text: In "The Killing of A President", Robert Groden argues that the "black dog man" figure can be seen in a pyracantha bush in frame 413 of the Zapruder film. The United States House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that a head of an individual could be seen but that this individual was situated in front of, rather than behind the bushes. Bill Miller argues that this individual is actually the eyewitness Emmett Hudson.


title: John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories

text: Conspiracy theorists consider four or five groups, alone or in combination, to be the primary suspects in the assassination of Kennedy: the CIA, the military-industrial complex, organized crime, the government of Cuba led by Fidel Castro, and Cuban exiles. Other domestic individuals, groups, or organizations implicated in various conspiracy theories include Lyndon Johnson, George H. W. Bush, Sam Giancana, Carlos Marcello, J. Edgar Hoover, Earl Warren, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Secret Service, the John Birch Society, and far-right wealthy Texans. Some other alleged foreign conspirators include the KGB and Nikita Khrushchev, Aristotle Onassis, the government of South Vietnam, and international drug lords, including a French heroin syndicate.


text: New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison is credited with developing the theory that a plot to assassinate Kennedy originated in his jurisdiction with a group of New Orleans residents. Garrison's 1988 book "On the Trail of the Assassins" discusses his prosecution of Clay Shaw for the assassination, and was partially adapted by Oliver Stone for his 1991 film "JFK". The final report of the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) stated that the film "popularized a version of President Kennedy's assassination that featured U.S. government agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the military as conspirators." Journalist Rosemary James, whose article with Jack Dempsey and David Snyder in the "New Orleans States-Item" broke the news of the Garrison investigation, stated that because Garrison's theory evolved frequently, it was mockingly called the "theory du jour" by the media. Pamela Colloff and Michael Hall summarized the theory held by Garrison and Stone for "Texas Monthly": "There is a secret government within our government, a cabal that in 1963 ordered the murder of a popular president, set up a patsy, installed its own puppet, and orchestrated an elaborate cover-up that included tampering with the corpse, destroying and suppressing evidence, and killing witnesses. Heading the cabal were some of the world’s most powerful men: rich and corrupt industrialists, generals, and right-wing politicians. Down below was an eclectic group of mobsters, spooks, lowlifes, and anti-Castro extremists, many of whom were headquartered at 544 Camp Street in New Orleans, including Oswald, former FBI agent Guy Banister, soldier of fortune David Ferrie, and suspected CIA informant Clay Shaw. Together, in the summer of 1963, they plotted Kennedy’s demise."


text: Soon after the assassination of President Kennedy, Oswald's activities in New Orleans, Louisiana, during the spring and summer of 1963, came under scrutiny. Three days after the assassination, on November 25, 1963, New Orleans attorney Dean Andrews told the FBI that he received a telephone call from a man named Clay Bertrand, on the day of the assassination, asking him to defend Oswald. Andrews would later repeat this claim in testimony to the Warren Commission.


text: Also, in late November 1963, an employee of New Orleans private investigator Guy Banister named Jack Martin began making accusations that fellow Banister employee David Ferrie was involved in the JFK assassination. Martin told police that Ferrie "was supposed to have been the getaway pilot in the assassination." He said that Ferrie had outlined plans to kill Kennedy and that Ferrie might have taught Oswald how to use a rifle with a telescopic sight. Martin claimed that Ferrie had known Oswald from their days in the New Orleans Civil Air Patrol, and that he had seen a photograph, at Ferrie's home, of Oswald in a Civil Air Patrol group. Ferrie denied any association with Oswald.


text: It was later discovered that Ferrie had attended Civil Air Patrol meetings in New Orleans in the 1950s that were also attended by a teenage Lee Harvey Oswald. In 1993, the PBS television program "Frontline" obtained a photograph taken in 1955 (eight years before the assassination) showing Oswald and Ferrie at a Civil Air Patrol cookout with other C.A.P. cadets. Whether Oswald's and Ferrie's association in the Civil Air Patrol in 1955 is relevant to their later possible association in 1963 is a subject of debate.


text: According to several witnesses, in 1963, both Ferrie and Banister were working for lawyer G. Wray Gill on behalf of Gill's client, New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello, in an attempt to block Marcello's deportation to Guatemala. On the afternoon of November 22, 1963the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated and the day Marcello was acquitted in his deportation caseNew Orleans private investigator Guy Banister and his employee, Jack Martin, were drinking together at a local bar. On their return to Banister's office, the two men got into a heated argument. According to Martin, Banister said something to which Martin replied, "What are you going to dokill me like you all did Kennedy?". Banister drew his .357 magnum revolver and pistol-whipped Martin several times. Martin, badly injured, went by ambulance to Charity Hospital.


text: Earlier, in the spring of 1963, Oswald had written to the New York City headquarters of the pro-Castro Fair Play for Cuba Committee, proposing to rent "a small office at my own expense for the purpose of forming a FPCC branch here in New Orleans". As the sole member of the New Orleans chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, Oswald ordered 1,000 leaflets with the heading, "Hands Off Cuba" from a local printer. On August 16, 1963, Oswald passed out Fair Play for Cuba leaflets in front of the International Trade Mart in New Orleans.


text: One of Oswald's leaflets had the address "544 Camp Street" hand-stamped on it, apparently by Oswald himself. The address was in the "Newman Building", which from October 1961 to February 1962 housed the Cuban Revolutionary Council, a militant anti-Castro group. Around the corner but located in the same building, with a different entrance, was the address 531 Lafayette Streetthe address of "Guy Banister Associates", the private detective agency run by Guy Banister. Banister's office was involved in anti-Castro and private investigative activities in the New Orleans area. A CIA file indicated that in September 1960, the CIA had considered "using Guy Banister Associates for the collection of foreign intelligence, but ultimately decided against it".


text: In the late 1970s, the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) investigated the possible relationship of Oswald to Banister's office. While the committee was unable to interview Guy Banister (who died in 1964), the committee did interview his brother Ross Banister. Ross "told the committee that his brother had mentioned seeing Oswald hand out Fair Play for Cuba literature on one occasion. Ross theorized that Oswald had used the 544 Camp Street address on his literature to embarrass Guy."


text: Guy Banister's secretary, Delphine Roberts, would later tell author Anthony Summers that she saw Oswald at Banister's office, and that he filled out one of Banister's "agent" application forms. She said, "Oswald came back a number of times. He seemed to be on familiar terms with Banister and with the office." The House Select Committee on Assassinations investigated Roberts's claims and said that "because of contradictions in Roberts' statements to the committee and lack of independent corroboration of many of her statements, the reliability of her statements could not be determined."


text: In 1966, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison began an investigation into the assassination of President Kennedy. Garrison's investigation led him to conclude that a group of right-wing extremists, including David Ferrie and Guy Banister, were involved with elements of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in a conspiracy to kill Kennedy. Garrison would later claim that the motive for the assassination was anger over Kennedy's attempts to obtain a peace settlement in both Cuba and Vietnam. Garrison also came to believe that New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw was part of the conspiracy and that Clay Shaw used the pseudonym "Clay Bertrand". Garrison further believed that Shaw, Banister, and Ferrie conspired to set up Oswald as a patsy in the JFK assassination. On March 1, 1967, Garrison arrested and charged Shaw with conspiring to assassinate President Kennedy. On January 29, 1969, Clay Shaw was brought to trial on these charges, and the jury found him not guilty.


text: Addressing speculation that Oswald was a CIA agent or had some relationship with the Agency, the Warren Commission stated in 1964 that their investigation "revealed no evidence that Oswald was ever employed [by the] CIA in any capacity." The House Select Committee on Assassinations reported similarly in 1979 that "there was no indication in Oswald's CIA file that he had ever had contact with the Agency" and concluded that the CIA was not involved in the assassination of Kennedy.


text: Gaeton Fonzi, an investigator for the House Select Committee on Assassinations, wrote that investigators were pressured not to look into the relationship between Lee Harvey Oswald and the CIA. He stated that CIA agent David Atlee Phillips, using the pseudonym "Maurice Bishop", was involved with Oswald prior to the Kennedy assassination in connection with anti-Castro Cuban groups.


text: In 1995, former U.S. Army Intelligence officer and National Security Agency executive assistant John M. Newman published evidence that both the CIA and FBI deliberately tampered with their files on Lee Harvey Oswald both before and after the assassination. Furthermore, he found that both agencies withheld information that might have alerted authorities in Dallas that Oswald posed a potential threat to the President. Subsequently, Newman expressed the belief that CIA chief of counter-intelligence James Angleton was probably the key figure in the assassination. According to Newman, only Angleton "had the access, the authority, and the diabolically ingenious mind to manage this sophisticated plot." However, Newman surmised that the cover operation was not under James Angleton, but under Allen Dulles (the former CIA director, and later Warren Commission member, who had been dismissed by Kennedy after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion).


text: In 1977, the FBI released 40,000 files pertaining to the assassination of Kennedy, including an April 3, 1967, memorandum from Deputy Director Cartha DeLoach to Associate Director Clyde Tolson that was written less than a month after President Johnson learned from J. Edgar Hoover about CIA plots to kill Fidel Castro. The memorandum reads: "Marvin Watson [adviser to President Johnson] called me late last night and stated that the president had told him, in an off moment, that he was now convinced that there was a plot in connection with the [JFK] assassination. Watson stated the president felt that [the] CIA had had something to do with plot." Later, Cartha DeLoach testified to the Church Committee that he "felt this to be sheer speculation".


text: One conspiracy theory suggests that a secret or shadow government including wealthy industrialists and right-wing politicians ordered the assassination of Kennedy. Peter Dale Scott has indicated that Kennedy's death allowed for policy reversals desired by the secret government to escalate the United States' military involvement in Vietnam.


text: In "JFK vs Allen Dulles", Greg Poulgrain describes an attempt by America's Rockefeller family to gain control over West Irian gold mines in Indonesia. Poulgrain speculates that President Kennedy's close relationship with Indonesian President Sukarno and a planned 1964 US–Indonesian summit could have led to Indonesia granting independence to West Irian, making it difficult for Rockefeller-owned Freeport Sulphur to gain control of the mines. Poulgrain contends that Allen Dulles, who had ties to the Rockefellers through his employment at Sullivan & Cromwell, organized the assassination on the Rockefellers' behalf to eliminate Kennedy's interference by easing Lee Harvey Oswald's return to the United States and getting him a job at the Texas School Book Depository, before securing the mines by instigating a coup in Indonesia to discredit the Communist Party of Indonesia.


