Category: JFK Assassination

Before we get into this, I do want to clarify, everything I’m about to say is complete satire, I’m just a guy who makes jokes on the internet. I am healthy, of sound body and mind, a competent swimmer and have no intentions of killing myself anytime soon.

Ok, so who actually shot President Kennedy?

#1: Lyndon B Johnson

Before President Kennedy was elected, Johnson had also been in the running for the Democratic Party but was only nominated as Vice President. Johnson specifically requested of Kennedy that he still had partial power as Texas Senator, not wanting the practically only showy job of Vice President. The night before the shooting, Kennedy and Johnson allegedly “had words”. There were also rumours circulating that he could’ve been dropped off the 1964 Presidential Ballot. A witness came forward by the name of Madeleine Brown, who claimed she had been at a party with Johnson, Nixon and Hoover the night before the assassination. She claimed that Johnson had whispered in her ear, claiming that:

After tomorrow, those Kennedys will never embarrass me again. That’s no threat, that’s a promise.

What Johnson allegedly whispered into Madeleine’s Ear, 1963

However, Johnson was being observed the whole evening so this interaction may never have even occurred. Other than these possible motives, there is no other proof that Johnson had Kennedy shot.

#2: Russia

Russia seems like a very obvious choice. America and the Soviet Union were arch enemies at the time and one of the alleged assassins had Soviet ties. But, isn’t this a little too obvious? If Russia actually did kill Kennedy and were found out, it would cause all out nuclear annihilation so would be incredibly risky so is highly unlikely.

#3: The Mob

Kennedy allegedly had many ties to the mob, most famously with Sam Giancana, head of the Chicago mob. Giancana had allegedly worked with Kennedy’s father in the bootleg alcohol business back during the Prohibition Era. It was also reported by a multitude of news outlets that Giancana also rigged the 1960 election in Kennedy’s favour. The two also shared a mistress in Judith Exner. In 1975, Giancana was supposed to testify about some “CIA related assassinations” before he was shot 7 times in his home in Illinois by an intruder, despite a police presence guarding the home.

Kennedy also may have had ties to Jimmy Hoffa, through an alleged shared mistress, Marilyn Monroe, who it is rumoured that Hoffa may have had killed. Hoffa was under heavy scrutiny by the Attorney General, Robert F Kennedy, John’s brother, who formed the “Get Hoffa” squad. Hoffa was convicted in 1964 for tampering with a jury. It is rumoured that when Kennedy was shot, Hoffa cheered and whooped. He also allegedly raised the American Flag on top of his building from half mast, which is protocol when a President dies, to full mast. Hoffa also mysteriously vanished in 1982.

#4: The CIA

In the twilight of Eisenhower’s presidency, he authorised an invasion of Cuba, in order to overthrow the communist dictator of the nation, Fidel Castro. This operation would be led by CIA officials. Kennedy, taking a firmly anti-Castro stance, decided to go ahead with the invasion on April 4th, 1961. By the 17th, ground troops needed air support where they were pinned down at the Bay of Pigs as their planned uprising within Cuba had failed. Kennedy refused to authorise the air support. The Bay of Pigs was a disaster with thousands of lives lost. In public, Kennedy claimed all responsibility for the catastrophe

We got a big kick in the leg and we deserved it. But maybe we’ll learn something from it.

Kennedy speaking on the Bay Of Pigs, ‘A Thousand Days’ by Arthur M. Schlesinger

However, according to biographer Richard Reeves, Kennedy blamed the CIA for allegedly trying to set him up to make him look bad, making the public hate him, even allegedly saying that he wanted to:

“splinter the C.I.A. in a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds.”

Kennedy (allegedly) speaking on the CIA

Eisenhower had also planned an attempted assassination against Castro and Dominican Republic Communist leader, Rafael Trajillo. Kennedy allegedly requested that if such a thing were to happen, the US must have plausible deniability, whilst he publicly opposed such efforts. In 1961, Trajillo was killed.

In October of 1962, Soviet Missiles were spotted in Cuba and for the next 13 days, the world sat on the precipice of nuclear annihilation. Once the crisis was averted, rumours began to spread that Kennedy had struck a deal with the Soviet Premier, Nikita Kruschev to not invade Cuba as long as he kept their missiles out. People began to suspect that Kennedy was soft on Communism.

