Book Review: With Malice

 

Book Review:  With Malice - Lee Harvey Oswald and the Murder of Officer J.D. Tippit by Dale K. Myers

Review originally posted at Oswald’s Mother in 2013. Update posted at Substack with new links and edits.)

https://open.substack.com/pub/georgebailey/p/book-review-with-malice

Book Review: Judge For Yourself

Judge For Yourself, A Treasury Of Writing By John Judge

by John Patrick Judge (Author), Joseph E Green (Editor), David T Ratcliffe (Introduction), Kenn Thomas (Foreword)

The title is a bit of a misnomer.  The actual writings by the late and venerable researcher John Judge are only part of a work that includes interviews with Judge and speeches by him.  Oddly, the written works are not well sourced and the reader will wonder where they were originally published.  The collection of interviews and several speeches are properly sourced.

Actually the title could be, “Anything You Have Heard About Everything Is Wrong.“  Though heavily involved in researching the JFK assassination, Judge flips the lid on many famous events in the latter part of the 20th century.  John Hinkley’s assassination attempt on President Regan involved another assassin;  The Jonestown cult members didn’t drink the cool-aid, they were killed by Special Forces and all sorts of amazing realizations of unknown, or not properly documented, history.  

John Judge in this collection, has a tendency to make declarative statements with little or no citations.  It is unknown what sources he had access to, as he rarely tells us.  However, this does make for some intriguing issues for the reader to determine for themselves whether they are true or not.  Basically, we are left to take Judge’s word for it.

There are some great stories in this book.  One involves another great researcher, Mae Brussell (LINK).  Judge partnered with her and he tells the story of how concerned the Deep State became when they built a house right across the street from Mae.  Judge recalls the Brussell went to meet and greet the new neighbors and looking thru a window and saw no one and no furniture in the living room, just a huge tape deck.  Never met a soul.  Years later and two weeks before she died of cancer, lots of construction noise came from the house.  Judge said he found out later that they were dismantling the surveillance equipment.  The day Mae Brussell died the house burned to the ground.  The Fire Chief would not release the names of the owners or occupants of the house.  A good example of Deep State control of information flow and the media.

Nazis, Nazis everywhere!  John Judge’s fixation on former Nazis, current Nazis and their assorted connections borders on obsession.  While it is true that lots of Nazis were brought over under Operation Paperclip after the war to build the space program and ramp up intelligence operations, Judge finds connections, if not guilt by association, with numerous luminaries that most would never suspect.  While it is noble of him to expose this willing infiltration of Nazis by the government, the irony here is that Judge never has a problem with the other side—communism.  In the world of John Judge, they are not involved with conspiracies, have no supporting role with anybody and have no plans for world wide dominance.  For Judge, only Nazis have the power to do so (even though this is highly over rated in that regard since they are not operating from a State apparatus) and it is a failure to ignore how dangerous communism was for world peace.   As author and talk host Mark Levin said, all communist states are police states.  For John Judge only Nazis maintain police states.  At least his heart was in the right place.

That not withstanding, Judge tells the amazing story of his mother (name never mentioned), who was the highest paid female civilian employee at the Pentagon as a manpower analyst.  Her job was to project future troop enlistments, discharges, non-combat injuries and so forth.  She couldn’t believe the data she had to work with and she brought this to the attention of her boss and was told that the war was to last for 10 years at a cost of 57,000 causalities.  An amazingly accurate forecast!  This all began in last week of November.  The Deep State had ramped up for the war in Vietnam and John Kennedy had only been dead for a few days.  It is unclear how this precise forecast had been formulated.  One can assume this still goes on for the other wars that have happened since 1963.  

Overall, a great read on the thoughts of John Judge.  I would have liked to see more writings from the 1990’s and first decade of this century as this tome heavily covers issues of the 1960-1980 time periods and leaves out many scandals and political events of the 1990’s and through the first decade of the 2000’s.

Paperback: 368 pages

Publisher: Say Something Real Press LLC (April 13, 2017)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0998889806

ISBN-13: 978-0998889801

Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches

Price: $16.95

Available from all major online book retailers.  

Book Review: The Interloper: Lee Harvey Oswald Inside the Soviet Union by Peter Savodnik

An over-hyped book of little substance...

As soon as I discovered that a book was being published on Lee Oswald’s Russian period I started to speculate how the author might handle the notion of Oswald defecting to be operative there.  The book blurbs on Amazon showed it was going to be yet another, lone nut book.  True enough, author Peter Savodnik states in the introduction says that Oswald acted alone and we can see how he did so by studying his life in Soviet Russia.  As he stated on page xi:

“It is the facts of his life (Oswald’s), and especially his life in the Soviet Union, that tell us what we need to know to conclude that he alone was responsible for killing President Kennedy.”

Good!  No need for an investigation then.  Towards the end of the page he follows up with this whopper:

“The Interloper is an attempt, at long last, to make sense of this person we have we have never known.”

At long last?  As if nobody else ever tried?  As if Peter Savodnik knows him by interviewing his friends.  At this point I’m wondering if Savodnik is having an attack of advanced hubris to spit this line out or the marketing department jammed it in.  Of course, there are plenty of researchers have delved into Lee Oswald, his character, and exploits before the guns went off.  Authors such as Norman Mailer, Oswald’s Tale (1995); John Armstrong, Harvey and Lee (2003); John Newman, Oswald and the CIA (2008), and space does not permit a listing of many others. 

The course is set from here and what evaluation we will find of Oswald’s character and actions could just as well come out of the well-worn pages of the Warren Report.  

Time Spent in Russia

Peter Savodnik credentials including writing for the New York Times, Harper’s, Time, Atlantic Monthly and other northeastern liberal yankee publications.  He was based in Moscow for a number of years and wrote extensively about Russian issues.  Since Savodnik spent a lot time living and working in Russia he at some point–never explained–developed an interest in Lee Oswald’s life and was able to interview a lot of people that knew Lee Oswald during his time there. The picture Savodnik paints of Oswald is a one of a sad, pathetic, and often angry figure; an out of place young man that isn't very bright, struggles with the native tongue of his newfound homeland, and is ignorant of the culture he has just landed in.