text: In the biographical book, "The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government", David Talbot examines Dulles' career. Talbot also posits that Allen Dulles orchestrated the assassination of President Kennedy at the behest of corporate leaders, though on the basis of their perceiving Kennedy as a threat to national security instead of to primarily secure any specific business interests. According to Talbot, Dulles lobbied the new president, Lyndon Johnson, to have himself appointed to the Warren Commission. Talbot says that Allen Dulles also arranged to have Lee Harvey Oswald take sole responsibility for the assassination. The book asserts that the conspirators behind John Kennedy's death also murdered his brother Robert Kennedy who the conspirators perceived to be "a wild card, an uncontrollable threat" that would reveal the plot.


text: In the farewell speech given by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower before he left office on January 17, 1961, warned the nation about the power of the military establishment and the arms industry. "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist." Some conspiracy theorists have argued that Kennedy planned to end the involvement of the United States in Vietnam, and was therefore targeted by those who had an interest in sustained military conflict, including the Pentagon and defense contractors.


text: Former Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough in 1991 stated: "Had Kennedy lived, I think we would have had no Vietnam War, with all of its traumatic and divisive influences in America. I think we would have escaped that."


text: According to author James W. Douglass, Kennedy was assassinated because he was turning away from the Cold War and seeking a negotiated peace with the Soviet Union. Douglass argued that this "was not the kind of leadership the CIA, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the military-industrial complex wanted in the White House."


text: Oliver Stone's film, "JFK", explored the possibility that Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy involving the military-industrial complex. L. Fletcher Prouty, Chief of Special Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Kennedy, and the person who inspired the character "Mr. X" in Stone's film, wrote that Kennedy's assassination was actually a coup d'état.


text: The House Select Committee on Assassinations reported that it investigated "alleged Secret Service complicity in the assassination" and concluded that the Secret Service was not involved. However, the HSCA declared that "the Secret Service was deficient in the performance of its duties." Among its findings, the HSCA noted: (1) that President Kennedy had not received adequate protection in Dallas, (2) that the Secret Service possessed information that was not properly analyzed, investigated, or used by the Secret Service in connection with the President's trip to Dallas, and (3) that the Secret Service agents in the motorcade were inadequately prepared to protect the President from a sniper. The HSCA specifically noted:


text: No actions were taken by the agent in the right front seat of the presidential limousine Roy Kellerman to cover the President with his body, although it would have been consistent with Secret Service procedure for him to have done so. The primary function of the agent was to remain at all times in close proximity to the President in the event of such emergencies.


text: Some argue that the lack of Secret Service protection occurred because Kennedy himself had asked that the Secret Service make itself discreet during the Dallas visit. However, Vince Palamara, who interviewed several Secret Service agents assigned to the Kennedy detail, disputes this. Palamara reports that Secret Service driver Sam Kinney told him that requestssuch as removing the bubble top from the limousine in Dallas, not having agents positioned beside the limousine's rear bumper, and reducing the number of Dallas police motorcycle outriders near the limousine's rear bumperwere not made by Kennedy.


text: In "The Echo from Dealey Plaza", Abraham Boldenthe first African American on the White House Secret Service detailclaimed to have overheard agents say that they would not protect Kennedy from would-be assassins.


text: Questions regarding the forthrightness of the Secret Service increased in the 1990s when the Assassination Records Review Boardwhich was created when Congress passed the JFK Records Actrequested access to Secret Service records. The Review Board was told by the Secret Service that in January 1995, in violation of the JFK Records Act, the Secret Service destroyed protective survey reports that covered JFK's trips from September 24 through November 8, 1963.


text: The House Select Committee on Assassinations wrote: "The committee believes, on the basis of the evidence available to it, that anti-Castro Cuban groups, as groups, were not involved in the assassination of President Kennedy, but that the available evidence does not preclude the possibility that individual members may have been involved".


text: With the 1959 Cuban Revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, many Cubans left Cuba to live in the United States. Many of these exiles hoped to overthrow Castro and return to Cuba. Their hopes were dashed with the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961, and many blamed President Kennedy for the failure.


text: The House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that some militant Cuban exiles might have participated in Kennedy's murder. These exiles worked closely with CIA operatives in violent activities against Castro's Cuba. In 1979, the committee reported:


text: President Kennedy's popularity among the Cuban exiles had plunged deeply by 1963. Their bitterness is illustrated in a tape recording of a meeting of anti-Castro Cubans and right-wing Americans in the Dallas suburb of Farmer's Branch on October 1, 1963.


text: Author Joan Didion explored the Miami anti-Castro Cuban theory in her 1987 book "Miami". She discussed Marita Lorenz's testimony regarding Guillermo Novo, a Cuban exile who, in 1964, was involved in shooting a bazooka at the headquarters of the United Nations building from the East River during a speech by Che Guevara. Allegedly, Novo was affiliated with Lee Harvey Oswald, and Frank Sturgis. Lorenz claimed that she, Oswald, and seven anti-Castro Cubans transported weapons from Miami to Dallas in two cars just prior to the assassination. These claims, though put forth to the House Assassinations Committee by Lorenz, have never been substantiated. Don DeLillo dramatized the Cuban theory in his 1988 novel "Libra".


text: In 1964, the Warren Commission found no evidence linking Ruby's killing of Oswald with any broader conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy. The Commission concluded: "Based on its evaluation of the record, the Commission believes that the evidence does not establish a significant link between Ruby and organized crime. Both State and Federal officials have indicated that Ruby was not affiliated with organized criminal activity."


text: However, in 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations wrote: "The committee believes, on the basis of the evidence available to it, that the national syndicate of organized crime, as a group, was not involved in the assassination of President Kennedy, but that the available evidence does not preclude the possibility that individual members may have been involved". Robert Blakey, who was chief counsel for the House Select Committee on Assassinations, would later conclude in his book, "The Plot to Kill the President", that New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello was likely part of a Mafia conspiracy behind the assassination, and that the Mafia had the means and the opportunity required to carry it out.


text: In a 1993 "Washington Post" article, Blakey added: "It is difficult to dispute the underworld pedigree of Jack Ruby, though the Warren Commission did it in 1964. Author Gerald Posner similarly ignores Ruby's ties to Joseph Civello, the organized crime boss in Dallas. His relationship with Joseph Campisi, the No. 2 man in the mob in Dallas, is even more difficult to ignore. In fact, Campisi and Ruby were close friends; they had dinner together at Campisi's restaurant, the Egyptian Lounge, on the night before the assassination. After Ruby was jailed for killing Oswald, Campisi regularly visited him. The select committee thought Campisi's connection to Marcello was telling; he told us, for example, that every year at Christmas he sent 260 pounds of Italian sausage to Marcello, a sort of Mafia tribute. We also learned that he called New Orleans up to 20 times a day."


text: Government documents have revealed that some members of the Mafia worked with the Central Intelligence Agency on assassination attempts against Cuban leader Fidel Castro. In summer 1960, the CIA recruited ex-FBI agent Robert Maheu to approach the West Coast representative of the Chicago mob, Johnny Roselli. When Maheu contacted Roselli, Maheu hid the fact that he was sent by the CIA, instead portraying himself as an advocate for international corporations. He offered to pay $150,000 to have Castro killed, but Roselli declined any pay. Roselli introduced Maheu to two men he referred to as "Sam Gold" and "Joe". "Sam Gold" was Sam Giancana; "Joe" was Santo Trafficante, Jr., the Tampa, Florida, boss and one of the most powerful mobsters in pre-revolution Cuba. Glenn Kessler of "The Washington Post" explained: "After Fidel Castro led a revolution that toppled a friendly government in 1959, the CIA was desperate to eliminate him. So the agency sought out a partner equally worried about Castrothe Mafia, which had lucrative investments in Cuban casinos."


text: In his memoir, "Bound by Honor", Bill Bonanno, son of New York Mafia boss Joseph Bonanno, disclosed that several Mafia families had long-standing ties with the anti-Castro Cubans through the Havana casinos operated by the Mafia before the Cuban Revolution. Many Cuban exiles and Mafia bosses disliked President Kennedy, blaming him for the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion. They also disliked his brother, then United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who had conducted an unprecedented legal assault on organized crime. This was especially provocative because several Mafia "families" had allegedly worked with JFK's father, Joseph Kennedy, to get JFK elected. Both the Mafia and the anti-Castro Cubans were experts in assassinationthe Cubans having been trained by the CIA. Bonanno reported that he recognized the high degree of involvement of other Mafia families when Jack Ruby killed Oswald, since Bonanno was aware that Ruby was an associate of Chicago mobster Sam Giancana.


text: Some conspiracy researchers have alleged a plot involving elements of the Mafia, the CIA, and the anti-Castro Cubans, including Anthony Summers, who stated: "Sometimes people sort of glaze over about the notion that the Mafia and U.S. intelligence and the anti-Castro activists were involved together in the assassination of President Kennedy. In fact, there's no contradiction there. Those three groups were all in bed together at the time and had been for several years in the fight to topple Fidel Castro." News reporter Ruben Castaneda wrote in 2012: "Based on the evidence, it is likely that JFK was killed by a coalition of anti-Castro Cubans, the Mob, and elements of the CIA." In his book, "They Killed Our President", former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura concluded: "John F. Kennedy was murdered by a conspiracy involving disgruntled CIA agents, anti-Castro Cubans, and members of the Mafia, all of whom were extremely angry at what they viewed as Kennedy's appeasement policies toward Communist Cuba and the Soviet Union."


text: Carlos Marcello allegedly threatened to assassinate the President to short-circuit his younger brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who was leading the administration's anti-Mafia crusade. Information released in 2006 by the FBI has led some to conclude that Carlos Marcello confessed to his cellmate in Texas, Jack Van Lanningham, an FBI informant, using a transistor radio that was bugged by the FBI, to having organized Kennedy's assassination, and that the FBI covered up this information that it had in its possession.


