The JFK Historical Group has scheduled its second conference for March 9, 10 and 11, 2018. It will be held in Sterling, Virginia, not far from Dulles International Airport. The full title is THE BIG EVENT: New Revelations in the JFK Assassination and the Forces Behind His Death. Sessions take place at the Holiday Inn Dulles Airport, 45425 Holiday Drive.
The organizers name two aims. First, they want to give researchers a forum for anything new found in the JFK files that the National Archives released in 2017. Second, the program puts the spotlight on the speakers’ own long-running research, since some of them have worked on the case for more than 40 years.
Keynotes and the speaker list
Three keynote speakers lead the program. Cyril Wecht is a medical examiner and forensics expert. Roger Stone has written two bestselling books about the assassination and about who he thinks is responsible. Edward Tatro sat in on the Jim Garrison trial of Clay Shaw, and he later advised on several films, including Oliver Stone’s JFK.
Nineteen more researchers and witnesses are on the bill. They are Judyth Vary Baker, Richard Bartholomew, Gregory Burnham, Hubert Clark, David Denton, Brian Edwards, Gary Fannin, Gordon Ferrie, Dr. James Fetzer and Victoria Hawes-Sulzer. The rest are Saint John Hunt, James Jenkins, Kris Millegan, Phil Nelson, Steve Osborn, Casey J. Quinlan, Larry Rivera, Rick Russo and Ralph Thomas. Podcast radio host Lorien Fenton and Andrew Kreig, public affairs officer for the Justice Integrity Project, will serve as emcees.
Stone is the author of The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ, a New York Times bestseller. He worked as a senior campaign aide to Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Senator Bob Dole, and he has been through eight national presidential campaigns. In 1972 he was the youngest staffer on the Committee to Re-Elect the President. Later, through the 1980s, he carried private memos from Nixon to Reagan. He also writes about men’s fashion for the Daily Caller. According to the release, Stone does not want Nixon blamed for the events of November 22, 1963.
Tatro taught high school English for 38 years. At the same time, he spent 30 years teaching college and adult classes, and the JFK assassination was one of his subjects. He has published more than 30 short stories, essays and poems, along with research articles on the case.
Wecht once chaired the pathology department at Saint Francis Central Hospital in Pittsburgh and now presides over its medical staff. As a forensic consultant, he has commented on the deaths of both John and Robert Kennedy, Elvis Presley and JonBenet Ramsey, as well as the O.J. Simpson case. His books on these cases were published by Dutton/Penguin.
Witnesses and longtime researchers
Several speakers have a direct link to the events of 1963. Hubert Clark served in the Honor Guard that took the president’s body from Air Force One to Bethesda Naval Hospital. Then, at 4:30 am on November 23, he helped carry it back to the White House. His 2016 book is Betrayal. James Jenkins, a Navy pathology student at Bethesda, assisted the doctors during the autopsy. Gordon Ferrie was on the Secret Service details of Eisenhower and Kennedy until June 1962.
Others bring decades of study. Brian Edwards has read over 300 books on the case and interviewed more than 50 Dealey Plaza witnesses. In 1993 he also got a two-day interview with Marina Oswald-Porter in Rockwall, Texas. Dr. James Fetzer, a professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota Duluth, has chaired or co-chaired five national JFK conferences. Casey J. Quinlan has studied the murder for more than 50 years, while Gary Fannin’s 2015 book reached No. 2 among Kindle titles on Amazon.
Saint John Hunt is the son of Watergate burglar E. Howard Hunt. He says his father, in a taped confession near death, named CIA figures behind the plot. Larry Rivera chairs the Oswald Innocence Campaign, and Ralph Thomas released a 1,526-page Kindle book on the case in 2017.
Press session on March 9
A media meet-and-greet starts at 3:00 pm on Friday, March 9, and press credentials will be checked at the door. For the first 30 minutes, reporters can question the keynote speakers as a panel. After that, they can talk with the other speakers for another 30 minutes. Guests are invited to stay for a talk on New Orleans and the Clay Shaw trial by Victoria Hawes-Sulzer and Ed Tatro. Journalists who want to cover all three days can apply for a full press pass through Lorien Fenton.