Kennedy publicly denounced America’s involvement in Vietnam and Laos.

In the final analysis, it is their war. They are the ones who have to win it or lose it. We can help them, we can give them equipment, we can send our men out there as advisers, but they have to win it, the people of Vietnam, against the Communists… But I don’t agree with those who say we should withdraw. That would be a great mistake… [The United States] made this effort to defend Europe. Now Europe is quite secure. We also have to participate—we may not like it—in the defense of Asia.

Kennedy being interviewed for CBS

There were rumours that he staged the coup in South Vietnam on November 1st, 1963, only 3 weeks before he was killed, a coup which deposed the anti-communist dictator. Many rumours circulated that he was planning on pulling military advisors out of Vietnam before his death.

In fact, many of his policies advocated for peace not just with South East Asia but also with the USSR.

All of that threatened to make the CIA obsolete. Kennedy was a threat to the CIA’s existence and they knew it. The Warren Commission, set up by Hoover and Johnson, also featured as a prominent member of the committee was Allen Dulles, Director of the CIA up until 1961, after which he was dismissed by Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs. Another member of this Committee was Gerald Ford, a Michigan Representative and later became the president of the United States. Another CIA member was allegedly elected to keep Kennedy safe. After failing such a simple task in the most spectacular way possible, he was promoted to Director of the CIA in 1976 and later was elected President of the United States. That man was George H. W. Bush.

In 1991, Oliver Stone released a film called JFK, discussing the possible conspiracy behind the assassination of Kennedy. The film was so influential that the CIA was demanded to release all files regarding the Kennedy Assassination. A lot of these files are still yet to be released and a lot of those that have been released are heavily redacted.

In 2004, a video game was released called “JFK Reloaded”. In the game you are put into the position of Lee Harvey Oswald in the South East Corner of the Texas School Book Depository. The objective of the game is to get as close to the actual shots that hit the President as possible, in order to prove the Warren Commission’s findings. To incentivise people to play the game, the developers had a prize pot wherein if someone got to 100%, or 1,000 points, they would receive a $100,000 cash prize. It has been 20 years since the game’s release and the highest score ever achieved in the game is currently only 75% and the only cash reward received from the game was to a 16 year old boy in Paris and the money he received was only a tenth of the promised prize.

Ultimately a select few people knew what actually happened that day, and the majority of them are dead. Could it be Russia? Could it be Giancana’s Mob? Or could it be the CIA? But I always want you to remember, if you ever think, “What, no, the government wouldn’t do that!” Oh yes. Oh yes they would.

You remember Arnold Rowland, correct? He claimed that at around 12:15, he spotted a white man on the South West corner of the Book Depository. Whilst it is reasonable to assume that this could be Oswald prepping, there is one small issue.

At around 11:45 am, Depository Employees decided it was time for lunch and had a race down to the lunchroom down from the sixth floor using the elevators. Oswald was working on the 6th floor at this time and decided not to participate. They spotted Oswald on the 5th floor as they were going down, who told them to close the gate to the elevators once they got to the bottom. Charles Givens quickly went back upstairs in the lift, realising he’d forgotten his jacket and cigarettes. Upon returning to the lift at around 11:55, he officially became the last person to see Oswald before the shooting. Oswald yet again requested that the gates would be pulled shut, meaning that the elevators would return to the top floor and refused to go down for lunch. Givens left soon after and not long after that another employee, Bonnie Williams, came upstairs to eat his lunch on the third window from the east side facing Dealey Plaza and watch the motorcade. Around ten minutes before the shooting, Bonnie finished his lunch and joined some friends down on the fifth floor. This puts Bonnie Williams on the sixth floor at some time between 11:55 and 12:20 However, this creates a conflict. If both Arnold and Bonnie are to be believed, then Bonnie had an unobstructed view of the South West corner, meaning he could’ve spotted this gun man. And yet, Bonnie has no recollection of such a gunman.

Furthermore, Arnold allegedly spotted an elderly black man on the same floor, but this time on the south east corner. Whilst it is conceivable that Arnold confused the fifth floor with the sixth, instead spotting Bonnie and his friends on the floor below, as they were the only black employees observing the motorcade past the first floor, but none of them were elderly, ranging between 20 and 30 years of age. However, when asked to describe what the man looked like, Arnold was stumped.

