When the News Went Live: Dallas 1963

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:

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

"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

Average customer rating:

We Knew Ye, We Thought
Credibility
Capital!
Thought Provoking Tale of the Kennedy Years
A very moving reminder of the Kennedys

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

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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:

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.

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

Average customer rating:

A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT HAPPENED
Too Many Unsubstantiated Facts Leading Nowhere
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Very Interesting

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:

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.

Average customer rating:

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

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

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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:

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.

Average customer rating:

fascinating and wonderful publication
A book that was worse than the movie.
The Place To Start
at best...
Tin Foil Hats on too Tight

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

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ASIN: 0881846481

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.................

Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Average customer rating:

A request to the publishers
Government Cover-up-----Unlikely
Bugliosi proves TWO things.....
The Multiple Personality History
Pushed Me Over

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:

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.

Assassination Science : Experts Speak Out on the Death of JFK

Average customer rating:

Stunning meticulous well researched Book!!!
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

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:

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 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 :)

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, Tatum, and Scoggins (who were all closer than Clemmons to the scene of the murder) are deemed less "significant", merely, no doubt, because they don't fit into Stone's (or Garrison's) "CT Landscape" surrounding the murder.

I wonder if people realize just how many outright lies are contained in Oliver Stone's 3-hour, 15-minute motion picture? The number is simply staggering. And that number of distortions is increased considerably on the DVD version of the film, when the Audio Commentary Track by Mr. Stone and all of the "Deleted and Extended Scenes" are included as well.

And a great deal of this deliberate misinformation put forth on the movie screen came directly out of this book authored by Jim Garrison.

Another great place to see more of Mr. Garrison's skewed views of the JFK case is to read Garrison's 1967 "Playboy Magazine" interview. Like Stone's movie, that Playboy article will keep you busy as you try to keep up with the inaccurate things Garrison keeps saying in that lengthy piece. The whole interview can be read here:

www.jfklancer.com/Garrison2.html

Selected examples of Mr. Garrison's paranoia and loony-toon conspiracy talk, taken from that Playboy interview, are provided via the quotes below. My own rebuttal arguments follow each quote:

"Though he {Oswald} may not have known why he was instructed to do so, this was undoubtedly why he got the job at the Texas School Book Depository Building. The conspirators knew this would place him on the scene and convince the world that a demented Marxist was the real assassin." -- Jim Garrison; 1967

The above Garrison gem totally distorts (or just flat-out ignores) the true and documented facts about how Oswald got his job at the Depository in mid-October of '63. It was suburban Dallas housewives Linnie Mae Randle and Ruth Paine who were directly responsible for placing Lee Harvey Oswald in the TSBD, by way of ordinary garden-variety happenstance.

Garrison must, therefore, believe that Mrs. Paine, who arranged Oswald's job interview with Depository boss Roy Truly, was one of the main "conspirators" who was setting up Oswald to take the fall for JFK's murder the following month (which would also have to mean that Paine had detailed knowledge of the President's motorcade route more than a month before November 22). Garrison must also think that Roy Truly was a big part of the patsy plot, because it was Mr. Truly who actually hired Oswald (even though nobody was holding a shotgun to Truly's head forcing him to hire Lee).

The commonly-held belief that Lee Oswald was "placed" in the Texas School Book Depository by evil plotters prior to 11/22/63 is a desperate attempt by CTers like Mr. Garrison to attach unprovable and unsupportable conspiratorial "strings" to a random event that involved several individuals...individuals whose collective and synchronized actions could not possibly have been foreseen and controlled by a group of behind-the-scenes conspirators.

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

"Anyone who takes the time to read the Warren Report will find that of the witnesses in Dealey Plaza who were able to assess the origin of the shots, almost two-thirds said they came from the grassy-knoll area in front and to the right of the Presidential limousine and not from the Book Depository." -- Jim Garrison; 1967

This is pure nonsense. There were, indeed, several witnesses who said they heard shots coming from in front of JFK's car, but Garrison has severely skewed the stats to support his claim of Knoll shooters. His "almost two-thirds" figure is not even close to being accurate when talking about the number of witnesses who said they heard frontal shots. And even amongst other CTers, virtually no other pro-conspiracy author has ever rigged those stats in such an out-of-whack manner.

The fact is that more than half of all earwitnesses heard shots coming from the direction of the Book Depository, and not from the Knoll. And an even more illuminating statistic reveals that less than 5% of all earwitnesses heard shots from more than just a single general location (front vs. rear). That stat speaks volumes....because even CTers admit to SOME rear shots.

