New book raises doubts about 1979 JFK slay probe
WASHINGTON—A new book raises doubts about a 1979 US congressional probe that concluded President John F. Kennedy’s assassination 50 years ago was the result of an undefined conspiracy.
The book, “The Kennedy Half Century” by prominent political science professor Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia, questions the conclusion by the House of Representatives select committee on assassinations that a shot was fired at Kennedy from the so-called “grassy knoll” on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.
The official 888-page report of the Warren Commission in 1964 found that a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, fired at the Kennedy motorcade from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository overlooking Dealey Plaza.
On the other hand, the House conclusion in 1979 of an undefined conspiracy—with an additional shot from the grassy knoll—was drawn from an acoustical analysis of a Dictabelt recording device that was on a police officer’s motorcycle.
The congressional investigators believed the motorcycle was in the Kennedy motorcade and that its Dictabelt recorded four shots.
Audio research
But Sabato says new technologically advanced audio research conducted for his book proves the Dallas police motorcycle was not traveling as part of the presidential motorcade at the time the shots were fired.
The motorcycle, driven by officer Willie Price, was about 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) away at the time of the shooting, according to Sabato.
In addition, he says, acoustic experts found the sound “impulses” picked up by the Dictabelt that were initially believed to be gunshots could have simply been motorcycle engine noise.
The new data, according to Sabato, “blows out of the water” the House committee’s theory about a second shooter.
“Their evidence simply does not hold. And they (House probers) concluded there was a conspiracy,” the author tells CBS in an interview.
“If anyone else participated beyond the picket fence on the grassy knoll, they either missed or didn’t fire,” he adds.
Even so, Sabato does not rule out the possibility that Oswald was encouraged and assisted by other parties. Popular theories include the Cuban government, organized crime and the CIA as possible coconspirators.
Deeply flawed
He describes as deeply flawed the report of Warren Commission, the first official inquiry into the Kennedy assassination, which concluded that Oswald acted alone.
“They made so many mistakes in their process, they didn’t interview key witnesses that I interviewed 50 years after the assassination, and I was stunned to find out they weren’t part of that study,” he says in the CBS interview.
The passage of 50 years has not diminished public interest in the case—nor laid to rest conspiracy theories that all manner of shadowy-forces were responsible for the Kennedy assassination.