The package/ride to work

     I just read that apparently Vincent Bugliosi put in his JFK book that if Oswald was part of a conspiracy why wouldn't they have given him a ride to the TSBD. I am surprised a criminal prosecutor would make such an ill-informed statement. We're not talking about a run of the mill bank robbery. We're talking about killing the president of one of the most power countries in the world. You don't just drop a guy off outside or anywhere near a building if he's going to kill the president. There is just too much that could go wrong, a license plate, make/model of the car, description of the driver, all could be traced back to someone who could know who was behind the assassination.
     Another thing I find disappointing about this statement is it tells me Bugliosi may not have understood ways in which this could have went down. The CIA and Mafia plan things in a way in which they are least likely to be caught. Obviously nether wants anyone to know they exist. So this is the type of thing that takes months, even years to plan. And when you do these things you only tell the people involved what they need to know. So obviously the less Oswald knows, the less he can tell the authorities. I do not believe he carried his gun into the TSBD that day. He wanted people to know he was carrying something (I think one thing LNers and CTers agree on is Lee Harvey wanted the name Oswald associated with JFK when he got up November 22, 1963.

     This was not the only setup by perpetrators. I believe the evidence shows there were similar situations in Miami and Chicago that were thwarted (I just made the connection: Chicago had a sizable organized crime presence and Miami had all the Cuban exiles, more patsies).

Medical/ballistic Evidence

I don't have much opinion on the medical and ballistic evidence directly. It was a crazy time and he had his head literately split open in an open car on a public street so I wouldn't expect all of the brain matter to be there.
I have limited knowledge of ballistics. I have fired a few guns but not much experience with military issued guns such as the Mannlicher Carcano. My feeling is that even though its highly unlikely it was used to kill JFK, you still can't completely rule it out. So its a non-issue. Someone could have used it, Oswald could have used it.

Obviously it would not be unlikely to find Oswald's fingerprints on his own gun or in a place where he worked.

Basic thoughts

From the surface its clearly a mob hit, public, bloody, the way they like it.

Never felt it was political, with our freedoms it would really be hard to run for office and hide the fact you killed your opponent. Voter intimidation, trying to keep blacks/minorities from registering, character assassination now that's all-American politics.

It had to be in some way related to government agency (even a small band of people) otherwise they wouldn't have been so secretive about it.

For the last few years I have felt Castro was somehow responsible.

Read this first

I don't think anyone should rely on one or two or half a dozen web sites to make a conclusion on what happened. There is a lot of BS out there. What I have found most troubling is some people take one piece of info and try and turn it into the smoking gun. For instance, Oswald's marksmanship. A determined man can pick up a rifle and kill a president, that takes no great weapon skills. That debate is irrelevant in my opinion.

Who worked with Oswald?

LBJ - No because who would put themselves in that shooting gallery? Besides his "motivation" was beucase he wanted power. But he didn't run in 1968. 

Mob - Probably because of the heat from Bobby, besides the strongest evidence is from them.

CIA - They provided the springboard for the assassination. Besides they have more incognito ways of handling these things.

Anti-Castro - Not politically connected enough to cover it up

Pro-Castro - You can never discount a rogue element of any group, no matter how noble their intentions. But if Castro did have any fear from the US he would have known it was the CIA and not the US President after him

Soviets - They had a lot of supposed motivations (Cuban Missile Crisis, Gary Powers spying, etc). If the Soviets took out JFK they would have had to deal with LBJ (or possibly Goldwater after 1964) who was more likely to go to war than JFK.

My theory (because everyone has one)

In short: Elements of the CIA wanted to scare JFK into attacking Cuba so they set up a phony assassination attempt. Someone got wind of it and instead of shooting over JFK's head they shot him instead.

