Did You Know.....

[Warph]

Religious symbolism of The Twelve Days of Christmas

1 True Love refers to God

2 Turtle Doves refers to the Old and New Testaments

3 French Hens refers to Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues

4 Calling Birds refers to the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists

5 Golden Rings refers to the first Five Books of the Old Testament, the "Pentateuch", which gives the history of man's fall from grace.

6 Geese A-laying refers to the six days of creation

7 Swans A-swimming refers to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments

8 Maids A-milking refers to the eight beatitudes

9 Ladies Dancing refers to the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit

10 Lords A-leaping refers to the ten commandments

11 Pipers Piping refers to the eleven faithful apostles

12 Drummers Drumming refers to the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed

[larryJ]

Did you know the Edgar Waldo "Billy" Ingram opened his first White Castle restaurant in Wichita?   In 1921, Ingram partnered with short-order cook, Walter Anderson, who invented the hamburge bun in 1916, to start the business.  The miniburgers had five holes in them.  The holes came in 1942  --  not to save meat as is often thought, but to make sure the patty is evenly cooked.  In time, the small greasy burger with onions became known as a slider, and the fries were known as spikes.

Larryj

[Warph]

....that Jazz Legend Pianist & Composer Dave Brubeck Has Died of Heart Failure at Age 91 Today.

                               

Another music legend has left us... American jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck, famous for his hugely successful jazz classic "Take Five," passed away from heart failure this morning, just one day before his 92nd birthday.

Among his many awards, in September 2009, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced Brubeck as a Kennedy Center Honoree for exhibiting excellence in performance arts. The Kennedy Center Honors Gala took place on December 6, 2009 on Brubeck's 89th birthday, and was broadcast nationwide on CBS. The year before, Brubeck was inducted into the California Hall of Fame.

He was also a respected composer of orchestral and sacred music, and from his Wikipedia bio, wrote soundtracks for television such as "Mr. Broadway" and the animated miniseries "This Is America, Charlie Brown." In February 1960, Brubeck was honored with a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame (his star is located at 1716 Vine Street).


I would see Dave & the group play at the "Cellar Door Jazz Club" in Wash. DC when he was in town.  It was his music that got me hooked on progressive jazz.  Rest in peace, Dave and thank you for the beautiful, innovative music you gave us all these years.

....Warph

Paul Desmond - Died May 30, 1977 lung cancer) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and composer, born in San Francisco, best known for the work he did in the Dave Brubeck Quartet and for penning that group's greatest hit, "Take Five". He was not only one of the most popular musicians to come out of the West Coast's "cool jazz" scene, but also the possessor of a legendary and idiosyncratic wit.

Eugene Wright - Bassist - May 29, 1923 (age 89 and still kicking)


Joe Morello - Drums -  Died 03/13/11 at age 82
The jazz musician, known for his odd time signature, played on such classic recordings as "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo a la Turk."





Check out "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo à la Turk"  
and "Dave Brubeck - Take The 'A' Train - 1966":    

and last, but not least, "Brubeck At Carnegie Hall (1963)"

[/color][/font][/size][/b]

[larryJ]

Rest in peace, Dave. 

When I heard about this I sat at the computer last night and listened to "Take Five" a few times.  A memory came back of when a high school friend and I sat around in his parent's house and listened to Dave for hours.  Being involved with music most of my younger years, I was used to standard 2, 3, or 4 beats to the bar.  When "Take Five" came out, it was 5 beats to the bar and totally different and that is what made it so wonderful. 

His music will always live on to the delight of jazz lovers everywhere.

Larryj

[Warph]

....that Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 7 January 1943) was an inventor and a mechanical and electrical engineer. He is frequently cited as one of the most important contributors to the birth of commercial electricity and is best known for his many revolutionary developments in the field of electromagnetism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tesla's patents and theoretical work formed the basis of modern alternating current (AC) electric power systems, including the polyphase system of electrical distribution and the AC motor, with which he helped usher in the Second Industrial Revolution.

Born an ethnic Serb in the village of Smiljan, Croatian Military Frontier, in the territory of today's Croatia, he was a subject of the Austrian Empire by birth and later became an American citizen. After his demonstration of wireless communication through radio in 1894 and after being the victor in the "War of Currents", he was widely respected as one of the greatest electrical engineers who worked in America. Much of his early work pioneered modern electrical engineering and many of his discoveries were of groundbreaking importance. During this period, in the United States, Tesla's fame rivaled that of any other inventor or scientist in history or popular culture, but due to his eccentric personality and his seemingly unbelievable and sometimes bizarre claims about possible scientific and technological developments, Tesla was ultimately ostracized and regarded as a mad scientist. Tesla never put much focus on his finances. It is said he died impoverished, at the age of 86.

