IT'S ALL A CONSPIRACY (or, IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD)

I don't know why I do this...

I don't know why I get involved in Facebook comment thread discussions about JFK.  Differentiating between possible trolls and earnest, heartfelt people who want a discussion is so difficult.

Anyway, I posted this as a response to someone who still thinks that Lee Harvey Oswald was aided by a second shooter.  



If he was shot from the front, and there was, in fact, a conspiracy, then you have to accept that the assassination of William McKinely by Leon Czolgosz was a conspiracy. I mean, really, who could believe that a known anarchist would be allowed to approach the President of the United States? You have to accept that the assassination of James A. Garfied by Charles Guiteau was a conspiracy. And Lincoln's...?

There have been roughly 31 attempts or plots on current and former Presidents that have made major headlines. Four plots that succeeded in execution. Two others succeeded in hitting the target (Teddy Roosevelt and Reagan). However, only one of the attempts appears to be a government conspiracy, and that was the attempt by Saddam Hussein to kill George H.W. Bush in Kuwait. Every single other attempt that involved a group of people on domestic soil could only be called a conspiracy because a group of like-minded individuals got together with a plot to kill the president. The one that succeeded that involved something remotely resembling a true conspiracy plot was the assassination of Lincoln. And yet, still, that attempt was headed and carried out by a man, John Wilkes Booth, who's own brother, Edwin Booth, stated his brother had mental problems.

In fact, in almost every single case the assassins were stated to be "agitated," or seemed "unstable" prior to the shootings for years by those closest to them. This is the one defining factor of each and every attempt on the head of state in a relatively peaceful and stable nation like the United States.

Andrew Jackson had a man point 2 guns, which misfired, at him in front of the White House. God knows how many plots tried to kill Lincoln. Theodore Roosevelt was shot at by a true crank...when he was running as a 3rd party candidate. Argentine anarchists tried, and failed, to kill Hoover...before they could even get to try.

However, Giuseppe Zangara might be the guy you're looking for. He's the guy who tried to kill FDR, but failed. His motives have never been clearly established. He may, or may not, have been hired by the mob to kill the Chicago mayor and the new President then. Still, who knows...? Lone gunmen are kind of live wires with weird motives anyway.

A guy named Stern Gang sent letter bombs to Truman. A few Puerto Rican nationalists tried to kill him too...in Washington DC.

Kennedy had two or three other attempts on him during his presidency. One had been thwarted just a few weeks prior that was supposed to be carried out by four people. They wanted to shoot him while he was going under a highway overpass. Here's a strange fact to consider though before its suggested this proves there were several conspiracies in the works all around JFK. It was not a federal crime to kill or threaten the President at the time. The approach to all of this was just a shrug of the shoulders. There was actually little the government could legally do to monitor possible assassins. However, after 11/22/63 those attitudes, and laws, toward such a thing drastically changed.

Still, there was more. A guy named Arthur Bremmer wanted to kill Nixon. He killed George Wallace instead. A guy named Samuel Byck wanted to kill Nixon too, but got killed in a shootout instead (He took his own life when he realized he lost).

A follower of Charles Manson tried killing Ford.

An unemployed drifter tried to kill Carter.

John Hinkley Jr. thought he had a great way to impress Jodie Foster...by shooting Reagan.

A bunch of whack jobs tried to kill Clinton. Osama bin Laden even put a bomb under a bridge in '96 to try to kill him.

An assassin for the 2nd Bush apparently had "emotional problems."

Oh, and President Obama has had a bunch of attempts on his life, some through the mail in the form of ricin.

Sorry, for the mound of information here, with this many attempts on our presidents' lives (and these are just the ones on Wikipedia) you seriously think the government is hiding something from us about a sinister second shooter? I lived in Dallas for 3 years. I've been to Dealey Plaza. There isn't, and wasn't in 1963, really anywhere to run to except a giant parking lot behind the now mythical Grassy Knoll. It's not so mystical and when you stand there it's completely plausible and acceptable that Oswald killed him.

The man in the umbrella and trench coat didn't do it. Mr. Zapruder didn't do it, or capture anyone else doing it. It was Lee Harvey Oswald, alone, on the 6th floor. You know why? Because he was a poorly educated, somewhat skilled marksman, with severe emotional problems. He was 24, had been rejected for residence in the Soviet Union (and that is an accomplishment only the most unstable mentally or intellectually could achieve), married to a Russian woman in a somewhat volatile relationship, had a kid, and a dead-end job. Sorry, he fits the profile of almost every last single other nut who tried to kill the other presidents.

Kennedy was shot from behind. End of story. If you want a conspiracy, apparently Zachary Taylor and Warren G. Harding may have been assassinated. Now why aren't we talking about those mysteries? Oh right...there was no one standing around with a camera.