Exhibit A -- Evidence Against the Lone-Gunman Theory
By: Michelle Winkler
Topic: Assassination of JFK
Claim: Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone, and/or he was framed.
Below is the link to the article on COPA (Coalition On Political Assassinations), where Texas A&M researches, specifically Cliff Spiegelman, Professor of Statistics and expert in bullet lead analysis along with Forensic Scientist, William Tobin challenge the evidence of the “lone gunman theory.” I found this article and ones like in on several sites, but this was the original post from what I can tell.
In this article, Spiegelman and Tobin use todays technology, not available in the 60’s, to test bullet fragments from the assassination, and based on new technology the results show that the fragments would’ve come from more than 3 bullets and therefore there was more than one shooter.
Bullet evidence challenges findings in JFK assassination
Science Blog
18 May 2007
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/bullet-evidence-challenges-findings-jfk-assassination-13251.html
Researchers at Texas A&M University are combining statistics and chemistry to shoot holes in traditional bullet-lead analysis techniques and the accuracy of so-called “expert” testimony — specifically, calling into question critical evidence that has long supported the theory of a lone gunman in the 1963 assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy.In challenging the evidence for the lone-gunman theory, Cliff Spiegelman, professor of statistics at Texas A&M and an expert in bullet-lead analysis, recently teamed with former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent and forensic scientist William A. Tobin of Forensic Engineering International in Virginia and William D. James, a research chemist with the Texas A&M Center for Chemical Characterization and Analysis (CCCA). Together, they conducted a chemical and forensic analysis of bullets reportedly derived from the same batch as those used by suspected assassin Lee Harvey Oswald to gun down Kennedy on that fateful day at Dealey Plaza.
Their findings, which show that evidence used to rule out a second assassin is fundamentally flawed, will be published in a forthcoming edition of “Annals of Applied Statistics.” The paper currently is available online at
http://www.imstat.org/aoas/next_issue.html.
Using new compositional analysis techniques not available in the 1960s, the team found that the bullet fragments involved in the assassination are not nearly as rare as previously reported. In addition, their findings show that one of the 10 test bullets from one box analyzed is considered a match to one or more of the five existing assassination fragments, meaning that the matching fragments could have come from three or more separate bullets and, therefore, more than one shooter.
As one of the most traumatic events in U.S. history, the Kennedy assassination sparked a wave of scientific investigation, both immediately after the murder and in the decades since. One such investigation, the 1976 House Select Committee on Assassinations, re-examined the murders of Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
With respect to the Kennedy assassination, the committee concluded, largely on the basis of comparative bullet lead analysis and expert testimony by University of California-Irvine chemist Dr. Vincent P. Guinn, that if there were another shooter or shooters — likely firing from the Grassy Knoll — they missed all limousine occupants.
Ancient history — that is, until Spiegelman got a telephone call in 2004 from Stuart Wexler, a humanities and advanced placement government instructor at Highstown High School in New Jersey, who eventually served as the historian for the team’s paper. Wexler had read online about Spiegelman’s recent work on a National Research Council committee that helped the FBI assess its Compositional Analysis of Bullet Lead (CABL) procedure used as forensic evidence in hundreds of murder cases, including the Kennedy assassination.
“Wexler and a friend of his had bought some bullets of the same type believed to have been used in the Kennedy assassination,” Spiegelman recalls. “They were Mannlicher-Carcanos, which were only manufactured in 1954 and are now antiques, mainly because most surviving bullets have been bought up by conspiracy buffs. He was looking for someone to analyze them. I thought it was interesting and that it would be a neat project, so I agreed.”
To find a qualified metallurgist and forensic expert, Spiegelman had to look no further than to one of the key figures behind the NRC study in the first place — William Tobin, a decorated FBI agent who in retirement had made a veritable second career out of testifying against his former employer where its evidentiary techniques were concerned.
