Posted on 11/23/2003 6:40:47 AM PST by GaryL
CNN reporter Kelly Wallace stands in Dallas' Dealey Plaza and points to the Texas School Book Depository window where, she says, Lee Harvey Oswald is "thought'' to have shot President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963 -- 40 years ago Saturday. Then she and the anchor chat about the various conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination and conclude that the truth will probably never be known.
That's nonsense. And worse, it's popular nonsense. The truth is known. Oswald, acting alone, murdered JFK. We know this with as much certainty as we know anything in history. And just as we don't speak of the "alleged Civil War'' or the "supposed sinking of the Titanic,'' so to give credence to the lingering and numerous wild theories about the assassination of JFK is an unwise pandering to folklore and uncritical thinking.
Rather than continue to ask if there is any validity to these imaginings, we should wonder why they are so popular in the first place.
Several answers come to mind. People equate skepticism with independence. If the government says the sky is blue, a certain slice of the population would begin to doubt it. People also seek meaning in their lives. The idea of random tragedy, of a lone lunatic being able to destroy a man such as John F. Kennedy, is difficult to accept. They would rather cling to enticing accidents of history -- did you know that Richard M. Nixon was in Dallas the day before the assassination? -- than face a world where bad things happen for no reason at all.
Credulous media coverage by shallow reporters makes the situation worse. Balancing unequal arguments seems like fairness to them. Thus the Warren Report is weighed against Oliver Stone's fevered fantasies, just as science is pitted against UFO fanatics or, occasionally, the historical record of World War II is forced to justify itself to Holocaust deniers.
There is a human need to see order in chaos. We see it in every corner of human experience. It's what causes us to see animal figures in the stars. But the beauty of Western Civilization is that we have a commitment to empirical reality, and dry fact tells us that, despite the desires of our hearts, Elvis is not alive. The Jews don't run the world. And Kennedy was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone.
The Italians have a word, "dietrologia,'' which translates as the tendency to find shadowy motives behind the obvious. That is what is going on here. Oswald was a skilled marksman. He shot Kennedy at what amounted, for him, at close range. The endless skepticism and analysis are a waste of time, and, worse, they distract attention that might otherwise be devoted to the actual trials and triumphs of Kennedy's short-lived, long-ago administration. Forty years is long enough for wild speculation to be indulged. It's time to stop humoring the conspiracy buffs.
Posner was on the History Channel today debating David Lifton and Mark Lane and he blew them out of the water. Eventually, he showed that Lifton is a kook---and that for anyone to accept L.'s ideas, you had to discount ALL physical evidence as "fradulent" or "forged," and then he turned Lifton's own evidence against Lane and said that even Lifton held out the possibility of a shooter from behind.
I've invited Lifton to the university campus twice in 10 years---very popular---and when you get him alone, his notions just collapse because he claims all the audiotapes were doctored, the Zapruder film was doctored, and, of course, all autopsy photos and x-rays were frauds. I admit he has some fascinating evidence on changes between Dallas and Bethesda on the body (which, to my mind, Posner did an unsatisfying job of explaining or refuting) but once you get past that, his ideas totally collapse. Oh, and for all those who saw "smoke" on the grassy knoll. Funny, my ammunition is smokeless. Guess those Corsican/Mafia/Vietnamese/Cuban/LBJ hitmen weren't smart enough to use smokeless ammo.
Are you going to write a book?
Ruby worked for Sam "Mooney" Giancana, the head of the Outfit in Chicago. Mooney sent him to Dallas way before the assassination to do favors for the police and get in good with them while establishing a useful "presence" there.
Source: Doublecross by Mooney's brother and son (written after Mooney's death). Unfortunately most of my books are in storage so I can't check the dates and am relying on memory here, but I'm sure Ruby was originally sent there just to establish Outfit influence in Dallas. I just can't remember if he was sent there in time to have worked on "helping" the election of JFK--which most people acknowledge the mob did in IL and TX.
My point being that I'm pretty sure the Giancana book did NOT indicate that Ruby was originally sent there for the purpose of killing Oswald, but he sure was there and handy after the mob (including the Outfit) got very, very angry with JFK.
I have, however, written a new book that deals with the press's failure to cover the assassination properly because of its ties to the JFK administration, leaving it to people like Lifton to uncover the "interesting" stuff. No conspiracy, but all this was avoidable if the news media had just done its job.
Best wishes!
.....'media' = me-dia,.....no?
/sarcasm
Happy Thanksgiving!
;-)
Patrolman Clyde Haygood was the officer that tried to jump the curb on his Harley, he could make it and dumped it on the north curb of Elm then ran towards the north end of the railroad overpass. He wqas followed by a crowd of about 14 people. At the top he and they watched for a moment as the motorcade headed toward the Stemmons Freeway.
He turned around and returned to his bike, drove down through the underpass, came back, and was flagged down by Tague who said he felt a "sting" on his cheek during the shooting. Haygood saw the blood on Tague's cheek and radioed a report in. It was "a few seconds before 12:35" according to the dispatchers notes. Haygood himself testified that the time was around 12:40.
Haygood then asked Tague to show him where Tague was when he was wounded. They walked to the spot and found a mark in the curb about 20 feet away. They called over a deputy searching for evidence on Main street. Deputy Sheriff Buddy Walthers came over and agreed that the mark was a bullet shot. Walthers testified that he thought it most likely came from the TSBD.
Most of the witnesses that claimed the shot came from the "grassy knoll" were badgered by the investigators with questions of "could it be an echo?". Well, of course it could have been an echo!
Those that stated that the shot came from the TSBD didn't get asked.
I think the curb chip and wound were from a shot that went through JFK and then bounced off a thing or two.
That's where it falls apart (see my #344). The "magic bullet" went thru JFK, then into John Connelly; then later was recovered nearly intact (note: it was not "pristine", but somewhat flattened around the lateral).
According to the WC report, the "head shot" fragments could barely crack the windshield; much less travel another 200+ feet and take out the chunk of concrete that injured Tague.
Nearly 75% of the weight of the "head-shot" round was recovered inside the car.
So:
1 round -- curb/Tague
1 round -- Kennedy neck/Connelly wounds.
1 round -- Kennedy head shot.
Anything else means the brass count was false
--or there were more than 3 rounds.
Meanwhile Don Hewitt does not accept the answer, "What difference would it make?" when Robert (or was it Ted?) Kennedy was asked if he thought his brother died at the hands of more than one gunman. Hewitt thinks it was a conspiracy, too. Hey, if you're looking for a big story why not make one up, or at least pretend there is one to be uncovered?
But the author of this article does recognize one thing: The Consitution has suffered a continued, steady sacking ever since. Nothing that FDR didn't already begin.
Tague1 and Tague3 showing the two possibilities of either the head shot or being deflected by the oak tree.
Here and here are some diagrams that assume a shot coming from the Dal-Tex building.
...Don Hewitt ..."What difference would it make?" ...
He's right in a sense.
To me, the minor matter of more than one shooter(s) is overwhelmed by the crass arrogance shown by the CIA, FBI, and probably the Secret Service in obstructing the investigation. Like Nixon's Watergate, the cover-up was much more serious than the original petty crime it was supposed to bury.
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