           

[Warph]

....that THRIVE is an unconventional documentary that lifts the veil on what's REALLY going on in our world by following the money upstream -- uncovering the global consolidation of power in nearly every aspect of our lives.  Weaving together breakthroughs in science, consciousness and activism, THRIVE offers real solutions, empowering us with unprecedented and bold strategies for reclaiming our lives and our future.

http://www.thrivemovement.com/

(Official Movie) THRIVE: What On Earth Will It Take?

             

[Warph]

Lost For 200 Years – Issac Newton, Apocalypse 2060: The Final Battle Between Good And Evil

Isaac Newton - Age 46:






The final battle between good and evil is the battle between the armies of God, being Christians, Jews, and their allies, on one side, and the armies of the devil, being Islam, the Left, and their allies, on the other.  And with the way things are going, it's hard to argue with Isaac Newton's fascinatingly calculated date of 2060 as being as viable as it gets. Newton, the founder of physics and the creator of calculus, is probably the only human being considered to be a greater genius than Albert Einsten.  Outside of the Bible, all we know of how the universe works, is based on what we know from Newton.  He kept these papers hidden for fear of persecution for heresy by the Church of England, even though they were deeply religious and anything but anti-Christian.  After the release and examination of these papers, in fact, Newton is now considered to be the first Christian Zionist.





Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three:

Part Four:

Part Five:

Or If You Wish, Watch The Full Version:

[Warph]

Very graphic pictures of the JFK assassination.  You might not want to watch.

House Select Committee on Assassination

...that next year will be the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy and the city of Dallas is worried that some might try to memorialize Kennedy on their own.  They want to control what you hear and see.

What most do not know is that the United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations found that the Kennedy assassination was the result of a conspiracy and that more than one shooter was involved.  It also reveals that shots came from the infamous 'grassy knoll.'

Another revelation from hours and hours of film show numerous men in hats and coats in the windows of the Texas Book Depository.  Numerous.  We were told the opposite.

Everyone except George H. W. Bush recalls where they were when President Kennedy was murdered.(It has become a joke in Washington)

Bush was a CIA operative before becoming the CIA civilian head of the same organization.  He was also a life long close pal of George de Mohrenschildt, the Soviet agent who was a close personal pal of Lee Harvey Oswald.

6 degrees of separation?

George de Mohrenschildt's testimony to the Warren Commission was the longest and most secretive of any testimony.

The records are sealed (50,000 documents) because of the sensitivity of the subject and, most believe, the shocking revelations that would be shown to the public.

When will truth prevail?

[Warph]

Manhunt: Tracing the Escape Route of John Wilkes Booth

....that just after 4:00 in the morning of April 15th, 1865 two men appeared on horseback at the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd near present day Waldorf, Maryland.  One man was suffering a broken leg and needed help.  Dr. Mudd helped the injured man into his home, cut away his boot and set the leg.  The two men then spent the rest of the night and most of the next day in Mudd's house.

But when federal troops arrived later to question Dr. Mudd about the assassin who had killed President Lincoln and taken refuge in his home, Mudd insisted he had not recognized John Wilkes Booth, this in spite of the fact that he had met Booth four months earlier and spent the better part of two days with him.  Was he lying?

Implausible as it may seem, descendants of Dr. Mudd, who still own the home and have opened it for tours, have spent the better part of the last 150 years trying to clear his name.  As you are shown around the home, the docent is at pains to impress on you Mudd's innocence.  You can see the room where Wilkes Booth and his accomplice slept that night, and, most remarkably, you can see the actual settee where Booth lay to have his leg set, but courtesy restrains you from expressing skepticism about their claim.

Booth's assassination of Lincoln was not well planned. He basically threw the plot together at the last minute after his original plans had fallen through.

Whether or not Booth was in disguise, as his ancestor's claim, it's hard to fathom how the doctor could have been in such close contact with his patient and not recognized him; and the fact remains, after Booth and his accomplice left the house the next day, Dr. Mudd did not immediately report the incident to authorities in spite of the fact that the whole countryside was aroused with news of the assassination and the flight of the murderer.

The sensitivity of Mudd's descendants on this issue is testimony to how close to the surface these matters still are to an event that happened a century and a half ago.  Part of the reason may be that the Lincoln assassination was the final act in a bloody drama that started with our politicians' refusal to compromise and ended with a war that claimed 620,000 American lives.

