JFK and the Ku Klux Klan

[John Simkin]

I'm not sure where my information fits in but I thought I would mention what I experienced on November 22, 1963. at the time I was in the sixth grade and only ten years old.

On that date I was living in my hometown, Terry, south of Jackson, in Mississippi. It was just after lunch when I heard the principal of our school going from door to door making an announcement. Although I could not hear what he was saying, a loud cheer came from each classroom in response.

So I was expecting good news when the principal of our school, a card carrying member of the KKK, stuck his red neck in the door and said, "The president's has been shot", to which every student, but me, jumped up and cheered.

Noticing that my head hung sadly low, a Klan Kid said to me, "Ha, that's nuthin'. They're gonna keep goin' till there's a KKK!" (Kennedy King Kennedy)

I felt stunned as all the children in my class were so excited and happy. They all ran out into the hall where the principal, the teachers and most of the students gathered around one eighth grade boy. The principal rubbed the boy's head and said, "Son, your father's a mighty hero". Teachers exclaimed, "You should be proud of your pop" and students shouted, "Yo' daddy's one fine shot!" Nearly everyone wanted to shake his hand.

Of course I suspected his father had just shot the president, so I walked up to him and asked, "Did your father just shoot the president?".

His homeroom teacher was standing proudly beside him and answered saying, "Naw honey, he just won a 'Turkey Shoot'!" (three marksmen in a triangular formation)

I had known all summer that there were many members of the KKK in my hometown who hated Kennedy. I lived across the road from the man who shot his gun from the grassy knoll and knew he was in the National Reserves. He was the best marksman in all the south at the time. I had grown up living across the road from the man and knew he had bombed a church in '59, just down the road, among other crimes. He had thrown me off his property when I was 5, because he said, "We don't tary with nigga lovuhs. You go on home and don't come back, y'heah". What was even sadder on November 22, 1963, was the fact that I had written to President Kennedy to warn him of the planned attempt on his life. It was at Klan rallies across the road from my house (I did not ever attend a Klan rally, but they used a PA system which I could clearly hear from our front porch), and the Klan kids, that I had learned of their plans. I had mailed the letter shortly before his trip to Dallas. I prayed the letter would reach him in time and it did, but who listens to a 10 year old? That letter must be sealed up with all the other evidence. I wrote it and I would like it back.

Also I would like to mention to people who want to know why the Klan would have used a PA system, that in the 50's & 60's I lived in the country outside of Terry with my great grand parents. There were also many Klan rallies in Byram that summer, a town 5 miles north of Terry. In the country (and most of the south) the Klan reigned supreme. There was no one to tell about anything that was heard, because anyone you might have wanted to tell, law enforcement, judges, etc, were at the rally. So who could anyone tell?

As I walked back to my classroom, the seventh grade teacher was standing in her doorway. She had not congratulated the boy. She scurried me into her empty classroom, seeing the stunned look on my face and sat me down.

"Mrs. Long, E_____'s father just shot the president. We have to tell someone", I said.

Mrs. Long took a long look at me and said, "Nothing will be done about the men who did this. The same group of men who just shot the president also murdered my uncle, Huey Long, who was governor of Louisiana and they got away with it. Nothing was ever done to them then and nothing will be done about what they have done now. There is nothing anyone can do. There is no one you can tell".

There was another man, who everyone called "Doc", in our hometown. He lived down the road from me. He was a rich doctor, Joel Garrett Brunson. He was gay and had my brother and his friends over to his house when they were in high school, after school for "drug parties". My brother stayed in his house while the doctor attended in the autopsy of RFK.

That man who shot the president and his friends (one of whom was Doc) financed many atrocities in the south over the decades that their lives spanned. The man who was a "Star" in the greatest coup d'etat in the history of the USA, died just a few years back and was never charged with ANY of the crimes he committed. Even if I told you who he was and even if you believed me, nothing could be done about it, because the will to have true justice in this case was never there. That was perhaps the saddest thing I have learned from the events of November 22, 1963.There WERE three marksmen and the one who was on the other side of the limo from the grassy knoll, went on the become a serial killer (Zodiac); he was another one who died without ever being charged, yet probably killed more people than any one single person in history, save someone in the military. No one in authority could have afforded to bust him; he might have talked.

On the evening of November 22, 1963, as I sat and watched the news with my grandmother, she was happy, I was sad. I told her that E_____'s father had shot the president. She shot an angry look at me and started boasting about how my uncle had also been present and part of the team and said I should be proud of him. I do not know everything about my uncle, but I know he was a lousy shot. He shot his own right middle toe off in a hunting accident when he was a teenager. That's why he used a flashlight on top of his gun to shoot people in the Zodiac killings. He was never even investigated in relation to the crimes. I guess no one could afford to bust him as he might have talked about Dallas. I know more about the Zodiac Killings, but that is not on topic here.

