By
JANICE HARRIS
GREG
Parker was only five years old when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated,
but he remembers the impact even as a young child.
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.
As
a teenager, 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 became a young man. Fourteen years ago, Mr Parker,
who operates a corner store in Orange with his wife, began to seriously
research the event which changed the course of American history, putting every
spare minute into research.
“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.
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 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 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 said.
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.
He
says he thinks the public will be surprised when they 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,” he said.