Tuesday marked the 53rd anniversary of the John F. Kennedy assassination. Since then, innumerable conspiracy theories have propped up attempting to explain the Democratic president’s untimely death. Everyone from the Russians to the CIA have been implicated in the Kennedy assassination, despite the US government’s comprehensive inquiry dispelling the vast array of conspiracy theories.
Still, many Americans are skeptical about the government’s official account, sensing that something else was amiss on that sunny day in Dallas. Here are 7 things you need to know about the JFK assassination.
1. Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald as the presidential motorcade passed by the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas.
2. According to the Warren Commission report commissioned shortly after Kennedy’s death, Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing Kennedy. According to the report, Oswald was not involved in a conspiracy. Jack Ruby, Oswald’s killer, the commission determined, also acted alone.
3. But another report, spearheaded by the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) challenged the Warren Commission’s findings, concluding in 1979 that Kennedy was “probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.”
The HSCA also believed that there was “a high probability that two gunmen fired at [the] President” based on acoustic analysis. Oswald fired the first three rifle shots, but another shooter may have fired more gunshots. Most damning of all, the HSCA determined that the federal investigation into the assassination was “seriously flawed” to the point where a cover-up or conspiracy at the highest levels of government was possible
4. The HSCA recommended that the acoustic data undergo further analysis. That analysis failed to substantiate the conclusion that there was a second shooter.
“Reliable acoustic data do not support a conclusion that there was a second gunman” notes an investigative report. As a result, the Justice Department closed the book on the investigation, concluding “that no persuasive evidence can be identified to support the theory of a conspiracy in … the assassination of President Kennedy.”
5. Conspiracies swirling around the Kennedy assassination have captivated the American public, leading to the publication of over 1,000 books about the topic.
The vast majority of these books are critical of the Warren Commission’s findings and espouse claims about conspiratorial plots. Referred to as the “mother of all conspiracy theories,” the Kennedy assassination continues to enthrall the public imagination with over half of all Americans believing that a conspiracy is likely.
6. The most popular conspiracy theory is the “Second Shooter on the Grassy Knoll” claim, which argues that President Kennedy was shot from multiple angles.
Citing allegations of evidence tampering, procedural abnormalities when conducting the autopsy on Kennedy’s body, and the existence of blurry photographs supposedly identifying the shooters, these conspiracy theorists believe the head shot that ultimately led to Kennedy’s death was fired from a shooter on the grassy knoll. Oswald, these conspiracy theorists argue, fired non-fatal shots.
7. Ted Cruz’s father was not involved in the Kennedy assassination. Sorry, Donald Trump.