Each authorities company that has investigated the demise of President John F. Kennedy has reached the identical conclusion: He was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald.
Oswald, a lone gunman, fired three photographs from the sixth ground of a warehouse in Dealey Plaza as Kennedy rode in a motorcade by way of Dallas in 1963. Kennedy and Gov. John B. Connally Jr. of Texas, who was driving in the identical automobile, have been each struck by bullets.
Oswald was arrested hours after the capturing. Two days later, he was shot and killed by a person named Jack Ruby.
However these findings have long been disputed by many Individuals, and unsubstantiated claims concerning the involvement of the C.I.A., the mob and even Kennedy’s vice chairman, Lyndon B. Johnson, have circulated. Many individuals have questioned whether or not Oswald acted alone, and whether or not the assassination was a plot by Cuba or the Soviet Union.
In 2016, President Trump instructed that the daddy of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas was somehow involved in the killing. And in 2023, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now the well being and human providers secretary, claimed there was “overwhelming proof” that the C.I.A. had a job in his uncle’s homicide.
In keeping with the Nationwide Archives and Information Administration, about 99 % of the Kennedy assassination data have already been unsealed. Nonetheless, the latest trove to be launched might maintain clues for conspiracy theorists.
Listed below are a few of the matters they could be hoping to be taught extra about.
The Magic Bullet
The Warren Fee, which was established in 1963 to analyze the assassination, discovered that one of many bullets fired by Oswald struck the president, exited his throat after which hit Governor Connally, injuring his thigh, again, chest and wrist. That single bullet — referred to as the “magic bullet” by those that discovered this chain of occasions implausible — was discovered on the stretcher that held the governor, the fee discovered.
Just lately, Paul Landis, a Secret Service agent who was toes away from Kennedy when he was struck, added one other layer of doubt to that story.
In a September 2023 interview with The New York Times, Landis mentioned that he was the one who discovered the bullet, and it was not on a stretcher however lodged behind the limousine the place Kennedy had been sitting.
Landis, who was not interviewed by the Warren Fee, careworn that he was not hoping to push a conspiracy principle. He had lengthy believed Oswald was the lone gunman, he mentioned, however “at this level, I’m starting to doubt myself.”
A number of Shooters and the Grassy Knoll
In 1979, the Home Choose Committee on Assassinations launched a report saying that conspirators have been “likely” concerned in Kennedy’s homicide.
In keeping with that committee, which primarily based its findings on acoustic assessments of Dallas police tapes, Oswald fired three photographs from the sixth ground of the Texas College Guide Depository and yet another shot was fired from a grassy knoll in entrance of the president’s limousine. The report didn’t make clear who these conspirators may have been.
The reliability of the acoustic findings has since been questioned, and the findings of the report have been largely undermined.
Thriller Round Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby
Whereas investigations have discovered that each Oswald and Ruby acted alone, many conspiracy theories have flourished across the again tales of the 2 males.
Theorists have lengthy contended that Oswald had ties to a international authorities or inner businesses in the USA. Many additionally questioned Oswald’s trip to Mexico City, and his go to to the Soviet and Cuban missions there, simply weeks earlier than the assassination. Oswald mentioned he had traveled to Mexico to get visas from each embassies, however little is thought about his time there.
Oswald, a former Marine, mentioned he didn’t shoot the president and referred to as himself a “patsy” arrange by those that did.
He was shot lifeless by Ruby at shut vary whereas in police custody two days after the assassination. The Warren Fee discovered that Ruby didn’t know Oswald earlier than killing him, however many nonetheless query Ruby’s motive, and whether or not or not there was a connection between the lads.
Ruby was discovered responsible of homicide in 1964. He appealed the ruling in 1966, however died the next 12 months from a pulmonary embolism earlier than his subsequent trial started.
