Who killed JFK? 52 years of enduring conspiracy theories
JFK was killed by the CIA, the KGB, aliens or the Illuminati... Why three shots fired in Dallas still reverberate across America
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John F Kennedy and his wife Jackie travel in the presidential motorcade in Dallas before his assassination on 22 November 1963.
It was all over in a few seconds, but the assassination of John F Kennedy on 22 November 1963 has generated five decades of "painstaking, and for some unsatisfying, analysis," the Daily Mail says.
Four years ago, a team of historians and retired Secret Service officers used the latest digital technology to analyse all the available film and still images taken in Dallas that day. Their conclusion: a "categorical confirmation" that JFK's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, acted alone. But as the 52nd anniversary of the president's killing approaches, the conspiracy theories that have sprung up around the event seem all but indestructible. Here are the topics that have triggered the most debate:
The 'magic bullet' theory
Oswald fired just three bullets in Dallas. But he killed JFK and badly wounded Governor John Connally who was sitting in the front seat of the limousine. The Warren Commission - the investigation into JFK's killing set up in 1963 - came up with the 'single-bullet theory' to explain how Oswald did so much damage with just three rounds. It posits that both men were hit by a single bullet which "entered JFK's upper back, exited his throat, and then struck Connally, breaking a rib and shattering his wrist, and finally coming to rest in his thigh," says the Mary Ferrell Foundation. Sceptics say the trajectory was fanciful and re-named it the 'magic bullet theory'. It's just one reason why conspiracy theorists think more than one shooter was involved.
The grassy knoll
Most JFK conspiracy theories pivot around the idea that Oswald wasn't acting alone. When the president was hit by the bullet that killed him, the motorcade was passing a grassy knoll on the north side of Elm Street. Newspaper photographs record that shortly after the shooting, police arrested three tramps found in a railroad car behind the knoll. Because the men were clean-shaven and well dressed there was speculation that they were CIA assassins rather than hobos.
The long list of culprits
If Oswald was a paid assassin rather than a disaffected loner, who was writing his pay cheques? The list of candidates is long, but some names are put forward more than most. They are:
The CIA: The idea that the assassination was a CIA plot sounds bizarre, but conspiracy theorists suggest the president's alleged comment that he wanted to "splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds" made him an agency target. Other theories suggest that one of the tramps (see above) was E Howard Hunt, a former CIA operative who was involved in the ill-fated Bay of Pigs operation to oust Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
The Mafia: Why would the mafia want JFK dead? Because his brother, Robert, was turning up the heat on organised crime. Robert was the US attorney general at the time and his "anti-mafia crusade" had lead to a sharp increase in the number of prosecutions of senior mafia figures.
The KGB: "The Soviets had a palpable, powerful motive [to kill JFK]: to gain revenge for the humiliation of the USSR in the 1962 Cuban missile crisis," says Scienta Press. Oswald was a communist and had spent time in the USSR. His "Russian odyssey" afforded the KGB "many opportunities to interact with him".
Lyndon B Johnson: In 2003, a Gallup poll revealed that 20 per cent of Americans believed Johnson had something to do with JFK's death. Theories include the vice president's "desire to become president, his need to cover up scandals, and his involvement with the FBI", says the Environmental Graffiti website.
The Little Green Men: Another theory suggests JFK was killed for showing too much interest in "alien activity". There are two "crucial" pieces of evidence backing this up. The first is a letter written by JFK to the CIA in which he demands to see secret UFO files. The second is a note from a senior CIA official that says "we cannot allow" the president to see the classified material.
The Illuminati: The secretive powerbrokers who control the world are obvious candidates for a JFK conspiracy theory. The president fell foul of the Illuminati, it has been suggested, because he wanted to end the Vietnam War, a conflict that was paying the "shadowy bankers" handsome dividends. The Illuminati were also "angered" by JFK's attempts to "rein in" the power of the US Federal Reserve, triggering a deadly backlash.
