As we’ve been noticing over time, the theories of a JFK-assassination conspiracy won’t go away. Nor should they. Indeed, various polls chronicle a public increasingly convinced that it was more than the exclusive work of some lone, loser gunman out to make horrific history. And, no, a witness-cherry-picking Warren Commission hardly helped.
There’s no need for another detailed conspiracy reiteration. Suffice it to say that conspiracy means more than one person is involved. But a couple of comments are warranted when history and truth are at stake—even if 100% certainty can’t be guaranteed all these years and deaths later. Releasing un-redacted files could be, however, helpful.
* When first confronted by reporters, Lee Harvey Oswald’s response was telling. “I’m a patsy,” he said. In other words, he was involved—but that’s hardly confirmation of lone-gunman status. Assume likely Mafia involvement.
* Oswald’s uncle, Dutz Murret, worked for Carlos Marcello, the godfather of the New Orleans Mafia.
* Joe Kennedy met with Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana, who would share a mistress with JFK, to seek his help in influencing the Cook County vote in the 1960 presidential election. After winning, JFK appointed his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, as attorney general. He went after the mob and infuriated Mafia bosses. End game on.
* Tampa’s Santo Trafficante and other mobsters had lost their considerable casino interests—and blamed President Kennedy for the Bay of Pigs fiasco.
* After shots rang out in front of the Texas Book Depository, motorcycle officer Marion Baker rushed into the TBD, met up with its superintendent, Roy Truly, and ran upstairs. Once on the second floor—approximately 90 seconds after the assassination—they noticed a worker standing by a soda machine drinking a Coke. It was Oswald. Truly called him over. Officer Baker, hardly unfamiliar with reading suspects, apparently saw nothing suspicious about Oswald’s demeanor. Chances are if he had just committed the crime of the century—then ostensibly scurrying diagonally across a spacious 6th floor, hiding a rifle under some boxes, hustling down four flights (with no elevator available) and then getting a post-assassination Coke—there would have been at least physical signs of being out of breath—let alone a post-assassination adrenalin rush.
* Oswald was arrested at The Texas Theater. According to a concession-stand attendant, Oswald ordered a snack and then moseyed around in the large theater with few mid-day patrons (for “War Is Hell” starring Van Heflin). With all these empty seats, he sat next to somebody and then moved to sit next to somebody else, and then moved again. Was he looking to meet someone? Theaters were favorite venues for spy and double-agent scenarios.
* If Oswald were a “patsy,” it would have come out in the trial of the century. But Mafia-linked Jack Ruby took care of that.