John F. Kennedy Assassination Essay

On November 22, 1963 President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the murder. It is believed that Lee Harvey Oswald was not the only one involved with the crime. There are countless theories on how President Kennedy was murdered. Some of the theories include the FBI, CIA, and the mob being involved. The Warren commission said that they believe that it was solely Lee Harvey Oswald who killed President Kennedy.

Most of the evidence shows that Lee Harvey Oswald could not be the only one involved. John F. Kennedy was the fourth United States President to be assassinated. Even today, there remains tremendous debate on who was responsible for the murder of Kennedy. The assassination of President Kennedy has started many different conspiracy theories about who was involved with the murder.

President Kennedy wanted to travel to Dallas, Texas to help strengthen his vote for the upcoming election and also to gain more Democratic Party members. Before Kennedy went on the trip there was some concern about a sniper being on top of a building. President Kennedy also made comments before he was killed about his safety in a convertible car. The car President Kennedy was driving in was a 1963 Lincoln Continental open top limo.

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Sergeant Davis of the Dallas police department was the one who made sure the city was secure whenever any President or foreign leader came to Dallas. The secret service agent who was responsible for the planning of the Kennedy motorcade was Winston Lawson. Lawson told Sergeant Davis not to allow any police officers to follow the president’s car.

It was standard procedure for the police to secure the perimeter when any president came to Dallas. Jessy Curry who was the chief of police said that if the cops were allowed to secure the area, then the murder could have been stopped. The cops who would normally secure the area have submachine guns and rifles.(Harrison Edward Livinstone, “High Treason 2 – The Great Cover-Up:The Assassination of John F. Kennedy” (1992) Hardback)

The original plan was to go from the Love Field Airport to downtown Dallas and Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was supposed to give a speech at the Dallas Trade Mart. Kennedy’s car did not have a bullet proof top, because they did not have anything invented at the time. At 12:30 President Kennedy’s limo went towards the Texas School book depository. Then the car turned right in front of the building and was only 65 feet away.

The car was going 13 miles per hour and then slowed down to 9 miles per hour. Once the car passed the building the shots rang out. A man named Abraham Zapruder was right in front of the limo when it was being shot at. Zapruder was filming as the shooting took place. Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally were both shot.

John Connally was riding in the same car as Kennedy and was sitting in the passenger seat in front of the president. Governor John Connally was in critical condition but he survived. There was also another person that was just watching the motorcade that was injured from debris when the bullet hit a curb. (David S. Lifton, “Best Evidence:Disguise and Deception in the Assassination of John F. Kennedy”)

Lee Harvey Oswald had been arrested for the killing a Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit. Lee Harvey Oswald was charged for killing President Kennedy and officer J.D. Tippit. Whenever Oswald was questioned about the shooting of President Kennedy he denied everything. There was a twelve hour interrogation of Lee Harvey Oswald and no recordings or notes were taken. Oswald said that he wasn’t involved and that he was just a patsy. Two days after the assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby. Oswald was in police custody at the time of the shooting. Jack Ruby posed as a reporter who was trying to ask Oswald a question.(The Assassination of JFK 19 June 2005 )

The gun that was used was an Italian Manlicher-Carcano rifle. The rifle was found at the Texas School Book Depository on the sixth floor. When the police officers found the gun they recorded everything. The rifle is said to be the same gun that was used in the assassination. There was a bullet on the Connally’s stretcher and it was fired from the gun that the police had found. Lee Harvey Oswald purchased the gun under the fake name of Alek James Hiddell. (The Assassination of JFK 19 June 2005 )

President Kennedy was announced deceased at the emergency room. The surgeons at the hospital said that Kennedy had absolutely no chance for survival. Dr. George Burkley came to the hospital shortly after the president was shot and looked at the head wound and said that it was the cause of death.

A priest came to give President Kennedy his last rites. Lyndon B. Johnson who was the vice president was the next person to become president. Lyndon B. Johnson was riding in a car behind Kennedy. Lyndon B. Johnson went through the procedure to become president while he was on Air Force One. (The Assassination of JFK 19 June 2005 )

Once Air Force One had landed, an autopsy was performed at Bethesda Naval Hospital. The autopsy report said that Kennedy had been shot in the head and in the shoulder. Reports of the autopsy were incorrect and did not match up. It is said that Dr. James J. Humes probably destroyed the autopsy report and notes that were taken during the autopsy. The measurements that Dr. James J. Humes took were inconsistent and not exact.

The autopsy reports were not shown to the Warren Commission. The people who handled the autopsy records did not keep track of how many pictures were taken. It is also said that the pathologists were not experienced enough to handle Kennedy’s body in the first place. Kennedy’s neck was not looked at to determine how the bullet entered and exited. After the autopsy Kennedy’s body was embalmed and was put into the white house for the public to see. The body was removed from the white house and buried in Arlington National Cemetery. (David S. Lifton, “Best Evidence:Disguise and Deception in the Assassination of John F. Kennedy”)

There was also no recordings or radio coverage of the assassination. All of the news crews were waiting at the trade Mart for Kennedy and not in Dealey Plaza. There was some news crews riding with the Kennedy motorcade, but they were in the very back. The only recording of the murder was from Abraham Zapruder’s camera.

