A picture is worth a thousand words: John Connally grimaces at Lyndon Johnson greets JFK in Dallas at Love Field on the tarmac at 11:00 - 11:15AM. John Connally was a long time protege and personal friend of Lyndon Johnson and at this moment he knows that LYNDON JOHNSON is finished with the Kennedys and not necessarily that Lyndon Johnson is about to orchestrate the murder of JFK in about an hour or so. I do not think John Connally was involved in the JFK assassination. As for Lyndon Johnson it is a lead pipe cinch that he was. I think Connally is reflecting on the humiliation of his longtime mentor Lyndon Johnson at the feet of the Kennedys and Connally knows the Kennedys are very close to being finished with LBJ.
Lyndon Johnson was at the foot of Air Force One to greet the
Kennedys as they arrived in Dallas at Love Field. At this moment LBJ (and very likely Connally as well) is acutely
aware that the Kennedys are working to utterly destroy Johnson.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth184552/
LBJ on John
Connally: he could “leave more dead bodies in the field with less remorse than
any politician I ever knew”
https://www.history.com/news/the-other-victims-of-the-jfk-assassination
QUOTE
Born on a farm, John Connally earned both an undergraduate
and law degree from the University of Texas prior to serving in the U.S. Navy
during World War II. He got his political start as a legislative assistant to
then-Representative Lyndon B. Johnson and later managed a number of LBJ’s campaigns,
including his successful bid for the U.S. Senate in 1948. Connally could “leave more dead bodies in the field
with less remorse than any politician I ever knew,” LBJ reportedly once said of
his protege. Throughout most of the Eisenhower administration,
Connally served as legal counsel to a wealthy oil magnate. He then worked for
the Kennedy-Johnson ticket during the 1960 presidential campaign and became
secretary of the Navy after their election. Less than a year later, he resigned
in order to run for governor of Texas, which he won with 54 percent of the vote.
UNQUOTE
Richard Nixon,
on 11-22-63, at Idlewood Airport in New York, to reporters and photographers,
just before he finds out JFK has been shot in Dallas:
“The President may have to drop Johnson as his running
mate. In the fight for civil rights, Lyndon Johnson has become a liability to
the ticket. He may be more of a hindrance than an asset.”
[Jim Bishop, The
Day Kennedy was Shot, 1968 edition, pp. 178-179]
Account of Conversation With John
and Nellie Connally During Car Ride From Los Angeles Airport to Beverly Hills
Hotel, January, 1992
By Michael
Danzig
June 12,
2021
My name is Michael Danzig, I grew up on Long Island, New York, I
graduated from The University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin in 1969. After,
I lived in Amsterdam for five years, and worked with The Khamphalous Light Show
Group at the Paradiso Club there, and toured all over Europe with groups such
as Pink Floyd, and others. In 1974 I moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in
screenwriting, during which time I had numerous freelance writing jobs, but
never achieved an onscreen credit. Subsequently, I taught high school history
in the Los Angeles Unified School District for two decades. I am now
retired. While I was writing, I supported
myself driving a limousine for Dav-El Limousine Inc.
The company had numerous
show business accounts. I usually drove a town car, which gave me the
opportunity, if the client was in a talkative mood to have conversations with
some of society's most renowned personalities. Among the memories that stand
out are Mick Jagger, who sat in the front seat, and shared a joint with me, as
he talked about the coming video revolution in music. I had a lively political
discussion with the great playwright, and former Marilyn Monroe husband, Arthur
Miller. George Harrison was quite friendly, and we talked about the world
situation, and American and English politics. Alexander Haig, former secretary
of defense under Reagan, was mad that The Beverly Hills Hotel had not placed in
his room his customarily offered bottle of his favorite Scotch. John
Ehrlichman, of Watergate fame, was joking about being recognized in the hotel
lobby. Deborah Harry, known as Blondie, who I drove to her concert at The Greek
Theater, wore onstage a T-shirt I gave her that my girlfriend made with hearts
on it to sing her hit, "Heart Of Glass." Sharon Stone, who I drove
for a week, shared her dislike of a certain star with whom she shared the
screen in one of her hit movies. Diane Sawyer, the highly accomplished
newswoman, was so talkative and friendly she gave me a hundred and thirty
dollar tip for a ride to the airport. Meryl Steep encouraged me to continue
pursuing my quest to become a screenwriter, and gave me the advice to explore
my own experience for material. Robin Williams sat in the back seat, and didn't
say a word. Steven Spielberg handed me a thin manila envelope, probably with a
three-page screen treatment in it, and asked me to put it in the trunk, although
he had no luggage or briefcase. I also picked up Robert Wagner from The Santa
Monica Airport the morning his wife Natalie Wood drowned, but that's a whole
other story for another venue. There were many famous people, who I drove over the decade and a half I worked there,
but none so memorable or historic as the former governor of Texas and
Treasury Secretary John Connally and his wife Nellie. I picked them up at the
Los Angeles Airport, and took them to their hotel in Beverly Hills on the day
they appeared on CNN on The Larry King Show. The Oliver Stone movie,
"JFK" had opened the month before and had generated worldwide
controversy.
