When I evaluate a theory I have read about, I try
to search the record for evidence which could
refute it. I reject the HSCA's Mafia theory. The Mafia
did not have that type of influence to use Oswald
as a patsy. The Mafia did not have the connections
in intelligence to control things the way the CIA did.
The Mafia did not have access to Secret Service ID
the way the CIA did to allow the grassy knoll gunman
to get away.
For many years I had assumed that the motive was
the Vietnam War. One of the necessary elements of
that theory is that JFK had intended to withdraw
all US ground troops by 1965, after he was reelected,
whereas LBJ reversed that decision and escalated the war.
For several years the evidence to support this was
missing, especially as many people in intelligence
were lying and claiming that there was no plan to
withdraw US forces and that LBJ was merely
continuing JKF's policies. Documents released recently
and people coming forward to explain that they
had originally lied and now were telling the truth
indicate that JFK had wanted to withdraw all US troops
by 1965 and LBJ had changed US policy which then
escalated the war. All of this more strongly supports
the theory, but some elements remain weak.
There is not enough evidence of what JFK would actually
have done if he had lived or what LBJ would do
if the conspirators were to rely on controlling him,
a dangerous assumption. LBJ was the good old fashioned
Southern boy who turned out to be the one to
sign the Voter Rights Act and implement desegregatation
of the South. I also see little to link the military
interests who supported the war to Oswald or control
of the investigation. All of this weakens this theory
as being likely. Possible, but not as likely as
once thought.
I have examined the Casto-did-it theory and found
holes. It turns out that those people who thought
that Oswald was  DGI agent did so in good faith.
There were hints and rumors. But later examination showed
that those hints and rumors were hoaxes perpetrated
by the anti-Castro forces to precipitate a US
invasion of Cuba.
Likewise, there were hints and rumors about the Russians.
Part of that stemmed from Nosenko and Angleton and
Helms' conviction that Nosenko was a dispatched agent
and therefore represented an attempt to deceieve by
the KGB. Why should the KGB try to deceive if they
had nothing to hide. Later examination proved 
Nosenko's bona fides and recent KGB releases after
the break-up of the Soviet Union show that KGB was
curious about Oswald, but never recruited him.
So, given that type of examination of various theories,
I likewise examined other theories. One which
caught my eye, because of my background in seeing
how intelligence agencies operate, was reported
in Time magazine back in 1964 when they were
listing the various conspiracy theories from
around the world. One of the most popular ones in
France involved Frederick Barghoorn. He was seized
by the Russians as a spy. According to the theory,
Khruschev released him only after JFK had 
guarranteed that Barghoorn was not a spy. According
to the theory, someone in US intelligence had sworn
to JFK that Barghoorn had no ties to US intelligence and 
was just an innocent tourist. JFK later learned
that he had been lied to and resolved to fire
the person who had lied to him. He was fed up with
the CIA continually lying to him and undermining
his bargaining position with the Soviets.
This was on November 16, 1963. So, I started looking
for evidence to see if there was anything which might
refute this theory. I have found none.
 In fact, I found the smoking gun, a memo which noted
who it was that guaranteed that Barghoorn had
no ties to the CIA. It was Helms. I also located
a memo from State which confirmed that Barghoorn
had been a CIA analyst. There are still some
elements which need to be researched and I anticipate
that proof will come out within a few years.
One thing which the JFK Library continues to cover
up are ALL the tape recordings, including
scheduled meetings between Helms and JFK, as well
as reported meetings between JFK and Barghoorn in which
Barghoorn revealed that he had once worked for the
CIA. When those are released, another element of
the theory will be proven. All of these elements
give Helms the means, motive, and opportunity to
order the assassination of President Kennedy.
Just as it was Helms on his own authority who
ordered the assassination attempts on Castro.
The whole Agency was not directly involved in those,
although many elements may have supported the
activities without directly knowing the ultimate
goal.
PS, the reason why I do not normally compose such
a long message is because this software tends to
forget that the person is online after so many minutes
and balks at posting the message, requiring several
attemptps. It is time wasting the way this 
software works. And also there is no spellchecker,
so I am reluctant to compose long messages.
After 10 tries, all I see are blinking lights
and the software does not tell me what it doing,
so I have no way of knowing if the message is being
stored or not. Then two minutes later it gives
me the message that the server is not responding.
Then why is my modem sending and receiving data?
I can not waste 3 hours just trying to send one message.