“Welcome to the Boyhood Hometown of Senators Bob Dole and Arlen Specter!” As I cruised down Interstate 70 in Kansas, I noticed this sign at exit 184 for Russell, Kansas. After months of researching the John F. Kennedy assassination, I was driving down to Texas to see friends for a few days. But even in rural Kansas, I could not get away from JFK. Arlen Specter was one of the most important lawyers assigned to investigate the JFK assassination with the Warren Commission in 1963. His devotion to the ‘single-bullet theory” has sparked intense debate for the last 60 years.
Welcome to History Week! Today, we will explore the many theories surrounding JFK’s shooting. Author Vincent Bugliosi writes, “…more words have been written about Kennedy’s assassination than any other single, one-day event in history.”[1] What follows is an overview of the most important evidence surrounding the events of November 22, 1963. I conclude with a lengthy bibliography for further reading.
The Evidence Against Oswald
Oswald visited his wife, Marina, and two daughters in Irving, Texas, on the evening of Thursday, November 21.[2] He lived separately from his family in a rented room in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas. His usual routine was to stay with his family over the weekend.[3] He told his co-worker, Wesley Frazier, that he needed to pick up curtain rods from the family friends with whom his wife and children were staying in Irving.[4] Frazier drove him to Irving and picked him up the following day.[5] Oswald brought a long brown package with him. He told Frazier it contained curtain rods for his room in Dallas[6]. At the Texas School Book Depository, Oswald hustled out of Frazier’s car with the package.[7] Oswald had left his wedding ring and $170 for Marina.[8] He seemed to anticipate that he would not be coming to Irving that night to see her.
After the assassination, a different co-worker (Charlie Givens) placed Oswald alone on the sixth floor near the time of the shooting.[9] A police officer and the Depository’s supervisor saw Oswald on the building’s second floor ninety seconds after the final shot.[10] The Warren Commission determined that Oswald could have gotten from the sixth floor to the second floor in 46 seconds by running.[11] The officer let him go after the supervisor identified him as an employee. Very soon, law enforcement officers found a sniper’s perch on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, three cartridge casings, and a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle hidden under several boxes.[12] Later reenactments, including one by the History Channel in a 2013 documentary, showed that an experienced marksman like Oswald could fire three accurate shots at Kennedy from the sixth-floor window in less than six seconds.[13]
Oswald left the Depository quickly and took a bus toward his rented room. Snarled in traffic, he departed the bus and took a cab.[14] Oswald rarely took cabs and did not own a car to save money. He had the cab drop him off several blocks past his room to ensure he was not being followed.[15] In his room, he took a jacket and his pistol.[16] Less than a mile from his room, Police Officer J. D. Tippit stopped Oswald because he resembled the suspect’s description from the JFK shooting.[17] One witness saw Oswald shoot Tippit four times and flee the scene.[18] Several other witnesses heard shots and saw Oswald running away, tossing away bullet shells.[19] Police traced these shells to Oswald’s pistol to the exclusion of all other weapons.[20] Dallas police arrested Oswald at the nearby Texas Theater for Tippit’s murder. When cornered by law enforcement, Oswald punched an officer in the head and tried to fire his revolver.[21] Police wrestled it away and struck him several times. Dallas Police found two identities on Oswald’s person, one with his name and one with the name “A. Hidell.”[22]
Law enforcement traced the rifle found in the Texas School Book Depository to a mail order placed by A. Hidell.[23] At the Irving, Texas address, Oswald authorized his wife and Hidell to pick up mail.[24] FBI handwriting experts matched the writing on the application for the rifle to known samples of Oswald’s writing.[25] Marina told the authorities that Oswald had tried to assassinate former general Edwin Walker the previous April.[26] Marina took law enforcement to the garage of the house where she stayed in Irving. Oswald hid his rifle in a blanket in that garage. The rifle was missing when they searched for it on the day of the assassination.[27] Dallas Police found photographs of Oswald posing with his rifle, his pistol, and two magazines from left-wing publishers. Marina admitted that she took the photos.[28] Oswald had signed one photo, and the handwriting matched known samples.[29] Forensic techs pulled Oswald’s palm print of the rifle[30] and his fingerprints and palm print from the sniper’s perch in the Texas School Book Depository.[31] They traced an intact bullet and several bullet fragments from Kennedy’s shooting to Oswald’s rifle to the exclusion of all other weapons.[32] A brown bag with Oswald’s fingerprint and palm print on it was found inside the sniper’s perch on the sixth floor.[33] It matched the description of the package Oswald claimed contained curtain rods.[34] By Saturday night (November 23rd), Dallas Police had filed charges against Oswald for the murders of Kennedy and Tippit.
Why Did Ruby Kill Oswald?
