Oswald, Jack Ruby, Jonathan Jackson, Sarah Jane Moore, Squeaky Fromme, John Hinckley, Sirhan Sirhan, and the two Kennedy frame-jobs all had the plumbers in common. The plumbers, Nixon/Bush 'secret team' were a profesional criminal organization acting on behalf of the republican party under G.H.W. Bush's direction. Look at JFK's service record. JFK and George H.W. Bush both worked at the Office of Naval Intelligence early in WWII. (Bush never really graduated from high school just like he never really graduated from college, either.) JFK had his politically well-connected backside transferred to follow Bush's girlfriend down to Charleston, SC. He was stationed within 5.6 miles of her high school. Barbara Pierce, later Barbara Bush, was actually pretty hot as a teenager. W. was Kennedy's boy, not George H.W.'s, and THAT was the real motive for the JFK murder: jealousy. Old Bush told Larry King he "couldn't recall" where he was when JFK was assassinated. George H.W. Bush was in Dealey Plaza. That's Martinez, the infamous plumber, squatting next to umbrellaman Bush, too. How do I know? I spent the night with W. back in May of 1971, saved him for his family and for his future.

an expert ballistics and forensics team recently duplicated the book depository shooting using hi-tech synthetic human tissue, and a painstaking recreation of the details of the scene. the forensic results almost exactly matched the actual. this was broadcast on the discovery channel, or one of those cable channels i am not sure which. their tests explode all theories of multiple shooters. of course this doesn't rule out conspiracy, but it does make oliver stone look a little less credible.

Yesterday was the 42nd anniversary of my naming. For 12 days I was Mark Edward Kennedy.
Back then it was typical for woman to stay in the hospital for two weeks after giving birth. It wasn't uncommon for woman to "officially" name the child until shortly before they leave.
The President was shot and my uncle pushed for me to be named after the dead president. So I was named John Fitzgerald Kennedy. My Mom liked the name so when my brother came along he became Mark Edward Kennedy.
The funny thing I almost choose for my confirmation name the same one name President chose (Francis).
Yesterday I was in Dallas on business. In fact, I was only several blocks from Daley Plaza. I want to go but didn't have the time. Maybe next time.

Dear Maureen:
Here is the prayer: Compare what you have posted and what I have posted. " faithfully departed" is missing from your translation.
" Remember our brothers and sisters
who have gone to their rest
in the hope of rising again:
bring them and all the faithfully departed
into the light of your presence. "
The Eucharistic prayers are asking Catholics to pray for those who have left this world in the friendship of God.
I am not aware of the Catholic church asking Catholics to pray for every single person that has ever died.
That would invalidate the Catholic religion. If there is good hope for the salvation of all, without being Catholic or accepting the sacraments or submission to the Roman Pontiff, religion is worthless.
It is the testimony of neary every saint that I have read about, that only a few go to heaven.
St. Thomas Aquinas, St. John Neumann,, Bl. Anna Maria Taigi, St. John Vianney, St. John Capistrano, St. Vincent Ferrer, St. John Bosco, St. Neri, St. Anselm, St. John Chrysostom, St. John of the Cross, to name just a few.
St. Teresa of Avila saw hell as did St. John Bosco. They saw how many made it to Purgatory or Heaven in a snapshot of time compared to the lost souls.
" If the just man shall scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly sinner appear ? "
1 St. Peter 4:18
Please recall that Judas, who betrayed Christ, was a Bishop, who was called by Jesus and saw first hand what Jesus did.
Yet he turned from the truth, lost hope and killed himself.
It is fairly clear in the Scriptures that God will abandon those who first abandon Him and give such persons over to their lust and sinful
desires. The Scriptures also record that God will send such persons the operation of error to believe the lie. ( 2 Thes 2:10)

"Remember our brothers and sisters who have gone to their rest in the hope of rising again; bring them and all the departed into the light of your presence."
And the Latin is even better: "Memènto etiam fratrum nostròrum, qui in spe resurrectiònis dormièrunt, omniùmque in tua miseratiòne defunctòrum, et eos in lumen vultus tui admìtte."
Even if you don't consider JFK a brother in Christ (a dangerous practice, given that he was in fact baptized, and that even horrible Christian sinners may fully hope for eternal life in Christ), he certainly is one of the departed. So you've prayed for him, as is your Christian and Catholic duty.
See? That wasn't so hard.

