John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) was the 35th President of the United States. He was the first Roman Catholic president. On May 29, next year, he would have celebrated his 100 year birthday but someone on this planet wanted it different. JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.
Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested the same day and determined to have fired shots that hit the President from a sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository. Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby mortally wounded Oswald two days later in a jail corridor.
The FBI and the Warren Commission officially concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin, but its report was sharply criticized.
JFK is not the first president to be assassinated. William McKinley was the 25th President of the United States, and served from 1897, until his assassination in September 1901, six months into his second term.
McKinley led the nation to victory in the Spanish-American War, raised protective tariffs to promote American industry, and maintained the nation on the gold standard in a rejection of inflationary proposals.
Sweden has its own JFK case. Prime Minister of Sweden Olof Palme (59) was assassinated in 1986. That`s exactly 30 years ago on Sunday 28, 2016.
Palme was shot twice in the stomach by a lone gunman after exiting a cinema with his wife Lisbeth Palme, whom the assassin shot and missed before fleeing the scene on foot. The eyewitnesses called the ambulance and the police, but Palme died on the way to the hospital.
The ambulance could only confirm his death, while the police did a remarkably sloppy job, failing to secure and investigate the crime scene for hours. Furthermore, no real attempts to catch the perpetrator were made immediately after the murder.
Christer Pettersson admitted killing Palme in 1988, and he was also identified by Palmes wife. Later on, Pettersson took his confession back, saying he was coerced to do so by the police, and Mrs Palmes evidence was considered insufficient, and Pettersson went free.
Pettersson died in September 2004. He was reported to have confessed to the killing before his death, but the investigation into Olof Palme`s death remains open.
Conspiracy theories considered the drug addicted and social outcast Christer Pettersson (42) to be a red herring, set up to finally close the case, but his rehabilitation prevented this from happening. He died by supposedly falling from the stairs and suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. The theorists expressed doubts in the accident nature of his injury.
Olof Palme was at the time of his death been accused of being pro-Soviet and not safeguarding Sweden`s interests. Arrangements had been made for a trip to Moscow to discuss Soviet submarine incursions into Swedish waters.
Palme was a social democrat and believed in an open government and shunned tight security. He normally had two bodyguards to protect him on official functions, but not at the cinema in Stockholm, Sweden.
Just like John Lennon and Bob Marley, Mr Palme was against the war in Vietnam, and he became a leading advocate of peace and non violence and campaigned for an end to the war in Vietnam. He will also be remembered as a campaigner for the working classes and Third World causes.
Bob Marley was a political peace activist and wrote the song ”Get up, stand up.” John Lennon`s name will always be synonymous with peace and political activism, and the song ”Give peace a chance” is a 1969 single.
Lennon’s criticism of the Vietnam War resulted in a lengthy attempt by Richard Nixon`s administration to deport him.
Bob Marley died at the age of 36, while John Lennon died in 1980 at the age of 40. Mark David Chapman shot Lennon in the back four times in Dakota, New York.
Ono issued a statement the next day, saying ”There is no funeral for John”, ending it with the words, ”John loved and prayed for the human race. Please pray the same for him.”
Olof Palme once said; ”I know that the Thatchers and the Reagans will be out in a few years. We have to survive till then.” Mr Palme was Anti-American, and saw himself carrying the banner of Social Democracy through Europe at a time when the Right was only temporarily in triumph.
That`s 30 years ago. Now we have the European Union and ISIS. Refugee and financial crisis. War in Syria, Iraq and Libya.
In terms of psychological impact, Palmes assassination had the same effects on Sweden as Kennedys assassination had on the U.S.
Palme and Kennedy`s death remains open.
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