John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas at 12:30 pm Central time.

President Kennedy was fatally wounded by multiple gunshots while riding in a presidential motorcade within Dealey Plaza. The car in which he was traveling was a 1961 Lincoln Continental, open-top, modified limousine.

Texas Governor John Bowen Connally, Sr., riding in the same limousine in front of the president, was also critically injured but survived.

James Tague, a spectator and witness to the assassination, also received a minor gunshot-caused wound.

Ninety-eight minutes after President Kennedy died, Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States while aboard Air Force One.

Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee of the Texas School Book Depository in Dealey Plaza, was arrested for killing the President but was himself shot and killed by Jack Ruby before he could be tried. Subsequent investigations have repeatedly concluded that Oswald was the assassin, but despite this many people believe that Oswald was not responsible or did not act alone.

Timeline

A Presidential visit to the state of Texas was first suggested to John F. Kennedy by his Vice President, Texas native Lyndon Baines Johnson, and Texas native Governor Connally while all three men were together in a meeting in El Paso, Texas on June 6, 1963.

President Kennedy later decided to embark on the trip with three basic goals in mind: the president wanted to help raise more Democratic Party presidential campaign fund contributions. He wanted to begin his quest for re-election in November, 1964 (which most agree he would have won) and, because the Kennedy-Johnson ticket had barely won Texas in 1960, President Kennedy wanted to help mend political fences among several leading Texas Democratic party members who appeared to be fighting politically amongst themselves.

President Kennedy's trip to Dallas was first announced to the public in September 1963.

During the third week of October, 1963 Lee Harvey Oswald started working a seasonal, full-time job at the Texas School Book Depository as a $1.25-per-hour manual laborer filling customer orders for books. Oswald had secured the job on the advice of Ruth Paine, with which Lee’s wife Marina Oswald and the Oswald children were living after a marriage separation. Ruth also separated from her husband, Michael Paine, at about the same time.

The exact presidential motorcade route was announced to the public a few days before November 22.

On Friday, November 22, 1963, at 11:40 am US Central Standard Time ("CST" hereafter), President Kennedy, his wife Jacqueline, and the rest of the presidential entourage arrived at Love Field in Dallas, Texas, aboard Air Force One after a very short flight from nearby Ft. Worth. The motorcade cars had been lined up in a certain order earlier that morning but, just prior to Kennedy's arrival, the order of the vehicles was changed. The original schedule was for the president to proceed in a long motorcade from Love Field, through downtown Dallas and end at the Dallas Business and Trade Mart.

The motorcade was scheduled to enter Dealey Plaza at 12:25 pm, followed by a 12:30 pm arrival at the Trade Mart so President Kennedy could deliver a speech and share in a steak luncheon with Dallas government, business, religious, civic leaders and their spouses.

Riding with President Kennedy in the limousine were: First Lady of the United States, Jacqueline Kennedy, John Connally, Sr., and his wife, Nellie, Secret Service agent and White House Detail Team #3 Assistant in Charge, Roy Kellerman, and Secret Service agent and limousine driver Bill Greer.

Kennedy's open-top limousine was not equipped with a bulletproof top, and no presidential car with a bulletproof top existed in 1963. (FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, however, had three bulletproofed cars.)

There was a spattering of handmade protest signs held aloft by motorcade viewers. Throughout Dallas, and especially along the motorcade route, a group critical of Kennedy, expressing its views, had distributed a handout flyer. Also, in a November 22nd Dallas newspaper there appeared a black-bordered, full-page advertisement paid for by Kennedy critics, which Jack Ruby would later mention particularly had enraged him.

The presidential motorcade traveled nearly its entire route without incident, stopping twice so President Kennedy could shake hands with some Catholic nuns, then some school children. Shortly before the limousine turned onto Main Street a male ran towards the limousine, but was thrust to the ground by a Secret Service agent and hustled away.

At 12:29 pm CST, the presidential limousine entered Dealey Plaza after a 90-degree right turn from Main Street onto Houston Street. Over two dozen amateur and professional still and motion-picture photographers captured the last living images of President Kennedy.

Just before 12:30 pm CST, President Kennedy slowly approached the Texas School Book Depository head-on, then the limousine slowly turned the 120-degrees directly in front of the depository, now only 65 feet (20 meters) away.

The assassination began when the presidential limousine had completed the slowing turn, and glided down the three-degree inclined Elm Street to a point level with the southwest corner of the depository.

President Kennedy was targeted and shot at for an estimated 6 to 9 seconds. He was hit with multiple bullets, and was killed when struck in his head.

During the assassination the limousine slowed from over thirteen miles per hour, to only nine m.p.h., when, about two seconds prior to the president being struck in his head, the limousine brake lights were witnessed and filmed being illuminated as the limousine driver had turned and was facing President Kennedy.

At least two shots are theorized to have struck President Kennedy, and, at least, one shot struck Governor Connally.

A witness, James Tague, was also slightly wounded on his right facial cheek while standing 270 feet (82 meters) in front of where President Kennedy's head first exploded.

On November 22, and in the months and years following President Kennedy's assassination, many witnesses in Dealey Plaza at that moment have come forward or have been identified and have stated their observations about what happened during the crucial seconds of the attack. Many witnesses were known to investigators, but some were never called by the investigators to describe what they observed. Many witnesses photographed at the scene (including several photographers and film-makers) are still unknown and have chosen to not come forward.

The details of the events described by the identified witnesses concur in many respects but there are also quite a number of conflicting details between information supplied by the witnesses. Some witnesses have also described details that no other witness has yet described. Among the important witness considerations were:

• The reactions of all limousine occupants relative to each other during the assassination and relative to what each limousine occupant testified they saw, heard, and felt during the assassination.
• How many audible muzzles blasts a witness remembered hearing.
• Where the audible muzzle blasts a witness remembered hearing originated.
• The identities of two armed men and at least one other man seen on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.
• The identities of other potential witnesses and/or assassins and/or co-conspirators involved in President Kennedy’s assassination.

After the first audible muzzle blasts were fired, and after Governor Connally had screamed, "No, no, no. They are going to kill us all!" the gravity of the situation became clear to the Secret Service limousine driver, Bill Greer. During the attack Greer had turned very quickly to look, behind him and towards the screaming governor and/or President, then turned forward again. He then turned very quickly again rearward as the limousine brakes were filmed illuminating, and Greer was filmed actually facing the president when President Kennedy's head first exploded. Only after President Kennedy was mortally wounded did the limousine then speed up to exit Dealey Plaza to proceed to Parkland Memorial Hospital. Notably, at Zapruder frame 290-293 every single occupant in the limousine (except the president) is seen to quickly duck their heads in near unison within only a quarter-second of each other. Approximately 1.1 second later, President Kennedy was first struck in the head.

No radio or television stations are known to have broadcast the assassination live, as the area the motorcade was traveling through was not considered important enough to broadcast. KBOX-AM did recreate the sounds of the shooting for an LP record it released with excerpts of news coverage of that day, but it was not an original recording. Except for the media positioned at the rear of the motorcade, most media crews were in fact waiting, in anticipation for the President’s arrival, at the Trade Mart.

Lee Harvey Oswald was confronted by an armed Dallas policeman, Marion Baker, in the depository second floor lunchroom only 75 to 90 seconds (according to a Warren Commission time recreation) after the last shot. Baker first testified that the shots he remembered hearing as he approached the depository originated from the "building in front of me, or, the one to the right". The Warren Commission theorized that Oswald had traveled a, minimum, 346 foot distance from the sixth floor easternmost window, and hid an 8 pound, 1938-Italian made Mannlicher-Carcano, 6.5 millimeter rifle equipped with a four-power scope along the way. The rifle was reported discovered by a Dallas police detective at 1:22 pm balanced upright having been placed sometime sitting balanced on its bottom edges. After being discovered the rifle was photographed before being touched. In the second floor lunchroom Oswald was identified by the superintendent of the building, Roy Truly, then released. Both Baker and Truly testified that Oswald appeared completely "calm, cool, normal, and was not out of breath in any way." In Baker’s written statement he originally wrote that Oswald already had a Coca-Cola in his hand, but during his testimony, and sometime during the 5 months after he first testified, the Baker statement about Oswald holding a Coca-Cola was lined-out, and Baker’s name initials appeared above the lineout.

