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Who Shot JFK? A Guide to the Major Conspiracy Theories
A guide to all of the major conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination of JFK provides possible answers to the vexing questions associated with this puzzling crime
159 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1993
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July 7, 2022
Author Bob Callahan wrote in the Introduction to this 1993 book, “[This book] is the first book to seriously concentrate on the literature of John Kennedy’s assassination. The book has been created for concerned people who don’t have time to read for themselves all the major books, pamphlets and government reports directed connected with this ongoing investigation… [It] offers the reader a comprehensive review of the major theories, incidents, and compelling suspects associated with modern America’s most profoundly political murder mystery. Each new and serious theory is treated with the attention it deserves. As for the more preposterous materials which have also worked their way into the text, I can only hope the reader will forgive the gallows humor which is offered to relieve the weight of … a truly bizarre, and hideous murder case…. [The book] attempts to honor equally all of the intelligent and thoughtful theories concerning the death of John Kennedy… The most profound, yet hardly original, conclusion we have reached is that John Kennedy’s real killers have not yet been fully identified. We think they should be… The case is still open.”
Of Mark Lane’s 1963article in the ‘National Guardian’ he comments, “What Lane created was a brief for the Defense… Ten months later the Warren Commission would respond with a brief for the Prosecution. The search for the truth … would be clouded from the first by the ambition and mannerisms of adversarial lawyers. Lane, however, had made his point. Lee Harvey Oswald could hardly be considered guilty beyond a reasonable doubt… The debate was now open…” (Pg. 19)
He reports, “the John Birch Society came forward with their own theory on the men behind the guns in Dealey Plaza… an Illinois professor with the unlikely name of Revilo P. Oliver---Revilio is Oliver spelled backwards--- laid the entire crime squarely at the feet of the International Communist Conspiracy… ‘Kennedy was executed by the Communist Conspiracy because he was planning to turn American.’ (Pg. 23)
Of the Warren Commission’s ‘single-bullet theory,’ he comments, “The Commission had a real problem … in advancing this conclusion… the Commission already knew that one bullet had killed the President, and that another shot had missed the Presidential limousine entirely. If the limitations of Oswald’s rifle left him time to fire only three bullets, then … that bullet HAD to have been the one that passed through Kennedy’s neck, Connally’s chest, wrist, and … thigh… before it was eventually recovered more or less intact… Either this bullet followed that exact improbable flight pattern, or a fourth bullet would have to have been fired, probably from some other location … The trajectory of this single, devastating bullet became the linch pin for the entire Report.” (Pg. 32)
He notes, “While the public and the mainstream media seemed pacified by the Warren Commission’s conclusions, it wasn’t long before independent skeptics starting boring holes in the foundation of the Warren Report. Scrutiny of the Report’s 26 volumes of testimony revealed to critics a trove of contradictions from which they started to build their counter arguments.” (Pg. 45)
He reports of the controversy between Bertrand Russell and I.F. Stone, pointing out that Russell’s critique was, in fact, based on early notes made by his friend Mark Lane, prior to the release of the Warren Report… Russell… had indeed rushed to judgment. The majority of Russell’s early reservations would be answered the following month with the publication of the actual Warren Report… The Russell/Stone controversy, however, was to divide the Left into opposing camps---a division which to this very day characterizes left-wing thinking on the assassination.” (Pg. 48)
He states, “Mark Lane’s ‘Rush to Judgment’ … soon became the most popular critical repudiation of the Warren Commission’s version of who killed JFK… His book was a legal brief for a dead defendant. Marguerite Oswald, the alleged assassin’s mother, had, in fact, hired Lane to represent her son… Lane enjoyed the spotlight … he cold be found making his way from talk shows … to college campuses, lecturing and debating with any and all who rose to challenge his views on the sinister forces behind the death of JFK.” (Pg. 59)
He observes, “Sylvia Meagher’s ‘Accessories After the Fact’ remains to this day the definitive critique of the Warren Report. As the most important scholar ever to emerge from the critic’s community, Meagher’s contribution was encyclopedia in both scope and detail… Sylvia Meagher thus believed that the trail to Kennedy’s killers might be uncovered by a far more rigorous examination of the strange adventures of this other phantom Oswald…” (Pg. 71, 73)
He notes, “In ‘Six Seconds in Dallas,’ Josiah Thompson concluded that the first shot to hit the President had indeed been fired by Oswald’s [rife] from the sixth floor of the book depository…Based on his examination of the autopsy records. Attempts to establish each bullet’s actual trajectory… Thompson concluded that Connally had been hit by a separate second bullet… fired from a location other than the .. Depository… [He] strongly suggested that the President had been killed in a four bullet crossfire staged by three different gunmen.” (Pg. 81)
