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John F. Kennedy assassination

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The thirty-fifth President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, at about 12:30 PM Central time.

After the initial June 6, 1963 requests suggested directly to President Kennedy by then-Vice President and Texan, Lyndon Baines Johnson and Texas Governor John Bowen Connally, Sr while all three men were together in a meeting in El Paso, Texas, advance plans were formulated over the following 5+ months for a Texas trip.

President Kennedy started the Texas trip November 21, 1963 with three basic goals: the president wanted to help raise more Democratic campaign fund contributions, he wanted to begin his quest for re-election, and, because the Kennedy-Johnson ticket had barely won Texas in 1960, the president wanted to help mend political fences among several leading Texans Democratic party members who appeared to be politically fighting among themselves.

President Kennedy was fatally wounded by multiple gunshots while riding in a modified 1961 Lincoln Continental open-top limousine. Texas Governor Connally was also severely injured. Dealey Plaza assassination witness James Tague also received a minor wound. The limousine was damaged in several locations during the rapid flurry of shots. Witnesses nearby were struck with President Kennedy's headmatter. Amateurs and professionals photo and movie cameras recorded portions of the approach, the assassination, and its aftermath while nearly 700 witnesses and motorcade members watched, heard, smelled, and reacted in frustrated horror, fear, and courage.

Forty-five minutes after President Kennedy died, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested, and by 8:00 PM was solely charged with the murder of a Dallas Policeman. Late the same evening, Oswald was also the only person to be charged with murdering President Kennedy.

Ninety-eight minutes after President Kennedy died, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States aboard Air Force One (even though, by law, Johnson had been president since President Kennedy was pronounced dead at 1:00 PM).

Table of contents

1 Timeline 2 The Warren Commission 2.1 A nation mourns 3 List of Witnesses to the Assassination 3.2 Known Witnesses 3.3 Unknown or Disputed Witnesses 3.4 Shots Sequencing and Origins 4 Investigations into the assassination 5 Security failures 6 The Zapruder film 7 Conspiracy theories 8 See also 9 External links

Timeline

At 11:40 AM (U.S. Central standard time), President Kennedy, his wife Jacqueline, and the rest of the presidential entourage arrived at Love Field in Air Force One. The original schedule was for the president to proceed in a motorcade from Love Field through downtown Dallas, to the Trade Mart.

The President's schedule, publicized locally in advance, was to enter Dealey Plaza at 12:25 PM, then a 12:30 PM arrival at the Trade Mart so he could deliver a speech and share in a steak luncheon with Dallas business, religious, and civic persons and their spouses.

Accompanying President Kennedy in the limousine were First Lady of the United States Jacqueline Kennedy, Texas Governor and native John Connally Sr. and his wife, Nellie, Secret Service agent Roy Kellerman, and Secret Service agent and limousine driver Bill Greer.

The open-top limousine was not equipped with a bulletproof top (none existed for the President, even though F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover had three bulletproofed cars).

The motorcade traveled through nearly the entire motorcade without incident, stopping twice so President Kennedy could shake hands with some Catholic nuns, then some school children.

At 12:29 PM central standard time the presidential limousine entered Dealey Plaza. Over two dozen amateur and professional camera photographers and movie filmers captured the last living and kill-zone seconds images of President Kennedy.

Just before 12:30 PM, President Kennedy slowly approached the depository head-on, then the limousine slowly turned 120-degrees directly in front of the depository, only 65' away.

The assassination began when the presidential limousine had glided down the three-degree inclined Elm Street to a point even with the southwest corner of the Texas School Book depository building.

President Kennedy was targeted and shot at for up to 8+ seconds. He was struck with multiple bullets, and was fatally wounded when struck in his head. During the assassination the limousine slowed from over 13 miles per hour, to only 9 mph when, a micro-second prior to the president being struck in his head, the limousine brake lights were illuminated.

At least two shots are theorized to have struck President Kennedy, and, at least, one shot struck Governor Connally.

Witness James Tague was also slightly wounded on his right facial cheek while standing 270' in front of where President Kennedy's head first exploded.

Several witnesses testified they noticed a weapon extended from the 60.7' high sixth-floor easternmost open window of the depository, 265.3‘ away from the President when his head first exploded. Two witnesses testified that they watched that weapon fire once. One of those two witnesses testified he heard 4 shots. The other of those two witnesses could see that assassins upper body half, yet, on the evening of 11-22-63 (and despite seeing Oswald’s face on tv), he refused to positively identify that assassin as Lee Harvey Oswald. (after Oswald was murdered, and, after several meetings with investigative authorities, this witness then changed his mind and months later testified that the assassin he saw was Oswald)

Shortly before the attack started, several witnesses saw a second man, an unarmed accomplice wearing a dark color coat, standing with the sixth-floor easter-nmost window assassin.

One witness saw a second rifle-armed assassin in a depository sixth-floor west window just minutes before the assassination.

Several close witnesses also stated they saw the debris and/or spark of something striking the Elm Street pavement during the shooting.

The vast majority of persons said that the first audible shot (or the first closely-bunched volley of shots) they remembered hearing sounded noticeably different than the followup audible shots. (often described as a firecracker or vehicle backfire) The majority of witnesses who expressed an opinion of the timing of the audible shots they remembered hearing said the second and third shots (or the second and third closely-bunched volley of shots) were noticeably closer together than the first and second shots. (or the first and second closely-bunched volley of shots)

A motorcade Dallas Policeman motorcycle escort said he heard something clang against his motorcycle then saw a bullet slug bounce away from his motorcycle.

As seen in several photos and films during the assassination, the wind was blowing from the southwest -towards the northeast- --towards the depository-- yet, several ground-level witnesses and motorcade witnesses at street level testified that they smelled gun powder.

Several witnesses testified and stated that gun smoke lingered long enough to be seen near where they heard at least one audible shot originate from --the picket fence of the Dealey Plaza grassy knoll.

Over 60% of the witnesses who expressed an opinion of the origin of at least one audible shot that they remembered hearing stated a location other than the depository/Houston-Elm streets intersection.

Three witnesses have stated they saw an assassin fire a weapon from behind the picket fence on the grassy knoll. One witness stated he encountered a business-suited man behind the grassy knoll who had a weapon under his suit coat and who said to him and others not to come up here because you may get shot. Several witnesses were close enough to President Kennedy to detail the bullets wounding results and timing reactions of President Kennedy, Governor Connally, and other limousine occupants to each other. A witness testified she was told that a stationed “agent” saw something kick up ground debris near her feet. Two more witnesses later said that they examined two parallel ground tracks that a Dallas policeman had told them was where bullets had struck, and that these burrows aligned with the grassy knoll (although their F.B.I. interview states they saw only one track, and that it generally aligned with the depository).

Another witness, a Dallas Policeman stationed on the railroad bridge overpass, testified he saw something strike the cement apron of a sewer in front of the limousine. (within 9 minutes he was ordered to guard that sewer area)

Near the end of the attack the Secret Service agent protecting Mrs. Kennedy, Clint Hill, jumped from the followup Secret Service “Cadillac” and ran to the limousine. Clint Hill first reached the limousine at Z-340, less than 2 seconds after President Kennedy’s head first exploded. President Kennedy’s Secret Service agent, John Ready, and agent Tim McIntyre also started to run to the limousine, but both were ordered in a shout by the shift leader, Emory Roberts, to “Hold!” before they could help.

