A Conversation with a Man Who Made History
Presidential Assassination
Many efforts have been made at ending the lives of our Presidents. Some by crazed, insane men and women who had no political or socio-economic axe to grind, others by men who were ideologues - people who hoped to change the world. Don't worry my intention was not to explore all of these possibilities, however, at one time I did.
As a high school freshman my interest in the American Presidency drew me to the deaths of Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield and William McKinley. I found kindred spirits in other young people who were likewise interested. From that experience I became interested in White House history and I read as much as I could from the eight grade to the present about the American Presidents, First Ladies, the White House and about American politics in general. But throughout I was fascinated by the death of John Kennedy.
Background on Kennedy's Race to Dallas
John Kennedy was a young man with a beautiful wife and children. He was not a well man. In fact he was highly addicted to prescription and other medications. Like Theodore Roosevelt he was not well as a child. And after his injuries on PT-109 he was never quite the same. The Kennedy's were exceedingly, ridiculously rich, thought Jackie Kennedy at one point intoned, "we're not nearly as rich as people think we are." And the lapse of the Kennedy compound in Hyannis and Palm Beach are good evidence that the Kennedy millions never turned into billions.
Still John Kennedy was a man who was "made". His father had bankrolled his path to the presidency. In 1962 brother Bobby Kennedy began a rather significant attack on what we know as "the Mob". Some of the rumours are just that - rumours. Still the Kennedy men were known to be driven to excess with their father as their paragon - not of virtue but of vice. Joseph Kennedy was a reckless and even feckless man without any respect for his wife's deep religious conviction. Kennedy openly carried on affairs in LA to the point where the Kennedy name was associated with the worst in scandal. Kennedy was determined to thrust son Joe into the limelight and to build his own reputation and feed his ego. So he managed then President Franklin Roosevelt until he named him Ambassador to the Court of St. James. Through it all the senior Kennedy lost his daughter Kathleen, "Kick", to the family. Who married an English Lord and became - for an ever so short time - a member of the peerage. Like JFK's son John, Jr., she lost her life along with her husband in an airplane accident. But this wasn't the end of the tragedies. Next the life of brother Joe would be claimed - his plane fell from the skies - and crashed and he died. Joe and Rose were devestated. Two children gone. Now the pressure was on those that remained. And the Kennedy's were a competitive bunch.
Joe Kennedy saw a long term political advantage for himself - perhaps he could be President. And install a dynasty in the White House. Joe through his lot in with Chamberlain and began to rather publicly ally himself with pro-Nazi influences in England. His cables and reports were disturbing to Secretary of State Cordell Hull and to FDR himself. FDR hedged his bets. He didn't really care about those incarcerated in European political prisons - even though he certainly would have known that Jews, gypsies, gays and others were being persecuted by the Germans and by other governments in the early 1930's.
John signed up for the war and ended up on a small boat. He was supposed to be clear of any signficant encounter. But John was reckless like his father. He figured that if he saw no action he might not have a future - of any kind. He'd be seen as a rich, entitled, hanger on. He loved to sail and he was a decent sailor. And once in the water he was a good swimmer. His experience was harrowing. His ship went down and he managed to corral his men and even dragged one man with his teeth until they could make it to a nearly uninhabited island.
Later he would write #"Why England Slept" as a major paper at Harvard. John found a publishing house after someone suggested he publish the paper - that it was good. So editors re-wrote the paper into a book. And Kennedy had a run-away success. Meanwhile he had significant back trouble and woman problems.
Kennedy and His Sex Life
John Kennedy's sex life is legendary and it appears to grow with time. He would today be 100 years old. His father had created an unnatural sexual coterie for young John and his brothers. Perhaps Joe was overcompensating. Perhaps for the Kennedy men it was a courtly matter of power. And perhaps it was simply a way of expressing their masculinity in acceptable ways. Kennedy dated several women - but he appears to have actually married in the 1940's - in Florida - on a whim. And that marriage was troublesome for him. But that wasn't his first trouble with women. He dated a journalist whom he was massively in love with and whom he wished to marry. His father received regular reports of his activities - as he did of all his children - from what Rose once termed "handlers". Men specifically hired to keep the Kennedy men out of harm's way and to cover their dirty tricks when they "misbehaved". The first marriage was wiped off the books.