I have seen several shows over the years that have convinced me that the Warren Commission version of things is at least possible. If you get Discovery Channel, it looks like they are replaying one of them - "JFK: Beyond the Magic Bullet", as well as some other JFK related shows this Saturday.
As for the fatal head shot, most people judge what physically happens to a human when they shot from Hollywood movies. I'm too lazy to do the math, so I'll reference a recent edition of "MythBusters", also on Discovery (I really don't watch *that* much TV) that exposed the myth that people who get shot are physically moved or displaced by the bullet. Basically, the difference in mass between a bullet and a person is so great that there is not enough exchange of momentum to make the person move. One show I remember watching back in the 70's regarding the Kennedy Assasination produced by of all networks CBS, hosted as I recall by of all people Dan Rather, conclusively showed that a shot from behind could have produced the movements of JFK's head as seen in the Zapruder film. If I remember correctly they did tests on cadavers (but not shown on TV), and on things like watermelons.
A good book is Gerald Posner's "Case Closed" which again demonstrates, at least for me, that the Warren Commission version is possible from the physical evidence.
Whether there was a conspiracy of some kind I don't know, but from the physical evidence I'm willing to buy the Single Bullet/Lone Gunmen theory...
John

Dear Maureen:
The Novus Ordo Mass notes that we remember " those Brothers and sisters who have gone before us in the friendship of the Lord." Words to that effect. I am not sure I can think of a Catholic American who has died, who was a greater adversary of the Catholic Church. Privately, Catholics are free to pray for whom they please.
Dominus Tecum.

"As to praying for the soul of JFK, I think that should be a private matter for those who so chose it."
No, it's pretty public. As long as you go to Mass, you're praying for JFK, because the Church prays for all the living and the dead.

Thanks for the great post. It seems many of the big blogs forgot about yesterday. There's a lot of forgetting going around. Yesterday was also important because it marked the anniversary of the death of C. S. Lewis, whose death on the same day was overshadowed by Kennedy's. I have a post on this topic at Mazurland Blog:
http://mazurland.typepad.com/myweblog/2005/11/lest...

Jesuit schmesuit - it was an albino Opus Dei monk I tells ya!

JFK was shot on 11/22.
11 + 22 = 33.
33 = The number that inexplicably appears on the back of every bottle of Rolling Rock Beer.
CONCLUSION: JFK was assassinated by the Rolling Rock Brewery exec's.
Hand me a few more bottles of Rolling Rock, and I'll give you more conspiracy theories than you can handle.
(P.S., SECRET NOTE TO EVERYONE IN THIS COMBOX EXCEPT FOR CATHOLIC DEFENDER: "Don't poke the troll.")

Dear Maureen:
you have offered a few ideas on JFK, God and how I should be disposed towards the death of JFK.
Here is how I see it.
Jesus voluntarily died for our sins. It had nothing to do with "God hating Him" but rather His following the will of His Father.
Martyrs - have died for the Catholic faith, and are friends of God.
Death , Evil and Suffering do have some mystery attached to them, I agree. My only comment is that I believe Divine Justice came calling on nov 22,1963. I may be wrong, but priests I know agree with this opinion. It is only opinion.
I am not one to rejoice over this crime or any crime. I am not one to dance on a grave. Any time a person has thier life taken, it is a great crime. Certainly I wish he had time to repent.
Havind said that, I am not one to shed a tear for a person like JFK, and others, who during their life worked so hard at destroying the church and the faith of those in it.
JFK was not my enemy. He was a enemy of God, the Church and every Catholic over the age of reason at the time he lived.
I have many Masses said for the living and the deceased, and the souls in Purgatory.
As to praying for the soul of JFK, I think that should be a private matter for those who so chose it.

Back in the day when surfing the internet was more like hacking, a college buddy of mine downloaded a big 'ol conspiracy file that included JFK, aliens, drugs, the Bush family, the CIA, the FBI, the KGB, you name it. It was like the grand unified theory of the 20th century's greatest unsolved mysteries. It went on to provide a lot of the backstory for the TV show X files.
In it, the claim was made that Kennedy's driver delivered the coup de grace with a small, recoilless electric single-shot gun. I don't know much about guns, but electric ones sound kind of weird and specialized to me.
Naturally, it is all bunk, though.

"It was the aliens. Kennedy knew too much."
No, no, DJ! Aintcha heard? It was them Jes-oo-itts! Ever'body knows that!

"So I don't think anybody is being silly if they think that there was a conspiracy. (Or rather, I don't think anyone is being silly just because they think there was a conspiracy--in reality many individual conspiracy theoriests are in fact silly.)"
Well put. (and very diplomatic)
But, seriously reviewing evidence like this is very interesting -- one of the most compelling bits of information that I remember hearing/seeing was -- I think on a PBS program -- regarding the trajectory of the bullet that supposedly hit both John Conolly and the President.
Seamus is right -- not so long ago it was possible to go into most public buildings with just about anything -- no one was suspicious. Of course this was before suicide bombers, Oklahoma City and 9/11. It was almost a different world. It's also only been about 30 years that we've had safety seals on over-the-counter medications (since someone decided to lace Tylenol with cyanide). I am a lawyer and practice in a major city - and the courts before 9/11 were only protected right outside the courtroom door -- there was no screening at all to get into the court building -- but all of that has changed.
Also thanks to Maureen for your comments. There are days when if God were so quick to smite us for our sins, Heaven might have enough of any one of us. Which is why we should never pray to get what we deserve.

