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"
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"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:
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"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
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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.
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:
We Knew Ye, We Thought.......2007-10-19
Now, over four decades later, history can begin to give context to what really might have happened in Dallas and Los Angeles. This thoughtful and unhysterical volume does just that. By carefully assembling the credible elements of the work done before him and vetting what still can be corroborated, Talbot is able to piece together a mosaic of the 1960s that is very different from what most of us alive during that period remember. Those of us who admired and took pride in the Kennedys never truly have come to grips with the extent to which the brothers were reviled by many -- including among others the Cold Warriors within the government that Jack Kennedy was elected to lead, the criminal elements the family both dealt with and relentlessly prosecuted, and the fringe "assets" of an uncontrolled spy apparatus -- who very well may have coalesced to stage and conceal an American coup d'etat.
Particularly pointed is Talbot's criticism of the self-fulfilling statement, often adopted by the media, that "we'll never really know what happened in Dallas." The failure of people of goodwill to use their investigative resources to find the truth is chilling, as is the ability of those in the shadowy alleys of power in the so-called "intelligence community" to erect a stone wall around the greatest crime of the 20th Century.
This book provides timely reading. Once you accept that your government will lie to you for reasons both noble and ignoble, the world never looks the same.
Credibility.......2007-10-17
There are so many crazy books written about this event in time. For some reason this one is credible, and puts things in perspective for me. It answered a lot of questions and the answers seem to ring true.
Capital!.......2007-09-22
Along with Richard Mahoney's Sons And Brothers, you won't find a better rendering of the shadows playing around the Kennedy brothers than in this very well-researched and well-written study. One fact stands out: the JFK assassination will be debated from now until doomsday, pending conclusive proof of this theory or that. I say "theory" because for all the millions of words spoken and written it basically remains an unsolved crime. Media efforts, with all the subtlety of an exploding frangible bullet, to drive home the Lone-Nut theory into our collective consciousness will destructively collide with Mr Talbot's sane and bold
approach, leaving only a few dust-like fragments.
Thought Provoking Tale of the Kennedy Years.......2007-09-11
This book is an enjoyable read. It is heavily footnoted with the footnotes conveniently separated from the main text at the back of the book. Documentation is critical for credibility given the nature of arguing one way or another concerning a conspiracy to murder the president.
After reading this book, I felt well supplied with a good historical knowledge of the period: the Bay of Pigs, the October Missile Crises, the CIA, Cuban Exiles, the Mafia, Jimmy Hoffa, the McClellan Commission, the Warren Commission, Conspiracy Theories, Bobby's reaction to the assassination, the Church Committee, and the House Select Committee on Assassinations.
It's difficult to summarize what I think is the core of this book in a few lines but here goes: The CIA and Cuban exiles expected Kennedy to supply air cover for the Bay of Pigs invasion, Kennedy did not. The mission failed. This set the hostile relationship between the CIA/Cubans/Joint Chiefs toward Kennedy for the rest of the Kennedy Administration. The settlement of the Cuban Missile Crises shut the door to the CIA's and Cuban exile's expectation that the US Government would support an invasion to topple Castro. The mob was angry at Kennedy because of Bobby's active effort as Attorney General to bust the mafia - even though the mob helped JFK win a close election (the Chicago Machine). It appears the author believes the CIA, Cuban exiles, and the Mob conspired to put a hit out on the president; then Bobby's assassination ended any hope of the Kennedy circle to unravel the conspiracy once Bobby had the power to investigate the murder.
By reading this book, one cannot unequivocally conclude there was or was not a conspiracy; but it is fun to speculate. There are so many tantalizing facts, such as all the people who mysteriously died who could have shed light on the assassination, some of those named include: Dorothy Kilgallen, David Morales, Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby, Sam Giancana, Johnny Roselli, and RFK (wins CA primary, thus odds higher to become president, so taken out?). Add to this the two failed plots in Miami and Chicago, both just before the Nov. 22, 1963 assassination, and both plots similar to the successful Oswald shooting; thus it is no surprise people still have questions concerning the official Warren Report.
