The Odd Parallels Between Kennedy and Lincoln

by Valerie Klein

Ms. Klein is a student of the JFK assassination whose researches have taken her to Dealey Plaza and the Texas School Book Depository on several occasions. Her latest article on the subject was published in the American Journal of Legal History.

Comparing Kennedy's death to Lincoln's gives you a host of weird coincidences. Some examples are:

Both Presidents were shot in the back of the head, on the Friday before a major holiday, while seated beside their wives, neither of whom were injured.

Both were in the presence of another couple, and in each case that man was also wounded by the assassin.

After both assassinations there were loud and insistent claims that the fatal shot must have come from a different direction.

Each President in his thirties married a socailly prominent twenty-four year old girl who spoke French fluently.

While in the White House, each President had a family of three children, and both lost a child through death.

Both Lincoln and Kennedy were second children.

Both had been boat captains.

Both were related to a U.S. Senator, Attorney General, ambassador to Great Britain, and the mayor of Boston.

Each had been elected to Congress in the year '47 and were vice-presidential runners-up in the year '56.

Each was elected president in '60.

Before each was elected, a sister died. Both had a friend named Billy Graham and knew an Adlai Stevenson.

President Kennedy had a secretary named Mrs. Lincoln and President Lincoln had a secretary named John Kennedy.

The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters.

Both were succeeded by vice-presidents named Johnson: Andrew born in 1808 and Lyndon in 1908, both of whom had 13 letters in their names and two daughters.

Both assassins have fifteen letters in their names.

Booth shot Lincoln in a theatre and fled to a warehouse. Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and fled to a theatre.

Both assassins were in their turn assassinated by shooters who used a Colt revolver and fired only one, fatal shot.

There are many more coincidences. But does any of this prove any connection whatever between the two murders? No, of course not. It just exemplifies the minor mysteries and ironies that surround any great public tragedy. But true believers see gathering unanswered questions as an end in itself, believing somehow that even if none of the anomalies implies anything, the sheer number they come up with must have some significance. But when you are adding zeroes, it does not matter how many you add, the sum is still zero.