City Gives JFK Conspiracy Theorist Robert Groden 14-Day Reprieve, Which Means He'll Be Back at Dealey Plaza Perch Saturday Morning

By Robert Wilonsky Fri., Jul. 2 2010 at 3:48 PM

Categories: City Hall, News

City of Dallas Municipal Archives

On a related note, while I was doing some Dealey Plaza research I came across this original 1939 sketch in the city's archives.

Finally, the city of Dallas sends word. It has no Official Comment on the federal suit Robert Groden filed against the city on Wednesday, in which he says he was jailed for nine hours in mid-June for selling his Kennedy conspiracy-theory wares in Dealey Plaza -- something he's done for, oh, 15 years till the city yet again decided to put a stop to it. But I did just hear from Alex Tandy, the Fort Worth attorney representing Groden, who says Tuesday's hearing concerning the temporary restraining order has been put off for two weeks.

Tandy received a letter from Assistant City Attorney James Butt, who wrote that in exchange for a 14-day delay, "the City of Dallas will forebear enforcement of respective provisions of state and city laws concerning Mr. Groden's vending activities in the Dealey Plaza area until the court rules on the hearing. This agreement does not extend to enforcement actions against obstruction of sidewalks and roadways and trespass on private property."

Tandy's delighted with this good news, no matter how temporary: "The city will not harass or try to arrest him for the next two weeks, while they try to get material together," he says, "so Robert will be out there hawking his wares starting this afternoon, if it isn't raining like a cow peeing on a flat rock." And since it is right now, more than likely Groden will return to his perch tomorrow morning starting at 11. I might go say hi, then get a cupcake.

"And if the city doesn't back off from trying to enforce this [permanently]," says Tandy, "I think we'll go to trial."