A few notes: 1.The book points out that Curtis Le May urged Kennedy to go nuclear but it did not note that Fidel Castro urged Khrushchev to fire tactical nuclear missiles at the U.S. during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. 2. Kennedy and Khrushchev deserve our everlasting thanks for not going nuclear in 1962 despite great pressure to do so. 3. Should we believe the private or public RFK? When anyone holds at least two different versions of any subject, it is then obvious to question the truth of either. The author tells us that Robert Kennedy privately believed there was a powerful group of conspirators (i.e. the CIA in conjunction with the Mob and Cuban exiles) that plotted and carried out his brother's murder (this might be some of the "hidden history" in the subtitle) despite the fact that Bobby did publicly endorse the Warren Commission Report. 4. Abraham Zapruder (famous Zapruder film), David Powers and Kenneth O'Donnell (car behind JFK's) all say they heard shots fired from the grassy knoll but the Warren Commission only wanted to hear from David Powers when he changed his story and they didn't want to hear from Ken O'Donnell because he would not change his view that he heard shots from the grassy knoll. Instead the Warren Commission adopted Arlen Specter's "Magic Bullet Theory." The Warren Commission, Hoover, and much of the political establishment wanted to get over with the investigation as quickly as possible (and to have a simple explanation the country could easily understand) so that the country could move on. Also, Allen Dulles (who the book says had a disproportionate influence on the Warren Commission) may have been biased in search of the truth.
A very moving reminder of the Kennedys.......2007-09-05
David Talbot has written a very important book. It is very well researched and thoughtfully expresses the saga of the nation's inadequate search for truth around the killing of the Kennedy's. With so much at stake in national politics, it is a grim reminder that Americans, for all our patriotic bluster about standing for truth, liberty and freedom for all, cannot seem to look into the dark forces that often overrule our governments higher calling. And until we do, there is little hope that we can overcome those forces and avoid further debacles like Vietnam, Iraq and the killing of leaders that try to expose the deeper underpinnings of our country. The result being that we constantly lurch from one poorly thought out policy to another.
The young Kennedys, for all their faults and failings, were a powerful force for justice, and this nation has sorely missed their passion - and David Talbot has reminded us of what we lost and what little we did to find out why.
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:
A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT HAPPENED.......2007-10-16
A clear, understandable recital of the facts. Well documented.
One of the best-if not the best,I've read on the subject.
There is a great deal of material, but can be digested.
Clear and precise in showing WHY and HOW things happened on Nov 22, 1963.
Too Many Unsubstantiated Facts Leading Nowhere.......2007-09-13
As with most books about the JFK Assassination, 'Ultimate Sacrifice' suffers from its own evangelism; having decided on a theory, the authors opt for proselytizing over objectivity. Authors Waldron and Hartmann start by taking themselves and their theory much too seriously, trying to convince the reader of the correctness of their conclusions by presenting a gigantic load of so called facts to overwhelm the reader. Most of these "facts", however, are far from substantiated, coming as they are from the usual secondary sources rather than original research, while ignoring much good evidence that detract from them.
There are way too many assumptions of unproven allegations in this book for me to take the authors' conclusions seriously, despite the new evidence they provide from some admirable original research to try to back them up. To take just a few examples:
1. The authors accept without question that Oswald was an American agent before he went to Russia. They cite the usual suspicious, yet inconclusive evidence about this such as the 'phony' suicide attempt, Oswald seen with unsavory characters while in Japan, an alleged false defector program the US was supposed to have run, and just the general feeling that it seems to make sense. And yet, the authors completely ignore the much greater evidence opposed to this inference found in the well-researched chapters on Oswald's time in Russia in the Mailer biography, much of it coming from KGB sources who had been watching him constantly. Indeed, not one shred of spy-like behavior was made evident too them by their subject during his entire stay.
