Forum Home Forum Home > Topics not related to music > General discussions
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - The President Was Shot...
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

Topic ClosedThe President Was Shot...

 Post Reply Post Reply Page  123 8>
Author
Message
Atavachron View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: September 30 2006
Location: Pearland
Status: Offline
Points: 64233
Direct Link To This Post Topic: The President Was Shot...
    Posted: November 17 2013 at 01:49
...fifty years ago this week.

Despite all the extraordinary research and discoveries made ~ such as the House Assassinations Committee’s conclusion that more than one gun was fired at JFK, or the Assassination Records Review Board set up in the early '90s to catalog all documentation in the case ~ the true facts are still unclear and certain areas have become even further complicated and obscured.

The number of things we know to be accurate are tiny for such a major and documented event: That at least three shots were fired hitting both the President and the Texas governor; Kennedy was hit at least twice, once fatally; JFK was rushed to a nearby hospital but suffered irreparable wounds.

That's all anyone agrees on 100%.   But there is one other glaringly obvious fact: Despite what anyone believes really happened, we do know beyond reasonable doubt that Lee Harvey Oswald was involved.   We know this because he fled the Book Depository Building, went home, retrieved a pistol and took off again.   Only a few other Depository employees left the scene and none of them armed themselves, or slipped into a movie theater without paying as Oswald did later that day.   His actions after the crime are just too odd and suggestive for him not to have known something was afoot, if he was not directly involved.   In my opinion it is also quite likely that he did bring a rifle into the Depository before the assassination, probably in parts on different days that week, and left it on the sixth floor.   Someone either told him to leave the rifle in the building, or he was one of the shooters.

If the crime was a sophisticated scheme perpetrated by experts in military intelligence (or even Kennedy's protective detail as some assert), the cover plan was so brilliantly conceived it is no wonder we're just beginning to make some sense of it.   Constructed like a never ending onion or Matryoshka doll, with layer upon layer of plausible suspects and scintillating intrigue, people of interest began piling up with every passing decade--  Cuban militants, mob hitmen, Texas right-wing oil, Eastern banking establishment, CIA, Soviet assassins, Freemasons, LBJ, John Birchers, Pentagon & the Joint Chiefs, causing each to take a defensive stance and forcing some of the very agencies investigating the crime to manipulate findings in order to maintain security (or just save face).   Even Jackie wasn't spared the absurdity that she used a two-shot derringer to kill her husband as they rode together-- apparently she'd been a CIA recruit for years before marrying John Kennedy, later to kill him in a jealous rage.   With leads like these, who needs real clues.

Whether Oswald was set-up and the hit on JFK came from some complex military/intelligence plot, or it was just a criminal undertaking by a couple men ~ like say a desperate Jack Ruby & a broke Lee Oswald both deeply in debt and disillusioned ~ isn't as important as understanding how the crime was conducted, because then you can show conspiracy and get on with a real investigation.   If there were government people involved they likely would have been doing this on their own time as private citizens, not official secret agents, so the 'government coup' angle is weak and does us a disservice.   U.S. policy changed very little after Kennedy died.   Presidents make decisions every day that piss-off countless powerful people, it's part of the job.   The motives for this crime lay elsewhere than simple policy or industrial/military deep-politics.

What muddles things is the evidence.   Films of the crime, witness testimony, autopsy reports & photos, ballistics, are often contradictory.   For example, a large number of highly credible witnesses insist the Presidential limousine slowed to a crawl or even briefly stopped at the moment of the fatal head shot, but the Zapruder film shows no such thing--  after turning the corner, the limo cruises at a consistent pace and then speeds off after JFK is hit in the head.   This is very bothersome and casts serious doubt on the validity of the extant movie.   Film may be considered more reliable than eye-witnesses but ultimately the law puts more weight on a preponderance of witness accounts as films can distort, deteriorate or be tampered with.

Another example of puzzling testimony is that several credible people including Senator Ralph Yarborough who was several cars behind the President in the motorcade said they smelled gunpowder in the street as their cars rolled through just after the shots.   If a lone assassin was shooting from high above and to the rear, how could gunsmoke be detected in the street just seconds after the final shot?   The admitting nurse at Parkland Hospital in Dallas also said she "smelled gunpowder" as Kennedy and Connally were wheeled in, an impossibility if all the shots came from the Book Depository.   The Warren Commission said these people had "vivid imaginations" and only think they smelled it, even though there are reports that the street was thick with gunsmoke.   Oddly, none of the police, sheriffs or employees that searched the Depository moments after the shooting smelled any powder or smoke inside the building.

