One question haunts JFK assassination debates. If Lee Oswald wasn’t the lone gunman, who shot the president?
In their 1993 best-seller, “Double Cross,” Chuck and Sam Giancana alleged that a man named Richard Cain was a gunman in Dealey Plaza. “It was Cain, not Oswald, who’d actually fired from the infamous sixth-story window,” they wrote on p. 466.
Richard Cain was not an implausible suspect. Born Richard Scalzetti, he was one of those protean characters who haunt the JFK assassination story. He worked for the Cook Country Sheriff’s office. He offered his services to the CIA in Mexico. He sought to blame JFK’s assassination on the pro-Castro Fair Play for Cuba Committee. He was a Mafia hitman. He met a violent death.
Chuck and Sam Giancana, as brother and nephew of Sam Giancana, the Mafia crime boss whom they say masterminded JFK’s asssassination, certainly knew a lot about him.
But Richard Cain’s brother and biographer doubts the allegation. Michael Cain, a writer in North Carolina, told JFK Facts he had investigated the charge and concluded it wasn’t true. Of course, Michael Cain is not an unbiased source. “I did not want to believe my brother had killed the president,” he admits. But his personal knowledge of Richard Cain and his book, “The Tangled Web,” makes his views worth reporting.
Michael Cain said he took the Giancanas’ allegation seriously.
I knew that intellectually he was capable of committing such a crime, and it was well known that he was not a fan of JFK. At the same time I was skeptical because his vision (20/200) would have made that kind of shot unlikely, and there is no evidence that he actually had any skill with a rifle.
He told me that on November 22, 1963, he and Richard were in Chicago, testifying before a grand jury about a shooting they were both involved in. He was certain about the date because a police officer interrupted the proceedings to inform them about the shooting in Dallas. I visited Chicago’s archives to find corroboration, but struck out. I chose to declare the issue resolved based on my comfort with the source. I was able to corroborate many other things this guy told me, and he was vouched for by two other trusted sources.
Cain doesn’t name the source so the story is impossible to confirm, but there it is.
Michael Cain added:
I have long believed that the Mafia was behind the assassination, though I think it was carried out by Carlos Marcello and the New Orleans mob. One of my sources was retired FBI agent Bill Roemer who was Richard’s contact when he became an informant under the bureau’s Upper Echelon Criminal Informant Program.
Bill told me that after Kennedy was killed he personally listened to all the tapes from their five (illegal) bugs in Chicago for six months prior to Nov. 22 and six months after. He claims there was no mention of anything related to the assassination. That may well be true, but he also maintained there wasn’t even an acknowledgement of it. I find that suspicious at least.
Personally, I find that highly believable. The evidence of the Mafia involvement comes almost exclusively from hostile statements about JFK, not from contact with or knowledge of the accused assassin Lee Oswald. The fact that Cain’s source heard no chatter about JFK’s death among organized crime suspects indicates to me that they had nothing to chatter about.
Besides, if there was a conspiracy, its perpetrators had to have the ability to track and manipulate Oswald, and America’s organized crime bosses did not have that capacity. CIA officers in Western Hemisphere division of the clandestine service and the Special Investigations Group of the Counterintelligence Staff did have such capabilities and did track Oswald. The “Mafia did it” theory cannot explain the extraordinary official secrecy that still surrounds certain aspects of the JFK story.
That said, the story of Richard Cain illuminates the symbiotic relationship between organized crime figures and CIA operatives in the early 1960s. John Martino, a casino security consultant who had advance knowledge that an attempt would be made on the life of JFK in Dallas, is a similar character. The Giancanas are on the mark when they wrote, “In many instances, the Outfit and the CIA were one and the same.”
Not sure about Cain’s role as a triggerman – and there are some good arguments against it – but Cain’s role as a double agent in the surveillance of Giancanna is a game changer when reviewing the surveillance record. Giancanna knew from Cain that the Outfit was under phone surveillance. They were not going to allow sensitive matters to be discussed over insecure lines.
