All language subtitles for Historys.Greatest.Mysteries.S04E03.The.Assassination.of.JFK.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H264-WhiteHat_track3_[eng]

REPORTER: The President
of the United States is dead.

Tonight, the assassination
that shook our country

to its core.

It was just a shock
that caused everybody to stop

and think for a moment about
how the world had changed.

Police quickly catch
the culprit,

but many believe
there’s more to the story.

EVY POUMPOURAS: The first
question any good theorist asks

is, "Who wants Kennedy dead?"

Now, we’ll explore
the top theories

surrounding one of America’s
most shocking events.

JEFFERSON MORLEY:
So, he was convinced

that Kennedy was killed
by enemies

high in his own government.

BEN COWAN: He believed
that Fidel Castro

orchestrated the assassination
of John F. Kennedy.

Is there a conspiracy behind
John F. Kennedy’s assassination?

And if so, who is really
responsible for his death?

[music]

Dallas, Texas,
November 22nd, 1963.

At 11:25 a.m.
President John F. Kennedy

arrives on Air Force One.

PHILIP SHENON: President Kennedy
goes to Dallas

to give a lunchtime speech
at a convention center

known as the Trade Mart.

Between his arrival
at Love Field and his speech,

he’s to lead a motorcade

through the center
of downtown Dallas.

PATRICK HINDS: The motorcade
has over 12 cars.

Kennedy is riding
in a three-rowed

Lincoln Continental
convertible limousine

with the top down.

PHILIP: President Kennedy
and Mrs. Kennedy

are in the back seat,

President Kennedy
on the right side,

Mrs. Kennedy on the left.

Ahead of them are Texas Governor
John Connally

and his wife Nellie,

and ahead of them are two
Secret Service agents,

one of them is driving.

BEN: It’s a very sort of warm
reception for Kennedy,

and there’s something
like 200,000 people

lining the route,
so it is no small turnout.

PHILIP: And at one point,
Mrs. Connally in the car

says, "You can’t say Dallas
doesn’t love you, can you?"

And President Kennedy replies,
"No, you certainly can’t."

LAURENCE:
Those are his last words.

JEFFERSON: The motorcade
comes down Main Street

to the end of Main Street,
where it hits Dealey Plaza,

takes a sharp right turn
on Commerce Street,

and then a sharp left turn

in front of the Texas
School Book Depository.

And it’s at that moment that
the first gunshots are heard.

[gunshot]

REPORTER: Something,
I repeat, has happened

in the motorcade route.

A gunshot rings out,
and then two more.

Both President Kennedy
and Governor Connally are hit.

Two shots hit Kennedy.

The first enters
his upper back

and comes out
through his throat.

And then the second
enters the back of his skull.

PHILIP: He is rushed
to Parkland Memorial Hospital.

That’s where he would soon
be declared dead

at the age of 46.

LAURENCE: Connally is also
gravely injured, but survives.

One hour after the shooting,
Kennedy’s death

is officially announced
to the media.

As word spreads of this,
everybody stops where they are.

People are crying.

BEN: There’s a lot of screaming,
there’s chaos,

and just a lot
of fear and confusion.

PHILIP: It was just a shock
that caused everybody

to stop and think for a moment
about how the world had changed.

EVY: Any divisiveness
or any fractions

within the country,
everybody just comes together

in this moment to grieve.

LAURENCE: As the world
stops to mourn,

a manhunt begins.

PHILIP: As soon as it’s clear

that President Kennedy’s
been hit

and the motorcade
rushes out of Dealey Plaza,

the police go interview
eyewitnesses.

And perhaps
the most important witness

of that day was a steamfitter,

a Dallas man named
Howard Brennan,

who says that he saw
a man with a rifle

on the sixth floor of the Texas
School Book Depository.

LAURENCE: Deputy Constable
Seymour Weitzman

and Deputy Sheriff Eugene Boone
rush inside the book depository.

And there they find
quite literally the smoking gun.

PHILIP: They find
a Mannlicher Carcano rifle,

an Italian-made rifle,
and they also find

three spent cartridges,
suggesting that somebody

had just fired three bullets
from the sixth floor.

They find the books
have been moved around

to create sort of
a sniper’s perch.

They also find
a 38-inch brown paper bag.

LAURENCE: The shooter escapes,
but building staff

identify a prime suspect.

An employee at the Texas
School Book Depository,

Buell Wesley Frazier,
offers a colleague

a trip into downtown Dallas

on the morning
of the assassination,

and the colleague is carrying
a long brown paper bag

in which he says
he has curtain rods.

EVY: A manager in the building,
Roy Truly, looks around,

and he sees that
one of his employees

is actually missing.

It’s the same man
who brought in

that suspicious
brown paper bag that morning.

LAURENCE:
It’s Lee Harvey Oswald.

Police radio his description
to all city units.

