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60 Years Later: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

As we approach the sixty-year mark since that fateful day in Dealey Plaza, I deem worthy some considerations surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I intend not to dishonor the thirty-fifth President of the United States, nor to distract from the solemn remembrance of November 22nd, 1963, but to shed some light on the lesser-known aspects surrounding that day and the assassination itself. It is important that we commemorate this historic tragedy and that we pay our respects to the lives lost on that day, including those of John Kennedy and Officer J. D. Tippit; yet it is also essential that we endeavor to unearth the truth surrounding those two murders, for the sake of their families as well as the sake of recorded history. As there has been but one trial surrounding the assassination, and not one in the case of Officer J. D. Tippit, it has been up to ordinary Americans, and other concerned persons of the world, to do their own research and to launch their own investigations into the affairs surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The considerations found hereafter in this article offer merely a glimpse into the possibilities and the contradictions uncovered in the decades since the assassination, and I trust that the reader will find them enlightening and cause for further investigation; cause to implore the United States government to reopen this case, to interview the surviving witnesses, various researchers and eminent historians, to finally reveal the truth about what happened on 11/22/1963, and to, once and for all, answer the question: who killed President Kennedy?

Next to John Kennedy and J. D. Tippit, there is, of course, another individual of note who perished as a consequence of the assassination. It is the accused assassin known as Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who would be shot down by night club owner Jack Rubenstein just two days later in the basement of the Dallas City Jail. It goes without saying that great suspicion was aroused as a consequence, and that this murder officially marked the beginning of the countless theories which, in the years since, have attempted to explain the true events of that day; to explain how and why an American President was so brutally murdered in broad daylight as he passed through Dallas, Texas. It is essential that the reader continue reading with an open mind, without any preconceived notions, in order to truly entertain these details before reconciling them with others to reach one’s own conclusions. Only one man (Clay LaVergne Shaw) was ever tried for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy; he was ultimately acquitted, and, as the following evidence may suggest, acquitted no sooner than the truth was abandoned along with the concept of justice.


It is essential to begin at 12:30 PM local time in Dallas, Texas, on November 22nd, 1963. This is when shots rang out in Dealey Plaza, sending the people and the Secret Service into a frenzy. A manhunt would ensue, whereupon two men would be arrested, separately: one named Donald Wayne House, the other, as history remembers, Lee Harvey Oswald. The bulk of this article is dedicated to him, the man whose name was, through the media, quickly placed in the minds of the public as it was indelibly etched into the history books; as it was first introduced on TV and radio, as it was indelibly etched into the stone marking his grave. Finally, we arrive at the purpose of this article: to offer some careful considerations such that the verdict issued might align with the truth so far as it can be ascertained.


First, it is likely that Lee Harvey Oswald didn’t even fire a rifle that fateful day in Dallas; the absence of fingerprints and a negative Paraffin test corroborate this theory. Indeed, it’s possible that the assassination rifle wasn’t even a Carcano, but rather a German Mauser, as originally reported. Second, it’s likely that Oswald did not even shoot Officer Tippit, as first-hand reports from staff at the Texas Theatre indicate that he was at the theater shortly after 1:00 PM, before two men were observed fleeing on foot from the scene of Tippit’s murder; according to witness testimonies, not one of those men resembled Oswald. Numerous eyewitnesses described men who did not resemble Oswald, many of whom flat-out said that it wasn’t Oswald who shot and murdered Tippit: some of those eyewitnesses were Acquilla Clemmons, Margie Higgins, and Domingo Benavides, just to name a few. There are far more troubling details at the Tippit murder scene, however, including: (1) the first of two wallets was photographed, meaning we’re supposed to believe that Oswald carried two wallets on 11/22/1963; (2) the first wallet later went missing, and it was never recovered; (3) Virginia  Davis’ testimony to the Warren Commission, claiming that, after the shooter ran around the corner of her house a policeman "was already there”;  (4) two different types of shell casings were found at the Tippit murder scene, linking them to a semiautomatic pistol, not a revolver; (5) dubious chains of custody for revolver and shell casings; (6) police car observed in alleyway perpendicular to the Tippit murder scene at Tenth and Patton; (7) reserve officer Sgt Croy’s obfuscation of the order of events at the murder scene, disproven by eyewitnesses and medical professionals who arrived on scene in the ambulance; (8) and, among others, the conflict of timing between the Tippit murder and the confirmed sighting of Oswald at the Texas Theatre by concessionaire Butch Burroughs. Remember, the Tippit murder was the key to identifying Oswald as the assassin, as it was the only trace of Oswald that would’ve given Dallas PD a reason to apprehend him and identify him as a suspect. As it turns out, this evidence was planted in order to frame Oswald, and it was likely planted by Captain W. R. Westbrook and reserve officer Kenneth Croy. Third, Oswald was most likely framed as the “patsy” as a low-level CIA operative, whose entire identity was fabricated through his overt political activism, speeches, interviews, and pamphleteering for the FPCC; his defection to the Soviet Union; an alleged trip to the consulate in Mexico City; the merging of two separate identities; and the false identity of a disaffected Marine and a pro-Castro Marxist. Ironically, Oswald was known privately to admire President Kennedy, and, believe it or not, he had previously foiled the original Chicago assassination plot by calling the FBI. It’s possible that the Oswald letter previously sent to the FBI ahead of 11/22/1963, which was promptly destroyed by the FBI, was actually another warning about the impending plot in Dallas. Incidentally, Jack Ruby did just the same in his own effort to advise the Dallas PD of plans to kill Oswald; Ruby did not want to go through with it. Regarding his work for the CIA, Oswald was intimately connected with several members of the mob and the intelligence community, including George de Mohrenschildt, Dr. Alton Ochsner, Carlos Marcello, David Ferrie, Clay Shaw, John Hurt, Jack Rubenstein, and Guy Banister. 


