Nov. 22, 1963. Dallas. A clear day. Then, shots.
The world changed in Dealey Plaza, and honestly, we haven't stopped arguing about it since. If you ask the average person on the street who killed jfk and why, you’re going to get a dozen different answers. Some will say it was a lone nut. Others swear it was the CIA, the Mob, or even LBJ himself.
Basically, the "official" story and the "public" story have been at war for over sixty years.
The Man in the Window: The Case for Lee Harvey Oswald
The Warren Commission didn't stutter. In 1964, they dropped an 888-page report that basically said: Lee Harvey Oswald did it. Alone. No help. No big grand plan.
They found his palm prints on a 6.5mm Mannlicher-Carcano rifle. They found the "sniper's nest" on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. They tracked the rifle's purchase back to a mail-order catalog and a post office box belonging to "A. Hidell"—an alias Oswald used.
But why? Why would a 24-year-old former Marine with a Soviet wife want to kill a popular president?
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Historians like Marc Selverstone and the original investigators point to Oswald’s messy, alienated life. He was a guy who defected to the USSR and then came crawling back. He was a Marxist who didn't really fit in with other Marxists. He had delusions of grandeur. He’d already tried to assassinate a right-wing General named Edwin Walker earlier that year, but he missed.
You've got a man who wanted to be a "somebody" in history. He saw an opportunity when the motorcade route was published in the paper. It was proximity meeting pathology.
The 1979 Twist: "Probably a Conspiracy"
Here is where it gets weird. In the late 70s, the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) took another look. They agreed Oswald fired the fatal shots. But then they dropped a bombshell: they said there was "probably" a second gunman.
This was based on a "Dictabelt" recording—audio from a Dallas motorcycle cop’s radio that supposedly picked up four shots, not three. One of those shots allegedly came from the "grassy knoll" in front of the car.
"The committee believes, on the basis of the evidence available to it, that President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy." — HSCA Summary of Findings.
Later, the National Academy of Sciences debunked that audio evidence, saying it was just noise and wasn't even recorded at the right time. But the bell couldn't be un-rung. The "conspiracy" label became part of the official record, even if the "science" behind it later crumbled.
The Motive: Follow the Anger
If it wasn't just a lone man with a rifle, the "why" becomes a lot more complicated. You have to look at who hated Kennedy.
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The Anti-Castro Cubans
These guys felt betrayed. After the Bay of Pigs disaster in 1961, when JFK withheld air support and the invasion failed, they wanted his head. They felt he’d handed Cuba to the Soviets on a silver platter.
The Mob
This theory is popular because of Robert Kennedy. JFK’s brother was the Attorney General, and he was going after organized crime with a sledgehammer. The theory goes that the Mob helped JFK get elected (especially in Illinois) and felt he turned his back on them. Plus, they lost their Havana casinos. "Kill the brother to stop the heat." It’s a classic mob movie plot, but did it happen?
The CIA and the "Deep State"
Kennedy famously said he wanted to "splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds" after the Bay of Pigs. He was also starting to lean toward pulling out of Vietnam—at least according to some of his aides. This theory suggests the military-industrial complex couldn't let him do that.
What the 2025 Documents Actually Show
We’ve had a massive dump of records recently. In early 2025, the FBI and National Archives released thousands of formerly redacted pages. Everyone expected a "smoking gun."
Honestly? It wasn't there.
What the documents did show was how much the CIA was actually watching Oswald. He was in Mexico City weeks before the hit, visiting the Soviet and Cuban embassies. The CIA knew. They just didn't tell the Secret Service. The documents reveal a massive "CYA" (cover your ass) operation by intelligence agencies who realized they'd dropped the ball on a guy they should have been tracking like a hawk.
Why We Can't Let Go
It's hard to accept that a "nothing" like Oswald could take out a "everything" like Kennedy. It feels like the scales of the universe are unbalanced. We want a big, complex reason for a big, tragic event.
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But if you look at the physical evidence—the ballistics, the wounds, the timing—the lone gunman theory remains the only one with actual hard proof. Everything else is a trail of breadcrumbs that usually leads to a dead end.
How to Dig Deeper Yourself
If you’re still not convinced—and most of America isn't—here is how you can actually research this without falling into a YouTube rabbit hole:
- Read the Warren Report: Don't just read the summaries. Look at the witness testimonies in the 26 volumes. They're all digitized now on the National Archives website.
- Check the Medical Evidence: Look at the 1970s forensic pathology reports. They are much more detailed than the original 1963 autopsy, which was, quite frankly, a mess.
- Study the Mexico City Trip: This is the most suspicious part of Oswald's life. Why was he there? Who did he talk to? New 2025 files focus heavily on this window of time.
- Follow the Ballistics: Research the "Single Bullet Theory." It’s the linchpin of the whole case. If that bullet couldn't do what they say it did, then there had to be a second shooter.
The mystery of who killed jfk and why isn't going away. Every time a new file is unsealed, we look for that one sentence that changes everything. So far, it hasn't appeared, but the search itself has become a part of American history.
Next Steps for Your Research
- Access the National Archives JFK Collection: Search for the "March 2025 Release" to see the most recent unredacted FBI files.
- Examine the Zapruder Film Frame-by-Frame: Modern digital restorations allow you to see details that were blurry in the 60s.
- Compare the HSCA vs. Warren Commission: Look specifically at the "Acoustics" sections to understand why the government once officially suspected a conspiracy.