The assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas remains one of the most shocking and controversial events in American history. The official Warren Commission conclusion that lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald fired the fatal shots from the Texas School Book Depository has never satisfied the majority of the American public. A Gallup poll in 2013 found that 61% of Americans still believed Kennedy was killed as part of a larger conspiracy.
In the nearly 60 years since Kennedy‘s murder, a seemingly endless array of alternative theories has emerged, pointing the finger at everyone from the Soviet Union to Fidel Castro to the Mafia to Kennedy‘s own successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. Many of these conspiracies stretch credulity to the breaking point, but they remain stubbornly popular in the public imagination.
The Driver Shot JFK Theory
One of the more outlandish fringe theories that still manages to captivate some conspiracy buffs is the notion that Kennedy was shot by his own driver, Secret Service agent William Greer. This claim originated with a stabilized, poor quality version of the famous Zapruder film which inadvertently captured the assassination on 8mm home movie camera.
In this enhanced version, it appears as though Greer momentarily takes his hands off the steering wheel and turns to point an object at Kennedy just before the fatal head shot. Conspiracy theorists allege this object was a handgun Greer used to deliver the deadly shot at point blank range.
However, this supposed "gun" has been identified as nothing more than a reflection of sunlight off of Greer‘s hair. Higher resolution copies of the Zapruder film, as well as other still photographs and home movies taken that day, clearly show that Greer‘s hands never left the steering wheel of the presidential limousine during the shooting sequence.
The House Select Committee on Assassinations, which reinvestigated the case in the late 1970s, examined the Zapruder film and concluded definitively that it had not been altered or tampered with. The visual discrepancies were merely an artifact of the low quality reproduction and stabilization process that distorted the original footage.
When questioned by the Warren Commission in 1964, Agent Greer testified under oath that he had not fired any shots during the assassination. None of the three other Secret Service agents riding in the car with Greer that day ever reported seeing him shoot at Kennedy. No eyewitnesses in Dealey Plaza claimed to see Greer brandishing a firearm.
Why the Theory Persists
If the evidence so thoroughly debunks the "Greer shot JFK" theory, why does it remain a favorite among some Warren Commission skeptics? Like many JFK assassination conspiracies, it seems to stem from an unwillingness to accept that such a momentous crime could be the work of a single, insignificant man like Oswald. There is a psychological need to believe significant events must have significant causes.
The theory also feeds into a broader distrust of government and official narratives that has become especially prevalent since the 1970s Watergate scandal. If the government was willing to lie and coverup Nixon‘s crimes, why wouldn‘t they lie about the Kennedy assassination too? For conspiracy theorists, the fact that elements of the government are hiding information about the assassination is proof in itself of a sinister plot.
At the same time, the Greer theory has failed to gain much traction among serious professional historians and credible JFK researchers. According to Vincent Bugliosi, author of the acclaimed 1600 page book Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, "the notion that JFK was killed by his own Secret Service agent is the least plausible of all the conspiracy theories."
Bugliosi‘s scathing dismissal is shared by the vast majority of mainstream Kennedy assassination experts. In a 2013 survey of prominent historians, journalists and authors who have studied the case, exactly zero believed Greer was the assassin. Even among the minority who think there was a conspiracy, the Greer theory is not taken seriously as a credible possibility.
Evaluating Other Conspiracy Theories
This is not to say all JFK conspiracies are equally far-fetched. There remain some legitimate unresolved questions and inconsistencies in the official account that have led serious investigators to propose other conspiracy scenarios. Among the most common are:
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The CIA/Military Industrial Complex: Kennedy had made powerful enemies in the military and intelligence establishment with his handling of the Bay of Pigs fiasco and his tentative steps toward deescalating the Cold War and withdrawing from Vietnam. Some suspect rogue elements conspired to eliminate the perceived threat to their power.
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The Soviets/Cubans: Lee Harvey Oswald had defected to the Soviet Union in 1959 and was an outspoken supporter of Fidel Castro. Some believe the assassination was a KGB plot to retaliate for Kennedy‘s hard line against communism, or that Castro ordered the hit in response to repeated CIA attempts on his own life.
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The Mafia: The Kennedy administration, especially Attorney General Robert Kennedy, had cracked down heavily on organized crime after alleged Mob assistance in winning the tight 1960 election. Some researchers believe Mafia bosses like Carlos Marcello or Santos Trafficante orchestrated the assassination in revenge.
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The "Grassy Knoll" Second Shooter: The most famous conspiracy claim is that audio recordings and some eyewitness testimony suggest a second gunman was positioned on the grassy knoll in front of Kennedy‘s motorcade. This would explain the apparent direction of the fatal head shot and some ballistics evidence that doesn‘t match Oswald‘s rifle.
However, on closer examination, each of these theories have major flaws and evidentiary holes. The CIA and anti-Castro Cuban involvement is arguably the most plausible, but even these still lack any definitive proof beyond circumstantial suspicions. Declassified documents in the 1990s revealed the Soviet KGB conducted their own investigation and concluded Oswald was a lone gunman, not a Soviet agent.
The 1979 House Select Committee on Assassinations did conclude there was a "probable conspiracy" and that the grassy knoll audio recordings indicated a 95% chance of a second shooter. But a National Academy of Sciences review later overturned this finding, saying the audio was not actually from Dealey Plaza at the time of the shooting and did not indicate any gunshots beyond those linked to Oswald.
Conclusion: The Truth Remains Elusive
After six decades and millions of pages of investigations, documents, books, articles and interviews, the hard truth is we may never know with 100% certainty what really happened in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963. Too many key witnesses have died, too much evidence is lost or tainted, and too many classified files remain sealed for national security reasons.
What we can say with confidence is that the evidence supporting any particular conspiracy theory, including the outlandish "Greer shot JFK" fable, remains far weaker than the admittedly imperfect and incomplete official narrative of Oswald as the lone gunman.
Until and unless significant new evidence emerges, the conclusions of the Warren Commission and the House Select Committee remain the closest approximation of the truth we are likely to have. Lee Harvey Oswald almost certainly fired all the shots that killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connelly. No other shooters have ever been identified or linked to the crime by physical evidence.
If Oswald had any co-conspirators directing his actions, they were likely a small cabal of anti-Castro Cubans or rogue CIA operatives, not Soviet leaders or the Mafia or Vice President Johnson. It‘s possible we will never know for sure. It‘s also quite possible Oswald really was just a deranged lone killer, as monstrous as that truth may seem.
What is certain is the JFK assassination shattered America‘s sense of innocence and ushered in an age of paranoia, distrust and disillusionment. The proliferation of conspiracy theories, no matter how implausible, is a symptom of that national trauma we have never fully recovered from. As long as the Kennedy mysteries endure, so will the mythologies we invent to explain them.