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I agree that the why? Question is as important as the by who? Question. The answer to the why, will expose the who. Executive order 11110, issuing the silver half dollar minted by the treasury and not the Federal Reserve which put in a matter of 6 months 6 billion dollars into circulation was the main reason by far. Then Bobby was disassembling the justice departments Admiralty jurisdiction and bringing it into common law jurisdiction by enactment of title 18 (Rico) which under pretense of fighting organized crime could as well be applied to lower circuit courts operating under. Admiralty, Equity, UCC, civil, banking
I was actually the 1st "researcher" to sell my Eyewitness Videos(now on DVD) in March of 1995, after I moved here from St Louis, to see the original film taken by Patsy Paschall.(We made the front Page on Oct, 31,1995) The Department who issues permits said there were none to issue, only food permits and those were all taken, but if no one complained, there would be no action. I sold my videos full time for 10 months and the police that came by, just said, "hi" & were impressed that I had interviews former Dallas DPD on video, some they had known. But partly due to the fighting between the book sellers(non researchers)-and the sixth floor wanting all the sales, that, has all changed. I cannot afford to sue the city, but now that they are just letting Mr Groden sell and not me, I may have to-and Mr Groden is an Icon in the research community, you cannot get his info anywhere else! time will tell-- Mark Oakes/Researcher/producer
Bob Groden has played an important part in voicing dissatisfaction at the 6th floor lie that is the museum, and comments about Grodens work on the OJ trial and so fourth are very unfair. Groden commented about this to myself in 2006. Though he believes the LAPD doctored the photos of OJ's shoes he believes Smpson committed the murder. Its not Grodens fault that the prosecutions case fell apart, the LAPD's crappy procedures and history of institutional racism ensured that as soon as Simpson was arrested. So what? Groden never graduated from College. How many fools graduate from universities? Dick Cheney and George Bush come to mind! Despite it all Grodens one of the smartest and most articulate guys I have ever met. Every one has flaws and faults. Finding out the truth in the Kennedy assassination is certainly not one of Bob's.
I think we all owe a huge debt of gratitude to Robert Groden. He is absolutely necessary to the cause of finding out the truth about the assassination of JFK. As someone said earlier, Robert doesn�t solicit patronage in Dealey Plaza. People come to him and he is only too happy to spend as much time as people require so that their questions are answered to their satisfaction. I live in Queensland, Australia, and fulfilled a life-time ambition in 2005 when I spent the best part of a week in Dallas. Naturally, as a student of the assassination of JFK and a firm believer in the theory of shots from the Grassy Knoll, I went to all the relevant places, including spending a lot of time in Dealey Plaza. I chatted with Robert on many occasions during this time and never once did he try to sell me anything. I bought a book and some DVDs from him only when I saw them sitting on his table and asked him about them. He should be allowed to continue to be a presence there in the plaza, to help continue to prick the conscience of a world which has been sold the greatest con job in history � the official findings of the Warren Commission. Good on you Robert.
I think that Lyndon Johnson made a dirty deal with CIA Republicans to murder John Kennedy. JFK was about to drop Lyndon Johnson from the '64 Demo ticket and Kennedy was at WAR with the CIA who he did not control. Witness the two articles below, one written about six weeks before the assassination: The New York Times October 3, 1963 p. 34 The Intra-Administration War in Vietnam By Arthur Krock ... One reporter in this category is Richard Starnes of the Scripps-Howard newspapers. Today, under a Saigon dateline, he related that, "according to a high United States source here, twice the C.I.A. flatly refused to carry out instructions from Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge . . . [and] in one instance frustrated a plan of action Mr. Lodge brought from Washington because the agency disagreed with it." Among the views attributed to United States officials on the scene, including one described as a "very high American official . . . who has spent much of his life in the service of democracy . . . are the following: The C.I.A.'s growth was "likened to a malignancy" which the "very high official was not sure even the White House could control . . . any longer." "If the United States ever experiences [an attempt at a coup to overthrow the Government] it will come from the C.I.A. and not the Pentagon." The agency "represents a tremendous power and total unaccountability to anyone." ... The C.I.A. may be guilty as charged. Since it cannot, or at any rate will not, openly defend its record in Vietnam, or defend it by the same confidential press "briefings" employed by its critics, the public is not in a position to judge. Nor is this department, which sought and failed to get even the outlines of the agency's case in rebuttal. But Mr. Kennedy will have to make a judgment if the spectacle of war within the Executive branch is to be ended and the effective functioning of the C.I.A. preserved. And when he makes this judgment, hopefully he also will make it public, as well as the appraisal of fault on which it is based. _____________________________________________ ... and one written exactly four weeks after the assassination by former President Harry S. Truman, no less: The Washington Post December 22, 1963 - page A11 Harry Truman Writes: Limit CIA Role To Intelligence By Harry S Truman