Interrogator: Will you describe with as much particularity as you can what that man looked like?
Rowland: It seemed to me an elderly [black man], that is about all. I didn’t pay very much attention to him.

Arnold Rowland’s Testimony for the Warren Commission, 1964

But, when asked the same question his answer had become significantly more detailed

Rowland: He was very thin, an elderly gentleman, bald or practically bald, very thin hair if he wasn’t bald. Had on a plaid shirt. I think it was red and green, very bright colour, that is why I remember it.
Interrogator: Can you give us an estimate as to age?
Rowland: Fifty ; possibly 55 or 60. 
Interrogator: Can you give us an estimate as to height?
Rowland: 5’8″, 5’10”, in that neighbourhood. He was very slender, very thin.
Interrogator: Can you give us a more definite description as to complexion?
Rowland: Very dark or fairly dark, not real dark compared to some [black men], but fairly dark. Seemed like his face was either—I can’t recall detail but it was either very wrinkled or marked in some way.

Arnold Rowland’s Testimony for the Warren Commission, 1964

His wife and many of his teachers testified that he has a habit of embellishing the truth to benefit his own ego.

Imagine, you, dear reader, are in the crowd on this shining, rainless November Dallas morning. And you look across the street and you see a man with an umbrella in hand, raising it aloft. That would be odd right? But what if not only you saw it, but it was captured on film.

In the foreground of the Zapruder Film, just in front of a sign, a large black umbrella can be spotted. And the moment the Limo passes said umbrella, the shot that strikes President Kennedy is fired. Not only that but there are photos of said umbrella man casually reclining next to another man on the empty grassy knoll after the shooting. Some believe this man was a signal to another gunman. Others believe it was a secret device designed to shoot out darts once opened.

The Alleged Umbrella Man came forward before a trial, with said umbrella, claiming that it was a method of protesting Kennedy’s father’s appeasement methods during the eve of World War 2, the umbrella being a reference to a popular accessory carried by Neville Chamberlain, who is very well known for his appeasement methods with Adolf Hitler. He also claimed that the umbrella blocked his view of the assassination, explaining why he sat down on the curb with another man after the shooting. The man was never brought back in for questioning.

So even if we are to believe all this, we still have a question of the shots that were fired. More specifically, this second shot is very controversial.

The Warren Commission claimed that the second bullet, which was fired from the sixth floor of the Book Depository Building, struck Kennedy 6 inches below his collar, exited through the knot in his tie, struck Connelly in the right side of his back, exited below Connelly’s right nipple, re-entered him through his right wrist, fracturing it, before exiting and ending in his left thigh.

Observing this, you may think it’s impossible. Modern Arizona scientists have proven that the single bullet theory is physically impossible unless Connelly was sat in the middle of the row he was in. Not only that but Governor Connelly also claims that both him and his wife believe that 2 separate shots struck him and the President. In fact, in this documentary “The Men Who Killed Kennedy”, Connelly gives a very detailed account of what he experienced whilst Kennedy was being shot.

I heard what I thought was a rifle shot. I immediately reacted, by turning to look over my right shoulder because that’s where the sound came from. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary and was in the process of turning to look over my left shoulder when I felt a blow in the middle of my back, as if someone had hit me with a doubled up fist

John Connelly speaking on the assassination, The Men Who Killed Kennedy by Nigel Turner

In addition, this bullet was found in Connelly’s stretcher, which the Warren Commission claimed to be the second bullet.

Besides a slight indent, the bullet is practically intact, despite having gone through 3 different objects and lodging itself in a fourth. According to multiple sources online and the Zapruder film, there is not enough time for Oswald to put in another shot between the time Kennedy is hit in the neck and his fateful head shot. And trust me, that is being extremely generous. The Warren Commission claims that the Single Bullet theory is not integral to their claim that Oswald acted alone. However, considering all the evidence I’ve just explained, if the Magic Bullet theory isn’t true, then there must’ve been at least 2 shooters.

