Josiah Thompson FEB2025 NewsNation Interview

By far the most interesting recent JFK-related interview I've seen.
"Ross Coulthart sits down with 'Last Second in Dallas' author Josiah Thompson to dive deep into his theory on the assassination and break down the evidence, including official findings from the Warren Commission, eyewitness accounts, and the Zapruder film. Thompson says he believes the files President Trump is set to release could reveal the whole story.
00:00-2:27 Intro/Open
2:28-8:55 The Warren Commission findings
8:56-15:37 Thompson on the Zapruder film
15:38-23:38 Eyewitness accounts
23:39-30:34 Thompson’s current opinion on what happened
30:35-32:15 Thompson’s view on the single-bullet theory
32:16-35:15 Joe Marshall Smith story
35:16-38:58 Thompson shares his theory of events
38:59-42:21 Thompson on the importance of these events
42:22-END Thompson’s thoughts on a possible coverup

YT Transcript
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[Music] below lastly sir we have an executive
1:21
order ordering the declassification of files relating to the assassinations of
1:26
President John F Kennedy uh Senator Robert F Kennedy and the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr that's a big one
1:33
huh a lot of people are waiting for this were along for years for
1:44
decades and everything will be revealed hello and welcome to reality
1:49
check this week we're bringing you an interview from the locker with Josiah
1:56
Tink Thompson I had the pleasure of meeting Josiah Thompson last year when I
2:01
was asked by news Nation to reinvestigate the assassination of JFK
2:07
for the 60th anniversary for November 1963 it is an intriguing mystery and as
2:15
a young man when I first studied the Warren Commission which was the official US Government inquiry into the JFK
2:23
assassination it always struck me you could drive a truck through the holes in that commission's findings and that's
The Warren Commission findings
2:30
exactly the conclusion that Josiah Tink Thompson came to Josiah's got a very
2:35
interesting background he's done perhaps the definitive investigation into the
2:41
JFK assassination in 1967 he published a book called six seconds in Dallas a
2:49
micro study of the Kennedy assassination and in early 2021 he
2:56
published last second in Dallas and they are two definitive TOS on the JFK
3:02
assassination and Josiah speaks with some knowledge particularly of weapons he's actually somebody who's quite shy
3:10
about his background but he worked in the precursors of the Navy Seals he was
3:15
with the UDT the underwater demolition teams a special Commando unit in the US
3:21
Navy and he has an extensive knowledge of weapons and because of his history as a private investigator he's also a
3:28
methodical investigator here's Josiah Thompson on the JFK
3:34
assassination and why you shouldn't believe what the government tells you all the
3:41
time thinkk 60 years ago a president was murdered JFK was assassinated in
3:49
Dallas officially the government position through the Warren Commission is it was
3:55
a soul shooter Lee Harvey Oswald
4:01
is that official version wrong yes why couldn't have happened that way why do
4:06
you say that because the the evidence in the case um will not permit it will not
4:16
permit a single gunman to have done this now before we get into the nitty-gritty
4:22
of the evidence the thing I'm fascinated by is that even LBJ JFK's successor
4:27
didn't believe the single bullet Theory did he there is a phone call between
4:34
President Johnson and Senator Russell who was on the Warren
4:40
Commission and they're old friends from the Senate and they're talking about the
4:46
Warren commission's conclusions and the single bullet theory of course is one of the central
4:52
conclusions and they both end up agreeing it's wrong the official version
4:57
is that Lee Harvey oswal acted alone that there were three shots one shot
5:03
missed one shot a single bullet caused seven wounds and the third shot from behind
5:13
JFK went to his head and killed him is that wrong
5:19
yeah why well it's wrong because um there were not three shots there were at
5:26
least four and very likely five and Kennedy was hit in the head
5:34
Twice first when you see it in the zuder film at uh between 312 313 that's frames
5:41
312 313 those are frame numbers of the film the film ran at 18.3 frames per sec
5:49
per second so that's a very
5:54
fast uh and um
6:01
Kennedy was hit from two directions from the front first and then
6:07
from the rear the first bullet impacted on a tangent to the top
6:14
of his head from the right front and
6:20
blew bone blood brain matter back and to the left and indeed
6:29
in the Auda film you do see the president being pushed as if from the
6:36
right slumping into the left hand side of the seat behind him you see him
