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Many witnesses claim to have heard four shots as Kennedy's motorcade exited the Dealey Plaza, however the Warren Report claimed that only three shots were fired. This was in large part to only three shells being found with the rifle in the sixth-floor window in the school book depository. The report claimed that the first shot did not hit Kennedy, but rather the roadside curb that then ricocheted and wounded a spectator, James Tague. The third shot was the final, fatal shot to Kennedy's head. The second shot, often referred to as the "single bullet," is said to have entered Kennedy's back, exited through his throat, then hit Governor Connally who was seated in front of the president, broke a rib, shattered his wrist, then finally wounding his left leg. This "single bullet" theory has been called into dispute because many believe it is simply impossible for one bullet to travel in such a pattern and do so much damage; many skeptics claim that if the Warren Report says that only three shots were fired by Oswald, then there would have to be a second shooter. Instead, the report stands boldly by its claim that only Oswald was involved, and that he only fired three shots. Another red flag was raised later that afternoon at Parkland hospital. This mysterious bullet was found, in near pristine condition, on a hospital bed when Kennedy and Connelly were brought in. The bullet had no scuffs or scrapes and was only slightly flattened.

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Lee Harvey Oswald served in the Marines from 1956 until he received a hardship discharge (his mother needed medical care) in 1959. Upon being discharged, Oswald traveled to the Soviet Union where he defected later that year. A self-proclaimed communist, Oswald traveled to the Soviet Union with immediate plans to become a citizen. Oswald frequently met with embassy officials who questioned his intentions in their country. Once officials realized Oswald's status as a former US Marine, it is likely they saw a way to use his skillset. In March 1961, Oswald married Marina Prusakova, a 19-year old student and, a little over a year later, returned to the United States. Oswald's return to the United States has long been a source of suspicion. Some argue that Oswald was simply a misfit, one who could not adapt to life in either the United States or the Soviet Union. After attempting suicide in a desperate attempt to stay in the Soviet Union (when his visa expired in October 1959), many believe the Soviets saw him as worthless to their cause. Others, however, are convinced that the Soviets used Oswald as a weapon to assassinate Kennedy. After an embarrassing defeat in the Cuban Missile Crisis, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev sought revenge and set his sights on Kennedy. Many agree that Oswald likely wasn't skilled enough to shoot Kennedy from the depository, but given that Oswald, an ex-Marine, had defected to the Soviet Union, he would be easy to frame for the murder. In the months leading up to the assassination, the CIA intercepted phone conversations with someone impersonating Oswald. Was it possible the Soviet Union sent an expert marksman to impersonate Oswald and assassinate Kennedy?

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The Central Intelligence Agency, known shorthand as the CIA, is responsible for gathering, processing, and analyzing human intelligence from around the world to protect the national security of the United States. Upon assuming the presidency in 1961, when asked about the role and influence of the CIA, President Kennedy responded that he wanted "to splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds." This statement, along with proposing to slash the agency's budget by 20%, angered some and worried others. The Bay of Pigs invasion that was intended to overthrow the Castro regime in Cuba made many enemies for President Kennedy within the CIA. The invasion, first authorized under the previous Eisenhower administration then carried out under Kennedy, failed in large part due to Kennedy's refusal to authorize crucial air support to assist the US-backed Cuban rebels, which convinced the CIA that Kennedy was going to take a soft stance on communism (the major threat during the Cold War). Kennedy eventually fired CIA Director Allen Dulles and Deputy Director Charles Cabell, secretly blaming the agency for making him look bad. When Kennedy took his motorcade through Dallas, Cabell's brother, Earle Cabell, was serving as the city's mayor. Furious with Kennedy's betrayal at the Bay of Pigs and his dismantling of the CIA, many believe this gave the CIA pretext to plot against him. The CIA also had easy access to carry out the assassination; leadership in Dallas had a motive to carry out the attack. The CIA also had an easy person to place the blame: an unstable, ex-Marine, and defector to the Soviet Union, who had strong connections to communist Cuba.

