OK, there was a conspiracy: What was the point?

[Jarrett Smith]

Where can one read or hear his confession? James Files confessed to having done it. Was he working for Marcello?

https://crimemagazine.com/carlos-marcello-and-assassination-president-kennedy

Where do you see a hole on the back of the head?



Here



and here



That autopsy photo is not a fake, it was taken during the reconstruction of the head IMO.

There was blood and brain matter on the forward occupants of the limo. It was on the windshield and even on the hood. How is that explained by a head shot from the front?

He was hit from behind first. The frontal shot right after threw his head back and a cloud of mist is thrown to the left rear.

[Tim Nickerson]

He was hit from behind first. The frontal shot right after threw his head back and a cloud of mist is thrown to the left rear.

Neither of your two photos shows a rear head blowout. Your GIF doesn't either.

[Jarrett Smith]

Neither of your two photos shows a rear head blowout. Your GIF doesn't either.

Well, we see things differently nothing wrong with that.

[Tim Nickerson]

Well, we see things differently nothing wrong with that.

We see things differently on some things. God defend the right to openly disagree with others. Of course, I'm never wrong. 
Unless my wife says otherwise.

[Dan O'meara]

Ben’s suggestion that CTers need to think in terms of a “small, very small” conspiracy – with which I agree – once again has me wondering why CTrs are almost never willing to discuss the JFKA in terms of, “What sense would that have made?”

...

It is a striking feature of the Nutter's theory about the assassination that there is no motive. It seems hypocritical for a Nutter to ask "What sense would that have made", when there is no sense to their own theory.
As I don't accept Oswald took the shots, or the Warren Commission Sham's version of events, I am a CTer by default.
The Conspiracy Theory I advocate is as small as I can imagine and begins with the only genuine motive, beyond JFK upsetting various people.
LBJ was about to lose everything. Life magazine had assembled a crack team of investigative journalists who were about to tear his life apart. His political corruption and potential involvement in murder were about to become public knowledge. The only thing keeping the sharks at bay was the fact he was Vice President. In those days the office of VP was still respected and he was untouchable as long as he was there. But he believed he was about to be kicked off the ticket and as soon as that happened he was fair game.
He wasn't just going to lose his political legacy, there is every chance he was going to prison.
LBJ had one play - and only one play - to save his career, his legacy and his life.
JFK had to be assassinated, making LBJ President.
The moment this happened he was genuinely untouchable.
The crack team of journalists dispersed.
All investigations into his dealings disappeared immediately.

Johnson was the only person who had a genuine motive for having JFK killed.
More importantly, he was the only person with nothing to lose.

[Lance Payette]

It is a striking feature of the Nutter's theory about the assassination that there is no motive. It seems hypocritical for a Nutter to ask "What sense would that have made", when there is no sense to their own theory.
As I don't accept Oswald took the shots, or the Warren Commission Sham's version of events, I am a CTer by default.
The Conspiracy Theory I advocate is as small as I can imagine and begins with the only genuine motive, beyond JFK upsetting various people.
LBJ was about to lose everything. Life magazine had assembled a crack team of investigative journalists who were about to tear his life apart. His political corruption and potential involvement in murder were about to become public knowledge. The only thing keeping the sharks at bay was the fact he was Vice President. In those days the office of VP was still respected and he was untouchable as long as he was there. But he believed he was about to be kicked off the ticket and as soon as that happened he was fair game.
He wasn't just going to lose his political legacy, there is every chance he was going to prison.
LBJ had one play - and only one play - to save his career, his legacy and his life.
JFK had to be assassinated, making LBJ President.
The moment this happened he was genuinely untouchable.
The crack team of journalists dispersed.
All investigations into his dealings disappeared immediately.

Johnson was the only person who had a genuine motive for having JFK killed.
More importantly, he was the only person with nothing to lose.

