Kennedy Assassination example essay topic

Conspiracy: The Killing of a President In 1976, the US Senate ordered a fresh inquiry into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, who was murdered in 1963 during a motorcade in Dallas, Texas while campaigning for re-election. People who had been involved in the original Warren Commission investigations were asked to make fresh statements. The FBI and the CIA were persuaded to release more of their documents on Oswald. New lines of inquiry were opened and individuals who had not previously given evidence were persuaded to come forward. Most important of all, pieces of evidence such as photos and sound recordings were subjected to scientific analysis using the most up-to-date methods and equipment. The House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) completed their investigation in 1979 and they finally came to a discrete verdict that Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots at Kennedy, one of which killed the president.

A fourth shot was fired from the grassy knoll, which was contradictory to the statement printed by the Warren Commission 16 years earlier. They concluded that John Kennedy was assassinated as the result of a conspiracy. The investigation was ordered directly after the assassinations of two other major political figures; the civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King and the Presidents brother Robert Kennedy, in 1968. Naturally these incidents aroused immense suspicion and the American public started questioning why so many key US figures had been assassinated in the space of just four years, when previously this type of incident had been rare.

The HCS A was interested in looking into the possibility that the assassinations were related. At the time there was also an increasing awareness of corruption and scandal within the government. The Watergate Scandal in 1974 involving President Nixon had clearly shown that American government was not entirely free of foul play. As a result of this, people started questioning the behavior of the government, and how much it was holding back from its people. This is most likely why Americans became more receptive and attracted to the idea of a conspiracy behind Kennedy's death.

The public became even more interested in the Kennedy assassination after books such as Rush to Judgment, by Mark Lane and Inquest, by Edward Jay Epstein began to come off the press. They immediately became best sellers and played a large role in raising awareness regarding the assassination. As a result people started to inquire more and theories arose that other people or organizations had been involved in Kennedy's assassination than had been previously thought. As people became more and more aware about the events surrounding the assassination, many blamed the Dallas police as being incompetent in handling the whole investigation. They had proven to be extremely unorganized in their efforts to document and investigate the Presidents murder. The fact that interviews hadn't been recorded was one of the reasons why there was so much confusion during the trial, yet the only excuse the Dallas police could come up with was that they couldn't find a tape recorder!

The questions that were asked by the officers proved to be worthless and what little records were kept are said to be inadequate. Also more seriously, the Dallas police were wildly believed to be at fault for Oswald's death and the worldwide doubt about his guilt. Even though a previous attempt had been made to kill Oswald, no further security precautions had been taken to prevent a second attempt. Considering that they were holding the alleged assassin of the President in custody, the security was appalling. At the hands of Jack Ruby, one bullet had proved sufficient enough to kill Oswald. The fact that reporters were allowed to mingle around Oswald as he was escorted out of court probably gave Jack Ruby the freedom to access Oswald and so caused his death.

Public access to Oswald should not have been permitted under any circumstance. Oswald was murdered in front of news cameras, and video footage of the incident shows that the police hardly made any attempts to prevent the murder, but literally just stood there. Some believe that Jack Ruby killed Oswald to silence him and the police were ordered to let it happen. However, no evidence has been found that might suggest who would give such an order.

For many years the American public had to be content with the Warren Commissions verdict that Lee Harvey Oswald had been the sole assassin in the murder of John F. Kennedy. However, after the report was published on September 24, 1964, fresh evidence continued to surface, as did inconsistencies with the findings of the Warren Commission. There was a general feeling that they had disregarded evidence if it contradicted their conclusion. They had been under immense pressure to reach a verdict and, had no doubt been influenced by public opinion. In fact, three days after the assassination, Lyndon B. Johnson received a memo saying; 'The public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin, and that he did not have confederates. ' By the 1970's, many Americans were alarmed that the Warren Commission had been so single minded and did not make any attempt to investigate other possible theories and promising leads.

It was also brought to light that none of the commission members had any investigative experiences and completely relied on Hoover and the FBI for their evidence. However, the Commissions biggest mistake was in disregarding key eyewitnesses whose testimonies they considered to be incompatible, inconsistent, or were contrary to their lone psychotic assassin theory. Nobody on the commission heard any of the witness' testimonies as they appeared before the counsel. Credible testimonies from literally dozens of witnesses such as these were ignored. This indicated that their report was based on appallingly selective reading of evidence, and reflected the effort that was put into determining its accuracy.

Supposedly such eyewitness testimonies remained inconclusive to the Warren Commission at the time, as they just didn't make sense. Similarly, Kennedy's autopsy reports also contained many discrepancies. Two autopsies were carried out on Kennedy. It was hoped at the time that they would reveal the angles at which the bullets had entered Kennedy's body, hopefully pointing to where the gunman or gunmen were situated. The autopsies actually created even more confusion, as they were completely contradictory. The first autopsy was conducted in Parkland Hospital in Dallas, although the official one was conducted in Bethesda Naval Hospital, Washington DC.

