Gary Mack, JFK assassination expert and museum curator, dies at 68

By Jon Herskovitz AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Gary Mack, the former journalist who was the long-time curator of the Dallas museum dedicated to the assassination and legacy of President John F. Kennedy, died on Wednesday at the age 68 after suffering from a prolonged illness, the museum said. Mack, considered one of the foremost authorities on the assassination, was the curator of The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, located in the former Texas School Book Depository Building from which the official Warren Commission concluded Lee Harvey Oswald shot President Kennedy in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. "Most people are not satisfied with the official story. But there is not enough evidence to support anything else," Mack told Reuters in November 2013 at the time of 50th anniversary of the assassination. Mack, who had worked in radio as a disc jockey, and later in television, joined the Sixth Floor Museum as an archivist in 1994. He was named curator in 2000, and was in that post until his death. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of the people, artifacts and events surrounding the assassination. Mack appeared in documentaries, served as an advisor on the assassination for numerous news organizations and helped researchers around the world. He co-produced the Emmy award winning documentary "JFK: The Dallas Tapes" and in 2003 co-produced the award-winning PBS documentary "JFK: Breaking The News" with Dallas PBS affiliate, KERA, the museum said. "He brought a rare and honorable quality to the work place, and commanded a level of respect even when one did not necessarily agree with him," said Nicola Longford, executive director of The Sixth Floor Museum. "There is really no one else equal to Gary's level of understanding and expertise that he brought to the study of the Kennedy assassination films and photographs, and his knack for telling a good story," Longford said. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Sandra Maler)