One of the strangest theories

[Guest Mark Valenti]

Just a theory -- hope no one is offended.

A man who has reached the height of power - as US President - is then given the stunning news that he won't live much longer. His bodily systems have been ravaged by decades of prescription drug use and by incurable disease.

Being an intellectual, practical person with a keen eye toward history, he comes to the realization that he cannot achieve any of his goals, nor can he create historical change, if news of his condition leaks to the press, which it almost certainly will, and soon. He'll be worse than a lame duck - he'll be a dead man walking - with no hope of influencing the public debate. His Presidency will be seen as a failure and his legacy will be damaged. His personal life will be opened up to rigorous scrutiny.

His life has been defined by courage in the face of danger. His favorite poem - I Have a Rendezvous With Death. Despite ravaging illnesses, the deaths of loved ones, he fought in a world war and punished himself with a grueling political campaign. He is no coward. He faces every challenge dispassionately, with calm assurance.

And so he does the unthinkable - he sets into motion a series of events which will result in his own assassination.

Knowing history as he does, he understands that this is his best - perhaps his only hope of making a difference. When the shock of his death fades, history will allow his replacement to push through historic legislation.

The truth is leaked to only a few - not even his brother or wife knows. But his Vice President, his personal physician, and just a handful of others are privy to the events which are to transpire.

In the days preceding the assassination, he almost can't stop talking about it. "Tonight would have been a great night to kill a President," "Imagine if a shooter was firing from a building," "We're heading into nut country now," etc.

Once the deed is done, several key steps are taken to ensure completely secrecy. Records are sealed. Evidence is removed. A commission is established to point the finger of guilt in only one direction.

And true to prediction, JFK's presidency is cast in almost holy terms. The next few years see the passage of legislation that would have been impossible just a few years before.

And as the truth leaks out, drop by drop, no one ever considers that JFK may have been behind his own death. Having considered an enormous menu of other possible solutions, I find this one most outrageous, of course, but ever so slightly plausible.

Ask what you can do for your country.

[Myra Bronstein]

Just a theory -- hope no one is offended.

A man who has reached the height of power - as US President - is then given the stunning news that he won't live much longer. His bodily systems have been ravaged by decades of prescription drug use and by incurable disease.

Being an intellectual, practical person with a keen eye toward history, he comes to the realization that he cannot achieve any of his goals, nor can he create historical change, if news of his condition leaks to the press, which it almost certainly will, and soon. He'll be worse than a lame duck - he'll be a dead man walking - with no hope of influencing the public debate. His Presidency will be seen as a failure and his legacy will be damaged. His personal life will be opened up to rigorous scrutiny.

His life has been defined by courage in the face of danger. His favorite poem - I Have a Rendezvous With Death. Despite ravaging illnesses, the deaths of loved ones, he fought in a world war and punished himself with a grueling political campaign. He is no coward. He faces every challenge dispassionately, with calm assurance.

And so he does the unthinkable - he sets into motion a series of events which will result in his own assassination.

Knowing history as he does, he understands that this is his best - perhaps his only hope of making a difference. When the shock of his death fades, history will allow his replacement to push through historic legislation.

The truth is leaked to only a few - not even his brother or wife knows. But his Vice President, his personal physician, and just a handful of others are privy to the events which are to transpire.

In the days preceding the assassination, he almost can't stop talking about it. "Tonight would have been a great night to kill a President," "Imagine if a shooter was firing from a building," "We're heading into nut country now," etc.

Once the deed is done, several key steps are taken to ensure completely secrecy. Records are sealed. Evidence is removed. A commission is established to point the finger of guilt in only one direction.

And true to prediction, JFK's presidency is cast in almost holy terms. The next few years see the passage of legislation that would have been impossible just a few years before.

And as the truth leaks out, drop by drop, no one ever considers that JFK may have been behind his own death. Having considered an enormous menu of other possible solutions, I find this one most outrageous, of course, but ever so slightly plausible.

Ask what you can do for your country.

As much as I appreciate the concept of brainstorming, how would you account for his brother's murder?

Not to mention MLK, Malcolm X...

[Guest Mark Valenti]

As much as I appreciate the concept of brainstorming, how would you account for his brother's murder?

Not to mention MLK, Malcolm X...

Dunno - but each of the subsequent high-profile targets had serious, almost haunting premonitions about their own deaths. They, like JFK, had received so many death threats, they had to have known the day would come. Their choice was to either cower or stand up for their convictions and carry on, until the inevitable day came. In the case of JFK, my post is pure speculation and pretty far out. But sometimes if you don't get the words outta your head they give you a cranial throb.