Jackie Kennedy: One of the more far-fetched theories alleges that JFK's wife killed him herself. Could the president's wife have been a secret assassin? Some theorists claim that Jackie Kennedy hid a pistol in a nearby flower pot after the assassination. But, as the Daily Mirror notes, "many of those who make the claim seem to overlook the fact that she was being watched in an open limousine by thousands of onlookers".
The man with the black umbrella: Some witnesses point to a "mysterious" man holding an umbrella as JFK's motorcade drove by. The day of the assassination was bright and clear; no one in the crowd is wearing a raincoat or carrying an umbrella except one man. And that man is standing right where the shots were fired.
Investigator Josiah Thompson says: "The only person under any umbrella in all of Dallas [is] standing right where the shots come into the limousine. Can anyone come up with a non-sinister explanation for this?"
When challenged to explain himself, the man carrying the umbrella, Louie Steven Witt, testified before the house select committee on assassinations that the umbrella was a protest against the appeasement policies of JFK's father. The umbrella was a reference to the trademark accessory of Neville Chamberlain, nicknamed the Umbrella Man, who prior to the Second World War had advocated making concessions to the Nazis to try to avoid conflict. Many accepted Witt's explanation.
The driver: Proponents of this theory suggest secret service agent William Greer, the driver of JFK's limousine, pulled the trigger. But others, including JFK Lancer, say that what initially looks like a handgun when seen at speed is simply the reflection of the sun on Greer's colleague Roy Kellerman's hair.
Friendly fire: Not all sceptics rely on elaborate conspiracies to explain the killing. A simpler alternative suggests that one of JFK’s own bodyguards fired the fatal shot by accident. As Oswald fired on the president, the theory goes, Secret Service agent George Hickey cocked his automatic rifle to return fire. When the car he was in stopped suddenly, he discharged his weapon by mistake. "It's not sexy. It's not rife with intrigue," Bonar Menninger, a journalist and proponent of the theory, told NBC News. "But for that reason, in my mind, it's extremely compelling - because it's the only theory that hews tightly to the available evidence." Hickey sued for libel in 1995, but a judge ruled that the statute of limitations had passed and dismissed the case.
What have declassified documents revealed?
Nearly 19,000 pages of top secret government documents from the Cold War era were recently released by the CIA - and many were hoping they would shed some light on the lingering mystery.
The papers marked 'for the president's eyes only' revealed how Oswald planned to escape, confirming rumours that he visited the Cuban and former Soviet Union embassies in Mexico City in September that year.
Intelligence chiefs believe this was to arrange for visas so that he could travel to the USSR via Havana. "But conspiracy theorists looking for CIA plots are likely to be disappointed as many of the intelligence briefs remain partially blacked out," Sky News points out.
One historian who has been researching the trove of declassified documents hopes to put some of the wild theories about JFK's assassination to rest.
"I've gone through each of the conspiracies one by one, trying to line them up, and could just never make [them] jump," Timothy Naftali told The Guardian. "I believe it was Lee Harvey Oswald [who killed Kennedy]."
Could JFK have survived?
For all the competing conspiracy theories, there is a remarkable accepatance of one point: President Kennedy did die on 22 November 1963. "Not even the crankiest crank argues that JFK is hiding out in a Boca pad with Jimmy Hoffa and DB Cooper," says Vanity Fair.
But on this point too there is room for disagreement on the details. Some believe that the president was still alive when he arrived at Parkland Hospital; others that he was dead before the final shot had been fired. Establishing the precise moment of his death is difficult, not only because of the chaos in the aftermath of the shooting, but also because there is no clear-cut definition of life and death in cases such as JFK's.
"The time [of death] was fixed at 1pm, as an approximation," the Warren Commission stated, "since it was impossible to determine the precise moment when life left the President."
The report suggested that JFK could have survived the neck wound caused by the first shot, but not the brain damage that resulted from the second. "From a medical viewpoint, President Kennedy was alive when he arrived at Parkland Hospital," it said. "The doctors observed that he had a heart beat and was making some respiratory efforts. But his condition was hopeless, and the extraordinary efforts of the doctors to save him could not help but to have been unavailing."
