JFK Assassination: 50 Years Later, Who Killed Kennedy and Why

This Thursday marks the 49th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas Texas in 1963. Nearly half a century since the shots were fired at Dealey Plaza, Americans are still unsure who was responsible for the death of our 35th President. The main suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald, who was apprehended just hours after the assassination, is believed by many to have shot Kennedy from the window of the Texas School Book Depository building as Kennedy's limo passed by six floors below. 

Oswald, who claimed to be just a "patsy," would not live to stand trial for this monumental crime as he was gunned down by nightclub owner Jack Ruby just two days later while being transferred in the basement of the Dallas police station. 

The assassination was investigated by a presidential commission established by Lyndon Johnson known as the Warren Commission after former Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren. The commission determined that Oswald acted alone in carrying out the assassination and based their findings on the highly controversial "Magic Bullet Theory."

Many Americans, however were skeptical about the commission's findings. Some believe the Warren commission ignored key pieces of evidence while others point to conflicts of interest within the commission, namely the appointment of former CIA director Allen Dulles, who had recently been fired by Kennedy. In 1976, The United States House Select Committee on Assassinations, refuted the Warren Commission's results, stating that Kennedy was likely killed as part of a conspiracy. 

The conspiracy theories about the assassination are countless, some very plausible and some less so. The most widely held theories lay the blame on the mafia, the CIA, the Soviet Union, Fidel Castro, anti-Castro Cuban exiles or the FBI. While it is very likely that the world will never know what really happened on that historic night in Dallas, that doesn't mean we still can't discuss it even 49 years later. Who do you think was behind the Kennedy assassination and why?