On this day half a century ago, President John F. Kennedy, the youngest ever to be elected to lead these states united, was tragically gunned down in an assassination attempt and along with went him four-year’s worth of enthusiasm, idealism, and conviction to the likely benefit of the American people. And while the masses mourned our late president and Boston-area brethren, Chief Justice Earl Warren headed a commission to investigate even the most insignificant iota of a detail pertaining to the murder.
Cue the conspiracy theories.
The unofficially named Warren Commission – upon which served future President Gerald R. Ford – was ordered by JFK successor President Lyndon Johnson to “evaluate all the facts and circumstances surrounding the assassination and the subsequent killing of the alleged assassin and to report its findings and conclusions back to him” a week after the incident occurred.
The nearly 1,000-page document has been called into question by numerous doubters and conspiracy theorists alike, many of whom hold to the notion that there may have been multiple gunmen involved in the President’s death.
Among them is JFK’s own nephew, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who told USA Today back in January that “The evidence at this point I think is very, very convincing that it was not a lone gunman.” He also said his father, – JFK’s younger brother, Attorney General, confidant, and fellow assassination victim – Robert Kennedy thought the commission’s report was nothing more than a “shoddy piece of craftsmanship.”
Texas Governor John Connally, who was riding in the motorcade with President and Mrs. Kennedy, was also shot but lived and disputed the “lone gun” theory until the day he died.
Of course, the commission and innumerable future experiments and recreations attest that Kennedy was shot and killed by Communist sympathizer Lee Harvey Oswald who in turn was killed in real-time on national television by scuzzy strip club owner Jack Ruby.
Such seemingly unreal circumstances are likely the driving force behind the endless conspiracies, but the Warren Commission report is embedded below in plain English. Have at it, all. Feel free to respectfully report your own findings, sentiments, or theories in the comments section below.