An interesting tabulation of this data can be found below:

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/images/shots4.jpg

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/earwitnesses.htm

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

"The second shot struck the President in the back; the location of this wound can be verified not by consulting the official autopsy report, but by perusing the reports filed by two FBI agents who were present at the President's autopsy. Both stated unequivocally that the bullet in question entered President Kennedy's back and did not continue through his body." -- Jim Garrison; 1967

Therefore, Mr. Garrison is, in essence, saying that he is much more likely to trust the word of FBI agents (who, of course, were not doctors and were not conducting the President's autopsy) rather than take the word of the three physicians who each signed the official autopsy report. After all, why believe the autopsy doctors when you COULD just trust as Gospel the word of a bystander? ~sarcasm alert~

Plus: Why didn't these two FBI agents get the conspirators' memo which, if CTers are right about the success of the Patsy Plot, must have been passed out to nearly everyone in Officialdom on 11/22, a memo that probably said: "Attn. All Agents -- We're framing Oswald tomorrow; so remember to falsify as much evidence as humanly possible to ensure conviction of patsy".

Evidently some people who needed to see it never received that important document.

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

"We have also located another man who was not involved in the shooting but created a diversionary action in order to distract people's attention from the snipers. This individual screamed, fell to the ground, and simulated an epileptic fit, drawing people away from the vicinity of the knoll just before the President's motorcade reached the ambush point." -- Jim Garrison; 1967

Yet another outright lie from the lips of District Attorney Garrison. The man who had the so-called "simulated epileptic fit" was fully identified by the FBI on May 26, 1964. His name was Jerry Belknap, a man who had a history of epilepsy since childhood. Belknap also proved to the FBI that he had paid the ambulance bill ($12.50) after he was taken to Parkland Hospital.

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

"President Kennedy was killed for one reason: because he was working for a reconciliation with the U.S.S.R. and Castro's Cuba. His assassins were a group of fanatic anti-Communists with a fusion of interests in preventing Kennedy from achieving peaceful relations with the Communist world." -- Jim Garrison; 1967

Any solid, verifiable proof of such accusations, Mr. Garrison? Any physical evidence whatsoever that shows JFK was killed by more than one gun? .... The answers to those two questions are: No and No.

But the lack of physical evidence never stopped a hard-boiled CTer....that's been proven over and over again by a vast assortment of conspiracists who have more theories up their sleeve than a dog has fleas.

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

"In summation, there were at least five or six shots fired at the President from front and rear by at least four gunmen, assisted by several accomplices. At this stage of events, Lee Harvey Oswald was no more than a spectator to the assassination -- perhaps in a very literal sense. James Altgens snapped a picture that shows a man with a remarkable resemblance to Oswald, standing in the doorway of the Depository. The Altgens photograph indicates the very real possibility that at the moment Oswald was supposed to have been shooting Kennedy, he may actually have been standing outside the front door watching the motorcade. .... I don't believe that Oswald shot anybody on November 22nd -- not the President and not Tippit." -- Jim Garrison; 1967

It seems as though these devilishly-clever conspirators forgot one important thing when they were setting up LHO -- they forgot their brains. For, who WITH brains would allow their lone "Patsy" to casually drift outside and be photographed and seen by countless witnesses when the plotters need to have Lee Harvey on the 6th Floor at 12:30? Per Mr. Garrison's account of Oswald possibly being "Doorway Man", evidently the real assassins were indeed brainless and lacked the common sense to keep Oswald where he wouldn't be able to establish a credible alibi for his 12:30 whereabouts.

Just think about these Garrison remarks for a moment longer too -- "At least five or six shots were fired at the President from front and rear ... by at least four gunmen".

Doesn't a "4-Shooter, 6-Shot, 1-Patsy" assassination plot seem a bit unlikely to anyone else but this writer? Would any professional killers actually attempt to "frame" a lone fall guy in that type of overkill fashion? In my opinion, no pro hit men would go about the complicated task of setting up Oswald (or anybody else) in such a needlessly-reckless way.

A single "pro" hit man could have easily killed JFK with one or two shots (probably just one) from Oswald's "nest", without the need to clog the works with needless back-up gunmen hiding all around Dealey Plaza.

There is no possible way the conspirators could have ensured the success of a multi-shooter plot to frame JUST Oswald in the minutes during and after the shooting. No way. There are way too many uncontrollable factors that could block the success of that One-Patsy venture that Jim Garrison placed his faith in.