Through it all was Lemoyn Billings. Billings was a man who had a secret past. Billings was gay. He was very closeted. He had beards to keep his reputation in tact but Billings, for all his manliness, for all his tough guy exterior loved men. Not one man - but men in general. John Kennedy knew this. Billings was his friend and the loyalty between the men lasted far beyond Kennedy's death. In fact Billings never talked about their relationship. He's the one friend that never talked. Not simply because of his own closeted life - but because he genuinely loved his friend. They were brothers in the very finest sense.
Congress
If Kennedy had campaigned and worked in the modern era he might well have suffered the same fate as Anthony Weiner or Bill Clinton. Kennedy married the Washington Times Herald "Roving Reporter" Jacqueline Bouvier in 1952. The two had met prior to that but there was no real spark. Jackie was very smart and that was a problem. Because though the Kennedy men could tolerate intelligence in women (John's brother Bobby dated several very astute women) what they could not tolerate is intelligence with stripes - at least not stripes they couldn't control. Jackie was perfect from Joe's perspective. Never married. No public affairs. Seemingly a virgin (she wasn't). And Jackie's mother was married to Hugh D. Auchincloss. Hugh was a very respected millionaire who ran in the same circles as the Kennedys. "Uncle Hughdie" as Jackie called him, married Janet Lee Bouvier. Janet had married "for love" - a rather penniless card shark, a man who claimed french royalty but in fact was as far from royal as he could be. In the background was an eccentric cousin, Edie Bouvier. But that wasn't the only secret. The Bouviers were flat broke. Between gambling and taxes most of whatever money his father and predecessors had accumulated by the time Janet married Jack Bouvier. Jackie plaid the perfect fifties housewife and she hated it.
Meanwhile two other men in Congress rose to their apex - Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. Johnson was a prodigé of House Speaker Sam Rayburn. Rayburn was from a non-discript mostly farming district in what is now suburban Dallas. Johnson's family had an illustrious, checkered and somewhat wanten past. His mother Rebekkah Baines came from a respected family that had first settled in the county seat of Collin County, Texas, today the fastest growing county in the state, in McKinney. Baines, like fellow southerner Mary Todd Lincoln, came from well connected and rich stock. Claudia Alta Taylor Johnson was a descendent of Zachary Taylor. Her father was also a well connected local politician from Karnack, Texas, and "Bird" was no innocent. With a degree in history, and a great deal of self-confidence, she in fact used her family's money to acquire radio stations and later TV stations - and by her death had built an empire which will serve Johnsons and Nugents for many years to come. But in the 1930's she followed her new husband Lyndon to Washington and she worked in his office, joined later by her friend Liz Carpenter, who would briefly work on Lyndon's staff. But more importantly a young man named John Connally would join as a staff person.
Ex-Vice President Johnson
Lyndon Johnson was a painful boil for President Kennedy. Painful because he represented the south for the young man - as well as an older generation of politicians that Kennedy needed in 1960. But Johnson was close with men like J. Edgar Hoover - and Lyndon Johnson was particularly ruthless. His relationship even with his family could be merciless and even his closest associates - including a major figure in three administrations - Joseph Califano - would note that Johnson had a bit of the sadist in him. Johnson had a past as well. He was a known philanderer and he covered up a relationship with a woman that led to a love-child. Johnson had bought ought his aunt and settled into building a substantial home on the Perdeneles River. Johnson's ego was so huge that the Johnson ranch earned only the second "life-lease" of an American President (the first was granted to Mamie Eisenhower). Johnson's father was a dirt farmer with a great deal of land and little else to recommend him. Johnson started out as a teacher in a one room school
house. He really hated teaching - despite his protests to the contrary when he signed the first Head Start legislation in that school house in 1965.
