t happen then Ruby was told to either kill Oswald himself or die.
Ruby may or may not have been in organized crime, but he had connections with many of those connected with the underworld.
The question that has never been answered as far as I know is why Ruby was allowed in the Dallas Police building, with a firearm and in fact reportedly had a firearm with him on Friday night, when he was in the police station.
It was bad enough that President Kennedy had been assassinated in the streets of Dallas, but that was compounded by Ruby killing Oswald, who claimed to be a patsy and here we are fifty years later, not knowing 100 percent if there was a conspiracy or Lee Harvey acted alone, when he allegedly assassinated President Kennedy.
Summary:
My take on the assassination of President Kennedy is that President Lyndon B. Johnson was the mastermind behind the assassination, as he enabled the conspiracy to eliminate President Kennedy from the political scene, so he could become president.
President Lyndon B. Johnson being sworn in aboard Air Force One shortly after President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated.
Johnson, who in my book is the most evil president in the history of the United States enlisted the aid of the CIA, FBI, the underworld, and wealthy Texans like Clint Murchison to plan the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22,1963.
A fingerprint of Johnson’s hitman Mac Wallace was found on a box in the 6th floor of the Texas Schoolbook Depository.
The timing of the assassination prevented LBJ from having his name mentioned, during the Bobby Baker scandal hearings in Washington. Those hearings came to an abrupt end after Johnson took the office of president.
LBJ teamed up with several people and agencies, who had been angered by the actions of President Kennedy.
His brother Robert F. Kennedy had angered organized crime by deporting Carlos Marcello to Guatemala and for his prosecution of organized crime figures.
FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was in jeopardy of being fired by President Kennedy, but was more or less blackmailing the Kennedys, by threatening to release some information about their affairs, when they didn’t want LBJ on the ticket, when Kennedy was choosing his vice-president for the 1960 presidential campaign. They didn’t name Johnson as vice-presidential candidate, until Sen. Stuart Symington, who had already been told that he was their choice for vice presidential candidate was told, that they had decided to go with LBJ on the ticket instead.
The CIA was not happy with Kennedy’s spoken intentions of breaking up the CIA in bits and pieces and his firing of CIA Director Allen Dulles after the Bay of Pigs fiasco worsened the tension between JFK and the highly secretive agency.
It makes sense that Lyndon Baines Johnson, who was used to being in power was not happy being a figurehead in the Kennedy administration, with little power and it was eating at Johnson, to be surrounded by the Kennedy brain trust.
Carlos Marcello was particularly angry with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, since Kennedy deported him to Guatemala. Marcello had the connections to seek revenge, on Robert Kennedy by having his brother the president assassinated. Marcello had stated that to get rid of the dog you have to cut off the head, which implied that he was intent on murdering the president, so that his brother Bobby would get the message and back off in his war against organized crime.
It was no accident that Jack Ruby was able to gain entrance, to the Dallas Police station and be there the precise moment Lee Harvey Oswald was being taken to the vehicle for transfer.
Now fifty years later there are still a lot of unanswered questions, that are begging to be answered about the assassination of President Kennedy. However most of the people, who had answers to those questions have been silenced by a string of mysterious deaths and accidents. Our only hope to learn the truth about the assassination now is for all the sealed documents that are locked in files and safes, to be released and hope that the files with the smoking gun we are looking for have not been destroyed.
Leslie Haskin’s book Escape From the World Trade Center may not be the best book written about 9/11, but her personal account of that day is a gripping one, that most readers will find very informative.
The book is available free as of this minute at Amazon for Kindle readers. The 74 page book may be short, but says a lot in those 74 pages.
She describes her day from waking up at 5:15 AM to boarding the train for her daily commute, to the terrorizing events of 9/11, to returning home later that day.
Lesley Haskin worked in the North Tower, also known as Tower One of the World Trade Center. She got off the elevator on the 36th floor at 8:28 AM and was talking to a co-worker at about 8:43, when the building shook and swayed.
Desks and chairs in her office began flying out the window. Leslie who had post traumatic stress was in a state of shock, not grasping the enormity of the situation. She for some reason decided to call a friend, to get an idea of what was happening, but the phone was dead and someone questioned her, as to what she was doing staying in the room and then she joined the rest as they made their long descent to the lobby and hopefully a safe place.
Note: Tower 1 construction started in August of 1968 and was completed in December of 1970. It took 12 years to build the North Tower but it collapsed 102 minutes after it started burning. The South Tower collapsed only 56 minutes after being struck.
It was a long descent for Leslie as she began moving down the crowded stairway. She saw many horrific sights during her descent. People in flames were also coming down the stairway. She would also see a decapitated body as on her descent.
At one point she was hit by a human torso. It was a race against time as the victims continued their descent as they descended the North Tower stairways.
One thing that stood out for Leslie was that she saw the look of fear in the eyes of the firemen forcing their way up the stairway, while looking for someone to help. It was sad that many firemen didn’t get the message, to evacuate the North Tower after the South Tower had collapsed.
Leslie finally reached the lobby and went outside and for some reason she watched, those who were jumping from the building as they fell to their deaths. The jumpers obviously had to choose their way of death. They had a choice of becoming consumed in flames or jumping to their deaths. Either way meant instant death.
Someone finally told her to run to safety, instead of staying so close to the building. She walked to where she could board a boat, that would take her to the train station in Hoboken.
Leslie finally arrived at home and it all hit her as she emitted a scream, as she saw relatives and friends, after returning home.
What had started out as a typical workday had turned into the most horrific day of her life.
Anyone wishing to read the book and read reviews of her book can find it here:
Even after reading Escape From World Trade Center we still cannot fully comprehend what Leslie Haskin faced that day 12 years ago, when American soil was attacked by terrorists. We don’t know what it was like to see people on fire, decapitated bodies, people jumping out of buildings to a certain death or to try to flee a building that could collapse at any minute.
9/11 is by far the biggest story since the year 2000 started. The previous big story was when President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated on the streets of Dallas on November 22, 1963. He and Office J.D. Tippit were the only ones killed that day, but 9/11 affected far many more people personally, as close to 3,000 people lost their lives on September 11, 2001.
The terrorists not only ended the lives of those entombed in those planes and buildings that day, but they robbed relatives and friends of those that perished of ever seeing their loved ones again, except in a coffin and some were even robbed of that, since there were no remains found of some victims.
Many other American lives have been lost in the years since 9/11, as the United States sent troops to Afghanistan and Iraq. 4,486 military people have met their death in Iraq since 2003. 2,270 more soldiers have died in Afghanistan, for a total of 7,256 military deaths, which means a total of around 10,000 Americans having died during and in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
Who knows what building Flight 93 would have hit, if some brave men on that flight hadn’t fought the hijackers, which resulted in the plane crashing in Shamokin, Pennsylvania? We will never know if that plane may have hit the Capitol building or the White House that day.
bin Laden may be dead, but that is little consolation for the survivors of the 10,000 dead Americans. Life will never be the same for them, nor will it be the same, for those that were victims of the attacks that day, that saw images of dying people that day and those images will be ingrained in their thoughts for the rest of their lives.
Next week will be the 12th remembrance of 9/11. We have been fortunate that there has no been another major attack on American soil by terrorists in the last 12 years. However, we must remain vigilant and aware of any suspicious activity, that we see and notify the authorities, as soon as we notice that activity.
We must not forget the firemen and policemen, who paid the ultimate price, for being there to help the victims as they fled the buildings, even though it meant losing their own life.
Each of us should stop to remember those firemen and policemen next week, as they stand for everything that is good about America.
The FBI has released videos of two suspects, that may have participated in the Boston Marathon bombing earlier this week.
The agency is seeking help from citizens, that may have seen the suspects and anything that they may recall about the two individuals.
It is imperative that these two suspects be captured, as soon as possible to prevent them from leaving the country, if they are international terrorists or go into hiding if they are American citizens.
We should know more about these suspects, now that those there at the Boston Marathon may remember them and may have even have their photos in their cell phones.
The main thing is to get these people off the street, so they can be brought to justice, if they are the perpetrators behind the Boston Marathon bombings.
A bomb explodes near the finish line at the Boston Marathon on Monday.
The Boston Marathon is usually a cause of celebration, but two bombs exploding near the finish line turned the day into an unspeakable tragedy.
Earlier that day the Boston Red Sox had played the Tampa Bay Rays and the players heard the explosions as they left Fenway Park, after playing the traditional Red Sox game, that coincides with the Boston Marathon.
27,000 runners had converged on Boston to participate in the 117th running of the Boston Marathon. After the bombs exploded near the finish line nobody was even thinking of who won the race, but everyone was concerned about the three killed and 148 injured, according to the latest reports.
New York Times photo and overhead shot of where the two bombs exploded.
The mood of the crowd changed from euphoria as they cheered the runners crossing the finish line, to utter shock as two bombs exploded near the finish line. The reports of the injuries to those wounded in the bombings are too graphic to recount in this article. I heard some gruesome accounts of what witnesses saw in the aftermath of the bombing, but no need to detail their accounts, since the terrorists would enjoy hearing the gory details, of what pain and suffering was caused by the bombings.
Now the focus turns to who committed such a cowardly act, that led to loss of life and injuries that may force some of the injured to be crippled for life.
Is Anyone Really Safe?
This latest tragedy caused by terrorists once again reminds us of how fragile life is. People were having fun one minute and then utter chaos ensues after the bombs do their damage to innocent people, who only wanted to enjoy a day off from their work, only to have it end in such a tragic manner.
We don’t know whether international terrorists or national terrorists are responsible for yesterday’s tragedy, but we do know it was a terrorist act, whether by an organized group or one or two individuals.
There certainly was a state of fear on Boylston Street in Boston yesterday, when an idyllic day turned into a day that will never be forgotten, but never to be forgotten for the wrong reason.
United States has been the scene of terrorism in the last year or so, from those shot or killed at the Aurora, Colorado movie theater, to the students and teachers who lost their life in their school in Newtown, Connecticut and now this terrorist act on Boylston Street in Boston, Massachusetts.
Even though the theater and school murders were executed by lone gunmen they still were acts of terrorism in my book and while the bombings in Boston seem to be the work of organized terrorists we still don’t know for sure how many were involved.
What we do know is that theaters, classrooms and downtown streets are no longer safe. Is there really a safe place that can be regarded as terrorist free? The terrorists have answered that question with a resounding no.
I could point out the many places that invite terrorism, but why give terrorists ideas of how to inflict more loss of life. It is difficult to understand the mind of a terrorist, since most people may not like a situation they are in, but would never take the extreme measures, that terrorists take to inflict their will on their victims.
All we can do now is to hope that the government agencies can track down and arrest who were the masterminds, behind the tragic murders of innocent victims yesterday in Boston.
That doesn’t mean that other terrorists won’t continue to strike fear into American citizens, with other terrorist acts like the one, that was committed in Boston yesterday.
Twelve years have passed since 9/11, but the world is no safer than it was on that Tuesday morning, when terrorists ended the lives of thousands of Americans, who were on routine flights or had gone to work in downtown New York or in the Pentagon and the policemen and firemen who gave their life that day.
Life is very fragile and we learned that again, from what happened in Boston yesterday.
Diagram showing key landmarks involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 and the Dallas Police Headquarters, where Jack Ruby murdered Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24 of that year.
50 years since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy have passed and yet there is still no smoking gun, that proves that the crime was a conspiracy. I have read a lot of books on the subject, but still have not read anything that proves there was a conspiracy.
I still think it was a conspiracy and think the Warren Commission Report was slanted, to make the American public think Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole person, that was involved in the assassination.
My personal opinion is that Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was involved in the assassination. He had the most to gain, from the assassination of President Kennedy. Johnson was very unhappy being a figurehead in the Kennedy administration and had the most to gain if the president was dead. He knew he would instantly become president, if Kennedy were to be assassinated. There are many instances, in which Johnson seemed to be involved like it was said that Johnson is the one that insisted that the presidential limousine top be uncovered. The president became an open target to any assassin, once the limousine proceeded toward the killing zone.
There is a report that Johnson told a girlfriend the night before the assassination, that the Kennedys would never embarrass him again as mentioned in this article. The article is missing some photos, but the content of the article is what is important.
One of the key parts of the article is this paragraph, in which his girlfriend mentions that LBJ was on the brink of going to prison, because of hearings going on in Washington. This testimony was supposed to be given on the day of the assassination, but when LBJ became president the hearings were stopped and LBJ averted being sent to prison, now that he had the power of the presidency to protect him, from any further hearings.
“Had the assassination not happened the day that it did, Lyndon Johnson would have probably gone to prison, they would have gotten rid of him – he was so involved with some of this,” said Brown.
