Who Killed Kennedy (JFK)? What say you?

[EmergencyIan]

With the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John Kennedy coming up on November 22nd, who do you think killed him?

I used to believe that Oswald was not the lone gunman. In recent years, I had come to think that Oswald was the lone gunman. Now, after seeing some of the most recent documentaries, I'm not sure what to think. I'm, again, open to the idea that there were multiple gunmen.

In saying all of that, I believe that there was a conspiracy, of some sort, behind the assassination of John Kennedy.

- Ian

[Saroyan]

I have always believed in the conspiracy of many - but the simple truth is that how many people can REALLY keep a secret? It seems that if many were involved that someone would have preserved some evidence or made a confession.

That said- the whole Jack Ruby involvement makes it much more difficult to not poke holes in my own ideas!

I don't think we will ever know !

[Sideshow Spock]

If you haven't already, I suggest you watch the definitive documentary done by ABC News and the late Peter Jennings in 2003.. should put to rest any lingering doubts you may have.

[EmergencyIan]

Yes, the Jack Ruby involvement does add fuel to the probability of a conspiracy.

- Ian

[Iron Mego]

I watched a really good show a few years back, sort of a Myth Busters type of deal, where they pretty much proved Oswald could have done it alone. All the stuff that conspiracy theorists hold on to was debunked through very well executed recreations. Wish I could remember the name of it.

[EmergencyIan]

If you haven't already, I suggest you watch the definitive documentary done by ABC News and the late Peter Jennings in 2003.. should put to rest any lingering doubts you may have.

I have seen it and it is what led me to believe that Oswald was probably the lone gunman. It's the latest documentaries, 2013, that have reopened my mind to the possibility that there were gunmen.

Reelz channels documentary was pretty interesting.

- Ian

[EmergencyIan]

I watched a really good show a few years back, sort of a Myth Busters type of deal, where they pretty much proved Oswald could have done it alone. All the stuff that conspiracy theorists hold on to was debunked through very well executed recreations. Wish I could remember the name of it.

I think it may have been the Discovery Channels Unsolved History: JFK Beyond The Magic Bullet.

It is a very good documentary and, as you mentioned, very well executed.

- Ian

[Brazoo]

I used to have suspicions years ago, but the more I learned about it the more the theories seemed to be a stretch. Like, every perceived anomaly is picked to pieces to mine for anything suspicious by the theorists - but the pieces all together don't add up to much for me.

Also, since JFK there have been MANY conspiracies unraveled when too many people knew about them. Watergate is one example, which involved (as I recall) a dozen or so people, but another is Clinton's sex scandal. Only Clinton and Lewinsky knew what was going on until she told ONE friend and the whole thing unraveled. I just don't think people are nearly as good at keeping secrets as the conspiracy theorists seem to think. The theories I've heard involve more people than Sexgate and more people than Watergate - it's a WAY crazier scheme with much larger consequences - and yet no whistle blowers have not come forward? It's just not realistic to me.

[johnnystorm]

I pretty much believe Oswald acted alone. I think many people just want to believe that there was a conspiracy other than the fact that one guy could just go ahead and do it. The recent tv film Killing Kennedy was pretty good I think. It kind of showed that Oswald was a radical nut who just happened to have an opportunity to kill JFK by circumstance. Pretty much an instance of everyone being in the right place ( or wrong place) at the right time.
As for Jack Ruby being part of it, I think he also just happened to be the right kind of guy with the opportunity & mindset to kill Oswald.

[megocrazy]

I've always felt the JFK assassination was a US government doing. He was the first president since the 1700's that wasn't looking to be president for the power. His family was already loaded and had plenty of it. He wasn't one that would bow down out of fear because frankly he had never had to. I think at that time the thoughts of race equality scared a whole bunch of people, and let's face it, Kennedy pushed the whole sex and inappropriate actions to the brink. Especially in the early 60's. I think there were a bunch of very important people that were scared of JFK's popularity and the fact that he pushed what was considered the norm from both sides of the map.

And he didn't aim low. His affairs with Marilyn Monroe were pretty much well known, and she was pretty much the top of the heap if you were looking for someone to have an affair with. I strongly believe she was a government killing too, and a warning to JFK that they weren't screwing around.

