YES!!!

= **YES!!! Group Page** = media type="youtube" key="DSBXW1-VGmM?fs=1" height="385" width="480" align="center" This is a great video about the "magic bullet" theory.



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**//The [|JFK] Mafia Theory// **

The [|Mafia] had the motive, the power, and the money in order to murder the [|president]. It has been calculated that the relationship between the Mafia and the [|Kennedy] family dates back to Joseph Kennedy's [|bootlegging] days of alcohol during prohibition. "Joe Kennedy built his magnificent career selling bootlegged [|whiskey] and, therefore, built the fortune that eventually launched his son's political career." In order to produce whiskey, one would need vast quantities of [|sugar]. Getting this sugar was easy if one went through the chief ( [|Godfather] ) of the Chicago Mobs, Sam Giancanna. "Giancanna's supplier was the corrupt [|Batista] government whose bloody hands held the reins of control over the vast sugar cane fields of Cuba. The Mob also had large real estate holdings there. They propped up the government with the power of dollars, and a river of sugar flowed north to become bathtub gin and [|speakeasy] whiskey." Another fact known is that [|John Kennedy] won the 1960 election in one of the closest presidential races seen in the history of our country. Cook County, [|Illinois], Sam Giancanna's territory, gave John F. Kennedy the important victory over former vice-president [|Richard Nixon]. No one can get out the vote like the Mob. Giancanna bragged about the politicians he held in his pocket, and with the 1960 presidential race won, he now had the biggest [|coup] of his life. After his election to office, John Kennedy appointed his brother, Robert, to the position of [|Attorney General]. Robert Kennedy held numerous governmental positions against Racketeering and Organized Crime beforehand. It was only natural, that once in office, Robert Kennedy would pursue the one thing he detested, the Mafia. Almost immediately after John Kennedy took the [|Oath] of Office, Robert Kennedy set up an [|Organized Crime Task Force] at the [|Justice] Department. Thus began a course of action that may have eventually cost both Kennedys' their lives." The Mafia upset with the younger Kennedy's constant pressure on the mob, his constant [|FBI] surveillance, and his constant publicity, which now surrounded their once secret operations, was fed up. Santos Trafficante, Florida's crime boss, was overheard telling an associate that Kennedy would not make it. Trafficante was heard to say that Kennedy was going to be [|hit] .  The Justice Department pursued Carlos Marcello, of [|New Orleans], more than any other Mafia boss. He was unlawfully deported to [|Guatemala] on the orders of Robert Kennedy himself. In a show of defiance, Marcello illegally returned to the United States a few months later. The pursuit of Marcello continued until the President's assassination. In the aftermath, crushed by the thunderous blow of his brother's death, Robert "appeared" to have given up on his pursuit of the Mob. The Mafia had reasons to hate both Kennedys, and it certainly had the power within its own [|organization] to kill the president. What the mob lacked, however, was the power to cover up the [|crime] successfully. It is also doubtful that one or perhaps two Mafia [|families] would strike out on their own to assassinate someone as important as the President of the [|United States] without all of the families standing firmly together.

http://everything2.com/title/The+JFK+Assassination%253A+Mafia+Conspiracy books, videos and movies like Oliver Stone's [|"JFK"] regale their audience by claiming "all those witnesses" who heard shots from the Grassy Knoll in Dealey Plaza. Sometimes the numbers quoted //sound// like hard information, but usually they can't stand up to scrutiny.

51 Witnesses?
Let's start with something really silly. [|This article, by Harold Feldman] claims that 51 witnesses heard shots from the Grassy Knoll. This claim was repeated in "JFK," mouthed by Kevin Costner (playing Jim Garrison) as he addressed the jury in the Clay Shaw conspiracy trial. Unfortunately, Feldman doesn't list the 51 supposed Grassy Knoll witnesses, and his assessment of the witnesses he does list is wildly at variance with their actual testimony in many cases. The article is from John Kelin's [|//Fair Play// web site].

