Famous killings
Some are too big! Deaths of some people are unacceptable as a simple end of life. As time inches on fewer are willing to accept that a single shooter killed President Kennedy.
On Day One people claimed a shooter was behind a fence and heard shots from another direction. The killing of Kennedy could not, in the minds of many, have been accomplished by a single gunman. Physically impossible. There have likely been more books written on the Kennedy killing than any event in history.
“The United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations” determined the killings of President Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., were probably the result of conspiracies. President Kennedy’s killing by persons unknown and King’s death likely by James Earl Ray and his brothers. We’ll never know for sure.
Robert Kennedy, killed by a single shot by Sirhan Sirhan, who is still in prison, was in question from the beginning. Analysis of an audio tape of the assassinations indicate as many as 13 shots were fired while Sirhan’s pistol only held eight rounds. We’ll never know. Killing national leaders leaves a deep neverhealing scar.
Most Americans had not heard of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid until the 1969 movie. Outlaw days were over when the two attended the 1906 World’s Fair in St. Louis. They might have seen Geronimo on exhibit wearing western clothing. People there talked on telephones, drove automobiles and ate ice cream cones.
Contemporary witnesses said during the 1908 shootout with Bolivian soldiers Butch and Sundance gave out of ammo and ideas and died in a murder/ suicide pact. Female outlaw Josie Bassett claimed Butch visited her in 1930 and lived in Washington State. Sundance might have died in 1936 as William Dalton in Utah. His mysterious girlfriend, “Etta Place,” vanished after returning from South America.
However, scientific comparison of the 1890 photograph of “Etta Place” and those of Jose Bassett’s sister, Ann Bassett, “removed all possible doubt” as to the identify of “Etta.” It was Ann Bassett and she died in 1956. DNA comparisons of remains in Bolivian graves and family members gave up nothing.
“That dirty rotten coward who shot Mr. Howard” was small time outlaw Robert Ford. Shot him in the back. Howard was actually 34-yearold Jesse James but many claim the shooting was staged, Jesse’s death faked and that the real Jesse James lived on in Texas as J. Frank Dalton until 1951. In this case DNA testing on remains in the Jesse James grave were conclusively that of the Jesse. Everyone likes a mystery and there are enough to go around.
Joe Phillips writes his “Dear me” columns for several small newspapers. He has many connections to Walker County, including his grandfather, former superintendent Waymond Morgan. He can be reached at joenphillips@hotmail.com.