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JFK Book Reviews - The Room You Kept Locked · The Lone Gunman Podcast : JFK Assassination

• 0:17
  Speaker 1: What's up, folks, and welcome into JFK Book Reviews, a
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: division of the Lone Gunman Podcast, special edition author's corner,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: because today I have a guest. His name is Stephen Crane.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: And I'm pleased to have him here on the show
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: and for his first appearance. Welcome, Stephen, to the show.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's really cool.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: It's really cool. I'm very excited about this.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Well, we're glad you're here. You wrote a book. It's
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: called The Room You Kept Locked. And just a caveat,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: it is not out yet. I believe it comes out
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: November 1st.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Correct.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: And you can preorder a signed copy, though, on his website.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: It's stephencrane.com. That's Stephen spelled with a V. And Crane
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: spelled with a Y. And I'll put the link in
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: the description to make it real easy for everybody. All
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: you have to do is click and you can go
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: there and pre-order your signed copies now. So that when
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: it does come out, they can get shipped. Or if
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: you buy the Kindle, it can get electronically shipped. Right?
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Thank you.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So, Stephen, tell us a little bit about yourself
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: and let everybody know a little bit more about you
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: before we get into this. the book and why you
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: decided at this point to go ahead and write it?
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: So I always wanted to be a writer, you know,
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: probably because my name was Stephen Crane, who wrote The
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Red Badge of Courage. I think my mom wanted me
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: to be a writer. Maybe she gave me the name.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: And of course, in school, every English teacher, since I
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: can remember, they remembered my name first, which I really
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: didn't like because I wasn't that great in school. And
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: it was like Stephen Crane, they'd call on me because
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: they remembered my name. I was like, oh, no. So
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: I wanted to be a writer. And then I went
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: to school. I went to college for creative writing with
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: the hopes of writing, you know, the great American novel, screenplay.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: I had my five minutes of fame in Hollywood. I
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: almost got one of my professor's books made into a movie.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: I remember the day when a big Hollywood producer called me.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: He goes, Stephen. I'm making a movie. And I, and
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: I ran downstairs or wherever to my mom. And I said,
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: I said, Bernie Schwartz, he wants to make a movie.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: He did coal miners daughter in the outer limits. And
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: my mom said to me, goodbye. And I packed my
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: bags and moved out to California. That's awesome. And then
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: I had a long career with a startup company. People
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: might've heard of called the blockbuster entertainment. Uh, and had
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: a family and, uh, and then life took me a
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: whole new direction and I didn't write for decades. Uh,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: it was too busy raising the son, you know, and playing, uh,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: watching Pokemon with them and, uh, playing video games, the
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: first Star Wars games. And, you know, before you know it,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: it's like, wow, decades are gone. Um, and then, uh,
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: I had this kind of Renaissance with, uh, quitting smoking
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: and health and fitness and the fitness led to, uh,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: really led to mental health. I had a therapist and
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: started writing again. I had some inspiration. And before I
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: knew it, oh, this year I had like 60, 70
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: poems written. It was just like, just started happening again.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: And then I brought an editor on board who, you know,
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: checked my, did a great job with my work and
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: challenged me to get better. And before I knew it,
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: I had my, my dream came true for my first book.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome. So This is a book of poetry,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: not necessarily a novel, right?
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Correct.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: So what made you want to do poetry instead of
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: delve more into your creative writing side and maybe create
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: a fictionalized version of things?
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: So some of the poems have fiction in it, fiction
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  Speaker 2: and fantasy of events. Right. I loved poetry. I took
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: a lot of classes in writing, and I always was
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: drawn to poetry. Poetry, it just came to me. It's
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: just like thoughts. Sometimes a poem would just come to
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: me instantly, and I looked like Mozart at my typewriter,
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: just trying to keep up with my thoughts in my
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: head and writing. And, uh, uh, and so that's, it
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: just happened that I started with poetry though. I'm going
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: to move into, uh, uh, some stories, uh, next, uh,
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: as my, uh, uh, because I always loved movies. Movies
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: was my, uh, passion. I wanted to write movies. I
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: have tons of movie ideas. Um, and I never, I
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: never did anything with them. And now my editor's like,
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: I gave her some ideas and she's like, wow.