2. The authors believe Oswald did not take his Marxism seriously, but was only pretending to be a true believer as part of his cover. Were this true, Oswald must have been the best method actor of all time, never getting out of character, even with his wife and close friends. And oh yes, all those commie books in his room were `planted'. Amazing analysis!
3. The authors decide to accept with little question the interpretation of the ambiguous ballistic and medical data of the assassination that best fits their theory, namely that the fatal shot came from the Grassy Knoll, while discounting the Single Bullet theory. Once more they completely neglect the most scientific data available that counters this notion: the Barger Acoustic analysis done during the HSCA hearings. Nor do they cite the excellent analysis of the first shots in the Zapruder film done for the Frontline special on Oswald that clearly shows the flap of Connelly's collar being flipped up as the bullet -- the same bullet that emerged from Kennedy's throat -- passes through into his shoulder.
There is much more of this type of thing, too much so for me to find much value in what evidence the authors do present. I say this believing indeed that JFK was assassinated as the result of a conspiracy involving elements of Cosa Nostra and CIA. But the breadth of scope of their arguments is just too much for the lack of depth of the evidence they provide.
Do not mistake me, there is some value in this book. The research on the Tampa and Chicago threats is intriguing. The details on the CIA-Mafia assassination plots is both informative and believable. And the presentation of Ruby's ties to Organize crime is the most convincing and thorough I have seen. Unfortunately, when the authors try to cover all the mysterious associations of Johnny Roselli, the Mafia point man on the assassination, they mainly rely on a single secondary source, All American Mafioso by Charles Rappleye and Ed Becker while completely neglecting to cite the most curious close friendship he maintained with top CIA officer William K. Harvey, point man for Executive Action assassinations, until his death. The same tactic of using a very small number of JFK assassination books to back up their arguments is used to show the actions and meaningfull associations of the other mobsters involved in the conspiracy as well.
What is needed in the field of JFK assassination research is not more rehash of old and untested data to backup new conspiracy theories, but a well constructed analysis focused on manageable areas of the assassination using original research, including validating rather than blindly accepting evidence cited in previous works. At times Ultimate Sacrifice does attempt this, but far too seldom; and in the end, the books bites off more than it can chew and concludes very little.
Worth the time.......2007-08-16
I finished this book. Took awhile, but did it. Close to 900 pages. "We'll explain further in another chapter," or words to that effect were sprinkled throughout and wore thin, but explain they did. I've wondered, over the years, why RFK wasn't more aggressive about pursuing the truth and why he presented obstacles to Garrison's investigation, etc--and this book explains all that and more. The theories make sense, and the documentation is laid out nicely. And next to Bugliosi's bag of hot air and overwrought opinion, Ultimate Sacrifice looks even more important. I see it's now available in paperback, so the investment is halved. I'd say it surely deserves a spot on serious researchers' shelves.
The Mafia Did It: A Script and Play Written By CIA Productions Inc........2007-07-26
This is a difficult book for one to get his head around. Not only because the subject matter unfolds like a reverse Russian Doll - as each new puzzle is opened, a larger more interesting one with an even deeper subtext emerges -- but also because of the artful ambiguity with which the source documents (upon which the story is based) makes themselves an integral part of the plot itself.
This is my fourth attempt at writing a review, the first two having been rejected out of hand; and although the third was accepted; mercifully it too was later withdrawn after I tried to amend it several times. However, if this one is accepted, after my third reading of the book, I will not be amending it.
Prologue
As an integral whole, there is yet another way to view the JFK assassination story told here. Imagine it to be an intramural chess game between competing teams within the U.S. government. On one side are the Kennedy brothers, whose goal is C-Day and presumably a return of Cuba to a free and independent state. On the other side, are the anti-Kennedy forces which includes: the front line of the CIA, the mob, J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, the moneyed anti-Kennedy interests, primarily centered in Texas, and the state of Israel. The goal of side B is to checkmate the Kennedys, using C-Day as the cornerstone of the cover-up.
