Seeing the amount of misinformation out there on the Kennedy Assassination, I have decided to write a series of essays on the assassination to keep
people informed. First of all, you should know a little background of the assassination itself. It took place on November 22, 1963 at approximately
12:30 while Kennedy was riding in an
open top limousine through
Dealey Plaza in Dallas. His wife Jacqueline Kennedy, Governor of Texas John Connally, and
his wife Nellie accompanied President Kennedy. As the limousine moved down Elm Street towards the Triple Underpass, shots rang out. The President
was hit and sustained a massive wound to the head. Connally was also wounded. The two women were unharmed. Several seconds after the shots were
fired, the limousine sped off to Parkland Memorial Hospital where doctors desperately tried to save the President�s life but it was all in vain.
Lyndon B. Johnson took the oath of office and after a short time America had a new president.
Several men were arrested that day but the Dallas Police Department eventually released them. The DPD focused their attention on one man. The man�s
name was
Lee Harvey Oswald. He was arrested in a Texas Movie Theater on suspicion that he
killed a policeman named
J.D. Tippit. Oswald never made it to trial since local
nightclub owner
Jack Ruby gunned him down in the DPD�s basement on November 24, two days after
the assassination. Then on November 29, only a week after the assassination, President Lyndon Johnson set up a special commission to investigate the
events in Dallas. Headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Committee became known as the
Warren
Commission. Only a year after the assassination, the Commission released its report. It concluded, among other things, the following:
1. Oswald, acting alone, shot Kennedy.
2. There was no conspiracy. Oswald had no confederates, before, during, or after the assassination.
3. Oswald fired three shots. One of these shots missed the entire limousine. No other shots were fired.
4. The same bullet that struck Kennedy in the back exited his throat and went on to strike Governor Connally in the back, tore through his chest, hit
his right wrist, and ended up embedded in his left thigh. This conclusion would quickly come to be known as the single-bullet theory. The bullet that
the commission claimed performed the above scenario is officially known as Commission Exhibit 399, which is usually abbreviated as
CE 399.
5. Oswald used a 6.5 mm
Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, which is bolt-action weapon.
6. Oswald killed Officer J. D. Tippit.
7. Jack Ruby's killing of Oswald was a spontaneous act caused by Ruby's professed desire to spare Jackie Kennedy the ordeal of an Oswald trial.
My next posts will deal with the refuting of these claims. Anyone please feel free to respond if I have erred in anyway.
[Edited on 5-3-2004 by maynardsthirdeye]
[edit on 29-7-2004 by maynardsthirdeye]