Frequently Asked Questions

• How credible is the Warren Report?
• Were there any more gunmen involved? Who? Where?
• Did Oswald shoot Kennedy?
• If it was a conspiracy, who was responsible?
• Is there any substance to the Garrison investigation?
• Did the CIA have anything to do with the assassination? What were their motives if they did? Was George Bush involved?
• Is there any relation between the assassination and the Watergate scandal?
• I've heard the rumour that the limousine driver has fired the fatal head shot. Is it true?
• Was there a second shooter?
• Can you give an overview of the various assassination therories?

Your question isn't listed here? Mail it to www.jfk-assassination.de

How credible is the Warren Report?

The purpose of the Commission are to examine the evidence developed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and any additional evidence that may hereafter come to light ... to make such further investigation as the Commission finds desirable. [1]

It seems that the Commission did take the last sentence word-to-word. In the now mentioned facts, we will see that for the Commission, there has been only one truth.

In fact, prior to the appointing of the Special Commission, Deputy Attorney General D. Katzenbach wrote in a memo to President Lyndon B. Johnson Aide Bill Moyers on November 25, 1963: "The public must be satisfied that Oswald was assassin; that he did not have confederates..." [2]

None of the Commission members had any investigative experiences. They completely relied on Hoover and his FBI. Later, Chief Justice Earl Warren stated: "Never in our lifetimes would we know the entire truth of what happened in Dallas." [3]

Now, for the report itself. The Commission decided to mistake witnesses such as Seth Kantor, B.W. Frazier and his sister, Gertrude Hunter, Roger Craig, Arnold Rowland, Victoria Adams, William Whaley. It declared witnesses as lying such as W.W. Litchfield and Wanda Helmick. All these witnesses have one thing in common: They were incompatible, inconsistent and contrary to the lone psychotic assassin theory.

The late Lee Harvey Oswald was denied a legal counsel for the defense throughout the investigation. On request of Marina Oswald, the Commission denied her pleasure and appointed Walter Craig (member of the American Bar Association) "to participate in the investigation and to advise the Commission whether in his opinion the proceedings conformed to the basic principles of American justice." [4] But the ABA observer took no part in the examination of the 395 witnesses who appeared before the Counsel and not before the Commission.

Repeatedly, the counsels made "dry runs" prior to the formal examinations. This is necessary on trials when one wants to change the testimony in a cross-examination. But in a fact-finding investigation, this behaviour is very suspicious.

During the testimonies of the 395 witnesses, the examination went about 300 times off the record, merely at crucial point and sometimes up to 7 and 8 times per witness. The most interesting case is the testimony of Patrick T. Dean. The counsel accused him of perjury and had threaten him with the loss of his job. Later, Dean requested to be heard before the Commission and told his story for the record, so we know about it today.

Among the 489 witnesses, only 395 appeared to testify, less than a fourth (94) before the Commission itself. And during these testimonies, the Commission was never present as a body or throughout the full length. [5] Although the Chairman was present at least on all 94 examinations, the estimated numbers of the other members were:

Representative Ford	70
Mr. Dulles	60
Senator Cooper	50
Mr. McCloy	35
Representative Boggs	20
Senator Russell	6

Many witnesses told about alterations of her testimonies, such as Jean Hill, Phil Willis, Orville Nix, James Tague, Sam Holland, Roger Craig, Chester Breneman and Robert West (Reenactment figures), and Julia Ann Mercer. Mercer even told about the faking of her signature by the FBI. [7]

I hope this gives you a slight idea of the credibility of the Warren Report. A complete destroying of the report in comparison to the witnesses' testimonies can be found in Silvia Meagher's book "Accessories after the fact". A few of the arguments I will cite here to answer the other questions.

Were there any more gunmen involved? Who? Where?

The very basic evidence for this conclusion was a tape recorded that day in Dallas through an open dictabelt microphon of a motorcycled Police officer. In examinations, experts stated that there has been at least four shots and with "virtual certainty" a second gunman. [9]

Further examinations showed, that this gunman had to be behind the fence on the Grassy Knoll. [10]

Blow-ups of photos and films showed riflemen (!) in the 6th floor window of the Depository, the so called sniper's nest, and suspicious figures behind the picket fence (Badgeman, Black Dog Man) and in the second floor of the Dal Tex Building. Suspicious figures had been arrested behind the Grassy Knoll and photographed. But the records of these arrests were lost, and so the identities are not known [11].

The identities of the gunmen remain unsolved.

Did Oswald shoot Kennedy?