I had become fascinated
with the assassination in 1975, when I watched the first public broadcast of
the Zapruder film on Geraldo Rivera's show "Good Night, America." As a limo driver, there was plenty of dead time to
read, and I consumed everything from Sylvia Meagher to Col. Fletcher L. Prouty
to Anthony Summers, and David Lifton.
Thus, when the Dav-El
dispatcher, Gordon, handed me the job slip for a pick-up at the airport, and I
read the name "Mr. and Mrs. John Connally" I almost collapsed in
shock. This was to be my personal appointment with history: I would be
transporting in a Lincoln Town Car the two people who were riding in the
presidential limousine on November 22, 1963 with President John Kennedy when he
was murdered. This was beyond belief, and my brain trembled with anxiety, as I
drove to the LA Airport. The plane was on time, and our airport greeter brought
the couple to the curb. I got out, and opened the doors for them, and put their
luggage in the trunk.
I took Motor Avenue to the hotel. This street is a special
route from the airport to Beverly Hills, which most limo drivers know as a way
to avoid traffic, and give the clients a nice drive. It's a beautiful winding,
tree-lined road through the upper middle class suburb of Cheviot Hills. It
connects the studios of MGM in Culver City with those of 20th Century Fox
in Beverly Hills. It was specially built
in the 1920's by Louis B. Meyer, head of MGM, so he could conveniently drive to
have lunch with Darrel B. Zanuck, who was chief of 20th Century Fox. I told the
Connallys this story as we drove, and they laughed easily, and asked me some
questions about the movie industry. They appeared quite friendly and informal,
and since they mentioned they were going on The Larry King Show later I felt
confident enough to ask them what they thought of the JFK movie.
Connally said he didn't agree with the premise that an arm of the
government had conspired to kill Kennedy, but that director Oliver Stone had
gotten right the fact he was not hit by the same bullet as the president. I
started throwing in some details from my reading, and they seemed open to a
discussion. The book, "Double Cross" by Chuck Giancana had just come
out, where he said his brother, Sam, the late Mafia crime boss of Chicago,
admitted to him the mob's involvement in the killing of the president, and I asked Connally what he thought about it. I also
reminded him that there was a recent item in the news concerning a man named
Frank Ragano, the lawyer of the late mob boss of Florida, Santos Trafficante.
He had stated to an author that Trafficante on his death bed had told him he
had had a hand in the assassination, along with Carlos Marcello, Mafia boss of
New Orleans. Connally said he had read about that, and his wife said she had,
too.
Connally then said that he had always told the public and the Warren
Commission that he knew for sure Kennedy had been hit by the first shot (the
neck shot), and that he, Connally, was hit by the second one, and that the
third bullet was the kill shot that hit Kennedy in the head. His wife chimed in
that's what she witnessed, and that they had never deviated from their testimony.
I offered the observation that therefore "The Magic Bullet Theory"
must be incorrect, and either Oswald didn't act alone or didn't pull the
trigger at all. They both agreed with me, and maintained they believed the
Warren Commission was wrong in their conclusion that Oswald acted alone.
At that point, as we were
driving through this most peaceful neighborhood one could imagine, and to this
day, I recall vividly looking in the
rearview mirror at John Connally's face as I got up the nerve to ask him the
question on the whole world's mind for the last twenty-nine years; who do you
think did it? And as I asked it, I realized I was asking the man who had been
sitting two feet from the president when he was killed. Connally replied,
"I think it was the mob. I think the Mafia killed him, and the recent
information that just came out about Giancana and the other guy proves what
I've always thought." I then gently prodded them about why the Warren
Commission said it was Oswald alone. I remember Nellie Connally, who was the
nicest person with the friendliest, cheerful smile say, as I looked at her face
in the mirror: "We don't know, we've been trying to figure that one
out forever, but we only know what happened because we were there."