"Uncontrollable" items such as:

1.) A frontal shooter might very well have been seen by witnesses (and to think that EVERY witness under the sun could be easily "bought", "taken care of", and/or coerced by these plotters is, again, just too much wishful thinking on the conspirators' part, IMO).

2.) A frontal shooter might strike other occupants in the car, or strike somebody else in Dealey Plaza. But even if ONLY Kennedy is hit by a frontal gunman, there are massive problems to be "corrected" by the conspirators....bullets to be hidden and, of course, who knows how many obvious frontal wounds on the victim to be (somehow) eliminated -- and eliminated immediately before any non-conspirators can spill any beans. .... Only a person straight out of the booby hatch could believe that anyone, regardless of "power" or "pull", could get away with such a thing. It's just plain loony.

3.) The one "Patsy" (Oswald) could have easily, by pure accident and happenstance, established a perfect alibi for himself at the time when he was supposed to be on the 6th Floor shooting the President (as Mr. Garrison apparently DID think occurred, with Oswald being seen in a photo taken as the bullets were flying; even though all reasonable researchers know full well that "Doorway Man" was actually Billy Lovelady, and not Oswald; Lovelady even testified to that effect in 1964). ....

Plus -- If Oswald had really been in that doorway at 12:30, WHY ON EARTH DIDN'T HE SAY HE WAS THERE?! If he's got an ironclad alibi like that, why wouldn't he use it? Instead, he says not a word about being outside on the steps at 12:30, and even tells the police a provable lie re. his whereabouts (the lie about "having lunch with Junior {Jarman}" at the time of the shooting). How much sense does that make if Oswald had really been in the Depository doorway? ....

And the very fact that Oswald did NOT have a usable, provable alibi for exactly 12:30 PM is absolutely remarkable IF he had really been wandering around on the lower floors of the Depository (or was outside the building), as many CTers firmly believe; and even the most rabid of conspiracy theorists have got to admit, that from the "CT/Patsy" POV, Oswald's not having a usable/believable/solid alibi is certainly, by far, the biggest piece of LUCK in the whole "Patsy Plot". ....

These amazing Patsy Plotters just lucked out, evidently, in that Oswald was not seen by a single person inside or outside the TSBD at precisely the time of the assassination -- except by Howard Brennan, Ron Fischer, and Robert Edwards, of course, who saw Oswald or a nicely-arranged Oswald "imposter" in the Sniper's Nest at 12:30 or just seconds before 12:30.

4.) And the likelihood that all of the non-TSBD bullets are going to somehow get swept under the rug is extremely remote, especially in a Bob Groden-like scenario. Mr. Groden (per his book "The Killing Of A President"), incredibly, has ZERO of the shots coming from the Oswald window, and a total of up to TEN shots being fired...and ALL OF THEM coming from rifles other than the one rifle these idiot plotters are going to attempt to frame Oswald with! Could Groden's scenario BE any more reckless and preposterous?! I doubt it.

5.) And a biggie, that most CTers evidently don't think could have ever happened before 12:30 on November 22nd -- The one Patsy (Mr. LHO) could "get wise" to the plot that is brewing all around him and take measures to guarantee he could never be blamed for the actual assassination of John Kennedy.

When thinking about any "Frame Lee Oswald As The One Patsy" plan, I just cannot visualize any professional assassins (even for a minute) contemplating the use of multiple shooters; let alone some gunmen firing from the Grassy Knoll, i.e., the exact opposite direction from where their single dupe is supposed to be located.

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

As the previously-mentioned quotes from the mouth of Mr. Garrison amply demonstate, if anyone has a desire to set out "On The Trail Of A Lunatic Conspiracy Theorist" -- look no further than Earling Carothers (Jim) Garrison.

a good "read" and an above-average book.......2006-01-16

Jim Garrison's book "On The Trail Of The Assassins" was one of two books used as the basis for Oliver Stone's movie "JFK" (the other was Kim Marrs' "Crossfire"). On that basis alone, highly recommended (for it led to the JFK Act and the ARRB). That said, this is a very good but not a great book. I would put James DiEugenio's book ON Garrison ahead of this one. Still, a good "read" with some good moments.
Vince Palamara

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Where is the 2nd Volume????
Great Insight
Why we love John Kennedy
Simply the best JFK bio anywhere ...
One of a kind!

