So begins the Report of the President’s Commission on theAssassination of President Kennedy. But instead of determining without a doubtwho shot JFK, the Warren Commission’s report launched a slew of questions aboutthe shots fired in Dallas 50 years ago.
The report, released in September 1964, asserted that LeeHarvey Oswald was a lone gunman who fired from the sixth floor window of theTexas School Book Depository in Dealey Plaza. According to the Commission’sinvestigation, Oswald fired three shots, two of which hit Kennedy from behind.One of the shots blasted through Kennedy’s neck and into Texas Gov. JohnConnally’s back, chest, wrist and left thigh. After the shooting, Oswald leftthe building, hopped on a bus and then a taxi, briefly stopped at hisroominghouse, shot and killed Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit, and walked tothe Texas Theatre, where he was arrested.
Oswald was held in custody and questioned without an attorneyfor two days. Jack Ruby, who the Warren Commission says was also acting alone,fatally shot Oswald when he was being transferred to the county jail on Sundaymorning, Nov. 24, 1963. The murder was captured on live TV.
Three years later, only 36% of Americans polled agreed withthe Warren Commission’s findings that Oswald acted alone.
Ten years ago, the percentage of people who believe theWarren Commission dropped to about 25% of Americans polled.
This spring, an AP-GfK poll found that 59% of Americanspolled believe a conspiracy brought down Kennedy, while only 24% believe thatOswald acted alone.
Why do the questions linger?
Is a Simple Answer the BestAnswer?
Conservative Marquette University ProfessorJohn McAdams, a JFK conspiracy debunker, acknowledges that the evidence provingthat Oswald acted alone is “circumstantial, but pretty strong.”
Even so, he believes the Warren Commission’s conclusions,which were rehashed and affirmed in popular books such as Gerald Posner’s CaseClosed, Vincent Bugliosi’s Reclaiming History and Bill O’Reilly’s KillingKennedy.
McAdams told the Shepherd that questions remain aboutKennedy’s assassination and the Warren Commission’s conclusions because “it’smore fun and psychologically satisfying to think there was a conspiracy. Itturns into a parlor game.”
He said conspiracy buffs don’t want to believe that Oswald, aloner who sympathized with communists, acted alone because it doesn’t mesh withthe importance of the assassination in our nation’s history.
“If you have a large effect, you want to have a large cause,”McAdams said.
But is the skepticism about the JFK assassination simply apsychological crutch?
Not so, says David Wrone, a recently retired historyprofessor at UW-Stevens Point who is on the board of directors of theAssassination Records Review Board, which released records from theassassination during the 1990s. He’s also the author of The Zapruder Film:Reframing JFK’s Assassination.
After decades of research, Wrone came to the conclusion thatwe don’t know for certain who killed Kennedy because the investigation,beginning with the initial law enforcement on the scene to the work of theWarren Commission, was so sloppy.
“I don’t know who shot Kennedy—I have no idea,” Wrone said.“And I don’t know because the crime was never properly investigated.”
Reviewing the Evidence
Wrone said he never believed that Oswald acted alone becausethe initial reports from Dallas don’t support that conclusion. He said that lawenforcement released Oswald’s name as a suspect a mere 90 minutes after the shooting,and the presumption of his guilt colored the investigation.
“They presumed he was guilty, and that’s without knowing howmany bullets struck Kennedy, where they hit him, what direction they camefrom,” Wrone said. “That’s without knowing anything about the autopsy, that’swithout looking at any of the photographic film, without interviewing anywitnesses who viewed the actual assassination and so forth. It was plucked outof the ether by the Dallas police.”
Contradicting the Warren Commission, Wrone said he believesthat Kennedy was shot more than twice by at least two shooters, one of whom wasnot stationed in the Book Depository.
In fact, he said there’s a good case to be made that Kennedywas shot twice in the head, once from behind and once in the left temple, inquick succession by different types of guns. He also said that Kennedy hadn’tbeen shot in the back by a “magic bullet” that also hit Connelly, but from thefront through the Adam’s apple.
“This is denied by people who believe the Warren Commission,”Wrone said. “It’s almost like a religious belief.”
Wrone called the investigation worse than sloppy andconducted by “junior-grade Keystone cops.”
Dealey Plaza was never treated as a crime scene, Wrone said,and investigators couldn’t even determine how many shots were fired.
“The government locked down on three because they have threeempty cartridges in the sixth floor eastern-most window of the Texas SchoolBook Depository that they found,” Wrone said. “And many people said three shots[were fired] although many, many people in Dealey Plaza that day said more thanthree. The head of the Secret Service thought it was a machine gun. So thereare all sorts of questions.”
Wrone said medical, ballistic and photographic evidence castdoubt on the Warren Commission’s version of events, including Oswald’s guilt.
“The claim that Oswald shot him—that’s not backed up byevidence,” Wrone said. “I maintain that Oswald had nothing to do with theassassination whatsoever. That’s the rub. And people don’t want to go thatway.”
Wrone said none of the evidence proved that Oswald brought agun to the Book Depository that day; Oswald’s supposed palm print found on therifle doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, either.
Even the Warren Commission had doubts about the palm print,Wrone said. Several palm prints had been taken from Oswald after he’d beentaken in custody, and none of them have been accounted for. Wrone said expertsat the time said that the metal of the rifle had been so porous and rough thata print couldn’t have been taken.
“So this was invented,” Wrone said of the palm print. “Theywanted to get that sucker. So I think they just forged it.”
Wrone is convinced that Oswald did not kill Kennedy.
“I do not know who did it,” Wrone said. “And I maintain thatnobody else does outside of the people who did it.”
Learn More About John F. Kennedy’s Lifeand Death
- John F.Kennedy Tribute 2013: The Torch Is Passed: This tribute will feature music, poetry, art and video. Performersinclude Holly Haebig and Friends, Jahmes Finlayson, Mark Mantel, Mud River Lee,Ben Merens, Peter Blewett, Joann Chang, a painting by Phoenix Suvayas and more.Poet Jeanie Dean will serve as host and release her book, The Whole World Stopped: An Elegy for John F. Kennedy and the AmericanDream. The event begins at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 23, at the Coffee Housein Redeemer Lutheran Church, 631 N. 19th St. Donation: $5.
- ‘Wisconsin Remembers JohnF. Kennedy’: This locally produced remembrance will air on Milwaukee Public TVChannel 10 at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 29. It can be viewed at any time atmptv.org.