According to the Warren Commission, when Oswald was next seen, by a depository secretary on the first floor, he was carrying a soda bottle as he left the Texas School Book Depository at approximately 12:33 pm through its front door.

Authorities did not seal the Texas School Book Depository until 12:39 or 12:40 pm. Before that, policeman, detectives, witnesses, and others were first directed by persons to search the grassy knoll, parking lot, and railroad yard from 12:30 to 12:39 pm. The Dealey Plaza immediate area streets and blocks was never sealed-off either, and within only nine minutes of the assassination, photographs show that vehicles were driving down Elm Street, through the crime scene kill zone.

At 1:00 pm, after a bus and taxi ride (a taxi ride that he was witnessed offering first to an elderly woman), Oswald arrived back at his boarding room and according to his landlady, left at 1:03 or 1:04 pm when she last saw him standing and waiting at a bus stop.

At 1:15 to 1:16 pm, Dallas police officer J. D. Tippit was shot dead 0.85 miles from Oswald's rooming house. Thirteen people either witnessed Oswald shooting Tippit or fleeing the scene. After the Tippit murder Oswald was witnessed traveling on foot toward the Texas Theatre.

Meanwhile, the situation at Parkland Hospital had deteriorated. Even as the press contingent grew, a Roman Catholic priest had been summoned for President Kennedy so that his Last Rites could be performed. It had become apparent to those inside the hospital that the president had been mortally wounded. President Kennedy was pronounced dead at 1:00 pm. Governor Connally, meanwhile, was soon taken to emergency surgery where he underwent two operations later that day.

The news of Kennedy's death was made public at 1:38 pm CST. News anchorman Walter Cronkite passed along word of the assassination. The television transmissions were first interrupted around 12:35 pm CST. At this time, the top-rated As the World Turns was airing across the country. As Nancy Hughes (Helen Wagner) turned to Grandpa to discuss a domestic matter, the CBS News bulletin card was abruptly placed on the screen. After the first notice was read that President Kennedy was wounded, the affiliates went back to As the World Turns, at least for a couple of minutes. Walter Cronkite read more news reports and then, around 1 pm CST, the affiliates joined Cronkite in the news room. After news footage was shown of a luncheon in Dallas where Kennedy was supposed to speak, Cronkite read the press release on-air:

"From Dallas, Texas, the flash -apparently official- President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time a hour ago... ...Vice President Johnson has left the hospital in Dallas, but we do not know to where he has proceeded. Presumably, he will be taking the oath of office shortly, and become the thirty-sixth President of the United States."

For approximately three days after November 22, all three major U.S. television networks remained fixed to news coverage. Most radio stations carried either news or 'beautiful music', in a show of respect. Some have pointed to the John F. Kennedy assassination as a coming of age of sorts for live television news coverage.

Johnny Calvin Brewer worked as a manager at Hardy's Shoe Store, down the street from the Texas Theatre. He saw Oswald turning his face away from the street and duck into the entranceway of the shoe store as Dallas squad cars sirened up the street. When Oswald left the store Brewer followed Oswald and watched him go into the Texas Theater movie house without paying while the ticket attendant was distracted. Brewer notified the ticket taker, who in turn informed the Dallas Police at 1:40 pm. Inside the theater, several witnesses saw Oswald shift to different seat locations to sit next to different patrons.

Almost two dozen policeman, sheriffs, and detectives in several patrol cars arrived at the theatre because they thought Tippet and/or the President's killer was inside. (They also raided a nearby library on a similar, but mistaken report.) When an arrest attempt was made at 1:50 pm inside the theater, Oswald resisted arrest and, according to the police, attempted to shoot a patrolman after yelling once, "Well, it's all over now!" then punched a patrolman. A policeman was heard to immediately yell, "Kill the president, will ‘ya?!!"

A few minutes after 2:00 pm, and after a ten to fifteen minute confrontation with cursing and weapons-brandishing Secret Service agents, President Kennedy's body was illegally removed from Parkland Hospital and driven to Air Force One. The body was removed before undergoing a forensic examination by the Dallas coroner, and against Texas state laws (the murder of the president was a state crime, and legally occurred under Texas jurisdiction).

Back at Air Force One, Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as the thirty-sixth President of the United States at 2:38 pm CST.

At about 6:00 pm EST Air Force One landed at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington D.C. where a casket was loaded into a light gray US Navy ambulance for its transport to the US Navy Bethesda Hospital for an autopsy and mortician's preparations.

At about 7:00 pm CST Oswald was charged with "murder with malice" in the killing of police officer J.D. Tippit. At about 11:30 pm Oswald was charged with assassinating President Kennedy "in the furtherance of a Communist conspiracy."

During his two days of incarceration, Oswald always consistently denied shooting anyone, and was famously quoted, "I'm just a patsy."

On November 24, at 11:21 am CST, after 15 hours of undocumented interrogations, Jack Ruby — a Dallas nightclub owner, shot and killed Oswald in the basement of the Dallas jail while Oswald was being transferred via car to a nearly next door jail.

Millions watched the silencing of Lee Harvey Oswald on television. It was the first time in tv history that a murder was captured live.

The route that Ruby took to get down into the basement of the Dallas jail has been disputed, although Ruby was very specific about using the entrance ramp (and his access to the jail on other days). This was recorded during the polygraph test Ruby insisted on taking and documented in a Warren report appendix. One witness, a former policeman named Napoleon Daniels, stated he saw Ruby use the ramp. The use of some routes through the building would suggest that Ruby had received help from authorities inside the building, but plenty of journalists entered the building without having their credentials checked.

One of the several questions Ruby showed signs of lying about (despite the polygraph operator having turned-down the sensitivity mechanism of the polygraph machine) was when Ruby answered "no" to if he ever knew Oswald. In the preparations to his trial Ruby later stated that he killed Oswald on the spur of the moment to spare Jacqueline Kennedy the stress and embarrassment a trial would cause her, yet, immediately after his arrest, Ruby expressed to witnesses that the American people would see him "as a hero" and/or that the murder was proof that "Jews have guts."

(Still missing from this timeline are details of what the Parkland Hospital trauma room #1 personnel observed, the trip home by Jacqueline Kennedy, documented details of the Bethesda autopsy, the funeral, procession to Arlington National Cemetery, and burial, which may be far enough for the timeline to run.)

A Nation Mourns

Across the United States, the news of President Kennedy's murder brought much normal activity to a halt. In New York, the news spread by radio, television, and word of mouth, Men and women wept openly. So many phone calls were placed in the New York phone exchange that operators were eventually forced to refuse calls. People instinctively clustered in department stores and others prayed. Auto traffic in some areas came to a halt as the news of Kennedy's death spread literally from car to car. An unguided anger against 'Texas and Texans' was reported from some individuals. In Washington D.C., at 1:43 pm (12:38 Dallas time, just minutes after the attack) the telephone system went out-of-service for 59 minutes.

Many sporting events were cancelled on that Friday and into the following weekend. NFL football was not cancelled that weekend, and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle later called that the biggest mistake he ever made.

