The planning had involved top people in the Dallas Police Department and Mayor Earle Cabell, brother of former CIA director Charles Cabell. Professional hit men had been hired, top-notch marksmen, including Charles Harrelson (the father of actor Woody Harrelson) and Jack Lawrence, whose car was reportedly found parked behind the picket fence atop the grassy knoll. There were also two Cuban exiles involved, men who were closely linked into Santo Trafficante Jr. According to Sam Giancana, the man who fired the shots from the sixth floor of the Book Depository was not Oswald, but Richard Caine, a Chicago-based ex-police officer and close associate of the mob boss.

There were two other gunmen on the scene, according to Giancana. One was Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit, who has been identified by some researchers as the “Badgeman” the elusive, phantom figure in police uniform seen behind the picket fence just as the shooting commenced, and recorded on a photograph by Mary Moorman. After the assassination, Tippit’s job was to follow Oswald and kill him, so as to silence the so-called “master” suspect. For some reason, the police officer backed off on this assignment and was himself killed by another CIA assassin, also operating as a Dallas police officer called Roscoe Anthony White. Although Oswald was accused of carrying out the murder of Officer Tippit, it is also thought that at least two gunmen were involved, using two different handguns to murder the officer.