Today, November 22, 2023, is the 60 year anniversary of the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy.
Having read a bunch of books and seen many documnetaries, TV shows, interviews and seen the Oliver Stone JFK movie and more, would label myself something of a historical buff on that terrible event in America’s history on 11/22/1963, when President John Kennedy was shot and killed in a motorcade at Dealey Plaza in Texas.
The official word from The Warren Commission is that Lee Harvey Oswell acted alone, perched from a sniper’s nest in the Texas School Book Depository, but that is widely disputed — and believed — along with an incrediable amount of conspiracy theories which range from ludicrous to curious and everywhere in between.
Former Governor, actor and pro wrestler Jesse Ventura once hosted a TV show called Conspiracy Theory and he delved into the topic on an episode. Then there is Vincent Bugliosi who prosecuted Charles Manson who wrote a massive tome on the subject, it’s like the War and Peace of JFK assassination where he believes Oswald was the lone shooter, just like the Warren Commission stated. Stephen King wrote a fictional novel where a guy goes back in time through a diner to attempt to stop Oswald (it’s a good story, btw).
Enter Meathead from All in the Family and director Rob Reiner offering a 10-part podcast called, “Who Killed JFK?” (https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-who-killed-jfk-127000428/) making a new claim of having information via Axios:
State of play: Reiner, who directed “When Harry Met Sally” and “The Princess Bride,” says he has evidence that U.S. government officials, including at the CIA, were behind the plot to murder the president and that President Johnson participated in covering up the conspiracy.
The podcast, as of this writing, only has 2 of the 10 episodes available to listen. No idea how long it will take to release those 10 episodes, but if you, like me, are interested in this historical event, might be worth checking out.
UPDATE 11/25/2023 @ 4:30am PST – new episodes are released Wednesdays, with episode 3 being released 11/22/2023. If they follow this schedule, then this should, presumably be the release of the remaining podcast episodes:
Episode #4 – 11/29/23
#5 – 12/6/2023
#6 – 12/13/2023
#7 – 12/20/2023
#8 – 12/27/2023
#9 – 1/3/2024
#10 – 1/10/2024 – The final episode – again, just a guess, but it appears Reiner will drag out the answer to the podcast question, and wait to name specific names until the second week in January of the new year. Am wondering if this amount of suspense is necessary for a 60+ year old crime? Since each episode appears to be running around an hour, that’s roughly 10 hours to answer a question that many, many, many people have tried to answer for dozens of years. This definitely runs the risk of being anticlimactic, and yet I’m no doubt going to tune in and see if the payoff is there.
Alas, can’t mention the JFK Assassination without mentioning a highly controversial shareware game released in 2004 for Windows PC called: JFK Reloaded.
JFK Reloaded allows recreating and simulating the assassination. If curious, more can be learned about this via MyAbandonWare (https://www.myabandonware.com/game/jfk-reloaded-c6p)https://www.myabandonware.com/game/jfk-reloaded-c6p) according to the reviewer there:
Anyone who finds such games offensive is advised to stop reading now. While I do find the game morally questionable, the designers deserve credits for shying away from focusing on pure “shock value” (which would be extremely easy to do, given the circumstances) – focusing instead on the physics behind the vent.
The ‘official goal’ of JFK Reloaded according to Traffic is “…to debunk assassination conspiracy theories by buttressing the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and fired only three bullets.” Accordingly, the game places you in the exact spot that Oswald stood, and offers you the chance to re-create his three shots (the last of which was the one that caused “the fatal wound”). The perfect score of 1,000 is awarded if you can replicate the three bullets’ trajectories perfectly. You can replay as many times as you want.
Personally, I’m not interested in “playing” this game, but proponents argued that it was an interactive way to evaluate this historic event. Ted Kennedy, JFK’s younger brother, labeled this game, “despicable.” It was removed from circulation in 2005, following plenty of media and public backlash. The original price of the game was $9.99.