Kennedy And The Magic Bullet Theory
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29th, 1917 and 43 years later he became America’s youngest President. During his short time as Chief Executive Officer, Kennedy’s can-do attitude invigorated the nation. He proposed the ambitious New Frontier policies which included expanding the space program, creating new Civil Rights legislation, improving education and enhancing the tax system (“Kennedy, John Fitzgerald” 1). Although his time as President was unusually short, Kennedy dealt with enough crises to fill 2 terms, specifically the Cold War. The focus of his administration was “to control the spread of communism and maintain a balance of power between the two nuclear giants, the United States and the Soviet Union” (Hunt 47). A major aspect
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of this plan was to end the rule of Fidel Castro, communist, dictator and Soviet ally, in Cuba. The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed U.S. backed-invasion by anti-Communist Cuban refugees which ultimately increased international tension. In 1962, the United States learned that the Soviets were building “offensive missile sites on Cuba”; this caused fear in the Kennedy administration because it put several major east coast U.S. military bases well within range of the missiles (Hunt 48). Unwilling to knowingly put America in such grave danger, President Kennedy demanded that sites be dismantled and when Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, refused Kennedy ordered a naval blockade. Eventually Khrushchev backed down and Kennedy garnered national praise for his successful diffusion of the Cuban Missile Crisis. His political successes coupled with aura of elegance he exuded “made Americans feel less awkward, more cultured, and somehow comfortable with their postwar role as guardians of freedom around the world” (Hunt 50). He was beloved by the American public and was campaigning for re-election in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963 when he was murdered. The assassination of John F. Kennedy has fascinated America for half a century due to the inconsistencies and uncertainties surrounding his untimely death.
On November 29, 1963 President Johnson created the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy and after a year they published a report that supposedly explained what occurred in Dallas on that November day. The primary piece of evidence used by the Warren Commission was the Zapruder film; a 26 second long clip filmed by dress manufacturer Abraham Zapruder. After 7 seconds of filming just the police driving by, Zapruder paused the video and didn’t restart it until Kennedy had already turned on the Elm Street. The following 19 seconds captured what the Warren Commission believed to be the entire assassination. From the film they concluded that Kennedy was shot twice and Governor Connally was shot once in a 4.8 second time frame, which “was all but impossible for expert marksmen to replicate” (Holland 3). The police later found 3 spent cartridges on the floor of the Texas School Book Depository, which suggested that 3 shots had been fired but only 2 bullets could be accounted for. This led to the conclusion that the first shot missed entirely, the second shot hit both Kennedy and Connally, and the final shot delivered the death blow when it left a gaping hole in Kennedy’s skull. Lee Harvey Oswald, rifle trained ex-Marine and Texas School Book Depository employee, was solely charged with firing the three shots that changed history. Portrayed by the Warren Commission as “a wife-beating tyrant with delusions of grandeur” who “had failed at everything he had attempted in life—a military career, a professional life, a flirtation with Marxism—except, it seemed, the murder of the President of the United States”, Oswald was seemingly the perfect villain (“Assassination of John F. Kennedy” 2). His fingerprints were on the murder weapon, a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, and when the police searched his home his rifle was missing. Later the police traced the ownership of the rifle back to Oswald. Ballistic tests were performed and it was confirmed that the two bullets that were found had been fired from Oswald’s rifle. Additionally he was placed at the Depository during the assassination, although his whereabouts were unknown he was believed to be on the 6th floor where he often worked. If this wasn’t evidence enough eyewitness Howard Brennan identified Oswald as the sole sniper who killed the President (Simkin 6). Proving that Oswald worked alone was not easy, there were several suspects in the conspiracy search. Organized crime, Cuba, U.S. Intelligence Agencies and the Soviets were all investigated regarding their possible connections to the assassination. The possibility of organized crime was only explored in regards to Oswald’s murderer, Jack Ruby who had ties to the Mafia. Many people suspected that Ruby “might have been hired to silence the prime suspect in the president’s death” (Hunt 96). Ruby testified that he murdered Oswald “to spare Mrs. Kennedy and her children the ordeal of a trial” (Hunt 96) and was eventually cleared of any involvement. Cuba was suspected of involvement based on the possibility that the assassination of JFK was retribution for the attempt on Fidel Castro’s life. Oswald’s connection to the Soviet Union was refuted rather quickly when the Soviets expressed that they thought little of Oswald when he attempted to defect there in 1959. All U.S. Intelligence Agencies were expediently cleared of any involvement even though an entire chapter of the Warren Report was dedicated to the “lax, inadequate, and outdated practices by the Secret Service in planning and protecting Kennedy’s trip to Dallas” (“Warren Report” 1). The evidence presented by the Warren Commission was seemingly concrete but after being released to a grieving American public less than a year after Kennedy’s death, it immediately was criticized.
