Despite the theories, evidence points to Lee Harvey Oswald as JFK shooter
Editor:
Like Walter Rae, (“Richmond researcher discovers ‘truth’ behind JFK,”) I too have an avid interest in the assassination of President Kennedy. I have spent many years reading numerous books, articles and research papers about this tragic event. I have also viewed all the available photos and the Zapruder short film of President Kennedy being shot.
The last time I checked there were about 30 different conspiracy theories about this murder all claiming different and contradictory theories as to who was behind this assassination and who actually shot President Kennedy. Now the first rule of logic demands that all these theories can’t all be correct!
Some like Walter Rae, blame shadowy “right-wing” group of government CIA agents who really killed Kennedy, and conveniently set up Lee Harvey Oswald as a “patsy” to take the blame. Others claim that it was the US Mafia that was really behind JFK’s assassination. Others point a finger at Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson as the one who had most to gain from death of Kennedy, so it must have been LBJ who put out a contract on President Kennedy in order to become president! Others blame Fidel Castro who ordered this murder because JFK was initiating numerous plots to have Castro killed—Castro learned about these plots and was able to get to President Kennedy before Kennedy got to him.
The best and the most thorough investigation of JFK’s assassination, in my humble opinion, was conducted by Vincent Bugliosi, a well known world-class American attorney, who details his findings in his exhaustive book, Reclaiming History: the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (2007). This book printed in very small text size would take up 12 volumes of text if printed in regular sized text. The footnotes alone were so numerous that they could not be printed in the book but are contained on a CD disk. To those who are really interested in history and not just in speculations about history (which Mr. Rae and other JFK conspiracy theorists embrace), I would highly recommend reading this book.
Another, great book on this assassination was written by Gus Russo, who in his book, Live by the Sword: The Secret War Against Castro and Death of JFK (1998), details the best motive and the best reason why Kennedy was killed. Again, hard evidence is presented not just wild speculation. Another invaluable book about this assassination is Edward Jay Epstein’s book, Legend: the Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald (1978). Anyone wanting to know who Oswald was and why he wanted to kill President Kennedy must read this book!
One of favorite claims of JFK conspiracy theorists is to claim that available evidence points that President Kennedy was shot from the front rather than from the back from sixth floor window of the Book Depository Building where Oswald had built an improvised sniper’s nest. In my collection of President Kennedy books, I have a book called The torch is passed…. This is a step by step illustrated eyewitness account of President Kennedy’s assassination published by The Associated Press shortly after JFK was killed. It contains numerous black and white as well as colour photos. There are several photos of the actual assassination in this book. The most valuable photo contained in this book was taken by AP photographer James Altgens who took his historic photo just seconds after assassin fired the shots that killed President Kennedy. Altgens was standing directly in front of the approaching motorcade containing convertible limousine that was carrying President Kennedy and it shows secret agents as well as spectators turning their heads back to look back toward Book Depository Building located behind the limousine from which the sound of gunshots came. There were also numerous eyewitnesses who actually saw Oswald pointing rifle from sixth floor before he shot President Kennedy. This one photo all by itself clearly shows that JFK was shot from behind and debunks false claims that JFK was shot from the front.
Bugliosi’s book contains more than 50 verified facts and direct evidence (not circumstantial evidence) that clearly point to Lee Harvey Oswald as the shooter who killed President Kennedy. Bugliosi also irrefutably dissects and debunks some of the major JFK conspiracy theories (including one favoured by Walter Rae) that ignore these obvious facts showing that it was indeed Lee Harvey Oswald who killed President Kennedy.
Branko Popazivanov
Richmond
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