November 22 marks the 52nd anniversary of the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Two days later, his alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was gunned down on national television by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner with suspected ties to the Mob, sparking speculations of conspiracy at the highest levels.
The official Warren Commission report of 1964 concluded that there was no conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy, either domestic or international, but the 1978 House Select Committee on Assassinations came to a different conclusion, declaring that Kennedy was “probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy” that may have involved multiple shooters and organized crime.
More than half a century has passed since those fateful events, yet so many questions remain unanswered. Lone gunman? Conspiracy?
And then there is that one big question:
Does it still matter?
The answer to that question is a resounding, “Yes!” according to Jacob M. Carter, author of the new book, Before History Dies.
“Our country has never fully recovered from that event,” Carter muses. “Why? Perhaps it’s because we as a country don’t believe this case was ever given an honest investigation. Today it is common to distrust our elected officials. Many of us are apathetic about politics, and perhaps with good reason. If I could point to a moment in American history that launched us on the path to our modern skepticism, it would be the Kennedy assassination. I believe this is why it still matters today.”
In Before History Dies Carter interviews more than a dozen experts of the JFK assassination, giving equal time to advocates of both the Lone Assassin theory and the Conspiracy theory, but ultimately leaves the decision on the world’s greatest whodunit to the reader.
“After six years of research, I am extremely excited for the release of my book, Before History Dies,” Carter says. “This book is a tool that was created to get younger people involved with the most pivotal moment in America’s history, JFK’s assassination.”