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Chicago Tribune Article:

WOMAN SAYS SHE WAS JFK`S MOB LIAISON

R.C. Longworth, Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Judith Exner, a mistress of President John F. Kennedy, was quoted Sunday as saying she carried both money and intelligence data between Kennedy and Chicago mobster Sam Giancana ''on at least 20 occasions.''
Although Exner`s ties to both Kennedy and Giancana have been long known, a story in the Sunday Times, distributed by Universal Press Syndicate, said it provided the first public testimony that Kennedy took a direct role in trying to buy the 1960 election and, later, to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Exner was quoted as saying that the money was passed before Kennedy`s election in 1960 and was used to influence both the Democratic Party primary in West Virginia and Kennedy`s crucial, razor-thin margin over Richard Nixon in Illinois in the presidential election.
The syndicated article was written by American writer Anthony Summers, author of ''The Kennedy Conspiracy.'' Summers said he interviewed Exner, now 57, whom he said is dying of cancer.

''With her new statements,'' he said, ''Exner becomes the first primary source to offer apparent confirmation that Kennedy cheated his way toward election, and plotted the murder of a foreign leader in peacetime. If Exner`s account is accepted, the president`s reputation will be damaged beyond recovery.''

Summers quoted Exner as saying: ''After Jack was elected, Sam used to tease me all the time. He`d say, `Your boyfriend wouldn`t be president if it wasn`t for me.` He`d say this in a serious way, too. My impression was that Sam bought the influence, that he had a direct effect on the result of the election.''

The intelligence data, which she carried in envelopes to Giancana, related to the plot to assassinate Castro. The existence of CIA-Mafia plans to kill the Cuban leader also have been long known, but not Kennedy`s direct participation.

''Fairly early on,'' Exner said, ''Jack told me outright. He said the envelopes contained `intelligence material` and that it involved the elimination of Fidel Castro.''

'' . . . I was right in the middle of my relationship with him, and I loved him,'' she said. ''He was also the president, and I don`t think I felt qualified to question it. I was a young woman in my 20s, and I was not that deeply into politics.
'But I knew what was going on, and Jack knew,'' she said. ''Jack fully participated in the CIA involvement with the underworld.''
Exner said she met Kennedy through Frank Sinatra. On April 6, 1960, during the Democratic primary campaign, and while Kennedy`s pregnant wife was absent, she went to his Georgetown home, she said. ''Jack asked if I would mind taking something to Sam for him,'' she said. ''I said, `What is it?` And he said, `It`ll be cash, money. A lot of money.`

''I didn`t know where the money was going to go when it left Sam, but I knew it had to do with the campaign,'' she said. ''But I wasn`t stupid and I read the papers. And I probably deduced someone was being paid off.''

She said she took the train to Chicago and gave the money to Giancana in Union Station. She took more money to Giancana during the general election campaign, she said. Exner said she was present when Kennedy and Giancana met in a room at Chicago`s Ambassador East Hotel on April 28, 1961, to talk about the Castro assassination.

That Exner had been the mistress of both Kennedy and Giancana became known in 1975. In 1988, she told author Kitty Kelley that she had acted as a go-between for Kennedy and Giancana who, like Kennedy, was later murdered.

But Summers said his article provided the first information on what she carried between the two men. He quoted her saying she was too afraid to tell the whole truth in 1975 and didn`t tell Kelley because she ''did not trust her.''

Now, she said, she was telling the whole story because ''I think any woman caught up in scandal should fight back. When a politician like Jack Kennedy`s philandering comes out, he`s just a `naughty boy.` But the woman comes over as a tramp, a 🤬.

''I`ve always been reluctant to implicate Jack,'' she said. ''He trusted me as a go-between. But I think he put me in too much danger. . . . I was the instrument that would keep anyone one step away from proving Jack`s connection to the assassination plots.''

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In 1959, Fidel Castro led an armed revolt, known as the Cuban Revolution, to overthrow Cuba's right-wing, authoritarian dictator Fulgencio Batista. Shortly after, Castro installed a communist form of government and developed strong economic ties with the Soviet Union. The United States, unwilling to allow either a communist nation or Soviet influence so close to its shores, quickly developed a plan to intervene. A military invasion was planned for April 17, 1961 where US-trained-and-funded Cuban exiles would invade Cuba through the Bay of Pigs, overthrow the Castro regime, and assassinate Castro himself. The plan failed miserably when President Kennedy refused to provide crucial support that would directly link the United States government to the assassination attempt. In the fall of 1962, Cuba and the Soviet Union strengthened their ties when Cuba began to secretly important nuclear weapons to aim at the United States mainland. Kennedy, refusing to allow this to happen, drew a line in the sand with the Soviets: cease all activity in Cuba or risk nuclear war. The Soviets backed down, dismantled weapons from Cuba, and severely weakened the power of Castro's Cuban government. A self-proclaimed communist, Oswald advocated for both the Soviet Union and Cuban styles of government. Seeking to convince Americans of the unfair treatment their government had subjected to Cuba in regards to the Bay of Pigs invasion and the missile crisis, Oswald joined (and was heavily involved in) the Fair Play for Cuba Committee where he distributed pro-Cuba leaflets throughout New Orleans. On numerous occasions Oswald visited the Cuban embassy; many believe it was here where Russian authorities recommend Oswald to the Cubans. Since Kennedy was the enemy of Cuba, and Castro had multiple reasons to seek revenge, it is certainly possible that Cuba (and Castro) had something to do with his assassination.

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Vice President Lyndon Johnson assumed the presidency after  Kennedy's death and immediately called for an investigation into the  assassination. The Warren Commission, headed by Chief Justice Earl  Warren, released a report roughly ten months later that pointed to  Oswald as the sole assassin. However, the report contained many  claims that are highly controversial about Oswald's role.  It would have taken an expert marksmen to shoot Kennedy from  Oswald's location on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book  Depository. The president's motorcade was moving away from his  location, trees lined the plaza that would have obscured his line of  sight, and all three shots took place within 5.6 seconds. While it is  true that Oswald served in the US Marines, his marksmanship was  below average at best. Before being discharged in 1959, Oswald scored  a 191, just one mark above the minimum. He was a poor shot.

The gun that was recovered in the "sniper's nest" in the depository  was described by investigators at the time as a "cheap, old weapon."  Tests of the weapon's accuracy showed that it was very inconsistent,  unreliable, and pulling the trigger so difficult that it was nearly  impossible to maintain aim on a target. In 2007, Italian weapons  experts used the same rifle to simulate Oswald's supposed shooting;  they were unable to load and fire three shots in less than 19 seconds. Shortly after Oswald was arrested, a paraffin test was performed to extract  gunpowder residue to determine if he

had fired a rifle. Tests showed residue on his hands but not on his cheek; being a  gun owner, Oswald likely fired a pistol in  the days leading up to the assassination.

This is not unusual. However, if he had  fired a rifle, using a scope, residue would most certainly have been on his cheek.

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Overview:  On the afternoon of November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy traveled in a motorcade through the streets of Dallas, TX in an attempt to rally support for his upcoming bid for reelection. As his motorcade turned into Dealey Plaza, Kennedy's assassin readied his rifle from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.  With Kennedy in the passenger-rear seat, his wife Jacqueline to his left and Texas Governor John Connally to his front, the assassin opened fired.  Shortly after the assassination of the president, Dallas police took Lee Harvey Oswald into custody.  Oswald was spotted near the depository,       On the right is the main person of interest, Lee Harvey Oswald.

matched the description given by eye-witnesses to the  event, and had earlier shot and killed Dallas officer J.D. Tippit when confronted about the assassination.

However, Oswald's case never made it to trial.  Two days after the assassination, as Oswald was being moved from the city jail to the county jail, nightclub operator Jack Ruby approached Oswald and shot him point blank in the chest. Ruby later died while awaiting his death sentence, but only referenced his hatred of Oswald for killing his president as the reason for committing the crime.  Today, historians continue to debate if Oswald was the sole assassin, whether others were involved, or if Kennedy's assassination was a cover-up for something much larger.  In the end of this investigation, you will answer the question . . .