In the 1970s, another commission was set up by the government to look into possible conspiracies behind the assassinations of Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr, due to the CIA allegedly withholding information regarding both the assassinations. This commission had some audio from the assassination and it is alleged that there were 6 distinct shots. And in between the time the Zapruder film starts and Kennedy is shot, there is nowhere near enough time to fire 6 shots. Not only that but a film was shown with a different angle to that of the Zapruder Film. It shows a now iconic grassy knoll, where many have described a puff of smoke or seeing the actual shooter. The committee ruled that:

[…] on the basis of the evidence available to it, that President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. The Committee is unable to identify the other gunman or the extent of the conspiracy.

The House Committee on Assassinations Ruling, 1970

However, after this ruling was made, this second film was mysteriously lost by the CIA overnight.

Not only that but multiple people have speculated as to why that, if Oswald was the only shooter, why he didn’t kill Kennedy when he was coming up Houston instead of when he was moving away down Elm, which, more likely than not, would be an easier shot. Even more so considering that the view of Elm from the South East sixth floor window was blocked by some branches. Many have postulated that the reason they waited to get to when he was turning onto Elm was to engage an at least 2 pronged attack. In addition, upon further analysis of the Zapruder Film, Kennedy’s head appears to snap to the back and left. Such a force wouldn’t have been created if Kennedy was shot from behind, more likely from the front right of him. For example, from the grassy knoll. Further evidence comes from that the back of Kennedy’s brain came out, not the front. This is pointed out by firearms expert and YouTuber, Brandon Herrera upon a visit to Dallas.

If you remember the previous article, you may remember the incident during Oswald’s escape, wherein Truly and Baker encountered Oswald on the second floor. Upon re-enactment, 2 years later, it took them, on average, a minute and 22 seconds. They then decided to do a similar recreation with someone similar to Oswald. They tested with the fire escape where there wasn’t enough time with that and the lift couldn’t have possibly been used as Truly testified that the lift was up on the fifth floor. The only conceivable escape was via the stairwell. It took an average of 1 minute and 16 seconds. It’s conceivable that Oswald attempted to blend into the lunch room upon hearing Truly shout up the elevator shaft. However, as always, there’s a problem.

Victoria Adams and Sandra Styles had watched the shooting from the fourth floor. Around 30 seconds after the shooting, they took the stairs down to the bottom floor. Such an incident causes a problem. This would put Adams and Styles on the stairs at the exact same time as Oswald. And yet, they claimed to have never seen Oswald once, nor did she hear anyone else using the stairs. If we hypothetically suggest that Adams and Styles were a few flights below Oswald so they didn’t hear Oswald, being drowned out by their own feet, there is yet another problem that arises. Dorothy Garner, who could see the stairs, claims that in between the time that Adams and Styles left and she saw Truly and Baker go up the stairs to the roof, she at no point saw Oswald going down the stairs. In fact, in 2002, Adams and Styles both claimed that their testimony was altered. In their official testimony, they claimed to have met two employees by the name of William Shelley and Billy Lovelady. However, they recall no such incident, implying that their testimony was altered after the fact. She claimed that she’d met a large black man but neither Lovelady and Shelley are black. In fact, Billy remembers encountering a woman but never put a finger on it being Adams.

Whilst under interrogation after being arrested, Oswald claimed that during the shooting, he was down in the first floor lunchroom with a black co-worker, who he couldn’t name, and James Jarman. While Jarman denies having lunch with Oswald, a different interrogator claims that Oswald said he was eating lunch alone and Jarman and this other co-worker happened to walk through whilst he was eating.

Carolyn Arnold, a spectator of the motorcade, also claimed that she may have caught a fleeting glimpse of Oswald by the front door of the book depository, after Charles Givens claims to have seen Oswald on the sixth, although she could not confidently identify him. However, Carolyn also claimed in 1978 that no such incident occurred. She claimed that it had instead happened in the second floor lunchroom, just near where Oswald was spotted by Baker and Truly, an ID which was 100% positive. It appears to me that a lot of evidence suggests that Oswald was never on the sixth floor during the time of the shooting.

However, Howard Brennan, who was spectating from the street corner of Elm and Houston, claims to have gotten a very clear view of Oswald from the Book Depository. When given a line-up of 4 suspects, Brennan vaguely identified Oswald. However, upon testifying in 1964, he claimed that he did not want to immediately identify Oswald as he believed that the assassination was a part of a Communist Conspiracy. Whilst a flimsy excuse for not being able to identify Oswald, even he believed it was part of a plot to kill the President, and not just a raving lunatic acting on his own, like the Warren Commission claims.

