JFK - Mob Hit!

I tracked with "Assassination Theater" by Hillel Levin. The title of a Playboy article Levin wrote in 2010 is more direct: "How the Outfit Killed JFK." My partner dozed a few times during the presentation. I hesitate to call it a play. I didn't doze. I followed every last rabbit down every last hole.

It helped that I drank a cappuccino before entering the theater. Plus I was bringing a lifetime of dogged interest to the subject. How many Thanksgiving dinners did our family discuss the "single-bullet theory?" The "lone assassin" theory?" The importance of  the "Grassy knoll?"

Levin makes a pretty good case for a mob hit. I always thought it was the most likely scenario. Watch the Zapruder film - no doubt there is a shot coming from the front of the motorcade. And I just can't believe that subsequently Jack Ruby gunned down Oswald because he wanted to spare Jackie Kennedy from a trial. Just not believable.

So Levin names names. Actually names the guy - James Files who admitted to shooting Kennedy from the grassy knoll. It's kind of the "holy grail" moment. But there's no "aha!" to it. Most of this all sounds plausible. But we are now in the realm of "myth." This is such a "cold-case."

And there are so many contradictory theories and facts. Murk and muck. At the end of the night, just as we're about to wrap up, Levin also tells us RFK was gunned down by the mob too. This seemed sort of tacked on. A few sentences, a picture of Sirhan Sirhan and call it a night.

So yes, the Mob. Sure. Probably. Too bad. So sad. And well, guess that's it. But there is no ending to the story really. Just the loss. The counter-factual fantasy of "what if." It's kind of a hall of mirrors that you just can't escape.