One witness saw a dark-coated man run out the backdoor of the depository within 2 minutes of the last audible shot. A Dallas Policeman testified that he encountered four men in business suits at the rear of the depository who were armed. Before he had a chance to ask them who they were and why they were at the depository back door, the Policeman testified that they quickly identified themselves as “agents” to the Policeman. (again-even though no “agents” were officially stationed within/near the plaza) In his F.B.I. statement this same Policeman stated, "On the day of the assassination there were several individuals removed from the train other than the three individuals previously arrested." (FBI document 124-10273-10402) The other “three individuals” he referred to are the infamous “three tramps” who were found concealing themselves in a train boxcar behind the grassy knoll, were apprehended then marched to the Dallas jail at 2:10 PM.

Another Dallas Policeman who heard shots west of the depository and a woman screaming “They’re shooting the president from the bushes!” encountered a man who flashed an “agent” identification (again-even though no “agents” were officially stationed within/near the plaza) That same Policeman also testified he smelled gun powder behind the Dealey Plaza grassy knoll picket fence.

The Dealey Plaza area was not sealed-off, and within only nine minutes of the assassination photographs show that vehicles were driving down Elm Street, through the crime scene kill zone.

On November 22, 1963, at 3:01 PM Dallas time, only an hour after Oswald was taken into the Dallas jail, F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover wrote a memo to his assistant directors in which he stated, “I called the Attorney General at his home and told him I thought we had the man who killed the President down in Dallas, at the present time.”

On November 22, 1963, at 5:30 PM Dallas time, only 5 hours after the assassination, Hoover issues an F.B.I. internal memorandum saying the Dallas police have got their man, "a man in the category of a nut."

On November 24, 1963, in a memo J. Edgar Hoover wrote for the record, Hoover stated, "The thing I am most concerned about, and so is Mr. Katzenbach, is having something issued so that we can convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin."

On a November 26, 1963 memo from Assistant F.B.I. Director, Mafia Section, Courtney Evans, to Assistant to the F.B.I. Director, Alan Belmont, Director J. Edgar Hoover hand-wrote in the memo margin, "Just how long do you estimate it will take? It seems to me we have all the basic facts now."

On December 9, 1963, only 17 days after the assassination, the F.B.I. report was turned over to the Warren Commission theorizing that only three bullets were fired during the assassination; that the first shot hit President Kennedy, the second shot hit Governor Connally, and the third shot hit President Kennedy in the head, killing him. The F.B.I. theorized that Lee Harvey Oswald fired all three shots.

Just before the shot timing problem caused by the wounding of James Tague became the focus of anxious attention calling for the "magic bullet" theory, in an internal Warren Commission memo from Norman Redlich to general commission counsel Lee Rankin on 4-27-64, Redlich wrote, "Our report presumably will state that the President was hit by the first bullet, Governor Connally by the second, and the President by the third and fatal bullet. The report will also conclude that the bullets were fired by one person located in the sixth floor southeast corner window of the TSED building." "Our intention, is not to establish the point with complete accuracy, but merely to substantiate the hypothesis which underlies the conclusion that Oswald was the sole assassin." "I should add that the facts which we now have in our possession, submitted to us in separate reports from the FBI and Secret Service, are totally incorrect, and, if left uncorrected, will present a completely misleading picture."

In late September 1964, after a 10 month investigation and about 5 weeks before the Presidential election, (that Johnson won) the Warren Commission Report was published in which the commission was persuaded that only three bullets were fired during the assassination, that Lee Harvey Oswald fired three bullets from the Texas School Book Depository, and the commission found no evidence of a conspiracy involving others, either domestic or foreign. The Commission theorized that one non-fatal bullet passed through President Kennedy and Governor Connally, one bullet completely missed the large limousine and its occupants, and one bullet struck President Kennedy in the head. One of the Warren Commissioners disagreed with the "magic bullet theory and only agreed to sign the report when the language of the major conclusions was changed by future President Gerald R. Ford and Arlen Specter, the two main architects of the "magic bullet theory." The Warren Commission Report 26 follow-up volumes detailing its sub-investigations, testimonies, evidentiary tests, re-creations, etc. was issued only after the U.S. presidential election had already occurred.

After the Zapruder film was first allowed to be seen in motion by the mass public in 1975, from 1976 to 1978 the House Select Committee on Assassinations (hereafter, the “HSCA”) investigated the case. In 1979 the HSCA theorized that four bullets were fired during the assassination and that President Kennedy was killed as a result of a conspiracy. The HSCA concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald fired the first, second, and fourth bullets, while an unnamed assassin fired the third bullet from behind a picket fence of the grassy knoll located to the right front of the President.

One bullet that is theorized to have impacted, which many call the "magic bullet," was conjectured by the Warren Commission and the HSCA to have caused 7 wounds (2 wounds of which were into and through bones) to President Kennedy and Governor Connally; yet this bullet supposedly emerged in nearly pristine condition.

The Warren Commission

According to the Warren Commission, only three shots were fired, based on earwitness testimony, and three empty shells found in the, supposed, lone nut "sniper's nest" in the book depository (and one live bullet still chambered in the rifle). According to the Warren Commission, one theorized bullet hit Kennedy in the neck, one theorized bullet hit somewhere outside of the large limousine, and only one theorized bullet struck President Kennedy in the head.

When he is struck in his head, the President's head moved slightly forward 1" to 2", then, after a 0.11 second pause, the President's head, upper torso, and right arm all violently snap simultaneously upwards, then backwards (towards the depository) and leftwards (away from the grassy knoll).

As recorded in the Zapruder film, Governor Connally was also wounded.

Rather than introduce more than three fired bullets, the Commission was persuaded (by 4 to 3) of a theory advocated by Arlen Specter, and altered at the last minute by Warren Commissioner-and-future-President Gerald Ford, that the same bullet that non-fatally wounded President Kennedy twice, also caused Governor Connally's five bones-breakings wounds.

This 6.5 millimeter, "Western Case Cartridge," fully-metal-jacketed, nearly pristine “magic bullet” path was theorized by the Warren Commission to have:

• passed through President Kennedy’s suit coat back, just to the right of his spine, and 5.75” below his shoulder line,

• then passed through President Kennedy’s shirt back, just to the right of his spine, and 5.75” below his shoulder line,

• then entered President Kennedy just to the right of his spine, creating a circular wound in the rear of his upper back, with abrasion collar characteristics that indicate the bullet entrance path was slightly upward, relative to the plane of the skin immediately surrounding the wound. (07HSCA175)

• then passed through his neck on an anatomically slightly upward path,

• then exited President Kennedy's throat, just on the centerline bottom edge of the President's “Adam’s apple.” This neck front wound was described in an 11-22-63 afternoon press conference by the Parkland trauma room #1 emergency physician, Doctor Malcolm Perry, after he attended to the frontal throat wound, as being an entrance wound. Doctor Perry stated the neck front wound was an entrance wound three times during the press conference. Importantly, within 19 hours of his press conference statement, doctor Perry described via telephone to one of the three U.S. Navy Bethesda Hospital autopsist that the neck front wound was originally only "3 to 5 millimeters" (which the autopsist wrote down) in circular width before doctor Perry attended to the front wound),

• then passed through his shirt,

• then nicked President Kennedy's tie-knot,

• then passed through Governor Connally’s suit coat and shirt just below and behind his right armpit,

• then entered Connally's back just below and behind his right armpit, (creating an elliptical wound, indicating that bullet was fired from an acute angle to the entrance wound, or, the bullet had turned somewhat sideways before creating the elliptical wound),

• then destroyed 5" of a Connally right ribcage bone as it smashed through his chest interior, while leaving behind lead fragments,

• then exited slightly below his right nipple, creating a 4" sucking-air open chest wound while leaving behind lead fragments,

• then passed through Connally’s shirt and suit coat front, seen in commission photos 5” to the right of the suit coat right lapel, and even with the lowest point of the right lapel,

• then entered through Connally's right upper wrist, (but did not first pass through his suit coat nor shirt wrist area)

• then broke his wrist bone depositing lead fragments,

• then exited the palm side of Connally’s wrist,

• then entered his left thigh,

• then buried itself 2" into Connally’s left thigh muscles

• then deposited a bullet fragment in Connally's left thigh bone (that is still buried with him)

• ....then, at Parkland Hospital, this "magic bullet" reversed its path 2” and backed out of Connally's left thigh muscles,

• then this "magic bullet" fell out of Connally's thigh wound,

• then this "magic bullet" landed on a stretcher at Parkland Hospital,

• then this "magic bullet" wedged itself between the stretcher frame and stretcher horizontal cloth material of a stretcher --a stretcher that --according to the man who found this "magic bullet" --was NOT even the stretcher that Connally had ever laid upon.