John Kennedy intended to "fire" Johnson in late 1962 / early 1963. As FDR had dumped John Nance Garner in favor of Harry Truman so too Kennedy wanted to end Johnson. Johnson's friction with Kennedy and his brother were well known. Johnson was kept in the dark - like Garner and Truman. Johnson attended sessions with Kennedy - but as few as possible - and formal cabinet meetings. But Johnson was excluded in favor of Kennedy's brothers - both Robert and his very young brother Teddy. But also "the brightest" crayons in the box: Theodore Sorenson, Arthur Schlesinger, Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, George McBundy, Goodwin - household names today - but fairly obscure at the time. Johnson knew his days were numbered. And if there was a military industrial complex - Johnson was on their payroll. What later became known as Kellogg, Brown and Root were key to Johnson's power. To President Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson was a means to an end, the key to White, Dixiecrat votes. But now Kennedy didn't need them. He had engendered a genuine liberal reaction in society and the Civil Rights movement gave him ample ammunition. When Lady Bird and Lyndon were at Parkland Hospital, in a room adjacent to the JFK trauma unit, they were said to have exclaimed, "...yes but not like yes. Yes Lyndon wanted to be President, but not like this." Within ten years Johnson would be dead, his heart condition returning to kill him.
Kennedy & Company in Texas
Texas had been particuarly hostile to Kennedy. He represented an anathma to Dallas and fifty years later the discomfort amongst Republicans and neo-cons who were around in 1960 was so palpable that any effort to discuss Assassination theories (conspiracy theories) was dealt with harshley. There would be no revelations in Dallas observance of respect for President Kennedy.
Bill Paxton at the Fort Worth Hotel
The Kennedy's landed in Fort Worth and spent the night at a hotel there. Actor Bill Paxton was placed on his father's shoulders and is clearly visible in a crowd at the hotel in Fort Worth.
Many turned out to see the young, handsome President and his wife Jackie. Jackie after all had solidified "Camelot" herself. It was there in Fort Worth that Lyndon got the stinging news that he would not be on the ticket in 1964. John Kennedy was due to ride from the airport at Dallas Love Field to the Dallas Trade Mart where Trammell Crow and other Dallas celebrities waited for Kennedy to join them for a celebratory lunch.
The Secret Service had existed since Lincoln was president. They were initially created because of massive currency forfitting that occurred during the War Between the States. But by 1960 the Secret Service had been through not one but three asssasinations. The head of the secret service advised Kennedy he should not go to Dallas - it was too hostile and there were reports already being received by J. Edgar Hoover. The stage had been set. Many wanted Kennedy dead: the American Mob because of his double-crossing of them from the late 1950's to the present, GE, KBR and several other entities would lose money if he pulled America out of Vietnam, and then there were Johnson and his friends. Some of whom gathered at a secret meeting in Dallas to discuss how they could rid themselves of Kennedy. What they actually orchestrated cannot be known.
In the car were the Secret Service trained driver, a second agent and at least three on the rear of the Lincoln Continental. Kennedy had ordered the bullet proof bubble top to be removed. It was to be a beautiful day and Kennedy wanted to see and be seen. In two small seats, slighly astride from the back seats, so-called "jump seats" were Mrs. Nelly Connally opposite Jack and John Connally opposite Kennedy. Connally was the then Governor of Texas. As the car approached the corner Nelly exclaimed, "you can't say that Texas doesn't love you Mr. President". Moments later Kennedy would be dead.
Kevin and the Governor
Buick Plant, Flint, Michigan
Politics was a heady and powerful combination in sleeply Lansing, Michigan. The Robert Handy family moved there in 1968 to escape even sleepier Clio, Michigan, a "suburb" of Flint, Michigan, now so famous and infamous for its water treatment issues. In 1968 Flint, Michigan was a still burgeoning capital of Buick Motor Company. Robert Handy was the son of a used car dealer and his mother was a long time schoolteacher. Marcia Palmer was the daughter of Howard and Mary Palmer, her father a store owner and former head of the Genesee County Welfare Board and her mother an independent minded homemaker. The in-laws were a scant six to eight years in age difference but an entire generation from the peers of the young Robert and Marcia Handy couple.