Probably most surprising, is Savodnik's assertion that Oswald was a poor Russian speaker.  In fact, I know of no other book written on Oswald that ever doubted his ability to speak, read, and write the Russian language competently.  Even the Warren Report with its faults admits to his Russian speaking abilities which he supposedly learned from a Marine officer.  According to Savodnik, Oswald needs tips and lessons from co-workers and an interpreter at some phases of his work at the Minsk TV factory.  This fits in with Savodnik's angle of Oswald being a guy that isn't very clever, troubled in mind and intellect–only it’s not true.  The author is not being honest with his readers at this point.

Why? Because there is a lot of evidence that Oswald was a very good Russia speaker, good enough for his future wife Marina to comment that upon their first meeting she thought he was a local because he spoke with a Baltic accent.  While it is true that Oswald rarely spoke in Russian while there, the idea that this could have been a cover for his true identity is contrary to Savodnik's narrative.  Arriving back in America in 1962, Lee and Marina were befriended by the White Russian community there, and George De Mohrenschildt in particular.  De Mohrenschildt testified to Lee speaking Russian competently and reading Russian literature written in Russian.  Another Russian speaker who know Oswald said that his language skills were good enough to be a translator.  But Savodnik never tells his readers this.

Mistakes in the Narrative

For a writer good enough to be published in noted literary journals and travels the world doing research, Peter Savodnik can sure makes some goofs.  

One of the biggest involves the early days of Oswald’s life and the constant moving around he and his siblings endured.  Savodnik states that the shortest time the Oswald’s spent at a residence was six weeks in Manhattan.  Well, they never lived in Manhattan!  They lived in the Bronx.  Even the address Savodnik lists, E. 179th St., implying Manhattan, is a Bronx location (Google maps).  In actually, after getting kicked out of older brother John Pic’s apartment after Lee threatened Mrs. Pic with a penknife, they moved to 1455 Sheridan, Apt F.  They later moved to their final residence in New York at 325 E. 179th St.  Both residences are in the Bronx.  John Pic and family lived in the Bronx as well.  Marguerite Oswald did work odd jobs in Manhattan and Lee briefly attended PS117 in Manhattan, but they never lived there.  

Do publishing houses hire fact checkers anymore?

The length of time in New York is wrong too.  Lee and his mother arrived there in August of 1952 and Savodnik contradicts his tale by having them returning to New Orleans in January of 1954.  Obviously a lot more than six weeks passed here.

Of course herein lies one of the problems with the narrative.  Under the official account Lee is supposed to be attending PS44 in the Bronx in fall of 1953.  However, there is another set of educational records showing Lee attending part-time at Beauregard Junior High School in the fall of 1953 as well!  Researcher John Armstrong (see links) found this oddity in volume 22 of the collected Warren Commission hearings.  And there are more than just documents, there are a host of important events going on as well in 1953.  For example, Lee going truant, being evaluated by two psychologists, being sent to a youth home for a while, and his mother being interviewed by probation officer John Carro.  By the fall of 1953 things heat up with Carro attempting to get Marguerite and Lee in family court for counseling services and other issues, but he is checkmated every step of the way.  All of these events are happening in New York while another Lee Oswald is in school in another state in New Orleans.  Strange, huh?

As you can see, by taking the conservative approach with a simple narrative from the Warren Report, and staying out of those pesky 26 volumes of collected hearings and evidence, one can eliminate great difficulties in exploring the case.  One can direct the flow away from conspiracy very easily.  Especially if somebody doesn’t want that reported.  Logically, Savodnik can’t discuss it anyway because it disrupts his “Lee is a nobody” story.

The False Defector Program

A major omission by the author is the False Defector Program being run out of Nag’s Head, North Carolina with the sole purpose of placing operatives behind the Iron Curtain.  It’s too hot to handle because Peter Savodnik makes no mention of it.  One would think this issue should be properly explored if one were doing an honest investigation into Oswald’s Russian period.  But if you are a hack, then by all means, ignore it and type away!

Senator Richard Schweiker who had seen the classified files said,  “We don’t know what happened (in Dallas), but we do know Oswald had intelligence connections. Everywhere you look with him, there are the fingerprints of intelligence.” He further stated to author David Talbot that Oswald–“...was the product of a fake defector program run by the CIA.”  Former CIA officer Victor Marchetti stated this as well (Peter Janney, Mary’s Mosaic). 

Otto Otepka, Deputy Director of the United States State Department's Office of Security, uncovered the false defector program soon after JFK’s election. A security file listed Lee Oswald as a “tourist.” to the Soviet Union.  And while in the Soviet Union Oswald came into contact with Michael Jelisavcic, a known CIA operative at American Express.  A declassified document lists Jelisavcic as a CIA asset. 

Notwithstanding, if Oswald were a false defector this would greatly add to what his real motivations were during his Russian phase.  There is a great deal of bias for the official story that blinds the author to any other alternatives.  Oswald as false defector is an important part of the story if true, and the author finds it not worth mentioning or looking into.  He has to avoid the subject or else it messes up a nice tale.  

And it should be noted that Oswald was not the only defector.  Robert Webster (a dead ringer for Oswald in looks) was another who left the same year, 1962, that Oswald did (Lee knew him and Webster knew Marina, facts the reader isn’t told either).  There were in fact, a whole host of American defectors, many leaving that year as well.  

Another Important Point Omitted
However, what is commonly left out of the story is who exactly decided to allow Oswald to stay after his suicide attempt.  According to Joseph J. Trento in his book, The Secret History of the CIA, it was the most powerful woman in the Soviet Union, Yekaterina Furtseva.  The first female member of the Politburo, who took a personal interest in this hapless American defector and gave the order to let him stay.  According to Soviet defector Yuri Nosenko, it was Furtseva that ordered the KGB not to recruit Oswald as a possible KGB mole.

One would think this a very important point.  But Savodnik totally ignores Furtseva’s control of this issue.  It shows that Oswald’s entry as a defector into the Soviet Union was closely watched and made the hierarchy of Soviet government very suspicious.  The Russians have a long history of espionage and are very successful at it.  They probably spotted Oswald early on as an operative and someone not to be trusted.  

The idea that Savodnik would ignore this crucial fact is a serious lapse of judgement and good research.  He has to have an Oswald that is so unimportant, and such a failure in life, that nobody would have an interest in him.  But people of great import did.

