General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Kennedy's assassination: Conspiracy or lone killer, I think the fact that we even ask the question [View all]Benton D Struckcheon
(2,347 posts)By far the most likely explanation, because it's the simplest and explains ALL of it, is that Oswald wasn't aiming for Kennedy. He was aiming for Connally, and he missed.
That explains his deadly accuracy. That and the fact Kennedy was wearing a back brace that would have forced him to remain upright even after being hit. Connally, by contrast, fell into his wife's lap and so was not in the line of fire for the subsequent bullets.
As I have posted twice before, Connally was Sec'y of the Navy under Kennedy. Oswald was a Marine, which falls under the Navy, and had been less than honorably discharged. He wrote asking for it to be made an honorable one.
He got a form letter from Connally in response.
Marina's first reaction was that he killed Connally, not Kennedy. She testified to the Warren Commission about this as well.
This theory is ridiculously unpopular because it kills the conspiracy theorists and their nice little industry. Too bad. It just happens to be the simplest explanation for what happened.
In all these years, no second shooter has been id'd. No conclusive proof of any sort of conspiracy has been put forward. The idea that a conspiracy would survive the most investigated crime ever is ludicrous in the extreme.
The Warren Commission reported only on who did it, not why he did it, because they figured that would be speculative given that Oswald was dead and therefore, inconveniently, not available for questioning on the subject. But based on the history he had with Connally, this is by far the most likely motive.