EVY: So, it’s been
less than an hour

since President Kennedy
was shot,

and thanks to the quick work
of the Dallas P.D.,

they actually have
a promising lead.

Three shots fired,
three spent shell casings

found next to a rifle
that they believe

was brought in
by Lee Harvey Oswald,

who is the only person who has
fled that book depository.

Every other employee is there

still actually talking
to investigators.

It appears that Oswald
is the man responsible

for the assassination.

PHILIP: The Dallas
Police Department

sends out a message
to be on the lookout

for somebody who looks like
Lee Harvey Oswald.

And Officer J.D. Tippit

is in a patrol car
about three miles away.

He sees a man
on the side of the road

who appears to fit
the description of the man

who’s been identified
in Dealey Plaza

as the president’s assassin.

The police officer
tries to stop this man

and is gunned down by him,

and this man,
according to many witnesses,

is Lee Harvey Oswald.

EVY: If police had any doubt
that Lee Harvey Oswald

assassinated President Kennedy,
that doubt is gone

the moment he killed
Officer Tippit.

PHILIP: A local merchant
named Johnny Brewer

has seen this man duck
into the local movie theater.

A little bit before 2:00 p.m.,

police officers find Oswald
seated there.

He’s armed.

He puts up a struggle
before he’s arrested.

PATRICK:
One of the arresting officers,

Nick McDonald, testifies that
as they reach him,

Oswald raises his pistol
and pulls the trigger.

But McDonald grabs the gun
just as the hammer falls,

hitting the webbing between
his thumb and index finger,

probably saving his life.

LAURENCE: Oswald is brought
to the police

and court’s building
in downtown Dallas

and charged for both murders.

Subsequent investigation
uncovers a lot more evidence

that actually implicates Oswald.

They find a photo of Oswald
that was taken by his wife

where he’s holding a rifle
that matches the murder weapon.

Oswald had made a fake ID
in the name of Alek Hidell.

The rifle that was found
in the school book depository

had been ordered in the name
of Alek Hidell

and sent to a post office box
in that name.

PHILIP: Virtually all
of the ballistics evidence

points to Oswald as the gunman
in Dealey Plaza.

His palm prints
are found on the weapons,

and the bullets fired
in Dealey Plaza

almost certainly
came out of the rifle

that’s found on the sixth floor.

LAURENCE:
But none of this evidence

is ever presented in court.

PHILIP: So, Oswald is held
in custody downtown.

He’s interrogated by the FBI,
the Secret Service,

the Dallas Police Department,

the Dallas
District Attorney’s Office.

He goes through rounds
of questioning.

What we know
from those interrogations,

that he lies again
and again and again,

and he insists he had nothing to
do with the president’s murder.

Then something
absolutely crazy happens.

Sunday morning, November 24th,

police are actually ready
to transfer Oswald

to the county jail.

They have an armored car ready
in the basement of the building.

JEFFERSON: And as he’s being
brought out

in front of the TV cameras,

Jack Ruby,
owner of a local nightclub,

steps out of the crowd
with a .45

and shoots Oswald
once in the stomach

on national TV.

[gunshot]

LAURENCE: Ruby is arrested
and Oswald is taken

to the same hospital as Kennedy,

where less than 48 hours
after the president,

he’s declared dead as well.

PHILIP: Oswald’s death
on November 24th

means that there will
never be a trial,

never an opportunity to resolve
an awful lot of the evidence

that points to Oswald
as the gunman in Dealey Plaza.

LAURENCE: New president
Lyndon Johnson

establishes a commission to
investigate the assassination.

It becomes known
as the Warren Commission.

PHILIP: It’s sort of the
ultimate blue-ribbon commission.

Among the other members
are the former director

of the Central Intelligence
Agency, Allen Dulles,

as well as a young congressman
from Michigan

by the name of Gerald Ford.

The Warren Commission
works for nearly a year

compiling evidence,
gathering information.

And on September 24th, 1964,

they present
an 888-page report

to President Johnson.

LAURENCE: The Warren Commission
expresses no doubt.

They state
that Lee Harvey Oswald

is the only man responsible
for JFK’s death.

EVY: They also find
that Jack Ruby acted alone

in killing Oswald.

But over the years,
a lot of people

have questioned these findings,

saying that they might appear
to be a little too neat.

LAURENCE: Making this report
far from the last word on JFK.

LAURENCE: When the Warren
Commission releases

its findings in 1964,
it marks the end

of the official investigation
into the JFK assassination.

They find that
Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone

in killing
President John F. Kennedy.

LAURENCE: But that answer
doesn’t satisfy

the public for long.

BEN: Skeptics write books.

First, a trickle of books,
and then a flood of books

questioning the findings
of the report

and leading to a larger distrust
both in the commission itself

and in the sort of firmament
of American government.