MLK: "I've been to the mountaintop...I may not get there with you...Tonight I'm not fearing any man..." Within twelve hours or so he was dead.

Malcolm: The day before he got shot his good friend Earl Grant actually invited him to spend the night at his apartment but Malcolm refused: "You have a family," said Malcolm. "I don't want anyone hurt on my account. I always knew it would end like this."

RFK: In late May, (1968) he slipped off to director John Frankenheimer's Malibu beach house with some Hollywood glitterati, including Shirley MacLaine, Warren Beatty, Jean Seberg and Seberg's novelist husband, Romain Gary. Unable to leave Kennedy alone, Gary accosted him: "You know, don't you, that somebody is going to kill you?" Kennedy fended him off with fatalism. "That's the chance I have to take," he said.

Edited May 24, 2007 by Mark Valenti

[Charles Drago]

So JFK allows the mother of his children into the line of fire?

No hypothesis is too preposterous to be excluded from minimal consideration.

Which is all that this one deserves.

Charles

[Guest Mark Valenti]

So JFK allows the mother of his children into the line of fire?

No hypothesis is too preposterous to be excluded from minimal consideration.

Which is all that this one deserves.

Charles

You're preachin' to the choir, Charles. I said as much in my own post.

[Charles Drago]

I know, Mark. No offense intended.

For what it's worth, I first heard this hypothesis in the early '90s.

The danger inherent in discussing it here is that intellectual frauds like Bugliosi would not hesitate to dismiss this extraordinary and noble experiment as "the blog where they believe that JFK consented to his own murder."

Charles

[Guest Mark Valenti]

I did consider that, Charles. The thing is, imo, even a heinous theory should be floated because some aspect of it may unearth some previously unknown factoid or a direction that hadn't been considered. I'm sure there are Jackie-did-it theories, RFK did it, blah blah, and the LNers will have a field day - as I do myself when considering certain wild theories.

But even as we all know JFK never solicited his own murder, he was verifiably cognizant of real threats against him. Despite this, he did things like plunging into the rope line at Love Field, alongside his unprotected wife. While I don't believe JFK was a fool, I do wonder where his thoughts were regarding those who wished to see him dead. Being a supremely intelligent guy, he must have engaged in some kind of mental gymnastics about the possibility of his murder, where things might lie if he were to be killed while in office.

[Kathleen Collins]

I did consider that, Charles. The thing is, imo, even a heinous theory should be floated because some aspect of it may unearth some previously unknown factoid or a direction that hadn't been considered. I'm sure there are Jackie-did-it theories, RFK did it, blah blah, and the LNers will have a field day - as I do myself when considering certain wild theories.

But even as we all know JFK never solicited his own murder, he was verifiably cognizant of real threats against him. Despite this, he did things like plunging into the rope line at Love Field, alongside his unprotected wife. While I don't believe JFK was a fool, I do wonder where his thoughts were regarding those who wished to see him dead. Being a supremely intelligent guy, he must have engaged in some kind of mental gymnastics about the possibility of his murder, where things might lie if he were to be killed while in office.

I think that if one has a theory, he should sound it out no matter how ridiculous. I don't think he'd have Jackie next to him if he knew he was going to be shot. It is a silly theory, but so what? I've heard worse. JFK had the limo rigged to shoot him; they buried Tippit in Kennedy's grave and vice versa...

And what of Lee Oswald? What happened to him? He turned into a redheaded fisherman known as Donald O. Norton?

Kathy

[Jack White]

Theories which are mere speculation are harmless.

Theories based on evidence and proof are quite different.

Theories which have not been investigated still await study.

For instance:

...JFK JR was assassinated

...his mother died of an assisted suicide, arranged by trusted friends.

Dying of cancer and not wanting to suffer the pain and indignity, she

died in a manner she desired.

Jack

[Sid Walker]

Definitely the most improbable hypothesis advanced on this forum since Owen Parsons proposed that US foreign policy was biased towards the Palestinian cause.

[Mark Stapleton]

Definitely the most improbable hypothesis advanced on this forum since Owen Parsons proposed that US foreign policy was biased towards the Palestinian cause.

Yes, that was a real knee slapper, Sid.

To Owen's credit, he later submitted that he had changed his view on this.

