The JFK Assasination Conspiracy Essay Example for Free

The JFK Assasination Conspiracy Essay The Assassination at Dealy Plaza President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas Texas on November 22nd November as his limousine drove through Dealy Plaza. Thousands of people had lined up to view his motorcade including dressmaker Abraham Zaprieder whose film captured the assassination. This happened at 12.30 pm and the president was immediately rushed to parkland Hospital where, despite all efforts to keep hi alive, he was pronounced dead. The time of his death was 1 pm and against the wishes of the Texas authorities, his body was flown to Washington where a further autopsy was performed at Bethesda Naval Hospital. On the 25th of the same month, JFK was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. What followed next was a series of events that left the entire American pubic asking questions of who killed JFK? Lee Harvey Oswald A former marine and defector to the Soviet Union named Oswald was arrested as a suspect on the same day at 2pm. According to the Oliver Stone movie JFK, the assassin spent his summer of 1963 in New Orleans. The attorney that would later investigate in the JFK murder Jim Garrison theorized Oswald as an outsider and Leninist. Oswald has returned to Dallas in 1962 to live in a milieu with intelligence overtones. He married a KGB official’s niece and questions always arise on how the assassin managed to get a high profile job. He was interrogated the whole weekend and as he was being taken to the county facilities, he got shot and died on National television by a local club owner Jack Ruby. False claims put forward by the warren report do not even center on the president’s murder but on Jack ruby. One claim is that Ruby was alone in the killing and that he entered the police basement with the help of the police department probably through an unlocked staircase. This was actually a contradiction as compared to the story corroborated by four officers one of whom failed a polygraph test. This shows conspiracy and corruption among the police. Even president lyndon was later quoted saying that he has no doubt that Oswald was not alone even though its Oswald who pulled the trigger. The Warren report This was ordered by JFK’s successor Lyndon Johnson on 29th November 1963 on executive order 11130 to investigate the assassination of both the president and his assassin. According to the Warren report, the members in the Commission were: Earl Warren, Chief justice of the United States and attorney general of California. Richard Russell, democratic senator from Georgia, and county attorney in that same state. Hale Boggs, a representative from Louisiana. John Sherman Cooper, Republic senator from Kentucky and United States Ambassador to India. Gerald r. ford, Republican representative from Michigan and Chairman of the House Republican conference. Allen Dulles, lawyer and former director of the Central Intelligence Agency. John J. McCoy, lawyer, former president of the international Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and former United States High Commissioner for Germany. It was assisted by lawyers, Internal Revenue service agents, a senior historian, an editor, and secretarial and administrative personnel who were assigned to the commission by Federal agencies at its request. Officials and the Federal government cooperated with the commission who has power to force witness statements by granting protection from being prosecuted to having the witnesses confess under compulsion, though no immunity was given to witnesses during the investigation. It reviewed reports from the FBI, secret service and held hearings with 552 witnesses. The report was presented to president Lyndon on 24th September 1964 and later on, 26 volumes of the Commission’s hearings were published. All these were put on the National archives and Kennedy’s family donated autopsy reports to the archives which were under limited access, and only recognize experts in pathology are approved by the family’s representatives. Critics came up challenging the report’s findings as it had more controversies yet there were witnesses. Oswald was ruled to have fired three bullets with one missing target, and the remaining two which hit JFK and the governor John Connally. Its not understood how Connally was wounded soon after JFK thus the Single bullet theory which indicated that one bullet hit both men. Kennedy’s aid Kenneth O’Donnell who rode in the motorcade later said that he was pressured by the FBI not to say what he believed that, the gunfire came from the front and not the back as indicated by the report. The Single bullet theory The theory’s proponent was Arlen Specter, the present Pennsylvania senator. The Warren commission took the theory and concluded that Oswald was the lone killer of JFK. It states that one bullet his JFK in the back and exited on is neck, hitting Connally in the back, leg and, wrist.   This has come to be termed as the magic bullet. One bullet missed and the third and fatal one hit Kennedy on the head. Dallas doctors argue that it was an entrance wound but the doctors who actually saw the wound insist that it is an exit wound. Conspiracy authors claim that because of the collar slits, it had to be an entrance wound. Which is also a contradiction because, how can a bullet which was able to penetrate the tracheotomy fail to penetrate Kennedy’s shirt. In Dr. charles Carrico’s statement before the warren report, he said that the wound was above the tie and later on, he says that it was in the â€Å"lower 1/3† of the neck. In the movie JFK, Kevin Costner gives a conspiracy version of this theory, what really happened if Connally was seated in front of Kennedy at the same height and facing ahead? The Garrison Investigation Jim Garrison, a New Orleans District Attorney began investigating the assassination in 1966 after arresting a David Ferrie, a pilot and anti castro activist who was connected to Oswald. This led to the arrest of Clay Shaw, a New Orleans Businessman. Garrison believed that the CIA, anti-Castro Cuban exiles, and homosexuals were involved in the assassination. Garrison’s main witness was Perry Russo who claimed that he had attended an â€Å"assassination party† where Shaw, Oswald, and Ferrie discussed on murdering the president. Later on, Russo’s statement was questioned when it emerged that he was hypnotized and a drug