"But at the end of the day, it was the man himself who, as I see it, mocked the One True Faith at every turn, and Heaven had seen enough.
As a Catholic, I firmly believe that if he was meant to live, his Guardian Angel would have intervened. We know that happens all the time!"
The way you're talking, Jesus only died because God hated him and the martyrs are not friends of God, but Heaven's punished enemies. Did you mean that? No? Then don't say it.
Death is a mystery. Evil is a mystery. Suffering is a mystery. You do not understand any of them well enough to talk as loosely as you do.
The man is dead. So he was a sinner. So am I, and so are you, unless you're secretly the Virgin Mary. It ill becomes any Catholic to dance on anyone's grave. I don't like the man much myself, but I don't rejoice over his death. If he was your enemy and the enemy of the Church, then love your enemy and pray for his soul.
So get down on your knees, consider your own sins, and don't judge others unless you want to be judged the same way. And if you don't enjoy the process -- offer it up.

That's not a fanny pack; it's a lumbar satchel.

I have read and watched several shows on the Nov 22 1963 ordeal.
They all begin with a conclusion and work backwards.
I think they all are interesting.
But at the end of the day, it was the man himself who, as I see it, mocked the One True Faith at every turn, and Heaven had seen enough.
As a Catholic, I firmly believe that if he was meant to live, his Guardian Angel would have intervened. We know that happens all the time !

If I am not mistaken, Gov. Connolly and his wife were splattered with brains at the time of the fatal shot, suggesting it was from the rear.
I would recommend you read the transcript of an interview that David Belin of the Warren Commission staff gave to Meet the Press in February of 1979. He was quite deft in disabusing viewers of the notion that the conclusions of the House Committee could be regarded as definitive, and made it clear that the Committee was positing a most implausible sequence of events. Subsequently, the acoustical evidence that the Committee relied on was discredited. Belin anticipated this.
I would also recommend the chapter on the Kennedy assassination in Winks' The Historian as Detective for a comparatively early, and suasive, discussion of witness accounts of activity at the 'grassy knoll'.
You are familiar with the arguments of Gerald Posner, I would assume.

Most who have looked at the murder of JFK conclude it was a professional hit and while Oswald might have fired off some rounds, he was likely killed from a hitman in front of the car.
Does it really matter. JFK mocked the Church, its teachings, and the moral law, I see it as Divine Justice.

Most who have looked at the murder of JFK conclude it was a professional hit and while Oswald might have fired off some rounds, he was likely killed from a hitman in front of the car.
Does it really matter. JFK mocked the Church, its teachings, and the moral law, I see it as Divine Justice.

It is indeed a sad fact that JFK never had a chance to repent, but he didn't and nothing can change that.
Ted Kennedy is living proof how blind some can be.
While calling himself Catholic, he has petitioned against the Fed Government giving a dime to Catholic organizations in New Orleans that helped withthe relief effort. How bizarre. Wonder how many politicians ever go to confession ?

That's right! C.S. Lewis!
This calls for some special devotions tonight. I will also hoist a beer in honor of him and the Inklings.

Steven, you beat me to it! ;)

"One of the things that struck me is how SMALL the whole place is. I mean, the Book Depository is RIGHT NEXT TO the concrete pergola on the grassy knoll, which is RIGHT NEXT TO the picket fence where many people perceived a second gunman to be."
That was exactly the reaction I had when I saw Dealey Plaza a few years ago. The photographs and the maps just never conveyed how compact the space was.
"And how did Ruby, a civilian, get into the basement of a heavily guarded police building? With a gun, no less!"
You youngsters may not be old enough to remember this, but it used to be that you could get into public buildings without having to show ID, go through metal detectors, submit to pat-downs, etc. In 1970, some folks brought firearms, including a shotgun and a submachine gun, into the Marin County Court House, where they proceeded to take a judge hostage (before blowing his head off with aforementioned shotgun). In 1965, when President Johnson went to New Orleans to look at the devastating effects of a hurricane, a woman ran out into the street where the president was and told him about the hardship she personally was suffering. Today, she wouldn't be allowed within two blocks of the president.
Of course, we have people like Jack Ruby, Jonathan Jackson, Sarah Jane Moore, Squeaky Fromme, and John Hinckley to thank for the change since those days.

On that same day in 1963, of course, C. S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley also died.

Also, the behavior of his body upon receiving the head shot (he jerks back and to the left) is claimed to be some kind of reflex rather than from the physical force of a shot coming from the front and to the right.
As I understand it, it is not a reflex, but rather a jet effect created as the brain matter exits the front.

It was the aliens. Kenedy knew too much.

The only thing that I have ever watched was, "The Men Who Killed Kennedy", hosted by Roger Mudd on the History Channel. They explained that Jack Ruby was often at the police station to answer questions about his suspected mob dealings. He was well know at the police station.
The other interesting fact the show brought up is the dramatic increase in phone activity between Ruby and known mobsters in Chicago the two weeks before.

The questions that pop into my naturally suspicious cop mind are: Why did Jack Ruby bump Oswald off? To prevent him from talking? And how did Ruby, a civilian, get into the basement of a heavily guarded police building? With a gun, no less!