Spiegelman and Tobin turned to Texas A&M research chemist William James and D. Max Roundhill, former head of the Department of Chemistry at Washington State University and now a consultant in Austin, for the chemical portion of their analysis. Finally, Spiegelman recruited Dr. Simon J. Sheather, professor and head of the Texas A&M Department of Statistics, at the writing stage of the project.
In their study, James analyzed the chemical composition of 30 bullets — 10 from each of three boxes of Mannlicher-Carcano bullets that originated from two of the only four separate lots ever produced. Using a measurement approach similar to Guinn’s, they applied more appropriate standards, such as additional chemical elements beyond those considered at the time, as well as a known quality control procedure. They also analyzed physical samples with a known geometry.
In comparing their data to Guinn’s testimony as well as to NRC report findings, the team determined that many bullets within a box of Mannlicher-Carcano bullets have similar composition, leading them to conclude that two-element chance matches to assassination fragments are not extraordinarily rare — even less rare, considering they came from the same box.
Based on their findings, not to mention the international significance of the Kennedy assassination, Spiegelman and his team say it is “scientifically desirable” for the bullet fragments to be reanalyzed.
Kennedy once said during a Yale commencement address, “The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.” Spiegelman claims that “by properly reanalyzing the bullet fragments, our nation has a chance to shatter a myth about the JFK assassination.”
“The reanalysis should include at least the seven elements identified in the NRC report, should establish the scientific basis for matching fragments originating from a single bullet, and should address the critically important issues of bullet and source heterogeneity,” he adds.Texas A&M University
SOURCE:
The Annals of Applied Statistics
Chemical and forensic analysis of JFK assassination bullet lots: Is a second shooter possible?
Cliff Spiegelman, William A. Tobin, William D. James, Simon J. Sheather, Stuart Wexler, and D. Max Roundhill
Source: Ann. Appl. Stat. Volume 1, Number 2 (2007), 287-301. http://projecteuclid.org/DPubS service=UI&version=1.0&verb=Display&handle=euclid.aoas/1196438019
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Exhibit B -- Evidence Supporting Government Conspiracy
By: Travis Brown
The article (below) goes on to discuss the validity of (the recently revealed) transcript (between Lee Harvey Oswald and his killer Jack Ruby), and (that) the FBI dismissed them as being part of a screenplay written about the Kennedy Assassination. The fact that the federal government (was) so eager to put these documents to rest does provide fuel to the fire for conspiracy theorists. Of course, it is also possible that these papers are simply not what they seem.
JFK assassination papers revealed
DALLAS (AP) — Long-hidden items and documents related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy were revealed for the first time Monday, after spending nearly two decades locked inside a courthouse safe.
Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins presented the articles at a Presidents' Day news conference while standing next to brown and white file boxes stacked in a pyramid.
The items include a purported transcript between Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and Oswald's killer, nightclub owner Jack Ruby; a leather gun holster that held the weapon Ruby used to shoot Oswald; brass knuckles found on Ruby when he was arrested; and a movie contract signed by then-Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade.
Watkins said investigators told him about the contents of the blue, two-door safe shortly after he took office in 2007.
"And every DA up until the new administration decided that they wanted to keep it secret," he said. But he decided "this information was too important to keep secret."
One of the most intriguing items was the typed transcript of an alleged conversation between Oswald and Ruby. The transcript — which hasn't been examined by experts and has already been called farfetched by some — includes talk of killing the president at the behest of the Mafia.
"Now we don't know if this is an actual conversation or not," Watkins said. "But what we do know is that as a result of this find, it will open up the debate as to whether there was a conspiracy to assassinate the president."
Ruby killed Oswald on Nov. 24, 1963, two days after Oswald was arrested in the assassination of President Kennedy. Ruby was convicted and sentenced to death the following year. Ruby won an appeal of his conviction but died of cancer before he could be retried.
The two-page transcript resembles one published by the Warren Commission, which investigated Kennedy's assassination and determined Oswald was the lone gunman.
