No conspiracy: JFK was killed by a marginal character desperate to be acknowledged as a substantial man

Over the years, many people have presented some very compelling conspiracy theories that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone or actually kill John F. Kennedy. However, I personally feel all of the evidence presented in the Warren Commission report overwhelming proves that Oswald acted alone in assassinating President Kennedy.

I can accept the lone-killer explanation that was concocted by the Warren Commission, after we find Oswald was a messianic character convinced of his exceptionalism but in fact manifestly a marginal character who likely never would amount to much — killing someone important is always a popular means to be noticed by history, when one lacks the capacity to earn such distinction honorably; and he certainly got his page in history.

Alternatively, I also find the claims of the Mafia interesting. Key underworld characters have claimed that they masterminded the plot to kill Kennedy as revenge for brother Bobby Kennedy’s actions, as Attorney General and, earlier, in his role as congressional counsel in investigating and pursuing organized crime. Some revenge, if so.

But, given the forensic evidence from Oswald’s rifle as the murder weapon, the mob theory lacks conclusiveness: Oswald didn’t need anything the mob might have provided to plan and carry out the assassination, he just needed crazy.

Likewise, the Castro connection: Fidel wouldn’t have needed to provide Lee Harvey with anything the man didn’t already have to plan and execute a murder. Oswald didn’t need a conspiracy, he just

needed a rifle.

I could even buy that Oswald had broadcast his intentions to those whose ideological regard he valued, such as the U.S.S.R and Cuba; but I don’t buy that it was a conspiracy involving them. Oswald didn’t need a conspiracy to map JFK’s planned movements through Dealey Plaza and set up a nest in the Book Depository Bldg, all he needed was a newspaper, a rifle and crazy.

If indeed Oswald communicated his intentions to communist governments, then it should surprise nobody that they’d be listening to see what happened. But it doesn’t mean that three cigar-smoking guys were on the Grassy Knoll with scoped sniper rifles and tripods.

Oswald didn’t need anything to kill JFK that he didn’t already have, including the motivation — a page in the history books for an intelligent but marginal man who never could have distinguished himself by honorable means but who desperately wanted that distinction. Oswald didn’t need encouragement, he just needed an audience.

Lee Harvey Oswald has been demonstrated to be a marginal character, desperate to be acknowledged as a substantial man; intelligent but poorly lettered and without the access necessary at that time to build a life that had honorable and distinguished impact on society; and for these reasons a very bitter man.

It’s accepted now that Oswald also tried to murder Gen. Edwin A. Walker, fired a shot from the same rifle that killed JFK and almost got the general. And the forensic evidence linked the bullet that passed through both JFK And TX Gov. Connally to Oswald’s Mannlicher-Carcano rifle. Oswald was gunning for someone to get him in the history books, and he got him.

If you were picked up by Texas lawmen and accused of murdering the President of the United States, would you immediately own up to it? Within hours of that claim, Jack Ruby forestalled any possible retraction of what probably was a gut-reaction denial.

There is no more to Ruby than meets the eye. He was a friend of the cops and got access to the garage due to his relationship with the cops. You have to realize how stirred up the cops and the citizenry were.

While certainly killing JFK was monumental, Oswald also shot a cop who tried to apprehend him. too and the blood was running incredibly high. None of the supposed connections to the mafia play out, and really it’s just another dead-end with no actual evidence.

I don’t think JFK was the casualty of a small man who thought he should be larger and saw no other means to grow large; and of a more innocent world when assassinations of presidents were so unthinkable (despite having happened before) that security was nowhere near as tight as it should have been.

Conspiracy theories appeal to people with defective cognitive abilities and personality defects of some sort. They like having “insider” information, they like being the only one “in the know”. They like being a victim and they like seeing the world through a lens of evil manipulators.

For a more recent example, just look at 9/11 truthers. The feds went out of their way to deal with their questions/concerns and NIST issued a second report that went through each one and showed how they were baseless — to no effect to the truthers.

