Today marks the 50 year anniversary of the funeral of JFK. Amazing how the news media merged everything about that time into one day for their specials.
There are indeed many different theories about what actually happened, who was responsible, and why. Much of it has been fueled by the secrecy surrounding some of the evidence, and much of it coming out of the Warren Commission's report.
Whether or not Lee Harvey Oswald was an active participant in the murder, or if so whether he acted alone or with others has always been the basic question. The Warren Commission concluded that he was the sole shooter and that he acted alone. But in attempting to prove their case, they were forced to ignore a lot of testimony from eyewitnesses, and to explain away a lot of other testimony and evidence.
To accept the Warren Commission Report, one has to believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was either the most skilled rifleman in the world, or the absolute luckiest. The official version has him shooting his clumsey bolt action rifle three times in between 4.8 and 7 seconds, while achieving two out of three fatal hits at a moving target from six stories up. THEN, walking diagonally across the 6th floor (where he was the ONLY person present), descending by stairs to the second floor in 1 minute, 15 seconds, where he was confronted by a policeman and his own boss in a lunch room. Both his boss and the police officer stated that Oswald was very calm and not out of breath. He then walked calmly and quietly down another flight of stairs, diagonally through the first floor drinking a coca cola, and out the building, past a police officer at the front entrance.
Although he was not then identified as a suspect, a fairly accurate description of him went out over the police radios within 15 minutes of the shooting.
Now this mastermind of the entire assassination next walks 7 blocks east and boards a bus heading west back toward the School Book Depository building. He gets off the bus and requests a paper transfer slip as he exits. He then walks to a bus terminal and gets in a taxi, but first offers the cab to an old lady who declines. He rides in the cab for about five minutes and exits, giving the driver a five cent tip and 95 cent fare. He walks five minutes to his rooming house, puts on a jacket, pockets his pistol, and starts out on a meandering walk through his residential neighborhood.
At 1:15, only 45 minutes after the shooting, Dallas Police Officer Tippett sees Oswald walking, pulls up along side and calls him over to his squad car (number 10). As Tippet gets out of the car, Oswald shoots him four times in the presence of several witnesses, and then heads to the Texas Theater where he is subsequently arrested.
Oswald was questioned for 12 hours by Dallas Police and by the FBI, yet no notes or recordings exist of those interviews.
Of course, on Sunday 24 November 1963, Oswald is shot to death in the basement of the Police Department during his transfer to another jail.
While it was hard enough to accept Kennedy's death, the murder of Oswald put the icing on the cake for anyone with the slightest suspicions. The Warren Commission also had to explain that Oswald was silenced by another lone nut (Jack Ruby) who was acting out of misguided belief that he would be saving Jackie Kennedy from reurning to Dallas to testify in a trial.
What ever ideas, beliefs, or theories one has about the assassination, I recommend reading the Warren Commission's report as a starting point for further research and reading.
