New JFK exhibit to open Friday at Alcatraz East

PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. (WVLT) – A new exhibit in Sevier County may have you rethinking the Kennedy assassination. The John F. Kennedy exhibit opens Friday at Alcatraz East Crime Museum.

Once you step inside the new exhibit room at Alcatraz you’ll relive the assassination of the 35th president. It comes with new information, as some secretive documents are not a secret anymore.

“They have actually released a large number of documents that are related to the assassination that have been confidential up into this point. So we actually know more about the JFK assassination and the JFK presidency than we ever did before,” said Ally Pennington with Alcatraz East Crime Museum.

Pennington said she’s spent the past year researching for the new exhibit and has become as interested in the theories more than ever.

In the exhibit you’ll see the conspiracies of who was behind the killing of Kennedy, his work in as the president and how even those close to him could have wanted him dead.

“So in this exhibit, we not only look at some of those conspiracies, why they persisted 60 years later, and also the legacy that the 35th president left even before he was taken off the earth way before his time,” said Pennington.

This new exhibit not only looks at the Kennedy presidency and assassination, but also his rumored affair with Marilyn Monroe.

“She sang him Happy Birthday in a very sultry dress and voice and he actually said afterwards basically, ‘I can die a happy man or leave office a happy president, having been sung happy birthday by Marilyn Monroe,’” said Pennington.

You’ll see her dress and you’ll hear from Jackie Kennedy, his wife.

“Timewise that it still persists 60 years later, obviously, but we’re still talking about it. And I think that the sheer number of conspiracies definitely keeps interest in this topic for sure,” Pennington said.

The new exhibit will be open until May of 2025.

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