Kennedy Assasination Witness Speaks Up
My Dad is famous! He made the front page of the local newspaper. He was right up front when JFK got shot, and he has quite a story to tell..
John Templin is one of only a handful of living eyewitnesses to the assasination of John F. Kennedy, but more than that experience, he values the bond he shares with fellow eyewitness Ernie Brandt.
Templin and Brandt make an effort every year to attend the anniversary commemoration of JFK's assasination at Dealey Plaza. Templin missed the event last year because he was ill, but he is determined to attend this November.
"I've learned to like going down there every year," he said. "I get to spend time with old Ernie. We only talk four or five times a year and we don't see each other very much."
Brandt, he said, was the publicity hound after witnessing the shooting. Templin was more "private about it," he said.
November 22, 1963, Brand suggested that he and Templin take a long lunch so that the two could watch the President's motorcade drive through Dallas. Templin was 25 and just married.
"It was an experience I'll never forget for sure," Templin said. "I was sure enough an eyewitness to history."
Templin and Brandt were just acquiaintances at the time. Brandt would take Templin to lunch and Templin would agree to use Brandt's services to ship appliances for his employer.
"Ernie just casually mentioned if I'd like to see the President, so I said well, I'm already late for work," Templin said. Besides, Brandt knew the perfect spot to watch the nation's leader pass by.
The two men stood on the curb in front of the infamous grassy knoll, just feet from Abraham Zapruder, who's amazing video of the shooting would become a much studied document of one of the most distinct and significant moments in American history. Both men are visible in several frames of the film.
He (Kennedy) was smiling and waving, and about 25-30 feet past us, we heard a shot, a boom," Templin said. "At first we thought it was a firework. Then I noticed the President slumped over, with his shoulders and his elbows kind of pushed up. I thought he was playing..kidding."
"Then the second shot hit him in the head. Killed him," he added. "And we knew he was dead. No one could have survived a shot like that. His hair stood up, and we didn't see him again."
"However," he said, the Warren Commission determined that the third shot hit Kennedy in the head." Templin is convinced that it was the second shot and the third shot hit nothing.
"Maybe it was different. When something like that happens, the sequence gets confusing, but in my mind, I'm sure it was the second shot," he said.
Templin also said that he is sure the shot came from the Texas Schoolbook Depository, not to the right of the grassy knoll, as conflicting accounts claim.
"I don't agree with the conspiracy theorists that claim it came from the picket fence," he said. "That would have been to the right of me. Any hearing person could tell where the shot came from. To my left and from above."
He said that upon hearing the shots, Brandt ducked behind a tree. Templin remembers seeing police immediately jump off their motorcycles, letting them "put, put, put" riderless down the street.
Templin looked towards where he thought the shot came from.
"My first thought was.."I hope you get the S.O.B!" he said.
Then panic broke loose. Upon realizing that the President, popular and handsome, had been murdered in front of their eyes, people ran. They screamed and wept.
"As Ernie said, it was pandemonium," Templin said. He went back to work immediately because he knew that the police would soon rope off the area and interview witnesses, and he wouldn't be allowed to leave for hours.
For 29 years, Templin stayed away from Dealey Plaza and rarely spoke of what he witnessed. A year before the 30th anniversary and the dedication of a new plaque at the spot where Kennedy was assasinated, Templin was waiting on a train near the spot and decided to kill some time by visiting the plaza.
He and Brandt met for the first time since the assasination at the 30th anniversary and spoke with other witnesses and aficionados.
"I'm amazed that people are still that interested in something that happened 40 some years ago," Templin said. "Those people get Ernie and me cornered and we can't get away. I like arguing with the conspiracy theorists. I tell them, "You show me one shred of evidence there was a conspiracy," "and sure enough they can't."
Though Templin doesn't speak much about his experience, Brandt does.
He speaks at colleges and keeps memoirs about it. He has extensively researched the subject, talking with other eyewitnesses and granting interviews to news outlets and historians.
Brandt wears the same blue snap-brim hat he wore on the day of the assasination to the anniversary commomorations.
"That's the one thing that makes me stand out in the film," Brandt said.
His and Templins accounts differ on some of the infamous day's events, but they agree on the important aspects.
Brandt, unlike Templin, believes that the third shot hit Kennedy in the head, and he insists that one cannot be certain that the shots came from above the two men and to their left.
"I did not know where the shots originated," he said. "It was so loud and unexpected. My first thought was that it came from a motorcycle backfiring."
Also, both men agree that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone shooter, and they both enjoy arguing with the conspiracy theorists at the anniversaries.
"We get into it pretty deep with the conspiracy theorists. Some people get pretty sassy, but for the most part people are polite about it," Brandt said. "They gather around us and want to hear our story."
However, he agrees with Templin that the event kickstarted their friendship.
"The experience has kept us together as friends for all these years," Brandt said. "It's something that not many people have seen in their lives. It just kind of bound us to each other."
