The Thirty - Fifth American President , JOHN FITZGERALD

KENNEDY , flew aboard Air Force One to LOVE FIELD ,

Dallas , Texas , on 2 2 November 1 9 6 3 ( Friday ) .

Love Field , still a thriving commercial airport to - day

despite attempts to close it and despite the presence of

DALLAS - FORT WORTH INTERNATIONAL

AIRPORT ( D F W ) from 1 9 7 2 ,

was the very last airport President

Kennedy would ever see .

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Jack Kennedy , slain forty - two years ago to - day ,

served 1 , 0 3 6 days as President . Only WILLIAM

HENRY HARRISON , ZACHARY TAYLOR and

JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD had shorter Presidential

terms ( one month , sixteen months , six months

respectively ) . Just forty - three years old at the time

of his successful 1 9 6 0 Presidential campaign and

just forty - six when he died , Kennedy is the second of

two incumbent United States Senators elected President .

( WARREN GAMALEAL HARDING is the other . )



Nine American Presidents left office prior to the end of

their elected terms . All save RICHARD MILHOUS

NIXON ( who resigned on 9 August 1 9 7 4 ) succumbed

to illness or were fatally shot . The short - timers , in order :



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON , 4 April 1 8 4 1

ZACHARY TAYLOR , 9 July 1 8 5 0

ABRAHAM LINCOLN , 1 5 April 1 8 6 5

JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD , 1 9 September 1 8 8 1

WILLIAM McKINLEY , 1 4 September 1 9 0 1

WARREN GAMALEAL HARDING , 2 August 1 9 2 3

FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT , 1 2 April 1 9 4 5

JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY , 2 2 November 1 9 6 3

RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON , 9 August 1 9 7 4



Note : Presidents elected at twenty - year intervals - -

Harrison ( 1 8 4 0 ) , Lincoln ( 1 8 6 0 ) , Garfield ( 1 8 8 0 ) ,

McKinley ( 1 9 0 0 ) , Harding ( 1 9 2 0 ) , Roosevelt ( 1 9 4 0 )

and Kennedy ( 1 9 6 0 ) - - all died while serving as

Commander - In - Chief . RONALD WILSON REAGAN ,

elected 4 November 1 9 8 0 , presumably would have been

the next to succumb , butt Reagan defied the " Zero Factor "

and lived through two elected terms , surviving a gunshot

wound from JOHN HINCKLEY JR . on 3 0 March of 1 9 8 1 .

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If You the Reader are significantly younger than , say , myself - -

I turn fifty on 9 March of 2 0 0 6 - - You mightn ' t quite grasp the

extremes of controversy over the death of President Kennedy .

Over two - thousand books ( ! ) have been published on the

topic , most of which are at odds with the conclusions of the

WARREN COMMISSION , convened after the assassination

to investigate Kennedy ' s death . Prominent among the members

of the commission were EARL WARREN , Chief Justice of the

United States , and GERALD R . FORD ( JR . ) , Congressman

from Michigan and , eventually , the Thirty - Ninth President .



The Commission ' s report dismisses the notion of a

conspiracy to kill the President , and names LEE HARVEY

OSWALD as the lone assassin . Twenty - nine years after the

Warren Commission ' s report , GERALD POSNER ' s book

" CASE CLOSED " ( 1 9 9 3 ) reaffirms the conclusions .



Posner ' s book is excellent . " Case Closed " debunks some of

the most cherished myths of conspiracy advocates , among them :

that Lee Harvey Oswald was not sufficiently adept with the

rifle to shoot the President from the sixth floor of the

Texas School Book Depository . In fact , Oswald was twice

cited for accuracy on the gunnery range during his troubled

stint in the United States Marine Corps .



Conspiracy Folk dismiss the MANNLICHER - CARCANO

BOLT - ACTION RIFLE , Oswald ' s weapon , as inadequate .

This , too , is false ; the Mannlicher - Carcano has been

deployed by Elephant hunters , well - regarded for

being light yet powerful .





ARLEN SPECTOR , now the Senior Senator from Pennsylvania ,

has been reviled by Conspiracy Folk for his " Magic Bullet "

Theory , as regards the second of three bullets from Oswald ' s

gun . ( Spector was Assistant Counsel to the Warren Commission . )

As Posner , via computer analysis , depicts in " Case Closed " ,

there is nothing particularly " magical " about the second bullet :

Oswald ' s second shot struck the President in the throat , hit

Texas Governor JOHN B . CONNALLY in the back and exited

through Connally ' s chest , struck a bone in Connally ' s

wrist , and lodged itself in the Governor ' s thigh . The second

shot is a testament to Oswald ' s marksman skill and to the

power of the Mannlicher - Carcano , and is in any event moot

as the third shot was dead - on into the President ' s skull .