The pair moved to Lansing for a job. Bob settled in as a radiotelephone operator. His uncle John had died in a terrible motorcycle fatality when he was a patrol officer in the Michigan State Police. Bob's great-uncle, Frank Cain, was a renowned municipal judge, responsible for much of the modern family law on the books in the state up to the late 1950's. Howard Palmer was the mayor of Clio, Michigan in 1960 and in the late 1950's had met Richard Nixon at the national mayor's conference in Owosso, Michigan. Marcia was very bored and a friend recommended she volunteer at the state capitol - who knew what it could lead to, the friend thought. Marcia became the social butterfly she was known to be in high school at the state capitol - and in the days before the state civil service was so restrictive that meant one couldn't do such things.
She befriended many people and became immersed in politics. Her father had been more of an independent politically even if he followed the Republican party. But she practiced realpolitik. She didn't care what your political leanings were - nor did she really understand them in 1968-1969 when she began her short career as a volunteer. Marcia was pregnant with a little girl which she later miscarried. Through her Kevin became interested in politics as well. He was introduced to interesting people as a young boy and that interest continued. Eventually he campaigned for the Eaton County Republicans and interjected himself into the lives of some very reluctant politicians. In 1980 the Republicans built a huge brand and staged a comeback. Ronald Reagan was a front-runner but former Governor and Treasury Secretary John Connally was a man of interest.
Marcia Handy knew her son and she knew his odd attaction to politicians for their power. Kevin by now had read about Connally and about Kennedy and was well versed. The two Connally's were slated to testify before a committee investigating the assassination. When Marcia told Kevin he had to dress, they were going to the Ingham County Fairgrounds in Mason, Michigan, he had visions of volunteering for a politician. Not a pleasant thought. A hot day at the fairgrounds. Then Marcia produced the tickets. They were going to see Governor Connally speak - a front runner for the Republican nomination - and the man who was in the car that awful day in Dallas, a man who himself was shot and nearly died.
Connally Doesn't Speak
John Connally
Kevin's grandfather Handy's maternal grandfather was James B. Wood, father of his mother, Lucinda Wood Handy. Wood wrote a series of letters to his wife. Among them was a prophetic note to his wife Emily. October 7, 1864, Kevin's great-great grandfather Wood wrote, "I have been to the Capitol and the President’s House that is about a mile from the Capitol. I cannot describe it to you on paper. But wait until I come back and then I will explain it to you as well as I can. We expect to go to City Point from here. There was a number of “Rebs” came in here yesterday. They say that Pearten must fall in a day or two and Richmond will fall itself in a little while. Whether we fight them or not they say they can’t stand a great while longer. The president was engaged and I could not see him. It was stated there were two Governors from the South to for peace. How it is I do not know but I do know they were from some ______. I am willing to fight for one year to pay for what I have seen. The city is an old looking place. The weather is very pleasant. We got here Wednesday night. We lay in Baltimore from daylight until three o’clock."
James B. Wood, wife of Emily Wood and father of Lucinda Wood Handy
More than 100 years later Kevin met a member of Gerald Ford's cabinet (Lincoln was killed at Ford's theater), John Connnally, just before the presidential election - and Connally's own demise.
John Connally was a hulking man of more than six feet. And when he shook hands it was as if a vice gripped your hand. "How are young man?" Connally said. "I'm well Sir, thank you, can I by chance get your autograph" So I took out the ticket and Secretary Connally signed it. After some pleasantries I told him I was interested in presidential history but in particular about his role that day twenty years before. "Did you actually hear three shots fired or was it more or less?" The southern charm dropped, the pain his face was pronounced, and he said, almost matter-of-factly, "that was a very painful time. You know I was out. I had passed out." "Yes Sir, the "magic bullet" had supposedly passed through the President and hit you and then went through your seat. It narrowly missed your heart." Connally found a way to excuse himself. He had no entourage to speak of. He excused himself, saying that he had another engagement and had to leave. I bemoaned the incident to my mother and father after the event. Why hadn't he answered my question? Why was he so reticient? Why wouldn't he talk. I would never know. I never met him again.
Later I met Liz Carpenter, aide to Lady Bird, and former staff member in Lyndon Johnson's office. Liz was a strong voice for the anti-war movement under George W. Bush.