6:41
actually the head leads the movement and his head and body are thrown by the
6:47
impact to the left rear he was sitting in the in the right corner of the rear
6:54
seat and he was thrown in the direction of his wife also sitting in the back now
7:00
the thing that fascinates me is the Warren Commission never got to show that film it was never displayed the sauda
7:06
film as part of the Warren Commission evidence was it it was displayed in
7:13
um many pages of volume 18 as a still photograph as a as a still frame
7:21
photograph yes now did the representation of the sauda film in the
7:27
Warren Commission report accurately represent what you eventually saw on the
7:32
film in the National Archive no uh the frames are reproduced two to a
7:39
page in black and white there are some 20 87
7:47
or several hundred frames reproduced just two of
7:55
those several hundred frames were up according to Jer
8:03
Hoover Uh there was a printing error and they were reversed what it's clear to
8:09
anybody is they were reversed I could show show you that the the two frames
8:15
that were reversed are uh 314 that's after 313 and 315 now tin
8:23
explain to the audience what would the reversal of those images lead any one to
8:30
conclude that there was a forward an immediate forward movement after impact
8:37
not a rearward movement which is what actually happened so do you believe that those frames were reversed deliberately
8:44
to mislead anyone reading the Warren Commission report into the belief that the shot came from
8:50
behind Hoover said it was a printer's error I'll just leave it at that you can
Thompson on the Zapruder film
8:57
all make your own judgment you're very careful you stick to what you know yeah but on its face there is misleading
9:03
evidence presented in the Warren Commission report well not not in the report this
9:09
is in a vol volume 18 of its hearing so in in the summary of evidence that's
9:15
presented in the appendices of the Warren Commission report there is a reversal of frames 314 and 315 which
9:24
would lead anyone looking at those frames to think that the shot came from behind
9:30
I think that's true yes yes uh I should point out that nowhere in the report of
9:37
the Warren Commission is the climax of the zuder film ever mentioned
9:46
the climax of the film of course is when you see in frame 313 the president's
9:51
head explodes you're you're watching in fact the killing of John Kennedy in the Z
9:58
film and you never see its apex nor is that Apex ever mentioned what was that
10:05
moment like when you saw the film for the first time in the National Archives what did it tell
10:11
you well technically we we were looking for for all sorts of things but um the
10:20
actual film that uh I saw in the summer of 1966 in the archives was a copy of a
10:28
copy so it was not nearly as um sharp as the
10:35
copy I later worked with when I was employed by Life Magazine on on this
10:41
case when you saw the highresolution imagery of the Auda film what conclusion
10:47
did you come to when you saw those key frames showing the moment when the
10:52
president's head was hit well let me answer that in a funny way let me say
10:59
that uh I felt the same thing Don Dilo felt when he saw the zuder film over and
11:07
over again in preparing his film
11:14
Libra every every drop of my blood he says every drop made me feel that the
11:24
shot came from the front you believe it wasn't just Lee Oswalt at
11:31
all no I don't know one shot was fired from the sixth floor corner window to
11:38
Kennedy's head but that's not the shot at 313 so
11:45
what you're suggesting is that quite literally whoever did Kill Kennedy was
11:50
on the grassy null that's right and that couldn't have been leh Hadi oswal no
11:56
because he was never ever near the null that day what's the evidence that you believe is
12:02
the most convincing piece of evidence to suggest that the killshot came from the
12:08
grassy null It's a combination of what we see
12:14
in the zuder film which is Kennedy's head leading he's thrown instantaneously
12:20
backwards into the left his elbow comes up it's and he bounces off the sea that's compelling the compelling
12:28
evidence for this is right there and this is auder film and always has been it's completely inconsistent with a shot
12:33
from behind I mean I I think there's something called the jet effect isn't there people have tried to suggest that
12:40
the way that Kennedy's body reacted might have been due to some kind of uh
12:47
reverse force from the impact from behind right uh do you think there's any validity to that theory no no that's not
12:55
worth discussing it's it's it's just not true um the supporting evidence for this is
13:03
ask the obvious question if Kennedy's hit in the head where does the impact
13:10