There's a great dialogue in Mark Walberg's Shooter movie where they consult an old retired military sniper. He tells them how the government ties up loose ends so nobody talks, that's how the conspiracy works. The shooters from Dallas were in graves in the desert less than 2 hours after the assassination. The government agent says, "And you have proof of this?". And he says "I still have the shovel." Loved that movie from the first day I saw it and probably have seen it 25 times since. Watch it every time it's on.

I think Oswald and Ruby were expendable pawns used for the media. They were about as far distanced from the government as you could get. I'm not even sure Oswald ever had a gun in his hand. He was definitely a radical and someone that the government would want eliminated from society, but from what I've read I'm not convinced he could have pulled this off. Not without help. I do believe he would have wanted to be part of it , but wasn't capable of pulling it off alone. If you were in a country where your President had been assassinated wouldn't you think security would be at an all time high? Especially at the trial associated with the killing? Yet a nightclub owner gets into the courthouse, with a loaded gun, and then gets within arms length of the killer and puts a bullet in him. One loose end closed up. When you look at the overall picture, doesn't it make the assassination and the Oswald killing look a bit too easy to pull off?

[MIB41]

Jack got into office the same way he got taken out...by use of the mob. There's nothing in those events that will ever convince me differently. The oversight in keeping Kennedy secure in Texas where he was not popular and the immediacy in which they "caught" this guy when there was mass hysteria and confusion about where the shots even came from does not add up. I think Oswald was set up to take the fall and was killed before he could talk. And people absolutely could stay quiet back in those days. Hell, the media wouldn't even tell on the president for sleeping around right in front of them. It was a different time and a different rule of personal conduct back then. No one who knows will talk. And the mob's long arm would take care of that if they considered it. In retrospect of what we know about Kennedy and how he conducted business back in those days, its hardly a far cry to believe his dealings did him in. Especially when you had a media he could manipulate at the snap of his fingers to cover for him. And lets be honest here. He was the very antithesis of who he portrayed himself to be in public. Sadly our society wants to hold on to that myth of "Camelot" even though they know it's not true. And that myth will forever feed this reexamination of his killing because no one wants think this "nice prince" got gunned down for betraying the hoods that put him in office. But if you look at the parties who benefited from his death and the quick clean up of who was responsible, an immediate killing of said person, and then a manipulated autopsy to fit that narrative, it screams mob. To say all of these events were just a convenient benefit to his enemies is a harder pill to swallow.

[Access]

Here is (IMO) the definitive reason is was just Oswald. What is the statistical probability that separate gunman would not only fire within seconds of each other, but also be using the same rifle, choose the same approximate spot on the same day?

The odds could easily be in the "One in Seven digits" probability if not more which makes it mathematically impossible. Also having separate 'reasons' for the murder that are unrelated, theories, etc.

The reason the shows exist is simply because a studio knew that people would watch them for entertainment reasons and subsequently make money off of them.

[Gorn Captain]

Just saw a documentary, and an army general said that even an expert gunman couldn't fire off two (difficult) shots that quickly, he'd need a little bit more time to take aim and set up the second shot. So in his opinion there had to be more than one shooter.

[The Bat]

To me this a political question so I have no other way of answering it. Kennedy was killed by the global elite(130 of the most powerful people in the world...also known as the Bilderberg Group). They thought because his family's fortune was founded on "Rum Runners" that be could be corrupted and control by them. That's where they made a mistake...he was a good man and wouldn't bow down to them. The most rich and powerful make money on War(read Smedley Butler's "War is a Racket"). They want all war all the time(like in Orwell's 1984, it was the mandate). Kenney had planned to pull us out of Vietnam and they just couldn't have that! So they had him assassinated and replaced with L.B.J.
Thus getting the war that they wanted.

[Sideshow Spock]

Just saw a documentary, and an army general said that even an expert gunman couldn't fire off two (difficult) shots that quickly, he'd need a little bit more time to take aim and set up the second shot. So in his opinion there had to be more than one shooter.

Oswald fired three shots. If you fast-forward to 1:17 of the documentary I linked, they walk you through how a marksman of Oswald's caliber could easily fire three shots within the time frame in question.