Updated December
25, 2012
JFK Conspiracy Theorists Seek Inclusion in Ceremony
By ANA
CAMPOY
The city plans a ceremony that would include readings from
Kennedy speeches by historian David McCullough and military jets flying over Dealey
Plaza , where the 35th president was
shot.
John Judge says Dallas
is preventing conspiracy theorists a permit to gather at Dealey
Plaza , the assassination site.
But some who believe the assassination was a conspiracy
involving high-ranking U.S.
officials say their views shouldn't be excluded from the commemoration.
"It's absurd to move the discussion of his death to
another moment," said John Judge, executive director of the Coalition on
Political Assassinations, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that studies 1960s
murders of public figures. "Our First Amendment rights are being violated."
Mr. Judge, 65 years old, said conspiracy-theory proponents
have gathered at Dealey Plaza
every Nov. 22 since 1964. Next year, he added, will be the first that Dallas
hasn't granted a permit for the meeting, which usually involves a moment of
silence and a few speeches. He said the city should move its ceremony
elsewhere, adding that his group's members would find a way to disseminate
their theories during the city event, possibly even dropping protest banners
from nearby buildings.
Mayor Mike Rawlings said in an interview that he would meet
with Mr. Judge's group, as well as with others who object to the city's plans,
to hear their concerns. But he is determined to keep the tone of the event
reflective of the "international, cosmopolitan, arts-centered city" Dallas
is today, he said, while focusing on President Kennedy's life and
accomplishments. "For 40 minutes, we need to be focusing on the man, not
the moment 50 years ago," Mr. Rawlings said.
Almost half a century after it shocked the nation, the
Kennedy assassination remains a touchy subject in Dallas .
The city's reputation took a beating after the president was slain while riding
in a roofless limousine through the city's downtown during an official visit.
It suffered another blow two days later when the prime
suspect in the case, Lee Harvey Oswald, was killed while in the custody of Dallas
police. Hate mail poured in from across the country, and cabdrivers in other
cities refused service to visiting Dallasites, said Darwin Payne, professor
emeritus at Southern Methodist University and a reporter for a local newspaper
at the time of the shooting.
"The world and the nation turned against Dallas ,"
Mr. Payne said.
The animosity has faded, but Dallas
remains closely linked to the assassination, a topic that continues to
fascinate many. Over 70% of Americans believe that more than one person was
involved in the killing, according to a 2003 Gallup
poll.
"There are so many possible plotters," said Kathy
Olmsted, a history professor at University
of California , Davis ,
who has studied conspiracy theories about the U.S.
government. "It becomes some sort of parlor game to people."
On any given day, dozens of tourists from around the world
track the route followed by Mr. Kennedy's motorcade through downtown Dallas ,
taking pictures in front of the white X that marks the spot where the first
bullet hit the president. The Sixth Floor
Museum , housed in the building from
which Lee Harvey Oswald fired, gets more than 300,000 visitors a year.
For those who can't get tickets, the event will be broadcast
on giant screens around the city. Demonstrators will be allowed to gather in
front of City Hall a few blocks away.
But Pete Johnson, a 58-year-old pharmacist from Columbus ,
Ohio , who studies the Kennedy assassination
in his free time, has launched Occupythegrassyknoll.com to urge supporters to
descend on the plaza for the ceremony.
Some conspiracy theorists believe a second shooter fired at
Mr. Kennedy from a patch of grass in the plaza.
"It's a controversial historical event," he said,
"and they need to allow that controversy to be expressed."
Write to Ana Campoy at ana.campoy@wsj.com
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