An estimated 450,000 people, some waiting through driving thunderstorms, personally paid their respects and expressed their grief as President Kennedy's body lay in-state in the Capitol Building rotunda. Televised worldwide, President John F. Kennedy was carried to Arlington National Cemetery on November 25, 1963 on the same horse-drawn caisson carriage that has carried President Reagan, Lincoln, and twelve other presidents since Lincoln. President Kennedy was followed by his family (except for his ill father), and at least one representative from every nation except Communist China and Albania. An estimated 350,000 mourners lined the now-quiet streets of Washington D.C. as millions of free citizens worldwide joined-in via tv.

Known Witnesses

• Abraham Zapruder - Filmed the entire attack with his movie camera. A November 22 note from a Secret Service agent (Warren Commission Document, CD87) stated that Mr. Zapruder heard shots originate from behind him (behind Zapruder was the picket fence and triple overpass areas of the grassy knoll).
• James Tague - An Air Force veteran who was also wounded during the assassination while standing 270 feet (82 meters) in front of the limousine. Tague testified he thought he was wounded with the second or third shot he remembered hearing, and when pressed for which shot, he testified it was the second shot that he was wounded by. Tague stated that the shots came from near the monument on the grassy knoll. The Main Street south curb 23 feet 6 in (7.2 meters) away from Tague was impacted during the assassination and left behind bullet lead but no copper from a bullet sheath. It was not until May and June of 1964 that the growing public awareness of Tague’s wounding forced all investigating authorities to completely revise their original 3-shots theory of 3 impacts/8 wounds, to a "new" theory of 2 impacts/1 missed shot/8 wounds.
• Roy Kellerman - Secret Service agent riding in the limousine front passenger seat testified that after he remembered hearing his first shot, the assassination ended in a "flurry of shells" coming into the limousine that reminded him of a jet aircraft's sonic-boom sound quickness. Kellerman, who was the nearest agent to the President during the attack, testified to the Warren Commissioners, "I am going to say that I have, from the firecracker report and the two other shots that I know, those were three shots. But, Mr. Specter, if President Kennedy had from all reports four wounds, Governor Connally three, there have got to be more than three shots, gentlemen."
• Lee Bowers - Railroad yard switching supervisor watching in a 14 feet (4.3 meters) elevated tower overlooking the parking area behind the grassy knoll who testified that he saw two men lingering near the picket fence east corner, and two other men at the far west end of the picket fence line just before the president arrived. Bowers had also observed three civilian cars drive through and depart the packed depository parking lot in the minutes leading up to the assassination. One car driver seemed to have a microphone or radio held up to his mouth. In 1966 Bowers stated that he was attracted by a flash of light, or smoke, or something, to look specifically towards the grassy knoll picket fence east corner area at the instant of the assassination when he remembered hearing 3 shots. Bowers, like many of the witnesses said the last 2 shots he remembered hearing were bunched noticeably closer together than the first 2 shots he remembered hearing.
• Forest Sorrels - Secret Service Dallas Office Special Agent In Charge riding in the lead car, was located level with the picket fence east corner at the assassination start (approximately 140 feet (43 meters) in front of President Kennedy) documented in his report dated November 28, (and is also detailed in Warren Commission Volume 21, page 548) "I looked towards the top of the terrace to my right as the sound of the shots seemed to come from that direction."
• Charles Brehm - World War II, D-Day United States Army Ranger veteran who was newspaper quoted just minutes after the assassination (still standing within Dealey Plaza) that "the shots seemed to come from in front of, or, beside the President." Brehm also later stated that he watched something fly left and behind the President and land at the curb close to Brehm when the President's head exploded. Brehm’s 11-22-63 written Dallas police affidavit has disappeared from the evidence. Just like several other witnesses who saw the President, Brehm heard another separate shot after the President's head had already exploded.
• Robert W. Hargis - Dallas Policeman presidential limousine motorcycle escort riding slightly in back of the President and to the President’s left (14 linear feet (4.3 meters) away) at the instant the President’s head first exploded was quoted 11-22-63 in the 11-23-63 “New York Daily News” newspaper, page 1, column 4, "...then, I saw the president's head explode. Then, I felt something hit me, which could have been concrete. I thought at first I might have been hit." The right side of Hargis’s safety helmet, the exposed portion of his face, and his uniform was covered with blood and pieces of the President’s head.
• Rosemary Willis - Clearly seen in the Zapruder film, at the start of the assassination she was running with and facing the limousine on her right, then circa Zapruder film frame 190 (hereafter "Z-190"), she stops running and then slightly turns her head to face the southwest corner of the depository. After the sitting upright president is hidden by the "Stemmons Freeway" traffic sign in the Zapruder film, she suddenly, very rapidly, beginning at Z-214 snaps her head 90 degrees westward within only 0.16 second to face Abraham Zapruder and the grassy knoll. Precisely 0.55 second after her extremely quick headsnap towards Zapruder and the grassy knoll, President Kennedy emerges back into view --still sitting upright-- with his face and arms already reacting to being shot. She also told the HSCA committee that while she was still facing the grassy knoll picket fence she was attracted to view the quick movements of a person quickly drop down out of sight behind a wall.
• Phillip Willis - A U.S. Air Force Lt. Colonel veteran testified that he was prepared to capture a photo then he was suddenly startled by the first audible gun shot he remembered hearing. His short-timed startle reaction caused him to inadvertently capture a photo. His photo timing corresponds to Z-202, when President Kennedy, still sitting upright, begins to be hidden from view by the "Stemmons Freeway" traffic sign in the Zapruder film. In the background of that photo is seen what the HSCA determined was a white person standing or crouched near a wall.
• Arnold Rowland, standing with his future wife, testified to the Warren Commission that he obseved a second assassin, rifle-armed, standing in view near a depository sixth-floor far west open window just minutes before the assassination.
• Hugh Betzner Jr. - Captured a photo at Z-186, then quickly started to advance the film, when he heard the first audible shot he remembered hearing. Importantly, relative to the Betzner and Willis photos timings, a large live-oak tree foliage and branches hid President Kennedy from clear view of any, supposed, assassin shooting from the Warren Commission sniper’s lair (on the book depository’s sixth floor) from Z-162 until Z-208.
• William Sr., Gayle, William Jr., and James Newman - Family standing on the Elm Street sidewalk only 20 feet (6 meters) to President Kennedy's right when the right side of his head exploded. To this day, Bill and Gayle maintain that they each heard at least one audible shot that originated from behind them. (Behind the Newman's facing direction was the picket fence and triple overpass areas of the grassy knoll).
• Jean Hill - "The lady in red" who was standing across from the grassy knoll and stated she remembered hearing 4 to 6 shots. In her testimony she also stated that she was told by an "agent" that another "agent" watching from nearby had seen a bullet hit near her feet and kick-up debris.
• Sam Holland - Railroad supervisor who was on the triple overpass in front of the limousine, standing with several other witnesses who also stated he remembered hearing at least one shot that came from the grassy knoll picket fence and saw gun smoke lingering there. This gun smoke is possibly seen in a movie film captured by reporter Dave Wiegman Jr. The first place that Holland and several of his co-witnesses ran to after the shots was the east corner of the grassy knoll picket fence.
• Mary Moorman - Only 21 feet (6.4 meters) from the President at Z-313, stated she heard another shot or two after taking her famous polaroid picture at Z-316 (that photo was captured only 0.16 second after the President's head first exploded at Z-313)
• Bill Greer - the Secret Service limousine driver during the assassination; Greer testified that he felt the concussion tingle of a bullet on his face while he was looking into the limo backseat. Greer’s head was approximately 9 feet (2.7 meters) from the president’s head during the last 3 seconds of the assassination.
• Howard Brennan -- sitting some 100 feet (30 meters) directly south of the depository, Brennan saw an assassin in the depository sixth-floor easternmost window with a rifle about 15 minutes before the assassination. During the assassination he saw a man in the same window fire one time towards the limousine. His description of the shooter was the basis for the 12:45 general description broadcast to Dallas police. Brennan did not identify Oswald in a police lineup as the assassin, but later said he did that because he feared for his life and that of his family. However, he later testified that it was Oswald. "I could never forget the face I had seen in the window," he said.
• Jacqueline Kennedy - said she saw a piece of the President's skull be detached, yet, as documented in the Zapruder film, her head was not in a position to allow her eyes to see the president’s head top until almost one second after the President's head first exploded. Within seconds she then climbed onto the left-center rear of the limousine trunk and quickly picked up a piece of her husband's head, which she soon gave to a Parkland Hospital doctor.
• Governor John Connally - testified he remembered hearing an audible muzzle blast -knew immediately it was a rifle shot- turned his head to try and see the president, could not see him so he started to turn back to his left, then Connally was hit while facing nearly limo-forward (but did not hear that shot), then he screamed, “No, no, no! They are going to kill us all!,“ then he remembered hearing another audible shot.
• Nellie Connally - testified she remembered hearing an audible muzzle blast, then she turned toward President Kennedy and then saw him with his hands already upwards towards his throat, then she remembered hearing a second shot that hit John Connally to which John Connally immediately screamed, “No, no, no! They are going to kill us all!,“ then Nellie remembered hearing another shot and the limousine rear interior (and front hood, rear trunk lid, and surrounding persons and area as far away as 117 feet (36 meters) distant, not including Tague) was immediately covered with the President's head matter and/or blood. In their HSCA testimony both Connallys testified that there was an additional shot after the headshot.
• William Harper - A medical student who on November 22 discovered a large piece of President Kennedy's skull bone (known as the "Harper fragment") in the grass south of Elm Street. Where Harper diagramed he found the skull piece was 117 feet (36 meters) forward of the President's Z-313 location, to the left side of the limousine but to the right side of President Kennedy's facing direction. A theorized straight-line flight path of the "Harper fragment" back through the President at Z-313, continues straight back in a theorized bullet trajectory that intersects the west side sixth-floor depository windows --not the Warren Commission eastern-most sniper’s lair. Arnold Rowland testified to the Warren Commission that just minutes before the attack he observed a second assassin, rifle-armed, near a far west sixth floor open window.
• Rufus Youngblood - Secret Service agent riding with Vice-President Johnson who stated he remembered hearing 3 shots (and like a large majority of witnesses said the last 2 shots were bunched noticeably closer in time than the first 2 shots). Stated that after the first shot he remembered hearing, he quickly turned and pushed LBJ down and climbed over front seat into back on top of LBJ before the second shot he remembered hearing, yet in the famous Ike Altgens photo taken at Z-255 --only 3.4 seconds before the President's head first exploded-- Youngblood and LBJ are still sitting upright, and Youngblood is still in the front seat
• James Eugene Braden (a.k.a. "Eugene Hale Brading") mafia-connected, multiply-convicted felon on parole who was soon arrested by the Dallas Police after being reported acting suspiciously while inside the Dal-Tex building, which was right next-to and across the street from the depository sixth-floor, supposed, sniper’s lair. (In 1968 Braden/Brading was also registered at a hotel within only miles of Robert F. Kennedy on the same night when RFK was murdered. Los Angeles authorities took him in for questioning then, also)

