EPILOGUE
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
Wendell Phillips
It is necessary, because of the complexities of the evidence in this case, and the uncertain value of that evidence, to draw most of my conclusions based on what that evidence does not show.
Can I, or anyone else say who killed John Fitzgerald Kennedy?
NO... unless he/she was personally involved in the attempt.
What can be said is that it was not Lee Harvey Oswald.
Can anyone tell you, with any semblance of certainty, who or where the real gunmen were?
Again...NO, unless they were among them.
The country's best opportunity to get to the bottom of this affair ended once the Warren Commission decided it was more important to bury the rumors than to find the truth.
The "evidence" is now so confused that no one can say with any certainty which parts are real. Without knowing what was really recovered, what the wounds actually looked like and what was taken from JFK's body, one can only speculate. True, some conspiracy theorists have placed gunmen behind the picket fence on the knoll, in the sewer between the knoll and the underpass, in the Dal-Tex building, even on top of both the TSBD and the County Records Building, among other places...however, ALL of these are only guesses, some more educated than others, because too little valid evidence exists. If you can't count on the validity of the evidence, you can only speculate at the placement of the gunmen. And, because I can't count on the evidence, I'm not going to try.
Had the conspirators been more prepared for the possibility that LHO would not be killed before being taken into custody, establishing his innocence would be far more difficult. It is only because the "evidence" was not created knowing that anyone would examine it as closely as it has been that has allowed researchers to see it for what it really is...slight of hand. Without a "live" suspect in custody, declaring his lack of guilt; without the fiasco of his murder; without the need for the Warren Commission and its flimsy report...would anyone have ever looked deeply into and then challenged the "evidence"?
On the other hand, had all that is known today been widely known in 1964, it is doubtful that the Johnson Presidency would have survived his first year in office, J. Edgar Hoover could have remained FBI Director, or Richard M Nixon would have ever become President. Certainly many other painful events of the past 30 years would have been markedly different.
The continued controversy over these events and the exchanges between those who feel Oswald acted alone and those who do not, have no arbitrator other than the American people. It cannot be solved, other than in YOUR mind, because one side perceives the glass half-full and the other half-empty. However, only one side is actually correct.
What also remains interesting about this case is that the actions of far too many of those on both sides of this controversy, include the classics that so many other supposed "cover-up" scenarios contain...disinformation, misrepresentation, hyperbole, embellishment, character assassination...but in this case, far more than in any other, the media has taken part...and their efforts have only further muddied the waters.
Truth seems to be the last thing on the mind many connected with this event. Still, the events in Dallas created a major change in the direction of the United States and its people...whether its better or worse depends on your perspective.
John F. Kennedy's election in 1960 was a nasty surprise to the established order of the period. Richard M. Nixon, conservative anti-communist, with strong ties to big business, the Mafia, J. Edgar Hoover and the CIA's worldwide network of ongoing, or planned covert activities, was supposed to be the first sitting Vice-President in history to be elected President and protect the status quo.
It didn't happen.
Kennedy, possibly originally aided by organized crime and later by the Chicago political machine of then-mayor Richard Daley, shocked most of the establishment. They appear to have adopted a "wait and see" attitude.
JFK's razor-thin victory margin did not give him a popular mandate. But, he acted as if it had, and began changing things almost immediately. Many of his policies were not popular within the bureaucracy or even with the public, at the time. But, they started a number of balls rolling: integration, banking reform, dialogue with the Soviets, peaceful co-existence with Cuba and the rest of the communist bloc; an organized crime crackdown, a movement to retire J. Edgar Hoover...and those balls began rolling over some powerful, spiteful and ruthless people. He, and his policies had to go.
Many of us who remember those relatively few days of the Kennedy Administration, can still recall the apparent "honesty" of his press conferences and speeches, how he seemed to get along so well with the press and, of course, his youthfulness and presence. Few suspected the danger that lurked in the shadows...or the questionable personal habits of the President.
Was he a great President? No...he wasn't allowed the time to be adequately judged by history. Would he have been? Who knows...but the signs of greatness were all there: the ability to make the correct, even if unpopular decision; a sense of vitality for the nation to feed on; and the intelligence and foresight to see into the future.
Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt both possessed these same characteristics...and we know how history sees them.