But did Oswald participate in the shooting? The paraffin test of Oswald's hands and his right cheek conducted on November 23, 1963, has been positive for his hands but negative for his cheek [12]. Generally, this is an evidence in Oswald's favor, but the Commission asserted that the test "is completely unreliable in determining either whether a person has recently fired a weapon or whether he has not." [13].

Nobody has seen Oswald in the 6th floor window after 1155 hrs on November 22. 90 seconds after the assassination, Oswald was seen by Roy Truly and Police officer M. L. Baker in the second floor. Oswald had to take the stairs down. But he had just 90 seconds to hide the rifle in the opposite corner of the sixth floor, run downstairs 4 floors passing Victoria Adams who never saw him and reach the second floor where he was encountered to be "calm and collected" [14].

Indications that Oswald could not shoot are the tree blocking the view from the sniper's nest to the motorcade during the first shot, Oswald poor rifle capability (experts tried to do the same what Oswald was claimed to have done, but nobody was able to do that! [15]) because he was not familiar with the rifle [16] and the inaccurate attached scope of the rifle [17]. There are more evidences that show Oswald did not pull the trigger. But I think this is enough for a short answer.

If it was a conspiracy, who was responsible?

• Government agencies did it. The assassination was planned by high officials in the White House, Secret Service, FBI and CIA. It was executed by paid killers. Most probably the order was shipped to the Mob and they did it. Afterwards the agencies ensured that the murderers remained undiscovered.
• The Mafia did it. The Mob planned and executed the assassination. Indication is the involvement of Jack Ruby who had connections to the Mafia.
• Right wing extremists did it. For them, Kennedy was Communist as he tried to build peaceful relationships to Cuba and the Soviet Union. So they planned and executed the assassination.
• Communists did it. The Communists saw in Kennedy a friend of industrials and responsible for the war in Vietnam, the blocking against Cuba and many other things. So they decided to kill him.

Is there any substance to the Garrison investigation?

Garrison charged Shaw, but he was not sentenced guilty. Although Garrison proved that a conspiracy did exist, the jury saw no evidence that connected Shaw to it. [21]

Afterwards the Government agencies tried multiple times to silence Garrison. He was prosecuted a couple of times, but in both times he could prove very clear that all the charges against him were of no ground, completely false and laid by FBI and CIA. [22]

In his book, Garrison wrote: "Considering the lofty credentials of the Commission members and the quality and size of the staff available to them, I had expected to find a thorough and professional investigation. I found nothing of the sort. The mass of information was disorganized and confused. The Commission had provided no adequate index to its exhibits....The number of promising leads that were never followed up offended my prosecutorial sensibility. And, perhaps worst of all, the conclusions in the Report seemed to be based on an appallingly selective reading of the evidence, ignoring credible testimony from literally dozens of witnesses." [23]

Okay, now let's take a deeper look into his investigation.

In summer '63, Oswald had distributed leaflets for the "Fair Play for Cuba Committee". On this leaflets, there was a stamp with the address of the Committee's office on 544 Camp Street, New Orleans. This building had two entrances - first is 544 Camp Street, second is 531 Lafayette Street, the office of Guy Banister. [24] Banister was a leading member of the Anti-Communist League of the Caribbean. That leads us to the contradiction between Oswald and Banister. Oswald was not a Communist. He most probably was framed to be one. Because of the suspicious activities in that building, it is most likely that Oswald, Ferrie, Banister, Anti-Cubans and weapon dealers were deeply connected with each other [25].

During the court trial against Shaw, Garrison called Dr. Pierre Finck (one of the President's autopsists) to testify. "Finck informed the court that some powerful, high-ranking officers had kept him (and the other attending physicians) from performing the autopsy in accordance with proper military procedure. Finck also stated for the court that the bullet that had caused the wound in the President's back did not pass through his body.... Garrison's team presented evidence proving the single bullet theory invalid." [26]

At the trial, Shaw testified that he did not know - and never met - Ferrie. But there are photographs which show him and Ferries together at parties. [27]

Garrison revealed another witness, Perry Russo, who testified that in September 1963 he was at a gathering in Ferrie's apartment where he overheard Shaw discussing the Kennedy assassination. [28] He discovered major discrepancies in the story of Oswald's activities in Russia. Oswald could not have taken a scheduled flight to Russia [29]. And although Oswald had betrayed military secrets (an Air Force plane crash over Russia most likely could be done only by his help [30]), he got back the American citizenship in a very fast way, without questions or difficulties. The State Department even gave him a loan to come back [31].

Jim Garrison was one of the most important researchers that the case ever has been faced. His theory that CIA, FBI, Secret Service and high officials in the White House did conspire to kill Kennedy is now one of the most consistent and most accepted theories among the reasearchers. Even those who do not share his idea can not ignore him and have to agree at least particulary.

