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Jack Lawrence


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Salesman Bogard supposedly committed suicide on February 14, 1966. (Inkol's cited source for this is Penn Jones, so I take it with a grain of salt.) And Inkol says that he was able to identify 16 employees of Downtown Lincoln Mercury at the time of the assassination. Within a few months, at least 10 of them no longer worked there. While car salesmen might change jobs frequently, 4 of the 10 were not salesmen. "Why," Inkol asks, "did so many employees leave the dealership at this time?"

Ron

Ron,

Here's a story of two more.

A few years ago I was reading a memo made to Jim Alcock in 1969 concerning a prir memo on a "fag ball" bust.

The first memo named one of the arrestees as a William Johnson who worked at the International Trade Mart.

That was enough to get me looking for whatever else could find on him.

What I found was a FBI report in the WC volumes of an interview with a William Johnson in Los Angeles during Oct, '64. He was interviewed in relation to two of his co-workers, Harry McCAll and Joe Coe (spelt as "Cole" elsewhere). McCAll had told Johnson he had been involved in the attempted purchase of a Lincoln-Continental by Oswald in Dallas, and Coe/Cole had been a DP witness to the assassination. He further told Johnson that he and Coe/Cole both returned to Los Angeles from Dallas with lots of cash. When interviewed about this, McCAll claimed the money was from a sale of property in the Carribean.

So was this the same William Johnson mentioned as being an arrestee at fag ball in the memo to Alcock? Hard to say, but the Los Angeles WJ volunteered to the FBI that he was the owner of a club called "The Hollywood Contact Club" and this this club was a place "sexual deviants could meet".

Interesting that Jack Lawrence came to Dallas from NO.

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Greg,

Lawrence was from West Virginia, and according to Inkol he arrived in Dallas from West Virginia in October 1963. Lawrence told Inkol that he had never been to New Orleans, and the first time he was ever in Louisiana was as pastor of a church in West Monroe in the late 1970s.

Ron

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Another small contribution of undetermined value:

I cannot remember the source, but I think it was an FBI doc written up after interviewing an International Trade Mart worker [woman's name unrecalled, sorry.] She had been shown the photos of those around Oswald while he was handing out his pro-Castro pamphlets in Aug./63.

Said woman pointed to a tall, younger man and claimed his name was Jack Lawrence, that he worked in the International Trade Mart, employed by a Bloomfield Enterprises [?] or Exports[?] or some such company. My reason for remembering this fact at all had less to do with the Jack Lawrence and his possibly demonstrable prior life in New Orleans, but because this placed a Jack Lawrence in the employ of somebody/thing named Bloomfield.

Major Louis Bloomfield [Canadian war-time liason with OSS] was a lawyer in Montreal, and a charter founder of Permindex, accused of funding repeated OAS hit attempts on DeGaulle. For a purported commercial 'cover,' Permindex was to be a cooperative venture involving various trade mart and exhibition buildings around the world. The Canadian consulate in New Orleans was located in the International Trade Mart, a Permindex affilate via Clay Shaw, who ran the former and sat on the board of CMC, a sister company of the latter.

When Albert Osborne, who sat beside Oswald on the bus during the trip to Mexico City, returned to the US he went to the New Orleans International Trade Mart, where he applied for a Canadian passport to which he wasn't entitled, providing a variety of dubious background information. Among these details was his address [the Montreal YMCA], only a few houses apart from the home address of Bloomfield. Osborne was later reputed to run a group of assassins in Mexico.

Thus, we have two gentlemen - each accused to supplying assassins for various projects - theoretically residing within a few houses of each other. If Bloomfield turns out to have anything to do with the New Orleans company bearing his name in the International Trade Mart, and if the Jack Lawrence employed there later worked in the Dallas car dealership, this case becomes increasingly claustrophic with coincidence.

FWIW.....

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Said woman pointed to a tall, younger man and claimed his name was Jack Lawrence, that he worked in the International Trade Mart, employed by a Bloomfield Enterprises [?] or Exports[?] or some such company.