What happened to Lee Harvey Oswald?
Less than an hour after Kennedy was assassinated, a police officer named JD Tippit stopped Oswald, who shot him at point blank range. Oswald, a 24-year-old former marine who had defected to the Soviet Union and returned to the US with a Russian wife the previous year, was later apprehended at a nearby cinema.
Two days later, when he was being transported from police headquarters to a more secure county jail, Oswald himself was shot. Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner, emerged from a crowd of police and reporters, who had gathered to see Oswald taken away, and fired a pistol into his stomach. Oswald was taken to Parkland Hospital and died just ten feet away from the room where Kennedy had died two days before.
Some believe Oswald was killed in order to stop him from revealing a larger conspiracy theory. Ruby claimed he was so outraged by the president's death that he had suffered "psychomotor epilepsy" and shot Oswald unconsciously. However, he was found guilty of murder with malice. Although he was initially sentenced to die, a court of appeal later ordered a retrial and he died of lung cancer in 1967 before it could be held.
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I have no idea who killed JFK but it certainly wasn't the disaster it appeared at the time,Kennedy became an icon through his death instead of being found out as the flawed man he really was.
...I go for the little green men!
...Kennedy gave the world hope - but, as Les rightly says, he was flawed (but, aren't we all?).
Kennedy gave hope to the "free" world in his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech on his visit to Berlin. Thank God we never had to test his backbone though - he was found severely wanting over the Bay of Pigs/CIA fiasco - he left the Cuban anti-Castro rebels to their fate, after having promised them US support for their planned invasion of Cuba and counter-coup against Castro.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was dressed up, shamelessly, as a Kennedy "triumph" - Kruschev did not leave the table empty-handed; in return for the Soviets removing their missiles from Cuba, Kennedy agreed to the removal of US missiles in Turkey - a condition set by Kruschev in those fevered negotiations.
We are fed propaganda from cradle to grave.
The Vietnam war's final cost was 200 billion dollars well spent. That was the reason...BUSINESS! The american economy and corporate big -wigs are all guilty!!!!
the military could just as easily had a hand in it. when i say the military i don't mean the whole thing. there were several that thought jfk was weak when dealing with the russians. john dulles had been director of the cia and on the warren commission. jerry ford also on the warren commission, yes ford the one who pardoned nixon and tried to impeach william o. douglas. john mccloy former head of the world bank. then there is hale boggs; ""[FBI Director J. Edgar] Hoover lied his eyes out to the [Warren] Commission – on Oswald, on Ruby, on their friends, the bullets, the gun, you name it."--Hale Boggs, speaking to an aide, cited by Bernard Fensterwald, Coincidence or Conspiracy?" "Several years after [Hale Bogg's] death in 1972, a colleague of his wife Lindy (who was elected to fill her late husband's seat in the Congress) recalled Mrs. Boggs remarking, 'Hale felt very, very torn during his work [on the Commission] ... he wished he had never been on it and wished he'd never signed it [the Warren Report].'"
justice warren didn't want any part of the commission. he was asked to head it to give it some credence.
Kennedy was definitely shot by Oswald, but unnamed parties put Oswald up to the shooting. Jack Ruby sealed it when he shot Oswald. The people behind the plot will never be found.
JFK I liked him on the economy he cut the top rate on the evil rich....now he was republican there...JFK also cut corporate taxes on big business ...republican again...JFK cut the capital gains tax...republican again...JFK was againt abortion ....republican again lol...JFK was great on the economy he wasnt a far left lunatic.He gave us the go go 60s...Kennedy got us into the cuban missle crises because of the bay of pigs invasion..Kennedy was a terrible foreign policy president....Kennedy also cheated on his wife...He had alot of enemies because he was very irrational something you dont need in a president....I believe the liberals have lied about Kennedy
JFK did not die in vain. He was punished by the CIA/MIC for having opposed them at every turn since the Bay of Pigs fiasco which he had inherited from the previous administration. The CIA under Allen Dulles had run rings around Eisenhower and thought they could do the same with JFK. When he warned them that there wold be no US military support if the invasion failed, they thought they could bully him. The whole operation date time and place had already 'leaked' from the CIA (not quite as in the CIA propaganda film "The Good Shepherd") but CIA knew it would fail and so knowingly sacrificed those invaders. JFK stood his ground and refused to commit US forces. The subsequent inquiry exposed the duplicity and treachery of Dulles and Co whom JFK sacked. Did this make him friends in the CIA? I don't think so.
