On Wednesday, I heard one of the best lectures I have ever heard. Mr. Michael Solterbeck, a retired Beaver Local history teacher, gave his lecture on the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. I made sure to get a seat in the front so I could tune out the world around me and just listen to what he had to say. And, I must say, it was absolutely captivating.
Mr. Solterbeck started off by telling some puns while waiting for the audience to fill, which showed that we were already in for a treat. Once that was done, he fired up his 1970’s style slide projector and got started. I, being a history buff and an avid conspiracy reader/theorist, was enthralled by how much time this man had spent learning everything there is to know about the assassination. I thought I knew a majority of what happened on that fateful day in November, but, that is far from the truth.
Sadly, Mr. Solterbeck ran out of time before he was able to get deep into the theories of the president’s death. He has been studying the assassination since he was a junior in high school, nearly 44 years ago. He has had the pleasure of meeting some of the people who were directly involved with the case and even visited Dealey Plaza. He has recently begun to speak more about the assassination, spreading his decades worth of knowledge and passion throughout the community.

As a bonus, here are some of my favorite facts I learned about the assassination:
– the “magic bullet” had no damage but went through two bodies and through bone
– Kennedy’s bullet hole was “moved” in records
– Lee Harvey Oswald had two other aliases
– There was a report of a puff of smoke from the grassy knoll
– The Zapruder documents Kennedy’s last moments and death
– Kennedy’s brain is missing