I can’t agree with the statement that the mob lacked the capability to track and manipulate Oswald. Oswald had an uncle in Marcello’s organization and there were enough contacts between the CIA and the mob through Operation Mongoose to tip off the mob about Oswald.
The immediate coverup within the government after the assassination is, contrary to some claims, not evidence that a conspiracy to kill JFK originated within the government. The best analogy is Watergate. Nixon was involved in the coverup, but that does not mean that he hatched the plan for the burglary.
Best evidence at this point is for the mob in the leading role in the assassination with complicity and support among low level CIA operatives such as Chauncey Marvin Holt. The Oliver Stone – Jim Marrs type theories are rubbish.
Of course, we all know that Jack Ruby was a great patriot and was so overcome by emotion at the loss of his beloved President, that he took it upon himself to kill the lone gunman.
All of the comments I’ve read in this group have merit. There’s one thing that nobody seems to be addressing here. The mob were masters of deception. There’s a famous parade motorcade where the Chicago mayor is shot by a bullet intended for the president sitting next to him. In reality, the mayor was always the target. But the investigation focuses on an attempt to assasinate the president. This is how the mob works. What were Oswald’s only public statement. “I’m just a patsy.”
Jack Ruby had the orders for the hit and when it failed, he had no choice but to make it right or every person in his life dies. This is the crede of the mob. I’ve read a lot of “Kill and Tell” books. This story is the most plausible to-date.
The proof of a conspiracy is in the probabilities of Warren Commission witness deaths (at least 14 of 552) and the deaths of other related witnesses (at least 70 of 1400) over the 1964-1977 period.
http://richardcharnin.wordpress.com/category/jfk/
The book “Who’s Who in the JFK Assassination” presents information on more than 1400 individuals (from suspects to witnesses to investigators) related in any way to the murders of President John F. Kennedy, Dallas Police Officer J. D. Tippit and alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
In a random group of 1400, ONE person is expected to die unnaturally in any given year.
Given 1400 JFK-related witnesses, the odds of at least 15 UNNATURAL deaths within ONE year of the assassination is 1 in 167 TRILLION.
– 33 UNNATURAL deaths within THREE years of the assassination is 1 in 137 TRILLION TRILLION.
– 70 UNNATURAL deaths within FOURTEEN years of the assassination, is 1 in 714 MILLION TRILLION TRILLION.
The probability of at least 14 HOMICIDES among 552 Warren Commission witnesses in 14 years is 1 in 2251 TRILLION.
The probability of 40 HOMICIDES among 1400 witnesses in 14 years is 8.8E-46 or 1 in a BILLION TRILLION TRILLION TRILLION.
I’m signing off this site. It has been nice meeting everyone, and thanks to Jeff for providing me some space.
The speculation about the spotter(s) follows right in line with my statements about the umbrella man, which I posted several days ago. My question is whether or not they would be in view from the 6th Floor. It is possible that they were serving another rifleman from another trajectory.
Just as Lifton Says, the Best evidence is the Body.
He was following orders. But everybody knew that influence, power and money would be gone once the President put an end to Vietnam. that was not going to be allowed to happen.
Was there anybody in Dallas in 1963 who wasn’t in the CIA?
Z: I can grasp a Truly involvement. But I cannot fathom that Lansdale orchestrated the murder of the president to keep his a job.
Truly’s mother was a Sansom.Who knew about the Texas visit before November? Probably only the CIA, which needed long-range information on where the President would be. Obviously that meant Lansdale- the CIA go-to man for important tasks. At the time they needed to get an agent (that means patsy they could blame) at the site. With Truly they could do that. Truly claimed that Ruth Paine called him to get the job for Oswald, because they were overwhelmed with work. So overwhelmed that he laid off 8 workers to make room for Oswald in October! Actually it was Lansdale who called, the 8 layoffs are a characteristic trait of Lansdale who tended to overplan everything. The only problem with this scenario is Paine, unles she was in on it and could cover for Truly. Jim DiEugenio in “Destiny Destroyed” clearly proves that Ruth Paine was involved in the plan and helped to maintain the coverup. As Lansdale was a “hands on” operative it is obvious why he was in Dallas to make sure everything would go according to plan. I suspect he had other motives in that he was well aware that President Kennedy was going to pull out of Vietnam and end the Asian adventures that were his specialty. He was going to be without a job unless JFK was removed.
