Monday, July 16, 2007

The Man With No Name

by DALE K. MYERS

I guess comedian Ron White was right. You can't fix stupid. It seems that some of the conspiracy folks who populate John Simkin's U.K. based Educational Forum just can't let a good yarn die no matter what the facts are.

Take one of the more recent discussions entitled "Jefferson Davis Tippit" in which a long dead factoid was resurrected by William "Bill" Kelly, who wrote:

"...nobody names anybody with a name or a nickname that doesn't stand for anything.

"If Jay Dee was his real and only name, then he had an uncle or a godfather or his father had a buddy in the service with that name or there was an instance that created a reason for him to be named J. D. and those initials stand for something. If not Jefferson Davis then John Doe, but not nothing.

"I understand that it is the Tippit family who says that Tippit was named JD and that it is not an abriviation for Jeff Davis, and the meaning might not be Jeff Davis, but it is, I can assure you, means something. And the family's reluctance to acknowledge or reveal what it means makes me even more suspicious of what it really does mean."

Uh? NEWSFLASH, Bill: The Tippit family told me eleven years ago that J.D.'s initials didn't stand for anything - certainly not, "Jefferson Davis," as conspiracy nutjobs on numerous conspiracy forums and websites keep insisting; essentially refusing to accept the truth. I printed the truth about J.D.'s name in my book With Malice: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Murder of Officer J.D. Tippit in 1998 - nearly ten years ago. The fact that you haven't had time to read my book sometime during the passed decade is understandable. You must be busy chasing down the big conspiracy.

If the information in my book wasn't enough, I learned from the Tippit family after the publication of my book, the complete story behind Tippit's naming and published that story at www.jdtippit.com, the official website dedicated to J.D. Tippit's memory. Here's what you'll find there regarding Tippit's name:

"Edgar and 'May Bug' named their first born son after a character in a book that Edgar had read about once. 'He use to read a little you know, when he was hunting,' J.D.'s brother Don recalled. 'He'd read a story about a guy named "J.D. of the Mountains," and gave him that name. Guess it fascinated him.' The initials, despite some claims over the years, never stood for anything."

So, what is so hard to understand?

I guess Bill and his fellow buffs are upset because they can't twist J.D. Tippit into some kind of a right-wing, neo-Nazi, Gestapo, boot-stomping, rebel named after confederate rebel Jefferson Davis. How inconvenient. It would be so much better for the conspiratii if Tippit was a no-good, backstabbing, s.o.b. who liked to gun down goofy little innocents like Oswald, right?

Too bad. I guess these inconvenient little facts just spoil everyone's good time. Maybe Bill and friends should stop fantasizing and actually read about the man they love to hate. (Gee, what a novel idea.) They might actually learn something.

I guess it's too much to expect the "Jefferson Davis" moniker to disappear from the vast wasteland of useless JFK assassination factoids. I can only hope that those interested in the truth about the assassination will come to realize that J.D. Tippit is the original Man With No Name.

END

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