The Start of the Conspiracy Theories

What first brought to light the numerous conspiracy theories was a general public
dissatisfaction regarding the publications of the Warren report, issued by the
Warren committee. This committee was one that the then president Lyndon B.
Johnson had set up in order to gather evidence from the FBI as well as to
independently research and investigate this assassination. Consequently, they
then proceeded to issue their findings in a publication directly addressed to the
president. This agency directly answered to the president, without intervention
from any other American institution at the time.

After the publication was released on September 24th 1964. After the public was
made aware of this, the general consensus was that they accepted it. However
as time grew over the years, as the recording of the shooting and this publication
were dissected, many started to try to lose faith in the truth. this presidential
investigation by publishing their own writings to undermine the Warren report
such as Rush to Judgment written by Mark Lane and Inquest written by Jay https://sc.edu/about/offices_and_divisions/research/
news_and_pubs/caravel/archive/2019/2019_doubt.
Epstein. These books repeatedly argued within them that the Warren php
Statistics from survey carried out by
Commission didn’t conduct a thorough enough investigation as they did not fully the Washington Post Article issued on
explore all leads. This is where many gaps in theory can be spotted in the Warren October 19 1964.
report, hence producing such a large list of alleged conspiracy theories.
Conspiracy Theories surrounding Lee Harvey Oswald
- Firstly, many members of the public believed that Lee
Harvey Oswald did not act alone. Some of the reasons for
this were that Oswald simply was not skilled enough to
perform such a challenging shot. Some of this is due to the
confessions of his friends who identified this as a poor shot.
Also Gunnery Sergeant Craig Roberts, with 93 confirmed
kills, tried to replicate this shot and later failed. In
accordance with this, in two tests performed by the US
Marines where he served for two years, he scored as
followed
- In December 1956 he scored a 212 which meant he
was classified as a sharpshooter (minimum
requirement 210 points)
- In May 1959, he scored 191 which is enough to be
classed as a marksman by 1 point (the lowest rank)
Conspiracy theories surrounding Lee Harvey Oswald
- One of the first ‘multpile gunmen’ theories, as they
were called, was that at the motorcade there was a
man in an umbrella who shot a tranquilising dart into
the neck of JFK, then Lee HArvey Oswald proceeded
to shoot him.
- Everette Howard Hunt, an American INtelligence
officer confessed that he believed Lyndon B. Johnson
had ordered CIA Agents to kill JFK themselves, instead
of Oswald in his place it was CIA agents.
- Another theory was derived from a quote by John Mc
Adams who wrote a book also on this famed
assassination: ‘If you look at a really bad copy of the
Zapruder film, it will look like William Greer, the driver,
reached over his shoulder with a gun and shot
Kennedy in the head’
More general theories surrounding the assassination
- Firstly, one populariesd theory was that allegedly the Senate Select
Committee had revealed multiple CIA plots to assassinate Fidel Castro.
Consequently, this ties in with a quote from author Evan Thomas: ‘That
Robert Kennedy’s attempts to prosecute the mob and kill Castro had
backfired in some terrible way, had blown back.’ As a result, many believed
this assassination to be as an act or retaliation from the Cubans.
- In line with this is that the cubans also acted their retaliation as a result
of ‘The Bay of the Pigs,’ this was an invasion on Cuban soldiers in their
own country of Cuba launched by the CIA in 1961. This invasion sank
escort ships, klilled soldiers and destroyed air support. With this
knowledge comes theories that the Cubans were the ones who killed
JFK in a fit of revenge. On the contrary to this, 2 months before the
assassination, in September 1963, Oswald was reported to be in
MExsico City and was known to have entered the Cuban embassy.
Author Gus Russo said after Castro was asked about Oswald entering
the Embassy: ‘I knew about it when it happened,’ it was reported to him
– and he [Oswald] offered to kill President Kennedy,” Russo said. “He
said, ‘I’ll kill that bastard Kennedy,’ ostensibly for the [Cuban]
revolution.”