On December 4 , 1963 Malcolm X was so absolutely right on when he said that the chickens had come home to roost. All of the dirty tricks, bullshit, half promises and failures to reign in rampant racism as Mississippi and the rest of the south burned and seethed with racial bloodshed. Truly, when Kennedy had been shot, the violence spawned by him, in viet-nam, the bay of pigs, the bannana wars, seemed to tumble out of his control. Did the U.S. government kill Kennedy? if it was their job to protect him, they failed miserably. so yes, they killed him. Or more to the point, they buttered him, cooked him and stuck an apple in his mouth for Lee Harvey Oswald.
If anyone saw the Oliver Stone JFK movie, then they've been exposed to every single conspiracy theory ever unearthed about the Kennedy assassination. Many people don't know it, but Stone purposely put in every paranoid delusion to make his movie seem plausible. It certainly had me sold, but then again, when it came out, I was a bit younger and more impressionable.
There were so many strange things about the Kennedy assassination. It's almost as if God wanted it to happen. Not since the crucifixion of Jesus has a leader been executed in such a convoluted, enormous seeming conspiracy of ineptitude, strange personalities, corrupt systems and happenstance.
Indeed the Kennedy assassination was grand beyond measure. There were several things about it that were hard to figure out. Just to name a few:
1. Why did Kennedy's head snap backward when he was shot from behind?
2. How did Oswald get a job in such a perfect location and get those shots so accurately?
3. If Kennedy was indeed assassinated by way of conspiracy how come not a single Kennedy stepped forward to say that it was a conspiracy?
4. How odd, in the age of hardly any camera's, that that freaking guy, named "zapruder" of all names, capture a perfect god-damned film of the assassination? amazing right?
5. Of all people to kill Kennedy, why did it have to be a guy who defected to Russia, gave up his citizenship and then, came back and campaigned for and against Cuba as a "Marxist/Leninist" and who was also closely associated with the OSS (the 60's version of the CIA)?
6. Why did so many folks who were eye witnesses, government workers and at the periphery of the assasination die within several years of various conditions, accidents and illness? such a strange coincidence.
7. How did a night club owner choose to assasinate Oswald? thus ending any chance anyone had for a full confession or book to clarify what exactly happened and to articulate a motive, however twisted?
as it turns out, Oswald was an excellent shot. having gone through army rifle qualification, I've hit targets representing humans from 300 yards consistently without anything other than the basic army issue m-16 sights. from 50 yards, even as a semi-above average marksman, I could hit someone square in the back of the head at least 9 times out of 10. moving target's are more difficult, but at 15 miles an hour at that close range, from a downward angle, it'd be a turkey shoot for the average person with a few days practice.
so, the shooting wasn't that remarkable.
As far as the "magic bullet" it didn't have to be that magical. the reality is that Kennedy and Connolly were lined up such that the bullet could have traveled easily through them numerous times. The Nazi's used to line up folks for execution 6-8 deep and fire a bullet through the front individual and kill all 6-8. That's why they call it a "high powered" rifle.
As far as the bullet being pristine, several bullets were test fired through hard wood, and almost all of them looked almost exactly like the "pristine" bullet. In this age of "talon" and mushrooming bullets' made to distort and rip/shred/kill on impact, it's hard to understand bullets made to penetrate deeply and kill 3-4 layers deep, through vehicles, radio packs, mud, wood, etc.
Why did Kennedy's head snap backward? For folks that have shot guns, you know the bullet can land anywhere. When I was at boy scout camp, I shot a .22. Once, after 10 shots, I looked next to me to see a "pristine" bullet laying next to me. It was a ricochet! It had gone forward 25 yards and bounced back to land next to me! There are bullets designed such that you could shoot a man in the back, and the bullet may come out his big toe. In the Kennedy film, what happened is that the angle of the show was from so high above that when the bullet struck his head, it virtually exploded, forcing his head backward as the bullet drove down into his brain. I'm sure 9 times out of 10, Kennedy's head hit similarly would jump forward. it's just another strange aspect of the assasination, that his head snapped backward, as if he was shot from the grassy knoll.
It was hard for the U.S. public to swallow the assassination. but it was true. it was so weird and the government, through it's efforts to control information and make the information "secret" created the illusion that they had much to hide. In truth, they were trying to hide the depth of their ineptitude in protecting the president. They were trying to hide their embarrassment and humiliation at a lone gunmen, a freaking communist defector, killing the U.S. president single handed.
It was amazing to see it happen in my mind, but I watched as I went from a staunch believer in the conspiracy to kill Kennedy, to the lone gunman theory. I never, ever, ever, thought I would believe it... and the fact that I do, after believing otherwise for 30 years of so, makes this whole freaking thing, even more weird!
Watch "Oswald's Ghost". what makes this film so great, is that if it's bullshit, it's the best bullshit I've ever seen, because in the space of an hour or so, it was able to erase entrenched views and belief's I've held and dismiss them one by one, leading to a singular, inexorable conclusion.
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