Robert,

I looked at the photos of the men around Oswald at the Trade Mart in Groden's "The Search for Lee Harvey Oswald." There is a young man taller than the others seen in three of the photos. Only one shows his face (at the bottom of p. 75), and he doesn't look like the Jack Lawrence in Dallas.

When Albert Osborne, who sat beside Oswald on the bus during the trip to Mexico City, returned to the US he went to the New Orleans International Trade Mart, where he applied for a Canadian passport to which he wasn't entitled, providing a variety of dubious background information.

According to the FBI, Osborne's Canadian passport was issued on October 10, 1963, through the Canadian Consulate in New Orleans (CE 2195, p. 31, in WC v. 25).

Ron

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According to the FBI, Osborne's Canadian passport was issued on October 10, 1963, through the Canadian Consulate in New Orleans (CE 2195, p. 31, in WC v. 25).

Yes, the Canadian consulate, located in the Trade Mart, issued him a passport upon his return from Mexico, despite the fact that he was not entitled to one.  [There was and is no basis for an Englishman being granted a Canadian passport, despite the assertion that he was given one in return for his wartime service.  The requirements for citizenship - a prerequisite for a passport - were and remain more stringent than that.] 

The MOSSAD has repeatedly been caught providing its operatives with Canadian passports and visas, indicating that it might be standard practice for certain intelligence services to masquerade as Canadians.  [it would seem a pretty good cover, too.  Western, but not US; English or French speaking; not considered suspect, whereas US citizens might be, etc.]  But those MOSSAD passports were fraudulent counterfeits, whereas Osborne seems to have been granted a legitimate one.  How he managed to do this eludes me, barring the possible intercession of others on his behalf.         

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"The FBI, in investigating Oswald’s life following the JFK murder and that of the accused assassin, was interested in all contacts Oswald had during his trip to Mexico City. The FBI found that “unidentified investigators of the Mexican Government,” shortly after the assassination, had taken both the original and duplicate copies of the Flecha Roja passenger list for that trip. The FBI had to use immigration records and a baggage list to get the names of people who had traveled on the same bus as Oswald. The FBI found and interviewed Mumford, Winston, and the McFarlands. It had no luck finding a John Howard Bowen in Houston or Mexico. In its files, however, the FBI found that in June, 1942, John Howard Bowen, operator of a boys’ camp at Henderson Springs near Knoxville, Tennessee, had been accused by one of the boys of tearing down an American flag and stomping it in the ground. An investigation found no evidence of any such act disrespectful of the United States. The FBI also found that in 1953 John Howard Bowen had been arrested at the Woods Hotel in Houston and held for investigation in connection with a mattress fire. No charges were filed, but the FBI had John Howard Bowen’s fingerprints from the 1953 arrest.

The 1942 flag desecration case led the FBI in its Oswald investigation to look for Bowen in Tennessee. It found that over the years the Knoxville Journal had published a few pieces on Bowen, being a former local resident, based on mail received about his missionary work in Mexico. This mail came mostly from Bowen himself, although a 1961 letter, postmarked San Martin Texmelucan (a town in the state of Puebla near Mexico City), was written by “Alberto Osborne.”

On January 7, 1964, Clarence Anderson*, the FBI legal attaché in Mexico City, reported that he had located and interviewed in San Martin Texmelucan an “elderly Canadian missionary” who said that he was acquainted with John Howard Bowen. The missionary’s name was Albert Osborne.

*Anderson is identified in FBI reports as “Confidential Informant Dallas T-4” (Armstrong, p. 620).

:::::::::

"In August, Oswald was arrested in New Orleans for creating a disturbance while passing out "Fair Play for Cuba Literature". Helping him was Charles Hall Steele, FBI informant."

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The Jack Lawrence case will probably not tell us too much about who killed Kennedy, but it does tell us a thing or two about some of the issues faced by people who study the Kennedy case. Here's what author Sheldon Inkol says about his responsibility as a researcher:

"I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to Jack Lawrence. I wrote an article for publication which accused him of conspiracy to commit murder. A man I had never met, a man I had newer spoken to, accused on the basis of third, fourth, fifth-hand, and unsworn testimony. I think it is too easy for we assassination researchers to forget that the suspicious characters we spend so much time studying and theorizing about are real people with families and reputations who may in fact be entirely innocent, and are without question innocent until proven guilty."

