Kennedy, John Fitzgerald

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A worthy contribution to history free of myth and full of facts
Two Shortcuts To Becoming A Lone-Assassin Believer: Watch The 11/22/63 Real-Time Live TV Coverage....And Then Read This Book
Out of the Past
very good press reporting
JOURNALISM CLASSIC AND INSIDE SCOOP

When the News Went Live: Dallas 1963
Bob Huffaker , Bill Mercer , George Phenix , and Wes Wise
Manufacturer: Taylor Trade Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1589791398

Book Description

Broadcast journalism came of age in the Kennedy Assassination crisis and helped to hold a mourning nation together. Four reporters on the scene relate their experiences.

Customer Reviews:

A worthy contribution to history free of myth and full of facts.......2007-04-03

There are so very few books that convey a sense of "being there" when it comes to the Kennedy assassination. This outstanding book takes the reader back to that fateful weekend of November 22nd 1963 in Dallas, Texas and does so in an open, honest and compelling manner.

"When the News Went Live" is written by four journalists who were in Dallas on that day covering the presidential visit. Bob Huffaker and the other three newsmen share many interesting stories that you will not find elsewhere and that have been untold for many years no doubt to all but their personal friends. This is why the book is such a valuable contribution to the historical record. Such first hand observation regarding not just those few seconds in Dealey Plaza, the murder of Officer Tippet and the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby, but how in fact the entire story unfolded, makes fascinating reading.

As an aid to anyone interested in the assassination, this book is a must have. I would emphasize - rarely do you find first hand knowledge like this - much of what is written on this subject is written by people many steps removed from the event where fact and fiction merge into one. Not so here. A fabulous book which is refreshingly free of the conjecture and myth that is so common in the Himalayan pile of work on the Kennedy assassination and is highly recommended.

Two Shortcuts To Becoming A Lone-Assassin Believer: Watch The 11/22/63 Real-Time Live TV Coverage....And Then Read This Book.......2007-01-02

"With three shots from a mail-order rifle, Lee Oswald set off a worldwide tragedy that developed too fast to print. .... Broadcast journalism came of age in that crisis of grief and uncertainty, and as it drew its mourning audience, it helped to hold the nation together." -- Bob Huffaker; From the Preface of "When The News Went Live: Dallas 1963"

----------------------

"When The News Went Live: Dallas 1963", published in 2004, paints a vivid word picture of many of the incredible events that surrounded President John F. Kennedy's assassination in November of 1963, as seen through the eyes of four journalists -- Bob Huffaker, Bill Mercer, George Phenix, and Wes Wise -- who covered those events as they happened for CBS affiliate KRLD-TV and Radio in Dallas.

President Kennedy's shocking and appalling assassination on November 22, 1963, was the very first really big "Watch It Unfold Live On TV" news event of the television era, with four full commercial-free days being devoted to nothing but exclusive assassination-related coverage by all three major TV networks (with KRLD's on-the-scene Dallas reporters frequently feeding CBS-TV headquarters in New York).

And the four reporters whose intriguing stories unfold within this 224-page hardcover volume were right smack in the thick of things during the rapidly-developing events -- from the initial sketchy bulletins that told of the President being shot in Dealey Plaza during a motorcade drive through the city of Dallas -- to the announcement of JFK's death at Parkland Hospital -- to the capture of the accused assassin (Lee Harvey Oswald) in a nearby movie theater -- to Oswald's very own murder on live TV (with Bob Huffaker reporting live from the basement of the Dallas Police Department, where the single gunshot from Jack Ruby's pistol added yet another hard-to-believe chapter to the weekend's nightmarish story).

It was a mesmerizing weekend in American (and television) history, to say the least. And those days are re-lived with clarity in this engaging book by way of the recollections of four men who lived through and reported on those events when they were occurring.

"When The News Went Live" contains several excellent black-and-white photographs, too (some of them I haven't seen published elsewhere).

On a personal level, I have had the pleasure of communicating (via e-mail) with Bob Huffaker several times. He has been very cordial and gracious whenever answering the questions that I had for him. His personal insights into the events revolving around JFK's death are fascinating glimpses into the past, and are insights that I have enjoyed reading immensely.

A sample e-mail excerpt from Mr. Huffaker:

----------------------

"David, you're right about the presidential visit and motorcade being the main attraction that all Dallas media were covering, of course. But all our stations had limited capabilities for doing mobile TV, which then demanded either cables or microwave dishes--as well as a receiving dish within line-of-sight beaming or bouncing.

Hence the pool TV arrangements, limited to three planned locations. The local TV stations did live TV from the FTW {Fort Worth} breakfast, Love Field, and the Trade Mart. But this was, indeed, the day the news went live on television, unplanned.

WBAP-TV in Fort Worth had a non-running TV van, which they had towed all the way from Cowtown to Dallas Police headquarters, and we sent both of our KRLD-TV vans into duty--the Bread Truck at DPD and the Blue Goose on the 24th to the county jail, etc.

This was the first time in TV history when on-the-spot news suddenly demanded to go live from the scene. Before that, radio news on-the-spot descriptions such as ours that day were common (like the Hindenburg broadcast--radio only), and live TV was usually reserved for major speeches, sports, etc.

Bob" -- E-mail to this writer; May 30, 2006

----------------------

Relating to the subject of "WHEN THE NEWS WENT LIVE", I'd like to offer up the following observations as an extension of this book review.....

To those JFK conspiracy theorists who seem to favor the Oliver Stone-like or Robert Groden-promoted assassination scenarios (that feature a minimum of three gunmen and anywhere from 6 to 10 gunshots being fired at President Kennedy in Dallas' Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963) -- I always suggest to them that they ought to dig up some of the originally-aired "As It Is Happening" live TV or radio broadcasts from that dark Friday in American history.

After performing that exercise of watching a few hours of the November 22 television coverage of the assassination (in real time), or listening to some of the radio broadcasts in real time (which works just as well) -- I challenge anyone to then arrive at the same conclusion that was slapped up on the big theater screen in 1991 via Director Oliver Stone's blockbuster, conspiracy-laden motion picture "JFK".

Watching the day's events unfold "live" in front of you (or listening to them unfold on the radio as it was happening) should, in my opinion, provide everyone with a good general idea of how utterly impossible a task it would have been to have "faked" so much stuff that was being IMMEDIATELY reported to the world on live television and radio within minutes and hours of the President's assassination (and within a very short space of time following Police Officer J.D. Tippit's murder as well).

Via those original live TV/Radio broadcasts, you're not going to hear a SINGLE report that resembles anything close to the Oliver Stone/Jim Garrison-endorsed nonsense of:

"Three gunmen fired six shots at President Kennedy's motorcade today here in Dallas!!"

What you will hear, instead, is live coverage, as it happened, of a ONE-GUNMAN assassination taking place from where the majority of witnesses said it took place (the Texas School Book Depository Building), with no more than three shots having been fired by the SINGLE SHOOTER, which is a shot count that over 91% of the witnesses concur with -- including the small percentage of witnesses who heard only one or two shots, who are witnesses that certainly don't do Mr. Stone's "6-shot ambush" theory any favors.

Upon evaluating virtually all of the TV networks' live assassination footage from November 22nd, 1963, there is no possible way that a reasonable person could arrive at a conclusion that JFK was shot by three assassins, firing from both front and rear. Let alone arriving at an even more-cockeyed "8-to-10-shot" shooting scenario, as purported by Mr. Groden and some other CTers, which is an outlandish conspiracy-flavored scenario that has John Kennedy and John Connally being shot by way more than just the two Warren Commission-backed Mannlicher-Carcano bullets from Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle.*

* = And Mr. Groden's theory (that sports from 8 to 10 gunshots) also features an additional hunk of lunacy, in that Groden thinks it's very likely that NONE of these eight to ten shots came from the "Oswald window" in the Book Depository! (I'm not making this crazy stuff up here. I promise. Anyone who owns a copy of Robert Groden's 1993 book "The Killing Of A President" can check out Groden's preposterous theory for themselves, on pages 20-40.)

The bottom line is -- Very nearly all of the information being reported on TV and radio that November day favored a "Lone Assassin" shooting scenario (including the info concerning the Tippit murder in Oak Cliff), with very little evidence and information being broadcast that would support any type of a "conspiracy" whatsoever; and certainly no "conspiratorial" evidence that has ever panned out and "proved" that a multi-gun plot ended JFK's life in Dallas.

This is quite a telling "One Killer" fact. Because, in my view, if a vast conspiracy and subsequent "cover-up" had been in place on November 22nd (given the immense amount of TV and radio coverage, with reporters scrutinizing everything coming across their desks and digging hard for any type of case-solving clues during those first hours and days after JFK and J.D. Tippit were killed), I think that at least SOME pieces of the conspiracy would have leaked through to the sweeping television and radio coverage surrounding the two Dallas murders.

And I'm guessing that every reporter and newsman in the country (including Messrs. Huffaker, Mercer, Phenix, and Wise) would have loved to dig up some "conspiracy"-proving angle during that weekend in November of '63. Being the person who uncovered such a huge story would certainly be a feather in that reporter's cap, to be sure. But, as it turned out, nothing of that nature occurred....and has yet to occur all these many years later.

To think (as many theorists do) that these conspirators were so smart and so quick to have had the capabilities to immediately eliminate virtually every last scrap of information leading to a conspiracy plot of some kind, making sure that none of the "multi-gunmen shooting event" details seeped through to the media (multiplied by TWO separate murders as well, counting Tippit's!), is to think that any such evil-doers had powers similar to "Superman".

For example -- Almost every one of the initial reports concerning the number of gunshots heard by witnesses stated "3 shots". And while it's true that the very first report of the shooting from UPI's Merriman Smith (which was broadcast over all the television networks) stated "Three shots were fired...", it's also worth noting that Smith's initial bulletin was not the ONLY "three shots" account that was reported during those early hours just after the shooting.

