The Kennedy Assassination Part I:  Was It A Conspiracy?

     One of the most mysterious and controversial crimes in history is the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.  Twenty-four-year-old ex-Marine Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested and charged with the assassination, but Oswald himself was shot and killed while in police custody two days later, unleashing a host of conspiracy theories and alternative suspects.  A 2023 survey found that more than half of American adults do not believe Oswald's guilt.  Solving the crime has become a hobby to thousands of citizen sleuths around the world.

     I was first introduced to the assassination mystery as a nine-year-old child watching an episode of 48 Hours in the fall of 1988.  I was instantly hooked.  From that day forward I was determined to solve the crime.  I have finally reached a conclusion.

     One of the first things I did was to go through the list of conspiracy theories and debunk them one at a time.  I also went through the list of possible suspects that had been put forward over the years.  Who had the motive, means, and opportunity to kill Kennedy?  Was it Oswald or was it someone else?  I first needed to determine if there was a conspiracy or not.

     There are witnesses who heard gunfire or saw gunpowder in the air near a grassy area in front of Kennedy's car.  The government says Oswald fired at Kennedy from the 6th floor window of a building behind Kennedy's car.  There is other circumstantial evidence to suggest a conspiracy, but for me it comes down to individuals having knowledge of and speaking about the murder before it took place.  On November 9, 1963 a Miami police informant recorded a conversation between himself and a right wing radical named Joseph Milteer.  In the conversation Milteer tells the informant that the best way to get Kennedy was with a rifle from an office building.  Milteer says a plan is in the works and someone would be picked up for the murder just to throw the public off.  How would Milteer know that a plan is in the works?  

     The second instance of foreknowledge of the murder came on the night of November 20, 1963.  A woman is found on the side of the road in Louisiana badly beaten and under the influence of something.  She tells the police that the two men she was traveling with, the same men who beat her and threw her out of the car, were on their way to Texas to kill Kennedy.  She repeated this story to nurses at the hospital.  Because the woman was obviously under the influence no one took her warning seriously.  How did the woman know Kennedy was about to be killed in Texas?  Who were the men she was traveling with?

     These two individuals knowing about the crime before it happened makes me certain there was some sort of a conspiracy to kill John F. Kennedy.  Who were the conspirators?  Why was Kennedy killed?  Who benefited the most?  And more importantly who had the power, not only to orchestrate a conspiracy, but to cover it up and keep the world guessing for more than half a century?

     Most of the top suspects that conspiracy theorists have put forward over the years can be eliminated pretty quickly.  The mob couldn't have done it, the Russians couldn't have done it, the Cubans couldn't have done it, the CIA couldn't have done it, and aliens from outer space didn't do it.  None of those groups had the power to cover up the crime.  That is a key factor to this investigation.  Plenty of sinister people might have wanted Kennedy dead, but very few of them had the power to actually kill him.    

     I emersed myself into Kennedys world in 1963, looking for anything that might stand out.  I come across two headlines that spark my interest.  The first was the Bobby Baker scandal.  This scandal, involving a longtime Senate employee, had the potential to bring down a lot of powerful politicians.  Was Kennedy one of them?  Did Kennedy's murder have anything to do with the scandal?  I wasn't sure.

     The second headline I noticed was a rumor that Kennedy intended to drop Lyndon Johnson from the 1964 re-election campaign.  If true, this is significant.  Succeeding Kennedy as President would have given Johnson the power to cover up the crime.  But, is being fired a reason to kill?  Was the rumor even true?

     I knew I needed to learn more about the Bobby Baker scandal and Lyndon Johnson.  I was expecting to pretty quickly be able to cross Johnson off my suspect list.  But, the more I learned about Johnson and the Bobby Baker scandal the more this case began to unravel.

     The Kennedy assassination is a complex multi-pronged crime.  This is the story, as compartmentalized as possible, of how I concluded my thirty six year investigation.  I finally know, beyond any doubt in my mind, who killed John F. Kennedy, who orchestrated the murder, who covered it up, and why it was so important for our government to hide the truth from us.  This is that story and all of the stories that live with in it.