Essay Sample on John F Kennedys Murder

Introduction

United States' 35th President, John F. Kennedy died during an assassination ordeal on 22nd November 1963, which occurred when he visited Dallas, while as he rode the limousine (Welton, 2013). President John Kennedy was in the company of Jacqueline, his wife. Also, in the car with them sat John B. Connally with his wife too, and the fatal bullets that cost his life were fired (Chapman, 2014). Several conspiracy theories spurred and one key theory was that a former marine officer called Lee Oswald was responsible for the president's murder. The accused assassin had been discharged from the Marines and had come to believe in Marxism and defected to the Soviet Union. Dallas Police Department arrested Oswald approximately an hour after the shooting (Welton, 2013). Every time Oswald was grilled about the shooting of the president, he denied everything.

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A twelve-hour cross-examination of Lee Harvey was done, and no recordings or notes were taken during the session (Chapman, 2014). Lee Harvey Oswald claimed he was not in any way involved in the assassination and that he was but a pawn. Lee Harvey never stood trial for the murder charges since he was shot and killed two days after the assassination while on transfer after being held in custody by a distressed Jack Ruby, a Dallas, nightclub proprietor. Jack Ruby disguised himself as a reporter trying to interview Oswald. The gun that was used to murder President John F. Kennedy was an Italian Manlicher-Carcano rifle, found on the sixth floor of Texas School Book Depository (Welton, 2013).

Practically from the start, the murder conspiracy of the famed young president was assumed by many Americans to have been a result of entwined conspiracies rather than the lone act of a person, despite conflicting findings the Warren Commission in 1964 (Welton, 2013). This investigative commission was set up by President Kennedy's successor, Lyndon B. Johnson (Welton, 2013).

Events before the Assassination

President John F. Kennedy in the company of his wife and Vice President Johnson went on a two-day, fund-raising visit to Texas (Welton, 2013). The tour was probably planned as an effort to aid unite the Democratic Party festered with in-house feuds, in a state that was key to Kennedy's re-election (Chapman, 2014). On the fateful day, President Kennedy, crowds of thrilled people lined the streets waving at the passing presidential motorcade. As the motorcade took a turn on Elm Street, down through Dealey Plaza, gunshots were fired at the president's convertible limousine as it passed by the towering Texas School Book Depository building (Welton, 2013). According to Warren's report, a bullet struck President John. F Kennedy at the base of his neck and exiting via the throat. The same bullet hit Governor Connally's wrist, shoulder and eventually his thigh.

The second bullet hit President John F. Kennedy at the back of his head. And in a bid to save the president's life, the motorcade driver tried to his very best to rush him to Parkland Memorial Hospital. Doctors at the hospital tried to keep him alive, but their efforts were futile, and unfortunately President John F. Kennedy was pronounced dead about an hour after the shooting ordeal (Welton, 2013). This was major blow to the family and friends of the President and the country as a whole. As for Governor Connally, he eventually recovered from the injuries he got at the time of the attack.

The day President John Kennedy was assassinated, marked the diminution of the American citizens' faith in their government. Their Very own administration could not be trusted with the life of even a top most administrator, the president. It also was the beginning of one of the complex conspiracies yet still investigated to date by conspiracy logicians. A lot of conspiracy schemes emerged following the death of John F. Kennedy which included allegations of involvement of the Mafia, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro, and the then United States sitting Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson (De Jong, 2014). Other conspiracy theories claimed that the United States federal government concealed vital information in the assassination's aftermath (Chapman, 2014). Former Los Angeles District Attorney, Vincent Bugliosi approximated that a total of forty-two groups, eighty-two assassins, and two hundred and fourteen people had been accused at least once in the several conspiracy versions (De Jong, 2014).

Assassination Aftermath

When Air Force One landed, an autopsy on John F. Kennedy was done at Bethesda Naval Hospital. The autopsy report stated that President John. F Kennedy's head was shot and as well as his shoulder. Shockingly, the descriptions of the autopsy were tampered with and did not match up as expected (Chapman, 2014). It is presumed that Dr. James J. Humes perhaps destroyed the autopsy report and notes that were taken at the autopsy. The measurements made by Dr. James J. Humes were inconsistent and not exact (Welton, 2013). The autopsy reports were not availed for scrutiny by Warren Commission (Kurtz, 2006).

The people who were responsible for the autopsy records surprisingly failed to take note of the number of pictures that were taken during the postmortem session. It is also reported that the pathologists concerned did not have full certification and were not qualified enough to handle Kennedy's body in the first place. Supposedly, for this reason, John F. Kennedy's neck was not professionally examined so as to find out how the bullet got in and out through his body. Following the autopsy findings, President Kennedy's body was embalmed and was taken into the white house for the public to view. Later, the Late President's body was moved from the white house and laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery (Kurtz, 2006).

