A Partial List of Coincidences and Errors Encouraging Tinfoil Hat CTs

[Bill Chapman]

Several of your "the fact that" statements are simply wrong. But, beyond the factual errors in your list, I find your posturing curious. You declare that people who believe Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy are tinfoil hatters. This is an interesting posture to assume given that you are in the decided minority of Americans who believe the lone-gunman theory. According to the most recent polling data we have on the subject, about 62% of Americans believe JFK was killed by a conspiracy, while about 34% do not, with about 4% undecided.

Furthermore, the last government investigation into the assassination, the House Select Committee on Assassinations, concluded that Kennedy was probably killed by a conspiracy, that there were four shots fired, that Jack Ruby had significant Mafia ties, that Ruby lied about his reason for shooting Oswald, that Ruby's shooting of Oswald resembled a Mafia hit to silence a witness or conspirator, that the WC ignored the clear weight of the evidence regarding how Ruby entered the DPD basement to shoot Oswald, that someone helped Ruby get into the DPD basement, that the DPD left doors unlocked along Ruby's route into the basement, that the DPD removed security from the area of the garage nearest the stairway that Ruby used to enter the basement shortly before Ruby entered the basement via that stairway, that someone was moving boxes in the sixth-floor window within 2 minutes after the shooting (obviously, it could not have been Oswald), that Silvia Odio's account of meeting with Oswald in company with two anti-Castro Cubans at a time when Oswald was supposedly in Mexico City is credible, that the committee established that Odio told several people about the Oswald visit before the assassination, etc., etc.

Finally, here is a very partial list of the "tinfoil hatted" public figures and experts who are on record as believing Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy:

* Dr. Joseph Dolce, an Army wound ballistics expert who played a leading role in the WC's wound ballistics tests.

* The late Senator Richard Schweiker.

* Senator Christopher Dodd, who served on the HSCA when he was a member of the House of Representatives.

* The late Senator Richard Russell, who served on the WC.

* Dr. Roger McCarthy, a ballistics expert with Failure Analysis, which assisted with the American Bar Association's mock Oswald trials in the 1990s.

* Robert MacNeil, formerly of the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour on PBS.

* Ambassador William Atwood, former Special Assistant to the U.S. delegation to the United Nations.

* President Lyndon Johnson. (We now know from the Johnson White House tapes that Johnson rejected the single-bullet theory. We also know from former Johnson aides and associates that privately Johnson said he believed Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy.)

* The late Dr. Milton Helpern, a renowned forensic pathologist and formerly the medical examiner for New York City.

* The late Dr. John Nichols, a forensic pathologist and formerly a professor of pathology at the University of Kansas.

* The late Carlos Hathcock, a Marine sniper who was widely regarded as the greatest sniper of the 20th century.

* The late Evelyn Lincoln, who was Kennedy's White House secretary.

* The late Dr. George Burkley, Kennedy's personal physician.

* Former Vice President Al Gore.

* Former Senator and Secretary of State John Kerry.

* Kennedy aides Dave Powers and Ken O'Donnell.

If anyone is wearing tinfoil hats, it is lone-gunman theorists.

Does being a public figure automatically make one an authority on wound ballistics? How many of your public figures were apprised of the facts about FMJ ammo being designed to perform in the way it actually did perform? That is, pass though-and-through human flesh while remaining as intact as possible. Or even knew why it was designed that way in the first place? And how do you know that your list wasn't comprised of people who might be more susceptible to conspiracy theories in the first place?

Pray tell, whom amongst the following members of your list has shown any expertise in the area of wound ballistics and knowledge of the mandated design of FMJ ammo?

Richard Schweiker
Christopher Dodd
Richard Russell
Robert MacNeil
William Atwood
Lyndon Johnson
Evelyn Lincoln
Al Gore
John Kerry
Dave Powers
Ken O'Donnell

[Jerry Freeman]

... how do you know that your list wasn't comprised of people who are more susceptible to conspiracy theories in the first place?

HUH?
I guess that means that [by contrast] certain folks must be susceptible to lone nut theories
Of course left out is the coincidence that Jack Ruby just happened to be hanging around the jail just before Oswald was brought down to be gunned down transferred..just happened to have his .38...just happened to arrive down to the basement just in time to blast away.

