WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.899 Okay, let's unpack this. It is Monday, February 00:00:02.899 --> 00:00:06.950 2nd, 2026. If you've been awake for the last 00:00:06.950 --> 00:00:09.070 12 months, you know that the world of historical 00:00:09.070 --> 00:00:11.509 research and honestly just the world of American 00:00:11.509 --> 00:00:14.869 culture has been turned upside down. We finally 00:00:14.869 --> 00:00:18.429 got them. We did. It still feels a little surreal 00:00:18.429 --> 00:00:20.070 to say it out loud, doesn't it? It really does. 00:00:20.170 --> 00:00:22.769 I mean, for my entire life and probably for the 00:00:22.769 --> 00:00:24.870 lives of most people listening, the JFK files 00:00:24.870 --> 00:00:28.050 were this mythical MacGuffin. They were the Holy 00:00:28.050 --> 00:00:30.510 Grail locked away in the National Archives, guarded 00:00:30.510 --> 00:00:34.670 by, you know, top men. Right. Just last year, 00:00:34.710 --> 00:00:37.490 in 2025, the dam finally broke. It was a long 00:00:37.490 --> 00:00:39.590 time coming. We're talking about a process that 00:00:39.590 --> 00:00:41.509 started with the Warren Commission in the 60s, 00:00:41.509 --> 00:00:43.270 went through the Church Committee, the House 00:00:43.270 --> 00:00:45.289 Select Committee in the 70s. The Oliver Stone 00:00:45.289 --> 00:00:48.090 movie panic in the 90s. Exactly. That was a huge 00:00:48.090 --> 00:00:50.329 catalyst. And then finally, the executive order 00:00:50.329 --> 00:00:52.990 signed by President Trump shortly after taking 00:00:52.990 --> 00:00:55.630 office for his second term. And that's why we 00:00:55.630 --> 00:00:58.570 are here today. We aren't just rehashing the 00:00:58.570 --> 00:01:00.530 same old documentaries you've seen 100 times 00:01:00.530 --> 00:01:03.710 on cable TV. We are looking at this through the 00:01:03.710 --> 00:01:06.709 lens of the complete record. We have the Warren 00:01:06.709 --> 00:01:10.409 report. We have the HSCA findings. And now, finally, 00:01:10.569 --> 00:01:13.790 we have the final tranche. More than 60 ,000 00:01:13.790 --> 00:01:17.049 documents released in March 2025. That number 00:01:17.049 --> 00:01:20.870 is just staggering. 60 ,000. It's not a few redacted 00:01:20.870 --> 00:01:24.709 memos. It's a mountain of raw data, of cables, 00:01:24.870 --> 00:01:27.750 of internal reports. Exactly. So our mission 00:01:27.750 --> 00:01:30.049 today is ambitious. We're going to sift through 00:01:30.049 --> 00:01:31.290 that mountain. We're going to look at the time. 00:01:31.310 --> 00:01:33.390 Timeline, the ballistics. Yes, we are going to 00:01:33.390 --> 00:01:35.870 do the math on the magic bullet and the personalities. 00:01:35.870 --> 00:01:37.969 And we really want to try and separate the Hollywood 00:01:37.969 --> 00:01:40.849 myths. The Oliver Stone stuff, the Seinfeld spitball 00:01:40.849 --> 00:01:43.609 theories. Are from the cold, hard reality found 00:01:43.609 --> 00:01:46.049 in these files. And I think the goal here isn't 00:01:46.049 --> 00:01:48.329 just to solve a murder case. Because in many 00:01:48.329 --> 00:01:50.930 ways, the murder case is, well, maybe deceptively 00:01:50.930 --> 00:01:53.049 simple. I think that's the perfect way to put 00:01:53.049 --> 00:01:56.829 it. The goal is to understand why this event 00:01:56.829 --> 00:02:01.650 broke us. Why did November 22, 1963 become the 00:02:01.650 --> 00:02:05.030 moment the American public sort of collectively 00:02:05.030 --> 00:02:07.430 stopped trusting its institutions? That's the 00:02:07.430 --> 00:02:09.409 real question. Because when you actually read 00:02:09.409 --> 00:02:11.710 these files, the old ones and the brand new ones, 00:02:11.810 --> 00:02:14.729 you don't see a well -oiled machine pulling off 00:02:14.729 --> 00:02:17.889 a perfect conspiracy. You see a catastrophe of 00:02:17.889 --> 00:02:21.509 bungled procedures, of ego battles, and most 00:02:21.509 --> 00:02:24.379 importantly... of secrecy secrecy that created 00:02:24.379 --> 00:02:27.500 a vacuum and as we know conspiracy theories are 00:02:27.500 --> 00:02:29.979 just what rushes in to fill that vacuum precisely 00:02:29.979 --> 00:02:31.979 i have to admit i went into this prep feeling 00:02:31.979 --> 00:02:34.020 pretty cynical i've always been a something else 00:02:34.020 --> 00:02:35.900 must have happened guy you just don't have the 00:02:35.900 --> 00:02:37.680 president get shot in broad daylight without 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:39.939 some bigger plot right that's the gut feeling 00:02:39.939 --> 00:02:42.159 most people have but digging into the ballistics 00:02:42.159 --> 00:02:44.240 and the timeline and especially the new files 00:02:44.240 --> 00:02:46.979 well i'm ready to have my mind changed or maybe 00:02:46.979 --> 00:02:48.620 confirmed i don't know let's just start at the 00:02:48.620 --> 00:02:52.740 beginning take us back november 22 1963 Dallas, 00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:56.080 Texas. The day America lost its innocence, as 00:02:56.080 --> 00:02:58.639 the cliche goes. But what was the actual day 00:02:58.639 --> 00:03:01.120 like? I always picture it in black and white, 00:03:01.219 --> 00:03:03.759 grim and gritty. That's the hindsight bias kicking 00:03:03.759 --> 00:03:06.379 in, you know. It's easy to project the tragedy 00:03:06.379 --> 00:03:09.340 backward onto the whole day. Actually, the mood 00:03:09.340 --> 00:03:11.680 in Dallas that morning was surprisingly vibrant. 00:03:12.039 --> 00:03:15.020 Really? Yes. It had been raining earlier in Fort 00:03:15.020 --> 00:03:18.500 Worth, where they spent the night. A dreary, 00:03:18.500 --> 00:03:21.750 gray morning. But by the time Air Force One wheels 00:03:21.750 --> 00:03:24.030 touched down at Lowe Field in Dallas, the sky 00:03:24.030 --> 00:03:27.069 had cleared, the sun was out, it was warm. And 00:03:27.069 --> 00:03:28.969 that weather detail is actually critical to the 00:03:28.969 --> 00:03:30.949 mechanics of the shooting, isn't it? It's like 00:03:30.949 --> 00:03:33.449 the first domino. It is the first domino to fall. 00:03:33.770 --> 00:03:36.050 Because the weather was nice, the Secret Service 00:03:36.050 --> 00:03:38.229 made the call to take the plastic bubble top 00:03:38.229 --> 00:03:41.189 off the limousine. Now that top wasn't bulletproof, 00:03:41.310 --> 00:03:43.629 was it? No, not at all. It was just plexiglass. 00:03:43.949 --> 00:03:46.229 But it might have deflected a shot, or at least 00:03:46.229 --> 00:03:48.430 obscured the shooter's sight picture. It adds 00:03:48.430 --> 00:03:51.099 a variable. But because the sun came out, the 00:03:51.099 --> 00:03:53.000 top came down so the people could see their president 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:55.780 and his wife. And the people wanted to see him. 00:03:55.939 --> 00:03:58.379 I know Dallas had a reputation as a city of hate 00:03:58.379 --> 00:04:01.080 back then. Adlai Stevenson, the U .N. ambassador, 00:04:01.400 --> 00:04:03.620 had been spat on there just a month prior. That's 00:04:03.620 --> 00:04:05.939 right. The Kennedy team was genuinely nervous 00:04:05.939 --> 00:04:08.400 about this trip, from what I read. They were 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:11.319 terrified. The local press had been running hostile, 00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:15.020 full -page ads. There was a real fear of protests, 00:04:15.139 --> 00:04:18.000 of something ugly happening. But when the motorcade 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:20.339 started rolling from Love Field, the reception 00:04:20.339 --> 00:04:22.500 was electric. The complete opposite of what they 00:04:22.500 --> 00:04:24.459 expected. Totally. We're talking about crowds. 00:04:24.920 --> 00:04:28.040 10, 12 deep on Main Street, cheering, screaming, 00:04:28.279 --> 00:04:30.240 people hanging out of windows. It was a hero's 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:32.439 welcome. Kennedy turned to his aides at one point 00:04:32.439 --> 00:04:34.319 and remarked on how great the reception was. 00:04:34.500 --> 00:04:37.720 This was the unofficial launch of his 64 re -election 00:04:37.720 --> 00:04:39.839 campaign, right? That's exactly how he viewed 00:04:39.839 --> 00:04:42.040 it. And it was going better than anyone dared 00:04:42.040 --> 00:04:44.300 to hope. It was a triumph. So they are driving 00:04:44.300 --> 00:04:46.420 through this canyon of applause. Everyone is 00:04:46.420 --> 00:04:48.959 happy. The car turns off Main Street onto Houston 00:04:48.959 --> 00:04:51.259 Street. And then it makes that fateful, sharp 00:04:51.259 --> 00:04:54.339 left turn onto Elm Street. That turn is... So 00:04:54.339 --> 00:04:57.540 important. It's a very sharp 120 degree turn. 00:04:58.019 --> 00:05:01.120 The limousine, which is a 1961 Lincoln Continental, 00:05:01.240 --> 00:05:04.100 a beast of a car, had to slow down to a crawl. 