The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy

By Nashjam Alvarez
 On the 22nd day of November, 1963 John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot. The 35th president

of the United States laid lifeless next to his hysterical wife Jacqueline Kennedy in the back of a

motorcade. Nobody was prepared for such event to take place.

John F. Kennedy was born on May 29th, 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts. In 1940 being

about 23 years old, Kennedy graduated Harvard University and joined the Navy shortly after.

When he came back from the war, he became a democratic congressman and advancing to the

senate in 1953 and in 1956 Kennedy almost gained the Democratic nomination for Vice

President, and four years later was a first-ballot nominee for President (the white house

website). On November 8th of 1960, Kennedy defeated his opponent Richard M. Nixon for the

spot of becoming president. At the age of 43, Kennedy became the youngest man elected as

president along with the first catholic president to be elected (John F. Kennedy presidential

library and museum).

During 1959-1960, Fidel Castro denounced the U.S. as an imperialist opponent of

progressive governments throughout the world and identified himself with the Communist

governments in Moscow and Peking, the Eisenhower administration had planned Castro’s ouster

with an invasion by Cuban exiles (Dallek, 2011). Since Kennedy was warned about Castro

working towards facilitating communist revolutions in Latin America, he was urged to approve

the Eisenhower plan, which is also known as the Bay of Pigs. This plan was made by the central

intelligence agency to get rid of Cuba, Castro and his government.

In March of 1960, just before Kennedy was president, President Eisenhower approved the

plan, and the CIA set up camps in Guatemala. Close to the end of the year, they had trained a

small army for an assault landing. Even though the government tried to keep the plan a secret,

Cuban exiles in Miami had common knowledge of it. Castro had learned about the training
camps through Cuban intelligence and the press reporting on the events which then became

unfolded.

Soon after Kennedy became president and was presented the invasion plan, he

authorized it. The plan consisted of having two air strikes hit the Cuban bases. The small army

would throw a surprise attack and disrupt transportation and drive back Cuban forces. The main

force would advance across the island to Matanzas and set up a defensive position, then the

United Revolutionary Front would send leaders from South Florida and establish a provisional

government. The success of the plan depended on the Cuban population joining the invaders

(JFK presidential library and museum “The Bay of Pigs”).

The plan did not go as they hoped. The bombers that were supposed to hit the Cuban

bases missed many of their targets leaving Castro’s air force still running. Another problem they

ran into was the fact that The Central intelligence agency used obsolete World War II B-26

bombers, and painted them to look like Cuban air force planes (JFK presidential library and

museum “The Bay of Pigs”). Castro then collected a small army causing Kennedy to send out

some aircrafts which were shot down by Castro’s air force. Some of the survivors were captured

by Castro’s army. In the end, the United States negotiated a deal with Castro and eventually

came to an agreement with the United States settling on 53 million dollars’ worth of baby food

and medicine in exchange for the survivors Castro captured and imprisoned. The failure of this

invasion made a great impact of President Kennedy’s administration causing them to plan

another operation.

At the end of his election, President Kennedy traveled, speaking in different states about

natural resources and conserving efforts along with talks of education and national security for
the hopes of running once again for the next presidential election. On the 21st of November,

Kennedy and his wife flew to Texas in hopes of winning the votes for his election.

One Kennedy’s objectives for the trip was to bring the Democrats together. He also knew

that a relatively small but vocal group of extremists was contributing to the political tensions in

Texas and would likely make its presence felt—particularly in Dallas, where US Ambassador to

the United Nations Adlai Stevenson had been physically attacked a month earlier after making a

speech there(Death of the President). His talk went well, ending with handshakes and smiles.

Afterwards Kennedy went back to the hotel and planned for their next stop in Texas.

Their short flight took them to Dallas and into a convertible. The top of the car was left

off since the rainy day cleared out. Without the top, they rode on a route that lead right through

the downtown and to his destination where he had planned to speak at a formal lunch.

Crowds of ecstatic people gathered the streets to greet the Kennedys. As the motorcade

rode down the street and turned off of Main Street, while passing a school depository, shots were

heard hitting Kennedy in the neck and head. Kennedy was not the only one who got shot. The

Governor of Texas, Mr. John Connally was shot in the chest. In that very second, the car rushed

right to the hospital but there was no possibility of saving the president. At 1:00PM on

November 22nd, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was pronounced dead.

Soon after, a man was captured by the name of Lee Harvey Oswald. When Oswald fired

those shots, he was alone on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, a warehouse

where he had worked for the past two months (O’Neill, 2013). Two days later, Oswald was

being moved to the county jail when suddenly a man by the name of Jack Ruby, in front of all
the television broadcasters and crowd that surrounded them, shot Oswald within the crowd. Mr.

Ruby later was sentenced and imprisoned for murder.

There are many conspiracies as to why Oswald killed Kennedy and even more as to why

Ruby killed Oswald. Police never got a statement from Oswald as to why he killed the president.

And even more suspicious is the questioning of why Ruby would kill Oswald.

What we do know that cannot be wrong, is the poorly handled evidence and facts found

at the crime scenes. Most of the crime scene was located at the Book Depository where a rifle

and its casings were found. Instead of leaving the evidence where it was found, in order to give

press photographers a better picture, both the boxes and shell casings were removed before

police photos were taken (Ling, 2013). The rifle also found was not left in its original place. Not

only did the evidence have interference by many people, it also was packaged poorly. The chain

of custody that was supposed to be documenting at the beginning of the case, keeping a

documentation of those entering of the scene. The shell casings, for instance, have no record of

custody until 10 pm, even though they were found hours earlier (Ling, 2013). The clothes

Kennedy was shot in was not properly handled. The clothes were not placed in a safe bag but

were placed inside of a car contaminating and exposing the clothes to new items. John F.

