The Kennedy Assassination: A Continuing Controversy

The Kennedys were America's glamorous First Family. They were peace and stability. They were culture and couture. They were happy and young. 

That all changed on November 22, 1963.

This is what the record says:

John F. Kennedy, his wife, Jacqueline, the governor of Texas, John D. Connally, and his wife, Nellie, were in a motorcade through downtown Dallas. Kennedy was campaigning for a second term as president, and had made a speech in Fort Worth earlier that morning. The top of the car was left down because of the weather. The route stretched through the center of downtown, towards a site where the president was scheduled to make a second speech that afternoon. 

At 12:30, the presidential motorcade entered Dealey Plaza. Gunshots were heard as the vehicle passed the Texas School Book Depository. Kennedy and Connally were both hit, Kennedy falling onto his wife. 

The car sped to the nearest hospital, Parkland Memorial, where the president was pronounced dead at 1:00 PM. 

Not long after the shooting, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the assassination attempt. As he was being transferred two days later, on November 24, Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby on national television. 

The case seems cut and dry. But because of Oswald's death, the assassination has been surrounded with controversy and mystery since the 1960s. 

Because Kennedy had been such a significant presence in American lives, the people demanded an explanation for this seemingly random act of violence. President Lyndon B. Johnson created the Warren Commission to study the events surrounding the president's death, and to discern a conclusion for the events. The Warren Commission's lengthy report (the complete report has been digitized by the National Archives, and can be read here) stated that the shots which killed the president came from the Texas School Book Depository and that they were fired by Oswald. They also determined that Oswald and Jack Ruby acted alone, and not as part of a conspiracy. 

Despite its attempts to help calm Americans, who were panicked by the loss of their leader as well as the now-encroaching war in Vietnam, the Warren Commission only fueled the fire. More and more Americans tried to find an answer that they believed the government had failed to provide. They turned, inevitably, to conspiracy.

Theories began to abound (and still do today). The most popular theories today are the Grassy Knoll and the Magic Bullet. 

The Grassy Knoll theory says that a second shooter was on the Grassy Knoll behind the presidential motorcade, and fired on the president. The theorists who cling to this idea base it mainly on eyewitness testimony. 

The Magic Bullet theory is an attempt to contradict the Warren Commission's assertion that a single bullet struck both the president and the governor. It posits all sorts of contortions that the bullet had to have done in midair in order to "magically" (hence the name of the theory) hit both men. 

The Magic Bullet Theory

Both of these theories have been rigorously attacked by historians who follow the Warren Commission's report. Called lone gunman theorists, these historians attempt to present the basic facts in order to counteract the manipulation of information often used by the conspiracy theorists. 

Despite decades of investigation, the Kennedy assassination continues to draw controversy. Every year at the anniversary of the assassination, a slew of new books are published on the topic, from both viewpoints. But the topic continues to draw interest (and, thus, controversy) because of the Kennedy aura. The tragedy and the beauty of the Kennedy family certainly once drew me to learn more and form my own opinion. The case will most likely continue to draw criticism and interest for generations to come.

If you are interested in learning more about the assassination, these websites were invaluable:

The Kennedy Assassination - covers all aspects of each of the conspiracy theories (including those not mentioned on this post) and attempts to debunk them using historical evidence

The Warren Commission - already linked to previously, this goes into painstaking detail about what happened, when, where, and, when it can be interpreted, why

The JFK Presidential Library - gives a brief synopsis of the events that led up to and followed the assassination

I am also indebted to the Newseum's wonderful exhibit on the media coverage of the assassination, "Three Shots Were Fired." Sadly closed now, I was able to see the exhibit two summers ago on a trip to Washington, D.C. with my mother. It poignantly showed how the assassination touched the American public, and how it changed the face of the news media forever.