Each side has an array of forces and assets to deploy during the course of the game. And while the pawns, or minor pieces are interchangeable (and consist of Cuban exiles, low-level FBI and CIA operatives, Mafia, hired foreign assassins and their related patsies) the heavy artillery, or the pieces on the back rows of the respective sides, are not. The Kennedys have as their heavier artillery: the U.S. State Department, key executive advisors, various aspects of DOJ, and disparate elements of the intelligence community, including DIA. Importantly, neither the CIA nor the FBI are reliable major pieces for the Kennedy side, but the Kennedys seem to be unaware of this unreliability. Both sides also have at their discretion use of the press to either signal or conceal their respective side's motives and strategies.
The heavy artillery for the anti-JFK side include the middle echelon of the Mafia, namely, Santos Trafficante, Carlos Marcellos, John Roselli, and Sam Giancana; the upper hierarchy of the CIA itself, namely, Richard Helms, William Harvey, Desmond Fitzgerald, James Jesus Angleton, Colonel Sheffield Edwards, E. Howard Hunt, and David Atlee Phillips. At an even higher echelon of movers and shakers, (above the level of the government) for the anti-JFK side, one must also include the important but invisible hand of the Texas moneyed interest led by H.L. Hunt and Clint Murchison with LBJ as their number one lieutenant. And then there is the Don of dons of the mob, Meyer Lansky. Finally, there is Israeli concern over JFK's attempt to deny that nation nuclear status. Arguably it is these behind-the-scene controllers, from deep within the shadows of the CIA, the FBI, Texas moneyed interests and the Massad, that are the real drivers of the chess game.
The Rules of Engagement
Now, the rules-of-engagement is where this chess game really gets interesting. While for the most part the Kennedy's side remain in the dark about what the other side is up to, their own moves are not only transparent to their opponents, but are also subject to manipulation and secret rearrangement by them. The Kennedys personally, and their plans specifically, are repeatedly tripped-up and penetrated again and again. They are cajoled, blackmailed, and stalked repeatedly until they are both eventually killed. No other strategies or maneuvers are successful or even intended to be successful. Under such asymmetric rules of engagement, is there any wonder that it is not a foregone conclusion that the side with knowledge dominance is the one most likely to win the chess game?
The Script
The story of this book is about how the Kennedy brothers, after no less than some twelve different failures by the CIA/Mafia to depose Castro, beginning in 1959, decided to concoct and enlist its own White House plan. It consisted of using a Black Cuban Major, Jose Almeida, along with no less than the infamous Che Guevara himself as turncoats in an attempt to wrest Cuba away from the revolutionary-recently-turned Communist, Fidel Castro. If the newly released documents can be believed, under severe domestic pressure to do something before the 1964 election cycle, the Kennedys seem to have lost all their sense and their normally balanced decision-making abilities in favor of this cockamamie Hollywood version of returning Cuba to a democracy.
No matter who is credited with checkmating the Kennedys, and the authors of this script say that it was the Mafia "who done it," the script still has all the earmarks of "written by CIA Production Incorporated," stamped all over it. The spots on the CIA Leopard just never seem to change. While the integrity of these authors is not itself being questioned, it does seem that they have made among the most naïve of all possible interpretations of the newly released information. Their incessant - even embarrassingly droning and shrill attempt to "pin the tail of the donkey" onto the Mafia, "just does not wash." From the very beginning, it has a hollow ring to it.
By leaving out even a suggestion that others among the real heavy hitters on the anti-JFK side, may have been involved, may have played even a minor role, this rendition raises more questions than it answers: Suddenly and inextricably the Mafia becomes all-knowing, all-wise, and all-powerful, leading the white House, the FBI, and the CIA and the Kennedys around by their respective tails, while all of the other major players -- the disgruntled cabals within the CIA itself, J. Edgar Hoover and LBJ, the Moneyed Texas interests, Meyer Lansky and the Massad - all make only cameo appearances in this carefully stage-managed production.