For instance, Jay Watson of ABC affiliate WFAA-TV in Dallas (who happened to be in Dealey Plaza during the shooting and nervously reported the first bulletins to the unaware Dallas TV audience) is heard multiple times on November 22nd saying he heard "3 shots" fired.

Plus, several other members of the media are also on record stating their own PERSONAL beliefs that exactly three shots were fired by the assassin, including Robert MacNeil, Jack Bell, Bob Clark, Jerry Haynes, and Pierce Allman, among still others.

Some of the other "Three Shot" witnesses who were riding right in the Presidential motorcade itself include -- Photographers Tom Dillard, Robert Jackson, Mal Couch, and James Underwood. Plus, both John and Nellie Connally, who were riding in the same car with President Kennedy.

In addition, Presidential aides Ken O'Donnell and David Powers, who were both riding in the Secret Service follow-up car directly behind JFK's limousine, can also be added to the lengthy list of witnesses who heard precisely three gunshots.

And then there's also amateur filmmaker Abraham Zapruder, who took the most famous 26-second home movie in history when he captured the entire assassination with his 8mm Bell & Howell movie camera -- Zapruder showed up on live TV about 90 minutes after the President's murder took place and gave a graphic account of the horrifying event that had taken place in front of his very eyes.

Mr. Zapruder told the WFAA-TV viewing audience that he had heard two or three shots (but definitely no more than three), and he also demonstrated on live television where on the President's head he had seen the effects of the fatal gunshot. Zapruder puts his hand over the right-frontal portion of his own head to demonstrate where he saw the blood coming from JFK's head.

That's pretty amazing "LIVE" stuff from Mr. Zapruder's own lips (within approx. an hour-and-a-half of the assassination). And it's especially incredible and amazing if there had actually been many more than just two or three shots fired at the President, and if the fatal shot had actually (as many CTers believe) caused a huge hole in the BACK of John Kennedy's head, instead of the location where Zapruder placed it on live television -- i.e., the RIGHT SIDE AND FRONT portion of the head.

How could the so-called "conspirators" have possibly gotten THAT lucky with respect to Abraham Zapruder's live "on-the-air" WFAA-TV statements and head-wound "demonstration"? How?

And -- Could these ultra-clever conspirators have somehow managed to "manipulate" several reporters who were relaying the news live to the world immediately after the event, and have them ALL report on hearing just "three shots" (or, in a few cases, hearing only TWO shots, which is a number that certainly does not favor a "Multi-Shooter Conspiracy Plot")?

Or did the plotters just happen to get really, really LUCKY (again) when virtually all of the news reports favored the "Three Shots Fired" conclusion? With this 3-shot scenario matching the precise number of bullet shells that were found on the 6th Floor of the Book Depository after the shooting; and also perfectly matching the exact number of shots heard by TSBD witness Harold Norman, and also perfectly matching the precise number of bullet shells (3) that Norman heard hitting the plywood floor directly above his 5th-Floor location within the Depository.

Which, per Oliver Stone's movie, would mean that a full 50% of the ACTUAL number of gunshots were somehow inaudible to the enormous majority (91%+) of the earwitnesses! And, remember, Oliver has NONE of the shots within his movie's six-shot assassination ambush being "synchronized" in order to merge together with the sound of some of the other shots.

And yet, per Mr. Stone, we're supposed to actually believe that approximately 9 out of every 10 witnesses somehow missed hearing HALF of the gunshots fired that day! A reasonable thing to believe....or not? I ask you.

Were these so-called conspiratorial shooters so good that they could make 4 to 10 shots sound like only three to the vast majority of witnesses scattered all throughout Dealey Plaza? Highly doubtful, to say the least.

Again -- I'd advise all conspiracy theorists to sit down and watch the live TV footage....or listen to some of the surviving 11/22/63 radio tapes....and then try to find a "Multi-Gunmen Conspiracy" lurking within ANY of those original broadcasts. If anybody finds proof of a conspiracy via those means, please let me know. And let the world know too.

David Von Pein
December 2006
January 2007

Out of the Past.......2006-04-04

We have become accustomed (yea, verily, some would say desensitized)to horror unfolding before our eyes in our very own living rooms. Bob Huffaker's book brings us back to a time before the desensitization, when we could scarcely believe what our eyes were telling us. I recommend this book highly to those who were there, watching as I was, and even more so to those who were not there. The young, raised in an era of suicide bombers, need to understand that it was not always thus.

very good press reporting.......2005-07-30

1963 nov 22 brought to life again but with more professionalism.some very interesting facts that confirmed my own thoughts .

JOURNALISM CLASSIC AND INSIDE SCOOP.......2005-05-07

I stayed up all night reading when my copy of When The News Went Live, Dallas 1963 arrived. This book is a classic and should be included in the curriculum of every journalism and political science classroom in America.

Huffaker, Mercer, Phenix and Wise have written the Texas story of the Kennedy assassination, the inside scoop on Oswald's murder and the history of the evolution of modern journalism. These four men were Dallas television reporters, on the scene and on their own, in the middle of the news story of the century.

It is a salute to their training and their integrity as newsmen that their coverage under duress stands today as a compelling rendering of those fateful moments. I am glad they were the early ones on the scene, for they were the ones who broke the news to me in my elementary classroom. The story gives their perspectives more fully; all these years later, this book helps me understand the events and how they affected Texas and the nation.

Bob, Bill, George and Wes were there in Dallas with their Southern sensibilities. They weren't easily pushed around or manipulated that dark day and still aren't. They were taught to tell the truth as objectively as possible, and they reverted to that training and their good common sense when placed in positions lesser men might have blown or exploited. These four men cared about truth and justice and fairness and still do. I hope all young journalists will read this and learn about balanced reporting.

Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years

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A Must Resd
Fabulous Read !
Importantly frightening
Excellent, well-researched expose of the true workings of our government
Investigative Masterpiece

Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years
David Talbot
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Someone Would Have Talked: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the Conspiracy to Mislead History

ASIN: 0743269187
Release Date: 2007-05-08

Book Description

For decades, books about John or Robert Kennedy have woven either a shimmering tale of Camelot gallantry or a tawdry story of runaway ambition and reckless personal behavior. But the real story of the Kennedys in the 1960s has long been submerged -- until now. In Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years, David Talbot sheds a dramatic new light on the tumultuous inner life of the Kennedy presidency and its stunning aftermath. Talbot, the founder of Salon.com, has written a gripping political history that is sure to be one of the most talked-about books of the year.

Brothers begins on the shattering afternoon of November 22, 1963, as a grief-stricken Robert Kennedy urgently demands answers about the assassination of his brother. Bobby's suspicions immediately focus on the nest of CIA spies, gangsters, and Cuban exiles that had long been plotting a violent regime change in Cuba. The Kennedys had struggled to control this swamp of anti-Castro intrigue based in southern Florida, but with little success.

Brothers then shifts back in time, revealing the shadowy conflicts that tore apart the Kennedy administration, pitting the young president and his even younger brother against their own national security apparatus. The Kennedy brothers and a small circle of their most trusted advisors -- men like Theodore Sorensen, Robert McNamara, and Kenneth O'Donnell, who were so close the Kennedys regarded them as family -- repeatedly thwarted Washington's warrior caste. These hard-line generals and spymasters were hell-bent on a showdown with the Communist foe -- in Berlin, Laos, Vietnam, and especially Cuba. But the Kennedys continually frustrated their militaristic ambitions, pushing instead for a peaceful resolution to the Cold War. The tensions within the Kennedy administration were heading for an explosive climax, when a burst of gunfire in a sunny Dallas plaza terminated John F. Kennedy's presidency.

Based on interviews with more than one hundred fifty people -- including many of the Kennedys' aging "band of brothers," whose testimony here might be their final word on this epic political story -- as well as newly released government documents, Brothers reveals the compelling, untold story of the Kennedy years, including JFK's heroic efforts to keep the country out of a cataclysmic war and Bobby Kennedy's secret quest to solve his beloved brother's murder. Bobby's subterranean search was a dangerous one and led, in part, to his own quest for power in 1968, in a passion-filled campaign that ended with his own murder. As Talbot reveals here, RFK might have been the victim of the same plotters he suspected of killing his brother. This is historical storytelling at its riveting best -- meticulously researched and movingly told.

Brothers is a sprawling narrative about the clash of powerful men and the darker side of the Cold War -- a tale of tragic grandeur that is certain to change our understanding of the relentlessly fascinating Kennedy saga.

Customer Reviews:

A Must Resd.......2007-07-09

This is an extraordinary book --- well researched, well written. And it delivers. Highly recommended.

Fabulous Read !.......2007-07-09

Reading from the perspective of Bobby Kennedy has brought on a new light for me........excellent novel, extremely interesting, intriguing....would DEFINITELY recommend !

Importantly frightening.......2007-07-09

I was 11 when JFK was gunned down, and vividly remember his brother's murder five years later. Like most of my generation, I have long believed that we'll never know the truth about who was behind the shooters in these cases. But never until reading this book did I realize that the Kennedy years, which I remembered in a child's Camelot haze, were full of terror and enemies of such great power that it's not amazing JFK died when he did, but that (as he himself mused several times) he wasn't assassinated sooner. Never had I realized just how big his opponents were, and they weren't the Soviet Union - they were in his own government.

This book is a meticulous, carefully-researched, antidote to those who did not realize just how many powerful vested interests the Kennedy Brothers took on in the 1960's, and just how much damage was done to the faith of Americans in their government. The CIA rampages alone in a Dulles-fueled arrogance where presidents come and go, but the Agency (and its priorities for America) survive; the Joint Chiefs show instances of the most blatant insubordination, ignoring orders of the Commander in Chief because he's "soft" (the Bay of Pigs haunts this book); right-wing nut cases like those in the John Birch Society are screaming for Kennedy's impeachment or murder (quite overtly) from at least 1962 on; Jimmy Hoffa mused in 1962 about assassinating Robert Kennedy in his open convertible; the mob felt it had bought and paid for the Kennedys and Bobby's crusading prosecution of mob figures during his brother's administration made enemies of the worst of Americans; thousands of southerners loathe the Kennedys with a deadly hatred because of their support of integration. It makes any novel by Graham Greene look like a kindergarten manual. Cui bono? Nearly everyone with vested interests against whom the Kennedys brushed up.

