Conspiracy Hotspot: The Truth Behind JFK’s Assassination

*Part 1 of a 3-part series*

On November 22, 1963 President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas during a presidential motorcade in Dealey Plaza. While the tragic death of our 35th president may seem cut and dry, majority of Americans believe that there is more than meets the eye.

The President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson one week after Kennedy’s death. Some major officials were against the formation of this commission, as shown in released transcripts of presidential phone calls with President Johnson. One notable official is Senator Richard Russell, who did not want to participate on a commission with Chief Justice Earl Warren.

On a phone call with a reluctant Senator Richard Russell, Johnson said “Dick, it’s already been announced and you can serve with anybody for the good of America, and this is a question that has a good many more ramifications than on the surface and we’ve got to take this out of the arena where they’re testifying that Khruschev and Castro did this and did that and kicking us into a war that can kill 40 million Americans in an hour.”

Aside from a dislike toward other participants, a major cause for the reluctance of the participants was the idea that the commission would create more controversy than consensus.

Unofficially named after the chairman Chief Justice Warren, the Warren Commission concluded in its 888-page report that Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald and Oswald alone. The report read “The mannlicher-carcano 6.5-millimeter italian rifle from which the shots were fired was owned by and in the possession of Oswald.” The rifle was also found hidden by the sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository, the building from which the shots were fired and also Oswald’s place of employment.

In addition, Oswald was a former U.S. marine and a spectacular marksman and sharpshooter with a M1 rifle. He was court-martialed twice in 1958 for exhibiting violent behavior, and combined with a rough childhood, Oswald had all of the ingredients for an assassin.

Oswald was arrested three hours after the assassination for the murder of Dallas policeman J.D. Tippit. While in the police station, Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby. The Warren Commission also concluded that Ruby acted alone in his attack on Oswald.

A very popular theory supports the Warren Commission’s conclusion that it was Oswald who killed the President, however they disagree that he worked alone. Oswald began reading socialist literature during his time in New York, and he would later book a trip to Moscow after leaving the Marines and inform Russian officials that he wanted to officially move to the Soviet Union.

Oswald was openly anti-America, and he was under active FBI surveillance for terroristic threats. However, because the Secret Service did not inform the FBI of the motorcade route, they were not informed that they would be driving the President of the United States by the workplace of a trained sharpshooter who also just-so-happened to hate Kennedy.

According to the recently released JFK files, weeks before Kennedy was killed Oswald met with a Soviet assassination agent, which supports the most popular theory that Kennedy’s assassination was part of a Soviet plot.

Approximately two months prior to the assassination, Oswald was noted to have visited the Soviet embassy in Mexico City where he met the consul Valeriy Vladimirovich Kostikov, a known KGB officer in Department 13. Kostikov’s department was known for sabotage and assassination, and if that doesn’t sound suspicious, then I don’t know what does.

In this theory,  Oswald was definitely the perpetrator, however supporters of this theory do not believe that he acted alone. With the newfound information from the released files as well as general information on Oswald’s life, this is the most likely theory, especially given the tension between socialist and capitalist countries at the time.

While I may believe this is the most believably theory, there are plenty of others, and I plan to explore two more intricate theories in future installments of Conspiracy Hotspot, one of which will be the most outlandish theory that I can find. So stay tuned at Cedar BluePrints to catch the next installments.