I remember telling them a
few more details about the mob because I had recently read the Giancana book,
and I threw in facts about Ruby and his connections to known Chicago gangsters;
he was said to have phone numbers in his book linked to them, as well a couple
of Dallas mob operators. Then Nellie said,
with a laugh, "You know more about this than we do. We should bring you on
Larry King with us." And we all laughed about the idea of them bringing
their driver on the show.
Then, as we turned onto
Pico Boulevard in front of the entrance to the 20th Century Fox Studio lot, the
subject abruptly changed back to the movie industry. I gave them my standard
limo driver history of the old studio system, and how it had radically changed
in the sixties, and the story of the creation of Century City as a real estate
scam. We drove down Avenue Of The Stars and into Beverly Hills. I'm not sure if
I dropped them off at The Beverly Hills Hotel or the Beverly Wilshire, but as I opened the door for them, they thanked me, and
said they enjoyed the ride. I said I'd watch them on Larry King tonight, and
they smiled and thanked me again, and disappeared into the hotel.
And that was my brush with
history.
Interestingly enough, in
2008, while reading "JFK And The Unspeakable: Why He Died & Why It
Matters" by James Douglass, I discovered that I had an additional two
degrees of separation from the late president in another way. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, James Douglass
describes the secret negotiations he uncovered between Khrushchev and Kennedy.
The go-betweens were Norman Cousins, editor of The Saturday Review, and a
distinguished author on international relations, and Father Felix Morlion, an
advisor to Pope John XXIII. It so happens my father, David Danzig, who was a
professor at Columbia University, and a specialist in intergroup relations, and
an author of articles that appeared in Cousins' magazine and in
"Commentary" had known both men quite well, and both had been to
dinner at our house in Sands Point, NY in the late fifties and early sixties. Although
I was only thirteen or so when I met them, I still remember both men very well.
They were quite distinctive. It's hard to forget an imposing priest in a collar
with a pronounced Italian accent discussing his conversations with the pope at
the Vatican. So when I read these pages in Douglass' book, I thought back to
meeting the Connallys, and realized I had had four meetings of people with two
degrees of separation from one of the men who I admired most in history, John
F. Kennedy. Two of those people had been with the late president in a tragic
setting, and two in a triumphal setting. Then
I remembered my ninth grade history class, and a debate I participated in about
the 1960 presidential election. My classmate argued for Richard Nixon. Then I
stood up in front of the class and gave my argument for why John Kennedy should
be elected president. After I finished the whole class clapped. I had obliterated
my opponent.
Now, thinking back all
those years, and writing this testimony, which by the work of Robert Morrow
will be placed in the historical files of the Kennedy assassination, it seems
somehow for me the circle has been completed.
JFK researcher Michael Danzig was a
limo driver at the time: John Connally, circa January 1992, thought the JFK
assassination was a conspiracy and that the Mob killed JFK.
Facebook
post on 6/11/2021 - JFK Assassination
Discussion Group | Facebook
QUOTE
I happened to drive the Connallys from the Los Angeles Airport
to their hotel the day they went on Larry King, we discussed their upcoming
interview and Connally told me he always thought it was a conspiracy, and he
attributed it to the mob. When I asked why it was covered up, his wife laughed,
and said, “You probably know more about it than we do, we should bring you on
the show with us.”
UNQUOTE
John and Nellie Connally on “Larry King” in 1992
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry5kexkmIbs
John Connally (in 1982 to Doug
Thompson): "You know I was one of the ones who advised Kennedy to stay
away from Texas," Connally said. "Lyndon (Johnson) was being a real
asshole about the whole thing and insisted."
Web link:
https://www.opednews.com/populum/page.php?f=opedne_doug_tho_060330_is_deception_the_bes.htm
March 29, 2006
Is deception the best way to serve one's country?
By Doug Thompson
The handwritten note lay in the bottom drawer of my old rolltop
desk, one I bought for $50 in a junk store in Richmond, VA, 39 years ago.
"Dear Doug & Amy," it read. "Thanks for dinner and for
listening." The signature was a bold "John" and the letterhead
on the note simply said "John B. Connally" and was dated July 14,
1982.
::::::::
The handwritten note lay in the
bottom drawer of my old rolltop desk, one I bought for $50 in a junk store in
Richmond, VA, 39 years ago.
"Dear Doug & Amy," it read. "Thanks for dinner and for
listening." The signature was a bold "John" and the letterhead
on the note simply said "John B. Connally" and was dated July 14,
1982.
I met John Connally on a TWA flight from Kansas City to Albuquerque earlier
that year. The former governor of Texas, the man who took one of the bullets
from the assassination that killed President John F. Kenney, was headed to
Santa Fe to buy a house.