Kennedy’s body was sent to the naval medical school since Kennedy was in the military. A

problem that arose with the autopsy was, the autopsy was not done by forensic autopsy

technician. The other problem was the fact that they did not remove Kennedy’s hair in order to

examine the wound on his head. According to David Dolinak, chief medical examiner for Austin

Texas and author of Forensic Pathology: Principles and Practice, “… this may be necessary,

because poor visualization of the type and severity of the injury could have negative

consequences.” And it definitely did in this case. In the picture where they show the back of his
head where the bullet entered, it is hard to see exactly what is being shown. Having so many

flaws in the overall evidence of John F. Kennedy’s case can easily spark up conspiracies. In

conclusion, it was a poorly handled case leaving many questions and concerns.

A hard fact of the case was the evidence related to the shooting itself. The gun they found

was a Calvary Carbine Modello, also known as the Mannlicher-carano. Many were sold to

dealers in the United States; one found its way to Lee Harvey Oswald who probably used it to

kill Mr. Kennedy (Metcalf, “Gun, A Visual History”). Many conspiracies revolve around the

shots taken to kill JFK. Some think more than one were the shooters and others think it was a

single bullet. In the autopsy photos there is the shot to the head and a shot entry in the upper

back. There was also one shot entry on governor Connally’s right hand and left thigh. “It is not

difficult to fire two consecutive shots from a Mannlicher-Carcano within 1.66 seconds, and to

"point aim", if not carefully "sight" it, on the target of each shot” says G. Robert Blakey who

conducted a test shooting two consecutive rounds from a Mannlicher-carcano with the help of

D.C Police Department staff. Some would say it was impossible to shoot that many shots in such

little time. There have been many tests done after the shooting to prove the shots were possible

and the bullets strength to go through several objects without too much damage to the bullet.

Although we may never find out as to why Oswald killed our 35th president, why Oswald

committed the crime, and what his motive was, we do know the case was deficient and raised

even more questions towards the case. There was many flaws in the way the evidence was

handled, there was not enough expertise handling the autopsy of JFK, and it is hard to say

exactly what each bullet hit. This will be a case that has to be accepted as unsolved and probable

unsolvable.
 Works cited

 Blakey, Robert, “Test on Mannlicher-Carcano” McAdam’s, March 22, 1979, web,

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/jfkinfo/jfk8/mc.htm

 Dallek, Robert, “John F. Kennedy”, Oxford University Press, 2011, text

 “Death of the President”, John F. Kennedy presidential library and museum, web,

https://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/November-22-1963-Death-of-the-

President.aspx

 Dolinak, David, “Forensic Pathology: Principles and practice”, academic press, April

2005, text

 “John F. Kennedy”, The White House website, web,

https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/presidents/johnfkennedy

 “Life of John F. Kennedy”, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, web,

https://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/Life-of-John-F-Kennedy.aspx

 Ling, Peter, “Killing Kennedy”, History today, November 2013, Salt Lake Community

College Database, web,

http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.libprox1.slcc.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=9465769b-

ad7b-4759-ab95-29f616feb346%40sessionmgr4007&vid=4&hid=4208

 Metcalf, Jonathan, “Gun, A Visual History”, Dorling Kindersley Limited, May 2007, text

 “The Bay of Pigs”, John F. Kennedy presidential library and museum, web,

https://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/The-Bay-of-Pigs.aspx
 O'neill, Justin, “The day the President was Shot”, scholastic scope, December 2013, salt

lake community college database, web,

http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.libprox1.slcc.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=1&sid=8f663a48-

9ad7-4ea3-b4cd-

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%3d#db=f6h&AN=92522673
AN OPINION PAPER OF 1 OR 2 PAGES AS TO YOUR FINDINGS IN THIS MATTER.

The assassination of John F. Kennedy was very interesting to me and also very hard to

follow for the fact that this was my first time looking into the shooting. It was hard for

me to distinguish between the truth and the actual truth. This is a case I would need to

research even greater than I have for this paper.

My personal opinion on this case would agree and disagree on some of the research I

have found. I believe the main objective of the shooter (May it be Oswald or another

person) was to shoot the president. Governor Connally was hit by sheer coincidence that

he was there. There was no target on him to begin with. Also, looking into some tests of

the bullet, the bullet itself was able to withstand going through many materials and still

maintain most of its original shape. I do believe one bullet went through Kennedy and

into the governor. There is the opposing side that says he didn’t feel like he got hit when

the president did, but that could have been because he saw the president get shot first.

The governor could have had an adrenaline dump not feeling the shot until seconds later

noticing he also got wounded. Whatever the case may be on how they got shot, the main

dilemma that had my attention was the fact that the case was so poorly handled by

everyone involved. This was the president of the United States and yet the whole case

was either gapped, flawed, or contaminated. He did not have the best experts handling his

body, he did not have the best officers handling the crime scene, and he did not have a set

plan in case he were to get killed. If he had a plan as to who would handle his body, what

investigators would be assigned to his case, etc. I personally believe things would have

been worked on differently. With Oswald being killed during transportation, there could

have been ways to prevent it. they say they were moving him for his safety and yet he
ended up in more danger being put out in the open, accessible by the public than if he

were to stay in their custody for some days and then moved. They could have added more

security around him, they could have made a transfer at an unexpected time.

Overall, I very much enjoyed doing this paper and researching this assassination.