In fact, all 3 persons who first handled and saw this round-nosed "magic bullet" on 22 November 1963 refused to identify CE399 ''as the more-pointed-nose bullet they stated that they each observed/touched at Parkland Hospital.

According to all documentation, there were no thread striations (fine lines created/etched onto a bullet tip and/or copper side casing when the bullet tip first contacts/penetrates clothing threads), there was no blood, no human matter, nor any pieces of clothing found on this, truly, "magic bullet"

After this theorized journey, causing seven wounds while breaking two bones and depositing lead fragments along the way, the "magic bullet" appears nearly pristine; its tip was still perfectly round (a small slice was later removed for analysis), its body is very slightly flattened and very slightly curved on only one of six rotated views side, has rifling barrel grooves clearly visible. Only a very small amount of lead was missing from the open bottom of the still intact copper jacket. This “magic bullet“ had lost only a, measured, 1.5% of its original average weight.

Several of the exact same type 6.5 mm test bullets were fired by the Warren Commission investigators. The test bullet that matched the “magic bullet slight side flattening the most was a bullet that had only been fired into a thick layer of cotton.

The Warren Commission labeled this bullet CE399. It is currently stored in the National Archives, but not on public display.

Two fragments found in the front seat area of the limousine were theorized by the Warren Commission to be from one fatal bullet shot into President Kennedy‘s head.

However, unlike the "magic bullet," which passed through more layers, of much denser ribcage and wrist bones, the theorized single fatal head shot bullet fragmented into several large pieces, and deposited over 43 bullet fragments within the President's head.

The largest of these head fragments, a conveniently-sized, 6.5 mm, nearly-round fragment is seen on x-rays-in-evidence at the rear of President Kennedy's head, but it is embedded on the outermost table of the skull (after a theorized entrance speed of 1850 to 2000 feet-per-second). It‘s specific anatomical embedded location is over 3" above the 1964 Warren Commission theorized entry point and less than 1" below the 1979 House Select Committee on Assassinations theorized entry point. This 6.5 mm conveniently-sized fragment visible on the x-rays-in-evidence was never referenced once in any part of the Warren Commission report, never asked about by any Warren Commissioner or commission investigator, and never testified to by any of the Bethesda autopsists in their 1964 Warren Commission testimonies, even though the autopsists viewed a set of x-rays the evening of 11-22-63, and they removed two head fragments that were smaller in size than this conveniently-sized 6.5 mm fragment.

Only after the first shots were fired did the gravity of the situation became clear to Bill Greer, the Secret Service limousine driver. Greer testified that during the assassination after he turned for the first time and was facing the rear seating compartment, he briefly felt some concussive pressure on his face, which may possibly have been caused by the bow shockwave of a passing bullet that narrowly missed hitting anyone. Greer had rapidly turned his head (for the second time) and was facing the President when the limousine brake lights illuminated a micro-second before the president's head first exploded. Only after President Kennedy was struck in the head did Greer execute the lone evasive action he took when the limousine sped up to go to Parkland Hospital.

No radio or television stations are known to have broadcast the assassination live, as the area the motorcade was traveling through was not considered important enough to broadcast. KBOX-AM did recreate the sounds of the shooting for an LP record it released with excerpts of news coverage of that day, but it was not an original recording. Most media crews were, in fact, waiting in anticipation at the Trade Mart.

Lee Harvey Oswald was confronted by a revolver-pointing Dallas policeman in the depository second floor lunchroom only 76 to 90 seconds after the last shot, after, supposedly, traveling a minimum 346' distance from the, supposed, "snipers lair," and hiding the 8 pound 1938-Italian made “Mannlicher-Carcano” 6.5 mm rifle along the way. (the rifle was discovered and photographed at 1:22 PM balanced on its bottom edges) In the second floor lunchroom Oswald was vouched for by the superintendent of the building, Roy Truly, and released. Both Baker and Truly testified that Oswald appeared calm, cool, normal, and was not out of breath. In one of Baker's written statements about this encounter, Baker crossed-out words indicating that he saw Oswald with a "Coca-Cola" bottle in his hand during the encounter.

According to the Warren Commission, Oswald was next seen by a secretary on the first floor carrying a soda bottle as he left the Texas School Book Depository at approximately 12:33 through its front door.

Despite the Warren Commission theory that the only source of gunfire was from one depository window, the depository itself was not sealed by the police until 12:39 to 12:40 PM. (Policeman, detectives, witnesses, and others were busy running towards and searching the grassy knoll, parking lot, and railroad yard from 12:30 to 12:39 PM)

At 1:00 PM, after a bus and taxi ride (a taxi ride that Oswald first offered to an elderly woman), Oswald arrived back at his boarding room and according to his landlady, left at 1:03 or 1:04 PM when she last saw him standing and still waiting at a bus stop.

At 1:15 to 1:16 PM, Dallas police officer J. D. Tippit was shot dead 0.85 mile from Oswald's rooming house. The Warren Commission saw enough evidence to believe that Oswald alone had shot Tippit, even though several witnesses place two persons at the Tippit killing site.

The situation at Parkland Hospital had deteriorated. Even as the press contingent grew, a Roman Catholic priest had been summoned for President Kennedy so that his Last Rites might be performed. It had become apparent to those inside the hospital that President Kennedy was already dead and he was pronounced dead at 1:00 PM. Governor Connally, meanwhile, was soon taken to emergency surgery where he underwent 2 operations that day.

The news of President Kennedy's death was made public at 1:38 PM. News anchor Walter Cronkite passed along word of the president’s death, and, uncharacteristically, nearly wept on camera when he said, "From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official, President Kennedy died (removes his eyeglasses) at 1:00 p.m., central standard time, 2:00 eastern standard time, (looks up to his right) some 38 minutes ago. (pauses, replaces eyeglasses, somberly grimaces, clears throat) Vice President Lyndon Johnson has left the hospital in Dallas, but we do not know to where he has proceeded. Presumably, he will be taking the oath of office shortly, and become the 36th President of the United States." Cronkite remained in the network studio for another 72 hours straight after the assassination, delivering news related to the assassination.

For approximately three days after November 22, all three major U.S. television networks remained fixed to news coverage. Most radio stations carried either news or 'beautiful music', in a show of respect. Some have pointed to the John F. Kennedy assassination as a coming of age of sorts for television news.

