NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
On Friday November 22, 1963, the thirty-fifth President of the United States of America, John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode down Elm Street in downtown Dallas Texas. To this day, the questions as to whom did it, why did they do it, and how did they do it? are still unanswered. Then there is the question as to if it was a cover up. I personally believe that there was definitely a cover up because I don't think that Lee Harvey Oswald could have shot that many bullets in that short of a time period with the gun that was found on the sixth floor of the School Book Depository.
In this essay, I will tell you my opinion of what happened on that day and what is wrong with certain parts of the Warren Commission Report. The Warren Commission consisting of "various outstanding citizens" was created to determine, evaluate and tell all of the facts relating to the assassination. The Commission was to examine the evidence found and developed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and to further any investigation, as it deems necessary. In just a few days, the Warren Commission had decided that it was definitely Lee Harvey Oswald that had shot the President. It wasn't until a few years later that Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry said to a newsman, "We don't have any proof that Oswald fired the rifle, and never did. Nobody's yet been able to put him in that building with a gun in his hand. " At no time did the Warren Commission seem to consider that Oswald was innocent until proven guilty, the right to legal representation, or the right to cross-examine witnesses.
I believe that there is no way that Oswald was the lone assassin because nobody saw Oswald on the sixth floor of the Schoolbook Depository after 11: 55 on November 22. Roy Truly and a police officer by the name of M. L. Baker saw Oswald on the second floor. I just don't see how it is possible for any person to first hide a gun on the opposite corner of the sixth floor, run down four floors of stairs passing a woman by the name of Victoria Adams, and end up on the second floor "calm and collected" in a 90 second time period.
The Warren Commission claimed that Oswald fired three shots in 5. 6 seconds from the sixth floor window: the first shot was the 'magic bullet' which made a total of seven wounds on JFK and Connally, which was found later at Parkland Memorial Hospital in almost perfect condition, th! e second shot missed JFK and hit a bystander that was near the overpass, and the third was the fatal head shot. According to the Warren Commission if Oswald was the lone assassin then the third shot would have come from behind, however his head was pushed backwards and to the left. This means the bullet must of come from somewhere in more in the front of Kennedy like the grassy Knoll.
Many witnesses claimed to have heard shots from there. The accounts from the witnesses that heard those shots were no where to be found in the Warren Commission Report. Now that we have established that it was not Lee Harvey Oswald, lets look at who would have wanted Kennedy dead and why. John F. Kennedy and the CIA had very much hatred for each other from the day the Bay of Pigs disaster until the day he was assassinated.
Some of the reasons JFK didn't like the CIA were because the CIA ignored his orders to stop working with the Mafia, and the deputy director of the CIA, Richard Helms, approved plans to kill Castro long after President Kennedy had ordered a halt to the covert campaign against Castro. In addition, the CIA continued other concealed operations without informing the President or John Mc Cone (the CIA director then). An important link between the CIA and the assassination was CIA man David Atlee Phillips was seen with Oswald a few months before the shooting. In 1954, Phillips worked with E. Howard Hunt and others to overthrow the Arena government in Guatemala.
A man by the name of Gaston Font believes that "David Atlee Phillips played a key role in the conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy. " Phillips was in charge of the CIA's Cuban operations in Mexico City at the time of the assassination, so it would have been fairly easy for him to frame Oswald, and it is quite possible, if not probable, that he was involved in the phony Oswald visits to the Cuban embassy. Another former CIA agent who has come under suspicion is E. Howard Hunt. Hunt, a former high-ranking covert operator and a propaganda specialist, was a key figure in the Bay of Pigs invasion. According to former (and now deceased) CIA operative Frank Sturgis, who knew Hunt well, Hunt was involved in CIA assassination operations.
Hunt has made no secret of his intense dislike for John Kennedy. To this day, Hunt blames JFK for the failure at the Bay of Pigs. So where was this E. Howard Hunt on November 22, 1963? In 1985 in Miami Florida the jury concluded that hunt had lied about his whereabouts because his stories had conflicted at times. In 1988 3 M's Costa Corporation analyzed photos of Hunt and of the third tramp and found a noticeable resemblance in him and the third "tramp" that was arrested in the train on the day of JFK's assassination.
I'm not trying to say that he was definitely the third tramp but there are a few too many similarities for me to believe that it's not him. Then we have the Mafia. The Mafia had the means, the motive, and the opportunity to assassinate President Kennedy. On November 20, two Mafia men told Rose Ceramic that it was common knowledge in the underworld that Kennedy was about to be killed. Mafia-CIA man David Ferrie was very probably involved in framing Oswald while he was in New Orleans, and Ferrie engaged in highly suspicious activity shortly after JFK was shot. Eugene Hale Bring was another member of the Mafia, and he was arrested in the Dal-Tex Building immediately following the shooting.
He was released shortly there after because he gave the Dallas police an alias and said he was only there to use the telephone. Then as Lee Harvey Oswald was being moved from building to building Jack Ruby took it upon himself to take the life of Oswald before he could tell his side of the story. But why would the Mafia have wanted JFK dead? Quite simply, because the Kennedy administration was threatening the existence of organized crime in America. John Kennedy was also having an affair with Judith Enter, the partner of Chicago Mafia boss Sam Giancana. It is my view that the main reasons President Kennedy was killed were (1) he refused to further escalate American involvement in Vietnam (2) he was moving in an attempt to end the Cold War (3) and the Mafia was outraged over his decision to try to do away with organized crime.
In my opinion, the principal individuals and forces behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States of America, were the members of the CIA and the Mafia. I also believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was set up by these men and that somehow they got the right guys on the Warren Commission to leave out all of the important details. I feel that by leaving out all of these important details the Warren Commission greatly reduced the trust that the American people have in their own government.
Free research essays on topics related to: lee harvey oswald, bay of pigs, united states of america, john f kennedy, november 22 1963
Research essay sample on Lee Harvey Oswald John F Kennedy