If you want to learn about the insanity of a civil government where the military industrial complex has privately taken charge, read BROTHERS. It's also a wonderful antidote to the current fave for anti-Kennedy muck to realize how brave both of these men were, in the months and years before they were killed.

Excellent, well-researched expose of the true workings of our government.......2007-07-04

David Talbot has written an excellent, detailed account clearly indicating that our nation's leaders at the time, including Robert Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson, never accepted the conclusion of the Warren Commission that Oswald alone acted to kill President Kennedy. Most interestingly as it pertains to the assassination of JFK, Talbot reveals that both President Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy had no confidence in the Secret Service's ability to protect the president and that they had thought of transferring this power to the Attorney General's Office. In fact, after JFK's death, President Johnson confided that the Secret Service was "more likely to get me killed than to protect me,"(see page 283). Obviously, Johnson too had no confidence in the Secret Service. This book should set off some alarm bells about the workings of our government and its integrity. I applaud Talbot for his excellent work, and his courage to write it.

Investigative Masterpiece.......2007-07-01

When he chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee during Watergate, Sam Ervin explained how they depicted those responsible for the scandal. They could've worked like some artists who draw a picture and put a caption under it that reads "This is a horse." Instead, he said, they just drew the picture.

David Talbot does more than draw the picture of who killed the Kennedys, but he can't convincingly write the names of those responsible because crucial evidence has probably long been destroyed. Still, his well-documented investigation points to the following: Rogue agents of the CIA & anti-Castro Cubans who wanted to get even for JFK's withdrawal of airpower during the Bay of Pigs invasion; organized crime bosses & crooked labor leaders angry about being investigated; J. Edgar Hoover nervous about being replaced in JFK's 2nd term; Allen Dulles angry about JFK's détente with the Russians & being moved out of the CIA; a gang of generals & admirals eager to expand the war in Vietnam crowding into Dallas's Parkland Hospital to ensure JFK's autopsy points to the lone gunman theory.

JFK's murder was a factor in killing some of the youthful idealism that was budding in the early `60s, turning it to rage in the inner cities and drug craziness in the suburbs. Some of Talbot's sources attest to that, along with suggesting that nuclear tensions and the conflict in Vietnam would've been substantially lessened had JFK lived.

Talbot asserts that Bobby, heading for the '68 Democratic nomination and very likely the White House, would've opened an investigation challenging the conclusions of the Warren Commission, advanced a social justice agenda that would've chilled some corporate interests, and ended the Vietnam War. The book examines lingering questions about Bobby's killing in L.A. and the people who would not be unhappy about his death.

Ruminating about all this won't bring the brothers back, and there probably is no political will to reopen a formal investigation into their assassinations. But this book, particularly in its first half, is valuable in revisiting and, just maybe, recapturing a time of great optimism for change in American politics.

Ultimate Sacrifice: John and Robert Kennedy, the Plan for a Coup in Cuba, and the Murder of JFK

Average customer rating:

Very Interesting
Weighs a Ton -- Doesn't Miss Many Tricks
Don't buy this disinformation
Confirms the Conspiracy Theory
The truth at last?

Ultimate Sacrifice: John and Robert Kennedy, the Plan for a Coup in Cuba, and the Murder of JFK
Lamar Waldron , and Thom Hartmann
Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0786718323

Book Description

Cuba's number 2 official today — Commander Juan Almeida — was secretly working with JFK in November 1963 to overthrow Fidel. The US government recently revealed Almeida's work for JFK, allowing the updated trade paperback of Ultimate Sacrifice to tell the full story for the first time (complete with new photos and documents).
The authors obtained the story from almost two dozen associates of John and Robert Kennedy, starting in 1990 with JFK's Secretary of State Dean Rusk. Their accounts are supported by thousands of newly-released files at the National Archives.
Almeida's "palace coup" set for December 1, 1963, was to be backed up by US forces "invited" in by Commander Almeida, then Chief of the Cuban Army. However, three Mafia bosses being targeted by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy used several CIA assets to infiltrate the secret plot and murder JFK.
This resulted in cover-ups by officials like RFK and LBJ, to prevent the exposure of Almeida and a possible nuclear confrontation with the Soviets. The new edition explains why Almeida was not a double agent, why Fidel suspected Almeida's ally Che Guevara, and what Fidel did in 1990 when he finally found out about Almeida's work for JFK.

Customer Reviews:

Very Interesting.......2007-06-27

I have read alot of books regarding JFK, and I have to say that this one was very interesting.

Weighs a Ton -- Doesn't Miss Many Tricks.......2007-06-25

I was a pre-teen in England when JFK was killed, and I've been an agnostic on the topic of conspiracy ever since. On the one hand, the Warren Commission report, for all its length, always seemed superficial and almost certainly undermined by political influence. On the other, the start point for all conspiracy theorists is the notion that one lone crazy couldn't possibly pull off something as audacious as an assassination of a president. Who sez? After all, every other successful and attempted presidential assassination was unquestionably the act of a lone crazy (okay, a crazy PAIR, in the case of Truman), including -- for all the lessons learned by the secret service in 1963 -- three later close calls (Ford x 2, Reagan).

In recent years, all the major forensic myths that CTs have leaned on for decades -- Oswald's poor marksmanship; the impossibility of his rifle firing three shots in the time; the backwards riccochet of JFK's body; the "magic bullet" -- have been conclusively debunked. What are left are some real, circumstantial issues concerning Oswald's movements in the two or three years before 11/22/63, his affiliation with pro-Cuba and anti-Cuba movements, the CIA, big business and organized crime, his multiple passports and corporeal manifestations; plus eyewitness accounts and the highly questionable activities of the FBI, CIA and the mob.

"Ultimate Sacrifice" covers the lot exhaustively, if repetitively and in prose that doesn't set the pulse racing. It doesn't provide too many answers, but it does ask most of the questions that still deserve to be asked (along with many that don't), and is probably the best bet currently available for the general reader who wants to know which one book on the subject she or he should read.

Don't buy this disinformation.......2007-06-11

This book is disinformation. It is an attempt to discredit serious critics of the Warren Commission and confuse everyone else. DON'T BUY THIS TRASH. This is your tax dollars at work.

Confirms the Conspiracy Theory.......2007-02-26

I remember, vividly, the day JFK was assassinted in Dallas, and I distinctly remember the reports of the time talking about "shots from the grassy knoll". And I know that I doubted the veracity of the Warren Commission's Report after it was published. After reading this WELL RESEARCHED AND DOCUMENTED book, and utilizing all of the interview material obtained by some of the people closely involved, all the pieces fall into place..Case Closed! Waldron and Hartmann have solved the mystery. MUST READING FOR ALL CONSPIRACY THEORISTS.

The truth at last?.......2007-02-21

Ultimate Sacrifice is a truly remarkable book. The riddle of who really killed John F. Kennedy has haunted the common imagination for over 40 years, and this work may well have solved the puzzle. Over 900-odd pages, Ultimate Sacrifice states its' case - that the Mafia used the elements of a US government plan to murder Fidel Castro in December 1963 to kill JFK -with relentless precision. Dozens of freshly-released US government files buttress the book's often startling conclusions throughout. This is the sort of book that makes you think "Oh, yes! That makes sense now!": This book indeed makes sense of the so-called Crime Of The Century.

This is a highly repetitive work...the same facts are stated over and and over and over again...but then, the case at hand is very complex and requires step-by-step explanation. Until the CIA release their files on the JFK murder in ten years' time, this will stand as the definitive document of what happened in Nov. 63. The facts are laid out so clearly that a fool could grasp them - Lee Oswald was an agent and a tool of US intelligence, Ruby was up to his ears in Mob chicanery, Castro was the target of countless US murder plots from 1959-63 and so forth. This is not so much an antidote to the egregious lies of Posner's "Case Closed" as a challenge to history. The Mafia killed Kennedy, and elements of the CIA helped them do it. Read this book to find out why and how. It's that simple. Ultimate Sacrifice details who planned the murder, who abetted it, what the cover story was, how Oswald fitted into it, and why it remained secret for so long. The one and only book any serious JFK assassination buff needs. Must read. 10/10. Best book on the case of all time.

Average customer rating:

Top Secret -- Need To Know
Excellent spy novel
Who shot JFK? It's obvious!
Best in depth look at Vietnamese culture
A Great Suspense Yarn

Tears of Autumn
Charles McCarry
Manufacturer: Overlook Hardcover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Secret Lovers: A Paul Christopher Novel (Paul Christopher Novels)
Second Sight: A Paul Christopher Novel

ASIN: 1585676616

Book Description

Paul Christopher, at the height of his powers as a secret agent, believes he knows who arranged the assassination and why. His theory is so destructive of the legend of the dead president, though, and so dangerous to the survival of foreign policy that he is ordered to desist from investigating. But Christopher is a man who lives by and for the truth, and his internal compunctions force him to the heart of the matter. He resigns from the Agency and embarks on a tour of investigation that takes him from Paris to Rome, Zurich, the Congo, and Saigon. Threatened by Kennedy's assassins and by his own government, Christopher follows the scent of his suspicion - one breath behind the truth, one step ahead of discovery and death.

Customer Reviews:

Top Secret -- Need To Know.......2007-06-26

I first read this in 1975. I started reading in the early evening, read it straight through to the end. Stunned by the breathtaking authenticity, I read it through again, immediately, entirely.