LAURENCE: After 12 years
of scrutiny,

the U.S. government
takes action.

JEFFERSON: The House Select
Committee on Assassinations

was created in 1976.

LAURENCE: The committee
takes a closer look

at the Warren Commission Report.

They agree with most of what
the Warren Commission says,

particularly regarding
the evidence against Oswald.

They’re confident that Oswald
did shoot Kennedy

from the sixth floor
of the book depository.

LAURENCE: But they uncover
a new piece of evidence.

Assassination researchers
in Dallas came to the committee

and said it may be that
the sound of the gunshots

was captured on this
policeman’s radio recording.

BEN: So, the committee has
multiple acoustic experts

go over this recording,
and upon first listen,

they think, actually,
there weren’t three shots

as previously thought,
but four.

Three shots
did in fact come from

the Texas School Book
Depository,

but that one shot came from
a grassy knoll

in front of the motorcade.

In other words,
Oswald didn’t act alone.

And if he didn’t act alone,

someone planned
this killing with him.

And if so, who was it?

The House Committee uses a word
that will become connected

to the Kennedy assassination
from then on.

The word they use
is "conspiracy."

So, the audio evidence that
seems to point to a conspiracy

is later disputed,
and in many minds,

it is found to be
completely in error.

But it’s almost too late to put
the toothpaste back in the tube,

that the idea of conspiracy
is now even further cemented

in the minds of millions
of Americans.

LAURENCE: If the JFK
assassination is a conspiracy,

who’s behind it?

EVY: Almost immediately
after the shooting,

one conspiracy theory
rises to the top.

So, while there’s only
circumstantial evidence

to prove it, there’s a lot
of circumstantial evidence.

Even Lyndon Johnson
did at some point

make an aside
to an ABC news reporter

that he believed
that Fidel Castro

orchestrated the assassination
of John F. Kennedy.

Why is Fidel Castro a suspect?

Let’s start with motive.

At the time
of the assassination,

there is no foreign power
with a bigger grudge

against Kennedy than Castro.

PHILIP: President Kennedy
is so determined

to get rid of Castro,
that he tells the CIA

to go forward
with an invasion of Cuba

that becomes known as
the Bay of Pigs Operation.

They send Cuban exiles into Cuba

with the CIA support
to oust Castro.

It’s a debacle,
and afterwards,

certainly Castro knows
that President Kennedy

is so determined
to remove him from power

that he had actually ordered
an invasion of his country.

LAURENCE: Documents that
are later declassified

reveal more evidence.

After the Bay of Pigs Invasion
fails,

the Kennedy administration,
through the CIA,

tried to kill Castro
in the most exotic of ways.

Everything from poison cigars,

to poisoned skin-diving suits,

to exploding seashells,
but yes.

Certainly, Castro knew
the presidency

was plotting against him.

PHILIP: So, we know
that Fidel Castro

has reason to want to see
President Kennedy dead.

And the questions
in all of the years since

is what role did
Lee Harvey Oswald

play in whatever plot
was developed

to try to kill the president?

LAURENCE: During their
investigation,

the Warren Commission conducts
a thorough background check

on Oswald.

Even when he’s serving
in the Marine Corps

for three years,
Lee Harvey Oswald is not shy

about the fact that
he’s a Marxist,

so much so, his colleagues
in the Marine Corps

used to refer to him
as "Oswaldovich."

In 1959 he defects
to the Soviet Union

and marries 19-year-old
Soviet citizen

Marina Prusakova,
and they have a child.

They live there until 1962
in an apartment

just a few blocks away
from where the Soviets

are training Cuban spies
and soldiers.

Back in the U.S.
in April of 1963,

Oswald goes down to New Orleans.

There, he tries to start up
a pro-Castro activist group.

BEN: It’s clear that Oswald
likes communism.

But the biggest revelation
for investigators

is that it turns out
that Oswald went to Mexico City

in September of 1963--

which of course is just
two months

before JFK’s assassination--

and while there
had contact with officials

at the Cuban embassy.

LAURENCE: According
to author Gus Russo,

during these meetings
Oswald makes a chilling offer.

Russo talks to various sources,

including an FBI case officer

who has two high-level
informants

within the Communist Party.

And these two informants
are two brothers

by the names
of Morris and Jack Childs.

The Childs brothers
meet with Fidel Castro

after the Kennedy assassination
and learn just how much

Fidel Castro knew
about Lee Harvey Oswald

in the weeks before
the assassination.

EVY: According
to Russo’s research,

Oswald tells embassy officials,

"I’ll kill that bastard Kennedy
when he goes to Dallas."

Castro is immediately informed
about this.

The embassy staff calls him up

and they ask him,
"What do we do?"

Castro denies taking Oswald up
on his offer.

I don’t think
there’s any credible evidence

that Fidel Castro
played any role

in ordering President Kennedy’s
assassination.

