List
Of Speakers
(as of 13 March 1999)
Here is the list of confirmed speakers for the conference, grouped by broad topic.
The evidence
Kenneth A. Rahn
Ken Rahn, co-convenor of this conference, is a professor of atmospheric
chemistry in the Center for Atmospheric Chemistry Studies, a unit of the
University of Rhode Island's Graduate School
of Oceanography. At URI, he regularly offers a course in the assassination.
This semester it is being offered in the Political
Science Department as PSC482G:
Political Science Seminar: The JFK Assassination. As part of their course,
Ken's students will be giving talks at the conference. Ken's talk is designed to
challenge everyone to reassess their views about the importance of thinking
carefully and critically about the assassination. It is entitled Toward An
Epistemology Of The JFK Assassination. To view the abstract, click
here.
Stewart Galanor
Stewart Galanor is a multimedia consultant and technical writer for financial
institutions who lives in New York City. A former mathematics teacher, he has
written the two textbooks Calculus: A Visual Approach and The Paradox
of Tristram Shandy. In 1998, he published Cover-up, a book on the
Kennedy Assassination that has already received favorable reviews. We are
pleased to have Stewart attending the 1999 conference. He will be speaking on A
History of the Medical Evidence. To read the abstract, click
here.
Rex E. Bradford
Rex Bradford is from Ipswich, Massachusetts, where he is actively engaged in
reading and research on the JFK assassination and the Cold War. He is currently
producing a CD-ROM archive of documents relating to the medical evidence in the
JFK assassination. In a talk entitled New Medical Evidence in the JFK
Assassination, he will share with us some of the materials that will be
included on the CD-ROM and discuss a few of the important medical issues that
they raise. To see his abstract, click
here.
W. Anthony Marsh
Tony Marsh, while still young, is a long-time JFK researcher who lives in
Somerville, Massachusetts and regularly attends regional JFK conferences. He is
also one of the most generous and helpful researchers whom I know. Recently, he
has taken a strong interest in the debate over the validity of the Zapruder film
and has posted a series of articles, replies, and rebuttals on his web page, The
Puzzle Palace. His talk, which is sure to stimulate a lively discussion, is
entitled The Zapruder Film Is Authentic. To view his abstract, click
here.
Martin J. Kelly, Jr.
Martin Kelly is a
professor of psychology in the Psychology
Department of Hobart & William
Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. He is interested in visual perception,
Freud and psychoanalysis, intellectual history, and how unfounded ideas can
prevail for long periods in the popular culture. His recent work has focused on
the psychology of believing in conspiracy in the JFK, RFK, and MLK
assassinations and on the popular belief in UFOs, alien abductions, and the
recovery of repressed memories of systematic abuse. His paper, entitled To
Bury JFK, critiques the JFK critical movement . To read his abstract, click
here.
John McLoughlin
John McLoughlin's interest in the assassination of JFK originated in his
hometown of Miami, Florida, where he was influenced in the 1950s and 1960s by
events in that hotbed of political activity and turmoil: the Castro Revolution,
the Bay of Pigs, which was partially planned by his high school Chemistry
teacher, the Cuban Missile Crisis, when all his friends were asked by Civil
Defense authorities to watch for vapor trails appearing in the sky, the building
of the Berlin Wall, the draping of the Iron Curtain over the Soviet Union, the
constant barrage of anti-Castro and anti-Kennedy activities discussed by local
Cuban exiles, and, of course, the obligatory elementary school air-raid drills
and the aborted construction of a bomb shelter by his father in his backyard
during the heyday of McCarthyism, the Cold War, and anti-Soviet sentiment. In
John's opinion, the plot to kill JFK originated within this nexus of characters
and events. John's paper at the conference is entitled "Little"
Orphan "Annie" and "Big Daddy" Warbucks: New England's
Fascists and the JFK Assassination. To read his abstract, click
here.
Truth, justice, and the means to achieve them
Charles Drago
Charles R. Drago, co-convenor of this conference, is a professional writer
and has published numerous articles relating to the assassination of John F.
Kennedy. He created and was first managing editor of the Lancer Independent News
Exchange (LINE), and served as senior contributing editor for the "Kennedy
Assassination Chronicles." Charlie is a nationally renowned jazz critic,
commentator and educator. He produced "Newport Jazz '79" and the 1985
"Queen Mary Jazz Festival." Currently he is president of Armstrong,
Ellington & Parker, a full-service advertising/public relations/marketing
agency. George Michael Evica has called Charlie "the philosophical and
moral conscience of the JFK research community." Charlie's talk is entitled
Sinful Harvest: The Reaping and Marketing of Lies in the Field of JFK
Assassination Inquiry. To read his abstract, click
here.
The continuing relevance of the assassination
Laurel S. King (Withdrawn 12 April 1999)
Laurel King is an systems analyst from San Lorenzo, California, who has been
interested in the JFK assassination for nearly a decade. Her background in
history has led her to focus on broader aspects of the assassination such as how
governmental institutions reacted immediately after it, and the continuing
relevance of the assassination. She will speak here on the question of
continuing relevance. To view her abstract, click
here.
Andrew Winiarczyk
We are particularly happy to be able to confirm that Andrew Winiarczyk of The
Last Hurrah Bookshop, known to most of us simply as "Andy" because
we don't even try to spell his last name, has agreed to not only come and
sell books but also to give us a formal talk as well. To the best of my
knowledge, this is the first time that Andy has spoken at a JFK conference. The
title of his talk is The Kennedy Assassination: Crime of the (20th) Century
or Endless Wound? To view his abstract, click
here. Please come and buy lots of books from Andy because rumor has it that
the day before the conference, Charlie Drago will give him a VIP tour of his
favorite used-book haunts in Cambridge and Boston. That means that Andy will
return rich in books but poor in the green stuff!
William Cheslock
William Cheslock teaches history in Chatham High School in Chatham
Massachusetts, on beautiful Cape Cod. He teaches a course on the assassination
in high school and adult education. He is currently studying how the
assassination is depicted in high school history texts, and will give us a
progress report on his findings: How Books on American History Report the JFK
Assassination to High-School Readers. To read the abstract, click
here.