By Rick Hayes ——Bio and Archives--November 24, 2023
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People strongly want to believe that their government tells the truth and will never harm them. It's a trust that reflects the bond between a child and parent.
So when the government tells its citizens what transpired during a catastrophic event, that information becomes the gold standard of what happened, and any other position is considered questionable.
What happened in Benghazi, the 2016 Trump-Russia Investigation and the 2020 Presidential Election have roots dating back 60 years.
The JFK assassination is as important today as it was 60 years ago because it signifies a pivotal moment in American history. The moment Americans seriously started questioning the integrity of the FBI and the United States government.
Like any event whose account is difficult to accept, the JFK assassination continues to generate questions from one generation to the next. The violent death of the young 35th U.S. President is a point in time from which the country has never fully recovered.
Following the shots heard on November 22, 1963, Dallas Deputy Sheriff E.L. Boone and Deputy Roger Craig searched the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository. At the head of the stairwell, Deputy Boone discovered a rifle hidden beneath some boxes. Deputy Seymour Weitzman, who was identified by Deputy Craig as a former owner of a sporting goods store and good with guns, identified the weapon as a German-made 7.65 Mauser. Weitzman later signed an affidavit dated 11/23/63 testifying to that fact. Deputy Roger Craig, named Man of the Year by the sheriff's office in 1960, said he was "6 to 8 inches away from Weitzman" when he saw the imprint of 7.65 Mouser on the barrel. Deputy Sheriff E.L. Boone wrote in a statement that the weapon found was a 7.65 Mauser, "Brownish black stock ... blue steel." On 11/25/63, the CIA also wrote that the murder weapon was a 7.65 Mauser.
However, it was the FBI who later stated that everyone who thought the weapon was a Mauser had been mistaken. According to the Bureau, the gun found was a 6.5 Mannlicher-Carcano, an Italian-made bolt-action rifle used in the Second World War.
But what about the condition of the 6.5 Mannlicher-Carcano allegedly used by Oswald? The weapon was identified as rusty with a scope that did not perform.
However, the rifle's accuracy would also depend on the quality of the ammunition used. The Warren Commission said they found that the ammunition was recently made by the Western Cartridge co., which currently manufactures the same ammunition.
However, independent investigator Mark Lane contacted the Western Cartridge co. and found that the ammunition was not currently being produced and that the ammunition in question was last produced under government contract in 1944. The Western Cartridge Co. said that the ammunition's reliability would be questionable.
Following the FBI's Mauser/Mannlicher-Carcano statement, all the detectives agreed to change their recollections of the rifle's identification except Roger Craig. Craig would continue to stick with his story regarding the type of rifle he saw on the 6th floor right up to the time he was found shot to death in 1975 due to a rifle blast to his chest. A death that was ruled a suicide even though Craig had four attempts made on his life, didn't own a rifle, recently renewed his driver's and fishing license, and was working on a book.
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How many (of the 40 witnesses) interviewed who saw Kennedy's head wound stated they thought the bullet entered from behind and exited towards the front? Answer = zero.
All 40 witnesses said Kennedy's head wound appeared to have entered from the front and exited towards the back.
What about the doctors at Parkland Hospital who were the first to see the wound and treat the stricken President?
Dr. Charles Crenshaw said Kennedy had a large exit wound in the lower right rear of his skull.
Dr. Robert McClelland," I would estimate ¼ or at least 1/5 of the back right of the scull was gone….I thought it was probably an exit wound."
Dr. Paul Peters, "I could see inside President Kennedy's head on the right side near the back. We call it the occipital parietal area."
Floyd Reybe the autopsy photographer described the wound to the head of JFK to be a large hole at the back of the head. "It was a big gaping hole in the back of the head as if someone put a piece of dynamite in a tin can and lit it off."
Witnesses at Dealey Plaza stated that much of Kennedy's brain was blown out by the impact of the bullet, and doctors at Parkland Hospital said that a large section of Kennedy's brain fell out of the rear of his skull in trauma room one.
