J.F.K. ASSASSINATION
On Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m., John F. Kennedy was shot twice while riding in the back seat of the presidential Lincoln convertible limousine while turning past the Texas School Book Depository at Dealey Plaza. His wife Jacqueline was sitting beside him in the vehicle while Texas Governor John Connally and his wife Nellie were in the seats in front of them. The 46-year-old president was pronounced dead at 1:00 P.M. at the nearby Parkland Memorial Hospital. At 2:15 p.m., Lee Harvey Oswald, a new employee at the Book Depository, was arrested in the back of a movie theater for JFK’s assassination, as well as for the fatal 1:15 p.m. shooting of Dallas patrolman J.D. Tippit. At 2:38 p.m.., Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President at the Dallas Love Field airport while abord Air Force One prior to takeoff. Jacqueline Kennedy, still wearing a pink suit splattered with blood, stood at Johnson’s side. Two days later, on Nov. 24, Oswald would be murdered by local nightclub owner and police informant Jack Ruby at point-blank range and on live TV.
On November 29, President Johnson created the Warren Commission through Executive Order 11130 to investigate the Assassination. Its 888-page final report was presented to President Johnson on September 24, 1964, and made public three days later. It concluded that President Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald and that Oswald acted entirely alone. It also concluded that Jack Ruby acted alone when he killed Oswald two days later. The Commission’s findings have proven controversial and have been both challenged and supported by later studies.
The report concluded that:
- The shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally were fired from the sixth-floor window at the southeast corner of the Texas School Book Depository.
- President Kennedy was first struck by a bullet which entered at the back of his neck and exited through the lower front portion of his neck, causing a wound which would not necessarily have been lethal. The President was struck by a second bullet, which entered the right-rear portion of his head, causing a massive and fatal wound.
- Governor Connally was struck by a bullet which entered on the right side of his back and traveled downward through the right side of his chest, exiting below his right nipple. This bullet then passed through his right wrist and entered his left thigh where it caused a superficial wound.
- There is no credible evidence that the shots were fired from the Triple Underpass, ahead of the motorcade, or from any other location.
- The weight of the evidence indicates that there were three shots fired.
- Although it is not necessary to any essential findings of the Commission to determine just which shot hit Governor Connally, there is very persuasive evidence from the experts to indicate that the same bullet which pierced the President’s throat also caused Governor Connally’s wounds. However, Governor Connally’s testimony and certain other factors have given rise to some difference of opinion as to this probability but there is no question in the mind of any member of the Commission that all the shots which caused the President’s and Governor Connally’s wounds were fired from the sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository.
- The shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald.
- Oswald killed Dallas Police Patrolman J.D. Tippit approximately 45 minutes after the assassination.
- Ruby entered the basement of the Dallas Police Department and killed Lee Harvey Oswald and there is no evidence to support the rumor that Ruby may have been assisted by any members of the Dallas Police Department.
- The Commission has found no evidence that either Lee Harvey Oswald or Jack Ruby was part of any conspiracy, domestic or foreign, to assassinate President Kennedy.
- The Commission has found no evidence of conspiracy, subversion, or disloyalty to the U.S. Government by any Federal, State, or local official.
- The Commission could not make any definitive determination of Oswald’s motives.
- The Commission believes that recommendations for improvements in Presidential protection are compelled by the facts disclosed in this investigation
Lee Harvey Oswald
Oswald was born in New Orleans in 1939. His father died of a heart attack two months before he was born. After living off and on in orphanages as a boy, he moved with his mother to New York at age 12, where he was sent to a youth detention center for truancy. It was during this time that he became interested in Socialism. After moving back to New Orleans, Oswald joined the Marines in 1956, where he earned a sharpshooter qualification, and discovered Marxism.
Upon receiving an early honorable discharge from the Marines in 1959, he defected to the Soviet Union for two and a half years, where he was denied citizenship, but allowed to stay in the country—and was monitored by the KGB. Upon learning that Oswald had wanted to defect, the Marines downgraded his 1959 discharge from “honorable” to “undesirable” in 1962. Later that year, Oswald returned to Texas with his Soviet wife and young daughter.
One year later, Oswald would purchase, by mail, a rifle with telescopic sight and a .38 revolver. That year, he attempted to shoot retired United States Major General Edwin A. Walker who had been a staunch critic of Communism. Later in 1963, Oswald was denied passage to Cuba and the U.S.S.R. during a trip to Mexico City. He returned to Texas and started a job at the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas.
In an interview with “Frontline,” investigative journalist Gerald Posner said Oswald’s hatred wasn’t for Kennedy. “What he did hate was the system and what Kennedy stood for,” Posner tells the PBS show. “He despised America. He despised capitalism. When he eventually had the opportunity to strike against Kennedy, it was that symbol of the system that he was going after.”
During his interrogation, Oswald denied any guilt. “I didn’t shoot anybody, no sir … I’m just a patsy,” he told reporters.
Suspicious Facts:
Motorcade Route:
The route chosen by the Secret Service had an unusual amount of turns which would have caused the motorcade to have to slow down. There were over 20,000 windows overlooking the route. Since it would be impossible to check out every window, they chose to inspect none of them. The FBI was under active surveillance of Oswald and knew that he was employed at the Texas School Book Depository, which was located along the motorcade route. They did not inform the Secret Service of Oswald. The Secret Service, however, did not inform the local FBI of the motorcade route either.