The centerpiece of most conspiracy theories is that Jack Ruby killed Oswald in police custody on Sunday (November 24th). How could Ruby, a local club owner, waltz into the police station with a pistol and shoot Oswald on live TV with no one stopping him and checking him for weapons? For many, the likeliest explanation is that influential people helped Ruby silence Oswald because he knew something that could connect JFK’s death to a larger conspiracy.[35]
Ruby’s stated reasons for killing Oswald do not satisfy most people. He said he wanted to make sure that Oswald suffered for his actions and did not want to risk him getting off on a legal technicality. He wanted to spare Mrs. Kennedy the trauma of returning to Dallas to testify in a future trial, and he wanted to show the world that a Jew had guts.[36] Ruby grew up in Chicago before moving to Dallas. In both cities, he was acquaintances with known Mob figures.[37] For some people like Rob Reiner and Oliver Stone, Ruby acting as a hitman for the Mob makes much more sense than his confession. G. Robert Blakey, an attorney for the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1978, believed Ruby was the perfect man for the Mob to use—he had known ties but was far enough away for plausible deniability.[38]
Ruby lived for several years after he shot Oswald. Though he faced the death penalty in a highly publicized trial and was diagnosed with cancer in 1966, he never changed his story.[39] Ruby’s finances were in terrible shape, and investigators found no evidence of suspicious infusions of cash for him or any of his family members after he murdered Lee Harvey Oswald.[40] Many of his friends and family told law enforcement that Ruby’s association with organized crime was exaggerated.[41] He shot Oswald with a 38-caliber revolver in the stomach from several feet away and pulled the trigger with his middle finger.[42] If he was acting as a hitman, I would suspect him to use a far more powerful firearm, aim for the head or heart, and fire with his index finger—all of which would ensure a greater certainty of death. If Oswald were part of a conspiracy to kill the President of the United States, Ruby would want to take every precaution to ensure the success of his mission. Doctors at Parkland Hospital almost saved Oswald due to Ruby’s choice of weapon and aim.[43]
Ruby loved to be at the center of the action.[44] He was an experienced gatecrasher and slipped into many events without an invitation.[45] He had many friends on the police force and was known at the station. Hundreds of reporters covered JFK’s death and milled around the police station. To ensure the transparency of their investigation, Dallas Police made many accommodations to the press.[46]
For a long time, the night before he shot Oswald, Ruby tried to bring sandwiches to the police station because he thought his friends on staff might be hungry from working long hours.[47] When they refused, he brought them to a local radio station.[48] Four minutes before he murdered Oswald, Ruby was at a bank sending money to one of his strippers. He waited in line to send the money, and before cell phones, he had no way of knowing exactly when Oswald would be transferred.[49] He left his beloved dog (Sheba) in his car while he went to the bank and police station. His closest friends insisted that the single Ruby treated his dog like family. If he knew he was about to go into police custody, he would have made arrangements to care for her.[50] Ruby was a talker who told everybody he had met his feelings about the assassination.[51] He was far from the ideal candidate for Mob assassin, especially for such an important murder.
Forensic Inconsistencies?
Conspiracy theorists like Reiner, Stone, and many others question if Oswald could have fired three shots accurately at Kennedy with an old rifle in fewer than six seconds. Law enforcement determined Oswald fired three shots.[52] The Warren Commission concluded that the first shot missed, and the third shot killed Kennedy.[53] That left one bullet to injure Kennedy’s back and throat and wound Texas Governor John Connally in several places. Warren Commission member Arlen Specter believed this hypothesis[54], and reenactments of the shooting showed it was possible.[55] Many critics scoffed at the conclusion. In a famous scene from JFK, Kevin Costner’s character passionately asserts that this bullet would have had to change directions and stop in midair several times to account for all the wounds on Kennedy and Connally. To complicate matters further, this bullet was found intact on a stretcher in the hospital, with no one knowing who put it there for years. Last year, former Secret Service Agent Paul Landis wrote a sensational book asserting that he found this bullet behind Mrs. Kennedy in the car at the hospital. He took it and put it on President Kennedy’s stretcher for safekeeping.[56] How did the bullet end up in the back seat if it went through Connally? How did it end up behind Mrs. Kennedy without injuring her? Why did Landis wait sixty years before telling his story? Landis’ revelations about the bullet raise more questions than answers.