text: In his book, "Contract on America", David Scheim provided evidence that Mafia leaders Carlos Marcello, Santo Trafficante, Jr., and Jimmy Hoffa ordered the assassination of President Kennedy. Scheim cited in particular a 25-fold increase in the number of out-of-state telephone calls from Jack Ruby to associates of these crime bosses in the months before the assassination, and to an attempted confession by Jack Ruby while in prison. David E. Kaiser has also suggested mob involvement in his book, "The Road to Dallas".


text: Investigative reporter Jack Anderson concluded that Fidel Castro worked with organized crime figures to arrange the JFK assassination. In his book "Peace, War, and Politics", Anderson claimed that Mafia member Johnny Roselli gave him extensive details of the plot. Anderson said that although he was never able to independently confirm Roselli's entire story, many of Roselli's details checked out. Anderson said that Oswald may have played a role in the assassination, but that more than one gunman was involved. Johnny Roselli, as previously noted, had worked with the CIA on assassination attempts against Castro.


text: The History Channel program "The Men Who Killed Kennedy" presented additional claims of organized crime involvement. Christian David was a Corsican Mafia member interviewed in prison. He said that he was offered the assassination contract on President Kennedy, but that he did not accept it. However, he said that he knew the men who did accept the contract. According to David, there were three shooters. He provided the name of oneLucien Sarti. David said that since the other two shooters were still alive, it would break a code of conduct for him to identify them. When asked what the shooters were wearing, David noted their "modus operandi" was to dress in costumes such as official uniforms. Much of Christian David's testimony was confirmed by former Corsican member Michelle Nicole, who was part of the DEA witness protection program.


text: The book "Ultimate Sacrifice", by Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann, attempted to synthesize these theories with new evidence. The authors argued that government officials felt obliged to help the assassins cover up the truth because the assassination conspiracy had direct ties to American government plots to assassinate Castro. Outraged at Robert Kennedy's attack on organized crime, mob leaders had President Kennedy killed to remove Robert from power. A government investigation of the plot was thwarted, the authors allege, because it would have revealed embarrassing evidence of American government involvement with organized crime in plots to kill Castro.


text: A 2003 Gallup poll indicated that nearly 20% of Americans suspected Lyndon B. Johnson of being involved in the assassination of Kennedy. Critics of the Warren Commission have accused Johnson of plotting the assassination because he "disliked" the Kennedys and feared that he would be dropped from the Democratic ticket for the 1964 election.


text: According to journalist Max Holland, the first published allegation that Johnson perpetrated the assassination of Kennedy appeared in Penn Jones, Jr.'s book "Forgive My Grief", self-published in May 1966. In the book, Jones provided excerpts of a letter purported to have been authored by Jack Ruby charging LBJ with the murder of the President. With his 1968 book, "The Dark Side of Lyndon Baines Johnson", Joachim Joesten is credited by Bugliosi as being the first conspiracy author to accuse Johnson of having a role in the assassination. According to Joesten, Johnson "played the leading part" in a conspiracy that involved "the Dallas oligarchy and ... local branches of the CIA, the FBI, and the Secret Service". Others who have indicated there was complicity on the part of Johnson include Jim Marrs, Ralph D. Thomas, J. Gary Shaw, Larry Harris, Walt Brown, Noel Twyman, Barr McClellan, Craig Zirbel, Phillip F. Nelson, and Madeleine Brown.


text: The fact that JFK was seriously considering dropping Johnson from the ticket in favor of North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford should Kennedy run in 1964 has been cited as a possible motive for Johnson's complicity in the assassination. In 1968, Kennedy's personal secretary Evelyn Lincoln wrote in her book, ""Kennedy and Johnson"" that President Kennedy had told her that Lyndon B. Johnson would be replaced as Vice President of the United States. That conversation took place on November 19, 1963, just three days before the assassination of President Kennedy and was recorded that evening in her diary and reads as follows:


text: In 2003, researcher Barr McClellan published the book "Blood, Money & Power". McClellan claims that Johnson, motivated by the fear of being dropped from the Kennedy ticket in 1964 and the need to cover up various scandals, masterminded Kennedy's assassination with the help of his friend, Austin attorney Edward A. Clark. The book suggests that a smudged partial fingerprint from the sniper's nest likely belonged to Johnson's associate Malcolm "Mac" Wallace, and that Mac Wallace was, therefore, on the sixth floor of the Depository at the time of the shooting. The book further claims that the killing of Kennedy was paid for by oil magnates, including Clint Murchison and H. L. Hunt. McClellan states that the assassination of Kennedy allowed the oil depletion allowance to be kept at 27.5 percent. It remained unchanged during the Johnson presidency. According to McClellan, this resulted in a saving of over $100 million to the American oil industry. McClellan's book subsequently became the subject of an episode of Nigel Turner's ongoing documentary television series, "The Men Who Killed Kennedy". The episode, "The Guilty Men", drew angry condemnation from the Johnson family, Johnson's former aides, and former Presidents Gerald Ford (who was a member of the Warren Commission) and Jimmy Carter following its airing on The History Channel. The History Channel assembled a committee of historians who concluded the accusations in the documentary were without merit, and The History Channel apologized to the Johnson family and agreed not to air the series in the future.


text: Madeleine Brown, who alleged she was the mistress of Johnson, also implicated him in a conspiracy to kill Kennedy. In 1997, Brown said that Johnson, along with H. L. Hunt, had begun planning Kennedy's demise as early as 1960. Brown claimed that by its fruition in 1963, the conspiracy involved dozens of persons, including the leadership of the FBI and the Mafia, as well as prominent politicians and journalists. In the documentary "The Men Who Killed Kennedy", Madeleine Brown and May Newman (an employee of Texas oilman Clint Murchison) both placed FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover at a social gathering at Murchison's mansion the night before the assassination. Also in attendance, according to Brown, were John McCloy, Richard Nixon, George Brown, R. L. Thornton, and H. L. Hunt. Madeleine Brown claimed that Johnson arrived at the gathering late in the evening and, in a "grating whisper", told her that the "... Kennedys will never embarrass me againthat's no threatthat's a promise." In addition, Brown said that on New Year's Eve 1963, she met Johnson at the Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas, and that he confirmed the conspiracy to kill Kennedy, insisting that "the fat cats of Texas and [U.S.] intelligence" had been responsible. Brown reiterated her allegations against Johnson in the 2006 documentary "Evidence of Revision". In the same documentary, several other Johnson associates also voiced their suspicions of Johnson.


text: Dr. Charles Crenshaw authored the 1992 book "JFK: Conspiracy of Silence", along with conspiracy theorists Jens Hansen and J. Gary Shaw. Crenshaw was a third-year surgical resident on the trauma team at Parkland Hospital that attended to President Kennedy. He also treated Oswald after he was shot by Jack Ruby. While attending to Oswald, Crenshaw said that he answered a telephone call from Lyndon Johnson. Crenshaw said that Johnson inquired about Oswald's status, and that Johnson demanded a "death-bed confession from the accused assassin [Oswald]". Crenshaw said that he relayed Johnson's message to Dr. Shires, but that Oswald was in no condition to give any statement. Critics of Crenshaw's allegation state that Johnson was in his limousine at the moment the call would have been made, that no one in his car corroborated that the call was made, and that there is no record of such a call being routed through the White House switchboard.


text: Former CIA agent and Watergate figure E. Howard Hunt accused Johnson (along with several CIA agents whom he named) of complicity in the assassination in his posthumously released autobiography "". Referencing that section of the book, Tim Weiner of "The New York Times" called into question the sincerity of the charges, and William F. Buckley, Jr., who wrote the foreword, said material "was clearly ghostwritten". Shortly afterwards, an audio-taped "deathbed confession" in which Hunt claimed first-hand knowledge of a conspiracy, as a co-conspirator, was released by his sons; the authenticity of the confession was also met with some skepticism.


text: In 1984, convicted swindler Billie Sol Estes made statements to a Grand Jury in Texas indicating that he had "inside knowledge" that implicated Johnson in the death of Kennedy and others.


text: Historian Michael L. Kurtz wrote that there is no evidence suggesting that Johnson ordered the assassination of Kennedy. According to Kurtz, Johnson believed Fidel Castro was responsible for the assassination and that Johnson covered up the truth because he feared the possibility that retaliatory measures against Cuba might escalate to nuclear war with the Soviet Union. In 2012, biographer Robert Caro published his fourth volume on Johnson's career, "The Passage of Power", which chronicles Johnson's communications and actions as Vice President, and describes the events leading up to the assassination. Caro wrote that "nothing that I have found in my research" points to involvement by Johnson.


text: Political consultant and convicted felon Roger Stone believes that Johnson orchestrated Kennedy's assassination. He also claims that Rafael Cruz, father of Texas Senator and Republican presidential candidate for the 2016 elections Ted Cruz, is tied to Lee Harvey Oswald.


text: Some critics of the official findings theorize that George H. W. Bush was involved in the assassination as a CIA operative in Dealey Plaza. In the book "Plausible Denial: Was the CIA Involved in the Assassination of JFK?", American attorney Mark Lane suggests that Bush worked out of a Houston office as a CIA agent at the time of the assassination. In the book "Family of Secrets", Russ Baker contends that Bush became an intelligence agent in his teenage years and was later at the center of a plot to assassinate Kennedy that included his father, Prescott Bush, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, CIA Director Allen Dulles, Cuban and Russian exiles and emigrants, and various Texas oilmen. According to Baker, Bush was in Dallas on the night before and morning of the assassination.


text: On November 29, 1963, exactly one week after the assassination, an employee of the FBI wrote in a memo that "Mr. George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency" was given a briefing on the reaction to the assassination by Cuban exiles living in Miami. Joseph McBride speculated that the "George Bush" cited in the memo was the future U.S. president, George H. W. Bush, who was appointed head of the CIA by president Gerald Ford in 1976, 13 years after the assassination. During Bush's presidential campaign in 1988, the memo resurfaced, prompting the CIA to claim that the memo was referring to an employee named George William Bush. However, George William Bush disputed this suggestion, declaring under oath that "I am not the George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency referred to in the memorandum." In 1998, the ARRB instructed the CIA to review its personnel files of former President Bush and to provide a definitive statement as to whether he was the person referred to in the memo. The CIA responded that it had no record of any association with former President Bush during the 1963 time period. On the website JFK Facts, author Jefferson Morley writes that any communication by Bush with the FBI or CIA in November 1963 does not necessarily demonstrate culpability in the assassination, and that it is unclear whether Bush had any affiliation with the CIA prior to his appointment to head the agency in 1976.


