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Nellie Connally's death at 87 was on tv last night. I am sure she knew a good deal about just who shot her husband and murdered JFK. But we shall never knowo unless she left notes for safekeeping after her death.

A long shot to be sure.

But one can hope.

Dawn

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Nellie Connally's death at 87 was on tv last night. I am sure she knew a good deal about just who shot her husband and murdered JFK. But we shall never know unless she left notes for safekeeping after her death.

A long shot to be sure.

But one can hope.

By KELLEY SHANNON

Associated Press Writer

Her book, "From Love Field: Our Final Hours with President John F. Kennedy," was published in 2003. The photo-filled volume was based on 22 pages of handwritten notes she compiled back in the Gov.'s Mansion about a week or so after Kennedy was killed.

After putting the notes in a filing cabinet, she forgot about them and didn't rediscover them until 1996.

"I was going through the file and I saw this stack of yellow tablet paper and I thought, 'What in heaven's name is that?'" she told the AP when the book was published. "And I read it, and I thought it was pretty good."

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Good summary on her book.

I got her book on the hope that she left just a few unique observations of the day, which of course she did but none were very relevant.

Nellie died without a clue about who the killer was and the motive for "that horrible day" in Dallas. She was the last surviving occupant of the limo.

I think as far as notes and insight, the diary that is locked away that reveals who the real power behind the killing was is in Jacky's diary, although I'm not holding my breath on that one either.

I think John Connelly did know who ordered the killing but as I read here recently on another post, Connelly said he would never say in public what he thought happened as he loved his country too much. There's a lot of insight in that statement if you understand John Connelly's history of corruption in Texas with his mentor.

Connelly got his start in politics with the trash of our society, but like Harry S Truman, he distanced himself from it later.

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I think John Connelly did know who ordered the killing but as I read here recently on another post, Connelly said he would never say in public what he thought happened as he loved his country too much. There's a lot of insight in that statement if you understand John Connelly's history of corruption in Texas with his mentor.

Connelly got his start in politics with the trash of our society, but like Harry S Truman, he distanced himself from it later.

At what point did Connally distance himself? He was still in bed with some shady characters in the mid-70's. You mean at the very end? To Connally's credit, he made clear in his autobio, written at the end, that he did not remotely subscribe to the "first-shot miss scenario" acccepted as gospel by seriously committed lone-nut theorists everywhere. Nellie, as well, insisted the first shot hit JFK.

There is some evidence she fell under the spell of LNT's however. Even though her handwritten notes said that Kennedy clutched his throat, the transcription of her notes included in At Love Field said that his hands raised towards his throat. While this may be more accurate, changing the words in the transcription is an obvious tip of the hat to Lattimer and his Thorburn's response nonsense. While clutching implies a conscious act, by saying his hands were raised it opens the door that it could have been a neurological response.

Edited by Pat Speer
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Nellie Connally's death at 87 was on tv last night. I am sure she knew a good deal about just who shot her husband and murdered JFK. But we shall never knowo unless she left notes for safekeeping after her death.

A long shot to be sure.

But one can hope.

Dawn

Dawn Gump strikes again. Of course, she'll write the exact same pablum when Clint Hill goes to his reward. "Share your secrets, Clint! Show us your secret diary!" Nellie never believed in a conspiracy. She was steadfast that all the shots came from behind. She got the SBT wrong, but that's okay. She had bigger things to worry about than which bullets hit whom and when.

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At what point did Connally distance himself? He was still in bed with some shady characters in the mid-70's.

Sure seems like it. From the Associated Press:

Private business ventures after 1980 were less successful than Connally's career as a politician and dealmaking Houston lawyer. An oil company in which he invested got into trouble, and $200 million worth of real estate projects went sour.

He filed for reorganization of his personal finances under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code and for liquidation, under Chapter 7, of the Barnes/Connally Partnership, the Austin-based real estate venture that he founded with former Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes.

The auction paid only a fraction of the $93 million in debts Connally listed with the bankruptcy court in Austin.

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Nellie never believed in a conspiracy. She was steadfast that all the shots came from behind. She got the SBT wrong, but that's okay. She had bigger things to worry about than which bullets hit whom and when.

