John F. Kennedy

Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on 22 November 1963; the suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald, was killed two days later. The Warren Commission concluded in 1964 that Oswald acted alone. In 1979 the House Select Committee on Assassinations found that Kennedy was 'probably' assassinated as a result of a conspiracy, relying on acoustic evidence of two gunmen, without being able to identify the other gunman. In 2025, the release of documents ordered by Donald Trump revealed nothing, according to scholars, that undercut the lone-gunman conclusion.

State of the evidence

Divergent official conclusions; conspiracy not established.

Legal status — source text

No trial: Oswald died before he could be tried.

Attribution

Kennedy was the victim of the assassination.

Person targeted by the proceedings

Lee Harvey Oswald

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist is the victim

Kennedy won the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for 'Profiles in Courage'. That year, columnist Drew Pearson said on ABC that Kennedy's aide Ted Sorensen was the real author; Kennedy obtained a sworn statement from Sorensen denying it. Decades later, Sorensen acknowledged that he had drafted most of the chapters and had been paid for the work.

State of the evidence

Sorensen's role acknowledged by Sorensen himself; Kennedy's exact share debated by historians.

Legal status — source text

No proceedings.

Attribution

Authorship of a prize-winning book presented as his own.

Judith Campbell (later Exner) said she had an affair with Kennedy, to whom she said Frank Sinatra introduced her, while also associating with Chicago Mafia boss Sam Giancana. In 1975 she testified about it before a Senate committee. She later claimed to have carried messages from Kennedy to Giancana, including about a plot against Fidel Castro, which has not been confirmed.

State of the evidence

Relationship described before the Senate in 1975; alleged messenger role unconfirmed.

Legal status — source text

No proceedings.

Attribution

A relationship posing a security risk because of the woman's links to the Mafia.

Kennedy suffered from Addison's disease (adrenal insufficiency), officially diagnosed in 1947, and from chronic back pain: two back operations in 1954 and 1955 failed and he took daily pain medication for the rest of his life. These problems were hidden or played down during his career and presidency; their extent only became known in 2002, when historian Robert Dallek gained access to his medical records.

State of the evidence

Medical records studied by historians and physicians.

Legal status — source text

No proceedings.

Attribution

Concealment of his health from voters.

After the Bay of Pigs, the Kennedy administration launched Operation Mongoose, a covert campaign of sabotage and destabilisation against Cuba led by General Edward Lansdale. In 1975 the Senate's Church Committee established that the CIA had mounted plots to assassinate Castro; it reported that in autumn 1961 the president and his brother Robert berated a CIA official for doing nothing 'about getting rid of Castro and the Castro regime', but said it was unable to determine who authorised the assassination plots.

State of the evidence

Facts established by a Senate investigating committee; authorisation of the assassinations not established.

Legal status — source text

No proceedings.

Attribution

Political responsibility for covert operations against Cuba.

On 24 August 1963, a State Department telegram, 'Cable 243', authorised Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge to tell South Vietnamese generals that the United States would not oppose the overthrow of President Ngo Dinh Diem. The coup of 1 November 1963 ended with the killing of Diem and his brother. White House recordings show Kennedy hesitant about this support; the episode is seen as a step in America's involvement in Vietnam.

State of the evidence

Telegram and recordings published.

Legal status — source text

No proceedings.

Attribution

The Kennedy administration's support for a coup.

During the October 1962 missile crisis, the USSR officially withdrew its missiles from Cuba in exchange for a vague U.S. pledge not to invade. Secretly, Kennedy sent his brother Robert to offer Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, on 27 October, the withdrawal of U.S. Jupiter missiles from Turkey. The administration concealed the deal for decades, presenting the crisis as a Soviet climb-down without concessions.

State of the evidence

Deal established by declassified archives.

Legal status — source text

No proceedings.

Attribution

Concealment of a concession made to the USSR.

On 17 April 1961, some 1,400 Cuban exiles recruited and trained by the CIA landed at the Bay of Pigs to overthrow Fidel Castro. The operation, prepared under Eisenhower and launched with Kennedy's approval, failed in under two days: 114 attackers were killed and more than 1,100 taken prisoner. The failure strengthened Castro.

State of the evidence

Facts established by State Department archives.

Legal status — source text

No proceedings.

Attribution

Decision to launch a covert invasion of Cuba.

According to the Church Committee, U.S. officials including President Kennedy knew by early May 1961 that opponents of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo intended to assassinate him, and the United States had supplied them with rifles and pistols. On 16 May 1961 Kennedy approved a recommendation not to bring about Trujillo's overthrow until his successor was known, and the machine guns the dissidents requested were not delivered. Trujillo was killed on 30 May 1961.

State of the evidence

Facts established by a Senate investigating committee.

Legal status — source text

No proceedings.

Attribution

Knowledge of an assassination plan backed by U.S. weapons.

Kennedy carried Illinois by about 9,000 votes and Texas by about 46,000; without those two states Nixon would have won. Republicans accused Chicago mayor Richard Daley's political machine of ballot-stuffing in Cook County, and the influence of Kennedy's running mate Lyndon Johnson was questioned in Texas. Democrats accused Republicans of similar practices in southern Illinois. Nixon did not formally contest the result, and historians still debate the issue.

State of the evidence

Allegations documented by historians; no decisive fraud has been established.

Legal status — source text

No ruling changed the result.

Attribution

Vote fraud attributed to the Democratic side in two states.