text: In its report, the Warren Commission stated that it had investigated "dozens of allegations of a conspiratorial contact between Oswald and agents of the Cuban Government" and had found no evidence of Cuban involvement in the assassination of President Kennedy. The House Select Committee on Assassinations also wrote: "The committee believes, on the basis of the evidence available to it, that the Cuban Government was not involved in the assassination of President Kennedy". However, some conspiracy theorists continue to allege that Fidel Castro ordered the assassination of Kennedy in retaliation for the CIA's previous attempts to assassinate him.


text: In the early 1960s, Clare Boothe Luce, wife of Time-Life publisher Henry Luce, was one of a number of prominent Americans who sponsored anti-Castro groups. This support included funding exiles in commando speedboat raids against Cuba. In 1975, Clare Luce said that on the night of the assassination, she received a call from a member of a commando group she had sponsored. According to Luce, the caller's name was "something like" Julio Fernandez and he claimed he was calling her from New Orleans.


text: According to Luce, Fernandez told her that Oswald had approached his group with an offer to help assassinate Castro. Fernandez further claimed that he and his associates eventually found out that Oswald was a communist and supporter of Castro. He said that with this new-found knowledge, his group kept a close watch on Oswald until Oswald suddenly came into money and went to Mexico City and then Dallas. Finally, according to Luce, Fernandez told her, "There is a Cuban Communist assassination team at large and Oswald was their hired gun."


text: Luce said that she told the caller to give his information to the FBI. Subsequently, Luce would reveal the details of the incident to both the Church Committee and the HSCA. Both committees investigated the incident, but were unable to uncover any evidence to corroborate the allegations.


text: In May 1967, CIA Director Richard Helms told President Lyndon Johnson that the CIA had tried to assassinate Castro. Helms further stated that the CIA had employed members of the Mafia in this effort, and "... that CIA plots to assassinate Fidel Castro dated back to August of 1960to the Eisenhower Administration." Helms also said that the plots against Castro continued into the Kennedy Administration and that Attorney General Robert Kennedy had known about both the plots and the Mafia's involvement.


text: On separate occasions, Johnson told two prominent television newsmen that he believed that JFK's assassination had been organized by Castro as retaliation for the CIA's efforts to kill Castro. In October 1968, Johnson told veteran newsman Howard K. Smith of ABC that "Kennedy was trying to get to Castro, but Castro got to him first." In September 1969, in an interview with Walter Cronkite of CBS, Johnson said in regard to the assassination, "[I could not] honestly say that I've ever been completely relieved of the fact that there might have been international connections", and referenced unnamed "others". Finally, in 1971, Johnson told his former speechwriter Leo Janos of "Time" magazine that he "never believed that Oswald acted alone".


text: In 1977, Castro was interviewed by newsman Bill Moyers. Castro denied any involvement in Kennedy's death, saying:


text: It would have been absolute insanity by Cuba. ... It would have been a provocation. Needless to say, it would have been to run the risk that our country would have been destroyed by the United States. Nobody who's not insane could have thought about [killing Kennedy in retaliation].


text: There were people in the American government who thought Kennedy was a traitor because he didn't invade Cuba when he had the chance, when they were asking him. He was never forgiven for that.


text: The Warren Commission reported that they found no evidence that the Soviet Union was involved in the assassination of President Kennedy. The House Select Committee on Assassinations also wrote: "The committee believes, on the basis of the evidence available to it, that the Soviet Government was not involved in the assassination of President Kennedy".


text: According to some conspiracy theorists, the Soviet Union, under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev, was responsible for the assassination, motivated by the humiliation of having to back down during the Cuban Missile Crisis.


text: According to a 1966 FBI document, Colonel Boris Ivanovchief of the KGB Residency in New York City at the time of the assassinationstated that it was his personal opinion that the assassination had been planned by an organized group, rather than a lone individual. The same document stated, "... officials of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union believed there was some well-organized conspiracy on the part of the 'ultraright' in the United States to effect a 'coup.'"


text: Much later, the high-ranking Soviet Bloc intelligence defector, Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, said that he had a conversation with Nicolae Ceauşescu who told him about "ten international leaders the Kremlin killed or tried to kill", including Kennedy. He claimed that "among the leaders of Moscow's satellite intelligence services there was unanimous agreement that the KGB had been involved in the assassination of President Kennedy." Pacepa later released a book, "Programmed to Kill: Lee Harvey Oswald, the Soviet KGB, and the Kennedy Assassination", in 2007. Similar views on the JFK assassination were expressed by Robert Holmes, former First Secretary at the British Embassy in Moscow, in his 2012 book "Spy Like No Other".


text: David Lifton presented a scenario in which conspirators on Air Force One removed Kennedy's body from its original bronze casket and placed it in a shipping casket, while en route from Dallas to Washington. Once the presidential plane arrived at Andrews Air Force Base, the shipping casket with the President's body in it was surreptitiously taken by helicopter from the side of the plane that was out of the television camera's view. Kennedy's body was then taken to an unknown locationmost likely Walter Reed Army Medical Centerto surgically alter the body to make it appear that he was shot only from the rear.


text: Part of Lifton's theory comes from a House Select Committee on Assassinations report of an interview of Lt. Richard Lipsey on January 18, 1978, by committee staff members Donald Purdy and Mark Flanagan. According to the report, Lt. Richard Lipsey said that he and General Wehle had met President Kennedy's body at Andrews Air Force Base. Lipsey "... placed [the casket] in a hearse to be transported to Bethesda Naval Hospital. Lipsey mentioned that he and Wehle then flew by helicopter to Bethesda and took [the body of] JFK into the back of Bethesda." Lipsey said that "a decoy hearse had been driven to the front [of Bethesda]". With Lipsey's mention of a "decoy hearse" at Bethesda, Lifton theorized that the casket removed by Lipsey from Air Force Onefrom the side of the plane exposed to televisionwas probably also a decoy and was likely empty.


text: Laboratory technologist Paul O'Connor was one of the major witnesses supporting another part of David Lifton's theory that somewhere between Parkland and Bethesda the President's body was made to appear as if it had been shot only from the rear. O'Connor said that President Kennedy's body arrived at Bethesda inside a body bag in "a cheap, shipping-type of casket", which differed from the description of the ornamental bronze casket and sheet that the body had been wrapped in at Parkland Hospital. O'Connor said that the brain had already been removed by the time it got to Bethesda, and that there were "just little pieces" of brain matter left inside the skull.


text: Researcher David R. Wrone dismissed the theory that Kennedy's body was surreptitiously removed from the presidential plane, stating that as is done with all cargo on airplanes for safety precautions, the coffin and lid were held by steel wrapping cables to prevent shifting during takeoff and landing and in case of air disturbances in flight. According to Wrone, the side of the plane away from the television camera "was bathed in klieg lights, and thousands of persons watched along the fence that bent backward along that side, providing, in effect, a well-lit and very public stage for any would-be body snatchers".


text: Jim Marrs, in his book "Crossfire", presented the theory that Kennedy was trying to rein in the power of the Federal Reserve, and that forces opposed to such action might have played at least some part in the assassination. According to Marrs, the issuance of Executive Order 11110 was an effort by Kennedy to transfer power from the Federal Reserve to the United States Department of the Treasury by replacing Federal Reserve Notes with silver certificates. Actor and author Richard Belzer named the responsible parties in this theory as American "billionaires, power brokers, and bankers ... working in tandem with the CIA and other sympathetic agents of the government".


text: A 2010 article in "Research" magazine discussing various controversies surrounding the Federal Reserve stated that "the wildest accusation against the Fed is that it was involved in Kennedy's assassination." Critics of the theory note that Kennedy called for and signed legislation phasing out Silver Certificates in favor of Federal Reserve Notes, thereby enhancing the power of the Federal Reserve; and that Executive Order 11110 was a technicality that only delegated existing presidential powers to the Secretary of the Treasury for administrative convenience during a period of transition.


text: Immediately following Kennedy's death, speculation that he was assassinated by a "Zionist conspiracy" was prevalent in much of the Muslim world. Among these views were that Zionists were motivated to kill Kennedy due to his opposition to an Israeli nuclear program, that Lyndon B. Johnson received orders from Zionists to have Kennedy killed, and that the assassin was a Zionist agent.


text: According to Michael Collins Piper in "Final Judgment: The Missing Link in the JFK Assassination Controversy", Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion orchestrated the assassination after learning that Kennedy planned to keep Israel from obtaining nuclear weapons. Piper said that the assassination "was a joint enterprise conducted on the highest levels of the American CIA, in collaboration with organized crimeand most specifically, with direct and profound involvement by the Israeli intelligence service, the Mossad." The theory also alleges involvement of Meyer Lansky and the Anti-Defamation League. In 2004, Mordechai Vanunu stated that the assassination was Israel's response to "pressure [Kennedy] exerted on ... Ben-Gurion, to shed light on Dimona's nuclear reactor in Israel". In a speech before the United Nations General Assembly in 2009, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi also alleged that Kennedy was killed for wanting to investigate Dimona.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.


title: Brighton

text: Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods. The ancient settlement of "Brighthelmstone" was documented in the "Domesday Book" (1086). The town's importance grew in the Middle Ages as the Old Town developed, but it languished in the early modern period, affected by foreign attacks, storms, a suffering economy and a declining population. Brighton began to attract more visitors following improved road transport to London and becoming a boarding point for boats travelling to France. The town also developed in popularity as a health resort for sea bathing as a purported cure for illnesses.