Couple of articles about Nellie Connally worth reading. The first shows that Connally did believe in a conspiracy as her account shows that at least four shots were fired at the motorcade (The Houston Chronicle, 15th November, 1998):

Nellie Connally, the last surviving passenger of the car in which President Kennedy was assassinated, is reasserting her belief that the Warren Commission was wrong about one bullet striking both JFK and her husband, former Governor John Connally.

"I will fight anybody that argues with me about those three shots," she told Newsweek magazine in its Nov. 23 issue. "I do know what happened in that car. Fight me if you want to."

The Warren Commission concluded in 1964 that one bullet passed through Kennedy's body and wounded Connally, and that a second bullet struck Kennedy's head, killing him. It concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman.

The Connallys maintained that two bullets struck the president in Dealey Plaza 35 years ago and a third hit the governor. John Connally died in 1993 at age 75.

The Warren Commission concluded there also was a bullet that missed the car entirely. Some conspiracy theorists argue that if three bullets struck the men, as the Connallys insisted, and a fourth missed, then there must have been a second gunman because no one person could have fired four rounds from Oswald's bolt-action rifle so quickly.

Mrs. Connally says in Newsweek that personal notes she wrote a few weeks after the assassination reaffirm her belief of the number of shots.

Mrs. Connally wrote that after hearing the first shot, John Connally turned to his right to look back at Kennedy "and then wheeled to the left to get another look at the President. He could not, so he realized the President had been shot."

Then, she wrote, John Connally "was hit himself by the second shot and said, `My God, they are going to kill us all!' "

According to her notes, that was followed by the third shot that passed through Kennedy's head.

She wrote: "With John in my arms and still trying to stay down ... I felt something falling all over me. ... My eyes saw bloody matter in tiny bits all over the car. Mrs. Kennedy was saying, 'Jack! Jack! They have killed my husband! I have his brains in my hand.' "

The second article reflects the common fear after the assassination that if they said the wrong thing the lives of their children will be put at risk. Michael Granberry interviewed Nellie Connally for the Dallas Morning News (22nd November, 2003):

"It kept going through my mind like a phonograph record playing over and over and over. But for John, it was even worse. His first night home, he cried out in his sleep. I would just pat him on the shoulder, and he'd go back to sleep. Ten days after, I asked him, 'What is it you dream, dear?' And he said, 'Nellie, somebody's always after me. With a gun.' So I just let him cry out. He did that for a month or six weeks and they were always after him."

Her own waking nightmare "has us all in the car. Everyone's having a wonderful time. Everyone's being so good, and then all of a sudden the horror starts. There is never anything good after that happening in that car. The car is filled with yellow roses, red roses and blood. And pieces of the president's brain."

Connally regrets that President Kennedy's legacy - and, by extension, the nation's - could have been so much brighter in the years ahead. "We were all in our 40s," she says of the passengers in the top car of VIP's. "We all had so much to give."

But Dealey Plaza would come to dictate an entirely different reality.

"For the first time in my life, I feared for my family," she said. "And I never had before. Mark, our youngest, was 11 at the time. There was this wall at the governor's mansion (in Austin) that he loved to walk around. Well, he could no longer walk around that wall. We were afraid somebody would snatch him off of it. Sharon, 14 at the time, could no longer go anywhere without someone going with her. It became, in some ways, a difficult life for us, and for me. And even to this day, I still take a glance behind me, just to make sure."

Governor Connally, who survived his wounds, went on to serve as Treasury secretary in the Nixon administration and ran unsuccessfully for president in 1980. He died in 1993.

Mrs. Connally, who lives in Houston, says Nov. 22 will always be a part of her. "I push it to the back of my head. I can bring it out any time I want, but I know it's not constructive. It was such a sad day. We all wanted to be there to begin with, but if you'd been in that car, believe me, you would never ever want to be there again."

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Nellie Connally's death at 87 was on tv last night. I am sure she knew a good deal about just who shot her husband and murdered JFK. But we shall never knowo unless she left notes for safekeeping after her death.

A long shot to be sure.

But one can hope.

Dawn

Dawn Gump strikes again. Of course, she'll write the exact same pablum when Clint Hill goes to his reward. "Share your secrets, Clint! Show us your secret diary!" Nellie never believed in a conspiracy. She was steadfast that all the shots came from behind. She got the SBT wrong, but that's okay. She had bigger things to worry about than which bullets hit whom and when.

Get forked BS. If I want your opinion I will ask for it. Don't hold your breath. Actually that's not a bad idea...

