Do you think it is possible for somebody to be involved in some sort of scheme which is a minor part of a bigger scheme, that somebody knows nothing about?
This is a good question, and of course the answer should be an obvious Yes. When we look at other conspiracies that were eventually at least partially exposed, we see plenty of cases where many of the people who participated in the conspiracy did so without knowing they were aiding a conspiracy or did so with only very limited knowledge of the conspiracy.
This brings up the point that WC apologists constantly invoke the strawman scenario of a massive, all-controlling, all-powerful, all-knowing conspiracy that should not have made any mistakes of any kind, ala the outlandish Oliver Stone-Fletcher Prouty conspiracy theory in Stone's 1991 movie
JFK.
The better, more-credible, more-responsible researchers posit no such fantastic scenario. We recognize that throughout history, even some carefully planned military operations were plagued by numerous mistakes and oversights when they were executed, even though they still accomplished their primary objectives. We posit the following about the JFK assassination plot:
-- A major motive, if not the primary motive, was revenge. Hence the public execution.
-- Another major motive was to provide a clear warning to others who might have been thinking about doing what JFK did. Hence the public execution.
-- Many mistakes were made, some of them huge, and some unexpected developments occurred. For example:
* Connally was not supposed to be hit.
* Oswald was not supposed to leave the TSBD alive.
* There were too many misses, misses that witnesses saw strike and/or that left visible bullet marks that were seen by witnesses and then by journalists and others (the Aldredge curb hit, the Tague curb hit, the pavement hit, and the south Elm St. manhole-cover-grass hit).
* It took the gunmen too many shots to kill JFK.
* Because there were several misses and because it took too many shots to kill JFK, the Zapruder film could not be edited enough to make it support the lone-gunman theory, which is why it was suppressed for years and was not shown to the public until 1975 (when Geraldo Rivera ignored threats of legal action and showed the film on national TV).
* A Dallas patrolman accidentally recorded the shooting because his mic remained stuck in the open position.
* Some FBI personnel issued honest reports that contained evidence that contradicted the lone-shooter story (e.g., the initial FBI lab report on the JFK shirt slits and the Sibert & O'Neill report on the autopsy, to name two examples).
-- Many powerful elements in the government were either not part of the plot or did not know that some/most of the main plotters hoped to use JFK's death to spark an invasion of Cuba, and these elements prevented those plotters from using the assassination to provoke an invasion of Cuba. I have many issues with James Douglass's book
JFK and the Unspeakable, but one of the valid and valuable disclosures in his book is the documentation that Hoover and Johnson and other officials issued stern cease-and-desist orders to those CIA officials who were trying to pin the assassination on Castro via news stories about real and phony Oswald-Cuba/Castro connections.
-- The CIA elements that were involved in the assassination were rogue elements who were operating without the knowledge or consent of CIA Director John McCone and his staff.
-- In the case of the Mafia elements involved in the plot, they acted (1) because RFK had humiliated Carlos Marcello and (2) because JFK, via RFK, was in the process of waging an unprecedented war on the Mafia and was working to shut down the lucrative Marcello, Trafficante, and Giancana operations.
-- The autopsy doctors were ordered to do what they did and were told that this was necessary for reasons of vital national security. To varying degrees, over the years the autopsy doctors disclosed damning information about JFK's wounds while still appearing to maintain their pro-WC position. Although Humes eventually succumbed to the HSCA FPP's intense pressure to go along with the cowlick entry site, Finck and Boswell adamantly refused to do so. Finck even questioned the origin of the back-of-head autopsy photo when the FPP pressed him about the red spot in the photo. Also, Humes later repudiated the cowlick site and returned to his original position on the rear head entry wound. Dr. Boswell, in particular, made a number of crucial and historic disclosures about JFK's wounds to the ARRB.