The meeting wasn't an accident. The flight originated in Washington and I sat
in the front row of the coach cabin. During a stop in Kansas City, I saw
Connally get on the plane and settle into a first class seat so I walked off
the plane and upgraded to a first class seat right ahead of the governor. I not
only wanted to meet the man who was with Kennedy on that day in Dallas in 1963
but, as the communications director for the re-election campaign of Congressman
Manuel Lujan of New Mexico, I thought he might be willing to help out on what
was a tough campaign.
When the plane was in the air, I introduced myself and said I was working on
Lujan's campaign. Connally's face lit up and he invited me to move to the empty
seat next to him.
"How is Manuel? Is there anything I can do to help?"
By the time we landed in Albuquerque, Connally had agreed to do a fundraiser
for Lujan. A month later, he flew back into New Mexico where Amy and I picked
him up for the fundraiser. Afterwards, we took him to dinner.
Connolly was both gracious and charming and told us many stories about Texas
politics. As the evening wore on and the multiple bourbon and branch waters
took their effect, he started talking about November 22, 1963, in Dallas.
"You know I was one of the ones who advised
Kennedy to stay away from Texas," Connally said. "Lyndon (Johnson)
was being a real asshole about the whole thing and insisted."
Connally's mood darkened as he talked about Dallas. When the bullet hit him, he
said he felt like he had been kicked in the ribs and couldn't breathe. He spoke
kindly of Jackie Kennedy and said he admired both her bravery and composure.
I had to ask. Did he think Lee Harvey Oswald
fired the gun that killed Kennedy?
"Absolutely not," Connally said. "I do not, for one second,
believe the conclusions of the Warren Commission."
So why not speak out?
"Because I love this country and we needed closure at the time. I will
never speak out publicly about what I believe."
We took him back to catch a late flight to Texas. He shook my hand, kissed Amy
on the cheek and walked up the ramp to the plane.
We saw Connally and his wife a couple of more times when they came to New
Mexico but he sold his house a few years later as part of a bankruptcy
settlement. He died in 1993 and, I believe, never spoke publicly about how he
doubted the findings of the Warren Commission.
Connnally's note serves as yet another reminder that in our Democratic
Republic, or what's left of it, few things are seldom as they seem. Like him, I
never accepted the findings of the Warren Commission. Too many illogical
conclusions.
John Kennedy's death, and the doubts that surround it to this day, marked the
beginning of the end of America's idealism. The cynicism grew with the lies of
Vietnam and the senseless deaths of too many thousands of young Americans in a
war that never should have been fought. Doubts about the integrity of those we
elect as our leaders festers today as this country finds itself embroiled in
another senseless war based on too many lies.
John Connally felt he served his country best by concealing his doubts about
the Warren Commission's whitewash but his silence may have contributed to the
growing perception that our elected leaders can rewrite history to fit their
political agendas.
Had Connally spoken out, as a high-ranking political figure with doubts about
the "official" version of what happened, it might have sent a signal
that Americans deserve the truth from their government, even when that truth
hurts.
Originally published at and © Copyright 2006 by Capitol Hill
Blue
Robert Morrow: John Connally was NOT
involved in the JFK assassination:
Let's be logical here. Would you
put yourself and your wife in a limo if you knew it was going to be a kill zone
with bullets flying in it? I would not, no matter I how I hated
Kennedy. Secondly, post assassination Connally was rejecting the linchpin of
the magic bullet theory - that a shot hit him and JFK at the same time. That is
like saying there were multiple shooters. Thirdly, and folks don't know this,
but Connally and LBJ were not getting along at that time. LBJ was a neutered
eunech as VP, a turd about to be flushed down the toilet by the Kennedys.
Connally was the rising star to replace LBJ in Texas as the #1 politico.
Connally went along with LBJ in getting JFK to Texas. Connally insisted on the
change of venue from the Women's Pavilion (outdated) to the Trade Mart for
luncheon but the Trade Mart was a modern, showy place worthy of a presidential
luncheon
And finally, if Connally were involved in JFK assassination, he would not be
having dinner with a stranger Doug Thompson and telling him the Warren Commission
was bullshit in 1982.
