John F Kennedy Assassination Research Paper

November 22, 1963, 12:28 pm: Americans crowd the streets of Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, anticipating the arrival of the charismatic thirty-fifth president of the United States John F. Kennedy. In an aura of excitement, the open top motorcade arrived, carting a delighted and waving president next to his smiling, pink copycat Chanel suit clad First Lady, Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy. Within seconds, panic ensued as America’s worst nightmare transpired; as the motorcade passed the Texas School Book Depository, gunshots thundered and President John F. Kennedy collapsed onto his wife having been shot. Kennedy, along with Governor John Connally, was immediately sped to Parkland Hospital. November 22, 1963: another day which will “live in infamy.” By

12:40, only ten minutes after the shooting, millions of shocked Americans learned of the tragedy, their eyes glued to the screens of their televisions as news bulletins reported the scene (“John F. Kennedy Assassination Fast Facts”). At 1:00 pm America’s fear became reality; President John F.

Kennedy was pronounced dead. November 22, 1963: a date burned into the brain of nearly every informed American citizen, whether he or she was an eyewitness in Dealey Plaza on this fateful day, saw the frightening news reports, or, having been born later, viewed the famous Zapruder film in history class. The case of John F. Kennedy’s assassination is among the most popular debates to this day especially since the government recently released more documents regarded Kennedy’s assassination on October 26, 2017 (“John F. Kennedy Assassination Fast Facts”). Many speculators agree that the conclusion that Kennedy’s assassin acted alone without conspiracy is unsatisfactory. Accordingly, many believe that evidence suggests the vice president at the time Lyndon B. Johnson orchestrated the murder so that he could become

president. Though the theory that Johnson played a role in John F. Kennedy’s murder seems plausible in some respects, there are flaws in the hypothesis that challenge its credibility.
On November 22, 1963, John F.

Kennedy became the fourth president who was assassinated. The Kennedys, Vice President Lyndon Johnson and his wife, and Governor John B. Connally Jr. and his spouse were in Texas for an unofficial campaign for the upcoming 1964 presidential election. The Kennedys and Connallys shared a car-an open-top Lincoln convertible-while Johnson and his wife were three cars behind. The motorcade, a ten mile long trek through Dallas, was travelling to the Trade Mart where President Kennedy would speak. Disastrously, shots were fired from a sixth floor window of the southeast corner of the Texas School Book Depository as the president’s limousine elapsed. Kennedy was struck twice, the first bullet hit his back, and the second bullet was a fatal blow to the right rear of his head. Governor Connally was also injured; a bullet entered his body below the right armpit and exited through his chest, proceeding to shatter the bone of his wrist and injure his thigh. The limousine rushed to Parkland Hospital where John. F. Kennedy received his last rites as he could not be revived. Connally survived with a punctured lung, broken wrist, and three busted ribs. At 2:39 p.m., Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the next president aboard Air Force One while on the runway of Dallas Love Field airport. Jacqueline Kennedy attended his presidential oath while still wearing her blood-stained pink