title: Brighton

text: In the Georgian era, Brighton developed as a highly fashionable seaside resort, encouraged by the patronage of the Prince Regent, later King George IV, who spent much time in the town and constructed the Royal Pavilion in the Regency era. Brighton continued to grow as a major centre of tourism following the arrival of the railways in 1841, becoming a popular destination for day-trippers from London. Many of the major attractions were built in the Victorian era, including the Grand Hotel, the Hilton Brighton Metropole, the Palace Pier and the West Pier. The town continued to grow into the 20th century, expanding to incorporate more areas into the town's boundaries before joining Hove to form the unitary authority of Brighton and Hove in 1997, which was granted city status in 2000. Today, Brighton and Hove district has a resident population of about and the wider Brighton and Hove conurbation has a population of 474,485 (2011 census).


title: Brighton

text: Brighton's location has made it a popular destination for tourists, renowned for its diverse communities, quirky shopping areas, large and vibrant cultural, music and arts scene, and its large LGBT population, leading to its recognition as the "unofficial gay capital of the UK". Brighton has been called the UK's "hippest city" and "the happiest place to live in the UK".


title: Brighton

text: The earliest attestation of Brighton's name is "Bristelmestune", recorded in the "Domesday Book". Although more than 40 variations have been documented, "Brighthelmstone" (or "Brighthelmston") was the standard rendering between the 14th and 18th centuries.


title: Brighton

text: "Brighton" was originally an informal shortened form, first seen in 1660; it gradually supplanted the longer name and was in general use from the late 18th century, although "Brighthelmstone" remained the town's official name until 1810. The name is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Most scholars believe that it derives from "Beorthelm" + "tūn"—the homestead of Beorthelm, a common Old English name associated with villages elsewhere in England. The "tūn" element is common in Sussex, especially on the coast, although it occurs infrequently in combination with a personal name. An alternative etymology taken from the Old English words for "stony valley" is sometimes given but has less acceptance. "Brighthelm" gives its name to, among other things, a church, a pub in Brighton, some halls of residence at the University of Sussex. Writing in 1950, historian Antony Dale noted that unnamed antiquaries had suggested an Old English word "brist" or "briz", meaning "divided", could have contributed the first part of the historic name Brighthelmstone. The town was originally split in half by the Wellesbourne, a winterbourne which was culverted and buried in the 18th century.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton has several nicknames. Poet Horace Smith called it "The Queen of Watering Places", which is still widely used, and "Old Ocean's Bauble". Novelist William Makepeace Thackeray referred to "Doctor Brighton", calling the town "one of the best of Physicians". "London-by-the-Sea" is well-known, reflecting Brighton's popularity with Londoners as a day-trip resort, a commuter dormitory and a desirable destination for those wanting to move out of the metropolis. "The Queen of Slaughtering Places", a pun on Smith's description, became popular when the Brighton trunk murders came to the public's attention in the 1930s. The mid-19th-century nickname "School Town" referred to the remarkable number of boarding, charity and church schools in the town at the time.


title: Brighton

text: The first settlement in the Brighton area was Whitehawk Camp, a Neolithic encampment on Whitehawk Hill which has been dated to between 3500 BC and 2700 BC. It is one of six causewayed enclosures in Sussex. Archaeologists have only partially explored it, but have found numerous burial mounds, tools and bones, suggesting it was a place of some importance. There was also a Bronze Age settlement at Coldean. Brythonic Celts arrived in Britain in the 7th century BC, and an important Brythonic settlement existed at Hollingbury Castle on Hollingbury Hill. This Celtic Iron Age encampment dates from the 3rd or 2nd century BC and is circumscribed by substantial earthwork outer walls with a diameter of . Cissbury Ring, roughly from Hollingbury, is suggested to have been the tribal "capital".


title: Brighton

text: Later, there was a Roman villa at Preston Village, a Roman road from London ran nearby, and much physical evidence of Roman occupation has been discovered locally. From the 1st century AD, the Romans built a number of villas in Brighton and Romano-British Brythonic Celts formed farming settlements in the area. After the Romans left in the early 4th century AD, the Brighton area returned to the control of the native Celts. Anglo-Saxons then invaded in the late 5th century AD, and the region became part of the Kingdom of Sussex, founded in 477 AD by king Ælle.


title: Brighton

text: Anthony Seldon identified five phases of development in pre-20th century Brighton. The village of "Bristelmestune" was founded by these Anglo-Saxon invaders, probably in the early Saxon period. They were attracted by the easy access for boats, sheltered areas of raised land for building and better conditions compared to the damp, cold and misty Weald to the north. By the time of the Domesday survey in 1086 it was a fishing and agricultural settlement, a rent of 4,000 herring was established, and its population was about 400. By the 14th century there was a parish church, a market and rudimentary law enforcement (the first town constable was elected in 1285). Sacked and burnt by French invaders in the early 16th century—the earliest depiction of Brighton, a painting of 1520, shows Admiral Pregent de Bidoux's attack of June 1514—the town recovered strongly based on a thriving mackerel-fishing industry. The grid of streets in the Old Town (the present Lanes area) were well developed and the town grew quickly: the population rose from 1,500 in 1600 to 4,000 in the 1640s. By that time Brighton was Sussex's most populous and important town.


title: Brighton

text: Over the next few decades, though, events severely affected its local and national standing, such that by 1730 "it was a forlorn town decidedly down on its luck". More foreign attacks, storms (especially the devastating Great Storm of 1703), a declining fishing industry, and the emergence of nearby Shoreham as a significant port caused its economy to suffer. By 1708 other parishes in Sussex were charged rates to alleviate poverty in Brighton, and Daniel Defoe wrote that the expected £8,000 cost of providing sea defences was "more than the whole town was worth". The population declined to 2,000 in the early 18th century.


title: Brighton

text: From the 1730s, Brighton entered its second phase of development—one which brought a rapid improvement in its fortunes. The contemporary fad for drinking and bathing in seawater as a purported cure for illnesses was enthusiastically encouraged by Dr Richard Russell from nearby Lewes. He sent many patients to "take the cure" in the sea at Brighton, published a popular treatise on the subject, and moved to the town soon afterwards (the Royal Albion, one of Brighton's early hotels, occupies the site of his house). Others were already visiting the town for recreational purposes before Russell became famous, and his actions coincided with other developments which made Brighton more attractive to visitors. From the 1760s it was a boarding point for boats travelling to France; road transport to London was improved when the main road via Crawley was turnpiked in 1770; and spas and indoor baths were opened by other entrepreneurial physicians such as Sake Dean Mahomed and Anthony Relhan (who also wrote the town's first guidebook).


title: Brighton

text: From 1780, the development of the Georgian terraces had started, and the fishing village developed as the fashionable resort of Brighton. The growth of the town was further encouraged by the patronage of the Prince Regent (later King George IV) after his first visit in 1783. He spent much of his leisure time in the town and constructed the Royal Pavilion during the early part of his Regency. In this period the modern form of the name Brighton came into common use. A permanent military presence was established in the city with the completion of Preston Barracks in 1793. It was rebuilt in 1830.


title: Brighton

text: The population increased rapidly throughout the 19th century from 7,339 in 1801 to 46,661 in 1841, and by 1901 the population had reached more than 120,000. The arrival of the London and Brighton Railway in 1841 brought Brighton within the reach of day-trippers from London. Many of the major attractions were built during the Victorian era, such as the Grand Hotel (1864), the West Pier (1866), and the Palace Pier (1899). Prior to either of these structures, the famous Chain Pier was built, to the designs of Captain Samuel Brown. It lasted from 1823 to 1896 and is featured in paintings by both Turner and Constable.


title: Brighton

text: Because of boundary changes, the land area of Brighton expanded from 1,640 acres (7 km) in 1854 to 14,347 acres (58 km) in 1952. New housing estates were established in the acquired areas, including Moulsecoomb, Bevendean, Coldean and Whitehawk. The major expansion of 1928 also incorporated the villages of Patcham, Ovingdean and Rottingdean, and much council housing was built in parts of Woodingdean after the Second World War. By the 1970s, the town had acquired a reputation as a retirement destination, with an elderly population. However, this was reversed in the 1990s, as gentrification saw Brighton regain the fashionable status it held in the 18th and 19th centuries.


title: Brighton

text: In 1997, the town of Brighton and its neighbouring town Hove were joined to form the unitary authority of Brighton and Hove, which was granted city status by Queen Elizabeth II as part of the millennium celebrations in 2000.


title: Brighton

text: , the Brighton and Hove district, of which Brighton is the largest area, has an estimated resident population of residents. It is ranked the most populous district in England. Compared to the national average, Brighton has fewer children and old residents but a large proportion of adults aged 20–44.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton has long had an LGBT-friendly history. In a 2014 estimate, 11–15 per cent of the city's population aged 16 or over is thought to be lesbian, gay or bisexual. The city also had the highest percentage of same-sex households in the UK in 2004 and the largest number of civil partnership registrations outside London in 2013.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton is identified as one of the least religious places in the UK, based upon analysis of the 2011 census which revealed that 42 per cent of the population profess no religion, far higher than the national average of 25 per cent. Brighton has been described as the UK's most "Godless" city. The largest religion is Christianity, with 43 per cent reporting an affiliation. The second-largest religion is Islam, with 2.2 per cent, which is lower than the national average.


title: Brighton

text: As part of the Jedi census phenomenon in 2001, 2.6 per cent claimed their religion was 'Jedi Knight', the largest percentage in the country.


title: Brighton

text: In December 2021, new data released by Shelter, revealed that "one in 78 people in Brighton and Hove are homeless". The report also records the city as having the third highest rate of homelessness in England, with London claiming the top spot followed by Luton.


title: Brighton

text: In a previous charity report issued in November 2016, three areas in Brighton & Hove, East Brighton, Queen's Park, and Moulsecoomb & Bevendean ranked in the top ten per cent nationally for deprivation.


title: Brighton

text: Although deprivation in Brighton is distributed across the city, it is more concentrated in some areas. The highest concentration is in the Whitehawk, Moulsecoomb, and Hollingbury areas but is also found around the St. James's Street and Eastern Road areas. A 2015 government statistic showed that the area around Brighton's Palace Pier roundabout and to the east towards St James's Street in Kemptown is the seventh-worst living environment in England. On 19 January 2017, Brighton council announced they were looking at certain initiatives to try to alleviate some of the increasing homelessness seen on Brighton's streets and were hoping to open the first in-house temporary housing for homeless people in the city.