The Real Interloper

The Interloper is the standard tale of the disgruntled loser with delusions of grandeur arriving at the Socialist Worker’s Paradise only to grow disillusioned there too.  Then later, the bad thing happens.  Hey, hasn’t Norman Mailer already written that book?  At last he gets a few mentions but Savodnik treats Mailer like a grumpy old uncle, capable of committing embarrassing disruptions, and whose insights are best ignored.  Might as well be, since Mailer wrote the better book on the subject of Lee Oswald and his time in Russia.  Mailer’s research includes KGB transcripts from the Oswald’s bugged apartment in Minsk, and while basically being the bickering of a young couple, it at least offers insights into their relationship.  The Interloper adds nothing to the mix.  Even the word “interloper,” used as a mantra in this book, is just a literary device Savodnik uses to propel along a well-trodden story.  

In the end, the real interloper in this book is the author himself.  His stuffy dismissal of conspiracy or its believers shows that his search for the truth is one reined in by the Gatekeepers that praise his book on the back cover blurbs.  Peter Savodnik’s portrayal of Lee Oswald as being out of place unstable misfit, unable to find a niche in wherever he travels, has been made so many times before it’s a yawn.  Some men seek the truth and other men just go along to get along.

Savodnik, like his subject, he has no sense of place either. He acts as if the Warren Report was the only investigation and nothing has happened since.  The House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded in their final report that there was a possibility of a conspiracy but they had not the time or finances to pursue any leads.  You will not see that mentioned in this book.  He considers Oswald's lack of motive as unimportant, dismisses conspiracy all too easily with a wave of a hand, travels the world for research only to restate old details, gets simple facts wrong or important ones omitted, he interviews only the people that will tell him what he wants to hear, and the author depends on the incomplete research and record of the Warren Report for his bedrock truth.

So what new revelations is the reader going to find?  Not much.  If you have an interest in biographies of Oswald’s friends and acquaintances in Minsk, or how long it took him to walk from his apartment to his job at the TV factory, then this book is for you.  

Otherwise, this tome features nothing new, much of which is rushed and summarized to begin with.

The Interloper serves as yet another vehicle for the Establishment to maintain their stranglehold on the mainstream media’s unyielding devotion to the long gunman myth.  Conspiracy...such a naughty word these days for this bunch of true-believing herd thinkers.

Hardcover: 288 pages

Publisher: Basic Books (October 8, 2013)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0465021816

ISBN-13: 978-0465021819

Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 9.2 inches

Addendum #1 
Although I didn’t give Norman Mailer’s Oswald’s Tale high marks, it is in retrospective a far better account of Lee Oswald’s life and search to find out the inner man, than The Interloper is.

Addendum #2 
Easy made it to my list of worst JFK Books.  LINK

Available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kindle, iBooks/iTunes

Book Review: Destiny Betrayed - JFK, Cuba, and the Garrison Case

Vincent Bugliosi in his End Notes for his book, Reclaiming History, calls Jim DiEugenio “a sincere conspiracy theorist.”  When reading DiEugenio’s second edition of his book, Destiny Betrayed, one is struck with just how little theory is involved.  It’s all a solid mix of history, fact, and proper historical context for the events that are to follow.  Jim DiEugenio said in a recent interview on Black Op Radio that he didn’t want to caught up in the minutia of details regarding the assassination in this new volume, but instead wanted to pursue an examination of how and why it happened and how it got covered up.  And that is what readers  will experience as they read this book.  

Destiny Betrayed begins in the Cold War shadow wars, a mix of skullduggery and dirty deeds where even the President is kept in the dark in regards to what is going on.  As DiEugenio shows, CIA Director Allen Dulles was attempting to dupe Kennedy into foreign policy and military actions he was not wanting to be a part of.  Dulles took the Central Intelligence Agency far from its original intent of intelligence gathering to a machiavellian, duplicitous outfit overthrowing democratically elected governments under the guise of combating communism, replacing them with controllable right-wing dictatorships, and for the most part, setting the stage for the profiteering of American corporations.  So manipulating Presidents for CIA objectives has become the modus operandi of the Agency that lasts to this day.  Meanwhile, the American public sleeps through these affairs being distracted with the communistic threat, the baby boom, pop culture, sports and so on.  The National Security State descends and much of American history becomes a secret locked away in warehouses.

As DiEugenio’s documents in the first part of his book, the leaders of the National Security State knew early on they had a problem with John Kennedy.  He wasn’t for war mongering, turning down attempts to pump troops into Vietnam and launch preemptive nuclear strikes.  Kennedy was not a believer in the Domino Theory.  The Bay of Pigs fiasco, well detailed in Destiny Betrayed, is a CIA run military op destined to fail so American troops could be called in it finish the job. Kennedy found out none of this till he ordered an inquiry into what happened and  the ever duplicitous Allen Dulles and other top CIA officials lost their jobs. 

The Pioneers Get All The Arrows

The star of the book is Jim Garrison.  His coming around from true believer in the Warren Report to a believer in conspiracy and pursuing a trial against an alleged conspirator is an compelling story.  He was flawed man, but a brave man who paid a terrible price for seeking the truth with his future career in politics destroyed.  The full weight of the federal government fell on his head like a ton of bricks.  His reputation was pillared by a hostile press, some of whom were government informants, who were to attack and expose his every move in the national media.  Kennedy bagman Walt Sheridan (former ONI, FBI, and NSA) was sent down to harass witnesses and later put together a slanderous, over the top attack on Garrison on NBC (which was so bad they had to let Garrison have an on-air rebuttal). And the attacks on his character raged from 1967 to this very day. (For example, Gerald Posner in his 1993 book named Garrison a child molester and Vince Bugliosi in his 2007 book labeled him, “symptomatically psychotic.”)  After the trial of Clay Shaw was over, and lost, Garrison was indicted twice and acquitted.  As you can see, charging headlong into the Status Quo is not for the faint of heart.

As Jim DiEugenio points out, in actuality, Jim Garrison’s attempt to prove conspiracy in the Kennedy assassination was flawed before it started.  Even his staff advised against it after lead witness David Ferrie died.  But Big Jim decided to press on. It didn’t help his cause much by trusting people that he should have left alone.  Men such as Bernardo Detorres, William Gurvich, and Gordon Novel. These men were not rubes–they were all experienced operatives and functioned as spies embedded within his investigative operatus, funneling information to Garrison’s chief tormentor, Walter Sheridan, and journalist/government shills such as Hugh Aynesworth and James Phelan.  DiEugenio documents in great detail how the FBI and CIA were formally engaged to see this Louisiana state trial of Clay Shaw fail.  

