John Peel’s Unlikely Run-Ins with JFK
The renowned BBC DJ covered two of JFK’s trips to Dallas
The late Englishman John Ravenscroft, a.k.a. the internationally famous taste-making BBC Radio disc jockey known as John Peel, told a fascinating story to a British documentary crew about encountering John F. Kennedy in Dallas in 1960 as the politician traveled in an open vehicle through the city, including Dealey Plaza, waving at his many admirers, with Lyndon Johnson in tow.
What’s more, Peel also spoke personally to Kennedy, who was to survive that Dallas motorcade but not his return trip to Dealey Plaza in 1963.
Peel was born in Heswall, England, outside of Liverpool and a far cry from Dallas. However, his father was in the cotton trade and in 1960 arranged for his son to work with a colleague in Dallas. While in Texas, Peel took on all matter of odd jobs, including traveling insurance salesman. He also pursued his love of music by taking on his first deejaying gigs at local radio stations.
The encounter with JFK and LBJ occurred on Sept. 13, 1960, as the two men on the Democratic presidential ticket ended a Texas campaign swing with a Dallas parade. The two sat in the back of the same vehicle as it made its way through the downtown business district, the same area they would traverse together three years later, but in separate limos — delivering them to much different fates.
Authorities at the time were surprised at the turnout for Kennedy, estimating that some 175,000 onlookers crowded the streets, sometimes bringing the parade to a stop.
The 21-year-old Peel was among those thousands, and when Kennedy and Johnson’s vehicle paused directly in front of him, he took a chance and reached out to shake the presidential candidate’s hand and wish him good luck.
JFK, apparently intrigued by the unlikely appearance of a Liverpudlian in Texas, engaged in some repartee with Peel — “we had a bit of a chat,” said Peel (2:51), who also peeled off two shots of the Democratic duo.
‘Someone Shot My Pal Jack’
Three years later Peel was still in Dallas. On Nov. 22, 1963, he was working at Republic National Life Insurance on North Central Expressway when word arrived that Kennedy had been mortally wounded downtown. He later said the news was received with “some jubilation” (0:38) by many of his officemates.
Peel took the opportunity to slip away and head to the scene of the crime, which by that time had been cordoned off, allowing only law enforcement and press inside.
“Someone had shot my pal Jack and I wanted to know why,” Peel wrote in Radio Times, a weekly BBC publication in which he had a column, in its Nov. 26, 1993, edition.
Standing at the police cordon, Peel concocted the bogus story that he was a reporter for the Liverpool Echo. His English accent apparently impressed the officer, who allowed Peel to enter Dealey Plaza and look around in the hours after the ambush that killed the president. Peel eventually grew bored and left.
Later that evening Peel and a friend went back downtown and asked an officer outside the Dallas Police headquarters if there had been any developments. They were told that a suspect in the assassination was in custody and a press conference was about to start.
Peel and his friend quickly made way to the event, again gaining entry via fictitious Liverpool Echo credentials and an authentic English accent.
Just after midnight on Nov. 23, Peel found himself in an extraordinary historic setting in the Dallas police basement. Not only was he in the room with accused Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, but he later learned that he was also just across the room from Oswald’s later killer, Jack Ruby (4:49).
Standing just feet away from Oswald, Peel said the accused assassin (8:15) either “didn’t know what was going on or he was a very good actor.” He added that Oswald’s comportment seemed to say, “C’mon guys, this has gone too far, you know? Is this a joke or what?”
Reeling in the Years
The ever-spiraling nature of history, forever churning and turning in upon itself, delivered Peel back to England in 1967, where he eventually joined the BBC. He became known for his “Peel Sessions,” in which he would highlight a band or musician he particularly liked. To get Peel’s seal of approval was usually a boon to a musician’s career.
Among those he promoted were bands that gained some inspiration, however morbid or grim, from the events in Dallas in November 1963. They included such punk-era outfits as San Francisco’s The Dead Kennedys and Texan freak-out psychedelia purveyors The Butthole Surfers, who wrote the deeply philosophical Da-Da-esque ditty, “The Shah Sleeps in Lee Harvey’s Grave.”
