Nightmare On Elm Street: JFK and the Assassination That Still Haunts America

Powerful interests remain determined to keep the full truth about Kennedy's assassination from the American public.

Alcohol was an unpredictable elixir for Richard Nixon.

After several very dry martinis (which he proudly claimed Winston Churchill taught him to make), the former President could become talkative, quiet, or contemplative. During these moments, Nixon often drifted into memories of the past. As one of his closest confidants in his later years, I grew accustomed to these nightly sojourns.

One evening at his New Jersey home stands out clearly in my memory.

Nixon's 4-acre property in Saddle River sat hidden on a private wooded leafy lot—a perfect retreat where he wrote his books, hosted foreign dignitaries, and walked his dog, Brownie.

That night, he slouched in his leather armchair, right arm propped up, fingers wrapped around the stem of his martini glass. After a moment of silence, perhaps emboldened by the hour and the trust that had developed between us, I screwed up my confidence and asked the question that had haunted a generation: “Mr. President, who really killed Kennedy?”

He stared intently into his glass.

“Let me say this “he snorted “The Warren Commission was the biggest Goddamn hoax in American history.”

I was startled “I’m sorry, Sir- what do you mean,” I replied hoping for more.

"That was the difference between Lyndon and me,” Nixon said suddenly. "I wasn't willing to kill for it…”

He fell silent. I waited. Then he continued, speaking about Jack Ruby, the man who killed President Kennedy's assassin.

“I actually knew Ruby. Murray Chotiner introduced him back in '47. He went by Rubenstein then. An informant. Murray said he was one of Lyndon's people... We put him on the payroll at Lyndon’s request.”

Chotiner, the political mastermind behind Nixon's meteoric rise from being leaving the Navy in 1946 to Vice President of the United States in just six years had been a mob lawyer representing LA Mob Boss Mickey Cohen before venturing into politics.

The Kennedy assassination haunted Nixon. He believed that elements within intelligence agencies, organized crime, and the highest reaches of our government had conspired in Kennedy's death. Above all, he believed that Lee Harvey Oswald was an unwitting simpleton who was swept away in an exorable tide of nefarious activity, in short a “patsy.”

White House Domestic Policy Chief John Ehrlichman wrote that when he served as the White House Legal Counsel, Nixon ordered him to request that the CIA hand over all documents pertaining to John Kennedy’s murder. Nixon was furious when Richard Helms, the CIA Director, refused his presidential order to hand them over.

Nixon knew the plot to kill JFK went well beyond Lyndon Johnson A stunning, long-overlooked Nixon Watergate-era tape shows Richard Nixon warning CIA Director Richard Helms that he knows of CIA involvement in the murder of John F. Kennedy- “I know who shot John.”he blurted out to the CIA Director. This stunning new Watergate-era tape captures an increasingly besieged Nixon desperately seeking to mobilize the CIA in his defense by threatening to expose their greatest secrets.

After Nixon’s revelations, I began investigating the assassination, publishing my findings in The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ to national acclaim in 2013. Despite numerous document releases over six decades, the most recent this past week, the complete truth about Kennedy's death remains obscured, with critical questions still unanswered.

The Questionable Case Against Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged lone gunman at the center of the Kennedy assassination narrative, famously proclaimed to the media he was a “patsy.” According to the Warren Commission report, Oswald fired three shots from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, with the second and third striking Kennedy. Even this basic yet essential finding is problematic.

One of the most striking omissions in the official record concerns a critical piece of forensic evidence: the paraffin test conducted on Oswald after his arrest. The Dallas Police Department examination revealed that Oswald had no powder burns on his chest, arms, or hands, and a paraffin test revealed that no nitrates (contained in the powders in gases when a weapon is fired) were found on Oswald’s cheek. These findings directly contradict the official narrative that Oswald fired a rifle multiple times that day. The absence of powder residue strongly suggests that Oswald may not have fired a weapon at all on November 22, 1963.

This crucial piece of exculpatory evidence was quickly dismissed by the Warren Commission, which relied instead on circumstantial evidence and questionable witness testimony to build its case against Oswald. The Commission's willingness to overlook such fundamental inconsistencies raises serious questions about the integrity of the entire investigation.

Further compounding these issues is the weapon itself. The Warren Commission alleged that Oswald used a $26 WWII-vintage Italian Mannlicher-Carcano carbine to carry out the assassination. Deputy Constable Seymour Weitzman and Deputy Sheriff Eugene Boone, both with vast knowledge of firearms, found the weapon on the sixth floor and claimed it was a Mauser, a German rifle, with Weitzman reiterating this in an official affidavit. Deputy Dallas Sheriff Roger Craig, also present on the scene, reaffirmed the discovery of a Mauser and noted a ‘7.65’ Mauser’ stamp on the barrel of the weapon. The problem with this discovery was that Oswald did not own a Mauser.

Even if Oswald had used an inferior Italian rifle, experts question whether Oswald could have fired the Mannlicher-Carcano effectively, given its reputation for inaccuracy and the tight timeframe of 5.6 seconds for three shots. When the Warren Commission had three Master marksmen recreate the shooting, only one managed the timing, and none hit the head or neck of a stationary target.

