Requerimientos no funcionales

At 12:30 P.M. on November 22, 1963, President

John F. Kennedy was fatally shot while riding in a motorcade through Dallas, Texas. Governor John Connally, riding in the same limousine, was also wounded but survived his injuries. At 1:15 P.M. DALLAS POLICE officer J. D. Tippit was shot and

killed in suburban Oak Cliff before multiple wit- nesses. Authorities captured Tippit’s suspected killer, LEE HARVEY OSWALD, at a nearby theater;

they later accused him of murdering President Kennedy. At 12:21 P.M. on November 24 Oswald

was shot and killed by nightclub owner JACK RUBY

during a “routine” transfer from one jail to another. Ruby was convicted of Oswald’s murder and sen- tenced to die, but cancer claimed his life before he could be executed.

Millions of words have been published about those seemingly straightforward events; yet virtually every detail of the crimes remains a subject of heated debate to this day. Despite three official investiga- tions, two criminal trials, and 40-odd years of jour- nalistic argument, a definitive verdict in the JFK assassination remains elusive.

The first government investigation of the crime was ordered by President LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON

and conducted by a “blue-ribbon” panel named after its chairman, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. Other members of the WARREN COMMISSION

included Senators Richard Russell and John Cooper, Representatives Hale Boggs and Gerald Ford, former

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY(CIA) director Allen

Dulles, and former Assistant Secretary of State John McCloy. FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (FBI)

Director J. EDGAR HOOVER was not included, but he

guided (some say controlled) the investigation. In fact, Hoover delivered his verdict to the media on November 25, 1963, stating that “Not one shred of evidence has been developed to link any other person in a conspiracy with Oswald to assassinate President John F. Kennedy.” He never wavered from that judg- ment, and the Warren Commission echoed Hoover’s findings when its report was completed on September 27, 1964.

Pronouncement of the lone-assassin theory demanded some curious “logic,” however. Multiple witnesses had reported gunshots fired from a “grassy knoll” in front of the president’s limousine rather than from the Texas Book Depository building behind Kennedy where Oswald allegedly lay in wait. JFK assassination

Physicians at Parkland Hospital seemed to confirm that testimony with their initial description of an “entrance wound” in Kennedy’s throat. FBI marks- men, testing the alleged murder weapon, first had to repair its defective telescopic sight, and even then it was incapable of firing three aimed shots within the time frame dictated by films and audio recordings of the murder.

The Warren Commission’s greatest leap of faith was seen in its acceptance of the so-called “magic bullet theory.” Simply stated, the commission found that lone gunman Oswald fired three shots at Kennedy’s limousine. One shot missed the car entirely, while another was the fatal head shot cap- tured in Abraham ZAPRUDER’s famous home movie

of the assassination. That left one shot to account for all the nonfatal wounds suffered by Kennedy and Connally together—and what a shot it must have been, if we believe the commission’s report. Offi- cially, the bullet entered Kennedy’s back and exited through his throat; then it pierced Connally’s back, came out through his chest, shattered his wrist, and buried itself in his thigh. Later, at Parkland Hospital, the slug was found on an abandoned stretcher, hav- ing apparently fallen from Connally’s leg wound unnoticed.

That theory had numerous problems. First, physi- cians had described the hole in Kennedy’s throat as an entrance wound, while another relatively shallow wound in his back was probed with a finger and found to be empty. If those early reports were accu- rate, then Kennedy was shot at least three times (including the fatal head shot), while a fourth bullet must have struck Connally—and Oswald could not be the lone shooter. To eradicate that problem, the commission rewrote history, and medical reports were altered or “lost.” In the final version the shal- low back wound disappeared, and Kennedy’s posture was contorted to permit a gunshot in the back to exit through his throat. From there, the slug followed an impossible zigzag course to strike Connally at a dif- ferent angle and inflict his various wounds. Thus it was written: Oswald’s first shot wounded Kennedy and Connally, his second missed, and the third shat- tered Kennedy’s skull.

But more problems remained.

First, Connally and his wife denied that that the first shot inflicted his wounds. Connally heard the first shot, he insisted, and turned to look at Kennedy before a second bullet struck him in the back. (All

rifle bullets travel faster than the speed of sound, so Connally could not have heard the shot that wounded him before the bullet struck.) To explain that anomaly, the commission fabricated a “delayed reaction” on Connally’s part, but the story still lacked credibility. The bullet in question—Commis- sion Exhibit 399—was “basically intact,” according to ballistics experts who examined it. It had not shat- tered or “mushroomed” on impact; in fact, it was described in several reports as “pristine.” And yet, the bullet that struck Connally left fragments in his wrist and thigh—fragments that are not missing from the bullet found at Parkland Hospital.