JFK: Reckless Youth
Hamilton Nigel
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Dark Side of Camelot

ASIN: 0679412166
Release Date: 1992-11-10

Book Description

John F. Kennedy Jr. remains one of the most fascinating and controversial politicians of the 20th century. This bestselling first volume of Nigel Hamilton's biography has caused unprecedented controversy by its frankness and its overturning of myths. But whether or not family and the political establishment like it, it is the nearest we will ever get to the JFK story from JFK's own point of view. Reckless Youth is based on a wealth of hitherto unpublished material from JFK's closest surviving friends, from FBI, Navy college and National Archives records, as well as new material in JFK's own words.

Customer Reviews:

Where is the 2nd Volume????.......2005-04-29

Excellent book...Still waiting for Mr. Hamilton to come out with his second volume. I highly recommend the movie starring Patrick Dempsey. Mr. Hamilton we are still waiting for volume 2...

Great Insight.......2004-10-27

Our fascination with JFK continues. Even now, there are still aspects of his life and career which remain hidden from public view.

This book relies on meticulous research and avoids speculation. It acquaints us with a brutal and psychotically competitive family, an aloof and cold mother of too many children who accomodates her husband's self-centeredness by a peculiarly Catholic form of emotional abandonment. This remove, however, strikes her own children as collateral damage from her intended assault on her husband.

A family of highly competitive people, with singular ambition. The theory is not hard to establish: the ambition is to attain mom's love (which is unattainable) and to impress dad.

The story is archetypal of American in the mid-20th century. We achieved so much because of qualities of competition, ruthlessness and self-interest. We also learned to worship glamour and celebrity. Wasn't Kennedy the best-looking president by far?

I never understood him better than after reading this book. I also believe that he was addicted to sex, and that we knew way too little about how to treat that addiction back then.

Why we love John Kennedy.......2004-09-16

Anyone who truly loves John Kennedy (as I do) owes it to themselves to delve deeper into the formation of the character of this fabulously flawed human being. Nigel Hamilton's minutely-detailed "JFK: Reckless Youth," which recounts Kennedy's early through his first run for Congress, is one helluva place to start.

The myth of Camelot has suffered death by a thousand cuts -- shredded by the disclosure of presidential affairs, murder plots and political machinations. But while other celebrities have generated renewed interest and sympathy by openly airing dirt and scandal, the Kennedys have endlessly recycled the Camelot myth of the heroic young president slain before his time. Hamilton's book is the antidote to this pious tripe, serving up a John Kennedy fighting against (and sometimes embracing) forces that should have destroyed him. Young John Kennedy suffered from a mystery ailment that landed him in the hospital countless times. He courted disaster and scandal with a string of amours. He chose to fight the Japanese on a "plywood coffin" known as a PT boat rather than sit out the war in a safer place. He was saddled with a father whose pre-WWII appeasement policies undercut the national interest. Kennedy, from a young age, was one familiar with the knife's edge between life and death, learning to skate the blade with grace and aplomb. Hamilton exhaustively chronicles these episodes using interview material and an extraordinary trove of personal letters to and from Kennedy himself.

It's a shame that the Kennedy family blocked Hamilton's access to additional JFK material. The next volumes would no doubt have shown the moral excesses and almost suicidal risk-taking increasing as JFK grew older. While this material might have threatened the maudlin serenity of Camelot, I would have welcomed the change. Paradoxically, my love and admiration for John Kennedy did not wane as I read the incredible details of his life. Instead, I was amazed that such an extraordinary, compassionate and visionary man arose from the chaos of a life lived as a constant roll of the dice.

Simply the best JFK bio anywhere ..........2003-08-24

JFK RECKLESS YOUTH has only one drawback: It covers only the part of his life up to his election to Congress. Hamilton has promised two more volumes, but they have so far not appeared. That said, it is the only negative that can be said for this remarkable volume, for my money the best JFK bio anywhere (including the new but hardly impressive JFK: AN UNFINISHED LIFE by Robert Dallek). There isn't an aspect of Kennedy's life that goes unexplored. Hamilton, however, did not have the access to JFK's medical records that Dallek did -- therefore he probably did not realize how very serious JFK's health issues were. (Of course, he is writing about JFK's early life, when he was obviously a lot healthier than he was later.)

What is made painfully clear here is that JFK became president not because of his parents, but frankly, in spite of them. It was the force of his intellect and personality, more than his father's money, that made him who he was. Hamilton spends a lot of time in comparisons between Joe Jr. (the heir apparent) and Jack, the second son. According to him, Joe Jr. was ponderous, prejudiced, hardworking but abrasive and often nasty, and in general, simply did not attract people to him as Jack did. Jack, on the other hand, for all his natural rebelliousness (almost certainly fed by his parents' endless hectoring and marital issues), had enormous charm, warmth and endless humor. Hamilton even uncovers evidence of a surprisingly tender heart and his attempts to hide his concern for his friends with sarcasm and wit. His friends note that he constantly looked for new friendships and never lost a friend, even when the friends treated him with less than kindness and respect. He was loyal to a fault.