John Wilkes Booth escape route. Click the map for greater detail and to zoom and shift over territory.  Map:
http://www.communitywalk.com/john_wilkes_booth_escape_route_tour/map/1527327#10190010738.1h<68-76.3`q;0

Another reason may be that the landscape and locations of Booth's flight remain largely unchanged from that time, lending an air of immediacy to the events.  With a few notable exceptions, you can see almost every spot on Booth's escape route from Ford's Theatre in Washington to his assassination site near Port Royal, Virginia pretty much as Booth saw them.

If you're in Washington DC and you have a day to spare, it's a fascinating and worthwhile trek to follow Booth's escape route down through Maryland and into Virginia, and if you want the perfect companion to help fill in the blank spots and add color to the picture, take along James L. Swanson's absolutely compelling book, "Manhunt, the 12 Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer."


John Wilkes Booth was the Brad Pitt of his day, a handsome, wealthy celebrity who could make the ladies swoon.


Booth's assassination of Lincoln was not well planned. He basically threw the plot together at the last minute after his original plans had fallen through.



John Wilkes Booth Escape Route Tour


Mary Surratt's boarding house as it appeared in 1865.


1.)  Mary Surratt's Boarding House
Start the tour here

Begin your tour of John Wilkes Booth's escape route in an unlikely place, the Wok n' Roll restaurant in Washington DC's Chinatown.  The Chinese restaurant is housed in the actual building that was Mary Surratt's boarding house in 1865, and was the frequent meeting place of Booth and his co-conspirators in their plot to kidnap Lincoln.


Mary Surratt's boarding house as it appears today. It's the Wok n' Roll restaurant.

Yes, that's right.  Booth's assassination of Lincoln was Plan B.  The original plan, conceived before the war's end, was to kidnap the president and hold him for an exchange of confederate prisoners.  But when the war ended Booth's plans fell apart.  In an act of desperation he cobbled together the assassination scheme at the last minute, dragging along a few half-hearted co-conspirators.

After the assassination, one of the first places federal troops descended on was Mary Surratt's boarding house.  Mary was arrested and convicted, becoming the first woman to be executed by the federal government.  But Booth was not there.  He had escaped to Maryland.


The alley behind Ford's Theater as it appeared in 1865.



2.) Ford's Theater
Walking time from the previous stop: 10 minutes

Ford's Theater in Washington has been restored to the original condition it was in on the night of the assassination on April 14th, 1865.  An interesting museum detailing the events of the assassination is housed on the lower level but the highlight is the National Park Service lecture about the assassination given from the stage as you sit in the theater seats, gazing up at the box where the assassination occurred.


The alley behind Ford's Theater as it appears today. Booth was nearly captured here, but got away.

The theater lecture is usually thronged with tourists but another spot where few tourists go is the alley behind the theater where, on the night of the murder, Booth struggled up onto his horse after breaking his leg when leaping from the box after killing Lincoln, shouting in Latin, "Thus, always to tyrants!"  The horse had been held by a young peanut vendor who handed it over to Booth as soon as he hobbled out the back door, and it was lucky for Booth he did, for Booth was pursued by a concerned citizen named John B. Stewart who tried to drag Booth from the horse but was fended off.  Booth escaped Stewart and galloped away up the alley.  Today, the alley looks much as it did in 1865.


At Surrratt's Tavern Booth and Herold stopped to pick up a pair of rifles they'd secreted there.



3.) Surratt's Tavern
Driving time from previous stop: 25 minutes

Booth rode hard for the Potomac River bridge near present day Anacostia.  Once at the bridge, he used his skills as an actor to persuade the watchman to let him through.  Once over the bridge, Booth rode off into the open isolated country of southern Maryland.

It is a testament to Booth's charm and prowess as an actor that he was able to persuade the watchman to let him by; the watchman had firm orders not to let anyone through.  But Booth was a consummate thespian and matinee idol.  Far from being unknown to the people of Washington, Booth was the Brad Pitt of his day, a handsome, wealthy celebrity who could make the ladies swoon.


Booth's accomplice, David Herold, was star struck by Booth and remained with him through most of the ordeal.

On entering Maryland, Booth made first for Surratt's Tavern near present day Clinton, MD about 12 miles south of Anacostia.  The tavern had been a safe house for the confederate underground and home to John Surratt, son of Mary Surratt and part of Booth's original conspiracy to kidnap the president.

Today the Surratt's Tavern is fully restored and presided over by a docent in period dress.  A tour of the boarding house shows you the rooms where the boarders stayed, the kitchen and the dining room, and the place where Booth had hidden a pair of rifles between the walls in anticipation of his flight.

