Moral, Legal, Political and Practical Dimensions of Assassinations and The Assassination of John F. Kennedy - Research Paper Example

 The Assassination of John F. Kennedy Just about everyone who was alive on November 22, 1963, with the possible exception of infants, can remember exactly where they were when they heard the news. At 12:30 pm, just after noon, Central time, the popular President John F. Kennedy was fatally shot in the head while riding in a presidential motorcade with his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, in Dallas. The President was pronounced dead at Parkland Memorial Hospital at 1 pm and the nation went into mourning. The subsequent investigation of the murder took more than 10 months, and some would say continues into the present day as there remains a great deal of material regarding the shooting still under lock and key under the ‘Highly Classified’ heading. Publicly, a man named Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested as the sole perpetrator of the crime but intense questioning of Oswald was prevented by another fatal shooting, this time conducted by a man named Jack Ruby who shot Oswald as he was being transported and then died in prison shortly afterward as a result of illness. However, reports continued to come in that shots were heard from another direction from that in which Oswald was hidden, reports that were given more credence once the president’s body was examined. In order for Oswald to have killed the president, it was argued, he would have had to have had a ‘magic bullet’ that was capable of ricocheting around inside the president’s body in an unnatural way before finding an exit. While this report does not promise any definitive answers to what actually happened that day in Dealey Plaza, it does take a look at the event as it is known and some of the controversy that has emerged surrounding the Warren Commission’s report. President Kennedy was the nation’s 35th president, was the youngest president up to that time and was the first Irish Catholic president to serve (“John Kennedy”, 2007). As president, Kennedy worked to further the cause of Civil Rights and worked for the rights of the common man, extending America’s hand to other nations as an aid and support for these same efforts. Also under Kennedy, the Cold War heated up, coming to near blows with the Cuban Missile Crisis in early 1963. Following this event, Kennedy began working for “a world of law and free choice, banishing the world of war and coercion” (“John Kennedy”, 2007). According to one source, with the 1964 election looming, Kennedy was in Dallas on a campaign trip, trying to win support among Texas voters where his approval rating had slipped from 76 percent in 1962 to 50 percent in 1963 (Buckley, 1994: 8). The President and First Lady flew into Dallas’ Love Field about an hour before the assassination took place. They shared a convertible limousine with the Dallas Governor John Connally and his wife Nellie as they made their way through the city along streets crowded with onlookers hoping to get a glimpse of the President. As they entered Dealey Plaza, the governor’s wife reportedly turned to Kennedy in the back seat and made the comment, “Mr. President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you” (Warren Commission, vol. 4, 1964: 131-132; 147). Immediately following this comment, the car turned the corner onto Elm Street and passed in front of the School Book Depository Building, where Oswald was lying in wait. Moments later, the President was all but dead. As the Presidential vehicle passed in front of the School Book Depository Building, most witnesses reported hearing three distinct shots although some indicated that they thought the first noise they heard was a firecracker or vehicle backfire in some other portion of the city (Warren Commission, 1964). As can be determined by the amateur film shot by Abraham Zapruder, the President and John Connally both made a sudden turn from waving happily to the crowds on the left to looking searchingly at the crowds to the right at the same time. Because the film is silent, it is impossible to determine whether this occurred in conjunction with the sounds of gunfire, but it is telling that their heads both moved at the same exact time in the same direction. According to the Warren Commission report (1964), Connelly immediately recognized the sound of a high-powered rifle and dreading the worst turned to check on the President sitting directly behind him. Both the Warren Commission and the House Select Committee on Assassinations investigating the crime reported that Kennedy was shot in the upper back as he waved to crowds on his right. This shot entered at his upper back, traveled up into his neck and exited from his throat (Warren Commission, 1964: 18-19). The report indicates this same bullet had also wounded Governor Connelly in the back, chest, right wrist and left thigh. In reaction, both men crumpled in their seats with their wives reacting in concern, but neither was fatally wounded yet. Another shot fired just as the car was passing in front of the John Neely Bryan pergola was accompanied, as can be seen in the enhanced Zapruder film, by the graphic visual of a fist-sized hole