Hamilton does reserve tremendous ire (and who can blame him?) for JFK's parents, two of really the most awful parents it's possible to imagine. Rose was a mother who constantly went off and left her children with the help, never home even when her oldest children were babies, and was never, never affectionate or even perhaps very interested in them, due to her unending though silent opposition to her husband's abuse and philandering. While she inspected them daily for missing buttons or loose threads, she was completely uninvolved in their interests, games and problems. Their father Joe was, as Hamilton makes clear, good at only one thing: manipulating stocks in order to steal himself a fortune. Every other thing he tried, including banking, shipping, movies, politics and diplomacy, was a failure. (Joe was so unscrupulous that even during his stint as Ambassador to the Court of St. James, he had people buying stocks he had inside information about. It says something that when FDR appointed him the first chairman of the newly formed Securities and Exchange Commission, and FDR's cabinet protested vigorously, FDR's answer was, "Set a thief to catch a thief.") What made Joe rather insidious (and this only in comparison to Rose) is that if he did have a good point, it was his genuine love for his children, misguided as his childrearing experience was. Unfortunately, he taught them to win at any cost and that women were to be treated with contempt and used like tissue. But because he expressed affection and care for them, even dropping his own work schedule to appear at their schools when Rose wrote letters but never bothered to visit her sons even when Jack was deathly ill in boarding school, Joe comes off as, ironically, the much better parent. He was loving and affectionate, though his affection came with a price: That they think as he thought and do as he did, which Jack simply rebelled against.

Hamilton has to be commended for his sense of balance. While never shirking his responsibility to point out Jack's flaws, he is careful also to show from where they sprang -- the terrible, dysfunctional union of his parents and their awful sense of what raising a family meant. The children were socially isolated (partially because of his parents' desperation to enter Boston's WASP society while being Irish Catholics themselves), turning to each other for comfort and thus becoming close, but then separated when Rose decided she couldn't handle them anymore and sent them to boarding school, some as young as age eight.

There is so much in this book that has value, but what I personally appreciate the most is Hamilton's constant underlying (though silent) thesis that Jack's gifts were so many that had he been born to different parents, he still would have been remarkably successful, yet probably been a less tormented and far less complex personality. For Hamilton sees his sexual yearnings as nothing less than looking for the love he missed in his mother, yet unable to express his need for it because of her coldness during his formative years and what that coldness did to his ability to express and receive affection.

I could go on and go (actually, I have), but I do heartily recommend this. It's an absorbing read about the formation of a remarkable and pivotal personality in American history. I'd love to see the next volume -- imagine what he'd do with the marriage of Jack and Jackie? -- but must wait till he gets there. Meanwhile, this volume is a five-star, fifty-carat gem. Don't miss it.

One of a kind!.......2002-09-28

It is now virtually impossible to find a good biography of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Most are interested less in telling about his life, every aspect of it, than about his love life. But Nigel Hamilton returns some honor and polish, eschewing sensationalism for the sake of actually writing a book about his life.

This book recounts JFK's life until his election in Congress, beginning years before his birth with accounts of his grandparents and parents and what drove Joseph Kennedy to obsess on politics. While it includes JFK's assorted premarital affairs, there is also a great deal of complicated and in-depth information on his Navy service, his health, his political life, his family life, and the things that would affect him when he later became president of the United States.

Hamilton manages to pull more material -- only a portion of Kennedy's life -- into more pages than most Kennedy biographers could if they tried. He does this by incredibly in-depth investigation into just about everything in Kennedy's life. This approach not only gives much-needed depth to Kennedy himself, but to other people in his life. While his parents are no more sympathetic here than they ever were (meaning that they probably were as they seem), people that he interacted with (and in some cases, slept with) are given new attention. For example, his first serious lover Inga Arvad is explored in greater depth. Here she is not a promiscuous gold-digger or a clingy adulteress, but a woman who is willing to give up her love for his own good. Her Nazi sympathies and marital status are not downplayed, but her emotions and feelings are presented to the readers to make us realize what she was like.