Several witnesses testified they noticed a weapon extended from the 60.7 feet (18.5 meters) high sixth-floor easternmost open window of the depository, 265.3‘ away from the President when his head first exploded. Two witnesses testified that they watched that weapon fire once. One of those two witnesses, James Worrell, testified he heard 4 separate shots. The other of those two witnesses, Howard Brennan, testified he remembered hearing 2 shots, and, he saw that assassin's upper body half, yet, on the evening of November 22, 1963 (and despite seeing Oswald’s face on television), he refused to positively identify that assassin as Lee Harvey Oswald. After Oswald was murdered, and having met several times with investigative authorities, this witness then changed his mind and later testified that the assassin he saw was Oswald. (There is no documentation of Brennan ever attending any police line-up.)

Shortly before the attack started, several witnesses saw a second man wearing a dark color coat and standing with the sixth-floor eastern-most window assassin.

Several close witnesses at limousine street level also stated they saw the debris and/or spark of something striking the Elm Street pavement during the shooting.

The vast majority of persons said that the first audible muzzle blast (or the first mecahnically-suppress-fired bullet bow shockwave or the first closely-bunched volley of shots) that they remembered hearing sounded different than the follow-up audible shots. The majority of witnesses who expressed an opinion of the timing of the audible shots they remembered hearing said the second and third shots (or the second and third closely-bunched volley of shots) were noticeably bunched distinctly closer together in time than the first and second shots.

A Dallas Police motorcycle escort said he heard something clang against his motorcycle then saw a bullet slug bounce away from his motorcycle.

As seen in several photos and films during the assassination, the wind was blowing from the southwest towards the depository, yet several ground-level witnesses and motorcade witnesses at street level testified that they smelled gunpowder. Several witnesses testified that gun smoke lingered long enough to be seen near where they heard at least one audible shot originate from --the picket fence of the grassy knoll.

Three witnesses have stated they saw an assassin fire a weapon from behind the picket fence on the grassy knoll. One witness stated he encountered a business-suited man behind the grassy knoll who had a weapon under his suit coat and who said to him and others not to come up here because you may get shot. Several witnesses were close enough to President Kennedy to detail the bullets wounding results and timing reactions of President Kennedy, Governor Connally, and other limousine occupants to each other. A witness testified she was told that a Dealey Plaza stationed “agent” saw something kick up ground debris near her feet. (there is no documentation of any "agent" or "agents" ever being stationed within the grounds of Dealey Plaza) Two more witnesses later said that they examined two parallel ground tracks that a Dallas policeman had told them was where bullets had struck, and that these burrows aligned with the grassy knoll (although their FBI interview states they saw only one track, and that it "generally aligned with the depository").

Another witness, James Foster, a Dallas policeman stationed on the railroad bridge overpass, testified he saw something strike the cement apron of a sewer 105 feet (32 meters) in front of the limousine. Within 9 minutes, he was ordered to guard that sewer area. James Worrell saw a dark-coated man run out the backdoor of the depository within 2 minutes of the last audible shot. Within minutes, a Dallas policeman, David Harkness, encountered four men in business suits at the rear of the depository who were armed. Harkness has stated that before he even had a chance to ask these four men who they were, one of the armed men quickly identified themselves as “agents.” Another Dallas policeman, Joeseph Smith, heard shots west of the depository and a woman screaming “They’re shooting the president from the bushes!” encountered a man who flashed an “agent” identification. That same policeman also testified he smelled gunpowder behind the grassy knoll picket fence.

