'...the “second shooter” was really a Secret Service agent, whose gun went off accidentally...'

[Len Colby]

As some of you many know there was a recent uproar when Salon published an 'i'm not a 9/11 truther, but...' article which originally appeared on another website. The former "pulled it" but the latter kept it. The author promoted a theory about the assassination I've never heard before:

THE FIRST MODERN “truther” movement concerned the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Researchers—some credible, others not—noted the many discrepancies in the Warren Commission’s official version of the events, particularly the so-called “Magic Bullet” theory—a perfectly viable explanation for what happened, other than the pesky fact that it was physically impossible.

In the decades that followed, countless alternative theories emerged on what actually took place on that November day in Dallas. Oswald acted alone, Oswald was in cahoots with others, Oswald was a patsy. It was the Mafia, it was the CIA, it was Fidel Castro, it was the shadowy men behind the Federal Reserve Bank. There was a second shooter in the grassy knoll: a Corsican hit man, a Communist agitator, three vagrants, one of the shapeshifting reptiles from the center of the earth. However bizarre these speculations may be, they are all based on an undeniable fact: that without violating the laws of physics, a single bullet could not have both killed JFK and wounded John Connally. It is just as likely that the president was killed by a shapeshifting reptile than a magic bullet; both are palpably untrue.

“Conspiracy” theories develop

, first and foremost, because the official version is obviously bogus. Most open-minded people who have spent any time researching the details of the JFK assassination conclude that there were (at least) two shooters. This group of gullible believers

includes the late Bobby Kennedy

, according to his son.

The likeliest explanation I’ve come across is that the “second shooter” was really a Secret Service agent, whose gun went off accidentally as he drew his weapon

. The ensuing “benign cover-up” was a national security decision intended to save face, to make it seem like the men charged with protecting our president were not grossly incompetent.

http://www.theweekli...JYK3VlQ.twitter

This seems even less likely than the LNT/SBT, did he make this up or has someone else pushed this theory?

Edited March 12, 2013 by Len Colby

[Larry Hancock]

Len, this is a real oldie (shows nothing ever goes away on the internet I suppose). Years ago a fellow wrote a book devoted to the scenario that the SS Agent in the following car, who did have access to an AR-15 in the vehicle, pulled the gun up and accidentally shot the President. The book was consistent and logical as area a lot of scenarios but the author and publisher were sued by the agent named and won the law suit. The book was ultimately pulled from the market I think; my copy is long gone.

The crux of the whole matter is that the photos of the motorcade clearly show the agent in question was not holding the weapon at the time

of the shooting - even though by the time the vehicle had moved to the freeway, he can be seen with it in a raised position. The author had based his scenario on his studies of bullet fragments in the head but had not looked more broadly; there is no sign he was aware of the photo which disproved his premise.

I'm assuming this is what the reference in the article referred to... Larry

[Robin Unger]

Hi Larry

I believe you are reffering to "Agent Hickey" who was sitting in the rear on the left side of the SS follow up car.

In Altgen's 6 ( z-255 ) Hickey appears to be looking towards the TSBD Doorway

as do Agent's Ready, Landis, and McIntyre

Edited March 12, 2013 by Robin Unger

[Larry Hancock]

Absolutely Robin, Hickey was the agent named in the book. Actually the book was pretty convincing based strictly on its

internal logic. A cautionary tale I suppose... Larry

[Robin Unger]

Mortal Error: The Shot That Killed JFK

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mortal Error: The Shot That Killed JFK Author(s) Bonar Menninger Country USA Language English Publisher St Martin's Press Publication date May 1992 Media type Print Pages 361 pp (first edition, hardback) ISBN ISBN 0312080743

Mortal Error: The Shot That Killed JFK is a 1992 non-fiction book by Bonar Menninger describing a theory by sharpshooter, gunsmith and ballistics expert Howard Donahue that a Secret Service agent accidentally fired the shot that actually killed President John F. Kennedy.^[1][2] Mortal Error was published by St Martin's Press in both hardback, paperback, and audiobook.