debris from that go because you know have you ever seen
13:15
uh you see the these uh Quenton Tarantino has done this several times in
13:23
making his his movies a guy's in a room or something and he gets shot in the head what happens well what happens is
13:31
that that the bullet goes through and draws with it a whole mess of Gore which
13:39
then slops up against a wall and then begins to drip down on the wall well in
13:45
this case there's no wall but there is in fact what what
13:52
Tarantino depicted and the impact debris we do know where
13:59
it went so let's go through that the two outriding motorcyclists on the far side
14:06
from the Grassi null one of them in particular was was hit by a piece of
14:12
what was eventually discovered to be JFK's skull now is there any way that a shot
14:19
from The Book Depository which was behind the presidential limousine could have been in any way the cause of that
14:27
spray no a sh the back of Kennedy's head blowing out the front would have thrown
14:33
impact debris over the limousine and it didn't well a second shot was fired from
14:41
the depository and did just that but it the the primary shot that by all
14:47
accounts destroyed the back of the president's head well killed him yes certainly the 313 shot killed John
14:54
Kennedy that debris was sprayed as if the shot came from the grassy yes yes
15:02
let's take the first the first uh nearest motorcyclist the in riding the
15:09
inboard cycle off the left rear of the lousine his named Bobby
15:15
harges and Bobby hares told a reporter on November
15:22
23rd that um he thought he'd been hit hit by a bullet he was hit so hard in
15:29
the midsection by this by this impact debris which was on his helmet and etc
15:36
etc that he thought he thought he'd been
Eyewitness accounts
15:41
hit only immediately he he stopped his cycle
15:49
they were only going 8 miles an hour at this time he stopped his cycle put the kickand down pulled out his gun and ran
15:56
across the street up towards the null he was asked then later at his
16:02
deposition why he did this and he W he
16:07
said first he thought the shot was fired from close in Well actually it was shot
16:13
from about 100 feet away so it was close in but um he believed the shot came from
16:21
the null he did and he he stumbles around trying to express this during his
16:27
deposition to the lawyer and but what he says is yeah I I mean I
16:35
could give you the quote but uh I can't remember the full full quote but that's
16:40
exactly what he says the reason I ran up there was because I thought the shot came from up there basically now he
16:47
wasn't the only one was he there were multiple Witnesses dozens of witnesses who believed the shots came from the
16:54
grassy null as well as The Book Depository uh [Music]
17:01
I'm not let's just talk about Witnesses who who the last two
17:08
witnesses as you go down Elm Street during the shooting the
17:13
witnesses that are available there thin out and the last two
17:20
witnesses on the on that north side of the street our first bill Newman and the
17:27
Newman family Bill's the guy who jumps on top of his son he's actually lying on top of his little boy yeah after after
17:35
the next to last shot is fired they they are erect standing on the sidewalk
17:42
beside the now what did Bill say about where he thought the shot came from he
17:47
said he thought it came from the little garden up above the grass up up up above which is part of
17:55
the gr which is the grassy null um now I want to take you through this because this is quite important evidence there's
18:01
also a woman called Cheryl McKinnon what did she say she saw she thought it came
18:07
from the nol also but she's further back further further up but didn't she also
18:12
say she thought she saw puffs of smoke still hanging in the air well
18:21
uh that's that was also seen by some eight Witnesses on the on the overpass
18:29
and uh the house select committee took took that all up and asked an expert about this does smokeless powder give
18:37
off any smoke and the this the smokeless powder expert had to say well under
18:43
certain circumstances yeah there was kind of filtered light along along the
18:49
stockade fence on the null and that that light filtered by trees there would have
18:55
produced a good environment to Sea smoke now you said that the
19:01
shot that the motorcycle outrider uh felt the impact of debris from probably
19:08
came from about 100 ft as I understand it the grassy null position where you
19:14
believe the shooter or at least one of the shooters was located is 95 ft from the president's car that that's correct
19:21
so you're pretty spot on there yeah there are other people there's a guy called Skinny Holland who was on the
19:28
overpass what did skinny Holland say he saw oh skinny Holland is
19:33
