Disclaimer: The following story, photos, and accompanying items are fictionalized and are part of Saint Leo University’s Alternate Reality Learning Experience (ARLE). The events described did not occur. The characters are fictional and any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental.
As the retrial of Lee Harvey Oswald rapidly approaches, increasing attention is being placed on the conspiracy theory experts that are being utilized in the case.
The experts are working to ensure that the prosecution and defense have expert information and analysis available to them regarding the various theories concerning the death of President Kennedy. When used in the trial, the idea is that the conspiracy theories will either lend support to or cast doubt on the idea that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in Kennedy’s assassination.
Some of the experts being used come from various government departments [that are involved in some of the theories], while others have dedicated their careers to researching and studying conspiracy theories surrounding JFK’s death. Some of them are even people that were working during the time that JFK’s assassination took place back in the 1960s.
The various theories that are being reviewed in the case involve the FBI, organized crime, Lyndon Baines Johnson, the Warren Commission, the CIA, the military-industrial complex, the Secret Service, and Soviet involvement.
The FBI theory surrounds the belief that the FBI was involved in planting evidence to frame Oswald because the Bureau wanted President Kennedy out. Many theorize that the FBI was acting for some other organization or possibly even for LBJ.
The organized crime theory involves JFK’s unpopularity among members of organized crime. The belief is that those who were involved with organized crime were angered by JFK’s policy in Cuba which led to them being kicked out of the country. They were also unhappy with the Kennedy administration’s crackdown on organized crime activities conducted by Robert F. Kennedy in the Justice Department, so the motive was to get rid of him. The theory also involves the notion that both Oswald and Jack Ruby, the man who killed Oswald days after the assassination, were attached to organized crime. As a result, the mob contracted Oswald to kill JFK and then recruited Ruby to kill Oswald.
The LBJ theory involves President Kennedy’s VP’s desire to become President and hatred for the Kennedy family as a whole. The belief is that LBJ had a fair amount of connections in Texas that he used to have JFK killed while he was there. Clearly, LBJ ended up taking over for JFK after his assassination, so he certainly had the most to gain from Kennedy’s death, which is an significant motive to keep in mind when considering this theory.
“Around the time of his death, President Kennedy was making attempts to prevent America from entering World War III, and apparently at the time, many were against this. Later, when Lyndon Johnson became President, it has been said that the day after he took office he told military generals in the Oval Office that they would get their war. This, if not further investigated, could appear to be substantial evidence that would point to Lyndon Johnson being involved in the assassination of President Kennedy as well,” stated United Nations Representative Jeanine Ramirez. Ramirez will potentially be utilized as an expert witness in Oswald’s retrial.
The sentiment regarding the Warren Commission is not technically a theory in and of itself, but rather the idea that the Commission simply covered up for one of the other various conspiracy theories. Many believe that the Commission wanted to make the case go away quickly and easily because they were worried about the potential social unrest that could develop if they further pursued any other theories. It was much easier to find that Lee Harvey Oswald was guilty because he was dead.
“…It would appear that President Kennedy’s assassination would have required influence from some of the highest government agencies in the United States. This would explain why the Warren Commission was able to withhold evidence, provided only the evidence of witnesses that supported there being one shooter, and potentially tampered with evidence,” stated Ramirez.
“For the media, the Warren Commission, and other government agencies involved have been able to disregard particular evidence, present improbable evidence, and still be able to determine that only one shooter was involved in the assassination. Some of the highest-ranking officials in the U.S. government, even up to the White House, would have to had been involved,” continued Ramirez.
The theory involving the CIA suggests that it is possible that the Agency was working to try to topple or destabilize other regimes. Many also believe that perhaps the CIA thought that Johnson could involve the United States in different events around the world, causing them to intervene.
“In the early months of his presidency, President Kennedy used the CIA to help train men who would later cross into Cuba and attempt to carry out a plot to overthrow Castro (the Bay of Pigs). It makes you think if the CIA did it once, what would stop them from doing it again?” speculated Ramirez.
Another theory is that the Kennedy administration wanted to start a war and the military-industrial complex, consisting of members of the Defense Department and contractors, felt like the President would not help them out in places such as Vietnam when at war.
Some even turn to the Secret Service for involvement in JFK’s murder. These theorists wonder why it took the presidential detail so long to get to Kennedy’s car and hurry them out of the route or why they didn’t sweep the area beforehand and notice the man sticking a gun out of a window only six floors above the course. They also question the route itself: why did the Service choose a path that took so many slow, wide turns? These questions lead many to wonder what the Secret Service had to gain from aiding JFK’s assassination plan.
“One of the most substantial pieces of evidence is the fact that the Secret Service was told their services were not needed and that necessary security measures, which would have typically been enforced with the proper amount of Secret Service agents, were not in place,” stated Ramirez. “If the Secret Service was there, President Kennedy’s vehicle would never have been able to go as slow as it did or have gone around the turn which forced the motorcade to slow down that much, and there would not have been a single open window on the parade route. The Director of the Secret Service is in charge of the agents, but he receives his orders from the President,” she continued.
Some theories even turn to international involvement. Some theorists believe that the Soviets were behind the President’s assassination. This theory begs the question of whether or not the U.S. would even want to pursue something this severe. If this speculation was proven to be true and the public found out, it could potentially lead to destabilizing international relations. Many even question if the assailant was a political ally of Johnson’s.
Former KGB director Mark Saunders described the theory alleging Soviet involvement in Oswald’s supposed assassination of Kennedy as “rather shaky.”
“What many people seem to overlook is that Oswald was not really the devout Communist that some make him out to be. Throughout his time in the United States, he demonstrated a very basic and naive understanding of Communism and did not appear to really know what the ideology actually entails. This is best seen by the fact that he spent just 18 months in the Soviet Union before returning to the United States after writing extremely disparaging things about the USSR in his personal journal. These do not appear to be the actions of a true Communist allied with the Soviet Union,” continued Saunders.
Saunders defected to the U.S. towards the end of the Cold War. He will potentially be used as an expert witness in the trial to provide context and information on Oswald’s time in the Soviet Union and any contact he had with its government.
Additional information gathered by the Warren Commission will be released later this month and used in the retrial.
The case will be civil, with the plaintiff being Oswald’s family seeking to clear his name, and the defendant being the state or the Warren Commission. A civil case allows for the necessity of only a preponderance of evidence, rather than a burden of proof.
The retrial will take place on the weekend of Nov. 3-4.