When I looked up, the sun was shining through my window. I had been at it for over 16 hours.

This book became my benchmark for its genre.

I am a student of the CIA, especially the 1960s evolution of the Agency. Today the head of the Clandestine Service (also then euphemistically called the Deputy Director of Plans, and today called the Deputy Director for Operations) would never dream of meeting a CIA officer in the street, but in the 1960s it was a practice. The episodes in the Congo were authentic. The tradecraft was authentic. The rivalry between the Agency and the military Special Forces continues to this day.

The book is probably authentic to a fault. One reviewer complains that the reader is kept in suspense because the author keeps secrets already know to his characters from the reader.

But isn't that what secrecy is all about? Even the reader, after all, is not entitled to know everything. Need to know. I found that an outstanding literary device, given the genre of the book.

There's more on this theme. McCarry's next book, The Secret Lovers, actually takes place before The Tears of Autumn. But the two stories dovetail together, and this second (but chronologically earlier) book deliciously dovetails with The Tears of Autumn, and even innocuously explains secrets that were left hanging in the Tears of Autumn.

McCarry was actually a field officer of the CIA, operating covertly in Europe, Africa and Asia. He knew of what he wrote. His description of Feung Shui, the powerful concept of Chinese geomancy, is absolutely spot on. Ask any Asian.

Finally, McCarry's style of leaving all emotion out of his principal character, and his overall writing style, strengthens the overall proposition of the tale. This is an intelligence report. Delivered by an intelligence operative. Take it or leave it. Yes, it reads like a Haiku should -- all the emotion is provided by the reader. The truth itself needs no embellishment.

-- Tonet

Excellent spy novel.......2006-08-01

Thankfully this author's books are coming back into print and I have yet to be disappointed with any of them. Without sounding condescending, (or elitist), McCarry's books are "intellectual" thrillers in the best sense - i.e. much like Littell, Furst or early LeCarre - in that they make the reader think and the books are also almost impossible to put down. McCarry's books track Paul Christopher, covert agent in the "The Outfit", who is a multi-lingual, globe-trotting ladies' man, rarely carrys a gun, doesn't drive fast expensive cars and doesn't blow stuff up. On the other hand he knows a lot of people who do all the above (and more), and be them friend or foe, Paul is usually very busy staying at least one step ahead of them. In this volume we find our hero searching for the truth behind the tragic events, both in Vietnam and the U.S., of November 1963, bouncing from continent to continent. (As an aside the view into Vietnamese culture in this book is fascinating). The answer(s) he finds are troubling, creative and seemingly involve everyone but the journey in ascertaining them is what makes this book a great read. Highly recommended.

Who shot JFK? It's obvious!.......2006-05-28

McCarry crafts a more plausible Kennedy assassination theory than most conspiracy devotees. Kennedy countenances (at a minimum) the assassinations of Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother on 1 November 1963 (so says the book; in reality the date was 2 November). Three weeks later, JFK is assassinated in Dallas. US agent Paul Christopher concludes that the Vietnamese did it. He quits the agency and sets out to prove it. The tale sprawls across 4 continents with rapid pacing as he chases down the truth.

The book's interesting characters are mostly believable, at once familiar yet not completely typecast. Christopher is the expert and honest US agent. David Patchens is the honest-broker spy chief. Foley is the JFK worshipper and political operator. The Truong toc is the ancestral head of Diem's family (OK, not so familiar, but intriguing). Luong plays Christopher's trusted agent (guess what happens to him!). And there's a Cuban agent, a Mafia don, a Vietnamese fortune-teller, and more. Molly, Christopher's obligatory love interest, provides important motivation, but is otherwise uninspired.

The book gives readers a peek into Vietnamese culture that is quite interesting. The book also suggests that if the American people had been told the connection between the assassinations that support for the war, not yet fully under way, would have dried up overnight.

Highly recommended for fans of the spy genre.

Best in depth look at Vietnamese culture.......2006-05-08

This is one of the best and most believable Kennedy assassination theory novels that I have read. McCarry takes the reader through the fascinating rituals and cultural idiosyncracies of the ancient Vietnamese people. The story unfolds at a brisk pace with no wasted passages. Paul Christopher is a classic protagonist somewhat similar to Bill Granger's Deveroux in the later November Man series. With diverse characters and various plot lines all coming together in the end, Christopher's startling discoveries are not enough to overcome the fanatical protections of Kennedy's loyal sycophants.

A Great Suspense Yarn.......2006-05-04

This novel, in my opinion, is one of the best spy novels ever written. If you love the fast paced exitement of other suspense novelists of today, like Dan Brown or even Jeffrey Archer, I recommend giving McCarry a try. This novel first came out in 1975, but still holds relevant excitement. The plot line seems very plausible, and that only adds to the suspense. You don't have to be a history buff or political junkie to enjoy the twists and turns of this engaging novel.

Average customer rating:

Tin Foil Hats on too Tight
excellent beginners book
[Three and-a-half out of Five] Not the best but not nearly the worst on the subject...
On Point: For The Most Part
Too much fluff and not enough HARD evidence

Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy
Jim Marrs
Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Rule by Secrecy: The Hidden History That Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons, and the Great Pyramids

ASIN: 0881846481

Customer Reviews:

Tin Foil Hats on too Tight.......2006-12-25

You got to love Jim Marrs, with books like "Rule by Secrecy: The Hidden History That Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons, and the Great Pyramids" you know you are in the presence of true "Wackoism"

So it's no surprise that old Jim is also into Aliens, Chemtrails and other such Woo Woo AND the main man of the grassy knoll crowd.

If you believe the rot in this book then I know this guy in Nigeria who has millions of dollars he need to get to the US and he will split it with you if you only.................

excellent beginners book.......2006-08-22

As a beginner going into the subject that involves JFK assassination and the whole lot of theories surrounding the events in Dallas...one must get confused with the great range of books dealing with the subject.

As a recommendation of a website I decided purchasing this book and I must say that I'm more than happy that I did.

This book is very well written with the description of what happened (important, as I wasn't born at the time - even though I've seen tons of footages) and it starts analyzing every single theory available and the possible suspects that had the means and motives to carry on such plot...then the author writes what could have really happened mixing the suspects and possible plots and his own conclusion of who did it.
The book doesn't go deep into the analysis of one single point..instead it's very broad into all theories.

The only remarks I have on the book are the lack of illustrations, which is very important so one can picture the whole assassination scene...I'm not a Dallas resident and I've never been in Dealey Plaza.
Also, the book mention several pictures from witnesses, tampered materials, documents...and showing them would only enhance the quality of the rich text written.

The other great flaw of this book: it was first published in 1989..since then we had the Oliver Stone movie (which was based on this book and Jim Garrison's) and after the movie, President Clinton created an Assassination Review Board in which thousands of documents never seen before were released.
An updated version of this book..analyzing this whole new information and how they fit into one or other conspiracy theory would be a great enhancement to a already great book.

If you are starting into this subject this should be your first book...then you should look after another that favors one or other conspiracy theory and the analysis envolved.

[Three and-a-half out of Five] Not the best but not nearly the worst on the subject..........2006-07-21

The following people made singificant
contributions to Oliver Stone, a somewhat
flawed leftist's very fine film, 'JFK':
Jim Marrs, Col. L. Fletcher Prouty, Jim
Garrison, Ron Lewis, a 'childhood' friend
of the sheepdipped Harvey Leon Oswald (his
real name), when they were together in New
Orlean. The one who made the least contri-
bution was Marrs, who is now a UFO-nik.
It's not that Marrs didn't do his homework,
but his fantasyland fiction that he swallowed
hook, line, sinker, bell, caster, fisherman
and boat about JFK's alledged affair w/ Mari-
lyn Monroe, at least Stone left that sleaze
(which is zionist, masonic propaganda) out
of the JFK film. Marrs inflates his big book
with about 40 pages of half truths and 'filler'
, when he could have come out with a 600+ page
winner. Instead us JFK researchers have to wade
through 800+ pages of watered down shots-in-the-
dark. Yes, there was a crossfire of triangulated
bullets that did injury governour Connelly and
kill the King of Camelot, our brave 35th Pres.,
JFK. But some of Marrs asertions can't be found
in the best writers on this subject like: Bo
Gritz, Garrison, Mark Lane [Rush To Judgment,
Plausible Denial], Prouty, Groden and others.
A shame!

On Point: For The Most Part.......2006-03-07

Jim Marrs has assembled a good book for JFK beginners, detailing all the basic facts about the killing of Kennedy and the surrounding events of that day.
The book touches most basis, and has more information than any other book Ive read relating to the subject. Also, it has some very very interesting chapters concerning the real identity of Oswald.
My only qualm with the book is the chapter entitled "Means, Motives & Opportunities". While the book covers the day of the assassination better than any other book Ive read, the "Means, Motives and Opportunities" section is very unfufilling. In most cases, he waste time giving broad descriptions of the Mafia, or the CIA, without REALLY digging into why they might be involved, or who specifically might be involved, and for what reasons. It's alot of side stories, like the chapter on Lucky Luciano, which has absolutely nothing to do with the killing of Kennedy at all, and is just a broad base to tie the government and mafia together.

In conclusion, if you want to know exactly what happened on Nov 22 1963, this is a great book. If your looking for other novelty facts about the case, this book will suit you. But if your looking to find out who was specifically involved & why, this book does not investigate that with anything more than backround information, that is, in most cases irrelevent to the actual topic at hand.

Too much fluff and not enough HARD evidence.......2006-02-06

Oliver Stone had to have something to go by and as a result his movie is as confusing as this book. Heresay and guessing just to sell a book. Shameful. I bought it, read it and then re-read it but I just don't believe a plot existed outside of the twisted mind of LHO. Now, if you read it you MUST also read the anti-Marrs version "Case Closed" by Gerald Posner. After all, fair is fair.

Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Average customer rating:

Posner Posing
Reclaiming History: The Assasssination of President John F. Kennedy
Very detailed and well paced
Assassination
short take

Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
Vincent Bugliosi
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0393045250
Release Date: 2007-05-15

Book Description

For over forty years the truth about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy has been obscured. This book releases us from a crippling distortion of American history.

This extraordinary and historic book required twenty years to research and write. The oft-challenged findings of the Warren Commission—Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, shot and killed President John F. Kennedy—are here confirmed beyond all doubt. But Reclaiming History does much more than that. In addition to providing a powerful and unprecedented narrative of events and a biography of the assassin, it confronts and destroys every one of the conspiracy theories that have grown up since the assassination, exposing their selective use of evidence, flawed logic, and outright deceptions. So thoroughly documented, so compellingly lucid in its conclusions, Reclaiming History is, in a sense, the investigation that completes the work of the Warren Commission. In it, Vincent Bugliosi, the nation's foremost prosecutor, takes on the most important murder in American history.

At 1:00 p.m. on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was pronounced dead, the victim of a sniper attack during his motorcade through Dallas. That may be the only fact generally agreed upon in the vast literature spawned by the assassination. National polls reveal that an overwhelming majority of Americans (75%) believe that there was a high-level conspiracy behind Lee Harvey Oswald. Many even believe that Oswald was entirely innocent. In this continuously absorbing, powerful, ground-breaking book, Vincent Bugliosi shows how we have come to believe such lies about an event that changed the course of history.

The brilliant prosecutor of Charles Manson and the man who forged an iron-clad case of circumstantial guilt around O. J. Simpson in his best-selling Outrage, Bugliosi is perhaps the only man in America capable of writing the definitive book on the Kennedy assassination. This is an achievement that has for years seemed beyond reach. No one imagined that such a book would ever be written: a single volume that once and for all resolves, beyond any reasonable doubt, every lingering question as to what happened in Dallas and who was responsible.

There have been hundreds of books about the assassination, but there has never been a book that covers the entire case, including addressing each and every conspiracy theory and the facts, or alleged facts, on which they are based. In this monumental work, the author has raised scholarship on the assassination to a new and final level, one that far surpasses all other books on the subject. It adds resonance, depth, and closure to the admirable work of the Warren Commission.

Reclaiming History is a narrative compendium of fact, forensic evidence, reexamination of key witnesses, and common sense. Every detail and nuance is accounted for, every conspiracy theory revealed as a fraud on the American public. Bugliosi's irresistible logic, command of the evidence, and ability to draw startling inferences shed fresh light on this American nightmare. At last it all makes sense.

Customer Reviews:

Posner Posing.......2007-07-09

Not normally the type to respond to claims of Single-Gunman Conspiracy Nuts, but I think you need to check one thing: In Posner's Book "Case Closed", a book often pointed to as the definitive single-gunman conspiracy nut's proof, there are glaring errors.

Here's one; Go to Posner's examination of the famous Oswald Photo showing him holding the Newspaper and the Rifle. This photo is 'analyzed' by posner. In it he takes two parts of the photo to compare if they are the same pic, and concludes that indeed, they are.

Unfortunately, Liar Posner examines two sections of the UPPER HALF of the photo NOT in question. He was supposed to examine the upper half vs. the LOWER HALF (which is in dispute).

This kind of careless journalism is exactly the reason why people continue to believe there are conspiracies.

So, Mr Mark-Future-Academy-Award-Winner: Does Bugliosi examine the PROPER parts of that photograph, or merely present the same BOGUS investigation results that POSNER does?

Kennedy was killed as a result of a plot. The House Select-Committee said so, and it was based on WAY MORE than accoustic evidence. That's all anyone needs to know.

OR DO YOU NOT TRUST YOUR GOVERNMENT?

Reclaiming History: The Assasssination of President John F. Kennedy.......2007-07-08

Having read many other accounts of the assassination of JFK over the years, I find Bugliosi's extensive work to be brutally and refreshingly objective. His analysis of the events is fascinating. This is a book that I would recommend to anyone wanting a scholarly look at this pivotal event in America's history.

Very detailed and well paced.......2007-07-08

Not finished yet but VERY intresting and moves quickly. I think a beginner on the subject would be best served by "Case Closed" by Posner Case Closedon the Warren commission side and "The Plot to kill Kennedy" by Marrs on the conspiracy side.Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy

Extreme detail in this book is terrific..my only gripe is that Bugliosi can be very arrogant and derogatory to others in his presentation. One can't argue with most of his logic though.

Assassination.......2007-07-04

Book was rather long, didn't expect it, but it had all the information that I wanted to see, such as footnotes and explanations right at the bottom, which i preferred. All in all it's a good book.

short take.......2007-07-02

I wanted to see how Vincent Bugliosi got past the Zapruder film with its rearward "head snap"--foundation of most of the Conspiracy Theories he rails so snottily against.

He has some careful discussion of the problem, but ultimately disposes of the "fact" of what we see (the head going violently backwards) with a Theory that "probably" explains it.

..."the sharp rearward movement of the president's head was probably caused by a neuromuscular reaction--that is nerve damage caused by the bullet to the president's brain caused his back muscles to tighten, which in turn caused his head to be thrust backward." p484

He presents other "scientifically" gleaned corroboration that a slug of 161 grains was not weighty enough, no matter it's other E=MC2 properties, to push the head back if striking it from the front.

Because I am scientifically illiterate,I'll have to accept that, even if no tiniest scintilla of my woefully inadequate understanding can grasp that a force powerful enough to smash thru and hideously damage a hard object like a skull is apparently not powerful enough to move the head back in the direction of its motion.
So there I am, after all these years, nodding resignedly. "OK. That solves it: all shots from the rear. Full stop."

But I get befuddled on the very next page when VB, reiterating the proofs that all shots were from behind, points to the forward motion of head after impact.

"The President's head was pushed not only forward at impact but also downward. Only a shot from a high elevation (the sixth floor sniper's nest) could be expected to push the head downward to the degree it was." p 485

Thus, it seems, a shot from the rear will move an object in direction of its flight, but one from the front will not.

Assassination Science : Experts Speak Out on the Death of JFK

Average customer rating:

About that Magic Bullet Theory - Discovery Channel Proved It!
Whatever it takes ...
Why Do So Many Conspiracy Theorists Believe In A JFK Assassination Plot That Could Not Possibly Have Been Successful?
VERY Good, but ULTIMATE SACRIFICE the best book ever
This book asks some interesting questions.

Assassination Science : Experts Speak Out on the Death of JFK

Manufacturer: Open Court
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0812693663

Book Description

BOOK DESCRIPTION: ASSASSINATION SCIENCE provides a collection of studies by physicians, scientists, and other serious students that is intended to place the investigation of the death of JFK on an objective and scientific foundation. The contributors are among the best-qualified individuals to ever examine the medical and the photographic evidence in this case, including a world authority on the human brain who is also an expert on wound ballistics, a physician with a Ph.D. in physics who is also board certified in radiation oncology, a philosopher who is an expert on critical thinking and also a former Marine Corps officer, a physician who attended both the dying President and Lee Harvey Oswald at Parkland Hospital, a leading expert on the photographic evidence who served as a special advisor to the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA),and other highly-qualified students of the assassination of JFK.

ASSASSINATION SCIENCE is distinctive among works on the assassination of President Kennedy for several reasons, First, it is the only collaborative study that brings together the original work of physicians, scientists, and other serious students: there are eleven contributors, rather than only one. Thus, readers have the benefit of exposure to the research efforts of multiple investigators who set forth their findings in clear and accessible language. Second, it includes the most important studies of the medical evidence since the publication of David Lifton's BEST EVDIENCE in 1980 and the most important studies of the Zapruder film ever presented. These results completely undermine previous investigations of the death of JFK, including especially the official government inquiries of the Warren Commission and of the HSCA.

Third, it provides the only comprehensive and detailed critique and response to a series of articles published in the JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION (JAMA) in 1962-63. These articles, which were based upon interviews with the physicians who performed the autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital, were hyped by the Editor-in-Chief of JAMA, George Lundberg, M.D., who proclaimed that they were being welcomed into the "peer reviewed" literature on the assassination, in spite of the fact that they had not been refereed by experts on the crime and he knew that at the time. Nevertheless, they received enormous attention by the national press, even though they were based upon the selection and elimination of evidence to provide a biased report in support of a predetermined conclusion.

Fourth, it reports and explains the most important scientific findings in the history of the study of the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, which include:

* the discovery that some autopsy X-rays have been fabricated to conceal a massive blow-out to the back of the head caused by a shot from in front;

* the discovery that other autopsy X-rays have been altered by the imposition of a 6.5 mm metal object that was not present on the original X-rays;

* the discovery that diagrams and photographs that are supposed to be of the brain of JFK must be of the brain of someone other than John Kennedy;

* the discovery that the President alone was hit by at least four shots: one to his throat (fired from in front), one to his back (fired from behind) and two to his head (fired from behind and from in front);

* the discovery that the official "magic bullet " theory cannot possibly be true;

* the discovery that an absolute minimum of at least six shots were fired in Dealey Plaza during the assassination;

* the discovery that the Zapruder film of the assassination, which has been viewed as the nearest thing to "absolute truth" by some, has been extensively edited using highly sophisticated techniques;

* the discovery that Lee Harvey Oswald appears to have been framed using manufactured evidence, including the back-yard photograph;

* the discovery that the Warren Commission inquiry was a political charade featuring -a phoney bullet -a phoney limo -phoney wounds.

* Fifth, it reports and records repeated efforts to bring these discoveries to the attention of the American people, including a national press conference held in New York City on 18 November 1993, which explained many of these findings and how they were discovered, but which the nation's newspapers have yet to print; strenuous and repeated attempts by telephone, letter, and fax to convince the American Broadcast Network (including Nightline and ABC WORLD NEWS WITH PETER JENNINGS) to cover this story that were without success; repeated efforts to inform the nation's leading newspaper, The New York Times, that its coverage of the assassination, including book reviews and even obituaries, was biased and irresponsible, but which The Times has chosen to completely ignore.