But I think it’s clear
that he was well aware

before the assassination
that Lee Harvey Oswald

had marched into a Cuban embassy
in Mexico City

and made the statement that
he was going to kill Kennedy.

LAURENCE: Russo keeps digging.

EVY: Russo speaks to some
former Cuban spies

that tell him that when Oswald
makes this offer,

they actually encourage him.

One officer tells Russo
that they offer Oswald money,

and then tell him that
they’ll help him evacuate

if he’s successful doing this.

BEN: Oswald’s end goal
is to get a visa

to get either to Cuba,
or to the Soviet Union, or both.

And eventually, the Cubans
do give him some form

of temporary visa
in October of 1963.

EVY: But according
to Russo’s findings,

they don’t actually intend
to bring Oswald to Cuba.

They plan to pick him up
and kill him,

and then dump his body
in the Gulf of Mexico.

LAURENCE: According
to Gus Russo,

there’s more evidence
to support this claim.

EVY: Russo finds reports
of a private plane

sitting on an airfield in Dallas
on November 22nd.

And that plane
takes off for Havana

after the assassination.

As we know,
Oswald is not on that plane.

But that might be
where he’s headed

when he encounters
Officer Tippit,

and the entire Cuban plan
changes after that.

BEN: So, that’s the theory.
The Warren Commission

and also the later House
Committee on Assassinations

dismiss the idea that Castro
or the Cuban government

could have been responsible
for the killing of JFK.

And today, Oswald, Castro,
Johnson-- they’re all dead.

So, I’d say any hopes
of proving this theory are gone.

LAURENCE: When Lee Harvey Oswald
visits Mexico City

in the fall of 1963,

investigators are desperate
to know what he’s up to.

PATRICK: He makes several visits
to the Cuban embassy.

What happens there?
Are the Cubans involved?

You have to ask, right?

LAURENCE: But the Cuban embassy
isn’t the only place

Oswald visits in Mexico.

BEN: While in Mexico City,

he also goes
to the Soviet embassy

in his quest for a visa,
and he ends up

kind of bouncing back and forth

between the Cuban embassy
and the Soviet embassy.

PHILIP: So Oswald,
in visiting the Soviet embassy,

is taken to meet
with a Valery Kostikov.

Oswald has one meeting
on September 28th with Kostikov,

and they have a subsequent
telephone conversation

on October 1st.

LAURENCE: Authorities dig
into Kostikov’s background,

and they make a chilling
discovery.

PHILIP: Valery Kostikov
is actually a KGB agent

and a KGB assassinations expert.

Doesn’t that suggest that
this man, Lee Harvey Oswald,

is up to no good?

BEN: So, that leads us
to the next big question,

which is, is the Soviet Union,

led be Premier
Nikita Khrushchev,

involved in JFK’s assassination?

Khrushchev may have a motive
to kill Kennedy

that’s just as strong
as Fidel Castro’s.

As we know, Kennedy is on
a crusade against communism,

and communism is represented
on the world stage

by its biggest superpower,
the USSR.

BEN: Premier Khrushchev
is trying to promote revolution

and communism around the world,

and JFK is trying to do
the exact opposite.

So, these two
are pitted against each other

at a geopolitical level.

And unfortunately for JFK,

90 miles from
the Florida coastline

the Soviets have a communist
nation in the form of Cuba.

EVY: Communist Cuba
would not have happened

without the Soviets.

They give the Cubans training,

financial and military support.

Castro’s victory is also
a victory for Khrushchev.

LAURENCE: Then in 1962,
Khrushchev experiences

a very public defeat,
thanks to President Kennedy.

PHILIP: A year
before Kennedy’s death,

the United States
and the Soviet Union

had almost gone to war
when the Soviet Union

attempts to set up
missile launch pads in Cuba

that can be used
for nuclear weapons.

PATRICK: Kennedy isn’t okay
with Soviet nukes 90 miles away,

and this begins what’s known
as the Cuban Missile Crisis,

which ultimately, after a lot

of back-and-forth
political posturing,

Kennedy wins.

LAURENCE: Two years later
in 1964,

Khrushchev is removed
from office.

But before he’s removed,
in 1963,

Khrushchev is still
clinging to power,

looking for a way
to redeem himself

among the communists.

PHILIP: That would certainly
add some logic to the idea

that maybe Khrushchev
wanted to see Kennedy dead.

PATRICK: If Oswald walks
right into the embassy

and offers to kill
Kennedy in Dallas,

maybe the Soviets go for it.

Otherwise, why is he meeting

with a KGB
assassinations expert?

BEN: There is an
even-further-out theory,

which is that Khrushchev
started plotting to kill Kennedy

even before the Mexico City
machinations.

LAURENCE: Author and attorney
Michael Eddowes

shares details
of his investigation

in the 1977 book
"The Oswald File."