On the other hand, here's what Jerry Rose, Third Decade editor, says about the testimony of witnesses who are suspects:

"Although Jack Lawrence is certainly entitled to the "response" described by Inkol, I do not feel that Jack Lawrence (or any other "suspect") can be permitted the "last word" on Jack Lawrence. Inkol's article is a useful corrective to some of the unsubstantiated claims about Lawrence that have developed over the years. However, Lawrence's own version of events, as described by Inkol, seems to compromise his credibility in a number of ways, several of which I hope to develop in a future article."

If you're interested in reading the article and forming your own opinion, I've scanned it and you'll find it here:

http://www.ridetiger.com/jfk/JLR.pdf

Edited by Roger Fong
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Ron,

[

According to the FBI, Osborne's Canadian passport was issued on October 10, 1963, through the Canadian Consulate in New Orleans (CE 2195, p. 31, in WC v. 25).

According to Mary Ferrell's database:

LAST LAWRENCE FIRST JACK ALAN MID/AKA CARROLL

ADDRESS 1964: 204 Ninth Ave., South Charleston, W. VA

'PHONE (304) 744-3168; RE 4-0857

SOURCES WC 26, pp. 452-453, 686-688, 704; CE 2970; CE 3080, CE 3089, CE 3093; CD

85, pp. 373-377; CD 205, pp. 211-213, 222-223; CD 329, pp. 61-78; CD

1546, p. 118; Forgive My Grief, Vol. 11, Jones, p. 124; The Third

Decade, July 1991, pp. 1-17, "Jack Lawrence, Assassin or Fall Guy," by

Sheldon Inkol; The Third Decade, September 1992, pp. 1-17, "Jack

Lawrence Responds," by Sheldon Inkol.

COMMENT DOB: 9/14/38; SS # 236-58-6645. Wife: Linda. Salesman at Downtown

Lincoln Mercury, Dallas, TX at time LHO allegedly took demonstration

ride. Lawrence allegedly left demonstrator car behind the picket fence

at Dealey Plaza at 12:30 p.m., 11/22, when he was unable to drive

through the Dealey Plaza area to the dealership. He was fired by

Downtown Lincoln on 11/23/63. Lawrence came to Dallas in late October

1963 and stayed at YMCA on Ervay St. He came from West Virginia but

claimed to have worked for a New Orleans car dealer on Carondolet.

Checked out of Dallas YMCA (Room 811) on November 30, 1963 (Saturday),

leaving address: 144 10th Ave., South Charleston, West Virginia (304) RI

4-0857. On 11/27/63, Lawrence told Gene Barnes of NBC that he was going

to San Diego to get job similar to position he had held with NASA

previously (CD 85, p. 376).

I thought that last line about NASA was interesting. Didn't several former Reilly Coffee Company employees go to work for NASA?

Steve Thomas

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  • 2 months later...
[...]

As for Lawrence being an expert marksman in the AF, he told researcher Inkol that he almost didn't get to become an Air Policeman (his highest rank in the AF was Airman 2nd Class) because he was a "lousy shot." He also said that he was blinded in one eye by a rock at the age of 11. [...]

________________________________________

Hi Ron,

It's reasonable to assume that Jack Lawrence had "acceptably" good vision in both eyes when he went into the Air Force, otherwise they would have rejected him, wouldn't they? IMHO, therefore, it's possible that he did qualify as a "marksman" in the AF....

--Thomas

P.S. In Crossfire page 339, Jim Marrs writes that Lawrence borrowed "...one of the "firm's cars, after telling his boss he had a 'heavy date'." Small point, but I wonder if he borrowed a car that was owned and used by "the firm" (the dealership), or just one of the cars that was for sale? Does anyone know what year, make and model car he borrowed for his "heavy date?" (UH oh, I can feel a Ron Ecker joke coming: "If she was a really heavy date, he probably borrowed a pickup truck.")