Yet we're asked to accept Oswald as the lone gunman—a man who once discharged a loaded pistol in Marine barracks, scored poorly on his final rifle test, couldn't drive, and lost his previous job for incompetence before working at the Texas School Book Depository.

The latest document dump this week contains one illuminating nugget of truth. The Russian security service KGB also determined Oswald was a “poor shot” during his time in the Soviet Union.

Oswald's Demeanor

Oswald left the alleged sniper’s nest seemingly unhurried and unbothered.

Only a minute after the shooting, Oswald was encountered by Dallas police officer Marrion L. Baker and Texas School Book Depository Superintendent Roy Truly in the second-floor lunchroom—four floors below. Both men testified that Oswald appeared calm, collected, and neither out of breath nor agitated.

As Truly testified to the Warren Commission: “He didn't seem to be excited or overly afraid or anything. He might have been startled, like I might have been if somebody confronted me. But I cannot recall any change in expression of any kind on his face…”

Officer Baker similarly reported that Oswald "appeared normal" and was "calm and collected." This behavior seems wholly inconsistent with someone who had just assassinated the President of the United States and fled down four flights of stairs in a matter of seconds.

Clerical supervisor Mrs. Robert Reid, who saw Oswald walking through her second-floor office moments later, described him as "just calm" and "moving at a very slow pace." Mrs. Reid emphasized that this was consistent with Oswald’s everyday demeanor.

These firsthand witness accounts directly contradict what one would expect from an assassin making his escape. The recently released documents fail to address these fundamental inconsistencies, leaving researchers to question why the official investigation so readily dismissed them.

Oswald as an Intelligence Asset

Perhaps the most compelling evidence undermining the lone gunman theory lies in Oswald's connections to U.S. intelligence agencies, particularly the CIA. Far from being a disaffected loner, Oswald appears to have been a carefully cultivated intelligence asset with connections to high-level operatives.

Jane Roman, a retired CIA officer who signed many of the agency's documents concerning Oswald prior to the assassination, admitted in an interview with researcher Jefferson Morley and former U.S. Army Intelligence officer John Newman that the CIA had a "keen interest in Oswald held very closely on the need-to-know basis."

When confronted with evidence that she had signed off on documents that misrepresented the CIA's knowledge of Oswald, Roman acknowledged, “I'm signing off on something that I know isn't true.” She further stated that this suggested “they [meaning the people with final authority over CIA communications] thought that somehow...they could make some use of Oswald.”

This frank admission from a CIA insider strongly indicates that Oswald was being monitored and potentially manipulated by intelligence agencies in the months leading up to the assassination. Yet the full extent of these connections remains unknown.

One connection we have discovered is George de Mohrenschildt, an enigmatic "oil geologist" with extensive ties to both the CIA and the Texas oil industry. From October 1962 until April 1963, de Mohrenschildt became a close friend to Lee and Marina Oswald, watching over them during a critical period.

De Mohrenschildt later admitted that his contact with Oswald was initiated at the suggestion of Dallas CIA man J. Walton Moore. This revelation directly contradicts the CIA's official position that Oswald was of no interest to the agency.

In the months before his mysterious death in 1977, de Mohrenschildt's story changed dramatically. In conversations with Dutch journalist Willem Oltmans, he made the shocking claim: "I feel responsible for the behavior of Lee Harvey Oswald....Because I guided him. I instructed him to set it up."

During his final trip to Europe with Oltmans, de Mohrenschildt reportedly "began providing fragments of a scenario in which Texas oilmen in league with intelligence operatives plotted to kill the president." Shortly after returning to the United States, de Mohrenschildt was found dead of a gunshot wound, just hours after intimating to investigators that the CIA had approved his contact with Oswald.

Despite the obvious significance of de Mohrenschildt's role, the full details of his relationship with Oswald and his connections to the CIA remain heavily obscured in government documents.

Poppy

Adding another layer to this web of connections is George de Mohrenschildt's relationship with George H.W. Bush, who would later become CIA Director and ultimately President of the United States. In 1950, de Mohrenschildt had started an oil investment firm with Eddie Hooker, Bush's roommate at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts—establishing an indirect but significant link between Bush's circle and the man who would later become Oswald's handler.

More directly, in September 1976, as investigations into Kennedy's death were being reopened, a desperate de Mohrenschildt wrote to Bush, then Director of the CIA:

“You will excuse this hand-written letter. Maybe you will be able to bring a solution to the hopeless situation I find myself in. My wife and I find ourselves surrounded by some vigilantes; our phone bugged; and we are being followed everywhere. Either the FBI is involved in this or they do not want to accept my complaints. We are driven to insanity by the situation.”

The letter continued: "I have been behaving like a damn fool ever since my daughter died from [cystic fibrosis] over three years ago. I tried to write, stupidly and unsuccessfully, about Lee H. Oswald and must have angered a lot of people—I do not know."