Over the past 50 years the Warren Report has been constantly scrutinized by conspiracy theorists and citizens alike; all searching for a more believable explanation regarding President Kennedy’s murder.
The “single bullet theory”, humorously named “the magic bullet”, is one of the most questioned aspects of the report. It suggested that the second shot passed through Kennedy’s throat before lodging itself in Governor Connally, who was sitting in front of the President. If the bullet were to take the path described by the Warren Report it would have passed through Kennedy’s throat before it “entered Connally’s back below the shoulder blade, traveled along one of his ribs and fractured it, exited his chest, entered the top of his wrist and fractured the radial bones and then exited again and finally lodged in the muscle beneath the skin of his left thigh” (Hunt 92). In order to create the wounds described the bullet would have had to take a near 90 degree turn down when it exited Connally’s chest to hit his wrist and then a near 90 degree left turn to go from his right wrist to his left thigh. The thought that a bullet could make not one but two 90 degree turns is ridiculous and easily refuted by physics. Even Connally thought that he was hit by a different bullet than the President was. He believed, “Beyond any question, and I’ll never change my opinion, the first bullet did not hit me. The second bullet hit me. The third bullet did not hit me” (Simkin 3). All these facts support the conspiracy theorists claims that one bullet could not have struck both Kennedy and Connally. Of the three shots fired one missed, one hit Kennedy in the throat and one hit Connally. That still leaves the death shot unaccounted for though. Several witnesses and other conspiracy theorists believe the fourth shot originated from the grassy knoll. The Zapruder film distinctly shows the President’s head jerking backward and to left as though he was shot from the front. Yet
President Kennedy’s doctors at Parkland Hospital believed that “his head wound had come from a shot to the temple” (Hunt 88). The temple wound would mean that Kennedy was shot from the front, most likely the grassy knoll. The possibility of a second shooter on the grassy knoll is another popular conspiracy theory and is supported by several witness accounts that were originally dismissed by the Warren Commission because they didn’t fit there “single bullet theory”. Jean Hill and Mary Moorman were both close to the President when he was shot and they both “thought the shots had come from being [them] on the grassy knoll” (Simkin 3). When they went to investigate they were stopped by two Secret Service agents who confiscated their photographs (Simkin 3). Gordon Arnold was near the grassy knoll before the shooting when a man who claimed to be a Secret Service agent told him he wasn’t allowed to be there anymore. He found a different place to film the motorcade and when the shots were fired he claimed the first one came from behind him (Simkin 3). S.M. Holl watched the assassination from the overpass in Dealey Plaza and he said the third and fourth shots came from the grassy knoll. He saw “smoke [that] was about - oh eight or ten feet off the ground, and about fifteen feet this side of that tree”. Numerous other witnesses claimed to see movement near the grassy knoll, including Detective Roger Dean Craig and Lee Bowers. A second shooter on the grassy knoll would confirm that the assassination of JFK was a conspiracy. The two most popular conspiracy theories involve the Mafia. The first suggests that Oswald killed Kennedy as revenge for the failed plot to assassinate Castro, which was led by a combination of the CIA and the Mafia. The second suggests the Mafia killed JFK because they felt betrayed by him and his administration (“Assassination of John F. Kennedy” 3). Joseph Kennedy, the President’s father, had connections with the Mafia dating back to his time as a bootlegger. Ballot stuffing in Illinois during the 1960 Presidential Elections, carried out by the Mafia, helped Kennedy secure the win. When Kennedy appointed his brother as Attorney General, the war on organized crime began. The assassination was supposedly carried out “as retribution from promises of immunity—made in return for favors in voting rigging key states—that were betrayed once he became president” (“Assassination of John F. Kennedy” 4). The details ignored and dismissed by the Warren Commission left their final report vulnerable to the scrutiny of the nation.