It was fortunate that two rifles had been stashed there because in his flight south from the river Booth picked up a traveling companion, David Herold, a co-conspirator whose role would be to act as a guide for the assassin through Maryland.

The home of Dr. Samuel Mudd is still flying the confederate flag. Was Mudd an accomplice or a dupe as his ancestors claim?

Booth and Herold only lingered at Surratt's Tavern long enough to pick up the rifles and bolt down a bottle of whiskey.  While there Booth couldn't resist the urge to boast that he had killed the president.  Maryland was a hot bed of secession and had only been kept in the Union through hook and crook.  Booth might've suspected that the news would be met with congratulations, but as he would find out throughout his ordeal, the end of the war and cessation of hostilities made many former confederates uneasy with his manic act of aggression.



4.)  Samuel Mudd House and Museum
Driving time from previous stop: 20 minutes

This was no less true of Dr. Samuel Mudd who, by some accounts, angrily ordered Booth and Herold to leave his home as soon as he discovered what they had been involved in.  But of course this would assume that Mudd knew who Booth was, an assertion firmly rejected by the Mudd family who oversee the Dr. Mudd House Museum near Waldorf, MD, about 15 miles south of Surratt's Tavern.


The dirt road leading away from the back of the Mudd house is the same road Booth and Herold traveled in 1865. It's amazing how many things remain unchanged from that time.

The Samuel Mudd house is almost exactly as it was a century and a half ago.  As part of the tour you are shown pictures of Ft. Jefferson, a prison island in the Gulf of Mexico, 70 miles west of Key West, where Mudd spent four years in prison for his complicity in Booth's escape.  Mudd was pardoned by then president Andrew Johnson in 1869 after he courageously helped stem a yellow fever outbreak on the island.  He died fourteen years later at age 49, by most accounts an exemplary citizen.

Since then the Mudd family has petitioned several successive presidents, requesting the conviction be set aside.  So far to no avail.  It appears that forever after Dr. Mudd will wear the stain of his association with John Wilkes Booth that April night in 1865.  But he is not the only one.  Others had their brushes with the fleeing assassin and some, like Samuel Cox, were not ashamed to admit it.


Rich Hill was the home of Samuel Cox. Booth and Herold showed up here seeking shelter.


5.) Rich Hill and The Pine Thicket
Driving time from previous stop: 27 minutes

After leaving Mudd's house, Booth and Herold showed up on the doorstep of Cox at his home Rich Hill, near present day Bel Alton, about 18 miles southwest of Mudd's farm.  Today, the house still stands, nestled back among the trees and surrounded by a clump of vegetation.  It is a private residence and is not open for tours but can be viewed from the roadside.

Whether or not Booth and Herold ever actually entered the house is a matter of some dispute but what is known is that Cox, fearful of their presence, directed them down the road about a quarter mile to a pine thicket where they lay in hiding for the better part of a week.  The pine thicket is still there today, although, one suspects, vastly diminished from its original size.


Booth and Herold camped out in this pine thicket for the better part of a week while federal troops mounted the largest manhunt in the nation's history.

Nevertheless, one can get a sense of the setting where Booth and Herold remained, holed up and shivering, desperate and hungry, Booth suffering from the pain of his shattered leg, while thousands of troops pushed south out of Washington in pursuit of the fugitives.  They had been advised to lay low in that spot by the foster brother of Samuel Cox, a confederate agent who knew the surrounding countryside like the back of his hand.  Cox had enlisted Thomas A. Jones to get Booth and Herold across the river to Virginia where it was assumed they would be safe.



6.)  Huckleberry and the Potomac
Drive time from the previous stop: 7 minutes

Jones lived on a nearby farm called Huckleberry.  His home still stands, although today it is a Jesuit retreat house and can only be visited by appointment.  The surrounding countryside is as tranquil and bucolic as it was in 1865.


The countryside near Thomas A. Jones farm, known as "Huckleberry", is as tranquil and bucolic today as it was in 1865.

After five days, Jones returned to the pine thicket and advised the fugitives that it was time to go.  He urged them to leave their horses behind, to be less conspicuous.  They traveled on foot, by night, three and a half miles down a series of hidden paths and public roads to a marshy area near the outlet of Port Tobacco creek on the Potomac River where Jones had a row boat tied up and waiting.

The exact spot of Booth's launch site is hard to pin down.  There are some lively discussions about it on line.  But it makes sense that it would be directly west of Jones' property near Huckleberry.  About as close as you can get by car today is on Pope's Creek Rd near the historical marker about a hundred yards past Captain Billy's Crab House, which is an ideal place to stop and have a bite before carrying on with the escape route.


