Did LBJ kill JFK?

"After tomorrow those godd-n Kennedys will never embarrass me again. That's not a threat. That's a promise." – LBJ to his mistress Madeleine Brown on the eve of JFK assassination

This question has endured ever since that fateful day of 50 years ago – Nov. 22, 1963. Former Nixon White House adviser and self-proclaimed "GOP hit man" Roger Stone makes this central argument in his new book, "The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ." Stone's very interesting narrative isn't another "conspiracy theory" book to add to the already voluminous number of fantastical JFK assassination claims. Roger tells Reason Magazine Editor, Nick Gillespie, "The whole term 'conspiracy theorists' is a pejorative that the mainstream media uses to denigrate anyone who questions the government's version on virtually anything. ... I'm not talking conspiracy, I'm talking facts."

In an interview with Abby Martin, who asks Stone, "What's the strongest piece of evidence that implicates LBJ in Kennedy's murder?", Stone replies, "Probably the fingerprint of LBJ's personal hit man named, Malcom 'Mac' Wallace that is found on a cardboard box on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. It's the only print other than the prints of Lee Harvey Oswald that I believe were planted there, so that is probably your strongest piece of evidence."

Secondarily, Johnson's mistress of 21 years, Madeleine Duncan Brown, who bore him an illegitimate child, said Lyndon Johnson told her on the eve of the assassination, "After tomorrow those godd-mn Kennedys will never embarrass me again. That's not a threat. That's a promise."

"And then lastly I think when the presidential motorcade pulled into Dealey Plaza in Dallas when Vice President Johnson's car made the 120 degree turn on Elm St. into Dealey Plaza, Lyndon Johnson, before the first shot was fired was on the floor of his car; he hits the deck. There's photographic evidence that proves this. So I would say that before, during and after the assassination Lyndon Johnson's actions betray the fact that he is in fact the man yoking the conspiracy, or in this case the plot that includes the CIA, organized crime and Big Texas Oil," Stone contends.

When asked about how his book is different from all of the other books claiming various JFK assassination conspiracy theories? Stone's answer recounted his professional relationship over many years as a trusted adviser to President Richard Nixon, who confessed to Stone "that the Warren Commission was the greatest hoax ever perpetrated." Stone again: "Nixon never flatly said who was responsible for Kennedy's death, but he would say both he and Johnson wanted to be president; the only difference, Nixon said was he refused to kill for the job."

Stone admits to additional firsthand confirmations that indeed LBJ killed JFK from such colorful characters as: Ambassador John Davis Lodge, who was the brother of Henry Cabot Lodge, JFK's ambassador to Vietnam; Attorney General John Mitchell; Tony Salerno, head of the Genovese crime family in New York; New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello, who all plotted together with the CIA and LBJ to assassinate JFK.

Stone, in his book on LBJ, chronicles voluminous amounts of damning evidence that points to LBJ as behind the JFK assassination, including Dallas being LBJ's territory, the Dallas Police Department and the Dallas media were under his control, LBJ's close friend (D.H. Byrd) owned the Texas book depository building, LBJ's personal assassin on many other hits (Malcolm Wallace) was seen on the sixth floor of the book depository building that day while 75-90 seconds after the assassination, Oswald was seen by several eyewitnesses including the building superintendent and a Dallas police officer not on the sixth floor, but sitting alone in the second-floor cafeteria drinking a Coke and apparently oblivious to the fact that JFK's assassination had just occurred less than two minutes earlier.

Stone further argues that Texas Gov. John Connally insisted that LBJ's cronies dictated the route of the presidential motorcade instead of JFK's advance team. This conflict caused a huge argument between JFK and LBJ, as witnessed by Jackie Kennedy, because JFK insisted on having Gov. John Connally, a loyal LBJ crony, ride in his limousine – while LBJ wanted his political foe, Sen. Ralph Yarborough, to ride with JFK (thereby killing two birds with one stone).

