From Fidel Castro to Vice President Johnson, through the magistrate who gave the Warren Commission its name, these are some key names around the assassination.
From Fidel Castro to Vice President Johnson, through the magistrate who gave the Warren Commission its name, these are some key names around the assassination.
In the nomenclature of the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, of the crime that shook the world on November 22, 1963, dozens of names stand out. Impossible to cite them all. There are too many and whoever wants to delve into them would do well to start with the monumental book by Vincent Bugliosi «Reclaiming history», 1,648 dense pages where he leaves no puppet with a head among the supporters of the conspiracies. Or “Case Closed” by Gerald Posner. Here are, finally, the essentials. The stellar cast of a noon that split US history in two halves.
Jack Ruby: the owner of nightclubs, violent and close to the mafia, who murdered Oswald two days after the assassination. Although there are hundreds of books and documentaries determined to place him as the pawn of a much larger plot, possibly related to organized crime and his hypothetical interest in liquidating Kennedy (for not invading Cuba, they say, and returning the casinos), the truth is that the Warren Commission, and all serious historians, consider that he acted on his own. He died in prison, in 1967.
Lyndon B. Johnson: If the new papers show anything, it is that the Soviets suspected from the beginning that the vice president was in on it. The reason for his paranoia? They feared that the crime would be used to justify an invasion of the USSR. “Soviet officials,” reads an FBI report, “feared that without leadership some irresponsible general in the United States might launch a missile attack against the Soviet Union.” The image of him on Air Force One, swearing in next to Kennedy’s body, just two hours after the assassination, is unforgettable. In the months that followed, he launched a panoply of measures designed to advance the legacy and promises of his predecessor, including, of course, the fight to push through the Civil Rights Act.
Earl Warren: Former Governor of California, Supreme Court Justice, and Chairman of the commission charged with investigating the assassination of President Kennedy. Although he was primarily responsible for the landmark 1954 ruling known as “Brown v. Board of Education”, which declared the laws that sanctioned segregation in schools unconstitutional, Warren will be remembered for the conclusions of the commission that studied the assassination and concluded, to the solace of conspiracy theorists, always in need of official reports with which to discuss , that there was only one shooter and it was Lee Harvey Oswald.
Abraham Zapruder: of Russian origin, this entrepreneur in the textile sector, a supporter of the Democratic Party, made one of the most studied recordings of the 20th century. It is 26.6 seconds and 486 frames in which he captured the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy with his Bell & Howell camera. Zapruder sold the film to “Life” magazine for $150,000, with the only condition that he not release frame 313, in which the projectile can be seen bursting part of President Kennedy’s head. The recording was later returned to the family, who donated it, along with the copyright, to the National Archives and Records Administration.
Jim Garrison: the New Orleans prosecutor played by Kevin Costner in Oliver Stone’s “JKF.” One of the most admired and vilified prosecutors of the century, depending on whether or not one is among those who take the conclusions of the Warren Commission for granted. For Garrison, up to three snipers would have participated in Kennedy’s assassination. Behind the plot he placed the CIA and, why not, the omnipresent and shady Hoover’s FBI, eager to further spoil the political climate of the period. Accused of being narcissistic by his haters, of seeking prominence as it were and of inaugurating the aegis of the star judges and prosecutors, it is necessary to recognize him at least that he managed to obtain a copy of the Zapruder film. The general public finally accessed the only recording of the murder. He died in 1992,
Ramsey Clark: veteran of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, he was attorney general between 1967 and 1969. In 1968 he ordered the creation of the Ramsey Clark Panel, made up of four renowned forensic experts with the mission of examining the available evidence of the president’s death. The conclusion was that Kennedy received the impact of two bullets, the second of which, which pierced his skull, was fatal of necessity.
JD Tippit: veteran of the Dallas Police, was assassinated in a residential suburb of the city, Oak Cliff, just 45 minutes after the assassination of President Kennedy. The killer was Oswald himself, who shot Officer Tippit four times after he opened the door of his squad car, presumably asking him to identify himself. Tippit already had a robot portrait of Kennedy’s assassin very similar to Oswald’s physical complexion. There is no lack of those who believe that Tippit would be a character linked to the CIA recruited to liquidate Oswald, and that he could have participated in the assassination, that is, that we would be facing one of the legendary shooters.
E. Howard Hunt: CIA agent and sentenced to 33 months in prison for Watergate, was accused for years by conspiracy hounds of having taken part in the alleged plot to assassinate President Kennedy.
Fidel Castro: it was inevitable that Castro would also figure in the pools of the conspiracy. The probable cause would be revenge for the multiple attempts to end his life sponsored and/or devised by the CIA, but the Warren Commission ruled out any involvement of the Cubans in the crime. Nor, by the way, could the involvement of the mafia in the crime be proven, and it will not be because the names of capos who could have been related have not been mentioned, from Sam Giancana to Santo Trafficante, Jr. and from Joseph Bonanno to Johnny Roselli. The interest of all of them would have been to get a hawk to replace Kennedy in the presidency and approve a much more hostile policy towards Castro. With the ultimate intention of overthrowing him and recovering his casinos in Havana.