Law enforcement performed ballistic tests on this intact bullet and determined it came from Oswald’s weapon to the exclusion of all others, and an NAA test showed that it was the bullet that wounded Connally.[57] Bugliosi argues that from the angle of the shot, the decline of the road, Connally’s position six inches to the left of and beneath Kennedy, and Connally turning to look behind him at the moment of the shooting, the “magic bullet’s” path through both men is completely natural.[58] The bullet hit soft tissue and slowed down considerably when it hit Connally’s wrist, which accounts for it being scuffed, bent, and smashed in while remaining intact.[59]
At Parkland, medical personnel disagreed if Kennedy’s wound to his throat was an entrance or exit wound. If it were an entrance wound, that would indicate an assassin shot Kennedy from the front. (Oswald was situated behind and above Kennedy). All three autopsy surgeons who closely inspected the President’s body concluded all of Kennedy’s wounds came from the rear.[60] Both the Warren Commission and the House Select Committee on Assassinations concurred.[61]
Why Did Oswald Say, “I’m a Patsy!”
Rob Reiner argues that Oswald specifically chose the word “patsy” in his limited time with the media after his arrest to tell the world that he had been set up to take the fall for the President’s death.[62]
Why would he not tell the media who was setting him up? If he had prior connections with the CIA, why would he not mention it to the press or Dallas Police during his hours of interrogation? Bugliosi argues that Oswald was accusing the Dallas Police of using him as a patsy because of the years he lived in the Soviet Union, not the CIA or FBI.[63] Oswald's “patsy” statement remains an enigma without more information.
JFK Made Many Enemies
After the failed invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, JFK was upset with the CIA for deceiving him about the invasion’s chance of success.[64] Anti-Castro Cuban exiles (about 1,300) formed the invasion army.[65] Hundreds of them were captured and held in Cuban prisons.[66] They felt betrayed by Kennedy for not providing air support for the invasion.[67]
At the same time, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy cracked down on the Mob,[68] even though they supported Kennedy’s election in 1960.[69] Some mobsters felt betrayed by Kennedy’s administration. They desperately wanted RFK off their backs, especially New Orleans Boss Carlos Marcello.[70] In 1962, the CIA approached several Mob bosses, including Chicago’s Sam Giancana and Florida’s Santo Trafficante, to help assassinate Cuba’s Fidel Castro.[71] Could the CIA, Mob, and Cuban exiles have joined forces to eliminate their mutual enemy—John F. Kennedy?
Many conspiracy theorists like Rob Reiner point to Allen Dulles’ appointment to the Warren Commission as evidence of a CIA cover-up.[72] Dulles was the CIA chief who resigned in disgrace after the Bay of Pigs invasion.[73] We know the CIA hid from the Warren Commission that they had active operations to assassinate Fidel Castro.[74] Did they hide anything else? Almost certainly not that they masterminded the President’s assassination. Reiner fails to mention that Robert F. Kennedy fully supported Allen Dulles’ presence on the Commission.[75] Would he have done so if he had the slightest suspicion that the CIA was behind his dear brother’s death? Also, the Mob almost never killed politicians in the United States.[76] In the States, their tools were bribery and blackmail to get what they wanted from politicians. Bugliosi suggests that if the Mob made a move against Kennedy, they would have threatened to release evidence of his incessant infidelities to the public, not end their longstanding practice of not assassinating political figures in the most dramatic way possible.[77] Finally, Kennedy healed his relationship with many of the Cuban exiles in an appearance at the Orange Bowl in Miami in December 1962, where he pledged his support to their cause even if he could no longer sanction an overt invasion of Cuba.[78] If the CIA hired the Mob or Cuban exiles to kill Kennedy based on promises of looking the other way on the activities of organized crime or a renewed invasion of Cuba, we would know about it when neither of these promises were kept. In 1970, the US government passed the RICO Act and arrested dozens of Mob members over the next two decades—not one of them flipped with promises that they had information on Kennedy’s assassination.[79] Not one Cuban exile has produced credible information about their involvement in Kennedy’s death, even though the US has never again invaded Cuba.
Did Oswald Have Ties to Anti-Castro Cubans?
Anti-conspiracy author Vincent Bugliosi acknowledges that Oswald probably appeared at the Dallas home of Sylvia Odio with two anti-Castro Cubans in late September 1963 (probably the 23rd or 24th), less than two months before the assassination.[80] After the assassination, Odio and her sister identified Oswald as one of three men who visited them to try to recruit them to the anti-Castro cause.[81] Even Bugliosi finds her credible, but he concludes that Oswald was probably trying to gather intelligence on the anti-Castro Cubans to use as leverage when he went to the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City several days later to try and obtain a visa for entrance into Cuba.[82] If Oswald was authentically part of an anti-Castro Cuban group, it could be compelling evidence of his motivations for killing Kennedy on behalf of an organized group.
As discussed last month, Oswald has expressed interest in Marxism since he was fifteen.[83] His reading material, magazine subscriptions, and conversations with Marina and other friends conclude that Oswald was a sincere Marxist and admirer of Fidel Castro. Marina teased him for choosing A. Hidell as his alias, which seemed to be a thinly veiled reference to Fidel.[84] Bugliosi is right that even this instance suggests Oswald was a committed leftist who was gathering intelligence on Castro’s enemies to prove his sincerity to Castro’s cause.