title: Brighton

text: Homelessness figures released by Crisis in December 2018 reported a record high in the UK, with figures in Sussex, including Brighton and Hove, reported as being "high".


title: Brighton

text: At a meeting of the full B&H Council on 25 March 2021, Brighton and Hove became the first UK City to adopt the Homeless Bill of Rights.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton lies between the South Downs and the English Channel to the north and south, respectively. The Sussex coast forms a wide, shallow bay between the headlands of Selsey Bill and Beachy Head; Brighton developed near the centre of this bay around a seasonal river, the Wellesbourne (or Whalesbone), which flowed from the South Downs above Patcham. This emptied into the English Channel at the beach near the East Cliff, forming "the natural drainage point for Brighton".


title: Brighton

text: Behind the estuary was a stagnant pond called the Pool or Poole, so named since the medieval era. This was built over with houses and shops from 1793, when the Wellesbourne was culverted to prevent flooding, and only the name of the road (Pool Valley, originally Pool Lane) marks its site. One original house survives from the time of the pool's enclosure. Behind Pool Valley is Old Steine (historically "The Steyne"), originally a flat and marshy area where fishermen dried their nets. The Wellesbourne occasionally reappears during times of prolonged heavy rain; author Mark Antony Lower referred to an early 19th-century drawing of the Royal Pavilion showing "quite a pool of water across the Steyne".


title: Brighton

text: Despite 16th-century writer Andrew Boorde's claim that "Bryght-Hempston [is] among the noble ports and havens of the realm", Brighton never developed as a significant port: rather, it was considered as part of Shoreham. Nevertheless, the descriptions "Port of Brighthelmston" or "Port of Brighton" were sometimes used between the 14th and 19th centuries, as for example in 1766 when its notional limits were defined for customs purposes.


title: Brighton

text: The East Cliff runs for several miles from Pool Valley towards Rottingdean and Saltdean, reaching above sea level. The soil beneath it, a mixture of alluvium and clay with some flint and chalk rubble, has experienced erosion for many years. The cliff itself, like the rest of Brighton's soil, is chalk. Below this are thin layers of Upper and Lower Greensand separated by a thicker band of Gault clay. The land slopes upwards gradually from south to north towards the top of the Downs.


title: Brighton

text: Main transport links developed along the floor of the Wellesbourne valley, from which the land climbs steeply—particularly on the east side. The earliest settlement was by the beach at the bottom of the valley, which was partly protected from erosion by an underwater shale-bar. Changes in sea level affected the foreshore several times: disappeared in the first half of the 14th century, and the Great Storm of 1703 caused widespread destruction. The first sea defences were erected in 1723, and a century later a long sea wall was built.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton has a temperate climate: its is "Cfb". It is characterised by cool summers and cool winters with frequent cloudy and rainy periods. Average rainfall levels increase as the land rises: the 1958–1990 mean was on the seafront and about at the top of the South Downs above Brighton. Storms caused serious damage in 1703, 1806, 1824, 1836, 1848, 1850, 1896, 1910 and 1987. Heavy snow is rare, but particularly severe falls were recorded in 1881 and 1967.


title: Brighton

text: At the time of the Domesday survey in 1086, Brighton was in the Rape of Lewes and the Hundred of Welesmere. The new Hundred of Whalesbone, which covered the parishes of Brighton, West Blatchington, Preston and Hove, was formed in 1296. Parishes moved in and out several times, and by 1801 only Brighton and West Blatchington were included in the Hundred.


title: Brighton

text: In its original form, Brighton parish covered about between the English Channel, Hove, Preston, Ovingdean and Rottingdean. The borough (but not the civil parish) was first extended from 31 October 1873, when was annexed from Preston civil parish. In 1894 the part outside the borough became Preston Rural civil parish and Preston civil parish continued in the borough. On 1 April 1889 Brighton became a county borough.


title: Brighton

text: On 1 October 1923, were added to Brighton borough and to Preston civil parish from Patcham parish: Brighton Corporation was developing the Moulsecoomb estate there at the time. On 1 April 1928, Brighton civil parish was extended to include Preston civil parish. On the same date the borough grew by nearly five times by adding Ovingdean and Rottingdean parishes in their entirety and parts of Falmer, Patcham and West Blatchington; it also exchanged small parts with Hove municipal borough. All the areas added to the borough became part of Brighton civil parish. From 1 April 1952, more of Falmer and part of the adjacent Stanmer parish were added; 20 years later, land and marine territory associated with the new Brighton Marina development also became part of Brighton. Except for a small addition of rural land in 1993 (from Pyecombe parish), Brighton Borough's boundaries remained the same until it was joined to Hove Borough in 1997 to form the unitary authority of Brighton and Hove.


title: Brighton

text: The old boundary between Brighton and Hove is most clearly seen on the seafront, where the King Edward Peace Statue (1912) straddles the border, and in a twitten called Boundary Passage which runs northwards from Western Road to Montpelier Road. There is a Grade II-listed parish boundary marker stone in this passageway. Between Western Road and the seafront, the boundary runs up Little Western Street (pavement on eastern side, in Brighton), but it is not visible. Northwards from Western Road, it runs to the west of Norfolk Road, Norfolk Terrace, Windlesham Road and Windlesham Gardens in the Montpelier area, then along the south side of Davigdor Road to Seven Dials. From there it runs along the west side of Dyke Road as far as Withdean Road in Withdean, at which point it crosses Dyke Road so that the section north of that is part of Hove parish. The boundary continues to follow Dyke Road towards Devil's Dyke on the South Downs.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton is covered by two constituencies in the Parliament of the United Kingdom: Brighton Kemptown and Brighton Pavilion. Both are marginal constituencies which were held by Labour from 1997 to 2010. In the 2017 general election, Brighton Kemptown elected the Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, replacing a Conservative MP; he was re-elected in the 2019 general election. In the 2010 general election Brighton Pavilion elected Caroline Lucas, the first and only Green Party MP; she was re-elected in 2015, 2017 and again at the 2019 general election.


title: Brighton

text: There are 21 wards in the city of Brighton and Hove, of which 12 are in Brighton. Regency, St Peter's & North Laine, Preston Park, Withdean, Patcham, Hollingdean & Stanmer and Hanover & Elm Grove are part of the Brighton Pavilion constituency; Moulsecoomb & Bevendean, Queen's Park, East Brighton, Woodingdean and Rottingdean Coastal are covered by the Brighton Kemptown constituency.


title: Brighton

text: The newly created Borough of Brighton consisted of six wards in 1854: St Nicholas, St Peter, Pier, Park, Pavilion and West. When the territory was extended to include part of Preston parish in 1873, the new area became a seventh ward named Preston. The seven were split into 14 in 1894: Hanover, Kemp Town (renamed King's Cliff in 1908), Lewes Road, Montpelier, Pavilion, Pier, Preston, Preston Park, Queen's Park, Regency, St John, St Nicholas, St Peter, and West. Preston ward was extended in 1923 to incorporate the area taken into the borough from Patcham parish in 1923 for the construction of the Moulsecoomb estate, and in 1928 the ward was divided into four: Hollingbury, Moulsecoomb, Preston and Preston Park. Elm Grove and Patcham wards were created at the same time, bringing the total to 19. There were further changes in 1952, 1955 and 1983, at which time there were 16 wards. This situation continued until 1 April 1997, when Hove and its wards became part of the new unitary authority of Brighton and Hove.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton Town Hall occupies a large site in the Lanes. Medieval Brighthelmston had a town hall, although it was called the Townhouse and functioned more like a market hall. A later building (1727) known as the Town Hall was principally used as a workhouse. Work on the first purpose-built town hall began in 1830; Thomas Read Kemp laid the first stone, and Thomas Cooper designed it on behalf of the Brighton Town Commissioners (of which he was a member). Brighton Corporation spent £40,000 to extend it in 1897–99 to the Classical design of Brighton Borough Surveyor Francis May. Despite this, the building was too small for municipal requirements by the mid-20th century, and extra council buildings were built in locations throughout Brighton Borough Council's existence: the most recent, Bartholomew House and Priory House next to the town hall, were finished in 1987. The town hall ceased to be responsible solely for Brighton's affairs when Brighton and Hove were united in 1997, but it is still used by Brighton & Hove City Council—particularly for weddings and civil ceremonies.


title: Brighton

text: The presence of a British subsidiary of the United States arms company EDO Corporation on the Home Farm Industrial Estate in Moulsecoomb has been the cause of protests since 2004. The premises were significantly damaged in January 2009 when protesters broke in.


title: Brighton

text: In 1985, the Borough Council described three "myths" about Brighton's economy. Common beliefs were that most of the working population commuted to London every day; that tourism provided most of Brighton's jobs and income; or that the borough's residents were "composed entirely of wealthy theatricals and retired business people" rather than workers. Brighton has been an important centre for commerce and employment since the 18th century. It is home to several major companies, some of which employ thousands of people locally; as a retail centre it is of regional importance; creative, digital and new media businesses are increasingly significant; and, although Brighton was never a major industrial centre, its railway works contributed to Britain's rail industry in the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly in the manufacture of steam locomotives.


title: Brighton

text: Since the amalgamation of Brighton and Hove, economic and retail data has been produced at a citywide level only. Examples of statistics include: Brighton and Hove's tourism industry contributes £380m to the economy and employs 20,000 people directly or indirectly; the city has 9,600 registered companies; and a 2001 report identified it as one of five "supercities for the future". In the past couple of years tourists to Brighton and Hove have fallen in numbers. Over 2016, day visitors to Brighton and Hove dropped by an average of 2,400 per day. In August 2017, new figures for the year showed Brighton's tourism had fallen by a further 1 per cent on the previous year.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton's largest private sector employer is American Express, whose European headquarters are at John Street. As of 2012, about 3,000 people work there. Planning permission to demolish the old Amex offices and build a replacement was granted in 2009, and work started in March 2010. Other major employers include Lloyds Bank, Legal & General, Asda (which has hypermarkets at Hollingbury and Brighton Marina), Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company and call-centre operator Inkfish. In 2012, it was reported that about 1,500 of Gatwick Airport's 21,000 workers lived in the city of Brighton and Hove.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton is a popular destination for conferences, exhibitions and trade fairs, and has had a purpose-built conference centre—the Brighton Centre—since 1977. Direct income from the Brighton Centre's 160 events per year is £8 million, and a further £50 million is generated indirectly by visitors spending money during their stay. Events range from political party conferences to concerts.


