There was substantial evidence that Oswald was guilty. A WWII Mannlicher-Carcano rifle was found in a sixth floor window of the Book Depository. Three empty cartridges were found by the rifle. The fragments of bullets found in the president’s car matched those of the rifle. A palm print matching Oswald’s was found on the barrel of the rifle, and other matching prints were found on the scene. Paraffin tests confirmed that Harvey had recently fired a gun. It was later discovered that Harvey had a false name, ‘A. Hidell’, and he had used this name to buy the rifle. Fibres from Oswald’s shirt were found in the rifle. Several witnesses reported they saw Oswald carrying a package that could have contained the rifle on the day of the assassination and picked him out from police line ups. On Saturday 23rd November, Oswald was interrogated by the police but denied both charges of murder. He was about to be taken to the county jail, but while he was being led through the police station he was himself assassinated by Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner will Mob connections. Ruby informed the police that he had murdered Harvey to spare Mrs Kennedy the trial.
The Warren Commission was set up by the government to look into the case. They concluded that Lee had killed the president, and had been the only gunman, working alone. Three shots had been fired and two had hit the president. He had killed Officer Tippit to avoid arrest. However despite this official statement, many had doubts over the Warren Commissions conclusion. By 1967, a poll produced findings that over a third of Americans doubted the Warren Commissions findings. According to government bodies evidence had been overlooked, and agencies had neglected findings that suggested Kennedy had been assassinated as part of a conspiracy. These included things like the trajectory of the bullet that killed the president, as film footage showed the presidents head jerking backwards, towards the book depository building. This suggests that someone on the opposite ‘Grassy knoll’ would have fired the fatal bullet. Eye witness reports backed this up, with a young soldier on leave, who had been standing near the Grassy Knoll, reporting ‘The shot came from behind me, only inches over my left shoulder. I had just got out of basic training. In my mind, live ammunition was being fired.’ Also, crucial evidence was tampered with, such as the president’s car being washed down by FBI agents, given orders to ‘remove forensic evidence’. Several witnesses and people connected with the case mysteriously died or disappeared, which made the case even more suspicious.
These suspicions went unresolved, until 1976, when the US government get up the HSCA, or House Select Committee on Assassinations. The HSCA was set up to re-evaluate the case, and see if new conclusions could be made. There were several reasons why the committee was set up. In the late seventies there was great public scandal over the government, with Watergate and atrocities like the My Lai Massacre in South Vietnam. The government hoped a re-investigation would help prove its integrity to the public. Also it was hoped that new technology and evidence could help paint a clearer picture.
A crucial part of the HSCAs investigation involved a thorough review of Oswald’s life. He was born 18th October 1939 in New Orleans. His father died two months previously, and upon his birth Harvey was sent to a children’s home so his mother could continue to work. He had a difficult childhood, as his mother married and divorced, he attended three different schools and it took him over 3 years to complete the third grade. His two brothers joined the Armed Forces, and from the age of twelve he lived alone with his mother. His continued bad behaviour at school led to him undergoing psychiatric treatment. Reports described Lee as ‘seriously withdrawn, detached and very hard to reach’. But Oswald’s mother would not comply with the authorities requests for sending Lee into psychiatric care, and they moved back to New Orleans. Around this time Lee became interested in Communism and he wrote letters to communist societies. Six days after his seventeenth birthday he joined the US Marine Corps and received basic weapons training. He came under court martial twice; once for abusing an officer and again for possession of an unregistered weapon. For a time, Lee lived in the Soviet union, where he married Marina Pruskova. He then returned to America and got a job at the Dallas Book Depository. Oswalds turbulent childhood and communist ideals suggests that he could have had strong reasons to kill the President, but his background also gives the impression he would have made an excellent fall-guy for a conspiracy. His life fits the profile of a deranged, lonely murderer perfectly. His weapons training would account for his ability to shoot Kennedy, but his affiliation with communist groups suggests it was unlikely he would have been working alone.