Unknown Witnesses, Disputed Witnesses, and Possible Assassins or Accomplices

• An American who arrived with two anti-Castro Cubans in late September 1963 and spoke with anti-Castrolite, Sylvia Odio. At the time of this meeting Lee Harvey Oswald was (according to the Warren Commission and witnesses) riding on a bus towards Mexico City, Mexico. One of the anti-Castro Cubans called Odio back a day or two after the initial meeting and said that the American was a bit crazy and told Odio that the American said that Kennedy should be killed because of the Bay of Pigs. Oswald had portrayed himself in August, 1963 in New Orleans as anti-Castro, then, days later as pro-Castro when he was arrested on August 9, 1963. On November 22, 1963 upon first seeing his face on tv, Sylvia Odio immediately recognized the American to be Lee Harvey Oswald.
• A man photographed by the CIA leaving the Russian embassy in Mexico City who the CIA initially identified as Lee Harvey Oswald, but who, clearly, is not Oswald.
• A man who resembled Lee Harvey Oswald seen before the assassination several times (once with a very large bearded man who drove) at a Dallas practice range shooting a rifle.
• Two men who were seen with rifles near Dealey Plaza on November 20. The police were called, but when they arrived the men were gone.
• A witness who stated that between 9:30 and 10:00 am on November 22 “I looked over on the railroad bridge and I saw three men, and I thought I saw two of them carrying guns, long guns. I glanced to my left to check traffic, and then looked back, because even in Texas it’s unusual to see people carrying long guns.”
• A tall, large man seen by two witnesses wearing a suit and carrying a gun case towards Dealey Plaza the morning of the assassination
• "a plainclothes detective or FBI agent, or something like that” who a witness stated was helping some Dallas policeman dressed men guard the triple overpass at 10:30 am before the assassination (even though no "agent(s)" were ordered to be there)
• A man seen by Julia Mercer at about 10:50 am before the assassination removing what she said was a gun case from the back of a pickup truck parked up on the Elm Street north curb next to the grassy knoll. On November 23 Mercer identified the driver of the pickup truck as Jack Ruby (the day before Ruby killed Oswald)
• The "epileptic man" who at 12:17-12:18 started having an epileptic fit near the southwest corner of Houston and Elm Streets. Some persons contend this was a deliberate distraction so other assassins could get into position, while simultaneously drawing attention away from assassins’ buildings locations, while other persons think this was a man named Jerry T. Belknap.
• A rifle-armed assassin seen leaning out the depository sixth-floor east window with the weapon, staring south-westward towards the grassy knoll just before and after the "epileptic man" episode
• A second rifle-armed assassin seen in a depository sixth-floor west window at 12:16
• Lee Harvey Oswald who depository employee and motorcade witness Carolyn Arnold told respected researcher Anthony Summers she saw Oswald sitting in the depository second-floor lunchroom at 12:15 to 12:20 pm eating his lunch. President Kennedy was scheduled to drive by the depository at 12:25 pm.
• A second male accomplice seen by several witnesses standing near an armed assassin in the depository sixth-floor east window
• A person filmed in the depository sixth-floor east window moving upward just as the Presidential limousine started turning from Houston Street onto Elm Street only seconds before the assassination started
• The "babushka lady" - many years after the assassination Beverly Oliver claimed to be this witness standing near Brehm. Oliver claims to have made an amateur movie film of the assassination, but claims an agent confiscated her film.
• The "Umbrella Man" - In 1978 Louis Witt first came forward and claimed to be this assassination witness and gave testimony at the HSCA hearings that he was there to heckle the President, but he was not involved in any conspiracy
• The "accomplice" a.k.a. the "dark complected man" seen standing close to the "umbrella man." One second this man, who some say looks like a Cuban, is just standing there as the President is approaching him, then, within 1.3 seconds, as the President begins to react with his hands towards his throat, this man shoots his right arm upwards like a wave, but he does not wave his hand. Some think he was signaling at least one assassin that more shots were needed
• An armed assassin photographed in a second floor Dal-Tex window captured during the assassination
• A person and/or rifle seen by several witnesses in the depository sixth-floor east window during the assassination (one witness, Brennan, said he saw the rifle fire once)
• An assassin who Jean Hill said she caught a glimpse of firing and his gun smoke, located behind the grassy knoll picket fence, about 9 feet (2.7 meters) west of the fence line corner (exactly where the HSCA recreated a shot which matched the gunshot impulse found on the dictabelt police recording, and where the Mary Moorman polaroid is thought by some to show something or someone there that is not present in photos and films captured only seconds later)
• An assassin who was wearing a suit and a hat that witness Ed Hoffman claims was facing away from Hoffman, then the man quickly leaned up and over the picket fence, then a puff of smoke appeared, then the man turned with a rifle and immediately ran westward along the picket fence line (his running may be seen in a movie film), then tossed the rifle to an accomplice dressed like a railroad worker, then he walked away from the picket fence
• The "railroad worker" dressed accomplice who caught the rifle from the picket fence hatted assassin, who ran behind a large utility box, broke the rifle into 2 pieces, then hid the pieces in a bag, then also walked away from the picket fence northward.
• An assassin who told a mafia Godfather he fired one shot from the Elm Street north curb sewer opening to the front and right of the President, and who said another assassin fired from the Dal-Tex building in a trajectory similar to the Warren Commission's "sniper’s lair"
• The "badge man" - supposed photo image of a Dallas police uniformed assassin elevated behind the picket fence who a few think shot over the retaining wall corner, towards the President (claimed by some to be in enhanced versions of the Mary Moorman polaroid photo captured immediately after the President's head first exploded)
• In 1978 Gordon Arnold claimed to have been asked twice by an "agent" to move away from behind the fence on the grassy knoll before the assassination. Arnold claimed that during the assassination while he was shooting an amateur movie film, a bullet fired from behind him whizzed close to his left side. Arnold also claimed that a revolver-armed Dallas police uniformed man kicked him, demanded then took his assassination movie film after the shooting, while a close-by crying "badge man" looked on while waving a rifle around. No witnesses or photographic evidence corroborate Arnold’s claims or even his presence in Dealey Plaza. He claims to have been in a spot very near Abraham Zapruder and other witnesses.
• The "railroad man" - supposed image of a man in a white shirt and a construction hardhat standing near the "badge man" but looking towards the Depository (claimed by some to be in enhanced versions of the Mary Moorman polaroid photo captured immediately after the President's head first exploded)
• The "black dog man" - image of a person very close to or leaning on the retaining wall on the grassy knoll. The HSCA determined he/she was a white person
• A black man and black woman that Marilyn Sitzman stated she saw sitting on the retaining wall bench sharing their lunch just before the assassination. Sitzman said that seconds after the President's head exploded she heard one of their soda pop bottles break and the black couple ran away into the parking lot
• The "s.o.b. man" in front of the President holding a homemade sign that read "JFK S.O.B." Some think this man looks Cuban.
• A "running man" who witness Jessie Price said he watched running north-eastward through the depository parking lot, carrying something away from the grassy knoll
• A man photographed looking out of a depository sixth-floor west window only seconds after the assassination
• An anxious woman who was apprehended in the depository parking lot trying to drive away right afterwards. She was turned over to the Dallas Sheriff's office for questioning, yet no record exists of her arrest, her statements, or the car she had parked near the grassy knoll picket fence
• A man who right after the assassination was seen running out the depository back door, then running away from Dealey Plaza
• A woman who screamed to policeman Joe Smith "They're shooting the President from the bushes!"
• A man with the Dealey Plaza groundskeeper, Emmett Hudson, watching from the grassy knoll steps that told the groundskeeper only seconds afterwards to "lay down because they were shooting the President from the bushes"
• An "agent" who policeman Joe Smith encountered behind the grassy knoll picket fence shortly after the shots, who flashed Smith a secret service card (even though no secret service agents were stationed in the plaza) Smith also testified he smelled gunpowder behind the grassy knoll
• An "agent" who stopped witness Malcolm Summers and other witnesses from entering behind the grassy knoll into the depository parking lot and told them to stop because they may get shot (Summers said he saw a weapon semi-hidden under the "agents" coat)
• An "agent" who watched a bullet strike near the feet of witness Jean Hill
• An "agent" who told Jean Hill that another "agent" had watched a bullet strike near the feet of witness Jean Hill
• Several "agents" who a Dallas policeman testified were at the depository back door only minutes afterwards. These "agents" were dressed in suits, and armed, and, when they first saw the policeman, without being asked, quickly identified themselves to the policeman as "agents" even though no official record places any "agents" on the Dealey Plaza grounds before or during the assassination, until afterwards starting at about 1:00 PM
• A man who a Dallas Sheriff's detective saw run from near the depository to a station wagon minutes after the assassination who the detective said looked like Lee Harvey Oswald
• A "running man" who off-duty policeman Tom Tilson said he watched scramble down the west side of the "triple overpass" embankment, throw something into a parked car, then drive quickly away from the plaza westward
• A dark suited man seen in 12:39-12:40 pm photos near the Elm Street south curb sewer bending over and seeming to scoop something into his hand, then place it in his suit coat pocket
• The “three tramps” that were found in railroad car boxcar near the depository, then marched to the Dallas jail just after 2:00 PM.
• Several other persons besides the "three tramps" who a Dallas policeman said were arrested in railroad cars after the assassination
• A man who was arrested at 2:45 pm after the assassination who said that he was in a jail cell near Oswald and that Oswald talked to him

A portion of the known witnesses can be found here.