Lincoln, arguably the greatest President in American history, won the Presidency in 1860 by a narrow margin and was behind in the polls until the 11th hour of the 1864 election. He too, was not universally loved while in office. Quite the contrary. Many within his own cabinet felt that they could do a better job, and his policies and power to rule were, at best, marginal during his entire first term. His greatness is best seen only in retrospect.
Eventually perhaps, John F. Kennedy will also be seen that way.
As for those people whom I believe were responsible for the assassination...most of them are, hopefully, answering to a Higher Authority at this time. No one has, or probably ever will, answer to the American People. I'm not even sure that a legal precedent exists to handle a situation as bizarre as this one. Maybe those responsible should be ultimately left to that Higher Authority.
But, the legal system that allowed this cover-up to happen must be held accountable and changed. That system denied Lee Harvey Oswald both his Constitutional rights and his life. It also was allowed to deny his family, a quick and just resolution to his indictment. It denied justice to the people of the United States, and, it allowed those truly responsible for the 2 assassinations to hide their involvement from both the law and the public. They did this while continuing on with their own agendas for many years, much to the distaste on the public in general, and incredibly painful to the families and friends of the U. S. service men and women who were also sacrificed by the perpetrators. All this waste for the financial gains that lay as the foundation for the assassination.
Our legal system was designed to prevent these things from happening. In this test, it failed as never before. Also a failure was the free press, which is so necessary, although occasionally callous, in protecting the people from government excesses. They are the fundamental element in the "...eternal vigilance..." that Wendell Phillips spoke of as the price of liberty and they failed us to an even greater degree than did our legal system. They were much better 9 years later when covering Watergate; but Watergate was not anywhere near as dangerous as unraveling the Kennedy assassination. Is that one of the reasons behind their failure to apply sufficient pressure?
Whatever the reason or reasons for that failure, it must be made public and remedial action taken. A free press is too important to a free society to just assume that the problem has been corrected. They also, to this day, continue to support the WCR findings and avoid most of the controversies still being debated.
Why ?
It is only because of the power of the American people and their deep beliefs in all that make this country stand alone in the world, that we are finally seeing the truth. We must continue to demand that truth and judge what is uncovered and released ourselves. No one else's "conclusions" can or should be trusted on their face value.
The United States is not a nation of people which in the long run allows itself to be pushed around.
Dorothy
Thompson
"Our
lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Bibliography
BOOKS/ARTICLES
ALVAREZ, Luis W. A Physicist Examines the Kennedy Assassination Film. The American Journal of Physics, Vol 44 (9), pgs 813-827, 1976.
ANSON, Robert S. They've Killed the President!: The Search for the Murderers of John F. Kennedy. New York: Bantam Books, 1975.
ARMSTRONG, John. Harvey and Lee: The Case for Two Oswalds. Probe Magazine, July, 1996; September, 1997; November, 1997.
BAMFORD, James. The Puzzle Palace: A Report on the NSA, America's Most Secret Agency. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1982.
BELLETT, Gerald. Age of Secrets. Maitland, Ontario, Canada: Voyageur North America, 1995.
BENSON, Michael. Who's Who in the JFK Assassination. New York: Carol Publishing Group, 1993.
BISHOP, Jim. The Day Kennedy Was Shot .New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1968.
BLAKEY, G. Robert and Richard Billings. The Plot to Kill the President: Organized Crime Assassinated J.F.K. New York: Times Books, 1981.
BROWN, Walt, Ph.D. The People v. Lee Harvey Oswald. New York: Carroll & Graf, 1992.
------------------------ Treachery in Dallas. New York: Carroll & Graf, 1995.
CRENSHAW, Dr. Charles A. with Jens Hansen and Gary J. Shaw. JFK: Conspiracy of Silence. New York: Signet, 1992.
CURRY, Jesse E. JFK Assassination File. Dallas: By Author, 1969.
CRAIG, Roger. When They Kill a President. Unpublished manuscript: 1971.
DAVID, Jay, ed. The Weight of the Evidence: The Warren Commission and its Critics. New York: Meredith Press, 1968.
DEAN, John W. III. Blind Ambition. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1976.
FETZER, James H. Ph.D. Assassination Science. Peru, IL: Carus Publishing Company, 1998.
FONZI, Gaeton. Last Investigation. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1993.
