Kennedy Assassination by the Numbers

Here is a brief look at the Kennedy Assassination by the numbers. Fifty years after the event mystery still shrouds the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the 35^thPresident of the United States. Those who were alive on November 22, 1963 can still recall exactly where they were on that fateful day. The shooting remains one of the world’s most famous controversial crimes in history. Will it ever be truly solved? Will the “truth” ever be known? If not it certainly won’t be for lack of trying.

• 225,000,000 – The estimated number of words written in books about the Kennedy Assassination. This number is strictly a guess since we are unable to find the definite number of books written about it and there is no set number of words for a non-fiction book. According to How-to-write-a-book-now.com the average number of words could be anywhere from under 50,000 to over 150,000. We decided to use an average of 3,000 books at 75,000 words per book. We can’t even begin to count the number of articles which have been written.
• 336,000 – Number of hits when performing a Google search using the term “Kennedy Assassination Websites”
• 1,000 to 5,000 – The estimated number of books written about the Kennedy Assassination. A search of Amazon lists 6,638 books somehow related to the subject.  Other searches deliver different numbers, let us just say there has been a lot.
• 889 – The number of pages of the original Warren Report, the findings of the first investigation of the assassination. There were 26 volumes of documents associated with the final report, 552 witnesses were heard from and there were over 3,000 exhibits as part of the investigation.
• 103 – Number of supposed deaths of witnesses to the assassination or people with key information who have died “mysterious” deaths soon after the crime. Allegedly these people all had key information on who really killed the president and therefore needed to be eliminated by a “clean-up squad.” This number includes one who died before the event even took place.
• 66 – The percentage of Americans who believe the Kennedy murder was a conspiracy of some sort involving more than one individual. Only 25% of the respondents believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. 74% believe there is a cover-up of the facts in the case. These results have been pretty consistent over the last five decades.
• 15 – The conservative number of television shows airing this month about November 22, 1963 and events surrounding that day.
• 13 +– There are 13 main conspiracy theories on the assassination, assuming you don’t accept the original findings of the Warren Commission the official government investigation  Of these, five tend to rise to the top of the list. These include in no particular order: The Communist conspiracy, the Mafia conspiracy, the CIA conspiracy, the Cuban conspiracy and the Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) conspiracy. Others include the New Orleans conspiracy, the Shadow Government conspiracy and a personal favorite, the Coca Cola theory which is basically that Lee Harvey Oswald was mentally impaired because of an addiction to the sugary beverage. And for you Barack Obama supporters, there is even one claiming George H. W. Bush was involved.
• 6 – The floor number at the Texas School Depository building in Dallas where Lee Harvey Oswald worked and  from which someone fired shots at the president’s motorcade.
• 3 or 4 –Number of shots fired at the president on November 22, depending on which theory you wish to believe. There were three shell casings found on the sixth floor of the building where Oswald set up his sniper’s nest, but many witnesses report hearing four shots. Only three separate fired bullets or fragments of bullets were found including the one “magic bullet”, just one of the perplexing things about this crime which always seems to rear its ugly head every few years or so.
• 2 – Official government versions of who actually killed the president. The first was the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (Warren Commission) who concluded Lee Harvey Oswald was the shooter and he acted alone. The second was the 1978  House Select Committee on Assassinations which concluded Oswald “probably did not act alone” but had no evidence of who else was involved.
• 1 – Number of phone apps dealing with all the conspiracy theories out there.
• 0 – At least so far the number of conspiracy theories claiming aliens from another planet are responsible.

Will we ever know the truth about who was responsible for the killing of John F. Kennedy? Probably not. As any good detective will tell you, the longer the crime goes unsolved, the chances of it being solved are less and less. Witnesses die, memories fade and if Oswald didn’t act alone, those who may have helped him still aren’t going to talk.