exploding out from the right side of the President’s head, splattering the inside of the car and a motorcycle cop nearby with blood and brain tissue. At this point, the motorcade sped up and exited Dealey Plaza with the dying president in the backseat and a panicked Jackie Kennedy indecisive about whether to crawl out of the car or remain seated as they rushed to the closest area hospital. Immediately after the shooting, Dealey Plaza was filled with confusion and several conflicting reports have come out of it. Steamfitter Howard Brennan reported to police immediately, telling them he had been sitting across the street from the book depository building and heard shots coming from above. In the Warren Commission report (1964), Brennan indicated that he had seen a man looking out of the corner window on the sixth floor a few minutes before the shooting. When he looked up just after the shots were fired, he said he saw the same man with a rifle in the window. His description of Lee Harvey Oswald was broadcast on police radio beginning at 12:45 pm (“History in Real Time”, 2006). His report was verified by two employees of the book depository who said they’d been watching the motorcade from the fifth floor and had heard gunshots coming from above them and felt plaster falling on their heads (Warren Commission, vol. 17: 202; 209). These descriptions led to the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald approximately an hour and a half after the shooting, originally for shooting and killing Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit who recognized him from the radio descriptions. When Oswald was picked up in a nearby movie theatre, he again tried to shoot the arresting officer but was overpowered. During questioning at the police station, Oswald insisted he was a patsy, a fall guy for the real murderer, but the case never went to trial because of the intervention of Jack Ruby (Posner, 1993). However, it seems undeniable that Oswald was at least partially involved not only because of his shooting of a police officer and attempted murder of another, but also as a rifle was found on the six floor of the depository where Oswald worked that was linked through to Oswald in pictures of Oswald in his backyard and through forensic evidence. The controversy surrounding the assassination began almost immediately. Questions have been raised with the rifle that Oswald used and the connections Oswald had with the various people who had become enemies of Kennedy. It has been argued that the weapon Oswald used was a bolt-action rifle that had little reliability and was difficult to reload. A rush of people heading up a small hill now famously referred to as the Grassy Knoll has given others the suspicion that there was another gunman hidden up there while damage to the limousine windshield was used to support the idea that a bullet had struck the vehicle from the front rather than the side and rear. The arrest of three hobos on the train tracks gave rise to a theory that these three were actually agents of the CIA, FBI or Mafia working together to get Kennedy out of the picture and one of the shots actually came from this direction. Because Kennedy presented severe opposition to Cuban President Fidel Castro, there was some suggestion that Castro was behind the assassination; or perhaps the Russians as it was Kennedy who blockaded the island nation preventing Russia from installing its nuclear missiles there. These ideas gained strength following Oswald’s assassination as he was no longer able to speak for himself nor did he ever confess to the crime, insisting to the end that he was a ‘patsy’, but no one else ever stepped forward to claim complicity in the matter. Reports regarding the autopsy furthered conspiracy conceptions as well. Autopsy reports indicated that the fatal shot passed through the President’s skull, taking out pieces of bone and brain with it as it exited. Another bullet reportedly “entered Kennedy’s upper back above the shoulder blade, passed through the strap muscles at the base of his neck, bruising the upper tip of the right lung without puncturing it, then exiting the front (anterior) neck” (Commission Exhibit 387). This report was somewhat different from what the holes in Kennedy’s clothing would seem to suggest, causing many to question whether the autopsy report was being entirely accurate. Watching the Zapruder film, though, reveals that the President had his arm raised as he was waving to the crowds, causing his jacket and, most likely the shirt underneath it, to bunch up near his neck which would explain the location of the bullet holes as compared to the damage on the President’s body. Works Cited Buckley, William F. Jr. “President Kennedy: Profile of Power.” National Review. (December 31, 1994). BNet. December 11, 2008 Commission Exhibit 387. December 12, 2008 “History in Real Time.” The JFK Assassination Dallas Police Tapes. (December 26, 2006). December 12, 2008 < http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/dpdtapes/> “John Kennedy.” White House Press. (2007). December 11, 2008 Posner, Gerald. Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK. New York: Anchor, 1993. Warren Commission Report. United States government. (1964). Read More