President Trump, in fulfillment of another campaign promise, recently released what are purported to be the last remaining closed files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. There will likely be nothing major in the files, confirming a conspiracy, in JFK’s death. However, the public at large still will not believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, firing from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building, in the murder of the president.
Oswald told one provable lie after another while in police custody, from his first statements and including up to the morning of his death. There is massively incriminating evidence of Oswald’s guilt, from physical evidence to his behavior with his palm prints being on the murder weapon, three shell casings found on the sixth floor, Oswald’s fleeing the scene of the assassination and changing his clothes, killing Officer Tippit and attempting to kill another officer.
Oswald’s palm and fingerprints were found on two of the four boxes inside the sixth floor sniper’s nest, The small boxes that served as a gun rest had been brought in from a far corner of the building suggesting someone was intimately familiar with the building. Oswald’s palm prints were facing in the direction of the assassination. No other Depository employee had their prints on these boxes. Oswald’s order manifest for November 22 was found on the sixth floor, where he had been seen 30 minutes before the assassination. When the clipboard was found, none of his three orders for the day had been filled.
That is only a partial accounting of the overwhelming physical evidence against Oswald. Even if that were all thrown out, there would be more than enough to convict Oswald based off his actions and words.
Oswald, dropped off by Wesley Frazier, went to his estranged wife’s home on the evening prior to the assassination, a Thursday, when he had never done that before, ostensibly to get curtain rods. During that evening and the next day the normally very politically active Oswald brushed off attempts to talk about the impending visit of President Kennedy. The morning Frazier dropped Oswald back off to work, Oswald carried a large package that he had said was curtain rods, even though none were needed for his room and no curtain rods were ever found.
What was known to be at his wife’s house was Oswald’s rifle and she later pointed out where it was supposed to be to the police. The rifle was missing. Oswald told Frazier that he would not need a ride back to his wife’s that Friday, the day he would normally visit. Unusually, Oswald did not bring his lunch from home and it was not the only thing he left at home. He left his wedding ring as well as most of the money he had on the dresser for his wife.
Upon entering work, Oswald also unusually did not read the morning paper as he had done every previous workday. Incredibly, despite the Kennedy visit being all over Dallas media, Oswald asked a fellow employee why people were gathering around the corner (to watch the president) in a poor attempt to establish ignorance of JFK’s visit. And despite being by far the most politically active of all Depository employees, Oswald unbelievably claimed that he did not watch the motorcade of the president of the United State pass by his building.
Oswald slipped up during his last interrogation. Previously, Oswald claimed to be on the first floor eating his lunch and then went up to the second floor to get a coke (despite the first floor being the place where the machine for his drink of choice, Dr. Pepper, was located). Despite this multiple level lie, Oswald then said in his last interrogation that he had been on the sixth floor at the time of the assassination, making himself the only Depository employee who placed himself on the same floor of the sniper’s nest at the time of the assassination.
Oswald lied about, and told conflicting things that, even if he were a member of the most well-oiled conspiracy in history, were not necessary. Like OJ, he did it.
John Kennedy’s assassination should not have happened. What makes it more tragic and harder to swallow is that the Vietnam War, as we know it, likely would not have occurred if Kennedy had lived. This is Oswald’s legacy and it is not fair that a loser like Oswald succeeded in this one thing and changed history, very likely for the worse.
The Simpson case showed that there is no perfect investigation and errors happen. Indeed, the larger and more comprehensive the investigation the more holes that can be poked in it from a mistake, an omission, or even the lie of a single witness (i.e. Mark Fuhrman) etc.
While the release of the JFK files is important, it likely will not change anything regarding public opinion. The distrust of our institutions, justified and unjustified, sadly remains.
*Views in this article are those of the author and not any government agency.
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