The Crime Of The Century Essay, Research Paper
The Crime of the century
There are few crimes in the world’s history that can be categorized as the crime of the century; one crime that does hold this title is the assassination of the 35th president of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. There are many theories as to who was behind the murder of JFK. History books tell us that a lone assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, fired three shots from the eastern most sixth floor window, of the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD) Building on November 22,1963, fatally wounding President Kennedy. Contrary to what the history books say, there is an overwhelming amount of evidence that proves that Lee Harvey Oswald did not kill JFK, and that there was a conspiracy, headed by top officials of the U.S. government, to not only kill President Kennedy, but cover the crime up.
In order to prove that there was a conspiracy plot to kill JFK, one must first prove that Lee Harvey Oswald did not kill him. Oswald would have been unable to fire the shots from the sixth floor window. A bystander in Dealey Plaza that day, Abraham Zapruter captured the entire horrific scene on video. “The Zapruter film clearly fixes the time of the first shot at frame Z-189 There is a huge oak tree in front of the book depository building. In November 1963 that tree was so large that it made it impossible for anyone to have lined up a shot from the Oswald Window at Z-189 (Prouty 9).” If Oswald could not have fired the first shot, than who did? There is photographic evidence provided by the Zapruter film to prove that there was a shot. Oswald’s “lair” was not in a position that he could have taken this first shot, meaning someone else was firing that day; a second gunman. That alone is evidence enough to give Oswald’s presumed guilt a reasonable doubt, which would have made him a free man in a court of law. That, though is not the only evidence in Oswald’s favor. “An officer dashed into the TSBD within a moment of the shots, and there, along with the manager of the building, found Oswald drinking a coke on the second floor. Oswald would have had to have dashed down the stairs from the sixth floor and they would have noticed if he had been winded. Later, when others tried to duplicate the feat of coming down from the sixth floor, it was found to be impossible in the time span available (Groden 20).” It is highly unlikely that a person would kill the President of the United States and less than two minutes later calmly have a coke! The reason that Lee Oswald was on the second floor having a coke, he did not kill President Kennedy.
There is a substantial amount of evidence that leads one to believe that there was more than one gunman in Dealey Plaza on November 22,1963. The most over whelming piece of evidence that supports there being two gunmen in Dealey Plaza was created by the Warren Commission (The Warren Commission was a government appointed group of individuals that were to cover-up, excuse me, investigate the assassination). This evidence is what has been called the “magic bullet theory.” As stated earlier, it was concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots at the president. One of the bullets was the headshot that fatally wounded the president. Another bullet missed the car and struck a curb were cement fragments hit and injured a bystander. That leaves just one bullet to account for seven wounds between President Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally (Connally and his wife rode in the car along with president and Mrs. Kennedy). This is the “magic bullet.” The bullet entered the back of the president (wound #1) and exited from his throat (wound#2). The bullet then entered Governor Connally’s back (wound #3) and exited his chest (wound #4). Next the bullet enters Connally’s wrist (wound#5), exits from his hand (wound#6), and ends it’s journey in his thigh (wound#7) (Prouty 5). “An interpretation of this thesis means the bullet would have had to make a right and upward turn upon leaving JFK’s throat, paused in midair for more than two seconds, made a left and steep downward turn as it entered Connally’s back, made a right and upward turn as it left Connally’s chest, passed through Connally’s wrist in the direction backward from the way his wrist was facing, made another left and downward turn, then wound up in Connally’s left thigh (Prouty 6).” That is a lot of traveling for one bullet. This theory alone should have been the Warren Commission’s foundation to prove that a conspiracy existed, instead it is the foundation for their “lone Assassin” theory. Governor Connally himself had a theory to the gunshots. “In spite of being himself shot in the hail of gunfire, Governor Connally-himself an expert hunter-remembered that because of the ‘rapidity’ of the shots, ‘the thought immediately passed through my mind that there were two or three people involved, or more in this; or that someone was shooting an automatic rifle (Summers 52).’” There is still more evidence to prove another gunmen in Dealey Plaza. Arnold Gordon was in Dealey Plaza on November 22. “Arnold walked to the top of the grassy knoll (The grassy knoll was an area in Dealey Plaza in front and to the right of the president’s car. See diagram) just before the president arrived, looking for a good vantage point Arnold was moving along the fence-on the side hidden from the road-when ‘ this guy just walked toward me and said that I shouldn’t be up there. He showed me a badge and said that he was Secret Service and that he didn’t want anybody up there.’ It sounded sensible enough, and Arnold moved to the next best spot-beside a tree on the road side of the fence, high up on the grassy slope Then the motorcade arrived Arnold maintains, ‘the shot came from behind me only inches over my left shoulder (Summers 58).’” This is even more evidence proving a second gunmen and a conspiracy. The evidence of more than one gunmen does not end there, in fact, there is evidence of even a third gunmen. “Lyndal Shaneyfelt, the FBI’s ballistics and photographic expert, took this picture (Photo #6 in Guns of Dallas) from the spot where the shot that missed hit the curb. By sighting back to the sixth floor window, the degree of miss can be seen. By sighting directly over JFK’s position, the top of the white car in center lane, anyone can see where the shot came from: the second floor window of the Daltex building (Prouty 9).” With this evidence the Warren Commission should have had no choice but to conclude that there was a conspiracy. But the Warren Commission’s job was not to prove a conspiracy; their job was to cover it up.
