South Jersey Author Writes that LBJ had JFK Assassinated – Was There a Plot? [POLL]

Coming up on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F Kennedy, and there's no doubt the conspiracy theorists will be out in force.

There are plenty of shows detailing all the events leading up to the President’s assassination – many of which debunk the long held belief that there was a conspiracy afoot to kill the President a la Oliver Stone.

But despite what the Warren Commission has written that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman and acted on his own; the doubting persists.

As it should. Or at least so I feel.

One South Jersey author in particular believes in what many have said - which is that the President having been assassinated in Dallas was not a coincidence, but that his successor had the deed carried out.

According to this:

Political consultant and lobbyist Roger J. Stone Jr. believes Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson masterminded the killing of President John F. Kennedy.

Stone, a veteran Republican strategist who owned a home for many years in Margate, laid out his information behind the plot in a new book titled "The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ," which was released Monday.

Stone said Johnson was an "amoral psychopath" with connections to at least eight murders in his native Texas before he became vice president. Stone said Johnson was "crude, vulgar, nasty and an alcoholic" and had unbridled ambition and greed.

Johnson faced being kicked off the presidential ticket for Kennedy's 1964 re-election campaign and political scandals where prosecution and conviction were a possibility, which made him a "very, very desperate man," Stone said.

Stone said Johnson was the linchpin, and the assassination took place in Dallas because Johnson controlled the Dallas Police Department, Dallas County Sheriff's Office, Dallas County district attorney and even the coroner's office.

Johnson had the unique motive, means and opportunity to arrange for Kennedy's death, and he had a unique history with the CIA and the mob, who were both used to kill Kennedy, Stone said. Johnson took a bribe from the mob and oversaw the CIA at one time, he said.

The CIA wanted Kennedy dead for the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Bay of Pigs, Stone said. The mob was after Kennedy because they were promised by Kennedy's father that he would not pursue them as president, but Robert Kennedy, the attorney general and John F. Kennedy's brother, was after them, and they felt double-crossed, he said.

Stone doesn't believe the Warren Commission report that investigated Kennedy's death. Lee Harvey Oswald, who the Warren Commission said acted alone in killing Kennedy, did not initially have his fingerprints on the rifle he allegedly used, Stone said.

His account, while not necessarily bolstered by political scientist Larry Sabato, seems plausible.

Sabato,who also has a book coming out, writes, in effect, that while Oswald was the lone gunman in shooting both Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connoly, we’ll never know whether or not a plot existed.

According to this:

Now there's new evidence about that fateful day. It comes from a book called "The Kennedy Half-Century," written by professor Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

The 888-page Warren Report issued in 1964 found no evidence that anyone assisted Oswald in planning or carrying out the assassination. The report had many critics and conspiracy theories multiplied over the years.

This year, had the tapes re-analyzed using state-of-the-art technology. He says they do not capture gunshots at all, but the sounds of an idling motorcycle and the rattling of a microphone.

A new poll conducted as part of the book found 75 percent of Americans still reject the Warren Commission's conclusion that Oswald acted alone.

Sabato said he believes Oswald was the gunman who shot both President Kennedy and Gov. Connally. "If anyone else participated beyond the picket fence on the Grassy Knoll, they either missed or didn't fire," he said.

However, Sabato said we're never going to know what really happened. "If we can go 100 years into the future, I guarantee you whatever replaces television, there will be documentaries proposing new theories about the Kennedy assassination," he said.

He continued, "That's because the Warren Commission did not go down the hot trails when we had the chance to interview the right people. They could have done it but essentially they were lied to by the CIA, the president at the time, Lyndon Johnson did not want a thorough study, and so we didn't get one. It was on a political timetable with a political conclusion that Oswald acted alone."

Sabato called both the government investigations -- the Warren Report and the House Select Committee on Assassinations report -- "flawed."

"When you really get into the details, it is amazing how many pieces don't fit."

Asked about other conspiracy theories, Sabato said he can believe anything, but the problem is "where is the proof?" He said, "In the end, you have to have proof. What could stand up in a courtroom?"

I'll give his this - the smoking gun points to one man - but count me among the 75 or so percent that believe he didn't act alone. Nor can I believe his was the only gun.

Given the government’s penchant for “transparency,” which may or may not have been reflected in the Warren Commission report, do you believe there was a plot to kill President Kennedy