JFK Assassination Theory

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April 8, 2013
History 202
Killing Kennedy Assignment In this paper, I will discuss the controversy of the theory that Lee Harvey Oswald was the single shooter in the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK). Against what Mr. O’Reilly and Mr. Dugard have said, I do not believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was the single shooter in the assassination of JFK, because the only three shots fired from his rifle would have been spaced out evenly, instead of bunched up, as witnesses testified. On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was riding in a limo through Dallas, Texas and one of the United States most tragic deaths occurred; JFK was shot in the head and neck by a sniper man named Lee Harvey Oswald. After this incident, John F. Kennedy
was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Later, police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, who also used to be a U.S. Marine, at the theater that was close by. By the next morning, Oswald was charged with the assassination of President JFK. Two days later, an owner of a night club, Jack Ruby, killed Oswald while being moved from the city to the county jail. Looking at the facts above, the assassination of President Kennedy seems to point right at Oswald being the assassin, but you must take a deeper look into the situation. Many people who witnessed the murder of John F. Kennedy disagree against the facts above, saying that they heard shots from different places. Abraham Zapruder, who captured the entire assassination on his Bell and Howell movie camera and he single handedly created a movie entitled “The Zapruder Film” which is one of the most valuable pieces of evidence in this case. Out of all of the witnesses at the Dealey Plaza, 132 of them said that they heard exactly three shots.
If Oswald was a single gunman, it would have taken him a couple of seconds to reload his rifle. However, the general agreement of the witnesses is that they heard only one shot, followed by silence, with the second and third shots bunched together; for example, Lee Bowers, one of the witnesses, testified, "I heard three shots, one, then a slight pause, then two very close together." Also, Warren W. Taylor, a Secret Service agent, said, "As a matter of course, I opened the door and prepared to get out of the car. In the instant that my left foot touched the ground, 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, she testified, "Yes; I heard one. Then there was a little bit of time, and then there were two real fast bullets together. When the first one hit, well, the President turned from waving to the people, and he grabbed his throat, and he kind of slumped forward, and then I couldn't tell where the second shot went." Thus, it would have been impossible for one gunman to fire a shot with the rifle, reload, fire again, and fire again in a very short amount of time in order to make the shots sound close
together. Although many people argue against the single bullet theory, this may be true. To understand why, you must understand the path of the bullet and the angles used. If the bullet was fired from The Texas School Book Depository, it should have hit Kennedy at a 21 degree angle, which it did. Also, President Kennedy was sitting almost six inches higher than Connally's seat. Thus after exiting the president, it would have hit Connally who was at a 15 to 20 degree angle. When the bullet hit Connally, the hole in his back was 5/8 inches wide by 1/4 inches high which means when the bullet hit Connally’s back, it would have turned. Thus, the bullet must have hit something before it hit Connally. Also the bottom of the bullet that was found was broken open and was showing tiny particles of lead. However, even if the single bullet theory is true, it in no way lessens the fact that there were multiple gunmen, and there was a conspiracy. Lastly, one has to consider what the biggest motives would be to kill the President. One motive has to deal with President Kennedy trying to get out of Vietnam. This war was the biggest business in America at the time because it brought in more than eighty billion dollars a year, and since President Kennedy was trying to end the war, it would have cost businesses a lot of money. Also, Vice-president Johnson would have profited because he was the next to become president. This means, a lot of people, including Johnson had motives to kill President Kennedy. Also, since Kennedy's head went back and to the left, the bullet must have been fired from the front and right of Kennedy. This shows that, instead of Lee Harvey Oswald being the only shooter, there would have had to have been another shooter somewhere else. The idea of another shooter being somewhere else has been thrown around since 1979, when the House Select Committee on Assassinations said that there were at least two dozen possible areas of which a second shooter could have been during the assassination of JFK. The most popular of all of these spots is known as the “Grassy Knoll”, which is where there could have possibly been more than one shooter, and since the grassy knoll was positioned perfectly in which a bullet could have traveled a clear path to hit JFK in the front right part of his head. Although, the thesis provided by O’Reilly and Dugard has it’s key points of which it shows Lee Harvey Oswald as the only shooter in the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, there are many other theories that point towards another shooter somewhere else, that delivered the final shot that led to President Kennedy’s death.

Sources
"JFK" Directed by Oliver Stone. Warner Bros., Inc. 1991.
"The Grassy Knoll." JFK MURDER SOLVED. N.p., 2003. Web.
Ayton, Mel. "Lee Harvey Oswald’s Motives." Lee Harvey Oswald's Motives in Killing John Kennedy. McAdams.edu.
Harris, Robert. "The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: A Reassessment of Original Testimony and Evidence." Harris, Robert. "The Single Bullet Theory: A Question of Probability."
Newman, John. "Oswald and the CIA." Carroll and Graf Publishers, Inc. New York: 1995.
Summers, Anthony. "Conspiracy." McGraw-Hill Book Company. New York: 1981.