Bush responded with a letter dismissing de Mohrenschildt's concerns, suggesting he was simply attracting media attention due to “renewed interest in the Kennedy assassination.”

The fact that the CIA Director took time to personally respond to de Mohrenschildt is noteworthy, suggesting a relationship beyond casual acquaintance.

De Mohrenschildt died of a gunshot wound to the head mere hours after telling investigators that the CIA had approved his contact with Oswald. His death was ruled a suicide despite suspicious circumstances, including evidence on an audio recording that someone had entered his house shortly before the gunshot was heard.

Following De Mohrenschildt’s death, Gaeton Fonzi, an investigator for the House Select Committee on Assassinations, obtained an address book from de Mohrenschildt’s briefcase. In the book, Bush was registered as “Poppy,” a nickname only intimates used for the elder Bush.

The Imposter Oswalds

Perhaps one of the most disturbing aspects of the Kennedy assassination case involves multiple instances of Oswald being impersonated in the months leading up to November 22, 1963. These impersonations suggest a sophisticated intelligence operation designed to create a trail of evidence implicating Oswald.

J. Edgar Hoover himself acknowledged this phenomenon in a recorded phone conversation with President Lyndon Johnson the day after the assassination:

“We have up here the tape and the photograph of the man who was at the Soviet Embassy, using Oswald's name,” Hoover told Johnson. “That picture and the tape do not correspond to this man's voice, nor to his appearance. In other words, it appears that there is a second person who was at the Soviet embassy down there.”

Even more remarkably, Hoover had written to the State Department's Office of Security concerning the possibility of an Oswald identity theft as early as June 1960: “Since there is a possibility that an imposter is using Oswald's birth certificate, any current information the Department of State has concerning subject [Oswald] will be appreciated.”

The phenomenon of Oswald impostors appeared repeatedly in the fall of 1963. In September, while the real Oswald was in Mexico City, another "Oswald" appeared at the Dallas-area apartment of Cuban exile Sylvia Odio, ranting about assassinating Kennedy. On November 9, 1963, while Oswald was with his wife at Ruth Paine's house, Oswald impostors were seen applying for a job at the Dallas Southland Hotel, test-driving a car at a Dallas Lincoln Mercury dealership, and displaying excellent marksmanship at the Sports Drome Rifle Range in Dallas.

These incidents strongly suggest a coordinated effort to create a public profile of Oswald as unstable, violent, and capable of assassination.

The Dallas Police Connection

The role of local law enforcement in potentially facilitating the assassination and framing of Oswald deserves greater scrutiny. One particularly suspicious incident occurred while Oswald was at his rooming house shortly after the assassination. The housekeeper, Earlene Roberts, testified that while Oswald was in his room, a police car stopped in front of the house and honked its horn. Roberts, who knew several policemen, did not recognize the officer.

Shortly thereafter, Oswald left the house and allegedly proceeded to kill Officer J.D. Tippit before being diverted to the Texas Theatre, where he was arrested. The unidentified police car suggests possible police involvement in directing Oswald's movements after the assassination.

Former Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry, who did not leave Lyndon Johnson’s side in the days following the assassination, later expressed doubt about Oswald's movements, stating: “I can't in my mind firmly make myself believe that he might not have been trying to get to Jack Ruby's apartment. You know he was in close proximity to it, and I know he didn't leave his house with the idea of going to the Texas Theatre.”

Curry even acknowledged the possibility of conspiracy: “There's been coincidental things that have happened here to lead one to believe that there could have been a conspiracy after all... There might have been a connection between the two [Oswald and Ruby] that we never established. And if there was, it was more than a local thing, I believe.”

Police Chief Curry's later admissions may have stemmed from guilt. He had overseen motorcade planning and local security, only to discover too late that the Secret Service had removed protective details from Dealey Plaza before the assassination occurred.

The Truth Remains Hidden

Despite numerous releases of JFK assassination documents, including the most recent dump, crucial evidence remains missing or heavily redacted. The inconsistencies in the case against Oswald, his connections to intelligence agencies, the role of figures like George de Mohrenschildt, and the pattern of “patsy” development seen with both Oswald and Vallee all point to a sophisticated conspiracy that has yet to be fully exposed.

The absence of powder burns on Oswald's chest, arms, hands, and cheek following examination represents just one of many pieces of exculpatory evidence that have been systematically downplayed or ignored in official accounts. The continued withholding of key documents suggests that even six decades later, powerful interests remain determined to keep the full truth about Kennedy's assassination from the American public.

According to his last Chief of Staff, General Alexander Haig, Nixon also knew that Congressman Gerald Ford, as a member of the Warren Commission, had, at the explicit direction of J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI Director, altered the official autopsy diagram for President John F. Kennedy; moving the marking from a bullet in his upper back to his neck in order to accommodate the single-bullet theory and to conceal the fact that Kennedy had been hit with more than the reported three shots. The New York Times recorded this act by Ford.

Until all documents are released in their entirety and a truly independent investigation reexamines the evidence without political constraints, the truth about who killed John F. Kennedy and why will remain one of America's most closely guarded secrets.