The Other Man Who Tried to Shoot JFK-- Part 2

Continued from December 5th..

The Japanese had thoroughly terrorized the Solomon Islands so it wasn't too difficult for Reginald Evans to find locals to act as Allied spies.

One of them was Biuku Gasa, a fisherman.

JFK was seen by Gasa while looking for a spy to help him and his crew get back to American lines after his PT-109 had been sunk six days earlier. After his old rifle locked up, preventing him from shooting Kennedy, who he mistook from a distance as being a Japanese soldier, Gasa continued on and came across the PT-109's crew.

When Kennedy returned, Gasa instructed him to cut the famous message in the coconut "NATIV KNOWS POSIT/11 ALIVE/NEED SMALL BOAT."

That coconut was delivered by islanders to Evans via dugout canoe who radioed Allied forces the information which led to the crew's rescue.

That coconut is in the Kennedy Library in Boston.

I'd Sure Like to See It. --GreGen