Fact Check: Daily Mail's Dubious JFK Headline
Did Oswald shoot the president?
The U.K's Daily Mail picks up on the news from Dallas that an apartment building where accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald lived briefly in 1963 is going to be torn down. But the right-wing tabloid made a mistake in its headline:
Fact check please:
The primary reason people even remember where Oswald lived is because it is by no means certain that he did, in fact, shoot the president. The Daily Mail should have inserted the word "allegedly" into its headline.
Huffington Post ran a version of the same story and avoided making this mistake.
Many witnesses thought the fatal shot came from in front of JFK's limousine, not from the office building where Oswald worked. Of 91 people close to JFK's limousine, at least 34 and perhaps as many as 52, said JFK was struck by gunfire from the so-called grassy knoll in front of the presidential motorcade. (The lowest estimate comes from John McAdams, a fervent believer that Oswald acted alone. Even he agrees that 34 people at the scene of the crime said gunfire came from in front.
Here's the most thorough compilation of the eyewitness testimony
As we've noted before, one of the people best positioned to know was bystander Bill Newman
And, of course, Oswald denied shooting JFK. A 24 year old former Marine, Oswald was taken into custody. When questioned by TV reporters, he denied shooting the president. You can hear him on this YouTube from youxsearch. "I'm just a patsy," he said.
It is true that there was evidence that suggested Oswald had fired a gun. A mail order rifle purchased by Oswald was found in the 6th floor of an office building from which several wittesses said shots had been fired. But the case against Oswald is far from airtight.
The Daily Mail should have inserted the word "allegedly" into its headline.