The Parts That Were Left Out of the Kennedy Book

"The Parts That Were Left Out of the Kennedy Book" is a satirical article by Paul Krassner, often considered his most successful and controversial prank. It was published in "The Realist" in 1967.

The article followed the censorship of William Manchester's book on the Kennedy assassination. At the climax of the grotesque-genre short-story, Lyndon B. Johnson is on the Air Force One penetrating the bullet-hole wound in JFK's corpse throat." [http://www.ep.tc/realist/74/01.html The Parts That Were Left Out of the Kennedy Book] " - "The Realist", Issue No. 74 - May 1967, cover page and [http://www.ep.tc/realist/74/18.html page 18] ] Krassner acknowledged Marvin Garson, at the time the editor of Good Times in San Francisco, for coming up with that surreal image. [" [http://www.researchpubs.com/books/prank2exc10.php Interview with Paul Krassner] " from "Pranks! 2"] According to Elliot Feldman, "Some members of the mainstream press and other Washington political wonks, including Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame, actually believed this incident to be true." [" [http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Hoaxipedia/Paul_Krassner_and_The_Realist/ Paul Krassner and The Realist] " by Elliot Feldman] In a 1995 interview for the magazine "Adbusters", Krassner commented: "People across the country believed - if only for a moment - that an act of presidential necrophilia had taken place. It worked because Jackie Kennedy had created so much curiosity by censoring the book she authorized - William Manchester's, "The Death Of A President" - because what I wrote was a metaphorical truth about LBJ's personality presented in a literary context, and because the imagery was so shocking, it broke through the notion that the war in Vietnam was being conducted by sane men."." [http://members.aol.com/tedalvy/cat.htm Cat Simril Interviews Paul Krassner] " by CAT SIMRILin from "Adbusters Quarterly" Journal of the Mental Environment (Winter 1995 Vol. 3 No. 3)]

In 1967, the Canadian campus newspaper "The McGill Daily" published an excerpt from Krassner's story. The Montreal police confiscated the issue and Rocke Robertson, principal of McGill University, charged student John Fekete, the supplement editor responsible for the publication, before the Senate Discipline Committee. [ [http://reporter-archive.mcgill.ca/Rep/r2902/daily.htm Milestones] of the "The McGill Daily"] In 2003, Italian satirist Daniele Luttazzi produced the short story "Stanotte e per sempre" (Eng.: "Tonight and forever"), which transposed Krassner's elements in the Italian political context. In the climax scene, Giulio Andreotti penetrates the bullet wounds in Aldo Moro's corpse. Lewis Black included an excerpt, precisely the final part, from Krassner's story in his 2005 book "Nothing's Sacred".

References

*" [http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/reflections-on-the-art-of-the-put-on Reflections on the Art of the Put-on] " by Michael DooleyJuly 03, 2007