“Fort Worthian Leslie Lanzotti describes her painting style as ‘fractured reality.’ Fitting then that one of her favorite subjects is shrouded in mystery.
“And not just any big question but one of the biggest in the history of the United States.
“Painter Dennis Blagg, her friend and the curator of her current show at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center, was 12 years old and living with his family in Dallas at the time of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
““This was something that always stuck with me,’ the Fort Worth naturalist master said, ‘and there are a lot of questions that just begged to be answered … As a child, I was deeply horrified.’”
From the Fort Worth Weekly,
The art is cool but curator Dennis Blagg seems to have fallen for the “Secret Service man did it” hoax, as propagated by the REELZ Channel.
Superman nailed it. He knew that the “key cowboy” in “the big event” was a Texan. The assassination has been described as a riddle inside a mystery, wrapped in an enigma. Horsefeathers! The assassination could have been solved by a Mall Cop; IF GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY. One person had the power to bring the entire investigation to an abrupt halt – And then assign the job exclusively to his hand picked panel of politicians, bureaucrats and cronies. – JFK’s successor, that’s who! Oswald isn’t the only patsy here. We’ve all been made fools of.
I drove home from College in Amherst, MA in order to spend Thanksgiving weekend with my family in Dallas. The atmosphere was electric. Cops in the city had been assembled before JFK arrived and told to “stand down” regarding participation in the protection detail; That’s over 400 cops relating that peculiar story to family and friends, multiplied exponentially. Folks were aware that LBJ crony David Byrd owned the Book Depository; Convicted 1st degree murderer and Johnson henchman Mac Wallace was seen slithering into Dallas the week of the murder and was spotted dashing out the backdoor of the Depository after the assassination. Parkland employees gossiped about Secret Service men sanitizing the Limo after it had delivered Kennedy to the hospital and that Dallas wiseguy and mini-celeb Jack Ruby had been roaming the hospital’s corridors; On hand to plant a magic bullet or stalk a President? Local papers had carried stories about LBJ’s widespread corruption, sticky fingers, outrageous lying and murderous past for years. The Bobby Baker and Billy Sol Estes cases were white-hot and Dallasites expected their election-stealing, landed, multi millionaire, VP to soon land in prison. That is, until he became President and stopped the assassination investigation in it’s tracks. I shouldn’t have said that 90% of Dallasites suspected LBJ – it was closer to 99%.
Unfortunately, story tellers and free-swinging media types, who’d implicated Johnson, quieted quickly after Oswald’s murder. Outspoken eyewitnesses, and suspicious reporters were dealt with harshly; Violently, if they repeated stories that contradicted the Government’s lone nut scenario.
Tightly compartmentalized elements of the Mafia, CIA, FBI and Secret Service ensured plausible deniability. Johnson had been in Texas since mid- October making plans. His ubiquitous presence was duly noted. LBJ personally manipulated the motorcade. Other participants were allowed a narrow scope of “need to know” knowledge. Johnson, former Master of the Senate and a man who could make most any “Alpha” bend to his will, demanded that Texas authorities, and the US Congress allow his hand-picked panel to cover-up and obfuscate the evil, unbelievable and unconscionable deed he’d loosed upon the Nation. The assassination was LBJ’s doing. Trust me. City fathers knew what had happened but could do nothing. Older, “in-the-know” folks who lived through those days and who understand what really happened, won’t be around forever. Like combat war veterans, they can’t or won’t talk about it. I understand.