Josiah Thompson
Less silly, but still heavily inflated is the tabulation done by Josiah Thompson for his book //Six Seconds in Dallas//. Thompson admitted that a large number of witnesses heard shots coming from the Texas School Book Depository, but he claimed a larger number of witnesses who had heard shots from the Grassy Knoll. The pie chart at right shows that Thompson categorized 33 witnesses, or 51.6% of his sample, as hearing the shots coming from the Grassy Knoll. This number of Knoll witnesses is reasonably accurate (as we shall see) but Thompson radically undercounted Depository witnesses. The table below lists some representative errors that Thompson made:


 * Some of Thompson's Classification Errors**||~ Witness ||~ Thompson Classification ||~ Correct Classification ||~ What Witness Said ||
 * ~ Bobby Hargis ||~ Knoll ||~ Uncertain ||~ "There wasn't any way in the world I could tell where they were coming from." 6H294-295 ||
 * ~ Nellie Connally ||~ Uncertain ||~ Depository ||~ Heard shots from the "right" and turned around to see JFK with arms to throat. 4H147-149. Told CBS that she heard shots from "behind us, over my right shoulder." ||
 * ~ Jack Dougherty ||~ Uncertain ||~ Depository ||~ Was on 5th floor of Depository, said shot sounded like it came from "inside the building" CE 2003, p. 20, and "from above somewhere" 6H379 ||
 * ~ Amos Lee Euins ||~ Uncertain ||~ Depository ||~ Reported seeing shooter in Depository, 2H201-210 ||
 * ~ Charles Hester ||~ Uncertain ||~ Depository ||~ Shots "definitely came from in or around" the Texas School Book Depository. Decker Exhibit No. 5323 ||
 * ~ Hurchel Jacks ||~ Uncertain ||~ Depository ||~ After turn on at Houston and Elm, shot came from "right rear" CE 1024 ||
 * ~ Marilyn Sitzman ||~ Uncertain ||~ Depository ||~ Told Deputy John Wiseman shots came from "Old Sexton Building" [Depository] Decker Exhibit No. 5323 ||
 * ~ Emmett Hudson ||~ Knoll ||~ Depository ||~ Said shots came from "the rear of the President's car and above it" 7H564 ||
 * ~ Mrs. R. A. Reid ||~ Uncertain ||~ Depository ||~ A Depository employee, she said shots had "come from our building." CE 2003, p. 54 ||
 * ~ J.W. Foster ||~ Uncertain ||~ Depository ||~ Shots came from "back in toward the corner of Elm and Hoston Streets" 6H251 ||
 * ~ Abraham Zapruder ||~ Knoll ||~ Uncertain ||~ Said he had no opinion of where the shots came from "by the sound" . . . "there was too much reverberation. There was an echo which gave me a sound all over" 7H572 ||



House Select Committee
The next important tabulation of earwitness testimony came from the House Select Committee on Assassinations. They found only 20 witnesses who actually believed they heard the shots from the vicinity of the Grassy Knoll, and 46 who thought the shots came from the direction of the Depository. See House Select Committee, Volume 2, p. 122. Their willingness to acknowledge the large number of witnesses who heard shots from the Depository was a huge improvement on Thompson's tabulation. But unfortunately, the House Select Committee undercounted Grassy Knoll witnesses. They apparently did this by demanding a high degree of precision from witnesses in order to count them in the category "Grassy Knoll." But unfortunately, witness testimony is often quite vague.