And Hamilton's skill as a writer shows in how he is able to include all this detail and all these anecdotes without boring the readers silly. The eight-hundred-plus pages fly by like those of a book half its length, sprinkled with occasional pictures of JFK, his parents, "Inga Binga," Lem Billings, and others. These pictures are relatively few and far between, but make up for it in quality rather than quantity.

If you read one Kennedy biography, make sure that it's this one. Nigel Hamilton's "Reckless Youth" is written with style, class, and skill. Definitely worth the read.

Plausible Denial: Was the CIA Involved in the Assassination of JFK?
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Plausible Denial:

Does Lane know what he's talking about ????????

Great for the time, now...

The CIA assassinate a head of state?

Frame A Lone Patsy By Using SEVERAL Gunmen?? That's Just Flat-Out Kooky!

Plausible Denial: Was the CIA Involved in the Assassination of JFK?
Mark Lane
Manufacturer: Thunder's Mouth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1560250488

Book Description

The assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 continues to be shrouded in mystery and controversy. Now, for the first time in almost thirty years, explosive new evidence reveals much about the CIA's involvement in an event that devastated the entire nation and irrevocably altered the course of history. In "Plausible Denial," Mark Lane makes startling revelations about the CIA's involvement in a plot to murder the president.

Customer Reviews:

Plausible Denial:.......2006-10-11

I came to know Mark Lane very intimately over a period of ten years - where we shared, exchanged, many long hours of intense discussion on the JFK and MLK assassinations.

He captivated me with intricate details of the various events and supportive data sources. Through him - I relived these very complexed parts of American History as he awakened me to a darker deeper side of political shennanigans - not too unlike those which continued to take place in my own country.

This very calm ... quiet man - often barely audible is one of the five most thought provoking people in my personal life. Yes, Mark Lane makes you think - without bludgeoning one over the head with senseless rhetoric or inflamatory diatribes.

I recall how Oliver Stone borrowed Plausible Denial in preparation for his movie of the JFK Assassination - only to return it many months later (having discarded it as unhelpful) and yet using direct quotes from the book in the actual movie.

This seems to be the way of naysayers ... their modus operandi - to negate those with whom they disagree by plagarising them.

Is this then not the highest form of flattery?

I highly recommend anyone with an independent mind to read Plausible Denial - for it will open your mind to a lot more critical thinking - by questioning rushed decisions by those in power - whether politically, the private sector or public life.

Does Lane know what he's talking about ????????.......2006-08-31

Witness the two articles below, one written about six weeks before the assassination:

The New York Times
October 3, 1963 p. 34
The Intra-Administration
War in Vietnam
By Arthur Krock

... One reporter in this category is Richard Starnes of the Scripps-Howard newspapers. Today, under a Saigon dateline, he related that, "according to a high United States source here, twice the C.I.A. flatly refused to carry out instructions from Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge . . . [and] in one instance frustrated a plan of action Mr. Lodge brought from Washington because the agency disagreed with it." Among the views attributed to United States officials on the scene, including one described as a "very high American official . . . who has spent much of his life in the service of democracy . . . are the following:
The C.I.A.'s growth was "likened to a malignancy" which the "very high official was not sure even the White House could control . . . any longer." "If the United States ever experiences [an attempt at a coup to overthrow the Government] it will come from the C.I.A. and not the Pentagon." The agency "represents a tremendous power and total unaccountability to anyone."
... The C.I.A. may be guilty as charged. Since it cannot, or at any rate will not, openly defend its record in Vietnam, or defend it by the same confidential press "briefings" employed by its critics, the public is not in a position to judge. Nor is this department, which sought and failed to get even the outlines of the agency's case in rebuttal. But Mr. Kennedy will have to make a judgment if the spectacle of war within the Executive branch is to be ended and the effective functioning of the C.I.A. preserved. And when he makes this judgment, hopefully he also will make it public, as well as the appraisal of fault on which it is based.
______________________________________________________________

... and one written exactly four weeks after the assassination by former President Harry S. Truman, no less:

The Washington Post
December 22, 1963 - page A11
Harry Truman Writes:
Limit CIA Role To Intelligence
By Harry S Truman