One year after the death of Kennedy, I wrestled with my conscience about whether to tell anyone and did finally muster up the nerve to tell the town Marshal. He just laughed at me and called me a 'crazy little girl', said no one would ever believe me. So if you want to call me crazy, well at least it isn't a bullet and won't really hurt me. I have grown accustomed to the insult. But I know the truth, not that it does any good. People talk about where they were that day. This is my story.

[John Simkin]

This is indeed a very chilling story. I have heard stories about cheering taking place but I have not heard a first-hand account of it.

Are you talking about Arthur Leigh Allen or Charles F. Albright as the possible assassin?

[Terri Williams]

This is indeed a very chilling story. I have heard stories about cheering taking place but I have not heard a first-hand account of it.

Are you talking about Arthur Leigh Allen or Charles F. Albright as the possible assassin?

No. I am talking about my uncle as the Zodiac Killer. Arthur Leigh Allen said he was not the Zodiac, because he WASN'T. My uncle and cousin (an ex New Orleans cop) worked together to confuse victims, survivors, cops and the public. Most of the killings were done by my uncle, at least the ones in California. Cous was busy elsewhere. (Might even still be)

I have heard that the Mafia was involved in the assassination of JFK, etc. That would have been the Dixie Mafia for the most part, I believe. I don't know who Albright is. The man I know to have been the man on the grassy knoll died a few years ago.

I made a blog about my uncle and cousin, if you want to have a look. My uncle was on the other side of the Limo from the grassy knoll. At least that's what my grandmother (his mother) told me. She was a redneck and proud of her son.... until she realized he was the Zodiac Killer.

http://thetruezodiac...er.blogspot.ca/

And Thanks for posting this in the right topic. I'm kind of a forum putz.

Edited December 11, 2012 by Terri Williams

[Guest Tom Scully]

John, you've admitted Terri to your forum and now she's placed her OT accusations in a prominent spot on the internet, and just beloe your name. It is easy to see how Terri benefits, if getting an opportunity to pitch what she has linked to here is actually in her best interests to do, but how do you or the forum membership benefit?

[Kathleen Collins]

Tom, this is a very interesting tale. I would like to know more. I don't see why you're bothered by it. Was Oswald in with this group of men? Was Ruby? Suppose it was just the KKK who killed President Kennedy because of his civil rights bill (posthumous) or getting James Meredith into school?

Kathy C

[Guest Robert Morrow]

John, you've admitted Terri to your forum and now she's placed her OT accusations in a prominent spot on the internet, and just beloe your name. It is easy to see how Terri benefits, if getting an opportunity to pitch what she has linked to here is actually in her best interests to do, but how do you or the forum membership benefit?

It is more interesting than the pile of junk that you, Tom Scully, put up. And who knows, it might be right. You seen to *assume* that if you have never heard of something then it just can't be true, for example Lyndon Johnson having sex with his elderly grandmother. Or God forbid, all the decades of unhinged sexual perversions of Bill Clinton which everyone knows about .... except you.

I don't think you, Tom Scully, are in a position to judge the credibility of others.

I would rather read that Terri posts than you. Her stuff is more entertaining, possibly perhaps even true. Your stuff, Tom Scully, is for the most part gibberish that I can do without.

Sincerely,

Robert Morrow

Edited December 27, 2012 by Robert Morrow

[Terri Williams]

Yes, the whole James Meredith case, as well as the confiscation of weapons, civil rights, the coziness to MLK Jr, and Marilyn, if you can believe it, stuck in the craw of the KKK. The Klan Kidz did tell me that it would keep going till there was a KKK (Kennedy King Kennedy). This was said on the day JFK died.

Sorry if I shouldn't have posted any names. I thought people wanted to know who the man was. But please feel free to remove it. Or tell me how to. The man is dead. He died in 2007. Nearly everyone my age or older in my hometown and most racist groups (even here in Canada) know who he was.

Not sure how I benefit from telling you who the man was. No one has ever believed me in the past, and you are free not to believe me as well, Tom Scully.

I don't think Oswald fired any shots, but do not know that for a fact.

Edited December 10, 2012 by Terri Williams

[John Simkin]

John, you've admitted Terri to your forum and now she's placed her OT accusations in a prominent spot on the internet, and just beloe your name. It is easy to see how Terri benefits, if getting an opportunity to pitch what she has linked to here is actually in her best interests to do, but how do you or the forum membership benefit?

It might seem strange to you but I do not ask the question: "How do I benefit?" when I admit people to the Forum.

[Terri Williams]

Kathy Collins, I don't know if Oswald was in with these men. I never saw him in my hometown and I don't know about Ruby.

I do know that Bannister was in my hometown quite a bit that summer. I do know he bought our town a green Ford Pick-up.

