Posted on Thu, Oct. 30, 2003

ABC assassination review pins Oswald
Video reconstruction said to prove lone gunman theory
By MARK WASHBURN
Charlotte Observer

Using a computer imaging process roughly akin to video games, ABC News has constructed a forensic tableau that it says proves Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President John F. Kennedy.

"What it does is prove unequivocally that Oswald was the only person in Dealy Plaza that day to fire," ABC anchor Peter Jennings said Wednesday.

The digital reconstruction, created for the upcoming special "Peter Jennings Reporting: The Kennedy Assassination -- Beyond Conspiracy," was the result of a decade of work by author and animator Dale Myers.

Using maps, blueprints of Kennedy's limousine, measurements, about 500 photographs and each frame of the 16 mm amateur film shot by Abraham Zapruder in Dealy Plaza, Myers created a virtual reconstruction of the assassination that can be viewed from multiple viewpoints.

The technique is based on new imaging technology and is beginning to be applied as an evidentiary tool in courts. ABC said Myers' assassination reconstruction was independently evaluated and endorsed by other forensic analysts.

Kennedy, Connally shown

By viewing the assassination from multiple perspectives, it is an "inescapable conclusion" that the shots that killed Kennedy and wounded Texas Gov. John Connally came from Oswald's perch in the Dallas School Book Depository, said Tom Yellin, executive producer of the special."It answers the simple questions about the trajectory," said Yellin, who ruled out any shots coming from the Grassy Knoll.

In the video re-creation, only Kennedy and Connally are shown in the open limousine they rode in Nov. 22, 1963. Their wives and spectators along the motorcade route were digitally removed to isolate focus on the shooting itself, but the degree of detail is still sobering, Jennings told The Observer in a telephone interview from New York.

"It will be shocking to people to see it. It is not our intent to shock people or use this gratuitously," he said.

"But in order to have people understand the point we're making -- that Oswald acted alone in Dealy Plaza that day, to use this to prove what we are able now to prove -- this technique is indispensable," he said. "I am amazed how the animation invokes the real event."

Although the Warren Commission concluded in 1964 that Oswald acted on his own, the Kennedy assassination has been the focus of conspiracy speculation for four decades and has spawned about 500 books. Part of the reason for the public's suspicion is because of government secrecy that for years shrouded details of the event, Jennings said.

CIA, KGB rivals heard

For the two-hour Nov. 20 special, timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Kennedy's death, ABC News interviewed about 70 people who were witnesses to the assassination or who knew Oswald or the man who killed him at police headquarters, Jack Ruby. Also interviewed were former CIA, FBI and KGB officials.

The network also examined newly declassified government files on the assassination, which comprise more than 4 million pages.

Prominent conspiracy theories examined by the network did not stand up to scrutiny, Yellin said. "Stuff that people refer to as evidence is often conjecture," he said.

Some evidence cited by conspiracy theorists -- including a police audio recording of the assassination -- was found to be contradictory or wrong, Yellin said.

The so-called "magic bullet" theory, which holds that one bullet passed through both Kennedy and Connolly, will be examined in the special, Jennings said, but he would not disclose what conclusion was reached about it.

Originally posted by OldDude
(Almost) everyone already knows this, but I suspect the ABC story will fail to convince the small percentage that don't. In spite of the "Trust The Media™" T-shirt in another thread, I doubt anyone does.

(CBS) Thirty-five years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, conspiracy theories and charges of an official government cover-up resonate with the American public, according to a new CBS News poll.


Most Americans still remain suspicious of the lone gunman conclusion of the Warren Commission Report and skeptical that the truth will ever be learned. Only one in 10 Americans believes that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. More than seven times as many think Oswald did not act alone.

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Did Oswald act alone?
Yes: 10%

No: 76%
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The same large majority of Americans believes there was an official government cover-up. By 74 percent to 13 percent, the public thinks there was an official cover-up to keep the public from learning the truth about the assassination.

Public skepticism about the Warren Report's conclusions and about whether or not the government has told the public the whole truth has been this high for at least the past decade.

A majority of Americans have expressed doubt about a single assassin at least since Gallup first asked the question in 1966.

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Will we ever know truth?
Yes: 19%

No: 77%
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While older Americans, over the age of 65, and people with college degrees are the least likely to believe in a conspiracy theory or an official government cover-up, clear majorities in these groups still believe this.

The vast majority of Americans seem resigned to the fact that they will never learn the complete truth about the Kennedy assassination. Conspiracy and cover-up theorists, as well as those who believe the Warren Commission's findings, share the overall pessimism that we may never know what really happened.

This poll was conducted among a nationwide random sample of 1,118 adults by telephone November 16-17, 1998. The error due to sampling could be plus or minus three percentage points for results based on the entire sample.

Originally posted by philo

...
I liked Stone's movie. Very entertaining and skillfully crafted.

Originally posted by movielib
The polls I've seen always find that most Americans think there was a conspiracy. For example, this poll from 1998: (snippage)

Originally posted by DodgingCars, Esq.
I'm not big on conspiracy theories, but that one always seemed suspicious to me.

Originally posted by kenbuzz
Okaaaay, but what does an opinion poll have to do with this?

If you asked 100 Americans how much money I have in my savings account right now, what would it matter if 14% or 71% of those surveyed got it right? The amount of money actually in the account is a constant, and even if the average Joe doesn't know the answer, that amount will not change regardless of the results of the survey. In the same manner, whether Oswald did it or not, and whether he had accomplices if he did it, are all constants, even if you or I don't know the answer.

It's the BCS all over again!

Originally posted by benedict
I'm suspicious of this.... we used to have a member here with a name very similar to yours! Just who are you trying to fool!?

[ ]

Originally posted by movielib
Have you ever seen DodgingCars and DodgingCars, Esq. in the same room together at the same time...?

Originally posted by davidvp
You got that right Brett.

Based on the hard evidence, EVERY single thing points to one person. And his initials are LHO.

It's amazing to me, over the decades (and no doubt after seeing films like Stone's "JFK" and looking at the countless conspiracy books), at how many people have now been swayed into believing that NOT ONLY was there a conspiracy of some ilk .... but also that Oswald did NOT even fire a single shot on 11/22/1963!

Just goes to show the power of bound printed matter and celluloid.

*shakes head at people's persistent belief in "Badge Man", who exists only in the imagination of individuals who have a "Need" for a conspiracy to exist*