The trap was completely set when the presidential motorcade route was published in all the Dallas newspapers. As history dictated, JFK convinced LBJ to allow John Connally to ride in his limo, and Connally was shot along with JFK, although he survived. Yarborough, riding with a frustrated LBJ, was never harmed.

There is no physical evidence of Oswald being on the sixth floor of the Texas book depository building that day. The palm print the FBI found on the murder weapon was taken from Oswald and planted on the rifle while Oswald's body lay in the morgue after he was killed by Jack Ruby. The Dallas coroner recalled, after the FBI left, finding black fingerprint ink on the hands Oswald's corpse, which obviously wasn't there before the FBI arrived.

"Immediately after the assassination of JFK," according to Stone, "LBJ spread the knowingly false story that the Russian government had killed Kennedy. He told Earl Warren, the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, who was reluctant to chair the Warren Commission. He was only persuaded because Johnson convinced him that the Russians had killed Kennedy and, if the truth got out, then it would precipitate World War III. This was a lie that Johnson told over and over. There's no truth to it. We now know that when Kennedy was killed, Soviet Premiere Nikita Khrushchev wept. Also, Fidel Castro who was with an American when he got the news, kept repeating "Oh no!" and "This is very bad news." "I do not think that the Russian state was in any way involved in the assassination," says Stone. "I think Johnson lied about this."

Finally, Stone mentions "Landslide Lyndon" ascension in politics where his infamous 1948 election launching his career as a senator was obviously a stolen election in which LBJ won by only 87 votes, all in alphabetical order, in the same handwriting and they all signed in the same ink ("Box 13). Through a magnificent presentation of original sources, Stone ties LBJ to eight murders prior to the JFK assassination, not including his own sister, whom Stone's contends "he may have killed" and "is buried without an autopsy." LBJ's sister, Josefa Johnson, was murdered Christmas Day 1961 after leaving a party hosted by LBJ. "I think he's an amoral psychopath," says Roger Stone of LBJ. "I think he's crude, evil, vicious, vindictive, [a] drunk. I think that Lyndon Johnson had unique motive, means and opportunity to kill John Kennedy and I think that he participated in a plot to do so."

"How did this happen?" "Who is responsible?" and the most important question: "Who had the most to gain?" Doubtlessly, the answer to all three questions points directly to Vice President Lyndon Johnson, who had motive, means and opportunity to kill JFK:

--LBJ had motive (personal, political, economic). He had political motive because of LBJ's legendary hatred of JFK, RFK and the Kennedy family, which extended back to 1937 when LBJ was a freshman Texas congressman and fanatical acolyte of FDR's New Deal programs. JFK and RFK didn't want LBJ on the first ticket and was working to get him kicked off the 1964 ticket. LBJ knew this and had to act fast;

--LBJ had means (LBJ used Texas Gov. John Connally to entice JFK to their Texas territory along with his strong connections with the Dallas Police, Dallas news media and Big Texas Oil);

--LBJ had opportunity. (LBJ controlled all aspects of the JFK assassination, before during and afterward.) The CIA hated Kennedy over the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis. FBI head J. Edgar Hoover also hated the Kennedys and used his vast forces to cover up the JFK murder.

With JFK out of the way, LBJ would become president of the United States – a coveted position that those who knew LBJ realized he would kill to obtain by any means necessary.

Was LBJ thinking of the JFK assassination when he made this cryptic admission? "It is the melancholy law of human societies to be compelled sometimes to choose a great evil in order to ward off a greater evil." Or how about during his interview with Walter Cronkite when LBJ says, "Oswald," and he pauses, realizing that he did not want to speak that name publically to Cronkite and closes his eyes in despair, before continuing to the ultimate incriminating statement, "others that could have been involved."

Apparently, not even LBJ believed the findings of his phony, handpicked Warren Commission that "Oswald acted alone."

