Welcome to Kenneth A. Rahn's Academic JFK Assassination
Site. It takes its "academic" name from the fact that it attempts to approach the
assassination in a way that is as scholarly, dignified, and rigorous as
possible. As with many other English words, "academic" has two levels
of meaning here. The narrow, obvious meaning refers to the way we can study the
assassination formally, as in my long-time course at the University of Rhode
Island. The second meaning is more general, and refers to the fact that academic
approaches are formalized versions of the intuitive ways we approach problems in
daily life. I believe that a careful study of the various formal and informal
ways that we approach problems in a variety of fields reveals a common core of
principles and steps that is surprisingly similar in diverse fields ranging from
science to history to law to law enforcement to buying your next car. It is this
approach that is described and used here.
But that is not how the JFK field has generally operated. Its
"research community" remains mired in confusion because its
members operate largely ad hoc—they
feel their way along from point to point without a higher-level compass to
guide them. They need to forget the relentless chase
for details, take a few steps back, and think about what they are doing. They should learn the proper procedures for
investigating a crime and operate that way. They should learn how to think
critically and logically and vow never again to knowingly make an error in reasoning. They
should educate themselves in the disciplines necessary to understand
the physical evidence from the assassination, such as ballistics and traditional
physics and chemistry. And most importantly, they should commit themselves to
learning the truth, wherever it lies. The "debate" of the last
40 years has been a false one. The genuine issues were hijacked by
critics who, knowingly or not, broke the rules of data-handling and thinking and
dominated the debate by decibels and doggedness. In so doing, they misled the
American public into thinking there was any sort of reasonable doubt about the
assassination, which there most assuredly is not.
This site presents a great deal of material on all sides of
the JFK assassination. I pride myself on offering original writings by
researchers of every possible persuasion. The site is not neutral on the JFK assassination,
however, for no one
with critical faculties can study the assassination and remain neutral. This
site shows that the proper investigative techniques lead inevitably to the
strong conclusions that JFK was almost certainly killed by a lone gunman firing from the Texas
School Book Depository, that he was almost certainly acting alone, and that he
was almost certainly Lee Harvey Oswald. The authorities learned his identity within
hours, and huge piles of evidence for his ability to accomplish it alone and
against his having had any help were learned within weeks to months. There is no
mystery here. Rather, the "doubts" that began to be voiced in the weeks after the assassination were invalid constructs of using evidence
improperly. Eventually, this site will fully deconstruct the doubters and lay
bare their flawed methods. That such invalid conclusions have existed, and
perhaps even flourished, for nearly 40 years is a regrettable testament to the
lack of critical-thinking skills in the American populace as a whole. Among the main goals of
this site are to demonstrate this unfortunate fact and make available a simple,
straightforward way to correct it.
If you are looking for a web site that flits around the
margins of the JFK assassination, please go somewhere else. If you are looking
for a site that seizes on inconsequential evidence and pretends it means
something, this is not the place for you. If you are looking for a site that
picks out one or two pieces of questionable evidence and claims that they prove
conspiracy (or nonconspiracy), you will surely be disappointed. Instead, this
site focuses on the most important pieces of evidence with the most important
time-tested techniques, and shows that the assassination is a
very simple thing to understand. It only becomes murky when you make it so by using flawed reasoning
or weak evidence.
I am presently (May 2003) beginning to reorganize the site to
clarify its message and make it more easily accessible. When finished, it will
have roughly the following parts:
Until that time, please continue to use the major sections shown on the left.
My original interest in the assassination was in its
scientific aspects, because that was what my background allowed me to approach
best. I ultimately produced two monograph-length treatises, one on the
neutron-activation (NAA) data from the bullets and fragments and the the other
on the physics of JFK's movements after the killing head shot. The NAA
monograph shows that the five lead fragments from the assassination are
consistent with two and only two bullets, both fired from Oswald's rifle in the
depository. The physics
monograph shows that the quick forward movement of JFK's head is fully
explained by a Mannlicher-Carcano bullet from the depository (and indeed
requires such a bullet), and secondly that the following two-phase movement of
JFK's head and torso to the rear requires a quick mechanical recoil (jet effect)
followed by a longer, slower bodily recoil, most likely in the form of a
stiffening of the back (neuromuscular reaction). These monographs are the two
largest single items on this web site.
The goal of this
web site is enlightenment through proper
investigative procedures. I welcome any and all reactions from readers, and as time
permits will post them for
all to see. Feel free to submit comments to me at krahn@uri.edu.