something um skinny Holland um it's not just what
19:39
skinny Holland said he saw can you let's just tell me exactly what the evidence was that he gave though what did he give
19:45
evidence about I wish I could use use photographs to do this um skinny Holland said that
19:54
he was certain that the next to last shot came not from the depository the first
20:01
three the first three shots came from up Elm Street and he wasn't precise about
20:07
where up Elm Street they were but the next to last shot that is the fourth
20:13
shot came from behind the fence on the null and he also saw smoke I understand
20:19
and he also saw smoke as did seven other people who later
20:25
told told stories of having seen smoke from the overpass there's also the
20:31
evidence of Clint Hill the secret service agent which suggests that there were different sounds from different
20:38
shots suggesting different rifles yes he both
20:44
Holland and um both Holland and Clint Hill say that the four the next SL last
20:51
shot the fourth shot had a different sound Holland told me it was like the difference between a shotgun and a 38
21:02
revolver there's also uh the fact that um a woman called Mary Mormon took a key
21:09
photograph right tell me about the Mary Mormon photograph well the importance the importance of the Mormon photograph
21:16
is that it was taken at zuder frame 315
21:21
that is 218 of a second after after U Kennedy was hit in the
21:27
head I even back then I knew the importance
21:32
of it was because it shows the null and at a certain place in that
21:40
photograph one can see what I've always called an anomalous shape which is about the size of a human
21:47
head and it's about 8 to 12 feet from the corner of the fence and that
21:53
corresponds with exactly where skinny Holland says he saw the puff of smoke well here's here's how skinny Holland
22:00
the importance of skinny Holland is that he didn't just tell people about this he
22:06
did something about it as soon as the shooting was over Holland took off to
22:11
his left and they climbed over a steampipe Holland and three other railroad workers
22:18
did this uh they climbed over a steam pipe and made their way into the mess of
22:23
cars in the parking lot they got to um
22:29
the corner of the fence and about 8 to 12 feet west of the corner they found a
22:37
bunch of of footprints in the mud it had rained the night before and stopped
22:42
raining around 9:15 9:30 that morning so the the Earth was wet and they also
22:50
found cigarette butts there well I wanted at that time when
22:58
we had we had interviewed uh for Life Magazine we interviewed Holland for about four hours
23:06
one night and then we asked him if if we could meet him at Del Plaza so he could
23:12
show us what he did that day and what he saw that day and he did the following
23:19
Saturday now I knew of the importance of the Mormon
23:24
photograph so I asked skinny Holland to stand behind the fence at the exact spot
23:31
where he discovered these Footprints and etc etc and where another witness Bowers
23:38
in the railroad tower also saw a couple of strangers before the
Thompson’s current opinion on what happened
23:43
shooting a very important area so he did so and I went to Mormon's position and
23:50
took his and took a picture right so we now have a picture
23:57
of where Holland of where Holland was standing when he did that and that's
24:04
important that's right where this shape appears in the photograph was any of this evidence that you're talking about
24:10
taken into consideration by the Warren Commission no or the house select committee on
24:16
assassinations no do you believe it was deliberately covered
24:23
up I don't know I mean all these questions that involved the intention
24:29
attention of people I look this evidence has been around since I wrote 6 seconds
24:35
in 19 was published in 1967 nobody's laid a glove on
24:41
it you've worked on this case pretty much since the assassination haven't you
24:47
yeah well off an on 60 years where are you at now do you
24:52
believe still that the JFK assassination on the evidence was a conspiracy
24:59
involving multiple Shooters I would
25:06
prefer well of course but what I'd rather say is now we
25:13
know for all these years up until the last 15 years when I learned
25:20
about the recent discovered evidence
25:26
um I always saw saw the picture as
25:31
unclear as not coming into right focus and it's only in the last 15 years that
25:40
I can see that picture as having clarified itself and what it clarifies itself into
25:47
is not the picture of some unknown gunman who goes out there to
25:54
kill the president with his buddies but a professional hit it was a conspiracy
26:00
this was a well not only a conspiracy but a professional hit by people who are
26:05
very adapt at killing people take me through what you believe