There is at least a grain of truth in any conspiracy theory, and this one echoes a lot of talk back then. I grew up in IN, and I remember that immediately people talked of LBJ being in on it, if not totally responsible. Did Oswald shoot Kennedy? Probably. Was he put up to it by LBJ (through another agent?) Very likely. LBJ was like the Clintons today. VERY. WELL. CONNECTED! It would take layers and layers to come off of the onion before one could explicitly implicate LBJ, but that is the purpose. Because, after time, “what difference does it make?’’ sound familiar? And, the players are all dead. No one will ever know for certain exactly what happened. The truth lies in the graves of those who knew. Think Vince Foster, & about 40+ people from Arkansas who knew too much about the Clintons , the LBJ entourage, all dead now and unless God shows us the truth on the day of judgment, we’ll never know.

No one had more to gain from the death of JFK than LBJ. He would not have been Vice-President in a Kennedy second term - Kennedy planned to drop him. He would have been just another forgotten Vice-President. Instead, the assassination made him the leader of the free world.

...His own personal hitman? I know LBJ was a particularly slimy character and I'm no fan of his, but this is really wild a assertion.

No wilder than the Clintons' personal hit man.

Interesting comment. My husband on the night before JFK was murdered, as were watching JFK and his group prepare to leave Houston, made a comment that I will never forget.

He said “ I hope he gets out of Houston because someone is going to kill him and I don’t want it to happen in Houston”.

He didn’t want it to happen anyplace but especially not in his city.

Lyndon Johnson, before the first shot was fired was on the floor of his car; he hits the deck. There's photographic evidence that proves this.

Not on the Zapruder film, so far as I can see. How do they know that Johnson ducked down before the shot, rather than after? Couldn't he have heard the shot before people became conscious of what had happened to Kennedy?

He said that in reference to Vietnam. It was a quote from Thomas Jefferson. Was TJ in on the conspiracy, too?

LBJ only covered it up.

Castro had JFK killed in retaliation for his attempts to assassinate Castro. Lee Harvey Oswald’s connections with Cuban agents in Mexico and his visits to the Soviet Union are compelling I think.

Anyone remember W’s spokesman Scott McClellan?

His father a well known Texas attorney wrote this:

http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Money-Power-How-Killed/dp/161608197X

Just because Oswall pulled the trigger doesn’t mean it wasn’t a conspiracy.

Just because something is a conspiracy doesn’t mean it is NOT true.

"LBJ spread the knowingly false story that the Russian government had killed Kennedy. He told Earl Warren, the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, "LBJ spread the knowingly false story that the Russian government had killed Kennedy. He told Earl Warren, the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court,

Warren refused to have the Comission view the autopsy photographs. Warren refused Jack Ruby's request to be brought to Washington to testify.

As amazing as this may sound, the ‘LBJ’ riding in the motorcade was an exact double!
Lyndon Baines Johnson was next to Oswald in the Texas book depository, spotting for him.

I read a book about 20 years ago that had LBJ as the prime suspect.

All it takes... someone in the mob to coordinate
Get Oswald the job in the building, then have LBJ work the motorcade.

I’m absolutely convinced LBJ greased the skids, knew it was coming. I think LBJ had mob connections that had a mutual interest in getting the job done. He just set the table, let it happen.

Very simple, few words. Like “wouldn’t it be a shame..
“. “Yes, it would, and He will be in Deal Plaza.
With the bubble off”. “Consider it done.”

The mob got JFK the in office by stealing Illinois. Bobby then started yanking their chain. Imagine the anger.

Classic mob hit with Intel from LBJ. Not a big conspiracy.

Even if true it doesn’t mean LBJ had anything to do with it. The hitman could have been working for someone else. If that’s the strongest piece of evidence then he doesn’t have very much.

I dont know who all was involved. But the video of the 3rd shot clearly indicates that it came from the front ... indicating a 2nd shooter in the grassy knoll area. Given that - there was some sort of conspiracy

The last congressional investigation (official govt position) didn’t rule out a conspiracy either.

All these theories miss one essential element.

It was raining in Dallas, Friday morning, 11-22-63.

Had the rain continued, the ‘bubble-top’ would have been on the car.

So, we need to throw in an ability to control the weather...

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