JFK Assassination

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[edit] Definition

The JFK Assassination refers to the tragic death of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy by gunshot as his motorcade moved through Dealy Plaza in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Since practically the very day of the shooting, there have been claims and speculations that he was murdered by a conspiracy of powerful men and organizations, even though the official conclusion is that he was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald from the sixth floor of the Texas Schoolbook Depository, and that Oswald was acting alone.

[edit] Discussion

There is something in the nature of Americans that wants the President to be taken down by a conspiracy, especially one so beloved as Kennedy. It was a great tragedy, and it's human nature to try to make sense out of tragedies, to give it some purpose. A great man like Kennedy can't just be shot by some lone nut; he's a powerful man, so he could only be taken down by a powerful group of men. Saying that he's shot by a lone nut upsets the balance of what people feel should be.

But more than that, the conspiracies give people an odd sort of comfort. We rely on government to protect us from foreign invaders, domestic criminals, and other dangers. The President is the most protected man in the country. If the government can't even protect the President from one lone nut, then what hope is there for the rest of us?

Nonetheless, all of the evidence points to Kennedy being assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, who was working alone.

[edit] The Zapruder Film

If such an event were to happen today, we would doubtless have many videos taken from every possible angle from the crowd gathered to watch the Presidential motorcade. In 1963, however, such technology was not there. So we are very fortunate that Abraham Zapruder managed to catch the entire assassination on 8mm film. Although there were a few others filming, Zapruder is the only one who managed to capture everything from start to finish due to his vantage point.

Of course, both skeptics and conspiracy theorists examine the Zapruder film in depth, each looking for evidence that will unravel the mystery. Most of the claims can be examined by looking at the film objectively, and many experts have done so.

In particular, Dale Myers created a computer simulation based on a frame-by-frame examination of the entire Zapruder film, and ended up with a 3-D computer scene that matched the film precisely from Zapruder's viewpoint, which can also be viewed and examined from any angle.

[edit] Three Shots in 5.6 Seconds?

According to the conspiracy theorists, Oswald had to get off three shots in 5.6 seconds. They say this is impossible with the 6.5mm Mannlicher-Carcano rifle that Oswald used.

This was easily debunked by Penn Jillette in an episode of Bullshit!, where he successfully cocks, aims, and fires an identical rifle three times in 3.4 seconds. So Oswald, who was trained in rapid-fire shooting by the marines, would have had no problem.

However, the conspiracy theorists get their figure from the Zapruder film, claiming that the first shot wasn't fired until frame 210. Since the last shot occurred at frame 313, and the Zapruder film was shot at 18.3fps, that comes out to 5.6 seconds. But witnesses said the first shot was fired just as the car turned onto Elm Street, and that was at frame 160; also, Connally recalled that he turned his head sharply to the right upon having heard the first shot, and this occurs at frame 162. This means that the three shots actually took about 8.3 seconds, two and a half seconds longer than the conspiracy theorists claim.

[edit] "Back and to the Left"

In the Zapruder film, starting with the third shot at frame 313, the upper right part of Kennedy's head blows out forward, and his head lurches back and to the left. According to the conspiracy theorists, there is no way this shot could have come from the book depository; it had to have come from the front, perhaps from the grassy knoll. The reason why, they say, is that the bullet entered from the front of JFK's head and pushed his head backwards. A shot from behind, they tell us, would have propelled his head forwards.

This is completely wrong in every possible way. Bullets do not make such a splattering when entering, only with the exit wound. So this immediately rebuts the claim—an exit wound in the front means a shot from the rear.

Not only that, but as Kennedy's head was angled down at the time of the shot, the only clear shot of his head was from the book depository. A shooter trying to hit his head from the front would have to be under the floor of the front seat!

Also, there's no reason why a shot from the rear would move the head forward. It's a classic image in movies, where the hero shoots the bad guy and the bad guy is thrown backwards, but it just doesn't work. This was confirmed in Episode #25 of Mythbusters in which not even the most powerful firearms pushed the human-sized target in the direction of the shot. The reason is obvious if you understand basic Newtonian physics: since for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, a shot that pushes the target in the direction of the shot must push the shooter back by a comparable amount.

Actually, that same Newtonian principle explains why JFK's head would have moved towards the shooter. The bullet doesn't meet much resistance as it enters and is going pretty much the same speed when it exits, but as it exits it also takes lots of pieces of skull and brain with it. This makes a kind of jet blast which propels the head in the opposite direction. This effect is easily confirmed by wrapping a melon in one-inch fibreglass tape and shooting it with a high-powered rifle. The melon actually moves toward the shooter. This demonstration was devised by Dr. Luis Alvarez, a friend of JFK, and was demonstrated by Penn and Teller in their book How To Play With Your Food and again on an episode of Bullshit!

Finally, in the Zapruder film frame immediately before Kennedy's head lurches back, it's possible that Kennedy's head is lurching forward. Again, this is consistent with being shot from behind -- the initial entry impact would push Kennedy's head forward, and the exit-wound "jet effect" would push Kennedy's head backward immediately thereafter.

[edit] The "Magic Bullet"

Another popular claim by conspiracy theorists is the "magic bullet" theory. They claim that there is just no way the second shot could have caused the wounds to both JFK and Governor Connally the way it did. The bullet entered JFK's back and came out his throat; then, the conspiracy theorists say, the bullet would have to change directions, and then move a couple of feet to the right to enter Governor Connally's right shoulder. Since bullets obviously don't do that, they say there must have been a second shooter other than Oswald.