called sodium pentothal used on him. Before the hypnotization, Russo failed to mention the party. This evidence led to clay Shaw being acquitted. In the Oliver Stone movie JFK, we see the jury foreman Sidney Herbert claiming that after the trial, he thought more decidedly on the warren report. Another film The JFK Assassination: The Jim Garrison Tapes, it can be seen that Russo later returned on his earlier version of statement that there was actually an assassination party. The Medical Evidence An HSCA (House Select Committee on Assassination) was created to handle assassinations of both JFK and Martin Luther King. It has special panels that examined the physical evidence and their finding was a fact that a knoll had been used but missed. The medical panel challenged this when they reaffirmed the single bullet theory earlier visited. The Parkland Hospital doctors’ findings appeared incorrect when the HSCA reports showed that the back of the head was intact with blood free hair, with only a small red spot near the cowlick. In contrast, doctors describe a large gaping wound with brain tissues from the cerebellum extruding. In Dr. Charles Crenshaw’s book conspiracy of silence, he claims of Kennedy’s head at the back blown off, indicating that the grassy knoll was sot from the front. On page 2, he states that the entire right hemisphere was obliterated, and in age 86, he claims that the right hemisphere looked like a crater, an empty cavity. The wound on his neck indicate an entrance wound thus it was a shot from the front. He also claims that knowing that there existed a conspiracy, doctors were afraid to talk. Between the two hospitals, Kennedy’s body had been altered. This leaves us with questions. For instance, was the back of Kennedy’s head blown out? Are the autopsy photos faked? The Bogus Evidence Conspirators believe that the evidence against Oswald was tampered with by the Dallas Police. The police claimed on recovering three cartridges which perfectly correspond to the three shots heard by people at the Plaza. But an Author by the name of Noel Twyman claims that only two spend rounds were found. Evidence of the authorities suppressing evidence was seen when after the assassination; a government agent and an officer were seen picking up a slug. One of Jack ruby’s strip dancers Karen Carlin whose stage name was â€Å"little Lynn â€Å"also came forward and testified that she known of the plot to kill Oswald. After mysteriously disappearing, she came back in 1992 and claimed that Ruby had told her to call him on Sunday morning and later he would send her $25 for her rent and shopping, just before Oswald was shot. This was to create an alibi and justify that it was just an impulsive act of revenge that he shot Oswald. Karen said that Gary Shaw, Carlos Marcello and Santos Trafficante were behind the conspiracy to kill Oswald. It is also seen how witnesses, even the most sober ones made wild and wacky statements. For instance, one witness named JC price claimed that Kennedy and Connally were in different cars and last shot came five minutes later after the first ones. Austin Miller testified that the shots came from inside the limousine. Jack Franzen said that secret service agents were behind the limousine and some had firearms. A.J Millican was quoted testifying that, â€Å"Just after the Presidents car passed, I heard three shots come from up toward Houston and Elm right by the Book Depository Building, and then immediately I heard two more shots come from the Arcade between the Book Store and the Underpass, and then three more shots came from the same direction only sounded further back.† Who Killed JFK? This is the question that will forever remain in people’s mind. The fact that many groups or people had motives to murder JFK makes the case even more difficult and wit many unanswered questions. There are claims that Kenney was killed because he withdrew the American troops from Vietnam during the cold war. Other’s say that Oswald was impersonated by Fidel Castro, the Cuban President who it is believed had motives too because the CIA, Cuban exiles and mob members wanted to eliminate him. Fletcher Prouty believes that it was a coup d’etat to overthrow the government and that is wasn’t an assassination of one man. The shock of the assassination has been covered up and the case is one of the greatest unsolved crimes of the century forty years down the line. Today, polls show that millions of the American public believes that there was a conspiracy and Oswald wasn’t alone. The opinion poll is shown to have risen from 52% in 1963 to 89% in 1993. Journalist Hugh AynesWorth believes that this is the most investigated homicide in history and being a witness himself, he says that e has spent most of his career life in investigating the various theories that have come up in the JFK murder. In his book, he speaks o himself as a young Dallas newspaper reporter who was right in he spot as history unfolded in his very own eyes. To him, its pure and simple that there is no evidence in the unfolding theories. Although the Warren report is faulty, Hugh has no doubt it unfolded right. Works cited Peter Dale Scott, Deep politics and the Death of JFK Scott talks of a conspiracy as seen by the police department in Dallas.    James H. Fetzer, The Great Zapruder Film Hoax: Deceit and Deception in the Death of JFK As much as the film captured the murder, here were still controversies with the doctors on the ext spot where the bullet hit JFK. Charles Crenshaw, conspiracy of Silence Shows the many conspiracy theories and Dr.Crenshaw’s story as a physician in Parkland Hospital    JFK, an Oliver Stone Movie    The JFK Assassination: The Jim Garrison Tapes JFK case still not closed, by Joe Havely CNN, The documentary shows the 40 years that have passed and still, the Kennedy assassination continues to fascinate. The Warren Report, http://www.jfk-assassination.de/warren/index.php viewed on 25th April 2008 Gives a detailed view on the creation of the report, its members, and the critics. The Kennedy Assassination by John McAdams An article on the events from the death of JFK, to the conclusions as per today.   Ã‚  Ã‚   The JFK Assassination, http://www.prouty.org/giamarco.html, viewed on 23rd  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   April 2008   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The David Giarmaco story of 1998 when he revisited the JFK murder.