And this of course raises the biggest question of them all–if the Warren Report is correct and Lee Oswald is the only assassin, and there is no conspiracy, then why does the government, along with allies in the press, have to take these extreme measures to make sure a conspiracy verdict is not reached in a state trial?  The Justice Department sent down their lawyers to coach witnesses in how to answer questions at taxpayer expense, bug the District Attorney’s phones and transcribe everything said, plague his operation with informants, and have the DOJ successfully killed off subpoenas to top officials. It was a Federal government takedown from top to bottom.  If Garrison is wrong then why not let him fall on his own sword if their account of the President’s death is true?  What would they have to fear?

Plenty apparently.  It appears they overplayed their hand.

The Shaw Trial

Destiny Betrayed does a good job in describing the intricacies of the trial, the legal wrangling, and what Garrison could of done in hindsight.  Important witnesses either died or faded away; other witnesses were assaulted or intimidated into changing their stories by the Sheridan Machine.  Lots of witnesses were never called such as the 16 people Garrison had in regards to Clay Shaw’s Bertrand alias (something that he was never allowed to prove in court). 

While too intricate to go into here, there were some highlights.  One important incident was when autopsy physician Dr. Pierre Fink admitted that he, and the other two other physicians present at the Kennedy’s autopsy, were under control of another military authority, whose name he couldn’t remember.  Another was a screening of the Zapruder film that Garrison had to wrestle from Time-Life.  A film up to that point few had seen, and it was a shock for all witnesses present in the courtroom.  Too bad it took till 1975 before the general public got to see it on Geraldo Rivera’s TV show.  

The End

Jim DiEugenio paints a vibrant world of 1960's New Orleans, a place of clandestine activity, informants, intelligence operatives, down and outers, sexual adventurers, conspirators, Cubans, hookers, misfits, and suspicious entanglements.  It's quite a contrast to the worlds envisioned by the Warren Report defenders where everything suspicious is an illusion, where every contrary witness is wrong, and everything is conveniently explained.  Their selective harvesting of the details strips the soul out of how fascinating all of this is and how a conspiracy to murder a President could really take shape.  

Destiny Betrayed is fascinating work, well paced, expertly organized, and properly sourced.  New document releases from the ARRB and other sources bolster the narrative and explain who is telling the truth and who is not.  It’s the definitive book on Jim Garrison and how tantalizingly close he came to blowing the case wide open.

Available now in bookstores and online at Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and in ebook format for the Kindle and iPad. 

Details

ISBN-13: 9781620870563

Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing

Publication date: 11/15/2012

Edition description: Second Edition

Edition number: 2

Pages: 496

Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero

Every so often I post a notice on good articles to be found elsewhere. Here is one by Jim DiEugenio at Consortium News called, “Why Mr. Hardball Found JFK Elusive.” A very good and concise review about Chris Matthews book, Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero.

As stated in the opening:

“For weeks, Chris Matthews has been flogging his book, Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero, driving it up the ranks of best-seller lists, but the biography is as superficial and clueless as the MSNBC pundit often is, missing Kennedy’s true complexity, writes James DiEugenio.”

A great read, not to be missed.

Find it HERE.

BOOK REVIEW: The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Accent to Power, Means of Assent, and The Master of the Senate by Robert A. Caro


Trying to define Lyndon B. Johnson in one phrase is a challenge.  On one hand, he did good things for the poor people of Texas hill country. He made sure they had paved roads and electrical power. He was instrumental in placing himself in positions to award jobs to the jobless during the Great Depression. On the other hand, he embodies the worst of human behavior. The hard scrabble upbringing forged a man that would do anything (literally) to be successful in life and avoid the failures of his father, Sam Johnson, a former State legislator who went on to become a failed businessman whom the younger Johnson resented. Growing up the laughing stock because your daddy owes everybody money in town with a do-nothing mother altered a mind that was ripe for the picking. Or so they say, as one can never really know what made Lyndon Johnson that ogre that he became.

I got into reading Robert Caro’s three volume biography on LBJ because I wanted a closer look at the man that benefited the most from John Kennedy’s death. And, who has often been viewed as a suspect in the crime. A study of Johnson’s life and character is decent into darkness but also political genius. An astuteness that lets him anticipate situations and deftly work around them or deflect an oncoming blow. He laid down a course of action and never veered from it. A man that knew no shame in anything he did from stabbing his friends in the back to cheating on his wife (sometimes in their own home, with her there). And underneath it all was that drive to be the top dog because from an early age he wanted the top job–the Presidency of the United States. Then he wouldn’t be like that man, his father. The man that went from wearing suits and ties to the dirty clothes of a road crew foreman. The man that lost the family farm and dishonored the family name.

The Man

As I read through these volumes I was left with the dread that maybe monsters really do exist. After reading these books I felt dirty–as if I had spent too long playing the mud. It’s amazing how long he kept up so much criminal activity for so long with nobody finding out about it.

Johnson’s treatment of people was two-fold. First, the brown-nosed his career path with those in power; flattery and sweet words for older men whose power was on the wane and only had their memories of past victories to comfort them as they slowly faded into background noise. It served Johnson well on his climb as it was something nobody else would venture to do. He did it everywhere from the college dean, past Sam Rayburn in the Congress, to Richard Russell in the Senate, to Franklin Roosevelt in the Oval office.

Secondly, his treatment of people below him was beyond the pale and showed a sadistic streak. Fundamentally, a man with no empathy for his subordinates. In his early days he drove those that worked under like slaves, working them long hours till late at night, day after day, 7 days a week, with only allowing short breaks. Once a Johnson man, you belonged to him for life. His ability to dominate even the strongest opponent and make him submit to his will was his most remarkable trait. The trait of turning people into obedient, mind numbed slaves. A psychic vampire. Those that worked for him lived in fear of his wrath. Though as Robert Caro points out, an intelligent, independent person would not last long with Johnson and would move on. A farmer wouldn’t treat his cows this badly and expect them to produce milk, but LBJ did and got the milk too. And this abusive nature never changed from the time he was a Congressional aide, to NYA director, to Congressman, to Senate Majority Leader.

Nettie Connally, wife of John and who would one day be in the crosshairs at Dealey Plaza, was Johnson’s secretary for a few years. Once, when she didn’t answer the phone quickly enough he threw a book at her. She got off easy. Another secretary accidentally handed Johnson the wrong decanter of whisky. He accused her of poisoning him and threw it across the room shattering it. She had to clean up the mess. If somebody had an insecurity, Johnson took cruel pleasure in exploiting it. Once, when a newly divorced secretary delivered coffee he didn’t like, he told her it was no wonder she couldn’t keep a husband making such lousy coffee.