I realize that most dealerships sell used cars as well as new, so maybe he borrowed a used non-Lincoln-Mercury? Maybe the car shows up in some of the photos/film taken in the parking lot/railroad yards after the assassination. Is it possible that the car he borrowed was one of the cars parked close to the fence with lots of "pacing" footprints and cigarette butts between the cars and the fence? Or maybe the mysterious black '57 Ford with Texas plates that Lee Bowers saw driving around the sealed-off railroad yards a few minutes before the assassination? Just thinking out loud....

--T

________________________________________

Edited by Thomas Graves
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There are many interesting aspects to Jack Lawrence's story. He held a cushy job in W. Virginia, appointd by a Republican administraion, but lost it when JFK and the Democrats were elected and who he actively supported.

Lawrence also worked, not directly for NASA, but a Florida defense contractor that did. He was on his way somewhere else when he got sidetracked and delayed in Dallas, where he stayed at the YMCA where Ruby kept a locker and where Oswald stayed on occassion - ie. when he returned from Mexico City.

Lawrence also patronized the Dallas library, and listened to motivational tapes.

Since he was working at the Dallas Ford/Linc Merc dealer, who supplied autos for the motorcade, he was aware of the visit by Oswald/Impersonator.

On the night before the assassination, Lawernce admits to drinking heavily at a piano bar on Mockingbard Lane with some other people, and Beverly Oliver says that she knew Jack Lawrence and ran into him at the Cabana Lounge and danced with him while she was there with Jack Ruby and Larry Meyers from Chicago. From there they went to the Egyptian Lounge for Pizza, which is on Mockingbird Lane near the piano bar.

Some night on the town. It now seems more likely that Lawrence's fellow employees were right about him getting sick since he admitted having a hangover.

Attached is an article I wrote about the night before the assassination.

BK

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There are many interesting aspects to Jack Lawrence's story. He held a cushy job in W. Virginia, appointd by a Republican administraion, but lost it when JFK and the Democrats were elected and who he actively supported.

Lawrence also worked, not directly for NASA, but a Florida defense contractor that did. He was on his way somewhere else when he got sidetracked and delayed in Dallas, where he stayed at the YMCA where Ruby kept a locker and where Oswald stayed on occassion - ie. when he returned from Mexico City.

Lawrence also patronized the Dallas library, and listened to motivational tapes.

Since he was working at the Dallas Ford/Linc Merc dealer, who supplied autos for the motorcade, he was aware of the visit by Oswald/Impersonator.

On the night before the assassination, Lawernce admits to drinking heavily at a piano bar on Mockingbard Lane with some other people, and Beverly Oliver says that she knew Jack Lawrence and ran into him at the Cabana Lounge and danced with him while she was there with Jack Ruby and Larry Meyers from Chicago. From there they went to the Egyptian Lounge for Pizza, which is on Mockingbird Lane near the piano bar.

Some night on the town. It now seems more likely that Lawrence's fellow employees were right about him getting sick since he admitted having a hangover.

Attached is an article I wrote about the night before the assassination.

BK

Bill, there is a wealth of valuable information in your article that you posted "Thursday Night at the Cabana Motel," the first item that linked to other stories was the Lucas B&B, as you may know a waitress there Mary Lawrence alleged that she saw Lee Harvey Oswald talking with Ruby there about 1:00 A.M., I have always found her allegation credible, even more so considering she was being badgered and threatened over the phone after she made this information available to authorities.

But there is something which may be very significant about Ruby's Thursday Nov. 21, itinerary. The passage "Mrs. Norman E. Lewis…saw Ruby sometime during the day in a car at the expressway and Main St. and a few minutes later at Munger and Live Oak streets…is very compelling in that there were several members of the 112th Army Intelligence Group which lived in this area.

For example, even though this list was compiled in 1962, Army Intelligence officer James L. Harris, lived just a few short blocks from the corner of Live Oak and Munger, James Powell, (who was innocently or not so innocently taking pictures at Dealey Plaza on 11/22/63 and was ostensibly "trapped" inside the TSBD, after the assassination) only lived 10 blocks away. See the links below

If Mrs. Norman Lewis account is credible, it isn't far fetched to think that if Ruby had intel links, that he may have been on his way to, or from one of these addresses. I realize this is speculative but I feel well worth pointing out. Also note on the list of Army Intelligence addresses that Powell and 5 of his fellow 112th members occupied (at least in '62) just 2 apts. alone in this neighborhood.

