Schwartz and others investigated anti-JFK ads printed before president’s assassination
In the last 50 years of American history, no event has generated stories and speculation like the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963.
The news of Kennedy’s death came about 1 p.m. on that famous Friday. Sensing news stories galore, newspapers around the nation and world scrambled, sometimes frantically, to develop “local angle” stories. Reporters and editors contacted other sources or even friends that might have known JFK or had met him, for “reminisce” type stories.
Working for the Mt. Vernon, NY Daily Argus, Sun City resident Joel Schwartz investigated the New York connection to ads taken out against President John F. Kennedy prior to his visit to Dallas. (Public Domain Photo)
Enter Sun Citian Joel Schwartz. On that fateful day, he was a reporter for the Mt. Vernon, New York Daily Argus, part of the Westchester/Gannett chain of newspapers in Westchester County, immediately north of New York City. Schwartz was a young journalist working on his second job in the field. He later worked for the New York Herald-Tribune and TIME Magazine.
Amid all of the thousands of stories, theories, conspiracies, rumors, and just plain gossip about the assassination, Schwartz and his editors discovered an obscure connection between Dallas, Texas, and Mt. Vernon. Amazingly, it linked a newspaper ad placed in the Dallas Morning News on Nov. 22, with a man who now allegedly lived in Mt. Vernon.
“It was mid-morning on that day in our newsroom, when another reporter called me over to where he was scanning the wire service teletypes. He said both AP & UPI machines were ‘moving’ some disturbing news about gun shots fired during the presidential motorcade in Dallas. Later, we learned that the president had been assassinated and Gov. John Connelly had been wounded. Everyone quickly gathered in the office of the managing editor, who owned the lone TV in the newsroom – to watch Walter Cronkite on CBS News. There was a lot of confusion and many questions.
“The editor handed out various assignments. Some reporters interviewed county and municipal officials for their views. The ‘Woman’s Page’ editors were asked to reach out to their contributors for comments. I was among several younger reporters asked to conduct ‘people on the street’ interviews to get citizens’ reactions.
“Later, we were again called into another meeting. The editor explained that several advertisements had appeared in the major Dallas newspapers, some only hours before the shooting, that were highly critical of JFK and strongly opposed to his rumored run for a second term in 1964. Several ads warned him not to visit Dallas. Soon, we also learned that one of the ads may have been placed by an unidentified New Yorker. If that was true, this was a legitimate “local” story for our newspaper to investigate.”
Some of these ads not only contained strong anti-JFK sentiments and even threats, but also faulted the White House for its alleged “weak” anti-Soviet and pro civil rights policies. At least one ad had been printed inside a black funeral-like border.
“Two of us were asked to try and track this guy down. As days passed, we soon learned from news reports that other publications were also investigating the ads. We contacted the Dallas Morning News’ classified department, but we got no cooperation.
“Then we got a break. Someone passed along a tip from a local woman who recalled a former neighbor – a military policeman who had recently served in Germany – who had been sharply critical of JFK. She provided a name and a former address. I refer to the person we were looking for by his initials – BW.
“We were able to use older reverse street directories to locate BW’s last known phone number and address, which turned out to be in Mt. Vernon. We located him within two days after the shooting. We were surprised when he agreed to an interview. He said he wanted to clarify his position. He said he never threatened the President in his ad. Rather, he simply posed a dozen pointed questions about JFK’s policies. He confirmed that his ad appeared the morning of JFK’s assassination. He also said his ad tried to ‘turn the minds of Americans away from what he viewed as the real danger – the communists and others of the far left, politically.’ He insisted his ad was an attack on the President’s administration and not on him as a man.
“He went on to tell us that he moved to Dallas from New York early in November, 1963. He denied that this had anything to do with the President’s publicized visit. He insisted his decision to move to Dallas was based on ‘Dallas business opportunities’ he’d heard about from other servicemen he knew. When pressed, he admitted he had found a job in Dallas, but as a salesman for a rug company. He also said he lived in a rooming house in Dallas. He lived there for about 10 years, and eventually returned to the New York area.
“We asked him if he had been contacted by any law enforcement authorities, but he refused to respond to questions about any such contacts. We never heard of any charges brought against him.
“We checked his high school record, verified his military service, and even contacted Ford Motor Company to verify his claim that he’d won an award in its industrial design competition. After our lawyers reviewed this article and recommended a number of changes, it wasn’t published until Dec. 10, 1963.”
Schwartz said he covered this story amid much confusion.
“We were dealing with so many conspiracies and confusion, it was hard to focus on any one thing,” he said. “It was an unusual kind of story for us to do. But I still remember much of it very clearly.”
Like all of us who experienced that day, Schwartz will forever remember where he was and what he was doing on Nov. 22, 1963, just after 12:30 p.m.
