[Note: I am told by Substack that this piece is too long to be emailed in full. So, those of you interested in reading it all will have to access it on the website.]
Background: I recently became involved in a back and forth about the JFK Assassination on a bulletin board system I frequent. I ended up writing so much about it from my many years of obsessing over and studying the subject that I decided it would make some interesting reading for anyone also interested in the topic, as I know some of you are. Heck, most of you probably are, given that polls show 2/3rds of the public believe JFK was killed by a conspiracy now.
I've studied the JFK assassination in great detail for 35 years now. I got to know Jim Marrs, a former reporter who wrote “Crossfire,” one of the best books about the assassination, in the late 1980s. Jim taught a class on the subject at The University of Texas at Arlington, and also hosted a study group that I participated in for several years.
The late Jim Marrs
I've interviewed several witnesses, like Jean Hill and James Leavelle, the detective who was handcuffed to Oswald when Ruby killed him. I've also interviewed Billie Sol Estes and LBJ's girlfriend at the time, Madeline Brown about the assassination. I even got to talk for a few minutes with Oliver Stone while he was filming the motorcade scene for “JFK” at Dealey Plaza back in the day. I spent about 20 years trying my best to figure out a way to reason that it was all a Mob hit, but finally had to concede that the severe issues with the autopsy made that impossible. Because, after all, the mob can carry out a hit, but it can’t fake the autopsy of an assassinated president.
Det. James Leavelle reacts to Jack Ruby’s shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald
Below, in chronological order, are the posts I wrote on the bulletin board in response to several questions. I did this from memory, so there could be some memory errors with some of it.]
Response #1: In response to a question about Jack Ruby’s role in the conspiracy
One theory on Jack Ruby is that he's the guy who planted the Magic Bullet on the stretcher where it was supposedly found. Neither JFK nor Texas Gov. John Connally were ever on that particular stretcher, yet Arlen Specter - then a counsel to the Warren Commission who invented the Magic Bullet theory - and the Warren Commission wrapped their entire theory of Oswald as the lone gunman around that pristine bullet, which had obviously never been fired into anything more dense than a tub full of gel or water.
The infamous magic bullet
There can be little doubt Ruby was the mob's man on the scene that weekend - all the best evidence points to that. His phone records showed him making repeated calls to Chicago and New Orleans throughout the weekend, in between his trips over to the Dallas Police HQ, where Oswald was repeatedly paraded around for the cameras by the cops. Whether he planted the bullet - who knows? But someone obviously did put it there, to provide hard evidence to tie the shooting back to Oswald's Italian-made 6.5mm Manlicher Carcano rifle.
Jack Ruby at DPD Headquarters the night after the assassination
Ruby owed the mob a big favor for a lifetime of graft and corruption. Ruby was a bag man for Al Capone and the Chicago Junk Handler's Union early in life, and went from there.
You have to remember that the government - Secret Service, CIA, FBI - knew within an hour after JFK died about the Zapruder film and what it showed, i.e., the timeline for the shots that had to be met, shots clearly coming from both the back and the right front of the presidential limousine. It was also crucial for the autopsy to show that all the shots came from behind in order to set up Oswald as the lone shooter and patsy.
The Zapruder film limits the time for all shots to 5.8 seconds. The mechanics of the Manlicher Carcano mean that Oswald could have fired no more than 3 shots during that time frame. Here, it is important to note that Oswald ordered that rifle through the mail, a fact the feds could have known in advance, but about which the Dallas PD and Sheriff’s office were probably initially unaware.