This is a December 4, 1963 photo of Rufus W. Youngblood shaking hands with President Johnson after receiving the Treasury Exceptional Service Award. Youngblood is the secret service agent who was honored for throwing himself on top of Lyndon Johnson to protect him during the assassination of President Kennedy. (AP Photo)
Republican strategist Roger Stone is preparing to release a groundbreaking book claiming that Lyndon Johnson helped organize the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
The book, titled “The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ,” is set to be published in October and offers frank allegations against Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy as president of the United States.
The assassination of President John F. Kennedy remains a highly debated event nearly 50 years after the shooting. As a nation mourned the loss of one of its most beloved leaders, a single shooter named Lee Harvey Oswald was charged with the assassination, but was killed just days after his arrest by a man named Jack Ruby. Stone claims Ruby was hired by Johnson to kill Oswald.
“[Richard] Nixon knew Jack Ruby, hired him on House payroll in 1947 at request of … Lyndon Johnson. Newly released documents prove it in my upcoming book,” Stone wrote last Thursday on his Facebook page.
Indeed, most Americans reject the official narrative, doubting that Oswald worked alone. A 2003 Gallup poll revealed that roughly three-quarters of Americans doubt that a single shooter was involved. Thirty-seven percent of respondents said the mafia was behind the killing, with 34 percent of Americans believing that the CIA was responsible.
Roughly 18 percent of Americans subscribed to the theory posited by Stone, believing Kennedy’s vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, either orchestrated the plot or otherwise played a role in Kennedy’s death.
Releasing a few choice quotations through his personal Facebook page, Stone also claims that Johnson ‘micro-managed’ Kennedy’s motorcade, demanding that it pass through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on the afternoon of Nov. 22, 1963, the infamous day when Oswald allegedly shot Kennedy.
“LBJ and Gov. John Connally micro-managed [JFK’s Dallas] schedule and demanded the route thru [sic] Dealey Plaza where the motorcade came to a full stop and LBJ had JFK killed,” he added. “They had no interest in JFK stops in Austin or Houston!”
Stone points the finger at former President Richard Nixon, then a member of Congress, who he claims hired Ruby in 1947. He alleges that Ruby remained on the House of Representatives payroll until the 1963 assassination. Stone worked for Richard Nixon’s Committee to Re-elect the President in 1972 but has since become a member of the Libertarian Party. He coauthored the book with Mike Colapietro.
It is unclear whether Stone puts forward a motive for the killing in his book, but the accusations are likely to stir controversy even as all parties involved are long deceased.