European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 19, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Cover Story  from the cover a will we Ever know All the facts and circumstances a asked rep. Louis Stokes a Ohio chairman of the former House select committee on assassinations which conducted its investigation into the slaying in the late 1970s. A no. We done to know All the facts and circumstances about the Lincoln assassination. Assassinations fascinate the american  conspiracy theories began to circulate almost immediately after Kennedy was shot when broadcast commentators reporting the shooting speculated that Dallas right wingers might have plotted to kill the president on that sunny Friday afternoon of nov. 22, 1963. Since then the mafia Cuba the soviet Union the Cia and the Fri have been linked to the crime both in purportedly serious investigations As Well As in various expressions of pop culture Over the years. The 1960s off Broadway play Macbird held president Lyndon b. Johnson responsible. A recent documentary broadcast by a amp a Cable television network asserted that Oswald was innocent and that three mob contract killers imported from Marseilles France actually shot Kennedy. Arthur Schlesinger jr., a historian and former adviser to Kennedy noted that a americans have been susceptible to conspiracy theories since at least the 1830s when Many americans thought masonic plotters were trying to take Over the country. He said that this susceptibility to paranoia was fortified in the Kennedy Case by the fact that the Warren commission investigation was Hasty and incomplete. Ltd whether a More adequate investigation would have produced a different conclusion a Schlesinger said a is a matter of  a Kaleidoscope of possible motives for the assassination ranges from right Wing disgust at Kennedy a civil rights record to left Wing anger at his administrations repeated attempts to assassinate cuban president Fidel Castro. Complicating the task of determining a motive Are the varying interpretations ascribed to the actions of both Kennedy and Oswald. Much of the available evidence Clouds the Issue. James j. Humes the Kennedy autopsy surgeon burned his notes taken at the time of the autopsy saying later that he did not think they were important. In addition the presidents brain was lost after it was examined by doctors. Some witnesses to the assassination told investigators they heard three shots others said they heard four one of which was fired from a Grassy Knoll. Then there is the question of Why Jack Ruby a striptease club owner with mob connections murdered Oswald if not to protect a conspiracy. Conspiracy buffs say that a Home movie filmed by Abraham zapruder a dress maker who was at Devalcy Plaza the Day of the assassination dispels the Warren commission Contention that one gunman could have hit Kennedy and Texas gov. John b. Connally with the same Bullet. But scientific tests commissioned by Congress have shown that fragments found in the governors wrist match a Bullet that passed through the president. Johnson appointed a commission headed by chief Justice Earl Warren to investigate the assassination and Calm the Public. After interviewing More than 500 witnesses and reviewing hundreds of documents it concluded that Oswald fired All three shots at the president from a sixth floor Perch of the Texas school Book depository building overlooking Dealey Plaza. Citing among other things his pal print found on the Rifle used in the shooting the commission concluded that Oswald acted alone. The Warren commission report has been much maligned Over the years As a Rush Job at Best and a piece of a grand government conspiracy at worst. Critics have noted that the Cia withheld much relevant information from the commission to Avert revelations of its efforts to assassinate Castro and destabilize his government using assets with mafia connections. Sen. Arlen Specter r-pa., who was an assistant counsel to the Warren commission said in a recent interview a i think the commission did a Good Job. Had there been a conspiracy i think it would have come to Light Long ago. You can to keep secrets in  a 1979 report by a House select committee on assassinations agreed with the commission that there was no conspiracy involving the soviet Union Cuba or any Federal agencies but it suggested the possibility that the mob might have been involved. It also raised doubts about the one gunman theory. After examining audio tapes taken from a police motorcycle in Dealey Plaza in combination with eyewitness testimony it concluded that there was a second gunman who fired a fourth shot from the Grassy Knoll. That shot missed. However three years later a panel of the National Academy of sciences suggested that the audio tape did not support the theory of a second gunman. It reported that the noises earlier said to be gunshots had actually been made a minute after the president was shot. It suggested that the noises might have been nothing More than the Static of a police radio. Stokes however said he stood by his committees  conspiracy conspiracy theorists have Long noted that the mafia had a motive to destroy the Kennedy administration. Several mafia leaders were openly upset with the presidents failure to overthrow Castro who had shut Down their lucrative casinos in Havana. In addition attorney general Robert f. Kennedy had begun an aggressive Campaign against James r. Hoffa president of the International Jack Ruby is sandwiched by Security in a Dallas court a month after shooting Lee Harvey Oswald. Brotherhood of teamsters who was closely associated with the criminal underworld. The House assassinations committee suggested that the most Likely mafia leaders to have participated in the plot were Carlos Marcello of new Orleans a close associate of Hoffa who was briefly deported to Central America by the Kennedy administration and Santo Trafficante of Havana who was once jailed by Castro. Oswald and Ruby had mafia ties. In his recent Book the crisis years Harper oiling 1991michael r. Be Schloss noted that in the months before the assassination Oswald stayed at the new Orleans Home of his Uncle Charles Murret a bookmaker with mob connections. When Oswald was arrested during a Street fight arising out of a pro Castro demonstration in August 1963, he was probably bailed out of prison by a Marcello associate be Schloss wrote. According to a 1950s Senate investigation of the underworld Ruby was a Liaison Between various groups in the Chicago mob. He evident ally the Warren commission from left Gerald Ford Hale Boggs Richard Russell chief Justice Earl Warren John Sherman Cooper John j. Mccloy Allen Dulles and j. Leo  4 a sunday january 19.1992