James Powell (Red Star indicates home address in 1962, and probably 11/22/1963)

James Harris (Red Star indicates home address in 1962, and probably 11/22/1963)

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?searc...ate=TX&zipcode=

112th Army Intelligence Address List

http://assassinat.iquebec.com/misc_112th_g..._list_page1.jpg

http://assassinat.iquebec.com/misc_112th_g..._list_page2.jpg

Note the 112th Army intelligence list is in bitmap format, I don't know if all members have the software to view this, this is not my area of expertise.

P.S. James Powell has been interviewed several times and the whole Fletcher Prouty story about the 112th being told to "stand down on Nov. 22" takes a beating when Col. Robert Jones testifies about this. In fact he implied that there were several Army intelligence officers "supplementing" security for the President in Dallas.

http://www.jfklancer.com/knollagent/knollagent.html

Edited by Robert Howard
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  • 5 weeks later...
Guest John Woods
James,

Here's something I missed. There's a letter to the editor from Oliver in the July 1993 issue of The Third Decade. She was steamed about Inkol commenting on her "experimental camera" claim and Inkol saying "This is one 'witness' whom I wish really would disappear." Oliver wrote, "As for Jack Allen Lawrence, I identified a photograph of him that Gary (Shaw) presented to me as someone I knew as Donny Allen Lance, who frequented the club often visiting with George Senator and as someone I had dances with at the Cabana Hotel on November 21, 1963. His not claiming to frequent the Carousel Club is nothing unusual, there were probably ten thousand men in Dallas back then who would say the same. Regardless of the assassination, it was not a place that men publicly stated they frequented. I can't say anythiing more about Donny Allen Lance. I don't know anything else."

Ron

I started my investigation into the B-Lady back in the mid 1970's. When Oliver came forth with her claim of being the B-Lady my thoughts of a new film footage were highten to an all time high. I exchange some of my letters from the various governments regarding this film with Gary Shaw. Than came her announcement that her "film" was confiscated by FBI Agent Kennedy. And than it was over. Her testimony before the AARB was misleading based on my letters. Since than, a renew interested in her and the real Babushka Lady has turn up some interesting results and a rather thick article. A very small group of researchers have come forth to claim their claims that she is not the B-Lady and have face harsh attacks from the other critics. If in fact she is the woman in question, why has she never sued these individuals? She testifies in her appearance before the AARB that she was called a xxxx that same day! The real B-Lady is now deceased, and only a few handful of indiviuals should come forth and the truth should be told.

john woods

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Attached is an article I wrote about the night before the assassination. (Bill Kelly)

Hi Bill,

Good article indeed. When researching the Cabana did you ever come across the name Ray Randuk? He was appointed the original General Manager for the Cabana. Randuk is an interesting character given that he had previously served with the U.S. State Department connected to the government of Israel. What the details are there I have not been able to find out.

Randuk was not at the Cabana long before he moved to a high level position in a Dallas employment center. Which one I don't know but if it was the Texas Employment Center, that sure would be interesting given Oswald's visits there.

Randuk during the late 1960's moved around a fair bit being employed in managerial positions in many Dallas hotels, but not spending too long in any one spot. This is all very sketchy and none of this may mean anything. I mention it in case you can fill in some of the blanks regarding Randuk.

Randuk below.

James

Edited by James Richards
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There is an article by Sheldon Inkol, "Jack Lawrence Responds," in the September 1992 issue of The Third Decade. In an earlier article, Inkol had accused Lawrence of being an active conspirator. Lawrence called Inkol, and after Lawrence gave his side of the story in the discussions that followed, Inkol apologized to Lawrence in the September 1992 article and expressed his view that Lawrence was probably set up as a potential patsy.

Based on Lawrence's story, what has been written about him in the literature is grossly inaccurate. Indeed Inkol points out that the HSCA did both Lawrence and researchers a great disservice by not even interviewing Lawrence to get his side of the story.