The assassination of the beloved President Kennedy shocked the nation. While the Warren Report sought to bring closure to the horrific event, it did just the opposite. In 1966, a poll showed that only 39% of Americans believed the Warren Report and later in 1976 that number decreased to 11% (Hunt 74,79). The commission’s findings resulted in American’s distrust in the government, that was only reaffirmed by events such as the Watergate scandal. No explanation behind John F. Kennedy’s assassination will ever be universally accepted and justifiably so. After Americans have been lied to so many times by the government that is supposed to be “of the people, by the people, for the people” it is understandable why such skepticism exists (“The Gettysburg Address”). Perhaps instead of torturing ourselves by searching for answers that are buried impregnably deep, we should instead just accept that there are some things we will never know.
of this plan was to end the rule of Fidel Castro, communist, dictator and Soviet ally, in Cuba. The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed U.S. backed-invasion by anti-Communist Cuban refugees which ultimately increased international tension. In 1962, the United States learned that the Soviets were building “offensive missile sites on Cuba”; this caused fear in the Kennedy administration because it put several major east coast U.S. military bases well within range of the missiles (Hunt 48). Unwilling to knowingly put America in such grave danger, President Kennedy demanded that sites be dismantled and when Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, refused Kennedy ordered a naval blockade. Eventually Khrushchev backed down and Kennedy garnered national praise for his successful diffusion of the Cuban Missile Crisis. His political successes coupled with aura of elegance he exuded “made Americans feel less awkward, more cultured, and somehow comfortable with their postwar role as guardians of freedom around the world” (Hunt 50). He was beloved by the American public and was campaigning for re-election in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963 when he was murdered. The assassination of John F. Kennedy has fascinated America for half a century due to the inconsistencies and uncertainties surrounding his untimely death.
On November 29, 1963 President Johnson created the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy and after a year they published a report that supposedly explained what occurred in Dallas on that November day. The primary piece of evidence used by the Warren Commission was the Zapruder film; a 26 second long clip filmed by dress manufacturer Abraham Zapruder. After 7 seconds of filming just the police driving by, Zapruder paused the video and didn’t restart it until Kennedy had already turned on the Elm Street. The following 19 seconds captured what the Warren Commission believed to be the entire assassination. From the film they concluded that Kennedy was shot twice and Governor Connally was shot once in a 4.8 second time frame, which “was all but impossible for expert marksmen to replicate” (Holland 3). The police later found 3 spent cartridges on the floor of the Texas School Book Depository, which suggested that 3 shots had been fired but only 2 bullets could be accounted for. This led to the conclusion that the first shot missed entirely, the second shot hit both Kennedy and Connally, and the final shot delivered the death blow when it left a gaping hole in Kennedy’s skull. Lee Harvey Oswald, rifle trained ex-Marine and Texas School Book Depository employee, was solely charged with firing the three shots that changed history. Portrayed by the Warren Commission as “a wife-beating tyrant with delusions of grandeur” who “had failed at everything he had attempted in life—a military career, a professional life, a flirtation with Marxism—except, it seemed, the murder of the President of the United States”, Oswald was seemingly the perfect villain (“Assassination of John F. Kennedy” 2). His fingerprints were on the murder weapon, a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, and when the police searched his home his rifle was missing. Later the police traced the ownership of the rifle back to Oswald. Ballistic tests were performed and it was confirmed that the two bullets that were found had been fired from Oswald’s rifle. Additionally he was placed at the Depository during the assassination, although his whereabouts were unknown he was believed to be on the 6th floor where he often worked. If this wasn’t evidence enough eyewitness Howard Brennan identified Oswald as the sole sniper who killed the President (Simkin 6). Proving that Oswald worked alone was not easy, there were several suspects in the conspiracy search. Organized crime, Cuba, U.S. Intelligence Agencies and the Soviets were all investigated regarding their possible connections to the assassination. The possibility of organized crime was only explored in regards to Oswald’s murderer, Jack Ruby who had ties to the Mafia. Many people suspected that Ruby “might have been hired to silence the prime suspect in the president’s death” (Hunt 96). Ruby testified that he murdered Oswald “to spare Mrs. Kennedy and her children the ordeal of a trial” (Hunt 96) and was eventually cleared of any involvement. Cuba was suspected of involvement based on the possibility that the assassination of JFK was retribution for the attempt on Fidel Castro’s life. Oswald’s connection to the Soviet Union was refuted rather quickly when the Soviets expressed that they thought little of Oswald when he attempted to defect there in 1959. All U.S. Intelligence Agencies were expediently cleared of any involvement even though an entire chapter of the Warren Report was dedicated to the “lax, inadequate, and outdated practices by the Secret Service in planning and protecting Kennedy’s trip to Dallas” (“Warren Report” 1). The evidence presented by the Warren Commission was seemingly concrete but after being released to a grieving American public less than a year after Kennedy’s death, it immediately was criticized.