 

John F Kennedy was a Democrat Party member, who represented Massachusetts in both houses of Congress. After a brief time in the Navy and Journalism, Kennedy got into politics. In 1960, he ran for President and won by only a hundred thousand votes to Eisenhower’s Vice President, Richard Nixon. Kennedy was and still is the youngest President Elect in history. Kennedy was well known for his stances on civil rights, foreign policy and lower taxes.

In the months leading up to November 1963, Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson had made plans to make trips to soothe over tensions between the Liberal and Republican candidates in Texas. The plan was to arrive in Fort Worth, spend the night at Hotel Texas, drive to an Airforce Base, take Air Force One down to Love Field Airport in Dallas, and drive down to the Trade Mart via Dealey Plaza for a banquet. The idea of driving to the Trade Mart was proposed by Republican Texas Governor John Connelly. The turns through Dealey Plaza would proceed as follows. The motorcade would turn right onto Houston off Main before making a sharp left onto Elm Street to disembark onto the freeway.

However, another option was considered for the banquet, the Women’s Building. Had this been the case, the car would have remained straight on Main Street facing the opposite way, only just grazing the plaza. This would’ve meant that Kennedy’s left shoulder would’ve faced the plaza with his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy in between him and the plaza. In addition, these odd turns through the plaza could’ve been avoided if they hadn’t chosen to go down the freeway. However, the freeway was considered more scenic by secret service agents over the route through the Design District so was chosen instead. The motorcade was finalised and publicised to the public by November the 16th.

Whilst inspecting the route, secret service agents discovered that there were over 20,000 windows overlooking the route. Instead of inspecting them, they decided to inspect none of the windows along the motorcade route due to a lack of manpower being able to monitor the route.

After having arrived at Love Field, the motorcade was 15 minutes late due to the President shaking hands with all his citizens. This was a common habit for Kennedy to do, departing from the secret service to be among his people.

Eventually they got into the motorcade and sped off. Kennedy and Jacqueline were in the back seats which were slightly elevated, with Kennedy sitting on the right side of the car. John Connelly was directly in front of Kennedy with his wife, Nellie, sitting on his left. Two secret service agents sat in the front, William Greer driving and Roy Kellerman in the passenger seat. The limousine was open top, giving the public a very clear view of President Kennedy.

At Dealey Plaza, the streets were lined with masses of people. One such person was Arnold Rowland. He looked up, at around 12:15, and spotted something unusual.

Interrogator: While you were standing on Houston Street […], did you have occasion at any time to observe the Texas School Book Depository Building?
Rowland: Yes, […] We looked and at that time I noticed on the sixth floor of the building that there was a man back from the window, not hanging out the window. He was standing and holding a rifle. […] This was on the west corner of the building, the sixth floor […] and this was the only pair of windows where both windows were completely open and no one was hanging out the windows, or next to the window. […] We thought momentarily that maybe we should tell someone but then the thought came to us that it is a security agent. We had seen in the movies before where they have security men up in windows and places like that with rifles to watch the crowds, and we brushed it aside as that, at that time, and thought nothing else about it until after the event happened.

Rowland: Do you ever have reoccurring dreams, sir?
Interrogator: What?
Rowland: Do you ever have reoccurring dreams?
Interrogator: Yes.
Rowland: This is a reoccurring dream of mine, sir, all the time, what if I had told someone about it. I knew about it enough in advance and perhaps it could have been prevented. I mean this is something which shakes me up at times.

Arnold Rowland’s Testimony for the Warren Commission, 1964

At around 12:20, a man named Howard Brennan also spotted a man on the sixth floor. He was described to be white and was pacing back and forth, this time on the most Eastern window that faced the plaza

At 12:29, Kennedy’s motorcade turned onto Houston. Around this time, Connelly’s wife turned to Kennedy and said “Mr. President, they can’t make you believe now that there are not some in Dallas who love you and appreciate you, can they?” Kennedy responded with “No, they sure can’t.” These would be the President’s final words. At 12:30, as Kennedy turned onto Houston, student Amos Euins looked up to the window as the car slowed down to around 9 mph.