Compare that behavior to GHW Bush
at the Ford funeral in 2007:
1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9Jw0pwTtus
2) http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=6467&st=30&gopid=247990&#entry247990
(I do not believe John Connally was involved in the JFK assassination. I do
believe he was manipulated by Lyndon Johnson to do certain things that made the
JFK assassination possible. – Robert Morrow)
John Connally on the Kennedy
Assassination – on CSPAN – June 15, 1991
John
Connally on JFK Assassination (1991 C-SPAN interview) - YouTube
My Encounter with the Connallys
By Al Navis, JFK researcher
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/05/no_author/when-i-met-two-jfk-assassination-survivors/
At the
1992 version of ASK (The Assassination Symposium on John F. Kennedy), the final
event of the weekend was to be ‘The
Dealey Plaza Walk About’. That was to run from 2:00 until 4:00 p.m. and there
were maybe ten of us ‘tour guides’ who would take groups of interested
symposium attendees—as well as members of the general public who happened to
find themselves there—on a tour of Dealey Plaza.
It was
perhaps 3:45 p.m. and all the other tour guides were either back at the hotel,
on their way back or wrapping up their last group when I glanced up towards Old
Elm Street. That part of Elm that ran right in front of the Texas School Book
Depository Building and led to the parking lot which is behind the picket fence
atop the infamous ‘Grassy Knoll’.
A black
Cadillac stretch limousine had pulled up and had parked. Getting out on the
curbside was former Texas Governor John Connally wearing a white Stetson hat.
Moments later, his wife Nellie also appeared. They had been invited by the ASK
organizers for the 2:00 p.m. ‘walk about’ but hadn’t shown up. I hustled up the
hill towards the Governor and his wife, held out my hand and introduced myself.
The
Governor apologized that his aide had written down the time of the ending of
the event instead of the start and he wondered if it was too late. I explained
that all the other guides as well as the organizers had already headed back to
hotel but that I would be honoured to take them for a brief tour, until it got
dark. While it was warm, and it was Texas, it was still the end of November and
the thousands of birds that call Dealey Plaza home during the evenings were
coming in to roost.
As we
strolled slowly across Old Elm and then around the east end of the triangular
block and began walking down the gentle slope of Elm Street, I could see that
the Governor seemed a bit ill-at-ease.
“I
guess,” I said, “That every time you come back to this place, the memories are
not at all pleasant.”
“Actually,”
replied John Connally, “This is the first time that we’ve been here
since…since…that day.”
He
hesitated and I could see that even 29 years later, the events of ‘that day’
were a part of John Connally’s daily life…and always would be.
“Nellie
and I didn’t live here,” he said. “Austin is where the Governor’s mansion is
and then there were the years in Washington. Sometimes I’d have to be here in
Dallas for a dinner or an event, but I never allowed the car to come anywhere
near here.”
Nellie
Connally said, “Al, you don’t know how tough it was for me to get John to agree
to come here today.”
She
squeezed his arm and they looked at each other and I could see genuine affection
that only a combination of years together and crises weathered can produce.
We
continued down Elm Street until we were right below the concrete pedestal on
which Abraham Zapruder and his secretary Marilyn Sitzman stood while filming
the assassination. I pointed it out to the Connallys, pivoted and turned to
face east, directly at the County Records Building. As I pointed up to the roof
of that building, I said, “That is where the shooter was who shot you. The bullet
entered your back and exited your chest.”
Now I
turned to face north and looked up at the sixth floor of the Book Depository
and said, “The top floor of windows is the seventh, so the next floor down is
the sixth. Way over on the east end is where the Warren Commission said that
Lee Oswald was…but we all know he wasn’t. However someone was in that window.
“The shooter
who shot you a second time, was in the…”
“A second
time?” John Connally interrupted.
“Yes
sir,” I responded. “That shooter was on the same floor but in the far west
window. While your wife was pulling you towards her, a bullet went through your
right wrist and ended up in your left thigh.”
When I
said this, I saw Nellie Connally elbow her husband in the ribs gently and
say,”See, John, I told you that I felt something hit you when I was pulled you
over. Now I have proof.”
“Mrs.
Connally,” I said. “This isn’t proof, it’s just my take on who was where on
that day. I looked at the wounds on both the Governor and the President as well
as the spectator who was hit way down there by the underpass on Commerce
Street. I just did what a ballistics person would do at any other shooting
scene. Work backwards. Don’t let yourself be swayed by what other people have
said happened. Work it out for yourself.”
“For
years,” said Nellie Connally, “I have believed that John was struck by two shots,
but he has insisted that he felt only one.”
I said,
“I think that by the time the second shot hit, maybe two seconds after the
first one, that the Governor was already in shock and that he wasn’t capable of
feeling anything. He also would have had a loud rushing noise in his ears, so
until he was down in your lap and the car was on its way to the hospital, he
probably couldn’t hear anything either.”
The
Governor was silent for a moment and then asked, “Al, how many shooters do you
think were firing at us?”