One of the best scaled maps of Dealey Plaza showing witnesses locations and observations, suspected assassins’ locations, evidentiary artifacts, and other valuable information can be found here.

Shots Sequencing and Origins

There were approximately 700 witnesses and motorcade witnesses within Dealey Plaza during the assassination. Of 267 identified witnesses who expressed or were asked the number of shots they remembered hearing, 249 (93%) claimed to hear only 3 shots (or 3 closely spaced volleys of shots), or less.

The vast majority of witnesses stated (“a 5 to 1 ratio“ as Warren Commissioner, and ex-CIA Director, Alan Dulles stated for the record) the last two audible muzzle blasts (or volleys of shots) that they remembered hearing were, noticeably, bunched closer together in time than the first two audible muzzle blasts (or volleys of shots).

Of 207 witnesses who expressed or were asked from where the shots they remembered hearing originated from (60 witnesses were never asked nor expressed an opinion)

• 34 could not tell (16%)

• 63 heard all shots they remembered hearing come from the depository or the Houston/Elm intersection area of the depository (31%)

• 110 remembered hearing at least one shot that did not come from the depository or the Houston/Elm intersection area (53%)

Therefore, of the 173 persons who had an opinion of the shots locations, 64% remembered hearing at least one shot that did not come from the depository or the Houston/Elm intersection area, while 36% heard all shots they remembered hearing come from the depository or the Houston/Elm intersection area of the depository.

The Warren Commission

Many people dispute the claim that Oswald was an assassin, or, the sole assassin. The first official investigation of the matter, the Warren Commission, was created by President Lyndon B. Johnson on November 29, 1963 to investigate the assassination. It was headed by Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. It eventually reported that Oswald alone killed Kennedy, that he acted alone, and the commission could not find any persuasive evidence of a domestic or foreign conspiracy involving anyone else. The theory that Oswald acted alone has been informally dubbed the lone gunman theory. All proceedings of the commission members, witnesses, experts, tests, re-creations, and evidence artifacts were not allowed to be witnessed by the public. All files of the Warren Commission were sealed away from public view for 75 years (until 2039) by order of President Lyndon B. Johnson.

On November 22, 1963, at 3:01 pm Dallas time, only an hour after Oswald was taken into the Dallas jail, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover wrote a memo to his assistant directors in which he stated, “I called the Attorney General at his home and told him I thought we had the man who killed the President down in Dallas, at the present time.”

On November 24, 1963, in a memo J. Edgar Hoover wrote for the record, Hoover stated, "The thing I am most concerned about, and so is Mr. Katzenbach, is having something issued so that we can convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin."

On a November 26, 1963 memo from Courtney Evans, the Assistant FBI Director (Mafia Section), to Assistant to the FBI Director, Alan Belmont, the F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover hand-wrote in the memo's margin, "Just how long do you estimate it will take? It seems to me we have all the basic facts now."

On December 9, 1963, only 17 days after the assassination, the FBI report was turned over to the Warren Commission theorizing that only three bullets were fired during the assassination; that the first shot hit President Kennedy, the second shot hit Governor Connally, and the third shot hit President Kennedy in the head, killing him. The FBI theorized that Lee Harvey Oswald fired all three shots.

Just before the shot timing problem caused by the wounding of James Tague became the focus of anxious attention calling for the "single bullet theory", in an internal Warren Commission memo from Norman Redlich to general commission counsel Lee Rankin on 4-27-64, Redlich wrote, "Our report presumably will state that the President was hit by the first bullet, Governor Connally by the second, and the President by the third and fatal bullet. The report will also conclude that the bullets were fired by one person located in the sixth floor southeast corner window of the TSED building." "Our intention, is not to establish the point with complete accuracy, but merely to substantiate the hypothesis which underlies the conclusion that Oswald was the sole assassin." "I should add that the facts which we now have in our possession, submitted to us in separate reports from the FBI and Secret Service, are totally incorrect, and, if left uncorrected, will present a completely misleading picture."

In late September 1964, after a 10 month investigation and about 5 weeks before the Presidential election, the Warren Commission Report was published in which it theorized that it was persuaded that only three bullets were fired during the assassination, that Lee Harvey Oswald fired all three bullets from the Texas School Book Depository, and the commission found no evidence of a conspiracy involving others, either domestic or foreign. The Commission theorized that one bullet passed through President Kennedy and Governor Connally, one bullet completely missed the large limousine and its occupants, and one bullet struck the president. One of the Warren Commissioners disagreed with the conclusion (referred to by skeptics as the “magic bullet theory”) and only agreed to sign the report when the language of the major conclusions was changed by future President Gerald R. Ford and Arlen Specter, the two main architects of the theory. The Warren Commission Report 26 follow-up volumes detailing its sub-investigations, testimonies, evidentiary tests, re-creations, etc. was issued only after the presidential election.

From 1976 to 1979 the House Select Committee on Assassinations investigated, then concluded that four bullets were fired during the assassination. The HSCA concluded that President Kennedy "was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy." The HSCA concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald fired the first, second, and fourth bullets. The HSCA also concluded to a 95% certainty that an unnamed assassin fired the third bullet from President Kennedy's right front from a location concealed behind the grassy knoll picket fence, 9' to the west of the picket fence corner (exactly where an image is seen in the Moorman #5 polaroid photo captured at Zf-315/316). The HSCA's test firings within Dealey Plaza in 1978 also accoustically matched this same grassy knoll fence location 9' to the west of the picket fence corner.

One bullet that impacted was believed by the Warren Commission and the HSCA to have caused 7 wounds (2 wounds of which were into bones) to President Kennedy and Governor Connally. This single bullet emerged in nearly pristine condition. Among several considerations by the critics is that the nearly pristine condition of the bullet implies that bullet could not have caused 2 major bones breaking fractures.

According to the Warren Commission, three shots were fired, and three empty shells found in the sixth floor sniper's nest in the book depository (and one live bullet still chambered in the rifle). According to the Warren Commission, one bullet hit Kennedy in the neck, one bullet hit somewhere outside of the large limousine, and one bullet, the longest shot, struck President Kennedy in the head when he was 265.3 feet (80.9 meters) away.

When he is struck in his head, the President's head moved slightly forward 1 to 2 inches (25 to 50 mm), then, after a 0.11 second pause, the President's head, upper torso, and right arm all violently snap simultaneously upwards, then, backwards (towards the depository) and leftwards (away from the grassy knoll).

As recorded in the Zapruder film, Governor Connally was also wounded.

Rather than introduce more than three fired bullets, the Commission was persuaded (by 4 to 3) of a theory advocated by Arlen Specter that the same bullet that non-fatally wounded President Kennedy twice, also caused Governor Connally's five bones-breakings wounds. See single bullet theory for more information on the Warren Commission's writings concerning this bullet.

Autopsy X-rays and Photos, Parkland Hospital Medical Witnesses ARRB Drawings

The U.S. Navy Bethesda Hospital autopsy photos are graphic. If you decide to view them, along with the skull x-rays, and medical drawings prepared by the Assassination Records and Review Board when it took testimonies from the Parkland Hospital medical witnesses, they are available hereand here

The House Select Committee on Assassinations

An official investigation by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, from 1976 to 1979 concluded that President Kennedy "was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy."