Oswald delivered three shots within eight seconds , each of

which produced an ejected shell - casing that fell to the

floor at the Texas School Book Depository , and which were

in turn audible to employees on the Depository ' s fifth floor .

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Director OLIVER STONE ' s film J F K makes a case of sorts

for the Conspiracy Folk , based largely on U . S . Attorney

JIM GARRISON ' s book ON THE TRAIL OF THE ASSASSINS .

Stone cast KEVIN COSTMUCH , I mean , COSTNER as

Jim Garrison , of whom one reviewer said the portrayal was

done in " dork earnestness " . Fitting , I believe , as Costner

is one of the worst of prominent contemporary actors .



No thespian skill can change the facts about Jim Garrison ,

notorious in New Orleans for jury - tampering and for

bribing witnesses . ( In a bit of amusingly perverse

casting , director Oliver Stone assigned the role of

Chief Justice Earl Warren to Jim Garrison in J F K ! )

Also suspect is " COLONEL X " , depicted in J F K

by actor DONALD SUTHERLAND ; " X " is actually

L . FLETCHER PROUTY , United States Air Force ,

fount of DIS - information too superabundant for this

blog . ( In the film , " X " informs - - if that is the

word - - Attorney Garrison that New Zealand

journalists , on the far side of the International

Date Line , published information about Lee

Harvey Oswald in advance of the assassination

of President Kennedy , implying that reporters

Down Under were prescient about the President ' s

death . IN FACT , the information was already

in the Public Record here in the States , AND for

good measure , Jim Garrison NEVER MET

L . Fletcher Prouty ! )

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" Assassination Conspiracy Theories " clearly have no

credibility with this Typist , although it is intriguing to

speculate . Theorists can ascribe convincing MOTIVES

to PROSPECTIVE conspiricists : that LYNDON JOHNSON ,

Kennedy ' s Vice - President , was desperate to have the

Presidency and saw the removal of Jack Kennedy as the

only way ; that the PENTAGON wanted J . F . K . out

lest he decline to go to war in IndoChina ; that FIDEL

CASTRO , seething over the botched BAY OF PIGS

INVASION ( 1 7 April 1 9 6 1 ) and aware of Central

Intelligence Agency clandestine activity in CUBA ,

was hot to eliminate the Thirty - Fifth President ;

that CUBAN NATONALISTS , frustrated over the

inability of the Kennedy Administration to remove

Castro and incensed about the CUBAN MISSILE

CRISIS ( 1 6 October - - 2 8 October 1 9 6 2 )

might have been collaborators , although Oswald ' s

days distributing propaganda for the " FAIR PLAY

FOR CUBA " group surely precludes this .



The possible participation of the COSA NOSTRA

is the most intriguing scenario of all , if only because

President Kennedy , prolific womanizer , had an affair

with JUDITH CAMPBELL , Mistress to Mob Boss

SAM " MOMO " GIANCANA . President Kennedy

took the Electoral Votes of Illinois on 8 November

1 9 6 0 , helped in part by Giancana ' s support .

Kennedy ' s brother , ROBERT F . KENNEDY ,

named Attorney General in 1 9 6 1 , hadn ' t any

inclination to cultivate good relations with Giancana

and did in fact intend to use the Department Of

Justice ' s prosecutorial clout to jail Giancana ,

who in turn supposedly had the President

" whacked " in retaliation . Giancana , summoned

to appear before the Senate ' s Assassination Investigation

Select Committee and its ChairMan , Idaho ' s FRANK

CHURCH , never had the opportunity : Sam Giancana

was shot to death at his home in Oak Park , Illinois ,

1 9 July 1 9 7 5 . ( One can see an amusing portrayal of

Sam Giancana in the movie SUGAR TIME , which stars

MARY - LOUISE PARKER as Giancana ' s lounge

singer girlfriend PHYLLIS McGUIRE , and JOHN

TURTURRO as Giancana . )



Putting this topic to rest - - for now , at least - -

this Typist believes the controversy over Jack Kennedy ' s

demise is resolved for good when " DALE GRIBBLE " ,

the bug - exterminator neighbor of " HANK HILL " ,

reads the Warren Report and decides for himself that

the facts of the case support the Report ' s conclusions !



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