cbr said:
Questions.
What tactics did hit teams use in that era?
I would think a good spot with a backup shooter and a couple of lookouts would make some sense.
In Korea, apparently the Marines used 2-man sniper teams, but the Army would just send 1 sniper out to a 10-man team and the sniper would go where he was told to.
https://www.americanrifleman.org/content/sniping-in-korea-1950-1953/Up until Kennedy, most hits seemed to be Mafia-type hits. Someone gets shot on the street leaving a bar or restaurant. Lured to a back room and shot. Things like that. Seemed to be all pistol deaths.
After Kennedy, MLK was shot with a .30-06, but most other assassinations and attempts (George Wallace, Larry Flynt, Reagan, Lennon, RFK, etc) were done with handguns.
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Why does even the 'one gun in the book depository' argue that lho was the shooter?
I don't think anyone at TBD recalls seeing people inside that didn't belong. There was only one staircase to the top and one cargo elevator that had slats so you can see through, so sneaking up and back down would be difficult. The rifle was LHO's rifle. He worked in the building. His prints were on the rifle and the boxes.
Could someone else have taken the shots? I guess so. Is there any evidence that anyone other than Oswald took the shots from the TBD? Nope. In the absence of evidence that someone else took those shots (hard evidence or eyewitness testimony) have to assume it was LHO.
Also, Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Bob Jackson was was across the street taking pictures, heard the first shot and saw LHO in the window with the rifle. He gave police an accurate description of LHO as the shooter that went out in APBs.
Seems like pretty solid evidence that LHO was the shooter.
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Or that it was not a conspiracy?
We don't have any evidence of LHO being part of any conspiracy. That doesn't mean he wasn't and I don't think anyone will ever know for sure.
I believe that he could have been "wound up" or encouraged to do it, but without really knowing people were using him. "Man, life would be so much better if Kennedy was dead" or things like that. Plant the seeds.
But I don't think he went out to plan it with anyone. I don't think anyone was really counting on him to follow through with it.
Why would LHO have been good to conspire with?
* He was a trained Marine sharpshooter
* He had access to TBD
Why would LHO have NOT been good to conspire with?
* He was a loose cannon. As a Marine, he was court martialed for attacking his NCO. He shot himself with a handgun he wasn't supposed to have. He fired into the jungle in the phillipines while on guard duty for no reason. He was stripped of rank and sent to the brig.
* He wasn't trusted by anyone. He wasn't even really liked by anyone except George de M. His wife left him, because he was a violent wife-beating *******. He was fired from ~3 jobs in the little over a year he was back in the US.
* He wasn't a member of any major organizations that would do this. Did the mafia use a lot of ******* losers as hitmen? Did the CIA tend to recruit people that were high school drop outs, stripped of their rank and thrown in the, separated from the military on less than honorable circumstances,
* He wasn't wanted by anyone. He was disillusioned in the USSR in part because the Russians didn't really want anything to do with him.
* He was mentally unstable. He had attempted suicide. He was diagnosed with "personality pattern disturbance with schizoid features." He had been committed to a mental hospital.
* No one wanted to work with him at anything. That's why he was unpopular in the Marines, unpopular in Russia, unpopular in New Orleans, unpopular in Dallas. This was throughout his life, including childhood.
He wasn't an insider with any group. He wasn't liked or trusted by people (including his wife.) Just doesn't seem like the type of person anyone would want on the inside or their conspiracy to kill the most powerful man in the world.
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I tend to agree that the forensic evidence lines up better with the one shooter theory
It's all we have, really. There isn't any evidence that there was a shooter at any other location.
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I have a hard time believing that from the zaprueder film based solely on personal experience.
I don't really know what you are trying to say here? You have a hard time believing single shooter based on Zapruder?
I might feel the same way if I hadn't seen so many recreations done that explain some of the issues in it. The main thing is the head moving backwards, but that is pretty well explained by the force of the exit wound going forward, so the head has to act in an equal and opposite way.
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The countless descriptions of intimidation, cover ups, odd connections and histories, bungling or idiotic decisions, etc. make the lone nut theory implausible to me.
It is truly crazy all the mistakes, but I think we expect investigations to be perfect like CSI or Law & Order, and that isnt' reality. All these things are interesting, but don't really lead me away from the evidence. I think that the FBI and CIA probably wanted to cover up things they were doing wrong (like spying on and intimidating MLK).
There are supposed to be more documents released this week from the National Archives. Wonder what they will hold.