Meantime JCS were forever pressing for pre-emptive nuclear strike against Russia since US had overwhelming superiority. JFK asked how many would die: 100 million Russians but only 20 million Americans. He walked out the room in disgust, asking if these men were Human.
JCS and CIA then proposed Operation Northwoods to provide a casus belli to attack Cuba (false flag terrorist attacks against cities, ships and planes) which JFK vetoed.
Oct 1962 Missile Crisis was whne JFK had to face down both the Russians and his own military. He did so successfully by secretly conveying to Khruschev that he needed help since he was not sure if his own side might stage a coup. Khruschev withdrew and the world was saved from inevitable nuclear holocaust.
We all of us owe a huge debt of thanks to JFK who knew that this last action might earn hiss assassination. Undeterred, he pushed through the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and determined to get out of Vietnam (NSAM 263). LBJ was more to the liking of JCS and he promised them their war. Thus 22nd Nov 1963 was a Military Coup d'Etat carried out by CIA, for whom Oswald was an asset. The Warren Commission set up by LBJ had only 1 goal: to "prove" that Oswald acted alone and was not part of any Conspiracy. Funny how Dulles was chosen to manage the Commission and concealed the fact that Oswald was CIA.
There is no mystery about this assassination other than why anybody still swallows the "official version" of events i.e. CIA propaganda. CIA issued advice on how to counter anyone who questioned the official account: call them "Conspiracy theorists" which is the origin of this pejorative. CIA specialise in 2 things: killing and propaganda. Most of what we think we "know" about JFK is CIA disinformation designed to conceal their part in his killing and we have had 50 years of it.
Wake up and smell the gunpowder on Dealey Plaza - or is Brimstone from Dulles' pipe?
See above on who abandoned whom at Bay of Pigs. Cuban Missile Crisis was an unmitigated triumph for JFK and Mankind because he alone prevented nuclear war.
What is the problem with not leaviing empty handed whne the world has been saved from destruction? JFK had no qualms about throwing in the Jupiter missiles in Turkey since he had twice previously ordered their removal - but somehow his orders had not been followed! They were already obsolete because of Polaris submarines. JFK did agree at the UN to non-invasion of Cuba and this has been honoured ( a rare event now for US Foreign Policy to honour its promises).
"..but it certainly wasn't the disaster it appeared at the time...". So its OK to kill a president then, especially if he's useless? Strange logic Mr. Barrie.
It somewhat inconsequential as to who did it. Its why they did it is more important. Understand that and you will understand who is really running the shw in America (Hint: it isn't the President).
Full Marks to Darkmark. The Warren Commission was a tissue of lies to cover up the fact that it was a CIA operation.
...The removal of the missiles in Turkey allowed Kruschev to save face and so defuse the crisis.
I have a very politically aware Cuban friend (granted, too young to remember, first hand, the Bay of Pigs or, later, the Missile Crisis) - but she has a diametrically opposed view (as do very many native Cubans who have been weaned on their own country's "propaganda") to that of many of us in the "West".
We are all subject to and victims of our own propaganda - JFK was inspirational to many who sought change and hope in those dark days - but, as Mr Barrie has said, in all legitimacy - Kennedy was flawed - we should admit that fact and honour his memory for the positive things that he achieved.
...it seems that you, yourself, might have swallowed yet another "version" of history. Your detailed analysis might, or might not, be near to the actualite, but that does not mean that other theories (for such they remain, to this day) are not worthy of consideration.
The facts remain - no one, to date, has convincingly closed down the JFK assassination rumour machine.
