Honoring Kennedy on 45th anniversary

About 500 people crowded Saturday into the plaza where President Kennedy was shot 45 years earlier, all agreeing it was right to remember a pivotal moment in American history, even if they didn’t all believe the official line.

People bowed their heads during a moment of silence at 12:30 p.m. Some hawked JFK memorabilia or pitched conspiracy theories to visitors. Others offered their memories of the killing.

Visiting from Pipersville, Pa., 66-year-old Barbara Koenig said coming to the site was something she needed to do. “I remember the day of the assassination, and I’ve always wanted to visit this site,” she said. “It’s just an eerie feeling. It kind of takes you back 45 years to what you were doing and thinking about the whole tragedy of the affair. I burst into tears. In fact, I’m ready to cry now.”

Nearby, street vendors held out commemorative newspapers. One person roamed the crowd with a sign questioning whether it was a lone gunman or several who killed Kennedy.

A group of men in black suits, matching ties and earpieces stood silent and appeared to guard a large black banner behind them.

The truth about the day Kennedy was assassinated still has not been entirely revealed, said John Judge, head of the Washington-based Coalition on Political Assassinations, a research group.

Judge believes Kennedy’s assassination was a government conspiracy and could easily be solved if all of the facts were revealed.

“If the case were to be honestly investigated or if a grand jury could open it up, we could get at it,” he said. “I think [people] want to remember a piece of their history that was stolen from them.”

On Saturday, two Xs spray-painted in the street marked the spots where Kennedy was hit as his motorcade drove through the plaza. A placard from the National Park Service stood on the ground directly across from one X.

Ann Murphy, 68, a Canadian, said she stayed glued to her family’s black-and-white television set for news of the assassination as events unfolded in the United States.

“It’s strange,” she said, “that one man’s influence and popularity would extend well outside his own country.”