[edit]Synopsis

Donahue first became interested in the story of the JFK assassination after being invited to participate in a recreation of the shooting as one of eleven invited marksmen and sharpshooters.^[2] He demonstrated that it would have been possible for Lee Harvey Oswald to have fired three shots in the time specified by the Warren Commission. However the experience highlighted to Donahue other questions regarding the Warren report, and in particular the fact that the testimony of ballistics experts seemed to have been completely omitted from the Commission's evidence gathering.^[3]

Donahue eventually decided that the bullet that struck Kennedy in the head had in fact been fired by agent George Hickey from an AR-15 carried in a secret service car following the President's vehicle. However he also decided that a previous shot had already mortally wounded Kennedy before the head shot was fired.^[4]

[edit]Controversy

In 1995 Hickey sued St. Martin's Press over the claims made in Mortal Error.^[5][6] The suit was eventually dismissed in 1997 on the grounds that Hickey had waited too long after the book's initial publication to file against the publisher.^[7] Hickey later settled with St Martin's Press in 1998 on undisclosed terms.^[8

Edited March 12, 2013 by Robin Unger

[Michael Hogan]

Hickey's attorney in that lawsuit against St Martin's Press was Mark Zaid.

http://news.google.c...&pg=4654,213971

[Thomas H. Purvis]

Nice theory, except:

The U.S. Secret Service utilized the AR-15 (early version of the M-16).

The bullets which this weapon fired were a fully pointed-nose projectile.

The bullet that ultimately lodged in the left leg of JBC contained a rounded/flat nose in which the bullet body as well as the nose were identical to the shape of the 6.5mm Carcano bullet.

That is, "identical" with the exception of the nose portion being bent slightly upwards as a result of the tangential strike to the right fifth rib.

[Pat Speer]

Mortal Error is incorrectly dismissed, IMO. Donahue was wrong about Hickey, but correct in much of his analysis. The wound ballistics proposed by the Warren Commission--that a Carcano bullet entering low on the head and exiting high on the head would both explode and explode the skull, sending a large piece of skull flying high into the air--was absolute hooey. The HSCA's re-assessment of this situation--and movement of the entrance wound upwards--wasn't much better. Donahue was, if I recall, the first researcher to go through Thomas Canning's trajectory report and realize it was total nonsense. Pity no one listened to him.

[B. A. Copeland]

To add even more insult to injury...:

'A tragic accident in the heat of the moment': new docudrama claims JFK was shot accidentally by a 'hungover' secret service agent

Film suggests that a Secret Service agent, George Hickey, fired one of the bullets that killed Kennedy after a night partying with colleagues

Rob Williams

Monday, 29 July 2013

Just months ahead of the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination a new docudrama is set to spark a fresh debate over who carried out the killing by reviving the theory that JFK was shot accidentally by a secret service agent.

The new film, which will be aired in Australia, the US and Canada this Autumn, is based on the work of investigative writer Colin McLaren and author Bonar Menninger. It suggests that a Secret Service agent, George Hickey, fired one of the bullets that killed Kennedy after a night partying with colleagues.

Hickey, who is now dead, was riding in the car behind Kennedy’s limo that day. “What we’re saying is that we believe it was a tragic accident in the heat of that moment,” McLaren told the Television Critics Association on Sunday, Associated Press reported.

According to the film makers, whose work is based on that of Howard Donahue, who spent 20 years studying the assassination, when Lee Harvey Oswald fired his first shot, Hickey responded by trying to fire back on Oswald’s position using his Secret Service-issued rifle.

Because he was inexperienced with the weapon, and because the car lurched forward suddenly, said shot went awry and accidentally hit Kennedy, who was struck in the neck but quite possibly not fatally wounded by Oswald’s second shot.

“We don’t suggest that he was in any way involved in a conspiracy,” McLaren said of Hickey.

