Sixty Years Ago

[maumann]

Amazing how Walter Cronkite was able to ad-lib so deftly, with only scraps of information available being handed to him from every direction at once, some correct, others not so. There's no one I can think of who could hold that kind of composure under stressful conditions like that now without resorting to opinions and heresay.

And the fact that he felt like he needed to remove his glasses to talk to the camera was fascinating as well. He also chokes up just after reading the official announcement.

He was one of a kind.

 

[MileHigh]

Many years ago on Nov. 22, A&E would air NBC's coverage of the assassination beginning at the very minute it broke into regular programming in 1963. It was fascinating.

 

[Starman]

I have never believed anyone other than Oswald was involved in the shooting. Just a misguided, angry man with a rifle, the location to shoot from and the skill to make what most who know about these things (I don't) consider an easy shot.

I think Oswald carried out the assassination on his own, but I believe he was manipulated and maneuvered by other actors who wanted JFK gone for a number of reasons.

I believe Oswald was rubbed out by one of those actors -- probably not the ones responsible for the JFK murder itself, but they needed him to go away.

 

[swingline]

Jack Ruby, "nightclub owner."

 

[SFIND]

But there are two factors which still argue strongly that Oswald didn't act alone, and they're not forensics, a rabbit hole it's easy to fall into when discussing the assassination. 1. We've had a lot of sad experience with lone assassins since then, and of all of them, Oswald is still the only one to deny it. "I'm a patsy," was his last public statement. 2. 48 hours later, Oswald is murdered in a police station. That fact is why 80 percent of the American people have consistently said they believe Oswald did not act alone. ****, LBJ didn't think so. Use the "what if this was some other country" test and apply it to the events from Oswald's arrest to his murder. Would you be inclined to believe that country's government's version of events?

Point A: Plenty of people deny crimes and say they were set up. As far as assassins, Sirhan Sirhan and James Earl Ray also denied killing RFK and MLK, respectively.

Point B: Neither did Nixon, apparently (and both LBJ and Nixon have been linked to it by conspiracy nuts). "Something smells" is evidence of nothing.

The fact remains there is no evidence of a conspiracy.

The definitive documentaries on the subject:

Frontline episode


The second was "Beyond Conspiracy," an ABC doc with Peter Jennings. I can't find it online, but below is a 10-minute highlight video someone made and posted to YT.

 

[Deskgrunt50]

Went to the Sixth Floor Museum in 2000 or so. Been a long time but thought it was very well done.

JFK was assassinated more than a decade before I was born, but I've always been fascinated by it and read/watched as much as I could. I have a pretty vivid memory of watching a special (PBS maybe?) with my family in the mid-late 80s that analyzed the Zapruder film. I think I read "Best Evidence" not log after that and down the rabbit hole I went.

 

[garrow]

My mom was a freshman in high school. She heard a teacher screaming in the hallway. It was Mrs. Fitzgerald.

 

[maumann]

So many soon-to-be famous television newscasters really showed their mettle that day. This NBC broadcast is like a who's who of the industry at that time.

 

[SFIND]

I think Oswald carried out the assassination on his own, but I believe he was manipulated and maneuvered by other actors who wanted JFK gone for a number of reasons.

I believe Oswald was rubbed out by one of those actors -- probably not the ones responsible for the JFK murder itself, but they needed him to go away.

Absolutely no evidence for this. Completely debunked by many who've reported on the subject; the Frontline doc I posted goes into much deal on his supposed ties (Soviets thought he was a useless idiot).

But the CIA has never done itself any favors on this subject, and it's part of the reason conspiracies persist.

Oswald, the CIA, and Mexico City | FRONTLINE

 

[Liut]

So many soon-to-be famous television newscasters really showed their mettle that day. This NBC broadcast is like a who's who of the industry at that time.

Prior those airings on A&E, I had heard of Frank McGee but had never actually seen him. His role on "Today" must have been before my time. Throw in Frank Blair ... and I was a confused kid.

 

[Ookpik]

 

[Liut]

Absolutely no evidence for this. Completely debunked by many who've reported on the subject; the Frontline doc I posted goes into much deal on his supposed ties (Soviets thought he was a useless idiot).

