60 years since the assassination of President John Kennedy: Are we getting closer to the truth?

2023-11-22 08:26:00, Blog CNA

60 years since the assassination of President John Kennedy: Are we getting

When the first bullet hit the motorcade as it passed through Dallas on November 22, 1963, it hit President John F. Kennedy in the throat. A few seconds later his head fell back, having been hit by a second fatal bullet.

Kennedy's brutal public assassination was captured on 8mm color film by amateur Abraham Zapruder. During filming, Zapruder had a perfect position on the route of the presidential motorcade. His images are the starting point for a number of books, documentaries and films related to the assassination.

60 years since the assassination of President John Kennedy: Are we getting

Kennedy's brutal public assassination was captured on 8mm color film by amateur Abraham Zapruder. During filming, Zapruder had a perfect position on the route of the presidential motorcade.

A lonesome or not?

Zapruder's footage suggests that accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, a then 24-year-old ex-Marine, did not act alone. The Warren Commission, which has since investigated the circumstances of Kennedy's murder, concluded, however, that Oswald single-handedly fired both shots at Kennedy from the nearby Texas School Book Depository.

The scene of the assassination of Kennedy the road where the motorcade passed and the Texas School Book Depository, from where the assassin is thought to have fired

60 years after this day, which shook the world, many continue to ask the question, where did the bullets come from, among other things, this question is also addressed in the current Hollywood production "Assassination", with cinematographic stars such as Courtney Love, Viggo Mortensen, Shia LaBeouf , Al Pacino and John Travolta. David Mamet's film is based on the theory that the Chicago mob ordered the assassination of JFK after he tried to bring him to his knees.

There are no shortage of theories

It is true that Kennedy had close ties with the mafia before being appointed president. And after taking office, he stood up to gangsters, directing federal investigations and prosecutions that threatened the power and profits of organized crime.

But this is only one of a dozen theories that have been created since the fateful day. The best-known work on the background of JFK's assassination is Oliver Stone's 1994 film epic "JFK - The Dallas Scene". In this film, Kevin Costner plays New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, who believes that behind the assassination is more than the findings of the Warren Commission. Garrison and his team speculate that Oswald, who was charged with the assassination, was a CIA agent.

The Lee Harvey Oswald enigma

Oswald spent some time in the Soviet Union, which fueled speculation about Moscow's influence. But other authors speculate a Cuban influence, since Kennedy was interested in overthrowing the communist revolutionary Fidel Castro. Suspicions also arose against the FBI and Kennedy's successor in the presidency, Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ).

Kennedy was interested in overthrowing revolutionary communist Fidel Castro. On October 22, 1962, President Kennedy delivers a televised speech from Washington, where he announces the blockade of Cuban maritime traffic until the removal of the Soviet missiles.

"The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ" is the book by Roger Stone, an associate of Donald Trump, who claims that the Kennedy successor collaborated with gangsters and the US Secret Service to assassinate the president. Many of these speculative books and films are always released near the anniversary of Kennedy's death, including Stone's book, which came out 50 years after JFK's assassination.

"The Last Witness" speaks after decades of silence

In September of this year, the New York Times took a closer look at a report by Paul Landis, one of the secret agents, who was only a few feet away from Kennedy when he was shot. The Landis report questions the "single bullet" theory of the Warren Commission. According to this theory, only one of the three bullets penetrated Kennedy's groin before striking Texas Governor John B. Connally, who was sitting in the front seat, injuring him in the spine, chest, and wrist. and on the thigh.

It is surprising that Landis, despite being so close to the event, was never questioned by the Warren Commission. 60 years in a row, even today, the 88-year-old has remained silent on this topic. In his memoirs published in Germany on October 10, 2023 under the title "The Final Witness", Landis writes that he will not spread conspiracy theories about the death of JFK. But since he rejects the claim that a single bullet did so much damage, it follows that Oswald was not the only assassin.

Paul Landis, one of the secret agents, who was only a few feet away from Kennedy when he was shot. 60 years in a row, even today, the 88-year-old has remained silent on this topic.

A never ending story

The Kennedy family seems to have been followed by the third: JFK's younger brother, Bobby Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968, when he began the election campaign for the presidency, the ambitions of his younger brother Edward Kennedy were destroyed, after he left the country the accident with the car he was driving, where the woman sitting next to the seat, his electoral assistant Mary Jo Kopechne, died. John F. Kennedy Jr., the son of the former US president, died in a fighter jet crash on July 16, 1999 near the island of Martha's Vineyard.

Kennedy Jr. at the time of his father's funeral he was three years old and saluted in front of the coffin with naivety and large involuntary gestures, which are now considered iconic.

Kennedy Jr. at the time of his father's funeral he was three years old and saluted in front of the coffin with naivety and large involuntary gestures, which are now considered iconic

From his heroic actions during World War II to his sensational affairs with Marilyn Monroe, among others, to his commitment to civil rights and visionary plans for space flight, Kennedy has consistently fascinated, and he continues to fascinate even more after death.

60 years after the assassination of the president in his open limousine, speculation about the motive for the assassination continues for decades. The director of the film "JFK" Oliver Stone referring to the official theory of a single assassin said: American opinion "never accepted this", you can smell the conspiracy in the air.