The theory is set to once again revive the debate over who was responsible for the killing of President Kennedy. It is said that as much as 75 per cent of the American public do not believe the official account of the Kennedy assassination.

Theories range from the bizarre to the implausible, including claims that the driver of the Presidential car did it, to claims of a massive criminal conspiracy involving organisations as varied as the CIA, anti-Castro Cuban exile groups and the mafia.

The Warren Commission report into the assassination in the 1960s concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman and remains the official explanation of the assassination.

Additional reporting by Associated Press

(source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/a-tragic-accident-in-the-heat-of-the-moment-new-docudrama-claims-jfk-was-shot-accidentally-by-a-hungover-secret-service-agent-8736705.html#)

I swear....the closer to this anniversary we get....the more wacky things will be and the more colorful the red herrings will be....advance and read with caution folks.

Edited July 31, 2013 by B. A. Copeland

[Gil Jesus]

To add even more insult to injury...:

'A tragic accident in the heat of the moment': new docudrama claims JFK was shot accidentally by a 'hungover' secret service agent

Film suggests that a Secret Service agent, George Hickey, fired one of the bullets that killed Kennedy after a night partying with colleagues

Rob Williams

Monday, 29 July 2013

Just months ahead of the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination a new docudrama is set to spark a fresh debate over who carried out the killing by reviving the theory that JFK was shot accidentally by a secret service agent.

The new film, which will be aired in Australia, the US and Canada this Autumn, is based on the work of investigative writer Colin McLaren and author Bonar Menninger. It suggests that a Secret Service agent, George Hickey, fired one of the bullets that killed Kennedy after a night partying with colleagues.

Hickey, who is now dead, was riding in the car behind Kennedy’s limo that day. “What we’re saying is that we believe it was a tragic accident in the heat of that moment,” McLaren told the Television Critics Association on Sunday, Associated Press reported.

According to the film makers, whose work is based on that of Howard Donahue, who spent 20 years studying the assassination, when Lee Harvey Oswald fired his first shot, Hickey responded by trying to fire back on Oswald’s position using his Secret Service-issued rifle.

Because he was inexperienced with the weapon, and because the car lurched forward suddenly, said shot went awry and accidentally hit Kennedy, who was struck in the neck but quite possibly not fatally wounded by Oswald’s second shot.

“We don’t suggest that he was in any way involved in a conspiracy,” McLaren said of Hickey.

The theory is set to once again revive the debate over who was responsible for the killing of President Kennedy. It is said that as much as 75 per cent of the American public do not believe the official account of the Kennedy assassination.

Theories range from the bizarre to the implausible, including claims that the driver of the Presidential car did it, to claims of a massive criminal conspiracy involving organisations as varied as the CIA, anti-Castro Cuban exile groups and the mafia.

The Warren Commission report into the assassination in the 1960s concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman and remains the official explanation of the assassination.

Additional reporting by Associated Press

(source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/a-tragic-accident-in-the-heat-of-the-moment-new-docudrama-claims-jfk-was-shot-accidentally-by-a-hungover-secret-service-agent-8736705.html#)

I swear....the closer to this anniversary we get....the more wacky things will be and the more colorful the red herrings will be....advance and read with caution folks.

It's difficult to believe that this was a result of an accident. Hoover wanted the FBI to take over Presidential protection. If the FBI had found the SS that inept in protecting the President, to the extent that it actually killed him, he would have pulled whatever strings necessary to move that responsibility over to the FBI.

I don't recall any of the witnesses in Dealey Plaza saying the SS killed him.

[Vince Palamara]

ALSO: Hickey DID ride on the follow-up car in Tampa, FL on 11/18/63 AND he was NOT one of the 9 agents who was drinking the night before.

WHAT IS IT about the Hickey-did-it and Greer-did-it theories that are so attractive to lay people? I am getting inundated with messages from non-researchers who are infatuated with this nonsense