My famous Dad...I'm proud of him for finally coming forward and telling his story to the world after all those years of silence...
John Templin is one of only a handful of living eyewitnesses to the assasination of John F. Kennedy, but more than that experience, he values the bond he shares with fellow eyewitness Ernie Brandt.
Templin and Brandt make an effort every year to attend the anniversary commemoration of JFK's assasination at Dealey Plaza. Templin missed the event last year because he was ill, but he is determined to attend this November.
"I've learned to like going down there every year," he said. "I get to spend time with old Ernie. We only talk four or five times a year and we don't see each other very much."
Brandt, he said, was the publicity hound after witnessing the shooting. Templin was more "private about it," he said.
November 22, 1963, Brand suggested that he and Templin take a long lunch so that the two could watch the President's motorcade drive through Dallas. Templin was 25 and just married.
"It was an experience I'll never forget for sure," Templin said. "I was sure enough an eyewitness to history."
Templin and Brandt were just acquiaintances at the time. Brandt would take Templin to lunch and Templin would agree to use Brandt's services to ship appliances for his employer.
"Ernie just casually mentioned if I'd like to see the President, so I said well, I'm already late for work," Templin said. Besides, Brandt knew the perfect spot to watch the nation's leader pass by.
The two men stood on the curb in front of the infamous grassy knoll, just feet from Abraham Zapruder, who's amazing video of the shooting would become a much studied document of one of the most distinct and significant moments in American history. Both men are visible in several frames of the film.
He (Kennedy) was smiling and waving, and about 25-30 feet past us, we heard a shot, a boom," Templin said. "At first we thought it was a firework. Then I noticed the President slumped over, with his shoulders and his elbows kind of pushed up. I thought he was playing..kidding."
"Then the second shot hit him in the head. Killed him," he added. "And we knew he was dead. No one could have survived a shot like that. His hair stood up, and we didn't see him again."
"However," he said, the Warren Commission determined that the third shot hit Kennedy in the head." Templin is convinced that it was the second shot and the third shot hit nothing.
"Maybe it was different. When something like that happens, the sequence gets confusing, but in my mind, I'm sure it was the second shot," he said.
Templin also said that he is sure the shot came from the Texas Schoolbook Depository, not to the right of the grassy knoll, as conflicting accounts claim.
"I don't agree with the conspiracy theorists that claim it came from the picket fence," he said. "That would have been to the right of me. Any hearing person could tell where the shot came from. To my left and from above."
He said that upon hearing the shots, Brandt ducked behind a tree. Templin remembers seeing police immediately jump off their motorcycles, letting them "put, put, put" riderless down the street.
Templin looked towards where he thought the shot came from.
"My first thought was.."I hope you get the S.O.B!" he said.
Then panic broke loose. Upon realizing that the President, popular and handsome, had been murdered in front of their eyes, people ran. They screamed and wept.
"As Ernie said, it was pandemonium," Templin said. He went back to work immediately because he knew that the police would soon rope off the area and interview witnesses, and he wouldn't be allowed to leave for hours.
For 29 years, Templin stayed away from Dealey Plaza and rarely spoke of what he witnessed. A year before the 30th anniversary and the dedication of a new plaque at the spot where Kennedy was assasinated, Templin was waiting on a train near the spot and decided to kill some time by visiting the plaza.
He and Brandt met for the first time since the assasination at the 30th anniversary and spoke with other witnesses and aficionados.
"I'm amazed that people are still that interested in something that happened 40 some years ago," Templin said. "Those people get Ernie and me cornered and we can't get away. I like arguing with the conspiracy theorists. I tell them, "You show me one shred of evidence there was a conspiracy," "and sure enough they can't."
Though Templin doesn't speak much about his experience, Brandt does.
He speaks at colleges and keeps memoirs about it. He has extensively researched the subject, talking with other eyewitnesses and granting interviews to news outlets and historians.
Brandt wears the same blue snap-brim hat he wore on the day of the assasination to the anniversary commomorations.
"That's the one thing that makes me stand out in the film," Brandt said.
His and Templins accounts differ on some of the infamous day's events, but they agree on the important aspects.
Brandt, unlike Templin, believes that the third shot hit Kennedy in the head, and he insists that one cannot be certain that the shots came from above the two men and to their left.
"I did not know where the shots originated," he said. "It was so loud and unexpected. My first thought was that it came from a motorcycle backfiring."
Also, both men agree that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone shooter, and they both enjoy arguing with the conspiracy theorists at the anniversaries.
"We get into it pretty deep with the conspiracy theorists. Some people get pretty sassy, but for the most part people are polite about it," Brandt said. "They gather around us and want to hear our story."
However, he agrees with Templin that the event kickstarted their friendship.
"The experience has kept us together as friends for all these years," Brandt said. "It's something that not many people have seen in their lives. It just kind of bound us to each other."
My famous Dad...I'm proud of him for finally coming forward and telling his story to the world after all those years of silence...
posted by Angie at 9:58 PM
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