In the report, the FBI concluded that transcript of an alleged conversation between Oswald and Ruby was fake, and that it had been "re-created" for authorities by a now-deceased Dallas attorney who claimed he recognized Oswald in a newspaper photo as the man he saw talking to Ruby.
The transcript unveiled Monday is dated Oct. 4, 1963, and allegedly happened at the Carousel Club, a Dallas nightclub. It begins with a discussion of how the "boys in Chicago" want to "get rid of" U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, JFK's brother.
"There is a way to get rid of him without killing him," Oswald says.
"How's that?" Ruby responds.
"I can shoot his brother," Oswald says.
After a discussion of the logistics of shooting the president, Ruby says the money for the operation is coming from the Mafia.
"Are you with the Mafia?" Oswald asked.
"You're asking too many questions," Ruby responds.
Later, Ruby gives a lengthy warning that Oswald must not get caught or say anything, noting that "if you do talk, then the boys will make me follow you, wherever you go, and kill you."
The Dallas Morning News first reported the transcript and other details of the find in an exclusive story published Sunday.
Gary Mack, curator of the Sixth Floor Museum near where the president was shot, thinks the document displayed Monday could be one of many scripts written for films about the assassination.
"My best guess is somebody found that transcript, reworked it for the movies and Henry Wade wound up with a copy," Mack said.
A 1967 movie production deal signed by Wade, who prosecuted Ruby, was in the safe. It is unclear why the film was never produced, Watkins said.
The contents of the safe were likely Wade's personal files on the Kennedy assassination, which researchers have long-known Wade kept. When he left office in the 1980s, Wade thought the files were taken to his home but they apparently were not, Mack said.
Staff from the DA's office were nearly finished scanning the scores of typed and handwritten papers and cataloging the items. Recordings and films kept in the safe had not yet been examined. Once the task is completed, Watkins said his office plans to turn over the articles to an organization that will continue making them public.
"We're looking forward to the opportunity to talk with the district attorney ... We would love to have these records," Mack said. "We believe very strongly that these records need to stay here in Dallas."
Neither the Ruby nor Kennedy families had been contacted about the items, Watkins said.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Exhibit C: Evidence Supporting the Government Cover-Up Theory
By: Alexander Werthmann
The article below delves into the realistic and possible explanations as to "Who Killed Kennedy and Why?" The site suggests that the Warren Commission, which was the chief committee in charge of the investigation of the assassination of the president, did not do a thorough and complete research into the background of Lee Harvey Oswald and, possibly, contributed to incriminating him without enough evidential support. This suggests that the government may have been sloppy on purpose in an effort to hide the possibility of being behind the actual murder of the president.
http://www.coverups.com/jfk/who.htm
Who Killed Kennedy And Why? - Coverups.com
Public interest in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy has never died down. People around the world want to know who killed the president and why and how he died. They also want to know what the killer's hidden motives might have been, and whether he had acted alone. Their insistent questions led to the formation of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, a congressional group.
In 1978, the House Select Committee came to a conclusion that many un-official investigators had already reached: that the president's slaying was the result of a conspiracy. As we have already seen, a conspiracy means that two or more persons were involved in a criminal act.
Until that time, the Warren Commissioned Report, originally released in September 1964, was the only official one. The report stated that a solitary gunman named Lee Harvey Oswald was responsible. Working alone, he shot and killed the president. Oswald was soon captured and held by the Dallas, Texas, police for two days. Then Oswald himself was slain as he was being transferred from one jail to another. Oswald's slayer was Jack Ruby.
The Warren Commission decided that Ruby acted for twisted emotional reasons and that he, too, acted alone. There was no conspiracy involved in either case. So said the Warren Commission.
The House Select Committee's declaration of conspiracy inspired a rash of books and at least two movies, as well as several TV programs. New ones keep popping up, well into the 1990's. Each book and movie has asserted that its analysis is the only foolproof one. As yet, however, none of these has been accepted as offering all the right answers.