Jim Marrs wrote about him: "Even today many assassination researchers - particularly those who pay closest attention to Government officials and fail to take the trouble to dig deep into the New Orleans investigation - believe Garrison was far afield of truth about Kennedy's death... it is now obvious that a concerted effort was made by elements within the Federal Government and the national news media to discredit his evidence and destroy his reputation even before he had a chance to bring his case to court." [32]

Did the CIA have anything to do with the assassination? What were their motives if they did? Was George Bush involved?

Probably Oswald was irritated whether he was a FBI or CIA or ONI agent. But obviously he thought one of this. Why else shouldn't he visit FBI Agent Hosty a few times. An indication that the CIA did pay Oswald or at least he was a major help for them are Oswald's employments at various CIA firms or firms which were deep connected to the CIA [37].

Why did the CIA helped in killing their own President? Let's remember some important facts of that time:

Kennedy denied any help in the CIA's Bay of Pigs invasion. One of the biggest factors that led to the end of the Cuba crisis was Kenendy's assuring that the USA will not invade in Cuba. This decision had been a severe blow to the CIA. They trained Exil-Cubans in camps in Louisana and Florida just for that very purpose.

The CIA did plan and execute dozens of "covert operations" since the 50s. These operations did make more than 30% of their activities that time. They did development and distribution of propaganda material, robbed secret armies, staged coup d'etats and even murders all around the world. In 1975, a Senate Committee discovered under Frank Church that the agency planned many assassinations with help of different poisons, automatic rifles and even mafia killers. [38] The CIA helped to overthrow the Government in Iran (1953), Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala (1956), to kill Patrice Lumumba in Zaire (Kongo then, in 1960), to kill Rafael Trujilo Molina (Domenican Republic, 1961), Ngo Dinh-Diem (South Vietnam, 1963) and General René Schneider (Chile, 1970) [39].
But Kennedy set other accents during his Presidency: He denied Air Force help for the invasion in Cuba (Bay of Pigs), declined the suggestion to throw bombs on Cuba and to occupy during the rocket crisis, and signed memorandums to withdraw from Vietnam in 1963. The reason why Kennedy was killed is obvious in the the actions by the new Government after the assassination. The decision to withdrew from Vietnam was rolled back, the incident in the Gulf of Tongking in August 1964 smelled of the CIA's involvment (on August 7, 1964, Johnson advised to take all military steps to secure the Americans - a de facto war declaration). When the USA finally signed the Contract of Paris, 75 000 Americans and Millions of Vietnam people died in that war.

Kennedy had enemies in the highest circles of the CIA and FBI. He fired the Chief Executive of the CIA, Charles Cabell. Among his enemies were Richard Helms and former CIA director Allen Dulles (member of the Warren Commission!!!), Gerald Ford (who leaked information to the FBI during the Warren investigation).

George Bush tried to cover all CIA actions regarding the assassination. In 1976, when the HSCA conducted its investigation, he called a meeting with CBS officials William Paley and Richard Salant to gain support for the CIA's policy of "burying the past." When dealing with CIA contacts within the CBS, one told Bush, "we protect ours, you protect yours." [40] Robert J.Groden writes about Bush: "The President John F. Kennedy Act of 1992 was enacted as a result of public outcry following the release of the movie 'JFK'. The Act requires any federal agency holding unreleased documents relating to the assassination to catalogue and transfer them to the National Archives. By June 1993, this review body still had not been appointed, partly because former President (and CIA director) George Bush left office with the needed records in his possession." [41]

Is there any relation between the assassination and the Watergate scandal?

I've heard the rumour that the limousine driver has fired the fatal head shot. Is it true?

Was there a second shooter?

Now we will establish that there has been at least one additional shot at Dealey Plaza. One of the known three bullets had been found, the so called Magic Bullet. A second bullet was that which caused the head wound. A third bullet missed and caused the wound to bystander James Tague. These two bullets were never found. But mysteriously, there was a fourth bullet. According to the autopsy report of FBI agents Frank ONeill and James Sibert, this missile (not a fragment) was removed from the President's body. The existence of this entire bullet was confirmed by Admiral Calvin Galloway [45].
Since the bullet which caused the head wound was passing through the body, it could not be found in the President's body. This leaves only one possibility, the found missile caused one of the wounds which were claimed to be caused by the Magic Bullet (This one was found much later on a stretcher.). That means that there must have been at least one additional shot that hit Kennedy. And this leads us to a second shooter.

Can you give an overview of the various assassination theories?

Sources

Found a Typo?

Partner Links