BEN: Michael Eddowes
comes up with this theory

that Khrushchev conceives
of this plot to kill Kennedy

when Oswald is still living
in the Soviet Union

beginning in 1959.

PATRICK: Khrushchev realizes
he’s got a golden opportunity

on his hands.

Here, he’s got
an American citizen,

a former Marine,
and a vowed communist

who speaks Russian.

And everybody knows
he’s there in the USSR.

The Associated Press
had reported on his defection.

Eddowes believes that Khrushchev
detains and kills Oswald

while in the USSR,
then replaces him

with a KGB agent,
someone who looks very similar.

PATRICK: So, it’s not
Lee Harvey Oswald

who lands back
in the United States in 1962.

It’s an impostor
whose mission it is

to kill John F. Kennedy.

LAURENCE: Eddowes believes
he has definitive proof

that Oswald was replaced.

BEN: On his Marine records,
Oswald is listed as being 5’11",

but that the person
who killed Kennedy

is actually 5’9".

The original Oswald also had
a cranial operation as a child,

leaving him with an indentation
behind his ear

and a dime-sized hole
in his skull.

PATRICK: But according
to Eddowes,

the autopsy
on the Kennedy assassin

shows no such features.

It does, however,
show that the assassin

has a large scar on his wrist,
which Eddowes notes

the original Oswald
did not have.

LAURENCE: His argument
persuades the Texas courts

and Oswald’s widow Marina
to have his body exhumed.

BEN: So, this is huge news.

Eddowes has managed to convince,
you know, authorities

and Lee Harvey Oswald’s widow

that there’s something
to this theory.

EVY: So, in 1981
they dig up the body,

and it’s in an advanced state
of decomposition.

Eddowes and widow Marina Oswald

agree to have the Dallas County
Medical Examiner Linda Norton

do the examination.

BEN: Dr. Norton is able
to match dental records

and also identify the evidence

of the childhood
cranial surgery,

which together show that
actually the body in the grave

really is that
of Lee Harvey Oswald.

PATRICK: So, Khrushchev didn’t
replace Lee Harvey Oswald

with another killer,
that much we know.

But the Soviet conspiracy theory
is still alive and well,

because it doesn’t prove
that Oswald himself

didn’t work with the USSR
to plan and execute

the assassination
of John F. Kennedy.

EVY: But that’s not what
the House Committee says.

In their 1976 report,

they find that neither
the Cubans nor the Soviets

are behind the assassination.

But they do think that
somebody else could be involved.

For almost 60 years, one detail
in the JFK investigation

remains undisputed--

Lee Harvey Oswald’s
communist ties.

But in 2017, thanks to
newly declassified documents,

fresh evidence comes to light
that could change

everything we think
we know about Oswald.

PATRICK: Recently declassified
intelligence reports

reveal that the KGB
does their own investigation

into Oswald.

They have him under
very tight surveillance

from the moment
he enters the USSR,

so they have a lot
of intelligence on him.

And according
to the KGB report,

contrary to what we’ve all
been led to believe,

Oswald stops being
a communist sympathizer.

EVY: The KGB reports
that over his time

in the Soviet Union,

Oswald actually becomes
disillusioned with the cause,

and by the time
he leaves in 1962,

he is not a communist anymore.

PATRICK: This goes against
decades of conventional thinking

about Oswald
and the assassination.

If he’s not a communist,
then who killed JFK?

BEN: So, the KGB does believe
that Oswald killed Kennedy.

They do say that they think
he’s part of a conspiracy.

It’s just not the conspiracy
you think.

So instead, the KGB theory
is that Oswald

is part of a militant
anti-communist conspiracy group

whose intent is to poison
relations

between the Soviet Union
and the United States

by killing Kennedy and framing
the communists for it.

DAVID DENTON: Khrushchev will
say in an interview in 1964

that in fact Oswald was working

with extremist
anti-communist forces

in the United States.

LAURENCE: Many wonder
if this theory

is simply Soviet propaganda.

PATRICK: Of course, Khrushchev
wants to take suspicion

off of himself.

But independently of the KGB,

a U.S. investigator
also looks into this theory.

BEN: Jim Garrison,
the district attorney

of New Orleans, comes to believe

that a murky conspiracy
involving business leaders

and Lee Harvey Oswald
have brought together

all these right wing
anti-communist elements

to kill JFK.

LAURENCE: To prove his theory,
Garrison spends six years

interviewing witnesses.

DAVID: Through the 1960s,
Jim Garrison’s investigation

leads to a man by the name
of David Ferrie.

Back in the 1950s, David Ferrie
serves in the Civil Air Patrol,

which also has as a member
Lee Harvey Oswald.

Dave Ferrie was rabidly
anti-communist

and heavily involved
in the anti-Castro movement

in New Orleans.

