Five Factors That Prove Oswald Didn’t Act Alone
Eric Renderking Fisk | November 2013
Introduction
I’ve been interested in Conspiracy Theories since I was a teen and I’ve followed many crazy ideas over the decades. My favorite ones include the Alien Space craft in Roswell, New Mexico, The Illuminati, Secret Societies in our Ivy League universities and The Federal Government. All of these conspiracies have threads that lead to some pretty wild speculation that border on Science Fiction and fantasy and it’s almost impossible to prove because of misinformation and fictionalizing the actual facts for entertainment value.
Which raises the question about the assignation of President John F. Kennedy on November 22nd, 1963 and the conspiracy theories surrounding his death, How much can we really believe? The following essay is compiled from genuine facts or credible speculation from authors and investigations who have done due diligence to verify the validity of these claims. What has been left out are some of the most outrageous claims of who actually committed this crime outside of President Johnson and his allies.
What remains is almost irrevocable proof of a conspiracy to kill the President and then a conspiracy to cover-up the crime.
5. The Motive Of LBJ – The man who planned the trip to Dallas
One of the few things people forget when talking and writing about the assignation of John Kennedy is the fact that his 1960 Presidential running mate and successor was in serious trouble with the law and was on the verge of being indicted on charges of corruption.
Lyndon Johnson was going to face two congressional hearings at the beginning of 1964, one of the charges involved patronage from campaign donations in exchange for political favors in Washington and manipulating the process of awarding military contracts to friends and allies in his home state in Texas. The most notable of these incidents revolved around the “TFX Fighter Scandal” and how then Senate Majority Leader Johnson was able to have the Federal Government award the contract to Texas based General Dynamics who were not capable to deliver the new fighters to the military in a timely fashion due to their inexperience. In retrospect, it’s hard to imagine how General Dynamics was able to win the aforementioned contract without Johnson’s help.
Lyndon Johnson’s lifelong ambition to be President of The United States was fading fast as his possible future as a prison inmate was becoming more of a reality as many hearings on Johnson’s corruption was able to make a solid case of his guilt and culpability.
From “JFK Lancer” – “The Don Reynolds Testimony and LBJ”
Literally, at the very moment, JFK was being assassinated in Dallas on 11-22-63, Don Reynolds was testifying in a closed session of the Senate Rules Committee about a suitcase of $100,000 given to LBJ for his role in securing a TFX fighter jet contract for Fort Worth's General Dynamics.
The only way for Johnson to remain out of jail and fulfill his White House ambitions was to have something happen to his predecessor, Jack Kennedy.
In an effort to unite the divided political party in the much-needed state of Texas for the 1964 election, Lyndon Johnson planed every detail of the trip through the swing state that included himself and his wife, Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline, and then governor John Connelly. Johnson and his political team planned every aspect of the trip including security and the motorcade route. It is still unclear why the motorcade route between Love Field to The Dallas Trade Mart had to make the detour off of Main Street by taking a left on to Houston street then again turning left on to Elm Street – a detour that took Kennedy and the motorcade through Dealy Plaza where the President was shot and killed.
An entire paper could be written that further explains how Lyndon Johnson could have been responsible for the assignation of Jack Kennedy, but it’s enough to say in this short essay that he had the motive and the opportunity not only to participate in the death of our President but also in it’s cover up. Johnson also had set up the Warren Commission that was under strict orders through him and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to only investigate evidence that proved Lee Harvey Oswald – the ‘lone assassin” did it by himself.
In the afternoon of President Kennedy’s death, Hoover reported to then Attorney General Robert Kennedy that his brothers death was caused by a lone assassin working alone… it’s unclear how the FBI could have known that so soon after the incident in Dallas.
