JFK ASSASSINATION
The assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 has led to several conspiracy theories regarding who was actually behind his murder. Some refuse to believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and propose that a second gunman was located in a grassy knoll on the northwest corner of Dealey Plaza. Evidence put forward for this theory derives from witnesses who claim to have heard shots from the direction of the grassy knoll. Video footage of the assassination also shows JFK’s head jolting forward after being struck by the first bullet before it moves backward as though it had been struck by a bullet from the front.
In 1975, CBS examined the footage of JFK’s assassination. In Frame 312 of the footage, Kennedy’s head appears to jolt forward slightly, before moving backward in Frame 313. However, studies have shown that nerve cells can explode after being struck by a bullet, which could explain why JFK’s head moves backward in Frame 313.
In 1976, a House of Representatives committee examined a radio transmission audiotape from a police officer who escorted the motorcade. The committee reported that four gunshots were fired, one of which came from the grassy knoll. However, an analysis of the tapes by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that some of the sounds, in fact, were not gunshots and some occurred up to a minute after the assassination. Also, the police officer in question was not actually at the location stated in the House report, so even if there were extra gunshots, they were not from the direction of the grassy knoll.
Other JFK conspiracy theorists suggest that the Mafia was behind his murder. Others claim that it was the CIA. Some point an accusatory finger at the man who succeeded him as President, Lyndon B. Johnson, claiming that he had everything to gain from JFK’s death. Others suggest that Oswald carried out the assassination at the behest of the KGB. However, none of these claims are supported by conclusive evidence.
In 1992, The National Archives established the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection which consists of approximately five million pages of record. Also in that year, Congress ordered that all remaining sealed files pertaining to the investigation into Kennedy’s death should be released by the National Archives within 25 years. In 2017 alone, the National Archives has made four public releases of thousands of these documents. The White House has said that the rest of the documents will be released “on a rolling basis, with redactions in only the rarest of circumstances” by April 26, 2018.