Don’t they still have secret files on the JFK assassination? We’ve all heard about conspiracy theories and others besides Oswald being involved. I’ve heard that there were pressures brought to bear on the Warren Commission to conclude that Oswald acted alone, because the truth would have been hard on the country. Organized crime involvement, and a Cuban/Soviet connection to the assassination are two popular theories. And some say that reporting such involvement to the public back in those days would have been unthinkable. They say it was easier and cleaner to just conclude that a crazed gunman acted alone in killing the president.
Wow, there was actually dissention in the Commission? And here I thought the Commission memebers agreed, by consensus, to perform whitewash at breakneck speed. As for Ford colluding with the FBI, wasn’t the FBI the largest criminal info-gathering organization in the U.S.? Didn’t the FBI aid the Commission, as it would be expected to do? Why not discuss things with Jerry?
Something tells me that this little flake of dubiousness will be shuffled onto the towering pile of non-evidence that conspiracy theorists have ammassed against common sense. There is one thing I wish the buffs would think about—between cursory dismissals of the Commission as “a joke.” No credible evidence (naturally not including uncorroborated witness testimony gathered years after the fact) has ever surfaced pointing to Oswald or anyone else that did not originate with the Commission’s investigation!
Take the article’s mention of Ford’s mistaken placement of the rear-entry wound to Kennedy’s back. Forgetting for a moment that going back to the autopsy report would correct the error immediately, this is not evidence of anyone else’s guilt. It is only a dent in the already overwhelming evidence against Oswald. Same goes for criticism of the Commission in general. Forgetting for a moment that the 26 volumes of evidence gathered was one of the largest criminal investigation in all of history, an absolute corruption of the Commissioners’ ability to use proper discretion in organizing the evidence would not be evidence of anyone else’s guilt. In fact, the opinions of the Commissioners pertaining to all of the hard evidence gathered has been held up by every single reputable body that ever studied them, excepting those who believe (without evidence) that the evidence was tampered with or fabricated.
Put briefly, basically everything you and I ever hear the skeptics raise their doubts about—after 45 years and 1,000’s of books—derives from the very body that they decry embodiments of everything from laziness to evil.
I’ve never believed in the lone gunman theory. Oswald wasn’t anything near a crack shot. His rifle wasn’t known for accuracy either. Usually people with Oswald’s temperment get as close as they can and shoot at close range. It was all too lethal, too precise and single-handedly led us into Vietnam with the rise of LBJ.
While I have no doubt that Oswald was up in the book depository taking shots at Kennedy, I’ve watched the Zagruder film numeorus times and can’t help but conclude that the bullet that actually killed Kennedy was fired from a position in front of and to the right of his motorcade, with the bullet striking him in the right part of his forehead and blowing out the back of his skull, just like a watermelon.
Ford was the FBI’s stooge on the commission, he was there to report to them....these doubts were a heads up, not a concern....
Didn’t Ford come to the ultimate conclusion that Dubya did in JFK.
Without getting into the larger issue of whodunit, folks should read the book “The JFK Assasination Tapes” which are based on White House Tapes (they didn’t start with Nixon) during which time LBJ is arm-twisting folks to serve on the Warren Commission. This is pretty close to original source history, as you are reading the words as they were spoken, not conclusions made by advocates for one side or another.
After reading this book there is no doubt in my mind that LBJ put the commission together to quell any possible talk of conspiracy. The idea was to get the Bluest of Blue Ribbon panel members, and to get them to sign off on the party line.
Now as another poster has already said, it may turn out to be that that party line happens to be the truth. It may turn out not to be the case. Most likely we’ll never know.
But the conclusion was never in doubt and of that, there was never any doubt in LBJ’s mind.