There was also no reporting on television or radio coverage of President Kennedy's assassination possibly because all of the media crew were waiting at the Trade Mart for Kennedy and not in Dealey Plaza (Welton, 2013). Except that some news crew members were riding with the Kennedy motorcade, sadly they were in the very back and could not instantly capture the unfolding happenings. The only known footage of the murder was that from Abraham Zapruder's camera (Chapman, 2014).

Some individuals also took still images of the shooting. Zapruder film explicated how Kennedy's head moved forward and then backward when hit bullet hit him. The Zapruder film was aired on television, but for unknown reasons was edited quite a lot. Most recently, for example, in 2003 ABC News depicted Dealey Plaza in three-dimensional computer models (Kurtz, 2006).

The American government was doing an excellent job in thwarting efforts to catch the real assassin by stopping records of the Kennedy assassination from becoming freely available. In 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson instructed that the

Commission findings be reserved from public viewing. Johnson argued that the conclusions documented were to be kept from the public's accessibility for 75 years, which translates to the year 2039. Concealing all of the records, caused more people to believe that there was indeed a conspiracy involving the death of President Kennedy. Congress recognized President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992" (Belzer & Wayne, 2016).

The Congress passed the Act so that the Americans could access the records earlier and they also thought that there was not a need to restrict the files from the public eye. The Act stated that any document that has not been misplaced or ruined must be presented to the public by 2017. Many reports have already been availed, but a majority still inaccessible to the public. The initial proof and materials could not be disclosed, for they were either lost or spoilt. Some critical pieces of evidence that were deserted were; the Governor of Texas's suit that was dry-cleaned, the cleaned limo, and the lost Marine service file of Lee Harvey Oswald's (Belzer & Wayne, 2016).

A paraffin test was carried out on Lee Harvey Oswald's right cheek and hands as well. Paraffin test was to find out if Oswald had fired a weapon purposely. The paraffin test came out positive, but the Commission said the data was erroneous (Kolkman, 2015). The FBI team was the first to carry out initial investigations on the assassination. The director of the FBI then claimed that he needed something to satisfy the public curiosity regarding Lee Harvey Oswald as the only one guilty of the President's assassination (Kurtz, 2006). The FBI report took seventeen days to compile and was handed over to the Commission. The FBI helped the Commission. Both the Commission and the FBI agreed that only three shots from Lee Harvey Oswald' rifle. The House Select Committee examined the FBI's findings (Kurtz, 2006).

The committee, therefore, resolved that the FBI did not find out whether or not President John F. Kennedy was caught up in a conspiracy and also that they failed to present their data to other intelligence agencies (Kolkman, 2015). James Hosty, an FBI agent, had his name appear in Jack Ruby's address book. It is speculated that the FBI supposedly duplicated the address book and altered the copy by erasing James Hosty's name out of it as a contingency plan and then handed it over to the Warren Commission. Earlier on, prior to the murder of President John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly went to the FBI offices to see with James Hosty but he was not in his office when Oswald had got there, and so he left behind a note for him. When Oswald was killed by Ruby, James Hosty tore note into pieces and flushed it down the toilet (Welton, 2013).

After Warren Commission fully concluded their report many local and foreign people raised countless doubts and questioned its findings. Many books and articles refute the findings of Warren Commission, documented in its report, and in 2003 ABC News surveyed to determine the public's opinions on John F. Kennedy's assassination (Welton, 2013). The sampling showed that seventy percent of the people believed that there was a bigger scheme involved with the assassination of Kennedy (Kolkman, 2015).

Approximately seventy to ninety percent of Americans did not trust the Warren Commission's findings. More so, the government officials who worked for the Warren Commission confessed to not utterly believing the commission's results. The House Select Committee on Assassinations alleged that the Warren Commission and the FBI missed to find out who else was behind the murder (Kolkman, 2015).

The committee also believed that the fundamental reason for the deficiency of tangible information and results were because the Warren Commission did not engage the CIA.

The House Select Committee decisively thought that Kennedy's murder was a result of a conspiracy. Their findings were entirely contrary to the Warren Commissions. The HSCA believed only four shots were fired at the President, and Lee Harvey Oswald technically was not the only gunman who fired at the president. Lee Harvey Oswald had three shots, and behind the fence on the grassy hill is where the second shooter is believed to have fired from. The grassy knoll theory based its argument on audio evidence and several different eyewitnesses.

A great deal of evidence on John F. Kennedy's assassination got destroyed as a result of mishandling. Subsequently, most of the evidence was lost or locked away, and it sparked grave uncertainties on the conspiracy theory. The assassination of John F. Kennedy depicted that the government had not served its people in a virtuous way. Lots of lies, covered-up, and twisted accounts making it so grim to bring to light the underlying truth behind John F. Kennedy's untimely death and assassins.

The American government had dishonored its citizen's rights...