LBJ more than other person may be the reason, that no smoking gun has ever been found that would blow the lid off a LBJ conspiracy.
Mac Wallace, whose fingerprints were found on a box in the Texas School Book Depository is thought by some, to have fired the fatal shots that killed President John F. Kennedy. The following reader’s review after reading LBJ: The Mastermind Behind The JFK Assassinationconnects some of the dots that lead to LBJ as the mastermind behind the killing. I read the 658 page book last fall and it details how LBJ systematically got rid of his enemies using his hit man Mac Wallace to kill them. There are some that think Wallace enlisted Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby as part of the assassination and subsequent murder of Oswald. When E. Howard Hunt mentions on his death bed that LBJ was involved in the assassination, then it makes sense, that LBJ was involved in the assassination from the beginning to the end. The book mentions that when the presidential motorcade reached the killing zone, that LBJ ducked down to make sure he wasn’t shot, while leaving his wife and Senator Ralph Yarborough D-Texas exposed, while the assassination was in progress.
From first chapter to last, this is a beautifully written, intellectually captivating, and ultimately persuasive account of the role of LBJ in the assassination of JFK. I had more than 100 conversations with Madeleine Duncan Brown, one of his many mistresses but the only one who bore him a son. She, too, became convinced that Lyndon was profoundly involved in the death of his predecessor. On New Year’s Eve, six weeks after the assassination, they had a rendezvous at the Driskill Hotel in Austin, where she confronted him with rumors, rampant in Dallas at the time, that he had been involved, since no one stood more to gain. He blew up at her and told her that the CIA and the oil boys had decided that JFK had to be taken out. She wrote about it in her book, TEXAS IN THE MORNING. Her account has been reinforced by Billy Sol Estes, the Texas wheeler-dealer who made mountains of money for Lyndon, Connally, and their buddies, who explains in his book, A TEXAS LEGEND, how he became convinced that Cliff Carter, LBJ’s chief administrative assistant, and Malcolm “Mac” Wallace, his personal assassin (by whom Lyndon had a dozen or more persons terminated, including one of his sisters), had been personally involved. E. Howard Hunt, in his “Last Confessions” in ROLLING STONE, explained to his son, St. John, that LBJ, Cord Meyer, William Harvey, David Sanchez Morales, and others in the CIA had been involved in the assassination. For an overview, enter “John F. Kennedy: History, Memory, Legacy”, and download Chapter 30. Or visit […], “Reclaiming History: A Closed Mind Perpetrating a Fraud on the Public”, and you will understand the context within which it took place. For a short course, try “Reasoning about Assassinantions” via google. I also recommend James Douglass, JFK AND THE UNSPEAKABLE. Both make profound contributions to the case.
I have no doubt that Jack Ruby was in the Dallas Police station the morning of Sunday, November 24th, with the backing of organized crime and cooperation from the Dallas Police Department.. Assuming there was a conspiracy, it became incumbent for those involved to prevent Oswald from talking any more to investigators or to be brought to trial.
National columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, who had interviewed Ruby was found dead and her notes about the Ruby interview were missing, when her body was found in her apartment on November 8, 1965. Her death came two weeks exactly short of the second anniversary of the Kennedy assassination.
Richard Kollmar the husband of Kilgallen was asked about his wife’s interest in the JFK assassination by a friend, but Kollmar said he would take that information to his grave.
Some interesting notes about some of the better known people, that had some connection with what happened that day in Dallas 50 years ago:
President John F. Kennedy – Was gunned down in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963 at the age of 46. His death came 13 months after the Cuban missile crisis in October of 1962. His death also came one year and three months, after the death of Marilyn Monroe in August of 1962. Monroe reportedly threatened to tell the media about the sexual indiscretions by the president and Bobby Kennedy. We probably will never know if the Kennedy’s were involved in her death, but if she had disclosed the sexual escapades of the Kennedys, then John F. Kennedy would probably not have been assassinated a year later, because he probably would have been impeached.
John F. Kennedy may or may not have been involved in silencing Monroe, but at the same time he may have lived for many more years, even if he wasn’t president on the day of the assassination and would have no reason to be in Dallas that day. If Kennedy was still alive today he would be observing his 96th birthday on May 29.
President Lyndon B. Johnson – The members of the Kennedy administration were not happy, to be coerced into naming Johnson as the vice president at the 1960 Democratic Convention in 1960. Johnson chafed at being told what to do by the Kennedy staffers. So he had every motive to make sure President John F. Kennedy was erased from the American political scene. Johnson was 55 at the time of the assassination and would be 64, when he died on January 22, 1973. He would be 105 in August if still alive.
Lee Harvey Oswald – He is considered to be the lone gunman that assassinated the president on November 22, 1963. This is precisely the way President Lyndon B. Johnson wanted Oswald to be regarded. If Oswald was thought of as a lone conspirator, then it would protect President Johnson from being mentioned as a conspirator. Oswald was only 24 when he assassinated the president and on November 24, 1963, when he would be shot in a Dallas Police station two days later.
Jack Ruby who shot and killed Oswald ended any chance of Oswald telling anyone about any conspiracy, in a trial that would have been the trial of the century, if it had been held. Instead, Ruby made sure the American people would never know, if Oswald had been involved in a conspiracy. Oswald would have been 74 in October if still alive.
Officer J.D. Tippit – Jack Ruby not only prevented us from knowing more about the Kennedy assassination, but probably also prevented Oswald from telling his story, about what happened in the J.D. Tippit murder. Officer Tippit had joined the Dallas Police force as a patrolman 11 years before the day of the assassination of the president and his own murder. There are conflicting reports about who killed Officer Tippit. Some reports say two men were involved in his murder.
William Scoggins a taxi driver said he heard three gunshots, then saw Tippit fall to the ground. Scoggins said a man with a gun passed by him saying something akin to “poor dumb cop”. At least four witnesses identified Oswaqld in police lineups, which more or less makes it a sure thing that Oswald murdered Officer Tippit. The police tracked Oswald to the Texas Theater, where he was overpowered and apprehended by the Dallas Police. Tippit was 39 when he was murdered on November 22, 1963 and would be 89 if still alive.
Jack Ruby – On the day of the assassination Ruby was 53 years old. Ruby would be seen at Parkland Hospital, when President John F. Kennedy was taken there after being seriously wounded. He would be seen again at the Dallas Police station that night. Then on Sunday morning at 11:21 AM Dallas time, Ruby somehow gained entrance to the Dallas Police station, probably with inside help as the entrance he used was mysteriously left unguarded. When Oswald was being led to a vehicle, that was to take Oswald to another jail Ruby stepped in front of Oswald and shot and killed him. Ruby alluded to the fact that people in high places were involved with his murdering Oswald.
This makes me wonder if President Johnson was one of the officials in high places being mentioned. Ruby died on January 3, 1967. He was close friends to Sam and Joe Campisa who were associated with crime boss Carlos Marcello. Jimmy Hoffa reportedly said at one time, that Ruby was to make sure that Oswald was killed by Dallas police, while in their custody. When Ruby failed to insure that Oswald would be killed by the police, then he apparently took on himself to kill Oswald, since his own life could be in jeopardy if Oswald was not killed. Ruby would have been 102 if still alive on March 25.
50 Years Later
With the 50 year anniversary of the JFK assassination approaching in eight months we can only guess at what documents about the assassination may be released in the coming months. The fact that CIA is holding 1,171 top-secret documents about the JFK assassination tells me, that these documents could tell about any conspiracies that may have been involved during the assassination. This is only conjecture, but I think these CIA documents could tie President Lyndon B. Johnson to the assassination. Johnson has been dead for 40 years now, so can’t see any problem with documents being released, even if they connect a former president to the assassination.
I remain a conspiracy theorist, but think the government will continue to keep the JFK assassination documents sealed. The American people deserve to know everything now that 50 years have passed. My personal belief is that these documents lead straight to former President Lyndon B. Johnson and his henchmen.
Will the 50th anniversary come and go, without any documents being released? Even 10-year-old kids at the time of the assassination would be 60 this year. So a middle-aged adult between 30-49 would now be 80-99 years old, so should not be in a government position of power.
How much longer will these documents remain sealed? My only conclusion is that somebody has some dark secrets, that the government doesn’t want released in the near future.
I have no problems with any authors writing books that are pro-conspiracy or anti-conspiracy, but unless the government release these documents we have no hope, of finding out the rest of the story, about what happened in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963.
Just when we thought it was safe to fly again, after the 9/11 tragedy 12 years ago weapons are being allowed aboard planes. Knives with two-inch blades will be allowed on planes, along with baseball bats and golf clubs on April 25, unless the change is rescinded, before being put into effect.
Ironically box cutters still will not be allowed on board planes, even though knives can be used as a weapon just like box cutters, against passengers and flight attendants. TSA apparently thinks hijackers will never be able to enter the pilot’s cabin, due to safety measures put into place since 9/11. However, that doesn’t protect the passengers and flight attendants from being cut by knives and attacked by bats and golf clubs.
Former Transportation Security Administration chief Kip Hawley says he would also allow battle axes and machetes to be carried aboard planes. How could anyone feel safe flying, while knowing that the person in the seat next to them may be a terrorist, that is carrying a knife with them.
What will the TSA personnel checking the belongings of passengers say, when they see someone who looks like a terrorist carrying weapons? The TSA could then face discrimination charges, for not allowing possible terrorists to carry these weapons, then let other passengers board the planes with the same weapons.
I have flown only twice since 9/11 and with these lax rules on weapons I may never fly again. Have we forgotten the terror those airline passengers and crews went through on September 11, 2001? They had to helplessly watch as the terrorists used the planes, for battering rams against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon building. Those passengers met fiery deaths on those planes, when they exploded upon impact.
Allowing these weapons won’t speed up the check-in process at the security gates, since TSA officials will have to closely examine each knife, to see if it is two inches or less and to check the length of baseball bats, which can’t be longer than 24 inches.
Personally, I think the new rules are an invitation to disaster and that terrorists and criminals will take advantage, of the less stringent rules for bringing weapons aboard planes.
We can only hope the Transportation Security Administration thinks over the consequences, before implementing these changes and will rescind the changes before April 25.
Tiffany Hawk of CNN has filed this article with photos of what is allowed and what isn’t allowed under the new rules.
Joan Rivers caused a furor the other day when she said on Fashion Police “The last time a German looked this hot was when they were pushing Jews into the ovens.” It was bad enough that would even use a joke about the holocaust, but refusing to apologize makes it even worse. She said that her husband lost his family in the holocaust, and thinks that gives her the right to crack jokes about the holocaust.
Jokes and holocaust don’t belong in the same sentence. Even if Rivers thinks it is alright to mention the holocaust in a joke it doesn’t mean Jewish people all over the world think the same way. Too many Jewish people lived in fear in basements and attics knowing that they could be found and taken on trains to Nazi death camps, for the holocaust to ever be mentioned in a joke.
The war in Germany may have ended 68 years ago this spring, but the Jewish people who were fortunate enough to escape Germany or avoid capture will never think of the holocaust as a source for humor. I still think Rivers owes an apology, but she will probably continue to think it is alright to crack jokes about the holocaust, since she seems to think she has the right to make light,of one of the most horrific times in the history of the world.
How can anyone find anything humorous about 6 million Jews being put to death? Adolf Hitler may not have killed any of these Jews personally, but he was the one ordering all Jews to be murdered. The despotic dictator was the one orchestrating the systematic killing of the Jews.
Ruth Westheimer couldn’t have found much humor in River’s holocaust joke, since both of her parents were murdered in a Nazi death camp. Robert Clary who is now 87 appeared on Hogan’s Heroes, Days of Our Lives and other soap operas was captured by the Nazis in 1942 and he was liberated at Buchenwald on April 11, 1945. He too couldn’t have been amused by the so-called joke of Rivers.
It is tough enough trying to get people to remember the holocaust, without comedians like Rivers thinking it is a great source for jokes. Anti-Defamation League had every right to protest her holocaust joke. It is sad that Rivers doesn’t think her joke is worthy of an apology.
American women soldiers could find themselves in combat situations, as early as May as the services have until then, to implement plans for using them in combat.
I may be in the minority, but am not in favor of having women in combat, especially when a husband and wife are both in a combat situation. I hate to think of kids growing up without a mother, because they died on a battle field.
Now that the Pentagon has approved using women in combat there is concern about their safety. However, there may be some cases in which a woman would react better, in a combat situation than some men. I still can’t condone a woman having her life in jeopardy.
A Los Angeles Times poll shows that those polled favored women in combat, with 66 percent favoring women in combat, while only 26 percent were against it. The following article says there was little difference in how the men and women voted in the poll.
Those 65 or older that were polled favored women in combat by 52 percent, with 36 percent being opposed. Those younger than 50 favored women in combat with 72 percent in favor of women in combat.
