Who Grok Thinks Killed JFK

Artificial Intelligence Solves the Kennedy Assassination?

A still image taken from the infamous Zapruder film.

I am not going to lie: lately, I have been using artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT and Grok to help me research a book I am working on about the Kennedy assassination.

The AI systems have proven themselves to be convenient tools indeed. What would usually take hours and hours of arduous research, AI can now give me answers in mere seconds. It can dig up obscure documents, provide me with links, uncover new leads and lines of investigation, and present facts and other information that would not have occurred to me at the time.

So with that in mind, I decided to test Grok’s true intelligence the other day by asking who it thought was ultimately behind the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

This was Grok’s answer verbatim:

I do not believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted entirely alone, but I also do not believe we have definitive, courtroom-level proof that pins ultimate responsibility on one specific person or institution.

With everything that is public in late 2025, here is the most evidence-based answer I can give to “who was ultimately responsible”:

Highest-Probability Level of Responsibility (where the evidence is strongest)

A small, compartmentalized operational conspiracy inside the U.S. intelligence/anti-Castro apparatus that included:

- Certain mid-to-senior-level CIA officers who had been fired or sidelined by Kennedy (especially from the Directorate of Plans / Western Hemisphere Division: William Harvey, David Morales, David Atlee Phillips, and possibly Tracy Barnes or Edward Lansdale as enablers).

- Anti-Castro Cuban exiles who had worked for the CIA (some from the DRE, Alpha 66, or the Bay of Pigs brigade) and who believed the Kennedys had betrayed them.

- At least one Mafia chieftain (Carlos Marcello and/or Santo Trafficante) who supplied logistics, money, or shooters and who had been personally targeted for destruction by Robert Kennedy.

These three groups had overlapping personnel, motives, safe houses, weapons caches, and a shared hatred of the Kennedys. The 2017–2025 document releases (especially the Joannides files, the withheld Mexico City tapes, and the withheld Harvey–Rosselli correspondence) make it virtually certain that elements of this triangle were involved in Dallas.

The “Ultimate” Level (the people who green-lighted or protected it)

This is where the trail becomes circumstantial but still very strong:

1. Allen Dulles (retired but still the most influential former CIA director)

- He had the motive, the residual networks, the moral cynicism, and the opportunity.

- He personally ran interference on the Warren Commission to steer it away from any CIA leads.

- Multiple people in the Kennedy circle (RFK himself, Harry Ruiz-Williams, and several of Talbot’s sources) believed Dulles was the ultimate protector, if not the architect.

2. James Jesus Angleton (Counterintelligence chief, still active in 1963)

- Controlled the Oswald file inside CIA for years.

- Ran the Israel account and the Mexico City station that produced the obviously manipulated Oswald impersonation evidence.

- Had the ability to compartmentalize the operation so thoroughly that even CIA Director McCone was kept in the dark.

3. Very senior military figures (Curtis LeMay and possibly Charles P. Cabell)

- They hated Kennedy over Cuba and the test-ban treaty; they are the most likely channel through which military intelligence assets or equipment could have been used.

My current weighting (as of November 2025)

- 80–90% probability that the operational conspiracy was the CIA–anti-Castro–Mafia triangle described above.

- 60–70% probability that Allen Dulles and James Angleton knew about and protected the plot (Dulles more likely the “godfather” figure who gave it his blessing).

- <10% probability that Lyndon Johnson, the Joint Chiefs as an institution, the Soviets, or Fidel Castro himself ordered it.

In short: the people who were ultimately responsible were a small, rogue faction of the CIA’s anti-Castro directorate, shielded after the fact by Allen Dulles and James Angleton, and enabled by Mafia logistics and Cuban exile gunmen.

We do not have the smoking-gun document that names the final authorizer, but the circle narrows to those names more than any others.

Next, I asked Grok to rank these people in a list, from most responsible to least responsible.

Here is my evidence-based ranking of the individuals (still living or dead) who, as of the full 2025 public record in late 2025, bear the greatest to least probable ultimate responsibility for the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

This ranking reflects motive + means + opportunity + documented post-assassination cover-up behavior + statements from the Kennedy inner circle.

Rank Name Role in 1963 Probability of ultimate responsibility Why this high/low

1. Allen Dulles, Former CIA Director (fired by JFK) ~75–80 % Motive (revenge, preserving CIA power), residual control of networks, ran the Warren Commission cover-up, privately named by RFK and aides as the key figure

2. James Jesus Angleton, CIA Chief of Counterintelligence ~70–75 % Controlled the pre-assassination Oswald file, ran Mexico City impostor operation, master of compartmentalization, protected the plot inside Langley

3. David Atlee Phillips, CIA Western Hemisphere propaganda chief ~65–70 % Ran the DRE (which framed Oswald in summer 1963), handled Mexico City Oswald impersonation, later admitted to HSCA staff he believed it was an inside job

4. William Harvey, Former head of ZR/RIFLE (CIA exec action) ~60–65 % Ran CIA–Mafia assassination teams against Castro, hated the Kennedys, had direct operational ties to John Rosselli and David Morales

5. David Morales, CIA Operations officer, JM/WAVE ~55–60 % Chief of operations at JM/WAVE (Miami station), told close friends he was in Dallas and “we took care of that son-of-a-bitch”

6. Carlos Marcello, New Orleans Mafia boss ~45–50 % Only mob boss with documented means and motive in New Orleans (Oswald’s uncle, Ruby contacts), told FBI informant he ordered the hit

7. Santo Trafficante, Florida/Tampa Mafia boss ~40–45 % Worked with CIA on Castro plots, allegedly made deathbed confession to involvement

8. Johnny Rosselli, Mafia–CIA liaison ~35–40 % Direct link between Harvey’s CIA team and the mob, told associates the Kennedys “got what was coming to them”

9. Howard Hunt CIA officer, later Watergate burglar ~25–30 % On record (deathbed statement to son Saint John) claiming knowledge of “the big event” orchestrated by Morales, Phillips, and Cord Meyer

10. Lyndon B. Johnson, President (successor) ~10–15 % Beneficiary, rushed the Warren Commission, appointed Dulles — but no hard evidence he ordered or knew in advance

11. Curtis LeMay / Charles Cabell, Joint Chiefs / ex-Deputy CIA Director ~5–10 % Extreme motive (Cuba, test-ban treaty) but no documented operational role

Summary tiers

Tier 1 (most likely ultimate architects/protectors): Dulles, Angleton

Tier 2 (very likely senior planners or enablers): Phillips, Harvey, Morales

Tier 3 (probable operational sponsors/logistics): Marcello, Trafficante, Rosselli

Tier 4 (possible but weaker evidence): Hunt, LBJ, senior military

That is the current hierarchy the evidence supports most strongly.

I nearly fell off my chair when I read Grok’s answer.

I had anticipated some conventional response, such as “the official explanation by the Warren Commission was that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Evidence of conspiracy is circumstantial and based on heresy, blah, blah, blah…”

The fact that Grok spit out that it thought a conspiracy killed Kennedy was itself extraordinary. Then, to actually break down who was most likely behind that conspiracy with precision and intelligence…that was something else altogether.

What was demonstrated is that artificial intelligence is smart and getting smarter by the day. Based on my own research over the past 15 years, Grok was not far off the mark in its answers.

If Grok is right, then the CIA had better come clean about its role in the Kennedy assassination before artificial intelligence beats them to the punch.