28-06-2009, 01:54 AM
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Grant Stockdale, Friend of John F. Kennedy
Originally posted on another forum Jun 13 2004, 11:52 PM
Grant Stockdale (Edward Grant Stockdale) was born in Greenville, Mississippi, in 1915. He died in Miami, Florida, on December 2, 1963, ten days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
He had come to Miami in 1935 to attend the University of Miami where he played football, worked to pay for his tuition, and earned a BBS (business administration) degree. He began his career as a salesman for a venetian blind company and quickly rose to become sales manager. Later he was an hotel executive and then had various business interests, eventually owning his own real estate business, Grant Stockdale and Associates, an investment and real estate sales company.
In 1940 he married Alice Boyd Magruder, and they were the proud parents of five children.
Stockdale's civic and business and activities included the Presidency of the Miami Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1943; head of the Community Chest Drive; Executive Secretary of the Miami Beach Hotel Association; and President of the University of Miami Alumni Association.
In 1943 he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and served in the Pacific War Zone in combat in the Marshall Islands, Ie Shima, Okinawa, and he spent three months with the occupation forces in Japan. He was discharged as a First Lieutenant and remained with the rank of Major in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves.
His first foray into politics was to manage the political campaign of George Smathers for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He became Smathers' Administrative Assistant in Washington, D.C., and in the course of that, met and befriended John Kennedy in 1949 who was then a young Congressman from Massachusetts. The offices of Kennedy and Smathers were almost next to each other.
Upon return to Miami, Stockdale ran for a seat on the Dade County Commission, but lost the race to an incumbent running for re-election. Shortly thereafter, Stockdale ran for the Florida State House of Representatives in an election to replace a deceased legislator; he served from 1948 to 1949. While in the Florida State Legislature, Stockdale introduced several bills: a bill to permit women to volunteer as trial jurors (women were excluded from jury duty in Florida in those days); a bill to outlaw bookie wire services; and bills to offer stiffer punishments for child molesters and other crimes. He lost his re-election bid by a very small margin, 828 votes (20,143 to 19,315).
He ran again for a seat on the Dade County Commission and won, serving as a County Commissioner from 1952 to 1956.
As the Democratic Party began gearing up for its National Convention, and with recommendations from George Smathers who eventually became head of the committee in the South to elect John Kennedy, Grant Stockdale was named director of the Florida State committee to elect John Kennedy. After Kennedy won the nomination, Stockdale actively campaigned for him in West Virginia, Oregon, and New York. He served on the Democratic Party's National Finance Committee during this time.
His personal friendship with John Kennedy involved visits by the young Kennedy to Stockdale's home in Florida and visits with John Kennedy over the years. In 1961 President Kennedy appointed Grant Stockdale Ambassador to Ireland, and the entire Stockdale family moved to Dublin. Stockdale served 18 months, stating that he wished to resume his previously successful, but now neglected, real estate business.
Events surrounding the death of Grant Stockdale
At 10:00 a.m. on Monday, December 2, 1963, Grant Stockdale came to his office on the 13th floor of the Alfred I. Dupont Building, 169 Flagler Street in Miami. His secretary, LaVerne Weingartner, who usually opened the office was not there, but at a dentist's office and would not arrive until 10:30. Stockdale went into a law office across the hall from his and asked Mrs. Mary Ruth Hauser how he could get a key to unlock his office door. She offered to call the building manager to send someone to open it.
Mrs. Hauser stated, "He followed me into my office and stood there while I called down for a key. He stood there very calmly. He didn't seem at all agitated... Somehow the subject of the President's death came up... He told me he was in his office when his wife called to tell him the President had been shot. He said he just got down on his knees and prayed."
Stockdale and Mrs. Hauser were still talking when someone came to unlock his door. She started to followed him across the hall, but just then her office phone started ringing and she returned to answer it. Mrs. Hauser said, "It couldn't have been five minutes later that there was this terrible thud...I just wonder if I had gone right behind him...I don't know, I guess it wouldn't have made any difference. The whole world has just gone mad."
