Specific Assassination Theories
Here are some articles in the JFK Assassination Questions section which deal with specific theories about the assassination:
Did JFK’s Car Stop on Elm Street?
A number of witnesses stated that President Kennedy’s car stopped on Elm Street while the shooting was happening. This has two conspiratorial implications: that the driver, a Secret Service agent, was complicit in the assassination, and that three home movies which failed to show the car coming to a halt had been altered. A closer look at these witnesses’ statements suggests that the car merely slowed down.
Did a Secret Service Agent Kill JFK by Accident?
In a bizarre variant of the lone-nut theory, a book published in 1992 claimed that the fatal shot was fired accidentally by George Hickey, a Secret Service agent in the car behind Kennedy. The theory was quickly debunked, and Hickey received an out-of-court payment after suing the author and publisher. Nevertheless, the claim was revived after Hickey’s death in a 2013 film, JFK: The Smoking Gun, which was widely and disgracefully promoted by the media on the fiftieth anniversary.
Fletcher Prouty and the Christchurch Star
Oliver Stone’s movie, JFK, promoted the claim by Fletcher Prouty that a New Zeland newspaper, the Christchurch Star, published information about Oswald long before that information became public knowledge, and that the information must have been planted in order to incriminate Oswald.
How Reliable Is the Medical Evidence?
The remarkably poor quality of President Kennedy’s autopsy ensured that the medical evidence is confused and contradictory. Several theories emerged from the chaos of the medical evidence; for example: JFK’s body had been surgically altered before the autopsy, and some of the autopsy photographs had been destroyed or hidden.
Is the ‘Harvey and Lee’ Theory Credible?
A particularly bizarre theory claims that Oswald was in fact two unrelated people, ‘Harvey’ and ‘Lee’. ‘Harvey’, or possibly ‘Lee’, was an English-speaking American, while ‘Lee’, or possibly ‘Harvey’, was a Hungarian who spoke Russian. Both of them had been recruited into a top-secret CIA project as boys, in the hope that when they grew up they would magically turn out to look virtually identical, which they did. Not only that, but Oswald’s mother was also two virtually identical though unrelated people. Unsurprisingly, hardly anyone takes any of this seriously.
Is it Oswald or Lovelady in the Altgens 6 Photo?
James Altgens’s photograph no.6, taken during the assassination, seemed to show Lee Harvey Oswald on the front steps of the Texas School Book Depository when he was officially supposed to have been on the sixth floor, shooting at President Kennedy. The man in the photograph turned out to be a colleague of Oswald’s, Billy Lovelady.
Is Robert Vinson’s ‘Oswald Double’ Story Credible?
Robert Vinson, a sergeant in the Air Force, claimed to have been a passenger on a plane which landed close to downtown Dallas on the afternoon of the assassination. A man who resembled Lee Harvey Oswald got on and was flown to Roswell, where all the flying saucers are. Using a large aircraft (which, incidentally, no-one on the ground happened to notice) seems a somewhat impractical method of allowing the double of an accused presidential assassin to escape the scene of the crime.
Was CE 399, the ‘Magic Bullet,’ Planted?
Interviews with the man who discovered a bullet on a stretcher in Parkland Hospital, and with the FBI agent who handled the bullet, suggest that Commission Exhibit 399 was not the bullet in question, and that it may have been planted after the event.
Was Jack Ruby Involved in the JFK Assassination?
The official explanation that one lone nut, Lee Harvey Oswald, was killed by another lone nut, Jack Ruby, led to suggestions that Ruby had been involved not only in the cover-up but also in the assassination itself. According to a member of the public who had been driving through Dealey Plaza before the assassination, someone who looked very much like Ruby had taken a rifle-shaped package from the back of his vehicle and carried it up to the grassy knoll.
Was There a Plot to Kill JFK in Chicago?
President Kennedy’s visit to Chicago early in November 1963 was cancelled at the last minute, after the FBI learned of a plot to assassinate him. A man named Thomas Arthur Vallee was taken into custody. Like Oswald, Vallee was a former Marine who had served in Japan, had associated with anti-Castro Cubans, and had recently begun working at premises overlooking the route of JFK’s parade.
Was the Zapruder Film Altered?
Some people claim that the Zapruder film has been altered to cover up evidence of conspiracy, despite the fact that, to many observers, it actually contains such evidence. Others even claim that the entire film is a fabrication and that all the evidence it contains that contradicts the lone-gunman hypothesis should be discarded.
What Is the Magic Bullet Theory?
Those who want to emphasise the unlikely role of Commission Exhibit 399, which sustained hardly any damage despite supposedly having caused several broken bones, prefer the term ‘magic bullet theory’ to ‘single-bullet theory’.
Who Were the Dealey Plaza Tramps?
About two hours after the assassination, three men who appeared to be tramps were escorted through Dealey Plaza by armed police officers. Theorists wondered whether the men might have had a connection to the assassination. The police records of their arrest were made public in 1992; they were indeed tramps.
Why Was President Kennedy Assassinated?
The answer to this question depends upon the identity of whoever was behind the assassination, a subject on which there is still no agreement. It might have been a lone nut named Lee Harvey Oswald; alternatively, it might have been the Cuban or Soviet regimes, or anti-Castro Cubans, or the mafia, or factions within the CIA or the US military.