Let's look at some of these accumulated ideas and theories, and perhaps come to some conclusions of our own. Bear in mind that some of these assertions and accusations sound highly believable. But remember, too, that no charges have been filed against anyone, and no arrests have been made. Will there be any in the future, you ask? Perhaps so; perhaps not.
The JFK assassination data can be divided into three groups:
1. The Method, or Means: How was the president killed?
2. The Motives: Why was he killed?
3. The Men Involved: Who killed him?
1. THE METHOD OR MEANS:
The president was riding in his open limousine, his back to the Texas School Book Depository, where, on the sixth floor, Oswald was said to have been perched. His rifle, propped up by book cartons, was aimed directly at the back of the president's head.
Ahead and to the right of the president's motorcade was the grassy knoll. There many spectators stood, ready to cheer the president as he passed by. Among them, another gunman may have been waiting for HIS chance to fire.
Oswald was accused of firing several shots from his position in the Texas School Book Depository. Two of these struck the president in the back of the head. But a third shot is said to have entered the president's throat, just above his Adam's apple, and emerged through the back of his neck.
Did this third shot actually go from the front of his neck to the back? Doctor's at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, where the dying president was taken, and doctors at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, where the dead president was AGAIN examined, disagree. The Parkland groups say there was an entry wound in his throat. The Bethesda group, on the other hand, says there was an EXIT wound in his throat.
Many spectators standing on the grassy knoll at the time of the slaying reported hearing at least one rifle shot fired from nearby. They also reported seeing as many as four men hurrying away from the back of the knoll as soon as the shots were fired. The Warren investigators quizzed several of these witnesses but came to no conclusion.
Oswald may have indeed fired the shots that killed the president, but there is no clear-cut evidence that he ALONE did so. Nor was he even definitely linked with the sixth-floor window from where the shots were fired. Only minutes after the shooting, he was drinking a Coca-Cola. Could he have left the firing site and composed himself so quickly? Here's another factor to consider: firing a cheap rifle, as Oswald did, should have left a powder burn on his cheek. After Oswald was arrested, his cheek was examined: no such powder burn was found!
After Oswald's death, his palm print was found on his rifle butt, indicating that it was he who did the shooting. Some investigators charge, however, that a palm print could have been transferred from his hand to the rifle butt after Oswald's. This could have been one of many illegal efforts to tie Oswald to the crime.
2. THE MOTIVES:
Why was President Kennedy assassinated? Many reasonable speculations have been offered. None, however, has been positively proven.
One set of theories says that it was the president's plans for Vietnam that prompted his murder. By 1963 (the assassination year), the United States was becoming more and more involved in the Vietnam war. The U.S. had already sent supplies, arms, and several thousand "advisers" and "instructors."
But the president wanted to go no further in aiding South Vietnam. He was ready to stop sending aid, even though South Vietnam claimed to have a democratic government and an army eager to wage war against North Vietnam. The president said that Vietnam was too far away from the United States, that South Vietnam's claim to democracy was false, and that the U.S. had no business sending American troops to fight in what was really a local war.
So, the theory goes, the president was killed by those who wanted the United States to become actively involved in the Vietnam war. Another theory holds that Kennedy was killed because he failed to help the Cuban exiles in their 1961 attempt to invade Cuba and overthrow the Communist government of Fidel Castro. And still another theory claims that, because he did not destroy Cuba in the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, he angered anti-Castro factions and so was slain.
Another theory involves the president's relationship with his brother when Robert Kennedy was attorney general. Robert was a relentless foe of organized crime. The only way to stop the attorney general was to kill the president. That's what some investigators think. They accuse the Mafia Leaders and Jimmy Hoffa, the Teamster Union chief. Mind you, we are talking theory. No real proof exists.
3. THE MEN INVOLVED:
The movie "JFK" was first shown in December, 1991, and will probably continue to be shown in theaters, on TV, and on videocassettes for years to come. "JFK" 's screen credits acknowledge the help of two books: Jim Garrison's "On the Trail of the Assassins" and Jim Marr's "Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy."
