JFK's Death Still America's Lingering Wound

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright November 17, 2013
All Rights Reserved.                                      

            Bracing for the 50-year-anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the nation suffers from the same confusion from that tragic day in Dallas Nov. 22, 1963. A recent Gallup poll indicates that 61% of the public believes that JFK’s assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was part of a wider conspiracy. For 59 years, the public remains skeptical of the government’s 889-page Warren Commission Report handed to President Lyndon Johnson Sept. 24, 1964 that fingered Lee Harvey Oswald as the lone assassin. Public skepticism stems from the government’s secrecy, sealing key documents for 75 years, despite attempts to unseal the records by the 1966 Freedom of Information Act and 1992 JFK Records Act. Whether or not 98% of the Warren Commission docs have been released, over 1,171 background documents remain secret until at least 2017, when the JFK Records Act requires all remaining docs to be released to the public.

             While there are around 2,000 books written about the JFK Assassination, none has the last word because key facts remain secret and may never be known. “It’s possible that new evidence in the Kennedy assassination will never materialize. The JFK assassination Records Collection Act, enacted in 1992, declassified 98% of the unreleased documents in the Warren Commission Investigation, with other unrelated assassination documents scheduled for release in 2017,” read the Gallup poll report. Government secrecy over key facts-and-documents in the JFK Assassination fueled generations of conspiracy theories, rejecting the official Warren Commission Report. Government secrecy regarding the JFK Assassination is the most compelling reason to believe that the Warren Commission Report was a government smokescreen over the real facts. Other common sense facts known to the public also fuel a host of conspiracy theories.

             Whatever scientific facts surround ballistic evidence, including whether or not a fourth bullet was fired from the Grassy Knoll or anywhere else, government secrecy has been the No. 1 reason to fuel conspiracy theories and public skepticism. When you consider that Oswald was shot-and-killed at point-blank-range by 52-year-old Dallas nightclub operator Jack Ruby Nov. 24, 1963 in the secure basement of the Dallas Police Dept., it’s no wonder no one believes the Warren Report. Nothing in the Warren Report accounts for how Ruby breached all the Dallas Police, FBI, CIA and Secret Service security to get point-blank access to Oswald. Backers of the Warren Commission Report, like 79-year-old former Los Angeles District Attorney and chief Charles Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, repeat there’s no credible evidence to support conspiracy theories. Bugliosi knows from his prosecutor’s days what happens when credible evidence is withheld.

            Calling anyone with a theory of Kennedy’s death a “speculator,” doesn’t add credibility to the Warren Commission Report. If the Warren Commission had material facts withheld from evidence, its conclusions too were speculative. “Thus far, public documents not originally released in or part of the Warren Commission’s Report from 1964 have not demonstrated that there was any kind of conspiracy, yet clearly most Americans disagree with the official findings. Speculating about who was really responsible for Kennedy’s death will likely remain a topic of fascination for the American public for many years to come,” said Gallup. No one can get to the bottom of the Kennedy Assassination without a full disclosure of all the facts surrounding the incident, especially evidence withheld from the Warren Commission. It’s possible that Johnson and former Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren went to their graves without knowing all the facts about the Kennedy Assassination.

            Conspiracy-doubters like to cite some 42-groups and 214 possible persons responsible for Kennedy’s death as proof of off-the-wall theories about Kennedy’s death, including, (a) Lyndon Johnson, (b) the “military,” (c) “the mafia,” (d) Oswald acted alone, (e) the CIA, (f) the FBI, (g) Russians and (h) the Cubans, all of which have their backers. “We know that Oswald was in the Russian embassy in Mexico City,” two weeks before the assassination, said 70-year-old former Boston insurance adjuster Dave Perry. After racking his brain since 1976, Perry believes all the facts surrounding Oswald’s visit to the Russian embassy haven’t yet come out, contained perhaps in the 1,141 documents still on hold until 2017. Oswald’s presence in Mexico City two weeks before he pulled the trigger in Dealey Plaza on the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository seems relevant. Nothing in the Warren Commission Report talks about Oswald’s meeting in Mexico City.

Whatever happened Nov. 22, 1963, the government fueled conspiracy theories by sealing official documents regarding the JFK Assassination for 75 years. Whatever the 1966 Freedom of Information Act or 1992 JFK Records Act did to disseminate more docs, too many are missing to answer all the questions surrounding JFK’s death. Without all the facts, it’s impossible to pinpoint the exact motive for killing Kennedy. Whether Oswald pulled the trigger or not, his death two days after the assassination at the hands of Ruby indicates that Oswald was silenced. Ruby’s 1967 death in prison of a “pulmonary embolism” also remains suspicious. No one has any explanation of how Ruby breached security and shot Oswald at point-blank range. Figuring out who Oswald talked to at the Russian Embassy two weeks before he shot Kennedy should get a lot closer to the real reasons behind JFK’s death. Still withholding key pieces of evidence, the government hasn’t helped matters. 

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.