The problem is that the conspiracy theorists put JFK and Governor Connally in the wrong position relative to each other. They put Connally directly in front of JFK, at the same level, and both facing front. Examining the Zapruder film (and this is even more obvious in the Myers reconstruction) shows clearly that Connally is seated, not directly in front of Kennedy, but shifted to the left. Also, JFK was seated on a riser that kept him at a higher level so he could wave to the crowds. Finally, JFK was leaning forward and Connally was turned to his right. When all of these are taken into account and the men's actual positions are examined, the bullet wounds line up in a straight line.

[edit] The "Pristine Bullet"

Conspiracy theorists say that the second bullet, the one that struck both JFK and Connally, was far too pristine to have struck both men, and could not have been shot from Oswald's rifle. In Oliver Stone's film JFK, he accuses Jack Ruby of slipping the bullet into the hospital stretcher.

The problem with this claim is that the bullet isn't pristine at all. It has the flattening one would expect, and the markings and scratches on the bullet prove forensically that it was shot from Oswald's rifle.

[edit] Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald was a nobody, a loser who always strove to stand out from the crowd. Despite his ambition, he didn't even have the skills or intelligence of the average American. Few who knew him liked him, the Communists he tried to align himself with largely ignored him, and the Soviet Union almost rejected his defection. His attempts to defect to Cuba were completely blocked. This is one possible reason why so many people insist on believing in a conspiracy: A loser like Oswald takes down one of the greatest Presidents of all time? Unthinkable! Even Oswald himself was filmed saying "I'm just a patsy!" as he was being hauled off into custody.

So the conspiracy theorists go to great lengths to show that there's no way Oswald could have performed this act. He would have had to shoot too accurately, too quickly. They say that he was a poor shot and had no experience with the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle.

Actually, while hardly the best the Marines had to offer, Oswald was a very good shot. His records show that he consistently scored 48 or 49 out of 50 when firing rapidly at a target twice the distance of Kennedy from the book depository. And let's not forget: one of his shots missed, so Oswald was actually shooting below his par that day.

Oswald was desperate to be a revolutionary, and the Presidential motorcade provided him with the perfect opportunity to do so. We may not like the fact that such a pathetic individual can take down the President of the United States, but in reality, both Oswald and Kennedy were men of flesh and blood. And when one man of flesh and blood shoots another man of flesh and blood in the head with a high-powered rifle, the latter usually dies. And that is all that's required to explain what happened.

[edit] Jack Ruby

If Jack Ruby had not killed Oswald mere days after JFK's assassination, the conspiracy theories would still be around, but wouldn't have anywhere near the shot in the arm that Ruby's actions gave it. Clearly, the theorists say, Oswald was about to talk and spill the beans on everyone he was a patsy for, and Ruby, on behalf of the mob who was one of the conspirators, killed Oswald to keep him quiet, again according to conspiracy theorists.

Ruby was, in fact, a member of the mob, but he was a very small-time huckster. He was very much a glory-seeker, and much like Oswald found himself in the perfect place to grab what he thought should have been his. But in reality, Ruby was too much of a loudmouth to be trusted to take part in any kind of conspiracy.

Besides, if Ruby has to shoot Oswald to keep him quiet, then someone else would have to shoot Ruby to keep him quiet, then Ruby's assassin would need to be assassinated, etc.

The fact is, Ruby was able to kill Oswald out of luck and luck alone. If any one of several circumstances beyond Ruby's control were not in place, he would not have been able to do it.

In any event, this argument is nothing more than the conspiracy theorists saying, "There's no evidence, therefore, we're right." We simply don't know what Oswald would have said on trial because he never got that opportunity. And Oswald, while denying that he killed Kennedy (as a patsy or otherwise), never said one word about any conspiracy.

[edit] Jim Garrison

Jim Garrison is the hero of Oliver Stone's film JFK. In the movie, Kevin Costner plays Garrison, who is portrayed as a hero seeking to uncover the conspiracy and bringing up all of the points of the conspiracy theorists. This movie probably did more to foster the belief that JFK's assassination was the result of a conspiracy than anything else.

In reality, Jim Garrison was just another glory-hunting nobody. He was desperate to prove a conspiracy, and interviewed hundreds of witnesses and publicly accused dozens of men of taking part in it. In reality, the only one he ended up prosecuting was a man by the name of Clay Shaw.

Garrison accused Shaw of conspiring with Oswald and David Ferrie on behalf of others to murder the President (Ferrie had died in 1967 and therefore couldn't be prosecuted). Out of the hundreds of witnesses Garrison interviewed, he only called one who supported the conspiracy: Perry Russo. One of Garrison's investigators, Jefferson Parish deputy sheriff Roy Jacob, pinned down Russo to a yes or no answer as to whether he was even there at the time, and said that Russo had answered in the negative. When Jacob told this to Garrison, Jacob said that Garrison had become very enraged and went forward with the prosecution anyway. Other witnesses who were critical of the idea of a conspiracy were dismissed by Garrison as being plants who were part of the plot. Little surprise, then, that it took just 54 minutes for the jury to return a verdict of "not guilty."

Garrison indicted Shaw for perjury. Shaw, in retaliation, sued Garrison in district court for a permanent injunction. There, Garrison refused to answer many direct questions put to him and to others gave answers that were demonstrably false. The judge, Herbert J. Christenberry, dismissed the perjury charges and ruled that Garrison never had any factual basis for his allegations. He also said that Garrison's "continuing harassment" of Shaw was "outrageous and inexcusable" and granted him his injunction.

Garrison was no hero; he was a liar and a glory-hunter and deserves nothing more than obscurity.

[edit] References

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