http://www.sfgate.com/technology/busine ... 920614.phpUVA PROFESSOR: We Cannot Rule Out A Conspiracy To Kill John F. Kennedy
http://www.sfgate.com/technology/busine ... 920614.php Wednesday, October 23, 2013
JFK
It's not just crackpots who question the conventional wisdom that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone when he killed President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963.
University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato, author of "The Kennedy Half-Century: The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F. Kennedy" argues that "the chance of some sort of conspiracy involving Oswald is not insubstantial."
Sabato reached this conclusion after considering 50 years of evidence, even while also debunking a conspiracy theory put forth by a House committee in 1979.
"For all attempts to close the case as 'just Oswald,' fair-minded observers continue to be troubled by many aspects of eyewitness testimony and paper trails," he writes.
The founder of the UVA Center for Politics opened this never-ending debate "because the assassination is critical both to understanding America's past and future paths and to the lasting legacy of John Kennedy that is the subject of this book."
Alternative theories cannot be put to rest because of discrepancies and inadequacies in the initial response to the assassination.
To start, there are the questions about why the autopsy was performed at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland, not in Texas as required by the law, and why the Bethesda team did not confer with doctors from the Texas trauma room and did not have the president's clothes.
"[The autopsy] opens it up to conspiracy theories immediately that the body was altered, the wounds were altered, and all the rest of it," Sabato told us. "I understand why they couldn't leave the body there but it would have been so much better if it had been performed in Dallas."
More questions arise with the investigation ordered by President Lyndon Johnson, which Sabato claims was haphazard and inadequate.
"The problem is the Warren Commission did not do a thorough job when the trail was hot," Sabato told Business Insider. "The trail went cold decades ago. It is virtually impossible 50 years later to put all of the pieces back together. I've interviewed people 50 years later that the Warren Commission never interviewed that were right there and took important photos or films."
Because of these errors, certain conspiracy theories may never be put to rest.
JFK
The conspiracy theories
While all evidence suggests that Oswald killed Kennedy, some clues suggests that he may not have been the only assassin or that he may not have acted alone.
First, there remains "the live possibility of a second gunman in the grassy knoll area," given the testimony of several witnesses, the presence of phony Secret Service agents, and the armed men seen in the vicinity of the Dealey plaza before, during, and after the assassination.
Adding to this theory is Dr. Robert McClelland, a physician in the trauma room of the hospital where JFK was taken, who contends that the wound he saw was consistent with a shot from the grassy knoll. Sabato notes that the "ambiguous nature of the visual evidence" has led to experts to disagree as to whether the bullet that entered JFK's head came from the rear (where Oswald was) or the front (the grassy knoll).
As for the idea that Oswald received help or encouragement, there is no proof that he did, but there also is no proof that he didn't — and there are reasons to be suspicious.
"For a complete nobody, Oswald certainly did seem to hang out with well-connected people," Sabato told BI.
Some of those shady connections include:
Upon returning from his short defection to the Soviet Union, Oswald became friends with an international man of mystery named George de Mohrenschildt, who "had ties with American intelligence and the State Department ... and killed himself before he could testify to the House Committee on Assassinations," Sabato said.