INDEPENDENCE, MO., Dec. 21 -- I think it has become necessary to take another look at the purpose and operations of our Central Intelligence Agency--CIA. At least, I would like to submit here the original reason why I thought it necessary to organize this Agency during my Administration, what I expected it to do and how it was to operate as an arm of the President.
I think it is fairly obvious that by and large a President's performance in office is as effective as the information he has and the information he gets ...
... But their (C.I.A.'s) collective information reached the President all too frequently in conflicting conclusions. At times, the intelligence reports tended to be slanted to conform to established positions of a given department. This becomes confusing and what's worse, such intelligence is of little use to a President in reaching the right decisions.
... For some time I have been disturbed by the way CIA has been diverted from its original assignment. It has become an operational and at times a policy-making arm of the Government. This has led to trouble and may have compounded our difficulties in several explosive areas.
I never had any thought that when I set up the CIA that it would be injected into peacetime cloak and dagger operations ... But there are now some searching questions that need to be answered. I, therefore, would like to see the CIA be restored to its original assignment as the intelligence arm of the President, and that whatever else it can properly perform in that special field--and that its operational duties be terminated or properly used elsewhere.
We have grown up as a nation, respected for our free institutions and for our ability to maintain a free and open society. There is something about the way the CIA has been functioning that is casting a shadow over our historic position and I feel that we need to correct it.
______________________________________________________________

YOU BE THE JUDGE!

Great for the time, now..........2006-01-04

...not as good; hasn't aged well. I saw Mark Lane during his book tour for this particular volume back in Feb. 1992 at Border's in a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA. The atmosphere was electric---the Stone movie was out, George H.W. Bush was President, and 500 people were there! Now, as George *W.* Bush is President, it is important to reflect back and see just how this volume (along with others, such as Mortal Error and The Texas Connection) took full advantage of great, great timing. Frankly, this book probably would have sunk without a trace if it wasn't for the timing. It DOES contain some good info. re: CIA officers like Phillips, Hunt, et. al...but the central thesis doesn't hold up.
[...]

The CIA assassinate a head of state?.......2005-12-18

The hit WAS a very stupid, sloppy job that HAS been exposed (about 3/4's of Americans don't believe the Warren Commission's report) it's just that the government and the controlled media keep insisting JFK was hit in the back of the head despite all the evidence to the contrary. JFK's assistant press secratary pointed to his right temple during a press conference though they never show that anymore. It's very similar to 9/11. WTC - 7 was clearly a classic controlled demolition (you will never see that "collapse" on mainstream TV again) and numerous survivors talked about bombs going off in the buildings yet the steel was never checked for explosives because the head of FEMA's investigation claimed he didn't know there was such a test. One of the signs of fascism is you only hear the truth once.

Back to the thesis of the book - how can you NOT suspect the CIA? They'd been fighting with Kennedy from the beginning and he was going end the organization. Then somehow Allan Dulles, who was fired by Kennedy, makes it to the Warren Commission. Nothing suspicious there.

I would also recommend "Final Judgement" by Michael Collins Piper which can be considered a sequal to "Plausible Denial.

Frame A Lone Patsy By Using SEVERAL Gunmen?? That's Just Flat-Out Kooky!.......2005-05-22

There have been many "JFK Conspiracy" books written that put forth theories of how Presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was connected with a wide array of unsavory characters or how he was an "agent" for various official U.S. Government organizations (right on up to the CIA and the FBI).

These theories veer off into one of two directions -- with some conspiracists being of the opinion that Oswald was "assigned" by his high-level bosses to be a part of a multi-man shooting plot to end the life of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

But the most-popular conspiracy theory, it seems, has Oswald being framed, duped, and "set up" as a "Patsy" on the day that Kennedy was killed, completely innocent of shooting anyone that day (including policeman J.D. Tippit).

The "Patsy" theory is pure nonsense, in my considered opinion (and my thoughts on just why I feel that way are detailed below).

Author Mark Lane, who sees conspiracy everywhere he looks, points an accusing finger at the CIA (and E. Howard Hunt in particular) in this 1991 book, "Plausible Denial". In this volume, Mr. Lane has Hunt and the CIA "setting up" Oswald (the proverbial 'Patsy') to take the (lone) fall for JFK's murder. I couldn't disagree more with these wild conspiracy conclusions.

To believe that an 'outside agency' of some sort was really behind JFK's tragic death, I suppose, isn't beyond every stretch of the imagination when looking at the assassination through a very narrow and non-exacting lens. But, when one starts to examine the DETAILS and the MECHANICS of HOW such a "Multi-Shooter" plot was supposedly carried out in Dallas -- with ALL of the evidence expected (per the plotters) to funnel down, SOMEHOW, to the feet of a single killer (by the name of Oswald) firing from behind the President -- it becomes glaringly obvious to a reasonable person gazing at these "nut & bolts" of the actual shooting that any such "Patsy" scenario couldn't have possibly been pulled off successfully without the "plot" being exposed almost immediately. (Unless, that is, ALL of the 'frontal' shots magically were to have MISSED all potential victims in Dealey Plaza. And NO theorist believes that occurred.)