The most suspicious part of the case involving Oswald was his death at the hands of Jack Ruby. The HSCA took down eyewitness reports that suggested that the two men knew each other. One witness said that they had seen the two men converse in Rubys nightclub, and two eye witnesses described a man who could have been the short, heavy set Jack Ruby standing on the same floor Oswald supposedly stood during the assassination. Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig stated that he saw Lee get into a station wagon driven by a large man right after the shooting. There is also evidence that the two men were together when Officer Tippits was murdered. Acquilla Clemmons, a bystander, recalled two men near the policemans car, and one was ‘short and kind of heavy’. These witness accounts, coupled with the fact that Oswald was killed before he could be tried, strongly suggest a conspiracy that covered the truth. Ruby had mafia connections, and stated that he wasn’t safe in Dallas. This suggests that Ruby and Oswald could have been working in conjunction with organised crime, who could have orchestrated a conspiracy.
One of the most crucial pieces of evidence in the case was the rifle that shot the president. There were several tests conducted on the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle found inside the Dallas Book Depository. The rifle was of poor quality, and out of a batch of 20 rounds only 3 worked. The HSCA conducted tests in 1979 and used police marksmen and amateur marksmen. All of them missed their targets with the rifle. This suggests that it would have been difficult for Oswald to have hit a stationary, let alone a moving, target. The rifle was also observed to be stiff and FBI officials commented that the ‘scope could not be properly aligned with the target’. Another factor that would have affected Oswalds ability to shoot Kennedy was his own marksmanship. Marine Corps records reveal that Oswalds marksmanship ranged from poor to fairly good, and his skills only just qualified him for the lowest grade in marksmanship. Other servicemen reported that he was a bad shot with the rifle.
All this evidence suggests that Oswald would not have had a very good chance of shooting the president with such a rifle, and his shooting ability was sub-par anyway and the rounds for the rifle were of poor quality, with 17 out of 20 failing to even fire. This casts doubts over whether he could have killed the president, but does not discount it, as one of the shots fired in Dealey Plaza missed, and it took another two to finally kill the president. This is consistent with Oswalds ability, however it is still unlikely.
Aside from eyewitness testimony and photographs, there was little evidence that reliably depicted the assassination. However, an amateur cameraman called Abe Zapruder was filming the motorcade as it passed through Dealey Plaza and produced a reliable record of the assassination. Zapruders film shows all the shots’ impacts on the motorcade, and provided a great deal of evidence. First the motorcade is shown proceeding through Elm Street. The presidents car is obscured by a street sign, but when he emerges, it is possible to tell that he has been hit by a bullet, as you can see him reaching for his throat, and Governor Connally is seen turning around. Then the fatal bullet hits the presidents head and he falls into the lap of his wife. The film gives a good indication of the time between shots, but not a precise one, as the motorcade is at one point partially obscured. The fact that Kennedy and Connally react within 2 seconds shows that clearly they were hit by the same bullet, the one shot from the Book Depository. This supports the Warren Commissions theory. However, one crucial piece of evidence lies in the backwards movement of the president head. The forced movement backward would imply a shot from the front or side, not from above and from behind. This would suggest that although the shot that hit Kennedy and Connally came from the Book Depository, the shot that actually killed Kennedy came from an area to the far right of the motorcade; the Grassy Knoll. This would undermine the Warren Commissions ‘lone assassin’ conclusion.
The grassy knoll was in the perfect position for someone to shoot Kennedy. Eyewitness accounts support that there could have been someone there, including Julie Ann Mercer, who had driven by Dealey Plaza before the assassination, who said she saw a truck park under the railway underpass, and a man step out and go up to the grassy knoll carrying ‘what appeared to be a rifle case’. A man called Lee Bowers stated that he had seen two men on the Grassy Knoll and a flash from that direction during the shooting. If someone had been on top of the knoll and had fired at Kennedy, then it would disprove that Oswald was the sole assassin and imply that other conspirators were involved. As to the identities of the conspirators, reports of an unnamed man caught by police in the area but who was let go because of his Secret Service badge suggest that officials may have been involved in some way. In all the conspiracy theories surrounding the case, most in some way utilise the idea that there was another gunman on the grassy knoll. There is substantial evidence that there could have been a gunman in that area, and confirmation of which would have also confirmed a conspiracy.