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  Speaker 1: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: And I, and I know movies and I, I, you know,
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: and she's like, well, let's start with a short story
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: first of what you want. So she's kind of, she's
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: my teacher. She's not just an editor. And that's why
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: I put her on retainer because she's, you know, teaching
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: me to reconnect with the creativity that I kind of
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: left behind decades ago. And, and poetry was great for,
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: I guess, unlocking a lot of pain that you have
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: inside of yourself that you didn't realize. And, bringing back
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: memories and putting them onto paper. Yeah.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: I was going to say, you know, poetry is, how
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: do you say it? It's, it's very personal and it
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: takes a lot of courage to actually bring out those
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: very personal thoughts and emotions and basically putting yourself raw
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: out there for everybody and, giving them a glimpse inside
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: of your head and saying, this is me, this is,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: this is me. You know, that's a, that's a very
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: commendable thing and not something that's very easily done either.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, talk a little bit about that experience.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: It's really scary. I'll tell you, you know, and you know,
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: you share it with your editor and it's like, Oh no,
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: she knows me as well as my therapist now, you know,
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: and a few poems people have seen, but they haven't
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: seen everything. It is, it really is putting yourself out there.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: And then I had to build an Instagram account, okay?
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: So I'm building this Instagram account with all these other poets, okay?
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: And I'm reading what they're writing and I'm like, oh
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: my gosh, this is their soul, you know? And there
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: are a lot more women poets than there are men,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: at least on Instagram. And I can't believe that they're
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: just ripping their heart open and just putting it out there.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, oh, that's me too. And I think
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: there's going to be, you know, there's probably going to
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: be some surprised people when they read the book and
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: all the poems. But I think the whole book as
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: a whole tells a story. It's not just random poems.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: You know, it starts with my earliest trauma in childhood memory,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: which was the JFK assassination and hearing my mother screaming hysterically.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: And then it ends with another tragedy of a woman
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: I loved once who, who passed of a rare form
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: of breast cancer. And then it has everything in between.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: So those kind of two emotional traumas kind of bookended
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: my life. And it happened, you know. And so, yeah,
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: it's scary, but I'm excited, you know, to start this
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: next chapter of my life. And part of it was
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: I was recently– I stayed with my dad in February.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: He's 103. Wow.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: And he does really well. I love listening to his
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: World War II stories, but I really got a sense
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: of the end is near, you know, people like, Oh,
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: you go, you'll find Steve. You're going to live a
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: long time. I'm like, I'm 68.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: If I live to 80, which a lot of people do. Okay.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: I'd say I'm in the final chapter. Okay. You know,
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: and you know, I have this line in the book,
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: you know, that, uh, you know, someday doesn't arrive on
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: its own and you got to choose it. And finally, I,
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: you know, I decided that's enough. I, you know, I
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: can't wait for tomorrow. There is, there might not be
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: any more tomorrows, you know, and people always say, well,
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: you can die tomorrow. Well, yeah, yeah, you could. But when, when,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: when you get to this age, it's like, you are
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: going to die and you've got a finite time and
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: your facilities are with you. Your health is with you.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: Do it so I also want the book to inspire
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: people that it's never too late to reach your dreams.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: And I never, uh, dreamed that, uh, um, this would
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: happen so late. And then, uh, besides your, your podcast, uh,
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: the first poem about, uh, JFK was, uh, uh, I'm
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: going to be interviewed by the, uh, uh, the six
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: floor museum at Dealey Plaza and the oral history of JFK.
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  Speaker 2: And I'm going to read the poem and they're going
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: to put it into their permanent record. And, uh, So
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: I honored my mom. And the way I look at it,
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: if I don't sell a copy of the book, I've
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: been successful. I honored my mom with this first poem
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: and the first memory. And I've also learned, my editor
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: taught me a different view of success that I didn't
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: have before. You know, she's an Uruguay. And she's like, well,
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: you people over there, you know, she goes, success to
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: you is things. Here, it's not. And I get it now.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: You know, it's like, you know, first poem and first book.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: I've reached success.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Your dream has come to fruition in a physical form.