Zeblon and/or Trelaine
from my previous comment:
“OR Roy Truly knew to suspect Oswald from the outset … begging the question why did he move on quickly after he and the policeman encountered Oswald?
OR Roy Truly knew to identify Oswald as having escaped the scene of the crime, setting in motion the search for Oswald. ”
I researched Truly for months a few years ago. I knew that he had been given leave from the book depository business to work at North American Aviation (heavy investment from Texans including Robert Lovett who sat on the board) during WWII, but I did not know there was information out there to suggest he was involved in intelligence. I’ll go look again!
When I was working on this, I happened to have been in Midland, Texas; I go to Cole’s directory every place I find myself. In 1959/60, immediately after George Bush moved from Midland to Houston a man named RAY Truly moved into 1412 Ohio St., the Bush family’s former address. Bush had moved to Midland to work for Brown Bros Harriman enterprise, Dresser Industries. Ray Truly, in 1960 through at least 1963 according to Cole’s, was employed by Dresser in Midland. i am guessing that the house was a Dresser Industries property for their employees as they moved in and out of Midland/Odessa. Now that I’m thinking of it, a quick search of property records would confirm.
There were two other Truly names in the Midland directory during that time period: one worked for Bush friend Jimmy Allison at the newspaper; the other worked at the FAA, Elwood Quesada’s new department of aviation. I have found no proof that any of these Trulys were related to one another or to Roy Truly of the TSBD. I am however satisfied that it has significance.
I also found a Sansom, later appointed to a significant post in Texas government (Parks I believe) directly related to Roy S. Truly. Sansom was involved in some transaction in the Big Bend area relating to William Farish of Houston. I’m writing from memory here, but I don’t want to loose this conversation and want to bring as much to it as I can, and let you be the judge.
Writing from memory, I’m going to revise my statement to read: ‘Sansom “appeared” to be related to Truly,’ until I locate my file with the documentation.
The CIA has covered up this great crime for years but thanks to Robert Morris we may be finally on to the real gunmen. I have been waiting for firm proof of a CIA shooter and with confirmation of Lansdale at Dealey now we have it. Undoubtedly he was at TSBD to coordinate the frame up of Oswald. Drawing on his Asian experiences he set up the fatal crossfire. While in Dallas he and Truly met with Ruby at one of Ruby’s convieniently closed clubs to plan the elimination of loose end Oswald . Fortunately General Charles “brute” Krulak( who later became Chairman of the Joint Chiefs) recognized Lansdale and sent his identification findings to Prouty, the only real hero in this palace coup. Too bad the media can’t give more attention to this murdmer.
Did Charles Whitman have a spotter? He also was a Marine, got a Sharpshooter’s badge, scored 215 (Oswald 212), in Texas.
You make a point. No, he doesn’t have a spotter.
He is disturbed. Leaves a message behind.
Why not talk about Richrad Speck?
Speck wasn’t a sniper.
No one here, I take it, has fired a weapon in war.
That’s OK.
There are lots of weapons and lots of targets. I only speak to Vietnam.
The basic reaction of a well-trained soldier when fired upon in combat is to fire back. Full load.
Snipers behave differently. They shoot with sniper rifles and spotters.
Let’s just cut to the chase.Is there any evidence this guy was within 500 miles of Dallas on Nov. 22,1963?
Who in their right mind would hire someone when there was “no evidence that he actually had any skill with a rifle” and 20/200 vision? Did he have a seeing-eye dog as a spotter? This almost seems like a skit from “Monty Python”. What is next- D.B. Cooper ?
I’d like to return to the subject of this thread, Richard Cain.
