Last year was the big one: the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Amid the replaying of those horrific Zapruder film frames and poignant archival interviews, we were reminded of an assassination dichotomy. While there remains a mainstream media consensus that loser loner Lee Harvey Oswald did it, opinion polls continue to show a majority of the public unconvinced that it was the act of a single individual.
Now there’s another Nov. 22 looming. Space constraints preclude a litany of contrarian-media details here, but let’s at least reflect on several salient points–mostly focused on the enigmatically odd Oswald.
*Oswald, 24, was almost assuredly a U.S. government operative, albeit one clueless as to where he fit in America’s internecine, rogue-riddled, Cold War tool box. Hence that puzzling “patsy” reference after his arrest. Had he wanted to ingloriously go down in iniquitous history, he arguably would have responded differently.
*While in the marines, Oswald was assigned to Atsugi (Japan), the U-2 spy base. As in Gary Powers’ Soviet over-flights. As in strict government clearance. It was no place for security risks.
*The U.S. invested in Oswald. He was sent to foreign language school where he learned Russian, which he would speak–and write–well. This was hardly the province of dullard losers, let alone those of suspect allegiance.
*Oswald would become a “defector” to–and then a “re-defector” from–the Soviet Union. Such scenarios were not unheard of during the height of Cold War paranoia. Interview outtakes from a U.S. Embassy official in Moscow and an Associated Press reporter are illuminating. Both describe his “defection” rationale as “scripted” and “coached.”
*Oswald was, inexplicably enough, involved with both anti-Castro exiles in Louisiana as well as the pro-Castro “Fair Play for Cuba Committee.” He was the only FPCC “member” in the New Orleans “branch.” In intelligence circles, such blatant imposters are known as “dangles”–would-be bait to the other side. In a parallel universe where the CIA worked in league with the mob (to take out Fidel Castro), nothing seemingly was beyond the pale.
*After Kennedy was shot, attention focused on the grassy knoll as well as the Texas School Book Depository. As for the knoll area, bogus-credentialed Secret Service imposters were restricting movement before and after the shooting. Among those saying a shot went whizzing over head from behind: Abraham Zapruder. Among others believing their senses about the knoll source of fire: a cop, an on-leave soldier and a Dallas Morning News reporter. Notably, none made the Warren Commission cut. In fact the soldier, Gordon Arnold, had his film confiscated.
*The car directly behind Kennedy included his top “Irish mafia” assistants, Kenny O’Donnell and David Powers. Both initially testified that at least one shot came from the front–near where Zapruder was stationed. They later yielded to investigative pressure and backed off. They subsequently acknowledged taking one for the team as non-single-shooter scenarios were officially discouraged for national security reasons.
*Speaking of a shooter other than from an above-and-behind perch, it’s hardly inconsequential that all key emergency room personnel at Parkland Memorial Hospital diagnosed Kennedy’s neck wound as one of entry. After being advised by the relatively inexperienced Bethesda autopsy personnel, they then began equivocating.
*Approximately 90 seconds after the Dealey Plaza shots, a Dallas motorcycle cop, Marion Baker, is first into the Book Depository and locates supervisor Roy Truly. They immediately head upstairs after noting the elevator was not available. They get to the second floor, where the lunchroom is, and spot Oswald quaffing a soda at the Coke machine.
Officer Baker inquires as to his identity, and Truly vouches for him. Baker detects nothing symptomatic in the calm demeanor of a person who would have had to diagonally cross a spacious 6th floor to wipe down a rife, hide it, then rapidly descend four flights of stairs and not manifest anything–from sweats to post-crime-of-the-century adrenaline rush–to a police officer hardly unfamiliar with reading suspects.
*From the handling of three shell casings and “sniper-perch” boxes to the (“murder weapon”) bolt-action Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, which was initially identified as a “Mauser,” the evidence identified on the 6th floor would be subject to jurisdictional subplots and generic sloppiness. The upshot: Chain-of-evidence custody and crime-scene tampering would have been a prosecutorial nightmare had Oswald lived to be tried.
*Oswald’s ostensible escape plan included the Texas Theater. Such public venues were classic rendezvous locales among the cloak-and-dagger set. Oswald’s behavior, after entering without paying, was beyond bizarre. According to a concession witness and several patrons, he bought popcorn and then–in a theater holding 900–sat next to one of the approximately 20 patrons there at the matinee hour to see “Cry of Battle” with Van Heflin. Then he relocated twice more to position himself next to a patron. Then the police entered.
*Of all the assassination variables–including cherry-picked Warren Commission testimony, suspicious deaths and autopsy incongruities–perhaps nothing resonates more sensibly than the silencer role of Jack Ruby. He literally personifies the involvement of others. His supposed motivation for killing Oswald was to spare Jacqueline Kennedy the emotional trauma of a trial. That cover story started bleeding credibility as soon as Ruby’s mob background was revealed.
*It’s worth noting what the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded in its 1979 report. “The Committee believes … that President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.”
We’ll have to leave it there–for now.