After reading the poll results it places me squarely in the minority. My post has nothing to do, with whether women or men make better soldiers. I just don’t like the idea of mothers and daughters being in combat situation. It is bad enough to lose a father or brother in combat, but I don’t want to think about losing my mother, if she was still alive or one of my three sisters on the field of combat. I am particularly worried about women, who become prisoners of war and subject to the mercy of their captors.
Readers are welcome to agree or disagree with me, since this is my opinion only and not those of anyone else.
2011 – We were living in Sulphur, Louisiana, a city of about 20,000 at the start of 2011. We were living on Live Oak Street in Sulphur and we found a home church in Calvary Baptist Church on Lewis Street. We were impressed by the pastor Rev. W.D. Darnell, who lived what he preached and only used the King James Version of the Holy Bible. We made many friends, among the members of the church. Rhonda was very involved with the activities at the church and I often sang special music on Sunday and Wednesday nights. Rhonda and me sang duets a couple of times and she sang On The Wings Of A Dove with another lady one time.
Rhonda liked living in Sulphur, since she had a sister and her mom living there. We lived close to the neighborhood, where my daughter and family had lived before moving to Groves, Texas.
I would return to working as a caregiver again in November of 2011. I worked with a disabled man with diabetes and lost the job at the end of the year, when his family changed to another caregiving company.
An international news story was when an earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan took 15,840 lives.
President Obama announces the death of Osama bin Laden on May 1.
Casey Anthony was acquitted of the murder of her daughter Calee Marie Anthony, in a controversial verdict by the jury.
Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Computers dies on October 5 of cancer.
House were renting at $955 a month in 2011.
A gallon of gas cost $2.89.
Movie tickets were selling for $8.20.
2012 – I worked as a crossing guard at a school in Sulphur for a few weeks, toward the end of the school year. It was interesting work and enjoyed the job. The job could turn out to be the last job I will ever work, since I haven’t worked since becoming sick a couple of months later.
We moved to DeRidder, Louisiana in July and are living in a trailer, that is about halfway between Merryville, Louisiana and DeRidder. We are living in the country and liking it so far.
Knew something was wrong when I began vomiting up blood and lost about 35 pounds in less than two months during the summer. Found out in October in Houston VA Hospital, that I had duodenal cancer. It was a very disease to diagnose, since it mimics acid reflux and duodenal ulcers. It is very rare disease with only two percent of gastrointestinal diseases being duodenal cancer.
Surgeons in Houston performed a resection surgery on Oct. 16 to remove a blockage, which was cancerous and was successful. However I found out in November, that duodenal cancer has a history of returning and has a relatively low survival rate.
Chemotherapy started at the VA hospital in Pineville, Louisiana on Dec.13 and have had three chemo IV’s since that date, with five more to go. Have finished six of a 24 week program of chemotherapy. It seems like the side effects have been worse with each chemo IV. Had difficulty walking in a straight line after the last IV and sort of lurch from side to side.
2012 was a life changing year for us, with us being evicted, moving to a new city and finding out that I had cancer and had surgery a few days later. Spent a total of 32 days in hospital in Houston.
July 20 would be the first of two mass shootings in the United States, when a gunman killed 12 and injured 58 in an Aurora, Colorado theater.
December 14 would bring the second mass shootings of 2012, when a man kills 20 children at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, along with six adults, before killing himself.
A gallon of gas would rise to $3.89 during 2012. It is about 64 cents a gallon cheaper now in 2013.
House rent average goes over the $1,000 mark for the first time, as it rose to $1,045 a month.
A pound of bacon which was $2.96 in 2008 had risen to $4.48 in 2012.
2013 – This year should be a very interesting year, as the chemotherapy continues through May and it will be interesting to learn the results of the bloodwork after the last week of chemotherapy. May 21 will be another important date for us as we return to Houston for another C-scan, which will show if the cancer is completely gone or has returned.
We don’t know what this year holds, but we plan to remain positive, even if the news is bad and I don’t plan on being negative, regardless of what happens in 2013.
This five-year period is one of the most eventful of my life, in that I went to Vietnam and started working at Town Talk in 1966, met my first wife in 1969 and married her in 1970.
1966 – The previous year 1965 had seen a lot of activity at Schofield Barracks and there were rumors floating around, that we may be sent to Vietnam. On January 17,1966 the 25th Infantry Division boarded the USNS General Walker a troop ship on the way to Vietnam. The trip took 14 days, as we traveled 500 miles a day till we reached Vietnam. Will never forget how hot it was arriving in Vietnam and drank several Coca-Cola’s back to back.
We were flown to the 25th Infantry Base in Cu Chi, Vietnam, which I never left except for one night of guarding a Catholic church on guard duty. Thankfully, it was an uneventful night as nothing out of the ordinary occurred. I was in Vietnam only four months, so a lot happened in that short time. Our outgoing artillery fire sounded like it was going right over the post office tent and it made me jump, since I thought it was incoming artillery at first.
The only time that I was in any jeopardy was when a sniper started shooting at us. We were working in the post office at the time and we jumped in our foxholes, to get out of the line of fire. We could hear bullets ricocheting off the Conex containers behind us. The thing I most remember was that some of our soldiers were walking in front of us, caught between the sniper and our foxhole. It is a wonder we didn’t see someone killed right in front of our eyes that day. After the war I learned that the Viet Cong had an elaborate system of tunnels beneath our base, so that is how the sniper was able to shoot at us from inside our own perimeter.
One time we had to load dead bodies onto a helicopter and some of the soldiers were looking inside the body bags, but I wasn’t that curious to see a dead body.
My job consisted of sorting mail, delivering mail to company mail clerks who picked up the mail for their company and selling stamps and money orders and making sure packages for soldiers were delivered. I remember the heat of Vietnam and how I was so thirsty, that I drank two 46 ounce cans of apple juice in succession. Worked out there was a rumor that a Viet Cong soldier was in the area that night. Not a good combination to be sick, from drinking so much apple juice and having to search for a Viet Cong invader. However, nothing came of the rumor and was able to recover from imbibing too much apple juice at one time. 92 ounces of apple juice was just a little too much at one time, but that is what the heat did to us over there.
Since I had only four months left in the Army, when sent to Vietnam the Army tried to talk me into re-enlisting, which I declined after about five seconds of thinking it over. I was told if I had three months left that I would have stayed in Hawaii. What a difference that one month made.
Will never forget the day in May that I left Tan Son Nhut Air Force Base in Saigon, on the way back to the United States. I felt safer as the plane gained altitude, since it was too high to be hit by ground fire. The plane stopped at Japan for a short time, but we never left the plane. We finally landed in San Francisco and were taken to the Oakland Army Terminal. I will never forget the steaks we were served, along with some very cold milk. It was such a difference from what we had to eat and drink in Vietnam. We were processed and given our discharge papers and boarded a plane in the direction of Louisiana.
Can’t remember if I was flown all the way to Esler Airport in Pineville or if I had to take a bus from Dallas. The main thing was that I was home to stay after being in the Army for most of the three-and-half preceding years.
One of the soldiers I served with in the post office wrote me and told about a mortar shell hitting our post office, about two months after I left Vietnam. The worst part is that two were killed and seven were injured in the attack. The sergeant of our postal unit was among those injured and he was awarded another Purple Heart, to go with the one he received from being hit in Korea. The thing that really hit home was that the soldier, who had replaced me was one of the two that were killed.
August of 1966 was the month that I was hired by the Town Talk to work in the composing room. I was told that I would be making more, than most new employees, but later found out I was making the minimum wage of $1.40 an hour. That came out to about $55 a week or $220 a month. Town Talk was still using the hot metal composition at the time. My first job was to work on the type dump, where I would make any corrections to any type with errors, then turn the galley around where the page makeup people could take the type to the page and insert it. It wasn’t too long before I was a page makeup person and placed photos, type and ads into the pages.
1967 – The Town Talk started printing a Sunday paper in May of 1967 and now has had a Sunday edition for the last 46 years.
1968 – This was a turbulent year in the history of the United States, as Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated during the year. King would be assassinated on April 4, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray, who would be arrested two months later. The Kennedy assassination took place at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5 and Sirhan Sirhan was arrested and remains in prison 45 years later.
Denny McLain would win 31 games in 1968. No pitcher has won more than 27 games since then.
1969 – Went to see a major league baseball game at the Astrodome and saw Hall of Famers Joe Morgan, Tony Perez and Johnny Bench in the game. Pete Rose may be added to the list of Hall of Famers someday. I remember someone opening an umbrella inside the Astrodome, as there must have been a leak in the roof, from the downpour outside the enclosed stadium. Attendance was only 12,205 due to the heavy rain. The Astros won the game 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth when rookie Keith Lampard hit a walkoff home run to win the game. Ironically, the home run would be the only home run for Lampard, in his career and he would be out of baseball after the 1970 season.
Would meet my first wife a college student at Louisiana College that fall. A year later we were married and will write more about that in the 1970 post.
1970 – Would marry my first wife at College Drive Baptist Church in Pineville, Louisiana on September 26, 1970. There were six bridesmaids, since my wife had six sisters. Sadly my best man would die later, when he was hit by a car, while going to pick up his newspaper by the highway.
By 1970 had worked at the Town Talk for four years and was earning $3 an hour now, which totaled $120 a week and $480 a month. The rent for our house was $75, but since my pay was so low the landlord allowed us to pay in two $37.50 payments.
1961 – Entered the 12th grade, after spending two years in the 10th grade at Pineville High School, due to going to summer school for the third straight year.
John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president on January 20.
Remember listening to Chicago White Sox games on KSYL AM, out of Alexandria, Louisiana, with Bob Elson and Milo Hamilton as the announcers. This was the summer that Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle were battling to break Babe Ruth’s season home run record of 60. Bob and Milo would give updates during the White Sox games, about what Roger and Mickey were doing in the home run race. Maris would hit his 61st home run on October 1, which broke the 34-year-old record of Ruth. Surprisingly only 21,000 fans were present to see the achievement of Maris.
The ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion ended two days later. It was a failed attempt to remove Fidel Castro from power. He had taken power in 1959 and is still in power today 54 years later.
1962 – K-Mart would open its first store in Garden City Michigan on March 1 and the company is now 51-years-old. July 2 would see the first Wal-Mart store opened in Rogers, Arkansas.
My senior class graduated in May, but it would be September before I received my diploma, because I had failed English IV.
I joined the Army Reserve in Alexandria, Louisiana and was sent to Fort Polk for basic training in October. We were kept so busy at Fort Polk during basic, that we had no clue of the magnitude of the Cuban missile crisis that October. The only clue we had been what we said when we marched:
I don’t know but I believe
I’ll be in Cuba by Christmas Eve
Little did we know we were on the brink of a nuclear disaster and we didn’t know about it till we finished basic training in December.
I won’t mention any names, but a soldier from Wardville thought it would be fun, to yell from the barracks upstairs at a sergeant saying “Hey nutbrain”. That was not a smart thing to do on his part. That sergeant did not waste any time, as he made his way up in the stairs in record time. The soldier was told in no uncertain terms, that calling his sergeant “nutbrain” was not acceptable behavior.
1963 – Was on leave when the year started, but would board a passenger train for Indianapolis, Indiana at the Missouri Pacific depot in January. That depot was later torn down, but assembled in a new location in downtown Alexandria.
I can remember seeing snow falling when we went through St. Louis, then after arriving in Indianapolis saw several inches of snow on the ground. I learned what a Indiana winter was like, while being stationed at the Adjustant General’s School at Fort Benjamin Harrison. Some soldiers called it “Uncle Ben’s Rest Home”. Attended the postal school there from January through April, before returning to Louisiana having finished my six months of active duty.
It took attending a few Army Reserve meetings, before I decided to join the Regular Army and joined in May of 1963. I requested to be sent to Germany or Hawaii and received orders for Hawaii. Was flown to San Francisco and took a helicopter to the Oakland Army Terminal.
Spent eight days at the terminal before boarding flight to Hawaii. We were on a slow MATS transport plane, so the trip took several hours. When I arrived at Schofield Barracks the home of the 25th Infantry Division I heard some of the soldiers talking about having just a few days left before being discharged. I figured out that I had only 1,095 days left and they got a big kick out of that.
Hawaii is a beautiful state and liked being stationed there. The Army Service Club conducted tours of the island of Oahu and would take us on a bus trip around the island. Wish I had taken some color photos of the scenery, but only took black and white photos.
One of my first memories was seeing the Beach Boys at Conroy Bowl, the arena where entertainers appeared. Remember seeing Johnny Cash and June Carter and Sue Thompson there. It was a highlight for me, when Sue Thompson shook hands with me, while singing one of her songs.