Sixth, it reports and records repeated and strenuous efforts to bring these new findings and discoveries, which completely undermine previous investigations by the federal government, to the attention of the Department of Justice. The correspondence between James H. Fetzer, Ph.D., and Mary Spearing, Chief of the General Litigation and Legal Advice Section, provides a case study of the difficulties encountered in the pursuit of justice in a bureaucracy. In spite of his best efforts, he was unable to convince the Justice Department that the new findings concerning the fabrication of the X-rays and the substitution of diagrams and of photographs dictate a reinterpretation of the evidence in this case, even though previous government inquiries took for granted that this evidence was authentic.

Seventh, it reports and records sustained efforts by American citizens to contribute their time and their talents to clarifying the nature of what has previously been assumed to be the "best evidence" in this case in an effort to bring closure to the American people. The members of this group, including distinguished scientists and recognized authorities within their respective fields, have sought to fill the vacuum created by the failure of the government to adequately investigate the assassination and to compensate for the dismal record of the press by reporting new discoveries that appear to demonstrate conclusively that there was a large-scale conspiracy and cover-up by the government in the death of JFK.

The studies published here are thus intended to convey at least three general lessons. One, that even journals as prestigious as JAMA are not immune from political abuse, indications of which abound with respect to its coverage of the medical evidence in this case. Two, that new discoveries, including scientific findings of fundamental importance, continue to be made, supporting the possibility that truth is not beyond our grasp. Three, that journals, newspapers, and agencies on which we all depend do not always serve the people's interests. The pursuit of truth, the protection of justice, and the preservation of democratic institutions require eternal vigilance. As long as we are ignorant, we are not free.

Customer Reviews:

About that Magic Bullet Theory - Discovery Channel Proved It!.......2006-09-30

When this book says the Magic Bullet Theory has been proven to be false, I'm not sure what they are saying because the definition is vague. What I know for a fact is that the Discovery Channel conducted an identical test of the shot into an identical model with real human bones, skin tissue, shaped exactly like Kennedy/Connelly, from the exact distance, exact same shot. Everything as it as in 1963, including the very same bullets from the manufacturer, even the same batch, same gun - everything exact!

This test proved without any doubt in my mind that the bullet did do the things the Warren Commission claimed, because the seat in front of Kennedy was slightly lower to the left! YOU IDIOTS! YOU MORONS! The seat position caused it to look like the bullet turned in mid air (idiots!). They photographed what the bullet did in the exact shot environment and the reason it didn't go into the dummies leg, as the only difference, was because it hit two bones. The video showed the bullet going sideways into Connely's back.

So you scholars couldn't figure that out? We out here assume that you take all these things into consideration when you analyze evidence - that is a major oversite by conpiracy theorists. The bullet did those things - it was proven on Discovery Channel before our very own eyes! They made fools of you all on that magic bullet oversite!

I'm just so disgusted with you guys that you couldn't figure out the simple geometry behind why the bullet appeared to turn in mid air. And the actual "pristine" bullet came out nearly "prestine" in the test too!

Regardless, there was a conspiracy inspite of the ridiculous Magic Bullet fiasco - evidence of the badgeman and his being I.D.'d as Tippit in the photo based on his unusual hairline features. Tippit was the one Oswald allegedly shot and killed. The conpirators had Tippit on the Knoll in his Dallas Police Officer uniform, and he is the sniper who blew Kennedy's head off. The digital enhancement shows him as the assassine. The conpirators then made it look like Oswald shot and killed him that day when it was another one in the web of lies who took him down.

If Fetzer hasn't conceded to his possible erroneous conclusion about the Magic Bullet Theory after witnessing the Discovery Channel experiment, then he isn't facing reality.

Just type in "badgeman" in google and the evidence of the math they did on the digital shot will show you it was Tippit who shot JFK.

Whatever it takes ..........2006-09-29

Though the non-existence of the Magic Bullet is as every bit certain as the Sun Rising in the East; the MB theory having been concocted by lawyers, not doctors & then mysteriously "fine tuned" for good measure by (Dr., not) Gerald Ford.

But if you wanna delve into shot trajectories, gun scope technology, shadowy characters and the like please visit the "JFK Karaoke" website (aka JFK Lancer) for the latest quotes.

Don't be in a big hurry, though ... we will have gone through another 75 or so presidents before THAT bus pulls out of Dealey Plaza and gets on with the show.

Why Do So Many Conspiracy Theorists Believe In A JFK Assassination Plot That Could Not Possibly Have Been Successful?.......2006-02-07

Who assassinated President John F. Kennedy in 1963? .... Was he killed as the result of a large-scale conspiracy, as depicted in Oliver Stone's 1991 motion picture? .... Was Lee Harvey Oswald merely an innocent "Patsy", being manipulated and handled by a group of evil conspirators? .... Was it just a small conspiracy involving only two or three individuals? .... Or did Oswald, all by himself, murder the President?

James H. Fetzer's answer -- A massive conspiracy took place in Dealey Plaza on 11/22/63, resulting in not only the death of the American President, but also resulting in so many supposed conspiratorial loose ends that a cover-up team of thousands probably wouldn't have provided enough manpower to accomplish the burdensome task of re-arranging all of the various pieces of evidence surrounding JFK's murder in order to conceal the true facts and bumbling inadequacies of the harebrained "Patsy Plot" that Mr. Fetzer advocates in "Assassination Science".

And yet -- somehow, some way -- that's exactly what Mr. Fetzer and many other CTers think occurred. I.E.: Despite the illogic of it all, and despite the massive roadblocks in the conspirators' path, somehow ALL of the physical evidence that was actually being created by all of these OTHER KILLERS who were busy firing away and pelting President Kennedy with rifle bullets in Dallas on November 22 (physical evidence such as .... guns, bullets, bullet fragments, bullet shells, and fingerprints) found a way to ALL get placed on the plate of only Lee Harvey Oswald.*

* = And people think the parting of the Red Sea was a "miracle". Heck, the Red Sea trick was nothin' compared to what this ultra-clever gang of infallible assassination plotters and cover-up operatives pulled off in late '63. Perhaps Moses was in Dallas on November 22, helping out with this JFK mess after THREE OR FOUR different assassins decided to take aim at JFK, even though the desired end result of this "plot" was to frame just ONE LONE PATSY in the Book Depository for the murder. (~LOL~ at the thought of such a Patsy plot actually be dreamed up in the weeks prior to 11/22/63.)

It seems to me as though Mr. Fetzer has never met a conspiracy theory he hasn't loved and accepted with open arms, no matter how silly it sounds (the "Zapruder Film Hoax" balderdash being a prime example, which is the Crown Jewel of "Nutty JFK Theories").

My answer, however, to the "Who Shot JFK?" question is a little less complicated -- Lee Harvey Oswald murdered JFK and another man (policeman J.D. Tippit) on 11/22/1963 A.D., in Dallas, Texas, USA. ~Mark VII~

The string of evidence lending credence to Oswald's lone guilt is a mile-and-a-half long -- particularly with respect to Officer Tippit's murder, which is a second November 22nd killing that many, many conspiracy theorists (for some odd reason I've never been able to figure out at all) seem to think Oswald had nothing to do with. Such an incorrect notion by CTers only makes me more skeptical about any other "conclusions" such conspiracists might have reached with respect to other aspects of the JFK murder investigation as well. Because Oswald's guilt in Tippit's death couldn't be more obvious, even if Lee Harvey had been photographed firing the four bullets into the policeman's body.

And speaking of JFK assassination theories that are deserving of a large dose of "skepticism" -- I'd like to know what's wrong with casting a good-sized hunk of doubt upon by far the most-popular and most widely-accepted-as-fact conspiracy theory in the whole JFK case -- i.e., the "Multi-Gunmen, One-Patsy, Frontal Head Shot" theory?

Every piece of physical evidence in the case supports the Lone-Assassin conclusion arrived at by the Warren Commission and supports Lee Harvey Oswald's guilt in the two murders LHO was accused of committing. Evidence such as: guns, bullets, bullet cartridge casings, JFK's autopsy report, and fingerprints.

And is it truly reasonable to think that ALL of this stuff pointing only to Oswald's guilt was "faked" by a bunch of conspirators who were attempting to frame Oswald? I say no, it is not reasonable, especially if the CTer(s) making the claim of evidence fakery truly believe(s) that most or all of the bullet evidence was monkeyed-around-with by local and federal authorities after the assassination.

Because there is no way on this Earth that all of those various Dallas cops were "planting" evidence within minutes of JFK's murder (and Tippit's too), as some CTers seem to think. That notion is not only nutty and lacking any actual proof that it ever happened, it's also a rather vile and despicable allegation against such DPD and Sheriff's Office members like: Eugene Boone, James Leavelle, Luke Mooney, M.N. McDonald, Gerald Hill, Will Fritz, Jesse Curry, Seymour Weitzman, J.C. Day, Herbert Sawyer, Bob Carroll, Glen King, and dozens of others as well.

Given the known physical evidence surrounding the Kennedy case -- and the fact that a large percentage of this evidence was collected by an organization (the DPD) which had MANY members who were actively involved in this evidence-gathering process -- Lee Harvey Oswald is as guilty as sin.**

** = And the Dallas Police Department couldn't have possibly in a million years have had on its force that Friday in 1963 nothing but evil, lying, crooked "cover-up agents" who wanted to frame an innocent person for the murder of two men .... all the while these many, many officers apparently don't give a damn that the real killers got off scot-free for the murder of not only the President of the United States, but also for the murder of one of Dallas' own police officers, 11-year DPD veteran J.D. Tippit. And if there's one thing that cops hate with a passion, it's a cop killer. To believe that many different DPD members would deliberately want to let Officer Tippit's "real killer" just drift off into the sunset, unpunished, is something too silly to even talk about.