(In keeping with the historic spiral, Surfers’ lead singer Gibby Haynes’ father, Jerry Haynes, was a local Dallas television personality who was in Dealey Plaza at the time of the assassination and appeared on WFAA (1:53) within minutes of the shooting to report on what he saw and heard.)
Peel’s status in the music world reached such heights that a stage was named after him at the famous Glastonbury music festival in England. However, that stage was later to be renamed years after his death when reports surfaced of sexual misconduct on Peel’s part. He died in 2004 at age 65 while on a trip to Peru.
Most relevant to the raison d'etre for this newsletter is Peel's evaluation of Lee "I'm Just a Patsy" Oswald's demeanor [Well then, in the spirit of thanking our British cousins, "demeanour"] at the impromptu press conference, thanks to his Scouser creds as repping the "Liverpool Echo"!
Bewildered by the events, knowing full well he had shot no one at all that day, that's exactly reflected by Peel's assessment. In any event, both neophytes and researchers who are part of the long slog to uncover the facts of the JFK [and Patrolman Tippit and Oswald] homicides in Dallas, Texas, November 22-24, 1963, can do much worse than to start here:
https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/part-1-of-6-no-motive-plus-the-silenced-witnesses
And, because "Wikipedia is Wikipedia" [Tautologies are not always empty of a deeper meaning!] also this:
https://www.kennedysandking.com/content/will-the-real-wikipedia-please-stand-up
Saturday, 31 July 2010 22:27
The Real Wikipedia? Will the Real Wikipedia Please Stand Up?
Written by J. P. Mroz
Mroz makes the central focus of this article the disinformation within JFK research data. But more specifically, a provable purveyor of such disinformation: that self-described "free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project," aka, Wikipedia.
https://www.kennedysandking.com/content/the-real-wikipedia-part-two-please-mr-wales-remain-seated
Thursday, 31 March 2011 18:58
The Real Wikipedia? Part Two Addendum: Fernandez and the .38 Smith and Wesson
Written by James DiEugenio
Wikipedia gets the facts wrong on the alleged Tippit murder weapon, as Jim DiEugenio point out.
https://www.kennedysandking.com/content/part-two-addendum-fernandez-and-the-38-smith-and-wesson
https://www.kennedysandking.com/content/the-real-wikipedia-the-wikipedia-fraud-pt-3-wales-covers-up-for-the-warren-commission
And another set of theories often dismissed as "conspiracy theories" beyond the pale and an affront to all sound thinking, just as the JFK assassination issues are so often dismissed, and with some surprising similarities:
https://whowroteshakespeare.substack.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ72Ew1ujlk
11:20 / 44:16
Mark Twain's "Is Shakespeare Dead?" with Keir Cutler, PhD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtF 1mM9gcW4
The Killing Floor
What Happened to JFK? [Note: this canvasses what would be an extremely persuasive alibi for Lee Harvey Oswald - from eyewitness to the motorcade and shots fired in Dealey Plaza, and not only that,
workers who were inside the Texas School Book Depository, only two floors below the alleged "Sniper's Perch" - which, btw, ended up for years in the mansion's banquet hall owned by the extreme right-wing owner of, that's right, the Texas School Book Depository!]
163,852 views Premiered Aug 5, 2022
'The Killing Floor', based on the book 'The Girl on the Stairs' by author Barry Ernest, is the very true story about a young woman named Victoria Adams, whose experiences stemming from her work offices on the fourth floor of the Texas School Book Depository on November 22nd, 1963 - the date and time of President John F. Kennedy's assassination - cast a whole new look as to whether or not the historically accepted killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, was ever in a position to commit this heinous act. Ultimately there were four key women who had a major impact on revealing previously hidden truths in this matter.
Yes, Jerry Haynes was well known in Dallas, particularly for his children’s show, in which he played Mr. Peppermint , with his candy-striped jacket and cane. In one generation, we went from Mr. Peppermint to a Butthole Surfer. Such were the times.