On Tuesday, December 7, I walked through and around Dealey Plaza in Dallas where JFK was assassinated by a lone assassin Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO). Or was he? A lone assassin, that is? Yes, he was, but that is not what anyone giving informal tours of the plaza will have you believe if you give them a few minutes (and a few bucks).
I was in town filming a documentary for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The subject was conspiracy theories, so it was with some irony that we happened to be filming on December 7 because there are many conspiracy theories surrounding that date as well, a date that will live in infamy, as Franklin Roosevelt so crowned that fateful day in 1941, because he supposedly either helped orchestrate the attack on Pearl Harbor or else he knew about the attack and allowed it to happen in order to galvanize the American public into supporting England against the Nazis and getting the United States into the war.
There is no more to the Pearl Harbor conspiracy theory than there is that President Bush helped orchestrate 9/11 or knew about the pending attack and allowed it to happen in order to unite the American public into supporting his wars of aggression in the Middle East. Nevertheless, there is something particularly appealing to conspiracy theorists when they describe "what really happened" in their alternative universe of events. You can see it in their eyes when they begin to talk about what "they" want or don't want you to know about said event.
This was certainly the case for me when I interviewed several conspiracy theorists hanging around Dealey Plaza that day. Their eye light up and they grow ever more animated (and even agitated) as their story grows in complexity about all the different people, elements, and events that almost miraculously (it would be a miracle in most re-tellings) came together to assassinate JFK. One fellow had so many people involved in the assassination that they would have needed a small sports arena to meet to plan out the day. This improbability seems to bother conspiracy theorists not one tiny bit, as they spin out their narratives, drawing you down their causal pathway that resulted in the end of Camelot.
The most striking thing about being in Dealey Plaza for me was how small it is. Perhaps because the assassination itself was bigger than life we expect the geography to match the eventuality, but that is certainly not the case here. Two X's on the street mark where JFK was hit: first in the throat causing his arms to move up and splay out, and second where the bullet found its cranial mark and literally blew his brains out (and, according to one conspiricist there, sent the skull cap flying across the street and onto the adjacent lawn). What is astounding is how close both X's are to the sniper's next in the Book Depository building. Both from the street level looking up and from the window looking down (there is a museum on the sixth floor from which you can gain the perspective of the assassin), it seems clear that Oswald could hardly have missed. Given the fact that he was designated a sharpshooter by the Marines during his time in the service, and the fact that Kennedy's car was traveling less than 10 miles per hour after making the sharp left turn onto Elm street, one is left whispering under one's breath, "Kennedy was a sitting duck."
Look at the two photographs at the end of this post, each taken from one of the X's on the street (I tried to snap a pic from the sniper's nest, but this must be a problem for the museum because in addition to "No Photography" signs there is a guard standing there the entire time). The window from which Oswald fired is the square window on the far right of the building, second from the top.
Is it really necessary to invent additional assassins when it is obvious that one could have done the job? No. LHO acted alone in killing JFK. QED.
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The Marine Commandant filed a report with the Warren Commission: Oswald was a "rather poor shot."
The quote is from the Marines.
He never practiced with the Mannlicher-Carcano.
No credible witness saw him fire any weapon at JFK. Sorry, you can't use Brennan who saw LHO on tv before he made an ID and he wasn't reliable for what he said anyway.
The neutron activation analysis test of his cheek was negative for firing the Mannlicher-Carcano and when control tests were done with seven other people all were positive. When the FBI learned
of these results Hoover then order all agents to keep quiet about them, and this official
finding never made it into the Warren Report, thus keeping it out of the public mind.
But you can find it today in the National Archives.
School Book Depository employee Jack Dougherty, swore, emphatically, to the Warren Commission that Oswald entered the building on Nov. 22 without a rifle or any other package in his hands.
Let's use Occam's Razor here: the simplest explanation given all this official evidence is that
Oswald did not fire that weapon on November 22, 1963.
Shermer alludes to Pearl Harbor. A quick YouTube search would let him know that U.S. congressmen were upset enough to get some Washington insiders to testify that they knew of the impending attack and determine that they "neglected" to pass that information to Pacific naval commanders.
When it comes to 9/11, the more videos Shermer sees of Building 7, the further in the sand he buries his head.
Would Shermer be preparing himself for a job in an upcoming Department of Truth? Per Orwell's "1984," he may have the right profile to persuade dissidents to accept the official truth that 2+2=5.
Love,
A much easier shot - not just the first shot, but the second as well - is where the target is moving either toward the shooter or away in a straight line, or at a very slight angle. 'Leading' a target is much easeir because the pace is much slower, and if a second shot is required, the target would not have moved very far from the place where the first shot was taken.
Quod erat demonstrandum? Not so much.
However, it is a fine example of Occam's Razor. The simplest explanation tends to be the better one.
Resorting to false equivalencies between 9/11 truthers and Pearl harbor conspiratorialists is dishonest argumentation. All conspiracy theories are wrong because some are wrong? Feeble. At the end of the day, much of the reasonable skepticism about JFK's murder stems from the horribly mishandled investigation when Oswald was a live, talkative suspect. Most of us who think there's more to this case than the sanitized story feel that Oswald was probably involved, most likely as he claimed as a "patsy" fronting unwillingly for the real killers. there are still far too many loose ends to this crime. Finally, to believe that Jack Ruby shot Oswald because of concern for Jackie's feelings, please contact me for a bargain price on the Golden Gate Bridge.
But you don't mention the convenient discovery of the pristeen "Magic" bullet on a stretcher, or the falsified records of the autopsy, or even the evidence from the Zapruder film that the entry wound in JFK's fatal shot, was into the forehead, on the opposite side from LHO's vantage point. The number of lies concocted and disseminated in the aftermath of the assassination would lead any reasonable person to doubt the veracity of the Warren Commission findings, regardless what the truth of that day was.
It is more comforting to believe the world is orderly and and our leaders trustworthy, but that would not comport with the facts.
What you take for wide-eyed lunatics are simply Americans with their eyes open to very suspicious circumstances, and irrefutable evidence.
You have taken your acquiescence to these governmental conclusions, and turned it into a livelihood. Congratulations. While it is messier, I choose to remain skeptical of them, for they can not all be true.
see the big picture . It is the opposite of scientific exploration . The reason for this , is that human
beings are not "things" , they are "human." Instead of saying anything more and not having my
comment posted , I will simply refer to the most important book written about the assassination .
Why it happened ? Who did it ? How it was done ? The actual trigger man ? And the implementation of the act itself . The Book ........BLOOD , MONEY , AND POWER by Barr
McClellan . published by Hannover House .
I have seen the Kennedy Car in Detroit - and the seats are arranged in a way that would support the "single bullet" theory. I happen to support that LHO killed JFK - alone. How many have heard that he tried to assassinate a General before he killed JFK?