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Introduction

Research Question: Was John F. Kennedy assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald alone or was there more than one gunman? A. Plan of the Investigation (110 words) The purpose of this investigation is to examine the assassination of the former U.S. president John F. Kennedy, which occurred in Dallas on the 22nd of November 1963. More precisely, this investigation will focus on the question whether the assassination was an act of Lee Harvey Oswald alone or if there were more shooters involved in the events at the Dealey Plaza. Research was initiated through online research of declassified U.S. document archives to provide primary sources and websites of different historians to provide secondary sources. These sources were then evaluated and annotated in the bibliography, in which both the information presented and the sources of the information were analyzed. B. Summary of Evidence (803 words) Source 1: Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy published by The National Archives1 Based on the evidence analysed, the Warren Commission concluded that three shots were fired from a window in the sixth-floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building at the events of the assassination. Two bullets presumably caused all the damage done to Governor Connaly and John F. ...read more.

Middle

The Commission was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson and lead by Earl Warren, with the aim to investigate the circumstances surrounding John F. Kennedy's assassination and the shooting of the assassin Lee Harvey Oswald25. This source is useful, because it was established by the government and therefore probably does not have motives to prove a specific theory to be true or false or to manipulate evidence. It is also directly from the time when the assassination happened, as it was founded one week after the assassination date. There is, furthermore, no evidence that can surely prove the events, as stated by the Commission, to have happened otherwise. On the other hand, the Commission was criticised for its close co-operation with the FBI. It primarily relied on the FBI for investigative work, which establishes a possibility of the data being biased or influenced by the FBI to serve their interests. The report strongly disagrees with the evidence that suggests that more than three shots were fired and does not include all of the objects struck during the firing. In addition, the Commission has also been criticized for failing to identify members of the Dallas police standing on the bridge and the overpass as also of failing to search all buildings, rooftops and windows surrounding the path of the motorcade. ...read more.

Conclusion

to be impossible to reconstruct by the former US Marine Snipers Craig Roberts31 and Carlos Hathcock 32, I believe that there were more shooters involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. This would also be consistent with the theory of a conspiracy involved in the assassination, which, in a time of severe international tension and many different groups politically opposing President Kennedy, such as the armaments industry and Cubans, seems quite likely to have happened. F. List of Sources http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-3.html#timespan, 14th March 2007 http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-report/, 14th March 2007 http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/shots.htm, 14th March 2007 http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/wit.htm, 14th March 2007 http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/herman/herman16.html, 14th March 2007 http://www.nsa.gov/jfk/jfk00001.tif, 14th March 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_assassination_theories, 15th March 2007 1 http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-3.html#timespan, 13th March 2007 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_bullet_theory, 15th March 2007 3 http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-report/, 13th March 2007 4 http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/shots.htm, 13th March 2007 5 ibid 6 http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/m_j_russ/worrell.htm, 13th March 2007 7 ibid 8 http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/herman/herman16.html, 13th March 2007 9 The Guns of Dallas, Douglas Herman, Aventine Press, 30.05.2005 10 ibid 11 ibid 12 ibid 13 ibid 14 ibid 15 ibid 16 ibid 17 ibid 18 ibid 19 ibid 20 http://www.nsa.gov/jfk/jfk00001.tif, 13th March 2007 21 http://www.nsa.gov/jfk/jfk00001.tif, 13th March 2007 22 ibid 23 ibid 24 ibid 25 http://www.answers.com/topic/warren-commission, 14th March 2007 26 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_bullet_theory, 15th March 2007 27 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_assassination_theories, 15th March 2007 28 ibid 29 ibid 30 http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/herman/herman16.html, 13th March 2007 31 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_assassination_theories, 15th March 2007 32 ibid ?? ?? ?? ?? Internal Assessment: History Coursework 1 ...read more.

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