I loved going to the beach, since the Service Club took the soldiers on busses to the different beaches each weekend. I would listen to music on my radio, while looking across the ocean toward California. Surf music was at its height in 1963 and even today I Heart radio has a station, with only surf music being featured.
By far the biggest event of 1963 was when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22. The regular company postal clerk was on leave, so I was the temporary clerk while he was gone. I had my radio on in the post office, when I heard the announcement that JFK had been shot. I immediately informed the company commander, who had not heard about it yet.
Meanwhile the postal clerk on leave to New York was flying standby and his flight was rerouted from California to Texas, which landed in Dallas about the same time as the assassination. So he got caught in the middle of all the commotion, even though he wasn’t even thinking of having to go through Dallas.
Just missed by a few minutes of seeing Lee Harvey Oswald gunned down in the Dallas Police station on the TV, in the dayroom but not too disappointed since I didn’t really want to see it anyway.
A few days later we would march in a memorial observance of JFK’s death and it was a surreal experience, knowing that the president of the United States had been assassinated and marching on the parade grounds brought it home.
Went to a Christmas show in December, that really made me homesick, when they sang “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”.
1964 – Went on temporary duty to Molokai, the island on which Father Damien established his leper colony. The ride there on a boat was a rocky one and wound up getting very sick, even if was only a 20 something mile trip from Oahu.
Can remember it pouring down that week a lot and that I heard on the radio, that Lyndon B. Johnson had defeated Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election.
I can remember flying home to Pineville in October of 1964, my first trip home since leaving in May of 1963. I took my leave in October, so I could see the World Series while I was at home. I think it was this trip, that when flying back saw professional wrestler Sputnik Monroe aboard the plane. Coincidentally, he and his wrestling brother Rocket both lived in Alexandria and had performed at Jimmie Thompson’s Arena. That reminds me of the time when my brother, who knows sign language saw a deaf wrestler Silento Rodriguez being knocked from the ring and went over and signed to him, asking if he was OK and the wrestler signed back that he was OK.
1995 – This was the year that I was sent to the Big Island named Hilo, to work at the Camp Pohokoloa (sp) post office. I remember one payday, that we sold $28,000 worth of money orders and that I came up $107 short at the end of the day. The other postal worker working that day later was court-martialed, for stealing money from the post office, so I have always wondered if he didn’t take the missing money. Worst thing is that my wages were garnished till the $107 was paid back to the post office.
The post office was at a high altitude and I could see snow-capped mountains in the distance. It was cold there, even if it was Hawaii. Tsunamis hit Hilo in 1946 and 1960 killing 160 and 61 people respectively.
Saw a missionary from Pineville who was living in Hilo at this time. My mom had told me where to find her and I had a nice visit with her.
When the surgeon that performed my cancer surgery told me in November, that my duodenal cancer has a history of returning it reminded me of my immortality. It may have been negative news, but it also reminded me of many events of my 68 years of living, that were either positive and negative.
1944 – Was born on October 14, just four months after the D-Day landing and World War II would be over in Europe, about six and-a-half months later in April of 1945.
1950 – My first memory is of walking to school with my brother on the first day of school to Pineville Elementary. I remember Mrs. Price was my first grade teacher. School lunches were only 10 cents at the time.
1951 – This is the year I rode my last school bus in the second grade, when I accidentally got off the bus in Libuse, instead of five blocks from Louisiana College, so walked home that day from Libuse to Pineville. I never rode another school bus after that day.
1952 – We moved from Holloway Drive to Burns Street in February of 1952, moving from a small house to a very large house. The house payment was $55 a month, which was a bargain at the time.
1954- Think this is the year when my dad purchased our first television, when I was nine years old. He didn’t buy it for entertainment reasons, but because my sister had a lazy eye and a special screen was placed over the TV screen, that made her use her lazy eye. We bought it at L.B. Henry’s store on Main Street, when they were selling televisions. Our first TV was an Admiral.
This is also the year I really became interested in baseball and remember listening to the 1954 World Series between the New York Giants and the Cleveland Indians. Willie Mays made his famous catch in one of those games on a ball hit by Vic Wertz of the Indians.
1955 – Ray Kroc opened his first McDonalds fast food restaurant (the McDonald brothers opened the first eight, before selling out to Kroc.) Once after he bought the San Diego Padres they were playing so badly, that Kroc said over the public address system that his short order cooks at McDonalds could play better the Padres.
This was the first year I played Little League baseball. I went to a local hardware store to buy a baseball glove and wanted to buy a $6.50 glove. Only problem was that I only had $6, but the owner Mr. Brister let me have it for $6. It was a Nokona brand glove.
1956- My main memory of 1956 was when Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in a World Series. He recently sold his uniform from that game for $756,000 and is using part of the money to pay college education expenses for his grandchildren.
1957 – Elvis Presley buys Graceland for $100,000, since their last Memphis home had attracted too many fans, with no way of keeping them off the grounds. This was the year my baby sister was born on March 23. Three months later the worst hurricane to hit Alexandria-Pineville area in my memory hit the area, with full force when Hurricane Audrey hit. Audrey had earlier killed 500 people in Cameron, Louisiana. I remember Jim Gaines of KALB Radio telling, about the progress of the hurricane and the damage being done. We had a very tall pine tree fall in our yard, but was not close to the house.
August of 1957 would bring many memories when my dad, older brother and me took a road trip in our 1949 Packard, from Louisiana to Maine. We made the usual tourist stops like Rock City, Lookout Mountain, Mount Vernon and other tourist attractions. We visited the most tourist attractions in Washington, D.C. We visited the National Archives Building, Capitol building, White House (just saw it from the fence), Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of Mint and Engraving and watched the workers print sheets of currency.
We visited the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and saw a show at the planetarium, plus visited the site of the Liberty Bell. However, the main thing I remember from the Philadelphia visit was seeing my first major league game. The hometown Phillies were playing the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates in Connie Mack Stadium. I remember fans bringing paper bags with bottles in them to the game. I can only imagine what was in those bottles. I also remember the Phillies fans booing their own players. The highlight of the game was when Bill Mazeroski hit a home run that hit the tin roof over our heads, in the left field bleachers. Three years later Mazeroski would hit a walkoff homer that defeated the New York Yankees in the 1960 World Series Game 7.
Saw my grandpa for the only time in my life in the hospital. Not sure where the hospital was located. It was either New Jersey or Pennsylvania. My dad’s folks were living in Millville, New Jersey.
Will never forget my dad driving through the Bowery district in New York City and seeing men laying on the sidewalk. That would be the only time for me to visit New York. Then we went on to Beverly, Massachusetts and ate at a Howard Johnson’s restaurant, with the classic orange roof. My dad was in town for an American Chemical Society convention, then after the convention ended we went to Maine, to see my uncle and aunt and their family. It was the only time I saw my cousin alive, since he was piloting a helicopter in Vietnam, when he was shot down and killed.
Then we raced back to Louisiana, stopping only one night at Warsaw, Kentucky, then my dad drove almost non-stop since school started the next day at Pineville Elementary. The next month the Milwaukee Braves would win the 1957 World Series.
1958 – Played Pony League baseball in 1958, which would be my fourth and last year of playing baseball. One night when we were playing a game, someone hollered “That plane is going to crash” and we saw a plane plummeting to the ground, about two miles from the park. It crashed about a block or two off of Main Street near a National Cemetery, but not positive about the exact crash site.
This was also the year I entered Pineville High School. It is difficult to believe that this was 55 years ago. Finding classes was not easy that first day, since I wasn’t used to attending such a big school.
The Milwaukee Braves took a three games to one lead in the 1958 World Series, but would let the Yankee,s that they had defeated in 1957 come back to win the World Series.
1959 – I remember this being the year my older brother graduated from high school. February of 1959 would see Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper go down in an airplane crash in Iowa. The Big Bopper had appeared in Alexandria, Louisiana about 1958, at a KALB Radio record hop. 1959 was also the year the White Sox won the AL pennant but lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.
The highlight of 1959 was our trip in a Volkwagen Micro-bus, which took us to Missouri, Canada and back to Louisiana. My dad was taking classes at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, so we stayed mostly in Missouri at the 80 acre farm of my grandpa and grandma. They had only recently installed indoor plumbing in their home. I will never forget the huge console radio on the living room floor. The sound was great and I could hear the Kansas City Athletics baseball games on the radio. Saw Leave it to Beaver for the first time on their television. Don’t think it was on KALB TV in Alexandria, La., since it was on another network.
We spent part of the summer at the Chateau Cottages near Devils Lake in Wisconsin. We were on a tourist boat, when the captain asked me to pilot the ship. He sold souvenirs, while piloted the boat up the Wisconsin River. It was a relief when he took over the helm, since there were a lot of duckboats on the water.
Then after my dad finished the summer classes we drove to Chicago. It was amazing to look up at the tall buildings on the Loop and we went to a church in Berwyn, Illinois. Then we drove to Detroit and visited the Ford headquarters and also toured Post Cereals factory and can’t remember if we also toured the Kelloggs plant. We crossed into Canada at Windsor and journeyed to Brantford, Ontario where my mom had relatives. We then went to Niagara Falls and crossed back into the United States.
My dad was stopped by the Canadian Mounties, because our Volkswagen micro-bus resembled a vehicle they were looking for. At one point during our trip while driving in the United States a driver hollered “Governor Long” at us, when he saw the Louisiana license plate. This was the same year he managed to escape from a mental health institution, so Louisiana was in the news a lot that summer.
1960 – Nothing stands out about this year for me, except for the Pittsburgh Pirates defeating the New York Yankees in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series. Bill Mazeroski, who I had seen hit the home run, in Philadelphia three years earlier hit a walkoff home run over the left field wall, that made Pirates the world champions of baseball.
I recently downloaded the Kindle book Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee, written by his son Captain Robert E. Lee. The Kindle edition is free and readers can start reading the 504 page book a minute, after it is purchased for free. The book is in the public domain, which is why it is free at Amazon.com.
General Lee was born on January 19, 1807 in Stratford Hall, Virginia. He graduated second in his class from West Point in 1829. He married Mary Custis the great-granddaughter of Martha Washington in 1831. He later would be he appointed Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1852.
General Robert E. Lee 1807-1870
Lee loved to communicate through letters and this book includes the text of many letters, that he wrote to his wife, sons and daughters and others he had contact with during his life. He wrote often even during the Civil War years of 1861-1865. When he wrote home he would ask his relatives to send socks for the Confederate troops, many of whom had neither shoes or socks. It had to be a real hardship for Confederate troops, to not have shoes and socks and even blankets during the winter months of the Civil War. He writes in 1862 about the death of his daughter, Anne Carter Lee who died of typhoid fever at the age of 23.
You could feel the compassion for his troops as he pleaded in his letters, for his relatives to send socks for the troops. He wrote about the death of General Stonewall Jackson and how he would be missed by the Confederate Army. He writes in one letter about how outnumbered the Confederate troops were before surrendering to General Ulyssses Grant at Appomatox. By surrendering Lee prevented the deaths of thousands of Confederate troops, who would have surely died at the hands of the Federal Army, who vastly outnumbered them.
His letters after the war relate how he was offered the presidency of Washington University, which was named Washington and Lee University in later years. His leadership was instrumental in making Washington University, one of the leading collegiate institutions of the south. His wife Mary who suffered from rheumatism often went to places with healing springs and these trips separated her from General Lee, who was living in Lexington, Virginia as the president of Washington University.
He often wrote his sons after the war and gave them advice, about how to be a successful farmer. He gave them money to help them acquire what they needed for their farms. He even told his son Robert Jr. that Robert needed to find a wife so he could settle down on a farm.
After reading these letters, a reader can tell how much family meant to General Lee and his concern for the welfare of his wife, sons and daughters and the confederate troops, who had served in the Confederate Army under his leadership. It is evident too how much his faith in God mattered to him.
Sadly, Lee only lived five years after the Civil War ended and died on October 12, 1870 in Lexington, Virginia at the age of 63 of heart disease. He is buried at Lee Chapel on the campus of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.
General Lee may have been a great general for the Confederate Army, but this book, doesn’t dwell on that as much, as it does on his character which is exemplified in his letters. Numerous books have been written about Lee, but due to his untimely death he was unable to write the memoirs of his life.
The entire book can be heard since there is an option to hear a reader read the book aloud. This book may not be a book Civil War buffs may want to read, since it is more about Robert E. Lee the person, rather than being about Robert E. Lee the Confederate general, but it is still a book worth reading.
This ten minute video shows what life was like in small town America in 1952. It is sickening to read the comments made by those who viewed this video. They turn what was a special time to those of us, who grew up in the 50’s, into a platform for hatred of races.
Even the ugly remarks can’t ruin a video that brings so many fond memories of the past.