As for the JFK assassination, Oswald was an anti-social, violent and unstable person since he was a child. When you apply modern forensics to much of the evidence, and bring together all the information available about issues like the shots and how the traversed the bodies etc, it shows categorically that there is nothing mysterious about any of it.

One of the errors of the initial investigations was that the timing of the shots was calculated using a recording of a motorcycle cops open mic during the shooting. One of the “shots” was actually a car backfire and when the actual shots are used, the timing is clear – Oswald could easily make the shots he made, as any marksman could. Oswald was a trained Marine marksman, so this is no shock.

There was a bit of controversy initially, due to the limitations of technology at the time of the initial investigations. The timing of the shots is easy to replicate. The initial timing made it very hard to replicate because it was a bolt-action rifle. But under the correct timing it was quite doable.

As for the Grassy Knoll stuff below, you just have to giggle. First off, modern gun powder is smokeless – guns don’t leave puffs of smoke so that entire idea is laughable.

As for “ear witnesses” this is highly unreliable testimony. Also, go look at the spot they are talking about. The thought that someone could have set up and taken the shot without being seen is nuts. There is very little cover and someone doing so would easily have been seen.

Eye witnesses recall seeing Oswald’s rifle in the window after the first shot. How come there wasn’t one eyewitness who saw the supposed Grassy Knoll shooters? Answer: Because there was nobody there.

When you investigate and take a part all of the conspiracy theories out there, each of them becomes a complete dead-end almost immediately as there is no factual basis for any of them.

The conspiracy theorists have no real evidence, just hyperbole, small bits of data that they spin – but in each case it all actually amounts to nothing. Some are even just total fabrications with people profiting by books, newsletters etc.

What becomes painfully obvious is that there is no reason to believe anything other than the fact that Oswald shot Kennedy because he was a deranged individual. Oswald was kicked out of the Soviet Union by the government there, he didn’t leave voluntarily, because he was a troublemaker and unstable.

Every single person who thinks there is something nefarious about JFK’s assassination should rethink their position. Too many people have watched Oliver Stone’s laughable “JFK” movie and continue to peddle paranoid lies about John F. Kennedy’s death.

The facts are clear. There is no controversy among sober people. Many people have spent a lot of time and money chasing down every conspiracy theory out there. Researchers have chased down the threads about the Mafia, Ruby, CIA, Grassy Knoll (modern gun powder is smokeless so if another shot came from there it would not leave a puff of smoke), magic bullet, etc, and virtually all the conspiracy theories are easily debunked.

Bottom line, Oswald was a violent, unstable person from the get go. He was kicked out school, dishonorable discharge from the Marines, and kicked out of the Soviet Union because he was such a difficult, volatile person. He fits the profile of someone who works their way up to this kind of act to a ‘T’.

It also becomes clear is that the JFK assignation has become an industry and the folks peddling such nonsense are motivated by selling pamphlets/books etc.

I’m a bit difficult with people on this stuff because it really matters. You want to believe in ghosts or ESP or UFOs? Fair enough.

However, believing that there is some cover up to the assassination JFK, when there is no evidence? It encourages people to distrust our government in profound way. We already have plenty of real reasons to distrust the government. We don’t need a fake, hysterical ones like the JFK conspiracy theories.

I’m the same way with 9/11 truthers. Their beliefs encourage people to hold wildly paranoid views about our government. In that case. the second NIST report sealed the deal. It addressed every contention of the truthers and showed conclusively that they don’t have a shred of real evidence to support their views.

I also see the JFK thing as politically pernicious. It gives leftists a meme (not a motif – a motif is a design pattern) that supports their narrative that Kennedy was killed due to his support for civil rights and that conservatives wanted him dead for it. Many of the left have said as much this week. It’s not okay to distort the truth this much.

The blame for JFK’s assassination lays squarely on Lee Harvey Oswald. Period.