Of Jim Garrison’s trial, he comments, “By the time the trial began Garrison had lost most of his key witnesses either to mysterious, often violent deaths, or to a simple unwillingness to perpetuate what was quickly becoming an embarrassing public charade… two of Garrison’s most important staff assistants… had switched sides and were working for the defense… The trial of Clay Shaw lasted less than five weeks. It took the jury all of 53 minutes to acquit Shaw, and kick this stinker out into the street.” (Pg. 91-92)
He explains of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, “Where the Warren Commission had gone wrong, through no fault of its own---was on the matter of a fourth bullet. Based on acoustical evidence… the House Committee concluded that a second assassination had fired a fourth shot from the back of the grassy knoll. The President … had in fact been killed by a conspiracy involving at least two shooters…” (Pg. 116-117) However, the acoustical evidence was reviewed by the National Academy of Scientists, which “was able to decode the sound of a human voice on the tape [which] belonged to Dallas Sheriff Bill Decker… Decker could be heard calling in instructions … a few minutes after the actual shooting. As Decker’s voice could be heard in between the shorts, the investigating committee hastily decided not to conduct further tests… They decided to reject, out of hand, the authority of the entire Report.” (Pg. 121)
He recounts, “From 1963 to 1979, the photographs and x-rays taken of the President’s body… were withheld from the general public by special arrangement with the Kennedy family. Slowly, however, as a number of critics realized that the President’s corpse was… the ‘best evidence’ of the crime, the missing photographs and x-rays began to appear… David Lifton [suggested that] … the President’s body … was ‘doctored’ in the hours after the assassination at the hands of certain complicitous government officials.” (Pg. 133)
Of Oliver Stone’s film ‘JFK,’ he comments, Stone’s film also introduced into the mix a new motive for the crime… both Stone and Garrison placed great emphasis on the shift in American policy toward Vietnam which occurred immediately after President Kennedy’s death… The chain of evidence which might link Lyndon Johnson and his Joint Chiefs of Staff… would be revealed only by conjecture and wildly paranoid assertions in Stone’s otherwise dramatic and compelling film.” (Pg. 145)
He concludes, “The murder of John F. Kennedy thus represented a lethal blow aimed at the heritage of democratic rule in America… can anyone ensure we will not face more dark days on the road ahead?... Even the problems of deficit financing pale before the challenge of ensuring that our government remains a democracy in more than name only.” (Pg. 149)
This book is indeed a broad summary of all of the theories up to 1993; the author treats nearly all of them fairly (sometimes with humor). This book will be a fine ‘overview’ for those looking for such a treatment.
Of Mark Lane’s 1963article in the ‘National Guardian’ he comments, “What Lane created was a brief for the Defense… Ten months later the Warren Commission would respond with a brief for the Prosecution. The search for the truth … would be clouded from the first by the ambition and mannerisms of adversarial lawyers. Lane, however, had made his point. Lee Harvey Oswald could hardly be considered guilty beyond a reasonable doubt… The debate was now open…” (Pg. 19)
He reports, “the John Birch Society came forward with their own theory on the men behind the guns in Dealey Plaza… an Illinois professor with the unlikely name of Revilo P. Oliver---Revilio is Oliver spelled backwards--- laid the entire crime squarely at the feet of the International Communist Conspiracy… ‘Kennedy was executed by the Communist Conspiracy because he was planning to turn American.’ (Pg. 23)
Of the Warren Commission’s ‘single-bullet theory,’ he comments, “The Commission had a real problem … in advancing this conclusion… the Commission already knew that one bullet had killed the President, and that another shot had missed the Presidential limousine entirely. If the limitations of Oswald’s rifle left him time to fire only three bullets, then … that bullet HAD to have been the one that passed through Kennedy’s neck, Connally’s chest, wrist, and … thigh… before it was eventually recovered more or less intact… Either this bullet followed that exact improbable flight pattern, or a fourth bullet would have to have been fired, probably from some other location … The trajectory of this single, devastating bullet became the linch pin for the entire Report.” (Pg. 32)
He notes, “While the public and the mainstream media seemed pacified by the Warren Commission’s conclusions, it wasn’t long before independent skeptics starting boring holes in the foundation of the Warren Report. Scrutiny of the Report’s 26 volumes of testimony revealed to critics a trove of contradictions from which they started to build their counter arguments.” (Pg. 45)
He reports of the controversy between Bertrand Russell and I.F. Stone, pointing out that Russell’s critique was, in fact, based on early notes made by his friend Mark Lane, prior to the release of the Warren Report… Russell… had indeed rushed to judgment. The majority of Russell’s early reservations would be answered the following month with the publication of the actual Warren Report… The Russell/Stone controversy, however, was to divide the Left into opposing camps---a division which to this very day characterizes left-wing thinking on the assassination.” (Pg. 48)
He states, “Mark Lane’s ‘Rush to Judgment’ … soon became the most popular critical repudiation of the Warren Commission’s version of who killed JFK… His book was a legal brief for a dead defendant. Marguerite Oswald, the alleged assassin’s mother, had, in fact, hired Lane to represent her son… Lane enjoyed the spotlight … he cold be found making his way from talk shows … to college campuses, lecturing and debating with any and all who rose to challenge his views on the sinister forces behind the death of JFK.” (Pg. 59)
