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The JFK Assassination
Lawrence Woo
On May 25th, forty-eight of Miss Villani's Forensic Science students visited President John F. Kennedy's gravesite the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. As our group approached the grave everyone became very quiet. A few tears could be seen in many people's eyes. Mrs. Jacquiline Kennedy Onasis is buried to the right side of President Kennedy. Two small graves exist to the left and right hand side of the President and Mrs. Kennedy Onasis' gravesites.
Miss Villani explained that the two smaller graves are the graves where two small Kennedy children who died early in life are buried. An eternal flame is always lighted by these graves. Miss Villani explained that Mrs. Kennedy had made arrangements for the eternal flame and that it was she who lighted the flame at President Kennedy's funeral and has been lit ever since.
On November 22nd, President JFK was shot through the head and throat. Governor Connally, riding in the same car as President Kennedy was severely wounded. Shortly after he was shot, President Kennedy died at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Within hours after the shooting, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested. Although Oswald always maintained his innocence, on November 24th he was killed by Jack Ruby and thus was never able to be brought to trial for the murder of President Kennedy.
On May 26th, our group visited the National Archives Building and met with two archivists. One of the major points discussed was that the "gross matter" which is thought to be President Kennedy's brain or parts of his brain had at one point been turned over to Robert Kennedy's secretary for safe keeping. Shortly after that time, the "gross matter" disappeared. It may have been buried with the rest of President Kennedy's body.
Another point discussed was that Mrs. Kennedy never left the President's side at Parkland Hospital in Texas or on Air Force One until she arrived in Bethesda, Maryland and was met by Robert and Ted Kennedy. President Johnson later created the President's Commission on the Assassination headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren. The Commission's investigation concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone when he killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally and that there was no evidence to prove any conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy.
Although we studied the government position in class, we also studied opposing perspectives on the Kennedy assassination such as those of Lifton who, unlike the Warren Commission, believes that President Kennedy's body did not make an uninterrupted visit from Dallas, Texas to Bethesda, Maryland. According to Lifton, President Kennedy's body was placed in a bronze casket in Dallas and arrived in a pinkish-gray casket in Bethesda, Maryland. Mrs. Kennedy was always by President Kennedy's side except for when Lynden B. Johnson was sworn in as President of the United States, on Air Force One. To add more controversy, nurse Bell in the emergency room at Parkland Hospital described a small round wound in the front of President Kennedy's neck. A small round wound is an entry wound. This would mean that President Kennedy was shot from the front not from the rear as the Warren Commission believed.
The Warren Commission also did not accept the Zapruder tape because the Commission believed that the Zapruder tape was of no evidentiary value. Jim Garrisson disagreed. How can a tape that shows the president's head exploding and sets a timeline for the assassination be of no evidentiary value? Will this mystery ever be solved?
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