Check Your Drawers For History

Did someone see history through their viewfinder--and keep it to themselves?

It's a legitimate question, now that another JFK home movie is released.

43 years since Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, and we're STILL getting fresh looks at what happened that day. You can see the new home movie at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlReI4mVBOE

You have to be a real assassination freak to get a jolly out of this latest look--taken about 90 seconds before Kennedy's death. As you watch it, note the following subtleties:

1. The bunching of Kennedy's suit jacket. The Warren Commission says Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots--one of which hit JFK in the back and came out his throat before going on to wound Texas Governor John Connally sitting in front of the President. Critics noted that the wound on Kennedy's back didn't line up with the bullet hole in his suit coat, meaning the trajectory of the wounds didn't match up with Oswald's perch in the Texas School Book Depository--leaving open the prospect of a second shooter. A bunched coat works in the Commission's favor, explaining why the holes are the way they are.


2. Secret Service agent Clint Hill, perched on the rear bumper of the limousine. He had Jacqueline Kennedy's back that day, and spent much of the Dallas motorcade hopping between the back of the president's Lincoln and the running board of the follow-up car. How history might've been different had he stayed where he was in the newly released film. Would Oswald have even TRIED to squeeze off a shot, if there'd been someone on the back of the car? Even if he did, Hill would've been in place to shield the Kennedys after the first bullet (which, according to the Commission, missed the car). Instead, he was on the running board of the follow-up as the first shot rang out, then ran to the limo as the final shot--the one that exploded Kennedy's head--hit it's mark. Hill got to the car in time to push Mrs. Kennedy back in as she crawled out onto the trunk, but was tormented for years by how things played out. It took 60 Minutes host Mike Wallace to help him come to grips with what happened--and the fact the he indeed, was a hero that day.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0603/22/lkl.01.html

I've come full-circle on JFK's murder--I used to be an ardent conspiracy buff, but now believe the Commission got it right, despite some sloppy execution. Two works answer most questions: Gerald Posner's book "Case Closed" which you can get at your local library, or, if you want to buy it go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Case-Closed-Gerald-Posner/dp/1400034620/sr=8-6/qid=1171989637/ref=pd_bbs_6/002-5836065-4429612?ie=UTF8&s=books

...or by viewing an ABC News Special Report by Peter Jennings which incorporates Posner's work with a computer re-do of the famous Zapruder film plus observations from folks like Robert Oswald who thinks his little brother was the only one pulling triggers that day in Dealey Plaza.

http://www.abcnewsstore.com/store/index.cfm?fuseaction=customer.product&product_code=S031120%2001&category_code=HOME

You can't help but wonder who else might have some unseen film or still photos from that day--pictures of the actual crime that could clear up 40+ years of conspiracy nonsense and put to rest one of the great mysteries of our age. Lots of people made tons of cash cranking out crack-pot theories and pointing fingers, all while looking for shooters in the shadows of the grassy knoll or firing from manhole covers. Get real: a conspiracy so large would HAVE to unravel somewhere over the course of time. How long have you known anyone who could keep even the most mundane secret under wraps? Don't you think someone would've spilled the beans by now?

They haven't, because the one guy who did it took his secret to the grave--the man whose shots shattered that tranquil world we see in this new piece of film. That's Lee Harvey Oswald, and him alone.