Conspiracies and John F Kennedy Assassination ~ Coast to Coast AM - April 24 2013

Coast to Coast AM - April 24 2013 - Conspiracies and John F Kennedy Assassination

Wikepedia :The circumstances surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 spawned suspicions of a conspiracy. These suspicions were mitigated somewhat when an official investigation by the Warren Commission concluded the following year that there was no conspiracy. Since then, doubts have arisen regarding the Commission's finding that a lone gunman was responsible for the assassination of Kennedy, and most Americans today believe that others were also involved in the assassination.[1] Critics have argued that the Commission and the government have covered-up crucial information pointing to a conspiracy.

Subsequent official investigations confirmed most of the conclusions of the Warren Commission. However, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) concluded that Kennedy was probably assassinated as the result of a conspiracy, with "...a high probability that two gunmen fired at [the] President."[2][3] No person or organization was identified by the HSCA as being a co-conspirator of Lee Harvey Oswald. Most current theories put forth a criminal conspiracy involving parties as varied as the CIA, the KGB, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, sitting Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Cuban President Fidel Castro, anti-Castro Cuban exile groups, or some combination of those entities.
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by gunfire as he traveled in a motorcade in an open-top limousine in Dallas, Texas on Friday, November 22, 1963 (12:30 pm, CST); Texas Governor John Connally was wounded during the shooting, but survived. Within two hours, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the murder of Dallas policeman J.D. Tippit and arraigned that evening. Shortly after 1:30 am, Saturday, Oswald was arraigned for murdering President Kennedy as well.[4][5] On Sunday, November 24, at 11:21 am, nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald as he was being transferred to the county jail.

Immediately after the shooting, many people suspected that the assassination was part of a larger plot.[6] Ruby's shooting of Oswald compounded initial suspicions.[6] Among conspiracy theorists, Mark Lane has been described as writing "the first literary shot" with his article, "Defense Brief for Oswald," in the December 19, 1963 edition of the National Guardian.[7][8] Thomas Buchanan's Who Killed Kennedy?, published in May 1964, has been credited as the first book alleging a conspiracy.[9]

In 1964, the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald acted alone and that no credible evidence supported the contention that he was involved in a conspiracy to assassinate the president.[10] The Commission also indicated that Dean Rusk, the Secretary of State; Robert S. McNamara, the Secretary of Defense; C. Douglas Dillon, the Secretary of the Treasury; Robert F. Kennedy, the Attorney General; J. Edgar Hoover, the Director of the FBI; John A. McCone, the Director of the CIA; and James J. Rowley, the Chief of the Secret Service, each independently reached the same conclusion on the basis of information available to them.[11]

In 1979, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) agreed with the Warren Commission that Oswald assassinated Kennedy, but concluded that the Commission's report and the original FBI investigation were seriously flawed. The HSCA concluded that at least four shots were fired with a "high probability" that two gunmen fired at the President, and that a conspiracy was probable.[3] The HSCA stated that "the Warren Commission failed to investigate adequately the possibility of a conspiracy to assassinate the President."[2]

The Ramsey Clark Panel and the Rockefeller Commission both supported the Warren Commission's conclusions, while New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison unsuccessfully prosecuted Clay Shaw for conspiring to assassinate Kennedy.