“Analyze the most prominent conspiracy theories surrounding the JFK assassination.”
November 22, 1963, 12:30pm. Dallas Texas. Shots ring out. President John F
Kennedy is dead. This is one of the most shocking moments in American history. But it also has one of the most difficult questions of all times: Who killed JFK? The question is still around to this day, no one can say for sure who did it. There are a number of conspiracy theories out there as to how and why JFK was killed. Some say Oswald was the only one firing on Kennedy, and some say that there was a second gunman. Others say that the Soviet Union, possibly even in league with Castro, planned to kill JFK due to his role in the Cuban Missile Crisis. These conspiracies are just theories, as all conspiracies are, but many of them have a lot of credit and facts, and one may really be the truth as to how John F. Kennedy died.
The first argument states that JFK was assassinated by a man named Lee Harvey
Oswald. The report of the Warren Commission and the FBI stated that Oswald opened fire on Kennedy three times, the first missing, the second puncturing a hole in the back of Kennedy’s neck which created a wound that was not necessarily lethal. The third shot
Oswald fired entered through the back-right of Kennedy’s head, causing a fatal wound.
The second bullet shot by Oswald, that went through Kennedy’s neck, hit Governor
Connelly in his back, passed through and exited under his right nipple, and went through his right wrist, embedding itself in his thigh, where it left a superficial wound. Police later arrested Oswald for assault of another police officer, and later that night he was charged with the murder of JFK. Proof led to the bullet that was fired matching with the rifle where Oswald was hiding, a rifle registered in his name, and witnesses claimed to have seen bullets fired from where Oswald was hiding. This is the most prominent theory because it has the most evidence that supports it, but it also has weaknesses.
Some say it was impossible for Oswald to fire off the shots as fast as he did. Oswald was also quoted saying that "I didn't shoot anyone, they're taking me in because of the fact I

lived in the Soviet Union. I'm just a patsy!" He was also shot and killed by Jack Ruby two days later while being transferred to Dallas County Jail, suggesting there may have been something bigger behind this, or Ruby was just an outraged American.
The second theory is the Multiple Gunman theory. This theory suggests that there was more than one gunman that fired upon Kennedy. This theory draws its strength from the weaknesses of the Lone Gunman theory. The first piece of evidence is that some experts claim that Oswald would not have had the time to fire off the 3 shots and hit as accurately as he did. The second piece of evidence says that there was no way a shot fired from Oswald’s position could have passed through Kennedy’s neck into
Governor Connelly, and so a shot must have been made from the front of the motorcade. A crack on the windshield of the car suggests that at least one bullet was fired from the front, and many witnesses had claimed to say they saw a shot fired from a grassy knoll that would have had a perfect shot at the motorcade route. When looking at the Zapruder film, some experts argue the way that Kennedy’s head exploded suggests that he was shot from the front. This theory is not as strong as the Lone
Gunman theory, but it does have its strengths as well. The fact that the windshield was cracked from the front helps support the claim, and the House Select Committee on
Assassinations was the first to put this theory to the test, giving it somewhat more credibility. Total, about 36% of witnesses said they believed the shots to have come from in front of the president. This is a very possible theory, but less likely than the
Lone Gunman theory.
The last of the 3 most popular theories is that the Soviet Union and/or Castro used Oswald as a pawn to kill Kennedy. Following the failed attempt on Castro’s life, and the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, the Communists were fed up with Kennedy and his moves against communism. One variation of the story goes that Castro found Oswald and hired him as Kennedy’s assassin after hearing of him from Clay Shaw, and the other side says when Oswald defected to the Soviet Union at the age of 20, the KGB picked up

Oswald and sent him on the mission to kill Kennedy years later. The only tangible piece of evidence to support this claim is a document received by the FBI in 1966 from a reliable source within the KGB. It states that the USSR had plots to kill or had killed numerous political leaders, including JFK. Also in the document it was noted that there was unanimous agreement amongst the Moscow Satellite intelligence that the KGB was involved in the JFK assassination. This theory has almost no strengths besides the fact that Oswald was in the Soviet Union for a while, and the document received by the FBI in 1966. It is full of weaknesses, the biggest being that there is no proof at the scene of the crime, or even in the videos or later testimonies of those involved. This is the weakest out of the 3 theories.
Out of the 3, we find that the Multiple Gunman theory is the most likely. While we believe that the Lone Gunman might be just as possible, the Multiple Gunman has too many coincidences to be fake. The diagrams show the lines of sight, the puff of smoke and flash of light witnesses claimed to have seen, the crack on the windshield, and the explosion pattern of JFK’s head. These all add up to the fact that a second gunman is more than possible, if not the truth. In the end with these three conspiracies and more, we will most likely never know the truth of how JFK was killed.

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