And so it begins – the plentiful coverage of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of U.S. president John F. Kennedy. The date itself is weeks away and there will be countless commemorative programs, specials and copious punditry on TV.[emphasis added]
JFK: The Smoking Gun (Sunday, Discovery, 8 p.m.) is one of the most controversial of the bunch. Made for the tiny U.S. cable channel Reelz, it’s a two-hour docudrama based on the book of the same name by former Australian police detective Colin McLaren. He claims to have spent years on “the forensic cold-case investigation of JFK’s assassination” and says he believes he has found “the smoking gun” that killed the president. His conclusion is not the accepted story.
McLaren’s belief has its roots in research done by the late Howard Donahue, a U.S. ballistics and firearms expert who spent years studying the assassination. Donahue’s interest began when CBS hired him to help test theories about the assassination in 1967. That experience made him deeply suspicious. Donahue’s work was documented in Bonar Menninger’s book Mortal Error: The Shot That Killed JFK. Those obsessed with the JFK assassination will know all of this already. What’s new is the claim by McLaren that newly released information supports Donahue’s theory and, as a police officer, he believes them to be plausible.
It’s essentially this: a Secret Service agent accidentally shot and killed Kennedy. Lee Harvey Oswald did indeed shoot, but only one bullet hit Kennedy. The claim here is that George Hickey, a Secret Service agent riding in the car behind Kennedy, panicked and a gun he was unfamiliar with accidentally discharged, hitting and actually killing Kennedy.
Hickey died two years ago and isn’t around to answer the charge. He eventually responded to the Bonar Menninger book with a lawsuit, but a court found he’d waited too long and the book was never amended or removed from sale. McLaren’s faith in the Hickey theory is based on complicated ballistics analysis. (I’ve seen McLaren try to demonstrate the ins and outs of his theories – “the flawed trajectory analysis” – at the TV critics tour in Los Angeles and remain unconvinced. But I’m no ballistics guy.) And, for good measure, he says the Secret Service agents had been out partying the night before, were probably hungover and poorly trained.
As a docudrama, JFK: The Smoking Gun has, admirably, few of the cheesy dramatizations that are the hallmark of this type of production. The focus is mostly on a painstaking analysis of Donahue’s work and McLaren’s bolstering of that research with new work.
It is a fascinating production, especially for viewers who have only a hazy picture of the theories and beliefs that surround the assassination. This isn’t about a widespread conspiracy to kill Kennedy. It’s about the Warren Commission being wrong, simply mistaken, about the bullet that killed Kennedy and the forensic evidence showing how correct Howard Donahue was. It’s about guns and ammo, and mistakes being made. It’s excellent viewing, whether you believe it or not.
All I know for sure is that Oswald didn't do it all by himself!
All I know for sure is that Oswald didn't do it all by himself!
I believe he could have. I've been in the depository and looked down at the X in the road and it isn't very difficult of a shot. I also have been able to pull off 3 shots in 6 seconds with my Mosin which is similar in power to the Carcano Oswald used except it has a much sticker bolt than the Carcano. The shot was only 88 yards. I could do a small group 88 yard shot with iron sights- Oswald had a 4 power scope.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTFVMMCwsss
If you watched the documentary last night it isn't the number of shots it is the angle of the shots. One shot clearly did come from Oswald and the trajectory proves it out 100%. The problem is there is another shot that the angle could not have come from Oswald. The tried to "claim" (actually Specter did in the Warren investigation) it hit the pavement and then jumped up and hit and killed Kennedy - this was the only way they could justify the angle that didn't work... problem is people in the car reported smelling gunpowder and there was no way they would have smelled gunpowder coming from the depository (wind, location, etc.)
This is simply and only my two cents. It won't change the debate one iota. But...
I am a shooter and I am at home when at the range. I have hunted deer since I was 12 years old. I load my own ammunition. From that experience, I feel I know how to shoot. I have never been in the military.