This conclusion was based in part, but not entirely upon, the scientific analysis of a Dallas Police radio channel recorded on a Dictabelt during the assassination by a motorcade Dallas police motorcycle escort officer's stuck-open microphone.

The Dallas Police dictabelt was scientifically analyzed and found to contain gunshot impulses fired at Kennedy's motorcade. The analysis determined, to what it stated was a 95% near-certainty, that one of four shots was fired from the grassy knoll to President Kennedy‘s upper right front.

The Dictabelt Evidence

The adult magazine Gallery published a plastic record of the dictabelt recording in its July 1979 issue. Ohio rock drummer Steve Barber listened to that recording repeatedly and heard the words "Hold everything secure" at the point where the HSCA had concluded the assassination shots were recorded. However, those words were spoken by Sheriff Bill Decker about a minute after the assassination, so the shots could not be when the HSCA claimed.

After the FBI disputed the validity of the acoustic evidence the Justice Department paid for the National Academy of Sciences to review it. A panel of scientists, headed by Dr. Norman Ramsey, issued a report in 1982 which agreed with Barber and determined that there was no compelling evidence for gunshots on the recording and that the HSCA's suspect signals were recorded about a minute after the shooting happened.

An analysis published in the March 2001 issue of Science & Justice by Dr. Donald Thomas used a different timeline synchronization to claim that the National Academy of Sciences panel was in error. Dr. Thomas's scientific conclusion, very similar to the HSCA scientific conclusion, is that the gunshots impulses are real to a 96.3% scientific certainty. Dr. Thomas presented additional details and support in November, 2001, September, 2002, and November, 2002.

In 2003, an independent researcher named Michael O'Dell reported that both the National Academy and Dr. Thomas had used incorrect timelines that when corrected showed the impulses happened too late to be the real shots, even with Thomas' alternative synchronization. In addition, he showed that due to a mathematical misunderstanding, and the presence of a known impulse pattern in the background noise, there never was a 95% or higher probability of a shot from the grassy knoll.

A November, 2003 analysis paid for by the cable television channel Court TV, responded that the gunshot sounds did not match test gunshot recordings fired on Dealey Plaza any better than random noise. [1] Dr. Thomas soon responded in December, 2003 by pointing out what he claimed to be errors in the Court TV analysis.

Other Evidence

As of June, 2004 many tens of thousands of pages of documents remain classified and sealed away from public availability:

• 3+% of all Warren Commission documents

• 21+% of the House Select Committee on Assassinations documents

• An undeterminable percentage of CIA, FBI, secret service, National Security Agency, State Department, U.S. Marine Corps, Naval Investigative Service, Defense Investigative Service, and many other U.S. governmental documents are still classified and not available. All assassination related documents that have not been destroyed are scheduled, according to the 1992 Assassinations Records Review Board laws, to be released to the public by 2017 (originally the Warren Commission documentations were sealed just before the 1964 presidential election against public availability by President Johnson until 2039)

On May 19, 2044, the 50th anniversary of the death of Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, there will be a 500-page transcript of an oral history about John F. Kennedy given by Mrs. Kennedy released to the public by the Kennedy library.

Hundreds of studies of the evidence artifacts in the Kennedy assassination have been performed over the years - they have reached as many conclusions about what happened and why. From the Dictabelt recording, eyewitness accounts (present and missing), testimonials, an unidentified fingerprint found in the sniper’s lair, and much other physical and scientific evidence, nearly every "important" piece of evidence has been questioned since the assassination.

The Secret Service (and general security surrounding the President) as it existed in 1963 was very lax -when measured by today's standards- and made it much easier for the President to be killed. The Warren Commission's Report, chapter 8, goes to some length to detail flaws in Secret Service security at the time of the assassination. Procedures in place and events of the day presented security lapses that enabled the assassination. These included:

• Not telling Dallas police, specifically, whom 'authorized personnel' were, to stand on bridges or overpasses
• Not having in place the policy of searching buildings surrounding the path of a motorcade
• Not properly/thoroughly checking the backgrounds of those in potential close contact with the President - that program was new and undermanned in 1963
• Assuming that security measures taken in a 1936 Roosevelt visit to Dallas could be used to model Kennedy's visit
• Generally insufficient personnel to accomplish the task at hand of planning and executing the motorcade
• Incomplete coordination of information with other government bodies, such as the FBI and the Secret Service
• Not having a car with a bulletproof top available for the president (no such car had existed for the White House since 1953 because such a car would have a top difficult to add and remove on demand)
• Allowing the president enough leeway to plan a route that put him in harm's way
• Letting the motorcade slow down substantially at a curve - which gave any gunman ample opportunities for a shot

As one might imagine, significant changes occurred within the Secret Service organization and procedures as a direct result of the Kennedy assassination and the Warren Commission's report, such that a recurrence was much less likely.

(See Zapruder film for more details about the film in particular.) President Kennedy's last seconds of life through Dealey Plaza was recorded on silent 8mm film in the 26.6 seconds before, during, and immediately following the assassination by amateur cameraman Abraham Zapruder, in what became known as the Zapruder film. Depending on the study, this film has been used to prove that Oswald was the sole assassin of Kennedy, or that another gunman or gunmen must have been involved. Although the film graphically depicts the assassination, it does not provide agreed upon evidence either way. As the film clearly shows, when the President Kennedy is first struck in his head, his head moved slightly forward 1 to 2 in (25 to 50 mm), then, after a 0.11 second pause, the president's head, upper torso, and right arm all violently snap simultaneously upwards, then, backwards (towards the depository) and leftwards (away from the grassy knoll).

A number of professional polls taken after the weekend of the assassination, and covering the forty-plus years to present, have consistently shown that 60% to 90% of the people polled do not believe that President Kennedy was killed as the result of a pre-meditated plan and sub-plans formed and implemented by only one assassin.

Investigations and scientific testing and recreations into the circumstances of John F. Kennedy's death have not settled the question of who killed him. Looking at the three most recent 2003 polls directly implies this. An ABC TV News poll reflected that just 32 percent (plus or minus 3 percent) of Americans believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, while 68 percent do not believe Oswald acted alone. [2] A Discovery Channel poll reveals that only 21% believe Oswald acted alone, while 79% do not believe Oswald acted alone. [3] A History Channel poll details that only 17% of individuals believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, while 83 percent do not believe Oswald acted alone. [4]

The security around Kennedy's motorcade had been stripped-down from what it was documented to be in previous motorcades - a conclusion that the Warren Commission and other investigations confirm. The lack of security suggests to some that the CIA, Secret Service and/or some other agent or agencies were actively involved in the assassination, rather than simply negligent.

Many people have pointed to the Warren Commission's single bullet theory as unlikely. Some ballistic evidence has suggested that such a bullet trajectory was possible, but this particular point is a source of much contention and disagreement.

