Critical Analysis of the Book “Conspiracy Theory in America”

Inside the assassination of President Kennedy

November 22, 1963. President Kennedy was in Dallas Texas visiting for a campaign when things took a turn for the worst. While driving down the street just passed the School Book Depository, crowds and crowds of people stood along the street as shots began to fire, bang, bang, bang! Was it one? Two? Three? President Kennedy was shot twice and later pronounced dead at the nearby hospital. The first doctor that was treating president Kennedy wrote down that there was a wound in the neck while another wound was located on his head. “A small bullet wound in the front lower neck, and an extensive wound in the President’s head where a sizable portion of the skull was missing”(DeHaven-Smith,52). Early on in the investigation, things started to get suspicious. Which led to Lance DeHaven- Smith writing a book just about how this event was flawed.

In the book, “Conspiracy Theory in America” written by Lance DeHaven-Smith he describes how he introduced the term, “SCAD” (State Crime against Democracy) as a way to describe the type of wrongdoing which the term “conspiracy theory” discourages us from speaking. The term conspiracy theory has been used as a pejorative putdown, a way to silence and marginalize anyone who dares contest the party line on shocking political crimes. The discussion turns from the potential malfeasance to the intelligence and sanity of the person putting forward the conspiracy theory. The SCAD construct, on the other hand, focuses on actions that are done potentially to subvert our representative democracy, typically from the inside. But what some failed to see or kept silent about was Kennedy’s killer.

His purported assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was quickly arrested and then, while being transferred from the city jail to the county jail, was himself killed by Jack Ruby, a local Dallas nightclub owner. The assassination was investigated by the Warren Commission which concluded that Oswald killed President Kennedy while acting alone and that Jack Ruby was unrelated to the assassination and also acted alone. Though multiple bodies have come to the same conclusion, multiple circumstances about the assassination raise suspicions and several documents lend evidence to the possibility that the assassination was a SCAD. See there were many different key components that were kept from the public eye. This could not have just been planned and acted out by one person.

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The Warren Commission determined that Oswald, acting alone, fired all of the shot that struck the President and that he fired from behind and above the President. The President sustained ahead, back and throat wound. Crucial to the single shooter theory would be that all the President’s wounds would be consistent with an attack from the back. If the wounds were consistent with shots fired from multiple directions then Oswald would not have acted alone. See there were many different key components that were kept from the public eye. This could not have just been planned and acted out by one person.

Arlen Specter took the testimony of multiple staff members of the Parkland Hospital where Kennedy had been taken for medical care and part of his inquiry involved the throat wound on the front of the President’s neck. A nurse Margaret Henchcliff described the wound as a small round wound that looked like an the entry wound”. Next General Surgeon Ronald Jones stated that the throat wound was “small and clean-cut” as one would expect from an entrance wound. Another doctor named General Surgeon Robert McClelland indicated that his impression of the throat wound was that it was an “entrance” wound and not an exit wound. Dr. Paul Peters indicated that he presumed the throat wound was an entrance wound upon his examination. If these experts are correct in their assessment that the throat wound was an entry wound and not an exit would then the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Oswald was a disgruntled loner who managed to kill the President falls apart and there arises a conspiracy of at least two people – Oswald and at least one unidentified shooter from the front and would demand further investigation.

In 1963 the CIA sent a cable describing a Lee Henry (sic) Harvey Oswald entering the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City. They believed this was the Lee Oswald who was a U.S. Marine deserter who had defected to the Soviet Union and then returned with a Russian wife, as did President Kennedy’s assassin. They went on, however, to describe the subject as 35 years old and of athletic build. In reality, Lee Harvey Oswald was 23 years old and slender. That someone identifying themselves as Lee Harvey Oswald would raise the specter that there was an association there centering on the Soviet Embassy. Again this argues against the single shooter action alone to assassinate the President.

The Warren Commission determined that 3 shots were fired at the President by Oswald. Arlen Specter took the testimony of a witness, Jean Lollis Hill. He asked her how many shots she heard. She testified that there 3 distinct shots and then, after a pause she heard more shots. She said, “I think there were at least four or five shots and perhaps six, but I know there were more than three.” This is a direct witness testimony that contradicts the findings of an official body. An assistant counsel of the President’s Commission, Mr. Samuel Stern, took the testimony of a direct witness S. M. Holland. He indicated that he heard shots coming from under the trees on the grassy knoll and saw a puff of “smoke” accompanying the shots, more direct witness evidence that there were more than 3 shots with the shots coming from different directions. Mr. Carr testified in a trial in Louisiana that he heard at “least three shots” coming from the grassy knoll and they occurred in rapid-fire sequence. Again, this is more direct witness testimony indicating that there were at least 2 shooters in different locations. In the excerpt from page 54, Dr. Charles Carrico noted a small bullet wound in the “front lower neck” adding credence to the theory that this was an entry wound [coming from the front] and inconsistent with the Warren Commission final conclusion that this was an exit wound from a shot to the back. There is just so much missed or should I say avoided information leading to the death of the president. So in this collection of documents we have evidence that argues against the single lone shooter theory of President Kennedy’s assassination. Great effort has been made to explain or excuse this contradictory evidence that itself raises the specter of SCAD.