LOCAL SCHOLARS SAY KENNEDY ASSASSINATION WORK OF MORE THAN ONE

The assassination of President Kennedy wasn't the work of a lone gunman, but at least two killers, conclude two local scholars of the assassination.

The scholars are Steve Richardet, a civics teacher in the Cape Girardeau School District, and Dr. J. Christopher Schnell, a Southeast Missouri State University history professor. Both have spent years researching the assassination.

The Nov. 22, 1963, assassination in Dallas was captured on film by bystander Abraham Zapruder. Richardet and Schnell said the film disputes the theory that all three shots were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald from the Texas School Book Depository.

Thirty-five years after Kennedy's death in Dallas, conspiracy theories continue to be discussed.

Richardet and Schnell discussed the Kennedy assassination and showed a videotape of the Zapruder film at a Common Hour, a noontime lecture Wednesday in the Southeast Missouri State University Center Party Room. About 50 people attended the event.

"I am motivated by the truth and a love of democracy," Richardet told the audience.

Richardet and Schnell believe the government resorted to a campaign of disinformation and misinformation.

"It is just amazing the way the government manipulated the media," Schnell said.

Both Richardet and Schnell said the Warren Commission was wrong in its 1964 conclusion that Oswald acted alone.

Richardet said the commission argued that Oswald fired three shots in 5.8 seconds.

The Warren Commission based its conclusion on the single bullet theory -- that one bullet struck both then-Texas Gov. John Connally and Kennedy.

Under this scenario, the first shot missed. The second shot, referred to by critics as "the magic bullet" wounded Connally and Kennedy. The third shot killed Kennedy.

Richardet said the government reported that the "magic bullet" was found on a Dallas hospital cart shortly after the assassination. But several hours after the assassination the doctor who treated Connally said the bullet was still in the governor's body.

"It would have to be magic to do what the Warren Commission said it did," Richardet said.

"If the single bullet theory can't work, then you have two gunmen," said Richardet.

During the 1970s, a special committee of the U.S. House of Representatives re-examined the assassination evidence. In 1978, the committee concluded that there was "a high probability" that there was a second gunman who fired from the grassy knoll along the motorcade route and that the assassination resulted from a conspiracy.

Some believe the Mafia may have been involved in the assassination. Other possible players include rogue factions in the Central Intelligence Agency and elements in the FBI, conspiracy theorists have suggested.

Both Schnell and Richardet said many documents concerning the Kennedy assassination remain government secrets. They won't be released by the government until 2039.

Even the famous Zapruder film wasn't shown to the general public until 1975, they said.