"She got SBT wrong". How utterly quaint. And how would you know what Nellie believed? Close friendship with her???

Dawn

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Former Texas first lady Nellie Connally dies

05:04 PM CDT on Saturday, September 2, 2006

By KELLEY SHANNON / Associated Press

AUSTIN – Nellie Connally, the widow of former Gov. John Connally and the last remaining survivor who was riding in President Kennedy's limousine when he was assassinated, has died, longtime family friend Julian Read said. She was 87.

She died late Friday at Westminster Manor in Austin, where she had been living for about a year after moving from Houston, said Read, who had served as press secretary to Gov. Connally in the 1960s.

"Total surprise," he said. "She has been extremely active and vital the past few days and weeks....It's a shock to all of us."

Nellie Connally had said the most enduring image she had of that day in November 1963 in Dallas was of a mixture of blood and roses. Connally had said the most enduring image she had of that day in November 1963 in Dallas was of a mixture of blood and roses.

"It's the image of yellow roses and red roses and blood all over the car... all over us," she said in a 2003 interview with The Associated Press. "I'll never forget it. ... It was so quick and so short, so potent."

As the limousine carrying the Connallys and the Kennedys wound its way through the friendly crowd in downtown Dallas, Nellie Connally turned to President Kennedy, who was in a seat behind her, and said, "Mr. President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you."

Almost immediately, she heard the first of what she later concluded were three gunshots in quick succession. Connally slumped after the second shot, and, "I never looked back again. I was just trying to take care of him," she said.

Anniversaries and inevitable media interviews followed the Connallys for decades to come.

She was active in numerous fundraising organizations. In 1989, Richard Nixon, Barbara Walters and Donald Trump turned out for a gala to honor her and help raise money for diabetes research.

"I've never known a woman with Nellie's courage, compassion and character," Walters said at the ceremony. "For all her ups and downs, I've never heard a self-pitying word from her."

The "downs" that Walters spoke of were when the Connallys found themselves in financial difficulties.

Private business ventures after 1980 were less successful than Connally's career as a politician and dealmaking Houston lawyer. An oil company in which he invested got into trouble, and $200 million worth of real estate projects went sour.

He filed for reorganization of his personal finances under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code and for liquidation, under Chapter 7, of the Barnes/Connally Partnership, the Austin-based real estate venture that he founded with former Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes.

The auction paid only a fraction of the $93 million in debts Connally listed with the bankruptcy court in Austin.

Nellie Connally celebrated her 80th birthday with fellow breast cancer survivors at a ceremony in the Nellie B. Connally Breast Center at Anderson hospital in Houston. It had been 10 years since overcoming breast cancer.

She served on the M.D. Anderson Board of Visitors since 1984, and a fund in her name raised millions for research and patient programs.

She is survived by her daughter, Sharon Connally Ammann of Marble Falls; and two sons, John B. Connally III of Houston and Mark Connally of Dallas.

Funeral services are pending.

Just to get this all on one thread.

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Having recently re-read every interview and statement by the Connallys I could find, it's safe to say that the two of them never publicly suggested a conspiracy. They did consistently describe the shots in a manner inconsistent with Oswald having been the sole assassin, however. Which puts them in fine company. The vast majority of witnesses described the shots in a manner inconsistent with Oswald having been the sole assassin. Most heard the last two shots closely grouped together. LNers say that they are all wrong or were caught up in the excitement. Research, however, has repeatedly indicated that when people get caught up in excitement, time SLOWS DOWN for them by half; it does not speed up. As for all the people being wrong...the HSCA tested this and found that it was relatively easy for earwitnesses near Houston and Elm to tell echoes from shots. That a large percentage of the "last two shots bunched together" crowd were Secret Service agents and Dallas County deputies, is especially harmful to the LN cause.

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Something you might be interested in as a link to Nellie Connally's death.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/augus...6/300806jfk.htmpoison planet

I'm sure that for some of you this will just be old news. But it's still interesting, for us who like to keep our minds open.

-- Bill Grote

Thanx Bill for posting this. Yes it's very old news but it's always nice to see one of Alex's sites get a plug.

And she gets the SBT RIGHT! Both she and John went to their deaths saying he was not hit by the magic bullet. BS I think the Connallys would be in a better position to speak with authority on this particular matter than YOU.

Dawn

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