00:05:04.259 --> 00:05:06.759 How slow are we talking? About 11 miles per hour. 00:05:06.819 --> 00:05:11.300 Just a slow gliding pace. And that slowing down 00:05:11.300 --> 00:05:13.980 is what made the target acquisition so much easier 00:05:13.980 --> 00:05:16.620 for anyone watching from above. The target became 00:05:16.620 --> 00:05:19.399 predictable. And this brings us into Dealey Plaza. 00:05:19.620 --> 00:05:21.560 For listeners who haven't been there, paint the 00:05:21.560 --> 00:05:24.269 picture. Because it's not some vast open area. 00:05:24.529 --> 00:05:26.449 No, it's actually quite intimate. It feels smaller 00:05:26.449 --> 00:05:28.250 in person than you'd think. It's like a concrete 00:05:28.250 --> 00:05:31.209 bowl. On one side, you have the Texas School 00:05:31.209 --> 00:05:33.750 Book Depository, a seven -story brick building 00:05:33.750 --> 00:05:35.990 looming over the intersection. The sniper's nest. 00:05:36.149 --> 00:05:38.370 The sniper's nest. On the right, you have a grassy 00:05:38.370 --> 00:05:41.490 slope, the famous grassy knoll, topped by a picket 00:05:41.490 --> 00:05:44.149 fence and little concrete pergola. And straight 00:05:44.149 --> 00:05:47.290 ahead, the road dives down under the triple underpass. 00:05:47.610 --> 00:05:50.009 It's a contained space. The car is moving down 00:05:50.009 --> 00:05:52.600 Elm. Let's set the scene inside. You have the 00:05:52.600 --> 00:05:54.720 driver, Bill Greer, and another Secret Service 00:05:54.720 --> 00:05:57.199 agent, Roy Kellerman, in the front. Correct. 00:05:57.720 --> 00:06:01.220 In the middle jump seats, you have Governor John 00:06:01.220 --> 00:06:03.709 Connolly and his wife, Nellie. And in the back, 00:06:03.709 --> 00:06:06.889 of course, JFK and Jackie. And just seconds before 00:06:06.889 --> 00:06:09.029 the history of the world changes, Nellie Connolly 00:06:09.029 --> 00:06:11.509 turns to the president. She's beaming. She is. 00:06:11.610 --> 00:06:14.269 She's so happy with the reception. She gestures 00:06:14.269 --> 00:06:16.889 to the cheering crowd and says, Mr. President, 00:06:17.029 --> 00:06:19.170 they can't make you believe now that there are 00:06:19.170 --> 00:06:21.689 not some in Dallas who love and appreciate you. 00:06:21.970 --> 00:06:24.670 That is such a gut -wrenching irony. It's almost 00:06:24.670 --> 00:06:27.589 literary. It is. And Kennedy answers her. He 00:06:27.589 --> 00:06:30.569 smiles and says, no, they sure can't. And those 00:06:30.569 --> 00:06:33.970 are the last words he ever spoke. And then the 00:06:33.970 --> 00:06:36.910 sound. The first shot rings out. A sharp crack. 00:06:37.129 --> 00:06:39.170 Now looking at the witness statements, and there 00:06:39.170 --> 00:06:42.050 are hundreds of them, about 80 % of people heard 00:06:42.050 --> 00:06:45.129 three shots. But almost nobody reacted instantly 00:06:45.129 --> 00:06:47.569 to the first one as gunfire. They thought it 00:06:47.569 --> 00:06:50.230 was a firecracker or a motorcycle backfiring. 00:06:50.250 --> 00:06:52.949 Exactly. Or a firecracker. It was a festive atmosphere. 00:06:53.569 --> 00:06:56.529 People's brains weren't coded for violence. But 00:06:56.529 --> 00:06:59.069 inside the car, Governor Connolly knew. Because 00:06:59.069 --> 00:07:01.920 he was a hunter. He was a hunter. He recognized 00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:04.060 the crack of a high -powered rifle immediately. 00:07:04.740 --> 00:07:07.399 He says his first thought was, my God, they are 00:07:07.399 --> 00:07:09.839 going to kill us all. He turns to his right, 00:07:09.959 --> 00:07:12.259 trying to see where it came from, trying to locate 00:07:12.259 --> 00:07:14.019 the threat. Let's talk about that first hit. 00:07:14.139 --> 00:07:16.379 Because usually when we see the footage, the 00:07:16.379 --> 00:07:18.600 Zapruder film, we all focus on the headshot. 00:07:18.660 --> 00:07:21.259 But the first bullet hit Kennedy in the back. 00:07:21.459 --> 00:07:23.899 Correct. This is the shot that entered his upper 00:07:23.899 --> 00:07:26.139 back, near the base of his neck, passed through 00:07:26.139 --> 00:07:29.139 his neck, and exited his throat. In the Zapruder 00:07:29.139 --> 00:07:31.720 film, you can see Kennedy suddenly stop waving. 00:07:31.860 --> 00:07:34.639 His elbows fly up. His fists clench in front 00:07:34.639 --> 00:07:36.740 of his face. He's grimacing. I've seen that. 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:38.560 He looks like he's choking. He's grabbing at 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:40.720 his throat. That's the reaction to the tracheal 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:43.160 injury. He's struggling for air. He literally 00:07:43.160 --> 00:07:46.699 cannot speak. Now, at this point, this is a survivable 00:07:46.699 --> 00:07:50.040 wound. It's serious, but survivable. If the shooting 00:07:50.040 --> 00:07:53.420 stops right here, JFK probably lives. Maybe with 00:07:53.420 --> 00:07:55.180 a raspy voice for the rest of his life, but he 00:07:55.180 --> 00:07:57.279 lives. Jacqueline Kennedy turns to him. She sees 00:07:57.279 --> 00:07:59.540 something is wrong. She does. She puts her arm 00:07:59.540 --> 00:08:01.720 around him, and you can see the confusion and 00:08:01.720 --> 00:08:04.519 concern on her face. She doesn't understand what's 00:08:04.519 --> 00:08:06.800 happening. But the shooting doesn't stop. No. 00:08:07.420 --> 00:08:10.100 About five seconds later came the fatal shot, 00:08:10.300 --> 00:08:14.040 frame 313 of the Zapruder film. It's the most 00:08:14.040 --> 00:08:16.579 scrutinized piece of film in history. More than 00:08:16.579 --> 00:08:19.199 the moon landing, probably. I would say so. The 00:08:19.199 --> 00:08:21.600 president is struck in the head. The impact is 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:24.240 catastrophic. The source material from the Warren 00:08:24.240 --> 00:08:27.639 Commission and the HSCA details that brain matter 00:08:27.639 --> 00:08:30.379 and skull fragments were ejected from the exit 00:08:30.379 --> 00:08:33.259 wound on the front right side of his head. It 00:08:33.259 --> 00:08:35.100 was so violent that motorcycle officers riding 00:08:35.100 --> 00:08:37.200 to the left rear of the car were sprayed with 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:39.940 blood and tissue. It's just, I can't even imagine. 00:08:40.120 --> 00:08:42.480 And Jackie's reaction, I mean, you can't judge 00:08:42.480 --> 00:08:44.559 someone in a moment of trauma like that, but 00:08:44.559 --> 00:08:47.259 she climbs out onto the trunk of the moving car. 00:08:47.850 --> 00:08:49.990 For years, people thought she was trying to escape. 00:08:50.490 --> 00:08:52.909 That's the common misconception, and it's a tragic 00:08:52.909 --> 00:08:55.570 one. But the Secret Service agent, Clint Hill, 00:08:55.750 --> 00:08:58.429 the man who ran from the follow -up car and jumped 00:08:58.429 --> 00:09:01.389 onto the back of the moving limo, he testified 00:09:01.389 --> 00:09:03.470 very clearly. She wasn't fleeing. She was trying 00:09:03.470 --> 00:09:05.129 to get something. She was reaching for a piece 00:09:05.129 --> 00:09:06.789 of the president's skull that had been blown 00:09:06.789 --> 00:09:08.909 onto the trunk. She was trying to put him back 00:09:08.909 --> 00:09:11.840 together. Oh, my God. That is just it's beyond 00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:13.980 heartbreaking. I have his brains in my hand. 00:09:14.159 --> 00:09:16.100 That's what she said later at the hospital. It 00:09:16.100 --> 00:09:19.940 is a moment of pure primal horror. Clint Hill 00:09:19.940 --> 00:09:22.679 pushes her back into the seat, covers the president's 00:09:22.679 --> 00:09:25.200 body with his own and pounds on the trunk, screaming 00:09:25.200 --> 00:09:28.299 at the driver. Get us to a hospital. The car 00:09:28.299 --> 00:09:30.840 lurches forward and speeds up, heading for the 00:09:30.840 --> 00:09:33.600 underpass, racing to Parkland Memorial Hospital. 