Having thus “resolved” the central mystery of Kennedy’s assassination with an impossible scenario, the Warren Commission had no problem disposing of the other troublesome evidence. It ignored the “grassy knoll” witnesses and others who disputed the description of J. D. Tippit’s killer, along with the voluminous evidence of “lone gunman” Jack Ruby’s connections to organized crime. It reported Oswald’s “communist” activities while failing to mention his apparent role as a paid FBI informant, his close working relationship with a retired G-man in New Orleans, and his association with known members of the right-wing MINUTEMEN organization. Reports of

his appearance with still-unknown companions at critical times and places were dismissed as lies or “mistakes.” CIA photographs of an unidentified man who used Oswald’s name on visits to the Russian embassy in Mexico City were filed and forgotten. Oswald’s 1959 defection to the Soviet Union was highlighted, but the commission had no interest in how he was able to return home so easily in 1962 after renouncing his U.S. citizenship and marrying the daughter of a reputed KGB officer. Jack Ruby’s

offer to reveal a conspiracy in return for safe passage to Washington was rejected.

In fairness to the commission, its final verdict was influenced as much by ignorance as by dishonesty. The FBI and CIA withheld much critical information, only revealed since the 1970s, and more presumably remains unknown today. The commission never learned that both Oswald and Ruby were FBI informants. It had no knowledge of the CIA’s long campaign to murder Cuban leader FIDEL CASTRO,

acting in concert with leaders of the American

MAFIA. Nor was it told that several of those high-

ranking mobsters—including SAM GIANCANA

(Chicago), CARLOS MARCELLO (New Orleans), and

SANTOS TRAFFICANTE(Miami)—had threatened Pres-

ident Kennedy’s life in 1962–63. Similar threats were on record from leaders of the Cuban exile commu- nity and at least one prominent member of the KU KLUX KLAN.

In 1967 New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garri- son announced that he had uncovered a conspiracy in the Crescent City. Oswald had lived in New Orleans for a time, and Garrison uncovered his links to the city’s wealthy far-right political fringe. Some of the suspects were already dead, including Mafia pilot and self-styled superpatriot David Ferrie who “com- mitted suicide” soon after he was interviewed by Garrison. Still, Garrison filed charges against defen- dant Clay Shaw, a CIA associate with links to Ferrie and others including Klansmen, foreign agents, and a curious sect called the Orthodox Old Catholic Church of North America. Shaw was also a stock- holder in the shadowy Permindex company, accused by French president Charles DeGaulle of financing right-wing attempts on his life in 1962. Jurors acquitted Shaw on March 1, 1969, and he died in New Orleans on August 14, 1974. Life magazine, meanwhile, accused Garrison of taking bribes from local mobsters in an exposé that failed to prevent his election as appellate judge. Today, students of the JFK assassination remain bitterly divided as to whether Garrison’s probe was an honest attempt to solve the case or a “disinformation” campaign to dis- credit conspiracy researchers.

Calls for a congressional investigation climaxed in September 1976 with the creation of the HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE ON ASSASSINATIONS. The com-

mittee’s report, published in 1979, concluded that “acoustical evidence establishes a high probability that two gunmen fired at President John F. Kennedy” and that therefore Kennedy “was probably assassi- nated as a result of a conspiracy.” Investigators accepted Oswald’s role as one shooter, but they were “unable to identify the other gunman or the extent of the conspiracy.” That said, the panel ruled out vari- ous plotters, including the Russian and Cuban gov- ernments, anti-Castro exiles “as groups,” and organized crime “as a group.” The FBI, the CIA, and the SECRET SERVICE were exonerated of murder, but

they were found to have “performed with varying degrees of competency in the fulfillment of their duties.” Specifically, the Secret Service was “defi- cient” in protecting Kennedy; the FBI “was deficient in its collection and sharing of information with

other agencies and departments”; and the CIA “was deficient in its collection and sharing of information both prior to and subsequent to the assassination.”

Today there are at least 10 prominent theories of who killed JFK and why. Oswald figures in all ver- sions, his role varying from that of prime mover to hapless scapegoat. The major theories and suspects include:

1. Oswald, the lone assassin. Defended most recently by author Gerald Posner in Case Closed (1993), the lone Oswald/lone Ruby sce- nario can only be accepted by ignoring moun- tains of contrary evidence.

2. Oswald and the Secret Service. This theory, proposed by author Bonar Menninger in Mor- tal Error (1992) keeps Oswald as a would-be lone assassin but calls the fatal Kennedy head shot an accident, triggered by Secret Service agent George Hickey from another car in the president’s motorcade. Thus, while the Secret Service did not conspire to kill Kennedy, Men- ninger finds a plot to hide the truth of the shooting and thus protect the agency’s reputa- tion (already tarnished by reports of agents on a late-night drinking spree the night before the shooting). Supporters of the theory note that Menninger was never sued for libel after nam- ing Agent Hickey as the accidental triggerman. 3. Fidel Castro. President Kennedy supported the

1961 BAY OF PIGS INVASION and subsequently

sanctioned various attempts on Castro’s life by the CIA, Mafia leaders, and anticommunist exiles. Author Gus Russo theorized, in Live by the Sword (1998), that Castro finally tired of the murder attempts and retaliated with a more successful attack of his own. Oswald was the primary triggerman, linked to Castro via his involvement with the leftist Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC). Acceptance of this theory requires believers to ignore the fact that Oswald’s FPCC chapter was a one-man organi- zation that shared office space with retired FBI agent Guy Banister and a host of far-right activists who hated Castro.