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  Speaker 1: And while, you know, it'd be great to become a
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: millionaire off of it and travel the world and all
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: of that. You know, just to be able to say, look,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: you know, hold up a book and say, I wrote this,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: you know, and that's to me is priceless, you know,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: coming from somebody who's never written a book. You know,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: I've started to, I've tried here and there, but I've
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: never actually had the time to actually finish anything or
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: see it through or, you know, it's a process and
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: I have nothing but respect for the people that, are
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: actually able to accomplish their goals like that and finally
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: get something out. And again, it's not all about the
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: monetary accolades or, you know, the literary accolades. You know,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: once you have that thing in your hand and it's
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: printed and you say, hey, I wrote this, you know,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's got to feel great.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: It does. It does. I mean, the book looks great.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: You know, originally I was like, oh, I'll do an
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: AI cover. I'll save money. And then my editor goes
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: to me. She goes, no, no, no, no. She goes,
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: I know a guy. He's done bestsellers, and his business
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: has been decimated by AI, and he can do a
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: book cover for $ 350. I was like, what? $ 350?
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Are you kidding? She goes, yeah.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: No, I'm not kidding. And he was amazing. He did
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: an amazing job. So I got a professional book cover,
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: and then I said, you know what? I might as
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: well go all in, you know? Yeah. and give it
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: my best shot. I don't know if anybody's ever been
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: a millionaire or even half a million with a book
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: of poetry, but I'm very happy.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Maybe the next one. Maybe the next one.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: Maybe the next one.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. So let's go back in time and the
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: inspiration for all this, and that's, of course, the assassination
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: of John F. Kennedy. Take me back to that day
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: and how it affected your life and the emotions that
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: you were kind of feeling back then, even though you
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: were probably a small child back then. But, you know,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: you can still, you know, traumatic events, like you were saying,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: can often stay with you in your memory. You know,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: people remember where they were, you know, when Kennedy was shot,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: when Elvis died, when the Challenger blew up, when the
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: towers fell, you know, all these very impactful things in
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: one's life. tend to stay around for your entire life.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: So take me back to that day in your mind
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: and in your memories and tell me what was going
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: on with you back then.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: Would you like me to read the poem now?
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Sure, that'd be a great way to kick it off.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll read the poem now. Obviously the name is
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: November 22nd, 1963. You're not supposed to see your mother cry.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: Not when you're five. I heard her before I saw her,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: a scream that didn't belong in her house. I ran
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: down the stairs faster than chubby legs could run, looking
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: for something I could fix. She wasn't knitting anymore. The
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: needles were still. She sat frozen, staring at the television
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: as if someone inside it had just reached through and
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: broken her heart. I stood beside her, wanting to make
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: it better, wanting to make her better. I turned toward
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: the television. President Kennedy had been shot. And, uh, um,
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: that's the, uh, poem I put together. And, uh, and
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: the reason why I cry every year in the assassination. And, uh,
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: and part of what brought me back to that memory
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: actually is music. You know, I, my first band that
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: I loved was the Beatles. And, uh, I didn't realize
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: that music can connect your memories to the past. So
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: that was part of what helped me flush out the
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: memories of that day.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Because they came over a couple of months after the assassination.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: They came to America, you know, the big whirlwind tour
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: and all that. Yes. Yeah.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Shea Stadium. And I grew up in New York.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: They kind of helped America get out of that funk.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: You know, that everyone was feeling, you know, I don't
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: know the feeling from the, from the Kennedy assassination, but
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: I know the feeling like from nine 11, you know,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: when the entire nation is grieving, you know, type of thing.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: And I'm sure it was the same back then. And then,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: you know, to have these guys come over and just
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: change everything overnight, uh, you know, as far as what
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: music can be and how people can react to music and, and,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: enjoy life again and get back to some kind of
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: normal and move on, uh, is, you know, thank God
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: for that when they, they came when they did, you know?