Stockdale's body lay on the roof of the five-story Florida National Bank and Trust Company below the Stockdale office window. Dr. Sheffel H. Wright who had offices in the Dupont Building pronouned him dead at 10:30 a.m.; the police placed the time of death at 10:17 a.m.
All of the people who saw and spoke to Stockdale on his way to work said he had been in good spirits, waving and saying hello. He stopped for a shoe shine, spoke to the elevator operator, and exchanged words with the parking garage attendant.
However, it was his friend George Smathers who claimed that it had been an accumulation of grief and worry that had driven Stockdale to suicide.
One newspaper report states that Mrs. Stockdale had urged her husband to seek help for his depression after the assassination, but she called the doctor on Monday to inform him that he was so much better.
According to an article written by Miami Herald Reporter John B. McDermott, titled "Stockdale Into Irrational Mood," Stockdale had tried to reach him on Sunday, December 1. "He wanted to tell me something - to talk things over."
McDermott's article presents the following information:
On Saturday, November 23, 1963, Grant Stockdale flew to Washington, D.C., after a call from Robert Kennedy. He returned that night, thinking he would be unable to get a ticket to the church for the funeral services.
On Monday, November 25, Stockdale learned that a ticket had been reserved for him by the White House, but there was not enough time to get proper plane connections on time.
On Tuesday, November 26, Stockdale flew up to Washington and talked with Robert and Edward Kennedy, and then flew back that night. As a result of this last trip, Teddy (Edward) Kennedy called Mrs. Stockdale, "expressing anxiety over the ex-ambassador's mental state."
Stockdale had mentioned to several people during the ten days before his death that "the world was closing in."
On Sunday, December 1, after attending services at St. Stephens Episcopal Church with his family, Stockdale had paused to speak with Attorney William Frates.
"He started talking," Frates recalled Monday. "It didn't make much sense. He said something about 'those guys' trying to get him. Then about the assassination. He said he wanted to talk to me - that he had already talked to Billy Gaither (another attorney)."
Grant Stockdale was 48 years old when he died. Funeral Services were held on Wednesday, December 4, 1963, at St. Stephens Episcopal Church with 200 people attending. The blue-and-gold Ambassadors' flag was draped over the coffin. Pall-bearers were Senator George Smathers, Attorney Williiam C. Gaither, former State Senator R.B. Gautier, Jr., former U. of Miami football star and team leader Eddie Dunn, Stockdale's business associate Eugene Hancock, and Realtor Walter Etling. Burial was arranged with the Van Orsdel Coral Gables Mortuary at Woodlawn Park Cemetery.
(Information taken from newspaper articles in the Miami Herald and Miami News.)
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I believe Grant Stockdale was murdered. I also believe that he was the "best friend of the President who would jump out of window because of his grief (after it's over)" that I was told about in April, 1963, by Jose A. Rivera, NIH Science Administrator, former U.S. Army Colonel, and Member of the U.S. Army Reserves. The question is - Why Stockdale?
Adele Edisen
Message from Ann Stockdale received June 16, 2004:
Yes I guess that is factual, except I thought that when He came home from Ireland , that he no longer had any $ interest in Vending Machines. One thing I do know is that Kennedy asked Daddy to go to the Air Force Base South of Miami to see if ( against Kennedy's orders) bombs were being loaded on the planes. Bombs WERE being loaded on the planes !! I believe one of the reasons Daddy was killed was because He knew that the Government was being run by the Military Complex.
The Military Complex didn't want the American People to realize ( and still don't ) That They were calling the shots. Daddy knew he was being followed... & he told Mom that THEY were going to get Him... and THEY did. There was an attempt on my life also several days after Daddy's funeral . I realize now that this was a scare tactic to silence my Mother...i.e. if you speak about Anything, Your kids are DEAD. It Worked !!