While no one doubts the Mafia's ability to kill a President of the U.S., the author's shrill theme that the "Mafia did it," begins to wear thin early on, and is incongruent with what the Mafia could and could not be able to do to facilitate both the murder and the cover-up of the assassination plot. They certainly could not have implement the cover-up without confederates very, very high up in, and well above the government. Thus the big flaw in the book is that all of heavy-handed finger-pointing at the Mafia, including "C-Day itself," is but an elaborate smoke screen to give additional cover to the real architects of the assassination.
This book leaves no clues as to whom, or what group that might be.
Two stars
Very Interesting.......2007-06-27
I have read alot of books regarding JFK, and I have to say that this one was very interesting.
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:
Blowback!.......2007-08-20
Reading the synopsis of this novel I nearly skipped it because I didn't want to read another crackpot Kennedy assassination theory. However, I have recently become a fan of Charles McCarry's Paul Christopher novels so I gave it a go anyway. I have to say I didn't read this as quickly as is my wont, and it is a dense novel with many characters. However, the end result is a very credible story of who might have been behind the murder; but more than that, it read true as to the background of characters and settings from Italy to Viet Nam to the Congo in that period.
I only recently became aware of some of the revisionist history being written concerning the assassinations of the Ngo brothers in Viet Nam and how that was a real turning point in the war, with everything downhill from that point on. McCarry was writing a lot of this as fiction 30 odd years ago. Interesting. He presents an understanding of Vietnamese culture I had never encountered before, and it was very enlightening.
Filled with nefarious characters, a "rendition" kidnapping, revolutionaries, double agents and intrigue aplenty, there is also a nicely detailed love story of Paul Christopher and his Molly that fills out a tale that has the feel of real people and places and real history being made. I am working my way through the series, and although what was recent history when written in 1975 is now almost ancient history, it is a good starting place to enter the world of Paul Christopher and Charles McCarry. Well worthwhile.
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.
Book Description
"The big daddy of the conspiracy books on the JFK assassination, and one that can't be taken lightly. A sheer tour de force that may be the final word until 2039--when government files on the case can be unlocked."--Kirkus Reviews
Customer Reviews:
fascinating and wonderful publication.......2007-09-18
If you like details, you will like this book. The author, very eloquently and orderly states what one witness after another saw and heard in Dealey Plaza on that fateful day in Dallas. After reading this book it is beyond my imagination how anyone could believe the Warren Commission's report. The author is not being biased toward conspiracy, but merely presents facts, and what I really appreciated was what he said in the preface, warning us, the reader to trust or believe no one, not this author, not the researchers and most definitely not the government, who have already been proven to have made so many, many errors involved in this case. Mr. Marrs, admonishes us to read all the information and then to think for ourselves and come to our own individual judgement. Reading this in the preface, just compelled me to read this book and it was wonderfully put together and helped me to make my own judgement. Anyone interested in the assination of Presdient John F. Kennedy owns it to himself or herself to read this book.
A book that was worse than the movie........2007-08-06
I purchased this book as part of a graduate school course in history. Though centered on the JFK assassination, the course dealt with how historians are to use evidence to reach logical conclusions. Marrs' book is an example how not to infere evidence. Marrs often takes incredible leaps of fantasy to declare the presence of a conspiracy or manufactures out right lies to present his case. Marrs using various theories to attempt to disprove the Warren Commission findings that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin. But Marrs knowingly presents half-truths and omits critical parts of witness testimony and forensic evidence. "Crossfire" is one of many books that trumpet the presence of a conspiracy of government officials and mobsters to kill President Kennedy; like the others, Marrs' work is no better than a supermarket tabloid. If you must read this book, you should also read Posner's "Case Closed", a reasonable counter to Marrs' wild allegations.
The Place To Start.......2007-07-26
Jim Marrs is responsible for two of the finest "conspiracy overview" books ever written - this tome, and his "Alien Agenda." His writing is first rate, and although the book is hefty and somewhat dense, it manages to remain readable throughout.