4. The Russians. Kennedy humiliated Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev in October 1962 with the Cuban missile crisis, and some theo- rists believe the Soviet Union struck back a year later in Dallas. Unfortunately for proponents of JFK assassination

this theory, any scenario involving Oswald as the primary shooter must first explain how he managed to defeat the laws of physics in Dal- las, using an obsolete rifle and an inoperative telescopic sight.

5. The CIA. After the Bay of Pigs fiasco, JFK unleashed FBI raids to close guerrilla training camps in the United States where CIA agents and others prepared Cuban exiles for illegal raids on their homeland. CIA director Allen Dulles (later a member of the Warren Commis- sion) resigned in September 1961 while Kennedy reportedly threatened to dismantle the agency itself. It seems entirely logical that “rogue” CIA officers, long accustomed to for- eign assassinations and other criminal activity, might have staged a preemptive strike against the president to save themselves (and, in their view, America). Variations on this theme incor- porate conspirators from the Mafia, anti-Cas- tro groups, and various far-right organizations. 6. The Mob. Leaders of organized crime worked hard to elect John Kennedy in 1960, and he betrayed them two months later by appointing brother Robert as attorney general to mount an unprecedented federal campaign against rack- eteers nationwide. In addition to the various Mafia leaders, Teamster’s Union president Jimmy Hoffa and several of his aides threat- ened both Kennedy brothers. The mob had centuries of experience with murder and dis- posal of witnesses. Jack Ruby’s long associa- tion with the underworld makes nonsense of his original claim that he shot Oswald to spare Jacqueline Kennedy from testifying at Oswald’s trial. Variations of the Mafia scenario involve CIA elements who employed the mob to kill Fidel Castro and anti-Castro Cubans who promised resumption of mob-controlled gam- bling in Cuba should Castro be deposed. 7. Anti-Castro Cuban exiles. This angry clique

blamed Kennedy for “sabotaging” the Bay of Pigs invasion and disrupting plans to kill Cas- tro. The exiles’ capacity for violence has been demonstrated by a series of unsolved murders and terrorist acts committed by such radical groups as ALPHA66and Omega 7. Cuban links

to the CIA, the Mafia, and far-right paramili- tary groups offered no shortage of potential assassins in 1963. Exile leader José Aleman

discussed assassination plans with Florida mobster Santo Trafficante, and a Miami pam- phlet dated April 15, 1963 declared: “Only through one development will you Cuban patriots ever live in your homeland again as freemen. . . . [I]f an inspired Act of God should place in the White House within weeks a Texan known to be a friend of all Latin Americans.” 8. The FBI. J. Edgar Hoover hated the Kennedys

and feared that they would dismiss him if John was reelected in 1964. Oswald and Ruby are both identified in FBI files as bureau inform- ants, a fact Hoover concealed from the Warren Commission. Hoover was also friendly with various mobsters on the Kennedy hit list, accepting cash, free vacations, and no-loss guaranteed investment tips for a 30-year period, during which he denied the existence of organized crime in America. On November 24, 1963, he told White House aide Walter Jenk- ins, “The thing I am most concerned about . . . is having something issued so we can convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin.” 9. The U.S. MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. Pen-

tagon leaders and defense contractors were troubled by President Kennedy’s rumored plans to disengage the United States from the Viet- nam conflict, and his murder came only days after the assassination of South Vietnamese dic- tator Ngo Dinh Diem in what many observers now consider a coup d’état supported by the U.S. military and CIA. In this scenario, high- ranking generals and the corporate leeches who grow fat on military cost overruns had billions to gain and nothing to lose by killing a presi- dent whom they considered “soft on commu- nism.” Lyndon Johnson is often cast as a coconspirator in variants of this scenario. 10. The far-right “lunatic fringe.” The day before

Kennedy’s arrival in Dallas, associates of right- wing oilman H. L. Hunt purchased a full-page advertisement in a local newspaper declaring that JFK was “Wanted for Treason.” That atti- tude prevailed throughout the right wing nationwide, with groups such as the Minute- men, the KKK, the JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY, the

Christian Crusade, and the White CITIZENS’ COUNCIL blaming Kennedy for a “communist

takeover” in Washington. Proponents of this theory suggest that Kennedy signed his own JFK assassination

death warrant in 1963 when he declared that “no one industry [that is, OIL] should be per-

mitted to obtain an undue tax advantage over all others.” Jack Ruby, like Lyndon Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover, was a known crony of Texas oilmen.

See also COMMUNISM; DULLES BROTHERS; KENNEDY DYNASTY.