JFK: Sequencious Interruptus

Even shortly after the Kennedy assassination Americans still lived in their make-believe world.  Magazines were stuffed with cigarette ads telling us to “Take a puff.  It’s spring time.”  Tareyton smokers would rather “fight than switch.”  Carltons had “precision air vents, high porosity paper, and activated charcoal.  Pall Malls were smooth and mild and if cigarettes caused the deaths of millions of Americans, who raised an eyebrow?  Shrewd businessmen and politicians counted on our deep seated gullibility and naiveté then and more so after the Warren Commission published its whitewash of the Kennedy assassination in 1964. 

It was understandable because we were a different people who tolerated distraction and loved happy endings.  Stories of the sophisticated young President being gunned down in Dallas were softened and modified for public consumption.  The Media played its part in the cover-up with endless stories of John Kennedy often written by enraptured young intellectuals like Arthur Schlesinger Jr.  JFK read 1200 words a minute and went to Ivy League schools like Choate, Princeton, and Harvard.  He was handsome and well dressed.  He called LBJ a “riverboat gambler.”  He thought Nixon had no class.  All that fluff and rubbish was the problem.  Even in its tabloid aspect, who cares if he slept with Marilyn Monroe, the girlfriend of Sam Giancana or a Kennedy maid?  Americans just wanted to know who shot him and why.

Among the Media’s wailing and sobbing can be found the beginnings of the assassination’s cover-up techniques still in use today.  I call one “Sequencious Interuptus” and refer to Life Magazine’s October 2, 1964 “Facts and Photos that Shaped the Warren Report.”  Of course, tinkering with the Abraham Zapruder film by reversing or eliminating frames is nothing new.  What was new to me was the passing off of Life’s eight color sequences as “crucial” – especially frame 6 – the head shot.  (Show all of Zapruder’s frames and in sequence).  It was the first time I noticed Sequencious Interruptus which was to become a classic disinformation technique.

By freezing the frame anyone can interrupt the others and defy the laws of physics that say in part that a body in motion tends to stay in motion (JFK’s head snapping back).  It’s like in football where the runner reaches out for the goal post and the ball stops in mid-air.  Did the ball make it into the end zone?  The referees make their decision upon review of the whole sequence.  If the Zapruder frames are interrupted, anything can be assumed like: the shot came from behind or from the pergola area.  Sequencious Interruptus was a cheap, but effective trick to try to prove Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman in order to cover-up a conspiracy.  

JFK: The 100th Anniversary 2063

So "Voyager" has passed out of the Solar System and out of our collective minds except for those contemporaries like me.  The 50^th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination produced two weeks of television coverage that tapered off in the week before November 22^nd.  America will now get back to her addiction to game shows, gory crime scene investigations, the latest sex scandal, sports, and assorted TV mush.   The assassination coverage was but a brief interlude the networks couldn’t ignore; there are too many contemporaries left.  I thought it would be instructive to summarize what we saw in November, 2013.

50 Years of Questions: The Kennedy Assassination (FOX). No interviews with LBJ or Jackie Kennedy. Zapruder film shown in broken sequence.  Mark Lane’s position was covered.  Suggested there was a front shooter stationed on the west roof of the School Book Depository. 

The Kennedy Assassination: Who Killed Kennedy (FOX).  FOX repeatedly says Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy.  The Media sentenced someone who hadn’t been tried.

The Lost JFK Tapes: The Assassination.  (National Geographic Channel) Abraham Zapruder was shown being interviewed, but predictably, there was no showing of the film’s head shot.  Another film (Muchmore?), taken from the south side of the street, showed his Kennedy’s head move back and to his left.  It surprised me that they would show one without the other.  The Media continued to say Oswald killed JFK.

JFK: The Smoking Gun. Its contention is that the Secret Service accidentally shot Kennedy from behind with an AR-15 with no witnesses.  The Zapruder film was shown three times with the ridiculous interpretation that if the head is hit from behind, it snaps back. Autopsy was re-enacted.

JFK: The Final Hours (National Geographic Channel). Portrayed JFK as “just a dad” unabashedly overlooking any political motive in the killing and who cares what Jackie was wearing?

The Kennedy Assassination: Conspiracy or Murder? Refreshing contrarian view of Mark Lane in his book, Rush to Judgment.  Oswald was not involved.  Dr. Cyril Wecht covered a prime motive for the assassination by the CIA, the plan of the Kennedy Administration to break the CIA into a thousand pieces.

Bill O’reilly’s Killing Kennedy (National Geographic Channel). Made for television drama.  Unworthy of the gravity of the real events.  Forgone conclusions and two hours of manufactured tedium on Oswald’s domestic problems.