00:09:33.659 --> 00:09:36.559 OK. This is where the story shifts. It goes from 00:09:36.559 --> 00:09:40.659 a public assassination to a scene of total chaos 00:09:40.659 --> 00:09:43.419 that plants the seeds for every conspiracy theory 00:09:43.419 --> 00:09:46.419 to come. The scene at Parkland Hospital. I read 00:09:46.419 --> 00:09:49.360 the logs in the 2025 release and it sounds like. 00:09:49.690 --> 00:09:51.850 Absolute anarchy. Anarchy is the right word. 00:09:51.970 --> 00:09:53.950 You have the president of the United States lying 00:09:53.950 --> 00:09:56.610 dead in trauma room one. You have the governor 00:09:56.610 --> 00:09:59.029 of Texas bleeding out in trauma room two. And 00:09:59.029 --> 00:10:01.490 in the hallway, you have a literal standoff taking 00:10:01.490 --> 00:10:04.190 place. A physical confrontation. A standoff between 00:10:04.190 --> 00:10:06.629 who? Between the president's Secret Service detail 00:10:06.629 --> 00:10:09.889 and the Dallas County medical examiner, Dr. Earl 00:10:09.889 --> 00:10:13.110 Rose. You see, and this is a fact that blows 00:10:13.110 --> 00:10:17.149 people's minds. In 1963, Killing the president 00:10:17.149 --> 00:10:20.409 was not a federal crime. Wait, seriously, I keep 00:10:20.409 --> 00:10:22.269 forgetting this detail. It wasn't a federal crime. 00:10:22.370 --> 00:10:25.330 That's insane. No, it was just a homicide, which 00:10:25.330 --> 00:10:27.669 meant legally jurisdiction belonged to the state 00:10:27.669 --> 00:10:30.450 of Texas and Dallas County. Dr. Rose was doing 00:10:30.450 --> 00:10:32.549 his job. He stood in front of the gurney and 00:10:32.549 --> 00:10:35.269 said, in no uncertain terms, there must be an 00:10:35.269 --> 00:10:38.029 autopsy here in Dallas. The body does not leave 00:10:38.029 --> 00:10:40.190 this hospital until I say so. And the Secret 00:10:40.190 --> 00:10:42.389 Service wasn't having it. Not even a little bit. 00:10:42.490 --> 00:10:44.970 Their job was to protect the president or his 00:10:44.970 --> 00:10:48.129 body and get him back to Washington. Witnesses 00:10:48.129 --> 00:10:50.610 describe agents with guns drawn. They physically 00:10:50.610 --> 00:10:53.009 shoved Dr. Rose against a wall. They essentially 00:10:53.009 --> 00:10:55.429 hijacked the body. Wow. They forced their way 00:10:55.429 --> 00:10:57.830 out of the hospital, loaded the bronze casket 00:10:57.830 --> 00:11:00.090 onto the hearse, and sped to Air Force One where 00:11:00.090 --> 00:11:02.330 Lyndon Johnson was waiting to be sworn in. I 00:11:02.330 --> 00:11:05.009 get the emotion of it. They wanted to get him 00:11:05.009 --> 00:11:07.090 home. They didn't trust Dallas. They were in 00:11:07.090 --> 00:11:10.500 shock. But that decision. That was the original 00:11:10.500 --> 00:11:13.159 sin of the entire investigation, wasn't it? Without 00:11:13.159 --> 00:11:16.580 a doubt. Because they took the body, the autopsy 00:11:16.580 --> 00:11:19.360 wasn't done by forensic experts in Dallas who 00:11:19.360 --> 00:11:22.279 dealt with gunshot wounds every single day. It 00:11:22.279 --> 00:11:24.720 was done hours later at Bethesda Naval Hospital 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:27.649 in Maryland. by military pathologists. Who weren't 00:11:27.649 --> 00:11:29.690 forensic experts. They were hospital pathologists. 00:11:29.789 --> 00:11:32.110 They studied diseases. They looked at tissue 00:11:32.110 --> 00:11:34.509 samples under a microscope. They weren't trained 00:11:34.509 --> 00:11:37.250 to track bullet paths or distinguish entry from 00:11:37.250 --> 00:11:40.990 exit wounds in a mutilated skull. And that incompetence 00:11:40.990 --> 00:11:43.809 would haunt this case forever. We will get to 00:11:43.809 --> 00:11:45.850 the disaster of that autopsy later, but I want 00:11:45.850 --> 00:11:48.669 to go back to Dealey Plaza for a second. The 00:11:48.669 --> 00:11:51.730 car is gone. The president is gone. But the crowd 00:11:51.730 --> 00:11:53.929 is still there and they are running. They are. 00:11:54.049 --> 00:11:56.029 And this is crucial for the conspiracy narrative. 00:11:56.210 --> 00:11:58.250 They aren't looking up at the book depository 00:11:58.250 --> 00:12:00.529 window where the shots actually came from. Almost 00:12:00.529 --> 00:12:02.889 everyone is running up the grassy knoll. Because 00:12:02.889 --> 00:12:04.409 that's where they thought the shots came from. 00:12:04.610 --> 00:12:07.250 Right. The acoustics in Dealey Plaza are incredibly 00:12:07.250 --> 00:12:10.500 tricky. It's an echo chamber. You have tall buildings 00:12:10.500 --> 00:12:13.340 on three sides and a concrete underpass. The 00:12:13.340 --> 00:12:16.120 sound waves bounce all over the place. To many 00:12:16.120 --> 00:12:18.279 people standing on Elm Street, the crack sounded 00:12:18.279 --> 00:12:20.159 like it came from the picket fence line at the 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:22.279 top of the hill. So the police run up there. 00:12:22.399 --> 00:12:24.720 They jump the fence. They have their guns drawn. 00:12:24.899 --> 00:12:28.059 What do they find? Nothing. There's a parking 00:12:28.059 --> 00:12:31.779 lot. A railroad yard? There was a tower operator 00:12:31.779 --> 00:12:33.960 named Lee Bowers sitting high up in the rail 00:12:33.960 --> 00:12:37.100 yard tower. He had a perfect view of the area 00:12:37.100 --> 00:12:39.440 behind the fence. The perfect witness. You'd 00:12:39.440 --> 00:12:42.600 think so. He testified that he saw some commotion 00:12:42.600 --> 00:12:45.480 and two men milling around near the fence a few 00:12:45.480 --> 00:12:47.379 minutes before the motorcade, but he didn't see 00:12:47.379 --> 00:12:49.220 anyone shooting and he didn't see anyone running 00:12:49.220 --> 00:12:51.179 away with a rifle after the shots. He just saw 00:12:51.179 --> 00:12:54.679 smoke, maybe from a motorcycle. So nothing. Meanwhile, 00:12:54.779 --> 00:12:57.220 back at the book depository, witnesses did see 00:12:57.220 --> 00:13:00.769 something. Yes. A construction worker named Howard 00:13:00.769 --> 00:13:03.350 Brennan was sitting on a wall across the street. 00:13:03.470 --> 00:13:06.230 He looked up because of the commotion. He saw 00:13:06.230 --> 00:13:08.570 a man in the sixth floor corner window taking 00:13:08.570 --> 00:13:12.070 aim. He saw the gunfire for the final shot. He 00:13:12.070 --> 00:13:14.370 saw the man withdraw. And he gave a description 00:13:14.370 --> 00:13:17.269 to the police. Almost immediately. White male, 00:13:17.490 --> 00:13:21.710 early 30s, slender build, about 165 pounds, wearing 00:13:21.710 --> 00:13:23.940 light colored or khaki clothing. It was a very 00:13:23.940 --> 00:13:25.980 good description. And when police searched the 00:13:25.980 --> 00:13:28.840 building, they found what we now call the sniper's 00:13:28.840 --> 00:13:32.000 nest. They did. On the sixth floor in the southeast 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:34.980 corner window, someone had stacked boxes of books 00:13:34.980 --> 00:13:36.919 to create a screen hiding the gunman from the 00:13:36.919 --> 00:13:39.240 rest of the floor. It created a little perch. 00:13:39.559 --> 00:13:42.580 They found three spent shell cartridges on the 00:13:42.580 --> 00:13:45.320 floor and stashed between some other boxes nearby. 00:13:45.500 --> 00:13:48.600 They found the rifle. An Italian manlisher Carcano 00:13:48.600 --> 00:13:51.419 M9138. That's the one. Which brings us to the 00:13:51.419 --> 00:13:54.759 man. Lee Harvey Oswald. The man who, according 00:13:54.759 --> 00:13:56.580 to the official story, changed the world all 00:13:56.580 --> 00:13:58.460 by himself. But he wasn't just some random guy, 00:13:58.539 --> 00:14:00.860 was he? He wasn't just some drifter. No. And 00:14:00.860 --> 00:14:03.320 this is where the new files, the 2025 release, 00:14:03.600 --> 00:14:06.559 really add a lot of depth. Oswald wasn't just 00:14:06.559 --> 00:14:09.519 a lone nut in the sense of a man with no history. 00:14:09.899 --> 00:14:13.879 He had a file. A thick one. Let's profile him. 00:14:13.940 --> 00:14:16.440 Because I think people dismiss him as a patsy 00:14:16.440 --> 00:14:18.659 too easily without looking at his psychology 00:14:18.659 --> 00:14:22.779 and his history of violence. Oswald was a deeply 00:14:22.779 --> 00:14:25.399 troubled, angry young man who was obsessed with 00:14:25.399 --> 00:14:28.460 Marxism from the age of 14. He joined the Marines 00:14:28.460 --> 00:14:31.220 largely to get away from his overbearing mother. 00:14:31.379 --> 00:14:34.360 He was smart, but undisciplined. And he's trained 00:14:34.360 --> 00:14:37.179 as a sharpshooter. Now, sharpshooter, is that 00:14:37.179 --> 00:14:39.039 a sniper? What does that term mean in the Marines? 