“Six,” I
said.
John
Connally chuckled a bit and said, “That’s what shoots you conspiracy buffs down
in the press. You always over-reach. How could that many people keep a secret for
almost thirty years?”
“Governor?”
I asked, “Do you remember the armoured car robbery in Boston in the early fifties?”
“Of
course,” he said.
“Imagine
that you and I are just chatting about what we’ve done in our lives and I say
that I was part of that armed robbery. Do you honestly think that anyone
involved in that case would say anything to anyone even forty years after the
fact?”
“Probably
not,” the Governor said after thinking for a few moments.
“Well,” I
said, “At the centre of this event, when you put aside all the theories,
trajectories, reports, obfuscations, misdirections and even outright lies, there
is one simple fact: a homicide occurred. John Kennedy was killed and the
statute of limitations never runs out on murder. So why would anyone risk
coming forward even thirty years later?”
The
Governor said nothing but I could see him formulating a reply. “So how many
people who were involved, know everything?”
“Everything?”
I repeated. “Nobody. It wouldn’t be safe for anyone to know everything. The
same way that covert operations use ‘cutouts’ and anonymous people to deliver
messages and material, I can’t see anyone even wanting to know everything. That
is except us!”
The three
of us laughed at that and I felt that if I could get John and Nellie Connally
to laugh at a place where one of them was shot and both of them scarred
forever, then I did my job.
“How long
have you been interested in the case?” Nellie Connally asked.
“Early
on,” I replied. “I guess I really became interested when I saw Jack Ruby shoot
Lee Oswald on live television from ABC Buffalo, while I watched from Toronto.”
“Toronto?”
the Governor exclaimed. “You mean you are Canadian?”
“Guilty,
Governor Connally,” I said.
“Then
your early interest in the assassination is even more intresting,” said Nellie
Connally.
“So,”
said the Governor, “You said that you thought there were six people involved.
Where were they?”
“I said
that there were six people shooting at you,” I corrected, “And they were
everywhere. My scenario has the first shot hitting the President in the throat
fired from behind the picket fence. The second, third and fourth shots were
almost simultaneous. One was the shot that hit you, fired from the roof of the
Country Records Building. Another was from the co-called ‘Oswald window’ or
‘sniper’s nest’ which hit the President in the back. The third of these three
shots was fired from the second floor window of the Dal-Tex Building, went
through the limousine’s windshield and then hit the curbstone down by the
triple underpass and Commerce Street. A fragment either of the bullet or the curbstone
that it hit flew up and slightly wounded a spectator named James Tague. The
next shot was the second shot that hit you in the wrist and ended up in your
left thigh, fired from the west window on the sixth floor. The final shot is
controversial. I believe that it was fired from this storm drain.”
By then I
had slowly walked the Connallys down Elm Street until we were at the base of
the stairs that led up the ‘grassy knoll’. I moved them gently to the curb,
without stepping into traffic.
“In 1963,”
I began, “This opening was a full eight inches high. Plenty of room for a
person to fire a handgun and the shot was very close. When I first spoke to
Bill and Gail Newman—who were just up Elm Street from here on that day—about
eight years ago, I mentioned to Bill that I had heard a radio interview with
him done on the afternoon of the assassination and that he had said the last
shot ‘sounded different’. When I said this to him, I could see him replaying
the assassination in his mind—as I’m sure that both you and Nellie, uh, sorry,
Mrs. Connally…”
“Al,
‘Nellie’ is just fine,” she interrupted. “And so is ‘John’. He hasn’t been ‘The
Governor’ for a long time now!” She laughed.
“I kinda
liked being called ‘Governor’ again, dear,” said John Connally and smiled at
his wife.
“Well
Billy Newman said that when he thought about it now, the last shot did sound
different. I asked him if it was more of a ‘boom’ while the others were more of
a ‘crack’ and he said that was it exactly! I asked him if it could have been
fired by a handgun instead of a high-powered rifle, from underground instead of
from a window and from down to his right, instead of behind him? Newman looked
at me and nodded.”
“Why so
many people?” asked Nellie Connally.
“If each
shooter fired only once, he didn’t need to re-acquire his target and re-aim. It
was just pull the trigger and then get the hell outta here. I bet that the
gunman who fired the first shot that hit you was already off the roof and down
the stairs before the limousine went under the triple underpass. By the time
anybody would have thought to look, the shooters were all long gone. Each one
in a different direction. I also believe that they didn’t even know where the
other shooting locations were either.”
During
our little stroll a few people had recognized the Connallys and had come over,
some asking for autographs, but most just watching from a distance.