It’s also worth noting that Oswald did not run to the Texas Theatre after he returned to his rooming house at 1026 N Beckley. He was dropped off in the back of the Texas Theatre, most likely by Captain Westbrook of the Dallas Police Department, who honked his horn while passing by the rooming house. After being dropped off by Captain Westbrook, it is known that Oswald emerged from behind the theater onto Jefferson Boulevard through an alleyway east of the theater: that alleyway is today just east of the adjacent Oak Cliff Cultural Center, and there is a door marking the location. Contrary to popular belief, Oswald did, in fact, purchase a ticket to enter the theater, and he was confirmed to have entered the theater between 1:03 and 1:04 PM, minutes before Officer JD Tippit was murdered (between 1:06 and 1:07 PM) at 10th and Patton by a man in a white t-shirt and light-colored jacket, and roughly 27 minutes before Johnny Brewer contacted Dallas PD from Hardy's Shoe Store to report a suspicious man in a white t-shirt. What's more, there is no positive indication that Oswald entered the theater without a ticket. In fact, manager Butch Burroughs was the ticket-taker that day, the one who sold Oswald popcorn just a few minutes after he arrived. Burroughs has claimed that, if Oswald hadn't purchased a ticket, he would've known about it; however, Burroughs has maintained that Oswald is believed to have paid for a ticket, just before, according to witnesses in the theater, he sat in several different seats and spoke with a pregnant woman, possibly in search of his contact: indeed, upon his arrest, Oswald’s wallet contained two halves of a dollar bill, a popular spy technique at the time used to mutually identify contacts. Anyway, it was only at Johnny Brewer's insistence that cashier Julia Postal of the Texas Theatre ultimately contacted the police. However, given the time discrepancy, we know that Brewer could not have seen Oswald walking down Jefferson Boulevard. We also know that it was Brewer's colleague, Tommy Rowe, who claimed to have spotted the suspicious man in the white t-shirt; and it was because of Tommy Rowe that Brewer demanded that Julia Postal contact the police. It's important to note that Oswald was wearing a brown long-sleeve shirt, and that Tommy Rowe could not possibly have seen Oswald walking down Jefferson Boulevard to the Texas Theatre; it's also important to note that Tommy Rowe was a good friend of Oswald's murderer Jack Ruby, whose apartment Rowe would inherit upon Ruby's incarceration. 


It's also worth noting that Oswald was arrested on the main floor of the Texas Theatre, but that there was a suspect who actually fit the description of the man in the white t-shirt in the balcony as Oswald was arrested. It is confirmed that, during the commotion around Oswald's arrest, this suspect departed the balcony area and walked down the stairway. It was at this time that Deputy Sheriff Bill Courson ran up the stairs and passed by a young man, about whom he later said that "he was reasonably satisfied in his own mind the man he saw was Lee Harvey Oswald." Seconds later the same suspect in the white t-shirt was stopped by Lt. Cunningham and Detective J.B. Toney, who began to question him, perhaps because his clothing matched the most recent police description of the suspect wearing a white t-shirt and dark pants. As Deputy Sheriff Buddy Walthers rushed up the stairs, he saw these officers as they were questioning the young man. Remember, all of this was happening at the very same time that Dallas police were arresting Oswald on the main floor.


