A VIDEO games company from Scotland is causing outrage in America with a title called JFK Reloaded, which allows players to look through the crosshairs of Lee Harvey Oswald’s rifle and assassinate the late US President.

The game, released to coincide with the 41st anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s murder, is described as a “docu-game”, helping to end conspiracy theories that the President was killed by anyone other than Oswald from the sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository.

“It is despicable,” a spokesman for Senator Edward Kennedy, the late President’s brother, said.

John F. Kennedy’s assassination has already been depicted graphically in the 1991 film JFK, directed by Oliver Stone. The continued fascination with the murder is largely down to the fact that Oswald was fatally shot by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner with links to the Mafia, only two days after John F. Kennedy’s murder.

Traffic, the Glasgow games company, is offering a $100,000 (£54,000) reward to the player to most accurately recreate the three shots fired by Oswald.

The game can be downloaded from the internet for $9.99 (£5.30). Players are shown a 3D image of the presidential motorcade passing through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, and of the gruesome injuries that they can inflict on the President or the First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy.

Players can also shift viewpoint to see the action from the “grassy knoll”, where some believe that a second gunman was positioned.

The game’s instructions tell players that “it is up to you to send the President to a cruel and early death”, adding that points will be deducted for accidentally hitting the First Lady. “High scores will come from replicating the timing and accuracy of Oswald’s shots as reported in the Warren Commission’s report into the assassination,” it says.

Kirk Ewing, the managing director of Traffic, defended the controversial game, saying that it “brings history to life and will stimulate a younger generation of players to take an interest in this fascinating episode of American history”.

He added that he had created the game “in the belief that Oswald was the only person who fired the shots on that day, although this recreation proves how immensely difficult his task was”.

The Glasgow company said that it had taken a ten-man team seven months to research the events leading up to 12.30pm, November 22, 1963, and another six months to programme the accurate re- creation of the surroundings.

The game’s promotional literature says: “The re- creation enables players to examine the challenges that faced Lee Harvey Oswald and determine on their own if he was, in fact, the only shooter on that fateful day.”

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Afghanistan News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Heed the great stabiliser’s words
• How a voice for everyone led to stalemate
• Bakara market becomes a slaughterhouse