Oct. 11, 1964 - One young man was arrested in Phoenix, Ariz., today for carrying a concealed revolver in a crowd awaiting President Johnson, and another young man was arrested on charges of striking the President with a poster stick. The President was not injured.
Ronald Clarence Fetzer, 18, of Phoenix was picked up about 20 minutes before the President’s jet arrived at Sky Harbor Airport when a Phoenix detective, Andrew Watzek, found him with a loaded 22-caliber gun on his person.
Fetzer, who has been charged with carrying a concealed weapon, told police he had gone to the airport armed to “protect the President against danger of death.”
He is to be given a mental examination by the county medical officer, the police said.
Thomas Lee Wilkins, who will be 18 on Oct. 26, was held on charges of aggravated assault after a “Goldwater-Miller” political poster was swung at the President, crushing his hat.
Two city detectives, George Loy and Norman O’Conner, who arrested Wilkins, asserted that he had swung the poster stick down hard in an attempt to strike Johnson.
The Warren Commission report on the assassination of President Kennedy, issued two weeks ago, called for stricter safeguards for the President when he made trips.
Several days later, Treasury Secretary C. Douglas Dillon reported that President Johnson had indicated that he no intention of holding himself aloof from crowds.
“He thinks he has a perfect right to meet the people,” Dillon said, “and he intends to go on doing so.”
President Johnson downplayed the poster incident. He said later: “It definitely was an accident. Things like this happen when the crowd gets enthusiastic and rushes forward and wants to touch you.
“There was no dynamite, no explosion, nothing to get excited about. It was just an accident.”
Despite the President’s good humor, other witnesses gave the incident a different tone. Detective Loy charged that Wilkins “came down hard” with the poster and that he had attempted to run after the poster was swung down. He was held by a member of the crowd until arrested.
Detective Watzek said that a strap on the gun holster carried by Fetzer was unsnapped, and the weapon could have been easily drawn. Watzek said the holster was on Fetzer’s belt, to the right of his belt buckle, but concealed by a “tight-fitting suit.” The gun was loaded with live ammunition, the police said.
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