Assassination of John F. Kennedy Part 6 Oswald and the Aftermath

About the assassinaton of United States President John F. Kennedy, history of the event including a biography and history of Lee Harvey Oswald before and after, the aftermath and conspiracy.

The Victim: JOHN F. KENNEDY, 35th President of the U.S.

In 1963, Oswald traveled to Mexico City and was met there by 2 CIA agents who were ordered by their station chief, E. Howard Hunt, to "baby-sit Oswald." He then returned to the U.S. and in mid-October began working in Dallas at the Texas School Book Depository Building, from which he allegedly shot Kennedy. He was paid $ 1.25 an hour. He was living on weekends with his wife in the home of Mrs. Ruth Hyde Paine. Mrs. Paine received an offer for Lee Oswald to work at a different job which would have paid about twice the money that the Depository paid him. She failed to mention this to Oswald.

The identification of Oswald in the easternmost window of the 6th floor in the Depository Building has been the source of much consternation among readers of the testimony of the witnesses. The commission's star witness, Mr. Howard Leslie Brennan, saw a man standing (according to FBI tests, an assassin from that window would have to be kneeling in order to perform the feat properly) in the 5th floor window. After some prodding by the Commission counsel Arlen Specter, and in fact after Specter marked the window for him, Brennan agreed it was the 6th floor. Brennan, further, identified the man in the police lineup that "most resembled" the man he saw. It is interesting to note that he could not remember later whether the others in the lineup were black or white. Also, he was not wearing his prescription glasses when he observed the man in the window. This is a typical example of the Warren Commission's "positive identifications" of Oswald in the murder of Kennedy and the later murder of Officer J. D. Tippit, for which he was also charged.

Another witness, Deputy Sheriff Roger D. Craig, observed Oswald running out of the back of the building (the commission contends that Oswald came out the front unobserved) and getting into a light-colored 1959 Rambler station wagon. This is not dealt with in the Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. Craig has been the victim of many strange accidents and other misfortunes for some time now.

Accidents to witnesses are not uncommon in the case of this assassination: In the 3-year period which followed the murders of President Kennedy and Lee Oswald (who was killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby), 18 material witnesses died-6 by gunfire, 3 in motor accidents, 2 by suicide, one from a cut throat, one from a karate chop to the neck, 3 from heart attacks, and 2 from natural causes. An actuary engaged by the London Sunday Times concluded that on November 22, 1963, the odds against every one of these witnesses' being dead by February, 1967, were one hundred thousand trillion to one.

All of these pieces of information lead one to think that there are too many coincidences for the case to be normal in any way. The connections between Oswald and certain U.S. governmental organizations are at least suspect. Incidentally, Attorney General Waggoner Carr found through his investigation that Oswald had an operative status with the FBI, his working number being S-172. This evidence was screened from the commission by one of its attorneys, Leon Jaworski (who, almost a decade later, was appointed Watergate special prosecutor by President Nixon).

Oswald's notebook further contained the name, address, license number, and unlisted telephone number of FBI Agent James P. Hosty. Hosty later was among the agents to aid in the investigation of the assassination.

There are 51 government files on Lee Harvey Oswald that are unavailable to the public by a May 13, 1974, Supreme Court decision, which reaffirmed the policy of the National Archives to close the documents to the American people. There can be no doubt that these documents contain information that could aid in the further investigation of Kennedy's death. Without the cooperation of the forces in control, however, the truth may never come out.

You Are Here: Trivia-Library Home » Famous Assassinations and Assassins in History » Assassination of John F. Kennedy Part 6 Oswald and the Aftermath
« Assassination of John F. Kennedy Part 5 Biography of Lee Harvey OswaldAssassination Attempts: Malcolm X Black Civil Rights Leader Part 1 »