You know up to 8 days ago with the advent of the new "smoking gun" tv show I had never noticed any of the JFK specifics.
The final conclusions from my 7 day study of jfk details are .. Oswald was definitely conscripted into the assassination plot - the collated totality of oswald history says that. It may not hold up in court but supplies that detail. Therefore the conspiracy had completed its plans for where it was to take place before it arranged Oswalds job in the book building. SO it was that wide a specific conspiracy.
A lot of what i read debunks a lot of supported evidence facts of that seemingly on the grounds they think there could not have been a wide as that plot much less that wide involved specifics. So I conclude 80-97% of the supported evidence of such is true.
Oh and btw WHY was the 80-97% of supported evidence true and planned?? ... to confuse the issue and draw attention away from the 2 cameraradar synced silenced guns that zeroed in from front and back similtaneously on JFK's head or the only other scope of such I explain below.
EG that is why there is 5ft of blood and bone splatter in both and all directions. One such gun in front of the windscreen of the car behind JFK and the other in the rear of the car in front of JFK or the other that direction scope.
There is no other trajectory for both or either of those shots to my eyes. I studied all the supported evidence claims of the head shot and while they are many and varied they all fall within a certain area that allows only that trajectory.
The from behind claims all need a slight upward trajectory which is only possible from below the windscreen of the car behind JFK.
Whilst the from the front claims all need a near level very slight up or down trajectory which is only possible along the road in front of jfk passing gov connallys right, or facing jfk from an angle between the car occupants to jfk. Which second possibility of from the front trajectory may have a wider possibility than just the car ahead of jfk.
don't hint. tell. or are you afraid of your brakes failing ?
Just listen to "Dead Wrong" by Richard Belzer. He tells you the truth - and seems to be the only person who does!
Hello,
However way you wish to view this, and there are as many interpretations as there are grains of sand...
You are correct about one thing: We are fed propaganda from cradle to grave!!!!!
With this in mind, the people controlling our information intake, have truly devised a pretty canning plot to keep us confused about what is FACT and what is FICTION. It is well orchestrated, and we are sitting ducks, that is a FACT....
The one good thing to come out of all of this:
The death of an important individual has exposed the extent our human corruption to an unprecidented level.
Satan is playing havoc with Adam and Eve's children, and he has many agents in place to do his bidding.
Look to God for a solution!!!
Have all a nice day...
Um, I'm a bit confused here. This article completely ignores the recent investigation - detailed on a TV programme on Channel 5 in the UK - which appeared to prove that the bullet which entered JFK's brain was fired from a weapon not unlike those carried by the secret service agents in the motorcade; that a particular guy was seen with such a weapon, out, loaded and armed; that Lee Harvey Oswald only fired 2 bullets and the last was fired from an angle he could not have achieved; that the brain was removed from the body and the autopsy was a farce; that one of the autopsy doctors was ordered to plant false evidence on the body and take a false x-ray. I was pretty convinced by it - but, as I said, it has been completely ignored here!
I'm with Jimmy Cliff on this one. He's seeing the bigger and wider picture ! The taking out of J.F.K. was just one mere black ops action which knocked down a major piece on the good and evil chess board, that we inhabit as our World. Hugh o' Neill's contributions are also the most convincing when it comes to the actual, sad events of 50 years ago and all things considered after weighing up all the available facts and evidence, on balance, he pretty much nails it -(In my opinion).The proof of this is in , not so much the MURDER of President Kennedy, but the follow up nefarious activities which lead to the connected MURDERS of his brother R.F.K. and the Civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, (All truthful Human elements of GOOD). The following slaughter of the Innocents in the most unholy of wars- Vietnam, where the fat Rats of the war machinery, feasted on the blood of the good, gives the slam dunk to my own personal view of things, which I do believe, with the bloody killing of the ordinary American's champion and president ,-John Fitzgerald Kennedy R.I.P. Perhaps the brilliant Rolling Stones music video ' Gimme Shelter ' says more in sound and pictures , or even more still, in their tongue and cheek song of the times, ' Sympathy For The devil' with their reference to "Who killed The Kennedys, when we all know it was you and me ???Mmmmmn - Interesting ?. Check both out World. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck - It's probably a duck
I've studied the topic for a while now and I'm absolutely convinced the CIA was in on it. I know there's a myriad of different conspiracy theories, but the amount of circumstantial evidence pressing the CIA down is humongous.