I was eight years old when this video was filmed so can identify with what happened during a typical day 60 years ago.
It was a simpler time, before cell phones, I-pods, laptop computers and HD television sets. The television sets back then still had the huge tubes, that made them so bulky, unlike the lightweight television sets of today.
Growing up in the 1950’s was a special time and this video captures the feeling from having grown up in that era.
It saddens me that two of the New York City metropolitan papers chose not to mention 9/11. You would think that the New York Times would have mentioned the 11th anniversary, of 9/11, but they decided it wasn’t important as the other news of the day. However the Times had a scathing article, on their opinion page implying, that President George Bush had foreknowledge or at the least had an idea the country was in danger of a terrorist attack.
The New York Post front page from today seen above features an article about New Y0rk Jets quarterback and his romance with Eva Longoria. The only other article on the front page is about a sex scandal at a girl’s school. Where are the media’s priorities today? Do they actually think these two articles are more important, than remembering 9/11. It is a sad state of affairs that a major New York newspaper, which covered the 9/11 attacks is now acting like it didn’t happen. How soon they forget.
The New York Daily News is to be commended on devoting their front page and 11 inside pages to memorializing September 11. Sure there is other news today, but are any of those articles more important than remembering those who met a fiery death, at the hands of terrorists at the site of the World Trade Center and those that died in other planes? One plane hit the Pentagon killing both passengers and Pentagon workers, who were on the wrong side of the building making them easy targets.
Then to top it all off the NBC Today Show showed an interview with Kris Jenner at the same precise moment, that ABC and CBS and the cable news channels were observing a moment of silence. This Daily Mail article includes a lengthy article about the 9/11 snub by NBC.
Today was the height of absurdity with Mark Sanchez, Eva Longoria and Kris Jenner in the spotlight, while the 11th anniversary was being ignored by some media outlets. Have we no shame? Have we no decency? It is almost like the media thinks, after the tenth anniversary last year, that those who died tortuous deaths on 9/11 no longer matter and have been relegated to the backburner.
I can’t undo the damage caused by the media today, but I can say those that died on 9/11 should be remembered, as long as there is life on this planet.
Old time radio not only broadcast comedies, detective shows, thrillers and music programs, but also broadcast information programming like Biography In Sound, which consisted of one hour-long broadcasts about famous politicians and personalities in history.The show was broadcast from 1954-1958.
For instance you can listen to shows featuring the life of Babe Ruth, then listen to Franklin Delano Roosevelt life story. Right now I have a Connie Mack program lined up in my MP3 player to play.
Last week I listened to story of Ernie Pyle the war correspondent, who lived with American troops mostly in the European theater. The broadcast features people who remember him as a kid and as an adult.
The list of shows represents a large spectrum of authors, presidents, entertainers and even the elderly painter Grandma Moses.
Cavalcade of America was the longest running historical old-time radio show. It ran from 1935-1953. 741 episodes of the shows are available for purchase at otrcat.com
If you would rather just listen to a few free shows online you can enjoy listening to episodes like Here Is Your War, with James Gleason portraying war correspondent Ernie Pyle and telling the story of the American soldier in combat.
The list of shows at archive.org gives an idea of how many different topics are covered in the show that ran 18 years.
Mister President is a drama in which Edward Arnold portrayed a different president each week. The show ran from 1947-1953. Listeners asked to guess which president was being represented in each episode. Almost all the presidents in the series were in office in the 18th and 19th centuries.
I listened to the President James Polk episode last week and thoroughly enjoyed Arnold’s portrayal of President Polk.
Archive.org has this list of free shows to listen to. The shows can be downloaded, then uploaded into an MP3 player:
Audie Murphy who served in Europe for 27 months during World War II was awarded the Medal of Honor, plus 32 other awards by the United States and foreign countries.
Murphy was born June 20, 1924 in Kingston, Texas. He had to drop out of school in the fifth grade to support his family as a farm worker. He was a very good shot and said once, that if he didn’t shoot what he shot at that his family wouldn’t eat that day.
He tried to join the Marines, Army Air Corps and Navy, but they all said he was underweight at 110 pounds. The U.S. Army did accept him and after passing out during a basic training drill, the Army tried to send him to baker’s school, but he insisted on being assigned to an infantry unit.
It didn’t take long for Murphy to be promoted after shooting two Italian officers in Sicily, so he was promoted to corporal. Two months later he was promoted to sergeant after fighting his way out of a German ambush on the Italian mainland.
His most heroic action was when his unit only had 19 soldiers remaining out of 128 and he sent the 19 soldiers to the rear while he singlehandedly fought the Germans. Then when he ran out of ammunition, he jumped in a burning tank destroyer and starting firing on the German position. In addition, he also called in artillery strikes. Murphy then gathered the 19 remaining soldiers, as they drove the Germans from the battlefield. He had suffered a leg wound but continued fighting. His actions in this battle won him the Medal of Honor. His Medal of Honor citation credits Murphy with killing or wounding 50 German soldiers in that one battle.
Murphy joined the Texas National Guard after the Korean War began, but his unit was never called into combat.
He was a private first class when he was part of the invasion force entering Sicily in July of 1943, but by the end of 1944 he had been promoted to corporal, sergeant, staff sergeant and second lieutenant.
Starred in Movies, Television
Murphy moved to Hollywood and after struggling at first to find movie roles, was seen in 44 movies and is on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
He played a copy boy in his first movie Texas, Brooklyn and Heaven in 1948 and was seen in 33 westerns. He did play himself in To Hell and Back which was based on his autobiography by the same name. He appeared as Jesse James in A Time For Dying which ironically was his last movie before his death.
The trailer from To Hell And Back the autobiographical movie about Audie Murphy.
The highlight of his television career was when he played the title character in Whispering Smith. Only 26 episodes were filmed of the series.
To see a complete list of his movie and television appearances:
Audie Murphy also was a country music songwriter. He was admitted to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1981. His most famous composition would be Shutters and Boards which is heard being sung by Jerry Wallace:
Jerry Wallace singing Shutters and Boards written by Audie Murphy.
Dies in Virginia Plane Crash
Murphy was flying in a private plane on May 28, 1971 with zero visibility, when it crashed into Brush Mountain near Catawba, Virginia. The pilot had 8,000 hours of flying time but no instrument rating.
He had requested before his death to have a simple headstone at Arlington National Cemetery, not wanting the customary gold leaf surrounding the headstone for previous Medal of Honor winners.
Murphy was a humble man who like most war veterans who experienced combat situations, suffered post traumatic stress upon returning from the war and worked to get special compensation for veterans experiencing it.
It was ironic that Murphy who risked his life many times on the battlefield would die on a plane, that probably shouldn’t have even been in the air.
Murphy was only 45 at the time of his death, but had more life experiences than most of us, who lived many years longer.
It is probably safe to say that Audie Murphy is the only person to have won the Medal of Honor, enshrined on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Audie Murphy was not only the greatest American soldier who was on a battlefield, but also a humble man who never seeked to capitalize on his acts of heroism. In fact he wanted Tony Curtis to play his part in To Hell and Back.
We need to keep the memory of Audie Murphy alive for generations to come. He faced adversity as a child and as a soldier on the battlefield, but he overcame adversity to become America’s greatest war hero. America needs more men like Audie Murphy today.
Gov. Robert F. Kennon was governor of Louisiana from 1952-1956.
It was almost 60 years ago when Louisiana State Police Superintendent Francis Grevemberg started making surprise raids on gambling establishments in the 50’s and seized and smashed slot machines, rendering them to the point of which they were completely useless.
Grevemberg and his associates made 1,000 raids and destroyed 8,229 slot machines during 1952-1956 when Gov. Robert F. Kennon was the governor of Louisiana.
Gangster Frank Costello was forced out of the slot machine business in New York City when Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia destroyed the machines and pushed them into a watery grave in the 30’s.
Senator Huey P. Long sensing a chance to make some quick money offered Costello a deal, where he could set up his slot machines in Louisiana, with Long demanding ten percent of the profits.
That is how Louisiana became saturated with slot machines and Grevemberg was given the task of ridding the state of slot machines.
Former Louisiana governor, Edwin Edwards was a Crowley attorney at the time and argued that the slot machines were legal, since they were being taxed by the state. For more on the raids and the history of slot machines see this Eunice Today article:
Louisiana State Police Superintendent Francis Grevemberg shown smashing slot machines during a raid in the 50’s on a gambling establishment during the Gov. Robert F. Kennon administration.
Governor Earl K. Long took office in 1956 and ordered a stop to the destruction of slot machines. Little did Long or anyone else for that matter foresee that the gambling industry was down, but not down for the count.
Now it is almost 60 years later and slot machines are in operation, by the thousands in Louisiana casinos. There are now 22 casinos in operation currently in the state of Louisiana.
With the proliferation of casinos today in Louisiana, the chances of slot machines being destroyed are slim and none. The taxes from the casinos are pouring into Louisiana coffers and any opposition to gambling casinos is probably a waste of time.
So instead of smashing slot machines being smashed, they are kept in good repair, so the state of Louisiana can continue to reap tax dollars from their use.
Map depicts how the Marines were trapped on all sides by Chinese forces during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in the winter of 1950.
The documentary Chosin was released in 2010, the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in which Army and Marines units were flanked on all sides by Chinese forces which had crossed into Korea.
Not only were the American forces trapped and outnumbered, they also had to fight in the most adverse weather conditions imaginable, with temperatures as low as 40 degrees below zero.
Frostbite was common as 12,000 of the 14,000 American troops at the Battle of Chosin contacted some form of frostbite.
In addition the Battle of Chosin was fought under icy conditions with snow falling during some of the fighting.
Chinese Not Taken Seriously
General Douglas MacArthurdid not consider the Chinese a threat to the American forces, thinking they were not ready to engage in a battle with the American forces. Another officer called the Chinese “laundrymen”. The troops at the Chosin Reservoir learned that both officers were wrong and found out the Chinese were an elite fighting force, that didn’t make particularly good strategic decisions.
The sheer numbers of the Chinese infantrymen was overwhelming as wave after wave of them, encountered the trapped American troops in November and December of 1950.
One American soldier had to use an American soldier who had been killed as a sandbag in front of his foxhole. The invading Chinese soldiers were being killed by the hundreds, since they were easy targets for the gunfire from the foxholes.
Fighting a battle is bad enough by itself, but when fighting in sub-zero weather on the frozen tundra, fighting one on one with the enemy, sometimes in hand to hand combat, the battle is worse than anyone could imagine.
Heart-Wrenching Survival Stories
The survival stories by the veterans of the Battle of Chosin Reservoir are heart-wrenching. Those of us who weren’t there can’t ever began to realize what those veterans went through, but their stories of their survival gives us a glimpse into what they faced on that brutal battlefield 62 years ago.
Assuming the youngest soldier on the battlefield was 18 in 1950, that soldier would be 80 years old today. So when the documentary was filmed in 2010, the youngest veteran being interviewed would have been 78 at the time.
Some of the survivors told harrowing stories of their near-death experiences, with one veteran relating how he thought he was about to be shot and killed, but said that they didn’t want to waste a bullet on him, so started hitting him on the head with the butt of their rifle and leaving him for dead. However, he wasn’t dead and had to fake being dead to keep from being killed.
Another veteran told of being checked by medics and placed in a stack of dead bodies. He had to inform one of the medics that he was not dead and spit out the dog tags they had already placed in his mouth.
One veteran recalled seeing his sergeant killed when he was approaching a Chinese soldier and watched him fall to the ground. It was very touching to hear one of the veterans telling about asking God to let him live one more day. He had killed a Chinese soldier who had jumped into his foxhole.
Critics Say Chosin Documentary Was Pro-War
Some critics of the documentary, said it was a pro-war film. I disagree with that thinking, since these veterans did what they had to do to stay alive and help their fellow soldiers reach safety. I can’t see how anything said in the documentary could be portrayed as being pro-war. The veterans were following orders and fought a great battle under the most adverse conditions.
I think only a very small fraction of soldiers enjoy going into battle. I am not even sure if there are any that think that way. Most veterans who survived the Battle of Chosin Reservoir probably returned from Korea, knowing they had served their country well and would hope that no soldier would ever have to face what they faced.
Chinese Targeted Korean Refugees
The documentary also related that the Chinese troops targeted Korean refugees attempting to flee to safety. The film tells of thousands of refugees being evacuated on boats to safety.
The Chinese had to know these civilians were no threat to them, yet I am sure many were killed needlessly by a ruthless enemy, determined to kill as many of them as possible.
Aftermath of Battle of Chosin Reservoir
Casualty figures for the Battle of Chosin widely differ, since there is no way a completely accurate count was made under the battlefield conditions in 1950. The allied troops numbered only 15,000 and were greatly outnumbered by a Chinese force of 120,000.
