OPEN TO THE PUBLIC: THREE DEBATE KENNEDY, CAMELOT CONSPIRACY

The assassination of John F. Kennedy will be discussed by a panel of three speakers in a presentation at 7 p.m. Monday at Southeast Missouri State University.

The three-hour program, "JFK and the Camelot Conspiracy," will be held in Dempster Auditorium in Crisp Hall. The program is open to the public.

J. Christopher Schnell, a history professor at Southeast; Kenn Thomas, archivist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis; and Steve Richardet, a teacher at Cape Girardeau Central Junior High School, will present the program.

All three men have done extensive research into the Nov. 22, 1963 assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas.

"This basically started as a presentation for modern presidency class," said Schnell.

"We are focusing on the presentation of the evidence as we know exists. We are focusing on the unanswered questions," he said.

Schnell, who discounts the Warren Commission's conclusion that the assassination was the work of a lone gunman, said he would like to see the government open up its files concerning the event.

Despite the public interest sparked by Oliver Stone's movie "JFK," certain files regarding the incident have remained off limits to the public. "It's really still classified or secret," said Schnell.

Nearly 30 years after Kennedy's assassination, questions remain unanswered, he said.

Schnell said the program will include the showing of video tapes of Dallas television station coverage of the assassination. The tapes belong to Vic Underwood of Cape Girardeau, whose family lives in Dallas.

"He has loads and loads of tapes of the original stuff done on the local TV stations in Dallas," said Schnell.

"Some of this stuff hasn't been seen since the day of the assassination," said Schnell.

"We are going to investigate the role of the national media too," said Schnell, "particularly the role of Dan Rather."