Many efforts have been made at ending the lives of our Presidents. Some by crazed, insane men and women who had no political or socio-economic axe to grind, others by men who were ideologues - people who hoped to change the world. Don't worry my intention was not to explore all of these possibilities, however, at one time I did.
As a high school freshman my interest in the American Presidency drew me to the deaths of Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield and William McKinley. I found kindred spirits in other young people who were likewise interested. From that experience I became interested in White House history and I read as much as I could from the eight grade to the present about the American Presidents, First Ladies, the White House and about American politics in general. But throughout I was fascinated by the death of John Kennedy.
Background on Kennedy's Race to Dallas
John Kennedy was a young man with a beautiful wife and children. He was not a well man. In fact he was highly addicted to prescription and other medications. Like Theodore Roosevelt he was not well as a child. And after his injuries on PT-109 he was never quite the same. The Kennedy's were exceedingly, ridiculously rich, thought Jackie Kennedy at one point intoned, "we're not nearly as rich as people think we are." And the lapse of the Kennedy compound in Hyannis and Palm Beach are good evidence that the Kennedy millions never turned into billions.
Still John Kennedy was a man who was "made". His father had bankrolled his path to the presidency. In 1962 brother Bobby Kennedy began a rather significant attack on what we know as "the Mob". Some of the rumours are just that - rumours. Still the Kennedy men were known to be driven to excess with their father as their paragon - not of virtue but of vice. Joseph Kennedy was a reckless and even feckless man without any respect for his wife's deep religious conviction. Kennedy openly carried on affairs in LA to the point where the Kennedy name was associated with the worst in scandal. Kennedy was determined to thrust son Joe into the limelight and to build his own reputation and feed his ego. So he managed then President Franklin Roosevelt until he named him Ambassador to the Court of St. James. Through it all the senior Kennedy lost his daughter Kathleen, "Kick", to the family. Who married an English Lord and became - for an ever so short time - a member of the peerage. Like JFK's son John, Jr., she lost her life along with her husband in an airplane accident. But this wasn't the end of the tragedies. Next the life of brother Joe would be claimed - his plane fell from the skies - and crashed and he died. Joe and Rose were devestated. Two children gone. Now the pressure was on those that remained. And the Kennedy's were a competitive bunch.
Joe Kennedy saw a long term political advantage for himself - perhaps he could be President. And install a dynasty in the White House. Joe through his lot in with Chamberlain and began to rather publicly ally himself with pro-Nazi influences in England. His cables and reports were disturbing to Secretary of State Cordell Hull and to FDR himself. FDR hedged his bets. He didn't really care about those incarcerated in European political prisons - even though he certainly would have known that Jews, gypsies, gays and others were being persecuted by the Germans and by other governments in the early 1930's.
John signed up for the war and ended up on a small boat. He was supposed to be clear of any signficant encounter. But John was reckless like his father. He figured that if he saw no action he might not have a future - of any kind. He'd be seen as a rich, entitled, hanger on. He loved to sail and he was a decent sailor. And once in the water he was a good swimmer. His experience was harrowing. His ship went down and he managed to corral his men and even dragged one man with his teeth until they could make it to a nearly uninhabited island.
Later he would write #"Why England Slept" as a major paper at Harvard. John found a publishing house after someone suggested he publish the paper - that it was good. So editors re-wrote the paper into a book. And Kennedy had a run-away success. Meanwhile he had significant back trouble and woman problems.
Kennedy and His Sex Life
John Kennedy's sex life is legendary and it appears to grow with time. He would today be 100 years old. His father had created an unnatural sexual coterie for young John and his brothers. Perhaps Joe was overcompensating. Perhaps for the Kennedy men it was a courtly matter of power. And perhaps it was simply a way of expressing their masculinity in acceptable ways. Kennedy dated several women - but he appears to have actually married in the 1940's - in Florida - on a whim. And that marriage was troublesome for him. But that wasn't his first trouble with women. He dated a journalist whom he was massively in love with and whom he wished to marry. His father received regular reports of his activities - as he did of all his children - from what Rose once termed "handlers". Men specifically hired to keep the Kennedy men out of harm's way and to cover their dirty tricks when they "misbehaved". The first marriage was wiped off the books.