Then I was standing here, and as the motorcade turned the corner, I was facing, looking dead at the building. And so I seen this pipe thing sticking out the window. I wasn’t paying too much attention to it

Amos Euins’s Testimony for the Warren Commission, 1964

The first shot rang out. Only a few people realised what had happened. A car backfire, a firework. Some jested about being startled by such an insignificant little thing.

Another shot rang out. “Then I looked up at the window, and he shot again.” Amos describes. Kennedy is now clutching his neck, bleeding profusely. Jacqueline tends to her husband as Connelly also reacts to being hit from the same bullet. Clint Hill leaps towards the Limo in order to protect the President

The final shot rings out as President Kennedy’s head explodes, a large flap of tissue still clinging onto the side of his head. His brain matter is sprayed all over the bonnet. Jacqueline screams and attempts to clear it up. As the limo sped up, Hill clambered onto the back of the bonnet.

At 80mph, the Limo speeds away to Parkland Memorial Hospital and Kennedy is taken inside at around 12:36, 6 minutes after his lethal headshot. Somehow he was still alive, if only technically. After 20 minutes of operation, the word came out.

From Dallas, Texas, the flash apparently official, President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time, 2 o’clock Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago.

Walter Cronkite on CBS, 1963

Johnson, Jackie and the other officials drove back down to Love Field and took off on Airforce One. On the flight, Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States. Whilst also on the flight, the officials received some shocking news.

Lee Harvey Oswald was, at the time, 24 and was a worker at the school book depository, where Amos claimed that the shots were fired from. He was hired there in October of 1963. Oswald was rather open about his Marxist beliefs and had attempted to renounce his US citizenship and had visited Russia in the late 50s. In fact, his wife was a Russian Immigrant. He was a member of the US Marine Corps for 3 years and was a very talented marksman, specifically with the M1 rifle. He was also prone to violent tendencies, having chased his brother around with a knife when they were both children. He was under observation by the FBI agents, who failed to inform anyone about Oswald, despite his place of work overlooking the route. Oswald was also in possession of a 6.5 mm Carcano Italian made rifle. A fully intact bullet found in Connelly’s thigh matched a round that could’ve been fired from such a rifle.

Not long after the shooting, Oswald was spotted in the second floor lunchroom of the Texas School Book Depository by police officer Marrion Baker with the accompaniment of Roy Truly, superintendent of the Book Depository, who positively identified Oswald. He seemed calm. He is then believed to have left the building 3 minutes later to catch a bus.

At 1:15, Officer J D Tippit discovered Oswald, having been given the description of a slender white man in his early 30s at 5 foot 11 and weighing 165 lb or 75 kg. After walking around to the front of his car, he was, seemingly unprovoked, shot 5 times in the chest by Oswald with a handgun. Multiple witnesses reported the crime and could identify Oswald out of a line-up later. Oswald then strolled down to the Texas Theatre and took a seat without paying for a ticket. Police ran into the building. Oswald allegedly resisted arrest before being taken down to Dallas PD. However, two officers on the scene claimed Oswald acted very differently. After being interrogated for 12 hours, he denied all involvement in the assassination of Kennedy.

On the morning of November 24th, Oswald was scheduled for a transfer to the county jail. At 21 minutes past 11, on live TV, Oswald was shot and fatally wounded by local nightclub owner, Jack Ruby. Ruby claimed to be an admirer of Kennedy’s and was so distraught by the killing, he decided to take matters into his own hands. Ruby was sentenced to death before it was alleviated and died of cancer in 1967.

Almost immediately after the assassination, Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, formed the Warren commission, a group of higher ups inside the US government, whose purpose it was to investigate Kennedy’s death. They were adamant that Oswald acted alone and fired 3 shots from the South East corner of the School Book Depository, the first shot missing and hitting the ground, the second shot hitting President Kennedy and Governor Connelly and the final shot being the fatal head shot to Kennedy. The reason they were so fixated on this reasoning is that 3 shell casings were found by the window, around which boxes had been placed in order to form a sniper’s nest. A 6.5 mm Carcano Rifle was found in another corner of the building, with Oswald’s palm prints only being found on the rifle after his death. This was the official ruling, that Oswald acted alone after having explored no other avenues.