Why was ( John Kennedy's Coffin) dumped at sea

Secret Service Agents and presidential staff struggle to carry John Kennedy's casket up stairs into Air Force One at Love Field.





Coffin used to transport Kennedy's body sunk at sea



June 1, 1999
Web posted at: 5:33 p.m. EDT (2133 GMT)


WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, June 1) -- At the Kennedy family's insistence, the polished bronze casket used to carry President John F. Kennedy's body from Dallas to Washington was dumped into the ocean in 1966, according to newly released documents from the National Archives.

Its whereabouts had long been a mystery and questions lingered about the casket after Kennedy's burial at Arlington National Cemetery in a mahogany coffin following his assassination in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

"I think it belongs to the family and we can get rid of it any way we want to," Robert Kennedy, the president's brother and the former attorney general, told Lawson Knott, the administrator of the General Services Administration, according to a memo recounting their February 1966 telephone conversation.

"What I would like to have done is take it to sea," Kennedy told Knott. "I don't think anybody will be upset about the fact that we disposed of it."

There were concerns that the casket was government property since the government purchased it from Dallas undertaker Vernon Oneal. The casket, lined with brushed satin, was replaced because it was damaged. It was also unclear whether it was covered by a law that made certain items of evidence related to the Kennedy assassination government property.

Researchers of President Kennedy's assassination consider the coffin evidence that should not have been destroyed, including author David Lifton.

"We are dealing with evidence," said Lifton, whose 1981 book detailed medical evidence in the Kennedy assassination.


Kennedy family spokeswoman Melody Miller said Tuesday that destroying the casket was appropriate and "in keeping with the tradition of President Kennedy's naval service and his love of the sea."

The new documents show that the casket was stored in the basement of the National Archives building in downtown Washington in February 1966 when Robert Kennedy, then a U.S. senator from New York, called the GSA, which oversees government property, and asked for it to be released to the military for destruction.

Knott told Kennedy that destroying the coffin might "raise loads of questions" in light of an upcoming book about the assassination and said the Justice Department would have to authorize release of the casket. Kennedy served as attorney general before he entered the Senate in 1965.

Kennedy said he would contact his successor as attorney general, Nicholas Katzenbach. Eight days later, Katzenbach wrote in a February 11, 1966 letter to Knott that he felt it was necessary to dispose of the coffin.

"I am unable to conceive of any manner in which the casket could have an evidentiary value, nor can I conceive of any reason why the national interest would require its preservation," Katzenbach wrote. "It is obvious that it could never be used for burial purposes and its public display would be extremely offensive and contrary to public policy."

"As long as the casket remains ... there is always the possibility that it could be misused or misappropriated," he added.

Documents show that Oneal, the Dallas undertaker, wanted to get the casket back and display it in his funeral home.

On February 18, 1966, an Air Force van picked up the casket at the National Archives building in downtown Washington and took it to Andrews Air Force Base.

The casket was loaded with three 80-pound bags of sand. Numerous holes were drilled in both the casket and the pine box it was encased in "to ensure that no air pockets would develop," according to a memo written by John Steadman, special assistant in the office of the Secretary of Defense.

Both casket and pine box bound with metal banding tape and the whole apparatus was rigged with parachutes to break the impact of hitting the water.The Defense Department had sought the advice of a submarine officer with special training in hydraulics to devise a way to airdrop the coffin at sea, according to the documents.

At 8:38 a.m., a C-130 airplane carrying the casket took off from the Air Force base and flew off the Maryland-Delaware coast. The plane descended to 500 feet and at 10 a.m., the 660-pound load was pushed out of the plane's opened tail hatch.

"The parachutes opened shortly before impact and the entire rigged load remained intact and sank sharply, clearly and immediately after the soft impact," Steadman wrote in a February 25, 1966 file memo.

"The aircraft circled the drop point for some 20 minutes at 500 feet to ensure that nothing returned to the surface," wrote Steadman, who was on the plane.

The drop point -- in 9,000 feet of water beyond the continental shelf -- was chosen because it was away from regularly traveled air and shipping lines and would not be disturbed by trawling and other sea-bottom activities, the documents said


www.cnn.com...

Dallas Bronze Coffin offloaded at Andrews Airforce Base






Metal Shipping Casket



www.jfklancer.com...

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fascinating documents, quaneeri; but it may just be that he was ex-US Navy and he requested a sailor's burial in his will.
On the other hand...........

...he was a reptoid.....

Estragon.


Yeh.

I think it involved the funeral parlour who originally supplied the coffin.


Because the gov thought there bill for the coffin was exessive, something like $12,000.00

The gov only paid part of the bill.

Because of this i think that bobby kennedy feared the parllour may be able to reclaim the coffin.


Rumours were, that they were going to put it on exhibit, like some sort of freak show.

And that is why bobby had it dumped at see.

Was JFK Muslim?