SGL Name: Ollie Curme
Course Meeting Times/Dates: Monday - Course Period 2 - 11:10am-12:35pm 10 weeks: Sept 8 through Nov 17 except no class Oct 13
Contact information of SGL: ocurme@gmail.com
ZOOM Link for Course Meetings: https://brandeis.zoom.us/j/7817604971?pwd=ajhVaW5xSFdZQjhUY0FFWU5hMDJyUT09
Meeting ID: 781 760 4971
Password: bolli
What really happened in Dallas on November 22, 1963? Conspiracy theorists blame the Mafia, LBJ, Castro, Russia, and the CIA, among many others. The Federal government undertook several investigations and initially blamed Lee Harvey Oswald and later determined there were several shooters. In 1992, the Federal Government opened its archives and declassified millions of pages of formerly secret government documents. Now, with online access to them, we can finally explore some of the controversies surrounding JFK’s death. This course, part murder mystery, part historical review, and part biography of fascinating characters, will analyze the political pressures on the Warren Commission and reasons for the debate about its findings. Using original government documents and critical analysis, it is hoped that you will form your own opinions as to what really happened in 1963. The first half of the course will explore the facts of the case, based on witness testimonies and files from the Dallas Police Department, the FBI and the CIA. The second half of the course will look at means, motive and opportunity for many of the most plausible suspects. We’ll conclude the course with a debate, where each class participant can share their reasoning about their conclusions as to what really happened.
The major problem with unravelling the Kennedy assassination is that all the evidence was circumstantial. As Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry said, "I'm not sure about it. No one has ever been able to put him (Oswald) in the Texas School Book Depository with a rifle in his hand." The FBI, the Warren Commission and the House Select Commission on Assassinations (HSCA) all conducted investigations into JFK's assassination and while they differed on a number of substantive points, they all agreed that Lee Harvey Oswald fired a rifle from the sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository. However, we have also come to learn that LBJ, J. Edgar Hoover, the CIA, and Earl Warren likely orchestrated a cover-up, to hide the story that Lee Harvey Oswald had met with a KGB expert on assassinations not two months prior to JFK's assassination. This cover-up steered the FBI and Warren Commission away from any exploration of conspiracy in the assassination, not because they had any complicity in planning the assassination, but to avoid the potential for nuclear war with the Soviet Union in the fevered height of the Cold War.
What we will do in the first part of the course is to look at the evidence gathered in the initial investigations, both the evidence used against Oswald and the evidence for conspiracy which was discovered but ignored. Much of the evidence consists of witness testimony: stories that people told, and many of the stories are conflicting. As we sift the stories and try to determine who and what to believe, there are a few suggestions to keep in mind:
The earlier the evidence the better. Stories people told immediately after an event are much more trustworthy than those recollected years later.
Stories told under oath or to an authority figure are sometimes more trustworthy than stories told to friends.
Criterion of Embarrassment: Stories told by reputable people (police, politicians) which went against the official story should be paid attention to because there was strong pressure early on not to go against the official story.
Corroborating testimony from several independent people is much better than a single person's story.
Corroborating physical evidence, such as pictures, greatly increases the value of any witness testimony.
Occam's Razor: the simpler the story, the simpler any conspiracy, the better. Many conspiracy theories have an elaborate cast of thousands, and it can be hard to imagine how such a project could have actually worked.
Here's how the course will unfold:
In Week 1, we'll cover the History of the Assassination, including the major investigations
In Week 2, we'll cover What Happened in Dealey Plaza. This is a key "hinge point" in the analysis of the case. After reviewing the evidence you may have some opinions as to whether there was a single shooter in Dealey Plaza or more than one, and if more than one, whether it was an unsophisticated or sophisticated operation.
In Week 3, we'll cover the Medical Evidence. This is another hinge point, giving us insight into how many shots hit JFK and Governor Connally, and from which direction; again, leading us toward or away from conspiracy.
In Week 4 TSBD we’ll examine what went on in the Texas School Book Depository: how many people were on the sixth floor, how did they escape, and where Oswald was during the shooting. And in Week 4 Tippit, we’ll also look at the allegation that Oswald killed police officer J.D. Tippit, to help determine whether Oswald was a cold blooded killer, or if he was framed, and if so, by who?
In Week 5, we’ll do a deep dive to try to understand the enigmatic Lee Harvey Oswald, to understand what made him tick and figure out how he came to be enmeshed in the assassination, either as the prime force behind the assassination, or as a patsy.
There is a veritable mountain of material to digest, and at first approach it can be overwhelming. So I would like to split the class up into four groups. While everyone will read the web pages for Weeks 2-4, I'd like each group to concentrate on one of Dealey Plaza, Medical Evidence, TSBD or Tippit, and really try to get to a good opinion on the hinge points. In order to help you do that, there will be a podcast for each week that you can listen to, which augments the reading. And I will have an expert system for the members in each group, which will be able to answer any question and write all kinds of reports, using hundreds of pages of background material for each week. I think it will be fun!
In the second half of the course, after we have a better sense of what actually happened, we'll look at various groups which have been implicated in the assassination, including the Secret Service, the Pentagon, anti-Castro Cubans and the Mafia, the CIA, LBJ and others, and again, gauge whether it was plausible that individuals in any of those institutions could have conspired to kill the President. In the last class, we'll go around the room and hear the opinions of everyone regarding What Really Happened in the Assassination of JFK.
I will use some basic ground rules to keep our discussions on track:
Read the chapter before class. You can click the hyperlinks for more information if you wish, but you do not have to. If the reading is too tedious, start with the podcast.
If you can't access links, or have any other technical issues, reboot your computer. If that doesn't help, let me know the problem and I'll try to fix it for the entire class.
Come to class with questions, comments, opinions or complaints. I can expand on the reading but the success of the class is dependent on your engagement and discussions.
Keep yourself on mute but unmute yourself when you raise your hand, so that you’re ready to speak when I call on you.
Raise your hands electronically.
Focus your comments only on the discussion at hand rather than straying to other parts of the story.
Try to support your comments by referring to details from the text.
Listen to and respond to others with respect. No one has first hand knowledge of what happened, so everyone's opinion is equally valuable.
Let me or Juli Furgeson (our Study Group Support Committee liaison) know if you have any issues, complaints or suggestions as we go.
There is a lot of information; a lot of reading in this course, and it can sometimes be too much to digest in one reading. So, I've tried a new approach to make the information more accessible. At great expense, I hired a team of podcasters to professionally produce a podcast for each week's reading. Actually, no, that's not true, I used AI to create the podcasts. But they're really great! You should check them out. You can access them at the bottom of the Resources section of each page, but for convenience, I've listed them below. Click the link in the podcast column to hear each one. They range from 20 to 40 minutes each. If you get a Google warning that the file is too big to scan for viruses, you can Play Anyway, since the file was generated and stored by Google.
I've also added a link to a printable page for each week's reading for those who prefer to read paper instead of screens.