There are things I don’t know and am interested in addressing.
Richard Cain (alias Scalzetti) can properly be described as a notorious Chicago mob figure, a veteran who served in the US Army stationed in both Japan and the Virgin Islands, an allegedly crooked Security Officer for UPS, an allegedly corrupt Chicago Police Department detective and employee of the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, a lie-detector operator, a Spanish speaking associate of pro-Batista, anti-Castro Cubans, a close personal friend of Chicago mob boss, Sam Giancana (at whose request was allegedly brought into the CIA’s Castro assassination plans), a business operator (Accurate Detective Laboratories), a recruiter for Spanish speaking volunteers sent to South Florida and Central American CIA training camps specializing in guerrilla warfare/commando tactics, an FBI informant, an electronic surveillance expert who specialized in telephone tapping, and, among many other things including being shot in the mouth at point blank range with a shotgun on 20 Dec., 1973, the person identified in official CIA files as having visited the CIA’s Mexico City Station in April of ’62, at which time “he stated he had an investigative agency in Mexico…for the purpose of training Mexican government agents in police methods, in investigative techniques, and in the use of the lie detector.”
During the period of 1950 – 52, Cain had tapped the telephones of Cuban revolutionary leaders on behalf of the US supported Batista regime. In 1960 he was approached to install phone taps on behalf of former Cuban President, (and exiled resident of Mexico) Carlos Prio. The Chicago Tribune reported that the CIA had engaged Cain in 1960 because of his Havana mob contacts, and also to wiretap the Czech embassy in Havana.
What new (to me) information do we have about Cain and the notoriously corrupt DFS (Mexican Security Police) which staffed and monitored the CIA’s Mexico City telephone intercept program LI/ENVOY, the source of the infamous “Oswald” tapes which were transcribed by husband and wife team, Boris and Anna Tarasoff?
Did Cain’s murder have any connection to Giancana’s?
Hello Jonathan,
I have always been deeply suspicious about the number of mob figures whose corpses were strewn about the path of the congressional investigators during that brief era of inquiry in the mid seventies.
Maybe it was simply made to look like those murders were all related to imply something conspicuous about their (alleged) associations in relation to President Kennedy’s murder.
^ I think that’s worth considering.
The best thing about utilizing elements of organized crime as an operational resource is that it provides a disposable level of deflection and misdirection. The case of Jim Braden on the 3rd floor of Dal-Tex may be an example of a strategic sprinkling of suspects who lead away from more relevant parties.
I said “may.”
It’s also reasonable to point out that notorious mob figures may have been rubbed out for reasons unrelated to our spheres of interest.
Some suspicious deaths in 1970s besides the two in question. John Roselli. George deM. Roger Craig.
Nothing like the roll call of suspicious deaths in the 1960s, however.
The CIA, military intelligence and Lyndon Johnson were mafia at their lowest levels. If one defines it that way the “mob” did kill JFK.
Here is Jim DiEugenio on the fallacy of the “mob did it” scenarios of the JFK assassination. Basically, the “mob” was not orchestrating the cover up of JFK’s murder or doing a 180 degree turn on US foreign policy.
“1. They either ignore or twist who Oswald was, which is really inexcusable today in light of so much good work by writers like Newman and Armstrong.
2. They do not relay how the cover up actually went into effect almost immediately in Dallas, Washington and New Orleans. Which is something we can prove today.
3. They do not explain what are two keystones of the plot and the cover-up: Mexico City and Bethesda.
4. They do not explain why the cover up has lasted 47 [now 50] years–which it has.
5. They do not explain the reversals of policy that took place in Cuba and Vietnam, almost immediately afterwards.”
I think the overview of the Assassination as presented in Double Cross is much much closer than JFK And The Unspeakable, in DC it is LBJ & Nixon knowing all about it and approving it,, backed by a half dozenvery wealthy fanatical texans funding the Assassination, the conspiracy went all the way up to former directors of the CIA & primarily NO & Chi. Mob that’s where the evidence leads not the military as no one in 50 years can make a good case against any military man, Lemay is interesting, but there’s nothing that would rise to court room level evidence as we have in the afforementioned. That doesn’t mean they are guilty, but confessions are certainly admissable and only people like Billie Sol Estes,Ferrie, Sturgis,& Howard Hunt who don;t have the best credibility would know what went down. Simplifying, conspiracies hatched in hell are not witnessed by angels.