Paul O'Connor who was a medical orderly who received JFK's body at Bethesda and assisted with JFK's autopsy stated that when he was prepared to remove Kennedy's brain, which was one of his primary functions, there was no brain to remove. "There were macerated pieces," said O'Connor who added that he also didn't have to perform his usual functions of removing the skull because "He had a monstrous hole in his head."
Nevertheless, the official autopsy report had Kennedy's brain weighing in at a perfectly intact human adult male brain. Not one of the 16 doctors or nurses who testified identified the official autopsy photos as belonging to JFK.
The Warren Commission's official findings were that the bullet entered from the rear and exited from the front of Kennedy's skull.
Jean Hill was one of the closest people to the JFK motorcade when the President was shot. Investigators interviewed Hill on what she saw. Upon hearing Hill say that she saw a flash of light and a puff of smoke by the picket fence and heard four to six shots, according to Hill the investigators told her, “You would be very wise to leave this room and not say that ever again.” Of the interview with those investigators, Hill said that she felt in fear for her safety and felt “intimidated and traumatized.”
S.M. Holland, the Track and Signal Supervisor, stood on top of the triple underpass when the shots rang out. “I know where that third shot came from, from behind the picket fence…There’s no doubt whatsoever in my mind there was a shot from behind that picket fence.” He added that he saw a puff of smoke lingering under the trees where he heard the shot being fired and that six or eight other men that were with him heard and saw the same thing and that they all ran over to that location. The Warren Report changed Mr. Holland’s testimony and then used it as proof that no shots were fired from behind the fence.
Mr. L. E. Bowers Jr. was a Tower Operator for the Union Terminal Company and worked in a tower behind the parking lot, which was behind the picket fence. He said he saw two cars probing the area before Kennedy's arrival; later he saw a flash of light or smoke that caught his eye.
Mr. J.C. Price sat on the rooftop of the Terminal Annex Building located across Dealey Plaza from the Texas School Book Depository. He said he heard the shots come from behind the picket fence.
The death of Dorothy Kilgallen, a prominent columnist and TV personality, was ruled a suicide by drug overdose in November 1965. She had just completed a lengthy interview of Jack Ruby (Killer of Oswald) in prison and told friends privately that she was about to "break" the JFK case.
In a period of three years, from November 22, 1963, the time of the assassination, to February 1967, eighteen material witnesses died. Six died by gunfire, three in motor accidents, two by suicide, one from a cut-throat, one from a karate hit to the neck, three from heart attacks and two from natural causes. An actuary hired by the London Times calculated that the odds of these witnesses being dead in that time period were one hundred thousand trillion to one.
Since the JFK assassination 60 years ago, the country has suffered through the tragic 9/11 attacks. It should be of interest that immediately following both of these two horrible events, The United States entered, respectively, The Vietnam War and the War in Afghanistan, two lengthy and very costly wars--Afghanistan being the longest war in U.S. history.
Although the 2020 election doesn't remotely compare or come close to the terrible JFK assassination or obscene 9/11 attacks, it does carry with it the same levels of distrust of the FBI and the American government by the American people. Also, shortly after the election results were tallied, Afghanistan fell, and quickly replacing the 20-year bottomless pit of taxpayer money was a new and enormously costly war between Russia and Ukraine.
Just like JFK and 9/11, the 2020 election, thought to be rampant with corruption, proved to have grotesque consequences besieging the American citizens, who, before they could catch their breath, were saddled with once again paying billions of their hard-earned money for yet another expensive war. The rich got richer and the American middle class got poorer.
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Rick Hayes lives in the epicenter of liberal land where reality and truth will never encounter a welcome mat.
An award-winning writer and photographer, with over twenty years of professional experience in both fields, Hayes started his journalism adventure after a successful, eye-opening career as a Banker in Wall Street. Although he spent his early work life surrounded by custom made shirts, expensive ties and the shiniest of shoes, Hayes was an accomplished singer, cutting a few records with a local band and appearing on one of the first cable shows.
Working for a weekly New York paper, in one of the most politically corrupt areas in the State, he began investing his time trying to understand the nature of corruption.