The long version:     
     The CIA has what they call "cutouts" people who do the "dirty work" but don't actually work for the government. These people usually have no idea they are working for the US government. The way I understand it there is the CIA agent, who we'll call the "good guys", who work with several layers of people who get progressively worse. Finally you come upon the actual bad guy. I think Oswald was a person of interest to CIA because of his known leftist leanings. I think he was monitored by George de Mohrenschildt who had his own interest in the oil geological survey (and quasi-spying for the government).
     I think there were at least 3 plans to "scare" JFK into attacking Cuba. Because the CIA, at this point, felt as though they ruled South America. They removed governments that were unfriendly to American ($$$) interests. The first was the nut in Chicago and the second was in Miami where the fear of an assassination was so great they rerouted JFK via helicopter instead of the motorcade. The third and final being Dallas.
     Why would the CIA want JFK out of office? Since certain elements of the CIA thought they had become de facto rulers of the US they felt JFK was giving into Communism by not removing Castro. First he didn't support the Bay of Pigs. Next he failed to take aggressive action in the Cuba Missile Crisis. He also cancelled the operation to kill Castro, was reluctant to escalate the war in Vietnam. This was when the CIA decided to force JFK's hand in the war with the Communists.
     The CIA believed the Soviets, Cubans, Viet Minh and Chinese (among others) were all perceived to be working toward a new world order, a Red world order. They had already started numerous socialist movements in South America, the USA's back door.
     The CIA spent the summer of 1963 trying to find ways to embarrass Kennedy into a war with the Communists show him as weak on Communism and set him up for a loss in the 1964 presidential election. (I will provide some instances at the end of this post or in a separate post). I don’t think they wanted to go with the assassination attempt, but “groomed” Oswald in case it came down to it. Because after the winter of 1963 they wouldn’t have as good a chance with 1964 being an election year. So they have Oswald go to New Orleans, the hotbed of anti-Castro activity. Perhaps he went there also to try and incite a Castro riot. Either way I don’t think Oswald knew he was being “handled”, he knew he was part of something, but he was too unstable to be an actual intelligence agent. No, I don’t believe he was some sort of American hero.

To me New Orleans is where the wheels come off the official story. Up to this point we have a guy who, but for the grace of his wife, would have taken a shot at former VP Richard Nixon and who did take a shot at the right-winger General Walker. Nixon also leaned to the right so we have a defector who went to leftist USSR and had tried to kill too prominent right wing authority figures.

First Oswald gets an “office” right beside one of the biggest anti-Castro people in New Orleans, Guy Bannister. Among Bannister’s employ is Oswald’s ex-Civil Air Patrol comrade David Ferrie. Despite the fact Bannister is strongly against Castro there aren’t any dust ups between he and an ardent Castro supporter like Oswald. Next Oswald is seen on TV handing out pro-Castro leaflets, which eventually leads to a fight between Oswald and some anti-Castro Cuban exiles. Which the CIA didn’t want to admit was being handled by CIA operative George Joannides, that is until 50 years and a FOIA court order later. Then Oswald goes on radio to debate Castro’s Cuba with the one of the Cubans he had the street altercation with. On the one hand this seems really transparent, but it could be a coincidence. Then we have the incident where Oswald wanted to speak to the FBI while in police custody.

Next Oswald leaves New Orleans and takes a trip to Mexico City to get a visa to Cuba. A CIA agent (William Gaudet) was in line ahead of him at the bus terminal when he was getting a ticket to Mexico City.  There hasn’t been much light shed on the Mexico City visit. CT’ers say the government’s claim that he visited the Soviet and Cuban consulates are false and say that it was an impersonator.

This really seems like a lot of things going on for a person who is supposedly deranged or unstable. While it doesn’t seem totally implausible, it’s like the rest of this story, something doesn’t smell right.

JFK’s Dallas trip was first published in September 1963. Oswald gets hired at the TSBD in October 1963. It is a known fact that any parade going through Dallas would take Main St. So to say Oswald was hired before the route was published is immaterial.

Between this and November 22nd Guy Bannister, former FBI agent with mob ties either told one of his mob associates or David Ferrie about JFK’s Dallas visit and Oswald’s employment at the TSBD. Ferrie or another mob associate relayed the info to the right people, probably Santo Trafficante, Jr. and that set events in motion.

November 22, 1963 – I believe the gun was already at the TSBD before Oswald came to work. The package was to make sure someone saw him with a package that was a similar size to the gun. Because why would he put it in a package when Mariana had testified that he had went target shooting with his rifle by hiding it under his raincoat when he road the bus. It rained that morning, so to me that seems like a perfect fit. Besides if someone discovered the gun the jig would be up. It probably really was curtain rods.

Oswald was told to stay out of sight until he saw the police or had an indication that the assassination attempt had taken place. At that time he would rendezvous with Jack Ruby who would then take him to meet David Ferrie who would fly him to a secret location where he could lie low. Now Oswald’s pro-Cuban background would be brought up and the US would have no choice but to attack Cuba. Oswald would eventually relocate to Cuba to help the people recover from Castro.

At lunch time Oswald has to make sure it is known he is still on the 6^th floor by calling for the elevator to be sent back up. But we know he wasn’t because Depository worker Bonnie Ray Williams was eating his lunch there. Williams leaves the 6^th floor at approximately 12:15, 10 minutes before JFK is scheduled to arrive. After he leaves the team of one or two men move in. I think it was two, the shooter and the lookout. Up to this point it’s just a scare tactic. JFK passes by and Oswald’s look alike shoots from the south window, into the grass of Dealey Plaza, overshooting the grass and hitting James Teague. Meanwhile the mob has a man in the Dal-Tex building (probably Jim Braden), who actually shoots into the motorcade, more than likely with a silencer. The TSBD shooters use the fire escape to leave (probably the reason Oswald didn’t go out the back of the building).