26:12
happened on the day give me a very short succinct summary of who's where and what
26:17
you believe on the evidence happened on the day okay what of course I'd like to do
26:24
would be to complete the picture of I only got to start to talk
26:30
about what happened to one motorcyclist include include that in
26:37
your summary if you like okay the mo the most important thing to me is that now
26:43
we have corroboration for what we see in the
26:49
zuder film which is this massive throw of Kennedy being driven to the left rear
26:55
and that corroborative evidence is is both both motorcyclists were hit with
27:02
this debris the inboard motorcyclist on the left was hit such a blow that he said he
27:09
thought he' been hit by a bullet he acts he Parks his cycle crosses over Elm
27:16
Street and goes looking for the gunman because he said because he said that it
27:21
seemed to me I got hit with all this stuff to the left rear that that it probably came came
27:28
from there crucially Tink the spray of debris that tragically hit the
27:34
motorcyclist the police motorcyclist could not possibly be the consequence of a shot from The Book Depository where
27:41
Lee Harvey Oswalt was that would go forward that would go forward not to the left rear so why is this blatantly
27:48
obvious evidence not part of the Warren Commission findings or the house select committee on assess who knows I don't
27:54
know those I don't know the answers to those to those questions I I I know is they cheated what whatever look let me
28:01
get to the next motorcyclist on the left the one outboard farther from Kennedy we're now 10 to 15 to
28:10
12 to the left to Kennedy he gets impact debris that is
28:17
blood brain Etc only over his left side now why
28:24
would that be because his right side was closest to Kennedy I wondered about that and wondered about
28:30
that for decades and then then somebody CA came up with a solution the solution
28:37
of course is that U he he protected Martin the inboard motorcyclist
28:44
protected him right the inboard and kept the debris off him which means this
28:51
debris was moving really fast from the grassy null from a shot from the null
28:57
well that's true but all we're talking about right now are the particles of the fact
29:04
that those particles of blood and brain matter Etc were moving fast means that
29:09
there was a lot of not just velocity to them but a lot of power caused that
29:16
there's one particular piece of evidence that one of your colleagues um agila talks about which is the spray of lead
29:24
debris that he saw on the x-rays that he was permitted to look can you explain that to me
29:30
please there were various
29:35
um the bullet there were were cartridge cases found three cartridge cases found
29:43
on the sixth floor of the depository um they they were matched to
29:49
military jacketed 6.5 mm Carano bullets
29:54
all right a Carano bullet has a a jacket of copper covering a lead
30:02
base experimental shots were made in into
30:07
skulls uh at Edward Arsenal in 1964 to see what happens when one of
30:15
these bullets hits a human head well what happens is
30:21
that after hitting the head and these were all done by hitting the back of the
30:26
head um it fragments somewhat and there are large fragments but nowhere do you get a
Thompson’s view on the single-bullet theory
30:37
spray or a what's what might be called a lead
30:43
snowstorm that's caused by a a hollow point a dum dum bullet a hollow point
30:50
bullet or an ordinary hunting round so the significance of that is that whatever it was that caused the lead
30:59
snowstorm inside the president's head it was a different round of ammunition
31:05
right from a different rifle that's correct and that evidence is not publicly available it's only available
31:12
if you get permission to view the x-rays that's correct but and one of your collaborators was allowed to see those
31:19
x-rays that's true but also sirel W was able to see it other people have have
31:24
been able in the past to see that and confirm the side there's a piece of evidence that I think
31:30
is incredibly important which is that officer Joe Marshall Smith went to that position
31:39
behind the grassy null and he says in evidence that he confronted a man who
31:45
showed him Secret Service credentials tell me that story and explain why it's
31:50
significant okay Joe Marshall Smith was directing traffic at the intersection of
31:57
Elm Street and Houston Street at the time after the shooting he test he
32:03
testified that a woman said they were shooting the president from the null she
32:09
yelled at him so he pulled out his gun and ran down into the no area he ran
Joe Marshall Smith story
32:16
down a street right in front of the depository uh on the way there on the
32:22