Thomas A. Jones led Booth and Herold to a secluded place on the Potomac River where he had a boat tied up and waiting.
In any case, you can get a sense of the wide expanse of the river and what Booth and Herold were up against in trying to cross it at night with no lights.

Behind them, the countryside was filling up with federal troops (Dr. Samuel Mudd had already been confronted and questioned). When Booth and Herold shoved off, the night was as dark as India ink and the two men became disoriented while rowing.  After more than an hour, they ended up back on the east bank of the Potomac in Maryland.

David Herold sought out the home of a friend, who refused to let them stay in his home; it was just too dangerous.  They were banished to the woods.  After two more days of hiding out, Booth and Herold again attempted the crossing and finally landed in Virginia on the morning of April 23rd, nine days after the assassination.


Cleydael. Booth and Herold were rudely turned away from Dr. Richard Stuart's home.



7.) Cleydael
Driving time from previous stop: 25 minutes

Herold sought out the home of confederate signal agent, Elizabeth Queensberry, who arranged for Booth and Herold to be escorted to a Virginia plantation house 12 miles inland.  The house was called Cleydael after the ancestral Scottish home of its occupants, Dr. and Mrs. Richard Stuart, and it still stands today, although it is a private residence.  Once there, however, Booth and Herold got a chilly reception.

Dr. Stuart grudgingly allowed them to eat dinner in his home but then sent them on their way, refusing to treat Booth's leg.  Booth was stunned at the way he was being treated.  He had expected to be celebrated as a hero in Virginia but instead was being shunted off as a pariah.


Instead of being welcomed into stately Cleydael, the fugitives were sent to the cabin of a freed black man, which infuriated Booth.

To add insult to injury, Stuart arranged for the fugitives to hole up for the night with a black man named John Lucas. John Wilkes Booth was a rabid racist and resented being relegated to the home of a black man.  He forced Lucas and his family to sleep outside while he and Herold spent the night in their cabin.

In the morning, Lucas's son Charlie transported the fugitives by wagon to the town of Port Conway on the Rappahannock River.  He left them in the company of William Rollins, a fisherman who agreed to ferry them across, but not until he put out his fishing nets.  While they were waiting for Rollins, Booth and Herold were spotted by three mounted soldiers.  Fortunately, for them they were confederate soldiers on their way home after the war.  Booth and Herold fell in with the soldiers and they all crossed the river together.


8.) The Peyton House


Driving time from previous stop: 15 minutes

Once on the other side of the river, in the town of Port Royal, one of the soldiers, William Jett, escorted the fugitives to the home of Randolph Peyton whom he thought would be willing to provide them shelter.  But Peyton was not at home and his two spinster sisters thought it would be unseemly to have a pair strange men residing with them, this time due to the sensibilities of the ladies who resided there.  Once again, Booth and Herold were refused admittance to a Virginia home.

The Peyton house still stands on a side street in Port Royal, boarded up and sagging with age.  A century and a half ago, Booth and Herold stood in its front yard and were informed that they would have to move on.  They were advised to seek refuge at the farm of Richard H. Garrett three and a half miles to the south.  Unbeknownst to Booth and Herold, this would be their last stop.


"Where Booth Died" reads the marker, but the marker is wrong. Booth actually died two miles south of here in a hard to reach spot between a divided highway.


9.) Where Booth Died
Driving time from previous stop:  3 minutes

Garrett's two eldest sons had just returned from the war and Richard Garrett was in an expansive mood.  When Booth and Herold were presented to him as returning confederate soldiers, Garrett welcomed them with open arms.  Finally, Booth was getting the reception he felt he deserved.  But things were about to change.

On Tuesday April 25th, one day after Booth and Herold passed through Port Conway, federal detective and manhunter Luther Baker arrived on the scene and questioned William Rollins, the fisherman who had offered to ferry the fugitives across the Rappahannock.  Rollins was forthcoming, describing the fugitives in detail.  Baker felt sure he was hot on their trail, but to confirm it he wanted to question the soldiers that had reportedly been with Booth and Herold during the crossing.


Garrett's farm as it appeared in 1865.

Baker and members of the Sixteenth New York Cavalry tracked down William Jett in Bowling Green and, under threat of violence, persuaded him to reveal where Booth and Herold were hiding.  Jett not only told them where the fugitives were, he offered to take them there.

