The US is marking 50 years since President John F Kennedy was killed by an assassin's bullet in Dallas, Texas.

The city, which has long struggled with the legacy of the murder, hosts a series of official events on Friday.

Kennedy has been ranked among the nation's most revered presidents, though he served less than three years.

He is commemorated for his youthful vigour, his leadership through the Cuban missile crisis, and his challenge to America to put a man on the Moon.

But he is also remembered for ordering one of the most disastrous episodes of the Cold War, the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of communist Cuba by a CIA-trained paramilitary force of Cuban exiles.


Kennedy, a Democrat, was part of one of the most prominent US political dynasties of the 20th Century.

His father, Joseph, was a wealthy businessman who served in senior positions in the government of President Franklin Roosevelt, including as ambassador to Britain.

Two of his brothers later served as US senators and ran for president. One of them, Robert, was himself assassinated in 1968. Edward Kennedy, who died in 2009, was a champion of progressive causes including universal healthcare.

John Kennedy's daughter Caroline is now the US ambassador to Japan.

Among the official events in Dallas on Friday, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra will perform, Mayor Michael Rawlings will give an address, and bells will toll at the minute of Kennedy's death.

Those events and others conclude a week of tributes to the slain US leader.

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama laid a wreath at Kennedy's tomb at the national military cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. Mr Obama was joined by former President Bill Clinton, who as a youth met Kennedy.

Members of Kennedy's family stood by Mr Obama, Mr Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a bugler played Taps, the traditional US military mourning song.




IT was all over in a few seconds, but the assassination of John F Kennedy on 22 November 1963 has generated five decades of "painstaking, and for some unsatisfying, analysis," the Daily Mail says.

Two years ago, a team of historians and retired Secret Service officers used the latest digital technology to analyse all the available film and still images taken in Dallas that day. Their conclusion: a "categorical confirmation" that JFK's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, acted alone. But as the 50th anniversary of the president's killing approaches, the conspiracy theories that have sprung up around the event seem all but indestructible. Here are the topics that have triggered the most debate:

The 'magic bullet' theory:
Oswald fired just three bullets in Dallas. But he killed JFK and badly wounded Governor John Connally who was sitting in the front seat of the limousine. The Warren Commission - the investigation into JFK's killing set up in 1963 - came up with the 'single-bullet theory' to explain how Oswald did so much damage with just three rounds. It posits that both men were hit by a single bullet which "entered JFK's upper back, exited his throat, and then struck Connally, breaking a rib and shattering his wrist, and finally coming to rest in his thigh," says the Mary Ferrell Foundation. Sceptics say the trajectory was fanciful and re-named it the 'magic bullet theory'. It's just one reason why conspiracy theorists think more than one shooter was involved.

The grassy knoll:
Most JFK conspiracy theories pivot around the idea that Oswald wasn't acting alone. When the president was hit by the bullet that killed him, the motorcade was passing a grassy knoll on the north side of Elm Street. Newspaper photographs record that shortly after the shooting, police arrested three tramps found in a railroad car behind the knoll. Because the men were clean-shaven and well dressed there was speculation that they were CIA assassins rather than hobos.

The long list of culprits:
If Oswald was a paid assassin rather than a disaffected loner, who was writing his pay cheques? The list of candidates is long, but some names are put forward more than most. They are:

The CIA
The idea that the assassination was a CIA plot sounds bizarre, but conspiracy theorists suggest the president's alleged comment that he wanted to "splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds" made him an agency target. Other theories suggest that one of the tramps (see above) was E Howard Hunt, a former CIA operative who was involved in the ill-fated Bay of Pigs operation to oust Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

The Mafia
Why would the mafia want JFK dead? Because his brother, Robert, was turning up the heat on organised crime. Robert was the US attorney general at the time and his "anti-mafia crusade" had lead to a sharp increase in the number of prosecutions of senior mafia figures.

The KGB
"The Soviets had a palpable, powerful motive [to kill JFK]: to gain revenge for the humiliation of the USSR in the 1962 Cuban missile crisis," says Scienta Press. Oswald was a communist and had spent time in the USSR. His "Russian odyssey" afforded the KGB "many opportunities to interact with him".

Lyndon B Johnson
In 2003, a Gallup poll revealed that 20 per cent of Americans believed Johnson had something to do with JFK's death. Theories include the vice president's "desire to become president, his need to cover up scandals, and his involvement with the FBI", says the Environmental Graffiti website.

The Little Green Men
Another theory suggests JFK was killed for showing too much interest in "alien activity". There are two "crucial" pieces of evidence backing this up. The first is a letter written by JFK to the CIA in which he demands to see secret UFO files. The second is a note from a senior CIA official that says "we cannot allow" the president to see the classified material.

The Illuminati
The secretive powerbrokers who control the world are obvious candidates for a JFK conspiracy theory. The president fell foul of the Illuminati, it has been suggested, because he wanted to end the Vietnam War, a conflict that was paying the "shadowy bankers" handsome dividends. The Illuminati were also "angered" by JFK's attempts to "rein in" the power of the US Federal Reserve, triggering a deadly backlash. ·


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25046604
http://www.theweek.co.uk/us/55933/who-killed-jfk-50-years-conspiracy-theories-explained#ixzz2lMYCThR7

US President John F Kennedy (centre) a Democrat, was in Dallas for some early campaigning ahead of the 1964 election

Don't mess with TEXAS