All language subtitles for history-s-greatest-mysteries-s04e03-the-assassination-of-jfk-2023-vidomon

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

how the world had changed.

Police quickly catch the culprit, but
many believe there's more to the story.

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

events.

So he was convinced that Kennedy was
killed by enemies high in his own

government. He believed that Fidel
Castro orchestrated the assassination of

F. Kennedy.

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

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

Dallas, Texas, November 22nd, 1963.

At 1125 a .m., President John F. Kennedy
arrives on Air Force One.

President Kennedy goes to Dallas to give
a lunchtime speech at a convention

center known as the Trademark.

Between his arrival at Love Field and
his speech, he's to lead a motorcade

through the center of downtown Dallas.

The motorcade has over 12 cars.

Kennedy is riding in a three -road
Lincoln Continental convertible

with the top down.

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
Connolly and his wife Nellie, and ahead

them are two Secret Service agents. One
of them is driving.

There's very sort of warm reception for
Kennedy. There are something like 200

,000 people lining the route, so it is
no small turnout.

And at one point, Mrs.

Connolly in the car says, you can't say
Dallas doesn't love you, can you? And

President Kennedy replies, no, you
certainly can't.

Those are his last words.

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

turn in front of the Texas School Book
Depository. And it's at that moment that

the first gunshots are heard.

Something, I repeat, has happened in the
motorcade route.

A gunshot ringed out, and then two more.
Both President Kennedy and Governor

Connolly 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.

He is rushed to Parkland Memorial
Hospital.

That's where he would soon be declared
dead at the age of 46.

Connolly 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

crying. There's a lot of screaming,
there's chaos, and just a lot of fear

confusion. It was just a shock that
caused everybody to stop and think for a

moment about how the world had changed.

Any divisiveness or any fractions within
the country, everybody just comes

together in this moment to grieve.

As the world stops to mourn, a manhunt
begins.

As soon as it's clear that President
Kennedy's been hit and the motorcade

out of Dili Planta, the police go
interview eyewitnesses. And perhaps the

important witness of that day was a
steam fitter, 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.

Deputy Constable Seymour Weitzman and
Deputy Sheriff Eugene Boone rush inside

the book depository.

And there, they find quite literally a
smoking gun.

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

They also find a 38 -inch brown paper
bag.

The shooter escapes.

But building staff identify a prime
suspect.

An employee at the Texas School Book
Depository, Bill Wesley Grazier, offers

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

rods. A manager in the building, Roy
Truly, looks around and he sees that one

his employees is actually missing.

It's the same man who brought in that
suspicious brown paper bag that morning.

It's Lee Harvey Oswald.

Police radio his description to all city
units.

So it's been less than an hour since
President Kennedy was shot.

And thanks to the quick work of the
Dallas PD, they actually have a

lead. Three shots fired, three spent
shell casing. Found next to a rifle that

they believe was brought in by Lee
Harvey Oswald, who is the only person

fled that book depository.

Every other employee, they're still
actually talking to investigators.

It appears that Oswald is the man
responsible for the assassination.

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. Tippett 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.

If police had any doubt that Lee Harvey
Oswald assassinated President Kennedy,

that doubt is gone the moment he killed
Officer Tippett.

A local merchant named Johnny Brewer has
seen this man duck into the local movie

theater. A little bit before 2 p .m.,
police officers find Oswald seated

He's armed. He puts up a struggle before
he's arrested.

One of the arresting officers, Nick
McDonald, testifies that as they reach

Oswald raises his pistol and pulls the
trigger.

But McDonald grabs the gun just as the
hammer falls, hitting the webbing

his thumb and index finger, probably
saving his life.

Oswald is brought to the police and
courts 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 Alec Heidel.

The rifle that was found in the school
book depository had been ordered in the

name of Alec Heidel and sent to a post
office box in that name.

Virtually all of the ballistics evidence
points to Oswald as the gunman in Daly

Plaza. His palm prints are found on the
weapons, and the bullets fired in Daly

Plaza almost certainly came out of the
rifle that's found on the sixth floor.

But none of this evidence is ever
presented in court.

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

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.

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.

Oswald's death on November 24th means
that there will never be a trial, never

opportunity to resolve an awful lot of
the evidence that points to Oswald as

gunman in Dealey Plaza.

New president Lyndon Johnson establishes
a commission to investigate the

assassination. It becomes known as the
Warren Commission.