According to the Warren Report, Lee Harvey Oswald had attempted to hide in the “Texas Theater” at about 1:45 PM (even though a concessionaire stated he saw Oswald enter at 1:07 to 1:10 PM), by ducking into the theater without paying while the box office attendant was distracted. Several theater witnesses stated the watched Oswald move to several different seats locations to sit next to different patrons, as if he was looking to meet someone he had pre-arranged to meet in the dark theater.

A store manager, Johnny Brewer, who had heard the radio reports that included a brief description of a suspect, watched Oswald come into his shoe store a few minutes earlier while nearby police car sirens wailed nearby. Brewer followed Oswald after Oswald left the store. Oswald went into the theater without paying (Oswald had $13.87 in cash), and Brewer told the box office attendant. The Dallas police were notified, then the Dallas police radio dispatcher alerted nearby units to apprehend this 75 cent ticket non-payer.

Almost two dozen policeman, sheriffs, and detectives in several patrol cars responded. When an arrest attempt was made inside the theater, Oswald punched a patrolman, pulled a revolver from his waist and -according to the police- attempted to shoot a patrolman.

A few minutes after 2:00 PM, rather than undergoing a forensic examination by the Dallas coroner, and against Texas state laws (the murder of the President was still a state crime, and legally occurred under Texas jurisdiction) President Kennedy's body was illegally removed from Parkland Hospital to be driven to Air Force One, after Secret Service agent’s threats and at gunpoint.

The murder of the President of the United States was, then, a state crime. A few minutes after 2:00 PM, rather than undergoing a Texas state laws mandated forensic examination by the qualified and very experienced Parkland Hospital coroner, and only after almost 15 minutes of Secret Service agent’s anxious cursing, physical threats and shoving, and after at least one observed agent reaching into his coat as if to suggest the presence of an available weapon there, President Kennedy’s body was illegally removed from Parkland Hospital, quickly loaded in a hearse, and the President and Mrs. Kennedy were driven to Air Force One.

Back at Air Force One, Vice-President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as the thirty-sixth President of the United States at 2:38 PM local time. Mrs. Kennedy stood by Johnson during the oath, after refusing to change her blood-stained clothes with her words ‘’Let them see what they have done.’’

At about 7:00 PM Oswald was charged with killing Tippit. Later in the evening Oswald was charged with assassinating President Kennedy. (the original arrest report stated murder in the furtherance of a communist conspiracy)

Given the opportunistic spotlight of the world's attention, rather than admit to doing anything, rather than explaining his, supposed, political cause(s), and rather than explain the assassination motive, etc., Oswald always consistently denied shooting anyone, and strongly stated, "I'm just a patsy."

Two days later, after 15 hours of officially un-documented interrogations, Jack Ruby — a Dallas nightclub owner, former F.B.I. informant, illegal-guns-runner to Cuba, illegal-drugs-runner, and mafia gangster — silenced Oswald forever when he shot and killed him in the basement of the Dallas jail while Oswald was being transferred to a nearly-next-door jail.

Millions watched Oswald's silencing on national television. It was the first-ever televised murder on live tv.

The route that Ruby took to get down into the basement has been disputed, with one route clearly indicating Ruby had to have had help from authorities inside the building.

Ruby later stated he killed Oswald to spare Jacqueline Kennedy the stress and embarrassment a trial would cause her and her family, yet, early-on, Ruby expressed to others that the people would see him as a hero and/or that "Jews have guts."

A nation mourns

Across the United States, the Kennedy assassination brought normal activity to a halt. The New York Times reported on November 23 that in New York, the news spread by radio, television, even word of mouth; men and women wept openly. So many phone calls were placed in the New York phone exchange that operators were forced to refuse calls. People instinctively clustered in department stores and prayed; Broadway cancelled its Friday night shows. Traffic in some areas came to halts as the news of Kennedy's death spread literally from car to car. A small, unguided anger against 'Texas and Texans' was reported from some individuals.

Many sporting events were cancelled on that Friday and into the following weekend. NFL football was not cancelled that weekend, and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle later called that the biggest mistake he ever made.

Televised worldwide, President John F. Kennedy was carried to Arlington National Cemetery on November 25, 1963 on the same horse-drawn caisson that carried President Lincoln. President Kennedy was followed by the Kennedy family (except for his ill father), and at least one representative from every nation except Communist China and Albania.