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. You know, and what stood out for me that day,
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: the most, my mother was always downstairs knitting.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: She was a knitting machine. I mean, it was scary people.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: She could knit like in a blanket in a day.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: I mean, it was like her hands were like that.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: She used to type 200 words a minute when she
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: was working, you know.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: I always had a sweater. You were never cold as
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: a child.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: I always had a sweater. I always had a sweater.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: But the scream and the hysterical, you know, you're just
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: not supposed to hear your mom ever. It was the
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: only time I ever heard her crying and screaming like that.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: And it was, in the way it shaped my life,
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: which I didn't realize until now, you know, was I
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: ran down to try and comfort her and help her.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: And I guess I've had a propensity in my life
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: to try and help women and try and comfort them.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: Because I'm trying to, you know, comfort my mom that
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: I couldn't as much as I want that day. And
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: I kind of carried over in my life. You know,
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: it's funny. You go to therapy. They always joke, oh,
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: it always comes back to your mom. You know? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: You know? And I'm like, it came back to that
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: day and wanting to, you know, comfort her when I
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: was so little. And that's how it really, you know,
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: shaped my life for forever. And, you know, and he
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: was different. I mean, you know, since then, I don't recall,
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: you know, everybody, he was so loved, at least in
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: my world, everybody loved him. You know, it was, it
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: really was that, Camelot and all that it just brought
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: hope and everything to the nation that at least in
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: my lifetime no one's done before well.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: He was different you know he had you know he
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: was younger he had a family a beautiful wife he
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: had a sense of humor he was a patriot he
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: had served the country and he could talk right yeah
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: he could really really talk and connect with the people
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: and that I think that note, we had never seen
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: anything like that before, you know, before Kennedy and very,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: very rarely since. Um, but you know, I, I'm not sure.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, sure. It makes you grieve for them more
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: knowing that, you know, he had small children and a
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: wife and a family and an unlimited future ahead of them.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: You know, what could have been, uh, you know, possibly,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: you know, a dynasty if he'd had a second term
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: and then his brother and then his other brother.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, absolutely.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: It could have potentially changed, you know, world dynamics, you know,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: in the way life is now. That's why much like you,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: I love movies. I love, you know, like the, and books,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: you know, the Stephen King novel makes you think, you know, well,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: what could happen if you travel back in time and
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: change the past? would it be better, you know, if
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: Kennedy hadn't been killed that day, you know, what would
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: the world be like? And you come to find out
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: that it's worse than, you know, but just because of
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: random things that happened, but it's fascinating to think about.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: And I think you reconnecting with what you enjoyed to
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: do as a young man and what you had aspired
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: to do, but got sidetracked by life and family and
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: kids and everything else. I get it. You know, if
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: you are a good person and a good human and
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: a good man, you put the things that you really
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: want to do on the back burner for your family
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: and your children, because they're more important.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: And then there comes a time in your life where maybe,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: you know, you can finally be able to retire and
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: you have some time and, you know, you, The more
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: I get older, the more I stare the Grim Reaper
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: in the face every morning and think, okay, I'm not
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: halfway there anymore. I'm over halfway there type of thing.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: You realize your own mortality and how much time you
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: actually have left to make an impact and do things
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: that you want to do in this life. Um, it's
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: very commendable that you came back to doing something that
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: you loved and you're embracing it and, uh, you're being
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: able to share it with the world, Steven. I think
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: that's awesome.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. So, uh, uh, yeah, it's, it's,
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: it's humbling, you know, and it's funny, you should mention
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: the dynasty there because, uh, I think I mentioned this morning,
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: you know, 10 years after the assassination, the first movie
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: I ever saw on the JFK assassination was Executive Action. Oh, yeah.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Burt Lancaster. Yeah.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: Burt Lancaster and Robert Ryan, Will Greer, written by Dalton Trumbull.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: It was just, I believed it. You know, I mean,
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: I was 10 years old. I was like, this is
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: actually as it happened. I actually have a question for you.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: Because at the end of the movie this morning at
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: 5 a.m., 4.30, it was over. I don't know if
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: it was true or not. They said 18 material witnesses
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: died within three years of the assassination. And the London
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: odds maker said the odds of that happening are like,
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: you know, three trillion to one. Was that true in
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: that movie? Do you know that these material witnesses all died,
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: you know, within three years?
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: There is a fascinating story. theory that goes back, and
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Mark Lane actually and Donald Freed helped, well, they wrote
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: the book that the movie is based on, right? And
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: so you have a lot of Mark Lane thinkings in
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: the book. And there are a lot of suspicious deaths.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: It became a big thing in the 60s when people
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: like Penn Jones and Mark Lane were kind of pointing
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: out that, you know, it's kind of odd that all
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: of these you know, people that are associated, not necessarily eyewitnesses,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: you know, what have you, but, you know, people like, uh,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: David Ferry or, or, you know, uh, what was that
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: guy's name? William Wally, the cab driver, uh, the guy
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: who was sitting or Lee Bowers, the guy that was
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: in the tower, you know, all of these guys, you know,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: within a couple of years, Al Bogard, the guy that
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: worked at the Lincoln Mercury dealership, um, they, they kind
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: of met these mysterious ends. And of course, some things
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: are natural. Some things can be a coincidence, but when
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: you put them all together like that and, and you
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: play the odds, you know, it's like, wow, you know,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: it is suspicious, you know, but I don't, I don't
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: know if it's, if there's some kind of sinister thing
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: behind it. Um, there has been attributions to, uh, a
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: guy by the name of Roscoe white. I don't know
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: if you've heard of him or not, but he's, uh,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: He's been alleged to have been one of the assassins
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: and he claimed that he kept a book, a kill
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: list where he had to go back and clean up, uh,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: certain witnesses, uh, people with information. But again, when you
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: think about it, it doesn't really make sense because these
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: people have already talked. They've already, they've already talked to
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: one commission. They've already told authors and, and interviewers certain things, but,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: and then they mysteriously die. Um, but, sure. People can
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: have heart attacks. People can have car crashes, things happen. Um,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: but yeah, it, it is definitely something that was looked
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: at back then. And, uh, you know, a true statistic,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: you know?
