The assassination of President John Kennedy on November 22, 1963, is forever seared into to memories of those old enough to remember it.  Every citizen above five or six years old at that time probably recalls how and when he or she first heard the news.  For the next several days the nation was in shock, and normal activities seemed to come to a halt. Years later that event remains the subject of controversy and conspiracy theories. 

Paul Landis, a Secret Service agent at the time of President Kennedy’s assassination, recently published a book about his own experiences on that fateful day. His assertion that he found a relatively unmarred rifle bullet on the seat next to where Jacqueline Kennedy sat in the Presidential limousine raises new questions about what really happened in Dallas on November 22, 1953.  Some writers insist that the Landis account disproves the Warren Commission’s lone gunman theory.

Within a month of the assassination President Johnson appointed a special commission chaired by Chief Justice Earl Warren to search for the facts.  The commission was provided with a large staff and broad investigatory powers. After ten months of study, including many visits to Dallas and hearing from hundreds of witnesses, the Warren Commission arrived at the following conclusions:

1. The shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally were fired from the sixth-floor window at the southeast corner of the Texas School Book Depository.
2. President Kennedy was first struck by a bullet which entered at the back of his neck and exited through the lower front portion of his neck, causing a wound which would not necessarily have been lethal. The President was struck by a second bullet, which entered the right-rear portion of his head, causing a massive and fatal wound.
3. Governor Connally was struck by a bullet which entered on the right side of his back and traveled downward through the right side of his chest, exiting below his right nipple. This bullet then passed through his right wrist and entered his left thigh where it caused a superficial wound.
4. There is no credible evidence that the shots were fired from the Triple Underpass, ahead of the motorcade, or from any other location.
5. The weight of the evidence indicates that there were three shots fired.
6. Although it is not necessary to any essential findings of the Commission to determine just which shot hit Governor Connally, there is very persuasive evidence from the experts to indicate that the same bullet which pierced the President’s throat also caused Governor Connally’s wounds. However, Governor Connally’s testimony and certain other factors have given rise to some difference of opinion as to this probability but there is no question in the mind of any member of the Commission that all the shots which caused the President’s and Governor Connally’s wounds were fired from the sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository.
7. The shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald.
8. Oswald killed Dallas Police Patrolman J. D. Tippit approximately 45 minutes after the assassination.
9. Two days later Jack Ruby entered the basement of the Dallas Police Department and killed Lee Harvey Oswald.  There is no evidence to support the rumor that Ruby may have been assisted by any members of the Dallas Police Department.
10. The Commission found no evidence that either Lee Harvey Oswald or Jack Ruby was part of any conspiracy, domestic or foreign, to assassinate President Kennedy.
11. The Commission found no evidence of conspiracy, subversion, or disloyalty to the U.S. Government by any Federal, State, or local official.
12. The Commission could not make any definitive determination of Oswald’s motives.
13. The Commission believes that recommendations for improvements in Presidential protection are compelled by the facts disclosed in this investigation.^[16]

The Warren Commission report was attacked as soon as it came out. Numbers of  people charged conspiracy and cover-up.  Some observers reported a possible second gunman.  News channels came out with their own versions of what might have happened in Dallas that day, and they appeared more interested in attracting audiences than in accurate reporting.  Polls indicate that a majority of Americans continued to believe there had been a conspiracy to murder President Kennedy.

In the years since John Kennedy’s death there have been thousands of books and countless articles about the assassination.  Many of them claim that more than one gunman was involved.  The height of the conspiracy theory movement came with the issue of the movie RFK in 1991.  Stone’s movie presented a violent tale of conspiracy and corruption that alleged a plot to kill the President involving high-ranking members of the government.   In the years before and after that film, other students of the assassination brought out their own versions of what had happened that day in Dallas.  Some were serious, others were charlatans simply seeking to exploit the general public’s credulity.

Shortly after the release of Oliver Stone’s movie, I took a deep dive in to the evidence.  My main source was the exhaustive report issued by the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy.  I also looked at information and analyses presented by other examiners of the event.

After my study, I reached the following conclusions:

I believe the Warren commission’s report is essentially accurate.

Lee Harvey Oswald fired three rifle shots at the Presidential limousine as it passed in front of the Texas Book Depository.  The first shot missed.  The second shot struck President Kennedy, exited his body,  and then wounded Governor Connelly.  The third shot caused the fatal head wound to the President. No one other than Oswald fired shots at the President that morning. Shortly following his mortally wounding the President, Oswald shot and killed Officer Tippit with a handgun, after which he was cornered and arrested in a theater.

The evidence that Oswald killed President Kennedy and Officer Tippitt is overwhelming and virtually beyond question.  Had he been brought to trial there is no doubt that he would have been convicted.  Unfortunately, Ruby’s murder of Oswald prevented a trial.

Insofar as Oswald being part of a conspiracy, there is no way to disprove the existence of a conspiracy.  Thus far, however, there is no compelling evidence that a conspiracy existed or that Oswald was either party to or the agent of such a conspiracy.

If a conspiracy to kill the President did exist, it is possible that individuals in the Federal government may have been involved.  However, the belief promoted by some conspiracy theorists that there was a high-level government plot to kill Kennedy is simply not credible.  Such a plan would have involved numbers of people and could not have been brought to a successful conclusion and afterwards concealed for months and years.  As a forty-year veteran of Government service, I can make that statement with some assurance.

As for the new revelations by Paul Landis, I doubt their accuracy.  They contradict the statement he gave shortly after the assassination, and they also contradict the testimony of a fellow Secret Service agent.

Theories to explain the events in Dallas will be put forth for the next century or so.  After all, they are still coming out with information and theories about the Lincoln assassination.  Nevertheless, I doubt that any new examination of the Kennedy assassination will shed new light on what really happened in Dallas on that fateful day in November 1963.