I have been in the book depository perhaps a half dozen times. I have been on street level in Dallas more frequently than that. The shots taken by Oswald were not difficult. The motorcade was moving away at something like 20 mph and nearly in the direction of Oswald's line of sight giving the target a near stationary attitude. I have seen and made far more difficult shots with successful follow-up shots - many times.
Also, keep in mind, a fired bullet in flight is a projectile heavily loaded with energy that relies on a gyroscopic spin to keep it stable during flight. But, once it strikes something, it can take very bizarre and erratic paths.
So... it is my belief that Oswald was the lone gunman that day. President Kennedy's death was the result of a tragic nexus of a crazy gunman and opportunity.
Does it really matter at this point?
Yes! As a matter of fact it DOES matter! A lot!
It matters because what they did in this case opened the doors to all that has happened since and until we get to the bottom of it once and for all we will NEVER be a free people again!
At least that's how I see it.
The show is replaying on Reelz tonight. So far it is interesting.
(https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1452101_10153474091180515_32780234_n.jpg)
The show is replaying on Reelz tonight. So far it is interesting.
Watched last night..it was very convincing and even plausible...but I always fee that way every time I watch a show like that with a new theory...we will never know for sure what really happened and who was responsible...well maybe Arlen Specter did..lol
It matters because what they did in this case opened the doors to all that has happened since and until we get to the bottom of it once and for all we will NEVER be a free people again!
At least that's how I see it.
There is so much more that makes this suspicious..... and it will never be a closed issue in my mind.
I'm not ready to completely accept all their theories yet. The angle theory is literally shaky because the slightest movement by Kennedy could change everything. The 'smell of gunpowder' could easily be simply the power of suggestion. They are asked if they smell something, in hindsight they think about it and their mind builds a pattern.
The type of bullet, FMJ versus frangible is pretty compelling. I was unaware before of the number of fragments in the headshot. That isn't a FMJ that hit something sold versus the other bullet going through soft tissue.
I believe it could be very plausible that a SS agent did accidentally shoot Kennedy and there was a cover up to not cause a national damnation of the Secret Service over an accident. Not a nefarious conspiracy, but a cover-up of a friendly fire accident during a chaotic situation.
and why did his brain disappear?
BTW have you read The Road to Dallas?
The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ
Find out how and why LBJ had JFK assassinated.
What does legendary political operative Roger Stone know that historians Robert Caro and Robert Dallek do not know? He knows that Lyndon Johnson murdered President John F. Kennedy. Combining decades of insider political knowledge with cutting edge JFK assassination research, Roger Stone lays out the case that Lyndon Johnson manipulated the situation in Dallas on November 22, 1963, and murdered Kennedy as he murdered numerous other victims along the way. LBJ was not just shooting his way into the White House, he was avoiding political ruin and prosecution and jail for corruption at the hands of the Kennedy's.
The case against LBJ has long been sitting in plain sight, and in The Man Who Killed Kennedy, you will find out all the details you weren't supposed to know:
The amoral psychopath detailed in Robert Caro’s earlier volumes.
The mutual hatred between the Kennedy's and Lyndon Johnson.
The discredited Warren Report.
The early murders committed by LBJ on the path to power
The Dallas connections; as well as LBJ’s epic mental instabilities.
Political consultant, strategist, and Libertarian Roger Stone has gathered documents and used his firsthand knowledge to construct the ultimate tome to prove that LBJ was not only involved in JFK’s assassination, but was in fact the mastermind.
With 2013 being the fiftieth anniversary of JFK’s assassination, this is the perfect time for The Man Who Killed Kennedy to be available to readers. The research and information in this book is unprecedented, and as Roger Stone lived through it, he’s the perfect person to bring it to everyone’s attention.
It was either the mob, the Cubans or LBJ..... all three had something to gain from his death and remember word has always been he didn't want the involvement in Vietnam.. LBJ DID.
