Couple JFK photos / James Files, page 1

I've been considering this story for a couple of days now and spent some time reading the various interviews. Also, I would like to admit that in a recent thread about an all together different theory regarding President Kennedy's assassination that after viewing a high-tech presentation of the Zapruder film, I was less convinced that a shot did not originate from the "grassy knoll."

I would also point out to those who may not know that I am old enough to remember quite well the assassination of Kennedy. In fact, even though I was too young to understand completely all the issues at hand, I remember very well his having run for President and the rancor that his candidacy caused in the deep South. My family was living in southern Mississippi at the time.

By the time that Kennedy was assassinated, we were living in Shreveport, LA and I was 14 years old at that time. I have often been accused of being aloof and disconnected, but the first I heard of the assassination, my Social Studies teacher began his class with a lecture about how regardless of our personal opinions of the President, we were to display appropriate regard for the office and that celebrations at the assassination of any US President was inappropriate. Somehow in the five minutes I had to get between my classes that day, I had failed to note the jubilation of my fellow students and to ascertain what the hullabaloo was all about.

They dismissed class early that day and as I was walking home, I passed the home of family whom I knew quite well. Their son who was a grade or two further along than me was just arriving home and as he got out of his truck, he yelled to me something to the effect that someone had finally gotten that "______-lover." I guess I don't need to say that Kennedy was not particularly popular in that neck of the woods.

Now with regard to the "three tramps" and their affect in the pictures that exist of them, like a lot of people, I don't really think that they necessarily look like real tramps of that era, even though they are dressed in the manner of tramps of that day. Considerable time is spent on one page of the site discussing the fact that two of the tramps don't look particularly distressed despite the fact that the President had been killed only a few minutes prior and, in fact, the man identified as Charles Harrelson appears to be smiling.

I would argue that such an observation is virtually meaningless in the context of the event and the political attitudes of the day. I would not necessarily generalize the attitudes of junior high school and high school students at that time to the general populace because it was obvious to most that regardless of his politics, the death of Kennedy was likely to have far-reaching negative consequences for the whole nation, not the least of which was the prospect of Lyndon Johnson inheriting the Presidency. Whereas there was much scorn directed toward Kennedy by many Southerners, very many feared the consequences of a Johnson Presidency and rightly so, I might add.

Besides the fact that the picture comparisons do very little to convince me that the "three tramps" are whom they are claimed to be, everything else that is attributed to the men in those photographs is entirely speculative. I would think that the information provided on that site regarding those three individuals would never pass muster in a court of law.

Except for the pictures, there is absolutely nothing that I can discern that substantively connects those three men to the assassination. To those who would cite the testimony of Files, I would only point to this man:

[edit on 2006/1/12 by GradyPhilpott]