When the two examinations were compared, alarming differences showed up. The main difference was that the exit and entry wounds were said to be different. In Dallas, doctors claimed that the bullet entered Kennedy's body at the front of the neck, about bow-tie height. When Kennedy was brought into Parkland Hospital, Dr Malcolm Perry said that when he was about to perform the tracheotomy, he noticed a hole of about 5 mm just below Kennedy's Adams apple, presumably where the bullet had entered. Contrary to this, the Washington autopsy reports show that the bullet exited from the neck. Their report confirmed the 'single bullet theory' addressed by the Warren Commission whose conclusion was highly dependent on this theory.

This theory was that a bullet had entered Kennedy's right shoulder blade, bruised the strap muscles of the right side of the neck, damaging the windpipe and making its exit through the front of the neck, it had entered Governor Connelly's back, who had been seated in front of Kennedy, went through his chest taking out part of his fifth rib and collapsing his lung. The bullet then went into his right wrist and then buried itself in his left thigh. Although there is medical evidence to support this theory, some believe that the bullets path and velocity could not have been possible. Even Governor Connelly believed that the bullet that wounded Kennedy wasn't the same one responsible for his wounds. An FBI supplementary report states that the bullet that entered Kennedy's back had penetrated to less than a finger length. If this is true, how can the bullet have exited from the front of his neck?

There are of course other facts that warp this theory such as the fact that the bullet was mysteriously found on a hospital stretcher in pristine condition, yet the bullet should have been out of shape and showing signs of severe impact, considering that it had gone through two major bones and had torn out a great deal of muscle. This led some theorists to believe that the FBI or CIA planted the bullet on the stretcher so that they could pin the assassination on Oswald, again indicating the involvement of a conspiracy. Until two weeks prior to when the HSCA was due to publish their report, they had believed the Warren Commission's conclusion that Oswald was the lone assassin under the 'single bullet theory. ' However, they changed their minds as a vital piece of evidence came to light. It was a previously overlooked sound recording. A police outrider traveling with Kennedy's motorcade had left the microphone of his two-way radio switched on.

The recording had amazingly been stored and not destroyed. It was rediscovered by committee investigators and sent of to a leading acoustics lab. There, by separating and amplifying the background noises he was able to determine the direction of sound waves in Deals Plaza at the time of the shooting. He concluded that at least two rifles could be heard firing four shots.

Furthermore one of the shots came from a direction to the front and to the right of the motorcade. He stated that there was a 50% chance of there being a second gunman on the grassy knoll. The HSCA called in two more acoustic experts who confirmed this and said there was actually a 95% chance of a second gunman. For the HSCA this was a dramatic confirmation of some of the earlier witness accounts that the Warren Commission had chosen to ignore. Many of the eyewitnesses questioned by the Warren Commission had recalled hearing a rifle fired from the direction of the grassy knoll. As a result the HSCA was able to get a clearer picture of what happened and at this point the involvement of a conspiracy was looking more likely.

The HSCA now had enough evidence supported by eyewitness reports to conclude that Kennedy was a victim of a conspiracy. Unlike the Warren Commission they were able to conduct a more thorough investigation, most likely because they had more time to come to a verdict. However, although they had been able to come up with a satisfactory conclusion, they had not been able to identify the second gunman or even the extent of the conspiracy. But people came up with their own theories about what happened, blaming various organizations for the assassination of Kennedy. Undoubtedly the most poplar theory was that government agencies were involved; that it was planned by either high officials in the White House or by the secret service, FBI or CIA.

But what motive could such agencies have? The CIA certainly had a motive. They blamed Kennedy for not throwing the full weight of his air force behind the Bay of Pigs affair and in addition they were bitterly disappointed that he had come to an agreement with the Soviets over Cuba. Kennedy had also stopped listening to the CIA after the Bay of Pigs affair and it resented being cold-shouldered by the President. Another popular theory was that the Mafia, the most powerful criminal organization in the world, was involved. An indication of this was the involvement of Jack Ruby who supposedly had Mafia links.

One of the reasons they could have conspired to kill Kennedy was that the Presidents brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, had been using his legal powers to act vigorously against some of the larger and more influential Mafia bosses. In fact he had been leading a strong campaign against the Mafia. Getting rid of Kennedy would have resulted in a new administration and therefore Robert Kennedy would have been replaced. However it has to be considered that according to the Mafia's code of conduct, they are forbidden to kill any individuals with any legal authority i.e. police officers, magistrates and the President! These are just a few of the theories that have been written on, but it has to be remembered that none of them have ever been proven. In key assassinations there is almost always speculation of a conspiracy, yet in this case one has never been identified, even though the HSCA concluded that all the evidence and eyewitness accounts indicated that there was one.

If there was indeed a conspiracy involved, it could cause a political war to unravel it. Although the HSCA came to a sufficient conclusion, the truth about Kennedy's assassination could never be known. However, the haunting words that Oswald left us with: 'I'm just a patsy', will keep Americans forever wondering, 'Who killed President Kennedy?'.