My Day in Dealey Plaza: Why JFK Was Killed by a Lone Assassin

[James H. Fetzer]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-sh...96812.html

Michael Shermer

Publisher of "Skeptic" magazine
Posted: December 14, 2010 06:20 PM

My Day in Dealey Plaza: Why JFK Was Killed by a Lone Assassin

On Tuesday, December 7, I walked through and around Dealey Plaza in Dallas where JFK was assassinated by a lone assassin Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO). Or was he? A lone assassin, that is? Yes, he was, but that is not what anyone giving informal tours of the plaza will have you believe if you give them a few minutes (and a few bucks).

I was in town filming a documentary for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The subject was conspiracy theories, so it was with some irony that we happened to be filming on December 7 because there are many conspiracy theories surrounding that date as well, a date that will live in infamy, as Franklin Roosevelt so crowned that fateful day in 1941, because he supposedly either helped orchestrate the attack on Pearl Harbor or else he knew about the attack and allowed it to happen in order to galvanize the American public into supporting England against the Nazis and getting the United States into the war.

There is no more to the Pearl Harbor conspiracy theory than there is that President Bush helped orchestrate 9/11 or knew about the pending attack and allowed it to happen in order to unite the American public into supporting his wars of aggression in the Middle East. Nevertheless, there is something particularly appealing to conspiracy theorists when they describe "what really happened" in their alternative universe of events. You can see it in their eyes when they begin to talk about what "they" want or don't want you to know about said event.

This was certainly the case for me when I interviewed several conspiracy theorists hanging around Dealey Plaza that day. Their eye light up and they grow ever more animated (and even agitated) as their story grows in complexity about all the different people, elements, and events that almost miraculously (it would be a miracle in most re-tellings) came together to assassinate JFK. One fellow had so many people involved in the assassination that they would have needed a small sports arena to meet to plan out the day. This improbability seems to bother conspiracy theorists not one tiny bit, as they spin out their narratives, drawing you down their causal pathway that resulted in the end of Camelot.

The most striking thing about being in Dealey Plaza for me was how small it is. Perhaps because the assassination itself was bigger than life we expect the geography to match the eventuality, but that is certainly not the case here. Two X's on the street mark where JFK was hit: first in the throat causing his arms to move up and splay out, and second where the bullet found its cranial mark and literally blew his brains out (and, according to one conspiricist there, sent the skull cap flying across the street and onto the adjacent lawn). What is astounding is how close both X's are to the sniper's next in the Book Depository building. Both from the street level looking up and from the window looking down (there is a museum on the sixth floor from which you can gain the perspective of the assassin), it seems clear that Oswald could hardly have missed. Given the fact that he was designated a sharpshooter by the Marines during his time in the service, and the fact that Kennedy's car was traveling less than 10 miles per hour after making the sharp left turn onto Elm street, one is left whispering under one's breath, "Kennedy was a sitting duck."

Look at the two photographs at the end of this post, each taken from one of the X's on the street (I tried to snap a pic from the sniper's nest, but this must be a problem for the museum because in addition to "No Photography" signs there is a guard standing there the entire time). The window from which Oswald fired is the square window on the far right of the building, second from the top.

Is it really necessary to invent additional assassins when it is obvious that one could have done the job? No. LHO acted alone in killing JFK. QED.

[Charles Drago]

The multi-faceted litmus test that is the JFK assassination has exposed yet another poseur.

Everything else Shermer espouses must be evaluated based upon his lunatic explanation of Dallas:

To hell with the evidence that proves conspiracy! Dealey Plaza is small, Oswald is smaller, JFK is huge, is it any wonder that we don't want to believe the LN "truth"?

[Keith Millea]

Everything else Shermer espouses must be evaluated based upon his lunatic explanation of Dallas:

Yeah,and I'd say the same about the "Huff Post" for even printing this crap.....

[John Kowalski]

I have read some of the "skeptic" responses to assassination theories. What is obvious is that many of them have not even considered the possibility that the official version is a big lie, and it is doubtful that any of them have read anything that contradicts their viewpoint.

What separates them from other WC supporters is their claim that they employ science and logic to dispel that myriad of myths held by people. They like take on religious groups and many of their websites walk in lock-step when denouncing conspiracy theories. Yet a visit to their websites will reveal that instead of offering solid proof to support their beliefs, they respond with conclusions that defy the rules of arguments that they claim to uphold.

They are not true skeptics in any sense of the word, instead they are selectively skeptical, picking and choosing arguments that support preconceived notions about conspiracy theories.

John

[Phil Dragoo]

The most striking thing about being in Michael Shermer's mind is how small it is.


What is last is first: QED means quod erat demonstratum, thus it is demonstrated.


Yet Shermer demonstrates merely his a priori, because-I-say-so, because-I-am-witty, because-I-recognize-nothing-of-fact argument.


There is not a scintilla of unimpeachable evidence placing Oswald with a rifle in the "sniper's nest." No less important a figure than Jesse Curry admitted such.


Oswald was negative for the cheek paraffin test for nitrates, QED he did not fire a shouldered weapon.


The alleged weapon was not Oswald's:


[url=http://<a href="http://www.jfklancerforum.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=3&topic_id=85804&mesg_id=85804&page=" target="_blank">http://www.jfklancerforum.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=3&topic_id=85804&mesg_id=85804&page=</a>]http://www.jfklancerforum.com/dc/dcboard...5804&page=[/URL]


The single-bullet is a fantasy; the magic bullet is an imbecility.


Ninety per cent of Americans and a greater percentage of Europeans and other non-Americans know the deed of November 22, 1963 to have been a domestic coup d'etat.


One hundred per cent of Americans with an intelligence quotient above room temperature know Michael Shermer to be, not a skeptic, but a colostomy bag of disinformation.


Eric Hoffer's True Believer, Stalin's New Soviet Man, Orwell's Inner Party member, and the Shermer Zombie Choir are incapable of acknowledging validity in any antipropaganda argument.


La la la I can't hear you equals QEDA, thus he is proved an ass.

[Albert Doyle]

Ask Shermer to explain how Oswald knew about obscure CIA-connected Schweitzer College on whose board CIA airline owner Percival Brundage sat?

I'd also like to ask him what exactly the US Marines policy was on soldiers openly studying the enemy's ideology and learning their language in the barracks on their own? Maybe he could refresh me on them since I can't seem to find anything on either.

[Jim DiEugenio]

There will be an article on Shermer coming up at ctka.net

This is deeply troubling, not just for Shermer but what it says about Huffington Post. Something is really going on there.

I wrote about this troubling phenomenon is an article I did about the "new Media" looking like the Old media.