Some recent JFK literature
In front of me is a copy of Guth and Wrone’s The Assassination of John F. Kennedy: A Comprehensive Historical and Legal Bibliography 1983-1979 (1980), nearly 450 pages, running to some 5,134 entries covering books, magazine articles, records, TV programmes, and news items from both the New York Times and the Washington Post (though not concurrently). Bringing the work up-to-date to cover the years 1980 through 1992 would probably require a volume twice the size.
So, you see, the problem isn’t the quantity of the material but the quality…. and the quality is pretty uneven. Here then is a round-up of some recently published works — good, bad, and indifferent; and even a couple that are, in the vernacular, crucial.
And remember what Thoreau wrote — read the best books first because you may not have time to read anything else.
- Alan, Richard. The Gemstone File: Sixty Years of Corrupt Manipulation Within World Government Detailing the Events Surrounding the Assassination of JFK. Thornville, Columbus, Ohio: Gemstone Crown, 1992. xlvi plus 403 pps. Illustrated, index.
Whether you are, in H. L. Mencken’s memorable phrase, ‘a connoisseur of the higher mountbankery’,or simply a plain self-booting paranoid in search of the ‘Unifified Field theory’ that Explains It All, this is the edition of the Gemstone File to have. Alan reprints the Skeleton Key and adds glosses and annotations. He also presents hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles in facsimile to support the thesis, some dating back to the 1930s — and it is this section that is worth the price of the book alone. Forget the interpretation, just chart the changing perceptions in an unfolding story as it happened.
Stephanie Caruana, a sometime contributor to Playgirl magazine and an associate of the late Mae Brussel, wrote the Skeleton Key, basing it upon the letters and research of Bruce Roberts (died San Francisco 1976). Caruana discusses Roberts, Brussel and other topics in an interview in Steamshovel Press, no. 8, 1993. Her version of the File is available from her direct at PO Box 1292, Cragsmoor, NY 12420, USA for $14.95. - Brown, Walt. The People v. Lee Harvey Oswald. New York: Carroll and Graf/Richard Gallen, 1992. xix plus 651 pp. Bibliography, index.
An honest work that attempts to document what would have happened had Oswald stood trial for the assassination — actual witnesses are called and cross-examined. This has already been done a couple of times on television, but much less comprehensively. Brown’s novelistic touches, however, frequently reduce the proceedings to the level of a Sydney Sheldon novel. - Conspiracy Comics. Who Really Killed JFK? San Diego: Conspiracy Comics/Revolutionary Comics, March 1992. 32 pp.
A comic book primer that asks the right questions, even if it doesn’t always provide the right answers. Stuff like this keeps the fires burning in areas the critical community never quite reaches. - Craig, John R., and Rogers, Philip A. The Man on the Grassy Knoll. New York: Avon Books, 1992. xvi plus 280 pp. Illustrated, bibliography.
Edwina and Fred Rogers were brutally murdered and dismembered in Houston in 1965. The crime remains unsolved. Craig and Rogers say the couple’s son, Charles, was responsible. They also say he was one of the hit-men on the Grassy Knoll (the other was Charles Harrelson), and that Oswald, though known to both of them in the planning, was set-up as a patsy. Charles Rogers also knew David Ferrie and Jack Ruby.
The ‘crime of the century’ is thus solved by the end of the book but none of it can be believed. No evidence is produced to support the authors’ arguments. This is mystery solving by diktat.
However, on the upside, there is some good discussion of the Three Tramps and the photo section finally convinced me (after years of waivering) that one of the ‘tramps’ is Harrelson. The other is undoubtedly a figure identified as Chauncy Holt. - Crenshaw, Charles A., MD, with Hansen, Jens and Shaw, J. Gary. JFK: Conspiracy of Silence. New York: Signet, 1992. xvi plus 203 pp. Illustrated.
Crenshaw, a surgeon at Parkland Hospital, fought to save JFK and Oswald. A first-hand account of what went on at the hospital. Crenshaw says bullets struck Kennedy from the front, and also that LBJ phoned the hospital on the Sunday asking for a death-bed confession from Oswald. Important testimony with an introduction by John H. Davis. A new, updated and expanded edition is in the press.
See ‘The Dr. Is Still in’ and ‘Parkland Doctors vs. Dr. Charles Crenshaw’ in Dateline Dallas (SpringSummer, 1993), the newsletter of the JFK Assassination Information Center. (See final paragraph below.) - Davis, John H. The Kennedy Contract: The Mafia Plot to Assassinate the President. New York: HarperPaperbacks (sic), 1993. 312 pp. Illustrated, bibliography, index.
