Conspiracy over JFK’s death reignited following witness account

JFK’s death shocked the world when on November 22, 1963 he was fatally shot while travelling in an open-top motorcade in Dallas, Texas alongside his wife Jackie Kennedy, Texas Governor John Connally and his wife Nellie Connally.

Lee Harvey Oswald was the man arrested for the murder of the president before the 24-year-old was shot dead two days later by local nightclub owner Jack Ruby on live television as he was escorted by Dallas police.

While the history books dictate Oswald acted alone in the assassination, one of the theories that always found support from conspiracists was that more shooters were involved.

Paul Landis, a man who witnessed the shooting while performing his duties as a secret service agent for the president has finally told his account of the events, revealing his lack of certainty over what happened.

Landis was on the running board of a car behind Kennedy’s motorcade before he heard a barrage of gunshots, he told the New York Times ahead of the release of his memoir ‘The Final Witness: A Kennedy Secret Service Agent Breaks His Silence After Sixty Years.’

Now 88, Landis has finally spoken out on his version of the incident, stating “there’s no goal” behind it.

“I just think it had been long enough that I needed to tell my story,” he said.

The ex-agent said he had always believed the official finding Oswald was solely responsible for Kennedy’s death but is no longer sure due to inconsistencies from what he saw and the single-bullet theory held by the commission that investigated the assassination.

“I’m beginning to doubt myself. Now I begin to wonder,” he said.

The single-bullet theory was established by the Warren Commission, concluding that the same bullet that hit Kennedy from behind and exited through his throat went on to strike John Connally in his back, thigh, chest and wrist.

One of the reasons why this conclusion was reached was because the bullet was found on the stretcher Connally was taken to a hospital on after the incident.

Landis said however that he was the one who had found the bullet before placing it on a stretcher.

“There was nobody there to secure the scene,” Landis said. “I was just afraid that — it was a piece of evidence, that I realized right away. Very important. And I didn’t want it to disappear or get lost.”

Cleveland lawyer James Robenalt and author of history books helped Landis regather his memories, stating that his claims could spark a resurgence in second shooter theories.

“If what he says is true, which I tend to believe, it is likely to reopen the question of a second shooter, if not even more,” Robenalt said.

“If the bullet we know as the magic or pristine bullet stopped in President Kennedy’s back, it means the central thesis of the Warren Report, the single-bullet theory, is wrong.”

If Connally was hit by a separate bullet, Robenalt theorised it could have come from another shooter, claiming it was not possible for Oswald to reload his rifle in time.

Landis’ change of perception on the incident emerged in 2014 however he held back from coming public with it with fellow secret service agent Clint Hill warning him of “many ramifications” at the time in an email.

“I believe it raises concerns when the story he is telling now, 60 years after the fact, is different than the statements he wrote in the days following the tragedy,” Hill told the NY Times.

Landis’ decision to discuss his accounts with a former director of the Secret Service and a historian was fuelled by his new belief the official account of the bullet was false after reading a copy he was given of the book Six Seconds in Dallas.

The former agent’s book The Final Witness will be published on October 10.