The JFKA As A Whodunnit

[Duncan MacRae]

Perry Mason would have a field day with this case.

Ozzy would agree.

[Lance Payette]

Ozzy also had the perfect motto for many CTers: "I'm going off the rails on a crazy train."

[Steve M. Galbraith]

Perry Mason would have a field day with this case. The 1960's version of OJ Simpson. There are so many holes in this case no jury would convict Oswald.

I thought you said you were one of the handful of conspiracists who thought Oswald was guilty? But he had help from the Mafia?

You think Perry Mason would call Carlos Marcello as his mystery witness, the "Perry Mason moment", and that would somehow exonerate his client Oswald?

And Simpson was innocent?

[Lance Payette]

Channeling the late Perry, I believe he would have laid the foundation I suggested: Oswald's complete lack of expressed animosity toward JFK and his inexplicably normal behavior the night before and morning of. With that foundation, he would have poked the holes that CTers always attempt to poke in the evidence. Obviously, a conspiracy that Oswald was knowingly part of would do him no good, so the focus would have had to be on his complete innocence. That would have been a very uphill battle. (For those who don't know, Raymond Burr was a weird guy. Apparently to conceal his homosexuality, he created an entire fabricated history about a wife who had died in an airplane crash and a son who had died of leukemia.)

Here is Larry Schnapf's substack article on the various mock trials that have been held, which is more than I had realized: https://larryschnapf.substack.com/p/what-do-the-jfk-assassination-mock.

An interesting question is to what extent the murder of Tippit could have been mentioned. Surprisingly, it was apparently a major feature of the famous 1986 made-for-TV mock trial. I am skeptical about this. The murder of Tippit could be used to show consciousness of guilt, but not unless Oswald were guilty of that murder. Possibly the trial of that murder would have been held first in real life. To try the two murders together would have been very confusing and prejudicial to Oswald. I have to believe Bugliosi and Spence stipulated to the use of the Tippit murder for dramatic effect for the TV show.

The 1986 mock trial was little more than a TV movie. Flamboyant showman Gerry Spence was probably the wrong choice and not reflective of how a serious defense would have been conducted, but even he complained that the rules of evidence were not followed and that what should have been a four-month trial was limited to four days. If Oswald had competent, serious counsel with adequate resources, the trial could have been much longer than four months.

I knew an attorney who litigated against Spence. He said that when Spence finished with a witness and turned him over to the opposing attorney, he would politely say "Your witness, counsel" for all to hear and then mutter under his breath as he walked back to the defense table something like "you stupid incompetent motherf***er" just to throw the attorney off his game. I also met his ex-son-in-law at a rock and mineral show in Quartzsite, which is as close to old Gerry as I ever got. My wife picked up a "pretty rock" and asked how much. When the guy said $25,000, she was literally trembling as she carefully put it back down.

[Jarrett Smith]

I thought you said you were one of the handful of conspiracists who thought Oswald was guilty? But he had help from the Mafia?

You think Perry Mason would call Carlos Marcello as his mystery witness, the "Perry Mason moment", and that would somehow exonerate his client Oswald?

And Simpson was innocent?

Sorry, I was called away before I could finish. I meant witness testimony to help the defense. The secret service removing the body from Dallas, their drinking the night before. The Parkland doctors not agreeing with the Bethesda doctors, and the Bethesda doctors not agreeing with each other. Witness testimony over the number of shots, spacing of shots, etc. Secret Service imposters on the Knoll.

Oswald was 100% guilty of killing Tippit, and guilty of conspiring to kill JFK if he actually shot or not. Simpson was guilty as hell.