Stewart Galanor
A recent conspiracy-oriented tabulation comes from Stewart Galanor, author of [|//Coverup//]. Galanor claims 52 Knoll witnesses, although he admits that there were 48 Depository witnesses (see right). Galanor has done students of the assassination an important service by putting [|selected testimony] from the witnesses online. Galanor inflates the number of Knoll witnesses by a few dubious classifications, and by his decision to classify every witness who saw "smoke" in Dealey Plaza as a Knoll witness even if they didn't believe they heard any shots from the Knoll. Galanor believes that the "smoke" was evidence of a Grassy Knoll shooter, but in reality the witnesses mentioned "smoke" and "steam" and "motorcycle exhaust." The "smoke" could very easily have been exhaust from one of the police motorcycles in the motorcade, or even cigarette smoke from men behind the stockade fence (where cigarette butts were found). The simple fact is that modern firearms don't emit large clouds of smoke that hang in the air, as Oliver Stone discovered when he was filming the movie "JFK." Failing to find a rifle that emitted the needed cloud of smoke, he had a special effects man [|blow smoke from a bellows].

Definitive Tabulation
In an attempt to correct the deficiencies of earlier tabulations, I enlisted several students in my class on the Kennedy assassination to go through the testimony with a "fine tooth comb." I then reviewed the assessments the students had made, and changed a handful that I thought to be inaccurate. The results are presented in the pie chart at right, and the detailed data can be [|found here]. As can be seen, 34 witnesses believed that the shots came from the Grassy Knoll (or at least the direction of the Knoll), and 56 thought the shots came from the Depository (or at least, in that direction). Eight witnesses thought the shots came from a location entirely distinct from the Knoll and the Depository (including two who thought the shots came from inside the car!), and five witnesses thought they heard shots from two locations. Witnesses who didn't know, or couldn't distinguish between the Knoll and the Depository are excluded. This "two locations" number is exceedingly important. There is overwhelming evidence that at least some shots were fired from behind the motorcade. Several witnesses saw a shooter, or at least a gun in the sixth floor sniper's nest window. The medical evidence is clear that both Kennedy and Connally were hit from behind (regardless of whether either was also hit from the front). Once we understand that at least some shots came from behind, it is hard to see how shots could also have come from the Grassy Knoll without more witnesses reporting shots from more than one direction. It begins to look like some were confused about //the// direction of the shots.

Some Witnesses Are Better Than Others
Some of the best witnesses are those who were riding in the motorcade. Not only did they have clear lines of sight to both the Depository and the Grassy Knoll (making them less likely to be confused by echos), but many of them also showed a high degree of presence of mind in a traumatic situation. Key examples: John and Nellie Connally, who were riding with John and Jackie Kennedy in the presidential limo. In the 1960s, they gave their account of the source of the shots in an interview with CBS. You can see a streaming video clip of John and Nellie Connally (128K ISDN or better connection) by [|clicking here], or [|click here to download the clip] to your hard drive. (You may need to right-click and pick "Save Link As.") Either way, you'll need the [|Real Media player] to see these clips.

All witnesses are fallible, but John and Nellie are two of the best.

How Many Shots?
But how many shots did the witnesses hear? Overwhelmingly, only three. And of those who did not hear exactly three shots, more heard fewer than heard more than three shots. Remember, most conspiracy scenarios require six or eight shots. Could the majority of the witnesses be wrong, and the shots have come from the Knoll? Of course. But conspiracy books, videos, and movies like "JFK" that imply that all or most of the Dealey Plaza witnesses thought the shots came from the Grassy Knoll are not being honest.
 * 1) If the bullet that hit Kennedy in the back did not exit his throat, he must have been hit in the back and the throat by separate bullets.
 * 2) If a bullet exiting Kennedy's throat did not hit Connally, another bullet from behind must have hit him.
 * 3) Even conspiracy people (like Dr. Cyril Wecht) who have examined the evidence on Kennedy's head wound admit that he was hit in the head by at least one shot from behind. A head shot from the Grassy Knoll means two head shots.
 * 4) Most conspiracy people claim that Tague was hit by yet another bullet that missed the presidential limo entirely.
 * 5) Conspiracy people tout claims of numerous other "bullet strikes" in Dealey Plaza.