On November 22nd 1963, US President John F Kennedy was assassinated by a sniper while travelling through Dallas for a rally. His exposed position (middle of an open road, sitting up in the back of an open-roof limousine), as well as the fact that his route was advertised previously, gave the assassin all the information he�d need in order to commit the deed. A little over an hour later, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the murder of a police officer, and witnesses placed him at the scene of the assassination. No motive was established for either murder (both of which Oswald denied having any part in), but the witness testimony, coupled with the fact that Oswald was a self-proclaimed communist that wished to defect to the Soviet Union, were more than enough to convict him. With that said, Oswald was never sentenced, as only two days later he was shot dead on his way to court by Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner that seemingly wanted revenge for the President�s death. And with that, the case was open and shut� At least as far as the government was concerned.

The public, however, were less than convinced. Many, many theories began floating around, and with the advent of modern communication, the theories only increased. Some claimed that Oswald was a double agent working for the USSR that was ordered to put a bullet in JFK. Others � that it was a mafia hit, given Kennedy�s supposed relations to the mafia. The most prevalent theory was that the whole thing was somehow orchestrated by the CIA and vice president Lyndon B Johnson, for one reason or another. Regardless, given the fact that no evidence was ever available, most theories remained just that � unconfirmed speculation that people put forward in an attempt to connect the dots. That is, until October 2017, when President Donald J Trump declassified thousands of documents pertaining to the event, claiming that the US public deserved to be informed about the nature of the incident. Of course, he didn�t release every single thing available, given that some files were deemed a matter of national security, but from what we did get, we�re able to get some pretty good ideas about what really went down� And, surprisingly enough, some conspiracy theorists might have been right all along.

First and foremost, let�s begin with the theory that is most likely not true � that the USSR (and, by extension, the KGB) was behind the assassination. According to numerous documents, the Soviet Union had a deep respect for JFK (which isn�t odd, considering just how much he did to strengthen American relations with them during some very turbulent times), to the point where bells were rung in his honor when the news of his death reached the Eastern Bloc. It�s also interesting to note that the USSR was scared that they would be blamed for this, given Oswald�s relations to them, and prepared to retaliate in case they were publicly accused. They even discuss the possibility that �a general with missiles� would try to retaliate. Apparently, the KGB launched its own investigation into the matter, which concluded that Lyndon B Johnson was heavily involved in it. Which isn�t a surprise at all considering the fact that, as it turns out, Johnson was apparently working with Jack Ruby (Oswald�s assassin), and had been a part of the Texas branch of the KKK in his early political career. Yikes.

So an internal investigation confirmed that Ruby was working for Johnson. That�s shady, but it�s not so bad, right? Oswald killed Johnson�s beloved friend, so Johnson hired a guy to shoot him down. It�s honestly a bit touching when you think about it! But wait� Why would he hire anyone to kill Oswald? He was literally being dragged to court when it happened, and there was a plethora of evidence (including photographic) that Oswald was guilty. So why shoot a guy doomed to the electric chair, anyway? Well, it might have something to do with the fact that Oswald was trained by the CIA, and bringing him to trial would�ve inevitably revealed some very dirty secrets. To quote the relevant documents, �Oswald subject was trained by this agency, under cover of the Office of Naval Intelligence, for Soviet assignments.� To put it simply, Oswald was being trained by the CIA specifically to serve as a double agent within the USSR. Kind of puts his whole claims of defection and communism into perspective, doesn�t it?

So, what�s the takeaway from this? To put it simply, out of the 3000 documents released publicly, none of them straight up reveal exactly what happened (it�s likely that the most incriminating pieces of evidence were either destroyed half a century ago or have been withheld from release), but they still paint a pretty incriminating picture. Lee Harvey Oswald, the supposed assassin of President Kennedy, was a CIA operative trained for undercover work in the USSR, and thus his communist ideology and desire to defect were most likely a sham. The Soviet Union had nothing to do with JFK�s death, and the likeliest mastermind behind it was Lyndon B Johnson, who secured himself the presidency through the act. Maybe Oswald was the real killer, ordered by Johnson to assassinate the President. Maybe he was just a CIA agent that ended up taking the fall because he was deemed dangerous (or was just selected at random), and was then shot before he could spill any secrets. Or maybe he went rogue and killed the President anyway, possibly blaming him for the death of Merilyn Monroe (to whom he sent fan letters). One thing�s for sure, though � in one way or another, Johnson and the CIA were heavily involved in the President�s death. It�s honestly a bit scary just how close this old �Whitest Kids U Know� sketch came to the truth.