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The JFK files
The Boston Globe ^ | May 28, 2007 | David Mehegan, Globe Staff

Posted on 06/01/2007 5:36:49 PM PDT by Shooter 2.5

A storied former prosecutor scrutinizes one of the most debated crimes in American history The murder of President John F. Kennedy has provoked by far more suspicion, argument, obsession, and especially book-publishing than any similar event in American history. Now famed lawyer and true-crime writer Vincent Bugliosi has produced what he hopes will be the book to exceed all others. "Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy" may do that, in weight (5.3 pounds) as well as content, but it's clear that if his editor hadn't insisted he turn over the manuscript after 21 years of labor, the almost-superhuman effort might have wrecked his health.

(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: jfk; jfkassassination; oswalddidit
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To: Ditter

What 10 close friends?


141 posted on 06/03/2007 11:14:37 AM PDT by REDWOOD99
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To: REDWOOD99

Read your own link in post 100. His friends said he was emotional unstable insane. I’ll believe them before I believe anything that Ruby said.


142 posted on 06/03/2007 11:24:37 AM PDT by Ditter
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To: tpaine

The proper timeline shows that Oswald had plenty of time and that it was not a hard shot for him, and he only actually scored 1 out of 3 of the headshots he was attempting.

When you position the jump seat in the limo correctly, (as has been done with computer recreations) the bullet wounds line up perfectly, there is no “magic bullet”.

There’s a reason the bullet wounds line up, the only place they could have come from is the Book Depository, the wounds line up properly and the damage done to the bullets and people are all as they should be. There is nothing mysterious about anything that happened.

Every shred of REAL evidence (using todays technology too) shows the only place the bullets could have come from to produce the damage they did was from Oswalds perch. The myths about the quality of the rifle and the quality of the shooter and the skill required are all MYTHS.

The MYTH of the magic bullet has been debunked numerous times too, for anyone who cares to listen. Oswald is as guilty as OJ is you bother to do some reading/research. I’ll probably read Bugliosi’s book, 1600 pages is quite a task, but what he’s done is put 1600 pages together of things that I’ve already read about, there will be little new for ME in the book.

For the rest of you who believe in a conspiracy there will be PLENTY of new information for YOU.


143 posted on 06/03/2007 11:27:44 AM PDT by word_warrior_bob (You can now see my amazing doggie and new puppy on my homepage!! Come say hello to Jake & Sonny)
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To: The KG9 Kid

Governor CONNALLY. .....We had just made the turn, well, when I heard what I thought was a shot. I heard this noise which I immediately took to be a rifle shot. I instinctively turned to my right because the sound appeared to come from over my right shoulder, so I turned to look back over my right shoulder, and I saw nothing unusual except just people in the crowd, but I did not catch the President in the corner of my eye, and I was interested, because once I heard the shot in my own mind I identified it as a rifle shot, and I immediately—the only thought that crossed my mind was that this is an assassination attempt.
So I looked, failing to see him, I was turning to look back over my left shoulder into the back seat, but I never got that far in my turn. I got about in the position I am in now facing you, looking a little bit to the left of center, and then I felt like someone had hit me in the back.

Mr. SPECTER. What is the best estimate that you have as to the time span between the sound of the first shot and the feeling of someone hitting you in the back which you just described?

Governor CONNALLY. A very, very brief span of time. Again my trend of thought just happened to be, I suppose along this line, I immediately thought that this—that I had been shot. I knew it when I just looked down and I was covered with blood, and the thought immediately passed through my mind that there were either two or three people involved or more in this or someone was shooting with an automatic rifle. These were just thoughts that went through my mind because of the rapidity of these two, of the first shot plus the blow that I took, and I knew I had been hit, and I immediately assumed, because of the amount of blood, and in fact, that it had obviously passed through my chest. that I had probably been fatally hit.
So I merely doubled up, and then turned to my right again and began to—I just sat there, and Mrs. Connally pulled me over to her lap. She was sitting, of course, on the jump seat, so I reclined with my head in her lap, conscious all the time, and with my eyes open; and then, of course, the third shot sounded, and I heard the shot very clearly. I heard it hit him. I heard the shot hit something, and I assumed again—it never entered my mind that it ever hit anybody but the President. I heard it hit. It was a very loud noise, just that audible, very clear.
Immediately I could see on my clothes, my clothing, I could see on the interior of the car which, as I recall, was a pale blue, brain tissue, which I immediately recognized, and I recall very well, on my trousers there was one chunk of brain tissue as big as almost my thumb, thumbnail, and again I did not see the President at any time either after the first, second, or third shots, but I assumed always that it was he who was hit and no one else.
I immediately, when I was hit, I said, “Oh, no, no, no.” And then I said, “My God, they are going to kill us all.” Nellie, when she pulled me over into her lap——

