Adolf Hitler, the Nazi dictator of Germany during World War II, once said,”The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it. ” Although thismay sound ludicrous, we can see many example of this in the world’s history. Oneexample would have to be the John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s assassination. For overthirty years the people of the United States were led to believe that a singlegunman shot and killed Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p. m.
Maybe they were wrong. According to the old facts regarding the case of the JFKassassination, a single gunman killed Kennedy. On November 22, 1963, at 12:30p. m. CST (Central Standard Time), Kennedy was riding in an open limousinethrough Dallas, Texas.
At this time, Kennedy was shot in the head and neck by asniper. He was then taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounceddead. Later, police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U. S. Marine, at anearby theater. By the next morning, Oswald was booked for the murder ofPresident John F.
Kennedy. Two days later, Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub ownerkilled Oswald while he was being moved from the city to the county jail. At aglance, the above story sounds as if this should be an open-and-shut case. Afterall, according to the facts above, Oswald must have killed Kennedy.
However, youmust take a closer look at this case. Many people who witnessed the murder ofJohn F. Kennedy dispute the facts above, saying that they heard shots fromplaces besides the book depository and other things that may contradict what isstated above. One of these witnesses, Abraham Zapruder, captured the entireassassination on his Bell and Howell eight-millimeter movie camera.
This movie,cleverly called the Zapruder Film, is the single best piece of visual evidencein this case. In order to clearly understand the Zapruder Film, it is necessaryto break it down into frames. The particular Bell and Howell movie camera thatZapruder was using ran at eighteen and three-hundredths (18. 3) frames persecond.
When using this frame system, you must remember that all shots wereactually fired several frames before the number that is assigned to them. Forexample, the fatal heard wound, called Z313, was probably fired at Z310, sinceit took 2-3 frames at 18. 3 frames per second for the bullet to reach the victim. Also, you must remember that sound travels at about one thousand-one hundred(1,100) feet per second, or a little over half as fast as the MannlicherCarcano’s bullets. When keeping this in mind, it is expected that witnessesheard the shot at some point after the bullet passed.
The following shows abreak down of the frames of the Zapruder film: – The Presidential limousinefirst comes into view at frame 133 (the starting point of this timeline. ) – Thefirst shot at (or just before) Z187 would have passed through both GovernorConnally and the President. – The second shot, which passed above the limousineat Z284, missed the President and hit the curb near witness James Tague. Thiscaused his minor wound.
– At Z313, the fatal shot occurs, which blew out majorportions of the Presidents brain and skull. – A fourth shot occurred at Z323(slightly 1/2 second after the fatal wound at Z313). Due to the proximity ofthis report to the one at Z313, as well as it’s more distant origin, mostwitnesses were unable to hear this shot. Thus, the above is when the bullets hiteither Kennedy or Connally, or passed through the frames of the Zapruder film(in the case of the second shot). Of the one-hundred seventy-eight (178)witnesses at Dealey Plaza, one-hundred thirty-two (132) said that they heardexactly three shots. If Oswald was a single gunman, it would have taken him atleast 2.
3 seconds to reload his Mannlicher Carcano rifle. However, the generalconsensus of the witnesses is that they heard a single shot, followed bysilence, with the second and third shots bunched together. For example, LeeBowers, one of the witnesses, testified, “I heard three shots, one, then aslight pause, then two very close together. ” Also, Warren W. Taylor, aSecret Service agent, said, “As a matter of course, I opened the door andprepared to get out of the car. In the instant that my left foot touched theground, I heard two more bangs and realized that they must be gun shots.
“Lastly, when Miss Willis, a witness, was asked if she heard any shots, shetestified, “Yes; I heard one. Then there was a little bit of time, and thenthere were two real fast bullets together. When the first one hit, well, thePresident turned from waving to the people, and he grabbed his throat, and hekind of slumped forward, and then I couldn’t tell where the second shotwent. ” Thus, it would have been impossible for one gunman to fire a shotwith the Mannlicher Carcano rifle, reload, fire again, and fire again in a veryshort amount of time in order to make the shots sound close together. Also, whenthe fatal shot hit Kennedy, his head went back and to the left, implying thatthe bullet came from the front and right, not from the back. Although manypeople dispute the single bullet theory, this may be true.
To understand why,you must understand the trajectory of the bullet and the angles involved. Thebullet, if fired from the Texas School Book Depository, should have hit Kennedyat a 21 degree angle, and, in fact, it did. Also, President Kennedy was sittingnearly six inches above the level of Connally’s seat. Thus, when the bullet leftthe President, it hit Connally, who was turned 15-20 degrees. When the bullethit Connally, the hole in his back was 5/8 inches wide by 1/4 inches high, ormore than twice as wide as tall. This means that the bullet was partially turnedsideways when it entered Connally’s back.
Thus, the bullet must have hitsomething before it hit Connally. Also, the bottom of the bullet that was foundwas broken open and was extruding tiny particles of lead. X-rays taken atParkland showed precisely that type of particle embedded in the Governor’s wristand thigh wounds. However, even if the single bullet theory is true, it in noway lessens the fact that there could have been multiple gunmen, and there mayhave been a conspiracy. (The “magic bullet” is thought to be bulletone on the Zapruder film.
) Lastly, one has to consider what the biggest motiveswould be to kill the President. One motive has to deal with President Kennedytrying to get out of Vietnam. This war was the biggest business in America atthe time. It brought in over eighty billion dollars a year. Thus, since thePresident was trying to get out of the war, he would have been costingbusinessmen a lot of money.
Also, Vice-president Johnson would have profited alot because he was the next to become president. Thus, people, including thevice-president, had motives to kill the President. As you can see, the killingof John F. Kennedy was more so a conspiracy than a single gunman.
There is noway that a single gunman could have fired all the bullets that hit Kennedy andConnally in that short period of time. Also, since Kennedy’s head went back andto the left, the bullet must have been fired from the front and right ofKennedy. This shows that there was another gunman, which makes this aconspiracy. Someday, it would be nice if the truth is revealed about who firedthe bullets, and how many gunmen there actually were.
Until then, people like mewill bite our nails trying to figure out what actually happened. Bibliography1. Harris, Robert. “The Assassination of President John F. KennedyAReassessment of Original Testimony and Evidence.
” 2. Harris, Robert. “The Single Bullet TheoryA Question of Probability. ” 3.
Newman, John. “Oswald and the CIA. ” Carroll and Graf Publishers, Inc. New York1995. 4. Summers, Anthony.
“Conspiracy. ” McGraw-Hill Book Company. New York:1981. 5. “JFK” Directed by Oliver Stone. Warner Bros.
, Inc. 1991. Footnotes: 1From the courtroom scene in Oliver Stone’s JFK. 2From “TheAssassination of President John F. KennedyA Reassessment of Original Testimonyand Evidence,” at http://www.
thuntek. net/~rharris/1. html 3 From, “TheAssassination of President John F. Kennedy: A Reassessment of Original Testimonyand Evidence,” at http://www. thuntek. net/~rharris/1.
html. From, “TheAssassination of President John F. Kennedy: A Reassessment of Original Testimonyand Evidence,” at http:///www. thuntek. net/~rharris/1. html.
