Applause for the assassination?

[J. Raymond Carroll]

In the immediate aftermath of the assassination word got out that kids cheered Kennedy's death at an elementary school in Dallas. I believe Dan Rather reported it.

According to Rather's colleague, Eddie Barker, Rather got in hot water over this because the truth was that the kids cheered when it was announced that THERE WOULD BE NO MORE SCHOOL THAT DAY.

"Because of the shooting, which took place at 12:30 p.m., the principal had decided to close the school early, though without telling the students why. The children at the school--including three of Barker's own--were merely happy to be going home early, he was told. There couldn't have been any spontaneous cheering at the news of Kennedy's murder, because no such news had been announced."

See attached link:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...05/324nfvwe.asp

[Lee Forman]

Applause for the assassination?

My sister who was 8 when JFK was shot told me some of the kids in her school in North Carolina cheered and applauded when they heard the announcement. A new member of the forum has a similar recollection.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...036entry59036

Has anyone else heard of or witnessed similar incidents?

Len,

There are a few you can find at the Dallas History Forum. You may have to do another search and read through quite a few remarks before hitting on anything worthwhile, however, little bits and pieces of interesting stuff in there.

http://www.dallashistory.org/cgi-bin/webbb...ames;read=31831

http://www.dallashistory.org/cgi-bin/webbb...ames;read=32025

- lee

[Pat Speer]

In Joseph Burkholder Simth's Portrait of a Cold Warrior, there is an anecdote about this. I seem to remember that he was in the Pentagon performing a briefing and that several generals expressed relief at the news of Kennedy's death. It may have been Robert Kennedy's death, however. I'll check the book next I come across it.

[Ron Ecker]

In a written narrative of events that he supplied to the ARRB, FBI agent Francis O'Neill included an account of what I would call an act of celebration during the motorcade from Andrews to Bethesda for the autopsy: "At a point shortly before we entered Washington D.C. several motorcyclists from the rouge (sic) group called the Hells Angels came up to the motorcade and wove in and out of the cars in the procession. The Police immediately followed them. What happened after that I don't know."