Many individuals took still pictures of the shooting also. The Zapruder film shows Kennedy’s head moving forward and then backwards. The Zapruder film was shown on television, but was edited a lot. More recently, in 2003 ABC News drew Dealey Plaza in three dimensional computer models.(David S. Lifton, “Best Evidence:Disguise and Deception in the Assassination of John F. Kennedy”)

The government is doing a good job in preventing records of the Kennedy assassination from becoming publicly available. In 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson made the Warren Commission findings to be kept from public viewing. Johnson said that the documents cannot be seen by the public for 75 years, which would be until 2039. Covering up all of the records, leads more people to believe that there is indeed a conspiracy involved with the death of President Kennedy. Congress established the “President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992”.

Congress made the act so that people could see the records earlier and they also felt that there was not a need to keep the records from public eyes. The act says that any document that has not been lost of destroyed must be given to the public by 2017. Many documents have already been opened, but the majority still remains locked away. All of the original evidence and material cannot be released, because it was lost or destroyed. Some import pieces of evidence that were neglected are; the Governor of Texas’s suit being dry cleaned, the limo being cleaned, and Lee Harvey Oswald’s Marine service file being lost.

(Josiah Thompson, “Six Seconds in Dallas” (1976 Paperback))

There was a paraffin test conducted on Lee Harvey Oswald’s right cheek and hands. The purpose of the test was to tell if Oswald had fired a weapon. The paraffin test came out positive, but the Warren commission said the data was inaccurate.

The first people to conduct an investigation were the FBI. The director of the FBI said that he wanted something to convince the public that Lee Harvey Oswald was the only one involved with the assassination. The FBI report took 17 days to complete and was given to the Warren Commission. The FBI assisted the Warren Commission. Both the FBI and the Warren Commission said that there were only three shots fired from the rifle that Lee Harvey Oswald had. The House Select Committee Investigated the FBI’s results.

The committee concluded that the FBI did not investigate whether or not President Kennedy was involved in a conspiracy and also that they did not give their data to other law enforcement agencies. James Hosty was an FBI agent who name appeared in Jack Ruby’s address book. The FBI made another copy of the address book and erased James Hosty’s name out of it and then gave it to the Warren Commission. Before the assassination took place, Lee Harvey Oswald went to the FBI office so that he could meet with James Hosty. Hosty was not in his office when Oswald had arrived, so Oswald left a note for him. When Oswald was murdered by Ruby, James Hosty destroyed the note by tearing it up and flushing it down the toilet. (Josiah Thompson, “Six Seconds in Dallas” (1976 Paperback))

When the Warren Commission completed their report many people questioned it and did not believe its findings. Many people have written books and articles disproving what the Warren Commission had said. In 2003 ABC News did a poll to see what the public thought about the John F. Kennedy assassination. The poll said that seventy percent of the people think that there is a plot involved with the murder of Kennedy.

Around seventy to ninety percent of the American people did not believe the Warren Commission’s findings. Even government officials that worked for the Warren Commission said that they did not completely believe the commission’s results themselves. The House Select Committee on Assassinations said that the Warren Commission and the FBI failed to investigate who else could have been with the murder. The committee also said that the main reason for the lack of information and results were due to the Warren Commission not communicating with the CIA. (Gerald Posner, “Case Closed” (1993 Hardcover, 1st Edition))

The House Select Committee determined that President Kennedy was killed because of a conspiracy. Their results went directly against the Warren Commissions and were the complete opposite. The HSCA said that four shots were fired and Lee Harvey Oswald was not the only one who did the shooting. Lee Harvey Oswald has shot 3 shots and another gunman had fired the other shot from behind the fence on the grassy knoll.

The grassy knoll theory has came from acoustic evidence and many different witnesses. In 2001, an article by D.B. Thomas stated that the HSCA’s second gunman theory was right. The Assassination Record Review Board said that the autopsy of John F. Kennedy was a tragedy. (David S. Lifton, “Best Evidence:Disguise and Deception in the Assassination of John F. Kennedy”)

The majority of the evidence involved with the John F. Kennedy assassination was mishandled and not dealt with the way it should have been. Since most of the evidence was lost and is locked away, its leads people to further believe in a conspiracy theory. The murder of John F. Kennedy shows that the government has not served its people in a righteous manner. They have lied, covered-up, and twisted things so much that it will never be possible to find out who was really involved with the murder.

The government has violated the right of its own people. If the government took the time to correctly gather all of the evidence and look at all the aspects of the murder, than there would not be so much mystery surrounding the murder today. The government had violated the Kennedy family’s 14^th amendment. The 14^th amendment and the due process of law were violated, because the Government failed to do a proper investigation of the assassination. The Kennedy family was not provided with a thorough and correct investigation of the murder. The government should have been a lot more accurate and involved with the investigations its agencies performed.