In all, I
spent perhaps thirty to forty minutes with the Connallys and when it was over
and I walked them back to their limousine, John Connally shook my hand and
said. “Son, you’ve given me a lot to think about today and I thank you for
that.”
Nellie
Connally also shook my hand and gently kissed my cheek. “Thank you, Al,” was
all she whispered.
They got
into the limousine which during our tour had turned around so the it was now
heading east on Old Elm. As the limousine slowly pulled away I thought about my
little brush with history. The first time the Connallys had been back in Dealey
Plaza since the assassination. I wondered if any of my fellow researchers would
believe me when I got back to the Hyatt Reunion Hotel, but some attendees had
seen me with the Connallys and others had come up for autographs.
When I
got back to the hotel, a few of the researchers had already heard that the
Connallys had finally arrived and that I had been their tour guide and I got
some good-natured ribbing. When I got back to Toronto a few days later, I roughly
wrote down most of the conversation that we shared as best as I could remember
it.
But it
wasn’t until 14 years later, with the help of those notes, that I finally put
together this little narrative.
Alan Page, a
JFK researcher, once ran into John Connolly on the back side of the Texas
School Book Depository
Alan Page: interview with Connally. Late 70’s early 1980’s -
He was waiting for his limo on the back stoop of the Texas School Book
depository. He had been going through JFK research materials in the building.
As Alan stepped out of the TSBD on the back side he ran into John Connally, the
former governor of Texas, who was waiting for his ride to pick him up. Alan
says he remarked to Connally, “Interesting stuff, huh?”
According to Page, Connally’s reply was, “Well,
I am a public person so I have a public opinion. But I also have a
personal opinion.” Page continued, “Then he gave me a strange look almost like
a wink as he got into his limo.”
[Robert Morrow interview with Alan Page on 7-21-15]
JFK
Researcher Pat Speer on what John Connally believed:
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=21898
PAT SPEER ON WHAT JOHN CONNALLY BELIEVED:
While it would be most convenient for your position, David, to
believe Nellie was the only obstacle between big John and the single-bullet
theory, this is a puff of smoke burped out by those refusing to look at the
record.
1. Connally's initial belief was that the first two shots--the
ones he was later told were fired by Oswald using a bolt-action rifle--were
extremely close together--and were fired by an automatic weapon.
2. At the request of the Warren Commission, he studied the Zapruder
film, and came to believe Kennedy was hit before going behind the sign, while
he was hit just after coming out from behind the sign.
3. He trusted his doctor
Robert Shaw, who told him the bullet hitting him had not hit Kennedy first.
So it wasn't just Nellie that told him the SBT was incorrect--it
was everything he trusted...his ears, his eyes, his doctor, AND his wife.
PAT SPEER CONTINUES:
John Connally's final words on the subject: (From In History's
Shadow, 1993) "I happen to support the major findings of the Warren Commission.
I believe there were errors, including the so-called “magic bullet.” My ear and
my body told me that I was not wounded in three places by a bullet that hit
President Kennedy. I remain convinced that he was hit twice, and I once, by
three separate shots.”
As far as his comments in 1966 (and then 1967), David, context is
everything. As detailed on my website, the release of Epstein's and Lane's
books, when coupled with Connally's appearance in Life magazine, completely
flipped out the Johnson Administration. Arlen Specter was brought out to defend
the SBT, Boswell was forced to pretend the back wound was a neck wound,
Connally was dragged back out to say that Mark Lane was a scavenger, and that
the SBT was possible. And Hoover was forced to pretend he accepted the
SBT.
It's all there in chapter 10, in a section entitled "The
Boswell Incident".
Why was Kennedy coming to Texas in November, 1963? The real reason
according to Julian Read, John Connally’s aide, was to raise money.
https://www.star-telegram/opinion/bud-kennedy/article3836174.html
QUOTE
“The main thing I’m trying to do
is fill in some gaps of history,” Read said.
“Everyone knows what happened,
but few people know what all went into the trip.
“Connally was the host and helped
lay out the itinerary. There’s this myth
that this was supposed to iron out problems [among Texas Democrats], but
really, they came down here to raise money.”
UNQUOTE
Early 1967: Texas Gov. John Connally ridiculing Lyndon Johnson for
crying and weakness, as he held court with his fave state senators
[“The Truth about John Connally,” Paul Burka, Texas Monthly,
November, 1979]
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/the-truth-about-john-connally/
Robert Morrow note: the Texas legislature usually meets in odd
numbered years from January to May (unless there are special sessions later in
the year). So this anecdote probably occurred sometime in the January – May,
1967 timeframe. This is the same time period that Connally was urging LBJ to use
tactical nuclear weapons in the Vietnam War.