But the CIA has never done itself any favors on this subject, and it's part of the reason conspiracies persist.

Oswald, the CIA, and Mexico City | FRONTLINE

+1 and the previously mentioned Stone flick was an injustice to history. I've sometimes wondered if he didn't digitally alter the kill shot.

 

[da man]

Point A: Plenty of people deny crimes and say they were set up. As far as assassins, Sirhan Sirhan and James Earl Ray also denied killing RFK and MLK, respectively.

Point B: Neither did Nixon, apparently (and both LBJ and Nixon have been linked to it by conspiracy nuts). "Something smells" is evidence of nothing.

The fact remains there is no evidence of a conspiracy.

The definitive documentaries on the subject:

Frontline episode


The second was "Beyond Conspiracy," an NBC doc with Peter Jennings. I can't find it online, but below is a 10-minute highlight video someone made and posted to YT.

FRONTLINE AND NBC ARE IN ON IT!

 

[CD Boogie]

My parents’s good friends got married the day after the assassination and as you’d expect that was all people were talking about and really cast a pall over the whole event, which was unfortunate for the bride and groom.

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

I saw a piece on CBS this morning that spoke with a professor at LSU who said that the modern conspiracy theory really took off with JFK.

The History Channel was running a documentary on Kennedy. Must’ve been a few years old, but it was interesting.

 

[Liut]

Damn afternoon deadlines!!!

 

[maumann]

Not to hog the thread, but the idea that Frank McGee had to relay Robert McNeill's report because the telephone coupler wasn't working just shows how primitive technology was in 1963. Here we are, communicating on individual devices across a network supported by satellite relays at near real time, and back then, the Dallas TV guy didn't even have time to fix his toupee!

 

[Liut]

I saw a piece on CBS this morning that spoke with a professor at LSU who said that the modern conspiracy theory really took off with JFK.

The History Channel was running a documentary on Kennedy. Must’ve been a few years old, but it was interesting.

IMHO, what the LSU professor said was a major understatement. Heck, JFK conspiracy theories became an industry unto itself.

 

[Liut]

Not to hog the thread, but the idea that Frank McGee had to relay Robert McNeill's report because the telephone coupler wasn't working just shows how primitive technology was in 1963. Here we are, communicating on individual devices across a network supported by satellite relays at near real time, and back then, the Dallas TV guy didn't even have time to fix his toupee!

Not hogging at all.
It's also worth mentioning that Dan Rather was on two phone lines with a CBS radio producer in New York and Eddie Barker of KRLD. The producer thinks Rather is confirming Kennedy is dead while Rather is actually discussing said possibility with Barker. As Rather has told the story, he quickly hears anchor Alan Jackson announcing JFK's death with attribution to Rather.
Dan's sphincter got real, real tight.

 

[Captain_Kirk]

Well, I'll be one of the contrarians apparently and I'll go my grave believing there was a conspiracy, and Oswald was certainly not acting on his own. I can see his patsy statement as believable, or at the very least, can buy Starman's comment that the machinery was put in place to allow this to happen by higher powers.

Has it been proved? I guess that would be a negative. But just way too many strange occurrences to allow me to come to the conclusion a guy who was allowed to flit back and forth to Russia during the height of the Cold War pulled the trigger on his own (from a window I believe that wasn't even the best shot/sightline to complete the kill on the 6th floor) and then he conveniently gets snuffed out two days later by a guy with mob ties who is allowed access to walk right in and take him out.

Not to mention the inconsistencies in the doctors reports from Parkland vs Bethesda, the frickin' magic bullet, a lot of people related to the event dying unusual and early demises, et cetera et cetera.

I've seen both of the documentaries mentioned above, and as assuring as they are in stating there is no conspiracy, there are a number of good books (High Treason by Groden and Livingstone, Crossfire by Marrs to name a couple) that at the very least should leave one very uneasy accepting the solo Oswald theory as fact.

You can go ahead and fit me for my tinfoil hat--I'm comfortable in how I feel about this event and what I believe really happened.