More JFK Assassination books

First off, a slight digression.

There’s been much talk recently about just how many books have been published on the assassination. ‘Over 2000’ is the figure that has been thrown around and this may be traced to the very opening sentence of Gerald Posner’s egregious Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK (New York: Random House, 1993, p. ix): ‘More than two thousand books have been written about the assassination of President John Kennedy.’ Posner gives no source for this statement.

Posner means books then — not leaflets, pamphlets, reports, magazines and so on. Just books.

I’ve gone through my own collection, numerous bibliographies, including Guth and Wrone’s, booksellers’ catalogs, and so on, and I’ve come up with a different figure. I’ve only included those where the assassination is the central matter of the book or where the book would not have been published had the assassination not taken place. For example, the assassination is not the main concern of Seth Kantor’s biography of Jack Ruby but Kantor would hardly have written the book had the assassination not taken place.

The figure I’ve arrived at is about 350 books (including US government publications from the Warren Report onwards).

The author of Case Closed doesn’t say the assassination is mentioned in more than 2000 books, he says more than this number ‘have been written about the assassination.’ It isn’t true. How’s that for an opening sentence? Posner’s book doesn’t get any better thereafter.

Bartholomew, Richard. Possible Discovery of an Automobile Used in the JFK Conspiracy. Pflugerville, Texas: The author, 1993. [1p] and 174pps.

The automobile in question being the light-coloured Rambler station wagon that left Dealey Plaza ten minutes after Kennedy was shot. Two men were in the car and one of them had been seen running from the Texas School Book Depository. Witnesses to this were Marvin Robinson, Helen Forrest (not the HF who sang with the Harry James band) and Deputy-Sheriff Roger Craig.

In 1989 a car matching this description (and of the right age) was seen parked outside Batts Hall on the University of Texas’ campus at Austin. Batts Hall houses UT’s Spanish and Portugese Department and the ownership of the vehicle was traced to a professor there, George Gordon Wing, who had purchased it in April 1963 from Cecil Bernard Smith, a friend of LBJ’s, who had endowed UT with five chairs in Mexican and Latin American Studies.

Batholomew doesn’t prove this Rambler was the one in Dealey Plaza but he explores the LBJ, right-wing, and CIA connections on campus and in this part of Texas to great effect. Inconclusive and fascinating.

Benson, Michael. Who’s Who in the JFK Assassination: An A-Z Encyclopedia. New York: Citadel Press, 1993. xviii and 511pps. Bibliography.

I’ve been trying to figure out who this book is aimed at. Hard-core researchers and dedicated obsessives aren’t going to grab it and look up FERRIE, WILLIAM DAVID, or CRONKITE, WALTER because its coverage is too selective and superficial. Entry level assassination students would just be lost among the 1400 ‘suspects, victims, witnesses, law enforcement officials and investigators’ detailed here, so who does that leave? Some mythical middle ground? People who go around saying ‘I’m deeply into this JFK thing but I’ve temporarily forgotten who LOVELADY, BILLY NOLAN is. I’ll look it up in Benson’?

Benson is irritatingly brief on the critics, Here, for instance, are two entries in their entirety which are typical of his approach:

BUCHANAN, THOMAS G., author of the book Who Killed Kennedy? (Secker and Warburg 1964). Reportedly, Ruby read this book, which theorises about a conspiracy, and praised it.

FLAMMONDE, PARIS, author of The Kennedy Conspiracy (Meredith Press, 1969). $18.95 to be told that?

Callahan, Bob. Who Shot JFK? A Guide to the Major Conspiracy Theories. New York, Simon and Schuster Fireside, 1993. 160pps. Illustrated, bibliography, index.

With Mark Zingarelli’s noir graphics on virtually every page, this is a lively and stimulating survey of the field. Callahan, a former speech writer for RFK, knows the literature and the subject well and writes elegantly and with humour. A must get.

Cooper, Milton William. Behold a Pale Horse. Sedona, Arizona: Light Technology Publishing, 1991. [10 pps] and 500pps. Illustrated.

This was published three years ago, but I’ve only just seen a copy. I couldn’t pass up on including a notice here.
‘He [JFK] informed Majesty Twelve that he intended to reveal the presence of aliens [i.e. extra-terrestrials] to the American people within the following year, and ordered a plan developed to implement his decision.
‘President John F. Kennedy was murdered by the Secret Service agent who drove his car in the motorcade and the act is plainly visible in the Zapruder film. WATCH THE DRIVER AND NOT KENNEDY WHEN YOU VIEW THE FILM. All of the witnesses who were close enough to the car to see William Greer shoot Kennedy were themselves all murdered within two years of the event.’