First shot starts the clock and it hit a curb. The second hit Kennedy and Connally. The third shot hit Kennedy. 8.3 seconds.
Based on testimony. Based on hard evidence. Case closed.


144 posted on 06/03/2007 11:36:34 AM PDT by Shooter 2.5 (NRA - Hunter '08)
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To: REDWOOD99

Ma’am, I think YOU need to go reread the link. Ruby was too unstable to have been part of a plot. He was subject to emotional outbursts. His killing of Oswald was one of those outbursts. The timeline of his actions that day prove that he didn’t plan the killing. He couldn’t have unless everyone in the Dallas PD was in on it- and if they were, they wouldn’t have chosen Ruby because he was too unstable.

If you want to believe in a conspiracy, I’m not going to be able to talk you out of it. The reason I’ve looked into this as much as I have is because I wanted to know who killed my hero and I couldn’t believe that it was a putz like Oswald. JFK’s death couldn’t have been that minor. It was worthy of a conspiracy. I haven’t made this my life’s work either. I’ve looked at evidence as if I was a juror. I’ve come to this conclusion: Oswald was the lone gunman who killed JFK. He was not acting in concert with anyone. Ruby killed Oswald because he was armed, in a place where he could kill him, and was unable to think logically because of his emotional instability.

If you’d like references to any further material, I’d be glad to provide it if you specify your questions. If not, good luck to you.


145 posted on 06/03/2007 11:42:10 AM PDT by REDWOOD99
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To: Ditter

Post #145 was meant for you.


146 posted on 06/03/2007 12:00:42 PM PDT by REDWOOD99
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To: word_warrior_bob; y'all
You've read the Bugliosi book? How does he reconcile the timeline problem I've outlined in post #16?

The proper timeline shows that Oswald had plenty of time and that it was not a hard shot for him, and he only actually scored 1 out of 3 of the headshots he was attempting.

From that answer it is obvious you haven't read either the new book, my post 16, or Specters theory in the Report.

When you position the jump seat in the limo correctly, (as has been done with computer recreations)

Garbage in, garbage out. "Positioning seats" in re-creations is garbage theory.

the bullet wounds line up perfectly, there is no ?magic bullet?.There?s a reason the bullet wounds line up, the only place they could have come from is the Book Depository, the wounds line up properly and the damage done to the bullets and people are all as they should be. There is nothing mysterious about anything that happened.

Yep, that's what you pro-report mavens say happened. No proof, but you insist. - Why?

Every shred of REAL evidence (using todays technology too) shows the only place the bullets could have come from to produce the damage they did was from Oswalds perch. The myths about the quality of the rifle and the quality of the shooter and the skill required are all MYTHS. The MYTH of the magic bullet has been debunked numerous times too, for anyone who cares to listen. Oswald is as guilty as OJ is you bother to do some reading/research.

How can I dispute such finely honed logic? Yep, its all MYTHS..

I?ll probably read Bugliosi?s book, 1600 pages is quite a task, but what he?s done is put 1600 pages together of things that I?ve already read about, there will be little new for ME in the book. For the rest of you who believe in a conspiracy there will be PLENTY of new information for YOU.

There is no proved conspiracy.
We only have the facts as put forth in the Report, and as we can see from the Z-film. They don't add up enough to prove Oswald was 'a lone gunman'.
Apparently, Bugliosi's book has no new facts.

The case remains open.

147 posted on 06/03/2007 12:19:37 PM PDT by tpaine (" My most important function on the Supreme Court is to tell the majority to take a walk." -Scalia)
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To: word_warrior_bob

This is the first portion of the conclusions of the Warren Commission.