Estimated total casualties during the battle show the U.S. troops having suffered 5,611 casualties with Chinese suffereing 19,202 casualties. The Chinese paid a heavy toll from non-battlefield casualites of over 28,000, which were probably mostly due to frostbite.
The documentary told about the soldiers featured in the film returning home after leaving Korea. They discussed how they couldn’t discuss their wartime experience with civilians, since they didn’t have a clue of what the veterans experienced during the war. They could only discuss the war with other veterans who had battlefield experiences of their own.
Some of the veterans dealt with post traumatic stress after returning home. One of the veterans said he had the same dream, night after night of a Chinese soldier pointing a gun at him and it saying BANG, then was bayoneted by that soldier.
Another veteran had no problems with post traumatic stress until 1993, 43 years after the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. He was asked to make a speech on his recollections of his wartime experiences. When he started preparing the speech the horrors of the war returned.
Summary
Chosin is not the kind of movie that will be soon forgotten. It leaves viewers with even more appreciation for those who served in the armed forces.
I served in Vietnam with only one close call when a sniper was firing at us, while we were in the foxhole next to our post office tent. That pales in significance compared to what the veterans of the Battle of Chosin veterans experienced.
The real heroes of war are the soldiers fighting in the trenches. The rest of us did our part, but I am quick to let people know I was not in the infantry, because those are the heroes to me, like my brother who captured some enemies during the Vietnam War.
Chosin didn’t identify the veterans telling their stories, till the credits rolled but their stories were a testament to how true patriots act in the heat of battle.
Drugs have apparently taken the life of another music icon, with Whitney Houston dying on Saturday, on the eve of the Grammy Awards. From Elvis Presley to Michael Jackson and now Whitney Houston, we have seen how drugs can change lives of those who use them.
Houston was rumored to be a judge in the next season of X-Factor, just a day before her death. Simon Cowell has reportedly confirmed, that she was being considered as a judge for Season Two.
Amy Winehouse, also died in the last year to an apparent drug overdose.
Random Thoughts
I am beginning to wonder if Tony Bennett is becoming senile, after saying that drugs should be legalized soon after the death of Whitney Houston. That is problem now, since drugs are readily available in some form for those that use them. Their only problem may be the lack of cash to buy those drugs. Bennett is almost surely the last of the crooners left from the 30’s and 40’s.
When Bennett passes on it will signal the end to the era, that preceded Bill Haley and the Comets and Elvis Presley. Some of the crooners like Perry Como, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin sang for many years, but now Bennett stands alone as a reminder of the crooner era.
It was interesting to find out that Houston has only recorded four studio albums in the last 25 years. Whitney Houston’s music is selling well, just like Michael Jackson’s albums sold well after his death.
The Grammy Awards tribute to the Beach Boys was not done well. The Beach Boys didn’t even sing until after two tribute songs. Then when they did sing, it was a repeat of Good Vibrations. They could have sung three songs instead of the tribute songs by the others. The Beach Boys deserved better, since they are one of the oldest groups in the music business having started in the early 60’s. It was good to see Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, Mike Love and Bruce Johnston on the stage together again, after having broken up into Wilson singing by himself, Love and Johnston touring together and Jardine appearing apart from the others.
Sports Notes
Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks did it again tonight, scoring a three pointer with nine seconds left to give the Knicks a 90-87 win over the Toronto Raptors. It will be interesting to see how much playing time Lin will receive, when Carmelo Anthony returns to action next week.
The Chicago White Sox signed Kosuke Fukudome to a $500,000 contract, which was a $14 million pay cut after being paid $14.5 million by the Cubs in 2011. Fukudome didn’t come close to living up to the hype after signing with the Cubs on a four-year contract. It will be like coming home for Fukudome, after spending part of the summer with the Cleveland Indians.
Politics
The GOP doesn’t seem close to having a candidate, that will lead the party to victory in November. We have seen wild swings in the voting during the primary and caucus season. Romney, Santorum or Gingrich should be standing on the platform at the GOP convention this summer, after winning the nomination but none of the three is a sure thing at this point, with the wild fluctuations we have seen this year. Gingrich seems to be out of it right now, but wait till the next primary at the end of this month. Gingrich has way too much baggage for the GOP hierarchy to give him their support. Gingrich has so many skeletons rattling around in his closet, that he only opens the closet in the dark, so his enemies can’t see all the skeletons.
Green Party candidate Roseanne Barr is not keeping the GOP candidates awake at night, worrying about her candidacy. She will do well to garner 500,000 votes on election night. It is difficult to take Barr serious after her rendition of the National Anthem at a baseball game a few years ago. Somebody in the front office had to be fired, for thinking it was a good idea for Barr to sing the National Anthem. It would be like someone letting Jaleel White to sing the National Anthem using his Steve Urkel voice. Whitney Houston put them all to shame when she sang the National Anthem at the 1991 Super Bowl.
Consumer Tips
Buyers need to be aware of buying electronics on QVC.com. I have seen their prices as much as $100 higher on some electronics and close to the highest prices. Priceblink.com provides a unique service to online buyers, since once you sign up to the free service, they will notify you of a cheaper price, than the price you see at a website. Priceblink.com can literally save a consumer hundreds of dollars.
1968 and 1969 were years defined by the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, American astronauts being the first to walk on the moon, anti-war protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the New York Jets and the New York Mets were surprise Super Bowl and World Series winners.
Super Bowl II would be won by the Green Bay Packers when they defeated the Oakland Raiders on January 14.
Mister Roger’s Neighborhood would be seen for the first time on February 19, 1968.
March 16, 1968 would be one of the low points of the Vietnam War when between 374-504 unarmed civilians were killed at My Lai by United States troops. 2nd Lt. William Calley was charged with 22 of the deaths and sentenced to life imprisonment, but only served three-and-a-half years of house arrest.
President Lyndon B. Johnson announced on March 31 that he would not be running for president in the 1968 election. His decision resulted in the Democrats only having one president elected in the next 24 years, when Jimmy Carter was elected in 1976. It would be 1993 before Bill Clinton took office as the 42nd president and he would become the first Democratic president to serve two complete terms since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
April 4, 1968 started a year of assassinations and demonstrations, when Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated on the balcony of his Memphis motel room. Ironically only seven days later the Civil Rights Act bill was passed by Congress, which outlawed racial discrimination, which Dr. King had been fighting before his death.
Then only two months and one day after the assassination of Dr. King, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated while celebrating a win in California primary during his 1968 presidential bid. Sirhan Sirhan is arrested for the murder of Kennedy.
If Kennedy had lived to win the Democratic nomination, he may have defeated Richard Nixon in the 1968 election. Instead Nixon defeated Senator Hubert Humphrey by half a million votes.
The Yippies led by Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman would descend on Chicago and the streets of Chicago turned into a riot zone as the Yippies and other radical groups battled Chicago police, U.S. Army and National Guard, while the Democratic convention was being held.
The chaos on the streets of Chicago poured onto the Democratic Convention floor when Senator Abraham Ribicoff denounced the use of Gestapo tactics in the streets of Chicago. His remarks enraged Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago would could be seen yelling at Ribicoff.
Anti-war protesters in Chicago may have hurt their own cause. In retrospect they may have protested at the wrong convention since the Democrats were more on their side than the Republicans. The Republican convention in Miami was turmoil free, in contrast to the chaos in Chicago.
Richard Nixon would go on to defeat Senator Humphrey in the general election.
1969 was another year with many newsworthy events and January 12 of 1969 would see the New York Jets defeat the Baltimore Colts 16-7, after Jets quarterback Joe Namath had predicted the Jets would upset the Colts.
Richard Nixon would take office as the 37th president on January 20. The Beatles who had first sang in America almost five years ago would hold their last public concert on January 30.
Sirhan Sirhan admits assassinating Bobby Kennedy on March 3. Ironically seven days later James Earl Ray would plead guilty to assassinating Dr. Martin Luther King. Later that month former President Dwight D. Eisenhower died on March 28, 8 years after finishing his second term as president.
The first American troop withdrawals of the Vietnam War were made on July 8. Senator Teddy Kennedy would end any hope of becoming president, when he drove his car off a bridge on July 18, in what became known as the Chappaquiddick incident. Mary Jo Kopechne would die at the age of 28 in the submerged car.
Two days later on July 20, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon, when the lunar module Eagle landed on the moon. It had to be ranked as one of the biggest stories of the 20th century. The first flight by the Wright Brothers in 1903 would have been another major advance in the 20th century. Their flight led to commercial flights by airlines in later years.
August 9, 1969 was a day of violence as Charles Manson followers killed actress Sharon Tate and four others. The next day August 10, they would murder Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in their home.
August 15, 1969 will always be remembered as the day the Woodstock Music Festival kicked off on Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, New York. The promoters were expecting 50,000 fans, but those numbers were very conservative, considering 500,000 fans showed up.
August 17 would be another deadly day, this time because of Hurricane Camille which hit the Mississippi coast killing 248 people and causing damage of $1.5 billion.
The first ATM was installed in Rockville Centre, New York on September 2, while on the same day Ho Chi Minh, leader of North Vietnam died.
The Chicago Eight trial begin on September 24 in Chicago, but was changed to the Chicago Seven, when Bobby Seale a Black Panther was sentenced to four-year sentence for contempt of court.
Another New York sports team would win a championship, when the New York Mets defeated the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series. Seven years earlier the Mets had been the laughingstock of baseball when they posted a 40-120 record in 1962.
On a lighter note Sesame Street would be seen for the first time on the National Education Network on November 10.
While 250,000-500,000 demonstrators were protesting against the war in Washington, D.C. on November 15, Dave Thomas is busy opening the first Wendy’s in Columbus Ohio.
American astronauts would walk on the moon, only four months after the initial landing, four months prior to the Apollo 12 landing. Pete Conrad and Alan Bean would both walk on the moon.
With the year drawing to a close, a draft lottery was put in place on December 1 and would be the last major event of 1969.
A quick rundown of the events in 1968-1969:
1968
Dr. Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy Assassinated
Unarmed Vietnamese Citizens Killed By U.S. Troops
President Lyndon B. Johnson Announces He Will Not Run For Presidency
Anti-war protesters riot during the Democratic National Convention
Richard Nixon is elected president in general election.
1969
Richard Nixon takes office of presidency
Withdrawal of Vietnam troops commences
Teddy Kennedy drives car off bridge in Chappaquiddick incident
Four astronauts become first men to walk on moon
Charles Manson followers kill seven in two days
500,000 anti-war protesters attend Woodstock Music Festival
Hurricane Camille kills 248 persons
First ATM installed in Rockville Centre, New York
Ho Chi Minh Dies
Chicago 7 Trial Begins in Chicago
250,000-500,000 demonstrate in anti-war protest in Washington, D.C.
Dave Thomas opens first Wendy’s
Sesame Street shown for the first time on National Education Network
Map depicting Civil War battles fought in Louisiana from Americancivilwar.com.
The March 14, 1864 battle at Fort DeRussy marked the beginning of a series of seven battles, between the Union and the Confederacy in the state of Louisiana. Union forces defeated the Confederate forces and opened the Red River to Alexandria.
It would be 25 days later before the Union and Confederates would battle next. The Battle of Mansfield was fought on April 8, 1964 after Union forces led by Major General Nathaniel P. Banks, who had traveled 150 miles up the Red River, encountered Major General Richard Taylor commanding the Confederate forces.
Banks Retreats Toward Alexandria
Taylor attacked the Union forces despite being outnumbered and Banks finally retreated back toward Alexandria. The battle marked the last victory for the Confederates in Louisiana and preceded five consecutive defeats by the Union troops, including a defeat at the Battle of Pleasant Hill on April 9, 1864.
Union troops had suffered 2,900 casualties at the Battle of Mansfield while the Confederate forces incurred had 1,500 casualties. The Confederate forces would have 2,000 casualties, which almost half the casualties of the Union forces, who had 1,100 during the Battle of Pleasant Hill.
Confederates Lose 200 Troops At Blair’s Landing
Union forces overwhelmed the Confederates at Blair’s Landing, with only seven casualties compared to 200 by the Confederates. Brigadier General Tom Green leading the Confederate forces lost his life in the battle.
Two weeks later in another crushing defeat on April 23,1864 in another battle at Monett’s Ferry, the Union forces would have 200 casualties while the Confederates suffered 400 casualties.
Banks Leads Union Forces To Victory In Mansura
It would be May 16, 1864 before the enemies encountered each other again in Mansura, where General Banks would lead a flank attack on Confederate troops that gave the Union another victory. Battlefield casualties are unknown.