There is more than enough evidence proving a conspiracy to kill JFK. That though is not even the true crime. The true crime is how the American public, with the help of the press, allowed the Dallas police, Washington D.C. and the Warren Commission to cover it up. The cover-up began at 12:31 on November 22, 1963, just one minute after president Kennedy was shot. Many people believe that they heard shots coming from behind the picket fence on the grassy knoll. ” Policemen dashed up the slope of the grassy knoll, where they wee met by men flashing secret service badges, and turned away. Later, it was established that no Secret Service agents were present anywhere in that area, so clearly, men had been provided false identification and were in place during the shooting to turn back the police, giving the gunmen time to escape (Groden 19). Who were these men and how did they have Secret Service Identification? The Warren Commission, the CIA, nor the Dallas police department has any explanation for this, but there is an explanation, CONSPIRACY. The cover-up does not stop there. There are the famous “tramp” photos. “Photographic evidence, including the famous ‘tramp’ photographs, show that men were ‘arrested’ at Dealey Plaza. No record of these arrests exists and there is none in the Warren Report (Prouty 21).” Many conspiracy experts believe that these are photographs of the gunmen that were located behind the picket fence on the grassy knoll. These men are supposed to be “tramps” or bums taken off of railroad cars located behind the picket fence. Yet these “tramps” photographed are wearing sports jackets, nice shoes and are cleanly shaven. If these men were just “tramps” why was there no record of their arrest of file with the Dallas Police? Why was the Warren Commission never told of these men? Why were they released just minutes after the President of the United States was murdered? Why? CONSPIRACY Need More evidence? Col. L. Fletcher Prouty was in New Zealand at the time of JFK’s murder (the crime happened at 6:30am on the 23rd of November in New Zealand). Col. Prouty recalls, “I was on my way to breakfast with a member of the congress from Ohio we purchased the first newspaper available It is amazing to re-read the front page of that paper today and find all of the detail, the remarkable detail, about Lee Harvey Oswald, about his service in the Marine corps, about his living in Russia, about his Russian wife, and then the full scenario of the crime. Then one begins to wonder who it was that was able in so short a time to come up with such a life history of so obscure a twenty-four-year-old ‘loner.’ The Dallas police had not charged him with any crime by the time that the paper had hit the streets (Prouty 22).” It is clear that the CIA, the government, or who ever was in charge had already established who their “assassin” would be long before President Kennedy had even been killed. How else would a New Zealand Newspaper have such a detailed history of the “assassin” of the President of the United States before he had even been charged with the crime. The conspiracy and cover-up does not stop there though. This “Secret Team,” as called by Col. Prouty, has gone so far to keep the truth hidden, that they have had an overwhelming number of people, that knew too much or saw something that they should not have, killed. In the record books these deaths are categorized as heart attacks, suicides auto-accidents, and even just unsolved murders. A London Sunday Times article said the odds were 100,000 trillion to one that so many witnesses would die so soon after the assassination no matter what the cause (Groden 111).” 100,000 trillion to one: those are some pretty unlikely odds. There are too many deaths and too many strange circumstances to go into great detail, but the reality of the situation is that it would be highly unlikely that so many people involved in the assassination or witnesses to the assassination would die so soon after the assassination. This is just another aspect of the case that points toward a conspiracy.
The assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was indeed the crime of the century, perhaps the crime of history. There is an extraordinary amount of evidence proving Lee Harvey Oswald is not guilty and proving a government ordered conspiracy to kill President Kennedy and cover the crime up. We may never with absolute certainty what happened in Dallas Texas in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963.
Griffith, Michael T.. “Research Note #7: Reaction to five shots in the Zapruder Film.”
Compelling Evidence: A New Look at the Assassination of President Kennedy.
22 January 1997. Online. 9 November 1998.
Groden, Robert J., and Howard Edward Livingstone. High Treason. Baltimore: The
Conservatory P, 1989.
Payne, Darwin. “What James Worrell saw and heard.” Time Herald. 6 March 1964.Online. 25 October 1998.
Prouty, Fletcher L. “Guns of Dallas” 1975. Online 25 October 1998.
Summers, Anthony. Conspiracy. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980.