A further fascinating aspect is the ballistics.   The spent shells and one unfired round that were found on the 6th floor were owned by Oswald, were military copper-jacketed bullets made by Winchester, and matched fragments found in the limousine.   Copper-jacketed rounds are designed not to fragment upon hitting or going through a body.   But based on the explosive energy & velocity carried by the round that hit Kennedy's skull and the multiple gaping exit wounds, it indicates the bullet was was a frangible pellet or hollow-tip bullet normally used in hunting.   This would on the surface show whatever hit JFK in the head was not fired from Oswald's rifle... until we take a closer look.   It turns out Winchester made several different versions of the bullets in question, some fully-jacketed, some made to fragment, and these bullets were mixed together among the ones Oswald had purchased.   They were also old WW II surplus, inexpensive and possibly faulty.   Upon testing by the FBI and Army, the bullets did indeed fragment when shot into gelatin to the surprise of the specialists doing the testing.   Future non-government tests on human skulls filled with gelatin that were shot with the same ammunition and rifle attributed to Oswald also proved a skull literally explodes when hit with these bullets.   This is precisely what happened; the President’s skull shattered.   There was no exit wound.

And what of the innumerable and credible threats the President was receiving in 1963 ?   As a matter of routine, these threats were looked into by the FBI and local police departments, passed on to the Secret Service, and had strong indications that any number of individuals and/or "radical groups" were quietly discussing a hit on JFK.   These included plots in Florida, and in Chicago where a man, Thomas Vallee, was detained as a potential assassin.   Vallee was an ex-marine in his twenties with "psychological problems".   Just like Oswald.   Joseph Milteer, an extreme right-winger from the South, was boasting in '63 to a friend (and secret FBI informant) about a plan to kill Kennedy "From an office building with a high-powered rifle".   Something, either real or theoretical, was being talked about, and was quietly getting around extremist social circles.   Whether a real plot had leaked or a cover-story for one was being cleverly dispersed, certain people had uncannily accurate details about the assassination.

All this said, it is also well within the realm of possibility that Oswald did it.   The evidence against him is compelling.   Though a marine who'd been stationed at secret bases around the world and apparently sheep-dipped as an American Communist, he was indeed a devout Marxist who was quite skilled and intelligent.   He had rifle-hunted for rabbit with his brother while a youth, became fluent in Russian by his early 20s, and while in the Marines had become a highly-cleared radar operator and fairly good rifleman (by civilian standards if not Marine ones).   Dealey Plaza is smaller than it appears in pictures, and the shot from the sixth floor to the street not terribly difficult for a trained sharpshooter who'd been around guns his whole life.   Couldn't have gotten off more than three shots with the rifle he was using?   Nonsense, especially if he'd been practicing bolt-loading it rapidly (which his wife says he was doing).   I have little doubt Oswald could have gotten off up to five rounds that day.  

The Warren Commission got some things right and some things wrong.   It's problem was that it was commissioned to quell fears and reassure people that Oswald did it, not properly investigate the crime.   Later studies like the House Assassinations Committee took a further step by concluding there "Probably was a second gunman firing from the knoll".   They based this on a recording made from a motorcycle cop's microphone that was left on during the shooting, but as with most of the evidence in this case, was later shown to be inconclusive because the policeman was a block farther from Dealey Plaza than first thought.   It doesn't necessarily disprove the recording's validity ~ it was given thorough scientific tests by some of the best sound specialists and the spikes made by gunfire were distinct even among the static and chatter of the old Dictabelt recording ~ but it did eventually discredit a promising lead.   We were back to square one.

As fate would have it, in the early 1990s a small team of qualified people in & out of government were quietly mandated by Congress to begin collecting, sorting and cataloging all the evidence and documentation in the case.   It was called the JFK Records Act and though it had no investigative powers beyond the scope of securing evidence, it did have subpoena power and made good use of it.  (Chief Analyst for Military Records on this team, Douglass Horne, writes about the life of this most important body and the information it uncovered in his five-volume tome Inside the ARRB).   To date, the best indication that Oswald did not shoot Kennedy is the Voice Stress analysis tests made by ex-CIA analyst George O'Toole.   His highly scientific and credible examination of Lee Oswald's statements just after he was arrested is that Oswald is not lying when he says "I didn't shoot anybody" or "I'm just the patsy".

