Baylor Libraries Acquire Kennedy Assassination Conspiracy Materials
Baylor University's Collections of Political Materials recently acquired papers of the late Penn Jones Jr., one of the earliest Kennedy assassination conspiracy theorists, from a political memorabilia dealer in Fort Worth.
Jones began investigating the assassination of John F. Kennedy soon after the event in 1963. Gary Mack, a fellow researcher and archivist of the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, later explained, "Penn was one of the first generation of researchers who felt the government was behind the assassination -- probably a conspiracy involving military intelligence...He always thought LBJ was behind it somehow."
The editor of the Midlothian Mirror for 28 years, Jones was the author of four books on the assassination: Forgive My Grief I-IV (1966, 1967, 1974, 1976). He also founded and edited a JFK newsletter, The Continuing Inquiry, in the 1970s and early 1980s. Every year, on the anniversary of the assassination, Jones held a memorial service at Dealey Plaza.
In 1995 the Coalition on Political Assassinations presented Jones with the Sylvia Meagher Lifetime Achievement Award in honor of his groundbreaking and persistent work in pursuit of the truth.
Jones' papers consist of magazines, articles, media, photographs and letters related to assassination conspiracy theories. BCPM staff is currently preparing an inventory which will be available online. Some materials should be ready for researchers by late spring.
For more information, contact Ben Rogers, director of the BCPM, at 710-3540.