Via that widely-accepted conspiracy theory of: "Lee Harvey Oswald Was Framed As The Patsy In The JFK Assassination", I'm just wondering what the conspirators/architects/designers of such a complicated plan were thinking when they were "planning" and "plotting" the murder of the U.S. President in the days and weeks prior to Jack Kennedy's November 22, 1963, assassination? Did ANY of these conspirators mapping out the physical shooting of JFK have an ounce of gray matter in their heads?!

Per many conspiracy-theory ("CT") accounts of the Dallas, Texas, shooting, these secret plotters/conspirators hired UP TO FOUR OR FIVE GUNMEN to ALL fire their rifles at President Kennedy ALL within an 8-second timeframe in Dealey Plaza, riddling the target (JFK), potentially, with UP TO TEN BULLET WOUNDS (per some CT versions of the shooting; and it's even higher than this via other versions) in this short 8-second period -- and then, afterward, these same shooters/plotters miraculously EXPECT ALL THE EVIDENCE FROM THESE MANY GUNSHOTS TO SOMEHOW LEAD BACK TO ONLY ONE SINGLE KILLER IN THE TEXAS SCHOOL BOOK DEPOSITORY!*

* = Place my best imitation of Ricky Ricardo's boisterous laugh HERE ---> :-)

A conspiracy plot that involves framing a LONE "Patsy" (a plot where it's MANDATORY for ONLY three rear shots and three bullets MAXIMUM to enter the record) is DOOMED to fail when one of the following two things happens in Dealey Plaza on November 22 ----

1.) Shot #4 rings out for all to hear -- and for JFK to (potentially) be hit by.
2.) ANY frontal shot strikes ANYONE in the automobile.

And via many/most CTers' scenarios not only do BOTH of the above occur on 11-22-63, but it's MULTIPLIED TIMES TWO for BOTH of the above items! -- 8 Shots (minimum!) and 2 'frontal hits' to JFK (per Robert Groden's theory at any rate, and he's a "Leading Assassination Researcher", is he not?).

Obviously, all XX number of shots fired by XX number of conspirators are designed and intended to do only one thing -- ALL HIT JFK! Which is something that any and all 'plotters' SHOULD have EXPECTED to happen as of November 21, the day before any such ill-conceived and inane plan of this nature would have been put into action. But many CTers think these bonehead plotters went ahead with this destined-to-fail "Let's Frame Oswald" plan anyway, despite the overwhelming odds against its success, given the sheer number of gunmen being employed. It's downright hysterical.

Let me ask an obvious, logical question -- Why utilize 3 or 4 or 5 shooters to "frame" Oswald for the assassination, when using just the ONE sniper from the Oswald window in the TSBD could have just as easily gotten the job done? (And would also have eliminated any NEED for the crazy cloak-&-dagger stuff afterward. In such a 1-killer "plot", the conspirators wouldn't need to play post-assassination games like 'alter-the-wounds', or 'hide-the-bullets', or 'switch-the-caskets', or 'fake-the-photos', etc., etc.)

Using more than one shooter virtually ensures the failure of any such secretive and clandestine "plot", IMO.

It seems to me that conspiracy promoters would be much better off (and much less silly-sounding) if they'd just admit that Oswald was a willing and active participant in the assassination (shooting from where we KNOW he WAS shooting and from where he practically left us a sign saying "I Was Here With My Own Gun Shooting At The President -- Yours Truly, Lee H. Oswald").

By admitting that Oswald was 'no patsy', but instead a willing shooter on November 22nd, the conspiracists still don't have to believe LHO was the ONLY shooter (the CTers would still have that JFK "head shot" that they believe came from in FRONT of Kennedy's limousine); although there's plenty of evidence to tell us that the head shot, too, was fired from Oswald's gun in the School Book Depository. But to get a die-hard 'CTer' to see it that way is like pulling teeth, to be sure.

But dropping the "Patsy" notion would be far better for any CTer, IMO, because that idea is just plain hogwash and entirely irrational from the point-of-view of the killers/plotters, based on the way conspiracy buffs say it was carried out.

Believe in Mark Lane's theory that the CIA killed JFK, if you must -- but before embracing such a "theory" with wide-open arms, I'd first suggest pausing for a few moments and consider the question of just exactly HOW this plot could have been pulled off to such perfection using several gunmen firing from multiple directions at the VERY SAME TARGET (the body of John F. Kennedy).

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