Further Reading -
LBJ Behind JFK Killing - New Book - Remember 'The Wink' By Hye Jeong Knight Ridder Newspapers 8-21-3
4. Eyewitness To The Grassy Knoll
In the now infamous Zapruder film, specifically frame 313 we can actually see the fatal gunshot wound to the President. The Warren Report states that Jack Kennedy was shot from behind but we can actually see the gun’s impact came from his front-right side and the force pushed him towards his left, leaving his corpse to lean upon his wife on his left side.
In the seconds after the President’s death many observers raced to the wooden stockade fence that separated Dealey Plaza from the adjoining railroad yard. It is from this direction that the witnesses said they heard the shots being fired; saw the muzzle flash of a rifle and smelled the acrid sent of spent gunpowder from this direction.
Most notable of these witnesses was Lee Bowers who was working in the Railroad yard at the time and saw two suspicious men at the same spot where the alleged shots were fired. Furthermore, The Warren Commission ignored evidence of the muddy footprints, cigarette butts and a spent bullet casing with a specific bite mark that were all found near the picket fence.
According to the article “Fifty-one Witnesses: The Grassy Knoll,” by Harold Feldman there were more than a handful of people who came forward with their testimony about what they saw and heard at Dealey Plaza, evidence that would have proven as early as 1964 when The Warren Commission finished it’s report that Oswald could not have acted alone.
Update: These photos were taken from the website “JFK Murder Solved” and the individual page devoted to the grassy knoll. Here I’ve selected several pictures that were taken at the time of the shooting with people running towards the location of where the shots came from. Witnesses at Dealey Plaza reported hearing the shots come from behind the wooden picket fence.
From "JFK History - Images you have to see"
Lee Bowers testified to hearing three gunshots after the limousine passed from his view, as the wall of the pergola came between him and the limo. This is an overhead photo of Dealey Plaza in which I have overlaid a line showing exactly where he lost sight of the President. As it turns out, that happened about a second prior to the shot at Zapruder frame 285. Like many other witnesses, Bowers did not hear the first firecracker-like sound and recalled the shots at Z285, 312 and 323.
Speaking of Lee Bowers...
3. Dead Men Tell No Tales
Lee Bowers, the aforementioned Railroad worker who claimed he saw suspicious behavior is only one of a handful of people who have died under mysterious circumstances after the death of Jack Kennedy. His death is one of many detailed in “Hit List: An In-Depth Investigation into the Mysterious Deaths of Witnesses to the JFK Assassination,” written by Richard Belzer and David Wayne. In this book they wrote about their own examination of the “accidental” deaths of eyewitnesses, reporters, and secret service agents. These people either came forward and tried to report to the Warren Commission what they saw and heard or had evidence that proved there was a conspiracy.
This book covers the mysterious deaths of men like David Ferrie and his employer Eladio. Del Valle who were killed on the same day, a week after the newspaper story was published that Mr. Ferrie was speaking to Jim Garrison, the New Orleans district Attorney who eventually tried local business man Clay Shaw with conspiracy.
Hit List: An In-depth Investigation into the Mysterious Deaths of Witnesses to the JFK Assassination only details 50 of these mysterious deaths which include 6 FBI agents Louis Nichols, Alan Belmont, James Cadigan, Donald Kaylor, M.J. Engish, and William Sullivan. The book also details the deaths of the alleged assassin Oswald and his connections to the aforementioned David Ferrie who mentored Oswald while he was a youth in the Civilian Air Patrol. The book also chronicles the life and eventual death of Jack Ruby who was connected to Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon’s campaign efforts in Texas during previous elections. This book also explores the connection between Mary Pinchot Meyer who was the wife of a CIA agent and mistress of Jack Kennedy and what she knew about her former husband’s suspicious activities before November 22nd, 1963.
2. A Rifle By Any Other Name:
The original rifle that was found near the snipers nest in the Book Depository book was reported to have been a German made Mauser armed with a high-powered scope and according to investigators it had been fired moments before it was found via gun powder residue in the barrel.
