JFK Assassination

April 23rd and 24th the Dealey Plaza UK research group held their annual seminar in Canterbury. This was the 14th edition!

Location for its attendees to present their findings was Christchurch University right next to the center. Canterbury itself is a beacon of historic monuments, some of it is a feast for the human eye.

After Stuart Galloway bid everyone welcome it was up to Alaric Rosman to talk about the confusion regarding the rifle. The large projected screen proved to be a major asset for power point presentations.

I followed Alaric with the first half of my Prayer Man talk. In this one hour slot I discussed the films and the ongoing search to obtain better copies of them and also discussed some of the TSBD employees. One hour is not enough to discuss all the details of Lovelady, Shelley, Frazier and some of the others. I could easily fill two hours on them alone!

After that most of us headed for the pub nearby to scoff on fast food and plenty of beers for us to return and for me to discuss part 2 of my talk. This segment dealt with Lee Oswald’s interrogations and the second floor lunch room encounter which went from that to there was no 2nd floor lunchroom encounter to there never was a 2nd floor at the TSBD in the first place! This last remark is a joke obviously but the collection of statements and screw ups by all involved parties destroy this particular fairy tale of nailing Oswald for the assassination.

Straight after that Larry Hancock gave an excellent presentation on National Security Response on Nov 22nd vs other major events. Great talk but staring at just a few pages with text is demanding, a few pix alongside this would make it even more interesting. Sadly Ian Griggs did not feel well enough to hold his talk about the Dallas Police Department, a real shame and I hope he will be able to do this soon at one of the mini seminars this year, I for one look very much forward to this. The man is an authority on this subject and needs to be heard

Closing off was Paul Brown’s talk Fingerprints of Intelligence part 2 (the first installment being shown in 2015). Part 3 to follow next year, I very much look forward to that.

After that we all retreated to our rooms only for us to get together again at Pilgrim’s Hotel for a lush dinner. I had the pleasure to discuss things with Malcolm Blunt who is just a vault of information regarding this case. Everyone was quite tired and most of us went back to our rooms for a well  needed sleep (I got up at 5 and by 11 I was beat…).

The next day started with Barry Keane giving an excellent opening address in memory of JFK, accompanied with a nice set of slides. This was followed by the auction of various JFK related coins, books and films all handled by Mike Dworetsky and Allan Johnson.

Then Greg Parker came on, first with the movie he had prepared for us all to discuss his vols 1 & 2 of Lee Harvey Oswald’s Cold War, after which we got him on the telephone to ask him a few questions regarding Ferrie, CAP, Oswald etc.

Then we had a quick lunch thanks to a delivery of M&S and after that Malcolm Blunt and I sat down for an hour’s long Q&A. To me this was the highlight of the weekend to be confronted with such a wealth of knowledge.

Bill Beadle followed with his talk of presidential assassinations, barely a word about JFK, but no less interesting. Without visuals a bit hard to stay focused on the info being thrown at you but a very good talk nevertheless. Jean Shields ended the seminar with her talk about Friends and Family, a subject that proved to be a welcome distraction.

Overall a really impressive line -up and above all a very amicable atmosphere among attendees and such a ton of information made available regarding this case. I cannot wait for next year’s because I am definitely there!

Thanks to Stuart Galloway who did an amazing job in setting all this up!