Bannister was admired by the KKK in my hometown. I did write a letter to warn Kennedy after giving much thought to it, as I knew that the men meant business. I liked Kennedy and thought he should be warned. I am not sure if anyone else wrote and warned him, but as you know, he did not heed the advice. Not sure why. Maybe because I was only ten. I would also like that letter back some day.

Obama went to Terry with Oprah Winfrey during his campaign in 2008, which kinda scared me. I have tried in the past to report it to the FBI, the US Marshal's office in Mississippi and other law enforcement who have all laughed me off. I don't really know any more than that about the Kennedy assassination. Hope that info has been helpful and again, you are free to not believe it.

Edited December 11, 2012 by Terri Williams

[John Dolva]

Terri, which Klans, Klaverns, did these KKK members belong to?

[Terri Williams]

Terri, which Klans, Klaverns, did these KKK members belong to?

I have no idea about Klaverns. Like I said, I was not a member. Other family members were part of the Klan, but they did not talk to me about details as I was seen as someone to be shunned and was ostracized, a "n lover" is what they called me. Not all of my family were Klan members. My great grandparents never belonged to the Klan, but as they wanted to live in peace, they followed the rules, so to speak; they lived surrounded by Klan in the country. Like not having the help come to the front door or sit in the front seat, etc.

My grandmother, their daughter, was a Klan member, but kept things to herself, unless she was riled, which I seemed to have done sometimes. My great grandfather was not happy about family members joining the Klan, but he would not go up against them. It was dicey growing up with Klan all around me. My mother was also ostracized by our hometown, by the KKK, as she had sat in the back of the bus when I was 4. The KKK had Mom sent to Whitfield for shock treatment for three months for that stunt, which she did as a show of support for Rosa Parks. She explained their actions to me as being niggardly.

Mom had married a man from New York and we had been living in Syracuse for the first half of '63. She and her husband were supporters of JFK, as was I. When troubles broke out between her and her husband, my brothers and I were sent back to Terry that summer after school was out.

The day I arrived back in Terry, my grandmother was taking me uptown to buy some new clothes when the town marshal drove by in a new truck. I remarked that he had a new truck, not the old black one that had always been used, but a new green Ford pick-up truck. My grandmother said, "Yes, a nice man named Bannister arranged for the town to get that truck for free".

The following year, something terrible happened to someone whom I considered a friend, at the hands of certain Klan members. He was lynched horribly; they didn't "hang him". It was an effort to scare me into submission. It worked for a couple of years, but then I became defiant in high school, not really scared of them anymore. I did something that made them tell my grandmother "Mavis, you gonna have to send her away; we can't protect her no mo'". At 17, I was sent to live with my uncle in San Francisco in the summer of 1970. That's when things got real scary.

I eventually got away from him and went to Montreal to live with my mother. The tale gets a little more twisted from there. But I won't go into that here as it is a different topic.

Edited December 11, 2012 by Terri Williams

[Terri Williams]

I am not sure how many people know that in Mississippi at that time, there was a literacy test for voting.

That was put in place to keep anyone who the KKK did not want to be able to vote, from voting. In the 50's & 60's it was an unwritten law that if anyone was caught teaching black people to read or write or anything, it was grounds for a lynching for all involved.

That was another reason for the death of JFK, integration, which no one in the KKK wanted to see come about, because it meant that black people might end up voting. It was not good to get caught teaching anyone black at that time.

Edited December 11, 2012 by Terri Williams

[Terry Adams]

Terri,

Does Albert Lee Lewis have family still living. And, do you think any of them would have information (documentation) about his shooting the president. Surely as these people have aged they may want to get this to the people. I think that most people on the forum want to hear what you and others have to say.

[Terri Williams]

Terri,

Does Albert Lee Lewis have family still living. And, do you think any of them would have information (documentation) about his shooting the president. Surely as these people have aged they may want to get this to the people. I think that most people on the forum want to hear what you and others have to say.

I don't know who Albert Lee Lewis is? Who is he? Your question is pointedly ignorant.

Edited December 11, 2012 by Terri Williams

[David Andrews]

Terri,

Does Albert Lee Lewis have family still living. And, do you think any of them would have information (documentation) about his shooting the president. Surely as these people have aged they may want to get this to the people. I think that most people on the forum want to hear what you and others have to say.

I don't know who Albert Lee Lewis is? Who is he? Your question is pointedly ignorant.

Terri - first you put up the name of one of the purported Dealey shooters, then you take it down, then you accuse Terry Adams of being ignorant because he apparently didn't get the name right.

In reading your website, I'm curious to know how in your long sweet life you came about encountering the Zodiac killer, the Vancouver kidnappers, the Pig Farm killers, and the 9/11 hijackers. Do you also know Judyth Vary Baker?

Edited December 11, 2012 by David Andrews