Plan B Forum

JFK theories won't die
By CARTER VANDERHOOF / Reformer Staff
Posted: 11/22/2011 03:00:00 AM EST
Updated: 11/22/2011 07:10:31 AM EST


BUHS students talk with JFK researcher Ed Sherry at the JFK Lancer Conference in Dal­las, Nov. 19. The students are: Haley Ryan, Jess Bart, Sawyer Olson, Caesar Moore, Soren Pelz-Walsh, Katelyn St. John and Jack Houk. (Submitted photo) Tuesday November 22, 2011
BRATTLEBORO -- 48 years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, new evidence and theories are still being brought to light.

Bill Holiday, a social studies teacher at Brattleboro Union High School, will be giving a presentation at the Brooks Memorial Library today at 7 p.m. discussing eyewitness testimony and conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination of JFK.

The presentation is being held on the anniversary of the assassination that occurred Nov. 22, 1963, as JFK rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas.

Jack Houk, a student at BUHS, said he got a chance to make his own theory about one of the most controversial events in history. Houk traveled last week to Dallas with Holiday and about six other high school students to meet eyewitnesses and researchers, and study the Kennedy assassination.

Houk said he got to learn some new information about the assassination, but was still just scratching the surface.

"There's a lot more I need to know," he said.

Houk said making the trip to Dallas was a great opportunity to learn more. He said it helped put things into perspective when he got to see the actual location of the assassination.

He believes there is a 95-percent certainty that there was a shooter on the grassy knoll.

"I think it means there were two shooters," said Houk.

He said most history books don't even mention a second shooter.

"We keep
learning more about stuff that happened a long time ago," said Houk.
Holiday has been giving presentations on the Kennedy assassination since a video of the incident was broadcast on public television -- the Zapruder film, a video shot by private citizen Abraham Zapruder capturing the assassination as it happened. The film was aired on ABC's Good Night America in 1975 for the first time on network television.

"I don't think there is any better experience than being out in the field," said Holiday. "It gives students the opportunity to question and come up with their own conclusions."

He said the trip to Dallas exposed the students to researchers that work to find the truth.

"There are people still digging," said Holiday.

He said 48 years later, details are still unclear about how and what actually happened. Holiday said some theories involve the mob or the Secret Service.

"People want to know why," said Holiday.

He said one of the things that has gotten him interested in the assassination is details that don't make since<sic>. Holiday has spoken with eyewitnesses and researchers over the years and has found particular details that may have led to Kennedy's assassination.

He said there were no officers on the presidential limousine that day, and the president's car was the first in the motorcade, which Holiday said doesn't usually happen.

"The way they did things in Dallas was different," he said.

There have been about two dozen incidents involving people who were in a place to offer testimony about the assassination or who may have shed some light on the case, but died due to suspicious circumstances. He said there was one reporter about to testify but died as a result of a karate chop to the neck. Another man, Lee Bowers, had given testimony that he saw three cars enter a forbidden area just before the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He also stated that he saw two strangers on the grassy knoll. Bowers was killed shortly after in 1966 as a result of a motor vehicle crash. However, eyewitnesses report that he was run off the road by another car.

"One of the tragedies of the Kennedy assassination; there was never an autopsy," said Holiday.

Holiday said the doctor was told to ignore procedures in a normal autopsy.

While researchers have been pondering what really happened for almost 50 years, questions about the assassination may never be fully answered, said Holiday.

Carter Vanderhoof can be reached at cvanderhoof@reformer.com or 802-254-2311 ext. 277.

Today's History Lesson

After 48 Years, DPD Honors Clerk Who Alerted Them to Lee Harvey Oswald's Whereabouts

By Leslie MinoraTue., Nov. 22 2011 at 5:31 PM


​After John Kennedy was shot in downtown Dallas on November 22, 1963, Johnny Calvin Brewer was listening to the radio while working behind the cash register at Hardy's Shoe Store on West Jefferson Avenue in Oak Cliff. At around 1:15 p.m., the radio broadcaster announced that another gunshot had been fired, this time at Officer J.D.Tippit, who had stopped a man who fit the assassin's description on West 10th Street, not far from Hardy's.

Minutes later, as cops swarmed the area, a casual shopper entered the shoe store. Brewer observed as Lee Harvey Oswald nervously browsed the selection, seemingly trying to avoid the cops and fade into the background despite the commotion of police cars screaming and people milling around outside.

If it weren't for Brewer, then a 22-year-old store clerk, the aftermath of Kennedy's assassination could have played out much differently. Which is why this afternoon, exactly 48 years later, Dallas Police Chief David Brown honored Brewer at the Texas Theatre, where he presented him with the Citizen's Certificate of Merit. "The selfless acts of Mr. Brewer have not been forgotten," Brown said, presenting him with the award.

After all, the afternoon of November 22, 1963 was not a time for shoe shopping. The president had just been shot; everyone knew. Brewer realized the man perusing the selection could very well be the man talked about on the radio. Oswald left the shoe store and entered Texas Theatre.

Brewer followed. "I was blank," he says now when asked what he was thinking then. He acted instinctively. He told the person working the ticket booth to call the police; he waited in the back of the theater to direct police once they arrived. It was the "longest couple minutes" he'd experienced.

He pointed four officers to Oswald, who was sitting in the crowd.

Only a few feet away from where Brewer stood, officer Nick McDonald told Oswald to stand up. The accused assassin chose instead to fight. He grabbed a pistol and tried to pull the trigger. Oswald nearly murdered another man that day.

While McDonald struggled to hold down Oswald, officer Ray Hawkins cuffed him. This afternoon, Hawkins sat quietly in the back of the very theater where the scene took place. "It was a wild day," Hawkins said, recounting the story. "I just feel lucky now that no one else was shot."

Today was the first time he had seen Brewer in 48 years. "He really did a great thing," Hawkins said.

dales wrote:"...
I don't believe the Warren Commission report, even for a minute.

But what if it was the THIRD bullet that missed?