Through it all was Lemoyn Billings. Billings was a man who had a secret past. Billings was gay. He was very closeted. He had beards to keep his reputation in tact but Billings, for all his manliness, for all his tough guy exterior loved men. Not one man - but men in general. John Kennedy knew this. Billings was his friend and the loyalty between the men lasted far beyond Kennedy's death. In fact Billings never talked about their relationship. He's the one friend that never talked. Not simply because of his own closeted life - but because he genuinely loved his friend. They were brothers in the very finest sense.
Congress
If Kennedy had campaigned and worked in the modern era he might well have suffered the same fate as Anthony Weiner or Bill Clinton. Kennedy married the Washington Times Herald "Roving Reporter" Jacqueline Bouvier in 1952. The two had met prior to that but there was no real spark. Jackie was very smart and that was a problem. Because though the Kennedy men could tolerate intelligence in women (John's brother Bobby dated several very astute women) what they could not tolerate is intelligence with stripes - at least not stripes they couldn't control. Jackie was perfect from Joe's perspective. Never married. No public affairs. Seemingly a virgin (she wasn't). And Jackie's mother was married to Hugh D. Auchincloss. Hugh was a very respected millionaire who ran in the same circles as the Kennedys. "Uncle Hughdie" as Jackie called him, married Janet Lee Bouvier. Janet had married "for love" - a rather penniless card shark, a man who claimed french royalty but in fact was as far from royal as he could be. In the background was an eccentric cousin, Edie Bouvier. But that wasn't the only secret. The Bouviers were flat broke. Between gambling and taxes most of whatever money his father and predecessors had accumulated by the time Janet married Jack Bouvier. Jackie plaid the perfect fifties housewife and she hated it.
Meanwhile two other men in Congress rose to their apex - Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. Johnson was a prodigé of House Speaker Sam Rayburn. Rayburn was from a non-discript mostly farming district in what is now suburban Dallas. Johnson's family had an illustrious, checkered and somewhat wanten past. His mother Rebekkah Baines came from a respected family that had first settled in the county seat of Collin County, Texas, today the fastest growing county in the state, in McKinney. Baines, like fellow southerner Mary Todd Lincoln, came from well connected and rich stock. Claudia Alta Taylor Johnson was a descendent of Zachary Taylor. Her father was also a well connected local politician from Karnack, Texas, and "Bird" was no innocent. With a degree in history, and a great deal of self-confidence, she in fact used her family's money to acquire radio stations and later TV stations - and by her death had built an empire which will serve Johnsons and Nugents for many years to come. But in the 1930's she followed her new husband Lyndon to Washington and she worked in his office, joined later by her friend Liz Carpenter, who would briefly work on Lyndon's staff. But more importantly a young man named John Connally would join as a staff person.
Ex-Vice President Johnson
Lyndon Johnson was a painful boil for President Kennedy. Painful because he represented the south for the young man - as well as an older generation of politicians that Kennedy needed in 1960. But Johnson was close with men like J. Edgar Hoover - and Lyndon Johnson was particularly ruthless. His relationship even with his family could be merciless and even his closest associates - including a major figure in three administrations - Joseph Califano - would note that Johnson had a bit of the sadist in him. Johnson had a past as well. He was a known philanderer and he covered up a relationship with a woman that led to a love-child. Johnson had bought ought his aunt and settled into building a substantial home on the Perdeneles River. Johnson's ego was so huge that the Johnson ranch earned only the second "life-lease" of an American President (the first was granted to Mamie Eisenhower). Johnson's father was a dirt farmer with a great deal of land and little else to recommend him. Johnson started out as a teacher in a one room school
house. He really hated teaching - despite his protests to the contrary when he signed the first Head Start legislation in that school house in 1965.
