JFK Redux

November 1963 -- Picture courtesy Wikipedia

by blogSpotter

The 1963 Assassination of President John F. Kennedy is an event which generates controversy to this day. To believe that one disturbed man killed the president, against all the countervailing details, seems naive. Innumerable witnesses heard multiple shots, from different originating points. The bullet itself would have to have followed a magic trajectory to go where it allegedly went. Key witnesses including Oswald himself died (sometimes violently, sometimes just mysteriously) within weeks of JFK's death. What actually happened? It's been the fodder of innumerable TV shows and movies, not the least of which is Oliver Stone's 1991 magnum Opus JFK, starring Kevin Costner.

Now, in this week's Rolling Stone, comes a near-deathbed confession from someone who was very much present at the time. E. Howard Hunt was a CIA operative and sometimes novelist. He was very involved in anticommunist CIA activities throughout the 50's, 60's and 70's. Watergate finally put an end to his career with a 33 month prison sentence for burglary and wire tapping. Hunt gave surprising details about JFK's assassination, all scribbled on a tablet, to his son Saint John Hunt before his death this year. These details would be difficult to verify now, but are a surprising mixture of prevailing ideas. Following is a pretty brief summary of E. Howard's account.

THE ASSASSINATION, ACCORDING TO E. HOWARD HUNT:

According to E. Howard, Lyndon Johnson was behind the assassination. He packed the Warren Commission with fellow Freemasons to assure the findings would be to his liking. The assassination was originally to be done in Miami, coordinated through the CIA's Cuban Operations group. The President's itinerary was switched to Dallas, and there was a change of personnel as a result. In addition to Oswald in the Texas Schoolbook Depository, there were 3 "tramps" on the grassy knoll identified by Hunt as Frank Sturgis, Lucien Sarti, and E. Howard himself. Sturgis was a CIA-Mafia go-between and Sarti was an expert gunman from France. Saint John Hunt recalls that his father told investigators he was home with his family that November weekend of 1963. Saint John recalls that his father was in fact out; he'd told the family he was going on a "business trip to Dallas". There are other people and connections -- the plot is more complex than laid out here. See Erik Hedegaard's full article in this week's Rolling Stone.

OF NOTE:

Since making JFK, Costner has been a JFK history buff. He's driven to find out the truth, and at one point offered E. Howard Hunt 5 million dollars for a full (and documentable) account. Apparently Costner conducted the negotiation clumsily, thru Hunt's 2nd wife and the deal never happened. Saint John knew the participants better, and knew that his stepmother abhorred any discussion of Watergate or JFK. Saint John waited for the stepmother to leave the house on daily errands to get the details out of his ailing father.

This is nothing but a rumor, but corroborates Hunt's story. In Lewis Black's biography, he tells of a story making the rounds a few years after the assassination. Jackie Kennedy told novelist and family friend Gore Vidal that she and LBJ were at one point alone in the funeral home where JFK's body was present in a casket. Jackie left the room momentarily and came back to see LBJ laughing over Kennedy's corpse saying something along the lines of "you poor bastard". It's known that LBJ wanted the 1960 nomination, but who knows if his ambition would ever have led to this scenario? It all makes for exciting speculation but all the participants are long passed.

What can we conclude from all the above? It's hard to say. One can barely keep a secret with one other person let alone 100 other people. How could such a far-reaching conspiracy be completely suppressed? The frustrating truth is that we'll probably never know. Kevin Costner is not alone; many of us, if we had $5,000,000 to burn would just as soon know what happened to Kennedy as to throw it away in a Vegas casino.

© 2007 blogSpotter