JFK Assassination Articles

Above, yours truly in Dealey Plaza early last year. Photo by Mitch Geriminsky.

Articles about the 59th anniversary tomorrow of the assassination of President Kennedy are appearing on the Internet.

They range from eyewitness accounts to a proposal to upgrade Dealey Plaza (not too much could be actually be done there as it is now a National Historic Site). 

Six years ago, I headed up to Corte Madera, California to Book Passage to hear former Secret Service agent Clint Hill give a talk on the assassination and his work with different presidents. I blogged about the visit back then, which also includes a video of his talk that I shot. To access it, go here.

Above, ex-Secret Service agent Clint Hill at Book Passage in Corte Madera in 2016. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has posted a collection of photographs from their staff photographers taken during JFK's visit to Dallas. To see them, go here.

Snopes even got into the act with an article on JFK's foreboding feeling about assassination. To access the article, go here.

The Dallas Morning News has an article posted today on how to observe the 59th anniversary. To read it, go here.

I have no doubt that there will be more tomorrow.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Re-Elected

 

From the Dallas Morning News:

Texas voters confirmed Tuesday what many political pundits said all along – Greg Abbott would clinch his third term as governor of Texas with ease.

Abbott’s win on Tuesday means Republicans will remain in control of the state’s executive branch for another four years – continuing a streak that took hold when former Texas Gov. George W. Bush beat Ann Richards in 1994.

“This race went according to plan,’’ said Vinnie Minchillo, a Republican political consultant in Plano. “The results of this race were baked in from the first day.”

While the results came as no surprise to most political analysts, they were nonetheless floored by the soaring level of fundraising. The Texas governor’s race was estimated to cost $226 million in total money raised by Abbott and O’Rourke, making it one of the most expensive races in the country, according to OpenSecrets, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit that tracks U.S. political spending.

To read more, go here. 

Texas Lawsuit: Now It's 21 States

The Supreme Court lawsuit by Texas (Texas v. Pennsylvania, et al.) is proceeding and now 21 states have joined the Lone Star State against four swing states.

The Dallas Morning News reported:

WASHINGTON — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s effort to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory sparked a legal war between the states on Thursday.

Six fellow Republican attorneys general asked the Supreme Court to let them join Texas’ bid to nullify 10.4 million votes in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin. As filings poured into the high court, they and others joined President Donald Trump at a private lunch in the Cabinet Room.

Trump has also asked the court to let him sign on to the Texas lawsuit as a plaintiff.

By the close of business Thursday, 21 states — including four led by Republican governors — had filed objections, calling Texas’ request unconstitutional, unfair and outrageous. That’s in addition to GOP-led Georgia, which is fighting the Texas suit.

Texas’ allegation is that governors or courts in the four states it is trying to sue had unlawfully expanded mail-in voting, usurping a power reserved solely for legislatures. Paxton, who co-chaired Lawyers for Trump for the president’s reelection campaign, asked the Supreme Court to let the legislatures in those states, which are all controlled by Republicans, substitute their choice of electors for the 62 collected by Biden because he won more votes.

To read more, go here.

Car Salesman Allegedly Swiped Pastor's Wife's Nude Photos From Phone

Above, Matthew Luke Thomas by the Grapevine Police Department.

Just when you think you've heard it all, something new and bizarre comes along to dispel that notion.

From The Dallas Morning News:

A year ago, Tim and Claire Gautreaux walked into a car dealership in Grapevine to buy a new Prius. They say the car-buying process was what you'd expect: long and tedious. 

But what happened behind the scenes is now the focus of a lawsuit against the dealership and a former sales director, who also faces criminal charges. 

Police believe Matthew Luke Thomas, the car sales director, found nude photos of Claire Gautreaux on her husband's phone and forwarded them to an email address for a swingers' website.  

Thomas, 44, is charged in Tarrant County with computer security breach, a class B misdemeanor. This week, the Gautreauxs filed suit against Thomas, Texas Toyota of Grapevine and Toyota Motor North America in a Dallas County court, alleging breach of contract, intrusion, negligence and public disclosure of private facts. 

Tim Gautreaux, 29, is a pastor at Hope Fellowship in Frisco. His wife works in retail management. The couple went to Texas Toyota in January 2015.

Well, at least the photos were of the good pastor's wife and not somebody else.

And, of course, this is topped off with attorney Gloria Allred representing the pastor and his wife.

To read more, go here. 

SS-100-X

Above, President and Mrs. Nixon in the SS-100-X limousine in 1972 at the Century Plaza Hotel.
National Archives photo.

Since this year marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, there will be many articles and stories in the major news media.

One such story appeared yesterday in the Dallas Morning News (I first saw it in the Los Angeles Daily News). It is on the 1961 Lincoln Continental that the President was riding in when he was shot.

The article has many interesting facts about the car:

...the open-top car that President John F. Kennedy waved from on a sunny day in Dallas, Nov. 22, 1963, could not have been more different. That car was fashioned from a stock 1961 Lincoln Continental four-door convertible — retail price $7,347 — that had rolled off the assembly line at parent company Ford’s plant in Wixom, Mich.

The White House leased it from Ford for a token $500 a year and sent it off for $200,000 in modifications by elite custom coachbuilder Hess and Eisenhardt in Cincinnati, Ohio. (The firm’s other high-profile clients included the Queen of England.) In the process, the car gained Secret Service codenames — SS-100-X and X-100 — and the grille of a 1962 model, so it appeared right up to date.

Kennedy’s Lincoln, sensationally dubbed the “Death Car” in a 1964 Associated Press story, was hastily rebuilt after the assassination. Project name? The Quick Fix. The logic was straightforward, according to Henry Ford [Museum] curator Anderson. “It takes four years or so to get one of these done, from the original planning to its delivery to the White House. They simply didn’t have the time to build a new car.

 The final price tag for project Quick Fix was an estimated $500,000.

Improbably, the car stayed in service through President Richard Nixon’s administration and into 1977, Jimmy Carter’s administration’s first year. It was retired late that year and returned to Ford. The automaker donated it to The Henry Ford museum, where curator Anderson says it remains one of the museum’s most popular exhibits.

Above, President Nixon shakes hands from the roof opening.  I am at the arrow.
National Archives photo.

I saw the car in 1972 when President Nixon arrived at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles for a fundraising dinner.  I was in the parking lot near where the President was driven alongside the crowd of supporters.  It didn't occur to me that the limousine was the Kennedy SS-100-X until I saw photos of it on display at the Henry Ford Museum and compared them to the photos I have of the Nixon Century Plaza visit.

In 1984, I was a member of the California Reagan Delegation to the Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas.  While there, I stopped by the assassination site in Dealey Plaza and took photographs of the scene from several angles.  I will post a detailed article on this in November.

To read the full article, go here.

College Professor Obsessed With Godzilla

An article appeared at The Dallas Morning News online website on a college professor who has a "monstrous obsession with Godzilla":

Along his torn-up trail, the menacing brute also has created some major Godzilla geeks. One of them is Dr. William Tsutsui, the recently appointed dean of SMU's Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, whose obsession with Godzilla goes beyond campy special effects.

As he was growing up, his childhood fascination gave way to scholarly interpretation – and Tsutsui came to see the globally recognized monster as cultural ambassador, the therapeutic creation of a postwar Japan.

"I realized there was something more there than just a guy in a rubber suit," said Tsutsui, 47.

Tsutsui wrote the book, Godzilla On My Mind several years ago and appeared last summer at G-FEST.

To read the full article, go here.