1. The shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally were fired from the sixth floor window at the southeast corner of the Texas School Book Depository. This determination is based upon the following:

(a) Witnesses at the scene of the assassination saw a rifle being fired from the sixth-floor window of the Depository Building, and some witnesses saw a rifle in the window immediately after the shots were fired.

(b) The nearly whole bullet found on Governor Connally’s stretcher at Parkland Memorial Hospital and the two bullet fragments found in the front seat of the Presidential limousine were fired from the 6.5_millimeter Mannlicher_Carcano rifle found on the sixth floor of the Depository Building to the exclusion of all other weapons.

(c) The three used cartridge cases found near the window on the sixth floor at the southeast corner of the building were fired from the same rifle which fired the above_described bullet and fragments, to the exclusion of all other weapons.

(d) The windshield in the Presidential limousine was struck by a bullet fragment on the inside surface of the glass, but was not penetrated.

(e) The nature of the bullet wounds suffered by President Kennedy and Governor Connally and the location of the car at the time of the shots establish that the bullets were fired from above and behind the Presidential limousine, striking the President and the Governor as follows:

(1) President Kennedy was first struck by a bullet which entered at the back of his neck and exited through the lower front portion of his neck, causing a wound which would not necessarily have been lethal. The President was struck a second time by a bullet which entered the right_rear portion of his head, causing a massive and fatal wound.

(2) Governor Connally was struck by a bullet which entered on the right side of his back and traveled downward through the right side of his chest, exiting below his right nipple. This bullet then passed through his right wrist and entered his left thigh where it caused a superficial wound.

(f) There is no credible evidence that the shots were fired from the Triple Underpass, ahead of the motorcade, or from any other location.
2. The weight of the evidence indicates that there were three shots fired.

3. Although it is not necessary to any essential findings of the Commission to determine just which shot hit Governor Connally, there is very persuasive evidence from the experts to indicate that the same bullet which pierced the President’s throat also caused Governor Connally’s wounds. However, Governor Connally’s testimony and certain other factors have given rise to some difference of opinion as to this probability but there is no question in the mind of any member of the Commission that all the shots which caused the President’s and Governor Connally’s wounds were fired from the sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository.

4. The shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald. This conclusion is based upon the following:

(a) The Mannlicher_Carcano 6.5_millimeter Italian rifle from which the shots were fired was owned by and in the possession of Oswald.

(b) Oswald carried this rifle into the Depository Building on the morning of November 22, 1963.

(c) Oswald, at the time of the assassination, was present at the window from which the shots were fired.

(d) Shortly after the assassination, the Mannlicher_Carcano rifle belonging to Oswald was found partially hidden between some cartons on the sixth floor and the improvised paper bag in which Oswald brought the rifle to the Depository was found close by the window from which the shots were fired.

(e) Based on testimony of the experts and their analysis of films of the assassination, the Commission has concluded that a rifleman of Lee Harvey Oswald’s capabilities could have fired the shots from the rifle used in the assassination within the elapsed time of the shooting. The Commission has concluded further that Oswald possessed the capability with a rifle which enabled him to commit the assassination.

(f) Oswald lied to the police after his arrest concerning important substantive matters.

(g) Oswald had attempted to kill Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Walker (Resigned, U.S. Army) on April 10, 1963, thereby demonstrating his disposition to take human life.
5. Oswald killed Dallas Police Patrolman J. D. Tippit approximately 45 minutes after the assassination. This conclusion upholds the finding that Oswald fired the shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally and is supported by the following:

(a) Two eyewitnesses saw the Tippit shooting and seven eyewitnesses heard the shots and saw the gunman leave the scene with revolver in hand. These nine eyewitnesses positively identified Lee Harvey Oswald as the man they saw.

(b) The cartridge cases found at the scene of the shooting were fired from the revolver in the possession of Oswald at the time of his arrest to the exclusion of all other weapons.

(c) The revolver in Oswald’s possession at the time of his arrest was purchased by and belonged to Oswald.

(d) Oswald’s jacket was found along the path of flight taken by the gunman as he fled from the scene of the killing.
6. Within 80 minutes of the assassination and 35 minutes of the Tippit killing Oswald resisted arrest at the theater by attempting to shoot another Dallas police officer.


