On Friday 22nd November 1963, President Kennedy arrived in Dallas. From here he headed to the Dealey Plaza where he was suppose to have lunch and make a speech to many local officials and businessmen. Unfortunately, at 12:30pm he was fatally shot by someone, and was taken straight to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where a team of doctors tried their best to keep the president alive, however at 1p.m. Kennedy was announced to be dead by Dr. Kemp Clark.
A week after the President's death the Warren Commission was set up to find out what exactly happened in the assassination of the U.S. President and ten months later they Warren Commission produced a report with the conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, killed President Kennedy. However, this report contained many errors.
The Warren Commission falsely concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, killed President Kennedy. This statement is based on many key witnesses of the assassination who were overlooked by the Warren Commission, the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle which was supposedly used by the assassin and the alteration medical evidence which was exhibited by the Warren Commission.
Rifle of Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of Presid...
Oswald when he served in the US Marine Corps
English: Photo of Lee Harvey Oswald with rifle, su...The Warren Commission concluded that President Kennedy was murdered by a single gunman Lee Harvey Oswald, using a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, from which he fired 3 shotsThe Mannlicher-Carcano found in the School Book Depository was an old Italian make with the serial number C 2766- a serial number shared with 9 other Mannlicher-Carcano rifles. It was proved that Oswald had this gun thanks to a photograph supposedly showing Oswald in his backyard holding the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle he allegedly used, however, a shadow and lighting analysis showed these were probably faked. The Warren Commission said that Oswald brought the gun to the School book depository in a brown paper bag, which he was seen carrying on the day of the assassination by two witnesses was estimated to be 27-28 inches long- however, the rifle was 40 inches long.
Another interesting thing was that Oswald's marksmanship was "rather poor shot to fairly good shot" and he had only just qualified for the Maine's lowest grade in marksmanship and the rifle he chose was a Mannlicher-Carcano- a rifle known for its many problems and often referred to as "Crudely made, poorly designed, dangerous and inaccurate" because it was slow(due to the bolt between each shot), the bolt and trigger were stiff and "the telescopic sight could not be properly aligned with the target" as written by J. Edgar Hoover(Director of the F.B.I.) In addition to this the bullets fired from a Mannlicher-Carcano have a comparatively low penetration power and there were great quantities of bad ammunition for this type of rifle- and as noted by a secret service agent "it is difficult to hit your target when you are using stale ammunition." So why could Oswald who was already very hopeless at using a gun use a very inefficient gun to assassinate the president? If he really wanted to kill the president would he have not used something more efficient so that the chance's of his shots hitting the president and actually fatally wounding him were greater?The idea that only 3 bullets were fired is now proven wrong thanks to Dallas police tapes, recovered in 1978 which indicated that 4 shots had been fired. These Dallas police tapes came from the microphone, mounted on one of the motorcycles which escorted the motorcases, which had picked up the sounds in Dealey Plaza at the time of the assassination. These sounds which had been collected on a dictabelt( a recording of police transmission) were analysed by experts who were able to distinguish 4 rifle shots as well as the timing of the shots and their direction. It was concluded by these experts that "four shots, over a total period of 7.91 seconds were fired at the Presidential limousine. The first second and third came from the Depository; the third came from the Grassy Knoll."These Dallas police tapes also prove that there must have been someone at the Grassy Knoll who shot the third shot, meaning Oswald hadn't worked alone-someone else at the Grassy Knoll was working with him. The idea that there had been no conspiracy is very easily disproved due to the fact that the warren commission, F.B.I., secret service agents and the government itself helped to cover up the truth; key witnesses of the assassination who were overlooked by the Warren Commission, and the alteration medical evidence which was exhibited by the Warren Commission.
Also the Texas School Book Depository was behind the presidential car. So if Oswald had fired the fatal shot that blew up the president's brains it would have come from the back. However, the Zapruder Film, clearly shows Kennedy getting hit from the front. The fact that he is hit from the front is further proved when Kennedy is flung backwards and then forwards due to the force of the bullet hitting him from the front-if he had been hit from the back he would have been flung forward and then backwards.