title: Brighton

text: The Hollingbury Industrial Estate is one of the largest such facilities in Brighton; in its early days about 6,000 people were employed, principally in industrial jobs, but in the late 20th and early 21st centuries its focus has switched to commercial and retail development, limiting Brighton's potential for industrial growth. Brighton Corporation laid out the estate on of land around Crowhurst Road in 1950. By 1956, large-scale employment was provided at a bakery, a typewriter factory and a machine tools manufacturer among others. Most of the large factories closed during the recessions of the 1980s and 1990s, employment fell to 1,000, and structural changes started in the mid-1980s with a move towards small-scale industrial units (the Enterprise Estate was finished in October 1985) and then retail warehouses. Asda's superstore opened in November 1987, MFI followed two years later, and other retail units were built in the 1990s. Two large headquarters buildings were vacated in quick succession when British Bookshops left in March 2011 and "The Argus" newspaper moved out of its headquarters in 2012—although the Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company signed a contract to move its 1,250 employees into the latter building.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton has a high density of businesses involved in the media sector, particularly digital or "new media", and since the 1990s has been referred to as "Silicon Beach". By 2007, over 250 new media business had been founded in Brighton. Brandwatch is a social media monitoring company based in offices near Brighton station. Computer game design company Black Rock Studio was founded in 1998 and was taken over by Disney Interactive Studios, who closed it down in 2011. The Gamer Network, whose portfolio of websites relating to computer gaming (including Eurogamer) and creative industries was founded in 1999, is based in Brighton.


title: Brighton

text: By the early 21st century, the market for office accommodation in the city was characterised by fluctuating demand and a lack of supply of high-quality buildings. As an example, the Trafalgar Place development ( 1990), "now considered a prime office location", stood partly empty for a decade. Exion 27 (built in 2001), a high-tech, energy-efficient office development at Hollingbury, remained empty for several years and is still not in commercial use: it houses some administrative departments of the University of Brighton. It was Brighton's first ultramodern commercial property and was intended for mixed commercial and industrial use, but its completion coincided with a slump in demand for high-tech premises.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton is well known for the great shopping, with a high number of independent shops, which add to the character of the city.


title: Brighton

text: Walking from Brighton station towards the seafront, first, is the North Laine area, stretching from Trafalgar Street, Kensington Gardens, Sydney Street, Gardner Street and Bond Street and is mostly pedestrianised. The North Laine area is a retail, leisure and the residential area immediately north of the Lanes. Its name derives from the Anglo-Saxon "Laine" meaning "fields", although the misnomer "North Lanes" is often used to describe the area. The North Laine contains a mix of businesses dominated by cafés, bars, theatres, and over 400 shops independent and avant-garde shops including an erotic shop and indoor flea markets.


title: Brighton

text: The Lanes which is characterised by a labyrinth of narrow alleyways form a retail, leisure and residential area near the seafront, following the street pattern of the original fishing village. The Lanes contain predominantly clothing stores, jewellers, antique shops, restaurants and pubs.


title: Brighton

text: Churchill Square is a shopping centre with a floor space of and over 80 shops, several restaurants and 1,600 car-parking spaces. It was built in the 1960s as an open-air, multi-level pedestrianised shopping centre, but was rebuilt and enlarged in 1998 and is no longer open-air. Further retail areas include Western Road and London Road, the latter of which is undergoing extensive regeneration in the form of new housing and commercial properties.


title: Brighton

text: There are two weekly flea market / bootfairs in Brighton on Sunday mornings, one at Brighton Marina on the top open-air level of the carpark, and another at Brighton Racecourse.


title: Brighton

text: The Royal Pavilion, a Grade I listed building, is a former royal palace built as a home for the Prince Regent during the early 19th century, under the direction of the architect John Nash. It is notable for its Indo-Saracenic architecture and Oriental interior. Other Indo-Saracenic buildings in Brighton include the Sassoon Mausoleum, now, with the bodies reburied elsewhere, in use as a chic supper club.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton Marine Palace and Pier (long known as the Palace Pier) opened in 1899, it was meant to be a replacement for the Royal Suspension Chain Pier, but became a pleasure pier instead. It features a funfair, restaurants and arcade halls. The West Pier was built in 1866 and is one of only two Grade I listed piers in the United Kingdom; it has been closed since 1975. For some time it was under consideration for restoration, but two fires in 2003, and other setbacks, led to these plans being abandoned. Nevertheless, publicity material presented in question-and-answer form during the building of the British Airways i360 observation tower (see below) maintained that the building of the tower would not prove prejudicial to the eventual restoration of the pier. The first of Brighton's 3 piers was the Royal Suspension Chain Pier, which was destroyed in a storm in 1896. All that remains of the pier are small lumps of wood and stone, which are only visible at low tide. It was primarily intended as a landing stage for packet boats to Dieppe, France, but it also featured a small number of attractions including a camera obscura.


title: Brighton

text: The i360, an observation tower located at the shore end of the West Pier, opened on 4 August 2016. At high, and with an observation pod rising to , it is Britain's highest observation tower outside London – taller even than the London Eye. With a diameter of , it is also the thinnest tower in the world, with a height-to-width ratio of 41.15 to one.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton Clock Tower, built in 1888 for Queen Victoria's jubilee, stands at the intersection of Brighton's busiest thoroughfares.


title: Brighton

text: Volk's Electric Railway runs along the inland edge of the beach from Palace Pier to Black Rock and Brighton Marina. It was created in 1883 and is the world's oldest operating electric railway.


title: Brighton

text: The Grand Hotel was built in 1864. The Brighton hotel bombing occurred there. Its nighttime blue lighting is particularly prominent along the foreshore.


title: Brighton

text: St Nicholas Church may be the oldest building in Brighton (the Domesday Book records the presence of an Anglo-Saxon church, valued at £12) and is commonly known as "The Mother Church". Other notable Anglican churches include the very tall (the highest church interior in Britain) brick-built St Bartholomew's (1874) designed by the architect Edmund Scott; St Peter's (1828); and St Martin's (1875), noted for its ornate interior. Brighton's Quakers run the Friends Meeting House in the Lanes. There is an active Unitarian community based in a Grade II listed building in New Road. Brighton has six listed Roman Catholic churches; St John the Baptist's Church (1835) in Kemptown is the earliest surviving Roman Catholic church in the city.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton and Hove has five synagogues: New Church Road Synagogue; Holland Road Synagogue; Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue; Brighton and Hove Reform Synagogue; and Middle Street Synagogue. The Middle Street Synagogue is a Grade II listed building built in 1874–75; it is being gradually restored by English Heritage. There are also several mosques and Buddhist centres.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton has a expanse of shingle beach, part of the unbroken section within the city limits. Neighbouring Hove is known for its hundreds of painted timber beach huts, but brick-walled chalets are also available on Brighton seafront, especially towards Rottingdean and Saltdean. Especially east of the Palace Pier, a flat sandy foreshore is exposed at low tide. The Palace Pier section of the beach has been awarded blue flag status. Part of the beach adjoining Madeira Drive, to the east of the city centre, has been redeveloped into a sports complex and opened to the public in March 2007, with courts for pursuits such as beach volleyball and ultimate Frisbee among others.


title: Brighton

text: The city council owns all the beaches, which are divided into named sections by groynes—the first of which were completed in 1724. Eastwards from the Hove boundary, the names are Boundary, Norfolk, Bedford, Metropole, Grand (referring to the four hotels with those names), Centre, King's, Old Ship, Volk's, Albion, Palace Pier, Aquarium, Athina (where the MS "Athina B" ran aground), Paston, Banjo, Duke's, Cliff, Crescent and Black Rock. Cliff Beach is a nudist beach. Beyond Black Rock, the cliffs (part of the Brighton to Newhaven Cliffs Site of Special Scientific Interest) rise to more than and there are three small beaches at Ovingdean Gap, Rottingdean Gap and Saltdean Gap. All are connected by the Undercliff Walk, which has been affected by several cliff falls since 2000.


title: Brighton

text: Since the demolition in 1978 of the Black Rock open-air lido at the eastern end of Brighton's seafront, the area has been developed and now features one of Europe's largest marinas. However, the site of the pool itself remains empty except for a skate park and graffiti wall. Since 2003 a series of developments have been proposed but have come to nothing, including housing, a five-star hotel with a winter garden, and an 11,000-seat sports arena.


title: Brighton

text: The seafront is also home to many restaurants, sports facilities, amusement arcades, nightclubs and bars.


title: Brighton

text: The Liz Williams Butterfly haven () is a purpose-built area that has been created to attract and provide a habitat for butterflies. It is situated between Dorothy Stringer and Varndean College, north of Stringer Way. It was the brainchild of Dr Dan Danahar with funding from the BBC, in conjunction with the National Lottery, through the Breathing Places scheme. This site was created between 2006 and 2007, and by September 2008 the late Liz Williams, botanist, had recorded 97 wildflower species and 10 species of grass. This was an order of magnitude increase in the floral diversity of the site within one year. As a tribute to her work, the site will be renamed the Liz Williams Butterfly Haven during 2011. Since its creation to 2021 an amazing twenty seven species of butterfly have been recorded here including Adonis blue, chalkhill blue, green hairstreak, dingy and chequered skipper.