List of Witnesses to the Assassination

Known Witnesses

• Abraham Zapruder - Filmed the shooting with his movie camera. A note from a secret service agent of 22 November 1963 said that Zapruder stated he heard shots originate from behind himself (behind Zapruder was the picket fence and triple overpass areas of the Dealey Plaza grassy knoll).
• James Tague - An Air Force veteran who was also wounded during the assassination. Tague testified he thought he was wounded with the second or third shot he remembered hearing, and when pressed for which shot, he testified it was the second shot that he was struck with. A street curb about 20' away from Tague was impacted during the assassination and left behind bullet lead but no copper from a bullet sheath. It was not until May and June of 1964 that the growing public awareness of Tague’s wounding forced all investigating authorities to completely revise their original 3-shots theory of 3 impacts/8 wounds, to a theory of 2 impacts/1 missed shot/8 wounds.
• Roy Kellerman - Secret Service agent riding in the limousine front passenger seat testified that after he remembered hearing his first shot, the assassination ended in a "flurry of shells" coming into the limousine that reminded him of a jet sonic-boom sound quickness. Kellerman, who was the nearest agent to the President during the attack, testified to the Warren Commissioners, "I am going to say that I have, from the firecracker report and the two other shots that I know, those were three shots. But, Mr. Specter, if President Kennedy had from all reports four wounds, Governor Connally three, there have got to be more than three shots, gentlemen."
• Lee Bowers - Railroad yard switching supervisor in a 14' tall tower overlooking the parking area behind the grassy knoll who testified that he saw two men lingering near the picket fence east corner, and two other men at the far west end of the picket fenceline just before the motorcade arrived. Bowers had also observed three civilian cars drive through the depository parking lot in the minutes leading up to the assassination. One car driver seemed to have a microphone or radio held up to his mouth. In 1966 Bowers stated he was attracted by a flash of light, or smoke, or something, to look specifically towards the Dealey Plaza grassy knoll east side corner area at the instant of the assassination when he remembered hearing 3 shots. Bowers, like many of the witnesses said the last 2 shots he remembered hearing were bunched noticeably closer together than the first 2 shots he remembered hearing.
• George Hickey - Secret Service agent riding in the Secret Service followup car wrote in his Treasury Department statement, "As IOO-X made the turn and proceeded a short distance I heard what seemed to me that a firecracker exploded to the right and rear. I stood partially up and turned to the rear to see if I could observe anything. Nothing was observed and I turned around and looked at the President's car. The President was slumped to the left in the car and I observed him come up. I heard what appeared to be two shots and it seemed as if the right side of his head was hit and his hair flew forward." and "I heard two reports which I thought were shots and that appeared to me completely different in sound than the first report and were in such rapid succession that there seemed to be practically no time element between them." In the Zapruder film we can see that Hickey first turns to the rear at Z-195, and, in the famous Altgens photo captured at Z-255 Hickey is still facing hard to the rear. (Warren Commission Volume 18, page 761)
• Forest Sorrels - Secret Service Dallas Office Special Agent In Charge riding in a lead car, even with the picket fence corner at the assassination start, approximately 140' in front of President Kennedy, who wrote in his SS report dated 28NOV63, (and is also detailed in Warren Commission Volume 21, page 548) "I looked towards the top of the terrace to my right as the sound of the shots seemed to come from that direction."
• Charles Brehm - World War II, D-Day U.S. Army Ranger veteran who is quoted as saying just minutes after the assassination that the shots seemed to come from in front of, or, beside the President ("Dallas Times Herald" newspaper, 11-22-63, final edition). Brehm also later stated that he watched something fly left and behind the President to land at the curb near Brehm when the President's head exploded, and, like several other witnesses who saw the President, Brehm heard another separate shot after the President's head had already exploded ("Rush to Judgment" documentary & book, 1966).
• Robert W. Hargis - Dallas Policeman presidential limousine motorcycle escort riding slightly in back of the President and to the President’s left (14 linear feet away) at the instant the President’s head first exploded was quoted 11-22-63 in the 11-23-63 “New York Daily News” newspaper, (page 1, column 4) "...then, I saw the president's head explode. Then, I felt something hit me, which could have been concrete. I thought at first I might have been hit." The right side of Hargis’s safety helmet, the exposed portion of his face, and his uniform was covered with blood and pieces of the President’s head.
• Rosemary Willis - Clearly seen in the Zapruder film, at the start of the assassination she was running with and facing the limousine on her right, then circa Zapruder film frame 190 (hereafter "Z-190"), she stops running and then slightly turns her head to face the west side of the depository. After the sitting upright president is hidden by the "Stemmons Freeway" traffic sign in the Zapruder film, she suddenly, very rapidly, beginning at Z-214 snaps her head 90 degrees westward within only 0.16 second to face Abraham Zapruder and the Dealey Plaza grassy knoll. Precisely 0.55 second after her headsnap towards Zapruder/grassy knoll, President Kennedy emerges back into view --sitting upright-- with his face and arms already reacting to being shot. She also told the HSCA committee that while she was still facing the grassy knoll picket fence she saw a person quickly drop down out of sight, behind a wall.
• Phillip Willis - A U.S. Air Force officer veteran who testified that he was prepared to capture a photo then he was suddenly startled by the first audible gun shot he remembered hearing. His short-timed startle reaction caused him to inadvertently capture that photo. His photo timing corresponds to Z-202, when President Kennedy, still sitting upright, begins to be hidden from view by the "Stemmons Freeway" traffic sign in the Zapruder film.
• Hugh Betzner Jr. - Captured a photo at Z-186, then quickly started to advance the film, when he heard the first audible shot he remembered hearing. Importantly, relative to the Betzner and Willis photos timings, a large live-oak tree foliage and branches hid President Kennedy from clear view of any, supposed, assassin shooting from the Warren Commission snipers lair from Z-162 until Z-208.
• William Sr., Gayle, William Jr., and James Newman - Closest non-limousine witnesses standing on the Elm Street sidewalk only 20' to President Kennedy's right when the right side of his head exploded. To this day, Bill and Gayle maintain that they each heard at least one audible shot that originated from behind them. (behind the Newman's facing direction was the picket fence and triple overpass areas of the Dealey Plaza grassy knoll). Not called to give their testimony before the Warren Commission.
• Jean Hill - "The lady in red" who was standing across from the grassy knoll and stated she remembered hearing 4 to 6 shots. In her testimony she also stated that she was told that an "agent" watching nearby had seen a bullet hit near her feet. (again-even though no “agents” were officially stationed within/near the plaza) (Warren Commission Volume 6, page 206)
• Sam Holland - Railroad supervisor who was on the "triple overpass" in front of the limousine, standing with several other witnesses who also stated hearing at least one shot that came from the grassy knoll picket fence and saw gun smoke lingering there (Warren Commission Volume 6, page 244). This gun smoke is possibly seen in a movie film captured by reporter Dave Wiegman, Jr.
• Mary Moorman - stated she heard another shot or two after taking her famous polaroid picture at Z-315/316, that was captured after the President's head had already exploded at Z-313.
• Howard Brennan - sitting some 100' directly south of the depository who saw an assassin in the depository sixth-floor easternmost window with a rifle minutes before the assassination. During the assassination he saw a man in the same window fire one time towards the limousine (Warren Commission Volume 3, page 141). On 11-22-63 Brennan did not police-lineup identify Oswald as an assassin even after admitting to seeing Oswald on tv before, supposedly, attending an 11-22-63 evening police lineup (no police lineup record exists listing Brennan's name as having attended).
• Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis - said she saw a piece of the President's skull be detached, yet, her head and eyes were not in a position to allow her to see his head top until almost 1 second after the President's head first exploded. She also climbed onto the left rear of the limousine trunk and quickly picked up a piece of headmatter which she gave to a Parkland Doctor.
• Governor John Connally - testified he remembered hearing a shot -knew immediately it was a rifle shot- turned his head to try and see the president, could not see him so he started to turn back to his left, then he was hit while facing limo-forward (but did not hear that shot), then he screamed, “No, no, no! They are going to kill us all!,“ then he remembered hearing another audible shot.
• Nellie Connally - testified she remembered hearing a shot, then she turned toward President Kennedy and then saw him with his hands already at his throat, then there was a second shot that hit John Connally to which John Connally immediately screamed, “No, no, no! They are going to kill us all!,“ then Nellie remembered hearing another shot and the limousine rear interior (and front hood, rear trunk lid, and surrounding persons and area as far away as 117' distant, not including Tague) was immediately covered with the President's headmatter and/or blood.
• William Harper - A medical student who on 11-23-63 discovered a large piece of President Kennedy's skull bone (refered to as the "Harper fragment") in the grass south of Elm Street. Where Harper diagramed he found the skull piece was 117' forward of the President's Z-313 location, to the left side of the limousine but to the right side of President Kennedy's facing direction. A theorized straightline flightpath of the "Harper fragment" back through the President at Z-313, continues straight back in a theorized bullet trajectory that intersects the west side sixth-floor depository windows --not the Warren Commission eastern-most snipers lair. Just before the assassination a witness testified that he observed a second rifle-armed assassin through a west window.
• Rufus Youngblood - Secret Service agent riding with Vice-President Johnson who stated he remembered hearing 3 shots (and like a large majority of witnesses said the last 2 shots were bunched noticeably closer in time than the first 2 shots). Stated that after the first shot he remembered hearing, he quickly turned and pushed LBJ down and climbed over front seat into back on top of LBJ before the second shot he remembered hearing, yet in the famous Ike Altgens photo taken at Z-255 --only 3.4 seconds before the President's head first exploded-- Youngblood and LBJ are still sitting upright, and Youngblood is still in the front seat
• James Eugene Braden (a.k.a. "Eugene Hale Brading") mafia-connected, multiply-convicted felon on parole who was soon arrested by the Dallas Police after being reported acting suspiciously while inside the Dal-Tex building, which was right next-to and across the street from the depository sixth-floor, supposed, snipers lair. (In 1968 Braden/Brading was also registered the at a hotel within only miles of Robert F. Kennedy on the same night when RFK was murdered. Los Angeles authorities took him in for questioning then, also)