Adele, You may add this if you wish. XXOO, Ann
Grant Stockdale, Friend of John F. Kennedy
Originally posted on another forum Jun 13 2004, 11:52 PM
Grant Stockdale (Edward Grant Stockdale) was born in Greenville, Mississippi, in 1915. He died in Miami, Florida, on December 2, 1963, ten days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
He had come to Miami in 1935 to attend the University of Miami where he played football, worked to pay for his tuition, and earned a BBS (business administration) degree. He began his career as a salesman for a venetian blind company and quickly rose to become sales manager. Later he was an hotel executive and then had various business interests, eventually owning his own real estate business, Grant Stockdale and Associates, an investment and real estate sales company.
In 1940 he married Alice Boyd Magruder, and they were the proud parents of five children.
Stockdale's civic and business and activities included the Presidency of the Miami Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1943; head of the Community Chest Drive; Executive Secretary of the Miami Beach Hotel Association; and President of the University of Miami Alumni Association.
In 1943 he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and served in the Pacific War Zone in combat in the Marshall Islands, Ie Shima, Okinawa, and he spent three months with the occupation forces in Japan. He was discharged as a First Lieutenant and remained with the rank of Major in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves.
His first foray into politics was to manage the political campaign of George Smathers for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He became Smathers' Administrative Assistant in Washington, D.C., and in the course of that, met and befriended John Kennedy in 1949 who was then a young Congressman from Massachusetts. The offices of Kennedy and Smathers were almost next to each other.
Upon return to Miami, Stockdale ran for a seat on the Dade County Commission, but lost the race to an incumbent running for re-election. Shortly thereafter, Stockdale ran for the Florida State House of Representatives in an election to replace a deceased legislator; he served from 1948 to 1949. While in the Florida State Legislature, Stockdale introduced several bills: a bill to permit women to volunteer as trial jurors (women were excluded from jury duty in Florida in those days); a bill to outlaw bookie wire services; and bills to offer stiffer punishments for child molesters and other crimes. He lost his re-election bid by a very small margin, 828 votes (20,143 to 19,315).
He ran again for a seat on the Dade County Commission and won, serving as a County Commissioner from 1952 to 1956.
As the Democratic Party began gearing up for its National Convention, and with recommendations from George Smathers who eventually became head of the committee in the South to elect John Kennedy, Grant Stockdale was named director of the Florida State committee to elect John Kennedy. After Kennedy won the nomination, Stockdale actively campaigned for him in West Virginia, Oregon, and New York. He served on the Democratic Party's National Finance Committee during this time.
His personal friendship with John Kennedy involved visits by the young Kennedy to Stockdale's home in Florida and visits with John Kennedy over the years. In 1961 President Kennedy appointed Grant Stockdale Ambassador to Ireland, and the entire Stockdale family moved to Dublin. Stockdale served 18 months, stating that he wished to resume his previously successful, but now neglected, real estate business.
Events surrounding the death of Grant Stockdale
At 10:00 a.m. on Monday, December 2, 1963, Grant Stockdale came to his office on the 13th floor of the Alfred I. Dupont Building, 169 Flagler Street in Miami. His secretary, LaVerne Weingartner, who usually opened the office was not there, but at a dentist's office and would not arrive until 10:30. Stockdale went into a law office across the hall from his and asked Mrs. Mary Ruth Hauser how he could get a key to unlock his office door. She offered to call the building manager to send someone to open it.
Mrs. Hauser stated, "He followed me into my office and stood there while I called down for a key. He stood there very calmly. He didn't seem at all agitated... Somehow the subject of the President's death came up... He told me he was in his office when his wife called to tell him the President had been shot. He said he just got down on his knees and prayed."
Stockdale and Mrs. Hauser were still talking when someone came to unlock his door. She started to followed him across the hall, but just then her office phone started ringing and she returned to answer it. Mrs. Hauser said, "It couldn't have been five minutes later that there was this terrible thud...I just wonder if I had gone right behind him...I don't know, I guess it wouldn't have made any difference. The whole world has just gone mad."