148 posted on 06/03/2007 12:28:40 PM PDT by Shooter 2.5 (NRA - Hunter '08)
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To: y'all
Epic book resurrects finding that Oswald acted alone in killing JFK

Bugliosi picks only the evidence that backs his argument

Address:http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/pp/07154/790575.stm

>> Bugliosi - Like any experienced prosecutor, he highlights the evidence that furthers his case while ignoring or confusing contrary evidence.

Examples of this approach can be found almost everywhere in the book.

Take his spirited defense of Warren Commission junior counsel Arlen Specters single-bullet theory.

Bugliosi agrees that this theory, that Kennedy and Texas Gov. John Connally were hit by the same bullet, is necessary to conclude that Oswald acted alone. He also acknowledges that the theory was developed by Specter and other commission staff members in the spring of 1964 to save the single-assassin conclusion.
He also notes that when the time came to approve it, the commission split down the middle.

To his credit, he tells us Connally denied from first to last that he was hit by the same bullet that hit Kennedy. His wife, Nellie, testified that she heard a shot and saw the president react to being hit. Only then did she see and hear a second shot crash into her husbands back.

Bugliosi tells us Nellie Connally was confused and that her husband relied upon her confusion. However, you will find nowhere in Bugliosis book the fact that no witness in Dealey Plaza could attest to both men being hit by the same shot or that the FBIs review of the Zapruder film led them to conclude Connally and Kennedy were hit separately.

He tells us that Dr. Malcolm Perry at Parkland Hospital estimated the size of the supposed bullet exit hole in JFKs throat to be - 3 mm to 5 mm in diameter, but he neglects to tell us that wound ballistics experts at Edgewood Arsenal carried out experiments showing bullets from Oswalds rifle would cause exit wounds two to three times that size.

Even more egregious is his handling of the trajectory through JFKs back and neck. A face-sheet on which notes were taken during the autopsy shows the supposed exit wound in the throat to be higher than the entry wound in the back.

When the autopsy photos were finally produced in the 1970s, a medical panel concluded that the course of the bullet through Kennedy was at an upward angle (the accepted number is 11 degrees). So how does Kennedy get shot from the sixth floor of a building when the bullet takes an upward path through his body?

The Warren Commission took the simplest course. The staff let the autopsy doctor instruct a medical illustrator to raise the back wound from the back to the neck.
Commission member U.S. Rep. Gerald Ford then corrected a final draft of the panels report to read neck wound rather than back wound.
Voila, a back wound had become a neck wound.

Faced with that 11 degree upward angle, the House Select Committee on Assassinations took a more inventive approach in its 1978-79 investigation. It just leaned Kennedy forward at the time he was shot.

And Connally, who took a shot at a 27-degree downward angle? His body position was leaned back a sufficient amount.
Voila, an 11-degree upward angle through one body had become a 27-degree downward angle through a second body, thus a straight line had been maintained.

Like any good prosecutor, Bugliosi admits it was upward but never tells us how much. Then he publishes a diagram from the Houses report showing Kennedy bent forward.

He says in a caption that the diagram shows - his head tilted forward slightly more than it actually was as shown in the Zapruder film.

Thats quite an understatement since the Zapruder film never shows Kennedy bending forward at all.
Hes sitting erect in the back seat waving to the crowd. Then when the limousine travels behind a sign and emerges three-quarters of a second later, hes sitting erect but wounded.

The Zapruder frames contained in Bugliosis book show Kennedy never took the position he had to take for the Warren Commission’s single-bullet theory to work.

Bugliosi gets it to work by telling his readers only part of the story and by using a diagram even he admits is inaccurate. This prosecutorial approach infects the whole book and makes it unreliable as a guide to the evidence.

149 posted on 06/03/2007 1:06:11 PM PDT by tpaine (" My most important function on the Supreme Court is to tell the majority to take a walk." -Scalia)
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To: REDWOOD99
I don’t think that Ruby was necessarily a full fledged member of a plot, but he could have been used by someone who was. Look we will never agree so let’s just give it up, OK?
150 posted on 06/03/2007 1:07:45 PM PDT by Ditter
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To: word_warrior_bob

I am listening to Buglosi’s book right now, I suspect there are several reasons the book is that long (this is only a guess:):

1.) There are a lot of photographs and diagrams in the book. I have only seen the book in a bookstore, but there were a lot of discolorations on the edge of the pages indicating photographs.