As Fate would have it, I've been reading about the Mafia in books entirely unrelated to the JFKA. The Mafia is fascinating. Utterly and completely brutal, violent and amoral - except in the context of their own internal morality and code of honor. If Marcello or Trafficante or Marlon Brando had wanted JFK dead, JFK would have been dead. Neat and clean, ba-da-boom, ba-da-bing. The idea of the Mafia making use of Oswald, either as a gunman or a patsy, is one of the few things that might have caused Carlos Marcello to collapse in giggles (right after he told Guido to slit your throat for suggesting it). No, sorry, Marcello undoubtedly had the motive and means, but Dealey Plaza looks nothing like a Mafia hit ("And that's how we KNOW it WAS a Mafia hit, Lance, you dolt!").

As Fate would also have it, yesterday I was reading about Marcello and his supposed confession. This led me briefly down a rabbit hole with which I wasn't familiar and you may not be. The rabbit hole is named Hank Killam. I won't bore you with the story, which you can read for yourself. Here it is in about 200 words, but there are all kinds of materials about it, including a file in the John Armstrong Collection at Baylor: https://ricksblog.biz/history-the-pensacola-connection-to-the-jfk-assassination/. What had me giggling like Carlos Marcello was the absolutely goofy connections that keep popping up again and again in the JFKA. My guess is that this all means absolutely nothing, but look at this:

1. Killam was a low-level criminal type in Dallas, nothing too exciting.
2. But wait, his wife Wanda just happened to work for Jack Ruby and had, off and on, for 15 years.
3. At the time of the JFKA, Killam was working as a house painter.
4. But wait, his friend and fellow house painter was a guy named Carter, who just happened to be living at 1026 N. Beckley at the same time as Oswald.
5. Shortly after the JFKA, Killam left Dallas for Pensacola, muttering that he knew too much and was a "dead man" but no longer cared.
6. His family knew he had drug and mental problems and was going to have him institutionalized.
7. But wait, on the morning of his death his mother heard him receive a call at 4 AM and be picked up by a car.
8. In the wee hours of that morning, he went through a second-story plate glass window of a department store and was found dead on the sidewalk.
9. But wait, he had only one injury - a 3" slash to his jugular - yet blood was found 4' into the room.
10. The police called it a suicide, the coroner called it an accident, the family wanted him exhumed, and there ya go.

Again and again, YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP! It's like some cosmic jokester was in charge of the JFKA. Anyway, there's a lead for you: Hank Kellam, Key to the JFKA. I tell ya, these mystery deaths make you wonder how Michael Paine lived to be 90 and Ruth lived to be 92.

Oh, Dan's quote about a motive ... I would disagree that only LBJ had a motive. Half the country had quite plausible motives. Right-wing loonies. Big money oilmen. The Mafia. The Joint Chiefs. The assorted folks enraged by the Bay of Pigs. Various foreign interests. This is precisely why there are 25 or more superficially plausible conspiracy theories. Articulating "motive" and "means" is child's play. Fitting Oswald and Dealey Plaza into the theory is the difficult part.

LBJ had unfettered access to JFK. For God's sake, JFK was going to visit the LBJ Ranch the very day of the assassination. Does anyone seriously think that if LBJ were involved in eliminating JFK the hit would have involved Oswald or looked anything like Dealey Plaza??? It's absurd and entirely ad hoc because you can't avoid the reality that it did involve Oswald and Dealey Plaza.