Stockdale's body lay on the roof of the five-story Florida National Bank and Trust Company below the Stockdale office window. Dr. Sheffel H. Wright who had offices in the Dupont Building pronouned him dead at 10:30 a.m.; the police placed the time of death at 10:17 a.m.
All of the people who saw and spoke to Stockdale on his way to work said he had been in good spirits, waving and saying hello. He stopped for a shoe shine, spoke to the elevator operator, and exchanged words with the parking garage attendant.
However, it was his friend George Smathers who claimed that it had been an accumulation of grief and worry that had driven Stockdale to suicide.
One newspaper report states that Mrs. Stockdale had urged her husband to seek help for his depression after the assassination, but she called the doctor on Monday to inform him that he was so much better.
According to an article written by Miami Herald Reporter John B. McDermott, titled "Stockdale Into Irrational Mood," Stockdale had tried to reach him on Sunday, December 1. "He wanted to tell me something - to talk things over."
McDermott's article presents the following information:
On Saturday, November 23, 1963, Grant Stockdale flew to Washington, D.C., after a call from Robert Kennedy. He returned that night, thinking he would be unable to get a ticket to the church for the funeral services.
On Monday, November 25, Stockdale learned that a ticket had been reserved for him by the White House, but there was not enough time to get proper plane connections on time.
On Tuesday, November 26, Stockdale flew up to Washington and talked with Robert and Edward Kennedy, and then flew back that night. As a result of this last trip, Teddy (Edward) Kennedy called Mrs. Stockdale, "expressing anxiety over the ex-ambassador's mental state."
Stockdale had mentioned to several people during the ten days before his death that "the world was closing in."
On Sunday, December 1, after attending services at St. Stephens Episcopal Church with his family, Stockdale had paused to speak with Attorney William Frates.
"He started talking," Frates recalled Monday. "It didn't make much sense. He said something about 'those guys' trying to get him. Then about the assassination. He said he wanted to talk to me - that he had already talked to Billy Gaither (another attorney)."
Grant Stockdale was 48 years old when he died. Funeral Services were held on Wednesday, December 4, 1963, at St. Stephens Episcopal Church with 200 people attending. The blue-and-gold Ambassadors' flag was draped over the coffin. Pall-bearers were Senator George Smathers, Attorney Williiam C. Gaither, former State Senator R.B. Gautier, Jr., former U. of Miami football star and team leader Eddie Dunn, Stockdale's business associate Eugene Hancock, and Realtor Walter Etling. Burial was arranged with the Van Orsdel Coral Gables Mortuary at Woodlawn Park Cemetery.
(Information taken from newspaper articles in the Miami Herald and Miami News.)
___________________________________________________________________
I believe Grant Stockdale was murdered. I also believe that he was the "best friend of the President who would jump out of window because of his grief (after it's over)" that I was told about in April, 1963, by Jose A. Rivera, NIH Science Administrator, former U.S. Army Colonel, and Member of the U.S. Army Reserves. The question is - Why Stockdale?
Adele Edisen
Message from Ann Stockdale received June 16, 2004:
Yes I guess that is factual, except I thought that when He came home from Ireland , that he no longer had any $ interest in Vending Machines. One thing I do know is that Kennedy asked Daddy to go to the Air Force Base South of Miami to see if ( against Kennedy's orders) bombs were being loaded on the planes. Bombs WERE being loaded on the planes !! I believe one of the reasons Daddy was killed was because He knew that the Government was being run by the Military Complex.
The Military Complex didn't want the American People to realize ( and still don't ) That They were calling the shots. Daddy knew he was being followed... & he told Mom that THEY were going to get Him... and THEY did. There was an attempt on my life also several days after Daddy's funeral . I realize now that this was a scare tactic to silence my Mother...i.e. if you speak about Anything, Your kids are DEAD. It Worked !!
Adele, You may add this if you wish. XXOO, Ann