It's sort of the ultimate blue ribbon
commission among the other members of

former director of the Central
Intelligence Agency, Alan Dulles, as

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.

The Warren Commission expresses no
doubt.

They state that Lee Harvey Oswald is the
only man responsible for JFK's death.

They also find that Jack Ruby acted
alone in killing Oswald. But over the

a lot of people have questioned these
findings, saying that they might appear

be a little too neat.

Making this report far from the last
word on JFK.

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. But that answer doesn't satisfy
the public for long.

Skeptics read books. First a trickle of
books and then a flood of books

questioning... the findings of the
report and leading to a larger distrust

in the commission itself and in the sort
of firmament of the American

government. After 12 years of scrutiny,
the U .S. government takes action.

The House Select Committee on
Assassinations was created in 1976.

The committee takes a closer look at the
Warren Commission report.

They agree with most of what the Warren
Commission said.

particularly regarding the evidence
against Oswald.

They're confident that Oswald did shoot
Kennedy from the sixth floor of the book

depository. 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

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

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.

in many minds, it is found to be
completely in error. But it's almost too

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.

If the JFK assassination is a
conspiracy, who's behind it?

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

he believed that Fidel Castro
orchestrated the assassination of John

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.

President Kennedy is so determined to
get rid of Castro that he tells the CIA

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

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.

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 poisoned

cigars to poisoned skin -diving suits to
exploding seashells. But yes, certainly

Castro knew the presidency was plotting
against him.

So we know that Fidel Castro has reason.

to want to see President Kennedy dead.

And the question in all the years since
is, what role did Lee Harvey Oswald play

in whatever plot was developed to try to
kill the president?

During their investigation, the Warren
Commission conducts a thorough

check on Oswald.

Even when he's serving in the Marine
Corps for three years, Lee Harvey Oswald

not shy about the fact that he's a
Marxist, so much so his colleagues in

Marine Corps used to refer to him as
Osvaldovich.

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

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.

It's clear that Oswald liked communism.

But the biggest revelation for
investigators is that it turns out that

went to Mexico City in September of
1963, which, of course, is just two

before JFK's assassination, and while
there, had contact with officials at the

Cuban embassy.

According to author Gus Russo, during
these meetings, Oswald makes a chilling

offer. Russo talked to various sources,
including an FBI case officer who has

two high -level informants within the
Communist Party. And these two

are two brothers by the names of Morris
and Jack Child.

The Child's brothers meet with Fidel
Castro after the Kennedy assassination

learn just how much Fidel Castro knew
about Lee Harvey Oswald in the weeks

before the assassination.

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

ordering President Kennedy's
assassination.

But I think it's clear that he was well
aware before the assassination.

Lee Harvey Oswald had marched into a
Cuban embassy in Mexico City and made

statement that he was going to kill
Kennedy.

Russo, keep digging.

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

he's successful doing this.

Oswald's end goal is to get a visa to
get either to Cuba or to the Soviet

or both. And eventually the Cubans do
give him some form of temporary visa in

October of 1963.

But according to Rousseau's findings,
they don't actually intend to bring

to Cuba. They plan to pick him up and
kill him and then dump his body in the

Gulf of Mexico.

According to Gus Russo, there's more
evidence to support this claim.

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 Tippett. And the

entire Cuban plan changes after that. So
that's the theory. The Warren

Commission and also the later House
Committee on Assassinations dismissed

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.

When Lee Harvey Oswald visits Mexico
City in the fall of 1963, investigators

desperate to know what he's up to.

He makes several visits to the Cuban
embassy.

What happens there? Are the Cubans
involved?

You have to ask, right?

But the Cuban embassy isn't the only
place Oswald visits in Mexico.

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.

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.

Authorities dig into Kostikov's
background.

And they make a chilling discovery.

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?

So that leads us to the next big
question, which is, is the Soviet Union,

Premier Nikita Khrushchev, involved in
JK's assassination?

Khrushchev may have a motive to kill
Kennedy that's just as strong as Fidel

Castro. As we know, Kennedy is on a
crusade against communism. And communism

represented on the world stage by its
biggest superpower, the USSR.

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.

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.

Then in 1962, Khrushchev experiences a
very public defeat, thanks to President

Kennedy.

A year before Kennedy's death, the
United States and the Soviet Union had

gone to war. And the Soviet Union
attempts to set up missile launch pads

that can be used for nuclear weapons.

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.

Two years later, in 1964, Khrushchev is
removed from office.