Given the above common-sense knowledge about the DPD, if the very popular "Multi-Gun, One-Patsy" conspiracy theory isn't worthy of being skeptical of, then I don't know what would be. And I have yet to encounter a single CTer who will admit out loud that the crackpot "Multiple-Shooter Patsy Plot" they have placed their faith in was, indeed, the wisest and most well-thought-out of all assassination plans for this band of Patsy Framers to attempt to carry out in Dealey Plaza.

It's my firm opinion that NOBODY, no matter how insane they might have been, would have deliberately placed three, four, or five different riflemen (and possibly a dart-thrower with a loaded umbrella as well, who was in full view of tons of witnesses) in Dealey Plaza to shoot President Kennedy and somehow expect to pull off a perfect "framing" of one single "Patsy" named Oswald.

Such a foolish Patsy Plot would never have been considered for even one solitary minute by any group of people who were concocting some sort of scheme to rid the world of President John F. Kennedy. Which, in my own opinion, is the BIGGEST reason of all to know that it never happened that way on November 22nd, 1963!

Because the ONLY possible way that such a Multiple-Gun, Single-Patsy pre-planned assassination plot could have been successful is if the Almighty Himself had a hand in "fixing" every single thing that would have undoubtedly revealed the conspiracy very quickly afterwards via such a cuckoo scheme.

There's also this important fact to consider when discussing possible "evidence tampering" -- If Oswald was framed as a Patsy and if all of the ballistics evidence had been "planted" and/or "manipulated" by the authorities in some way to make Oswald look guilty, there would have to have been THREE separate law-enforcement agencies involved in willingly falsifying evidence in the "Oswald Frame-Up" (and I'm referring to JUST the bullet/ballistics evidence alone here).

Why?

Because .... People from three different organizations (two federal agencies and one local in Dallas) were responsible for collecting the rifle, the bullets, the bullet fragments, and the bullet shells in the JFK murder case and placing those items into the official record of the case. Those organizations being:

1.) The Dallas Police Department .... which initially found the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle belonging to Lee Harvey Oswald, as well as having found and collected the three spent rifle shells (from that same Oswald weapon) in the Depository's Sniper's Nest just after the assassination.

2.) The U.S. Secret Service .... which was the organization that first handled "Stretcher Bullet CE399" (a bullet that was positively fired from Oswald's rifle) after it was handed over to the Secret Service by Parkland Hospital employee Darrell C. Tomlinson on the afternoon of 11/22/63.

3.) The FBI .... which was responsible for investigating JFK's murder after taking control of the physical evidence in the case from the DPD. The evidence that was seized by the FBI shortly after 11/22 included the Oswald rifle, which means that if the two front-seat bullet fragments that were initially discovered by the Secret Service on 11/22/63 had been "faked" or "replaced" in some manner to implicate only Oswald and his weapon, it would have had to have been the FBI who "faked" these fragments -- because the SS was not in possession of Oswald's rifle at any point prior to the SS handing over CE567 and CE569 (the two front-seat limousine bullet fragments) to FBI Agent Orrin Bartlett. Bartlett then delivered these fragments to FBI Special Agent Robert A. Frazier at 11:50 PM on the night of November 22, 1963, in Washington.

Therefore, via the CT-perceived point-of-view of ---> "All Or Most Of The Authorities Who Came Within A Country Mile Of Any Of The Assassination Evidence Were All Lying Crooks Who Were Trying Their Best To Frame An Innocent Young Man By The Name Of Oswald" (which is a post-assassination posture that has, indeed, been adopted by several paranoid assassination researchers) --- if a "Frame The Patsy" plot actually did occur in 1963 with respect to John Kennedy's death, it was an absolutely PERFECTLY-coordinated, multi-organizational cover-up job, whose participants in said plot ran the gamut from the DPD, to the Secret Service, and right on up to the FBI as well.

To think that such a "blanket", across-the-board cover-up and "Oswald Frame-Up" operation was underway within literally minutes of JFK's death, and was carried out without a hitch by members of all of the various entities mentioned previously, is akin to believing in the tooth fairy. It just simply could not have happened.

And, given the vast amount of physical evidence that would have needed to be placed into a perfectly-arranged "Lee Harvey Oswald Really Did This Instead Of These Two Or Three OTHER Assassins Who Were Aiming Rifles At John Kennedy" basket after the shooting, it's a pretty safe bet that the following sentence is 100% accurate ---

If the CTers are correct about this "Oswald Was Only A Patsy" business, then it must have been an act of God that enabled the success of the conspirators' plot.

Because nothing short of Divine Intervention could have rescued such an inane assassination plan. Nothing.

-------------

Footnote -- The quote shown below was said by this book's author/editor (Jim Fetzer) in a review he wrote right here at Amazon.com for another JFK pro-conspiracy publication ("Ultimate Sacrifice"). And while I fully agree with Mr. Fetzer's "1-Star" rating of that "Sacrifice" volume, I found this quoted portion of his review to be quite humorous (in a "pot-kettle-black" sort of fashion):

"I am deeply saddened that anyone should be taken in by this rubbish, but gullibility knows no bounds. It is embarrassing that Thom Hartmann, who has many admirable qualities, should be associated with a work of such obvious disinformation about the death of JFK." -- James H. Fetzer; February 5, 2006

VERY Good, but ULTIMATE SACRIFICE the best book ever .......2005-12-20

While I thought this book was worthwhile in many respects, ULTIMATE SACRIFICE is simply the best book ever on the JFK assassination.Still, worth your time.

Vince Palamara-JFK/ Secret Service expert (History Channel, author of two books, in over 30 other author's books, etc.)
Pittsburgh, PA

BEST JFK ASSASSINATION BOOK: ULTIMATE SACRIFICE
BEST JFK SECRET SERVICE BOOK: SURVIVOR'S GUILT BY YOURS TRULY :)

This book asks some interesting questions........2005-03-31

Unfortunately, the answers it posits to those questions fail the test of logic, for the most part.

(Okay, here I go again, sabotaging my reviewer rating by stating an opinion that many people will object to.)

It makes a case, and a very good one, that the evidence in the Kennedy assassination has been hopelessly bungled. And I'll admit that it's difficult to swallow the concept that that much evidence has been handled that poorly by accident; it's tempting to assume that if the evidence that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone is consistently so flawed, he must not have, and the botched evidence trail must be the work of a massive conspiracy and coverup.

But that conclusion doesn't NECCESARILY follow; none of the botched evidence actually PROVES anything other than that there were incompetents thick on the ground in 1963, and that is certainly true (as is the fact that there are still incompetents thick on the ground in 2005; it's a fact of life: people are stupid) regardless of how Kennedy was killed, or by who. Whether one chooses to believe that it's more likely that there was massive stupidity in all aspects of the case, or that there has been a massively successful conspiracy, is largely a matter of personal taste; as Ronald S. White points out in this book's Postscript, there is insufficient evidence to conclusively answer that question either way.

But consider: if you were the head of a conspiracy to asassinate the president back in 1963, would you choose to do so in a crowded, massively public setting with hundreds of witnesses? Unlikely; there'd be many more attractive opportunities, especially if you had government connections. But if you were a single nutcase with a gun, and this was likely to be your only opportunity to get within shooting range of the president, obviously, that question doesn't apply. Of course, it's POSSIBLE that the plan was to use Oswald as an assassin, and/or frame him for the killing, and so one had to accept the setting in which he could plausibly have had opportunity. But then, the conspiracy theories almost all posit additional gunmen scattered around the area, presumably there to finish the kill if Oswald missed. But if you're going to have to use other gunmen anyway, why bother with an agent as undependable as Oswald at all? Clearly, if this was a conspiracy to kill the president, it was a stupid and incompetent one; itself not an unreasonable hypothesis (as I said, people are stupid, and that certainly potentially includes conspirators) but if the conspiracy is stupid and unsubtle enough to have chosen to kill the president in public with an agent as incompetent as Oswald, thus requiring backup firepower and the requisite amount of coverup to hide that backup firepower from discovery, AND far-reaching and powerful enough to have done so, with sufficient pull in the media and law-enforcement to squash any discovery and/or revelation of these facts, WHY are the people writing for this book still alive? Wouldn't it have been trivially easy to kill them and/or suppress their work without ever letting it see print? Yet that hasn't happened, and while it's possible to posit a sufficiently subtle conspiracy that would realize that allowing some inconclusive claims on the subject would tend to cause people to make the very argument Im making, thus discrediting the whistle-blowers without the need for killing them, it is impossible (at least in my mind) to imagine that a conspiracy clever enough to do that would have been stupid enough to kill the president in public in the first place.

Further, we're supposed to believe that a conspiracy smart enough and widespread enough to get its hands on the Zapruder film almost immediately and to be able to edit it before re-releasing it, could and would edit it so badly that amateur photography buffs would be able to spot the fabrication; if they were good enough to lay hands on the film, and capable of editing it, doesn't it seem likely that they'd have been aware of the limitations of their editing, and if so, wouldn't they have simply destroyed the film and "lost" it, without ever letting it be seen again? Probably, although it's possible that this is again simply a case of "people are stupid", but it simply seems to me that I'm being expected to accept the hypothesis of a conspiracy that is at once supremely clever and subtle (so that only the authors are clever enough to uncover hints of it) while at the same time stupid enough to leave evidence behind that (as in the case of the autopsy x-rays, as described by David W. Mantik, Ph.D., who established that his young daughter could do so) a five-year old could spot it.

I admit it; it's possible. But I find it easier to believe that the trail of evidence was corrupted by incompetent handling at all points than to believe in a massive, incredibly clever, incredibly stupid, un-subtle and bungling conspiracy which has nonetheless managed to keep at least an official lid on the truth for 40+ years.

