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Q1: Why does the article describe Oswald as the assassin of John F. Kennedy, instead of the alleged assassin, given that he was never convicted in a court of law?
A1: A legal conviction is required before government may label someone a criminal and punish him. But a legal conviction is not required for scholars and historians to draw their own conclusions based on the evidence: they may conclude that a person never convicted of some crime was, in fact, guilty (e.g. John Wilkes Booth); or they may conclude that someone who was convicted was, in fact, innocent (e.g. Timothy Evans). Although Oswald was killed before he could be brought to trial, reliable sources firmly establish that he fired the shots that killed Kennedy.
Q2: What if I still disagree?
A2: Read the discussions found in this page's archives before proposing that Oswald be described as Kennedy's "alleged assassin" or the like. Proposals rehashing old arguments will go nowhere.
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Ella German was nominated for deletion. The discussion was closed on 13 August 2020 with a consensus to merge. Its contents were merged into Lee Harvey Oswald. The original page is now a redirect to this page. For the contribution history and old versions of the redirected article, please see its history; for its talk page, see here.
Lee Harvey Oswald was never found guilty, so it should say "alleged assassin." In America, one is innocent until proven guilty. Canada Jack's analogy with Hinckley is not apropos. Hinckley was found 'not guilty by reasons of insanity,' and served time in an institution. Whereas Oswald never stood trial because he was murdered while he was in police custody.
Thanks. Please kindly define "reliable sources" from the FAQ when the majority of Americans don't believe the Warren Commission's findings, and we now know the Commission's only purpose was to implicate Oswald, not uncover the truth.
In the below link, ABC News calls Oswald the "alleged assassin." So should Wikipedia.
ABC News also reports on J. Edgar Hoover's urgent desire to have "something issued so that we can convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin" two days after the assassination. From that urgent desire to implicate Oswald was born the Warren Commission.
How many links from reliable sources will be enough? Five? 10? Happy to provide them.
But because reliable sources disagree, wouldn't it make the most sense to label Oswald neither guilty nor innocent? "Alleged assassin" is the most neutral, unbiased terminology. Also, it has the added benefit of being factual. 108.64.36.237 (talk) 23:48, 18 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
"So many"? No, we're not going to change to your preferred version based on a couple of editorial decisions by headline writers. We go by the overwhelming consensus of reliable sources in serious, in-depth scholarship and journalism. Acroterion(talk)00:47, 19 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Hi. Here's 12 reliable, neutral sources who call Oswald the alleged assassin, or the man arrested for killing Kennedy. Is 12 enough? It's apparently good enough for Encyclopedia Britannica but not Wikipedia? What's with the bias, Wikipedia? Be better.
There is no bias. Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated John F. Kennedy. John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln. Both were killed before they could be tried in court. Both are assassins, and "alleged" is a weasel word when the evidence is so overwhelming. Cullen328 (talk) 02:17, 19 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
What we need is an edit filter on the page (and the article itself, I suppose) which, if the submitted edit contains the word "alleged", blocks the edit and throws up a message referring the editor to FAQ #2 above. EEng14:17, 10 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
In the section of the Edwin Walker assassination attempt, the article correctly lists the price of the Carcano rifle of $19.95 + $1.50 shipping, as supported by the citation from https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/appendix-14.html. The issue is that on the image next to this paragraph, there is associated text that says it was $29.95, which is actually the price of a Smith & Wesson revolver, also mentioned in the paragraph. The change I'd like made is just to correct this text.
Done , though I have to say I find the caption quite odd. It seems like the price is a reasonable fact to include in the body. The caption could cover all sorts of things, but I'd probably pick "used to assassinate JFK" over "cost $19.95". Firefangledfeathers (talk / contribs) 03:54, 10 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
This page is factually saying that Lee Oswald WAS the shooter that assassinated President Kennedy. Should say Alleged shooter. He was not proven guilt, to be the shooter, in a court of law. He was killed before hand. 2600:1700:9280:7F60:DEC0:9228:56EC:CE8E (talk) 20:40, 10 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]