The Assassination of John F. Kennedy

Many atrocities have shaken the earth throughout time. However, one disaster that will be remembered forever is the John Fitzgerald Kennedy assassination. Most people would consider the Kennedy assassination a national disaster, but few realize how it affected the Kennedy family, caused many assumptions to form, or how the aftermath affected the United States personally and politically. On November 22, 1963 (Fagin 72), while trying to recover lost votes in Dallas, Texas, President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed by, who we believe, was Lee Harvey Oswald (Downing 51).

One part of the assassination which is abundant is conspiracy theories. To this day, no one really knows who killed President Kennedy. Within a few hours of the killing they already had a suspect, 24 year old Lee Harvey Oswald. Tragically, though, two days before he confessed, he was shot and killed on live TV by police officer Jack Ruby (Downing 51.) After this, there was no hard evidence of who killed the president or why he was killed. A plethora of hypothesis began and most are still believed today. The number one, most believed rumor, is that the motorcade route was altered at the last second so that the shooter would have a clear shot; this of course was started by civilians. Another popular belief was that JFK had a bullet-proof bubble-top which was removed so he could be assassinated. In actuality, the bubble-top that was removed was to protect him from the rain that was predicted for that day. In no way could the bubble-top withstand a bullet. Also, many thought that the assassination was broadcast live on television, this was also untrue. Back then most news broadcasts were pre-recorded before airing on television. Many other suppositions aroused about the location of the shooter. Some believe that he was shot from the front door of the Texas School Book Depository and not from the window as suspected, others believed the shots came from a storm drain in front of the president; all of these however, were untrue. Numerous civilians also believe that Jacqueline Kennedy had crawled out of the car to escape danger or help a secret service agent into the car; however, 20 years later it was announced publicly that she had scrambled onto the trunk of the car to retrieve a portion of JFK’s head or scalp which she held in her arms on the way to the hospital. On her arrival, she went to the doctor with the brain matter in her hands saying, “Here, will this help?” Probably the most publicized falsehood was that the photographs of Oswald holding his gun were fakes, but later were proven to be real. But definitely the most morbid of the popular beliefs of the country were that crucial frames were missing from the video tapes of the killing and that key witnesses were mysteriously murdered in order to insure that they would keep their mouths shut. There is no proof of either of these theories (Gary 1-3).