The Hidden History of the JFK Assassination

By Duncan Roper

Time has a habit of moving on.  It is now fourteen years since the drama of the

two hijacked commercial aircraft drove directly into the Twin Towers in New 

York, creating untold worldwide fear and anxiety.  It is now more than fifty years 

ago since the shock of the John Kennedy assassination in Dallas, Texas on 

November 22, 1963.

Most people over eighteen at the time can remember where they were when they first

heard of the news of Kennedy's assassination.  I was in the common room at my Woolton

Hall, the University Hall of Residence during the first two years of my post-graduate study

in Manchester.  A good friend whom I had made came up to me and informed me of the event. 

Some three months earlier the ship taking me form New Zealand to the U.K. had passed

within ten kilometres of the island of Cube where,  in 1962, the drama that could have led

to the nuclear World War III was played out.  These events were still freshly on the minds of people all the way around the globe. 

Thus, it was a time that we all knew that we had all just escaped the horror of an all-out 

nuclear war between the two nuclear super-powers.  In this process, the youthful states- 

manship of John Kennedy had stood tall for much of the watching world in the face of

the crisis.  Hence, especially for Americans, the moment of the assassination was one

that was emotionally tinged with the crashing down of hopes for a peaceful world in which

a sword of Damocles continued ever so delicately poised over the nuclear buttons of the  two super-powers. 

There was always something of a huge mystery to this assassination event.  The lone gunman,

the shots from the grassy knoll, the silence of the various institutions of Executive Branch

of the US Government, and the various unsatisfactory features raised by many concerning the official Warren Report commissioned by President Johnson, Kennedy’s replacement, in 1964.

For most of us in the South Pacific , the first really serious questioning of the whole business

came from a viewing of the 1991 Oliver Stone movie entitled JFK, starring Kevin Costner as the New Orleans district attorney, Jim Garrison. 

Garrison filed charges against New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw (played by Tommy

Lee-Jones) for his alleged participation in a conspiracy to assassinate the President,

for which Lee Harvey Oswald was found responsible by the Warren Commission in 1964.

The film was adapted by Stone and Zachary Sklar from the books On the Trial of the Assassins

by Jim Garrison and Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs.  

Stone himself described the account of the events in his film as a counter-myth to offset the conclusions of what he called the fictional myth of the official version set out in the Warren Commission Report.  The film soon became embroiled in controversy.  Upon its release,

many major American newspapers ran editorials accusing Stone of taking liberties with

historical facts, including the film's implication that President Lyndon Johnson was part of a 

coup d’état to kill Kennedy.  Nonetheless, JFK was nominated for eight Academy 

Awards, including those for Best Picture, Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing.

Furthermore, it was the most successful of three films made by Stone on the American

Presidency, the others being Nixon with Anthony Hopkins in the title role and W

 with Josh Brolin as George W. Bush.

The film JFK, as a  ‘counter-myth,’  put the blame for both the assassination itself and ‘the

cover-up’ at the feet of the various institutions of the Executive Branch of the Government

of the US.  The film may well have influenced the US Congress to pass the JFK Records Act,

a public law, effective from October 26, 1992 making it obligatory for Government Institutions

to release of any files relating to the Kennedy assassination, for public scrutiny.  Furthermore,

the House of Representatives on Assassinations concluded in 1979 that ‘JFK was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy’ and that two Mafia godfathers who were close associates –‘had the motive, means and opportunity to assassinate President Kennedy in November 

1963.’  Although many files relating to the many events surrounding the Kennedy Assassin-

ation in 1963 have yet to be released, much progress has been made in clearing up the 

various mysteries from the opening up of information that has been so far made 

available.  

A recent book by Lamar Waldron, entitled The Hidden History of the JFK Assassination,

published in 2013, with the help of all the evidence that has now become available, presents

a very plausible case, and is backed up by a lot of corroborating evidence, as to what took place

and why. 

Several facts emerge from this evidence, much of it pertinent to the story as presented 

in the book by Lamar Waldron: John and Bobby Kennedy pursued many Mafia 

godfathers through the Courts during the early 1960s, thus reversing the somewhat lax 

attitude of the Eisenhower-Nixon years.  In particular, New Orleans boss, Carlos 

Marcello who was not a US citizen, had been exiled from the US into Central America 

by the Kennedys, unwanted there and, suffering quite extraordinary hardships in the 

Central American jungles, finally got back to the USA.  While in prison in 1987, for a 

lessor crime, Marcello confessed to a fellow-inmate, who later became an undercover 

FBI agent, of being behind the JFK assassination, and much of Marcello’s ‘cell-talk’ 

was then recorded on FBI tapes.  The events of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 

included an agreement between Kennedy and Khrushchev that Cuba would make itself 

open to UN weapons inspections if the USA agreed ‘to lay off it.’  Castro was not 

consulted, and refused to admit the UN inspectors.  The USA therefore continued its 

various underhand attempts to kill Castro and/or support a coup that was to be led by a 

very senior officer in the Cuban army.  These intrigues were not open and transparent 

– either within the CIA itself or between the CIA and the President.  Moreover, there 

was a great deal of complicity between the CIA and the Mafia bosses on this and other 

scores – involving Marcello (indirectly) in particular.  After the Cuban Missile crisis 

of 1962, the US Government was extremely sensitive regarding the possibility of a 

further showdown with the Soviet Union.

The basic plotline is then as follows:  Marcello and his fellow Mafia bosses planned to 

have John Kennedy assassinated, using (a) overseas assassins imported for the 

purpose, and (b) planting the guilt upon a suitable ‘patsy’ – Lee Harvey Oswald - who 

would be quickly ‘removed’ [the mission of Jack Ruby] after the deed had been done.  

At the same time, these Mafioso would use all possible means to link these events 

directly to the Government agencies they were ‘cooperating with’ in respect to the 

plots to kill Castro and support a coup in Cuba.  Apart from a few hiccups, it worked 

like a charm.  In particular, the CIA, FBI and the other Government agencies were so 

afraid of the exposure of their complicity with the Mob and/or another confrontation 

with the Soviet Union, that an effective cover-up operation was put in place, with the 

attempt to quieten possible public concern regarding the whole affair by means of the 

Warren Commission set up by President Johnson in 1964.

Conclusion

We shall draw this review to a close by asking the question as to the overall moral of this story

for our task of living in a secular age?

The first point is that we should not be surprised.  The hoped for secular utopia that 

would follow from the toppling of the rich and famous resulted in the Soviet Union 

being taken over by a select few of the Communist Party.  In the USA, it continues to 

be monopolised by big money, big business and big Mafioso bosses that all somehow 

become intertwined with the attempts of big Government to keep a lid on it all. 

Unfortunately we live in a wonderful creation that is marred by such real powers of 

sin, corruption and evil in high places.  The Messiah of Israel, the Son of God, the suffering

servant - brought the grace of God into this dark and sin-ridden world in his birth, life,

death and resurrection.  We believe that we need to live our lives out of the fullness of this

 grace as it is made real and effective for us through the work of the Holy Spirit in the +here and now.

The second point is that this grace of God has  immense significance for the political dimensions

of life in the here and now. Hence the calling of our Reformational Manifesto on the link provided here.