ANALYSIS – Six decades ago this week, a young U.S. president was killed in broad daylight. On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as his motorcade drove through the streets of Dallas, Texas.
His wife, Jackie, as well as Texas Governor John Connally and his wife, Nelly Connally, were by his side in the limousine when he was shot.
Whether you are a JFK fan, or a detractor, that day sixty years ago is seen as one of the darker days in modern U.S. history. Most view it as a defining event of the 1960s. And few today believe the official story about how he was killed.
The shocking event is seen as shattering America's post-WWII ‘innocence,' and is still ingrained in the collective memory of Americans.
I'm not a JFK fan, and have a huge number of criticisms of JFK and his recklessness, and of his bootlegging father, and his uber liberal brother Edward Kennedy (Teddy).
Yet, despite his numerous political and personal failings, the young president had some redeeming qualities.
Rightly or wrongly, he is remembered fondly for his youthful vigor, exalted rhetoric and glamorous lifestyle (true). Kennedy also remains popular with Americans for his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis (questionable), his call to public service with programs such as the Peace Corps (yes) and a promise – later fulfilled – to land an astronaut on the moon before the end of the 1960s (valid).
His politics then were also nothing like the increasingly far-left policies the Democrats have pursued since his Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson succeeded him.
Meanwhile, no other event has spawned as many long-lasting conspiracy theories – from the mainstream (CIA or Cuban involvement) to the bizarre (UFO cover-ups).
His accused killer was Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine who had seemingly embraced Marxism and defected for a time to the Soviet Union.
Oswald never stood trial for murder. After being held for two days, Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner, shot and killed Oswald while in custody on November 24.
Amid speculation that the killing was a communist conspiracy, Johnson created the Warren Commission, which concluded that Oswald had acted alone (‘lone gunman theory').
The 1976-79 investigation of the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) also concluded that a precision head shot by Oswald had killed the President (a moving target) after the first miss, and second shot hit JFK in the back. They also concluded that a single bullet (later called the ‘magic' bullet') had hit both Kennedy and Connally.
However, the HSCA's bombshell revelation was an audio recording made from a Dallas motorcycle policeman's microphone that was said to provide evidence of four shots – that is, three by Oswald and a fourth by another shooter.
The HSCA concluded that there had been two shooters, and that the assassination was likely the product of a conspiracy.
Most recently, a filmmaker and writer, Mary Haverstick, claimed in her book, “A Woman I Know: Female Spies, Double Identities and a New Story of the Kennedy Assassination,” that her now deceased friend, Jerrie Cobb, an intrepid trendsetting female pilot, and possible CIA asset, may have been the second shooter, as well as the famous ‘babushka lady' seen in photos near Kennedy the moment he was shot, but never found or identified.
She investigated the issue for years and only came to her conclusions after her friend's death. The Telegraph reported that the author had learned that, “Cobb flew a light aircraft in and out of a private airport in Dallas on the day of the assassination, in such peculiar circumstances that she became convinced she played a role in the murder, possibly as an intended getaway pilot for assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.”
Her well documented book reportedly provides a wealth of convincing evidence and reasonable speculation.
In another new book, “The Final Witness,” a former Secret Service agent, Paul Landis, who was part of the president's permanent detail and protecting JFK that day, says he found a bullet in Kennedy's limo. He had largely remained silent for 60 years.
This revelation may provide more credence to Haverstick's story.
As historian James Robenalt wrote in Vanity Fair:
…[as JFK's] body [was placed] onto a gurney and raced into the hospital—Landis saw and did something that he has kept secret for six decades, he says now. He claims he spotted a bullet resting on the top of the back of the seat. He says he picked it up, put it in his pocket, and brought it into the hospital. Then, upon entering Trauma Room No. 1 (at that stage, he was the only nonmedical person in the room besides Mrs. Kennedy, and both stayed for only a short period), he insists, he placed the bullet on a white cotton blanket on the president's stretcher.
This secret, as it turns out, may upend key conclusions of the Warren Commission.
The young agent was about 15 feet away when Kennedy was mortally wounded. He was never questioned by the FBI, and left the service a few months later. He says he suffered for years with PTSD from the horrific event.
While I can't begin to guess where the ultimate truth may lie, six decades after the JFK assassination, speculation continues and conspiracy theories still abound.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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