The battle at Yellow Bayou would commence on May 18, 1864. The battle was the last of the Red River Campaign and ended with 360 Union casualties and 500 Confederate casualties. It was regarded as a strategic victory for the Union as their forces lived to fight another day.
For complete descriptions of every battle fought in Louisiana during the Civil War:
The following website has many photos of places in Central Louisiana, which had to do with the Civil War. There is also a possible explanation of why the Kent House survived the burning of Alexandria by Federal troops.
Burning of Alexandria
Retreating Union troops burned 90 percent of Alexandria on May 13,1864. Kent House and a Catholic church were the only prominent landmarks still standing after the savage burning of Alexandria. Father J.P. Bellier brandished a sword when federal troops attempted to burn the Catholic church, with them deciding to not kill Father Bellier or harm the church.
The federal troops helped themselves to anything they wanted, while the fires were burning. Cows ran through the streets of Alexandria along with chickens who had been scorched by the fire.
By the time the fire had subsided, there was no record of any legal transaction filed before May 13, 1864 that existed after the fire. It took 36 years before Alexandria would reach a population of 5,000 again.
For many more details of the burning of Alexandria:
Soldiers about to leave landing craft on D-Day on June 6, 1944.
The photo above makes me wonder what these soldiers were thinking, before leaving the landing craft on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Some of them would be dead minutes later, as they came under intense German gunfire from beyond the beach. They could see their fellow soldiers being shot, before they even left the landing craft.
I saw a PBS program about veterans returning to Normandy, France and telling their stories of what they experienced that day. One soldier was helping wounded soldiers, but then was hit himself several times. He had just told another soldier that he was too weak to help with the wounded soldiers and at that moment the other soldier was hit by a bullet that went in one side of his head and exited on the other side.
He assumed the soldier had died, but he encountered him at an Army reunion later and saw the man and his wife there. He told him that he thought he was dead and the other soldier thought the other soldier was dead. So both soldiers, had thought the other soldier was dead, when in fact both had survived their wounds from D-Day.
A 18 year old soldier on D-Day would be 86 years old today. The 70th anniversary of D-Day will be held on June 6, 2014. Any soldier that was 30 or older that day, probably would have died by that date.
Even though President Roosevelt had declared war on Germany on December 8 of 1941, it would be two-and-a- half years before American forces entered the European theater.
The French civilians on the program today, are still thankful for the Americans freeing them from German rule. They spoke of passing the torch to each generation of the French people, to let them know that the American soldiers, were the reason that they regained their freedom.
Hitler’s harebrained military plans, enabled the Americans to gain inroads to other French cities, since he had 157 divisions on the Russian front, while having only 59 in France.
13,000 American paratroopers were dropped from the sky, as part of the D-Day invasion, but the paratroopers were very fragmented and only 2,500 of them had joined up with their units, 24 hours after being dropped. One of the veterans on the PBS special said they wrapped up dead American paratroopers in their parachutes and buried them.
The allied forces were outnumbered 380,000 to 175,000 but still they still won the Battle of Normandy. Allied casualties at Normandy totaled close to 10,000 with 2,500 making the ultimate sacrifice for the allied forces.
Words can’t express our gratitude for the soldiers, who stepped out of their landing craft, facing death immediately and those that survived the onslaught at the beach, as they began their trek through France, as they liberated the French people, from the clutches of Adolf Hitler.
It is hard to comprehend that 48 years have passed, since President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on Nov. 22, a Friday morning that will live forever in history. I was subbing for the company postal clerk, who was on vacation, for the 25th Administration Company of the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii on that date and was the first to tell the company commander about the president being shot, after hearing the news on the radio. Meanwhile the regular postal clerk was flying military standby back to the mainland. He was trying to make a connection to New York City, from California, but was routed to Dallas, Texas of all places, arriving there about the time of the assassination.
Reading Warren Commission Report
I had a copy of the Warren Commission Report, that I had never really read until this last week. President Johnson commissioned the report a week after the assassination.
President Johnson was eager to have the Warren Report released, as soon as possible, to avoid having it contain any conspiracy theories, that might create doubt among the American public.
There is plenty of circumstantial evidence, that makes it appear that Lee Harvey Oswald fired the rifle, from the six floor window, of the Texas Schoolbook Depository building. Some witnesses on the ground reportedly saw a figure holding a gun, but as far as I know, nobody identified that figure as being Oswald. It is doubtful anyone could see someone inside a sixth story window, then be able to identify that person, since only their arms and the gun would be seen.
I am not saying that Oswald didn’t fire the shots, that killed President Kennedy and also wounded Texas Governor John Connally. He just appeared to be the one most likely to have fired the shots.
Lee Harvey Oswald: Portrait Of An Assassin
Lee Harvey Oswald had all the credentials of an assassin. He was a loner, that was an activist in liberal causes. He was a frustrated individual, who never really fit in with most political groups. He was living in Russia, thinking he had found a better way of living, but left when he saw their government didn’t care about the little people like him.
It wasn’t until after the assassination, that it was found out, that Oswald had attempted to shoot General Edwin Walker in his Dallas home on May 10, 1963. This shooting and the Kennedy assassination, proved that Oswald would just as soon shoot a conservative like Walker as well as a liberal like Kennedy.
By now everyone knows, that Oswald who never had a driver’s license told his co-worker Wesley Frazier, that he needed to go to Irving, Texas to pick up some curtain rods. He normally went to Irving on Fridays, but he needed those “curtain rods” for work on Friday, ostensibly to kill the president of the United States. Everyone also knows now, that those “curtain rods’ turned out to be the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle found inside the sixth story window, of the Texas Schoolbook Depository building.
Why was Oswald in Mexico City two months before the assassination? It is still a mystery, to my knowledge, what he was doing in Mexico City. It is known that he was trying to secure a visa to Cuba through the Cuban embassy, but there is little record of what he was actually doing in Mexico City. There are even reports that another individual, had used Oswald’s name, during the time he was in Mexico City. If there was a conspiracy, this may have been where it was planned.
Patrolman M.L. Baker was in the Texas Schoolbook Depository, looking for the shooter, when he encountered Oswald in the lunchroom. Oswald from the reports I have read, showed no signs of being under duress, while Baker was holding a gun on him. His coolness in that situation sealed the fate of both Officer J.D. Tippit, who would be killed less than an hour later, when he stopped Oswald on a Dallas street. If Oswald had exhibited any fright or seemed to be in distress, it is likely that Patrolman Baker would have arrested him in the lunchroom.
Oswald would have been without a weapon and presumably would have been taken to the police station without incident. However, Oswald may have tried to take the policeman’s gun, which could have been deadly.
There are so many incidents that day that could have changed history. Officer Tippit could have just as easily killed Oswald, instead of being gunned down himself by Oswald. That would have prevented the circus that ensued at the police station, after Oswald was arrested at the theater. History would have changed if Officer Tippit had stopped Oswald before he had a chance to receive his gun from the North Beckley residence.
Oswald allegedly fired his first shot at President Kennedy at 12:30 PM Dallas time. He encounters Patrolman Baker in the lunchroom and is leaving the Texas Schoolbook Depository by 12:33 PM. The building is reportedly sealed at 12:48, enabling Oswald to make his getaway. President Kennedy arrives at Parkland Hospital at 12:38 PM. Dallas Police homicide chief, who is awaiting the arrival of President Kennedy calls at 12:51 to ask if Kennedy is still coming to the Trade Mart for the luncheon in his honor, but is told it is very doubtful and in reality, Kennedy was dead nine minutes later.
By 1:00 Oswald has killed Officer Tippit and is seen entering the Texas Theater, while President Kennedy is being pronounced dead at that same minute.
Dallas police car #207 honks horn twice outside the Oswald house. This doesn’t sound very believable, so may not have even happened. Since when do police warn a criminal that they are outside their house?
The following timeline gives an interesting look at the events of that day. However, it can’t be taken too seriously accuracy wise, as it has Oswald arriving at the Texas Theater, ten minutes before Officer Tippit is found dead in the street, which doesn’t sound right to me.
Rose Cheramie was en route to Dallas with some other criminal types and said this about her reasons for being in Dallas:
“She said she was going to, number one, pick up some money, pick up her baby, and to kill Kennedy.” (p. 9 of Fruge’s 4/18/78 deposition)
While at the hospital Cheramie predicted the precise moment the assassination would take place:
At the hospital, Cheramie again predicted the assassination. On November 22nd, several nurses were watching television with Cheramie. According to these witnesses, “…during the telecast moments before Kennedy was shot Rose Cheramie stated to them, ‘This is when it is going to happen’ and at that moment Kennedy was assassinated. The nurses, in turn, told others of Cheramie’s prognostication.” (Memo of Frank Meloche to Louis Ivon, 5/22/67. Although the Dallas motorcade was not broadcast live on the major networks, the nurses were likely referring to the spot reports that circulated through local channels in the vicinity of the trip. Of course, the assassination itself was reported on by network television almost immediately after it happened.) Further, according to a psychiatrist there, Dr. Victor Weiss, Rose “…told him that she knew both Ruby and Oswald and had seen them sitting together on occasions at Ruby’s club.” (Ibid., 3/13/67) In fact, Fruge later confirmed the fact that she had worked as a stripper for Ruby. (Louisiana State Police report of 4/4/67.)
There is reportedly no mention of Cheramie in the Warren Report. You would think someone who accurately predicted the moment President Kennedy would be shot, would be taken more seriously by the Warren Commission, but then that would back up the conspiracy theorists, which the Warren commission avoided at all costs.
It is not so much a matter if Oswald shot Kennedy but more of a matter, of was he aided by a conspiracy. Kennedy had a myriad of enemies, who wanted him dead. They included the unions, mobsters, Castro, KGB, possibly the CIA who were peeved at Kennedy for withdrawing air support for the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Even President Johnson has been mentioned as someone, who would like to see Kennedy dead, since he had the most to gain (the presidency). One online report even states that Oswald was seen at Johnson’s ranch in Mexico. That may be a false report, but worth looking into.
Jack Ruby Becomes Prosecutor and Jury, Killing Oswald
Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby, showed up at the police station on the Friday night of the assassination, to see the Oswald press conference. Ruby became emotionally distraught over the death of Kennedy and decided the American people would never have the chance to know if there was a conspiracy, behind the assassination of Kennedy.
Ruby singlehandedly started a wave of books about the assassination, since Americans would never know about any conspiracies, since Oswald was dead and dead men tell no tales.
Hundreds of books have been written about the assassination. The Warren Commission Report has focused on proving that Oswald was the lone gunman in Dallas 48 years ago. They seemed to have glossed over any conspiracy theories. Oswald was a very shady character, who was all over the place and may have been covering up for some sinister group of conspiracists.
It is still a mystery of how Ruby was in the basement of the Dallas Police station on Sunday, November 24 and how he got in there. He reportedly arrived in the basement a couple of minutes before Oswald was to be moved to another facility.
Ruby said he killed Oswald, because he hated that Jackie Kennedy would have to return to Dallas for the trial of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Summary
I am not saying that the Warren Commission was a complete cover-up, but it seemed to be intent, on promoting the lone gunman theory. By not admitting a conspiracy was possible, it took a lot of the enemies of Kennedy off the hook, including the new president Lyndon B. Johnson, who was relegated to being a do-nothing vice president, until Kennedy’s death, propelled him to the presidency.
He was no longer the second banana to President Kennedy and his inner circle. The only reason Kennedy chose Johnson as a running mate, was so that he could garner some southern votes, attracted by Johnson being on the ticket as vice-president.
After 48 years, there is still no smoking gun that I know of that points to anyone besides Oswald being the assassin. I have heard for years about shots coming from the grassy knoll, but don’t think it is even mentioned in the Warren Report.
There are a lot of what-ifs that came into play on November 22, 1963:
What if it had rained that day and the bubble-top would have been down, ruining any chance of any assassin shooting the president?
What if Patrolman Baker would have arrested Oswald before leaving the schoolbook depository, which would have saved the life of Officer Tippit?
What if someone had walked in on the shooter from the sixth floor window seconds before the first shot?
What if the Dallas Police department had kept the crowds under control at the police station, during the interrogation of Oswald?
What if someone had stopped Ruby from entering the basement of the police station?
What if someone had taken Rose Cheramie seriously and prevented the assassination?
JFKLancer.com has some very interesting observations about what the Warren Commission Report failed to tell the American people:
Alger Hiss who was convicted of perjury in 1950 after a House Un-American Activites committee which included Richard Nixon sent the case to a grand jury and eventually led to his conviction.
Richard Nixon was a first term Republican congressman, from California, when he was appointed a member of subcommittee of three to investigate the Alger Hiss case. Nixon, Edward Hebert of Louisiana and John McDowell from Pennsylvania were given the job to determine whether Whittaker Chambers or Alger Hiss were giving truthful testimony.
