John F. Kennedy 2 Essay, Research Paper

On November 22,1963 the death of John F. Kennedy was the largest, and most comprehensive conspiracy in United States history. The truth of what happened on that dreadful day in Dallas, Texas is unknown to the common person and it will probably be that way for years to come. The only people that actually know what happened that day would be the ones involved in the conspiracy. The conspirators know the truth, and multitudes of people and the United States government have tried to explain what happened on that day through their own theories and thoughts. The theories vary as much as the people who came up with them.

The United States government believes that John F. Kennedy was killed by a single assassin by the name of Lee Harvey Oswald. The belief that Oswald was the lone assassin has been quite scrutinized because of the numerous holes in the government’s reasoning. The government describes that day like this. A large enthusiastic crowd was greeting the president when he arrived at Dallas airport on the morning of November 22, 1963. Along the motorcade’s route people were lined up 10-12 deep, just to applaud the Presiden s motorcade. Next to the president in the open topped limousine sat his wife. In front of the Kennedys sat John B. Connally, the governor of Texas and his wife. As the cars approached a triple underpass, about 12:30pm, Mrs.Connally turned to President Kennedy and said, You cannot say Dallas doesn t love you, Mr. President . This is the moment when the terror began. At this point three shots rang out. The first bullet shot the president through the back of the head and throat. The second bullet hit Governor Connally, piercing his back, chest, wrist and thigh. A reporter glanced up and saw Oswald and a rifle quickly disappeared into a sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository after he had fired the deadly shots. At 12:36pm a description of Oswald was sent over the police radio and by 1:35pm Oswald was taken into custody for the assassin of President John F. Kennedy. Kennedy died in Parkland Memorial Hospital shortly after.

One of the strongest, and most enduring theories in opposition to the governments revolves around the so-called Umbrella Man.” The Umbrella Man was an individual sighted in a number of photos and films taken during the assassination. Robert B. Cutler, a retired 80-year old Massachusetts architect and author of the self-published book The Umbrella Man, Cutler believes, The umbrella man is the true assassin of Kennedy . It s believed that the umbrella is actually a highly sophisticated weapon called the Overhead Flechette Launcher, which fired a poisonous dart at JFK as he came down Elm Street. The dart struck Kennedy in the neck, immediately paralyzing him in a vertical position, so that he would sit still for the gunmen in the rear to finish up the deadly murder. The lethal umbrella was loaded with shellfish toxins invented for killing in the Vietnam war.

Bill Cooper, an assassination buff, says that microanalysis of key frames from the famous Zapruder film shows the president s limo driver, William Greer, allegedly whipped out a gun, turning quickly, shooting JFK, and then returning his attention to the road as if all was well. That s not enough to please some theorists on this controversial theory. They say that after the first bullet hit Kennedy, (even if he didn t take his own shot at the president) Greer appears to slow the limo down to almost a stop, wait for Kennedy to take another slug, and only then speeds away.

According to Howard Donahue, a retired ballistics expert, JFK did not die from an assassin s bullet, but as the result of an accident when a Secret Service agent s gun went off by mistake and shattered the president s skull. This friendly fire theory is laid out by Bonar Menninger, who claims that JFK was killed by Secret Service agent George Hickey, who, riding in the limo directly behind the president, tripped forward, accidentally discharging his AR-15 into the back of Kennedy s head. Donahue, a nationally recognized firearms examiner, says that based on the trajectories involved, the position of Kennedy s head, and the type of wound afflicted, there is no other physical possibility other than the shot being fired in error by Hickey. It was just one God-awful mistake, just some very bad luck on Hickey s part, says Donahue. The shots fired by Oswald wounded Kennedy, with gunfire causing a standing Hickey to pitch over, firing his weapon in a convulsive reflex accidentally releasing the bullet that actually killed the president.

My belief on the assassination was that Lee Harvey Oswald and two co-conspirators, one being a FBI Agent and the other having connections with the CIA or the FBI. The three arrived in Dealey Plaza sometime before 12:15 p.m. on Friday, November 22, 1963. The first was a young man dressed in a white cowboy hat. He was positioned on the knoll steps overlooking Elm Street and was used as a watch out man. Oswald was sitting in a window on the sixth-floor at the Texas School Book Depository. The so called Umbrella Man was the second co-conspirator and was located near the street, in the large crowd.

The arrival of the pilot car of the President s motorcade in Dealey Plaza signaled the two patrolmen to hold the west bound Elm Street traffic at the corner of Houston Street. The pilot car also alerted the conspirators to get ready because the President would soon arrive.