INDEPENDENCE, MO., Dec. 21 -- I think it has become necessary to take another look at the purpose and operations of our Central Intelligence Agency--CIA. At least, I would like to submit here the original reason why I thought it necessary to organize this Agency during my Administration, what I expected it to do and how it was to operate as an arm of the President. I think it is fairly obvious that by and large a President's performance in office is as effective as the information he has and the information he gets ... ... But their (C.I.A.'s) collective information reached the President all too frequently in conflicting conclusions. At times, the intelligence reports tended to be slanted to conform to established positions of a given department. This becomes confusing and what's worse, such intelligence is of little use to a President in reaching the right decisions. ... For some time I have been disturbed by the way CIA has been diverted from its original assignment. It has become an operational and at times a policy-making arm of the Government. This has led to trouble and may have compounded our difficulties in several explosive areas. I never had any thought that when I set up the CIA that it would be injected into peacetime cloak and dagger operations ... But there are now some searching questions that need to be answered. I, therefore, would like to see the CIA be restored to its original assignment as the intelligence arm of the President, and that whatever else it can properly perform in that special field--and that its operational duties be terminated or properly used elsewhere. We have grown up as a nation, respected for our free institutions and for our ability to maintain a free and open society. There is something about the way the CIA has been functioning that is casting a shadow over our historic position and I feel that we need to correct it. YOU BE THE JUDGE!
The real issue is why President Kennedy was removed from office, not how many gunmen were firing in Dealey Plaza. Last year, the annual Coalition on Political Assassinations conference had James Douglass as the keynote speaker in Dallas. His book "JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters" is widely regarded as the best on this issue. It is much more focused on how Kennedy changed his mind on the Cold War (and paid the price for that) than the ballistics and trajectories in Dealey Plaza. I've read about 2 dozen books on the assassination, from a variety of perspectives, and Douglass's book is the best. The First Amendment allows Groden to sell his material and the corporate funded Sixth Floor museum to peddle their perspective, too. I did appreciate seeing in the Museum their acknowledgement (on a board listing contributions) of help from the "Central Intelligence Agency." Ha ha ha. --- Address to the General Assembly of the United Nations - President John F. Kennedy New York - September 20th 1963 ''Finally, in a field where the United States and the Soviet Union have a special capacity--in the field of space--there is room for new cooperation, for further joint efforts in the regulation and exploration of space. I include among these possibilities a joint expedition to the moon. Space offers no problems of sovereignty; by resolution of this Assembly, the members of the United Nations have foresworn any claim to territorial rights in outer space or on celestial bodies, and declared that international law and the United Nations Charter will apply. Why, therefore, should man's first flight to the moon be a matter of national competition? Why should the United States and the Soviet Union, in preparing for such expeditions, become involved in immense duplications of research, construction, and expenditure? Surely we should explore whether the scientists and astronauts of our two countries--indeed of all the world--cannot work together in the conquest of space, sending someday in this decade to the moon not the representatives of a single nation, but the representatives of all of our countries.'' "Never before has man had such capacity to control his own environment, to end thirst and hunger, to conquer poverty and disease, to banish illiteracy and massive human misery. We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world--or to make it the last." -- John F. Kennedy, speech to the UN calling for an end to the Cold War and converting the Moon Race into an international cooperative effort, Sept 20, 1963, two months and two days before he was removed from office. --- JFK Commencement Address at American University June 10, 1963 www.ratical.org/co-globalize/JFK061063.html One of the most important policy statements in US history. If its goals had been implemented, it is likely the Cold War could have been ended in the second Kennedy term, without the disastrous War on Viet Nam, the Watergate scandal, the divisiveness of the polarization of the country, and the waste of trillions of dollars toward useless weaponry. The fact that this shift was not allowed to happen (through the pre-emptive removal of the President) is the same reason why decades of warnings about the environmental crisis were deliberately ignored by the powers who really run the United States. --- JFK: November 22, 1963 Official story: The Warren Commission conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone nut. Fall back to the Official Story: OK, we know there was a second gunman, but Oswald was a Communist sympathizer so we had to cover up the conspiracy because otherwise we would risk a repeat of the Cuban Missile Crisis that could lead to a nuclear war (since the public would demand a revenge attack on Cuba, supposedly). This claim was very persuasive shortly after the assassination in discouraging political elites from looking closer at the facts. President Johnson used this argument to cajole Supreme Court Justice Warren to head the alleged investigative commission. Limited