It is a cottage industry where people are making $$$ devising more and more complex theories about who and how Kennedy was killed. I actually paid a street guy outside the book depository to give me a walking tour of Dealey Plaza. I saw the fence, the open storm sewer. The lines of sight. Discussed the timelines of where Oswald was when. I have been to the museums. I understand the off-the-chart incompetence of the Dallas Police Department in coping with the magnitude of the event. Hell, it wasn't even a Federal crime in 1963 to kill the President. Yep, I saw it all. At least most of it. I'm a gun guy. I have fired a gun like the Mannlicher Carcano (sp?) with its quirky bolt action. I have stared at traffic going by on Elm Street from the 6th floor window.
Big conspiracies require silence from too many people. I don't like complex. Sort of an Occam's Razor kind of guy.
Oswald was the lone gunman.
But...
I could be wrong.
Everyone is entitled to their opinions regardless of their validity.
Based on what I have seen and know first hand I have a very different opinion than yours.
First hand knowledge?
I thought that this was an interesting analysis of potential conspirators and motives...
Q&A ABOUT THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY (http://mikiestar.com/qa-about-the-assassination-of-president-kennedy-2/)
I thought that this was an interesting analysis of potential conspirators and motives...
Q&A ABOUT THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY (http://mikiestar.com/qa-about-the-assassination-of-president-kennedy-2/)
Roughly two years after the event I was working in a country half a world away from Dallas, Texas with government employees who were in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.
Lots of time late at night spent sitting around upended empty cable reels filled with adult beverages.
Do I have to spell it out further for you?
Many of us have solved riddles with empty adult beverage bottles strewn about.
Which to me is one of the appeals of the work of Howard Donahue’s work as in Menninger’s book Mortal Error: The Shot That Killed JFK. It is based on ballistics which can be duplicated and eschews any mention or need of some vast conspiracy.
Of course, it only addresses the issue of the fatal shot but not the issue of what motivated Oswald and whether he was just an innocent patsy as some believe or part of a larger scheme.
The fingerprint of Malcolm Wallace (LBJ's personal assassin) found in LHO's alleged school book depository hideout?
Motorcade route change at the last minute just coincidentally going by LHO's alleged hideout?
LHO's 'patsy' claim and subsequent murder?
The fingerprint of Malcolm Wallace (LBJ's personal assassin) found in LHO's alleged school book depository hideout?
Motorcade route change at the last minute just coincidentally going by LHO's alleged hideout?
LHO's 'patsy' claim and subsequent murder?
Did you ever notice the change from videotape to film, or vice-versa, in the garage when Oswald got shot?
I think video tape was still in the future at that time. Of course the film has been put on video tape many times since then.
There was a change in the texture maybe? I couldn't think of a way to describe it. Like a change in lighting, it's hard for me to describe but keep it in mind you see it and I think you may notice it.
Will do! Possibly the film was cut and spliced.
It should also be remembered that Jack Ruby was a well know figure in Dallas law enforcement circles.
Jack Ruby triggered it. Just googled it to review, watched it 4 times. It think what we see these days is a spliced copy from 2 perspectives. Oswald is walking through escorted by LEOs, the crowd opens up /splice/ Jack Ruby shoots.
It might be me but it looks like Oswald covers himself up before Jack "Rubenstein", per Ed Herlihy, shoots.
I think video tape was still in the future at that time. Of course the film has been put on video tape many times since then.
Does it really matter at this point?
Thank you, Madam Clinton? :silly:
As the article I posted says, that was all staged and Oswald was actually shot and killed later in the ambulance. Would be interesting to note where Oswalds arms were and where the entrance wound was on the body. The trajectory the bullet took already does not match the angle of the filmed 'shooting', according to the article.
If you saw somebody approaching you while pointing a handgun at you...unabated...you'd try to shield yourself with your arms. It's a reflex action.
I saw it happen "live" on our 21 inch B&W. And gazillions of times since....
Was he cuffed or shackled?
And, that was the conception of all the subsequent conspiracy theories. Had Oswald gone to trial, we'd have none of it.