I was home for thankggiving from my freshman year in college. I remember Chronkite crying when it was announced that JFK had died, I remember the confusion when Ruby shot Oswald, and even then the speculation about how any one person could have fired those shots from that distance.
This single notion is by far the most misleading element of the
Who Shot Kennedy controversy. And it points to the relative ignorance of so many of those who were assigned to investigate and to report on that assassination.
Another popularly held item of misinformation by the conspiracy theorists is the weapon owned by Oswald, an Italian
Carcano carbine (short rifle), was an inferior "piece of junk." While it might be true that some of these captured weapons which were treated roughly on their way to the warehouses of military surplus dealers might look and perform poorly, the
Carcano in good condition happens to be quite accurate for its size. In the hands of a trained and well-practiced marksman, shooting from a comfortable rest position with a well-aligned telescope sight, striking a head-size target at 200 yards with a Carcano is nothing to boast about.
And those who claim three accurate shots with a bolt action rifle within eight seconds is impossible simply don't know what they are talking about. Marina Oswald said she often found Lee (Harvey Oswald), who was trained to shoot in the Marine Corps, in the kneeling position operating the bolt and dry-firing ("snapping in") his
Carcano.
So I personally have no doubt that Oswald, acting alone, shot Kennedy with that
Carcano.
I should say my father, a locksmith by trade, was also a proficient amateur gunsmith who made a profitable sideline of buying military surplus rifles, '03
Springfields, German 98
Mausers, and Italian
Carcanos, cleaning them up,
sporterizing them, and selling them to dealers and hunters. All three are known to be extremely accurate, reliable weapons.
