Tuesday, April 9, 2013

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Connally And The JFK Assassination

Like JFK, the now-deceased former Governor of Texas--John Connally--was mysteriously hit by gunfire on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. But, unlike JFK, Connally lived to dispute the Warren Commission Report's tale of which "magic bullet" actually hit him. In its report, the Warren Commission also described the role Connally played in arranging for JFK to, coincidentally, appear at the Dallas ambush site on November 22, 1963:

"The basic decision on the November trip to Texas was made at a meeting of President Kennedy, Vice-President Johnson, and Governor Connally on June 5, 1963, at the Cortez Hotel in El Paso, TX...The three agreed that the President would come to Texas in late November 1963...When Governor Connally called at the White House on October 4, 1963 to discuss the details of the visit, it was agreed that the planning of events in Texas would be left largely to the Governor..."

Prior to being named Secretary of the Navy by JFK, and subsequently winning election as Texas governor in the early 1960s, Connally had been employed in the 1950s by a Texas oil billionaire and leading supporter of Republican President Eisenhower named Sid Richardson. Coincidentally, Connally's college roommate--Henry Wade--was the Dallas District Attorney on November 22, 1963.

(Downtown 7-8/93)

No comments: