Vanessa Richardson (33:03)
Box In September 1964, the US government published the Warren Commission's findings. According to the report, Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone when he assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Most Americans took the commission at face value, but some were still skeptical. They just didn't believe that one man could pull off such a huge crime. Even so, they didn't have any evidence. It was just a feeling. However, it it wasn't long until they got the proof they were looking for. During the motorcade procession in 1963, a store owner named Abraham Zabruder had been in the crowd when the President was killed. He had a camera with him and just so happened to film Kennedy's final moments. The footage was 26 seconds long and government officials relied on it when putting together the Warren Commission. Based on the video, they concluded that Lee had fired three shots total. The first one missed, the second one hit both Kennedy and Connally, and the third hit the President in the head, killing him. The second shot led to something known as the single bullet theory, which was a key aspect of the Warren Commission. It stated that this one bullet caused all of Kennedy and Connally's non fatal wounds through a complex path. First it entered President Kennedy's upper back and exited from his throat. Then it continued on to Governor Connolly, who was sitting in front of Kennedy. It hit Connelly in the chest and broke one of his ribs before eventually lodging in his left thigh. Zapruder's film supported this theory. It was also how the government concluded that Lee had acted alone. But the bullet itself told a different story. By 1967, the FBI had published photo evidence of the assassination, including an image of the bullet from Lee's second shot. It had been found on a stretcher at Parkland Memorial Hospital in the hallway where Kennedy and Connolly were treated. It was in pristine condition, which was strange. According to the single bullet theory, it had torn through two men's bodies and punctured 15 layers of clothing. It seemed like it should have been at least a little damaged or dirty. One man certainly thought so. In 1967, the hospital worker who'd found the bullet saw those images. And according to him, something didn't look right. He spoke to an investigative reporter and said the bullet he'd found didn't look at all like the ones shown in the FBI images. Which meant they could have switched it out. But why? It's a question that's hard to answer. One reason could be that the actual bullet had some kind of evidence on it that would contradict the Warren Commission's findings. Maybe something about its construction would show that it couldn't cause that kind of damage to both Kennedy and Connally. Or maybe that it didn't come from Lee Harvey Oswald's gun. Perhaps this second shooter used a different gun and a different bullet, and that his shot combined with Lee's is what caused so much damage to the victims. If that was true, it meant the CIA either never recovered this other bullet or they were simply hiding it from the public. And several other details made people believe this was a possibility. Lee's final words were, I'm just a patsy. Several witnesses recalled seeing a shadowy figure on the grassy knoll near the motorcade. According to them, he was there around the time of the shooting. They wondered if this person was the second shooter. If Lee was working for someone, maybe this shadowy figure was, too. They wondered if they were both part of the same group, one that shared Lee's radical communist beliefs. Remember earlier in 1963, Lee was visiting family in New Orleans. While he was there, he tried to get people to join a pro Castro group he was part of. He spent days at a time passing out flyers and going on radio shows. People wondered if he'd also brushed elbows with some Castro supporters who wanted Kennedy dead. This theory goes back to what many Canadians consider to be Kennedy's worst Blunder. Back in 1961, just a few months into his presidency, he worked with the CIA to overthrow Castro by infiltrating Cuba. This invasion became known as the Bay of Pigs, and it was a total failure. Afterwards, Castro wanted revenge. According to this idea, he saw his opportunity in 1963, when Lee Harvey Osborne left New Orleans and tried to enter Cuba. Officially, he'd been denied entry, but some people wondered if that was just a cover story. Maybe they'd actually recruited Lee to assassinate Kennedy, and the shadowy man that was seen on the knoll was a Cuban assassin who was working with Lee to get it done. But there was another side to this theory, too. Some thought that Lee wasn't just working with Cubans who hated Kennedy, but those who also hated Castro. When Castro first took power, many Cubans who opposed him fled to the U.S. kennedy's administration enlisted over a thousand of those people in the Bay of Pigs invasion. When it failed, many survivors felt the Kennedy had sacrificed their fellow countrymen in vain. As this alternate theory goes, an anti Castro Cuban was the other assassin. These theories still didn't explain why the CIA would have gone through such lengths to conceal a second shooter. But maybe they were just following orders from President Johnson. After all, he was adamant about keeping the public calm in the wake of the assassination. Still, there was another possibility. The CIA had planted the bullet to protect itself. By the time the Bay of Pigs invasion failed in 1961, Kennedy was already taking a host of medications for a variety of health conditions. To manage all of his symptoms, he took up to 12 drugs at once. These included stimulants, anxiety medication, barbiturates, and painkillers. After the Bay of Pigs, he increased his dosages and seemed to be spiraling. In addition to all those drugs, Kennedy engaged in other risky behavior. He repeatedly cheated on his wife with other women, including White House staffers, reporters, and sex workers. The CIA agents who witnessed this behavior became gravely concerned about Kennedy's ability to serve the country. And according to one theory, they wanted to stop him from doing any more damage. So they killed him. But there's another layer to this hypothesis, one that stems from a different Cold War. The Cuban Missile crisis. Back in 1962, it seemed like the Soviet Union was ready to declare nuclear war unprovoked, and that Kennedy skillfully de escalated things. But in the 1980s, the truth came out. In reality, the Soviets only put missiles outside Cuba because Kennedy had set some up in Turkey the year before, right outside Soviet territory. This would have been during the same period when the CIA was concerned about his partying and substance abuse. In other words, Kennedy may have ended the Cuban Missile Crisis. But in the eyes of some, like the CIA, he also started it. And some people wondered if the CIA took the President out to protect the country. Still, none of these ideas about the CIA explained Lee Harvey Oswald's involvement. To answer that question, some people pointed to another powerful and secretive organization, the mob. In 2007, CIA officials admitted that the agency had enlisted the Mafia to try to kill Fidel Castro. Apparently, certain Mafiosos had their own own issues with him. Plus, they were skilled assassins. By the time this news came out, the American public was already aware that the CIA had tried and failed to kill Castro hundreds of times. It wasn't surprising that they'd gotten desperate enough to ask the Mafia for help. However, it did get some people thinking. Maybe the mob wasn't able to help them kill Castro. But what if they did help them kill Kennedy? Before Kennedy was president, he'd been in the Senate, while his brother Robert was the chief counsel for an important subcommittee. Both of them had fought against organized crime. Robert was the more aggressive one. But JFK supported his brother's goals. Their efforts led to the deportation of a New Orleans mob leader named Carlos Marcelo in 1961. Eventually, Marcelo snuck back into the US and swept swore to get revenge on the Kennedys. In 1962, the year before JFK was killed, Marcelo even told an associate, quote, if you want to kill a dog, you don't cut off the tail, you cut off the head. Many took this to mean Marcelo either shot Kennedy himself or had someone else do it. Someone like Lee Harvey Oswald. And it turned out Marcelo and Lee were were in New Orleans at the same time. Not only that, but they had a mutual friend, Lee's former mentor from the Civil Air Patrol. According to this theory, Lee's mentor helped connect them and set Lee up as Marcelo's patsy. But there's an especially shocking twist to the mob theory. Some believe Lee's old mentor wasn't the one who recruited him. Jack Ruby did. Apparently, Jack had ties to the New Orleans mobile, which is why some think that Marcelo had him find a fall guy. And when Lee Harvey Oswald moved to Dallas and started spreading his Communist beliefs, he became the perfect target. And there's reason to think this might be true. Apparently, some witnesses saw Jack Ruby hanging around the Dallas police station after Kennedy's assassination, but before Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested. Meaning he knew what was going to happen and was waiting to kill Lee before he could talk. Whatever actually happened, it's clear there's more to the story than what we've been told. With so much debate around the assassination, it's not surprising that the American people have continually asked the government to come clean about the truth. And the answers we've gotten so far aren't exactly satisfying. Even when more files were released in 2025, they didn't really reveal anything groundbreaking. I've read excerpts and to be honest, I feel like they didn't say much at all. But I'm curious if you've seen them. If you read the files, what did you think? Not just about the new information, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the assassination in general. Because while many people think Kennedy's assassination was a conspiracy, it's hard to say which theory is the real one. All we know is that the government's official story isn't convincing enough. In the decades since John F. Kennedy was killed, data shows the American public has become increasingly wary of the government. His death has given rise to an era of mistrust in the entire political process, and we're still feeling the effects today. While no leader is perfect, some people wonder if Kennedy himself was a victim of government overreach. After all, he said himself, there is no room for secrecy in a free and open society, and the dangers of concealing the facts outweigh anything else. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Vanessa Richardson and this is Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes. Come back next week. We'll decode the episode together and hear another story about the real people at the center of the world's most notorious cults, conspiracies and criminal acts. Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media at Crime House on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review and follow Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes sense, a difference and to enhance your Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes listening experience, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad free, plus exciting bonus content. We'll be back next Wednesday. Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes is hosted by me, Vanessa Richardson and is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to light by the Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Natalie Pertzovsky, Lori Marinelli, Sarah Camp, Sarah Batchelor, Sheila Patterson, and Michael Langsner. Thank you for listening.