An autopsy under the Warren Commission was performed on Kennedy. Four wounds were identified: Wound A (the upper back), Wound B (back of the head), Wound C (front of the neck) and Wound D (front right of the head). However, reports from doctors at Parkland Memorial Hospital differ from those of the autopsy. The wound on the front of the president’s neck could have been from the emergency tracheotomy that was performed to help his breathing. Also, an FBI report on the Autopsy stated that there was another wound located at the right shoulder. There was no exit wound, and the bullet would still have been inside the body. This counters that belief that there were only 3 bullets fired. X-rays showed a large amount of bullet fragmentation at the front of the cranium which could only have been caused by a bullet to the front of the head.
Governor Connallys wounds were significant, with the bullet collapsing a lung, shattering a rib, breaking his wrist and embedding itself in his knee. The Warren Commission stated that the same bullet that had hit the presidents windpipe had then gone on to go through Connally. But the trajectory of the bullet would mean that it would have had to go through the president, a rib cage a wrist and a knee cap. The bullet recovered from a hospital stretcher that the Commission reported as the same bullet that had hit Kennedy and Connally was completely intact. However, tests on cadavers showed that a bullet would be dented severely if it were to cause less than a quarter as much damage as the stretch bullet did. This contradicts the Warren Commissions statements, as well as implying that the bullet on the stretcher was planted, which would have required restricted access to both Connally and the President.
The original papers from the FBI were destroyed by Commander Humes after he had talked to Doctor Perry from Parkland Memorial Hospital. He then re-wrote the files. This suggests that he tampered with evidence to make the two documents fit together, to cover up important findings. But even with this potential cover up, there is little doubt that it would have been highly improbable that one bullet could have caused so much damage and remained so perfectly intact. This would fit the HSCA’s conclusion of a conspiracy, which members attempting or using their influence to hide incriminating evidence.
Evidence surfaced in 1978 that provided new insight into the case. Police motorcycles that were part of the presidents motorcade were fitted with tapes, and they had been switched on during the entirety of the assassination. These recordings from the day had evidence that more than the three shots the Warren Commission suggested had been fired. The microphone on a police motorcycle had picked up and recorded the whole incident. Acoustic Experts under the HSCA analysed the tapes. Their conclusions were ‘four shots, over a period of 7.91 seconds were fired at the Presidential limousine. The first, second and fourth came from the depository, the third came from the grassy knoll.’ This fits with the Zapruder film, and contradicts the Warren Commissions findings, compromising any theory of there being only one gunman.
There were doubts over the Warren Commissions findings that needed to be addressed, and to an extent the HSCA confirmed that there was indeed a conspiracy. But the committee never found who the conspirators where. This highlights the reasons why the committee was set up, to help public relations. Its findings conflicted with those made at the time of the assassination, and this eased the public’s suspicions. But still, no complete closure was ever made, with the only real suspect dead, and with most of the key evidence and witnesses gone forever. Evidence aroused suspicions of who the conspirators could have been. There have been several prominent ideas: 1) The Russian Communist Theory: the idea that the KGB had plotted to assassinate Kennedy, with help from double agents inside the USA. 2) The Pro-Castro Theory: The assassination was planned by Cuban intelligence, in conjunction with Fidel Castro. 3) The American Intelligence Theory: members of Americas own intelligence agencies had plotted to assassinate Kennedy. Some have also suggested that agencies and factions had worked together to kill Kennedy, but this is unlikely, as some would never have worked together ie Cuba and America. However, the conclusions made by the HSCA have their faults. The investigations were undertaken 13 years after the Warren Commission, and by that time most evidence, some very crucial, had been lost (eyewitness deaths etc). This would have made any investigation difficult and the findings less accurate. Also there could be unfair bias in the findings of the HSCA, as the whole purpose it was set up for was to ease the public’s suspicion of the government. A new verdict confirming the public’s doubts over the Warren Commission would be highly convenient, and so the neutrality of the investigation is questionable.
