The "The Victim of a Conspiracy Author Dies" Story

Mr. Alvin B. Lewis

It was an ordinary day.  Leafing through the middle section of the Lancaster Newspaper and found the obituaries.  There, in the middle of the first page of obits, was a three column obit that was over 12 inches high.  Unbelievable amount of information on a fellow by the name of Alvin B. Lewis, Jr.  Alvin was 82 when he died on March 16 at Garden Spot Village in nearby New Holland, Pennsylvania.  Story goes on to tell of him being educated in Lebanon, PA, graduating from the Choate School in Connecticut, getting his degree from Lehigh University, getting a law degree from Dickinson Law School and being Alumnus of the Year in 1999.  Close to the bottom of the first column was a paragraph that drew my attention (yes, I actually read some of the obits).  Seems that in 1976 he was appointed Special Counsel to the U.S. house of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations investigating the murders of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Naturally had to do some investigating about Mr. Lewis and what part he played in the investigations that surrounded President Kennedy.  Then, on Thursday, March 19, I read another story in the Lancaster Newspaper stating that Alvin Lewis was among those who came away from this investigation convinced that the president's 1963 assassination was the result of a conspiracy.  He blamed the Mafia.  As the chief counsel on the assassination, his panel concluded in late 1978 that Kennedy was the victim of a conspiracy.  He stated that Lew Harvey Oswald was the gunman, but there were probably two or three others shooting at Kennedy that day in Dallas.  

This is a Polaroid photo taken by Mary Ann Moorman a
fraction of a second after the fatal shot in Dallas, Texas.

He believed that the New Orleans Mafia headed by Carlos Marcello was probably behind the plot to kill Kennedy.  First, the mafia hated the Kennedy brothers who had hounded Marcello and had him physically deported to Central America and secondly, the Florida crime family hoped to have Castro removed which was something that Kennedy wasn't willing to do.  The Warren Commission concluded that a single bullet from Oswald's rifle wounded both Kennedy and Texas Gov. John Connally.  Our Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter was the author of the single bullet theory.  Alvin Lewis doubted that theory.  And, if you have ever watched the Seinfeld episode where Cramer and Newman both get hit by the same spit, you would see that Lewis may have been correct.  The House investigators were attempting to organize the best homicide investigative unit in the country until members of the House became nervous that they might find evidence that the government was involved.  So, the committee found evidence of a conspiracy, but failed to take it any further.  Mr. Lewis said in a 1992 letter to the Lancaster Newspaper that the aborted investigation, along with the refusal of every president since 1963 to have the US Justice Department conduct its own investigation, has left the nation with the notion that we have been lied to or just ignored.  What do you think?  Do you believe the government when they say it was only Oswald involved or do you believe what Mr. Lewis stated when he said there were more involved?  Tough choice!  As for me … I'm with Mr. Lewis on this one!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.