Regarding the car that Lawrence reportedly left parked behind the fence on the grassy knoll, Lawrence said that he left for work from the YMCA in the demonstrator he had between 12:35 and 12:40 pm. He didn't get far because there was a logjam of traffic, so he parked the car at the corner of Ervay and Main and walked to work at Downtown Lincoln Mercury so he wouldn't be late. He said he may have looked flushed when he got there, but the story that he was muddy and ran to the restroom and threw up is nonsense.

Lawrence knew that he had to get the car back as soon as possible because it was illegally parked and might get towed. So one of the other salesmen whose name he can't remember but who was a retired Air Force Colonel drove Lawrence to where he left the car. Inkol says that he would love to know who this Colonel was, because the lie that Lawrence left the car behind the fence on the grassy knoll must have originated with this person.

Editor Jerry Rose added a note to this article saying that Lawrence's story still lacked credibility in some areas and that he hoped to develop an article on it. Rose said he doubted, for example, that Lawrence heard four shots while inside the YMCA about a mile from Dealey Plaza as he claimed. And wouldn't Lawrence rather be late for work, since he had the traffic jam as an excuse, rather than leave the demonstrator in a no parking zone to likely be towed?

I don't know what further may have been written in The Third Decade on this, but I thought that this was worth passing on.

Ron

As Jerry Rose said, Jack Lawrence shouldn't have the last word on Jack Lawrence. I by no means intend by this to suggest that his story is a crock of bull, but rather that the denial of a "suspect" doesn't exonerate said suspect: if that were the case, every murderer who said he didn't do it would have to be set free, and the cops would have to go looking for someone else!

Even incensed complaints such as Lawrence's to Inkol should be given some weight, so too should it be checked out. I'd imagine someone who was a "retired Colonel" in 1963 would no longer be with us (he'd have been at least middle aged at retirement ... or even at attaining the rank of colonel!), it remains possible that someone else was at the time of Inkol's article, or even still is today.

It was honorable for Inkol to back off of his accusation after hearing from Lawrence, but perhaps a little irresponsible to assume his denial was as accurate as his earlier sources were. I can't see how looking further into it after Lawrence's denial would have irritated him further, especially given the possibility (if not the probability) that others would have corroborated his story, completely exonerating him.

One of the problems "we" have in this "research community" - and I probably am affected by it to one degree or another myself - is what I call the "'if' theorem," which holds that by stringing together enough "ifs" and speculating upon what all of them together could mean, we are eventually able to reach a "conclusion of fact" based upon mere ifs. For example:

If
I had ever lived in Paris, and

If
I had firearms training, and

If
I had forged my birth certificate, and

If
I was really born in 1928 instead of 1958, and

If
I had left-leaning tendencies,

Then:

Clearly, I
could have been
anti-deGaulle, and

I
could have been
familiar with some of the OAS folks who kept trying to kill him, and

I
could have been
one of the shooters, so therefore

I should be arrested, shot and hung (not necessarily in that order).

Now that we have reached this dubious conclusion, it can now be cited that "Duke Lane said, in his post on the Education Forum, that he ...," and now that that has been cited as a "source of information," we can now accept it as established fact.

Such is the case made, in effect, by someone else in this thread who cited Crossfire, which in turn cited High Treason ... and without bothering to look it up (and why would we need to with two citations already?), who knows what citation Livingstone and Groden gave it? (Citing Crossfire in the first place is absurd, especially since Marrs' first words were "don't believe this book!")

Greg,

... As for Lawrence being an expert marksman in the AF, he told researcher Inkol that he almost didn't get to become an Air Policeman (his highest rank in the AF was Airman 2nd Class) because he was a "lousy shot." He also said that he was blinded in one eye by a rock at the age of 11. He said he didn't own a firearm of any kind.

Blind in one eye at 11 yet accepted into the armed services at 17 or 18? Highly unlikely, IMHO. Bad vision ("'blind' as a bat")? Much more possible.

Inkol states that Downtown Lincoln Mercury was at the corner of Commerce and Industrial, where JFK's limo would have turned had an alternate motorcade route been chosen. (Why wouldn't the turn have been at Main and Industrial?)

As Main goes west under the Triple Underpass, it merges with Commerce and is named Commerce from that point westward.

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