Friday marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, one of the most-studied and most controversial events in U.S. history.
On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, the victim of a gunshot wound to the head as his motorcade drove slowly through Dealey Plaza. Now, fifty years later, our nation still seeks closure as to what really happened on that fateful day in Dallas.
While the Warren Commission investigation (appointed by Lyndon B. Johnson) determined the killer to be an ex-Marine named Lee Harvey Oswald who acted alone (the “lone-gunman theory”), most Americans don’t buy the story. Recent polls released in November 2013 by Gallup and ABC/Washington Post report at least 61% of Americans believe there was more than one shooter and that there was “some sort of official cover-up” regarding the assassination.
Even in 1963, when a Gallup Poll was conducted during the week following the assassination, 52% of Americans already said they believed the killing was the result of a “still undetermined conspiracy,” and that Oswald had not acted alone.
Since that time, the Kennedy assassination has been the inspiration for dozens of other theories as to “Who killed Kennedy?” According to Vincent Bugliosi, author of “Reclaiming History,” “…doubters of the lone gunman theory have accused 42 groups, 82 assassins and 214 people of being involved in the assassination.” And the list of “suspects” continues to grow.
So if most Americans believe Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone, then whom do they blame for Kennedy’s death? The following are some of the top theories regarding the assassination.
The government. Taking the pulse of the American public both then and today, “the government” leads the list of suspects for being involved in Kennedy’s assassination. Perhaps it was the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion or Kennedy’s “taking on” the Federal Reserve that angered enough governmental agencies to warrant his assassination. Or perhaps it was the letter JFK wrote to the CIA demanding to see secret UFO files, which may have threatened certain top-secret projects, which led to his assassination.
Just as unsettling, however, is the theory that involves Kennedy’s Vice President, Lyndon B. Johnson, who supposedly ordered Kennedy killed. According to this theory, Johnson certainly had the most to gain, and supposedly there was no love lost between the Kennedys (JFK and Robert) and Johnson. Perhaps Johnson feared they were going to dump him from the Democratic ticket in 1964 and he struck first. Such is the premise of Roger Stone’s book, “The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ” (Skyhorse Publishing, 2013). But even Stone admits LBJ probably didn’t act alone in ordering the kill, stating that Johnson was just “the linchpin of the conspiracy that involved the CIA.”
The CIA. Here’s the “spookiest” theory of them all, and the hardest one to dismiss. JFK certainly had his differences with the CIA, especially after the bungled Bay of Pigs Invasion. Additionally, Kennedy was supposedly fed up with the CIA’s actions, especially when he found out they were trying to kill Fidel Castro, a known fact. Was the supposed threat of being disbanded by Kennedy enough to warrant the CIA’s ordering his assassination? Consider also that the former head of the CIA, Allen Dulles, was also a member of the Warren Commission, who determined Oswald acted alone.
Also, Oswald was a supporter of Soviet-backed Cuba, and it’s known he visited the Russian Embassy in Mexico City just weeks prior to the assassination. Could it be the CIA used this information to their advantage, or that Oswald himself was on the CIA’s payroll?
Those questions lead to the next theory, which involves the Russians. This theory contends Oswald became a KGB operative after his defection to the USSR in 1959 and that he was “programmed” to kill Kennedy in retaliation for the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. This theory doesn’t seem as likely, however, according to investigator Dave Perry. He believes “The Russians would never have ordered Oswald to kill Kennedy because of his well-known links to Russia and his pro-Cuban sympathies. Russia’s leaders knew they would have been the first suspects if they’d engineered an assassination by Oswald. It would have been an act of war, which could have triggered a nuclear attack.”
But many theories involving both Oswald and the CIA overlap with those involving “The Mob,” the next “possible suspect.” One of the main theories revolves around a mobster named Carlos Marcello of New Orleans, who had been deported back to Guatemala by Kennedy’s brother, Robert, after JFK appointed Robert U.S. Attorney General. Supposedly Marcello even confessed to ordering the kill to an unnamed FBI informant.
Going even deeper, another shocking theory arises which points to CIA/Mafia connections. In his explosive book, “Smooth Criminal: A One Man American Crime Wave,” former ABC and CBS news editor/journalist Bill Deane contends that Kennedy was aware of a program which involved the CIA systematically releasing dangerous criminals back into society to work for them on secret missions overseas. Deane says the program started during the Kennedy administration as a way of dealing with the rising Communist threat of Castro and actually had JFK’s seal of approval. Supposedly Kennedy endorsed freeing drug dealers and Mafia hit men so they could attempt to murder Fidel Castro…an extreme move coming on the heels of his failed Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961. Basically these released prisoners were allowed to do whatever they liked without fear of being arrested or prosecuted. Even more shocking is that Deane alleges this program is still very much in force today.
If Kennedy was attempting to take out Castro, what’s to say Castro didn’t try to do the same? That premise leads to the next theory involving Fidel Castro. After the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, Castro knew the Kennedy administration, working with the CIA, was attempting to assassinate him. Maybe Castro struck back. Even Lyndon Johnson was an advocate of this theory, stating in interviews that he believed Castro had been behind the assassination.
But Castro wasn’t the only Cuban disgruntled with Kennedy. Many of those who died in the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion were Cuban exiles trained by the CIA. Another theory contends many Cuban exiles living in the U.S. never forgave Kennedy for not providing more support for the invasion, so they had him killed.
Going along the lines of “not enough support,” brings up the Texas Oil Theory. This theory involves Texas oil magnates who were disgruntled with JFK’s plans to eliminate their oil depletion allowance, which brought them millions in profits. LBJ was a supporter of the allowance, and supposedly these oil magnates made sure LBJ became president.
No list would be complete, however, without a theory involving former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover and Robert Kennedy did not get along, and Hoover did not believe he got the respect he deserved from either of the Kennedys. The “Hoover Connection Theory” alleges Hoover made sure LBJ became president.
So who killed Kennedy? Was it a conspiracy or an accident? One final theory alleges it was an accident. Author James Reston, Jr., argues in his book, “The Accidental Victim,” that Oswald was really trying to kill Texas Governor John Connally, but “accidentally” ending up shooting the president instead.
With so many theories and culprits we may never really know the “truth,” but perhaps that is the point. One thing is certain, however, and that is the American people do not believe Oswald acted alone. Even Secretary of State John Kerry recently stated “To this day, I have serious doubts that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.”
Now, fifty years after Kennedy’s assassination, our nation still ponders what really happened in in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Perhaps it’s best to take pause and remember all that has occurred in our country since that day, and perhaps, too, we need to look within and ask ourselves one key question, “Are we really willing to accept what happened?”
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