The events of Dealey Plaza are a red herring in my opinion. Seems like a complete waste of time endlessly debating Oswald's movements on that day and even the ballistic and medical evidence.
We're at that place because of the early conspiracy authors like Mark Lane, Harold Weisberg, Sylvia Meagher and Josiah Thompson. Their approach was, if we can establish Oswald didn't do it, then someone else must have, and ergo, Oswald was framed, therefore conspiracy.
Because the evidence so overwhelmingly points to Oswald and Oswald alone (there is no evidence of a second gunman), they took the approach of nitpicking every claim of the Warren Commission by citing the outlier recollections and taking claims out of context to argue for a different rifle being found on the sixth floor, that Oswald couldn't shoot the President from the sixth floor because he was seen on the second floor about 78 - 90 after the shooting, that two witnesses estimated a bag Oswald was seen carrying the morning of the assassination was "about two feet" instead of the necessary three, that there was no evidence of a rifle clip (it holds the bullets enabling automatic feeding of bullets into the chamber when the bolt is manually recycled) in the weapon, that there was no mention of Oswald having a 'Hidell ID' in his wallet until the rifle was traced to the rifle order by one "A.Hidell', that Oswald couldn't work the bolt fast enough to accomplish the assassination, that Oswald wasn't skilled enough as a shooter to accomplish the assassination, and that the rifle wasn't accurate enough as a weapon accomplish the assassination, that Oswald couldn't get to Tenth & Patton in time to kill Tippit... these arguments and hundreds of others were brought up by the early critics. And despite being exposed as false numerous times, you still hear these same claims repeated endlessly on JFK assassination boards like this one.
If Oswald did shoot Kennedy, we're back to square one anyway because there could still be a conspiracy.
Absolutely, but because the early critics sought to exclude Oswald from the shooting (taking the approach of a defense attorney in a trial and arguing for his innocence) rather than argue for a conspiracy, that is for the most part where the conspiracy theorists remain today... stuck arguing - despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary - that Oswald didn't do it. And because there is no evidence for conspiracy, anyone looking for one must start by trying to exclude Oswald somehow. Hence the concentration on Dealey Plaza.
The areas that deserve more research relate to Oswald's visit to Mexico City. See John Newman and Bill Simpich's writings.
Some critics argue Oswald never went to Mexico City, that it was an imposter - again, they seek to exclude Oswald from anything inculpatory, taking the approach that if they can establish Oswald wasn't there, there must have been a conspiracy. It's been a while since I read Newman views on that.
But Simplch is among those who take the approach Oswald was being impersonated in Mexico City. You can read that here:
http://www.maryferrell.org/pages/State_Secret_Chapter1.html (Simpich writes: "That propaganda operation will eventually take us
to Mexico City just two months before the assassination, where Oswald was impersonated when he tried once again to get an instant visa – this time, to go to Cuba as well as the Soviet Union....") [emphasis added]
So his arguments seem to be in conflict with your own admission of "Oswald's visit to Mexico City".
It is therefore curious to me why you cite Simpich.
What does Newman say about Oswald's visit to Mexico City, or like Simpich, does he argue for an imposter being there?
[EDIT: Newman's views can be found here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/oswald-the-cia-and-mexico-city/
Newman's views differ from Simpich's in that he admits Oswald was in Mexico City AND at the Cuban consulate and Soviet embassy, but he thinks follow-up phone calls to those places were made by an imposter. But how an imposter could know Oswald was there, and follow up on Oswald's visits isn't explained by Newman, that I could see].
And what possible evidence could be found to convince anyone - at this late date - that a conspiracy might NOT be found in Mexico City?
It is impossible to prove a negative. The best we can say is there is NO evidence for conspiracy involving Oswald or anyone else. And given that, that might best explain why the earliest critics and nearly every critic since has focused on removing Oswald from the shooting rather than providing evidence of a conspiracy.
It is also important to note that the man calling himself "Oswald" showed up at the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City asking for a visa to Cuba, but he didn't have a photo of himself to attach to the visa application form. He was told where to go, and came back with a photo of himself that was attached to the visa application and sent to Cuba for processing. It was in the hands of the Cuban government from 1963 until 1978 when it was turned over to the HSCA for their investigation. Here's a copy of that image:
https://media1.s-nbcnews.com/j/stre...-oswald-cuba-vmed-345p.nbcnews-fp-360-360.jpg
That photo alone does much to destroy Simpich's argument for an Oswald imposter.
There is room for a small conspiracy, where one or more people (among Oswald's acquaintances) encouraged him to shoot JFK, but there's also no evidence for that. And it seems remote that anyone in Mexico City could encourage him to shoot JFK as Oswald didn't have a job at the Depository yet nor was JFK's trip to Dallas and its route past the Depository determined in September of 1963). Oswald only got the job through the intervention of a neighbor, and JFK's route was determined only about a week before the assassination. So at the time of the Mexico City trip, there was no reason for anyone to encourage Oswald to assassinate JFK, as it was only happenstance that nearly two months later Oswald would find himself with that opportunity.
Hank