It is proven that they lied a whole lot about many elements of this event.
It is proven that they knew about Oswald before he shot JFK, quite literally he was an observation target.
It is proven that they intentionally disturbed the Warren Commission and HSCA investigation, withheld vital information and generally being non-cooperating.
To this day the CIA continues to withhold over 1000 documents containing vital information about CIA agents involved in the Oswald-JFK desaster, information that could shed light on the truth, for the sake of "national security" (50 years later, yeah right...)
Who ever did this evil act, and yes I don't care who says killing is good. It violates one of Gods 10 Commandments. I really don't know about the theorists, but I would have wanted to hear PUBLICLY about what Robert or Edward Kennedy thought who did this evil act?
JFK was assassinated Zionist, who control America, loby for Israel. crystal clear,
Hundreds of millions slaughtered... died in poverty
why are we all upset about one corrupt politician
Kennedy called Cuba an imprisoned Island who were the guards of that prison...............AMERICA
The Mafia ran KENNEDY and all the other leaders of America
It has been suggested that the federal reserve had JFK assassinated. While I don't rule this out completely, I wonder who controls the cia iff the president doesn't?
interesting meet the press episode Nov 24th. I think if you listen to the questions posed by the panel to JFK and the responses given by JFK in Jan 1960 it will be clear why he died
bottom line illuminati13 families one being the kennedy's come on people it was destiny's child
“Not all sceptics rely on elaborate conspiracies to explain the killing. A simpler alternative suggests that one of JFK’s own bodyguards fired the fatal shot by accident. … Bonar Menninger … “…it's the only theory that hews tightly to the available evidence."
Bonar Menninger is the author of the 1992 book “Mortal Error” which described Howard Donahue’s theory that a Secret Service agent in the following car accidentally discharged his AR-15 rifle. I read the book last week and found it to be well-reasoned and plausible (for what it’s worth, baseball statistician Bill James also praised the theory in his 2012 book “Popular Crime” and thriller writer Stephen Hunter agreed with much of it; see his 2013 novel “The Third Bullet” which presents his own take on a 2nd shooter).
Last week, the cable channel Reelz (web site has more info) showed the documentary, “JFK: The Smoking Gun” by Australian detective Colin McLaren, who has updated Donahue’s theory and presented it with graphics and dramatizations (although he glossed over the detailed study of trajectories found in the book “Mortal Error” ).
Yes the CIA withheld and destroyed documents so as to hide their incompetence. One would have thought CIA agents would have been all over Oswald during the Presidential visit.
I just can't fathom how 1500 troops could have overcome the Castro regime in the first place. Totally ill thought out. Maybe 150,000 troops.
...100% agreed!
Even if everything this guy said was 100% true you would say that. The amount of false info out there is absolutely insane. All I know, is G.W. Bush Sr. has a fairly large part in this, and he is one of the fewest guys talked about when discussing JFK...
Justin - you are so right - it is now half a century ago - I was a mere lad at that time. Any definitive conclusion to this mystery would seem impossible to reach unless all of the CIA?FBI etc records were to be trawled through, analyised in minute detail and then given credence; that is to suppose that any such records exist.
Conspiracy theories have a life of their own - they are like Dracula - they pop up in another guise or form from time to time.
London's very own Jack the Ripper still attracts conjecture and supposition to this day. Maybe the truth is known to a very few people alive today but you may be sure that if that "truth" is embarrassing to the "establishment", then it will be suppressed at all costs.
stupidest shit i have ever heard. JFK was a terrible president and a liberal democrat who bought black votes from the hard working rich.
its the little green men
they know who killed JFK its just a big cover up of course sad to say