00:14:39.299 --> 00:14:41.220 It's a specific qualification. There are three 00:14:41.220 --> 00:14:43.799 levels. Marksman, which is the basic level, then 00:14:43.799 --> 00:14:46.419 sharpshooter, and then expert at the top. He 00:14:46.419 --> 00:14:48.759 was in the middle. He was a decent shot. Certainly 00:14:48.759 --> 00:14:50.799 capable of hitting a slow -moving target at 80 00:14:50.799 --> 00:14:53.120 yards, which was the maximum distance in Dealey 00:14:53.120 --> 00:14:55.840 Plaza. But the real turning point in his life, 00:14:55.899 --> 00:14:57.539 the thing that should have put him on every watch 00:14:57.539 --> 00:15:00.860 list, is 1959. He defects. At the Soviet Union. 00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:02.820 In the middle of the Cold War. You can't overstate 00:15:02.820 --> 00:15:05.159 how big a deal that was. It's a massive red flag. 00:15:05.580 --> 00:15:08.659 He walks into the U .S. Embassy in Moscow, slams 00:15:08.659 --> 00:15:11.320 his passport down on the desk, and renounces 00:15:11.320 --> 00:15:13.840 his American citizenship. He tells them he's 00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:15.720 going to give radar secrets he learned in the 00:15:15.720 --> 00:15:19.169 Marines to the Russians. Which should have put 00:15:19.169 --> 00:15:21.570 him on a do -not -fly list for the rest of his 00:15:21.570 --> 00:15:24.110 life, at the very least. You would think. The 00:15:24.110 --> 00:15:25.549 Soviets don't quite know what to do with him. 00:15:25.590 --> 00:15:28.049 They think he might be a spy. They send him to 00:15:28.049 --> 00:15:30.129 Minsk to work in a radio and television factory. 00:15:30.690 --> 00:15:33.009 He meets and marries a Russian woman, Marina 00:15:33.009 --> 00:15:35.830 Prusakova. And he thinks he's found his communist 00:15:35.830 --> 00:15:39.230 paradise. For about five minutes, the reality 00:15:39.230 --> 00:15:42.690 of Soviet life bores him to tears. It's not the 00:15:42.690 --> 00:15:45.389 revolutionary paradise he imagined. It's gray, 00:15:45.590 --> 00:15:48.909 it's bureaucratic, it's dull. So in 1962, he 00:15:48.909 --> 00:15:50.870 gets disillusioned and decides to come back to 00:15:50.870 --> 00:15:53.049 the U .S. And the U .S. government just lets 00:15:53.049 --> 00:15:55.529 him with his wife after he threatened to commit 00:15:55.529 --> 00:15:58.009 espionage. Not only do they let him back, they 00:15:58.009 --> 00:16:00.149 loan him the money for the travel. See, that's 00:16:00.149 --> 00:16:02.090 one of those facts that conspiracy theorists 00:16:02.090 --> 00:16:04.190 seize on, and you can't blame them. It looks 00:16:04.190 --> 00:16:07.570 incredibly suspicious. It does. The 2025 files 00:16:07.570 --> 00:16:09.970 clarify this a bit. There are memos showing the 00:16:09.970 --> 00:16:12.470 State Department policy at the time was to encourage 00:16:12.470 --> 00:16:15.129 defectors to return. They saw it as a propaganda 00:16:15.129 --> 00:16:17.710 win. See, even the communists prefer America. 00:16:18.090 --> 00:16:21.190 But they clearly, tragically underestimated the 00:16:21.190 --> 00:16:23.429 threat he posed. So he lands back in the Dallas 00:16:23.429 --> 00:16:25.529 -Fort Worth area. He's frustrated. He's failing 00:16:25.529 --> 00:16:27.830 at life. He can't keep a job. He's beating his 00:16:27.830 --> 00:16:30.009 wife. And he's getting more and more radical. 00:16:30.250 --> 00:16:33.980 He finds a new cause, Cuba. He moves to New Orleans 00:16:33.980 --> 00:16:36.519 and starts a one man chapter of the Fair Play 00:16:36.519 --> 00:16:38.679 for Cuba committee. He was the only member, wasn't 00:16:38.679 --> 00:16:41.159 he? He was the founder, chairman and sole member. 00:16:41.360 --> 00:16:43.820 He's handing out pro Castro leaflets on street 00:16:43.820 --> 00:16:46.279 corners. He gets into a fight with anti Castro 00:16:46.279 --> 00:16:49.179 Cubans, gets arrested. He's desperate for attention. 00:16:49.539 --> 00:16:51.740 Then he goes to Mexico City in September 1963, 00:16:52.299 --> 00:16:54.600 just two months before the assassination. Right. 00:16:54.700 --> 00:16:57.320 He visits the Cuban and Soviet embassies trying 00:16:57.320 --> 00:16:59.419 to get a visa to go to Cuba or back to Russia. 00:17:00.120 --> 00:17:03.139 Both embassies reject him. They see him as unstable. 00:17:03.340 --> 00:17:05.799 He's melting down. And this leads to the Walker 00:17:05.799 --> 00:17:08.039 incident. To me, this is the smoking gun for 00:17:08.039 --> 00:17:10.720 his violent capability. Absolutely. This is crucial 00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:14.400 context. Seven months before JFK, in April 1963, 00:17:14.920 --> 00:17:18.440 Oswald Tase's mail -order Carcano rifle stalks 00:17:18.440 --> 00:17:21.109 the home of General Edwin Walker. Who is a very 00:17:21.109 --> 00:17:24.170 prominent right wing segregationist figure in 00:17:24.170 --> 00:17:26.769 Dallas. A political target. A huge political 00:17:26.769 --> 00:17:29.730 target. Oswald waits until it's dark and he fires 00:17:29.730 --> 00:17:31.750 a shot through Walker's dining room window while 00:17:31.750 --> 00:17:33.849 Walker is sitting at his desk doing his taxes. 00:17:34.029 --> 00:17:36.589 He missed though. By an inch. He hit the wooden 00:17:36.589 --> 00:17:40.309 window frame. But the intent was murder. Marina 00:17:40.309 --> 00:17:42.269 found a note he'd written giving her instructions 00:17:42.269 --> 00:17:45.190 on what to do if he was caught. This proves Oswald 00:17:45.190 --> 00:17:47.470 wasn't just a talker. He was a hunter of men. 00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:50.420 He had political targets in his sights long before 00:17:50.420 --> 00:17:53.099 Kennedy ever came to Dallas. So fast forward 00:17:53.099 --> 00:17:56.000 to November 22. He shoots the president. He leaves 00:17:56.000 --> 00:17:58.920 the rifle. He calmly buys a soda from the vending 00:17:58.920 --> 00:18:01.339 machine in the lunchroom, which is such a bizarre, 00:18:01.480 --> 00:18:03.920 chilling detail, and walks out the front door 00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:05.759 before the police manage to seal the building. 00:18:05.880 --> 00:18:07.319 His co -worker saw him and said, hey, where are 00:18:07.319 --> 00:18:08.799 you going? And he just mumbled something and 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:11.420 kept walking. He gets on a bus, then a cab, goes 00:18:11.420 --> 00:18:14.160 home, grabs a jacket and a pistol. And this is 00:18:14.160 --> 00:18:15.980 where the PASI theory falls apart for me. Me 00:18:15.980 --> 00:18:19.230 too. If he was just a patsy, some fall guy set 00:18:19.230 --> 00:18:22.509 up by the CIA or the mob, his job is done. He 00:18:22.509 --> 00:18:24.809 should be laying low, waiting for his handler 00:18:24.809 --> 00:18:27.450 to exfiltrate him. Why does he do what he does 00:18:27.450 --> 00:18:30.190 next? The Tippett murder. Right. It's about 1 00:18:30.190 --> 00:18:33.349 .125 p .m., maybe 45 minutes after the assassination. 00:18:34.390 --> 00:18:36.609 Oswald is walking through the Oak Cliff neighborhood. 00:18:36.950 --> 00:18:39.670 A Dallas police officer, J .D. Tippett, pulls 00:18:39.670 --> 00:18:42.420 up alongside him. Oswald matches the description 00:18:42.420 --> 00:18:44.500 of the suspect that was broadcast on the police 00:18:44.500 --> 00:18:47.599 radio. So Tippett is just doing his job, a routine 00:18:47.599 --> 00:18:49.720 stop. A routine stop. He gets out of his car. 00:18:50.079 --> 00:18:51.960 Oswald doesn't put his hands up. He doesn't explain 00:18:51.960 --> 00:18:55.319 himself. He draws a .38 revolver and shoots Officer 00:18:55.319 --> 00:18:57.759 Tippett four times. And it wasn't a panic shooting 00:18:57.759 --> 00:18:59.799 from a distance. The reports are brutal. It was 00:18:59.799 --> 00:19:02.220 an execution. Tippett falls to the ground. Oswald 00:19:02.220 --> 00:19:04.380 walks around the patrol car, stands over him, 00:19:04.420 --> 00:19:06.680 and puts a final billet in his temple. That is 00:19:06.680 --> 00:19:09.140 not the act of a scared patsy. That is the act 00:19:09.140 --> 00:19:11.480 of a man who has decided he is at war with the 00:19:11.480 --> 00:19:14.680 world and will not be taken. He then runs, ejecting 00:19:14.680 --> 00:19:17.440 the shells as he goes, and ducks into a movie 00:19:17.440 --> 00:19:20.660 theater. The Texas theater. He sneaks in without 00:19:20.660 --> 00:19:23.619 paying. The movie playing, ironically, is war 00:19:23.619 --> 00:19:26.200 as hell. The shoe store manager next door sees 00:19:26.200 --> 00:19:28.900 him and calls the police. They surround the place. 