His wife, Lady Bird (Claudia Taylor) probably had the worst burden to bear and did so with a great deal of grace and charm. She was the number one slave, making sure the master had breakfast in bed, his pen and wallet in his pockets and his clothes properly laid out in the morning. She would be required to have meals ready to eat at any time of the day or night as Johnson was always bringing people over. And she would, graciously greeting all who entered their home with a warm smile. And, of course, there were all of her husband’s infidelities to deal with which somehow she ignored through that brain-dead love of hers for him. The man would not only grope women in front of her, but carry on with them in their own house at night, with her there. Robert Caro said he never understood her and one can see why. She is an interesting character in regards to how much abuse she endured and still remained faithful and loving to the end.

Of course we are familiar with Johnson’s habit of discussing policy with Senators, talking to reporters, and giving dictation while sitting on the toilet. Once again, another trait started early in his career. But it was far worse than that. This is a man that would proudly display his penis to other men in public restrooms and ask the question, “Ever seen anything this big before?” Not easily embarrassed, Johnson had no qualms about public urination in the House parking lot. While other men may hide behind a car or bush, not so with LBJ. He didn’t mind if the secretaries walking by witnessed him watering the lawn or not. Just as he didn’t care if people saw him walking around Capitol Hill hand-in-hand with Congresswoman Helen Douglass when he was having an affair with her.

The Assassination of Leland Olds

In all three books some truly awful deeds are recorded on Lyndon Johnson. vNothing really stopped his maneuvers to nix the reappointment of Leland Olds, the chairman of the Federal Power Commission. vOlds had been an effective Chairman but his regulation ran afoul of the Texas Oilmen who hated the restraints and Johnson saw a way to ally with them as he would need their financial help in the years ahead (and to gain their trust). Like all things LBJ this take-down was over the top and beyond the pale in viciousness. Poor Leland, he never saw the ambush coming.

Johnson started by delaying the reappointment hearings for months. That gave his associates time to dig up dirt, in this case, articles Olds had published years earlier in liberal publications. For the hearing itself they brought him people to attack Olds’ character, calling him such names as, punk, jackass, traitor, and other baseless charges. These people were given as long as they wanted to trash Old’s character while the witnesses for him were given short shifts, and rushed along with Johnson displaying a huge watch to time them.  The Senators, including Johnson, badgered Olds in testimony, constantly interrupting him, with accusations against him and his work as FPC chief and questions about articles he had written that he had little memory of.

If Clarence Thomas thought that he had experienced a “hi-tech lynching” in front of a Senate committee, that was mild in comparison to the vicious character assassination that befell Leland Olds. The ugliness on display probably wouldn’t be shown in front of TV cameras today. Politicians, ever careful about appearance, would shy away from these tactics as they had to when they sought to rake Oliver North over the coals at the Iran-Contra hearings. A huge public backlash forced them to retreat.

As usual, after the smoke cleared, Lyndon Johnson got his way and another free, first class ticket to Hell–as if he needed another one. Leland Olds was destroyed and his life and career in public service never recovered. His replacement, a do-nothing crony, let regulations lapse, much to the delight of the Oilmen.

In an ironic moment, typically Johnsonian, during a recess in the hearing, LBJ walked past Leland Olds in the hall and remarked to him how it all was nothing personal, just politics, and...could we still be friends? Obviously, the words of a man that had no thought, no inkling, living in total oblivion of the pain of others.

Nobody Likes Cheaters

Once again, all of Johnson’s early character traits he exhibited early on. The stealing of the 1948 Senate election from Coke Stephenson wasn’t the first time he did that. In college, his group the White Stars (the Black Stars didn’t like him and wouldn’t let him join) so he rigged the student council elections to get his people into the choice spots. The Black Stars never knew what hit them as Johnson got himself and his people in charge of student government. Later, as a Congressional aide, he took the Little Congress, a social club of aides and turned it into a political organization to benefit himself. Stuffing the ballot boxes worked till he was called on it.

Means of Accent, the second book of The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Caro documents in great detail the corrupting of the voting process that allowed the stealing of the 1948 election. For Johnson, it was his last chance to advance his political career towards his final goal as President, and it was hang fire or nothing. As Caro points out, Johnson’s crookedness shocked even the old-timers in how brazen and blatant it was, as if he had no higher authority to answer to.

It’s my favorite of the three books. It's a great contrast between the personalities. Coke, former Texas Governor and a man of honor and ethics from the old school, where a man’s word was his bond. And Lyndon, a man with no scruples about anything, whose word was whatever it meant to whomever he was talking to at the time. Robert Caro does a great job in chronicling the event, probably the best ever, in rich detail. One remarkable scene is when he places the reader in the dusty streets of Alice, Texas just after the election as Coke and former Texas Ranger Frank Hamer go to investigate the ballot boxes. Hamer, whose legendary career included gunfights killing 53 men and sported the 17 scars of those gun battles. (His most famous case was the ambush on Bonny and Clyde after a 102 day hunt.) A dangerous scene ensued with armed goons blocking the way to the bank where the election records were being kept. Marching straight ahead, Frank Hamer never broke his stride and they fell away in his wake. The goons attempted to enter after Coke, but big Frank stood in the doorway eyeing them down with his hand resting on his holstered gun, keeping them at bay, while Coke and his attorneys viewed the voter’s tally sheet and poll list. They found evidence of fraud but were never able to deliver on it in court. Johnson’s attorneys delayed the release of the aforementioned voter records and contents of ballot box 13, just long enough for Supreme Court Justice Black to pull the plug, fearing a violation of state’s rights issues. (Those records have since long disappeared as has ballot box 13; but not the photograph of it.) Johnson walks away with a steal.

A tragic story as the bad guys win. But there is a happy ending. Coke Stephenson retires to a quiet life of a Texas rancher, marries a lovely woman he loves dearly, and she gives him the delight of his life, a daughter. Lyndon Johnson gets his comeuppance in the 1960s as his Presidency is bogged down in an unpopular war, sapping the life out of his blood. He gets to the mountain top and finds it a lonely destination. The lapel grabbing, chest pointing, space invader can’t do a damn thing. Meanwhile, the 1948 theft is never far behind and follows him wherever he goes, adding to the public’s distrust of the man. It stares him in the face on the mountain top. He dies a crazy loon, the respect he so craved departed far from him.