way down to the null he smelled some Gunsmoke
32:28
and uh that may or may not be be significant um he gets there
32:36
and he he's got his gun out and so he Encounters this guy and
32:44
the guy immediately reaches and shows him Secret Service credentials somehow
32:50
Joe Marshall Smith had had experience in the past with Secret Service credentials
32:56
so he knew they were Secret service credentials and he let the guy go he let
33:02
the guy go yeah yeah he let the guy go do you think that was possibly the shooter or one of the
33:09
shooters I don't know what did the Secret Service say about whether they had any men in that position at that
33:16
time there were no Secret Service agents on the null at that time so the
33:21
implications of what the evidence suggests is that somebody had fake
33:26
Secret Service credal and they used them to escape police that day well it wasn't only that no but can
33:34
I ask that question the implication of what what the evidence suggests is that a person had fake Secret Service
33:41
credentials and they used them to escape the police yeah that's if that if that's
33:47
correct I mean I find that astonishing that that in and of itself is evidence of a conspiracy isn't
33:53
it I guess so um all these things are kind of fungible
34:00
though I mean
34:06
um people say they saw things right and
34:12
yeah they may have seen that or they may have seen something like it it depends
34:17
on how clear their recollection is about
34:24
things 60 years on yeah yeah you say you
34:29
now know with some reasonable degree of certainty what happened mhm talk me
34:35
through the assassination as you believe the evidence now suggests it
34:41
occurred okay there were two volleys of shots fired in all
34:48
five the first volley was fired from the upper reaches of Elm Street in the
34:56
vicinity in the general vicinity of the sixth floor window of those three
35:04
shots the middle shot could not have been fired from oswal's
35:10
rifle because the time required to get off two
35:15
shots was absolute minimum of 2.3 seconds and for most of us it would be
Thompson shares his theory of events
35:22
more than that it would be 5 seconds or etc etc
35:28
so you have at at most Two Shots came from the depository and one shot from a
35:35
similar location one doesn't know exactly what similar means because the
35:41
committee has never told us that but upper End of Elm Street and this is what
35:46
skinny Holland said three shots and then there's a 4.8 second Gap nothing
35:56
happens for almost five seconds and then there's a second volley of Two Shots
36:04
these two shots are fired 75 seconds
36:12
apart that is 3/4 of a second exactly apart very very fast it's like as
36:19
Holland described it it was like that pushing his fingers twice
36:28
and U that of course um so that's that's the scenario but where did those shots
36:35
come from that second volley of shots the second volley of shots was
36:40
split the first of the volley that is the next to last shot was fired from the
36:49
position of the anomalous shape along the fence on the grassy no on the grassy no
36:56
it all it all fits the so the evidence to you is indisputable that there were two Shooters minimum
37:03
yes well two two indisputable three po
37:10
possible faced with that evidence what you're suggesting is that there was a
37:16
conspiracy to kill the president which probably involved official intervention to cover it
37:25
up uh certainly certainly the former um
37:31
I mean uh not only that but that the two shot the style of this assassination was
37:41
professional Kennedy was killed two shots to the Head within a
37:48
second that does the job that was a professional hit that means to me that it was a professional hit and I'm
37:55
deriving that simply from the scenario of what happened so Tink it's 60 years
38:03
mhm most Americans weren't even born yeah at that time MH why does this case
38:12
matter because um because this case set the to tonality
38:20
for the intervening 60 years that's why that's why it's important
38:27
we need to resolve what really happened to JFK yeah do you think there's any
38:35
political willingness to do that though no I mean even now well beyond the date
38:42
when the records were meant to be Declassified the government is still resisting release of Records relating to
38:50
the JFK assassination but I think that's largely just agency stupidity that that
38:58
government agencies are very reluctant to have any of their documents released to the press for God knows what reason
Thompson on the importance of these events
39:06
um look the the secret to the Kennedy assassination is not sitting on some
39:11
piece of paper in a government file it just didn't folks but the implications of what you're saying yeah on the
39:18
evidence is that there has to have been government official involvement by
