http://www.geocities.com/verisimus101/
The website above is a very good resource on this subject and has a link to the Warren Commission.


Because of the 40th anniversary of this tragic event, I think it would be appropriate to start a debate on the subject.
Was the President assassinated by the lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald or was this a political coup, with other players involved?

LBJ was kinda power hungery. He and JFK & RFK never did get along.

Also, here is something:

Article

I'm still not sure that there weren't others involved at least as far as planning the incident went. There is almost conclusive (for me, anyway) evidence that Oswald acted alone, as the shooter.

There was a program on the history channel (or Discovery, I don't recall which) on this a year or so ago. Aside from the Zapruder film, there were at least two others there with movie cameras. Not to mention hundreds with still cameras, taking pictures at the time, from both sides of the street.

The researchers had camera shots from about 20 of the people taking photos during the time of the shooting, cross-referencing where and when the photos were taken. These photos covered nearly all of the Dealy Plaza area, including the grassy knoll, and because of the number of cameras, pretty much overlapped the time frame of the shooting completly.

The researchers could find no photographic or movie evidence of any other shooter, whatsoever. Not on the grassy knoll, not behind any of the walls or embankments, not in any other surrounding building in the pictures taken. No puffs of smoke from a discharged gun, nobody running in any specific direction after the shooting, in anything other than panicked, looking for cover type type running, etc.

Those that say there were people running towards the grassy knoll right after the shooting, as proof of a second shooter there, forget one salient point. Nobody knew yet, if the shooting was done. And at the top of the grassy knoll, a large wooden "stockade" picket fence. It's likely people were running in this direction to take cover behind the fence, rather than be out in the open. Anyway, that's my take on the shooting.

The House Select committee investigated the shooting and found that there was sufficient evidence of a conspiracy and that the Warren Commision failed in its duty to pursue this. They also agreed with the majority of the witnesses at the grassy knoll that they had indeed been a shot fired from there but maintained that it missed.

(FINDINGS OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON ASSASSINATIONS IN THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY IN DALLAS, TEX., NOVEMBER 22, 1963) Findings of the Select committee

The Dallas police found a Mauser on the top of the School Book Depository in addition to the rifle that was supposed to be Oswalds snipper lair. I think I know the name of the guy who actually pulled the trigger and I am convinced that Lee Harvey Oswald never fired a shot, at least not at Kennedy. I'll get to that after dealing with this lone gunman theory.

Despite some of the liberties Oliver Stone took with the movie JFK the theory of a triangulation of fire and a conspiracy is dead on the money(no pun intended).

The grassy knoll is the center of controversy in most conspiracy theories. I actually watched a show on this mentioned by NightGuy. It was on the Discovery channel. They discussed all the potential cameras and angles. Their conclusions with all the experts is that none of the cameras that took in the hill allowed enough clarity to determine if there was a person their or not. Either the person used the wrong type of film, had the wrong settings in place, or did not pan quite far enough.

This is actually quite interesting when you think about it. There is no evidence either way that can be provided.

Last night I think ABC had a special on. It was well done. One part of the show talked about how a police officers mic was on during the event. The equipment at the time of the shooting was not sophisticated enough to really analyze the recording, but when the commission was launched to see if the original findings were accurate they were about to agree that all evidence pointed to Oswald, but then some scientist said they could hear four shots in the recording. Using equipment they determined that four shots were actually heard in the recording.

From Phaedrus's link

This fueled conspiracy theories mainly due to the impossibility of Oswald firing four shots. Later revelations however showed that the officer in question was not in a position when the fourth shot was heard to be consistent with the assassination location.



Another argument is that Oswald himself was not capable to fire with such accuracy. This argument is fueled by the movie that was done which is inaccurate. Records show that he was a sharp shooter and was able to hit a target similar to a head 6 times at 200 yards. The shot to Kennedy was around 60 -80 yards. There is also conjecture about the ability to reload the weapon so fast. Again this was performed by an 80 year old man with a similar rifle on the show.

I also have seen the arguments surrounding the LBJ theory. I think the most compelling parts of this theory are the fact that so many high officials met in Dallas the night before. Hoover was there as well as many others. Witnesses recall that LBJ was really angry with the Kennedy’s. Records have been sealed and the general behavior of LBJ was suspicious. Wanting a deathbed confession from Oswald was also not helpful.

I think the most compelling story is actually Oswald himself. From what I have viewed and read he came from a broken home and really struggled as a child. He was very pro-communist and after spending time in the military went to Russia to live. They refused him so he slashed his wrists. They then let him stay and he stayed for three years. He got married and had a child and then returned to Dallas. There he split from his wife and went to Mexico to visit the Cuban embassy seeking to live there. He also tried the Russian embassy, but was unsuccessful. He seems to have just really not fit in well. He was 24 got a job at the book store and had the published route of the president. All the bullets recovered matched his gun.

One could argue that if it was a conspiracy that surely they would have not got Oswald involved. He seemed like a loose cannon, crazy enough to do it, but not really the professional hit team. He did not wear any gloves and had no real plan for escape. If there was a conspiracy, surely they would have chosen someone who would have tried harder not to get caught.

The House Select Committee found that because of scientific evidence which said that there was a 95% chance that FOUR shots were fired, based on audio recording made at the Dallas Police Station via an open mic on one of the motorcycle patrolmen.

However, what they failed to realize that the "95%" statement was only true if the mic which recording that audio was within a particular 5' radius. By using the available video footage, it can be verified that said patrolman was NOT within the required area. In fact, he was almost 1/2 a block away.

ABC did a special on the JFK assassination last night. It was interesting to watch. (even if Peter jennings hosted it...)

The Kennedy Assassination: Beyond Conspiracy

Check out the computer re-enactment. It was excellent.

They spent a good deal of time on the Oliver Stone version of events. They assert that given all of the evidence, there was only one shooter, Oswald, and that he acted alone. Garrison made many errors in his version of events, including the position of Governor Connally, the "pristine" condition of the "magic bullet" and the chronology. Furthermore, a shot from the grassy knoll could never have hit JFK where the fatal shot hit him (according to computer animations).

As the ABC special forwards: people don't want to believe that someone as inconsequential as Lee harvey Oswald could end up killing someone as important as JFK. They want to believe that the world is not that random.