That is all interesting,but at the end of the day the question still stands-why did Lee Oswald leave in haste the School Book Depository before anybody actually knew that JFK had been shot?
>>why did Lee Oswald leave in haste the School Book Depository before anybody actually knew that JFK had been shot?<<
The fact that Oswald immediately left the TSBD, the crime scene, is a legitimate reason to question his innocence. Through five decades, I've never met a single person who believed that Oswald was just an ordinary citizen caught up in events. Nobody knows exactly how he fits into the assassination. Nevertheless . . . .
As soon as the assassination occurred, many people (including some witnesses inside the TSBD) knew that JFK had been hit. They heard the shots and some of them saw the damage. Witness testimony confirms it. Within seconds, Dealy Plaza was enveloped in chaos, with police and bystanders rushing around and sirens screaming in the distance. Photos and films show the commotion. A policeman rushed into the TSBD and confronted Oswald.
Is it reasonable to assert that Oswald could not possibly suspect that something unusual had happened? Maybe I don't understand your position?
Name one.
Name one employee from the TSBD who knew anybody had been hit before Oswald left the building.
The policeman that confronted Oswald and the employee of the TSBD that confirmed to this policeman that Oswald worked at the TSBD both knew. So that’s at least one TSBD employee.
Photon wants to play gotcha. Here’s the quote from the Warren Report:
“three employees of the book depository, observing the parade from the fifth floor, heard the shots fired from the floor immediately above them.”
The employees were Williams, Norman and Jarman. They “observed” the parade and “heard” the shots, but conceivably didn’t see the hit. Their credibility has been seriously questioned but I’ll accept it. Eliminate my parenthetical comment from the other post.
Back to the question. Two minutes after the assassination, is it absolutely impossible for (an innocent)Oswald to have suspected that something unusual had just happened?
BP: Not only did Oswald suspect that something had happened, I would suggest that he realized very very quickly what had been his purpose in the building all along.
Do you have an answer to your question?
I’ll speculate. He knew things had gone wrong, and he had for some reason to get in touch with his handler. Fits the known facts, but just speculation.
Neither the Policeman nor Truly knew the condition of the President at that time. The only thing evident was that shots had been fired,perhaps from TSBD. If the President was dead,what went wrong-wasn’t that the objective? Wouldn’t any “handler” find that out momentarily?You are implying Oswald already knew JFK was seriously wounded-again,before anybody else except Jackie Kennedy, Clint Hill and a few witnesses next to the car-and the assassin himself, who didn’t need the 4th round that was still in the chamber of the Carcano.
Photon,
You write: “You are implying Oswald already knew JFK was seriously wounded-again,before anybody else except Jackie Kennedy, Clint Hill and a few witnesses next to the car-and the assassin himself….”
Why would the assassin know this unless he had a good spotter? That is, if I grant you the assassin fired from the TSBD, why would the assassin know JFK had been seriously wounded?
Are you suggesting the 4X scope on the alleged murder weapon satisfied Oswald he had mortally wounded the president?
Bill, if you are going to bring up Williams,Jarman and Norman as accurate witness you are going to have to accept that 3 shots were fired from a bolt-action rifle directly over them on the sixth floor of the TSBD. I am sure that you have seen the picture of two of them in the window just after the shots. None of them ever stated that they saw JFK or anybody else hit. It had already been established that shots had been fired,probably from the TSBD- but even these 3 did not have a view sufficient to see if anybody in the motorcade was hit; your statement does nothing to contradict that. So why did Oswald take off?