A hurriedly written pendant, incorporating Frank Ragano ‘confessions’, to Davis’ earlier and better written Mafia Kingfish: Carlos Marcelo and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy (1988)
The Mafia theory has some superficial plausibility, but even if the ‘good fellas’ pulled the trigger, you know they wouldn’t have gone ahead with it by themselves. Someone gave them the wink. As I’ve said elsewhere, Davis, Scheim and Blakey have mistaken the monkey for the organ grinder. - DiEugenio, James. Destiny Betrayed: JFK, Cuba and the Garrison Case. New York: Sheridan Square Press, 1992. xxii and 423 pp. Illustrated, bibliography, index.
A major reassessment of the Garrison case. DiEugenio makes a few mistakes and gets confused on a couple of issues, but nonetheless he makes a better case against Clay Shaw than Garrison did himself. Important new material: required reading for all grades. Introduction by Zachary Sklar. - Epstein, Edward Jay. The Assassination Chronicles: Inquest. Counterplot and Legend. New York: Carroll and Graf, 1992. 702pp. Illustrated, index.
Three works by Epstein in an omnibus volume: Inquest: The Warren Commission and the Establishment of the Truth (1966), Counterplot: Garrison Against the World (1968), and Legend: the Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald (1978). Even if you have the three books already this edition is a must-get for the new introductions, afterwords and essays, some seven pieces in all. You might not agree with Epstein, you may even hate him, but you’ve got to read him. - Giancana, Sam and Giancana, Chuck. Double Cross: the Story of the Man Who Controlled America. New York: Warner Books, 1992. London: Macdonald, 1992. xi plus 366 pp. Illustrated, index.
Sam Giancana’s life, times and broads, but hardly a page that could be described as reliable. Adds nothing credible to what we already know and belongs on the shelf next to that other farrago of Mafia misinformation, The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano. Pass on this one. - Hamilton, Nigel. JFK: Reckless Youth New York: Random House, 1992. xxiv plus 898 pp. Illustrated, sources, index.
Volume 1 of Hamilton’s biography takes the story of JFK up to 1946. A worthy and balanced book, good not only for the main events but background too. Definitive, I would guess, on Kennedy’s affair with Inga Arvad and Hoover’s prurient snooping.
How will Hamilton handle the assassination in the second volume? Will he take it head-on or cop-out like most mainstream academic writers? - Hinckle, Warren and Turner, William. Deadly Secrets: the CIA-Mafia War Against Castro and the Assassination of JFK. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1992. lxii plus 464 pp. Illustrated, bibliography, index.
A reissue under a new title of The Fish is Red, first published in 1981. Comprehensive, detailed and generally reliable. - House of Representatives. Select Committee on Assassinations.
Now available on CD-ROM. Contact Johnny D. Eldred, L.M.P. Systems, 1271 N. Plano Road, Richardson, Texas 75081, USA. - Hubbard-Burrell, Joan. What Really Happened? JFK: Five Hundred and One Questions and Answers. Spring Branch, Texas: Ponderosa Press, 1992. 320 pp. Illustrated, bibliography, index.
A marvellous book in question and answer format. Reminds you of all the stuff you’ve forgotten. Interesting selection of illustrations. Forward by Larry N. Howard. - Jones, Peter. Orthodoxy and Revisionism in the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Reading, U.K.: University of Reading, Department of Politics (Occasional Paper No. 13), March 1993. 37 pp.
30 years after the assassination an English academic discovers that there might be more to Dealey Plaza than Earl Warren let on. An entry level paper for the author’s peer group (and anyone else who has had their head up their ass for the last three decades.) - Kirkwood, James. American Grotesque: An Account of the Clay Shaw — Jim Garrison Kennedy Assassination Trial in New Orleans New York: HarperPerennial (sic), 1992. 669 pp. Illustrated, index.
A welcome reissue of the title first published by Simon and Schuster in New York in 1970. American Grotesque is the best day-to-day account of the events and trial down in New Orleans. Kirkwood is unashamedly pro-Shaw but attempts to be dispassionate and presents his own views as that and nothing else. Students of Big Jim, ignore this book at their peril. Available in the U.K. as an import. - Lane, Mark. Plausible Denial: Was the CIA Involved in the Assassination of JFK? New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1991. xvi plus 393 pp. Illustrated, index.
