Michael T. Griffith holds
a Bachelor of Science degree from Excelsior College in Albany, New
York, two Associate in Applied Science degrees from the Community
College of the Air Force, and an Advanced Certificate of Civil War
Studies and a Certificate of Civil War Studies from Carroll College
in Wisconsin. He is a two-time graduate of the Defense Language Institute
in Monterey, California, in Arabic and Hebrew. He is also a two-time
graduate of the U.S. Air Force Technical Training School in San Angelo,
Texas, and holds an Occupational Instructor Certificate from the Community
College of the Air Force. He is the author of the book Compelling
Evidence: A New Look at the Assassination of President Kennedy
(Grand Prairie, TX: JFK-Lancer Productions and Publications, 1996)
and runs the JFK
Assassination website. His articles on the assassination have
appeared in several journals that deal with the case. In addition,
he is the author of four books on Mormonism and ancient texts. He
is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Religious Studies.
Open
Debate on the Kennedy Assassination
(1)
Michael
T. Griffith, John
McAdams (2001)
John McAdams
is a university professor who believes strongly that Lee Harvey Oswald,
acting alone, shot President Kennedy. McAdams doesn't believe a conspiracy
of any kind was involved. McAdams believes the Warren Commission (WC)
was correct in all its essential conclusions.
In McAdams' opinion, anyone
who defends the conspiracy position is a "conspiracy buff."
McAdams frequently refers to those who reject the lone-gunman theory
as "buffs." McAdams even applies this label to experts who
speak about aspects of the assassination that involve their field
of expertise. For example, when McAdams learned that a professor of
neuroscience at a Canadian university rejected the lone-gunman view
that Kennedy's backward head snap was the result of a neuromuscular
reaction, he opined that the professor was either a "buff"
or had been spoon fed erroneous information by a critic of the lone-gunman
theory.
McAdams' attitude toward
virtually anyone who disagrees with him about the assassination is
somewhat surprising, given the fact that for the last three decades
surveys have consistently shown that anywhere from 65-90 percent of
the American people believe Kennedy was killed as a result of a conspiracy
(with about 5 percent undecided).
McAdams acknowledges that
most Americans believe there was a conspiracy, but he suggests this
is because most people have been misled by disinformation put out
by conspiracy theorists.
(2)
Michael
T. Griffith, A
Brief Look at the Evidence of Conspiracy (2001)
There is
ample evidence that it is highly unlikely that any one man, especially
Lee Harvey Oswald, fired all the shots in the assassination. The results
of the rifle tests conducted by the Warren Commission (WC), by CBS,
and by the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) make it
indisputably clear that the alleged shooting feat would have been
extremely difficult even for an accomplished marksman. Not one of
the riflemen in those tests was able to go 2 for 3 against a target
area the size of Kennedy's upper back and head on the first attempt.
The WC's rifle test is
especially revealing. Three Master-rated riflemen took part. They
fired at stationary - yes, stationary - target boards from a 30-foot
tower. They missed the head and neck area of the target boards 17
out of 18 times, even though two of them took more than 6 seconds
to fire, and even though one of those two shooters took 8.25 seconds
to fire. Additionally, many of their misses were far apart on the
target board. In the CBS rifle test, which was somewhat more realistic
than the WC's test, not one of the eleven expert riflemen was able
to go 2 for 3 on his first attempt, and seven of them were unable
to do so on ANY attempt.
WC staffer Wesley Liebeler
warned the Commission in an internal memorandum that critical people
would never take the Commission's claims about Oswald's marksmanship
seriously. Oswald was at best a mediocre marksman. The very best he
did in the Marines was to barely qualify in the middle of three rifle
qualification categories, even though he was firing at stationary
targets with a semiautomatic rifle. Col. A. G. Folsom noted during
his WC testimony that Oswald's score book indicated Oswald was lucky
just to have barely qualified in the middle qualification category.
Dozens of Oswald's former Marine colleagues later said Oswald was
a rather poor shot. Russians who saw Oswald shoot in the Soviet Union
said the same thing.
The lone-gunman shooting
scenario now requires that the supposed single assassin completely
missed, not just Kennedy, but the entire huge presidential limousine
with his first and closest shot. This is the only way to expand the
alleged lone gunman's firing tie to over 8 seconds, since there is
now wide agreement that a shot was fired before the limousine passed
beneath the oak tree. I can't imagine how even a mediocre rifleman
could have missed the entire limousine from less than 140 feet away
and from 60 feet up. Even the WC labeled the first-shot-miss scenario
an "improbability." The limousine would have presented a
target that was over 120 square feet in size. Can anyone fathom completely
missing a target that size from less than 140 feet away, especially
on the first and closest shot?
Available from Amazon
Books (order below)