BEN: So, you might be thinking,
"Now, wait a minute,

someone who’s anti-Castro
should like Kennedy."

But David Ferrie
was disappointed in Kennedy

for not being staunch enough
in their opposition to Castro.

PATRICK: He thinks that
Kennedy’s attempts

at a peaceful outcome are weak,

that he’s essentially handed
Cuba to the communists.

In fact, he gives a fiery speech
in 1961

where he says
that Kennedy should be shot.

LAURENCE: According
to Garrison,

Ferrie follows through
with that threat.

DAVID: In September of 1963,

a few weeks before
the assassination of JFK,

an insurance agent
named Perry Russo

would state that he was at
a party with a businessman

from New Orleans
named Clay Shaw,

Lee Harvey Oswald,
and David Ferrie,

where the assassination of JFK
would be discussed.

BEN: Russo testifies
that he remembers them

saying that they were gonna
kill Kennedy,

and that they were
gonna use something

called a triangulation
of shooters.

They also discussed alibis

for the people involved
in this conspiracy.

LAURENCE: By February of 1967,

Garrison is ready
to reveal his finding.

PATRICK:
Newspapers in New Orleans

break Garrison’s story.

He’s convinced that David Ferrie
and Lee Harvey Oswald

are long-time friends
since their days together

in the Civil Air Patrol.

He believes they wanna
take out Kennedy

and frame the communists.

David Ferrie
and Lee Harvey Oswald

work together to plan
the assassination

with the support of Clay Shaw
and the help

of another man behind the scenes
named Guy Banister.

Ferrie and Banister were both
adamant supporters

of the anti-Castro movement,
which included arming people

to go stage attacks in Cuba.

And Ferrie as a pilot
was moving the weapons,

and Banister
was supplying them.

So, these men did have
a hard right background

that involved guns.

Garrison was certainly
correct about that.

BEN: Garrison’s theory
has Banister and Ferrie

as the brains behind
this operation.

Clay Shaw would be handling
logistics and financial backing.

And then, in this scenario,
there are two shooters

involved in a crossfire--

Oswald, as we know,
in the book depository,

and then another unnamed shooter
on the grassy knoll.

LAURENCE:
Armed with the evidence,

Garrison’s ready
for his day in court.

DAVID: Oswald is already dead.

And then Banister’s died
of a heart attack by 1964,

so there are already
two alleged conspirators gone.

Then, something
more unusual happens.

Less than a week after
the Garrison investigation

goes public, Dave Ferrie
is found dead.

BEN: David Ferrie
is found in his apartment

with two typed-up suicide notes,

but the autopsy
finds no evidence

either of suicide or of murder,

and that David Ferrie
has died of a brain hemorrhage.

PATRICK: Garrison is flummoxed.

He says, "I suppose it could be
just a weird coincidence

"that the night Ferrie
pens two suicide notes,

he dies of natural causes."

LAURENCE: On March 1st, 1967,

the last alleged
co-conspirator alive

is arrested.

Clay Shaw is finally tried
in 1969,

and it remains the only trial
in American history

associated with
the assassination of JFK.

But Garrison is unsuccessful

with few witnesses
remaining alive

and others deemed unreliable.

Shaw is acquitted
in 45 minutes.

LAURENCE: Ten years later
in 1979,

the House Select Committee
wonders publicly

if justice was served.

PATRICK: The House Committee’s
final report states

that they believe
the Louisiana witnesses

were both, quote,
"credible and significant,"

and that they were telling
the truth

about Ferrie
and Oswald’s meetings in 1963.

So, Garrison’s theory’s cause

for a lot of sensational
reporting

and a lot of excitement
on the part of the public,

and you know, maybe swayed
some people

in the court of public opinion.

In actual court,
where evidence is required,

they were found to fall apart
pretty quickly.

LAURENCE: After decades
of pressure

from the American public,

Congress passes
the JFK Records Act in 1992.

The act mandates the release
of all files

relating to the case.

BEN: So, even all
these decades later,

people still want answers,
and are now hopeful

that maybe we’ll start
to get them.

PHILIP: These documents
aren’t released all at once,

but during the 1990s,

millions and millions of pages
of documents are made public.

The law had a deadline.

It said that everything
in the government’s files

had to be made public in 2017.

EVY: Well, guess what?
That does not happen.

But by 2017,
tens of thousands of records

have been released.

And one of them
gets a lot of attention,

because it appears to confirm
a longstanding theory

that the Mafia was involved

in the assassination of JFK.

BEN: From the moment
Kennedy dies,

conspiracy theorists
are asking the right question,

which is, "Who wants him dead?"

The communists,
in a lot of minds,

feature really high
on that list.

But there’s another group
who might want Kennedy dead

even more, and that
is the Cosa Nostra--

the American Mafia.