00:19:29.079 --> 00:19:31.039 They do. They turn the house lights up. When 00:19:31.039 --> 00:19:33.480 they enter the auditorium, Oswald pulls his gun 00:19:33.480 --> 00:19:36.140 again. He tries to shoot the arresting officer, 00:19:36.339 --> 00:19:38.980 but the hammer lands on the web of the officer's 00:19:38.980 --> 00:19:41.720 hand and doesn't fire. He fights them all the 00:19:41.720 --> 00:19:43.539 way out, screaming and punching. Screaming, I 00:19:43.539 --> 00:19:45.720 am not resisting arrest, while he is actively 00:19:45.720 --> 00:19:48.559 resisting arrest. And then, at the station, he 00:19:48.559 --> 00:19:52.069 says the famous line, I'm just a patsy. A line 00:19:52.069 --> 00:19:54.250 that has launched a thousand books and a hundred 00:19:54.250 --> 00:19:56.390 documentaries. Okay, we have the man, we have 00:19:56.390 --> 00:19:58.069 the timeline, now we have to do the hard part. 00:19:58.190 --> 00:20:01.569 The physics. The magic bullet. Or Commission 00:20:01.569 --> 00:20:04.630 Exhibit 399, to give it its formal, less exciting 00:20:04.630 --> 00:20:07.049 name. This is the thing that convinced me for 00:20:07.049 --> 00:20:09.650 years that there was a conspiracy. The idea that 00:20:09.650 --> 00:20:13.089 one bullet could hit JFK in the back, come out 00:20:13.089 --> 00:20:15.769 his throat, make a right turn, hit Connolly in 00:20:15.769 --> 00:20:18.049 the back, come out his chest, shatter his wrist, 00:20:18.130 --> 00:20:20.660 and end up in his thigh. It just sounds like 00:20:20.660 --> 00:20:23.960 Looney Tunes physics. It does if, and this is 00:20:23.960 --> 00:20:26.799 a very big if, you assume the two men were sitting 00:20:26.799 --> 00:20:29.460 directly in front of each other at the same height, 00:20:29.579 --> 00:20:32.539 facing perfectly forward. Which is how it's always 00:20:32.539 --> 00:20:34.640 drawn in the diagrams in the conspiracy books. 00:20:34.740 --> 00:20:36.940 It's always a straight on view. Exactly. And 00:20:36.940 --> 00:20:39.519 the early diagrams were wrong. The Warren Commission 00:20:39.519 --> 00:20:42.539 itself got this wrong at first. But the limousine 00:20:42.539 --> 00:20:45.079 was custom built. The jump seats, where Governor 00:20:45.079 --> 00:20:47.559 Connolly was sitting, were not directly in front 00:20:47.559 --> 00:20:49.960 of the rear seat. They were situated about six 00:20:49.960 --> 00:20:52.579 inches inboard, closer to the center of the car, 00:20:52.700 --> 00:20:54.839 and about three inches lower than the president's 00:20:54.839 --> 00:20:57.059 seat. Okay, so Connolly is lower and more to 00:20:57.059 --> 00:20:58.920 the middle. And he wasn't facing straight ahead. 00:20:59.119 --> 00:21:01.579 At the moment of the shot, he had turned slightly 00:21:01.579 --> 00:21:03.660 to his right to look at the crowds. So if you 00:21:03.660 --> 00:21:06.460 account for that offset and the turn... If you 00:21:06.460 --> 00:21:08.980 line them up as they actually were, and you trace 00:21:08.980 --> 00:21:11.359 a line from the sniper's nest window down to 00:21:11.359 --> 00:21:14.670 the car... The trajectory isn't a zigzag. It's 00:21:14.670 --> 00:21:16.990 a straight line. It's geometry. So it passes 00:21:16.990 --> 00:21:19.130 through Kennedy's neck. Which is a soft tissue 00:21:19.130 --> 00:21:22.130 wound. It then enters Connolly's back near his 00:21:22.130 --> 00:21:25.710 right armpit, exits below his right nipple, smashes 00:21:25.710 --> 00:21:27.630 the radius bone in his wrist, which was resting 00:21:27.630 --> 00:21:30.890 on his lap, and then embeds itself superficially 00:21:30.890 --> 00:21:33.809 in his left thigh. Seven wounds, one bullet, 00:21:33.869 --> 00:21:36.329 one straight line. It's geometry. And the timing 00:21:36.329 --> 00:21:38.490 dictates it too, right? The timing is the key. 00:21:38.690 --> 00:21:41.990 In the Zapruder film, Kennedy reacts, and Connolly 00:21:41.990 --> 00:21:44.930 reacts almost immediately after. The time gap 00:21:44.930 --> 00:21:47.950 is less than a second. The Carcano rifle is a 00:21:47.950 --> 00:21:50.910 bolt -action rifle. The fastest an expert marksman 00:21:50.910 --> 00:21:53.210 could cycle the bolt and fire again was 2 .3 00:21:53.210 --> 00:21:55.609 seconds. So lest there were two shooters firing 00:21:55.609 --> 00:21:58.130 almost simultaneously, One bullet had to hit 00:21:58.130 --> 00:22:00.150 both men. Okay, but what about the bullet itself? 00:22:00.309 --> 00:22:02.130 It was found on a stretcher at Parkland, and 00:22:02.130 --> 00:22:03.890 people always say it was pristine. How does a 00:22:03.890 --> 00:22:05.769 bullet smash a rib and a wrist bone and look 00:22:05.769 --> 00:22:07.670 brand new? That's another one of the great myths 00:22:07.670 --> 00:22:10.069 of this case. It wasn't pristine. That's just 00:22:10.069 --> 00:22:12.630 not true. It was flattened on one side, the base 00:22:12.630 --> 00:22:15.569 was deformed, it was squashed. But it wasn't 00:22:15.569 --> 00:22:18.089 fragmented into a dozen pieces. And why wasn't 00:22:18.089 --> 00:22:20.789 it? Because of the type of ammo. This was a 6 00:22:20.789 --> 00:22:24.309 .5mm Western Cartridge Company round. It's a 00:22:24.309 --> 00:22:27.519 fully metal -jacketed military bullet. It is 00:22:27.519 --> 00:22:29.880 designed to pass through targets, not expand 00:22:29.880 --> 00:22:32.119 or explode inside them like a hunting round. 00:22:32.660 --> 00:22:34.900 By the time it had a heavy bone of Connolly's 00:22:34.900 --> 00:22:37.359 wrist, it had already passed through two torsos. 00:22:37.359 --> 00:22:39.420 It had slowed down immensely, which is why it 00:22:39.420 --> 00:22:42.519 deformed instead of shattering. But I have to 00:22:42.519 --> 00:22:44.180 play the skeptic here because this is a big one. 00:22:44.220 --> 00:22:45.900 There was a massive wrench thrown into this just 00:22:45.900 --> 00:22:49.140 a couple of years ago. Paul Landis. Ah, yes. 00:22:49.539 --> 00:22:53.980 The Landis revelation of 2023. A true curveball. 00:22:54.349 --> 00:22:56.269 Paul Landis was a Secret Service agent on the 00:22:56.269 --> 00:22:59.329 detail that day. For 60 years, he kept quiet. 00:22:59.730 --> 00:23:01.970 Then he writes a book claiming he found the bullet. 00:23:02.609 --> 00:23:05.069 Not on a hospital stretcher. He says he found 00:23:05.069 --> 00:23:07.170 it on the back seat of the limo lodged in the 00:23:07.170 --> 00:23:09.369 upholstery right behind where Kennedy was sitting. 00:23:09.490 --> 00:23:12.730 This was a bombshell. Landis claims he picked 00:23:12.730 --> 00:23:14.920 up the bullet. put it in his pocket to secure 00:23:14.920 --> 00:23:17.480 the evidence. Then later, in the chaos at the 00:23:17.480 --> 00:23:19.640 hospital, he placed it on Kennedy's stretcher 00:23:19.640 --> 00:23:22.019 to make sure it stayed with the body. He thinks 00:23:22.019 --> 00:23:23.920 it might have rolled onto Connolly's stretcher 00:23:23.920 --> 00:23:26.980 by mistake. If he's telling the truth. That kills 00:23:26.980 --> 00:23:29.099 the single bullet theory, doesn't it? Because 00:23:29.099 --> 00:23:31.019 if the bullet fell out of Kennedy's back and 00:23:31.019 --> 00:23:33.680 landed on the seat, it never hit Connolly. It 00:23:33.680 --> 00:23:36.819 absolutely gets it. If the bullet didn't go through 00:23:36.819 --> 00:23:39.660 to Connolly, then Connolly had to have been hit 00:23:39.660 --> 00:23:42.799 by a separate shot. which means a second gunman 00:23:42.799 --> 00:23:45.940 from somewhere or a shot sequence that the Zapruder 00:23:45.940 --> 00:23:48.640 film timing and the Carcano's firing rate simply 00:23:48.640 --> 00:23:51.500 don't allow for Oswald alone. So do we believe 00:23:51.500 --> 00:23:55.599 Landis. After 60 years of silence. It's so tough. 00:23:55.680 --> 00:23:59.299 Memory is a fragile, malleable thing. We are 00:23:59.299 --> 00:24:01.519 talking about an 88 -year -old man recalling 00:24:01.519 --> 00:24:05.160 seconds of absolute chaos from six decades prior. 