This is the fiftieth anniversary of the Kennedy Assassination. It is hard to believe it has been so many years. I was 15 years old at the time - I remember thinking that we might be attacked by the Soviet Union - that the assassination was the first step in a war.
I listened to a presentation / discussion on the Jack Kennedy Assassination at our local University, USF (University of South Florida in Sarasota).
The presenter was of course a believer in a plot. We watched the Zapruder Film numerous times, which is pretty sickening. It does appear that he was hit from the front, which implies that there were more shooters than just Oswald.
A plot is of course a possibility. I have always been inclined to believe the Warren Commission, which was a true blue ribbon Committee with esteemed leaders - Jerry Ford, Earl Warren, Hale Boggs, and a number of other respected leaders.
Before the session started I talked to a gentleman who believed the assassination was the work of an evil cabal or rich people. He believed they control our country and we do not have a democracy. I asked him who he was talking about - Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, Fords, Kennedys? He replied yes. I think that highly unlikely - most of our rich blue bloods are law abiding folks far removed from assassinating people. I asked him if this was so why did we toggle from Republicans to Democrats and back? Apparently the evil cabal did this so we would not know we were being controlled.
The presenter gave a number of possible candidates for the Assassination. The Soviet Union, China, Cuba, the Mob, the CIA, the Secret Service, the FBI, the US Military.
He believes that Oswald was a fall guy and did not even shoot. He was set up and then killed to silence him. This seems very unlikely to me. If he was a dupe why kill him? And what did Jack Ruby hope to get other than a lifetime in jail?
Our presenter thinks organized crime probably did it. His theory is that they had made a deal with Joe Kennedy to steal the election for JFK and then when RFK began his aggressive prosecution of the mob they were angry and organized the hit. That is a possibility.
It is also possible Castro did this. Kennedy was trying to kill him and Castro may have known this. And the Soviet Union and Communist China were certainly evil empires who routinely killed many people.
But then he added way to many people to his conspiracy theory. The Dallas cops did not have their motorcycle cops next to the car, but to the front and rear. The Secret Service guy was driving too slowly. The route was published. The autopsy was blown. Evidence has been lost. Someone from the Federal Government took the rifle to Dallas into the funeral home and got Oswald's corpse to hold the gun so they would have fingerprints.
The plot he outlined involved way to many people.
I commented that I had worked for the US Military for 32 years. I got a few laughs when I said, "Believe me, your Federal Government is not competent to do all this."
Many years ago I talked to Gunnery Sergeant Hathcock.
He was a renowned Marine sniper in Vietnam. He told us some amazing stories about sniping. But he also said that he could not have made the shot that Oswald did with the rifle that Oswald used. Too poor a weapon, too far, against a moving target.
Oswald was a former Marine and not a very good shot - a marksman I believe, not expert or sharpshooter. And a very strange guy who was a Communist and went to Russia and talked to the Cuban embassy. Interestingly he was in Marine air control in the same MOS that I was in in the Marines.
So what to believe? I don't think a large conspiracy is possible. But could it have been two or three shooters ordered by the mob or communists? That is possible.
And it is also possible that one day we will learn. The people that did this are very old or dead. Someone may spill the beans. Or perhaps the Warren Commission got it right and Oswald acted alone and made some lucky shots.
The web site below contains the Warren Commission report.
archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report
The site below has a lot of info about the assassination.
One thing one must remember following a presentation on the assassination is that you usually hear one side of the story for an hour or more. You have not heard the other side. The blog below makes a persuasive case that the Warren Commission got it right and that Oswald acted alone.
