JFK Assassination Files: Hoover Said FBI Must "Convince The Public" Oswald Acted Alone

Newly released FBI files about the assassination of John F. Kennedy are shedding new light on shooter Lee Harvey Oswald and the bureau chief's efforts to quell conspiracy theories about the fatal shooting of the nation's 35th president.

In the chaotic aftermath of the assassination, followed two days later by the murder of Oswald while in police custody, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover vented his frustration in a formerly secret report found in the files. It opened: "There is nothing further on the Oswald case except that he is dead."

But, reflecting on Oswald less than an hour after he died, Hoover already sensed theories would form about a conspiracy broader than the lone assassin.

"The thing I am concerned about, and so is (deputy attorney general) Mr. Katzenbach, is having something issued so we can convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin," he said.

He also reported: "Last night we received a call from our Dallas office from a man talking in a calm voice and saying he was a member of a committee organized to kill Oswald."

http://www.jfk-online.com/jfk100parkland.html

There were two bullets that struck Kennedy: the one through his back which exited through his throat:
“All of these doctors said the same thing in their Warren Commission depositions: that the throat wound could have been either one of entrance or one of exit.(14)

Of the five doctors who saw the wound, Dr. Pepper Jenkins had the most experience with gunshot wounds of anyone at Parkland. Jenkins says, “Even at that time, I was convinced it was a wound of exit because it was bigger than an entrance wound should be. Entrance wounds, as you look at them, are small and round, and may have a halo around them, black, from the bullet. But it makes a clean wound. When a bullet goes through the body, tissue moves in front of it and bursts.”(15)

As researcher Fred Litwin notes at the Kennedy Assassination Home Page,

The emergency room doctors at Parkland Hospital initially described the wound in Kennedy’s throat as an entrance wound. However, they never examined his back. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that “the odds that a trauma specialist will correctly interpret certain fatal gunshot wounds are no better than the flip of a coin.” The study looked at 46 cases and found there were 16 errors in differentiating between entrance and exit wounds. See “Clinicians’ Forensic Interpretations of Fatal Gunshot Wounds Often Miss the Mark,” (JAMA, 28 April, 1994, pp. 2058-2061.) This is one of the reasons why forensic pathologists conduct autopsies.”

and the fatal head shot:
In interviews with author Gerald Posner, the Parkland doctors were nearly unanimous in their agreement with the autopsy findings at Bethesda Naval Hospital. Dr. Carrico points out, “We did [originally] say there was a parietal-occipital wound . . . and I think we were mistaken. The reason I say that is that the President was lying on his back and shoulders, and you could see the hole, with scalp and brain tissue hanging back down his head, and it covered most of the occipital [rear] portion of his head. We saw a large hole on the right side of his head. I don’t believe we saw any occipital bone. It was not there. It was parietal bone. And if we said otherwise, we were mistaken.”(3)
Dr. Adolph Giesecke agrees. “I guess I have to say I was wrong in my Warren Commission testimony on the wound and in some of my pronouncements since then. I just never got that good of a look at it. . . . The truth is there was a massive head wound, with brain tissue and blood around it. And with that type of wound you could not get accurate information unless you feel around inside the hole and look into it in detail, and I certainly didn’t do that, nor did I see anyone else do that.”(4)

Dr. Paul Peters, portrayed in JFK by I. D. Brickman (see photo above), also concedes his initial impression was inaccurate: “. . . I now believe the head wound is more forward than I first placed it. More to the side than the rear.” Dr. Pepper Jenkins states, “The autopsy photo, with the rear of the head intact and a protrusion in the parietal [side] region, is the way I remember it. I never did say occipital.”

A third shot (not the third shot, but one of the bullets) ricocheted off the pavement. The reason the body was taken before an autopsy was performed at Parkland wasn’t due to some conspiracy but because his family and friends insisted.
Frontal shots> multiple shooters>conspiracy is question begging on top of bootstrapping.
Occam’s razor and David Hume in plain speak: if you can suppose more complicated solutions for problems, but a simple one explains the matter, go with what you know. One shooter, Lee Oswald.

Zapruder filmed the entire sequence of events. Ever been to a military funeral? Prepared or not, you react at the first shot; then much less at the next shot; then slightly at the last—all involuntary responses.
Zapruder was unprepared for any reports, but in that urban canyon had the same reactions, as evidenced (much later) by forensic tests of his film which show three physical reactions by him while filming. Oswald fired three shots. There were no other shooters. There was no grand, diabolical conspiracy. Oswald had motive (`Fair Play for Cuba’) and opportunity. Oswald killed Kennedy.

Yeah, it’s boring. And JFK’s worshipful fans want it to be something more than just a mundane murder—it all seems more meaningful if he was struck down by a cabal of wicked haters, but you go where the evidence leads you.

Considering that the KGB did a disinformation campaign literally the minute LHO shot Kennedy that inferred strongly that “right wingers, LBJ, CIA agents, etc., etc.” had instigated the assassination (Just ask Ion Mihai Pacepa, he’d tell you, as he had personal experience with this, including various KGB disinformation campaigns.), I don’t think I’d blame Hoover for demanding that the public must believe he was the lone assassin. I don’t even like LBJ, think he’s a very corrupt man who should NEVER have been allowed to hold office, yet even I doubt he could have pulled off the assassination (and as far as the CIA, even if they hated him, I doubt they’d do that kind of assassination. More likely, they’d just kill Kennedy in his sleep).

Heck, the KGB also had a direct hand in the Vietnam protests, just as they did in causing Che Guevara to reach post-humous stardom (and that was despite Khrushchev disagreeing with him with nearly causing a nuclear war). And let’s not forget how the prior time they tried to nail communists, Hoover and McCarthy I mean, that resulted in them being tarred and feathered, with the public believing it. Heck, I’d do my hardest to convince the public that it was a lone shooter if I were in his shoes precisely BECAUSE I’d still remember what happened with the McCarthy hearings and how that fizzled out. And let’s not forget, two years prior, we came very close to a nuclear war. If they did find evidence that the Soviets were responsible for the JFK assassination, we WOULD have entered nuclear war.

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