If Marrs has shown an unfortunate tendency, it is to take on the role of a "conspiracist's clearinghouse," and he sometimes tends to dump information from completely conflicting and seemingly irreconcilable areas of research, which can make some of his work seem scattershot or, worse, downright crazy in spots. This tendency emerges to a small extent in "Crossfire," more in "Alien Agenda," and becomes almost overpowering in "Rule By Secrecy" or "The Terror Conspiracy." That being said, Mr. Marrs seems to put more value on getting as much information as possible out there, without picking and choosing only those elements which tend to support the theories he personally endorses.
If you want a real starting point for understanding the events that climaxed in Dealey Plaza, this is the place to go.
at best..........2007-07-25
The blurb said "twenty five years after the event." That forty four years might be a...TAD more correct, right there should tell you something. And that Oswald wasn't (only maybe peripherely) involved is SO "last century." Be forwarned, Marrs has this fixation on those naughty aliens that've, uh, blowing up space capsules, 9-11, tsunami (what IS the "plural" for that word?), and...well, don't waste your time or money like I did. Heaven help his students if he really DOES "teach a class." Uh........"More Kool-aid, Reverend Jim?"
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.................
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:
A request to the publishers.......2007-10-21
This book is the best book on the assassination I've read. Course the only other one that I read was the Crenshaw book. For years I was a conspiracy buff. Then I started reading this book and have begun questioning my earlier beliefs. I've just started the Investigations chapter and don't anticipate finishing any time soon. But I do have a request to the publishers for the paperback edition. Publish it in three volumes. Something like those Lord of the Rings box sets. This is the heaviest book I've ever read and its a chore holding it up in bed. This book makes it clear that most Americans have only the occasional news story, TV special or conspiracy book for their information. (I believe Bugliosi states that ninety percent of the books are pro-conspiracy.) Very few people have looked at the evidence, which is all contained in the 26 volume Warren Commission Report. It makes you realize that few people (myself included) are even qualified to discuss the case with anything approaching an informed, rational argument. The entire report is available online for anyone with access to a decent search engine. Read the Report, read this book, read every conspiracy theory book you can find...then we can all have an intelligent conversation.
Government Cover-up-----Unlikely.......2007-10-21
After months of reading this mammoth book, have finally resolved in my mind that Lee Harvey Oswald did shoot the president. Over 30 years I believed our goverment was somehow involved in the killing of President Kennedy. I own the dvd "The Men Who Killed Kennedy". I also have read some books on this subject. I believed the many witnesses in this show that they saw smoke or flash of light from the knoll. I believed the witnesses that were involved in the autopsy. Vincent Bugliosi does a good job of cross-examination of these witnesses to prove them to be false-hoods. There just is no credible evidence(at this time)that anyone else was involved in this murder. However, there are some points that should be noted. 1) Vincent Bugliosi is a lawyer. Lawyers will say and do anything to defend their client(remember O.J.??)or to make thier beliefs to be true. 2) If our government was ever involved, the public would never know because all federal government employees sign a gag order not to undermine the government. 3) Some of the exact quotes and happenings of over 40 years I question. The exact day to day movements of Oswald in Russia, what he said and some of the very fine details I question---not all but some for example. Most people can't remember what they said or did last week. 4) Just because there is no proof of an event, does not mean it didn't happen. Having said all of this, I firmly believe Oswald killed Kennedy until some credible evidence comes forth to prove otherwise.
Bugliosi proves TWO things............2007-10-18
The first thing that the author proves is that President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, as was Dallas police oficer J.D. Tippet, the long-ignored second murder victim of November 22, 1963.
The second thing proven by this volume, and indeed by some of these reviews, is that it was and always will be utterly imposible for some people to accept that a young, handsome, charismatic and energetic president was taken from the citizens of his country by a warehouse clerk with a mail order rifle. "He must", they seem to say, "have died for something!"