The presidential limo was immediately cleaned and repaired instead of being secured as ballistic evidence. Kennedy's body was also immediately taken to Washington, rather than examined by the local coroner as Texas law mandated. Governor Connally’s hat which he was holding in his right hand only inches away from his wrist when the wrist was shot completely through with a bullet has disappeared from the evidence chain after last being seen in the Dallas police department Chief’s office the evening of November 22. The Dallas police did not seal the Texas School Book Depository until 12:39 to 12:40 PM; policeman, detectives, witnesses, and others were busy searching the grassy knoll, parking lot, and railroad yard from 12:30 to 12:39 pm. The Dealey Plaza area itself was not sealed-off by the Dallas police, and within only nine minutes of the assassination, photographs show that vehicles were driving down Elm Street, through the crime scene kill zone. Whether or not allowed deliberately these actions suggest, at the very least, poor handling of evidence at hand. Questions about the Bethesda Hospital autopsy performed 11-22-63 by three military personnel abound, including how an easily seen on the x-rays, conveniently sized 6.5 mm sized, mostly round bullet fragment located at the rear of the president’s head almost 3 inches (75 mm) above the Warren Commission’s bullet entry point (traveling at 1800 to 2000 ft/s (549 to 610 m/s)) but on the outside of President Kennedy’s skull could have been missed by the 11-22-63 autopsists. This fragment was never reported by the Warren Commission or testified to by the autopsists, and was not officially commented about until the x-rays were limitedly restricted for release to researchers in 1966, and when the x-rays were reviewed by the Ramsey Clark Panel in 1968.

Here is a list of the individual or combined conspiracy theories:

• President Kennedy had discussed with his closest aides (and even discussed with his personal secretary, Evelyn Lincoln) that he was thinking of dropping Vice President Lyndon Johnson before the 1964 election. Richard Nixon, who was also in Dallas from 11-20-63 until just an hour before Kennedy arrived, was quoted in the 11-22-63 Dallas newspaper saying he also believed Kennedy would drop Johnson. President Kennedy was most likely seriously thinking about dropping Johnson because of the facts that Johnson was being investigated for his criminal involvement in 4 criminal investigations involving government contracts, money laundering, bribes, murder, etc., (All 4 scandals "disappeared" after 11-22-63)[5] Johnson biographers support that Johnson was politically aggressive and power-hungry, and others have written that Johnson was an agent of the mafia --being blackmailed by the mafia with several of his own past criminal involvement actions.[6]

• J. Edgar Hoover did not want to retire even though he was approaching in 1964 the then-mandatory government retirement age of 65 and would be retired by President Kennedy. It is known that Hoover despised the Kennedy's for many reasons he stated to confidantes. Several people have provided sources that Hoover was a gay transvestite. He did live with one of his male lieutenants, Cartha DeLoach. If true, and if the mafia knew of Hoover's sexual preference, the mafia could have been blackmailing Hoover to secure his silence whether Hoover knew about the assassination conspirators beforehand, after, or not. This blackmail by the mafia of Hoover, like Hoover’s good friend and next-door neighbor Lyndon Johnson, may have also extended to any investigations cover-up and guaranteed Hoover’s compliance and silence after the assassination. It is documented that before President Kennedy was elected, that Hoover rarely acknowledged even the existence of the mafia. After Kennedy became president the prosecutions of the mafia by the Robert F. Kennedy led Justice department (of which the FBI was/is a part of) increased 11-fold. After President Kennedy was murdered, Justice department mafia prosecutions reversed back to the pre-Kennedy levels. In 1964, just days before his Warren Commission testimony, Hoover was appointed Director of the FBI "for life" by Kennedy's successor, Johnson.

• The CIA killed Kennedy for not backing the Bay of Pigs Invasion the way the CIA wanted it to be backed. After the failed Cuban invasion Kennedy fired CIA Director and future Warren Commission commissioner, Alan Dulles, and vowed to his closest advisors to break the CIA "into a thousand pieces" and possibly install his brother, Robert F. Kennedy as the CIA Director.

• John Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy (who was also assassinated in 1968 when he ran for president) were killed by the Mafia in retaliation for their increasing crackdowns (1100% the number of prosecutions under Eisenhower) against organized crime. Documents that the Warren Commission never saw have revealed that the mafia was working very closely with the CIA on several assassination attempts at Fidel Castro. The mafia was approached by the CIA under the Kennedy's because the CIA recognized the mutual goal of ousting Castro --with the mafia's personal motive being the re-claiming of the billion$ that the mafia lost from gambling, drugs, prostitution, etc. when Castro seized the mafia's assets in 1959. Jimmy Hoffa, Carlos Marcello, Sam Giancana, Johnny Rosselli, and Santo Trafficante Jr., all of whom except for Hoffa worked with the CIA on the Castro assassination plots, top the list of the House Assassination Committee mafia suspects.[7]. The family of Chicago mafia Godfather Sam Giancana claim the Kennedy’s double-crossed him after the mafia, via workers unions that the Illinois mafia controlled, had helped Kennedy be elected President. Ruby had grown up working for mafia leader Al Capone in Chicago.[8]

• Persons who were politically to the far-right, specifically oilmen and their supporting bankers from Texas who stood to lose billions of dollars of profits because President Kennedy wanted to discontinue the 27.5% oil depletion tax credit allowance

• South Vietnamese President Diem found out in June 1963 during electronic surveillance of the U.S. embassy in South Vietnam that the U.S. was helping his political enemies plan a coup against Diem. Diem was also profiting from exporting drugs from the Asia "golden triangle" to the French mafia and on to North America via the U.S. mafia and if he was ousted in a coup, million$ of Diem's drug profits would be lost. Even though Diem was killed in a coup on 11-2-63, the plans to assassinate Kennedy went ahead for revenge and/or because of Diem's illegal co-entanglements with the world mafia organizations and the mafia motives.

• The U.S. "Military-industrial complex" that had been preparing for profiting from escalation of the Vietnam war since the French withdrew from Vietnam in 1955 knew that President Kennedy had seriously discussed plans and implemented actions to withdraw U.S. troops from Vietnam. At the moment that President Kennedy was killed, over 1000 U.S. troops were in the air on their way home as part of President Kennedy's initial steps of withdrawing from Vietnam.

• Cuban President Fidel Castro's agents killed President Kennedy in retaliation for the many times the CIA and mafia had worked together and tried to kill him. In September 1963 Castro publicly warned the U.S. about American leaders not being safe if they think they could kill him. On 11-22-63 an agent of the CIA was given a CIA poison-pen weapon the agent was prepared to kill Castro with when he next met with him. It is to note that in 1962 the Kennedy's had ordered the CIA to cease the assassination attempts against Castro. The CIA ignored the president's order, and continued with the attempts, unbeknownst to the president or Robert Kennedy. Starting in the second half of 1963 it is also documented that President Kennedy, through private back-channels, had approached Castro with overtures of a re-approachment in relations [9]

• Angry Cuban anti-Castro exiles, some of which had been trained by and were still working with the CIA, killed Kennedy for his failure to give greater backing to the “Bay of Pigs” operation to overthrow Castro's communist dictatorship

• The KGB carried out the assassination because Kennedy was too aggressively anti-Communist, and/or revenge for the Cuban Missile Crisis, and/or to demoralize Americans. This theory is highly unlikely, as KGB documents released after the fall of the Soviet Union state that the KGB's report to Russian leadership on Kennedy's death specifically accused Johnson.

• The Israeli government was displeased with Kennedy for his pressure about their top-secret nuclear program[10] (see Dimona) and/or, the Israelis were angry over Kennedy's employment of Nazis such as Wernher von Braun[11]

• The Federal Reserve (and the powerful foreign interests that own it) were threatened by Kennedy's many moves to restore precious-metals backing to U.S. currency.[12] (Note that the Secret Service was created as a anti-money-counterfeiting agency, and remains an organ of the Treasury—a direct line from the Fed to Kennedy's security. The same anti-hard-currency motive is suspected in the Garfield and Lincoln assassinations.[13])

• Kennedy was killed as part of an elaborate Freemasonic ritual. [14]

Disproving to an absolute certainty any conspiracy theory or combination thereof about the Kennedy assassination, or, conversely, proving that the Warren Commission's findings of a "lone gunman" was correct, may possibly never occur. There are still 1000's of pages of documentation being withheld from the public, and possibly several, as yet, un-publicized pieces of physical evidence such as photographs/films, Governor Connally's "Stetson" hat, and living witnesses that have yet to come forward.