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was, it was great. Yeah. I love the movie.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: I'm glad I rewatched it this morning just to see
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: some of the, you know, the great actors, uh, uh,
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: doing it. And, uh, I did cry. It was still painful.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: Anything about it is still pretty painful for me. But
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: it was good. It was good.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: It's like, oh, we're going to have him turn. We're
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: going to make sure the motorcade turns in order to
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: slow down the vehicle to give a better chance for
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: a shot because if it was going too fast, it
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: would be impossible to make the shot at 20 miles
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: per hour. But if you get them down to 12
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: miles an hour, we can get it. So the way
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: they wove these things into the story, you know, and,
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: you know, they were talking about the dynasty. If they
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: don't take care of JFK, he will have a dynasty.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: It'll be him, it'll be Bobby, and it'll be Ted.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: And so it's kind of all, it was great the
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: way they put the pieces together of that puzzle.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And we got a new movie coming this November
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: as well with John Travolta where he plays Johnny Rosselli.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: It's called November 1963. Oh, I can't wait. Yeah. The
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: trailer's out. Go check out the trailer on YouTube.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: Oh, I absolutely will. I absolutely will.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: I think it's a take on the mafia angle of things.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Being behind the assassination. But it looks good. I like
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Travolta as an actor and it's got a pretty stellar
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: cast as other folks in there as well. So We've
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: got something to look forward to in a couple months,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: another JFK movie.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and in any November release, since I know movies,
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: any studio that puts movies out in November are confident
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: in their box office and how good they are because
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: usually the junky ones they save for the end of
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: September or when people aren't watching them. And Travolta is
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: going to pick good movies. He's an actor that can
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: toss away a lot of junkie movies and pick the
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: right ones to watch.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, Stephen, we appreciate you coming into the JFK
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: book review show, the author's corner here with me today
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: and spending some time with us and sharing some of
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: your thoughts and your poetry with us. If you, if
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: you'd like to just share some of your social media
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: out there, your website, where, where folks can get the book.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: And again, I'll link it up in the description too. Yeah, yeah.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: So you can visit my website, Stephen with a V, Crane,
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: C-R-A-Y-N-E dot com, Stephen Crane dot com. And then my Instagram,
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: which is my main focus, is It's Stephen Crane. Those
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: are the best two places to follow me for now.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: And there's a story behind why there's a Y in
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: my last name. So one day I'll tell you that one.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: It's pretty funny. So Stephen Crane with a Y dot com.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: And it's Stephen Crane on my Instagram. Oh, and there's
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: a $ 5 coupon. Lone Gunman. Use the coupon code Lone
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: Gunman to get a discount on my website of the
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: signed copies for The Room Kept Locked.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: And they can plug that in when they're checking out.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: And the code is Lone Gunman.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: That should be easy to remember. Yes. If you're, yes,
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: it should be easy for your viewers to remember.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Yes. Well, some of them anyway. Steven, thanks so much
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: for coming by. Oh, it's been great, Rob.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Nothing but wishes of great success for you and your
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: endeavors in this book and future endeavors as well. And
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: if you're ready to, Hey, come on back and love
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: to talk to you again, Steven.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: And you'll write yours. Don't worry.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Someday.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: If there's one in there, you know, you'll get it.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: You know, don't worry.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: All right, buddy. Hang out with me for just one
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: second while we wrap this up, and I'll be right
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: back with you. Folks, thank you for tuning in. Again,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: this has been JFK Book Reviews, the Author's Corner segment.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: If you enjoyed this, you'll love the actual show we
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: do every Friday night live here on YouTube at 7 p.m.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: Eastern time. We'll see you then. Thanks for watching.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: Peace.