If Lee Harvey Oswald was an American spy posing as a defecting communist and later some sort of Federal informant, he was a mediocre and low-level one at best.   He was seemingly a frustrated and impecunious man, fatherless, whose marriage was dissolving and whose fence-sitting between serious Marxist/Leninism and jingoistic Americanism was beginning to teeter.   This makes him both an ideal fall-guy *and* a possible assassin.   One begins to see the complexity of the problem, and of finding the truth.


Suggested reading ;

- Best Evidence   by David Lifton
- JFK and the Unspeakable   by James W. Douglass
- Murder in Dealey Plaza   by James Fetzer
- The Assassination Tapes   by George O’Toole
- Murder From Within   by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams



Back to Top
smartpatrol View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: April 15 2012
Location: My Bedroom
Status: Offline
Points: 14169
Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 17 2013 at 02:21
The title had my hopes up
Back to Top
Eria Tarka View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: December 17 2011
Location: BC, Canada
Status: Offline
Points: 5856
Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 17 2013 at 02:47
^ now, that's dark
Back to Top
DamoXt7942 View Drop Down
Forum & Site Admin Group
Forum & Site Admin Group
Avatar
Avant/Cross/Neo/Post Teams

Joined: October 15 2008
Location: Okayama, Japan
Status: Offline
Points: 17447
Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 17 2013 at 03:34
Another obvious fact is that JFK's daughter Caroline has got to be a US Ambassador to Japan a while before.
Back to Top
Dean View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout

Joined: May 13 2007
Location: Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 37575
Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 17 2013 at 04:50
The problem for many with the JFK assassination is that it was so mundane that it doesn't seem "fair" that the leader of the free world could be killed by such a sad lone specimen as Oswald, what it lacks is closure - Oswald was never tried and convicted of the crime, Ruby denied the American public that and that is what gives the event its intrigue and opens it up for conspiracy and conjecture. 

A not dissimilar story:

Between 1809 and 1812 the British Prime Minister was Spencer Perceval, in wikipedia he is described thusly: "Although not considered an inspirational leader, he is generally seen as a devout, industrious, principled man who at the head of a weak government steered the country through difficult times" - however he was far from being a popular leader.

Difficult times... The period marked the end of the reign of mad King George III and the beginning of the Regency era, and of course the year 1812 is a very significant one in Europe and the USA with wars being fought across both continents and Britain in the thick of both.

"At 5:15 on the evening of 11 May 1812, Perceval was on his way to attend the inquiry into the Orders in Council. As he entered the lobby of the House of Commons, a man stepped forward, drew a pistol and shot him in the chest. Perceval fell to the floor, after uttering something that was variously heard as "murder" or "oh my God". They were his last words. By the time he had been carried into an adjoining room and propped up on a table with his feet on two chairs, he was senseless, although there was still a faint pulse. When a surgeon arrived a few minutes later, the pulse had stopped, and Perceval was declared dead." 


The assassin was John Bellingham, a merchant with a personal grudge against the British government, he was tried, convicted and hanged within a week of the shooting. A month later America declared war on Britain and France invaded Russia while Britain continued to support Spain and Portugal in the Peninsular War against Napoleon. 

Because of the turbulent nature of those times (Perceval was pretty much anti everything, including anti-catholic, anti-working class and anti-democracy) the initial thought was it was signalling the start of a civil uprising (leftish Jacobin revolt à la the French Revolution that had ended a mere ten years earlier), but Bellingham's immediate capture and confession soon quelled such thoughts.

Subsequent conspiracies have suggested other reasons for Perceval's assassination, both political and military (espionage), but all of them lack evidence or justifiable reason to doubt Bellingham's confession and conviction. Like Kennedy, Perceval was the last elected leader of Britain to have died by assassination, but unlike the Kennedy the case of Perceval has closure and little need for conspiracy, it was a mundane murder with no political or social cause perpetrated by a lone gunman with a grudge
What?
Back to Top
ProgMetaller2112 View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: December 08 2012
Location: Pacoima,CA,USA
Status: Offline
Points: 3145
Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 17 2013 at 04:50
Damn! I came here thinking Obama was assassinated . Also it is not that I want Obama dead but he has sent many young people to die. Regurgitate that

Edited by ProgMetaller2112 - November 17 2013 at 20:04
“War is peace.

Freedom is slavery.

Ignorance is strength.”

― George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four



"Ignorance and Prejudice and Fear walk Hand in Hand"- Neil Peart



Back to Top
Tuzvihar View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: May 18 2005
Location: C. Schinesghe
Status: Offline
Points: 13489
Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 17 2013 at 07:00
Originally posted by smartpatrol smartpatrol wrote:

The title had my hopes up


Ermm
"Music is much like f**king, but some composers can't climax and others climax too often, leaving themselves and the listener jaded and spent."