But before he's removed in 1963,
Khrushchev is still clinging to power,

for a way to redeem himself among the
communists.

That would certainly add some logic to
the idea that maybe Khrushchev wanted to

see Kennedy dead.

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?

There is an even further out theory,
which is that Khrushchev started

to kill Kennedy even before the Mexico
City machinations.

Author and attorney Michael Eddowes
shares details of his investigation in

1977 book, The Oswald File.

Michael Eddowes comes up with this
theory that Khrushchev conceives of this

to kill Kennedy when Oswald is still
living in the Soviet Union beginning in

1959.

Khrushchev realizes he's got a golden
opportunity on his hands.

Here he's got an American citizen, a
former Marine, an avowed communist who

speaks Russian.

And everybody knows he's there in the
USSR. The Associated Press had reported

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.

So it's not Lee Harvey Oswald who lands
back in the United States in 1962.

It's an imposter whose mission it is to
kill John F. Kennedy.

Eddowes believes he has definitive proof
that Oswald was replaced.

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.

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.

His argument persuades the Texas courts.

and Oswald's widow, Marina, to have his
body exhumed. So this is huge news.

Eddowes has managed to convince
authorities and Lee Harvey Oswald's

there's something to this theory.

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.

Dr. Norton is able to match dental
records and also identify the evidence

childhood cranial surgery, which
together show that actually the body in

grave really is that of Lee Harvey
Oswald.

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.

But that's not what the Huck Committee
said.

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

light that could change everything we
think we know about Oswald.

Recently declassified intelligence
reports reveal that the KGB does their

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

Oswald stops being a communist
sympathizer.

The KGB reports that over his time in
the Soviet Union, Oswald actually

disillusioned with the cause.

And by the time he leaves in 1962, he is
not a communist anymore.

This goes against decades of
conventional thinking about Oswald and

assassination. If he's not a communist,
then who killed JFK?

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

between the Soviet Union and the United
States by killing Kennedy and framing

the communists for it.

Khrushchev will say in an interview in
1964 that in fact Oswald was working

extremist anti -communist forces in the
United States.

Many wonder if this theory is simply
Soviet propaganda.

Of course, Khrushchev wants to take
suspicion off himself.

But independently of the KGB, a U .S.
investigator also looks into this

Jim Garrison, the district attorney of
New Orleans, comes to believe that a

murky conspiracy involving business
leaders and Lee Harvey Oswald has

together all these right -wing anti
-communist elements to kill JFK.

To prove his theory, Garrison spends six
years interviewing witnesses.

Through the 1960s, Jim Garrison's
investigations lead to a man by the name

David Ferry.

Back in the 1950s, David Ferry serves in
the Civil Air Patrol, which also has as

a member Lee Harvey Oswald.

Dave Ferry was rabidly anti -communist
and heavily involved in the anti -Castro

movement in New Orleans.

So you might be thinking, now wait a
minute, someone who's anti -Castro

like Kennedy.

But David Ferry was disappointed in
Kennedy for not being staunch enough in

their opposition to Castro.

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

1961 where he says that Kennedy should
be shot.

According to Garrison, Ferry follows
through with that threat.

In September of 1963, a few weeks before
the assassination of JFK, 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 Ferry, where

assassination of JFK would be discussed.

Russo testifies that he remembers them
saying that they were going to kill

Kennedy and that they were going to use
something called a triangulation of

shooters. They also discussed alibis for
the people involved in this conspiracy.

By February of 1967, Garrison is ready
to reveal his finding.

Newspapers in New Orleans break
Garrison's story.

He's convinced that David Ferry and Lee
Harvey Oswald are longtime friends.

since their days together in the Civil
Air Patrol.

He believes they want to take out
Kennedy and frame the communists.

David Ferry and Lee Harvey Oswald worked
together to plan the assassination with

the support of Clay Shaw and the help of
another man behind the scenes named Guy

Bannister. Ferry and Bannister were both
adamant supporters of the anti -Castro

movement, which included arming people
to go stage attacks in Cuba.

And Ferry, as a pilot, was moving the
weapons, and Bannister was supplying

So these men did have a hard -right
background that involved guns.

Garrison was certainly correct about
that.

Garrison's theory has Bannister and
Ferry as the brains behind this

Quay 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
armed with the evidence garrison's ready

his day in court oswald is already dead
and then banisher has 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 ferry is found dead

David Ferry is found in his apartment
with two typed -up suicide notes, but

autopsy finds no evidence either of
suicide or of murder, and that David

has died of a brain hemorrhage.