This is a comprehensive and fascinating book that, piece by piece, establishes Oswald's guilt. And, piece by piece, it deconstructs each and every conspiracy theory of any note over the nearly last half-century. For anyone with an interest in this event and, just as importantly, an open mind, this book will be a long and fascinating journey. For those who are certain that President Kennedy was a victim of some widespread and malevolent conspiracy, this book is not for you. As Bugliosi notes, most all of those who have advanced a conspiracy theory (apart from a few charlatans and those who are obviously in it for the money) are concerned, patriotic Americans. But the evidence is here to be read.
Just be warned: this is not only a book that is difficult to put down; at about 1600 condensed pages it's pretty darn difficult to pick up as well !
The Multiple Personality History.......2007-10-09
I'm a little over halfway through this book, and my impression is that this is two separate books: 1) A solid chronological history of the Assassination and 2) what I like to call Bugliosi's badgering prosecution.
When Bugliosi's in Book 1 mode, he's great. An excellent storyteller whose predilection for detail provides probably the best narrative for the entire assassination I've ever read. Fortunately, he starts off in this mode, so if you only read the beginning, you're in the clear. The initial history of the four days in Dallas is as good a narrative as you're going to read.
It's book 2 mode which is problematic, when Bugliosi is so adamant on his points that he stresses things by sneering at the alternatives. He creates his own straw dogs by saying that the alternatives are so fantastic and illogical that only his viewpoint could possibly be the truth. He is constantly harping on this. What is troubling is that the Warren Commission explanations (which is Bugliosi's belief, as well) are pretty fantastic and illogical themselves. Also, he lays out a case for each facet of the assassination, and, convinced of the rightness of his conclusions, uses these conclusions to bolster other conclusions, not really aware that he's building a house of cards.
Conclusion: In spite of the you-can't-possibly-be-right-if-you-disagree tone, it's well written, very readable (particularly when he sticks to the facts). If you're a conspiracy buff, you'll want to read it just to see what arguments you have to overcome to make your case, as they are well presented, despite Bugliosi's hectoring. If you want something that's going to give you the full story on the assassination in one volume, then this is probably your book. The book, due to its weight, is also excellent for flattening curled photos and papers.
Pushed Me Over.......2007-10-03
Over the last 20 or so years, based on various things that I have read or heard, I came to believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was the murderer of JFK. I could not say, however that there was not a conspiracy. This was not because I necessarily believed that there was one, but rather due to the fact that I hadn't read enough or heard enough to be able to say, without a doubt, that there wasn't one. Mr. Bugliosi has taken care of that for me. In spite of some of the flaws mentioned in previous, serious reviews, I still believe that he is spot-on in his conclusions. I think any book of this size is apt to have it's share of flaws. Some will point to those as "proving" Bugliosi is wrong, but that is just a continuation of the "one little inconsistency or unexplained event trumps the overwhelming mountain of evidence" school of thought.
As for those who claim Mr. Bugliosi is working for this government agency or the other, or who claim he is promoting right-wing fiction, they need to take a closer look at his history to see that they really are talking from at best a position of ignorance and at worst a position of outright intellectual dishonesty.
Others have claimed amazing, fictional "facts" that discredit Bugliosi, such as the doctors at Parkland (all of them, of course) saying the neck wound was an entrance and not an exit. These are not facts, unless one believes just repeating something infinitely makes it one.
All in all, an excellent book for explaining the truth of November 22, 1963. Here's hoping Mr. Bugliosi will do the same for September 11, 2001.
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:
Stunning meticulous well researched Book!!!.......2007-08-17
This is one of the best books on the JFK Assassination.it is very detailed and meticulous in evidence and research.if this book does not convince you that there was a conspiracy involved in the murder of JFK no other book will.as a companion volume may I suggest Murder in dealy plaza!!
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 
1945 - Present
| 20th Century
| United States
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| Books
JFK: Breaking the News
That Day in Dallas: 3 Photographers Capture on Film the Day President Kennedy Died
President Kennedy Has Been Shot: Experience The Moment-to-Moment Account Of The Four Days That Changed America
Pictures of the Pain: Photography and the Assassination of President Kennedy
National Nightmare on Six Feet of Film: Mr. Zapruder's Home Movie And the Murder of President Kennedy