They found enough evidence to bring the Hiss case to a grand jury, even though FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover had told them, he was told to not cooperate with the committee. The committee investigators unearthed enough evidence, to bring the case to the grand jury.
Alger Hiss had advanced into a high position in the U.S. government, serving as an assistant to Secretary of State Edward Stettinus. Hiss accompanied Stettinus,to the Yalta Conference in February of 1945. The purpose of the conference ,was for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill, to plan the defeat of Adolf Hitler, which came a couple of months after the conference.
Hiss would later be found to have given intelligence to the Russians as early as the 1930’s. The fact that reached such a high standing, in the American government is troubling. It was alarming at the support he received from top government officials during his trials.
Chambers would produce five rolls of micro-film, which would become known as the “Pumpkin Papers”, since Chambers had hidden them inside a pumpkin.
This website has extensive information about the Pumpkin Papers:
A grand jury indicted Hiss on two perjury charges, but he wasn’t charged with espionage, because of the statute of limitations. Hiss then went to trial on May 31, 1949 and ended in a hung jury on July 7 of the same year.
The case against Hiss seemed to take a turn for the worse, when the key government witness, Chambers admitted he had given false testimony in the past. Hiss had friends in high places, in President Harry Truman, who called the trial a “red herring” and Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, who thought Hiss was innocent.
The second trial which started on May 17, 1949 ended on November 17, 1949 and it ended on January 21, 1950.
Typewriter Key Evidence
The key evidence against Hiss was that experts identified his typewriter, as the one which had been used to type stolen documents, then the top-secret papers were given to the Russians. Hess claimed until he died, that he had been framed and that the government, had committed forgery with his typewriter, to make it appear the documents, had been typed on his Woodstock typewriter.
Hiss Receives Five Year Sentence
Alger Hiss was convicted of two counts and sentenced to five years in prison, on January 25, 1960, on two perjury counts. He would be released 44 months later on November 27, 1954. Ironically, Hiss would be allowed to practice law in Massachusetts d on August 5, 1975. Hiss died on November 15, 1996 in New York City, claiming his innocence to the end.
Richard Nixon handout from his first Congressional election in 1946 in California which he won.
Nixon Rises to National Prominence
Richard Nixon made the most, of his first national exposure and would be elected a U.S. Senator from California in 1950. Two years later in 1952 he would be chosen to be the vice presidential candidate in the 1952 presidential election in which Dwight D. Eisenhower would become the first Republican president, since Herbert Hoover left office in 1929. Nixon would serve as vice president until 1961.
Checkers Speech
Nixon would make the headlines many times in the future. Nobody who was around back then, can forget his “Checkers” speech, when he addressed questions about his campaign finances.
Nixon Attacked in Peru, Venezuela
He would make news again when he confronted anti-American demonstrators in Peru, then his limousine would be attacked in Caracas, Venezuela, with both events in 1958.
Kitchen Debate With Khrushchev
Who can forget Nixon’s famous “Kitchen Debate” with Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev, over the merits of capitalism and communism in 1959?
Lost 1960 Presidential Election
Nixon would win the Republican nomination. in 1960, but after a poor performance in the first presidential debate, would lose the presidential election, to John F. Kennedy by a slim 120,000 votes.
Loses By 300,000 Votes in California Governor Race
Many wrote the obituary for Nixon’s political career, when he lost to Gov. Pat Brown in the 1962 gubernatorial race, by a margin of 300,000 votes.
Rises From the Ashes in 1968
After his loss in California, Nixon practiced law and supported 1964 presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, then supported 1966 congressional candidates. He was nominated to be the 1968 Republican candidate, while Senator Hubert H. Humphrey was nominated by the Democrats, at a tumultuous convention, in Chicago due to demonstrations, by anti-Vietnam war protesters in the streets of Chicago. Nixon wins by a half million votes over Humphrey.
Wins Overwhelming Victory in 1972
Nixon would win every state except Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, in an overwhelming victory over Democratic candidate George McGovern.
President Gerald Ford, Betty Ford, Pat Nixon and former President Richard Nixon walk toward helicopter, that would leave with them for the last time on August 9, 1974 after his resignation.
Watergate Ends His Political Career
Five men broke into the Democratic National Convention offices, in the Watergate Hotel on June 17, 1972. There was no reason for the break-in as Nixon won the 1972 presidential election easily.
Nixon would use every political trick imaginable to cover up, White House involvement with the cover-up of the break-in. Nixon’s tactic was to deny, deny and deny some more, that the White House was involved. His own taping system in the White House came back to haunt him. We will never forget his famous “I Am Not A Crook” speech, but eventually admitted he was a crook by leaving office in disgrace, becoming the first president to resign from office. We can only imagine, what Nixon and his wife were feeling as the helicopter, left the White House grounds, for the last time.
Jack Webb was born on April 2, 1920 in Santa Monica, California. He died at the age of 62 on December 23, 1982 in West Hollywood California.
His father left home before Webb was born and he never knew his dad. He joined the Army Air Force but asked for a hardship discharge after not making the grade in flight training.
Acted in Old Time Radio
Webb starred in an ABC radio comedy the Jack Webb Show in 1946. He then starred in several detective themed old-time radio shows. Pat Novak For Hire, Johnny Modero, Pier 23 and Jeff Regan, Investigator which were his best known radio programs prior to Dragnet.
His big break came when Dragnet was first broadcast on radio in 1949, then would run till 1954. Webb portrayed Sgt. Joe Friday as a no-nonsense detective, who didn’t mince words. The television version of Dragnet began televising in 1952 with Ben Alexander cast as Detective Frank Smith, concurrently with the radio version till 1954, when the radio series ended. The televised version would remain on the air till 1959. There was a radio or television version of Dragnet being heard or seen for ten continuous years.
Webb loved jazz and starred in Pete Kelly’s Blues which on radio for less than two months, but would be the predecessor to the film version, of Pete Kelly’s Blues released in 1955. Then Pete Kelly’s Blues was also shown on television in 1959, but only 13 episodes were aired, before it was cancelled.
Dragnet also had a presence in radio, television and movies and it was successful in all three forms of media. A new television version of the original Dragnet named Dragnet 1967 ran till 1970 with Harry Morgan portraying Officer Bill Gannon.
Jack Webb grew up with severe asthma yet was a heavy smoker as can be seen by this advertisement mentioning that he smoked two packs a day. Smoking two packs a day today would cost roughly $180 a month.
Webb became so involved in production, that he wasn’t seen on the television screen often. He created Adam 12 which ran from 1968-1975 and Ohara, U.S. Treasury which was shown from 1971-1972.
Julie London former wife of Jack Webb and her husband Bobby Troup on Emergency television program that aired on NBC.
Jack Webb showed he had no animosity toward his former wife Julie London, by hiring her and her husband to appear in his Emergency television program. They appeared in but two of the 133 episodes that were aired.
Webb was married to Julie London from 1947-1953. He then married Dorothy Towne from 1955-1957, Jackie Loughery from 1958-1964. He widowed his last wife who he was married to from 1980-1982.
Jack Webb was working on a third television version of Dragnet with Kent McCord from Adam 12 lined up to be his partner, but died of a heart attack at 62.
Chief Daryl Gates of the Los Angeles Police Department retired Badge 714 after his death and Mayor Tom Bradley ordered all flags to flown at half-mast in his honor. He would be buried with a replica Badge 714.
Jack Webb’s tombstone is typical of Webb. There is no huge ornamental tombstone, but a plain tombstone, with his name and his life span.
This article written by Ben Alexander, gives us a better idea of what the real Jack Webb was like. This paragraph tells me all I need to know about Jack Webb. I am inserting it here for those who may not have time to read the article:
Look at Victor Rodman. He had been disabled in an accident, and one of Jack’s joys about creating “Noah’s Ark” was the chance it gave him to employ Victor in a role that didn’t require walking around. Jack was thrilled with “Noah’s Ark” because it gave Victor a chance to prove what a fine actor he is. And a big reason Jack is eager to revive the show is that Victor will be working again.
The Internet Movie Database biography includes some interesting trivia about Jack Webb:
Was buried with full honors befitting a LAPD detective, including a 17-gun salute.
Had just over 6,000 jazz albums in his private collection.
At the height of “Dragnet’s” popularity, people would actually call the LAPD wanting to speak to Webb’s character, Sgt. Joe Friday. The Department eventually came up with a stock answer to the large volume of calls: “Sorry, it’s Joe’s day off.”
Was a huge baseball fan, and chose badge number 714 for Sgt. Friday because it was the number of home runs Babe Ruth hit.
Jack Webb has created a lot of shows since Dragnet, but will always remember him, telling us what department he was working out of in the police department.
The color version of Dragnet was good, but there was something special, about the black and white version of the 50’s. Those shows seemed to be more simple. Who can ever forget the show, about the boy who got a rifle for Christmas and accidentally shoots his friend? This is the three-part The Big .22 Rifle For Christmas episode. Part 3 is very emotional as the father talks to his dead son, telling him what he would have received for Christmas. Then to make it even more emotional, the father of the boy killed,then gives the presents for his son, to the boy who shot his son.
I was looking at funny newspaper clippings, when I was astounded to find out in one, that teenage pregnancy drops off after age 25. And to think all these years I had thought it dropped off at the age of 19.
Readers can blame me for captions below the clippings.
It is amazing what you can learn in a newspaper story or advertisement.I was thinking the same thing when I saw two men approaching me with machetes and AK-47 machine guns and a rolling pin. My only thought, was that I have to get that rolling pin away from them.This wife decided to let a stranger decide whether she would have the cat or her husband left after they made their decision.I think it is safe to say that this tombstone will never be sold unless someone changes their name to Hendel Bergen Heinzel.This is major news and should have been on the front page, not in the police blotter. It wouldn't hurt to send a photographer to get a closeup of the running pot pie.I can think of a lot of reasons to not answer this ad.Those federal agents probably still haven't recovered from the shock of finding weapons in a gun shop.I would think twice before going to this health clinic.This woman has her priorities slightly mixed up.It will take a fast talking salesperson to pull this one off.If all else fails, blame it on the babies.The same doctor in the ad had just spent thirty minutes telling a patient to switch from candy cigarettes to Camels.
You can't be too careful while using camouflaged paint.
Our nation was in a state of shock and disbelief, after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Americans didn’t know if these attacks would be followed by other attacks.
Nobody really knew what to expect at the time. I don’t think anyone expected, that we would be safe from terrorist attack,for the next ten years.
When Osama bin Laden’s computer was seized after he was killed in Pakistan, it was found to mention upcoming terrorists attacks, that were to be carried out on the tenth anniversary of 9/11.
So while we were commemorating the attacks, on the tenth anniversary, we were also wary of another attack ten years later, but it never happened.
The American intelligence community deserves praise for keeping our nation safe from terrorist attacks during the last 10 years. I am sure there have been some close calls, that were never revealed to the public, to avoid alarming our citizens.
We can never be complacent though, since the terrorists may strike again, if we revert to our lax security that was in place on 9/11. Airport security since 9/11 has been ratcheted up and has received some criticism, for being too invasive. However, as much as we dislike the stricter measures, taken by airport security, it does make it safer to fly.
It remains a mystery 10 years later to, how 19 hijackers could have boarded planes, in American airports the morning of September 11, 2001. If there had been patdowns, then the boxcutters may have been found, that they used as weapons aboard those flights.
However another mystery is how the box cutters got by airport security. It seems like they would have sounded the buzzer, at the checkpoint causing the boxcutters to be found.
We may be having to wait longer to get through the checkpoints, but it is much better than being on a plane, that has been hijacked and that is being flown into a building. It is questionable whether the passengers on those flights, should have been told by relatives and friends, that planes had already flown into other buildings.
It was bad in that the passengers had to be scared beyond belief, but on the other hand it is probably what saved Flight 93 from hitting the White House or the Capitol Building. We will never know if those were the next targets, but those were likely targets.
Nothing would have been more dramatic, than a plane hitting the White House with almost full tanks of jet fuel, especially if President Bush had been in the White House. If not for cell phones being widely used even back in 2001, the passengers aboard Flight 93 would not have known, that the other planes had already hit the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. That knowledge is what caused the passengers to storm the cockpit, causing the plane to crash in Pennsylvania.
We should have known when the terrorist pilots were attending flight schools, that for them not to be worried about landing the planes was a major red flag.
President Bush and President Obama both have been targets of criticism during their presidencies, but both presidents have put in place intelligence gathering agencies, that have prevented another 9/11 attack.
We must be ever vigilant though and plan on the terrorists planning future attacks. It may not be the same type of attacks, but we can’t be too careful, since good intelligence saves lives and bad intelligence puts our nation at jeopardy.
Nostalgia and Now 