Meanwhile, the former hospitality shown by Richard Garrett toward the two supposed soldiers in his midst had soured when it became clear that Booth and Herold had been lying; they weren't returning veterans at all but had taken advantage of the Garrett's kindliness under false pretenses.  Garrett's oldest son, William, on discovering this, refused to let them sleep in the house.  Once again, John Wilkes Booth, who had expected to be celebrated by the people of Virginia was being spurned.  That night Booth and Herold slept in the tobacco barn.

After the rest of the tour, the Garrett Farm site is a bit of a letdown. It's just a well trodden clearing in the woods with a sign warning against taking artifacts.

Today, finding the site of Garrett's farm is tricky.  The state has erected a historical marker just south of Port Royal, near the intersection of Route 301 and Route 17 that says Where Booth Died.  But on reading the marker you learn "Booth died two miles south of here at Garrett's farm."  So where exactly did Booth die?


10.)  Garrett Farm Site


Driving time from previous stop:  8 minutes

The former site of Garrett's farm sits in a heavily forested median between a divided 4-lane parkway that cuts through Fort AP Hill, a 76,000 acre military base.  All along the way there are signs prohibiting motorists from stopping or parking.  What's more, even though every stop on the escape route requires the traveler to go further south, to reach the Garrett farm site, the traveler must go several miles south on Route 301 out of Port Royal, and then turn around and head back north on the other side of the divided parkway.


The manhunt raged for twelve days. In the end the reward money was distributed among the 26 cavalrymen that surrounded and killed Booth.

A lawn sign planted at the side of the road points the way up a path into the woods to the site of Garrett's farm.  It is difficult to park here as there is little or no shoulder and traffic is moving at a furious clip.  The best you can do is get your vehicle over into the grass and leave it idling as you scurry up the path to take a quick look.

There's really not much to see, just a clearing in the woods and a sign that warns against taking artifacts from the site.  If there were any artifacts to be taken, they are long gone now.  Of all the places along the escape route that are virtually unchanged from 1865, this place is so completely different it's hard to imagine what it must've looked like that April morning so long ago when Booth and Herold woke up to find themselves surrounded by federal troops.


David Herold surrendered at Garrett's Farm but was hanged three months later alongside Mary Surratt and two other conspirators.

Twenty-six cavalrymen took aim at the barn as detective Luther Baker ordered Booth and Herold to come out.  David Herold emerged with his hands up but Booth refused to surrender.  After attempting to negotiate with the assassin, the troops set fire to the barn.  Booth covered his mouth against the smoke and prepared to come out firing, but a young sergeant by the name of Boston Corbett, having crept up close to the barn, peered in through a chink and saw Booth's intention.  Drawing his pistol, he took aim through the chink and before Booth could play out his daring final act, Corbett shot him.

Booth was carried, dying, from the barn and laid under a locust tree.  He had been shot through the neck.  A local doctor pronounced the wound mortal.  As the sun rose over Garrett's farm on the morning of April 26th, 1865, John Wilkes Booth died.

David Herold was tried along with Mary Surratt and two other conspirators and hanged three months later.

Abraham Lincoln, vilified through most of his presidency by friend and foe, attained in death a martyrdom that helped him become the most popular president in US history.  It is ironic that the man who shot him had, throughout his life, enjoyed the honor and admiration of most everyone who knew him, but in death acquired an ignominy so complete it even destroyed the lives of those who came into contact with him.

John Wilkes Booth achieved exactly the opposite of what he had intended.  He cemented in glory the man he'd intended to destroy and plunged into disrepute a reputation he'd hoped would be raised in glory, his own.

[Warph]

John F. Kennedy:  11/22/63 Revisted

Single Gun Theory

.... that in the parking lot of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, freelance tour guides wrangle tourists onto the grassy knoll and make wild claims about the Kennedy assassination.  "51 people saw two gunmen shoot the president from this spot!"

The obvious question.  "And none of them went to the police?"

"Some did, but their testimony was suppressed. Others were intimidated into silence. At least one was killed."

On the wooden palisade fence that tops the knoll, the graffiti artists have scrawled their opinions, one reads: "About this spot. Bang! Bang!"

Really?  People still believe this?  After all these years?

Some people just will not get with the program.


From the Sixth Floor corner window of the Texas School Book Depository came the shot that changed the nation.



If You Want to Run with the Crowd
The Kennedy assassination is one of the most fascinating events in American history. The national consensus of opinion changes from generation to generation. Right after the event, as we rode the last waves of post-World War II optimism, we were willing to believe what they were telling us, that a single gunman was responsible.

But as the upbeat attitude of the late 50's and early 60's gave way to the cynicism of the 70's, conspiracy theories abounded. In the early 80's a new investigation released findings that supported a conspiracy. But by the late 80's we were growing weary of all the cynicism, eager to the return to a more positive view of the nation and ourselves, and by the late 90's that evidence was refuted.