John Kennedy intended to "fire" Johnson in late 1962 / early 1963. As FDR had dumped John Nance Garner in favor of Harry Truman so too Kennedy wanted to end Johnson. Johnson's friction with Kennedy and his brother were well known. Johnson was kept in the dark - like Garner and Truman. Johnson attended sessions with Kennedy - but as few as possible - and formal cabinet meetings. But Johnson was excluded in favor of Kennedy's brothers - both Robert and his very young brother Teddy. But also "the brightest" crayons in the box: Theodore Sorenson, Arthur Schlesinger, Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, George McBundy, Goodwin - household names today - but fairly obscure at the time. Johnson knew his days were numbered. And if there was a military industrial complex - Johnson was on their payroll. What later became known as Kellogg, Brown and Root were key to Johnson's power. To President Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson was a means to an end, the key to White, Dixiecrat votes. But now Kennedy didn't need them. He had engendered a genuine liberal reaction in society and the Civil Rights movement gave him ample ammunition. When Lady Bird and Lyndon were at Parkland Hospital, in a room adjacent to the JFK trauma unit, they were said to have exclaimed, "...yes but not like yes. Yes Lyndon wanted to be President, but not like this." Within ten years Johnson would be dead, his heart condition returning to kill him.
Kennedy & Company in Texas
Texas had been particuarly hostile to Kennedy. He represented an anathma to Dallas and fifty years later the discomfort amongst Republicans and neo-cons who were around in 1960 was so palpable that any effort to discuss Assassination theories (conspiracy theories) was dealt with harshley. There would be no revelations in Dallas observance of respect for President Kennedy.
Bill Paxton at the Fort Worth Hotel
The Kennedy's landed in Fort Worth and spent the night at a hotel there. Actor Bill Paxton was placed on his father's shoulders and is clearly visible in a crowd at the hotel in Fort Worth.
Many turned out to see the young, handsome President and his wife Jackie. Jackie after all had solidified "Camelot" herself. It was there in Fort Worth that Lyndon got the stinging news that he would not be on the ticket in 1964. John Kennedy was due to ride from the airport at Dallas Love Field to the Dallas Trade Mart where Trammell Crow and other Dallas celebrities waited for Kennedy to join them for a celebratory lunch.
The Secret Service had existed since Lincoln was president. They were initially created because of massive currency forfitting that occurred during the War Between the States. But by 1960 the Secret Service had been through not one but three asssasinations. The head of the secret service advised Kennedy he should not go to Dallas - it was too hostile and there were reports already being received by J. Edgar Hoover. The stage had been set. Many wanted Kennedy dead: the American Mob because of his double-crossing of them from the late 1950's to the present, GE, KBR and several other entities would lose money if he pulled America out of Vietnam, and then there were Johnson and his friends. Some of whom gathered at a secret meeting in Dallas to discuss how they could rid themselves of Kennedy. What they actually orchestrated cannot be known.
In the car were the Secret Service trained driver, a second agent and at least three on the rear of the Lincoln Continental. Kennedy had ordered the bullet proof bubble top to be removed. It was to be a beautiful day and Kennedy wanted to see and be seen. In two small seats, slighly astride from the back seats, so-called "jump seats" were Mrs. Nelly Connally opposite Jack and John Connally opposite Kennedy. Connally was the then Governor of Texas. As the car approached the corner Nelly exclaimed, "you can't say that Texas doesn't love you Mr. President". Moments later Kennedy would be dead.
Kevin and the Governor
Buick Plant, Flint, Michigan
Politics was a heady and powerful combination in sleeply Lansing, Michigan. The Robert Handy family moved there in 1968 to escape even sleepier Clio, Michigan, a "suburb" of Flint, Michigan, now so famous and infamous for its water treatment issues. In 1968 Flint, Michigan was a still burgeoning capital of Buick Motor Company. Robert Handy was the son of a used car dealer and his mother was a long time schoolteacher. Marcia Palmer was the daughter of Howard and Mary Palmer, her father a store owner and former head of the Genesee County Welfare Board and her mother an independent minded homemaker. The in-laws were a scant six to eight years in age difference but an entire generation from the peers of the young Robert and Marcia Handy couple.
