The Trial

Garrison called Perry Russo, an insurance salesman, as his main witness to testify against Clay Shaw. Despite the huge media attention, Shaw’s popularity, particularly in New Orleans proved galling to Garrison who some critics believed targeted Shaw due to a homophobic agenda.One aspect that Garrison focused on about Shaw was the fact that he had set up the International Trade Mart where, coincidentally, Oswald had stood and handed out leaflets.Eventually Shaw's attorneys discredited Perry Russo's story, particularly as his testimonies appeared inconsistent. Shaw was acquitted much to the annoyance of Garrison, who later wrote a book ‘On The Trail of the Assassins’ which film director Oliver Stone used as his template for his controversial 1991 movie.Clay Shaw himself later spoke on the subject of conspiracy.“I only know I had no part in any plot. But I do feel many people believe in a conspiracy, because when death comes to the figure of a prince, as it did to Kennedy, struck down in his prime, it should come under a panoply of great tragedy with all the resulting high court intrigue - almost something out of Shakespeare - not from some poor little psychotic loser crouched with a mail-order rifle behind a stack of cardboard boxes in a warehouse."The Second Shooter Theory One contentious theory was there were at least one or two shooters behind a picket fence atop a small sloping hill looking towards Dealey Plaza. A number of witnesses reported seeing a flash of light or a puff of smoke from behind the fence along with hearing shots from that direction. The theory has not been proved conclusively.The Single Bullet TheoryThis theory purported that the same bullet that hit Kennedy also caused all of Governor Connally's wounds. This single bullet then backed out of Connally's left thigh and was found on a stretcher in the hospital. Known as the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ or the ‘Magic Bullet Theory’, some ballistic evidence has suggested that such a bullet trajectory was possible, but this point is a source of much debate.The Double Agent TheoryIn October 1981 Oswald's body was exhumed with the co-operation of his former wife Marina. She and British writer Michael Eddowes sought to prove a thesis explored in his book, ‘Khrushchev Killed Kennedy’ published in 1975 both in the United Kingdom and America. The premise of the book rested on the theory that during Oswald's stay in the Soviet Union, he was swapped with a Soviet double named Alek, who was a member of a KGB assassination squad.Eddowes claimed that this Soviet double killed Kennedy and that the corpse buried in 1963 in the Shannon Rose Hill Memorial Park cemetery did not have a scar that resulted from surgery conducted on Oswald years before. Unfortunately Oswald's body was in too advanced a state of decomposition for forensic examination to take place.The assassination of JFK brought about a slew of conspiracy theories, ranging from the plausible to fantasy ridden speculations. Some have even suggested that Kennedy’s brain was substituted for another in order to prevent the truth of how he was killed on that fateful day from ever being revealed.In late September 1964, after a 10-month investigation, The Warren Commission reported that it could not find any persuasive evidence of a domestic or foreign conspiracy involving any other person(s), group(s), or country(ies) and that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the murder of Kennedy. The commission also concluded that only three bullets were fired during the assassination, and that Lee Harvey Oswald fired all three bullets from the Texas School Book Depository behind the motorcade.The Commission also criticised weaknesses in security, which has resulted in greatly increased security whenever the president travels. The supporting documents for the Warren Commission Report are not due to be released until 2017.