LAURENCE: In 1962,
JFK, along with his brother,

Attorney General Robert Kennedy,
are on a crusade

to wipe out
organized crime in America.

DAVID: One of the biggest
revenue streams the mob had,

obviously were the casinos
in Cuba.

The mob was kicked out of Cuba
by Castro.

PHILIP: So, they were angry
with President Kennedy

for not having done more,

so they wanted to see
Castro overthrown

so they could
get back into Cuba,

reopen their casinos
and their liquor operations,

and get going again.

And one way of doing that
might be

by killing President Kennedy.

In the minds of some mobsters,

Kennedy took billions of dollars
out of their pockets,

and they have killed
for a lot less.

And wouldn’t you know it,

right in the middle
of the Kennedy case,

there’s a man who could be
the key to a Mafia connection.

LAURENCE: That man
is Lee Harvey Oswald’s killer,

Jack Ruby.

Jack Ruby was a tough guy
from Chicago,

Jack Rubenstein originally.

A thug, a pimp.

Moves to Dallas,
opens up his nightclub there,

and quickly becomes
a kind of fixture

among organized crime figures.

He was what you would call
a wannabe.

He gets these nightclubs
up and running,

and they become a conduit

for all the things
we know the Mafia for--

gambling, running narcotics,
and eventually sex work.

EVY: Theorists long speculated
that Jack Ruby and the Mafia

worked together to kill Kennedy.

They say by 1963,

Jack Ruby is heavily indebted
to the Mafia,

and they force him
to find a patsy

to assassinate the president.

And afterwards, they make him
kill that fall guy

so that he can’t talk.

JEFFERSON: A lot more evidence
came out in the 1970s

with the House Select Committee
investigation,

and that strengthened the notion

that there was
an organized crime connection

to the assassination.

LAURENCE: Did Ruby hire Oswald
on behalf of the Mafia?

Dallas police have two witnesses

report that
on October 4th, 1963,

seven weeks before
the assassination,

they see Ruby and Oswald meet
in Ruby’s Carousel Club

on Commerce Street in Dallas.

There, they argue
over a large sum of money

for an undisclosed job that
Oswald will be doing for Ruby.

LAURENCE:
But the Warren Commission

fails to interview
these witnesses.

After he’s arrested, Ruby denies
ever having known Oswald,

and that he didn’t know
beforehand

that the assassination
was going to happen.

Ruby says that he was
several blocks away

busy placing
some newspaper ads,

and killed Oswald
because of grief,

because of patriotism,

and because he felt
for the First Lady,

and wanted to keep her
from having to suffer

through a prolonged trial.

LAURENCE: For over 50 years,
no one can prove otherwise.

EVY: But then in 2017,

as part of another large dump
of declassified Kennedy files,

we see Document 32149267.

It’s a report from the FBI’s
Intelligence division

about Jack Ruby.

In it, an informant
named Bob Vanderslice

says that Ruby calls him up
on the day of the assassination.

He asks if he, quote,

"would like to watch
the fireworks."

PATRICK: Vanderslice goes
with Ruby to a location

right across from the Texas
School Book Depository,

and together they watch
the president get shot.

When it happens,
Ruby says nothing.

He just turns calmly
and walks south

towards the newspaper office
where he places the ads,

and thereby creates an alibi.

BEN: If this is true,
then Jack Ruby

knew there were going
to be quote, "fireworks,"

and he knew exactly where
and when the assassination

was gonna happen.

In other words, Ruby lied,

and he knew
about the whole thing.

LAURENCE: After months
in custody,

Ruby himself claims
there’s more to his story.

EVY: At first, Ruby sticks
to his alibi.

But then, he changes his tune.

He writes letters,
he makes statements to police,

and then even testifies
to the Warren Commission

that he knows some things
he’s not saying,

but he believes
that his life is in danger.

He wants to tell
the whole truth,

but he can’t unless he can get
some protection

from the government.

PATRICK: But he never
gets that protection,

and he dies in 1967,
taking with him to the grave

any potential secrets about
a Mafia assassination plot.

LAURENCE: Some believe that
members of the Mafia

work quickly
to cover their tracks

after JFK’s death.

Over a dozen witnesses
and participants

die mysteriously in
the aftermath of the shooting--

Oswald, Ruby.

Dorothy Kilgallen,
she’s the only reporter

to interview Jack Ruby
at his trial.

She then openly questions
the Warren Commission,

and then dies of a mysterious
overdose in 1965.

BEN: So, following this trail
of murders,

it reaches its apex in 1968

when Robert F. Kennedy,
who also could be seen

as an enemy of the Mafia,
is killed in Los Angeles.

EVY: What kind of organization
would be willing

to leave behind
such a long string of bodies

to keep hold of their power
and their secrets?

The Mafia, that’s who.

And if they did,
then it worked,

because there is no one left
to confirm this theory.

