The JFK Assassination

1. The JFK Assassination The Conspiracy Theories

2. Introduction • President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he traveled in an open top car in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. • There are many conspiracy theories regarding the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

3. Biography Of John F. Kennedy • John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States of America, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. • John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th President at noon on January 20, 1961. In his inaugural address he spoke of the need for all Americans to be active citizens, famously saying, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." He also asked the nations of the world to join together to fight what he called the "common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself." In closing, he expanded on his desire for greater internationalism: "Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you.

7. Conspiracy Theories • More than one Oswald • New Orleans conspiracy • Federal Reserve conspiracy • The three tramps • CIA conspiracy • Secret Service conspiracy • Cuban exiles • E. Howard Hunt • Organized crime conspiracy • Lyndon Johnson conspiracy • The American Fact-Finding Committee • Soviet Bloc conspiracy • Cuban conspiracy • Israeli conspiracy • More than one gunman

8. More than one gunman • The Warren Commission findings and the single bullet theory are implausible according to some researchers. Oswald's rifle, through testing performed by the FBI, could only be fired three times within five to eight seconds. The Warren Commission, through eyewitnesses, determined that only three bullets were fired as well: one of the three bullets missed the vehicle entirely; one hit Kennedy and passed through Governor John Connally, and the third bullet was fatal to the President. The weight of the bullet fragments taken from Connally and those remaining in his body supposedly totaled more than could have been missing from the bullet found on Connally's stretcher, known as the "magic bullet". However, witness testimony seems to indicate that only tiny fragments, of less total mass than was missing from the bullet, were left in Connally. In addition, the trajectory of the bullet, which hit Kennedy above the right shoulder blade and passed through his neck (according to the autopsy), supposedly would have had to change course to pass through Connally's rib cage and wrist.Also, in the Zapruder film Kennedy moves backwards in the last fatal shot.

11. Cuban conspiracy • President Lyndon Johnson informed several journalistic sources of his personal belief that the assassination had been organized by Fidel Castro from Cuba. Johnson had received in 1967 information from both the FBI and CIA that in the early 1960s, the CIA had tried to have Castro assassinated, had employed members of the Mafia in this effort, and that Attorney General Robert Kennedy had known about both the plots and the Mafia's involvement. • It was Johnson's belief that JFK's assassination had been organized by Castro as a retaliation for the CIA's efforts to kill Castro. In October, 1968, Johnson told veteran newsman Howard K. Smith, that "Kennedy was trying to get to Castro, but Castro got to him first." In September, 1969, in an interview with Walter Cronkite of CBS, Johnson said that in regard to the assassination he could not, "honestly say that I've ever been completely relieved of the fact that there might have been international connections." Finally, in 1971, Johnson told Leo Janos of Time Magazine that he, "never believed that Oswald acted alone."

13. Organized crime conspiracy • Mafia criminals may have wished to retaliate for increasing pressure put upon them by Robert Kennedy. Documents never seen by the Warren Commission have revealed that some Mafiosi were working very closely with the CIA on several assassination attempts of Fidel Castro. • Carlos Marcello apparently threatened to assassinate the President to short-circuit his younger brother Bobby, who was serving as attorney general and leading the administration's anti-Mafia crusade. • Bill Bonanno, son of New York Mafia boss Joseph Bonanno explains that several Mafia families had long-standing ties with the anti-Castro Cubans through the Havana casinos operated by the Mafia before the Cuban Revolution. The Cubans hated Kennedy because he failed to fully support them in the Bay of Pigs Invasion; the Mafia hated the Kennedys because, as Attorney General, the young and idealistic Robert Kennedy conducted an unprecedented legal assault on organized crime. This was especially provocative because several of the Mafia "families" had worked with JFK's father, Joseph Kennedy, to get JFK elected, and there was speculation about voting irregularities during the 1960 election. Both the Mafia and the anti-Castro Cubans were expert in assassination, the Cubans having been trained by the CIA. Bonanno reports that he realized the degree of the involvement of other Mafia families when he witnessed Jack Ruby killing Oswald on television: the Bonannos recognized Jack Ruby as an associate of Chicago mobster Sam Giancana.

16. The Three Tramps • In the Three Tramps Conspiracy established that about twelve people were arrested minutes after the assassination. Most of the records that shows the identities of the detained people were not kept. Three men, of those twelve, were discovered in a boxcar and later have come to be known as the “Tramps”. Those three men were the most suspicious of all twelve. Speculation regarding the identities of the three and their possible involvement in the assassination became widespread in the ensuing years. This speculation was supported by some photographs of the three taken at the time of the arrest. In the photos, the three "tramps" appeared to be well-dressed and clean-shaven showing some kind of contradiction. After all this, the three “tramps” were quickly released from custody. This event, for some researchers, were considered suspicious because they were released without any investigation of if they were in some way related to the assassination. Later, in a mystery way, the police claimed to have lost the records of their arrestsas well as their mug shots and fingerprints.

17. In 1989, the Dallas police department released a large collection of files that contained the arrest records of the three men, whose names were Harold Doyle, John F. Gedney and Gus W. Abrams. • Despite these positive identifications of the tramps and the lack of any connection between them and the assassination, some have maintained their identifications of the three as persons other than Doyle, Gedney and Abrams and have continued to theorize that they may have been connected to the crime.