suit.
A short forty-five minutes after the assassination a Dallas Police Patrolman J.D. Tippit was murdered. The investigators found that the four cartridge cases found at the scene matched the pistol that Lee Harvey Oswald possessed and around 2:15 pm the 24 year old ex-Marine was arrested for killing Tippit (“John F. Kennedy Assassination Fast Facts”). After his arrest, firearms experts confirmed that not only had Oswald murdered a patrolman, but also he was Kennedy’s assassin. Firearms experts confirmed that the bullet found on Connally’s stretcher came from the rifle found on the sixth floor of the School Book Depository and investigators traced the purchase of the rifle. By determining the buyer’s name was “A. Hidell,” Oswald’s alias, and handwriting analysis, they ascertained that Oswald purchased the rifle, proving him guilty (“Findings”). On November 24, two days after the homicide, Oswald was to be transferred from the Dallas police station to the county jail. Cameras recorded the scene which was displayed on live television and as he was being escorted through the basement, a single gunshot sounded and Oswald was fatally wounded. Two hours later, Oswald died, also at Parkland Hospital, and the perpetrator was identified as Jack Ruby who owned a nightclub in Dallas. Ruby was convicted and sentenced to death but he appealed to the court which authorized a new trial. Before his trial, Ruby died of cancer in prison and no further interrogation occurred.
On the twenty-ninth, President Johnson established the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, also referred to as the Warren Commission after its leader Chief Justice Earl Warren, to inspect the case of Kennedy’s assassination. After a yearlong investigation, the commission was released to the public on September 27, 1964. It stated, "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," and "The shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald." (“Warren Commission Report: Table of Contents”). Having deduced that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination and without influence of any international or domestic conspiracy, people were not appeased by such conclusions. The commission did not clarify Oswald’s motives and he was killed so soon after the incident that the mystery was left unsolved. The public craved answers so in the late 1970s, a new investigation was launched by the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations which declared that conspiracy was probable. The country became further embroiled in debates over Kennedy’s assassination; a prime theory was that President Lyndon B. Johnson arranged his predecessor's death.
To understand the Lyndon B. Johnson theory, one must examine his possible motives. Why would a vice president orchestrate the assassination of the president? Johnson’s aim had always been the presidency. In 1960 presidential election, Johnson ran for the Democratic nomination but lost to John F. Kennedy. Kennedy, despite their varying political ideologies, asked Johnson to be his vice presidential running mate in an attempt to unify the Democratic Party and Johnson accepted the offer. Undoubtedly, Johnson sought the position but this alone is not enough to kill a man. Perhaps Johnson could have been growing frustrated with Kennedy’s approach to political affairs. The Kennedy administration faced failures including not passing any civil rights legislation and the disaster that was the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Furthermore the two men had their personal differences; while Kennedy was born into an affluent family in Massachusetts, Johnson was from impoverished rural Texas, thus accounting for his later initiation of the War on Poverty. Johnson had some differing ideals and desperately desired the role of the president, both of which could pose as rationale for wanting Kennedy out of the White House.
At the time, it was rumored that Kennedy was planning on replacing Johnson with a new vice president when he ran in 1964. In fact, Kennedy’s secretary Evelyn Lincoln recorded a conversation she had with the president on November 19, 1963. Lincoln wrote that Kennedy stated,
You know, if I am reelected in ’64, I am going to spend more and more time making government service an honorable career. I am going to advocate changing some of the outmoded rules and regulations in Congress, such as the seniority rule. To this I will need as a running mate in sixty-four a man who believes as I do. . . it is too early to make an announcement about another running mate—that will perhaps wait until the convention. (Clarke)
When Lincoln asked Kennedy who is choice of running mate would be to which he replied “At this time I am thinking about Governor Terry Sanford of North Carolina. But it will not be Lyndon” (Clarke). Though many were skeptical of Lincoln’s account, due to her evident antipathy of Johnson or simply the unlikelihood of Kennedy unveiling this secret, the exact words are inscribed in her personal papers in the John F. Kennedy Library entitled “THE WHITE HOUSE–Washington,” and dated “Nov 19, 1963” (Clarke). Kennedy’s plan would end the political career that Johnson coveted and had Johnson been aware of the scheme, he would have had a political purpose to plot against Kennedy.
Though Johnson would have a political motive, making the case against him seem understandable, the other arguments against him have holes, which question the theory’s validity. A main piece of “evidence” that Johnson theorists argue is the words of Madeleine Brown. In an interview on the show A Current Affair, Brown revealed that she had had an affair with Lyndon Johnson (Simkin). Brown claimed that on the day before Kennedy was assassinated she attended a party at Clint Murchison’s house. J. Edgar Hoover, Richard Nixon, Peter O’Donnell, and various other men were there. She described how the men discussed something unbeknownst to her in a different room and the scene after. She wrote:
A short time later Lyndon, anxious and red-faced, reappeared. Squeezing my hand so hard, he spoke into my ear, not a love message, but one I'll always remember: 'After tomorrow, those goddamn Kennedys will never embarrass me again-that's not a threat-that's a promise.’ (Simkin)
Surely this is evidence of Johnson’s plot to kill Kennedy? Although chilling, Brown’s allegations have been discredited. Firstly, O’Donnell, a supposed party-goer, who denied that there ever was a party. Furthermore and more importantly, it was not possible for Johnson to be at a party on November 21st even if there had been one because he was at the Houston Coliseum attending a dinner and speech. He was photographed at the event before travelling to Hotel Texas around midnight where he was again photographed (Simkin). Whether it was the influence of drugs, as some believe, or a thirst for national attention, Brown’s tale is a farce.