Robert Caro’s Hot Potatoes

Probably the most ironic thing about this series of excellently written thoroughly researched books is what is missing. Apparently, there are areas of investigation that are too seedy even for Caro to venture into. Over two-thousand pages and he cannot mention Madeline Brown one time though he has no problem mentioning Johnson’s other lovers.  And it was known in Texas that she was Johnson's favorite with an affair that is supposed to have lasted 21 years and produced one child, a son. Mac Wallace, another character widely known to have worked for Johnson as a thug, a man with a murderous past, makes no appearance either. Even a pivotal figure, such as Edward Clark, Johnson’s personal attorney for many years, is portrayed as a minor player in Johnson’s life. In fact, I don’t recall Caro ever mentioning that Clark was Johnson’s attorney or took care of so much of his business. Yet according to Bar McClellan, who started working in Clark’s law firm in 1966 (author, Blood, Money, And Power), it was Clark that helped Johnson cover up his many crimes, which includes the stealing of the 1948 senate election. Clark and Johnson, according to McClellan, made good foils for one another, the corrupt lawyer paired with corrupt politicians.  Caro interviewed Clark but was cut off after Means of Ascent was published. I think Caro, wanting to be taken seriously by his fellow peers and the mainstream media, decided to leave these sleeping dogs to snooze. He seems far more interested in the intricacies of Johnson’s political maneuvering, which is well explained and fascinating to learn, rather than traversing even greater conspiracies such as the wasteland that lies on the horizon of the JFK assassination.

Unfortunately, we get two histories out of this business. The “official” one from the likes of Caro, Dallek, Goodman, Manchester, and so on. And then there is what actually happened which lives on the Internet and is investigated by that other tier of writers–those souls toiling away who will never win the Pulitzer Prize for their efforts, but add much to the total picture of what happened. Anyway, the official history gives us the official characters of the narrative–the other stuff that went on you are not supposed to know. It’s all strained through a political filter. This is why we need Net Neutrality to stand so the other side of the story gets told. 

The End Game

In the The Master of the Senate, Lyndon Johnson is positioned for his final drive to the presidency. All that work and years of scheming; he had the path clear by 1958-59. He made a stab at the 1956 convention just to be beaten out by another man he hated, Adlai Stevenson. And then that charming Kennedy boy comes along and takes it away from him in 1960. Did it anger him enough to have JFK taken out? We need more evidence of Lyndon Johnson’s murderous intent, if there was one, to resolve that. He wasn’t happy, we know that for certain. As Caro says of his character: “...the utter inability to comprehend the questions of morality or ethics raised by his actions, an utter inability to tell that there was even a possibility that he had violated accepted standards of conduct and might be punished for that violation.”

And that was just it–he was never punished for his violations of the accepted standards of conduct. He didn’t lose his wife by cheating on her, even when he did it their own home with her sleeping alone. He had political operatives stuff a ballot box and write up phony voter tally sheets. There was nobody there to indict him of fraud, conspiracy, and bribery that it took to get that done. He wasn’t ever reprimanded for anything he did that was wrong.  It only ended when he achieved his goal. In his last days he was left alone and broken.

Nevertheless, a great read for what it is. If you think LBJ had JFK murdered there is a great deal of back-story here detailing Johnson's amoral personality and his criminal, conspiratorial life that will add fuel to the fire. There is actual sowing and reaping and Lyndon Johnson reaped at the end of his life.

And lastly, for those that dismiss vote rigging as being possible, Lyndon Johnson was a living example of it.

A Conspiratorialist’s Guide to JFK Assassination Books

Actually, you do not have to be a conspiratorialist to read the books mentioned here. Of course, I have not read the hundreds of books published on this subject, so I will be leaving a few out here, as information gets cross-referenced to death. Here is a list to get you started whether you are a novice or a seasoned researcher.

Cross Fire
The Jim Marrs classic that served as a guide for Oliver Stone’s JFK movie. A good beginner’s book, Marrs simply lays down the facts and doesn’t get too conspiratorial or far out, allowing the reader to ponder the information and draw their own conclusions. It was published in the late 80’s and so far hasn’t been updated. It should be as a lot of new information has been released since.

Rush To Judgment
The book that started it all. The classic critique of the Warren Commission and the first best selling book on the subject published in 1966 by Mark Lane and Hugh Trevor-Roper. The government considered the publication of this book so dangerous that it sent the second highest in command at the FBI to beg the publisher not to publish it. No other book helped to sow the seeds of doubt in the public’s mind over the official story of JFK’s death than this tome.

Breach of Trust
Gerald McKnight’s brilliant examination of the Warren Commission, the underlying politics, behind the scene intrigues, and turf battles with the FBI and CIA. Here is the genesis of the controversy. McKnight demonstrates that the Warren Commission wasn’t a true investigation but a politicized rubber-stamping of the FBI’s initial investigation. Hoover’s shadow looms large over the process insuring one conclusion—Oswald acted alone—now move on! One of my favorite books on the assassination and highly recommended. Well sourced and contains information you won’t find anywhere else.

The Last Investigation
Gaeton Fonzie, one of the lead investigators for the HSCA, writes one of the best books ever on the Kennedy Assassination. Finally, back in print. He goes into the political infighting of the HSCA and showcases the high points, and low points of the investigation and how everything was hamstrung by political restraints, lawyers, and CIA deceptions. An excellent book for the students of the HSCA side of things and as aptly titled, the last official government investigation of the death of John Kennedy.

Our Man in Mexico
Jeff Morley’s excellent book on CIA station chief in Mexico City, Win Scott, and the CIA’s surveillance of Oswald’s trip to Mexico City in late September 1963. What they knew, when they knew it, and how the CIA lied to the Warren Commission, and everybody else about it since. Morley shows how the CIA still has information on Oswald classified to this day (such as Win Scott’s memoirs) and how they kept their station chief in the dark about Oswald’s true purpose in Mexico, whatever that was. A good showcase on how spooky the CIA really is.

Witness to History
Apparently a lot witnesses slipped through the cracks and William Law tracks them down. Some people in this book give their witness testimony for the first time. Some excellent interviews with personal closely associated with Bethesda Naval Hospital and the autopsy of JFK. Mostly all demonstrate that there was most likely other shooters in Dealey Plaza. Of particular note is autopsy techs, O’Conner and Jenkins who bear witness to seeing Kennedy’s back wound probed with a metal rod that only went 2-3 inches at downward angle, showing no pass through. You can see why some of these people were not asked to testify, as they did not support the government’s theory of the lone gunman.

