Path: ns-mx!uunet!spool.mu.edu!umn.edu!ux.acs.umn.edu!acm From: acm@ux.acs.umn.edu (Acm) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies,alt.conspiracy Subject: Stone's _JFK_ promotes absurd accusations Message-ID: Date: 19 Dec 91 22:08:26 GMT References: <1991Dec8.180812.7370@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> Followup-To: rec.arts.movies Organization: University of Minnesota, Academic Computing Services Lines: 146 Xref: ns-mx rec.arts.movies:50117 alt.conspiracy:9389 STONE'S _JFK_ MAKES RECKLESS JUDGMENTS, ABSURD ACCUSATIONS by Peter Kauffner The release of Oliver Stone's movie _JFK_ has allowed at least one sector of the economy to recover from recession: the Kennedy assassination conspiracy industry. Polls show that 56 percent of Americans now reject Warren Commission's conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald killed President John Kennedy in 1963 on his own. Conspiracy mongers have never allowed evidence or common sense to get in the way of good theory. If a well financed group wanted to kill a president, they would presumably hire an expert marksman with a high-powered rifle, plenty of ammunition, and an escape plan. In contrast, Oswald was a mediocre shot, used a World War II surplus carbine, had only four bullets, and did not appear to have a coherent escape plan. Since Oswald is such an unlikely instrument of a conspiracy, `second gunmen' plots are the most popular type of conspiracy theory. According to the typical second gunman plot, Oswald is only a fall guy for a professional hit man who fired from the `grassy knoll' near Kennedy's motorcade. Oliver Stone's scenario is even more far fetched. He has gunmen firing from three different locations around Dealey Plaza for a total of five to seven shots, as opposed to the Warren Commission's three. Stone's theory is based on an audio tape recorded by the Dallas police and analyzed in a 1978 congressional report. In this report, the House Select Committee on Assassinations claimed that the probability that a second gunman fired from the grassy knoll was `95 percent or better.' There were six noises on the tape that passed preliminary screening tests as possible rifle shots. The report's claims were thoroughly refuted by a 1982 National Academy of Sciences study. The NAS panel concluded that `the acoustical analysis does not demonstrate that there was a grassy knoll shot, and in particular there is no acoustic basis for the claim of 95 percent probability of such a shot.' The part of the tape alleged to contain the sound of gun shots was actually `recorded about one minute after the president had been shot.' A home movie of the murder, called the Zapruder film, provides the best evidence that there was neither a fourth shot nor a second gunman. After each of Oswald's three shots, the camera shakes visibly. A high powered rifle firing from the grassy knoll would have made a deafening noise from where Zapruder stood, according to _Kennedy and Lincoln: Medical and Ballistic Comparisons of Their Assassinations_ (1980) by John Lattimer. Having gunmen at widely separated locations fire in succession would only make an operation more difficult to coordinate. If the Secret Service had reacted quickly, the first shot would have been the assassin's only chance. Why let Oswald fire the first shot if a professional marksman was available? As it turned out, the Secret Service failed to react quickly enough to protect Kennedy. Presumably, this wasn't something potential conspirators could count on. The sort of conspiracy envisaged by Stone would require the involvement of so many people that someone would have spilled the beans by now. But about the closest thing to an insider's view of the conspiracy that we have is the testimony of Charles Speisel. Speisel was called to testify against alleged Kennedy assassin Clay Shaw in 1969 by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (the hero of _JFK_, played by Kevin Costner). On cross examination, Speisel confirmed that he had a filed suits against the New York police, among others, for allegedly torturing him and keeping him under hypnosis. He estimated that 50 to 60 people had hypnotized him in order to plant wild ideas in his head. The jury acquitted Shaw after deliberating for less than an hour. How does Stone maintain Garrison's heroic image in the face of such a fiasco? Speisel is explained as `one of [Bill] Boxley's witnesses.' Boxley was a Garrison aid. In _JFK_, he's a double agent working for the Central Intelligence Agency. Since he is also dead, he can't sue for libel. The murder of Oswald by nightclub owner Jack Ruby helps give conspiracy theories a certain plausibility. This occurred only two days after Kennedy was shot and while Oswald was being transferred out of the headquarters of the Dallas police. Some have speculated that Ruby was assigned to `shut Oswald up.' Oswald's transfer was delayed by 19 minutes. If Ruby planned the killing in advance he should have been waiting for Oswald outside the police station. But according to the time stamp on a receipt he was carrying, Ruby was at a nearby Western Union office transferring money only four minutes before the shooting. The fact the Ruby carried a gun with him at all times supports his claim that he acted on impulse. Did Oswald's murder really have `all the earmarks of a gangland slaying'? Not many mob hit men strike when they are surrounded by police and sure to be arrested. In their zeal to show that Oswald couldn't possibly do what the Warren Commission claims he did, conspiracy theorists make much of the low marksmanship scores Oswald got while he was in the Marines. But according to tests results published by Lattimer, Oswald's score in the seated position--the position he used when he shot Kennedy--was excellent. On one scorecard he hit a head-and-shoulders sized target 49 out of 50 times from a distance of 200 yards without telescopic sights. He shot Kennedy from less than 100 yards and used telescopic sights. The Kennedy assassination certainly isn't the first prominent killing to become the subject of crackpot speculation. `One never speaks of this assassination without making reckless judgments. The absurdity of the accusation, the total lack of evidence, nothing stops them.' That was Voltaire writing about the assassination of King Henry IV of France in 1610. What is unusual about the Kennedy case is the way that doubt and speculation has increased with the passage of time. When the Warren Commission report was released, few Americans doubted that Oswald was the sole assassin. By 1967, two-thirds believed that Kennedy was done in by a conspiracy. Each new conspiracy theory makes headlines. Careful rebuttals, like the NAS report, are lucky if they get a few column inches on an inside page. References: Lardner, George Jr., `On the Set: Dallas in Wonderland,' _The Washington Post_, May 19, 1991, p. D1. Lardner, George Jr., `...Or Just a Sloppy Mess?' _The Washington Post_, June 2, 1991, p. D3. Lattimer, John, _Kennedy and Lincoln: Medical and Ballistic Comparisons of Their Assassinations_ (1980). Moss, Armand, _Disinformation, Misinformation, and the `Conspiracy' to Kill JFK Exposed_ Stone, Oliver, `Stone's _JFK_: A Higher Truth?' _The Washington Post_ June 2, 1991, p. D3. Peter Kauffner UUCP: {crash tcnet}!orbit!pnet51!peterk Minneapolis, Minnesota INET: peterk@pnet51.orb.mn.org Libertarians put freedom first. Vote for Andre Marrou and Nancy Lord in 1992!