`JFK': HISTORY PROFESSOR REACTS TO MOVIE

Twenty-eight years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a new movie, "JFK," has sparked renewed debate over the many conspiracy theories that abound about the tragic event.

J. Christopher Schnell, a Southeast Missouri State University history professor who has researched the Nov. 22, 1963 assassination, said he doubts anyone will ever unearth the entire story of that fateful day in Dallas.

But he, like many others, believes that Lee Harvey Oswald could not have fired all three shots that killed Kennedy and wounded then-Texas Gov. John Connally.

"There is no doubt in my mind that more than one man fired a shot," said Schnell.

The House assassination subcommittee reached the same conclusion in 1978 after reviewing the evidence, he said.

Schnell said he is looking forward to seeing the movie, "JFK," which opened last week at the Town Plaza Cinema in Cape Girardeau, but he questioned the accuracy of the film.

Assassination scholars have criticized the film by director Oliver Stone, saying it distorts history by relying on discredited testimony and suspect "experts."

The film suggests that the CIA and the "military-industrial complex" were behind the assassination because they objected to Kennedy's plan to withdraw troops from Vietnam, believing it might wreck the economy.

Schnell said there's no evidence to support such a conspiracy theory and that it is "very bad to have a film that totally destroys history.

"To say that it (withdrawing from Vietnam) would destroy the economy is totally irresponsible," the longtime history professor said. "Our economy was in very good shape in 1963."

Schnell said that at the time of Kennedy's assassination, there were only 16,500 American troops in Vietnam. "Our purpose and role in Vietnam in 1963 was totally advisory," he said.

Stone's movie may stimulate some interest in history, said Schnell, "but that's not the way history is written."

Schnell said he did extensive research into the Kennedy assassination. "I went into great detail on it, but I stopped about 15 years ago.

"Some people continue with it (researching the subject), but it's become sort of a game," he said.

Schnell said the government's Warren Commission "kind of botched it" by rushing forward with its conclusion that the assassination was the result of a lone gunman.

"They left way too many questions unanswered," he said.

Abraham Zapruder caught the assassination on film.

Critics of the Warren Commission report say the Zapruder film of the presidential motorcade suggests that the fatal shot to the head of Kennedy was fired from in front of the motorcade, possibly from a grassy knoll, and not from the Texas School Book Depository building.

The movie, "JFK," focuses on the efforts of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison to get at the truth of Kennedy's assassination. Garrison's book, "On the Trail of the Assassins," forms the basis for much of the movie.

Schnell said Stone "picked the most credible of all the conspiracy guys."

"Most of these conspiracy people come from the far right or the far left," he pointed out.

There are numerous conspiracy theories. Schnell said that in his opinion "the one that has the greatest credence is that somehow or another it may have had something to do with organized crime."

He noted that Kennedy's brother, then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy, was actively seeking to end the influence of organized crime in labor unions.

Schnell said the public's enduring interest in the Kennedy assassination reflects the fact that Kennedy "was a very charismatic president.

"You couldn't do a film on William McKinley, who was assassinated," he observed.

"Kennedy remains alive in the hearts of people," said Schnell, who worked for the Kennedy campaign when he was a student at Kansas State University.

Said Schnell, "People like me, who worked for him and really admired him, will always have a special place in our hearts for him."