-------------. The Warren Commission, the Truth and Arlen Specter. Philadelphia: Greater Philadelphia Magazine, August, 1966.
FORD, Gerald R. and John R. Stiles. Portrait of the Assassin. New York: Ballantine Books, 1966.
GARRISON, Jim. On the Trail of the Assassins: My Investigation and Prosecution of the Murder of President Kennedy. New York: Sheridan Square Press, 1992.
GRIFFITH, Michael T. Compelling Evidence: A New Look at the Assassination of President Kennedy. Grand Prairie, Texas: JFK- Lancer Productions and Publications, 1996.
GRODEN, Robert J. The Killing of a President. New York: Penguin Group, 1993.
---------------- and LIVINGSTONE, Harrison Edward. High Treason: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: What Really Happened. New York: The Conservatory Press, 1989.
HALDEMAN, H.R. The Haldeman Diaries. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1994.
---------------- and Joseph DiMona. The Ends of Power. New York: Dell Publishing Co. Inc, 1978.
HINKLE, Warren and TURNER, William. Deadly Secrets: The CIA-Mafia War Against Castro and the Assassination of JFK. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1981,1992.
HOUGAN, Jim. Spooks. New York: William Morrow and Company. Inc, 1978.
------------------ Secret Agenda. New York: Random House, 1984.
HURT, Henry. Reasonable Doubt: An Investigation Into the Assassination of John F. Kennedy. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1986.
JONES, Penn Jr. Forgive My Grief. Midlothian, Texas: Midlothian Mirror, 1966.
KRITZBERG, Connie. Secrets From the Sixth Floor Window. Tulsa, OK: UnderCover Press,1994.
----------------------------- and HANCOCK, Larry. November Patriots. Colorado Springs, CO: UnderCover Press, 1998.
LANE, Mark. A Citizen's Dissent: Mark Lane Replies. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1968.
------------. Plausible Denial: Was the CIA Involved in the Assassination of JFK? New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1991.
------------. Rush to Judgment. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1966.
LATTIMER, Dr. John K. Kennedy and Lincoln: Medical and Ballistic Comparisons of Their Assassinations. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980.
LIFTON, David S. Best Evidence: Disguise and Deception in the Assassination of John F. Kennedy. New York: Macmillian, 1980.
LIVINGSTONE, Harrison Edward. High Treason 2. New York: Carroll and Graf, 1992.
----------------------------. Killing the Truth. New York: Carroll and Graf, 1993.
MAHEU, Robert and Richard Hack. Next to Hughes. New Tork: HarperCollins, 1992.
MANCHESTER, William. The Death of a President. New York: Harper and Row, 1967.
MARCHETTI, Victor and John Marks. The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974.
MARCUS, Raymond. The Bastard Bullet: A Search for Legitimacy for Commission Exhibit 399. Los Angeles: By Author, 1990.
MARRS, Jim. Crossfire: The Plot that Killed Kennedy. New York: Carroll and Graf, 1989.
MEAGHER, Sylvia. Subject Index to the Warren Report and Hearings and Exhibits. New York: Scarecrow Press, 1966.
NEWMAN, John. Oswald and the CIA . New York: Carroll & Graf, 1995.
PALAMARA, Vincent. The Third Alternative-Survivors Guilt: The Secret Service and the JFK Murder. Pittsburgh, PA: By Author, 1993.
-------------- JFK: The Medical Evidence Reference: Who's Who...Pittsburgh, PA: By Author, 1998.
POSNER, Gerald L. Case Closed. New York: Doubleday, 1993.
ROBERTS, Craig. Kill Zone: A Sniper Looks at Dealey Plaza. Tulsa, OK: Consolidated Press, 1994.
RUSSO, Gus. Live by the Sword. Baltimore, MD: Bancroft Press, 1998.
SCOTT, Peter Dale. Deep Politics and the Death of JFK. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1993.
SCOTT, William E. November 22,1963: A Reference Guide to the JFK Assassination. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1999.
SNEED, Larry A. No More Silence: An Oral History of the Assassination of President Kennedy. Dallas: Three Forks Press, 1998.
SPITZ, W. V. ed. Medicolegal Investigation of Death. Springfield, IL.: Charles Thomas and Sons, 1981.
SULLIVAN, William C. with Bill Brown. The Bureau: My Thirty Years in Hoover's FBI. New York: W.W. Norton, 1979.