The pair moved to Lansing for a job. Bob settled in as a radiotelephone operator. His uncle John had died in a terrible motorcycle fatality when he was a patrol officer in the Michigan State Police. Bob's great-uncle, Frank Cain, was a renowned municipal judge, responsible for much of the modern family law on the books in the state up to the late 1950's. Howard Palmer was the mayor of Clio, Michigan in 1960 and in the late 1950's had met Richard Nixon at the national mayor's conference in Owosso, Michigan. Marcia was very bored and a friend recommended she volunteer at the state capitol - who knew what it could lead to, the friend thought. Marcia became the social butterfly she was known to be in high school at the state capitol - and in the days before the state civil service was so restrictive that meant one couldn't do such things.
She befriended many people and became immersed in politics. Her father had been more of an independent politically even if he followed the Republican party. But she practiced realpolitik. She didn't care what your political leanings were - nor did she really understand them in 1968-1969 when she began her short career as a volunteer. Marcia was pregnant with a little girl which she later miscarried. Through her Kevin became interested in politics as well. He was introduced to interesting people as a young boy and that interest continued. Eventually he campaigned for the Eaton County Republicans and interjected himself into the lives of some very reluctant politicians. In 1980 the Republicans built a huge brand and staged a comeback. Ronald Reagan was a front-runner but former Governor and Treasury Secretary John Connally was a man of interest.
Marcia Handy knew her son and she knew his odd attaction to politicians for their power. Kevin by now had read about Connally and about Kennedy and was well versed. The two Connally's were slated to testify before a committee investigating the assassination. When Marcia told Kevin he had to dress, they were going to the Ingham County Fairgrounds in Mason, Michigan, he had visions of volunteering for a politician. Not a pleasant thought. A hot day at the fairgrounds. Then Marcia produced the tickets. They were going to see Governor Connally speak - a front runner for the Republican nomination - and the man who was in the car that awful day in Dallas, a man who himself was shot and nearly died.
Connally Doesn't Speak
John Connally
Kevin's grandfather Handy's maternal grandfather was James B. Wood, father of his mother, Lucinda Wood Handy. Wood wrote a series of letters to his wife. Among them was a prophetic note to his wife Emily. October 7, 1864, Kevin's great-great grandfather Wood wrote, "I have been to the Capitol and the President’s House that is about a mile from the Capitol. I cannot describe it to you on paper. But wait until I come back and then I will explain it to you as well as I can. We expect to go to City Point from here. There was a number of “Rebs” came in here yesterday. They say that Pearten must fall in a day or two and Richmond will fall itself in a little while. Whether we fight them or not they say they can’t stand a great while longer. The president was engaged and I could not see him. It was stated there were two Governors from the South to for peace. How it is I do not know but I do know they were from some ______. I am willing to fight for one year to pay for what I have seen. The city is an old looking place. The weather is very pleasant. We got here Wednesday night. We lay in Baltimore from daylight until three o’clock."
James B. Wood, wife of Emily Wood and father of Lucinda Wood Handy
More than 100 years later Kevin met a member of Gerald Ford's cabinet (Lincoln was killed at Ford's theater), John Connnally, just before the presidential election - and Connally's own demise.
John Connally was a hulking man of more than six feet. And when he shook hands it was as if a vice gripped your hand. "How are young man?" Connally said. "I'm well Sir, thank you, can I by chance get your autograph" So I took out the ticket and Secretary Connally signed it. After some pleasantries I told him I was interested in presidential history but in particular about his role that day twenty years before. "Did you actually hear three shots fired or was it more or less?" The southern charm dropped, the pain his face was pronounced, and he said, almost matter-of-factly, "that was a very painful time. You know I was out. I had passed out." "Yes Sir, the "magic bullet" had supposedly passed through the President and hit you and then went through your seat. It narrowly missed your heart." Connally found a way to excuse himself. He had no entourage to speak of. He excused himself, saying that he had another engagement and had to leave. I bemoaned the incident to my mother and father after the event. Why hadn't he answered my question? Why was he so reticient? Why wouldn't he talk. I would never know. I never met him again.
Later I met Liz Carpenter, aide to Lady Bird, and former staff member in Lyndon Johnson's office. Liz was a strong voice for the anti-war movement under George W. Bush.