Now here’s where the story is weird no matter what side of the fence you are on:  the escape. I believe he was supposed to meet someone in the building to take him away. Because whether he bought a Coke before or after his encounter with Officer Baker its still a very cool-headed thing to do right after you have shot or been part of the shotting of the President of the United States. When his man doesn’t show he tries to catch the bus to what he had previously learned was the meeting point with either Ruby to take him to Ferrie or Ferrie directly. When the bus moves to slow he gets in a cab. Patrolman JD Tippit, waiting for him at the Gloco gas station in Oak Cliff, learned Oswald wasn’t following the original plan (which Oswald didn’t know about because it would involve him doing something he didn’t want).

Oswald goes home and gets his pistol. Now if I had planned on shooting the president I would have taken my pistol with me. But I think Oswald smelled a rat once his contact at the TSBD didn’t show up and wanted a little protectin. So Tippit began to track him down. Since he knew where Oswald thought he was supposed to go he knew where to intercept him. Once he did and tried to explain the change in plans to Oswald that’s when Oswald shot him. After that Oswald knew the jig was up and figured he had to get off the street because the cops were looking for him. I think the theatre episode proves that the DPD, or most of them anyway, weren’t in on any conspiracy as they would have shot him in the theatre and ended all specualtion.

Once in custody he knows his only escape of the death penalty is to keep his keep playing along hoping his conpsirators would get him out of the mess. Of course he may have talked but if said anything conspiratory in nature we do not know. His public words do not sound like a small man making himself feel important by killing a popular leader. He sounds like someone who is trying to deflect most of the blame or possibly sending vague warnings to his associates. He gives no “look at me now” statements such as we got from John Wilkes Booth. No clear political message as we had with other presidential assassins. Not even a I’m a crazy man and I did it for Jodie Foster statement such as from John Hinckley Jr. There isn’t even a hint he did it for Castro and the revolution (although to be fair that wouldn’t have went over well with the American people for Castro’s sake). He was a patsy. His answers are from a man who seems to feel he knows his situation and has diluted himself into thinking that the people he worked with may have killed the president but they still care about him.

            Obviously it’s not known to me who hijacked the plan. The mob would be the best choice since the Kennedys were breathing down their necks. Specifically Sam Giancana (of course him sharing a lover with JFK probably didn’t help their friendship). And as I think a lot of the confusion about this case is people getting caught up in their own pet theories let me go over some areas where I think I could be wrong.

            First Oswald could have been the shooter. I can’t buy that base on the ballistic evidence. I’m not expert but am familiar with different types of guns and for a bullet to hit that many bones and come out like that doesn’t seem logical. But putting that aside for the moment, it does seem possible for him to have gotten down the stairs to the lunch room before the DPD came in. His reaction (according to Truly) to Baker drawing a gun on him seems to be what you’d expect from a person who was waiting on the police entrance.

I understand when your dealing with nut jobs rational thinking goes out the window. But it’s just hard for to believe anything other than he was to meet someone to get him out of the area/country. If his motivation was to make a name for himself why wouldn’t he have just hung around the TSBD? If he had hopes that killing JFK would persuade Castro to let him into Cuba why didn’t he have some sort of escape plan setup to take him to Miami or the Mexican border?

Based on a couple facts I think he was heading for a rondavouz. First he went home and changed his shirt and got his pistol (there are a couple other details which I find inconsiquiential here, the police horn and he supposedly walked away from the bus stop). Then he has his encounter with Tippit. I find it hard to believe the conspirators would go to all the trouble and risk to shoot down a cop and try to frame Oswald. He’s supposedly just shot the President of the United States, how much more dastardly and violent could an American be? No matter how much an American dislikes their president most are going to be pretty ticked off when he gets shot. And as I noted earlier, Oswald was armed so if the DPD were in on a plot they could have easily taken him out. More than likely the word went out to take him alive so he could possibly betray any Soviet or Cuban accomplices.

What I don't neccessarily agree with

I just can't swallow the shot from the front. Obviously it would all but destroy my theory, but that's not the reason. If I were to make it seem as though Oswald was the lone gunman why would I want shots coming from an entirely different direction. To paraphrase an old football axiom: only 3 things can happen with a front shot and 2 are bad. If JFK gets hit in the head, few questions could be asked. If you miss, which is more likely than not, there are just too many targets that would easily unravel the lone nut theory.                                                        
That it was a government wide execution or cover up. If my theory is correct then at most the CIA told LBJ and the FBI that something went wrong and they need to hush this thing up. Now obviously LBJ did want to have one investigation but it was more to make sure some idiot didn't tick off the Russians and talk us into a war.