This is the view from the Sixth Floor window. This is the angle Oswald had. He surely shot JFK from here. But was he alone?

Today, the prevailing opinion is that a single gunman killed Kennedy.  If you want to run with the crowd, this is what you believe.  Stephen King, in his 2011 bestseller, 11/22/63, revisits the controversy in fiction and comes to the same conclusion, stating, "It is very, very difficult for a reasonable person to believe otherwise."  Yet as you explore the exhibits in the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas you are reminded of all the bizarre anomalies that surround the assassination, and you can't help wondering.

A Pristine Bullet, Mysterious Recordings, and Swapped Photos
Among the oddities is "the pristine bullet", the bullet that allegedly killed the president and struck Texas governor John Connelly, a bullet which would have had to pass through 15 layers of clothing, 7 layers of skin, and approximately 15 inches of tissue, struck a necktie knot, removed 4 inches of rib, and shattered a radius bone, yet somehow came to rest on the gurney of the wounded Connelly intact, neither blunted or dented.


This frame from the Zabruder film shows the bullet slamming into Kennedy's head. Question: Is that the back of his head, or the front?

The Warren Commission, tasked with getting to the bottom of the assassination back in 1964, insisted that this fatal bullet was one of three fired from Oswald's gun, which were the only shots fired.  But there is ample evidence suggesting otherwise.

There is acoustical evidence of shots fired from the grassy knoll, as well as the testimony of three credible eyewitnesses who reported hearing shots fired from that area. (A good deal fewer than the 51 eyewitnesses claimed by the conspiracy freaks, but how many do you need really?)

What's more, the location of the fatal wound is in dispute.  The Warren Commission concluded that the bullet struck Kennedy above the right shoulder and passed through his neck, a trajectory that aligns with Oswald's perch.  But Robert McClelland, a doctor at Parkland Hospital where the autopsy was performed, testified that the back part of Kennedy's head was blown out, with tissue missing, a finding consistent with an exit wound, suggesting that the fatal bullet was fired from the front, in the direction of the grassy knoll.


According to analysts, there is a "95% chance" that the autopsy photos of Kennedy's fatal wound have been switched.

In the 1990's the Assassination Records Review Board's chief analyst for military records said he was "95% certain" that the autopsy photos in the National Archives, the ones showing the wound at the back of the neck, had been switched.

Everywhere you look, there are suspicious anomalies.  And then there are the weird coincidences.



A Friend of the Family
Here's one for you. Lee Harvey Oswald, by all accounts a nobody, a loser with few friends and absolutely zero influence, was a palling around, in the days leading up to the assassination, with George de Mohrenschildt, a wealthy Russian ex-pat. Who is George de Mohrenschildt, you ask. Well, among other things, a close friend of the Bouvier family.  So close, in fact, that he used to bounce a 3-year old Jackie on his knee.  That's right, that Jackie, the one who grew up to become first lady, wife of JFK.

Mohrenschildt eventually cracked up and committed suicide, but before he did, he managed to confess that he had been directed by a CIA operative to meet with Oswald in the days before the assassination.  Then, according to a government led investigation, he succumbed to despair and shot himself – less than 48 hours after his explosive confession.


In this famous picture of Oswald holding the murder weapon he is seen holding up a newspaper, which fixes him in place and time, a peculiar thing for an aspiring assassin to do.

Oswald himself claimed he had been nothing more than a patsy. It was one of the few things he was able to say before he was gunned down a little more than 48 hours after the assassination by a disgruntled nightclub owner named Jack Ruby.



Improbable Deaths
Ruby was not expecting what he got. Thinking he would get off with a relatively light charge of "murder without malice", Ruby instead had the book thrown at him and was convicted of first degree murder and given the death penalty.  No long after, imprisoned and desperate, Ruby told reporters, "Everything pertaining to what's happening has never come to the surface. The world will never know the true facts of what occurred."  In a later interview with psychiatrist Werner Teuter, he said, "I was framed to kill Oswald."  Ruby died in prison of cancer. He claimed his enemies, who were trying to silence him, had injected him with cancer cells. He died a mere three years after killing Oswald, taking his secrets with him.

Untimely deaths cluster around the Kennedy assassination, so many that the House Select Committee on Assassinations set out in 1978 to investigate what they called the "statistically improbable number" of deaths of people associated with the event.


Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald. Ruby later told a pyschiatrist, "I was framed to kill Oswald."

