Kennedy's Assassination Conspiracy Theories

JFK Assassination Conspiracy Theories

The 35th president of the United States was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was traveling in a presidential motorcade with his wife and the Connally couple when a gunshot was heard. Most people in the crowd were not too concerned, misinterpreting the sound as that of a firecracker. Just as Kennedy was waving to the crowd, a second shot pierced Kennedy through the neck. By the time a third shot hit Kennedy in the head a few seconds later, the presidential limousine had already been covered with blood and pieces of brain. Kennedy was immediately sent to Parkland Memorial Hospital, but the wound was fatal (Swanson). The White House Acting Press Secretary announced
Doubts have been raised as to the authenticity of the Warren Commission’s report on the president’s autopsy ever since the Clark Panel determined that the fatal bullet had hit Kennedy 10-cm higher than reported in the records (history-matters). One of the main reasons why Kennedy’s assassination has spawned such a huge number of conspiracy theories is that the exact nature, size, and position of Kennedy’s wounds are unclear. First, there is an apparent lack of original autopsy records. It is abnormal that there remain only three groups of primary autopsy data regarding the death of the nation’s highest authority (history-matters), and that the American government handed all autopsy evidences of Kennedy to his family when they could and should have been used for further investigation (jsy2125). Second, the pathologists who had conducted Kennedy’s autopsy gave inconsistent answers each time they were questioned, some of which directly contradicted the others (22november1963). The claim made by Humes, a former physician from Bethesda Naval Hospital, in 1998 “that he had destroyed both his notes taken at the autopsy and the first draft of the autopsy report… in testimony that differs from what he told the Warren Commission” supports both points (history-matters). Third, the doctors from Parkland Memorial Hospital had neither gone through the process of sketching Kennedy’s body before conducting operations (jsy2125), nor had they left any photographs or X-rays. Only the drawings by H. A. Rydberg, which do not accord with what is shown in the Zapruder film, exist. Humes later pointed out that Rydberg “had no photographs from which to work and had to work under our description, verbal description of what we had observed (history-matters).” The conspiracy theories would not be as rampant as they are now if