Unknown or Disputed Witnesses

• An American who met with Sylvia Odio and two anti-Castro Cubans in late September 1963. At the time of this meeting Lee Harvey Oswald was (according to the Warren Commission) riding on a bus towards Mexico City, Mexico. One of the anti-Castro Cubans called Odio back a day or two after the initial meeting and said that the American was a bit crazy and told Odio that the American said that Kennedy should be killed because of the Bay of Pigs. On 11-22-63 Odio recognized the American to be Lee Harvey Oswald.
• A man photographed by the C.I.A. leaving the Russian embassy in Mexico City who the C.I.A. initially identified as Lee Harvey Oswald, but who, clearly, is not Oswald.
• A man who resembled Lee Harvey Oswald seen before the assassination several times (once with a very large bearded man who drove) at a Dallas practice range shooting a rifle.
• Two men who were seen with rifles near Dealey Plaza on 11-20-63. The police were called, but when they arrived the men were gone.
• A witness who stated that between 9:30 and 10:00 AM on 11-22-63 “I looked over on the railroad bridge and I saw three men, and I thought I saw two of them carrying guns, long guns. I glanced to my left to check traffic, and then looked back, because even in Texas it’s unusual to see people carrying long guns.”
• A tall, large man seen by two witnesses wearing a suit and carrying a gun case towards Dealey Plaza the morning of the assassination
• "a plainclothes detective or FBI agent, or something like that” who a witness stated was helping some Dallas policeman dressed men guard the "triple overpass" at 10:30 AM before the assassination (even though no "agent(s)" were ordered to be there)
• A man seen by Julia Murcer at about 10:50 AM before the assassination removing what she said was a gun case from the back of a pickup truck parked up on the Elm Street north curb next to the grassy knoll. On 11-23-63 Murcer identified the driver of the pickup truck as Jack Ruby (the day before Ruby silenced Oswald)
• A rifle-armed assassin seen leaning out the depository sixth-floor east window with the weapon staring southwestward towards the Dealey Plaza grassy knoll just before and after the "epileptic man" episode
• A second rifle-armed assassin seen in a depository sixth-floor west window at 12:16
• The "epileptic man" who at 12:17-12:18 started having an epileptic fit near the southwest corner of Houston and Elm Streets. Some persons contend this was a deliberate distraction so other assassins could get into position, while simultaneously drawing attention away from assassins’ buildings locations, while other persons think this was a man named Jerry T. Belknap.
• Lee Harvey Oswald who depository employee and motorcade witness Carolyn Arnold told respected researcher Anthony Summers she saw Oswald sitting in the depository second-floor lunchroom at 12:15 to 12:20 PM eating his lunch. President Kennedy was scheduled to drive by the depository at 12:25 PM.
• A second accomplice man seen by several witnesses standing near an armed assassin in the depository sixth-floor east window
• A person movie-filmed in the depository sixth-floor east window moving upward just as the Presidential limousine started turning from Houston Street onto Elm Street only seconds before the assassination started
• The "babushka lady" - many years after the assassination Beverly Oliver claimed to be this witness standing near Brehm. Oliver claims to have made an amateur movie film of the assassination, but her film was confiscated by an agent afterwards
• The "umbrella man" - In 1978 Louis Witt first came forward and claimed to be this assassination witness and gave testimony at the HSCA hearings that he was there to heckle the President, but he was not involved in any conspiracy
• The "accomplice" a.k.a. the "dark complected man" seen standing close to the "umbrella man." One second this man, who some say looks like a Cuban, is just standing there as the President is approaching him, then, within 1.3 seconds, as the President begins to react with his hands towards his throat, this man shoots his right arm upwards like a wave, but he does not wave his hand. Some think he was signaling at least one assassin that more shots were needed
• An armed assassin photographed in a second floor Dal-Tex window captured during the assassination
• A person and/or rifle seen by several witnesses in the depository sixth-floor east window during the assassination (one witness, Brennan, said he saw the rifle fire once)
• An assassin who Jean Hill said she caught a glimpse of firing and his gun smoke, located behind the grassy knoll picket fence, about 9' west of the fenceline corner (exactly where the HSCA recreated a shot which matched the gunshot impulse found on the dictabelt police recording, and where the Mary Moorman polaroid shows something or someone there that is not present in photos & films captured only seconds later)
• An assassin who was wearing a suit and a hat that witness Ed Hoffman claims was facing away from Hoffman, then the man quickly leaned up and over the picket fence, then a puff of smoke appeared, then the man turned with a rifle and immediately ran westward along the picket fenceline (his running may be seen in a movie film), then tossed the rifle to an accomplice dressed like a railroad worker, then he walked away from the picket fence
• The "railroad worker" dressed accomplice who caught the rifle from the picket fence hatted assassin, who ran behind a large utility box, broke the rifle into 2 pieces, then hid the pieces in a bag, then also walked away from the picket fence northward.
• An assassin who told a mafia Godfather he fired one shot from the Elm Street north curb sewer opening to the front and right of the President, and he said another assassin fired from the Dal-Tex building
• The "badge man" - supposed image of a Dallas police uniformed assassin elevated behind the picket fence who a few think shot over the retaining wall corner, towards the President ("seen" in enhanced versions of the Mary Moorman polaroid photo captured a micro-second after the President's head first exploded)
• In 1978 Gordon Arnold claimed to have been asked twice by an "agent" (even though no “agents” were officially ordered to be within/near the plaza) to move away from behind the fence on the grassy knoll before the assassination. Arnold claimed that during the assassination while he was shooting an amateur movie film, a bullet fired from behind him whizzed close to his left side. Arnold also claimed that a revolver-armed Dallas police uniformed man kicked him, demanded then took his assassination movie film after the shooting, while a close-by crying "badge man" looked on while waving a rifle around.
• The "railroad man" - supposed image of a man in a white shirt and a construction hardhat standing near the "badge man" but looking towards the school book depository ("seen" in enhanced versions of the Mary Moorman polaroid photo captured a micro-second after the President's head first exploded)
• The "black dog man" - image of a person very close to or leaning on the retaining wall on the grassy knoll. The HSCA determined he/she was a white person
• A black man and black woman that Marilyn Sitzman stated she saw sitting on the retaining wall bench sharing their lunch just before the assassination. Sitzman said that seconds after the President's head exploded she heard one of their soda pop bottles break and the black couple ran away into the parking lot
• The "s.o.b. man" in front of the President holding a homemade sign that read "JFK S.O.B." Some think this man looks Cuban.
• A "running man" who witness Jessie Price said he watched running northeastward through the depository parking lot, carrying something away from the grassy knoll
• A man photographed looking out of a depository sixth-floor west window only seconds after the assassination
• An anxious woman who was apprehended in the depository parking lot trying to drive away right afterwards. She was turned over to the Dallas Sheriff's office for questioning, yet no record exists of her arrest, her statements, nor the car she had parked near the grassy knoll picket fence
• A man who right after the assassination was seen running out the depository back door, then running away from Dealey Plaza
• A woman who screamed to policeman Joe Smith "They're shooting the President from the bushes!"
• A man near the Dealey Plaza groundskeeper where both watched from the grassy knoll steps who told the groundskeeper only seconds afterwards to lay down because they were shooting the President from the bushes
• An "agent" who policeman Joe Smith encountered behind the grassy knoll picket fence shortly after the shots, who flashed Smith a secret service card (even though no “agents” were officially ordered to be within/near the plaza) Smith also testified he smelled gunpowder
• An "agent" who stopped witness Malcolm Summers and other witnesses from entering behind the grassy knoll into the depository parking lot and told them to stop because they may get shot. Summers said he saw a weapon semi-hidden under the "agents" coat. (even though no “agents” were officially ordered to be within/near the plaza)
• An "agent" who watched a bullet strike near the feet of witness Jean Hill (even though no “agents” were officially ordered to be within/near the plaza)
• An "agent" who told Jean Hill that another "agent" had watched a bullet strike near the feet of witness Jean Hill
• Several "agents" who a Dallas policeman testified were at the depository back door only minutes afterwards. These "agents" were dressed in suits, and armed, and, when they first saw the policeman, without being asked, quickly identified themselves to the policeman as "agents" even though no official record places any "agents" on the Dealey Plaza grounds before or during the assassination, until afterwards starting at about 1:00 PM
• A man who a Dallas Sheriff's detective saw run from near the depository to a station wagon minutes after the assassination who the detective said looked like Lee Harvey Oswald
• A "running man" who off-duty policeman Tom Tilson said he watched scramble down the west side of the "triple overpass" embankment, throw something into a parked car, then drive quickly away from the plaza westward
• A dark suited man seen in 12:39-12:40 PM photos near the Elm Street south curb sewer bending over and seeming to scoop something into his hand, then place it in his suit coat pocket
• The “three tramps” that were found in railroad car boxcar near the depository, then marched to the Dallas jail just at 2:10 PM.
• Several other persons besides the "three tramps" who a Dallas policeman said were arrested in railroad cars after the assassination (F.B.I. document FBI 124-10273-10402)
• A man who was arrested at 2:45 PM after the assassination who said that he was in a jail cell near Oswald and that Oswald talked to him

Details from a small portion of the known witnesses can be found here.