[Bill Chapman]

HUH?
I guess that means that [by contrast] certain folks must be susceptible to lone nut theories
Of course left out is the coincidence that Jack Ruby just happened to be hanging around the jail just before Oswald was brought down to be gunned down transferred..just happened to have his .38...just happened to arrive down to the basement just in time to blast away.

Nutty is as nutty does. For instance, I don't claim anything outlandish.

And I didn't see any reference to Ruby on the MTG list.

[Thomas Graves]

HUH?
I guess that means that [by contrast] certain folks must be susceptible to lone nut theories
Of course left out is the coincidence that Jack Ruby just happened to be hanging around the jail just before Oswald was brought down to be gunned down transferred..just happened to have his .38...just happened to arrive down to the basement just in time to blast away.

Dear Gerald,

Jack Ruby's happening:

1) to be downtown

2) to be within quick walking distance of the police department building

3) to be, at the time, in possession of a concealed revolver which he, by the way, as a club owner evidently liked to carry at all times

4) to be familiar with the police building's layout and police personnel

5) to be the kind of guy who always wants to be "where the action is"

6) to have been able to slip unnoticed into the basement and blend in with the journalists there

7)  to be impulsive and "hot headed"

8 ) to have gunned down self-described Marxist and general loser Lee Harvey Oswald, thereby obviating the need for a trial and everything that entails ...

... could all be lumped together as another unfortunate coincidence that has, over the years, given rise to oodles and gobs of tinfoil hat conspiracy theories.

Please do try to get over it, won't you?

--  MWT 

PS  "But ... but ... but, Tommy  ... HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN [fill in the blank]"?

LOL

[Jerry Freeman]

Jack Ruby's happening: 1) to be downtown 2,3,4,5,.....
... could all be lumped together as another unfortunate coincidence.

Yeah could be. You could also lump together milk, sugar, flour, and chicken crap---bake it and still call it a cookie.

..obviating the need for a trial

Yeah... who needs trials?

Nutty is as nutty does.

Do what now?

For instance, I don't claim anything outlandish.

Needn't bother. No one can understand you anyway.

[Thomas Graves]

Yeah could be. You could also lump together milk, sugar, flour, and chicken crap---bake it and still call it a cookie. Yeah... who needs trials?  Do what now? Needn't bother. No one can understand you anyway.

Dear Gerald,

Don't you wish there'd been a trial?

I do.

Or do you think the evil, evil, evil CIA, in cahoots with the evil, evil, evil DPD, the evil, evil, evil FBI and the evil, evil, evil Secret Service, et al., would have SUBVERTED IT ANYWAY?

To make it look as though Oswald was on a KGB/DGI mission so that ... you know ... we could invade Cuba and nuke Moscow?

Do you think Oswald, had he lived, should have been set free and compensated for his exquisite ... "pain and suffering"?

The inconvenience of it all?

--  MWT 

[John Tonkovich]

Dear Gerald,

Don't you wish there'd been a trial?

I do.

Or do you think the evil, evil, evil CIA, in cahoots with the evil, evil, evil DPD, the evil, evil, evil FBI and the evil, evil, evil Secret Service, et al., would have SUBVERTED IT ANYWAY?

To make it look as though Oswald was on a KGB/DGI mission so that ... you know ... we could invade Cuba and nuke Moscow?

Do you think Oswald, had he lived, should have been set free and compensated for his exquisite ... "pain and suffering"?

The inconvenience of it all?

--  MWT 

So, Mr. Graves, you don't think the CIA ever acted in an evil manner? Your hyperbole seems to suggest that.
You approve of  Operation PBSUCCESS? And Operation AJAX?

Also, you are aware of the possibility of "rogue operations" within organizations, including CIA?

[Thomas Graves]

So, Mr. Graves, you don't think the CIA ever acted in an evil manner? Your hyperbole seems to suggest that.
You approve of  Operation PBSUCCESS? And Operation AJAX?

Also, you are aware of the possibility of "rogue operations" within organizations, including CIA?

So, Mr. Tonkovich, why are you putting words in my mouth?

OF COURSE THE CIA HAS DONE EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL THINGS OVER THE YEARS.

(Did you know Joseph Stalin intentionally starved 3.5 million Ukrainian peasants to death in 1932 and 1933?)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor

--  MWT