Saturday, March 26, 2011

The Assassination of John F. Kennedy: Part 1 Introduction

This topic is quite meaty so I'm probably going to stretch it into 2 days. Let me begin by saying that if you are ever in the Dallas, Texas area, go to Dealey Plaza and check out the JFK assassination tour/site, its incredibly fascinating. JFk's death, while it may seem like its all wrapped up to some, is still classified, to me and many others, as a major conspiracy. I might not get into all of the aspects of it today, but i certainly will make sure i cover a lot of it between today and tomorrow.

Anyways, lets paint the scene for the upcoming disaster. Downtown Dallas, Texas early after noon (close to 12:30 Central Time) on November 22nd, 1963. JFK is simply riding through town on a business trip to help smooth over factions of the Democratic party. I don't believe his actual trips purpose had any impact on his assassination. Kennedy, with his wife Jacqueline and Texas Governor John Connally, rode around in the back of a convertible limousine so the crowd could actually see the President. As the automobile traveled down Elm Street (Dealey Plaza), and passed the Texas School Book Depository, shots were fired.

A clear majority of witnesses claimed there were 3 shots fired, while some believe there was actually 4 shots fired and from different directions.

THE WARREN COMMISSION
This first official investigation began a week after the assassination and was headed by Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States.

In late September 1964, after a 10-month investigation, the Warren Commission Report was published.  The commission concluded that:
  • one shot likely missed the motorcade (it could not determine which of the three)
  • the first shot to hit anyone struck Kennedy in the upper back, exited near the front of his neck and likely continued on to cause all of Governor Connally's injuries
  • the last shot to hit anyone struck Kennedy in the head, fatally wounding him.
The bullet that supposedly hit Kennedy and then Connally is a strange one. The bullet could not have gone straight, if it would have had to have gone through Kennedy and then suddenly changed directions and keep velocity. Many refer to this bullet as "the magic bullet" for it seems unlikely that this happened.

The commission also concluded that had President Kennedy not ordered the Secret Service not to have agents occupy the rear running board positions of the presidential limousine, agents would have jumped on top of the President after the first gunshot wound and would have spared him from receiving the fatal head wound. This seems plausible to me.

Anyway, I'll get into who actually shot the President and other conspiracies, and the later commissions and their findings tomorrow.

17 comments:

  1. Geez, the only thing I knew is the fact that he got shot :D Thanks bro

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  2. isn't this one been investigated like a thousand one times?

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  3. someone really did their homework

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  4. even if the truth was made available, would it even matter now?

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  5. Ah, one of the classic conspiracies.

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  6. I don't think there'll ever be consensus about what happened!

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  7. I had a teacher who was really into all of the conspiracy theories of John F. Kennedy, that was pretty much all he taught for an entire semester

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  8. I love your blog! I'll be super supportive and follow along!

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  9. Wow, lots of good research! I love this blog! :D

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  10. Liking it, make something about Watergate some time soon, even though it's not really conspiracy thingy.

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  11. JFK really must be the most famous murder ever :o

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  12. Guess we will never find the truth..

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  13. So many different theories to this. It's interesting to read what other people believe!

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  14. Love the hole JFK thing, keep more posts coming like this!

    2nd shooter!

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