QUOTE
John Connally works on the principle that he’d rather be feared
than loved. And he’s gotten his wish.
Austin, 1967. With the Legislature in session, several favored
state senators have dropped by the governor’s office for a late-afternoon drink
and post mortem. Midway through the visit John Connally begins telling a story.
Lyndon Johnson had called him the other night from the White House, Connally said. It was after midnight, and
Johnson was crying. “John, why do they hate me so?” the President had wanted to
know. It is apparent to the senators that Connally is telling the story not out
of compassion for his old friend but out of scorn. How, he asks them, could
Lyndon be so weak?
That is one question that has never been asked about John
Connally. If anything, he is too strong, too tough. When the senators in his
office that day left the room, it was Connally, not Johnson, who had slipped in
their estimation: he had told a story he ought not to have told; he placed
toughness above loyalty. Today, as Connally seeks the job Johnson once held,
his extreme toughness—like the other facets of his personality—remains both a
plus and a minus. It provides a welcome contrast to Jimmy Carter, but it also
lends credence to his image as arrogant and vengeful and without human charity.
UNQUOTE
Sixty-five-year LBJ family friend and media flunky
Neal Spelce and former Texas governor John Connally were both on the board of
Cable Advertising Systems. Here is what John Connally told him (early 1990s)
about the JFK assassination:
QUOTE
One day he and I walked out of the Barton Creek Country Club and stopped to talk, and I got up the courage to ask him about the JFK assassination. “Governor, you’ve heard all these theories about how many shooters were involved.” He said, “There was just one.”
He talked about the wounds he received that day in Dallas. “I’ve hunted all my
life and I know the sound of rifle fire,” he said. “I heard those shots, and
there was only one rifle firing. And it was fired by one man.”
He was convinced that Lee Harvey Oswald, and only Lee Harvey Oswald,
had committed the horrible deed.”
UNQUOTE
[Neal Spelce, With the Bark Off: A Journalist’s Memories of LBJ and a Life in the News Media, p. 214]
Note: Barton Creek Country Club, located in Austin,TX
was built in 1991: https://www.har.com/barton-creek-country-club/golfcourse_13453
John Connally lived from Feb. 27, 1917 to June
15, 1993: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Connally
Texas TV newsman Neal Spelce and Sixty-five-year friend and employee
of the LBJ family, explains to us how Lyndon Johnson got his “good manners”
I was taken aback to find LBJ
lying on the bed, getting an enema while giving orders to the staff members who’d
gathered around him. The odor, the sounds! I nearly lost my lunch. But that was
LBJ. His attitude was, “I can’t stop because I need an enema. Let’s keep moving
and working.” The rumors were true that he sometimes conducted meetings on the
toilet, with the bathroom open.
Tim Harris on Facebook on July 16, 2021:
Posted on the Sixth Floor Museum web page: (13) The Sixth Floor Museum
at Dealey Plaza | Facebook
I worked at the Austin state capital during
the John Conally funeral and heard his brother( not sure which one) say "
I need my brother buried as soon as possible so someone doesn't dig that bullet
out of his wrist."
Tim Harris Facebook profile: (13)
Tim Harris | Facebook
Lyndon Johnson murdered John Conally who died in 1993 as a result
of “idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis” – a result of being shot on 11-22-1963
Wiki:
Connally suffered a fracture of the fifth rib, a punctured lung and a
shattered wrist and had a bullet lodged in his leg. He underwent four hours of
surgery after the shooting and recovered from his wounds.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7047454/
“Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a
complex lung disease characterized by scarring of the lung that is believed to
result from an atypical response to injury of the epithelium. “
Wiki
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiopathic_pulmonary_fibrosis
“The Separate Connally Shot,” by Vincent Salandria – destroys the
Magic Bullet Theory
Also,
here is the original: https://ratical.org/ratville/JFK/FalseMystery/Original-SeparateConnallyShot.pdf
Robert, this blog page on John Connally is great. I'll have to finish reading it later, but I did read the account by Toronto native and researcher, Al Navis (RIP). I met Al being from the same city a few times. He owned a book store on Avenue Road called the Handy Book Exchange, which had a great collection of JFK Assassination books and collectibles. That's where I bought my hard cover copy of Six Seconds In Dallas (a rare book). This was either in the 80s or 90s.
ReplyDeleteGerry Simone
Super, glad to be of help!
Delete