Conspiracy theorists flocked to the infamous grassy knoll and parents pointed toward a sixth-floor window as thousands gathered in Dealey Plaza on Saturday to mark the day 40 years ago when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on a trip through Dallas.
Dallas does not hold an official event to mark the day that, the official history says, Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository with a rifle he purchased for less than US$20, gunning down Kennedy during a trip to Texas he was reluctant to take.
PHOTO: AP
But most of the people in Dealey Plaza for the Nov. 22, 1963, anniversary do not believe in the official history. Copies of a magazine called JFK -- The Case for Conspiracy were selling briskly at US$5 a piece to the crowd of some 3,000 to 4,000 people.
Nearby, a man held a placard reading JFK -- Blown away by the CIA, Coup de tat [sic] in the USA.
The crowd reached its peak at 12:30pm, about the time when Kennedy was gunned down, then thinned out.
Former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura, a pro wrestler turned politician, spoke to the crowd, denouncing the government's first official, comprehensive record of the JFK assassination -- the Warren Report, which said Oswald was the lone gunman. That report was issued 10 months after Kennedy was slain.
"Eventually, we will prevail and the truth will prevail," Ventura told the crowd.
Most Americans stand with Ventura in believing a conspiracy was behind Kennedy's killing. Recent polls said that about 70 percent of respondents think Oswald was not solely responsible for gunning down Kennedy.
Among those who came to Dealey Plaza were Henry Rollins, 63, of Quincy, Florida, who answered Kennedy's call to join the Peace Corps and first heard news of the assassination in a French radio broadcast in Morocco.
Little has changed in Dealey Plaza in the four decades since the day that transformed a nation. The Texas School Book Depository still stands, although now it is a Dallas County building. The Sixth Floor Museum -- which recounts Kennedy's term as president and his assassination -- occupies the floor from which Oswald is said to have fired.
A plaque marks Dealey Plaza as a national historic site and a white "X" painted on the street marks the spot where a bullet struck Kennedy in the head.
Oswald's wife Marina, 62, still lives in the city and works at a store selling US military surplus. She did not want to be interviewed for the anniversary.
"This year is a little different because it feels like this will be the last time that many of the key participants in the history will be around for one of the big anniversaries," said Tom Stone, a professor at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas who teaches a course on the assassination.
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