Charles Bukowski
Back to Top
Tuzvihar View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: May 18 2005
Location: C. Schinesghe
Status: Offline
Points: 13489
Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 17 2013 at 07:02
Originally posted by ProgMetaller2112 ProgMetaller2112 wrote:

Damn! I came here thinking Obama was assassinated


Yeah... Unfortunate title. Ermm
"Music is much like f**king, but some composers can't climax and others climax too often, leaving themselves and the listener jaded and spent."

Charles Bukowski
Back to Top
The T View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: October 16 2006
Location: FL, USA
Status: Offline
Points: 17493
Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 17 2013 at 11:14
Originally posted by smartpatrol smartpatrol wrote:

The title had my hopes up

Kind of sad to see you hope someone gets murdered. 

Anyway, regarding the subject, unimteresting as it is, unexciting as it is, I have been thoroughly convinced that loser L.H. Oswald by himself, alone and without help or orders, killed JFK. 

Conspiracies are more entertaning though. And they can be the basis for awesome movies. 
Back to Top
Slartibartfast View Drop Down
Collaborator
Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator / In Memoriam

Joined: April 29 2006
Location: Atlantais
Status: Offline
Points: 29625
Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 17 2013 at 11:29
I've read Best Evidence.  Good book.
Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...

Back to Top
smartpatrol View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: April 15 2012
Location: My Bedroom
Status: Offline
Points: 14169
Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 17 2013 at 11:34
Guys, I don't really want Obama to get murdered. I mean, I wouldn't be sad if he was, but if I had it my way, he'd just be impeached
Back to Top
timothy leary View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: December 29 2005
Location: Lilliwaup, Wa.
Status: Offline
Points: 5319
Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 17 2013 at 12:02
What I find to be more mysterious is why Jack Ruby killed Oswald and who pulled Jack Ruby's strings?
Back to Top
The T View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: October 16 2006
Location: FL, USA
Status: Offline
Points: 17493
Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 17 2013 at 12:09
Originally posted by smartpatrol smartpatrol wrote:

Guys, I don't really want Obama to get murdered. I mean, I wouldn't be sad if he was, but if I had it my way, he'd just be impeached

Nice. So you still would be ok with the murder. And would you want from an impeachment?
Back to Top
timothy leary View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: December 29 2005
Location: Lilliwaup, Wa.
Status: Offline
Points: 5319
Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 17 2013 at 12:13
Originally posted by The T The T wrote:

Originally posted by smartpatrol smartpatrol wrote:

Guys, I don't really want Obama to get murdered. I mean, I wouldn't be sad if he was, but if I had it my way, he'd just be impeached

Nice. So you still would be ok with the murder. And would you want from an impeachment?

A real compassionate fellow
Back to Top
Dean View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout

Joined: May 13 2007
Location: Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 37575
Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 17 2013 at 12:27
I wouldn't pick on him, he's only thirteen years old, he know four-fifths of f___ all about anything. 
What?
Back to Top
smartpatrol View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: April 15 2012
Location: My Bedroom
Status: Offline
Points: 14169
Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 17 2013 at 12:35
I wouldn't say I'd be "okay" with a murder, but if it happened, I wouldn't be sad about it or anything. I don't like Obama, I think he's a crook and he and his administration have done a lot of harm to this already f**ked up country. If an assassination's the way he's out of office, fine with me.
Back to Top
The T View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: October 16 2006
Location: FL, USA
Status: Offline
Points: 17493
Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 17 2013 at 12:35
It's sad and sick. There have been a few dictators/tyrants whose death would have been welcomed (we all know who they are) but now just being ok with murder because our politics are different is... Sick.

Back to Top
The T View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: October 16 2006
Location: FL, USA
Status: Offline
Points: 17493
Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 17 2013 at 12:36
Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

I wouldn't pick on him, he's only thirteen years old, he know four-fifths of f___ all about anything. 

Oh I didn't know that.

Anyway, Oswald must have thought like this even way past 13.
Back to Top
Dean View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout

Joined: May 13 2007
Location: Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 37575
Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 17 2013 at 12:37
^^ correction: three-fifths of f___ all.
What?
Back to Top
smartpatrol View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: April 15 2012
Location: My Bedroom
Status: Offline
Points: 14169
Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 17 2013 at 13:02
Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

I wouldn't pick on him, he's only thirteen years old, he know four-fifths of f___ all about anything. 


Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

I wouldn't pick on him

Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  123 8>

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down



This page was generated in 0.137 seconds.
Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.