00:24:05.680 --> 00:24:08.839 His written reports from 1963 don't mention finding 00:24:08.839 --> 00:24:11.460 a billet. He says he was in shock and it just 00:24:11.460 --> 00:24:14.180 didn't register. It's possible he's misremembering 00:24:14.180 --> 00:24:16.380 a fragment as the whole bullet, but it's one 00:24:16.380 --> 00:24:18.200 of those tantalizing loose ends that ensures 00:24:18.200 --> 00:24:20.700 this debate will never, ever truly die. OK, let's 00:24:20.700 --> 00:24:22.039 talk about the other ballistics controversy, 00:24:22.400 --> 00:24:25.880 the headshot, the mantra, back into the left. 00:24:26.019 --> 00:24:28.599 The Oliver Stone mantra, the three most famous 00:24:28.599 --> 00:24:31.500 words in conspiracy theory culture. It's so intuitive, 00:24:31.579 --> 00:24:33.819 right? If I punch you in the face, your head 00:24:33.819 --> 00:24:36.119 goes back. If you get shot from the front from 00:24:36.119 --> 00:24:37.960 the grassy knoll, your head should snap back. 00:24:38.539 --> 00:24:40.960 Kennedy's head snaps violently backward and to 00:24:40.960 --> 00:24:43.119 the left. Therefore, he was shot from the front, 00:24:43.220 --> 00:24:45.759 case closed. It makes perfect sense in a bar 00:24:45.759 --> 00:24:47.940 fight. It doesn't make sense in wound ballistics. 00:24:48.440 --> 00:24:50.779 There are two forces at play here that the Rockefeller 00:24:50.779 --> 00:24:53.059 Commission and later scientific panels identified 00:24:53.059 --> 00:24:55.660 and proved. First, there's the neuromuscular 00:24:55.660 --> 00:24:57.619 reaction. Okay, what's that? A massive trauma 00:24:57.619 --> 00:24:59.819 to the brainstem, which is what happened here, 00:25:00.019 --> 00:25:03.299 can cause a momentary violent seizure. Every 00:25:03.299 --> 00:25:05.740 muscle in the back contracts at once, arching 00:25:05.740 --> 00:25:08.099 the spine and snapping the body stiffly backward. 00:25:08.359 --> 00:25:10.880 It's an involuntary nerve reaction. And a second 00:25:10.880 --> 00:25:13.319 force. It's called the jet effect. This was proven 00:25:13.319 --> 00:25:15.720 in experiments using taped melons and skulls 00:25:15.720 --> 00:25:18.420 filled with gelatin. When the bullet exited the 00:25:18.420 --> 00:25:20.500 front right of the skull, it blew a cone of brain 00:25:20.500 --> 00:25:23.519 matter and blood forward. Physics Newton's third 00:25:23.519 --> 00:25:25.599 law dictates an equal and opposite reaction. 00:25:26.180 --> 00:25:28.799 The violent ejection of matter forward pushes 00:25:28.799 --> 00:25:31.200 the head backward. Like a rocket. Exactly like 00:25:31.200 --> 00:25:33.660 a rocket. the force of the exiting material is 00:25:33.660 --> 00:25:35.799 greater than the force of the incoming projectile. 00:25:35.900 --> 00:25:38.299 So the physics actually supports a shot from 00:25:38.299 --> 00:25:40.299 behind, even if our eyes tell us the complete 00:25:40.299 --> 00:25:43.319 opposite. Precisely. And the autopsy, flawed 00:25:43.319 --> 00:25:46.259 as it was, was very clear on one thing. The entry 00:25:46.259 --> 00:25:48.619 wound was in the back of the head, and the beveling 00:25:48.619 --> 00:25:50.579 of the skull bone, which shows the direction 00:25:50.579 --> 00:25:53.160 of force, proved the direction was back to front. 00:25:53.460 --> 00:25:56.799 Okay. So the physical evidence, while messy and 00:25:56.799 --> 00:25:58.960 complicated by things like Paul Landis, still 00:25:58.960 --> 00:26:02.680 points to Oswald. But then... Enter Jack Ruby, 00:26:02.880 --> 00:26:05.460 because this is the moment the narrative spirals 00:26:05.460 --> 00:26:07.880 out of control and becomes a true conspiracy 00:26:07.880 --> 00:26:12.119 fever dream. Sunday morning, November 24th, Oswald 00:26:12.119 --> 00:26:14.539 is being moved from the city jail to the county 00:26:14.539 --> 00:26:17.339 jail. And the Dallas police, in their infinite 00:26:17.339 --> 00:26:20.019 wisdom, decide to announce the exact time of 00:26:20.019 --> 00:26:22.160 the transfer to the press. So the basement is 00:26:22.160 --> 00:26:24.619 just a mob scene of reporters and cameras. It's 00:26:24.619 --> 00:26:26.940 on live TV. Millions of people are watching. 00:26:27.039 --> 00:26:30.089 And out of the scrum pops Jack Ruby. A local 00:26:30.089 --> 00:26:32.710 nightclub owner. A guy with known low -level 00:26:32.710 --> 00:26:35.130 mob ties. A guy who ran strippers and hustled 00:26:35.130 --> 00:26:37.950 cops. Not exactly a model citizen. He just steps 00:26:37.950 --> 00:26:40.470 out, pushes a pistol into Oswald's stomach, and 00:26:40.470 --> 00:26:43.049 fires one shot. Oswald crumples to the ground 00:26:43.049 --> 00:26:45.450 live on national television. America's first 00:26:45.450 --> 00:26:49.230 live televised murder. Why? What was his reason? 00:26:49.269 --> 00:26:51.460 What did he say? Ruby gave a few reasons over 00:26:51.460 --> 00:26:53.519 time. He said he was distraught over the president's 00:26:53.519 --> 00:26:55.700 death. He famously said he wanted to spare Mrs. 00:26:55.859 --> 00:26:57.779 Kennedy the discomfiture of coming back to trial. 00:26:57.960 --> 00:27:00.519 He claimed he wanted to be a hero. That sounds 00:27:00.519 --> 00:27:03.160 suspiciously noble for a strip club owner with 00:27:03.160 --> 00:27:05.900 ties to organized crime. It does. And this is 00:27:05.900 --> 00:27:07.599 where the mob theory gains the most traction. 00:27:08.240 --> 00:27:10.980 Ruby owed money. He was connected to guys like 00:27:10.980 --> 00:27:13.859 Carlos Marcello and Santo Traficante, two mob 00:27:13.859 --> 00:27:16.440 bosses who absolutely hated the Kennedys for 00:27:16.440 --> 00:27:19.210 cracking down on them. The theory is that the 00:27:19.210 --> 00:27:22.069 mob used Ruby to silence Oswald to prevent him 00:27:22.069 --> 00:27:25.890 from talking. Because if Oswald lives, he goes 00:27:25.890 --> 00:27:28.950 to trial. We hear his defense. We see the evidence 00:27:28.950 --> 00:27:31.789 tested in court. With Oswald dead, the book is 00:27:31.789 --> 00:27:34.890 closed. Exactly. Ruby's act denied history its 00:27:34.890 --> 00:27:37.170 trial. It left a permanent question mark. And 00:27:37.170 --> 00:27:39.529 Ruby himself didn't last long. He was convicted, 00:27:39.589 --> 00:27:42.400 but his conviction was overturned. While awaiting 00:27:42.400 --> 00:27:44.380 a retrial, he was diagnosed with cancer and died 00:27:44.380 --> 00:27:47.460 in prison in 1967. So within four years, the 00:27:47.460 --> 00:27:50.420 president, his alleged assassin, and his assassin's 00:27:50.420 --> 00:27:52.859 assassin are all dead. It's too neat. It wraps 00:27:52.859 --> 00:27:55.380 up too perfectly, which paradoxically makes it 00:27:55.380 --> 00:27:57.539 feel incredibly messy and suspicious. It's the 00:27:57.539 --> 00:27:59.980 perfect fuel for a conspiracy fire. So the government 00:27:59.980 --> 00:28:02.059 steps in to try and put out the fire to tell 00:28:02.059 --> 00:28:03.819 us what happened, the investigations, and this 00:28:03.819 --> 00:28:07.000 is just a comedy of errors. A tragedy of errors, 00:28:07.140 --> 00:28:09.099 really. First, you have the Warren Commission 00:28:09.099 --> 00:28:12.960 in 1964. immense pressure from the new president, 00:28:13.119 --> 00:28:16.400 LBJ, to close the case, to find a simple answer, 00:28:16.519 --> 00:28:19.359 and most of all to assure the public that there 00:28:19.359 --> 00:28:21.319 was no foreign conspiracy that could lead to 00:28:21.319 --> 00:28:23.859 World War III with the Soviets. So they came 00:28:23.859 --> 00:28:25.960 to a quick conclusion. A very quick conclusion. 00:28:26.599 --> 00:28:30.920 Oswald acted alone. Ruby acted alone. Case closed. 00:28:31.200 --> 00:28:33.019 But they were flying blind, weren't they? The 00:28:33.019 --> 00:28:34.720 files show they weren't getting the full story. 00:28:34.960 --> 00:28:37.160 They were being actively lied to, or at least 00:28:37.160 --> 00:28:40.240 misled by omission. The CIA and the FBI withheld 00:28:40.240 --> 00:28:42.740 massive amounts of information. The CIA, for 00:28:42.740 --> 00:28:44.480 instance, never told the Warren Commission about 00:28:44.480 --> 00:28:46.940 their own plots to assassinate Fidel Castro, 00:28:47.200 --> 00:28:49.279 often using the mafia to do it. Which is kind 00:28:49.279 --> 00:28:51.400 of relevant. It's incredibly relevant. If you 00:28:51.400 --> 00:28:54.599 are investigating why a pro -Castro Marxist might 00:28:54.599 --> 00:28:56.859 kill the president, it probably helps to know 00:28:56.859 --> 00:28:58.400 that the president's government was actively 00:28:58.400 --> 00:29:01.619 trying to kill Castro. So who exposed that? The 00:29:01.619 --> 00:29:04.460 Church Committee in the mid -70s. They were investigating 00:29:04.460 --> 00:29:07.740 CIA abuses, and they uncovered all of this, the 00:29:07.740 --> 00:29:11.119 so -called family jewels. It proved the CIA was 00:29:11.119 --> 00:29:13.160 in the assassination business. It didn't prove 00:29:13.160 --> 00:29:14.920 they killed Kennedy, but it proved they were 00:29:14.920 --> 00:29:17.059 capable of the mindset which validated public 00:29:17.059 --> 00:29:19.079 suspicion. Then you had the one and only trial 00:29:19.079 --> 00:29:21.559 ever brought, the Jim Garrison case in New Orleans. 