SUMMERS, Anthony. Conspiracy. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980.
---------------------------- Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1993.
THOMAS, Evan. The Very Best Men. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995.
THOMPSON, Josiah. Six Seconds in Dallas: A Micro-Study of the Kennedy Assassination. New York: Bernard Geis, 1967.
TRASK, Richard B. Pictures of the Pain. Danvers, MA: Yeoman Press, 1994.
TWYMAN, Noel. Bloody Treason: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy. Rancho Santa Fe, CA: Laurel Publishing, 1997.
WEBERMAN, Alan J. and CANFIELD, Michael. Coup D'Etat in America. New York: The Third Press, 1975.
WEISBERG, Harold. Whitewash-The Report on the Warren Report. New York: Dell, 1966.
-----------Photographic Whitewash. Frederick MD: By Author, 1967, 1975.
WILBER, Charles. Medicolegal Investigation of the President John F Kennedy Murder. Springfield IL.: Charles Thomas and Sons, 1978.
WOODWARD, Bob and BERNSTEIN, Carl. All the President's Men. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973.
YOUNGBLOOD, Rufus. 20 Years in the Secret Service. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1973.
ZIRBEL, Craig I. The Texas Connection: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy. Scottsdale AZ.: The Texas Connection Company, 1991.
Government Reports
The John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection, The National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD, 1992.
Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, and 26 accompanying volumes of Hearings and Exhibits, GPO, Washington, D.C., 1964, 1965 (Report, without supporting volumes, also published by Doubleday, New York, 1964); CD-ROM by LMP Systems Inc, Dallas, 1996.
Report by the Presidential Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States (Rockefeller Commission), GPO Washington, D.C., 1975.
Texas Supplemental Report on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the Serious Wounding of Governor John B. Connally, November 22, 1963, by Texas Attorney General Waggoner Carr, Austin, Texas, 1964.
Transcripts of "The State of Louisiana v. Clay Shaw", New Orleans, LA., 1968-1969; CD-ROM by LMP Systems, Inc, Dallas, 1998.
Report of the House Select Committee on Assassinations in regards to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and the 12 accompanying Volumes of Hearings, Exhibits and Testimony, GPO, Washington, D.C., 1978; CD-ROM by LMP Systems Inc, Dallas, 1993, 1998.
The Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board, GPO, Washington, D. C., September 30, 1998 .
Documentaries and Films
"Four Days in November", David L Wolper Productions, 1964.
"History Undercover: The JFK Assassination", The History Channel 1999.
"Image of an Assassination-A New Look at the Zapruder Film", MPI Teleproductions- H D Moytl, Producer, 1998. DVD and VHS.
"Missing Evidence: The JFK Assassination", The History Channel, 2000.
"Tales of the Gun: Infamous Guns"
Parts 1 and
2, The History Channel, 1999.
The JFK Assassination: The Jim Garrison
Files, Blue Ridge Film Trust, John Barbour, 1992.
The Assassination of JFK, MPI Home Video, Denis Mueller, 1992.
"The Kennedy Assassination", Time and Again, MSNBC, 1998.
"The Men Who Killed Kennedy", Central Independent Television, Nigel Turner, Producer, 1988, 1993.
"The Warren Commission", CBS News, 1967.
"The Warren Commission", The History Channel 1999.
"Who Shot President Kennedy?", Nova- PBS, November 15, 1988.
"JFK", Warner Brothers, Oliver Stone, 1991.
CD-ROMS
Encyclopedia of the JFK Assassination, Zane Publishing, 1994, 1995.
Files of Evidence in the Investigation of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Digital-Doc-Imaging, 2000.
JFK Assassination: A Visual Investigation, Wilbur Films, 1993.
The Assassination of J F Kennedy, Matthew Smith, VIDIT Productions, 1998.
The Global Index to the Assassination of JFK, Walt Brown, Ph.D., 1999.
The JFK Assassination-The Dallas Papers, DFW Multimedia, 1998.
Kennedy Assassination Databases-Mary Ferrell Legacy Project, JFK Lancer Publications & Productions, 1998.
JFK: Medical Evidence Archive Volume 1, History Matters, 1999.
The Warren Commission Documents 1-1553, Digital-Doc-Imaging, 2000.
The Assassination of President Kennedy, Mike Swickey Communications, 1985.
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