Average customer rating:

Grace and courage under fire!
Not a rehash of "A Heritage of Stone."
Not the best.
The Assassin "Trail" Stops At The Feet Of One Murderer -- Lee Harvey Oswald
a good "read" and an above-average book

On the Trail of the Assassins
Jim Garrison
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0446362778

Customer Reviews:

Grace and courage under fire!.......2007-07-09

Now, maybe some people aren't interested in Mr. Garrison's point of view - but I am. And so are many others who repeatedly give On The Trail Of The Assassins a deservedly high mark. He was there in New Orleans and KNEW PERSONALLY most of the major players. How many investigators can say that? His overall conclusion of conspiracy is the same as many, many other independent researchers and the conclusion of 75 percent of the general public - only he was way ahead of his time. Had he known nothing of the truth surrounding the assassination, the CIA would never have bothered to smear his character or try ruin his investigation of JFK's murder by stealing his files for the trial of Clay Shaw. And yet it is Garrison who is accused of not playing fair. That's right... black is white, and white is black.

This book is one of my favorites in the assassination canon. It is brilliantly written, soulful, human, and full of observations about gov't and how it sometimes changes without the people being invited to the party. He knew of Oswald (murdered by Ruby), Ferrie ("suicide"), Bannister ("heart attack" in 1964) and Shaw (no autopsy ever done) - and had most of them not died under conspicuously strange circumstances, Garrison would never have been placed in the position of being the Lone-Nut scape goat for their lack of honesty and insight into this murder investigation - an investigation that is still continuing, though with little help from some of the people who should have known better after all these years.

Garrison's investigation and the trial of Clay Shaw were the inevitable result of the corrupt Warren Commission cover-up. Had the Warren Commission done its job and followed up leads in the first place, Garrison would never have ended up in the position of being the whipping boy for the Oswald as Lone-nut contingent. It was only through the efforts of Garrison that the Zapruder film ("back, and to the left") was viewed for the first time and the public began to see how dishonest the Warren Commision and the CIA were in lying to the American people about at least one more shooter.

Recent revelations about secret CIA assassinations plots can no longer be denied and now are out in the open in recent news events. It's your country. You might think of the 40-year tailspin the country has been in since our president was killed and the efforts of private citizens who've tried to expose the CIA skullduggery during the Kennedy years and beyond. Garrison took on these covert agencies in the name of justice, and had not Clay Shaw lied his head off under oath during his trial, it's conceivable that Garrison would have won and Shaw end up on a chain-gang where he belonged. In a conversation with Oliver Stone, Judge Haggarty, who presided over the Shaw trial, said that he himself never believed a word Shaw said. (This is discussed on the JFK special features dvd.)

The people of the country know all too well that Oswald didn't act alone - that is, if he shot anyone at all - and they're not about to let this conspiracy investigation end until the Federal gov't comes clean with what it knows. Every year more is being found out about certain participants, such as H. Howard Hunt's involvement, or David Morales, who was quoted as saying he was involved with the assassination of both JFK and RFK. Such revelations farther vindicate Garrision's conclusion that the CIA was involved in the murder of Kennedy. Hunt and Morales (a man Hunt mentions) were both CIA. Gee, there seems to be a pattern here unless one has been playing ostrich with these recent CIA revelations.

In the meantime, those who continue to smear Garrison are only making themselves small in comparison. They're not worthy to shine the shoes of this great man - a hero in every sense of the word in this sordid tale of political corruption, murder and media cover-up. Ten stars for On The Trail Of The Assassins and Jim Garrision. ZERO stars for the now documented CIA interference of Garrison's investigation and the perjury on the witness-stand of Clay Shaw. Even certain pro-conspiracy researchers wrongly denegrate Garrison and they should be ashamed of themselves now that Garrison's conclusions are being vindicated. They haven't half the courage of a Garrison, and no one other than he and Mark Lane have ever had the balls to take any of these politically criminal bastards to trial (H. Howard Hunt by Lane) for lying about their complicity in the murder and cover-up of Kennedy's assassination. And I'm not the only citizen who feels this way. For more information on the coup d'etat in Dallas, read District Attorney Garrison's revealing book and witness courage under fire.

Oh. Grow up, America!
Edit

Not a rehash of "A Heritage of Stone.".......2007-01-27

I avoided reading this book when it was first published thinking it was but a mere rehash of Garrison's earlier book "A Heritage of Stone." However, thirty years on, I have pleasantly discovered that I was greatly mistaken. "On the Trail of the Assassins" is not a rehash, but stands quite sufficiently on its own.

More than anything else, it is first a devastating critique of the Warren Commission's Report; perhaps the best there is so far. Second, it is written by a first-class legal mind. And whatever else one might say about Jim Garrison, it is difficult to ignore the fact that he has one of the best legal minds in this nation. Third, it is a summary report of the Garrison investigation, which again, it is difficult to ignore that Garrison, on a shoe string budget, and with a handful of mostly volunteers, did a much better job investigating the JFK assassination than all of the nation's institutional police and intelligence machinery combined. And finally, the book is Garrison's own defense of the case he lost against the only man ever to be charged with JFK's assassination, Clay Shaw.

As a critique, Garrison attacks the slipshod way in which federal and Texas investigations pursued (or failed to pursue) the evidence and suspects -- other than the "carefully prepared patsy" Lee Harvey Oswald. Among these ways is the fact that Oswald was interrogated for more than 30 hours without a transcript; that the three tramps found in the rail car a few feet from the grassy knoll were released without even recording their names; and the general lack of curiosity on the part of the FBI and Dallas police authorities in following leads, protecting evidence, and in interrogating witnesses.

Garrison's legal astuteness is on display in a number of ways in the book: in the way he corralled information from informants; the way he collated and peeled back his evidence to attain maximum courtroom effect; the way he shaped theories based on where the evidence led; and in the way he parried defense moves and the counter-moves against him made generally by the federal authorities, who curiously always viewed him as a threat and hindrance to their limp but "predetermined" investigation.

With only a handful of investigators, researchers and contributors, Garrison fell just short of cracking the crime of the century. One must wonder out loud what would have happened if, instead of trying to derail and undermine his investigation, the government would have supported him?

It seemed clear even to Garrison, that his case against Clay Shaw was a lost cause even before he entered the courtroom. However, if one looks carefully at the theoretical framework Garrison constructed, in which Shaw was just one of a number of important elements, it is clear that Garrison was on the right track; and that Shaw's acquittal was more about the lack of witnesses to confirm Garrison's evidence, than it was about Shaw's guilt or innocence. That is why after forty years, a great deal, if not all of Garrison's theory has been borne out.

.Whether you believe Garrison's theories or not, this book is a report on investigative, legal, and police work of a very high order. Five Stars.

Not the best........2006-09-24

Up front, I will say I have not read this book - however I would like to suggest reading Final Judgement: The Missing Link in the JFK Assassination Conspiracy by Michael Collins Piper. Piper makes a powerful case that the Israeli Mossad orchestrated the assassination of President Kennedy because of his effective blocking of Ben Gurion and his fellow Zionist's Samson complex fear of preserving their Zionist state with nuclear weapons of mass destruction with the aid of France. Once LBJ took over, all obstruction of Israel's nuclear ambitions ceased. If you think that is far-fetched, look up the USS Liberty and see how that was covered up by LBJ.

The Assassin "Trail" Stops At The Feet Of One Murderer -- Lee Harvey Oswald.......2006-02-22

The late Jim Garrison's book "On The Trail Of The Assassins" was in large part the basis for Oliver Stone's 1991 motion picture "JFK", which is a film containing so many lies, half-truths, and misrepresentations of the facts surrounding John F. Kennedy's 1963 assassination, it's literally difficult to keep up with all of them.

I cannot watch one single scene of Oliver Stone's film without finding some distortion of the evidence in the real JFK or J.D. Tippit murder cases. Some are small things being distorted; and some are great big ones. One example (among dozens) being: Oliver Stone's version of shoe clerk Johnny Brewer's testimony re. Lee Harvey Oswald's manner of dress when Brewer encountered Oswald shortly after Oswald had shot and killed policeman Tippit.

Stone, in his film, has Oswald (Gary Oldman) wearing a jacket as he enters the Texas Theater and is seen by Brewer....and in one of the movie's "Deleted Scenes" (on the DVD version of the film), Kevin Costner (playing Garrison) even does a voice-over (lie) re. Brewer's testimony, with Costner saying "Brewer said the man was wearing a jacket".

Brewer, in reality, said exactly the opposite during his Warren Commission testimony:

Mr. BELIN -- "Will you describe the man you saw?"
Mr. BREWER -- "He was a little man, about 5'9", and weighed about 150 pounds is all. ... And had brown hair. He had a brown sports shirt on. His shirt tail was out."
Mr. BELIN -- "Any jacket?"
Mr. BREWER -- "No."

Another interesting part of the Tippit portion of the movie "JFK" is Oliver Stone's Audio Commentary during this part of the film, which is riddled with inaccuracies. Stone has the audacity to spout the following lie re. the Tippit shooting on the DVD's Commentary soundtrack:

"Not one credible witness has really identified Oswald as a single shooter {of Officer Tippit}. In fact, the only significant testimony applies two to three shooters." -- O. Stone

Therefore, per Mr. Stone (and Garrison said pretty much the same thing years earlier), the "only credible" witness must have been Acquilla Clemmons, who, as far as I am aware, was THE ONLY witness who ever said there was more than one person involved in the Tippit slaying.

Stone, like Jim Garrison before him, would simply rather believe his OWN version of events, rather than the multiple witnesses who never saw more than one shooter (with that one single shooter being positively identified as Oswald by said witnesses).

It's interesting, indeed, that Stone thinks the "only significant testimony" re. the Tippit crime came from Clemmons. Whereas, people like Markham, Tat