Lane’s account of the Liberty Lobby defence he undertook when Howard Hunt sued for defamation over an article by Victor Marchetti in The Spotlight alleging Hunt’s involvement in the assassination. Much new material on Hunt, David Attlee Phillips, G. Gordon Liddy, Stansfield Turner, Richard Helms and the CIA. - Lewis, Ron. Flashback: the Untold Story of Lee Harvey Oswald. Roseburg, Oregon: Lewcom Productions, 1992. 272 pp. Illustrated.
Ron Lewis was on the lam when he met Oswald in Texas and New Orleans. He saw him daily and got to know him well. Lewis claims Clay Shaw was Guy Bannister’s intelligence boss and that both Jack Ruby and Roscoe White were Camp Street regulars. Presents a convincing picture of the shadowy intelligence world in the Crescent City.
The book is clumsily edited and confusingly arranged but it does seem Lewis’ story is essentially true. Further corroborative investigation is needed here, however. - Meagher, Sylvia. Accesories After the Fact: the Warren Commission, the Authorities and the Report. New York: Vintage Random House, 1992. xxxiii plus 477 pp. Index.
Meagher’s book was first published in 1967 and remains the best single critique of the Warren Commission and Report. An essential book for every JFK student. Preface by Senator Richard S. Schweiker; introduction by Peter Dale Scott. A well-produced, large format paperback reissue. - Newman, John M. JFK and Vietnam: Deception, Intrigue and the Struggle for Power. New York, Warner Books, 1992, xiv plus 506 pp. Illustrated, index, bibliography.
A richly detailed and near definitive study of JFK and the Vietnam imbroglio – and sympathetically written. - North, Mark. Act of Treason: the Role of J. Edgar Hoover in the Assassination of President Kennedy. New York, Carroll and Graf, 1991. 671 pp. Illustrated, bibliography, index.
A weighty, detailed study of Hoover nad JFK done on a day-by-day basis, this points to Hoover being an accessory to the fact. The source book on Hoover and the assassination and, surprisingly, absent from the notes and references to Anthony Summers’ Official and Confidential: the Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover (1993). - Oglesby, Carl. The JFK Assassination: the Facts and the Theories. New York: Signet, 1992. 319 pp. Bibliography.
An exhilarating collection of essays by one of the few critics who has something to say about the Big Picture and says it in elegant prose. Sections on paranoia, JFK and Vietnam, the House Select Committee, the Mafia theory, Oliver Stone and other subjects. Preface by Norman Mailer. Important. - Posner, Gerald. Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK. New York: Random House, 1993. London: Little Brown, 1993. 624 pp. Illustrated, bibliography, index.
‘One Man, One Gun, One Inescapable Conclusion’ proclaimed a full-page ad for the book in the New Yorker recently. To us the inescapable conclusion would be that Mr Posner believes in fairy stories.
This has garnered a tremendous amount of mainstream media coverage in the States from journalists and commentators to whom Posner is saying, ‘You guys had it right all along!’ Natch.
Seductive if you’ve never read anything else on the assassination, and disingenuous if you have. Mark Lane is working on a book-length critique. Mind Closed/Case Opened. - Russell, Dick. The Man Who Knew Too Much (Hired to Kill Oswald and Prevent the Assassination of JFK Richard Case Nagell Is –). New York: Carroll and Graf/Richard Gallen, 1992. 824pp. Illustrated, bibliography, index.
W. G. Hoskins once remarked that English local histories were not, by and large, history, but the materials of history. This stricture could equally well be applied to Russell’s book — it isn’t so much the story of Nagell as materials for a study of him. The book’s 800-odd pages leave nothing out. A massive work.
Nagell, a CIA contract agent, went into an El Paso bank in September 1963, fired a couple of shots into a wall, and got himself intentionally arrested — thus ensuring he was in a safe custody when Kennedy was assassinated.
Russell’s work is difficult, intriguing, and frustrating. But read it nonetheless. There is much new material on the intelligence agencies and it is particularly good on Mexico City. - Sifakis, Carl. Encyclopedia of Assassinations. London: Headline, 1993. [previously New York: Facts on file, n.d.] 498 pp. Illustrated, bibliography, index.
Sifakis stands for no nonsense when it comes to conspiracies against the Kennedys: Oswald did Jack and Sirhan did Bobby, and that’s that. Cases closed. Surprisingly, he’s a little more open-minded with Martin Luther King and the attempted assassination of George Wallace.
Know them by their bibliographical references! Sifakis usually goes for the popular work rather than the scholarly study, and there are some surprising omissions. For instance, how could one write about Lincoln’s death without mentioning Otto Eisenschiml’s monumental 1937 work Why Was Lincoln Murdered?, if only to dismiss it. Use this Encyclopedia with caution. - Smith, Matthew. JFK: The Second Plot. Edinburgh (U.K.): Mainstream Publishing, 1992. 336 pp. Illustrated, index.