He observes, “Sylvia Meagher’s ‘Accessories After the Fact’ remains to this day the definitive critique of the Warren Report. As the most important scholar ever to emerge from the critic’s community, Meagher’s contribution was encyclopedia in both scope and detail… Sylvia Meagher thus believed that the trail to Kennedy’s killers might be uncovered by a far more rigorous examination of the strange adventures of this other phantom Oswald…” (Pg. 71, 73)
He notes, “In ‘Six Seconds in Dallas,’ Josiah Thompson concluded that the first shot to hit the President had indeed been fired by Oswald’s [rife] from the sixth floor of the book depository…Based on his examination of the autopsy records. Attempts to establish each bullet’s actual trajectory… Thompson concluded that Connally had been hit by a separate second bullet… fired from a location other than the .. Depository… [He] strongly suggested that the President had been killed in a four bullet crossfire staged by three different gunmen.” (Pg. 81)
Of Jim Garrison’s trial, he comments, “By the time the trial began Garrison had lost most of his key witnesses either to mysterious, often violent deaths, or to a simple unwillingness to perpetuate what was quickly becoming an embarrassing public charade… two of Garrison’s most important staff assistants… had switched sides and were working for the defense… The trial of Clay Shaw lasted less than five weeks. It took the jury all of 53 minutes to acquit Shaw, and kick this stinker out into the street.” (Pg. 91-92)
He explains of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, “Where the Warren Commission had gone wrong, through no fault of its own---was on the matter of a fourth bullet. Based on acoustical evidence… the House Committee concluded that a second assassination had fired a fourth shot from the back of the grassy knoll. The President … had in fact been killed by a conspiracy involving at least two shooters…” (Pg. 116-117) However, the acoustical evidence was reviewed by the National Academy of Scientists, which “was able to decode the sound of a human voice on the tape [which] belonged to Dallas Sheriff Bill Decker… Decker could be heard calling in instructions … a few minutes after the actual shooting. As Decker’s voice could be heard in between the shorts, the investigating committee hastily decided not to conduct further tests… They decided to reject, out of hand, the authority of the entire Report.” (Pg. 121)
He recounts, “From 1963 to 1979, the photographs and x-rays taken of the President’s body… were withheld from the general public by special arrangement with the Kennedy family. Slowly, however, as a number of critics realized that the President’s corpse was… the ‘best evidence’ of the crime, the missing photographs and x-rays began to appear… David Lifton [suggested that] … the President’s body … was ‘doctored’ in the hours after the assassination at the hands of certain complicitous government officials.” (Pg. 133)
Of Oliver Stone’s film ‘JFK,’ he comments, Stone’s film also introduced into the mix a new motive for the crime… both Stone and Garrison placed great emphasis on the shift in American policy toward Vietnam which occurred immediately after President Kennedy’s death… The chain of evidence which might link Lyndon Johnson and his Joint Chiefs of Staff… would be revealed only by conjecture and wildly paranoid assertions in Stone’s otherwise dramatic and compelling film.” (Pg. 145)
He concludes, “The murder of John F. Kennedy thus represented a lethal blow aimed at the heritage of democratic rule in America… can anyone ensure we will not face more dark days on the road ahead?... Even the problems of deficit financing pale before the challenge of ensuring that our government remains a democracy in more than name only.” (Pg. 149)
This book is indeed a broad summary of all of the theories up to 1993; the author treats nearly all of them fairly (sometimes with humor). This book will be a fine ‘overview’ for those looking for such a treatment.
May 29, 2025
For those of us without the time (let alone the inclination) to read the good-sized library full of books about the JFK assassination, this is sort of a Cliffs Notes version of the multitude of conspiracy theories. The end starts to lapse a bit too far into the Boomer conceit that their own personal November 1963 experiences somehow translate into a seminal point in our nation’s history, all that tiresome “loss of innocence” crap. Other than that, though, it makes an amusing read.
July 7, 2022
A useful overview of the different theories regarding the JFK assassination. Really more of a digest than an in-depth analysis--something one could read in an afternoon. I do find myself returning to it from time to time--it works well as a handy reference when I want to check a date or a name.
Acquired Jun 3, 2000
City Lights Book Shop, London, Ontario
Acquired Jun 3, 2000
City Lights Book Shop, London, Ontario
May 3, 2020
I have always been intrigued by the JFK assassination and although this book hasn't cemented my opinion on the subject it has made me want to read more on the subject and dig a little deeper.
This book is well put together and mixes the believable with the more outlandish theories to make for a very enjoyable read.
This book is well put together and mixes the believable with the more outlandish theories to make for a very enjoyable read.
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July 23, 2011I have to stop reading these....Although Waldron and Hartmann's ground-breaking work suggesting that JFK was going to invade Cuba on December 1, 1963--rather than having dropped the idea, as many believe--was done too recently to be included here, this covers all the major theories and has any number of weird informational tidbits. Surely the most readable and entertaining JFK assassination book out there.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews