The Wrong Kennedy Profile picture
Wearily fact checking since 2013
Feb 28, 2023 13 tweets 5 min read
Just a few thoughts on Bernard Ingham, press secretary to Margaret Thatcher, who died last week

Many will have seen the atrocious letter that he wrote to a Liverpool fan in Dec 1996, but his pushing of Hillsborough disinformation goes back much further, & was far reaching Image In June 1996 he appeared on BBC Question Time where he made baseless claims, including that Hillsborough was caused by “drunken yobbos”

Footage isn’t available, but his comments caused enough of a stir for 63 MPs to sign an early day motion in Parliament condemning them Image
Oct 2, 2022 7 tweets 2 min read
Continued here Coventry Fan re 1987 quarter final

As a Coventry fan on the leppings lane end at our 87 quarter final v Wednesday, we were also penned in and crushed that day. I recall the same thing weeks before in the league game. There but for the grace of god….
Oct 2, 2022 28 tweets 9 min read
Got a big response to this, with fans from lots of clubs sharing their experience of crushing at Hillsborough over the years.

I’ve compiled them into a thread for researchers and posterity… Spurs fan re 1981
“I’ll never forget my brothers coming back from that match in 81 & saying how horrific it was. There should NEVER have been another semi there. Not that they care that much about fans now, but they really didn’t give a shit in the 80’s.”
Sep 29, 2022 18 tweets 7 min read
Hillsborough stadium had a long history of overcrowding incidents causing crush injuries, including numerous reported problems at the 1988 semi-final

The fans in 1989 weren’t even the first people to die from crush injuries on the Leppings Lane terraces

Here is the history…. Image In 1988, there were numerous complaints from fans about overcrowding at the Leppings Lane, but serious injuries were avoided because the veteran police match commander recognised the danger & took action to relieve overcrowding…by closing the access tunnel to the terraces Image
Sep 19, 2021 16 tweets 4 min read
As you have chosen to use this image of a dying 14 year old, who is recognisable in the picture, let me provide some further context Lee Nicol was a fourteen year schoolboy, who travelled with his friends to Sheffield from Bootle. It was his first away match. He had saved up for his match tickets from his paper & milk rounds

He would die two days after Hillsborough, becomingi the 95th fatality
Jul 29, 2021 15 tweets 4 min read
Appreciate that you are only trying to be fair minded about public servants doing their duty, but they *really* don’t deserve your support

Let’s have a look at what was different to a year earlier when exactly the same teams played the same fixture, at exactly the same stadium First, the match commander. He was new in the role & inexperienced with football command, but refused help/ handover support from his highly experienced predecessor.

That wasn’t immense pressure - it was immense arrogance & negligence

His ego was more important than fan safety
Jun 14, 2021 25 tweets 6 min read
I’ve been asked a few questions about the CCTV tapes stolen from Hillsborough stadium on the evening of the disaster, so thought I would do a thread on it

This is the crime report for the theft from 21/4/89

Note the double underlining of the “NO PUBLICITY” instruction The tapes were stolen from the Sheff Wednesday club control room (rather than the separate SYP police control room).

The tapes were stolen from a locked cupboard, in a locked room, with an alarm that was set.

There was no sign of any damage or a forced entry
May 26, 2021 6 tweets 2 min read
There are so many things wrong with this rant by J Goldberg QC but I just wanted to look at one particular falsehood in this...the assertion that there were ‘good’ fans who arrived early and died, and ‘bad’ fans who arrived late at the back and killed them

THREAD There is no truth in this whatsoever.

42 of those who died had been stuck in the crowd outside & entered Hillsborough stadium in the emergency Gate C openings at 2.42 and 2.50.

These in Goldberg’s book would have been ‘bad’ late fans