The President s limousine turned off Main Street at about 12:29 p.m., and traveled north on Houston Street. Oswald located President Kennedy in his scope and began to follow the convertible while it turned left onto Elm, directly in front of the School Book Depository. At this time the Umbrella Man fired his overhead Flechette launcher (known as the umbrellea gun) , at Kennedy. The toxin paralyzed Kennedy and left him in the position for Oswald s lethal shots. As the car was about to pass under an oak tree Oswald fired his first shot. The bullet nicked a branch of the oak tree and was diverted down, striking the pavement near the limousine s right rear tire. The main fragment of this bullet then shot across Dealey Plaza and ricocheted off the south curb of Main Street. The bullet stung bystander James Tague on his right cheek. Oswald ejected the first shell and took aim at the car as it emerged from under the oak tree. The Umbrella Man lowered the overhead Flechette launcher and began to hide in the crowd. The FBI Agent was watching out and saw the plan working to perfection. Then Oswald fired his second shot, while Kennedy was still paralyzed by the toxin. The second bullet struck President Kennedy high in his back and exited through his throat. Then the bullet slammed into Texas Governor John Connally s near his right arm pit, and shattered a portion of his fifth rib. Six seconds later, Oswald fired his third and final round through the President s head. The explosion of the exiting bullet drove Kennedy s head back and to the left. The bullet fragment then crashed through Connally s raised right wrist, then cracked the limousine s windshield, and fell into the front seat. At this point the Umbrella Man and the FBI Agent, had joined together and dashed up the knoll steps. As they were running up the knoll steps the Umbrella Man stepped on a coke bottle and made the sound of another gun shot.

Patrolman Joseph Smith drew his revolver and slowly made his way through the remnants of the motorcade on Elm Street. He climbed through the bushes near the Elm extension and noticed the FBI Agent leaning on the fender of a parked car. When Smith approached the FBI Agent, the agent produced identification and showed that he was a FBI Agent. Together with other police officers, they began to search for the supposed shooters and after a few minutes the FBI Agent began to separate himself from the other officers and began to blend into the crowd of civilians. The civilians were now flooding behind the knoll, to get away from the gun shots.

Officer Smith testified before the Warren Commission that his instructions at the Depository s front door were to let no one in or out of the building except official personnel. One might assume that Smith remembered FBI Agent showing him his ID, and allowed him entry. In a scene from Ernest Mentesana s 8mm film, the FBI Agent can be seen in the intersection of Elm and Houston Streets, with his back to the camera, watching the various Fire, Police and News vehicles that had arrived. The planning of this assassination attempt was done by Lyndon B. Johnson along with other high ranking leaders in the United States government. Also involved in the planning of the assassination were members of an organized crime group. The assassination took place because of Kennedy s policies towards Cuba. The policy was seen as a great injustice. What Lee Harvey Oswald did not know about the planning of this assassination attempt was that he was being planned as the fall guy. It was planned that Oswald would go and blend into the crowd at the cafe in the Texas School Depository. This is where Oswald was taken into custody.

After the assassination took place, the real conspiracy took place. The conspirators took many steps to remove evidence that could point to them being involved. The conspirators had the original autopsy report destroyed soon after it was completed. The autopsy was burned by Dr. James Humes, chief autopsy pathologist. With the official autopsy report lost, the conspirators could have their own doctors do a new autopsy. The body of Kennedy was sent to Bethesda Naval Hospital to have a new autopsy done. The autopsy was done to show that the assassination was done by Lee Harvey Oswald and only Oswald. The Secret Service had taken all of the photographs that were taken, many were destroyed and many others had drastic changes made to them. The Naval Hospital doctors had done as much as possible to fill in gun shot wounds, and create others by probing them. The most important part of the conspiracy was making sure that the Parkland doctors and the naval doctors that did the autopsy told a the same story. The conspirators got to them and created stories for them to tell. The conspirators did what they thought was needed to complete the conspiracy but they forgot some details and that s why all of the different questions about the assassination have been brought up in the past thirty years.

The assassination of John F. Kennedy was the largest conspiracy in the history of the United States. The Commission that did the research for the government did everything they could to compile the information, into a complete story that describes the events that happened with the assassination of Kennedy. The commission did all they humanly could with the information they had. The true research was hard because of the information being altered. The only way to learn the truth is to have one of the conspirators come out and describe the events that actually occurred and that s not very likely.