Conclusion
Despite incongruities here and there, the forensic and eyewitness evidence against Oswald is overwhelming. He acted alone in assassinating President Kennedy and killing Dallas Police Officer J. D. Tippit. His rifle was the murder weapon. A bullet and bullet fragments found in Kennedy’s car were traced to Oswald’s rifle. His palm print was on the murder weapon. His finger and palm prints were on the sniper’s perch on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. He fled the scene in an expensive taxi. He murdered a police officer in front of witnesses. Jack Ruby, who admired the Kennedys and considered himself an enforcer of law and order, killed Oswald when the opportunity presented itself. Both men were loners and losers, but they etched their names into the history books as long as the United States exists. Next month, I will give concluding thoughts on the Kennedy assassination, its enduring legacy, and the best sources to read.
Sources
Books
Bugliosi, Vincent, Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007.
Grant, R.G. Assassinations: History’s Most Shocking Moments of Murder, Betrayal, and Madness. New York: Reader’s Digest, 2004.
Gregory, Paul R. The Oswalds: An Untold Account of Marina and Lee. New York: Diversion Books, 2022.
Griffin, Burt W. JFK, Oswald, and Ruby: Politics, Prejudice, and Truth. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2023.
Hill, Clint, with Lisa McCubbin Hill, Five Days in November. New York: Gallery Books, 2013.
Huffaker, Bob, Bill Mercer, George Phenix, and Wes Wise, When the News Went Live: Dallas 1963. Lanham, MD: Taylor Trade Publishing, 2013.
I also obtained information from the JFK Assassination Museum on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas.
Podcasts
Who Killed JFK? By Rob Reiner, Soledad O’Brien, and Dick Russell
The Charles C. W. Cooke Podcast. Episode 17. “The Man Who Knew Lee Harvey Oswald.”
The Rest is History. British Historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook did a seven-part series on the JFK assassination between November 26th, 2023, and December 10th, 2023.
The Joe Rogan Experience. Episode 847. With Dan Carlin.
Documentaries
JFK Assassination: The Definitive Guide (History Channel Documentary).
JFK: One Day in America.
Killing JFK: 60 Questions Answered.
[1] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 49.
[2] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1259.
[3] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1259.
[4] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1259.
[5] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 57.
[6] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 58.
[7] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 63.
[8] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1260.
[9] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 88.
[10] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1124.
[11] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1125.
[12] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1262.
[13] JFK Assassination: The Definitive Guide (History Channel Documentary)
[14] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1265.
[15] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1265.
[16] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1266.
[17] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1266.
[18] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1266.
[19] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1266.
[20] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1270–71.
[21] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1268.
[22] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 186.
[23] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 308.
[24] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 255.
[25] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1269.
[26] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1891.
[27] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 213.
[28] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 279.
[29] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1273. This signed photo was discovered later among the possessions of one of Oswald’s friends.
[30] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1269.
[31] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1270.
[32] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 647 and 1083.
[33] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1270.
[34] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1270.
[35] Rob Reiner details this theory in his podcast, Who Killed JFK?
[36] Huffaker, When the News Went Live, 61. Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 424.
[37] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1436.
[38] Blakey argued this point on Rob Reiner’s podcast, Who Killed JFK?
[39] Griffin, JFK, Oswald, and Ruby, 42, 50.
[40] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1484–1485.
[41] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1473.
[42] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1491.
[43] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1492.
[44] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1458.
[45] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 274 and
[46] Huffaker, When the News Went Live, 51, 55.
[47] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 273.
[48] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1458.
[49] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1399.
[50] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1407.
[51] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1474.
[52] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1109.
[53] Griffin, JFK, Oswald, and Ruby, 83–84.
[54] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 645.
[55] JFK Assassination: The Definitive Guide.
[56] Who Killed JFK? Landis told his story to Rob Reiner.
[57] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1093.
[58] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 636.
[59] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1086–1087.
[60] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 562.
[61] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 563.
[62] Who Killed JFK?
[63] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1128 and 1130.
[64] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1704–1705.
[65] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1695.
[66] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1695.
[67] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1695.
[68] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1500.
[69] Grant, Assassinations, 35.
[70] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 2909.
[71] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1654.
[72] Who Killed JFK?
[73] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1705.
[74] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1726.
[75] Griffin, JFK, Oswald, and Ruby, 28.
[76] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1514.
[77] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1539.
[78] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1711.
[79] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1513.
[80] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1688.
[81] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1679.
[82] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1692–1693.
[83] Griffin, JFK, Oswald, and Ruby, 104.
[84] Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, 1364.