53 years later, the murder of the 35th US President still leaves more questions than answers.
In the US state of Texas on November 22, 1963, perhaps the most notorious crime in the history of the country happened. In an open car driving through the streets of Dallas, the 35th and youngest US President John F. Kennedy was shot dead. The first bullet entered the neck from behind and exited the throat, the second hit in the head. Doctors could not save the president, and half an hour later he died in the hospital. The Americans loved Kennedy, but this crime still remains unsolved, which gives fertile ground for the emergence of various theories. MIR 24 collected several of the most popular versions of what happened.
Let's start with the findings of the Warren Commission (the official commission investigating the case chaired by Earl Warren), which accused 24-year-old white American Lee Harvey Oswald of the murder. Who, by the way, before the assassination attempt on Kennedy, lived for several years in the USSR and wanted to renounce his American citizenship until he changed his mind out of boredom.
According to the main version, the former Marine hid the Carcano Model 91/38 6.5 mm rifle, which he bought in 1961 under the name A. Hydell”, behind the boxes in the book depository building, where, in fact, he himself worked. Then he went up to the sixth floor and fired several shots from the window, one of which killed the president. Oswald left the building before the police blocked the entrance, but managed to catch the eye of the police in the cafeteria on the second floor. When, some time later, he was stopped in the street by a patrolman, Li pulled out his revolver and shot the policeman four times. This is the official version, although the fact that the casings were fired from Oswald's pistol has not been proven.
On the same day, Oswald was arrested while trying to hide in the Texas Theater, and charged with the murder of the president and a patrol officer. The suspect himself denied his guilt and claimed that he was framed because of his several years of life in the Soviet Union. Witnesses of those events say that Oswald was in a state of nervous exhaustion, into which he was led by constant surveillance by the American special services, which, by the way, suspected his Russian wife Marina of working for the KGB.
Oswald hated the USA, had leftist views and hoped to leave for Cuba, but this was no longer destined to come true. On the morning of November 24, he was shot and killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby, who was waiting for the suspect at the entrance to the police station. The footage of this attempt spread all over the TV channels and newspapers, and soon he died in the same hospital where John F. Kennedy two days earlier. Five years later, Ruby died of illness in the same hospital.
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The truth is somewhere near
According to one of the rather popular versions, Kennedy was killed by the special services because he wanted to share top-secret information about aliens with the USSR. Allegedly, the president was afraid that the Soviet Union would mistake the UFOs, which often appear over the country's territory, for aggression from the United States. According to this information, 10 days before his death, the president wrote to the director of the CIA about his desire to get acquainted with secret documents related to UFOs.
They also write about a certain surviving letter on behalf of the CIA director: “As you should know, Ulan was interested in our activities. We cannot allow this. Please communicate your point of view no later than October. Your opinion on this issue will play a major role in the continuation of the group's activities. Kennedy appeared in CIA documents under the name Ulan.
Photo: Egorov Vasily, TASS. John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev before discussing the issue of the Caribbean crisis. 1961 year
Godfathers revenge
One of the realistic versions reduces the American tragedy of 1963 to a mafia showdown. Allegedly, John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy (Attorney General) have declared war on organized crime. According to this version, the underworld helped Kennedy take the chair of the US leader and did not forgive him for defection. The decision on the death of the president was made by the "godfathers" Carlos Marcello, Santo Traficante and Sam Giancana, and Oswald was simply framed.
There is evidence that in 1985 Carlos Marcello confessed to organizing the assassination of Kennedy, but the FBI classified this information.
Photo: TASS. John F. Kennedy with his wife Jacqueline in the car as the motorcade moves through the streets of Dallas - minutes before the murder.
Lyndon Johnson conspiracy
Another person dissatisfied with John F. Kennedy was US Vice President Lyndon Johnson, who took his place after the president's death. The fact is that Kennedy had a low opinion of his deputy and was going to replace him in the elections in 1964. Knowing about this, Johnson teamed up with all the disaffected, from the Mafia to groups in the CIA, and arranged the early death of the president. The Vice President was originally from Texas and had a lot of influence with the Dallas police, which helped to hide important evidence. For example, the fingerprints of former Marine Mack Wallace, who, according to this version, was the real perpetrator of the murder.
Moreover, Johnson, along with Texas Governor John Connelly, allegedly changed the route of the president's motorcade so that it would pass the book depository.
In addition to unwillingness to lose his post, the grounds for the murder include the danger of being prosecuted for corruption allegations. “If Kennedy hadn’t been killed that day, Lyndon Johnson would most likely have gone to jail,” his mistress Madeleine Brown said in 2002.
Accident
Some believe that Kennedy's death was in fact an accident. Allegedly after the first shot of Oswald, the security guard, secret service agent George Hickey opened fire back from the car following the presidential car. But the car suddenly rocked, the sight went off, besides, all the previous night, Hickey had been walking and drinking, and the model of the rifle was completely unfamiliar to him. As a result, the guard shot the president in the neck. We don't know about you, but it's hard for us to believe.
Photo: AP / TASS. John and Jacqueline Kennedy
Vietnamese and Cuban footprint
With the direct participation of the CIA, a military coup took place in South Vietnam in 1963, and the first president of the Republic of Vietnam, Ngo Din Diem, was assassinated on November 2. Shortly after the tragedy in Dallas, Corsican Lucier Sarti was arrested, suspected of assassinations, drug trafficking and subversive activities against the French authorities as part of the OAS - the far-right Secret Armed Organization. It is believed that Sarti was a Vietnamese mercenary. Where Lucier went next is not known exactly. It is believed that the FBI took him to Canada or Mexico and released him.
The US relations with Cuba were far from warm. Then Oswald appears again, who, according to this version, worked for the Cubans, and in September 1963 he met with the future leader of Cuban intelligence, Fabian Escalante, at the Cuban embassy in Mexico City. During the meeting, the American said that he wants to become a soldier of the revolution and is ready to go to the assassination of Kennedy. Soon after the murder, FBI agent Lawrence Keenan went to Mexico City, who was recalled to Washington a day later at the insistence of Lyndon Johnson, who did not want to get involved in a war with Cuba and, as a result, with the USSR.
Maria Al-Salhani