Hold fire on JFK assassination: author believes Oswald was set up

Now decades on, the first volume of the Orange shopkeeper’s three-part online book on the alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald has hit the number two spot on Amazon.com.

In the first chapter Mr Parker gives an account of a similar assassination in Columbia in 1948 and what he believes were the triggers for the start of the Korean War - both he says went on to impact on Kennedy’s assassination.

In the second part of his first volume he recounts the life and influences on a young Lee Harvey Oswald until age 13 - hence the cover chosen for his book.

As a teenager himself Mr Parker began to take a deep interest in the assassination of Kennedy and in particular Oswald, the man accused of shooting the president as he drove in his motorcade along the streets of Dallas with his young wife beside him.

That interest bubbled along as he was a younger man, however 14 years ago, Mr Parker who operates a corner store near Clinton and Prince streets with his wife, began to seriously research the event which changed the course of American history, putting every spare minute into research on Oswald.

“I became fascinated - he was always portrayed as a nut and a loser, but through my research I wanted to humanise him,” he said.

He expects the full three volumes of his research work to be published by later this year - to coincide with the release of the Warren Commission report on the assassination which he and other critics say contained major flaws including selective interviewing of witnesses.

Years later Mr Parker has amassed a body of work on the subject and is now named as a major expert on the topic with his research referenced in many books published overseas.

Mr Parker has a higher profile in the United States where he has been interviewed on radio networks and been invited to lecture on his theories about Oswald.

“ I honestly have come to believe through my research he (Oswald) was an undiagnosed sufferer of Asperger’s syndrome which accounted for some of his behaviour,” he said.

Mr Parker said he believes Oswald was an innocent, set up as the assassin and says a photograph of a man he believes was Oswald and taken on the front steps of the Texas Book Depository building proves Oswald was on his lunch break as the accused originally told police.

“There is an FBI document which consists of statements taken from every single book depository employee except Oswald accounting for their whereabouts at the time of the assassination. Using that document as well as other photos, films and testimony every other employee is ruled out of being the person circled,” Mr Parker said.

“The bottom line if we are right is that this is photographic proof of his innocence - this was taken seconds after the shot rang out.”

Mr Parker said the sensational reporting around the assassination, Oswald and Jack Ruby, the man who shot Oswald while he was by escorted by police needs to be set aside.

“I say forget what you’ve seen on TV.”

Following his extensive research into Jack Ruby, Mr Parker said he was a man high on drugs and seeking fame when he shot Oswald.

“I think he was under immense pressure as a member of the Jewish community - he was in debt to the tune of $40,000 to the tax office and was full of methamphetamines at the time.”

He says the haunting look of Oswald when he was arrested by police and paraded before the media with a cut over his eye continues to linger in his mind.

“The look on his face was the look of a man who was totally bewildered,” he said.

He also says his research will reveal Oswald could not have shot the police officer JD Tippet who died in a Dallas Street 45 minutes after Kennedy was shot.

“I believe it was a totally unrelated random attack by someone else the authorities conveniently linked to Oswald,” he said.

Mr Parker says all the evidence emanating from the post mortem on Kennedy cannot be validated.

“That whole scene where the post-mortem took place was so contaminated it didn’t give any indication who did it,” he said.

Mr Parker says the driver for his countless hours of research over many years has been with one aim.

“It is about justice and setting the record straight,” he said.

“I think the public has a feeling they are being lied to and we’ve been there even here in Australia with the “children overboard”.

He says he thinks the public will be very surprised when they eventually find out the truth behind the assassination of Kennedy.

“I have proof that a major political figure related by marriage to one of the main witnesses in the Kennedy administration set Oswald up.”