I know it's long, but I think this may be the best JFK documentary I've ever seen.
The conclusions at the end make a lot of sense. Basically, if you were going to set up a conspiracy to kill JFK, you wouldn't have needed it to be this complex or dodgy. There were daily opportunities to take better and more accurate shots if you had a big group working together to get it done:
"Something I found myself doing a lot while making this video was attempting to view the assassination from the perspective of the alleged conspirators. You could, for instance, question the logic of placing an assassin in this specific window. A window in which he ran the risk of being caught red-handed by other workers inside the building. A window in which he could have easily been and actually was spotted by spectators and the approaching motorcade. A window from which his view was partially obstructed by a tree. You could also question the logic of using a sniper to shoot at a moving target in the first place.
If Oswald acted alone and the assassination was a crime of opportunity, these less-than-ideal choices start to make a lot more sense. He found himself at the right place at the right time, had mere days to prepare, and used the only building to which he had access. But for a group of conspirators to handicap their own assassination plot, requires a bit more ingenuity to explain. He was a patsy, he was supposed to get caught, there were multiple assassins, you know the drill. But there's so much of that in this case. So much had to go just right for a conspiracy and the subsequent cover-up to succeed. From the roundabout process by which Oswald was hired at the Book Depository to the selection of the motorcade route. From Oswald's narrow escape and subsequent arrest to him being given multiple chances to speak with the press. From the supposed tampering, suppression, and planting of evidence to dozens of expert witnesses being successfully fooled or coaxed to lie under oath.
Not only would a plan as complex and prolonged as this one have been difficult to predict with countless points of failure but it seems, and, excuse my language here, a bit overkill. Yes, Kennedy was the President of the United States but he was not exactly difficult to access. He was rather famous for abandoning his Secret Service detail and wandering off into crowds. In fact, that's precisely what he did on multiple occasions during this very trip. This was one of those impromptu moments for which President Kennedy is so well-known. So many times, you have heard that the Secret Service men suddenly find themselves without the President, that, suddenly, he has left them and stepped into the crowd and decided to shake hands and give his personal greetings."
www.archives.gov