00:29:21.759 --> 00:29:24.400 The basis for the Oliver Stone movie. Garrison, 00:29:24.640 --> 00:29:27.779 the DA, argued a sprawling conspiracy involving 00:29:27.779 --> 00:29:30.799 a New Orleans businessman named Clay Shaw and 00:29:30.799 --> 00:29:33.569 elements of the CIA. And the outcome. The jury 00:29:33.569 --> 00:29:35.630 acquitted Shaw in less than an hour. They didn't 00:29:35.630 --> 00:29:39.529 buy it. But the story, the narrative, was powerful. 00:29:39.730 --> 00:29:42.450 Which leads to the HSEA in the late 70s, and 00:29:42.450 --> 00:29:44.210 they actually concluded it was a conspiracy. 00:29:44.410 --> 00:29:46.849 This is the one people always forget. In 1979, 00:29:47.089 --> 00:29:48.990 the House Select Committee on Assassinations 00:29:48.990 --> 00:29:51.589 said there was a high probability of two gunmen. 00:29:51.690 --> 00:29:53.670 And that was a huge deal. What was it based on? 00:29:54.130 --> 00:29:56.970 Acoustics again. They found a Dictabelt recording 00:29:56.970 --> 00:29:59.869 from a police motorcycle that had an open mic 00:29:59.869 --> 00:30:03.140 in Dealey Plaza. A team of acoustic experts listened 00:30:03.140 --> 00:30:05.539 to it and said they heard the echoes of four 00:30:05.539 --> 00:30:08.880 shots. Three from the book depository and one 00:30:08.880 --> 00:30:12.400 from the grassy knoll. So, case closed, conspiracy 00:30:12.400 --> 00:30:16.539 confirmed by Congress. For a while, yes. But 00:30:16.539 --> 00:30:19.539 science advanced. Years later, the National Academy 00:30:19.539 --> 00:30:22.339 of Sciences took that same tape and analyzed 00:30:22.339 --> 00:30:25.559 it with much more sophisticated technology. They 00:30:25.559 --> 00:30:27.759 found that the shots were actually static spikes 00:30:27.759 --> 00:30:30.369 and More importantly, they could hear crosstalk 00:30:30.369 --> 00:30:32.450 from the police dispatcher that occurred minutes 00:30:32.450 --> 00:30:34.509 after the assassination had already happened. 00:30:34.670 --> 00:30:36.109 So the tech wasn't even from the right time. 00:30:36.230 --> 00:30:37.750 The recording wasn't even made at the time of 00:30:37.750 --> 00:30:39.890 the shots. The acoustic evidence was completely 00:30:39.890 --> 00:30:43.130 debunked. But the headline, conspiracy likely, 00:30:43.450 --> 00:30:45.710 had already been printed in every newspaper in 00:30:45.710 --> 00:30:48.589 America. The retraction never gets the same attention. 00:30:48.930 --> 00:30:51.210 And we can't talk about the investigations without 00:30:51.210 --> 00:30:53.430 coming back to the autopsy. You called it a disaster 00:30:53.430 --> 00:30:56.150 earlier. Give us the gory details. Why was it 00:30:56.150 --> 00:30:59.420 so bad? Well. Dr. Michael Baden, who is the chief 00:30:59.420 --> 00:31:02.259 forensic pathologist for the HSEA, said it was 00:31:02.259 --> 00:31:05.059 a master class in incompetence. For charters, 00:31:05.140 --> 00:31:08.059 the pathologists at Bethesda didn't shave the 00:31:08.059 --> 00:31:10.259 head wound to see the margins clearly. Which 00:31:10.259 --> 00:31:13.700 is basic procedure. It's day one stuff. They 00:31:13.700 --> 00:31:15.859 didn't dissect the back wound to trace the track 00:31:15.859 --> 00:31:17.779 through the neck. They just probed it with a 00:31:17.779 --> 00:31:20.559 finger, decided it didn't go very deep, and concluded 00:31:20.559 --> 00:31:22.940 the bullet had fallen out. They missed the entire 00:31:22.940 --> 00:31:25.180 bullet path, the one that explains the single 00:31:25.180 --> 00:31:28.029 bullet theory. They missed it completely. They 00:31:28.029 --> 00:31:30.349 didn't realize it had exited the throat because 00:31:30.349 --> 00:31:33.849 the doctors at Parkland, in a desperate attempt 00:31:33.849 --> 00:31:37.650 to save him, had performed a tracheotomy, a breathing 00:31:37.650 --> 00:31:40.309 hole right over the exit wound, obscuring it. 00:31:40.529 --> 00:31:43.309 The autopsy doctors in Maryland didn't call the 00:31:43.309 --> 00:31:46.589 Parkland doctors in Texas until after the autopsy 00:31:46.589 --> 00:31:48.630 was already finished. That's an unbelievable 00:31:48.630 --> 00:31:51.829 failure of communication. It's monumental. It's 00:31:51.829 --> 00:31:53.750 the reason we have a magic bullet theory at all. 00:31:54.059 --> 00:31:55.559 If they had just talked to each other, they would 00:31:55.559 --> 00:31:56.819 have known there was a through -and -through 00:31:56.819 --> 00:31:59.799 wound. And then the brain. The missing brain. 00:32:00.019 --> 00:32:02.859 It sounds like a bad horror movie. Kennedy's 00:32:02.859 --> 00:32:05.759 brain was removed, as is standard, and preserved 00:32:05.759 --> 00:32:08.779 in a jar of formalin for further study, and then 00:32:08.779 --> 00:32:11.200 it just disappeared. It was kept in a secure 00:32:11.200 --> 00:32:13.539 locker in the National Archives for a few years. 00:32:14.000 --> 00:32:17.339 Then, around 1966, an inventory was done, and 00:32:17.339 --> 00:32:20.220 it was gone. The footlocker was empty. The conspiracy 00:32:20.220 --> 00:32:22.839 theory is obvious. The brain would have shown 00:32:22.839 --> 00:32:24.819 the bullet came from the front, so the deep state 00:32:24.819 --> 00:32:27.160 destroyed the evidence. That's the theory. What's 00:32:27.160 --> 00:32:29.660 the non -conspiracy theory? The more likely one. 00:32:29.839 --> 00:32:32.019 That Robert Kennedy, the president's brother, 00:32:32.220 --> 00:32:34.660 and the attorney general had it taken. Why on 00:32:34.660 --> 00:32:37.380 earth would he do that? To hide the medical history. 00:32:38.099 --> 00:32:40.920 JFK was not the healthy, vigorous man he appeared 00:32:40.920 --> 00:32:43.670 to be. We now know he had Addison's disease, 00:32:44.029 --> 00:32:47.250 an adrenal condition. He had severe chronic back 00:32:47.250 --> 00:32:50.289 pain from war injuries. He was on a daily cocktail 00:32:50.289 --> 00:32:53.430 of steroids, painkillers, and even amphetamines 00:32:53.430 --> 00:32:56.170 just to function. And RFK was fiercely protective 00:32:56.170 --> 00:32:59.490 of his brother's legacy, the Camelot image. Incredibly 00:32:59.490 --> 00:33:02.329 protective. He likely wanted to bury the physical 00:33:02.329 --> 00:33:04.849 evidence of the president's frailty and his dependence 00:33:04.849 --> 00:33:07.789 on medication. It's a very human, understandable 00:33:07.789 --> 00:33:10.529 motive, but it created another huge mystery. 00:33:11.079 --> 00:33:13.339 Which brings us finally to the present day, the 00:33:13.339 --> 00:33:17.599 files. We waited 60 years. The JFK Records Act 00:33:17.599 --> 00:33:21.059 of 1992 passed because of the public outcry after 00:33:21.059 --> 00:33:23.720 Oliver Stone's film promised us everything by 00:33:23.720 --> 00:33:27.039 2017. It mandated it. And 2017 came and went. 00:33:27.119 --> 00:33:29.579 President Trump delayed a full release. Then 00:33:29.579 --> 00:33:31.619 President Biden delayed it again. Why? What were 00:33:31.619 --> 00:33:33.819 they hiding after all that time? The official 00:33:33.819 --> 00:33:36.119 excuse was national security and identifiable 00:33:36.119 --> 00:33:38.559 harm. They claimed that releasing the names of 00:33:38.559 --> 00:33:41.700 certain sources or methods, even from the 1960s, 00:33:41.700 --> 00:33:43.920 could endanger current intelligence relationships 00:33:43.920 --> 00:33:46.700 or assets. Which to a skeptic sounds like a cover. 00:33:46.900 --> 00:33:48.839 It sounds like a cover for something. Yeah. But 00:33:48.839 --> 00:33:52.380 in 2025, the dam broke. President Trump, back 00:33:52.380 --> 00:33:54.440 in office, signed the executive order. March 00:33:54.440 --> 00:33:58.720 18, 2025. 60 ,000 documents dropped online. I 00:33:58.720 --> 00:34:00.480 spent that entire weekend reading summaries. 00:34:01.359 --> 00:34:04.299 What stood out to you? Was there a smoking gun? 00:34:05.200 --> 00:34:08.780 If you mean a memo signed by LBJ or the CIA director 00:34:08.780 --> 00:34:11.420 saying kill him, then no, there is no smoking 00:34:11.420 --> 00:34:13.639 gun. There never was going to be one. But there's 00:34:13.639 --> 00:34:15.579 a hell of a lot of smoke. Give me an example. 