A brief comment by David Starks

[Douglas Caddy]

David Starks posted this comment today on Facebook in a topic started by David Talbot;

I video taped all the great conferences of the 90s and after the Stone film the best and brightest critics and authors and researchers got together. Many of them are now dead, and rarely is there a conference with anywhere near the star power of the ones in Chicago in 92-93 or the ones I taped in DC in 94-95-96-97.

Only Jim Lesar and Cyril Wecht have had recent conferences that I would have enjoyed, but alas, I can no longer justify the expense of travel, admission and hotel now that I no longer am a video producer and also because interest in the case has plummeted after the 50th aniv has passed.

This is no longer current events, but the case has fallen into the dust bin of history, and the true perpetrators were never caught and most would be long dead. Okay, there is the Joanides files to hopefully see in our lifetime (if they have not been altered, stolen or destroyed by now) but do you think CIA will release that stuff in 2017, when one of these frightening endless war robber barons is president?

[Vince Palamara]

Some people have written off this case for decades. I vividly remember the summer of 1991, BEFORE the Oliver Stone film "JFK", when a local Buffalo, NY newspaper, covering the Third Decade research conference to which I participated in, wrote that, outside of the 60-some authors and researchers at the conference, "few in the outside world care." Yet, the Stone film was beyond huge and ended up being the catalsyt for the JFK Records Act and the ARRB. In addition, an onslaught of books became NY Times best-sellers and television shows covering the assassination were the norm.

I remember, after 9/11, some people said "wow- the JFK assassination REALLY feels like ancient history now." After all, it was a new century and 3000 people were killed, not "just" three (JFK, Tippit, and Oswald), albeit one of them was the president. Yet, 2 years later, the 40th anniversary was huge, several best-selling books came out, the polls were (once again) overwhelmingly pro-conspiracy, and people forked 20.00 each for over 50,000 DVDs of the ratings sensation THE MEN WHO KILLED KENNEDY, also the biggest ratings bonanza (up to then) in the history of the History Channel.

The 50th anniversary was huge, spawning many new releases and classic re-releases of books, many of which were best-sellers. To this day (2016), books on the Kennedys---and quite a few on the assassination---are either best-sellers or, at the very least, above-average sellers.

Translation: whether "current events" or "ancient history", interest will never die. JFK was the last assassinated president; Kennedy was "only" nine presidents ago; millions were alive when he was the leader of the free world; You Tube and audio/visuals help to keep JFK alive, so to speak, to new generations; interest on the internet is alive and well; the Trump "Ted-Cruz's-father-knew-Oswald" item was big; and, last but certainly not least:

Interest in the FIRST assassinated President--Lincoln--remains huge: witness the Hollywood movie, books, and television specials.

People have been writing the obituary for interest in the Kennedy assassination for a while. It's not going away, folks.

Edited October 20, 2016 by Vince Palamara