There were many key witnesses who were overlooked by the Warren Commission because theses witnesses contradicted the conclusion that the Warren Commission wanted to come to. One example of the overlooked witnesses were Bill and Gayle Newman who were the closest spectators to the President. This is proved by the camera lenses of several of the plaza photographers. Both Bill and Gayle Newman were convinced that at least some of the shots were coming from behind them they both fell to the ground with their children in order to protect themselves. Despite being no more than a few feet away from the presidential limousine at the time of the shots, neither Bill nor Gayle Newman was called to testify before the Warren Commission. This was because Bill is convinced that this is because he had said in a Sheriff's Department statement of 22nd November 1963 that " ... it seemed that we were in direct path of fire" and "I thought the shot had come from the garden directly behind me."An example of the alteration of the medical evidence is the full-colour autopsy photos of JFK's gaping rear-exit head wound compared with the altered shots given to the Warren Commission, which show the back of the head intact - in one shot it looks as if a doctor's gloved hand might be holding a flap of skin to cover the wound. This point is also proved by Dr. Robert McLelland and Dr Paul Peters who both describe the wound as a massive hole in the rear side of the head.
Not just the medical evidence was altered, another photographic evidence which was altered was a photograph taken by Phillip Willis from the series of 12 photos of Dealey Plaza, where Kennedy was shot, in the minutes before and after the assassination. The eighth photograph in his collection was not questioned about. It was a shot of the Book Depository entrance shortly after the shooting. As Willis later pointed out, one of the men in the photo "looks so much like (Jack Ruby)â¦" F.B.I. agents questioning Willis agreed with him that the man looked very similar to Jack Ruby. When Willis mentioned this to the Warren Commission, no interest was shown. When the photo was published in the Warren Report, a considerable part of the man-who-looked-a-lot-like-Ruby's face had been cropped away.
It is also interesting to look into the timeline of Lee Harvey Oswald, in which there are a couple of inconsistencies, for example if he made the shot and ran down the stairs he would have passed a few individuals on the stairs. Also 90 seconds after the shooting Oswald met Officer Marion Banker(a motorcycle cop), who ran to the building straight after the shooting because he saw pigeons fly from the top of that building, at level 2 of the Texas School Book Depository very unruffled and calm. If he did shoot the President he would've had to run down to level 2 from level 6 in less than 90 seconds and then appear to be completely unruffled- seems a little hard doesn't it?The second interesting thing is the route that Oswald took following the shooting and then ending up at the movie theatre. Its understood that the amount of time Oswald had and area that he covered and the fact that he shot Officer Tippit made it impossible for him to do all that he did. In addition to this shooting Officer Tippit the witnesses never supposedly properly identified Oswald, there were two different descriptions of the man who supposedly killed Officer Tippit.
Overall, the Warren Commission had a lot of errors throughout the report causing it to make false conclusions.
Bibliography ----Anders, P. (Unknown). An Introduction to JFK Conspiracy Theories. Retrieved February 9, 2008, from ibiblio.org: http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/electronic-publications/stay-free/4/jfk.htmGriggs, I. (1999, March). Serendipity in the Kennedy Assassination . Retrieved February 2008, 9, from jfklink.com: http://www.jfklink.com/articles/Serendipity.htmlHugo, G. (Unknown). JFK - Consider your verdict. Retrieved February 9, 2008, from the-write-stuff.com.au: http://www.the-write-stuff.com.au/archives/vol-1/reviews/jfk.htmlUnknown. (2006). Abraham Zapruder Film FAQ. Retrieved February 9, 2008 , from jfk.org: http://www.jfk.org/Research/Zapruder/Zapruder_Film_FAQ.htmUnknown. (Unknown). President John F. Kennedy's Assasination - Overview. Retrieved February 10, 2008, from coverups.com: http://www.coverups.com/jfk/index.htmUnknown. (Unknown). The Medical Evidence. Retrieved February 10, 2008, from mcadams.posc.mu.edu: http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/medical.htmAnderson, S. (2008). Retrieved February 10, 2008, from allexperts.com.
English: Commission Exhibit 514: Position of the C...
English: The Mannlicher-Carcano rifle owned by Lee...
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