Hang Out - fessing up to part of the truth to keep the full truth covered up: The Mafia killed President Kennedy, and the US government was embarrassed to admit this because the CIA used the Mob to wage war on Castro's Cuba. But this is only part of the truth. The Mafia did play important roles in the assassination plot, but the mafia wasn't involved in the stand down of normal protective policies of the President, nor is the mafia in charge of the political and media coverup of the crime. Even today you cannot get any politician or media institution to publicly admit that the official story (and the mafia did it claim) is a lie. Best Evidence: Why Kennedy was removed from office (the motive) is more important than who was shooting in Dealey Plaza, although Oswald wasn't one of the shooters. President Kennedy had changed his mind on the Cold War, especially after the Cuban Missile Crisis, when he resisted calls from the military to start a nuclear war. He called for nuclear disarmament, a different relationship with the "Third World," signed an order to start pulling troops out of Viet Nam, pushed through the Limited Test Ban Treaty, and even called for converting the "Moon Race" into a cooperative effort with the Soviet Union (merging the space programs would also have made a nuclear war with rockets much less likely). He vowed to scatter the CIA into a thousand pieces and the CIA (and military intelligence) scattered Kennedy into a thousand pieces. Disinformation: There is a long list of false claims about the conspiracy to remove Kennedy from office that are flashy but false. Some claim that a video shows the limo driver killing Kennedy (the limo driver slowed down just before the shots were fired, but he didn't fire any of them). Some claim the Zapruder film was faked, but the leading advocate for this view also claims that the Moon landings were faked and that the video of the planes hitting the World Trade Center were altered in real time by television networks to cover up the real projectiles, so this "fake Zapruder film" claim can be safely ignored. There's also a faction of white supremacist Holocaust deniers who claim that the Israeli Mossad did it. Having these sorts of distractions are similar to the flares emitted by a plane that is under attack from a heat seeking missile - the decoys confuse the attacker and it usually goes off course.
If this case does go to trial it really will put a judge or jury on the spot because of its far-reaching effect in and outside of Dallas. If Mr. Groden is allowed to maintain his business outside on the assassination site premises others will want to maintain their businesses too and the circus atmoshphere will continue. The ones who suffer are folks like me that come to visit Dealey Plaza to quietly pay respects to the man whose life was stolen from him there in 1963. I still feel the city officials are right to try and restore civility and dignity to Dealey Plaza. if they can achieve this I might return to visit again someday, until then, I know there are plenty of hasles waiting for me when I get there that I don't need in my life. What some people see as a First Amendment Rights issue others see as an issue of selfishness, greed, disrespect and cashing in on a national tragedy. Whatever happens in Dallas on this issue will probably be mimicked at other major Texas cities. As before, I salute the city officials for trying to make the site better for visitors.
In reading these comments it seems to me the issue being missed is that the police are not busting up a crime network in that area that Mr. Groden works. This is what drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes hustlers are isn't it, participants in criminal activity? And just what crime has Mr. Groden done here? He's tried to get a permit and the city won't give him one. I assume the museum won't let him inside so where the heck is he supposed to go to market his research? I can understand some people being offended by people selling merchandise at that site but hey people, if the Kennedy people don't care enough to lay some lousy flowers out for the man who left them wealthy why should it bother people if Mr. Groden is there? At least he cares about JFK. As far as the comment about the government being finished with this case, I disagree. The government has dropped the ball on the issue since 1964. It ain't over, folks! The police need to clean up the criminal activity in that area (I understand it extends to the bus station!) and leave Mr. Groden alone, in my opinion. I certainly wouldn't bring my wife and kids to that area and expose them to what is being described as a cesspool. I wonder how Mr. Groden has managed to survive in an environment like that without becoming a crime victim?
My friends think there is a simple solution here and no lawsuits are necessary. Let Robert Groden do his thing, tell the Plaza hustlers they can't wander, they have to work at a table next to mr. groden and then bring in a table next to them all for Mr. Posner. After 20 minutes of Posner they ALL will leave! We are getting a kick out of the comments too! Anyone who really knows Dallas realizes the best place to score drugs and cheap women is just around the corner from Dealey Plaza at the Greyhound bus station outside waiting area! You can't clean up Sodom & Gommorah by running a handful of independents out of the area and people are hustling other people in every city in the world. Scumbags are not exclusive to Dallas. We like the idea of making the assassination site a memorial and wonder why the Kennedys don't even both to lay some flowers out for JFK. They can afford it. Shelly
To Mike C, Apparently you've never been to Dealey Plaza and seen how Mr. Groden operates. People come to him, he doesn't move throughout the plaza. It is also obvious you know nothing about the law--Groden is exercising his 1st Amendment right of free speech. The 6th floor museum has their opinion and no one says anything about it, but let a private citizen give his opinion about a topic and it's suddenly a bad thing. Make up your mind, do you support the Constitution or don't you.
