John F Kennedy Assassination November 22 1963 Dallas

John F. Kennedy Assassination November 22, 1963

Dallas, Texas / 12: 29 pm

Dallas, Texas / 12: 29 pm Jackie Kennedy JFK Gov. John Connally

JFK Jackie Gov. Connally Governor’s wife, Nellie Connally

Dealey Plaza

Dealey Plaza E t. S lm . t S n i a M Ho us to n St .

Mr. Yergert

• ! Mr. President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you!

Photo by Mary Moorman, taken one sixth of a second after President Kennedy is hit

Secret Service Agent Clint Hill

Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested for the crime • Oswald is caught ducking into a nearby movie theater. • During his arrest, Oswald shouts, “I didn’t shoot anybody!” and “They've taken me in because of the fact that I lived in the Soviet Union. I'm just a patsy!”

Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested for the crime • A veteran of the Korean War, Oswald was trained with a rifle. • After the war, Oswald defected to Russia- our Cold War enemy at the time. • While in Russia, Oswald received rifle scope training. Experts confirmed that he would have had the ability to make that shot.

A special congressional committee called the Warren Commission was tasked with investigating the assassination. But…

The Warren Commission’s conclusion was strange • The Commission reviewed evidence and issued the official story of what happened. Their theory became known as the “single bullet theory. ” • But something was wrong…

The Warren Commission’s conclusion was strange • Witnesses could not agree on the number of shots heard or the number of times Kennedy was hit. • People could not agree on where the shots came from. • And yet that was just the beginning.

Mysterious Witness Deaths • 103 people who witnessed the assassination later died mysterious deaths, not long after the assassination • For example, Dixie Klan leader Joseph Milteer was secretly tape-recorded 2 weeks before the assassination saying that it was “in the works. ” He later died of an unsolved heater explosion in his house. Because of their anti-Civil Rights position, the Klan would’ve likely wanted JFK gone.

Lee Harvey Oswald Jack Ruby

Mysterious Witness Deaths • Lee Harvey Oswald is killed by Jack Ruby two days after JFK is assassinated. • Jack Ruby dies of lung cancer five years later, after his attempts to speak to the Warren Commission- the people in charge of investigating assassination.

Geometry and Acoustics • If JFK was shot exclusively from behind, there should have been a large exit wound on the front of his head. The acoustic evidence is inconsistent with the single bullet theory. Many crowd members heard 2 shots that day.

Ignored Testimony • JFK’s limo was about to pass under an underpass when he was shot. People on the overpass say they saw a second shooter on the “grassy knoll” by the car, but their testimony was also ignored by the Warren Commission.

Ignored Testimony • There were 7 witnesses on the overpass who say they saw another shooter, as well as a muzzle flash and gun smoke • There was an eighth witness on the grassy knoll who said they saw gun smoke and smelled gunpowder.

A second shooter?

Da rk -co m pl ec t ed m an Unidentified Witnesses

“Umbrella Man”

So Many Unanswered Questions… • Why was JFK’s body immediately flown to Washington DC, even though state law dictated that it should be autopsied in Texas? • Why did LBJ insist on being sworn in on Air Force One while it was still in Dallas and not back at the White House? • Why was the investigation so poorly done?

Was it… The Ku Klux Klan? The Klan hated Kennedy for his pro-civil rights stance. If he had not been killed, historians believe JFK would have signed the Civil Rights Act into law. His successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, did sign the bill into law.

Was it… Texas oil men? The oil industry despised Kennedy for his tax plans. JFK was going to enact laws which would force Texas oil companies to pay millions more in taxes than they had been. Men like Haroldson Hunt spoke openly about hating JFK.

Was it… Lyndon B. Johnson? LBJ was almost surely going to be dropped from the ticket when Kennedy ran for re-election in 1964. This would have tarnished later presidential aspirations.

Was it… Lee Harvey Oswald? Perhaps the lone gunman with his mailorder rifle really was the killer.

76% of Americans believe that the official story- that Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK from the book depository and acted alone- is either a lie or a cover-up

Connections…

Use Claim / Data /Warrant format to tell me who you think killed JFK. • Was it Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone? • Were some of the unidentified witnesses involved? • Was it the Ku Klux Klan? • Was it the mob? • Was it the government itself? Tell me who you think it was, tell me what evidence you have to support that, and then tell me why that evidence matters.