Difficult Shot:
Although Oswald was only about 90 yards away from the presidential limousine, a reasonable distance considering his training, he would have to hit a moving target at an angle, all while under intense pressure. Further complicating the shot was that a traffic light pole and an oak tree temporarily obstructed the target at different points.
While it may be reasonable to expect Oswald to hit his target once, expecting him to be able to hit his target two out of three times in six seconds under these circumstances seems very unlikely. Additionally, the FBI and US Army had their best marksmen simulate Oswald’s shot from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository using the rifle found at the scene. None of the marksmen could duplicate Oswald’s supposed feat of hitting a target two times in three attempts in six seconds.
Single-Bullet Theory
The single-bullet theory was central to the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Oswald had acted alone apart from any broader conspiracy. The single-bullet theory proposed that all the injuries sustained in the assassination attempt came from the three shell casings found by the sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository building. However, there is claim that two different factors disproved this theory, further discrediting the commission’s work.
First, the bullet holes in President Kennedy’s suit jacket and shirt that corresponded to his neck wound were too low to have come from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building. Documentation from both the autopsy report and death certificate conclusively stated this fact.
Second, several of the witnesses to the assassination stated that another bullet hit Governor John Connally after Kennedy had already been shot, disproving the single-bullet theory’s assertion that the same bullet hit Kennedy and Connally.
Even more telling, not a single witness testified or claimed that Kennedy and Connally were shot by the same bullet, as the Warren Commission had asserted. Connally himself became a fervent opponent of the single-bullet theory, testifying before the commission that he and his wife saw Kennedy get hit by a separate bullet before Connally himself was struck. Later in life, Connelly allegedly told journalist Doug Thompson off-the-record that he did not believe the findings of the Warren Commission. This theory has been a controversy among many people. There have been studies done proving that the physics behind the single-bullet theory is plausible.
Grassy Knoll Shooter
One of the most egregious oversights by the Warren Commission was their decision to ignore the testimony of seven different witnesses who reported that they saw smoke by the infamous grassy knoll. The grassy knoll overlooked the assassination sight, and the presence of smoke and another witness’s report of a gunpowder smell strongly indicated the presence of another shooter. Additional testimony from other witnesses on the triple underpass that pointed to the presence of a grassy knoll shooter was also ignored by the commission.
Over 40 witnesses in Dealey Plaza, including law enforcement officials, reported that at least one shot was fired from the direction of the grassy knoll. Multiple photos in the event’s immediate aftermath show several individuals, including police officers, either running to or pointing at the grassy knoll. The enormous amount of testimony from such a large group of witnesses was simply ignored or dismissed is incredible.
There is allegedly alternate footage taken from a different angle other than the well-known Zapruder film of the assassination. The footage reportedly shows the grassy knoll in the background with puffs of gun smoke or a second shooter on the knoll. The footage has supposedly gone missing. There was even a lawsuit made by Gayle Nix Jackson, Granddaughter of the person who recorded the second film, to get the film back. A Former FBI analysis helped the family obtain a duplicate of the FBI’s copy of the film. The copy of the film shows a mirror image of the Zapruder film from the other side of Dealey plaza. Jackson is still trying to obtain the original copy of the film.
The Umbrella Man
Louie Steven Witt is shown on film to have opened an umbrella above his head on the curb the moment J.F.K.’s vehicle passed in from of him. That was the moment Kennedy is struck by the first bullet. Witt came forward to the Senate committee to testify. He claimed that the umbrella was a symbol of protest to J.F.K.’s father, Joseph Kennedy, who was an ambassador to the Court of St. James in 1938 to 1939. Witt explained that he only opened the umbrella when he believed Kennedy could see it. The umbrella has been used as a symbol of protest in the past in both England and America.
Members of the Warren Commission:
Committee
Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States (chairman) (1891–1974)
Richard Russell Jr. (D-Georgia), U.S. Senator, (1897–1971)
John Sherman Cooper (R-Kentucky), U.S. Senator (1901–1991)
Hale Boggs (D-Louisiana), U.S. Representative, House Majority Whip (1914–1972)
Gerald Ford (R-Michigan), U.S. Representative (later 38th President of the United States), House Minority Leader (1913-2006)
Allen Dulles, former Director of Central Intelligence and head of the Central Intelligence Agency (1893–1969)
John J. McCloy, former President of the World Bank (1895–1989)
General counsel
J. Lee Rankin (1907-1996)
Assistant counsel
Francis W. H. Adams (1904–1990)
Joseph A. Ball (1902–2000)
David W. Belin (1928–1999)
William Thaddeus Coleman Jr. (1920–2017)
Melvin A. Eisenberg
Burt W. Griffin
Leon D. Hubert Jr.
Albert E. Jenner Jr. (1907–1988)
Wesley J. Liebeler (1931-2002)
Norman Redlich (1925–2011)
W. David Slawson
Arlen Specter (1930–2012)
Samuel A. Stern
Howard P. Willens (liaison with the Department of Justice)
Staff
Philip Barson
Edward A. Conroy
John Hart Ely (1938–2003)
Alfred Goldberg
Murray J. Laulicht
Arthur J. Marmor
Richard M. Mosk (1939–2016)
John J. O’Brien (1919–2001)
Stuart R. Pollak (1937–)
Alfredda Scobey
Charles N. Shaffer Jr.
Lloyd L. Weinreb (1936–2021)
Information gathered from Wikipedia, History.com, constitutionus.com, BuzzFeed Unsolved Network, theguardian.com