The JFK 100
The Epileptic in Dealey Plaza
Unfortunate epileptic or diabolical conspirator?
Unfortunate epileptic or diabolical conspirator?
So what really happened that day? Let's just for a moment speculate, shall we? We have the epileptic seizure around 12:15 PM . . . distracting the police, making it easier for the shooters to move into their places. The epileptic later vanished, never checking into the hospital.(1)But the individual in question hardly "vanished"; his name was Jerry Belknap, an epileptic who had suffered seizures since childhood. He was located by the FBI on May 26, 1964, and to prove his identity, he produced his receipt for the $12.50 he paid for his ambulance ride to Parkland Hospital. He explained that he had left Parkland without registering because he felt better after being given a glass of water and an aspirin. Moments later, the President's motorcade pulled into the hospital's parking lot, and Belknap realized he was not likely to see a doctor anytime soon anyway.(2)
Oliver Stone's Dealey Plaza scenario, it would seem, is off to an unfortunate start.
NOTES:1. Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar, JFK: The Book of the Film (New York: Applause, 1992), p. 161. All quotations are from the shooting script and may vary slightly from the finished motion picture.
2. Gerald Posner, Case Closed (New York: Random House, 1992), p. 232.