Among those who perished within a few years of the assassination were Lee Bowers, one of the eyewitnesses who testified he heard shots coming from the grassy knoll; he died in a car crash.  Then there was John Garrett Underhill, a former CIA agent who expressed his conviction that Kennedy had been killed by a small clique in the CIA, killed by a gunshot wound to the head, death ruled a suicide.  Finally, there was Rose Cherami, a stripper in Jack Ruby's club who tried to warn authorities, in advance of the assassination, that Kennedy was about to be killed. She was struck by a car, supposedly while hitchhiking.



Strange Coincidences and Questionable Evidence
All of this is explored and detailed at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas. Housed on the sixth floor of the former Texas School Book Depository in the same place where Oswald fired his fateful shots, the museum is surprisingly frank and balanced in laying out the history and controversy of the assassination.

Arranged in roughly chronological order, beginning with the rise of Kennedy as a candidate, his election to the presidency, his early days in office, proceeding through the politics of the time and into the events leading up to the moment when the President's motorcade entered Dealey Plaza, the museum incorporates a fascinating combination of photos, video, artifacts and static exhibits to paint a comprehensive picture of the assassination and its aftermath.  It draws no conclusions of its own but leaves it up to each visitor to draw his own conclusions.


At the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, a museum goer ponders the glassed off corner where Lee Harvey Oswald hid among stacks of boxes to shoot the president.

And after 50 years of digging and speculating by a legion of assiduous investigators, the ascendant conclusion is that Oswald did it all by himself.  No conspiracy.  Case closed.

Really?

I am just cynical enough to believe otherwise.



The Turning Point
Given the strange coincidences, the lost and tampered with evidence, the suppressed and strangled testimony, to arrive unequivocally at the conclusion that a single nitwit loser, acting alone, assassinated JFK is a little like saying that nobody on Wall Street was responsible for the financial shenanigans that led to the biggest economic meltdown since the Great Depression.

Really?


The pristine bullet. The Sixth Floor Museum doesn't shy away from examining controversial aspects of the assassination.

Wow, that's amazing.  And they wonder why the vast majority of the American people have lost faith in government.

From a historical perspective, what's interesting about the Kennedy assassination is that it stands as the pivotal moment in history when the American people went from trusting their government to suspecting it of things dark and shady.  Most historians mark that moment as Watergate, but Watergate was just the confirmation of a gathering cynicism that started when the Warren Commission released its dubious findings.



Kennedy's Bitterest Enemies


Kennedy's refusal to provide air support resulted in the killing and capture of Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs.

So who did pull the strings on the Kennedy assassination?  Conspiracy theories offer up everyone from the Soviets to LBJ, but the most plausible hypothesis is that the CIA, working in concert with anti-Castro Cubans and the mob, offed the president.

The reasons are manifest.  First, Kennedy made bitter enemies of anti-Castro Cubans and the CIA when he refused to provide air support to bail out the botched Bay of Pigs invasion.  Kennedy was never wholeheartedly behind the invasion, having inherited it from the previous administration, so when it went sour, he was not about to call in air strikes, which would've led to an all out war with Cuba and most likely, by extension, the Soviets, thereby kicking off World War III.


View from the grassy knoll. The second car is approximately where Kennedy was when the shots were fired.

Kennedy was having none of it, so the anti-Castro invasion force was killed and captured, giving a black eye to the CIA, who had advocated for the invasion, and to the anti-Castro Cuban community in South Florida, who despised Kennedy for betraying them.

Second, the Kennedy administration was in hot water with the mob, who had supported JFK's run for the presidency, just as they had supported his father, Joe Kennedy, throughout his rise to power.  Joe Kennedy was a bootlegger.  The Kennedy fortune was made on the basis of illegal activities, specifically on the smuggling and distribution of alcohol during prohibition.  The Kennedys were tight with the mob, and the mob went to the mat for Kennedy during the election, bringing in the labor vote for JFK and tipping the  election in his favor.

So how did he repay them?  By declaring an all out war against organized crime.


Dealey Plaza today, a quiet place to stop and contemplate what happened here, and what it means.

In the CIA and the mafia, Kennedy had made enemies of the people most capable of committing murder and covering it up.  Then came November 22nd, 1963.

A shot rang out in Dallas and America became a different country, a country forever divided between people who want desperately to believe that these kinds of things don't happen, and people like me, who fear a powerful, influential elite only too willing to destroy the hopes and dreams of the nation to suit their own self-serving agendas, an elite emboldened by the public's willingness to bury their heads in the sand.

The Sixth Floor Museum is worth a visit if for no other reason than it makes you stop and think.

Then again, maybe it doesn't, because doing so might be just a little too scary.

But, really?