Oswald as a pawn in the ‘great game’ of intelligence. New angles on some old incidents and a clear presentation of what is reliably known and not known about Oswald. Preface by J. Gary Shaw. - Smith, Matthew. Vendetta: the Kennedys. Edinburgh (U.K.): Mainstream Publishing, 1993. 288 pp. Illustrated, indexes.
Smith’s modest thesis is that the conspirators responsible for JFK’s assassination were also behind Marilyn Monroe’s murder (sic), Bobby’s slaying, and Ted Kennedy’s spot of bother on Chappaquiddick Island.
Monroe’s death, it was hoped, would being into the open the brothers’ involvement with the actress and the ensuing scandal would topple them and their government. Alas, the Los Angeles Police Department buried the Kennedy connection and the conspirators were left with no choice but to assassinate JFK. (The LAPD’s allegiances, however, were somewhat mercurial. A few years later they sided with the plotters and buried their connection with Bobby’s murder.) The motive? Simple — to remove JFK from the White House and prevent Bobby and Teddy from ever arriving there, because with their wealth the Kennedys showed a mean streak of independence when dealing with the U.S power establishment.
Smith produces no evidence for the thesis beyond argument and supposition and, further, he cannot even identify the conspirators beyond saying that they are from the upper reaches of government, big business and the Mob. (Hold the front page!)
Perhaps Smith is right? But until there is evidence for the assertion, rushing to market with an empty pushcart is a big disservice to the critical community. - Stone, Oliver and Sklar, Zachary. JFK: the Book of the Film. New York: Applause Books, 1992. 593 pp. Illustrated, bibliography.
The screenplay of the movie annotated with hundreds of research notes by Jane Rusconi (these are worth the price of the book alone), together with ‘Reactions and commentaries’, an anthology of some 300 pp. plus reprinting virtually all the important pro and con pieces engendered by the film, including major articles by George Lardner Jnr., Ron Rosenbaum and Robert Sam Anson, and a section of Historical Documents. Essential reading. - (Too late for inclusion here are the articles gathered in The American Historical Review, vol 97, no. 2, April 1992, published by the American Historical Association. Some revealing insights into the academic mindset.)
- Vankin, Jonathan. Conspiracies, Cover-ups and Crimes: from JFK to the CIA Terrorist Connection. New York: Dell, 1992. xv plus 384 pp. Bibliography, index.
Vankin doesn’t do for conspiracy theories and paranoia what Martin Gardner did for the farther shores of science in Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, but it’s a start (if you discount the Ripleyesque approach). Some useful chapters on JFK, the CIA and so on. Intriguing opening chapter on Kerry Thornley, Oswald’s pal in the Marine Corps. - Zelizer, Barbie. Covering the Body: the Kennedy Assassination, the Media and the Shaping of Collective Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. viii plus 299 pp. Bibliography, index.
In spite of its frequently irritating socio-babble, this is a valuable study of the media’s shaping and presentation of the assassination. The case studies of particular journalists, like Tom Wicker and Dan Rather, are incisive. Useful too on the rise of the critical community, though not comprehensive. - Zirbel, Craig I. The Texas Connection New York: Warner Books, 1991, x plus 291 pp. Illustrated, sources, index.
Vice President Johnson was the immediate beneficiary of the assassination. One thing we therefore know for certain about the Dealey Plaza conspirators is that they had less objection to LBJ being in the White House than JFK. But does it follow from this that Johnson was involved or responsible for the slaying? Zirbel thinks it does and proceeds to make bricks without straw. Plenty of fascinating information about Texas, Dallas and Johnson, but no proof that LBJ had bloody hands.
Anyway, how reliable can a study of the ‘Texas connection’ be that fails to mention George de Morenschildt?
If you have difficulty finding any of the titles discussed in this article, contact Robert T. Johnson at the JFK Assassination Information Centre, in Dallas, at 603 Munger — Box 40, Dallas, Texas 75202. Telephone (214) 871–2770; Fax (214) 871–6023. The Centre operates a reliable book service and is used to dealing with overseas customers. It is a good source for videos too (but remember the U.S. format is NTSC, not BETA or VHS, and unless you have a multi-standard machine the tapes will need to be commercially transferred).
For reviews and news of forthcoming works, subscribe to Probe, the newsletter of Citizens for Truth about the Kennedy Assassination, only $25.00 for 12 issues. Contact Dennis Effle at 2139 N. Vine Street, Hollywood, CA 90068, USA.