That’s the only line of dialogue I remember from the entire series, and I thought it was one of the pinnacle moments in TV sci-fi.
[Looking at Jackie Kennedy] The first time, she died, too.
I will always believe there was a “before the fact” conspiracy to kill Kennedy. In my mind, the Oswald “I’m a patsy” comment is because, when it was time for the actual shooting, the others involved didn’t show up. It was more of a matter of Oswald trying to impress someone (connected to Cuba I suspect) “see how important I am” but he ended up holding the bag on his own.
On what evidence are you basing that belief?
Recommend any websites that cover all this? I’ve read too many supposed take downs of the movie that rely entirely on the absence of proof or statements made by people who have no more reason to be believable than the people they are contradicting.
Oswald’s comments when a microphone is shoved under his nose after he’s arrested “I’m a patsy”, how Oswald disappears from site completely for about two months prior to the assassination and just from what I’ve read and seen in documentaries over the years about the type of character he is. One of these “look at me, I really am a big shot” loser types. But truly more pure speculation on my part.
Oswald IMHO was the lone gunman, because “it worked out that way” not because he purely acted alone.
So, of all the people involved, you choose to believe the assassin himself?
Which to me is evidence (apart from the other overwhelming evidence) that Oswald was not a part of a conspiracy. If you were planning to kill Kennedy, would you trust THAT guy with the plan?
Every prison in the world is full to the brim with guys who’ll swear to you that they’re innocent, even if they were found at the scene, covered in the victim’s blood, holding the murder weapon and shouting “I killed you! I killllllllllllled you!” at the corpse.
Anyway, I say the remaining files contain the photo of Ted Cruz’s dad on the grassy knoll.
As I recall, THIS is a cite (hosted by a guy named John McAdams) that offers a pretty thorough rebuttal to all conspiracy nonsense.
In short, the movie JFK is based on a pretty deranged theory from a rogue district attorney that the JFK assassination was part of a homosexual sex ring’s thrill seeking. And it makes many specific factual errors (e.g. the “magic bullet” is predicated on misaligning the seating position of JFK and Governor Connolly) to makes its ultimate conspiracy claim.
If I read it correctly, Mallard is not saying that Oswald was innocent.
IMHO, Oswald was the lone shooter, the conspiracy that was there was one of the most inane but common when an intelligence or bureaucratic failure takes place.
A lot of embarrassing stupid mistakes needed to be minimized, hidden or destroyed to protect the incompetent; evidence of negligence and moves involving people that allowed a killer crazy guy with delusions of grandeur like Oswald to continue moving around enemy nations in the middle of the Cold War, is evidence that they see as damaging to their operations. It shows something common to all nations, the watchmen are not fond of reporting their negligence to the people that they are supposed to be protecting.
Oswald spent most of his life wanting to be part of a conspiracy and failing. Nobody would accept such an obvious eccentric, to be polite, into their plans.
Yet you want to convince me that he finally achieved the dream of his life, said nothing about it to no one, and left not a single trace of who he was conspiring with.
And what were the other conspirators supposed to do? He had the gun and the ammo and the one perfect hidden position. What roles did they play? Why did he need them?
I think people start with the premise that it must be a conspiracy and work backward. You are guaranteed to find “proof” that way, because everything becomes “proof.” “Q” is ample evidence that people think that way, down to asserting that Betty White was murdered by being given a vaccine booster and needed to be shut up because she tortured children for the adenochrone in their blood in order to live so long. Is this crazier than Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories? Not really: once you’re off the edge all bodies fall at the same rate.
That’s the thing; Oswald is the LAST guy you’d ever want to be the triggerman. Had he been part of a conspiracy he would have told the cops everything in the first twenty minutes. For that matter Jack Ruby is the last guy who’d want to erase the triggerman. There is a Mount Everest of evidence Oswald was acting alone - the guy was more or less the embodiment of a troubled loser who would do something like that - and not a pebble of real evidence he was the patsy in a conspiracy.
If you want to go down the conspiracy route, the most likely one is that Oswald preempted assassination plans by other parties. I can easily imagine small cadres in the mob, KGB, Cuba, even the CIA bullshitting about how to off the President and one of the most obvious proposals being during a motorcade past high rise buildings. Oswald kills Kennedy in the expected manner. All the spooks think, “Oh shit! We did it!” And instantly go into coverup mode.
I am reminded of the Suicide Squad story where the Squad was instructed to prevent someone from killing a certain senator “by any means necessary”. Deadshot decided to employ the most direct strategy to guarantee that nobody else would be able to kill the senator.
Which is why a Suicide Squad could only be headed by someone as, um, eccentric as Oswald.
I think we have different definitions of thorough. This is basically a list of things and a guy saying “nuh uh” to all of them.
There is no doubt in my mind that the Warren Commission got it right. Oswald did it, and he acted alone. Nobody in their right mind would want him in their conspiracy.
Anyone who tells you that the “magic bullet” did a series of turns going from JFK to Connolly is quite misinformed. Their silly sketches of the bullet’s path assume that the Connolly sat directly in front of JFK. He didn’t. Show the men in their actual positions in 3D and the bullet causing both men’s wounds can be traced back to that 6th floor window.
Ruby wasn’t part of a conspiracy to silence Oswald, he was genuinely distraught over JFK and through dumb luck happened to be in the area and slipped through security, which wasn’t quite as tight as it should have been.
It wasn’t the Cubans, it wasn’t the Soviets, it wasn’t the CIA- it was one loser trying to make a name for himself.
I was hoping you would end up on McAdam’s Main Page, as he does a good job addressing all aspects of the assassination. I’d also highly recommend Vincent Bugliosi’s lengthy book on the subject, but I realize that you asked for websites.
I’m a bit of a nerd on the subject. Is there something in particular you are seeking to clarify?
This is entirely true, although it’s worth keeping in mind that most conspiracies to commit political violence consist almost exclusively of men like Lee Harvey Oswald. If Oswald wasn’t completely full of shit when he claimed he was a patsy - and to be clear, he was completely full of shit - then he would most likely have been referring to a bunch of other low-life losers like himself, not shadowy spy agencies or vast criminal networks.
You make a good point. I’m honestly not sure if most conspiracies to commit political violence were men like Oswald. If fact, the only two that come to mind- the assassination of Caesar and the attempt on Hitler’s life- we done by statesmen and officers.