One of the better scaled maps of Dealey Plaza showing witnesses locations and observations, suspected assassins locations, evidentiary artifacts, and other valuable information can be found here.

Shots Sequencing and Origins

Of 267 witnesses who expressed or were asked the number of shots they remembered hearing, 249 (93%) claimed to hear only 3 shots (or 3 closely spaced volleys of shots) or less.

The majority of witnesses, from one end of the plaza to the other, said that the last two shots (or volleys of shots) that they remembered hearing were noticeably closer together, than the first two shots (or volleys of shots).

Of 207 witnesses who expressed or were asked from where the shots they remembered hearing came from (60 witnesses were never asked nor expressed an opinion)

• 34 could not tell (16%)

• 63 heard all shots they remembered hearing come from the depository or the Houston/Elm intersection area of the depository (31%)

• 110 remembered hearing at least one shot that did not come from the depository or the Houston/Elm intersection area (53%)

Therefore, of the 173 persons who had an opinion of the shots locations, 64% remembered hearing at least one shot that did not come from the depository or the Houston/Elm intersection area, while 36% heard all shots they remembered hearing come from the depository or the Houston/Elm intersection area of the depository.

Investigations into the assassination

Many people dispute the claim that Oswald was an assassin, or, the sole assassin. The first official investigation of the matter, the Warren Commission, was created by President Lyndon B. Johnson on November 29, 1963 to investigate the assassination. It was headed by Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. It eventually reported its conclusion that Oswald assassinated Kennedy and, further, that he acted alone, and that the commission did not find any persuasive evidence of a domestic or foreign conspiracy involving anyone else. The theory that Oswald acted alone has been informally dubbed the lone gunman theory. The proceedings of the commission members were secret.

As of 2004 some of the Warren Commission files have yet to be released for the public.

A later official investigation by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, during the late 1970s, concluded that President Kennedy had been assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.

This conclusion was based in part, but not entirely upon, the scientific analysis of a Dallas Police radio channel Dictabelt tape recorded during the assassination by a motorcade Dallas police motorcycle escort officer's stuck open microphone.

The Dallas Police dictabelt was analyzed and found to contain gunshots impulses fired at Kennedy's motorcade. The analysis scientifically determined, to a 95% near-certainty, the sound of four definite gunshots impulses that were fired (and a possible fifth gunshot impulse). The HSCA stated in its final report that the third gunshot of the four gunshots was fired from the Dealey Plaza grassy knoll.

After some feedback from a rock n' roll band drummer listening to a tenth generation copy of the Dallas police recorded dictabelt in the July, 1979 "Gallery" pornographic magazine, the Committee on Ballistic Acoustics performed an analysis. In 1982 the Committee on Ballistic Acoustics claimed that the suspected grassy knoll shot on the Dallas police recorded dictabelt recording really occurred about a minute after the assassination when the Dallas Police Chief Jessie Currie said, "Get men on top of that over-... underpass. See what happened up there. Go up to the overpass," then Dallas Sheriff Bill Decker (riding next to Curry right next to the Dealey Plaza grassy knoll during the shots) said, "Tell my men to empty the jail, and up on the railroad, uh, right-of-way there."

An analysis published in the March, 2001 "Science and Justice" by Dr. Donald Thomas used a different synchronous tie-together Dallas policeman transmission on the police radio recorded dictabelt to establish that the National Academy of Sciences panel was in error. Dr. Thomas's scientific conclusion, very similar to the HSCA scientific conclusion, is that the gunshots impulses are real, to a 96.3% scientific certainty.

Dr. Thomas presented additional details and support in November, 2001, more in September, 2002, and more in November, 2002.

A November, 2003 analysis paid-for by the cable television channel Court TV, responded that the supposed gunshot sounds did not match test gunshot recordings fired on Dealey Plaza any better than random noise. [1]

Dr. Thomas soon responded in December, 2003 to the "Court TV" analysis, pointing out "Court TV" errors.

As of 2004 many of the HSCA files have yet to be released for the public.

By law, all files deemed assassination-related will be made available to the public by 2017.

On May 19, 2044, the 50th anniversary of the death of Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, there will be a 500-page transcript of an oral history about John F. Kennedy given by Mrs. Kennedy released to the public by the Kennedy library.

Hundreds of studies of the evidence artifacts in the Kennedy assassination have been performed over the years - they have reached as many conclusions about what happened and why. From the Dictabelt recording, eyewitness accounts, testimonials, an unidentified fingerprint found in the, supposed, "snipers lair," and much other physical and scientific evidence...nearly every "important" piece of evidence has been questioned since the assassination.

Security failures

The Secret Service (and general security surrounding the President) as it existed in 1963 was very lax by today's standards, and made it much easier for an assassin to kill the President. The Warren Commission's Report, chapter 8, goes to some length to detail flaws in Secret Service security at the time of the assassination. Procedures in place and events of the day presented large holes into which Lee Harvey Oswald, or any potential assassin, could slip. These included:

• Not telling Dallas police, specifically, who 'authorized personnel' were, to stand on bridges or overpasses
• Not having in place the policy of searching buildings on the path of a motorcade, when said motorcade is announced 'only a few days in advance'
• Not properly/thoroughly checking the backgrounds of those in potential close contact with the President - that program was new and undermanned in 1963
• Assuming that security measures taken in a 1936 Roosevelt visit to Dallas could be used to model Kennedy's visit
• Generally insufficient personnel to accomplish the task at hand of planning and executing the motorcade
• Incomplete coordination of information with other government bodies, such as the FBI; the Secret Service had no significant information about Lee Harvey Oswald
• Not having a car with a bulletproof top available for the president (no such car had existed for the White House since 1953 because such a car would have a top difficult to add and remove on demand)
• Allowing the president enough leeway to plan a route which put him in harm's way
• Letting the motorcade slow down substantially at a curve - which gave a gunman ample opportunity for a shot

In short, the ease with which President Kennedy was assassinated may as easily be explained by the simple failure of a government organization to see a problem, as by any conspiracy theory.

As one might imagine, significant changes occurred within the Secret Service organization and procedures as a direct result of the Kennedy Assassination and the Warren Commission's report, such that a recurrence was much less likely.

The Zapruder film

Kennedy's last seconds of life through Dealey Plaza was recorded on silent 8mm film before, during, and immediately following the assassination by amateur cameraman Abraham Zapruder, in what became known as the Zapruder film. Depending on the study, this film has been used to prove that Oswald was the sole assassin of Kennedy, or that another gunman or gunmen must have been involved. Although the film graphically depicts the assassination, it does not provide agreed upon evidence either way. As the shots that killed Kennedy struck, the film shows the president first slumping forward in his seat, and then being flung backward in his seat. See Zapruder film for more details about the film in particular.

