Preface

More than two thousand books have been written about the assassination of President John Kennedy. Most have attacked the conclusion of the government-appointed Warren Commission that a lone assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, killed JFK. Many not only assail the Warren Report but also propose myriad suspects—including the CIA, anti-Castro Cubans, the FBI, and the mafia—for ever-expanding conspiracy theories.

Writers have identified nearly thirty gunmen, by name, as the second or—depending on the theory—the third, fourth, or fifth shooter at Dealey Plaza, the site of the assassination. In the critical literature, Lee Harvey Oswald has evolved from being the lone killer to being part of a conspiracy to being an innocent patsy to being a hero who vainly tried to save the President by warning the FBI of the plot.

The public has been particularly receptive to conspiracy theories in this case. Oswald’s curious past, especially his defection to the Soviet Union and his apparent pro-Communist philosophy in the middle of the cold war, showed the alleged assassin was anything but ordinary. Nightclub owner Jack Ruby’s killing of Oswald within forty-eight hours of the assassination raised the suspicion he had been silenced. Within days of Oswald’s death, public opinion polls confirmed that two thirds of those queried doubted he acted alone.

Besides the skepticism over Oswald’s murky background and his murder, strong psychological reasons prompted the public’s early embrace of conspiracy theories. The notion that a misguided sociopath had wreaked such havoc made the crime seem senseless and devoid of political significance. By concluding that JFK was killed as the result of an elaborate plot, there is the belief he died for a purpose, that a powerful group eliminated him for some critical issue. Public receptivity to the theories is also fed by suspicions that politicians lie and cover up misdeeds while intelligence and military officials plot against the nation they are supposed to protect.

Books and movies promoting conspiracy theories have reinforced and expanded the early public doubts. Today, the Warren Report is almost universally derided, mostly by people who have never read it. The debate is no longer whether JFK was killed by Lee Oswald acting alone or as part of a conspiracy—it is instead, which conspiracy is correct?

The early critics used the Warren Commission’s work as the springboard for their own efforts. They dissected the twenty-six volumes of testimony and exhibits and raised questions about its conclusions by highlighting inconsistencies and errors. The next generation of critics used the doubts sown by the initial writers and went far beyond the issues addressed by the Commission. Focusing on matters such as the history of the mafia or clandestine CIA operations, many of these books championed complex theses involving dozens of conspirators.

Forgotten in most recent studies of the assassination is Oswald. He is referred to only briefly and often presented as a sterile figure. With Oswald stripped of character, the reader is seldom given any insight into understanding him. His intricate personality and temperament are obscured under a deluge of technical details about trajectory angles and bullet speeds.

During the past three decades, hundreds of questions have been raised about the assassination. Few books provide answers. No single volume can deal with all the published contentions. However, the truth in the case can be uncovered by reviewing original documents and testimony and interviewing those involved. Despite a seemingly intractable quagmire of conflicting evidence, it is possible to find reliable and accurate information about the assassination and, by so doing, answer the riddle of what really happened as well as what motivated Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby.

The breadth of the issues in the Kennedy assassination dissuades many reputable journalists from pursuing the subject. Others are discouraged because the JFK murder has, regrettably, become an entertainment business, complete with board games and shopping-mall “assassination research centers” stuffed with souvenir T-shirts and bumper stickers.

As in every famous case, people have come out of the woodwork for their fifteen minutes of fame. Some publicity seekers have even implicated themselves in the murder conspiracy. If someone is willing to make a statement, no matter how outrageous, it is too often printed as “proof.” These more sensational claims may sell books, but they bring us no closer to understanding what really happened.

The only casualty is truth, especially in a society where far too many people are content to receive all their knowledge on an important issue from a single article or a three-hour movie. In this book, Oswald’s life is investigated in some detail, and to a lesser extent, so is the life of Ruby. As the story progresses, arguments raised by the leading conspiracy critics, such as Anthony Summers, Mark Lane, Jim Marrs, and others, are resolved in the text or in footnotes. Also, beyond, the human stories, there are separate chapters about the medical and ballistics issues, the Warren Commission and its critics, and the late New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison.

Many people, understandably, believe that the truth in the Kennedy assassination will never be discovered. But the troubling issues and questions about the assassination can be settled, the issue of who killed JFK resolved, and Oswald’s motivation revealed. Presenting those answers is the goal of this book.