39:25
government agencies to cover up what really happened in the JFK
39:32
assassination yeah that doesn't mean the government assassinated John F Kennedy individuals within the government
39:39
conspired look can you please answer that question yes I mean I think it's a very important question if somebody had
39:46
fake Secret Service credentials they were given fake credentials somebody helped them get those credentials well
39:53
somebody made them up sure so you can't exclude the possibility that it was just independent Rogue actors that killed the
40:00
president you don't necessarily believe that it was an action of somebody inside
40:05
the state the overall scenario of to what
40:14
happened is of a professional hit you're right okay
40:20
now the government officials who are faced with this and who who who have the
40:26
Assassin ination of the president on their hands they may not have had anything to
40:33
do with this and undoubtedly most most of the government officials who were involved in investigating the Kennedy
40:39
assassination had nothing to do with it so is it your hypothesis that there was
40:44
a cover up but they they made it sure that on the public appearance at least
40:50
it was Oswald purely and simply because they didn't like the consequences if the public realized there was a conspiracy
40:57
think that that is inescapable in in other words that yes decisions were made
41:03
decisions were made that we're okay Jen we're GNA have to fix
41:09
this right we can't have the president of the United States assassinated by
41:16
person or P by persons unkknown and let that be that's not a stable
41:23
position for our society to to embrace so we'll fix it a
41:29
little do you think they know their evidence stinks do you think the people behind the Warren Commission knew that
41:36
their evidence didn't stack up I just don't don't know and I really
41:42
don't care you know um they didn't do their
41:48
Duty their Duty was to find out what happened in the assassination of a president and they didn't do that does
41:55
it surprise you though that there is still such listlessness such a lack of enthusiasm
42:02
to investigate or reinvestigate the president's death 60 years on we still
42:09
do not definitively know who killed JFK I think that's I think that's true I
42:15
think that's true we should know shouldn't we The public's got a right to know a healthy
END Thompson’s thoughts on a possible coverup
42:22
Society requires that we know the answers to these sorts of questions and
42:27
do you think the government could find out if it chose to do
42:33
so that's a specul a speculative question I don't know well I'm inviting
42:38
you to speculate do you think on the evidence a conclusion could be reached in a reinvestigation that this was a
42:46
conspiracy is it time to correct the record well I'm sure that if the
42:55
government wanted to reinvestigate the case they would end up with the scenario that I've ended up with after 60 years
43:02
of being with this case that this scenario works and it's the only
43:07
scenario that fits the evidence that fits all the evidence as as a number of
43:13
people have concluded I'm not the only one do you think part of what motivated
43:19
the cover up was that they knew that if Lee Harvey oswal had faced trial he
43:25
probably would have been exonerated no I I re I mean for the assassination I
43:33
mean I mean trying Lee Harvey Oswald was
43:38
the job of the district attorney for Dallas I think if he had had a defense
43:45
attorney equipped with the evidence that we have now any jury would have equiped
43:51
oswal because he couldn't have done it he can't be in two places at the same time when you saw the zuda
43:59
film for the first time in high definition and realized its
44:05
implications what was the conclusion that you reached what was it about that evidence boom he was hit from the front
44:12
no doubt whatsoever no doubt whatsoever and there never has been I
44:17
mean that's that's look and so on that evidence if he was hit from the front tell if he was hit from the front just
44:24
to explain to our audience it could not Poss have been Lee Harvey Oswald who
44:29
fired the kill shot right we know that and you've assembled I think quite a
44:35
persuasive body of circumstantial but persuasive evidence to suggest that multiple Witnesses saw somebody doing
44:44
something on the grassy n yes yes that that's true that's true and do you
44:49
believe that was ever properly investigated by the FBI or any of the investigators assigned to this
44:54
investigation no you you see this in in reading the FBI 302s which are their
45:01
investigative reports of of interviewing W witness X say because their
45:09
questions they're all afraid of Hoover and they know Hoover wants what the
45:15
