Jordan Karlesson
So, who really killed JFK?
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The question still lingers almost 60 years after the president’s death. Despite the trickle of documents released over the years, who assassinated Kennedy still remains elusive.
The Kennedys: Streaks of Power — and Tragedy
The Kennedy Family is an American political dynasty. But their streaks of power have always been tinged by dark tragedy. Everyone alive at the time remembers where they were when President John F. Kennedy was shot.
After his older brother Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. died in action, John F. Kennedy was next in line to enter the field of politics. He became the official Democratic nominee for president in 1960, running with the powerhouse Texas politician Lyndon B. Johnson.
Although it’s often theorized that Joseph P. Kennedy bought his child the election, there is evidence of cheating on both sides of the ticket; Kennedy won narrowly against Richard Nixon. (Fun fact: The Irish American Kennedy was the first Catholic to take office. Our current president, Joe Biden, is the second.)
JFK was a beloved president for three years, most notably handling the Cuban Missile Crisis during that time. On November 21, 1963, he was shot while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. His wife Jackie Kennedy was sitting beside him and was seen cradling the head of her husband through the chaos.
Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the crime, although he was murdered by Dallas nightclub operator Jack Ruby before he could stand trial. Lots of conspiracy theories (with lots of evidence) suggest a larger plot behind the assassination of JFK — often implicating George H.W. Bush and the FBI.
Did a Mafia Chief Order a Hit on JFK?
A book that came out in 2013 and that digs deep into the Mafia angle doesn’t seem to have moved the needle all that much in terms of conspiracies.
Carlos Marcello: The Man Behind the JFK Assassination, by Stefano Vaccara, revolves around a Mafia chief who allegedly organized the event, according to La Voce di New York.
“For a major assassination to be called a Mafia ‘hit,’ five ingredients are required: motive, means, opportunity, blackmail of any potential avengers, and a favorable political context: the target is a threat to the establishment,” Vaccara reportedly writes.
He then states, “The assassination of President Kennedy fulfills all five requirements … JFK was killed as a result of a conspiracy by powerful organized crime figures. This book will provide the motive, the method and the proof beyond a reasonable doubt as to how and why he was murdered in Dallas in 1963.”
Vaccara argues that that Marcello wielded even more power than the most famous mobsters, like Al Capone and John Gotti, according to La Voce di New York. He allegedly organized the hit so as to end Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s investigations into the Mafia.
The investigations are especially noteworthy because of claims that JFK’s father, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., tapped into organize crime to orchestrate him winning the presidential election.
Vaccara, in detailed fashion, makes the case that the assassination was indeed a Mafia hit.
Case Closed?
La Voce di New York notes the incongruence between the evidence and an outcome finding Marcello culpable.
Vaccara says the case “would remain ‘frozen’ for fifteen years after the Dallas tragedy.”
A two-year investigation by a Congressional committee established that Marcello “more than anyone else should be singled out as the number one suspect in the Kennedy assassination,” according to the book. And yet that conclusion “failed to move America’s public consciousness.”
As something of a final word on the subject, La Voce di New York states Vaccara’s book “of course cannot answer all the questions surrounding the assassination. As he acknowledges, he has not found a ‘smoking gun’ that would definitively tie Marcello to Kennedy’s murder, and some of his points necessarily are speculative.”
It remains to be seen whether a smoking gun — pun intended — is locatable at this point. Furthermore, it’s still uncertain whether such a discovery would finally end conspiracy theories over the JFK assassination.