The Warren Commission Report
Read the report that started it all. Then you’ll see what a dog and pony show the Warren Commission was and how inept the alleged investigation was. You’ll see by reading some of the other books here first, all of the witnesses and evidence that was ignored or distorted in order for the lone nut theory to work. Actually, the 26 volumes of collected evidence make for a better read of what happened and you can find them at history-matters.com.

Ultimate Sacrifice
The Mob did it! Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartman explore organized crime’s desire to kill Kennedy. Very plausible scenario and their theories help explain many unsolved mysteries in the case. Could have been the Mob though in this case everybody has a motive. Except of course, the man charged with the crime.

Blood, Guns and Money
LBJ did it! Barr McClellan, former law partner in the firm that took care of Lyndon Johnson tells the tale of conspiracy involving LBJ and his attorney Edward Clark to assassinate the president of the United States. Seems far-fetched, but some bits are plausible. Ultimately, he reverts to theory to explain what all happened, including having Johnson crony Mac Wallace on the sixth floor of the schoolbook depository building with Oswald, as if that were possible. Unnamed extra shooters were on the grassy knoll. Let’s have a Texas shoot out boys! The head Yankee is coming to town!

Someone Would Have Talked
The Cubans did it! Larry Hancock weaves a tale of Cuban involvement though he cites no clear theory as to what happened and hence, no real conclusion. Highly regarded in JFK research circles, though I am not a fan. However, it does feature a good timeline on LBJ in the assassination’s aftermath, suggesting he knew more than he ever told. Book includes a very bad index—look up Silvia Odio and see if you can find her. Photos are icky, rough, low-res scans.

A Farewell to Justice
The CIA did it! Joan Mellen investigates Jim Garrison’s prosecution of Clay Shaw and the surrounding circus of obstruction from the media, CIA/FBI, and Kennedy henchmen. Like big Jim said, for the Feds, this was like shooting fish in a barrel. Only it was just more than the Feds at work here. This is quite a story and takes on a life of its own. She does fumble a bit and references people that not even Jim Garrison took seriously. Overall a fascinating read into the New Orleans side of the case with a huge assortment of characters.

Reclaiming History
The lone nut did it! Vince Buglosi’s spirited defense of the decaying Warren Commission Report. If you have the upper body strength to pick up this massive tome, a willingness to suffer though Bugliosi’s obnoxious insulting personality, and his over zealous attitude against anything conspiratorial, you are in for an interesting read. Ironically, Bugliosi promises up front not to knowingly omit or distort any important facts and then proceeds to do just that through hundreds of pages of text. He has to or else he’ll have more dilemmas than he can ever resolve. Just beware of Bugliosi’s straw man arguments and his cherry picking of the evidence. Sometimes I wonder if Bugliosi believes this stuff. It comes off reasonable till you do your own research and find out the esteemed former prosecutor has no clothes. This book does provide detailed background material so it makes an excellent source book. Ever wanted to know what brand boxers JFK was wearing on that fateful day? You’ll find it here. If you buy it used make sure it comes with the CD-ROM, which offers another thousand pages of notes to examine on disc. And also make sure you read James DiEugenio’s excellent and devastating rebuttal of this book at www.ctka.net.

Harvey and Lee
The doppelganger did it! John Armstrong’s remarkable research into the Oswald doppelganger theory and builds a strong case with documentation and eye witness testimony. Armstrong keeps the two separate by naming one Harvey and the other Lee. Over 900 pages of fascinating reading on the life of Oswald no matter how many of them there actually were. Also features lots of weird and obscure trivia on the Kennedy assassination as well. Armstrong really did his legwork on this massive work. Regardless of what you believe about this subject, this book makes for a great source volume on the life of Lee Harvey Oswald. Hard to find and out of print though published in 2003. Be prepared to pay top dollar for a used copy, if you can find one. Some go for as much as $200. Well sourced and referenced with scanned documents and photos on CD-ROM.

The Assassinations
Lisa Pease and James Dieguenio assemble the better articles from the now defunct Probe magazine. A wealth of material here on all of the murders of the major political figures in the 1960’s—JFK, RFK, MLK, and Malcolm X. Great background material on all sorts of issues with JFK assassination.

No Case to Answer
Former UK policeman Ian Griggs does some very nice investigative work into the assassination. This book’s chapters are basically essays so feel free to skip around and read what you want. Of particular interest is Griggs’ breakdown of the rifle Oswald allegedly used showing that it couldn’t be reassembled with a dime, as reported to the Warren Commission by the FBI. And it does not disassemble in two parts, but about a dozen.

Without Smoking Gun
In this thin little book, Kent Heiner explores the death of Lieutenant Commander William Pitzer who was seen filming the autopsy of JFK. Later he was found dead from suicide, his film disappeared too. This book also relates the story of Daniel Marvin who claims the CIA tried to hire him to do a hit on Lt. Cmdr. Pitzer. He declined. Like so many things with this case, all conjecture and circumstantial evidence, but it’s a good yarn. A book to fire the imagination of any conspiratorialist. Out of print, but available at Amazon Marketplace. A nested conspiracy that looms larger than the Kennedy assassination at times.

On My Highly Recommended List

I would place Breach of Trust, The Last Investigation, Our Man in Mexico, Reclaiming History, and Harvey and Lee as must have books to read to provide a broad understanding of the problems and issues of the Kennedy assassination. Other books such as Cross Fire, or Rush to Judgment offer good starting points.

assassination

Book Review: American Brutus by Michael Kauffman

One of the criticisms of conspiracy theory is that people are not capable of keeping secrets. The conspiracy of John Wilkes Booth to first kidnap and then later assassinate the president of the United States offers evidence to the contrary. Of the half dozen or so characters that pass through the narrative, nobody gives the plot away. Booth cleverly made sure that all that came in contact with him were linked to him, either through letters, public meetings in restaurants or bars, horses rented from the same stable, or signed hotel ledgers.

Michael Kauffman’s American Brutus is a tour de force in what a real conspiracy is like and how it unfolds. John Booth, the charismatic and successful stage actor runs the show. A pro-slavery southerner, he increasingly views Abraham Lincoln as a tyrant. His first plot is not to kill Lincoln but capture him and hold him for ransom for the freeing of Confederate prisoners of war. These plans fall short with the defeat of the south and his fellow conspirators disapproval of his method of capturing Lincoln, which included lowering him from the balcony to the floor on a rope, while the entire audience watched!