LAURENCE: On December 20th,
1991,

Oliver Stone’s film
about the Kennedy assassination,

"JFK," is released in theaters.

Almost immediately,
it causes an uproar.

The film combines a number
of conspiracy theories,

including the alleged
New Orleans plot

and the second shooter
on the grassy knoll.

But more important
than the film’s plot

is the impact it has
on this country.

After the film is released,
we see a tidal wave

of other publications associated
with the JFK assassination.

LAURENCE: Including one
from a man who says

he was directly involved.

Robert Morrow claimed to be
a former CIA operative

active in the anti-Castro
movement in the 1960s.

And he alleged in a book
that he was asked

by Tracy Barnes,
a senior CIA official,

to buy guns that he said
were later used

in the assassination.

LAURENCE:
Morrow’s cast of characters

in the alleged CIA plot
might sound familiar.

DAVID: Morrow actually names

the same co-conspirators

that are in the movie "JFK,"
and also those that were pursued

by Jim Garrison
in his New Orleans case.

He claims that Clay Shaw,
Guy Banister, and Dave Ferrie

were helping in the operations
against Castro in Cuba

before the assassination.

PATRICK: Morrow says they also
enlisted the help

of the Mafia through Jack Ruby.

On November 22nd in Dallas,
they placed four shooters--

Oswald in the book depository,
another on the grassy knoll,

and two more,
all with Morrow’s rifles.

The month prior,
they laid some groundwork.

They sent Oswald to Mexico
to meet with the Cubans.

DAVID: Their goal is to frame
Castro for the crime,

and therefore bring about
a full-scale invasion of Cuba.

According to Morrow,
the CIA wants redemption

from their failed
Bay of Pigs Operation,

and the Mafia has hopes
of being able to return

to reopen their casinos in Cuba.

It’s quite a story--
a complicated CIA plot

with dozens of participants.

And yet, with all those people,
including government agents

and known criminals
that are under surveillance,

the Warren Commission
finds no evidence

that any of this
actually happened.

LAURENCE: Morrow offers
a potential explanation

for that as well.

Many have speculated
that the Warren Commission

never adequately looked
into the Cuban connection

or the CIA.

Morrow believes that
that’s due to the presence

on the commission
of the former CIA director,

Allan Dulles.

When the commission is formed,

they don’t put the current
CIA director on it

or anyone from the FBI.

The only one on the commission

with intelligence experience
is Allen Dulles,

who just happens to be the man

that Kennedy fired
from his position

after the Bay of Pigs failed.

LAURENCE: At the time
of the Warren Commission,

CIA involvement in
the Bay of Pigs is classified.

The government didn’t want
that getting out.

They also didn’t want
any information getting out

related to Operation Mongoose,

which at the time
was top-secret, but we now know

was a Kennedy-sanctioned
CIA operation

to assassination Castro
led by Allen Dulles.

EVY: As more documents
have been declassified,

more information has been
revealed about the CIA.

It is clear that they were
withholding information

from the Warren Commission--

information that Allen Dulles
knew and kept hidden.

LAURENCE: Some theorists
believe that information

could have even saved
Kennedy’s life.

In 2013 and 2014,
some very damaging records

are released about the CIA
as per the JFK Records Act.

They reveal that the CIA
actually knew

about Oswald’s trip
to Mexico City

before the assassination.

The agency claimed
to the Warren Commission

that they only found out
afterwards,

but that was a lie.

PATRICK:
They had an eye on Oswald

since his defection
to the USSR.

They were reading his mail,
tracking his movements.

The CIA field office
in Mexico City

reported Oswald’s meeting with
the Cubans almost immediately.

And the CIA had Soviet agent
Valery Kostikov

under surveillance
during the time

he was meeting with Oswald.

EVY: Does that mean
the CIA killed Kennedy?

No, absolutely not.

But should the CIA have known
that Oswald was a threat?

Yes, they probably should have.

And could an earlier
intervention

have prevented Oswald
from killing the president?

Again, I would say
the answer is yes.

In a now-declassified
2013 report,

CIA historian David Robarge
finds that the agency

is complicit in keeping
incendiary information

from the Warren Commission.

He says they intended to keep
the commission

focused on, quote,
"what the Agency

believed was the best truth,"

that Lee Harvey Oswald
had acted alone

in killing John Kennedy.

PHILIP: I think all of the most
credible evidence

suggests that Lee Harvey Oswald
fired the bullets

that killed President Kennedy,

that he probably
is the only gunman.

But whether or not
other people knew,

whether or not
other people helped him,

those are mysteries that
will probably linger forever.

The National Archives
recently released

thousands of newly
declassified documents.

Now, almost all of these
nearly five million pages

are available to the public.

Perhaps they will provide
some closure

to this enduring mystery.

I’m Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching
"History’s Greatest Mysteries."