Jonathan: Are you familiar with the line of site from the 6th Floor, and if so, can you point me to a fairly accessible source for that image. Fezter probably has one, but maybe you could recommend another.
Leslie,
The only thing I’ve found, which I like, is Don Roberdeau’s Dealy Plaza Map. You can google it.
He was searching for his curtain rods? Maybe the CIA stole them,then told Oswald he could retrieve them at the movie theater.
Gen. Edward Lansdale, who ran Operation Mongoose for JFK, was identified at TSBD by his peers Prouty & Krulak.
Fletcher Prouty gives his insights: http://www.prouty.org/letter.html
Here is a 3/14/85 letter by Gen. Victor H. Krulak also identifying Edward Lansdale at the TSBD on 11/22/63:
http://www.ratical.com/ratville/JFK/USO/appD.html
That is elite, experienced and diabolical military intelligence on site for the JFK assassination.
Sorry Robert, but you are really stretching it.Roberts was no more a Marine marksman than I am.He was a grunt,period. No shame in that, but false claims don’t go down well with Marines,of which there are many here in Triangle. The only source for the USMC sniper claim is Roberts-nobody else. I thought that Krulak detested the “Brute” nickname that he picked up at the Naval Academy, where he was teased about his short stature.Got the original letter? Perhaps you have it filed away with your certificate of Knighthood. Kind of funny that nobody on Nov. 22,1963 saw Lansdale in the TSBD or anybody who even looked like him. I would have thought that the Billy Lovelady nonsense would have put those photo interpretation stories to rest.
Yes, Jonathan a 4x scope would have given the assassin a clear view of the results of the headshot. have you seen the Warren recreation photos through the scope? It is pretty evident what the view was.
Robert,
Why would Lansdale be so obviously in Dealy Plaza?
Just a question, not a challenge.
Particularly someone with a history like Lansdale’s. Wasn’t he a known quantity, a model for a main character in “The Ugly American”?
“The CIA, functioning as a secret instrument of the U.S. government and the presidency, has long misused and abused history and continues to do so. I first became concerned about this historical distortion in 1957, when I was a young officer in the Clandestine Services of the CIA.
One night, after work, I was walking down Constitution Avenue with a fellow officer, who previously had been a reporter for United Press.
“How are they ever going to know,” he asked.
“Who? How is ‘who’ ever going to know what?” I asked.
“How are the American people ever going to know what the truth is? How are they going to know what the truth is about what we are doing and have done over the years?” he said. “We operate in secrecy, we deal in deception and disinformation, and then we burn our files. How will the historians ever be able to learn the complete truth about what we’ve done in these various operations, these operations that have had such a major impact on so many important events in history?”
I couldn’t answer him, then. And I can’t answer him now. I don’t know how the American people will ever really know the truth about the many things that the CIA has been involved in. Or how they will ever know the truth about the great historical events of our times. The government is continually writing and rewriting history — often with the CIA’s help — to suit its own purposes.” Victor Marchetti.
I have arrived at this point (50 years later) that we may never know with certainy the whole facts.
JFK was hit at least twice, more likely 3 or4 times. To me that means an expert shooter, which means Mafia, contracted out from the CIA.
Actually if you really look at Mafia hits the marksmanship is almost universally poor. It is easy to kill somebody when you put the gun next to their head or are standing 5 feet behind them when they are reading a newspaper. When you look at the Anastasia hit of 4 or 5 shooters firing at the same time the impressive thing is that there were only 2 potentilly fatal shots-from 15 feet at a stationary target!
The Mafia was upset that JFK had turned on them after Joe Kennedy used them to help finance his son’s run. Vengence is a big part of Mafia business. Sam Giancana had a personal reason to wack JFK- he had been involved with his girlfriend
The Mafia-CIA relationship went back a long time-Lucky Luciano ran Cuba for the CIA and they agreed to look the other way. They even had Hoover claim that there was no Mafia. It was only when JFK came to power that the arrangement was broken. So the Mafia-CIA team had to get rid of him.