No LN motive, Dan says? I have articulated it before and have no problem doing so again. Oswald was an intelligent and interesting guy, well-read but uneducated, who viewed himself as a deep thinker destined for great things. Alas, there was little prospect of that in the U.S. He went to the USSR with an entirely naive view of Soviet Marxism and thought he would be greeted as a celebrity and groomed for a high-profile political role. He got slapped in the face with the reality of Soviet Marxism and his grunt-level job in a Minsk factory. He came crawling back to America, thinking that at least his status as a former defector would open a lot of doors. Not only did it not open any doors, but he could barely find minimum wage work and even Marina ridiculed him. He vented his free-floating anger with an attempt on right-wing bigot Walker, but that was a dud. What was left? Cuba, where the real Marxists would be found and he would achieve recognition at last. He embarked on a frenzy of activity to establish himself as a friend of Cuba and headed off to Mexico City with high hopes. Alas, another slap in the face. Back to more grunt-level, minimum wage work at the TSBD - humiliatingly thanks to Ruth Paine. Then Fate spoke at last, or so it seemed. JFK would be passing right in front of the TSBD! Was this perhaps Destiny speaking, his ticket to a place in history or at least to Cuba? He goes to the Paine house still ambivalent. He'll take one last shot at repairing his marriage. Marina rebuffs him. Eff it, Destiny has spoken. He's going to carry out the JFKA, pretty much without regard to what happens to him thereafter. Boom-boom-boom, and he is utterly astonished to find himself alive, outside the TSBD, and getting on a bus.

Royell rightly chided me and other former members of the Ed Forum for even mentioning the silly place, but you simply MUST read the currently active thread, "DiEugenio Essays on the Ruth Paine Case," https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/31729-dieugenio-essays-on-the-ruth-paine-case/. If THAT doesn't make you embarrassed to be part of a CT community, NOTHING will. We're not talking about mere "conspiracy-prone mindset" on that thread. We're talking flat-out lunacy on the part of folks who are embarrassments to the HUMAN RACE. Hint: The last couple of pages are about whether Michael and Ruth should have been "waterboarded" as DiEugenio suggested or merely criminally prosecuted and put to death.

[Jack Nessan]

As Fate would have it, I've been reading about the Mafia in books entirely unrelated to the JFKA. The Mafia is fascinating. Utterly and completely brutal, violent and amoral - except in the context of their own internal morality and code of honor. If Marcello or Trafficante or Marlon Brando had wanted JFK dead, JFK would have been dead. Neat and clean, ba-da-boom, ba-da-bing. The idea of the Mafia making use of Oswald, either as a gunman or a patsy, is one of the few things that might have caused Carlos Marcello to collapse in giggles (right after he told Guido to slit your throat for suggesting it). No, sorry, Marcello undoubtedly had the motive and means, but Dealey Plaza looks nothing like a Mafia hit ("And that's how we KNOW it WAS a Mafia hit, Lance, you dolt!").

As Fate would also have it, yesterday I was reading about Marcello and his supposed confession. This led me briefly down a rabbit hole with which I wasn't familiar and you may not be. The rabbit hole is named Hank Killam. I won't bore you with the story, which you can read for yourself. Here it is in about 200 words, but there are all kinds of materials about it, including a file in the John Armstrong Collection at Baylor: https://ricksblog.biz/history-the-pensacola-connection-to-the-jfk-assassination/. What had me giggling like Carlos Marcello was the absolutely goofy connections that keep popping up again and again in the JFKA. My guess is that this all means absolutely nothing, but look at this:

1. Killam was a low-level criminal type in Dallas, nothing too exciting.
2. But wait, his wife Wanda just happened to work for Jack Ruby and had, off and on, for 15 years.
3. At the time of the JFKA, Killam was working as a house painter.
4. But wait, his friend and fellow house painter was a guy named Carter, who just happened to be living at 1026 N. Beckley at the same time as Oswald.
5. Shortly after the JFKA, Killam left Dallas for Pensacola, muttering that he knew too much and was a "dead man" but no longer cared.
6. His family knew he had drug and mental problems and was going to have him institutionalized.
7. But wait, on the morning of his death his mother heard him receive a call at 4 AM and be picked up by a car.
8. In the wee hours of that morning, he went through a second-story plate glass window of a department store and was found dead on the sidewalk.
9. But wait, he had only one injury - a 3" slash to his jugular - yet blood was found 4' into the room.
10. The police called it a suicide, the coroner called it an accident, the family wanted him exhumed, and there ya go.