Towards the end, Booth becomes unhinged, gives up his acting career, goes into debt financing his plot, appears moody and depressed, and apparently at the last moment, decides to murder Lincoln.

Author Kauffman reveals many firsts in the assassination of Lincoln, such as:

• Booth apparently didn’t break his ankle during his dramatic leap to the stage after shooting Lincoln. He landed on his right foot but it was his left ankle that was broken. No witness recalls Booth limping off the stage. Kauffman gives evidence that an accident on the get-away horse during the flight may have caused it.
• During the flight, a former Confederate soldier who learned Booth’s identity asked him for an autograph. Booth did one better and wrote a poem (never before published) where he hinted that he had turned down a bribe to kill Lincoln. If so, this clue may indicate the conspiracy had more twists and turns than originally known.

One of the more amazing tales of the book is how the authorities managed to find everybody, from Booth to the host of conspirators, without using modern investigative techniques, forensic science, and slow communication and travel of the time. Despite numerous bungles (such as finding Booth’s escape map and ignoring it), the case was solved in about the same amount of time as modern investigations take.

I highly recommend this book for students of assassinations and conspiracy. It’s a well-written and thoroughly documented account of the Lincoln assassination. It’s a real conspiracy that can be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. No files or evidence is still classified after all of this time. Despite all that is known, there are still mysteries that can never be solved in this case—only closer approximations of the events that transpired.

Book Review: Reclaiming History by Vincent Bugliosi, Jr.

Reclaiming History is ultimately a flawed masterpiece. It’s a huge, heavy book of 1600+ pages (not to mention another 1,000 pages of end notes on disc). Bugliosi, the famous prosecutor of Charles Manson, attempts in grand style to deal with every detail ever written about in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. A “book of the ages” as the author boasts in interviews. However, like the Warren Commission that he so doggedly defends, this is not an objective search for the truth. Bugliosi states right up front that Oswald is “guilty as sin” and it spirals down from there in a long, detailed, prosecutorial brief in defense of the Warren Commission.

At first, Bugliosi's logic is quite impressive. His powers of deduction are unimpeachable, as if he were a flesh and blood version of Sherlock Holmes. He slices his way through conspiracy theories (and their authors) one after the other with skill and precision that he honed for years as a prosecutor. No rank amateur he. Off with their heads! But ultimately, the author’s arguments are straw men, easily burned when exposed to the flame.

Here is an example: In regards to the mysterious deaths of Kennedy assassination witnesses, Bugliosi states that in his experience as a prosecutor, a criminal suspect would most likely rather kill a witness before they speak. In this case, the witnesses have all talked repeatedly for many years. Makes sense. However, Bugliosi leaves out the other side of the argument. If this were true, then there would be no need for Federal witness protection programs. And what are they for? For material witnesses who gave their testimony and are under threat of death from the bad guys—after they talked. Here, Bugliosi simply ignores the other side of the argument to preserve his own.

And it’s like this over and over again.

For someone writing a book for the ages, many details are surprisingly flawed, even simple ones. On one page Bugliosi states there are 13 warehouse workers in the schoolbook depository building. On the same page, next paragraph, he states there are 16. He asserts that Huntley and Brinkley reported from ABC when they were on NBC. In the book he correctly refers to Dr. Ebersol as the acting chief of Radiology at Bethesda Naval. Then in the endnotes on disc he refers to him again but this time as an x-ray technician. Quite a demotion there! Sorry to be so picky but after all, this is the Book of Ages, meant to end all discussion, right? Hardly.

In some sections Bugliosi seems to have no grasp of the subject matter. For example, he agrees with HSCA pathology panel’s positioning of Kennedy’s back wound, with it being lower than the neck wound. He then goes on to say there are autopsy photographs which show the opposite—higher back and lower throat—which he then precedes to agree with. A Google search brings up the very same photo in question and shows this not true at all. Go see for yourself. In fact, he is being quite sloppy here. Why? Is somebody else doing the writing? At times Bugliosi acts as if we, the reading public, don’t have access to the Internet that allow us to double check what he is talking about.

More alarming are the blatant misrepresentation of facts (too numerous to go into here). Here is one of my favorite examples: Bugliosi claims that the Secret Service did not wash off the presidential limousine at the Parkland Hospital (before the FBI could examine it) and there were no witnesses to this event. Again, a simple Google search proves otherwise. Not only are there pictures of this washing taking place (a NY Times photographer was there) but there were three journalists who witnessed the event that have reported this event (the most famous—Tom Wicker of the NY Times who described the incident taking place in 1963). Needless to say, it is quite a goof on Bugliosi's part as it is easily disproved. Ironic, as he spends so many pages looking down his nose at conspiracy theorists, treating them as rank amateurs, while he does his fair share amateurish deeds as well.

Perhaps, in his zeal to set the record straight and assure the public that the Warren Commission got it right, any errors by them have to be overlooked or ignored. Such as when it was discovered by independent researchers that somebody had altered the transcript of Mrs. Kennedy’s interview—some thirty times and involving some crucial information on the number of shots and the Presidents fatal head wound. Bugliosi gives the Commissioners a pass, declaring that it was proof that their “heart’s were not made of stone.” Please! This is falsification of sworn witness testimony.

Bugliosi’s vain, boastful, personality almost overrides the narrative. He is a maze of contradictions. He is openly disdainful of conspiracy theorists calling them nuts, and kooky, and so on. He chastises them for making rooky mistakes, all the while making plenty of his own. After reading hundreds of pages of the continual vitriol on almost every page, it gets old. It’s as if he is not reclaiming history but settling scores. Oddly, Bugliosi is on the record for supporting a conspiracy in the death of the president’s brother, Robert Kennedy, which of course, makes him a conspiracy theorist too. Interesting that he gets one and not the other.

Despite it’s faults, Reclaiming History remains an excellent source book for students of the JKF assassination. The first section has a very good play-by-play score of events leading up to and past the crime. But one has to take it for what it is. Ultimately, one must do one’s own research into this issue, as cloudy and confusing at it can get. Bugliosi makes some valid arguments in defense of the official version of events, but often has to resort to ignoring contradictory evidence, cherry picking witness testimony, and at times, downright deception in order to arrive at his conclusions. At other junctures he flat out misrepresents evidence or presents assumptions as facts. Finally, Bugliosi makes too much of his right to be the author of the definitive truth on the Kennedy assassination. This, from a man who was sued for slander in the early 1970s and had to settle out for court for $15,000.