Just seconds after Oswald was arrested on the main floor of the theater, Captain Westbrook, who was surely aware of the other suspect upstairs in the balcony, instructed police officers to "cover [Oswald's] face and get him out of here." Oswald was taken out the front of the theater and placed in the back seat of Captain Westbrook's unmarked police car. A few minutes later the suspect in the white t-shirt was arrested in the balcony and brought downstairs. Theater concessionaire Butch Burroughs testified that he saw a man who "looked almost like Oswald, like he was his brother or something," who was taken out the back of the theater in handcuffs "three or four minutes" later. Bernard Haire, the owner of Bernie's Hobby House, two doors east of the theater, saw police take this man out the back of the theater and place him in a police car. Mr. Haire thought he had witnessed the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald in the alley behind the Texas Theater. But the man seen by Mr. Haire was the suspect in the white t-shirt, not the man identified as Oswald who had been taken out the front of the theater and driven directly to police headquarters. The identities of the police officers who escorted the suspect in the white t-shirt out the rear of the theater and placed him in the police car in the alley remain unknown; however, we know that the suspect in the white t-shirt was not driven to police headquarters. He was released, but certainly not by a patrolman. There were two police reports filed about the arrest of the suspect in the balcony of the theater, but there were no police reports concerning the identity of a man taken out the back of the theater by police. It was likely a high-ranking Dallas police officer, most likely Captain Westbrook, who ordered the suspect's release. It's altogether possible that Captain Westbrook even told his officers that the man who shot and killed Tippit was arrested and taken out the front of the theater. Without any further explanation, Captain Westbrook advised that the young man taken out the back of the theater was arrested by mistake, and was to be released immediately. It's also likely that Westbrook told his officers that there were to be no police reports nor any discussion of a mistaken arrest, in order to avoid criticism of the Dallas Police Department. All that was left to be done was to keep the "patsy" from testifying.


If Oswald had truly wanted to leave his mark on history, as many reports have indicated, he would have likely taken credit for the assassination; however, he emphatically denied all charges. Beyond that and the obvious extent of government mismanagement and otherwise blatant whitewashing of evidence, there were a minimum of 8 shots fired in Dealey Plaza that fateful afternoon, well in excess of the 3 shots reported by the official story. In fact, no fewer than two shots caused officially-reported damage and injury, at least one to the Stemmons Freeway sign and another which struck the concrete near the triple underpass, causing debris to strike the right cheek of bystander James Tague. The rest of the story, though riveting, opens a box of perplexing and distracting details which distort the deadly obvious truth that more than 3 shots were fired from multiple directions. That alone evidences a conspiracy and furthermore the government's mishandling of the investigation. 


The Sixth Floor Museum has disgraced Oswald’s name and his legacy, muddying the history of an event so smacking of a conspiracy that only a willfully-ignorant, self-serving profiteer could convict him as the lone gunman. Let it be known that if Oswald had desperately wanted to leave his mark on history, as many reports have indicated, he would have taken credit for the assassination; however, he emphatically denied all charges because he was innocent. Ironically, even Wikipedia acknowledges that official witnesses placed him in two separate locations (more than half a mile apart) at the time of J.D. Tippit's murder, while still other witnesses confirmed that Oswald was in the second-floor lunchroom at the time of Kennedy's assassination. All the while, paraffin tests and original fingerprinting showed that Oswald neither fired a weapon that day nor possessed CE 139, the Manlicher-Carcano rifle in question. You might want to investigate Malcolm Wallace. Forensics evidence indicates that he was in the sniper's nest that day. You might also look into Lyndon Johnson, who was conveniently photographed while ducking in the backseat of his car in advance of the shooting, or the likes of George H. W. Bush, E. Howard Hunt, Edward Lansdale, Charles Harrelson, George W. Bush and Chauncey Holt. For some reason, some or all of these characters were wandering around in Dallas or Dealey Plaza at or around the time of the assassination. 

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