One bullet, one gunman, one official conclusion that 75% of Americans say they don’t believe. The Conspiracy Files, Discovery 2006
November 22 1963: 1000 miles away from Dallas in a restaurant in Tampa a celebration is underway. Mobster Santo Trafficante raises his glass and toasts the assassination of John F Kennedy. ibid.
An assassination attempt in Chicago only weeks before Dallas; how could the Warren Commission overlook the evidence? ibid.
Why didn’t Oswald attempt to escape immediately? ibid.
The Mobsters knew they had to get Kennedy before the coup or their leverage would be gone. ibid.
Could the Mob have pulled off the ultimate hit? ibid.
There is no hard evidence that Oswald ever worked for the Mob or for the CIA or for Fidel Castro either. ibid.
45 seconds: a series of shots; history turned inside out. The death of John Fitzgerald Kennedy in Dallas’s Dealey Plaza is one of the most controversial events in American history. Unsolved History s1e12: JFK: Death in Dealey Plaza, Discovery 2002
‘Kennedy was more promiscuous with drugs and pharmaceuticals than he ever was with women.’ Unsolved History s1e18: JFK: Altered Statesman, Richard Reeves
Kennedy was a man grappling with physical and mental demons … debilitating disease and drug abuse. ibid.
John Kennedy was taking daily doses of a new wonder-drug called hydrocortisone to keep his Addison’s disease under control and boost his energy. ibid.
Evidence suggests he was overdosing. ibid.
‘He had venereal disease. Chronic venereal disease.’ ibid. Reeves
Another serious condition – chronic back pain. ibid.
Localised injections of Novocaine – a powerful painkiller. ibid.
Amphetamines: Prolonged and regular. ibid.
The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy has given us an entirely new language of conspiracy: the Grassy Knoll, the Badge Man, the Zapruder Film and the Magic Bullet. Unsolved History s3e2: JFK: Beyond the Magic Bullet
It’s the apparent acrobatics of Oswald’s second bullet that give fuel to the flames of conspiracy. ibid.
The angle of the trajectory is clearly downward: it fits with a shot that came from the sixth floor of the book depository and heads on toward Governor Connally. ibid.
After the limousine arrived at Parkland Hospital someone cleaned parts of the crime scene. Some people believe if the car had not been cleaned, the source of the gunshots could have been more definitely determined. Unsolved History s3e8: JFK: Inside the Target Car
Was the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald a conspiracy? Or a coincidence? Unsolved History s3e9: JFK: The Ruby Connection
According to a 2003 Gallup Poll 75% of Americans believe in a JFK conspiracy theory. ibid.
Could Kennedy’s secret killer have been hiding in plain sight all along? JFK’s Secret Killer: The Evidence, Channel 5 2013
The entrance wound is only six millimetres in diameter – therefore it’s simply impossible for a 6.5mm millimetre Carcano bullet to have impacted JFK’s skull. ibid.
Could the fatal shot have been fired by an agent? ibid.
Just one camera captures an agent inside the Secret Service follow-up car with an assault rifle in his hands. ibid.
Several witnesses who smelt gunpower at street level and saw an agent brandishing a rifle. ibid.
Who killed John F Kennedy? ... Why don’t Americans accept their government’s conclusion? And what do they believe is the truth? JFK Assassination: Definitive, 2013
Jack Ruby’s phone records reveal he was in contact with Mob figures. ibid.
At least 44 witnesses reported hearing shots from in front of the car. ibid.
Johnson was a little worried that Dallas would not give Kennedy a very warm reception. Steven Gillon, resident historian, author The Kennedy Assassination – 24 Hours After
You have the President’s aides, his personal physician, you have a grieving widow, and they’re telling them they can’t leave, they can’t leave with the body. Steven Gillon
So they simply use their brute physical force and steal the body. Steven Gillon
While Robert Kennedy is finding out about the oath, Lyndon Johnson places more phone calls – one to the National Security Advisor. And this is the first time Lyndon Johnson is getting any information about what’s taken place in the world. Which is kind of shocking. Now this is an hour and half after the assassination, and this is his first update ... And while he is talking on the phone, Robert Kennedy interrupts the conversation. Steven Gillon
The casket carrying President Kennedy’s body arrives back at Air Force One. The Kennedy people pull up with this heavy casket which they struggle to carry up the steps into the back door of Air Force One. The Kennedy people assumed that they would be flying back alone ... This for them was going to be a private wake. Also in the group was General Godfrey McHugh, who was Kennedy’s Air Force aide. He was in charge of Air Force One. Steven Gillon
It’s dark. All the shades are shut. People are crying. The plane was suffocatingly hot ... This aluminium canister had been sitting in the bright sunlight for hours how. Steven Gillon
They were drinking heavily ... But there is also a certain amount of hostility on the plane. The Kennedy people resented having Lyndon Johnson on the plane. Steven Gillon
Sudden news. Destructive. Frightening news. The perpetrators were at first unknown. And gave rise to a sense of panic and conspiracy. David Greenberg, Rutgers University
For the first time he [Lyndon Johnson] has a chance to turn on the television and even though he was there he didn’t have anything close to a full perspective or full information about what happened. David Greenberg
I can’t honestly say that I’ve ever been completely relieved of the fact that there might have been international connections. Lyndon B Johnson, televised interview September 1969
Lyndon Johnson knew about the assassination and was a part of it. Madeleine Duncan Brown, mistress of Lyndon B Johnson
It is believed that a gap in the motorcade perhaps saved Vice President Johnson from being a target of the assassin today; the gap had opened in the motorcade just before the assassin’s bullet rang out. News report
The entire thesis of my book [Inquest: The Warren Commission and the Establishment of Truth] is that the Warren Commission, although an honest organisation, did not do an exhaustive investigation. Edward Jay Epstein, interview
At least five shots were fired. ibid.
The judge arrived and said in a cold voice, ‘This is just another homicide case as far as I am concerned.’ That’s when we made the decision. It was physical. Us against Them. I said, ‘You are leaving.’ The Dallas Cops said to us, ‘Those two guys said you can’t go.’ Then a different priest stopped the body, and it became really physical then. Just pushing people aside. The priest was saying prayers, and then I just ordered him to one side. ‘Get the Hell over!’ Kenneth O’Donnell, special assistant, Manchester Papers
There’s no question in my mind that Lyndon Johnson wanted to be sworn in by Judge Sarah T Hughes, an old family friend, and he was afraid someone was going to take the thing away from him if he didn’t get it quick. So anyway I went to see Johnson get sworn in and he said to me, ‘Would you ask Mrs Kennedy to come stand here?’ And I said, ‘You can’t do that. The poor little kid has had enough for one day. To sit here and hear the oath she heard a few years ago. You can’t do that!’ Kenneth O’Donnell
Maybe in the worst case scenario this is the opening gambit in the launching of a nuclear war. We are only one year removed from the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 when the world actually came close to a nuclear confrontation. And so it is absolutely critical to send a message to the international community that the United States has a chief executive, that if it is attacked it is prepared to respond, and that the American government is continuing to function despite this horrific tragedy. K C Johnson, author All the Way with LBJ