Garrison is flummoxed.

He says, I suppose it could be just a
weird coincidence that the night Ferry

penned two suicide notes, he dies of
natural causes.

On March 1, 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

with few witnesses remaining alive and
others deemed unreliable. Shaw is

acquitted in 45 minutes.

Ten years later in 1979, the House
Select Committee wonders publicly if

was served.

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 Ferry and Oswald's
meetings in 1963.

So Garrison's theories caused for a lot
of sensational reporting and a lot of

excitement on the part of the public
and, you know, maybe swayed some people

the court of public opinion.

In actual court, where evidence is
required, they were found to fall apart

pretty quickly.

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.

So even all these decades later, people
still want answers and are now hopeful

that maybe we'll start to get them.

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

be made public in 2017.

Well, guess what? That does not happen.

But by 2017, tens of thousands of
records have been released. And one of

gets a lot of attention.

Because it appears to confirm a long
-standing theory that the mafia was

involved in the assassination of JFK.

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.

In 1962, JFK, along with his brother,
Attorney General Robert Kennedy, are

on a crusade to wipe out organized crime
in America.

One of the biggest revenue streams the
mob had, obviously, were the casinos in

Cuba. The mob was kicked out of Cuba by
Castro. 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.

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

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 narcotic, and eventually, sex

work.

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 them to find a patsy to
assassinate the president.

And afterwards, they make him kill that
fall guy so that he can't talk.

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.

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.

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,

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

trial.

For over 50 years, no one can prove
otherwise.

But then in 2017, as part of another
large dump of declassified Kennedy

we see document 321 -492 -67.

It's a report from the FBI's
Intelligence Division about Jack Ruby.

In it, an informant named Bob
Vanderslice says that Ruby called him up

day of the assassination.

He asks if he, quote, would like to
watch the fireworks.

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

an alibi.

If this is true, then Jack Ruby knew
they were going to be, quote, firework,

he knew exactly where and when the
assassination was going to happen.

In other words, Ruby lied, and he knew
about the whole thing.

After months in custody, Ruby himself
claims there's more to his story.

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.

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.

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

Jack Ruby at his trial.

She then openly questions the Warren
Commission and then dies of a mysterious

overdose in 1965.

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. 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.

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 grafting hole. But more
important than the film's plot is the

impact it has on this country.

After the film was released, we see a
tidal wave of other publications

associated with the JFK assassination.

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.

Morrow's cast of characters in the
alleged CIA plot might sound familiar.

Morrow actually names the same co
-conspirators that are in the movie JFK

also those that were pursued by Jim
Garrison in his New Orleans case.

He claims that Clay Shaw, Guy Bannister,
and Dave Ferry were helping in the

operations against Castro in Cuba before
the assassination.

Moro 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 Moro's rifles.

The month prior, they laid some
groundwork. They sent Oswald to Mexico

with the Cubans.

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

with all those people, including
government agents and known criminals

under surveillance, the Warren
Commission finds no evidence that any of

actually happened.

Morrow offers a potential explanation
for that as well.

Many have speculated that the Warren
Commission never adequately looked into

Cuban connection or the CIA.

Morrow believes that that's due to the
presence on the commission of the former

CIA director, Alan 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 Alan Dulles.

who just happens to be the man that
Kennedy fired from his position after

Bay of Pigs failed.

At the time of the warrant permission,
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

top secret, but we now know was a
Kennedy -sanctioned CIA operation to

assassinate Castro, led by Alan Dulles.

As more documents have been
declassified, more information has been

about the CIA.

It is clear that they were withholding
information from the Warren Commission,

information that Alan Dulles knew and
kept hidden.

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

the JFK Records Act. They reveal that
the CIA actually knew about Oswald's

to Mexico City before the assassination.

The agency claimed to the Warren
Commission that they only found out

But that was a lie.

They had an eye on Oswald since his
defection to the U .S .S .R. They were

reading his mail, tracking his
movements.

The CIA field office in Mexico City
reported Oswald's meeting with the

almost immediately.

And the CIA had Soviet agent Valery
Kostikov under surveillance during the

he was meeting with Oswald.

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 Robars 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.

I think all of the most credible
evidence suggests that Lee Harvey Oswald

the bullets that killed President
Kennedy, that he probably is the only

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

the public.

Perhaps they will provide some closure
to this enduring mystery.

I'm Lawrence Fishburne. Thank you for
watching History's Greatest Mystery.