Each authorities company that has investigated the loss of life of President John F. Kennedy has reached the identical conclusion: He was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald.
Oswald, a lone gunman, fired three photographs from the sixth ground of a warehouse in Dealey Plaza as Kennedy rode in a motorcade by way of Dallas in 1963. Kennedy and Gov. John B. Connally Jr. of Texas, who was using in the identical automotive, had been each struck by bullets.
Oswald was arrested hours after the taking pictures. Two days later, he was shot and killed by a person named Jack Ruby.
However these findings have lengthy been disputed by many People, and unsubstantiated claims concerning the involvement of the C.I.A., the mob and even Kennedy’s vp, Lyndon B. Johnson, have circulated. Many individuals have questioned whether or not Oswald acted alone, and whether or not the assassination was a plot by Cuba or the Soviet Union.
In 2016, President Trump steered that the daddy of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas was one way or the other concerned within the killing. And in 2023, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now the well being and human providers secretary, claimed there was “overwhelming proof” that the C.I.A. had a task in his uncle’s homicide.
In keeping with the Nationwide Archives and Data Administration, about 99 % of the Kennedy assassination information have already been unsealed. Nonetheless, the most recent trove to be launched should still maintain clues for conspiracy theorists.
Listed here are a few of the matters they might be hoping to study extra about.
The Warren Fee, which was established in 1963 to research the assassination, discovered that one of many bullets fired by Oswald struck the president, exited his throat after which hit Governor Connally, injuring his thigh, again, chest and wrist. That single bullet — known as the “magic bullet” by those that discovered this chain of occasions implausible — was discovered on the stretcher that held the governor, the fee discovered.
Not too long ago, Paul Landis, a Secret Service agent who was ft away from Kennedy when he was struck, added one other layer of doubt to that story.
In a September 2023 interview with The New York Occasions, Landis mentioned that he was the one who discovered the bullet, and it was not on a stretcher however lodged at the back of the limousine the place Kennedy had been sitting.
Landis, who was not interviewed by the Warren Fee, pressured that he was not hoping to push a conspiracy principle. He had lengthy believed Oswald was the lone gunman, he mentioned, however “at this level, I’m starting to doubt myself.”
In 1979, the Home Choose Committee on Assassinations launched a report saying that conspirators had been “doubtless” concerned in Kennedy’s homicide.
In keeping with that committee, which primarily based its findings on acoustic exams of Dallas police tapes, Oswald fired three photographs from the sixth ground of the Texas Faculty Guide Depository and another shot was fired from a grassy knoll in entrance of the president’s limousine. The report didn’t make clear who these conspirators might have been.
The reliability of the acoustic findings has since been questioned, and the findings of the report have been largely undermined.
Whereas investigations have discovered that each Oswald and Ruby acted alone, many conspiracy theories have flourished across the again tales of the 2 males.
Theorists have lengthy contended that Oswald had ties to a international authorities or inner businesses in the USA. Many additionally questioned Oswald’s journey to Mexico Metropolis, and his go to to the Soviet and Cuban missions there, simply weeks earlier than the assassination. Oswald mentioned he had traveled to Mexico to get visas from each embassies, however little is understood about his time there.
Oswald, a former Marine, mentioned he didn’t shoot the president and known as himself a “patsy” arrange by those that did.
He was shot lifeless by Ruby at shut vary whereas in police custody two days after the assassination. The Warren Fee discovered that Ruby didn’t know Oswald earlier than killing him, however many nonetheless query Ruby’s motive, and whether or not or not there was a connection between the lads.
Ruby was discovered responsible of homicide in 1964. He appealed the ruling in 1966, however died the next 12 months from a pulmonary embolism earlier than his subsequent trial started.