The assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, is one of the most famous and controversial events in modern American history. The official investigation, conducted by the Warren Commission, concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in shooting Kennedy from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. However, over the years, many conspiracy theories have emerged suggesting that there was a larger plot involving multiple individuals or groups.
On the very day John F. Kennedy died, a cottage industry was born. Fifty years and hundreds of millions of dollars later, it’s still thriving.
Best-selling books and blockbuster movies have raked in massive profits since 1963. And now, with the 50th anniversary looming, a new generation is set to cash in.
Of course, the Warren Commission officially concluded in 1964 that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone - and issued 26 volumes of documents to support that determination. But rather than closing the book on JFK’s death, the report merely served as fuel for an already-kindled fire of doubt and suspicion.
Since then, even government investigators have stepped away from the lone assassin theory. In 1978, the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations ended its own lengthy inquiry by finding that JFK “was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.”
That panel acknowledged it was “unable to identify the other gunman or the extent of the conspiracy.” But armed with mountains of subsequently released documents, there has been no shortage of people willing to offer their own conclusions.
Among the leading suspects: Cuban exiles angry about the Bay of Pigs fiasco; Mafiosi enraged by Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s attacks on organized crime; the “military-industrial complex,” worried about JFK’s review of war policy in Vietnam.
One theorist even floated the notion that Kennedy’s limousine driver shot the president - as part of an effort to cover up proof of an alien invasion.
Anything but that Oswald, a hapless former Marine, was in the right place at the right time, with motive and opportunity to pull off one of the most audacious crimes in American history.
About 6 in 10 Americans say they believe multiple people were involved in a conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy, while only one-fourth think Oswald acted alone, according to an AP-GfK survey done in April.
It is unlikely that we will ever know with certainty who was responsible for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Investigations, have failed to conclusively prove any one theory of what happened.
Despite numerous conspiracy theories and various pieces of evidence and testimony that have emerged over the years, there is still no definitive proof pointing to any specific individual or group.
While it is possible that new evidence could emerge in the future, it is unlikely that it would definitively solve the mystery of who killed JFK. The assassination remains one of the most widely debated and controversial events in modern American history, and it is likely to continue to be the subject of investigation, speculation, and debate for many years to come.