JFK Essay Research Paper It

JFK Essay, Research Paper

It’s one of the most controversial cases in modern American history. Did Lee Harvey Oswald kill John Kennedy by himself, or did a conspiracy do it. And if a conspiracy did it, did the conspiracy include Oswald, the CIA, or maybe even the Mafia. If you are like most Americans, you believe that a conspiracy killed Kennedy. And if you are like most Americans, you have mostly heard one side of the story.

There were a lot of issues that were never really clarified. There were also a lot of contradictions between almost every witness, clue, or even what was supposed to be hard evidence. Some evidence it even seems was made up to just to conceal the truth or maybe even more lies. The question was so trivial that Lyndon Johnson (the president after JFK died) constructed a commission devoted to find out the truth about the assassination of the president. This commission was called the Warren Commission and was headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren. The Warren Commission concluded in their final report that Lee Harvey Oswald, being a lone gunman with no accomplices, shot and killed the president shooting three times and hitting Kennedy only twice. This report fell victim to years of ridicule and intense interrogation. Yet it stands as the official explanation of the death of JFK.

I believe that this report is false and it does not explain the actual events that made it possible to kill JFK. I think it was the CIA who wanted JFK dead and they hired Lee Harvey Oswald to take the fall. I will give facts to support my theory.

One of the most controversial questions is that “was there only one gunman.” I believe that there was more then one gunman and that neither of the gunmen was Oswald. First is to state that there was a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle that was supposedly Oswalds was found on the sixth floor of the School Book depository where Oswald worked. This rifle surfaced a couple of questions in it self. It was not Oswald’s rifle because the rifle Oswald bought from a mail order catalog AMERICAN RIFLEMAN years before was listed by them at 36 inches long. However, the Mannlicher-Carcano that Oswald supposedly abandoned on the sixth floor of the Book Depository Building is 40.2 inches long. And in addition the FBI and the Army established that the alleged murder weapon, a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, could not be fired faster than 2.3 seconds per shot, even in the hands of experienced, expert riflemen. Lone-gunman theorists claim that subsequent Carcano rifle tests proved that the weapon could be fired in around 1.6 seconds per shot, but these tests did not use the same Carcano that Oswald allegedly fired. The FBI and the Army found that THAT Carcano could not be fired faster than 2.3 seconds per shot, even when used by expert shooters. For years the traditional lone-gunman scenario was that Oswald scored two hits out of three shots in less than six seconds. This is really the only plausible shooting scenario if one assumes that there was only one assassin and that he fired from the sixth-floor window.

This doesn’t even take in the account of Oswalds shot. Oswald was in the marines but did not excel in marksmanship. Even after weeks of practice and intensive training, Oswald barely managed to qualify at the level of “Sharpshooter,” the middle of three rifle qualification levels in the Marines. He obtained a score of 212, two points above the minimum for the “Sharpshooter” level. In other words, even after extensive training and practice, and even though he was firing at stationary targets with a semi-automatic rifle and had plenty of time to shoot. This clearly gives reason that Oswald could not have executed the task of shooting JFK.

There is still one lingering problem with the rifle that was found. The Dallas police found some partial fingerprints on the rifles magazine housing. The FBI studied these prints the day after the assassination and determined that they were Oswalds. What is odd about these prints is that they were located on a part of the rifle that would not have been handled while it was being fired. Some researchers are understandably skeptical of the identification of the partial prints as Oswald’s. But, if the prints were his, then it would suggest they were made as a result of Oswald being manipulated into handling the rifle shortly before the shooting. In this I believe that Oswald never really owned the rifle and it was a stage by the CIA to throw the blame on him.

There is also evidence to support that the rifle may have never been purchased by Oswald himself. It was stated that the order form, money order, and envelope used to purchase the Mannlicher-Carcano were filled out in handwriting identified as Oswald’s. Furthermore, they point to Oswald’s alleged use of the alias “Alek Hidell.” The rifle was sent to Oswald’s post office box, but it was ordered in the name of, and addressed to, “A. Hidell.” And according to the Dallas police, Oswald was carrying an “Alek J. Hidell” ID card when he was arrested

To begin with, Oswald was at work when he is said to have purchased the money order. So who bought the money order. If Oswald didn’t buy it, why does the handwriting on it seem to be his. There have been accounts of people forging someone’s handwriting flawlessly especially when only a small sample of writing is required.

Another problem with the connection between Oswald and th