At 12:30pm, the 22 November, 1963 John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of the USA was shot and killed on Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. How many shots were fired, by who, and from where? Where did they go? What damage did they do? The government's conclusion is that one man, Lee Harvey Oswald, shot three times from the sixth floor of Texas School Book Depository, his place of employment, killing the President and wounding Governor Connally.
A murder of the chief executive may become a reason for people to conclude that there is a conspiracy. Political leaders, particularly national leaders, possess the power to change many lives, thus it is very easy to imagine any number of parties who might seek vengeance for past wrong decisions or anticipated ones.
The Warren Commission was formed to investigate the assassination. The people, convinced that a conspiracy would be uncovered, were really disappointed by the Commission's findings that Oswald, acting alone, perpetrated the crime; and that Jack Ruby (the murderer of Oswald) had acted on his own as well. The Warren Report could do very little to stop speculations, as far as most people were concerned. In trying to spare the Kennedy family's dignity, the Commission did not enter some of the autopsy materials into evidence, relying instead on witness testimony and artist recreations. This led critics of the findings to charge that the autopsy materials were kept secret to conceal the evidence of gunshots from more than one location.
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The conspiracy theories used the idea that the narrow timing of the shots, the character of the wounds, and other medical and ballistic factors prove that one man could not have done the deed, thus a conspiracy.
In 1969, the Clark Panel was formed to address the charges. The autopsy materials were confirmed as demonstrating two shots from the rear, as stated in the Warren Report . The critics shifted their charge, arguing instead that the X-rays and photographs were fakes designed to conceal evidence of multiple shots.