The Garrison book is the partial autobiography of this former New Orleans district attorney. It is mainly about his struggle to convict a man named Clay Shaw for involvement in the Kennedy slaying. The book also tells of Shaw's friendship with Oswald during the summer of '63 in New Orleans, AKA the Big Easy. Garrison argues that Shaw's connection with Oswald makes him part of the Kennedy slaying. Garrison's book ends with the not-guilty verdict that freed Clay Shaw. "On the Trail of the Assassins" is a true-to-life story, perhaps over-dramatized a bit when Garrison puts made-up words in his character's mouths. Marr's book is factual, without a story line as in the Garrison book. It gathers up the accounts of many investigators, but comes to no final conclusions.
The movie "JFK" is something else again. It follows the story line of the Garrison book---up to a point, that is. The stunning conclusion abandons the cautious approach of the Garrison and Marrs books. Instead, it puts a direct, sweeping accusation in the mouth of a fictitious character known only as "X."
X proclaims that the conspiracy to kill JFK extends right up the highest levels of the U.S. government---to the Pentagon, to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the FBI and the CIA, and to the White House itself.
The movie's director, producer, and writer are all one man: Oliver Stone. He is responsible for all these statements, and more. He goes on to tie in the military with American industry in a military/industrial alliance.
It should be noted that Stone does not name names, He only says that certain high-ranking men in these organizations were responsible for the death of the president. They wanted JFK killed because he was a threat to their plans.
Stone further claims that American Industry wanted the Vietnam war to continue for reasons of greed: the more war, the higher industrial profits.
X's charge of conspiracy reaches up into the White House. Although X does not directly accuse by name the president who followed JFK into office, there can be no doubt that he meant President Lyndon B. Johnson, in office from 1963 to 1969. Johnson was Kennedy's vice president. Before that, he was the U.S. Senate's Majority Leader. He ran the Senate with an iron hand.
Kennedy had chosen Johnson as his running mate because Johnson could produce a winning number of votes. Johnson expected to take an active role in the Kennedy government. After entering office in 1961, however, he was largely ignored. His duties were mostly confined to cutting the ribbon when a new bridge or park was dedicated.
And Johnson was losing many of his once-loyal Texas followers. He sat silent, biding his time. That time came, his accusers say, when the president rode in the open limousine down a Dallas street, Johnson, his enemies claim, engineered the whole assassination program.
These are extremely serious charges, but they cannot be proven. Investigators have not been able to definitively link LBJ to the killing of JFK. There is no question that Johnson was an ambitious, powerful politician. Author Craig Zirbel, in his book "The Texas Connection," attempts to prove Johnson's guilt by eliminating all other suspects. Eventually, only Johnson is left. Therefore, he must be guilty, according to Zirbel.
As for Jack Ruby, Oswald's killer, new facts have come to life. Over the years it has been shown that he was a close associate of many criminals. They would have liked to see the president and his brother killed so that their illegal and unlawful activities could expand. But Ruby died, as we know, before he could tell his story.
By: Alexander Werthmann
The article below delves into the realistic and possible explanations as to "Who Killed Kennedy and Why?" The site suggests that the Warren Commission, which was the chief committee in charge of the investigation of the assassination of the president, did not do a thorough and complete research into the background of Lee Harvey Oswald and, possibly, contributed to incriminating him without enough evidential support. This suggests that the government may have been sloppy on purpose in an effort to hide the possibility of being behind the actual murder of the president.
http://www.coverups.com/jfk/who.htm
Who Killed Kennedy And Why? - Coverups.com
Public interest in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy has never died down. People around the world want to know who killed the president and why and how he died. They also want to know what the killer's hidden motives might have been, and whether he had acted alone. Their insistent questions led to the formation of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, a congressional group.
In 1978, the House Select Committee came to a conclusion that many un-official investigators had already reached: that the president's slaying was the result of a conspiracy. As we have already seen, a conspiracy means that two or more persons were involved in a criminal act.