The idea that X was a shooter has always missed the mark, IMO.
If one looks at what happened, one must conclude the king of JFK was carried off skillfully, professionally. Only JFK and Connally were hit, and Connally may have been a deliberate target. Jackie wasn’t hit; nor were Kellerman, Greer, Nellie, the motorcycle cops, nor snyone in the follow-up car. That’s remarkably good shooting. And what’s also remarkable is that a lot of witnesses said they heard only three shots.
Richard Cain may have been a hitman. Whoever shot JFK in the head had to be a pretty good distance shooter and, IMO, had to have had a spotter to know when to stop firing.
Vehemently disagree with this assessment. Assuming only 3 shots were indeed fired, two shots missed his head completely and the final shot at ZAP 312 barely hit him. That’s hardly the work of a professional(s).
For argument’s sake, I’ll go along with three shots from above and to the rear. According to what I’ve read a number of times, Carlos Hathcock, the most renowned Vietnam sniper, said he could not duplicate Oswald’s alleged feat.
If your argument is that Oswald shot JFK and was just a lucky shot, I’ll disagree. Luck to an improbable degree just doesn’t account for the wounds the phony autopsy report describes (upper back and low occiput).
Something’s just plain out of whack with the official story.
This statement about Hathcock is an absolute falsehood,put out by an individual named Roberts who probably never even met him.The only souce is Roberts. There never was any recreation of the JFK shooting at Quantico by Carlos or anybody else-it would have no relationship to any tactical situation that a Marine sniper would face.
Roberts attributes the statement to which you refer to Hathcock in his book “Kill Zone.” Roberts says he himself is a former Marine sniper.
But I’ll not make an appeal to authority.
I’ll point to the facts. The autopsy report says there are two wounds of entry: upper back and low occiput. For anyone to make those shots on a smallish target moving away, downhill, transversely — that’s remarkable shooting. Even with a decent rifle, properly scoped.
I’ve been accused of speculating. I don’t know who shot JFK. I’m forced to deal in probabilities and subjective judgment. My judgment is that the probability Oswald made the shots the W.C. said he made is negligible, based on what’s known for sure.
Roberts was never a Marine sniper-had only the MOS of a Marine rifleman-otherwise known as a grunt.
If you had ever been to the Globe and Laurel on Jeff Davis highway you would have heard about this guy.
Carlos “Whitefeather” Hathcock, aka Phantom of Phu Bai, did not believe that crock of ____ about Oswald in the window.
Craig Roberts asked Hathcock about the marksmanship feat attributed to Oswald by the Warren Commission. Hathcock answered that he did not believe Oswald could have done what the Commission said he did. Added Hathcock:
“Let me tell you what we did at Quantico. We reconstructed the whole thing: the angle, the range, the moving target, the time limit, the obstacles, everything. I don’t know how many times we tried it, but we couldn’t duplicate what the Warren Commission said Oswald did”. (KILL ZONE, pp. 89-90).
Craig Roberts, sniper (USMC), 26-year police veteran, specialist in sniper and counter-sniper tactics, author of the book Kill Zone, which is a professional sniper’s perspective of the JFK assassination, which blows the lone nutter theory right out of the water.
Web link: http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/showthread.php?50970-Kennedy-assassination-Gunny-Hathcock-s-take
“and the final shot at ZAP 312 barely hit him. That’s hardly the work of a professional(s).”
==================
Au contraire, Paul! The frontal shot was one of the greatest in history. As a minimalist, I propose two shooters (not the dozen or so claimed by folks with hyperactive imagination). The one in the sniper’s nest did not have to be championship material as his job was only to pretend he was Lee. He had a wide target range.
The frontal shooter, however, was world class and must have practiced, in similar angle and trajectories for a long time. Practice makes perfection.
You seem to believe that the GK guy failed by being too far from the middle of the head, when logic dictates that he failed by being too close to it.
The final shot was supposed to be a tangent, but it ended up being a secant.
I don’t think the distance was that far.