It's a pity he doesn't seem to post on the Forum any more. He's very bright and has a wide knowledge of many aspects of the JFK case.

[John Dolva]

I did consider that, Charles. The thing is, imo, even a heinous theory should be floated because some aspect of it may unearth some previously unknown factoid or a direction that hadn't been considered. I'm sure there are Jackie-did-it theories, RFK did it, blah blah, and the LNers will have a field day - as I do myself when considering certain wild theories.

But even as we all know JFK never solicited his own murder, he was verifiably cognizant of real threats against him. Despite this, he did things like plunging into the rope line at Love Field, alongside his unprotected wife. While I don't believe JFK was a fool, I do wonder where his thoughts were regarding those who wished to see him dead. Being a supremely intelligent guy, he must have engaged in some kind of mental gymnastics about the possibility of his murder, where things might lie if he were to be killed while in office.

Mark, being someone who believes that if one is honest, then starting with a theory that the assassin is hiding under a rock in my back yard, checking and finding that is not so and so on and on, following a chain of truths one may arrive at the correct solution, I think you're raising some worthwhile topics to think about.

I don't Know who Killed Kennedy. I support almost all enedevours and thoeries where I can, though often with a slant that it was a domestic issue. (ie Civil Rights and the upheaval of centuries old status quo)

There is an element of inevitability to the assassination. I suggest that as Kennedy so strongly believed in open government and in the power of government resting in the hands of the electors, he, if he was going to be assassinated, would go in a manner consistent with his overall approach.

What I think that then does is highlight, or embed into the global conscience, the contrast between himself and his opponents, and thus he leaves a legacy which has endured so long, and likely will endure far into the future when his opponents are where they belong, in the dustbins of history.

[Robert Howard]

Maybe this isn't the most appropriate spot to post this, but speaking of unorthodox theories, I was reading some posts on another JFK Forum where someone was speculating that Oswald [at the moment of the famous Altgen's photo] was really in the exact spot Billy Lovelady was standing, and Lovelady was.......somewhere else.

The only reason I mention it, is that it's about the only strange theory I've heard, [besides the SS Agent who shot JFK from the limo]......I have alway's had a strange feeling about the Lovelady photo, and Oswald mentioned that he was on the 1st floor after he was taken into custody......If you really want to get more into it, ostensibly day's before David Ferrie's untimely demise, he told Alcock or Garrison that someone named "Bill" who worked in the TSBD, was in on the assassination.........

[Kathleen Collins]

Maybe this isn't the most appropriate spot to post this, but speaking of unorthodox theories, I was reading some posts on another JFK Forum where someone was speculating that Oswald [at the moment of the famous Altgen's photo] was really in the exact spot Billy Lovelady was standing, and Lovelady was.......somewhere else.

The only reason I mention it, is that it's about the only strange theory I've heard, [besides the SS Agent who shot JFK from the limo]......I have alway's had a strange feeling about the Lovelady photo, and Oswald mentioned that he was on the 1st floor after he was taken into custody......If you really want to get more into it, ostensibly day's before David Ferrie's untimely demise, he told Alcock or Garrison that someone named "Bill" who worked in the TSBD, was in on the assassination.........

I agree. There's something unnatural about the Man in the Doorway. The way he stands and smiles and looks eager. Lovelady must have been in on the Assassination. For one thing, he identified himself in that picture. But it looks more like a head superimposed on a body. The smartest thing Oswald could have done was stand outside and watch the motorcade. Then no one would suspect him. He's in full view of everyone and does not have a gun. He should have stayed there, but he fled to the Texas Theater and the Richard Widmark movie. I'd like to look into Lovelady's background.

Kathy

[James Richards]

Maybe this isn't the most appropriate spot to post this, but speaking of unorthodox theories, I was reading some posts on another JFK Forum where someone was speculating that Oswald [at the moment of the famous Altgen's photo] was really in the exact spot Billy Lovelady was standing, and Lovelady was.......somewhere else.

The only reason I mention it, is that it's about the only strange theory I've heard, [besides the SS Agent who shot JFK from the limo]......I have alway's had a strange feeling about the Lovelady photo, and Oswald mentioned that he was on the 1st floor after he was taken into custody......If you really want to get more into it, ostensibly day's before David Ferrie's untimely demise, he told Alcock or Garrison that someone named "Bill" who worked in the TSBD, was in on the assassination.........

Does anyone know if Billy Lovelady is related to James L. Lovelady from Myrtle Springs?

James