Warren Was Right - The JFK case should be closed

National Review ^ | November 21, 2003 | Gleaves Whitney

[rickmichaels]

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy is the most investigated murder mystery in world history. As a host of recent TV specials have demonstrated, much curiosity still surrounds the assassination, and speculation abounds, but the bottom line is this: There was one man who killed JFK and his name was Lee Harvey Oswald. No significant, credible body of evidence indicates that Oswald acted in concert with others. There was no conspiracy, foreign or domestic, that brought Kennedy down.

That conclusion is hard for some to accept; conspiracy theories based on half-truths still compete for attention in the marketplace of ideas. Why? Gerald Posner (in Case Closed) and Robert Dallek (in An Unfinished Life) have observed that many people drawn to conspiracy theories just do not want to accept that a lowlife like Oswald could single-handedly cut short the life of a charismatic leader like Kennedy. It despoils the myth of Camelot.

Yet four decades later, the key facts still support the conclusion of the Warren Commission, reached in 1964, that Oswald acted alone. After months of painstaking investigation and exhaustive interrogation, the commission authorized 26 volumes of public testimony to be published.

For nearly 40 years, the commission's work has been scrutinized. After all, it's methods were sometimes flawed, its evidence occasionally inconclusive, and its judgments at times spotty. A number of issues went unresolved. Did authorities in Dallas handle every piece of evidence according to the best crime scene investigation techniques? No. Were certain questions answered inconclusively? Of course. Is it possible that new evidence might surface that will shine a different light on the assassination? Possibly. But — the critical question remains: Did the commission prove with reasonable certainty that Oswald acted alone? Based on the best evidence assembled at the time, the answer is yes.

Flaws in the Warren Commission's report notwithstanding, it is interesting how its findings have withstood the test of time, not to mention the likes of Oliver Stone. (President Gerald R. Ford, the lone surviving member of the Warren Commission, has called Stone's JFK "a bunch of baloney.") In 1979 the House Select Committee on Assassinations reopened the case and concluded that the commission, in the main, got it right: that Oswald fired the gun that killed the president, and that he likely acted alone.

In 1992 Congress passed legislation that declassified thousands of additional pages of CIA, FBI, and Secret Service testimony. A host of scholars, medical experts, journalists, and others have pored over the material, and this has led to much interesting speculation. Yet not one conspiracy theory has been formulated that could withstand cross-examination in a court of law.

There are other indications that the Warren Commission got it pretty much right. Conspiracies require that every conspirator stay mum. Is that realistic after four decades, given the leaks and tell-alls that a place like Washington, D.C. encourages? Also, both Bobby and Ted Kennedy were in a position to use their authority and family resources to launch an independent investigation had the Warren Commission been totally off base.

Stripped to its essentials, the Kennedy assassination is a murder case. To successfully prosecute a murder case, one typically needs a credible witness, a murder weapon, and the motivation to kill. The most compelling facts about the Kennedy assassination are these. There was a credible witness to the shooting. Howard Brennan was present in Dealey Plaza. From his vantage point Brennan could see a man matching Oswald's description in a window on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, firing a rifle into the presidential motorcade below.

The murder weapon was found. The Mannlicher-Carcano rifle that was used to assassinate the president was lying on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, near the nest the assassin had made out of stacks of boxes. It had Oswald's handprint on it. Also, three shell casings were discovered in the nest. Ballistics tests confirmed that the two bullets that struck JFK were fired from that rifle.

The assassin had a motivation to kill. Lee Harvey Oswald was mentally unstable, a Communist who had a long history of associating with fringe leftist groups. He lived for a time in the U.S.S.R., was sympathetic to Castro's Cuban revolution, and was a rifleman trained by the Marines. Clearly he was willing and able, if the opportunity arose, to kill a U.S. president who vowed to resist Communist threats to the free world.

Add to these facts Oswald's behavior after fleeing his sniper's nest. To this day President Ford places special emphasis on the murder of Dallas police officer J. D. Tippit 45 minutes after the assassination. Oswald shot Tippit with a revolver purchased from the same Chicago outfit from which he had bought the rifle used to kill Kennedy.

Finally, it is a stretch to claim that Jack Ruby was part of a conspiracy to kill Oswald. Ruby arrived at the Dallas jail 30 minutes after Oswald was originally scheduled to be transferred to a different facility. Oswald was unexpectedly delayed, and Ruby seized the opportunity to shoot the assassin — not typically the way conspirators behave — and insisted to the end of his life that he acted alone.

Given the best evidence, it is difficult to refute the main conclusions of the Warren Commission: that the man who murdered President Kennedy was Lee Harvey Oswald, and that there was no conspiracy, foreign or domestic, that brought JFK down. Forty years later, that judgment stands.

[WoofDog123]

"The tape is apparently of a stuck open microphone of noise about one minute after the shooting. There was some conversation that was barely audible that was recorded elsewhere that allowed the time stamp. So the conclusion on that show was that the 4 shots detected on that tape were just noise. "

What I am thinking of was at the time I read about it depicted as NEW recordings, while I thought the stuck-microphone recordings had been around for a while? I may be in error...

[LiteKeeper]

Whatever is in those files is nothing of importance.

And you make this statement based on what?

[tenthirteen]

Oswald did not kill anyone that day; as a matter of fact, I believe that he did not even fire a weapon on 22 November 1963. Early news report on the day of the assasination spoke about a paraffin test done on his hands, and that indicated no trace whatsoever of him firing anything. The next day, there was absolutely no talk of this test.

