The bottlers convention

[Ron Ecker]

In the thread "Oak Ridge and the JFK Assassination," the following is stated in Phelps's text:

"A large Pepsi Conference and Nixon were in town to tie up a Dallas convention center and force the change to the Dallas Trade Mart and the JFK route change."

I have seen this belief stated somewhere before, and it cannot be true, so I thought it deserves its own thread to clear up the matter.

The bottlers convention was held at Market Hall, which was across the street from the Trade Mart. So how could tying up Market Hall force a change in the motorcade route? Unless I'm sadly mistaken, the same route would have been taken to either place.

If the conspirators wanted to tie up a location to ensure a route down Elm Street, they would have tied up the Women's Building, which was the other location that the Secret Service considered. That would have left no choice but the Trade Mart or Market Hall.

If the conspirators did make a decision to tie up Market Hall with the bottlers convention, they did it for a very good reason. In his WC testimony, Secret Service agent Forrest Sorrels stated that Market Hall would have been "ideal insofar as security measures were concerned." Better the Trade Mart, then, if for any reason the Dealey Plaza hit were aborted. They would then have to make sure that the Trade Mart was chosen over the Women's Building, and John Connally helped see that this was done.

Edited February 14, 2006 by Ron Ecker