2.) He is retelling the events in a novelistic narrative, which is entertaining and informative, but takes more space.


151 posted on 06/03/2007 1:11:18 PM PDT by rlmorel (Liberals: If the Truth would help them, they would use it.)
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To: Ditter
Look we will never agree so let's just give it up, OK?

For some odd reason the pro-report people ~insist~ that we all ~must~ agree on the "lone gunman theory". -
Why? - No one can explain.

152 posted on 06/03/2007 1:18:36 PM PDT by tpaine (" My most important function on the Supreme Court is to tell the majority to take a walk." -Scalia)
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To: Shooter 2.5
Now, after forty years we really have had a "JFK conspiracy." It was strange to hear them talking about it on the radio: "Americans love JFK. The terrorists thought that destroying JFK would deal a blow to the US." Hard to tell where the man ends and the airport begins.

Anyway, if I were a pretentious French philosopher, I'd say that the alleged Kennedy assassination conspiracies have become "hyperreal" -- more real than anything that actually happened in the Kennedy years. But I'm not, so I won't.

153 posted on 06/03/2007 1:21:37 PM PDT by x
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To: Ditter; tpaine

Fair enough. We agree to disagree. God Bless!


154 posted on 06/03/2007 1:23:51 PM PDT by REDWOOD99
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To: rlmorel

Read this review, - it explains in detail why the book is so long, - and inaccurate.

Address:http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/pp/07154/790575.stm


155 posted on 06/03/2007 1:25:31 PM PDT by tpaine (" My most important function on the Supreme Court is to tell the majority to take a walk." -Scalia)
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To: tpaine
The "magic Bullet"...is not magic at all. It performed exactly as designed. Heavy jacket, small lead core. Highly penatrative.

It is anything but 'pristine' as it is flat on one side ..where it hit Connly as it passed through to break a rib on it's way to his wrist. Look at he medical report on Connoly's back wound. At almost an inch in length that shows the bullet was tumbling after passing through Kennedy.

The conspiracy theorist never look at the ballistics of the Carcano or the effect a bullet of this type and performace.

Oswald did it.....alone.

156 posted on 06/03/2007 1:54:42 PM PDT by Pistolshot (Thompson '08)
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To: Pistolshot; y'all
The conspiracy theorist never look at the ballistics of the Carcano or the effect a bullet of this type and performace.
Oswald did it.....alone.

Its highly doubtful that Oswald did it.....alone. - As I explained in post #16, and several since then.

I have no conspiracy theory, I simply cannot accept the theories put forth by Specter and the Commission.

I'm fully aware of the ballistics of the Carcano and the effect of bullets of this type and performance; - none of that info lends any proof to Specters single bullet theory.

157 posted on 06/03/2007 2:13:39 PM PDT by tpaine (" My most important function on the Supreme Court is to tell the majority to take a walk." -Scalia)
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To: Pistolshot
Kennedy’s entrance wound was 14 centimeters or five and one half inches from his Mastoid Process, the bony protrusion behind your ear, parallel to the sixth cervical vertebra of the vertebral column. It was one inch to the right of his spine. It was measured by the coroner and the picture with a ruler are part of the autopsy photos. It also had a halo effect which shows it was an entrance wound.

It’s the conspiracy “theorists” who continue to move the wound around to suit their purpose.

158 posted on 06/03/2007 2:17:45 PM PDT by Shooter 2.5 (NRA - Hunter '08)
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To: Shooter 2.5

That was the third shot....the one that hit Kennedy in the back also went through Connaly.


159 posted on 06/03/2007 2:26:15 PM PDT by Pistolshot (Thompson '08)
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To: tpaine
Performance and capabilities do lend to the 'single bullet theory' The ammunition used has the potential to perform exactly as it did between the two men. The case is not about Kennedy, it's about a lonely, misfit of a man who thought he was better than reality.

Oswald was a frustrated man who never got the chances he 'deserved'. His murder of Kennedy was to prove to Marina he was a 'great man.' Nothing more, nothing less. Oswald did it....alone.

160 posted on 06/03/2007 2:34:58 PM PDT by Pistolshot (Thompson '08)
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