You can believe what you want.

[upcountryhorseman]

It won't help topen the files because the material evidence
is gone: Mysteriously disappeared.

[upcountryhorseman]

Bullet fragments were removed from Kennedy's head and it
was believed that they were from a hollow-point bullet.

[upcountryhorseman]

These turkeys cherry pick the evidence they want to
back up their predetermined opinions.

[duckman]

"Until then, I'll go on believing that there is something that it's hiding."

I agree. A while back, on TV, an FBI sharp shooter tried to fire a replica of the Oswald rifle, duplicating the original shot pattern. He could not repeat the same speed frequency as the original recorded shots.

[Finalapproach29er]

If there was only one shooter why not fire before he made the turn-a much easier,shorter shot? Answer: Triangulated fire from second guy by the fence as insurance just to make sure. That is the only logical reason a person would wait that long before firing the first shot.

[christynsoldier]

the article is bogus and completely wrong! the House investigation concluded that there were TWO gunmen based
on the sound tape of shots... ie two were too close together to be from the same gun! So there was a conspiracy of at least two shooters and the committee didn't say who the other was or who was involved, but they ruled out the USSR and Cuba govt's from the conspiracy suspects...

I think the 3 pro assassins from the French Mafia was the likely triangulation killer team.

[ninenot]

As to the old geezer with the cheapo Italian import rifle: 3 USMC Expert-class shooters and 3 NRA'ers who were also pretty good couldn't pull off 3 AIMED shots in 7.2 sec.

First is aimed. #s 2&3 are a little less precise, to say the least.

I saw the graphic of the sound last night. It was not an echo, because the graph was the same as the 'real' shots. An echo would have been noticeably smaller with same other characteristics.

I don't know about conspiracy--but I am very skeptical of the "LHO did it all, no sweat" preaching.

[ninenot]

It's a new analysis of the old recording. Better readings due to better (current) technology.

[ninenot]

That is the only logical reason a person would wait that long before firing the first shot.

Particularly since shooting DOWN towards a moving AND accelerating target is more than a little tricky.

That's why I can't easily swallow the LHO-alone theory.

While it is possible that he placed two shots exactly where he should have, the difficulty of the work is extreme. Of course, he could have been really lucky, too...

[maestro]

Warren Was Right - The JFK case should be closed

LOL

This Case has been 'closed' for forty years!

And,....will be 'closed' forever!

(Wake-Up)

But,......this is also a Vatican (RC) matter,.....and the talk of 'sainthood' will go on forever too!

(Wake-up.)

[Maria S]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1027098/posts


The 2-hour Peter Jennings special debunked many of the conspiracy theories, and concluded that Oswald was the lone shooter. I personally do not care for Peter Jennings, but the presentation was well done, I thought. Especially the computer segments showing various positions along the roadway, etc.

An interesting segment, IMO, discussed the 1991 Oliver Stone movie starring Kevin Costner. In the words of Robert Goldberg, who wrote 'Enemies Within':

"No book or program has done more to promote the JFK conspiracy theory...[than the Oliver Stone movie]. Stone has convinced me that the most powerful historians of the 20th century are filmmakers. It is these images [from the movie] that we remember. Most Americans know of the Kennedy assassination through Oliver Stone's mind and Oliver Stone's images."

Jack Valenti, aide to LBJ said, similarly: "[The movie] was a package of unfathomable lies packaged together with a cinematic artist's great skill that was a blending and a mélange of real photographs and fictional scenes merged together with such skill that you were unable to tell the difference." He was very disdainful of Stone's claims of "dramatic license."

I would hope Barbra Streisand would begin to understand WHY so many people were upset at the "dramatic license" taken with the Reagan movie. And SOMEBODY might suggest to that fat slob, Moore, that he return his oscar for 'Bowling for Columbine.'

One further comment; I think Goldberg’s comment of "Stone has convinced me that the most powerful historians of the 20th century are filmmakers" is right on target. Liberal movie makers are making the majority of historical stuff now...and THEIR twist and delivery of historical figures are all that young people are judging to be the truth.

[chiller]

We're in total agreement re: the Jennings ABC show.

[chiller]

...since shot # 1 is nothing but pulling a trigger, I believe #2 & #3 could easily be completed in that time frame. The ABC show demonstrated as much.

[chiller]

"the only logical reason..

A target moving in a straight line (towards you or away from you) would be easier to hit than one moving left to right around a corner. That's why he waited. In fact, the last and most accurate shot hit while the motorcade had almost lined up with Oswalds angle and was moving virtually parallel to the firing line.

Maybe only Oswald knows, but that's what it looked like on the computer generated recreation.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

the House investigation concluded that there were TWO gunmen...

A lot of people forget the government actually changed their official version of the assassination from the Warren Commission's lone assassin to the likelihood of there being two shooters.

Myself, just looking at the Zapruder film convinces me Kennedy was hit in the front. I'm having a hard time buying the jet effect and the magic bullet theories.

[Verginius Rufus]

Today on TV they were quoting Oswald's brother as saying he thinks Lee did it and acted alone, and that he had talked to Lee after he was arrested and that Lee had told them there was no conspiracy. Lee Harvey Oswald was saying that he didn't do it, that he was being set up as a patsy...whatever the truth of that, are we to believe he admitted to his brother that he was the sole assassin? That's hard to believe.

[Kay Soze]

We cannot see the evidnce/records until 2039.

Why were the warren commsisions records sealed for 75 years?