title: Brighton

text: Woodvale () is actually five linked cemeteries that cover the western side of Race Hill. The cemeteries are east of Lewes Road and either side of Bear Road. Their cultural significance and importance to wildlife to the city were described evocatively by the Sussex field naturalist, David Bangs (p. 303)."They are a profoundly peaceful place of little woods and glades, sunny banks and shady paths. They have become, in the last 150 years, reservoirs for much of the wildlife of the surrounding countryside. Some of the big beech trees down in Woodvale are as old as the cemeteries. The marbles, limestones, and granites of the memorials are a detective story for geologists. Yaffles call across the trees. The rare greater horseshoe bat has hibernated in the funerary buildings. Badgers pit the mossy turf in their search for earthworms, and violet and celandine cheer the turf in early spring"


title: Brighton

text: Brighton is characterised by small dining establishments and independent coffeehouses. Brighton has about 250 restaurants.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton receives news and television programmes from BBC South East and ITV Meridian from the Whitehawk Hill transmitting station.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton featured in a number of popular movies including "Carry on at Your Convenience" (1971), "Quadrophenia" (1979), "The End of the Affair" (1999), "Wimbledon" (2004), "MirrorMask" (2005), "Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging" (2008), "The Young Victoria" (2009), "Brighton Rock" (2010 and 1947) and "The Boat that Rocked" (2009).


title: Brighton

text: The Duke of York's Picturehouse, dating from 1910, was opened by Violet Melnotte-Wyatt. It is the country's oldest purpose-built cinema and was Brighton's first Electric Bioscope, which still operates as an arthouse cinema. The Duke of York's Picturehouse expanded in 2012, adding two additional screens in a different location. The company now occupies the upstairs of Komedia, situated on Gardner Street, central Brighton. There are two multiplex cinemas, the Odeon on North Street and Cineworld in the Marina.


title: Brighton

text: Each May the city hosts the Brighton Festival and Brighton Fringe, the second largest arts festival in the UK (after Edinburgh). This includes processions such as the Children's Parade, outdoor spectaculars often involving pyrotechnics, and theatre, music and visual arts in venues throughout the city, some brought into this use exclusively for the festival. The earliest feature of the festival, the Artists' Open Houses, are homes of artists and craftspeople opened to the public as galleries, and usually selling the work of the occupants. Since 2002, these have been organised independently of the official Festival and Fringe.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton Fringe runs alongside Brighton Festival, and has grown to be one of the largest fringe festivals in the world. Together with the street performers from Brighton Festival's "Streets of Brighton" events, and the Royal Mile-esque outdoor performances that make up "Fringe City", outdoor spectacles and events more than double during May.


title: Brighton

text: In 1974, the city was host to the 19th Eurovision Song Contest on 6 April 1974, where ABBA won in the Brighton Dome with their song Waterloo.


title: Brighton

text: Other festivals include The Great Escape, featuring three nights of live music in venues across the city; the Soundwaves Festival in June, which shows classical music composed in the 21st Century, and involves both amateur and professional performers; Paddle Round the Pier; Brighton Live which each September stages a week of free gigs in pubs to show local bands; Burning the Clocks, a winter solstice celebration; Brighton Digital Festival, annually exploring digital technology and culture; and Brighton Pride, the first of its kind in the UK, which attracts 450,000 to the city over the Pride weekend. Disability Pride Brighton promotes acceptance and visibility for area residents who are disabled.


title: Brighton

text: The Kemptown area has its own small annual street festival, the Kemptown Carnival, and the Hanover area similarly has a "Hanover Day".


title: Brighton

text: Local resident Fatboy Slim has put on three "Big Beach Boutique" shows, in 2002, 2006 and 2008. An inaugural White Nights (Nuit Blanche) all-night arts festival took place in October 2008 and continued for 4 years until it was postponed in 2012 due to a lack of European funding. 2009 saw the first Brighton Zine Fest celebrating zine and DIY culture within the city.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton is the terminus of a number of London-to-Brighton rides and runs, such as the veteran car run and bike ride. Transport rallies are also hosted on the seafront. Groups of mods and rockers still bring their scooters and motorbikes to the city, but their gatherings are now much more sedate than the violent 1960s confrontations depicted in "Quadrophenia".


title: Brighton

text: Food and drink related festivals include the traditional Blessing of the Fisheries, where barbecued mackerel are eaten on the beach and the more recent Fiery Foods Chilli Festival. There is also a twice-yearly general food festival. The main Sussex beer festival is held in nearby Hove, and there is a smaller beer festival in the Hanover area.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton is the home of the UK's first Walk of Fame which celebrates the many rich and famous people associated with the city.


title: Brighton

text: The lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) community in Brighton is one of the largest and most prominent in the UK, and Brighton has been named the "gay capital of the UK". There is record of LGBT history in the city dating to the 19th century. Many LGBT pubs, clubs, bars and shops are located around Brighton and in particular around St James's Street in Kemptown, including Club Revenge. Several LGBT charities, publishers, social and support groups are also based in the city. Brighton Pride is usually celebrated at the start of August.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton museums include Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, which forms part of the pavilion Preston Manor, Booth Museum of Natural History, Brighton Toy and Model Museum, and Brighton Fishing Museum, which includes artefacts from the West Pier. The Royal Pavilion is also open to the public, serving as a museum to the British Regency.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton has many galleries, including the Brighton Centre for Contemporary Arts (Brighton CCA) based at the University of Brighton, Phoenix Art Space, and ONCA.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton has many night-life hotspots and is associated with popular musicians including Fatboy Slim, Omar, Kirk Brandon, Tim Booth, Nick Cave, David Van Day from Dollar, Adam Freeland, Orbital and Robert Smith. Live music venues include the Concorde2, Brighton Centre and the Brighton Dome, where ABBA received a substantial boost to their career when they won the Eurovision Song Contest 1974. Many events and performance companies operate in the city. Brighton also has the most electronic music events in the UK.


title: Brighton

text: Brighton is also host to The Great Escape music festival every May. Brighton has produced several successful bands and music artists including Beats International, Norman Cook, Carl Cox, Dave Clarke, Krafty Kuts, Ed Solo, Evil Nine, Electrelane, Frazier Chorus, Peter and the Test Tube Babies, the Levellers, The Maccabees, Electric Soft Parade, British Sea Power, the Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, The Xcerts, Architects, The Go! Team, Royal Blood, The Kooks, Freemasons, Blood Red Shoes, Lovejoy, Birdeatsbaby and Rizzle Kicks. Brighton is also home to several independent record labels. The second half of 1973 rock opera Quadrophenia by The Who takes place at Brighton Beach.


title: Brighton

text: Theatres include the Brighton Dome and associated Pavilion Theatre, the expanded Komedia (primarily a comedy and music venue but also a theatre), the Old Market which was renovated and re-opened in 2010 and the Theatre Royal which celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2007. The Attenborough Centre for the Creative arts is nearby, part of the University of Sussex campus. There are also smaller theatres such as the Marlborough Theatre, the New Venture, and the Brighton Little Theatre. The city has the purpose built Brighton Open Air Theatre, or B•O•A•T, which opened for the Brighton Festival in May 2015.


title: Brighton

text: Stanmer Park sits on the northern edge of Brighton and extends into the South Downs. The largest urban park in the city is Preston Park and The Level was recently developed. Other parks include East Brighton Park, Queen's Park and Wild Park.


title: Brighton

text: The University of Brighton has been part of the city of Brighton & Hove since 1859, starting as a school of art in the kitchens of the Royal Pavilion. It was granted university status in 1992, and now has a student population of around 18,000 of which 79 per cent are undergraduates. The university is based on four campuses - City campus in the heart of Brighton; Falmer campus set in the South Downs; Moulsecoomb campus on Lewes Road and Eastbourne campus.


title: Brighton

text: The University of Sussex, established in 1961 as the first of the plate-glass universities, is a campus research intensive university between Stanmer Park and Falmer, four miles (6 km) from the city centre. The university is home to the Institute of Development Studies and the Science Policy Research Unit, amongst over 40 other established research centres, and has been ranked first in the world for Development studies by the World University Rankings. Served by trains (to Falmer railway station) and 24-hour buses, it has a student population of around 20,000 students of which about a quarter are postgraduates. The university has been ranked 41st in the UK by the Complete University Guide in its 2022 rankings and 246th in the world by the World University Rankings of 2021.


title: Brighton

text: In 2001 the music college BIMM (British and Irish Modern Music Institute) opened in Brighton under the name The Brighton Institute of Modern Music. The college has approximately 1500 students across Brighton, its degree courses at BIMM are validated by the University of Sussex and diploma courses are taught at the Brighton Aldridge Community Academy. Notable alumni have included James Bay, The Kooks and Tom Odell. Since the college opened it has expanded to become Europe's largest music college with 6500 students studying at eight campuses across Europe including Bristol, London, Manchester, Berlin, Dublin, Hamburg and Birmingham.


title: Brighton

text: In 2003, the universities of Brighton and Sussex formed a medical school, known as Brighton and Sussex Medical School. The school was one of four new medical schools to be created as part of a government programme to increase the number of NHS doctors. The school is based at the University of Sussex campus and works closely with the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.


title: Brighton

text: A range of non-university courses for students over 16, mainly in vocational education subjects, is provided at the further education college, Greater Brighton Metropolitan College (previously City College). More academic subjects can be studied by 16–18-year-olds at Brighton Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College (BHASVIC) in the Seven Dials area. Varndean College in North Brighton occupies a commanding position. The 1920s building is celebrated for its façade and internal quads. The college offers academic A levels, The International Baccalaureate and vocational courses.


title: Brighton

text: As Brighton is home to public universities and colleges, it also home to private colleges such as Hove College located near the County Cricket Ground, the college was established in 1977 and offers higher educational courses such as vocational, certificate, professional, diploma and Advanced Diploma qualifications and has a close partnership with the University of Brighton.


title: Brighton

text: There are state schools and some faith schools. Notable state schools include Longhill High School, Varndean School, Patcham High School, Dorothy Stringer School, Blatchington Mill School and Sixth Form College, Hove Park School, Brighton Aldridge Community Academy and Kings School Hove.


title: Brighton

text: There are a number of independent schools, including Brighton College, Roedean School, Steiner School, BHHS and a Montessori School. As with the state schools, some independents are faith-based; Torah Academy, the last Jewish primary school, became a Pre-K/Nursery School at the end of the 2007. The Brighton Institute of Modern Music, a fully accredited music college, opened in 2001 and has since expanded to five locations throughout Britain.