00:34:15.599 --> 00:34:17.780 What kind of texture are we talking about in 00:34:17.780 --> 00:34:20.380 these new files? The Mexico City files are the 00:34:20.380 --> 00:34:23.239 most revealing. We now have the unredacted cables 00:34:23.239 --> 00:34:25.599 from the CIA station chief in Mexico City from 00:34:25.599 --> 00:34:29.119 October 1963. They detail intense surveillance 00:34:29.119 --> 00:34:31.659 of Lee Harvey Oswald. They have transcripts of 00:34:31.659 --> 00:34:33.460 his phone calls to the Soviet embassy. So they 00:34:33.460 --> 00:34:36.039 were watching him closely. Very closely. But 00:34:36.039 --> 00:34:38.099 the crucial part is the internal panic after 00:34:38.099 --> 00:34:40.860 the assassination. We now have the memos where 00:34:40.860 --> 00:34:43.500 CIA officials are essentially freaking out, realizing 00:34:43.500 --> 00:34:45.599 they had this guy on their radar. They knew he 00:34:45.599 --> 00:34:47.780 was unstable. They knew he was talking to the 00:34:47.780 --> 00:34:50.000 KGB's assassination department, which is called 00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:51.900 Department 13. And they dropped the ball. They 00:34:51.900 --> 00:34:54.210 dropped the ball. They didn't flag him properly 00:34:54.210 --> 00:34:57.190 to the FBI or the Secret Service in time for 00:34:57.190 --> 00:34:59.250 it to matter before the motorcade. So the cover 00:34:59.250 --> 00:35:01.610 up wasn't we did it. The cover up was, oh, God, 00:35:01.650 --> 00:35:03.449 we messed up and we can't let anyone know how 00:35:03.449 --> 00:35:06.329 badly. Exactly. It's what historians call a benign 00:35:06.329 --> 00:35:09.710 cover up. The agencies weren't hiding a plot 00:35:09.710 --> 00:35:12.469 to kill Kennedy. They were hiding their own gross 00:35:12.469 --> 00:35:14.809 incompetence. They were protecting their careers, 00:35:15.010 --> 00:35:17.900 their budgets, their reputations. They didn't 00:35:17.900 --> 00:35:20.039 want the American public to know that the trillion 00:35:20.039 --> 00:35:22.880 dollar intelligence apparatus failed to stop 00:35:22.880 --> 00:35:25.239 a guy who was practically waving a giant red 00:35:25.239 --> 00:35:28.000 flag in their faces for months. And that actually 00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:30.139 makes more sense to me than a grand, perfectly 00:35:30.139 --> 00:35:32.739 executed conspiracy. Bureaucracies don't usually 00:35:32.739 --> 00:35:35.579 plot perfect murders, but they always cover their 00:35:35.579 --> 00:35:37.420 asses. That is the universal law of government. 00:35:37.539 --> 00:35:40.320 Yes. Secrecy breeds suspicion. And the fact that 00:35:40.320 --> 00:35:42.860 they held these documents back until 2025 is 00:35:42.860 --> 00:35:46.099 in itself the fuel that will keep this fire burning. 00:35:46.179 --> 00:35:48.840 So here we are. are, 2026, the files are out, 00:35:48.900 --> 00:35:51.360 the books are written. What is the legacy of 00:35:51.360 --> 00:35:54.139 this single event? The legacy is a broken trust. 00:35:54.840 --> 00:35:58.400 Before November 26, 1963, polls showed that Americans 00:35:58.400 --> 00:36:00.539 largely believed their government was benevolent 00:36:00.539 --> 00:36:03.500 and told them the truth. After 1963 and leading 00:36:03.500 --> 00:36:05.760 right into Vietnam and Watergate, which are the 00:36:05.760 --> 00:36:08.019 spiritual successors of this event, that trust 00:36:08.019 --> 00:36:11.380 evaporated. We became a nation of skeptics. The 00:36:11.380 --> 00:36:14.039 phrase grassy knoll isn't just a place anymore. 00:36:14.280 --> 00:36:16.219 It's an idiom. It's shorthand for what they aren't 00:36:16.219 --> 00:36:18.460 telling you. It's baked into our culture. And 00:36:18.460 --> 00:36:21.480 it changed how we see truth itself. The Zapruder 00:36:21.480 --> 00:36:24.760 film. It was the first time we saw a real death, 00:36:24.980 --> 00:36:28.420 a brutal death in high definition color over 00:36:28.420 --> 00:36:30.800 and over again. It birthed the era of cinema 00:36:30.800 --> 00:36:33.179 verite. It changed how news was reported. It 00:36:33.179 --> 00:36:35.039 made us comfortable with viewing violence in 00:36:35.039 --> 00:36:37.360 a way that is, I think, deeply unsettling if 00:36:37.360 --> 00:36:39.500 you stop to think about it. So final verdict. 00:36:39.760 --> 00:36:41.840 We've done the deep dive. You've seen the new 00:36:41.840 --> 00:36:44.059 files. You've studied this for years. Do you 00:36:44.059 --> 00:36:46.940 think Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone? I follow 00:36:46.940 --> 00:36:49.679 the physical evidence. The rifle found on the 00:36:49.679 --> 00:36:52.829 sixth floor was traced to Oswald. The casings 00:36:52.829 --> 00:36:54.570 found on the floor were fired from that rifle. 00:36:54.989 --> 00:36:57.449 The bullet fragments found in the main bullet 00:36:57.449 --> 00:36:59.309 found at the hospital were fired from that rifle. 00:36:59.570 --> 00:37:02.610 The flight paths, the geometry of the limousine, 00:37:02.610 --> 00:37:05.269 they all point to one shooter in one location. 00:37:06.349 --> 00:37:09.289 Lee Harvey Oswald in the Texas School Book Depository. 00:37:09.369 --> 00:37:11.730 The magic bullet isn't magic, it's just physics. 00:37:12.070 --> 00:37:14.070 However, there's always a however. There's always 00:37:14.070 --> 00:37:16.989 a however. I think the investigation was a conspiracy, 00:37:17.269 --> 00:37:19.750 not a conspiracy to kill the president, but a 00:37:19.750 --> 00:37:22.909 conspiracy of incompetence, a conspiracy to hide 00:37:22.909 --> 00:37:25.289 the failures of the FBI, the CIA and the Secret 00:37:25.289 --> 00:37:27.869 Service. The incompetence of the autopsy, the 00:37:27.869 --> 00:37:29.690 destruction of the brain, the withholding of 00:37:29.690 --> 00:37:32.809 files for 60 years. All of that created a mystery 00:37:32.809 --> 00:37:34.530 where there might not have been one. It's almost 00:37:34.530 --> 00:37:36.989 harder to accept the lone nut theory, isn't it? 00:37:37.369 --> 00:37:39.289 Psychologically, it feels wrong. It is. It's 00:37:39.289 --> 00:37:42.210 profoundly unsatisfying. Because if the CIA killed 00:37:42.210 --> 00:37:46.079 him or the mob or the Cubans. That implies a 00:37:46.079 --> 00:37:48.980 plan. It implies that the world is run by powerful 00:37:48.980 --> 00:37:52.519 men in smoky rooms. That's scary, but it's an 00:37:52.519 --> 00:37:54.420 orderly kind of scary. There's a reason. Right, 00:37:54.500 --> 00:37:56.280 there's a structure to it. But if a loser like 00:37:56.280 --> 00:37:58.699 Oswald, a guy who couldn't hold a job, a guy 00:37:58.699 --> 00:38:01.460 who washed out of everything he ever tried, if 00:38:01.460 --> 00:38:03.900 he can wake up one morning, grab a cheap mail 00:38:03.900 --> 00:38:06.260 -order Rysol, and single -handedly change the 00:38:06.260 --> 00:38:08.199 entire course of history just because he got 00:38:08.199 --> 00:38:09.940 lucky with the weather and a slow -moving car. 00:38:10.239 --> 00:38:12.300 Then what does that say about the world? It implies 00:38:12.300 --> 00:38:15.159 the universe is chaos. It implies that history 00:38:15.159 --> 00:38:18.460 hangs by the thinnest of threads, that one angry, 00:38:18.599 --> 00:38:21.159 insignificant man can shatter everything. And 00:38:21.159 --> 00:38:23.059 that is a much more terrifying thought to sleep 00:38:23.059 --> 00:38:25.159 with that night. We want the conspiracy because 00:38:25.159 --> 00:38:27.260 we want the order. We want the script. Oswald 00:38:27.260 --> 00:38:30.019 is the unscripted, terrifying reality. And I 00:38:30.019 --> 00:38:31.840 think that's the final question we're left with, 00:38:31.900 --> 00:38:34.840 isn't it? If the perfect investigation had happened 00:38:34.840 --> 00:38:39.300 back in 1963. A competent autopsy, a clear chain 00:38:39.300 --> 00:38:42.639 of custody, full disclosure from the CIA. Would 00:38:42.639 --> 00:38:45.639 we still believe in a conspiracy? Or is the idea 00:38:45.639 --> 00:38:48.719 of a lone nut changing history just too random, 00:38:48.780 --> 00:38:51.619 too frightening for us as a society to ever truly 00:38:51.619 --> 00:38:54.739 accept? Chaos versus the script. I think that's 00:38:54.739 --> 00:38:56.420 going to stick with me. It's the ultimate question 00:38:56.420 --> 00:38:58.590 of the JFK assassination. Well, thank you for 00:38:58.590 --> 00:39:00.949 guiding us through the files and the chaos. My 00:39:00.949 --> 00:39:02.909 pleasure. It was a deep dive for sure. And to 00:39:02.909 --> 00:39:04.989 everyone listening, the files are out there online. 00:39:05.110 --> 00:39:07.449 Go read them for yourself. Draw your own conclusions. 00:39:07.670 --> 00:39:10.789 And as always, stay curious. We'll see you on 00:39:10.789 --> 00:39:11.750 the next deep dive.