Vincent Bugliosi is out hawking a new book, Divinity of Doubt: The God Question
and appeared recently on the Alex Jones show. The former LA prosector gained fame in the late 1960s for putting away Charlie Manson and his gang for the Tate-Labianca murders. Years later Bugliosi gained the ire of JFK conspiracy researchers with his 2007 book, Reclaiming History. Ever boastful, Bugliosi called this 1600+ book (plus over 900 pages on CD-ROM) his “Magnus Opus” on the JKF assassination and did so once again on Jones’ radio program. The book itself is rightly referred to as a door stop and it belly flopped in the marketplace. It is no longer in print.
There is something basically smarmy about Bugliosi with his high-pitched slick talking lawyer swag. His arguing style, and to a certain extent, his writing style about the assassination bare similarity to that of a stage magician with slight of hand tricks and a pretty leggy model on side. Throw in some straw men to shoot down, plus an added dose of vitriol towards naysayers (i.e., conspiracy theorists) and the naivety of an audience that might not be familiar the particulars in the case, and he comes off looking sharp and on-game. I’ve called him the “King of the cherry pickers” as he often picks the evidence that supports the Warren Commissions’s lone gunman conclusion and largely ignores (when not discrediting) any contrary evidence.
Alex Jones tried to get Bugliosi to talk some about other issues, particularly the Kennedy assassination, but it quickly became apparent that Bugliosi didn’t want to entertain the notion, stating the lack of time to properly get into the issue. Jones did get him to talk about the shots from the grassy knoll, getting the standard reply, “There is no evidence of anybody seeing a shooter on the grassy knoll.” More on that in a few paragraphs.
But take notice of Bugliosi’s modus operandi–he says there is nobody seeing a shooter on the knoll. But what about the witnesses that heard shots coming from the knoll? He ignores them using the classic Bugliosi pass. The fact is, there are over fifty people that heard shots from knoll; everybody from Abraham Zapruder making his famous film, to Phil Willis whose photographs appeared in Look magazine to Bill and Gayle Newman lying on the curb protecting their children from shots they say they heard coming from the knoll. As it happens, too many to mention here.
This very similar to how Bugliosi dismisses the whole idea of there being a shooter on the knoll at all. He does this by stating the shooter has the wrong angle and that the kill shot would have passed through Kennedy’s head from ear to ear, rather than laterally from the front to back. Seems reasonable upon first assessment and I have to admit I was taken in by this when I first read it. But there is a catch–Bugliosi places the shooter in the wrong position behind the picket fence to being with! He does not believe any witness testimony so invents this scheme. My grandmother used to call this, “Having your cake and eating it too.” Indeed. Beware of this man’s arguments as they appear well upon first glance, but fade when more light is focused upon them.
Going back to the witnesses that saw activity on the grassy knoll, Tip O’Neill, on page 178 in his book, “Man of the House” cites both Kennedy aides Dave Powers and Kenny O’Donnell as saying they saw smoke rising from behind the picket fence on the knoll. And most importantly, they both heard shots coming from behind the fence as well.
However, the Master Cherry Picker not need ponder such difficulties. The song and dance must go on.
Sources
YouTube links:
Bugliosi on Alex Jones, May 11.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LD46_HQtzM
Jim Marrs rebuttal, May 12.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ9clQ-QA4k