Again and again, YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP! It's like some cosmic jokester was in charge of the JFKA. Anyway, there's a lead for you: Hank Kellam, Key to the JFKA. I tell ya, these mystery deaths make you wonder how Michael Paine lived to be 90 and Ruth lived to be 92.

Oh, Dan's quote about a motive ... I would disagree that only LBJ had a motive. Half the country had quite plausible motives. Right-wing loonies. Big money oilmen. The Mafia. The Joint Chiefs. The assorted folks enraged by the Bay of Pigs. Various foreign interests. This is precisely why there are 25 or more superficially plausible conspiracy theories. Articulating "motive" and "means" is child's play. Fitting Oswald and Dealey Plaza into the theory is the difficult part.

LBJ had unfettered access to JFK. For God's sake, JFK was going to visit the LBJ Ranch the very day of the assassination. Does anyone seriously think that if LBJ were involved in eliminating JFK the hit would have involved Oswald or looked anything like Dealey Plaza??? It's absurd and entirely ad hoc because you can't avoid the reality that it did involve Oswald and Dealey Plaza.

No LN motive, Dan says? I have articulated it before and have no problem doing so again. Oswald was an intelligent and interesting guy, well-read but uneducated, who viewed himself as a deep thinker destined for great things. Alas, there was little prospect of that in the U.S. He went to the USSR with an entirely naive view of Soviet Marxism and thought he would be greeted as a celebrity and groomed for a high-profile political role. He got slapped in the face with the reality of Soviet Marxism and his grunt-level job in a Minsk factory. He came crawling back to America, thinking that at least his status as a former defector would open a lot of doors. Not only did it not open any doors, but he could barely find minimum wage work and even Marina ridiculed him. He vented his free-floating anger with an attempt on right-wing bigot Walker, but that was a dud. What was left? Cuba, where the real Marxists would be found and he would achieve recognition at last. He embarked on a frenzy of activity to establish himself as a friend of Cuba and headed off to Mexico City with high hopes. Alas, another slap in the face. Back to more grunt-level, minimum wage work at the TSBD - humiliatingly thanks to Ruth Paine. Then Fate spoke at last, or so it seemed. JFK would be passing right in front of the TSBD! Was this perhaps Destiny speaking, his ticket to a place in history or at least to Cuba? He goes to the Paine house still ambivalent. He'll take one last shot at repairing his marriage. Marina rebuffs him. Eff it, Destiny has spoken. He's going to carry out the JFKA, pretty much without regard to what happens to him thereafter. Boom-boom-boom, and he is utterly astonished to find himself alive, outside the TSBD, and getting on a bus.

Royell rightly chided me and other former members of the Ed Forum for even mentioning the silly place, but you simply MUST read the currently active thread, "DiEugenio Essays on the Ruth Paine Case," https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/31729-dieugenio-essays-on-the-ruth-paine-case/. If THAT doesn't make you embarrassed to be part of a CT community, NOTHING will. We're not talking about mere "conspiracy-prone mindset" on that thread. We're talking flat-out lunacy on the part of folks who are embarrassments to the HUMAN RACE. Hint: The last couple of pages are about whether Michael and Ruth should have been "waterboarded" as DiEugenio suggested or merely criminally prosecuted and put to death.

Mike Majerus, author Phantom Shot, went to law school at Georgetown in DC and attended all the HSCA hearings. He said when Marcello came into the hearing room nobody would look him in the eyes. In general, he said everyone was actually just afraid of him.

[Lance Payette]

Mike Majerus, author Phantom Shot, went to law school at Georgetown in DC and attended all the HSCA hearings. He said when Marcello came into the hearing room nobody would look him in the eyes. In general, he said everyone was actually just afraid of him.

While we tend to picture Marcello more in his later Godfather role, in his early days he was perfectly capable of personally slitting your throat if the linguini was overcooked.