warrant commission wanted so they were working you believe to a preconceived agenda right they
45:22
well they I mean they know what Hoover wanted right what their boss wanted what
45:28
the boss want he wanted this to be proof that Lee
45:34
Harvey Oswell did it they all know that when they're when they're and you get
45:39
some of some of the really oddest things um in which they're they're
45:46
obviously bending their questions in such a way to
45:51
elicit the best they can get for Hoover James bger presented what a at the time
45:57
seemed very compelling acoustical evidence which suggested that at least some of the shots must have come from
46:04
the grassy n that evidence was disputed by an analysis done by the National
46:10
Academy of Sciences who's right uh well first of all it wasn't the
46:16
National Academy of Sciences it was a national resource Resources Council
46:21
which is a subbody of the National Academy of Sciences
46:27
uh in in July of 19 when was it
46:34
78 no 77 um the chairmanship of
46:41
this let's call it the National Academy of Sciences was offered
46:48
to Louie Alvarez a distinguished physicist from Berkeley who was the
46:55
only well known American scientist ever to offer an opinion on the waren
47:01
commission already he had taken a stance on that and he was offered the the
47:06
chairmanship of this committee he declined because he said all the critics the Buffs as it
47:14
were they would never forget you know that he he he had
47:19
already taken a position on this before he was appointed so he recommended his
47:26
friend the chairman of the physics department at Harvard uh Ramsey and so it became known
47:34
as a Ramsey panel well what we've also learned is that the
47:42
the committee made a Grant application to um
47:49
the National Science found just just the National Science Foundation for money and in that Grant application they
47:56
listed the people who should be on the committee right and number one was an
48:01
Acoustics expert since the study that they're criticizing is an acoustic study
48:08
right and U of course no Acoustics expert to this panel was so the rebuttal
48:15
that was done by the subcommittee of the National Academy of Sciences which contained no acoustic experts so there
48:21
was no actual acoustic expert who was qualified to be able to rebut James barger's EV so you think James barger's
48:28
evidence on the Acoustics still stands yes it it has been proven by research
48:34
Barger did for me over the last couple years and that was a recording on channel one of a police radio that was
48:40
left open by by mistake and it allegedly caught all the shots and I think one of
48:46
the most compelling moments in your analysis is when you match those shots
48:53
that are allegedly on the police recording with what you see on the zuda
48:58
film yeah it's kind of a case closed moment isn't it it sort it sort of is
49:04
because you have the intervals between shots on the
49:10
recording match the actual inter intervals that we
49:18
found Tink I watched that and the person
49:23
in me that likes good evidence yeah gave a silent cheer yeah but then I realized
49:30
it's the president it's JFK yeah and the implications of that evidence are that
49:37
JFK was murdered by multiple Shooters in a conspiracy that was covered up I don't
49:44
think there's any question of that and we still don't know the answers and I want to tell you I'm
49:51
giving up at this point I've done what I can and I'm 88 I'm 88 years old
50:00
and my wife and I are going to go off and have some fun now do you think we'll ever get an answer
50:06
no no so thank you for watching that long
50:11
form interview with Josiah Thompson it's a privilege to be able to bring him to you I I love the way Josiah methodically
50:19
presents the evidence to raise very grave doubts about the official explanation that Lee Harvey osw W was
50:27
the Lone shooter frankly it's blatantly obvious to me and to a lot of people
50:32
including Josiah that shots came from the front there were at least two
50:37
Shooters possibly three or more and the official explanation simply doesn't wash
50:44
will we ever get an answer well obviously we're waiting for the White House to announce the release of the JFK
50:51
archives through the National Archives and will they provide an answer I somehow doubt it but at least it might
50:58
help us towards the way towards finding out what really happened on that Dreadful day in De Plaza in November
51:06
1963 thanks for [Music] watching thanks for watching go to
51:13
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#JFK #theory #RealityCheck
Host: Ross Coulthart
Executive Producer: Andy Gipson
Editorial Producer: Meagan Ourada
Segment Producer: Christine Jenkinson
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Editor: Irit Nayden