Over the past 50 years the Warren Report has been constantly scrutinized by conspiracy theorists and citizens alike; all searching for a more believable explanation regarding President Kennedy’s murder.
The “single bullet theory”, humorously named “the magic bullet”, is one of the most questioned aspects of the report. It suggested that the second shot passed through Kennedy’s throat before lodging itself in Governor Connally, who was sitting in front of the President. If the bullet were to take the path described by the Warren Report it would have passed through Kennedy’s throat before it “entered Connally’s back below the shoulder blade, traveled along one of his ribs and fractured it, exited his chest, entered the top of his wrist and fractured the radial bones and then exited again and finally lodged in the muscle beneath the skin of his left thigh” (Hunt 92). In order to create the wounds described the bullet would have had to take a near 90 degree turn down when it exited Connally’s chest to hit his wrist and then a near 90 degree left turn to go from his right wrist to his left thigh. The thought that a bullet could make not one but two 90 degree turns is ridiculous and easily refuted by physics. Even Connally thought that he was hit by a different bullet than the President was. He believed, “Beyond any question, and I’ll never change my opinion, the first bullet did not hit me. The second bullet hit me. The third bullet did not hit me” (Simkin 3). All these facts support the conspiracy theorists claims that one bullet could not have struck both Kennedy and Connally. Of the three shots fired one missed, one hit Kennedy in the throat and one hit Connally. That still leaves the death shot unaccounted for though. Several witnesses and other conspiracy theorists believe the fourth shot originated from the grassy knoll. The Zapruder film distinctly shows the President’s head jerking backward and to left as though he was shot from the front. Yet
President Kennedy’s doctors at Parkland Hospital believed that “his head wound had come from a shot to the temple” (Hunt 88). The temple wound would mean that Kennedy was shot from the front, most likely the grassy knoll. The possibility of a second shooter on the grassy knoll is another popular conspiracy theory and is supported by several witness accounts that were originally dismissed by the Warren Commission because they didn’t fit there “single bullet theory”. Jean Hill and Mary Moorman were both close to the President when he was shot and they both “thought the shots had come from being [them] on the grassy knoll” (Simkin 3). When they went to investigate they were stopped by two Secret Service agents who confiscated their photographs (Simkin 3). Gordon Arnold was near the grassy knoll before the shooting when a man who claimed to be a Secret Service agent told him he wasn’t allowed to be there anymore. He found a different place to film the motorcade and when the shots were fired he claimed the first one came from behind him (Simkin 3). S.M. Holl watched the assassination from the overpass in Dealey Plaza and he said the third and fourth shots came from the grassy knoll. He saw “smoke [that] was about - oh eight or ten feet off the ground, and about fifteen feet this side of that tree”. Numerous other witnesses claimed to see movement near the grassy knoll, including Detective Roger Dean Craig and Lee Bowers. A second shooter on the grassy knoll would confirm that the assassination of JFK was a conspiracy. The two most popular conspiracy theories involve the Mafia. The first suggests that Oswald killed Kennedy as revenge for the failed plot to assassinate Castro, which was led by a combination of the CIA and the Mafia. The second suggests the Mafia killed JFK because they felt betrayed by him and his administration (“Assassination of John F. Kennedy” 3). Joseph Kennedy, the President’s father, had connections with the Mafia dating back to his time as a bootlegger. Ballot stuffing in Illinois during the 1960 Presidential Elections, carried out by the Mafia, helped Kennedy secure the win. When Kennedy appointed his brother as Attorney General, the war on organized crime began. The assassination was supposedly carried out “as retribution from promises of immunity—made in return for favors in voting rigging key states—that were betrayed once he became president” (“Assassination of John F. Kennedy” 4). The details ignored and dismissed by the Warren Commission left their final report vulnerable to the scrutiny of the nation.
The assassination of the beloved President Kennedy shocked the nation. While the Warren Report sought to bring closure to the horrific event, it did just the opposite. In 1966, a poll showed that only 39% of Americans believed the Warren Report and later in 1976 that number decreased to 11% (Hunt 74,79). The commission’s findings resulted in American’s distrust in the government, that was only reaffirmed by events such as the Watergate scandal. No explanation behind John F. Kennedy’s assassination will ever be universally accepted and justifiably so. After Americans have been lied to so many times by the government that is supposed to be “of the people, by the people, for the people” it is understandable why such skepticism exists (“The Gettysburg Address”). Perhaps instead of torturing ourselves by searching for answers that are buried impregnably deep, we should instead just accept that there are some things we will never know.