His father’s research into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was so respected that he taught two elective classes on the historic murder at West Liberty State College.
Prof. Charles Campanizzi provided his student with all the proven facts:
- The nation’s 35th POTUS was gunned down in Dallas at 1:30 EST and was pronounced dead 30 minutes later at Parkland Hospital.
- Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee at the Taxes School Book Depository, quickly was arrested for and charged with the murder.
- Oswald died two days later after he was shot by Jack Ruby, a Texas nightclub owner with suspicious ties.
The educator also would tell his students the federal government concluded that Oswald was the shooter. He had the military training and the hatred for America, and, viola, the case concerning the fourth presidential assassination in U.S. history was solved that easily. The feds were backed up by the Warren Commission, so case closed.
“My father did not believe that conclusion, and neither do I,” said 45-year-old Cory Campanizzi, one of two of the professor’s sons. “Perhaps the documents the federal government refuse to release would tell us who really pulled that trigger, but it was not Lee Harvey Oswald.
“I’m confident Oswald was the patsy he claimed to be as soon as he was arrested and that’s because there’s evidence he wasn’t on the sixth floor at the time,” he said. “We really just need our federal government to finally tell the truth about what happened and what role our own government played.”
Filling Footsteps
West Liberty Professor Emeritus Campanizzi passed away in 2017 at the age of 76, but for nearly 50 years he collected evidence of a conspiracy that killed JFK. His research, in fact, attracted the attention of the Central Intelligence Agency on more than a few occasions.
“Professor Camp” also conducted public presentations, including several surrounding the tragedy’s 50th anniversary in 2013. That’s when Cory, in fact, decided he would adopt his father’s legacy.
“I saw it in my father’s eyes back then for the 50th anniversary,” Campanizzi said. “His health was terrible at the time, but he still made it to West Liberty University’s Highlands branch for the Community University sessions. After the event, someone in the media asked him if there is someone to carry on in his footsteps, and when you are put in a situation like that with all of that pressure, what are you going to say?
“At the time, he emotionally broke down because he knew that his life was near its end, and I agreed to carry on his research because it was something I was surrounded by my entire life. It felt like the natural thing to do,” he said. “It was never forced upon us, but it was always there.”
Cory Campanizzi currently works in higher education, and when invited to make media appearances, he’s obliged. Cory’s next appearance on River Talk 100.1/100.9 FM will follow his next trip to Washington, D.C. during which he will protest the federal government’s refusal to release more information.
“I am happy that I have picked up where my father left off, but it’s not an albatross. It’s not something that’s hanging around my neck, but it does require a certain level of commitment,” Campanizzi revealed. “And that’s because there’s a lot of disinformation out there and that’s why I am so diligent with sources and things like that.
“What’s really funny about me taking over my Dad’s research is that, toward the end of his life, he and I didn’t not agree on the Johnson angle. My father believed that Johnson played a larger role in the assassination than I did,” he recalled. “I had been introduced to some new, really strong research, and it sent me down a different avenue.”
Hunting Treasure
The truth is the Holy Grail, Cory believes, no matter the path followed to find it.
That is why, even with thousands of connected documents still considered classified, he is completely confident about his answers to the following questions:
Do you believe Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK?
“No.”
Do you believe the federal government played a significant role with the assassination?
“Yes.”
Do you believe JFK’s policies concerning foreign relations is the main reason why JFK was assassinated?
“Yes … deeply.”
But how to prove it?
“That’s why I don’t feel I disrespected my father at all about taking this new path about Vice President Johnson because that’s what research is all about. You go where facts take you,” Campanizzi said. “From my Dad’s standpoint, he felt what Johnson was inheriting from the assassination of President Kennedy was enough to believe what he did. Johnson was a benefactor.
“That’s as far as I ever took it because he ran against Kennedy in the first place, but Kennedy needed him on the ticket for the southern vote,” he explained. “Johnson had the Dixiecrats in the south and he knew how to talk to him. So, Johnson was necessary, and my father believed Kennedy paid the price for it. Hopefully, someday someone in D.C. will want to finally tell the truth.”