Conspiracy theories

A number of professional polls taken after the weekend of the assassination, and covering the forty-plus years to present, have consistently shown that 60% to 90% of the people polled do not believe that President Kennedy was killed as the result of a pre-meditated plan and sub-plans formed and implemented by only one assassin - the official conclusion reached by the Warren Commission.

The security around Kennedy's motorcade was not sufficient - a conclusion that the Warren Commission and other investigations confirm. Some believe that the lack of security suggests that the CIA, Secret Service or some other agent or agencies were actively involved in the assassination, rather than simply negligent.

Many people have pointed to the Warren Commission's 'magic bullet' as unlikely. Some ballistic evidence has suggested that such a bullet trajectory was possible, but this particular point is a source of much contention and disagreement. If the 'magic bullet' did not occur, then the entire Warren Commission report is discredited. [1]

The presidential limo was immediately cleaned and repaired instead of being secured as ballistic evidence. Kennedy's body was also immediately taken to Washington, rather than examined by the local coroner first.

A sampling of these individual or combined conspiracy theories follows:

• President Kennedy was going to drop Vice President Lyndon Johnson before the 1964 election, most likely because of the facts that Johnson was being investigated for his criminal involvement in 4 criminal investigations involving government contracts money, bribes, murder, etc., LBJ certainly had motives (All 4 scandals "disappeared" after 11-22-63)[1]

• and/or, Johnson was simply power-hungry, or, was himself an agent of the mob with his own criminal entanglements[1]

• and/or, the C.I.A. killed Kennedy for not backing the Bay of Pigs Invasion the way the C.I.A. wanted it to be backed, afterwhich Kennedy vowed to break the Agency "into a thousand pieces"[1]

• and/or, John Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy (who was also assassinated in 1968 when he ran for President) were killed by the Mafia in retaliation for their increasing crackdowns (10 times the prosecutions under Eisenhower) on organized crime. Documents that the Warren Commission never saw have revealed that the mafia was working very closely with the C.I.A. on, at least, 8 assassination attempts on Fidel Castro. Jimmy Hoffa, Carlos Marcello, and Santo Trafficante Jr seem to "top the list" of the House Assassination Committee[1]. The family of Chicago mobster Sam Giancana claim the Kennedys doublecrossed him after the mafia had helped Kennedy be elected President. Ruby had grown up working for mafia leader Al Capone in Chicago.[1]

• and/or, persons who were politically to the right, specifically oilmen from Texas who stood to lose billion$ of dollars because President Kennedy wanted to discontinue the 29% oil depletion tax credit allowance

• and/or, South Vietnamese President Diem found out in June 1963 that the U.S. was helping his political enemies plan a coup against Diem. If Diem, who was also profiting from facilitating drugs to be shipped from Asia to the French mafia, was ousted, billion$ of drug dollars may be lost. Even though Diem was killed in a coup on 11-2-63, the plans to assassinate Kennedy went ahead for revenge.

• and/or, the U.S. "military industrial complex" that had been preparing for profiting from escalation of the Vietnam war since the French withdrew from Vietnam in 1955 knew that President Kennedy had discussed plans and implemented actions to withdraw U.S. troops from Vietnam.

• and/or, Cuban President Fidel Castro's agents killed Kennedy in retaliation for the many times the C.I.A. and mafia had tried to kill him[1]

• and/or, angry Cuban anti-Castro exiles, some of which had worked with the C.I.A., killed Kennedy for his failure to overthrow Castro's communist dictatorship

• and/or, the KGB carried out the assassination because Kennedy was too aggressively anti-Communist, or to demoralize America

• and/or, the Israeli government was displeased with Kennedy for his pressure about their top-secret nuclear program[1] (see Dimona)

• and/or, the Israelis were angry over Kennedy's employment of Nazis such as Wernher von Braun[1]

• and/or, the Federal Reserve (and the powerful foreign interests that supposedly own it) were threatened by Kennedy's moves to restore precious-metals backing to U.S. currency.[1] (Note that the Secret Service was created as a counter-counterfeiting agency, and remains an organ of the Treasury—a direct line from the Fed to Kennedy's security. The same anti-hard-currency motive is suspected in the Garfield and Lincoln assassinations.[1])

• and/or, Kennedy was killed as part of an elaborate Freemasonic ritual. [1]

Disproving to an absolute certainty any given conspiracy theory about the Kennedy assassination, or, conversely, proving that the Warren Commission's findings were 100% correct, may never be possible. Doing either would require 'evidence' that hasn't emerged in 40 years and is somehow so compelling that all sides can agree to agree upon it. Given the realistic likelihood of this, the real motive(s) behind Kennedy's death (and to a lesser extent, how the murder was accomplished) may never be agreed upon.

See also

• Jim Garrison
• JFK (movie)

External links

• History Matters: most JFK Assassination Records
• Presumed Guilty
• The Ghosts of November
• JFK's wounds as seen by Parkland then Bethesda Witnesses
• Oswald in Mexico City
• The Wounds
• The Secret Service and the JFK Assassination
• The JFK limousine evidence
• JFK: The Puzzle Palace
• JFK Place
• Lancer JFK current Research
• The Clay Shaw Trial
• Shackleford JFK archives
• Deep Politics III & JFK
• Dr. Thomas & JFK dictabelt March 2001
• Dr. Thomas & JFK dictabelt November 2001
• Dr. Thomas & JFK dictabelt September 2002
• Dr. Thomas & JFK dictabelt November 2002
• Dr. Thomas & JFK dictabelt December 2003; Court-tv rebuttal
• Dealey Plaza Accoustics
• Rosemary Willis Headsnap Towards the Grassy Knoll
• Coup D'etat in America
• Oswald
• Two Oswald's
• How 5 Investigations into the Assassination Got It Wrong
• Possible Discovery of Dealey Plaza Rambler
• The Accoustics Evidence
• Deep Politics Quarterly archives
• Cuban anti-Castro archives
• The Snipers Nest
• Dealey Plaza (United Kingdom)
• In Opposition to the Grassy Knoll Shooter
• Harvey & Lee homepage
• Robert Harris Shots Study
• "Farewell America"
• Paul Hoch archives
• JFK Assassination: Smoke and Mirrors
• Murder in the Streets
• JFK assassination sounds page
• The Nook
• Kennedy Assassination Research
• Mellen about Garrison
• The Assassination Web
• What the C.I.A.'s Jane Roman Said
• Summary of Fingerprint Evidence
• Review of the Medical Evidence
• The Lee Harvey Oswald Research Page
• Real History: JFK Assassination archives
• The Secret Team
• When They Kill a President
• The Guns of Dallas
• Kennedy Assassination Home Page
• Dealey Plaza by Yahoo! Maps
• Bertrand Russell's ‘16 Questions’
• A Court TV Forensic File Special on the assassination
• Selections of Dale Myers modeling evidence supporting the single bullet theory
• JFK assassination Encyclopedia
• The Men on the Sixth Floor
• The Oswald Deceptions
• LBJ & His Mistress
• The Taking of America 1-2-3
• Mike Sylwester archives
• The Torbitt Document
• JFK Assassination Research Materials
• Database about the Kennedy assassination
• Physical Evidence of Conspiracy

This is the "John F. Kennedy assassination" reference article from the English Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.