Capturing Oswald and The Kennedy Detail (Military Channel).  I think I fell asleep.

JFK: A President Betrayed. Today’s college students are interviewed for JFK’s impact on them.  What does that have to do with solving America’s most infamous crime?

JFK: Inside the Evidence (REELZ Channel). Although 22 people smelled the gunpowder on the grassy knoll, it could have been just a car backfire.

Oliver Stone’s JFK. The best of the Media’s coverage.  I’m surprised it was shown.

JFK: American Experience (PBS). The Cuban angle covered.

The Kennedy Half Century (PBS). Documentary of the impact and influence of JFK’s life, administration, and death

Cold Case JFK. NOVA on PBS television.  Lazers and gizmos in a scientific attempt to refute front shooter.  Pristine bullet was legitimate.  Grassy knoll shot impossible because their definition of the grassy knoll was only the pergola area.  No mention of the 3X3 storm drain sniper’s nest at the fence’s union with the overpass. Head snap backward meant JFK was hit behind, defying physics.

JFK: For the Record (REELZ Channel). Recitation of obvious facts, politically correct positions, and benign questions by Judge John R. Tunheim of the Assassination Records Review Board: old records should have been released years ago; CIA was very co-operative; Secret Service had a bad day; Zaprudeder film was a big problem; the autopsy could have been more thorough; the bullet that hit JFK from another direction is an interesting question; the smell of gunpowder is an interesting question; and it’s good to hear the theories of other people, but he says the public will never know.

I suspect by the time future generations read this in 2063 the real story of the Kennedy assassination will have been known for decades because all its participants – the conspirators – are dead.  Besides, the transition from a representative government, apparent to us now in 2013, will have been completed decades ago.  At the time, the disinformation about the assassination was overwhelming and carried out for over a half century. 

I have no doubt the U.S. ruling class will have shown itself to be no better than that of ancient Rome muddling along with obsolete forms of government devoid of any connection with real people.  From our old perspective in 2013, the 50^th anniversary of the assassination, it’s hard to imagine they could carry on the charade so long.  Despite all the strutting and fretting of what our detractors used to call “conspiracy theorists”, what could we do?  We had no power.  If I might be so bold as to say for them: “All we wanted was the truth and for those who killed the President to be brought to justice.”

Book Review: Killing Kennedy

Whenever two or three are gathered together there is a committee and that’s what Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot is all about.  It’s never been more popular for a nationally known celebrity like Bill O’Reilly to take the credit for actually writing a book and to attach his name for marketing purposes in order to cover for poor scholarship and elevate a cotton candy story.  Every time Bill tells the world that his book is the best thing since sliced bread, he should mention that Martin Dugard is the co-author and the writer who, I suspect, did the heavy lifting.

 

There are telltale signs that O’Reilly and Dugard are at odds concerning critical elements of the story like who actually shot JFK.  Bill says on TV that Lee Harvey Oswald absolutely was the shooter, but Dugard is pretty vague about it.  Look for it.  Concerning the Zapruder film; “We watched it time after time after time to understand the sequence of events . . . .”  What part of “head snap backwards, means front shooter” don’t they understand?  The head shot was not a “sequence”, but the proof of conspiracy.

 

Of course, there’s the bountiful photos eulogizing and endearing John Kennedy to the non-critical masses: family portraits, Jackie with John-John, JFK in the Oval Office or on PT109, Carolyn and John-John dancing in front of Kennedy’s desk, a photo with Frank Sinatra and more.  There was not one photo of Dealey Plaza or the crime scene, just black and white maps similar to the Warren Commission’s substitute drawings of the official autopsy.  Killing Kennedy is full of tributes, fond memories, and anecdotes of JFK.  It’ almost as if Bill O’Reilly was a Kennedy himself in mourning, but one should remember the word, “killing” in title of the book.  It implies the act of murder involving motive, capabilities, and bad guys.  The generation contemporary to the assassination wants to know “Who and why?”  If you do, don’t buy the book.

 

If Killing Kennedy was my term paper, I’d get an “F” because even though there are plenty of quotes, there are no footnotes supporting them, just general bibliographical sources.  Perhaps the authors are so distinguished they need no documentation.  There’s not even a Table of Contents (TOC).  Perhaps it was an editorial concession for possible e-Book conversion.  Nonetheless, scholarship means references supported by footnotes.  Bill O’Reilly and Conspiracy Deniers in general fail to understand or admit that time and its mountain of accumulated evidence by people smarter than themselves have made the lone gunman assertion ridiculous.  The least O’Reilly could do for the rest of us is to rename the book Praising Kennedy.