Until that time, the Warren Commissioned Report, originally released in September 1964, was the only official one. The report stated that a solitary gunman named Lee Harvey Oswald was responsible. Working alone, he shot and killed the president. Oswald was soon captured and held by the Dallas, Texas, police for two days. Then Oswald himself was slain as he was being transferred from one jail to another. Oswald's slayer was Jack Ruby.
The Warren Commission decided that Ruby acted for twisted emotional reasons and that he, too, acted alone. There was no conspiracy involved in either case. So said the Warren Commission.
The House Select Committee's declaration of conspiracy inspired a rash of books and at least two movies, as well as several TV programs. New ones keep popping up, well into the 1990's. Each book and movie has asserted that its analysis is the only foolproof one. As yet, however, none of these has been accepted as offering all the right answers.
Let's look at some of these accumulated ideas and theories, and perhaps come to some conclusions of our own. Bear in mind that some of these assertions and accusations sound highly believable. But remember, too, that no charges have been filed against anyone, and no arrests have been made. Will there be any in the future, you ask? Perhaps so; perhaps not.
The JFK assassination data can be divided into three groups:1. The Method, or Means: How was the president killed?
2. The Motives: Why was he killed?
3. The Men Involved: Who killed him?
1. THE METHOD OR MEANS:
The president was riding in his open limousine, his back to the Texas School Book Depository, where, on the sixth floor, Oswald was said to have been perched. His rifle, propped up by book cartons, was aimed directly at the back of the president's head.
Ahead and to the right of the president's motorcade was the grassy knoll. There many spectators stood, ready to cheer the president as he passed by. Among them, another gunman may have been waiting for HIS chance to fire.
Oswald was accused of firing several shots from his position in the Texas School Book Depository. Two of these struck the president in the back of the head. But a third shot is said to have entered the president's throat, just above his Adam's apple, and emerged through the back of his neck.
Did this third shot actually go from the front of his neck to the back? Doctor's at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, where the dying president was taken, and doctors at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, where the dead president was AGAIN examined, disagree. The Parkland groups say there was an entry wound in his throat. The Bethesda group, on the other hand, says there was an EXIT wound in his throat.
Many spectators standing on the grassy knoll at the time of the slaying reported hearing at least one rifle shot fired from nearby. They also reported seeing as many as four men hurrying away from the back of the knoll as soon as the shots were fired. The Warren investigators quizzed several of these witnesses but came to no conclusion.
Oswald may have indeed fired the shots that killed the president, but there is no clear-cut evidence that he ALONE did so. Nor was he even definitely linked with the sixth-floor window from where the shots were fired. Only minutes after the shooting, he was drinking a Coca-Cola. Could he have left the firing site and composed himself so quickly? Here's another factor to consider: firing a cheap rifle, as Oswald did, should have left a powder burn on his cheek. After Oswald was arrested, his cheek was examined: no such powder burn was found!
After Oswald's death, his palm print was found on his rifle butt, indicating that it was he who did the shooting. Some investigators charge, however, that a palm print could have been transferred from his hand to the rifle butt after Oswald's. This could have been one of many illegal efforts to tie Oswald to the crime.
2. THE MOTIVES:
Why was President Kennedy assassinated? Many reasonable speculations have been offered. None, however, has been positively proven.
One set of theories says that it was the president's plans for Vietnam that prompted his murder. By 1963 (the assassination year), the United States was becoming more and more involved in the Vietnam war. The U.S. had already sent supplies, arms, and several thousand "advisers" and "instructors."
But the president wanted to go no further in aiding South Vietnam. He was ready to stop sending aid, even though South Vietnam claimed to have a democratic government and an army eager to wage war against North Vietnam. The president said that Vietnam was too far away from the United States, that South Vietnam's claim to democracy was false, and that the U.S. had no business sending American troops to fight in what was really a local war.
