[Sample B: Approval/Signature Sheet] - George Mason University

consortium of jealous husbands fired from an estimated 13 sites on the sidewalk
along the route, a hitman working for Johnson fired from a sewer grate over
which the limousine passed, and Texas Gov. John Connally lunged at the
president from within the limousine itself, slitting the president’s throat with a
combat knife. 397
For many Americans who lived through that day, however, time has not erased
the pain of President Kennedy’s death. Some researchers have dedicated their lives to
finding the party or parties they believe were responsible. The fact that Jack Ruby, a
Dallas nightclub owner with connections to the underworld, gunned downed Oswald
while he was in police custody has convinced many that the Mafia was responsible for
the assassination. In this rendering, Oswald is the patsy of the mob. Organized crime
sets up Oswald to take responsibility for the crime and then kills him to silence him.
Oswald recedes in importance in relation to the plot, while Ruby emerges as a more
important figure. When conspiracy theorists focus on Oswald, they often blame
intelligence agencies for the assassination, while a focus on Ruby usually points to a mob
plot. Other authors have combined these alleged conspirators into a multi-faceted plot.
The Warren Commission and its defenders saw Oswald as a political and social anomaly.
To the mafia conspiracy theorists, the underworld secretly wields enormous power in
U.S. society. Mobsters gun down the nation’s president on the streets of Dallas without
fear of retribution.
The Oswald as mob patsy appeals to those who consider organized crime a major
threat in American life, including investigative journalists and mafia experts. The House
397
Scott Dikkers, Robert Siegel, John Krewson, et al., Our Dumb Century, (New York:
Three Rivers Press, 1999), 101.
174