It was later reported that the “actual gun” used by Oswald was a Italian made Mannlicher-Carcano with a weaker powered scope but no gunpowder residue in the barrel. One of the various facts about this poorly made rifle that was traced back to Oswald after it was bought via the mail under an assumed name was it was mechanically impossible for this specific gun to fire three shots in less than the 7 seconds that was the reported time the assignation and shot fired took place.
It’s mechanically impossible to get off that many rounds in such a short amount of time because of the sloppy travel of the bolt action. Because of the lever was on the wrong side of the gun, Oswald would have had to take his sight off the target, cycle the spent cartridge out of the gun and cycle a fresh cartage out of the magazine then realign his sights on his target again.
This leads to one of two possible conclusions that both point to a conspiracy; either there were two shooters in the Book Depository building or the gun that was originally found - German made Mauser – that wasn’t tracible back to Oswald was replaced in secret with the Mannlicher-Carcano that Oswald allegedly owned.
Above is a picture of the Mannlicher-Carcano from the web page Guns America – and they have a great article of their own about this controversy: “LEE HARVEY OSWALD’S CARCANO RIFLE – SHOOTING IT TODAY”
Also check out The Guns of Dealey Plaza by John S. Craig for an in-depth annalisis of the possible fire arms that could have been used during the assination.
The Warren Commission's report on the assassination of JFK officially states that the alleged murder weapon, an Italian-made 6.5 Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, purchased through mail order by A.J. Hidell, was found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository on the day of the assassination, November 22, 1963 at 1:22 p.m. The Dallas police quickly established that A.J. Hidell was a cover name for Oswald. Though Oswald denied owning a rifle, the Commission believed that Oswald did all of the shooting that day with the Italian rifle.
There is, hoever, a variety of evidence suggesting more than one weapon was involved in the shooting. This article explores the issue of gunrunning by numerous individuals associated with the assassination. Additionally, the article investigates the numerous sightings and sounds of weapons in Dealey Plaza that include a 7.65 Mauser, a Johnson 30.06 rifle, an unknown rifle on the roof of the Depository, a revolver found in a paper bag, rifles on the triple overpass, the "double bang" sound heard by numerous eyewitnesses, a rifle behind the fence on the grassy knoll, the possibility of 7.35 Mannlichers involved in a plot, and a man claiming he was a FBI agent who had a gun under an overcoat on the grassy knoll.
1. The House Select Committee on Assassinations Report:
Between 1976 and 1978 The United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) did their own investigations into the assignations of President Kennedy and Martin Luthor King, Jr. Their general findings agree that Lee Harvey Oswald did in fact fire two shots and President Kennedy and their investigation concluded that there is no evidence that “disproves” there wasn’t a second gunman.
Their conclusions also indicate that there was a conspiracy but they do not specifically name who was involved, only who wasn’t involved such as the Anti-Castro movement, Soviet spies or government agents in the United States.
The HSCA does make a point to critique the FBI and the Secret Service of their dereliction of duty during the President’s trip to Dallas and their part in the Warren Commission’s investigation after the assignation.
Bibliography
Belzer, Richard, and David Wayne. Hit List: An In-depth Investigation into the Mysterious Deaths of Witnesses to the JFK Assassination. New York, NY: Skyhorse, 2013. Print.
"The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ [Hardcover]." The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ: Roger Stone, Mike Colapietro: 9781626363137: Skyhorse Publishing, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
"LBJ: The Mastermind of the JFK Assassination [Hardcover]." LBJ: The Mastermind of the JFK Assassination: Phillip F. Nelson: 9781616083779: Books. Skyhorse Publishing, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
Lane, Mark, and Robert K. Tanenbaum. "Last Word: My Indictment of the CIA in the Murder of JFK." Product Reviews: Last Word: My Indictment of the CIA in the Murder of JFK: Skyhorse Publishing, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
Updated August 2018 - Checkout more documents on this tragic event in our library section.