I think the city should let Groden set up shop inside the 6th floor museum and get him out of the plaza. Wait a couple of days and bet on who is the 1st to smuggle a rifle in a paper bag in, Groden or Mack? Seriously, I think the Elm Street portion of the Plaza should be made into a memorial for JFK. Close off traffic, install a park ranger. I'd pay a gratuity just to have those creeps with their historic journals let me visit the site and quietly pay my respects to JFK. I've never gone there to buy magazines, dvd's or whatever. The government is finished with the JFK case, Groden's presence there will not affect any future progress. He's just there because the site draws a lot of visitors and he wants their bucks. Don't be conned into that hero garbage. It was Geraldo Rivera that broadcast the Z-film, not Groden. Rivera is the hero.
Robert Groden has been doing his best to bring the truth of the assassination to visitors to Dealey Plaza and to the rest of the world. Those who harbor any doubts about the death of JFK may want to consider the following study about his and his brother's assassinations: JFK and RFK: The Plots that Killed Them, The Patsie that Didn't http://www.voltairenet.org/article165721.html and, for those who do not understand conspiracies: Conspiracies and Conspiracism http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/printer_6047.shtml The federal government has been clamping down on freedom of speech and freedom of the press, where it is no longer clear what it means to be an American any more. The City of Dallas should be standing up for Robert, not trying to silence him.
One more key point to make, is the Sixth Floor Museum is one of the pushers of the Big Lie regarding the JFK assassination and the cops told Robert Groden that the folks at the Sixth Floor Museum are the ones who are trying to silence Robert Groden and kick anyone else off the Grassy Knoll who makes a tiny amount of money telling the TRUTH about the Lyndon Johnson/CIA conspiracy to murder JFK. I encourage everyone to call the Dallas City Council and Mayor's office and tell them to tell the cops to QUIT HARASSING American hero and patriot Robert Groden. Additionally, the Sixth Floor Museum needs to change its exhibits and quit telling the Big Lie about the JFK Assassination.
Robert Groden is AMERICAN HERO and PATRIOT who was the first to let Americans see the Zapruder film in 1975, which the government, FBI and Secret Service had since 11/23/63 and suppressed all those years. Life magazine bought the rights to the Zapruder film and its CIA assets there refused to show it for 12 years to us, the American people. And the Zapruder film, which strongly implies a kill shot FROM THE FRONT revealed the Warren Report for what a lie and farce it is. From Defrauding America, Rodney Stich, 3rd edition 1998 p. 638-639]: �The Role of deep-cover CIA officer, Trenton Parker, has been described in earlier pages, and his function in the CIA's counter-intelligence unit, Pegasus. Parker had stated to me earlier that a CIA faction was responsible for the murder of JFK � During an August 21, 1993, conversation, in response to my questions, Parker said that his Pegasus group had tape recordings of plans to assassinate Kennedy. I asked him, "What group were these tapes identifying?" Parker replied: "Rockefeller, Allen Dulles, JOHNSON of Texas, GEORGE BUSH, and J. Edgar Hoover." I asked, "What was the nature of the conversation on these tapes?" I don't have the tapes now, because all the tape recordings were turned over to [Congressman] Larry McDonald. But I listened to the tape recordings and there were conversations between Rockefeller, [J. Edgar] Hoover, where [Nelson] Rockefeller asks, "Are we going to have any problems?" And he said, "No, we aren't going to have any problems. I checked with Dulles. If they do their job we'll do our job." There are a whole bunch of tapes, because Hoover didn't realize that his phone has been tapped. Defrauding America, Rodney Stich, p. 638-639]:
There is a ton of information online that exposes Robert Groden for what he really is. You can begin by looking at Groden's testimony or a summary of his testimony at the O.J. Simpson murder trial. Don't believe me. Look it up for yourself.
@Mike C. Robert Groden has been one of the best researchers on the subject. If it wasn't for Mr. Groden, we might have never been able to see the Zapruder film which Groden showed to the world in - I believe 1972- on Geraldo Rivera's show. Instead of the Kennedy family suing Groden, WE should all be suing the Kennedy family for release of materials such as the autopsy photos which rightfully belong to the American Public, and not the Kennedy family. The autopsy as well as those materials were produced with tax payer dollars, which means the materials belong to the citizens, not the Kennedy family.
Mike C., you are correct. No matter how many times the authorities try to gag Mr Groden, he will always keep on fighting for the truth. As for the Kennedy family, people like Mr Groden seem to care more about their family than they themselves do. It's about time the Kennedy family stood up and demanded the truth. They are indebted to Mr Groden for sticking his neck on the line time and time again in pursuit of something far more important than money or fame or elected office.
Groden reminds me of the kid in school who always had his shirt tail out. No matter how many times the teachers smacked his hand with a ruler or the vice principal paddled his behind, the next time he would be seen his shirt tail would still be out. I think the Kennedy family should sue Groden and all the other scavengers that pester visitors at Dealey plaza.