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This week marks 62 years since JFK’s assassination. We’re running a two-part series about what exactly happened, what the official narrative is, and what information has cast doubt on that narrative. This is part two. If you missed part one, read it here.
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By Alex Norris
In 1979, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) released a report on the JFK assassination. Its conclusion: “Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.”
The HSCA convened in 1976 amid growing public doubt about the official narratives surrounding the JFK and Martin Luther King Jr. killings. After two years of investigating, the JFK subcommittee released a report upholding most of the findings of the Warren Commission, which in 1966 concluded that JFK’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, acted alone; that his motivations were impossible to determine; that no foreign government played a role; and that Oswald’s killer, Jack Ruby, was motivated by a desire for revenge.
The HSCA also denied that the CIA, FBI, or foreign agents were involved; confirmed that Oswald fired three bullets at JFK, two of which hit him; upheld the “single-bullet” theory; and, while Ruby killed Oswald, denied it was part of a conspiracy.
Yet unlike the Warren Commission, it found that it was probable there were two shooters, a conclusion based almost entirely on a recording from the day of JFK’s assassination.
The tape was captured by a Dictabelt, a type of audio recorder, that was stuck in the “open” position on a police officer’s motorcycle radio. The HSCA hired several of the world’s leading acoustics analysts to analyze the recording, and they concluded “with the probability of 95% or better” that four shots – not three, as the Warren Commission claimed – were fired at JFK: Two from Oswald, another shot, and then Oswald’s fatal shot.
That third shot, the report concluded, was fired not from Oswald’s location, but from the “grassy knoll” and missed JFK.
Based on that, the HSCA ruled that there was a second shooter – thus, a conspiracy.
Yet some questioned the HSCA’s Dictabelt analysis, and the Justice Department commissioned the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), a research institute, to analyze it. NAS unanimously found, “The acoustic analyses do not demonstrate that there was a grassy knoll shot, and in particular there is no acoustic basis for the claim of 95% probability of such a shot.”
Based on that and other conclusions, the HSCA’s acoustical evidence was largely written off.
But should it have been?
In today’s deep-dive – part two of our JFK series – we share an interview with a source with direct knowledge of the HSCA, then dive into the information suggesting that there was more to JFK’s killing than the official narrative.
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The source – who asked to remain anonymous – said the HSCA worked closely with forensic pathologists who examined X-rays and other evidence from JFK’s body. The HSCA confirmed the Warren Commission’s findings that JFK was shot twice from behind. Crucially, the pathologists also upheld the “single-bullet” theory, which claimed that a single shot fired by Oswald injured both JFK and Texas Governor Connally.
Roca’s source admitted to being “very skeptical” of the single-bullet theory at first, but said that medical experts’ analysis of evidence proved the theory “beyond any reasonable doubt.”
Yet he would not discredit the HSCA’s finding of a conspiracy, and did not view the Dictabelt recording as having been “completely debunked.” He said those who reached the HSCA’s four-shot conclusion were “leading experts of the time,” and that based on the acoustic evidence, it remains “probable” that there were two shooters.
But why was a bullet never found?
Likely “because no one was looking for it,” he said, noting that the Warren Commission was not aware of the Dictabelt evidence and otherwise did not seriously entertain the idea of a second shooter. In addition, he said, the commission appeared to discount eyewitness testimony alleging a second shooter on the grassy knoll.
Yet our source didn’t know who the second shooter was and said Oswald may not have either.
He added that Jack Ruby, the nightclub owner who killed Oswald, may have had connections to organized crime, but noted that Ruby was reportedly unstable and erratic – the type of person to make a rash decision, like shooting the president’s assassin. Our source said that HSCA found no convincing evidence that Ruby killed Oswald as part of a conspiracy, and speculated that he did so out of a desire for personal or financial gain.
The HSCA report could have been the final official word on the JFK assassination. In 1993, though, Congress passed a law forcing the federal government to declassify all documents related to the assassination, proving a CIA cover-up around the president’s killing.
While testifying before the Warren Commission, the CIA claimed to know practically nothing about Oswald. Declassified documents have since shown that that was a lie – and that the CIA had tracked Oswald for years.
Born in New Orleans in 1939, Oswald was a bad student who a psychiatrist described as “emotionally disturbed.” He dropped out of school at age 17 and enlisted in the Marines, receiving formal firearms training and a “sharpshooter” designation. Yet Oswald was twice court-martialled during his time in the service, and in 1959 was honorably discharged. He defected to the Soviet Union nine days later and was assigned to work in Belarus, where he met his future wife.
Declassified CIA documents suggest the agency began tracking Oswald after he defected to the USSR. A 1959 CIA document titled “Inquiry Regarding Oswald” confirms the agency knew about the defection; a 1962 document confirmed the CIA was intercepting and reading his mail. The latter document also said Oswald “left Moscow recently, together with his infant child.”
In 1962, reportedly disillusioned with the realities of communism, Oswald returned to the US. A year later, Oswald is believed to have attempted to assassinate a conservative former US general, but that intelligence didn’t emerge until after JFK’s assassination. Also in 1963, Oswald tried to join an anti-Castro student organization covertly funded by the CIA. He was rejected, and group members later saw him handing out pro-Castro pamphlets. Soon after, Oswald got in a fight, was arrested, and then was interrogated by a CIA agent.
Oswald came across the CIA’s radar again in September 1963 – two months before the assassination – during a trip to Mexico City.
Per declassified documents, the CIA was tracking Oswald when he entered the Cuban embassy and requested a visa to travel there, which was denied; immediately after, he traveled to the Soviet embassy. KGB officers at the embassy said that Oswald was armed with a pistol and acting erratically. After being told he could not quickly get a visa, he reportedly burst into tears.
“I'm afraid of the FBI,” he was quoted as saying. “I'm being persecuted. I need a gun to protect myself.”
Days later, a person who identified himself as “Lee Oswald” called both embassies and asked for an update on Oswald’s visa application. Per a CIA document, agents who had been tracking Oswald were “of the opinion that the…individual was not Lee Harvey Oswald.” In other words, days after Oswald visited the embassies, somebody impersonated him on calls.
Other revelations have subsequently come out about Oswald’s connections to Cuba’s government, which JFK had attempted to overthrow in the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion. One 1967 CIA document recounted how a person once told a “Cuban intelligence officer” that Oswald must have been a good shot.
According to the person, the officer responded, “Oh, he was quite good [of a shot]…I knew him.”
The CIA knew all that information and more directly after JFK’s assassination, yet shared almost none of it. Some claim they did so to hide their involvement; others claim they did so to cover up their incompetence.
Today – 62 years after JFK’s death – polls show that 65% of Americans do not believe Oswald acted alone. While a 1992 law required the federal government to release all documents it has about JFK’s assassination by 2017, thousands of CIA documents remain redacted. President Trump has ordered the declassification of records relating to the assassination; however, thousands more remain unreleased.
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Editor’s Note
What do you all think? Was JFK’s killing the responsibility of Lee Harvey Oswald alone, or is there more to the story? If more, who and why? Let us know by replying to this newsletter. Also, if you remember the assassination, we’d like to hear what it was like when you found out.
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Now, off to enjoy some football and pick up a Christmas tree. We’ll see you tomorrow!
—Max and Max