So, the theory goes, the president was killed by those who wanted the United States to become actively involved in the Vietnam war. Another theory holds that Kennedy was killed because he failed to help the Cuban exiles in their 1961 attempt to invade Cuba and overthrow the Communist government of Fidel Castro. And still another theory claims that, because he did not destroy Cuba in the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, he angered anti-Castro factions and so was slain.
Another theory involves the president's relationship with his brother when Robert Kennedy was attorney general. Robert was a relentless foe of organized crime. The only way to stop the attorney general was to kill the president. That's what some investigators think. They accuse the Mafia Leaders and Jimmy Hoffa, the Teamster Union chief. Mind you, we are talking theory. No real proof exists.
3. THE MEN INVOLVED:
The movie "JFK" was first shown in December, 1991, and will probably continue to be shown in theaters, on TV, and on videocassettes for years to come. "JFK" 's screen credits acknowledge the help of two books: Jim Garrison's "On the Trail of the Assassins" and Jim Marr's "Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy."
The Garrison book is the partial autobiography of this former New Orleans district attorney. It is mainly about his struggle to convict a man named Clay Shaw for involvement in the Kennedy slaying. The book also tells of Shaw's friendship with Oswald during the summer of '63 in New Orleans, AKA the Big Easy. Garrison argues that Shaw's connection with Oswald makes him part of the Kennedy slaying. Garrison's book ends with the not-guilty verdict that freed Clay Shaw. "On the Trail of the Assassins" is a true-to-life story, perhaps over-dramatized a bit when Garrison puts made-up words in his character's mouths. Marr's book is factual, without a story line as in the Garrison book. It gathers up the accounts of many investigators, but comes to no final conclusions.
The movie "JFK" is something else again. It follows the story line of the Garrison book---up to a point, that is. The stunning conclusion abandons the cautious approach of the Garrison and Marrs books. Instead, it puts a direct, sweeping accusation in the mouth of a fictitious character known only as "X."
X proclaims that the conspiracy to kill JFK extends right up the highest levels of the U.S. government---to the Pentagon, to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the FBI and the CIA, and to the White House itself.
The movie's director, producer, and writer are all one man: Oliver Stone. He is responsible for all these statements, and more. He goes on to tie in the military with American industry in a military/industrial alliance.
It should be noted that Stone does not name names, He only says that certain high-ranking men in these organizations were responsible for the death of the president. They wanted JFK killed because he was a threat to their plans.
Stone further claims that American Industry wanted the Vietnam war to continue for reasons of greed: the more war, the higher industrial profits.
X's charge of conspiracy reaches up into the White House. Although X does not directly accuse by name the president who followed JFK into office, there can be no doubt that he meant President Lyndon B. Johnson, in office from 1963 to 1969. Johnson was Kennedy's vice president. Before that, he was the U.S. Senate's Majority Leader. He ran the Senate with an iron hand.
Kennedy had chosen Johnson as his running mate because Johnson could produce a winning number of votes. Johnson expected to take an active role in the Kennedy government. After entering office in 1961, however, he was largely ignored. His duties were mostly confined to cutting the ribbon when a new bridge or park was dedicated.
And Johnson was losing many of his once-loyal Texas followers. He sat silent, biding his time. That time came, his accusers say, when the president rode in the open limousine down a Dallas street, Johnson, his enemies claim, engineered the whole assassination program.
These are extremely serious charges, but they cannot be proven. Investigators have not been able to definitively link LBJ to the killing of JFK. There is no question that Johnson was an ambitious, powerful politician. Author Craig Zirbel, in his book "The Texas Connection," attempts to prove Johnson's guilt by eliminating all other suspects. Eventually, only Johnson is left. Therefore, he must be guilty, according to Zirbel.
As for Jack Ruby, Oswald's killer, new facts have come to life. Over the years it has been shown that he was a close associate of many criminals. They would have liked to see the president and his brother killed so that their illegal and unlawful activities could expand. But Ruby died, as we know, before he could tell his story.