All this and material on UFOs, Area 51, Alien Implants, the CFR/Trilateral Commission and the Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion reprinted in their entirety with this gloss:
‘For clear understanding, the word “Zion” should be “Sion”; any reference to “Jews” should be replaced with the word “Illuminat”‘; and the word “goyi”‘ should be replaced with the word “cattle”.’

Fonzi, Gaeton. The Last Investigation. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1993. xvi and 448pps. Illustrated, index.

Fonzi, a former investigator for the House Select Committee, here recounts his involvement with Blakey’s go-nowhere investigation. A sad and sorry tale. Essential reading for everyone in the critical community. Reviewed below in more detail.

Groden, Robert. The Killing of a President: the Complete Photographic Record of the JFK Assassination, the Conspiracy, and the Cover-up. New York: Viking Penguin, 1993. London: Bloomsbury, 1993. [16pps] and 224 pps. Illustrated, bibliography, index.

Well, this isn’t quite the book we’ve been waiting thirty years for, but it is a start. Over 600 photographs are reproduced according to the blurb (I started to count them and then my eyes glazed over) but many of them are not identified, some are cropped with no explanation, and others are reproduced too small. Groden’s text oscillates between the authoritative and the cranky, and the book is top heavy with flashy graphics and magazine-style layout. However, all the important Dealey Plaza pictures are here, together with a wide selection of Zapruder frames. A must-have for the pictures if not the words.

Hughes, J.W. Square Peg for a Round Hole. Concord, California: the author, 1993. [1p] and 458pps. Illustrated, bibliography, ‘Directory Index’.

Hughes, an ex-State Traffic Officer with the California Highway Patrol, approaches the events in Dealey Plaza as an investigating cop and writes the book accordingly. He believes there were five shots and three CIA-sponsored shooters.

A tremendous amount of industry went into this work and it is a great shame that Hughes didn’t have the book professionally copy-edited and designed — it would have made the book easier going for the reader.

Kritzberg, Connie Watson, and Lester, Shirley Martin. For the Defense: Case Against Case Closed Tulsa, Oklahoma: ‘Privately printed’ by the authors, 1993. ii and 35pps.

A good introductory critique (if sloppily organised at times) of Gerald Posner’s apologia of the Warren Commission, Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK (1993). Part III is ‘On the Psychiatric Evidence for the Lone Mad Gunman Theory’ and was contributed by Connie Watson Kritzberg’s husband, Dr. Samuel F. Kritzberg, and is worth a close study.
Case Closed, I understand, has now been put up for a Pulitzer Prize.

Livingstone, Harrison Edward. Killing the Truth: Deceit and Deception in the JFK Case. New York: Carroll and Graf, 1993. xxxv and 752pps. Illustrated, bibliography, index.

A tendentious and mean-spirited scrapbook of a volume spewing venom in the direction of anyone who disagrees with its author.

Morrow, Robert D. First Hand Knowledge: How I Participated in the CIA-Mafia Murder of President Kennedy. New York: SPI Books Shapolsky Publishers, 1992. xvii and 384 pps. Illustrated, index.

I’ve never been able to take Morrow’s two previous books seriously — Betrayal, also on JFK, and The Senator Must Die on RFK’s slaying, and the same goes for this. Am I missing something?

Introduction by John H. Davis.

Palamara, Vincent Michael. The Third Alternative — Survivor’s Guilt: The Secret Service and the JFK Murder. [Pittsburgh: Self-published, 1993]. 76 and 5 and 6 and [3] and 3 and [36]pps. Illustrated, index, bibliography.

It’s strange that we have had to wait thirty years for the first detailed analysis of the US Secret Service’s role in the assassination.

Palamara has amassed a staggering amount of information and has interviewed some twenty members of the Service. Many of the questions about the agents’ behaviour that day are answered here and a picture of ineptitude, if not collusion, is deftly presented. Also chapters on Oswald and the Service, the ‘Chicago Connection’, and some fascinating material about Abraham Bolden, the black agent who appears to have been set-up by the Service shortly after the assassination.

Roberts, Craig. Kill Zone: A Sniper Looks at Dealey Plaza. [Oaklahoma?]: Typhoon Press Christian Patriot Press, 1994. vii and 252pps. Illustrated, bibliography, index.

Roberts, a former US Marine sniper, has plenty of interest to say about the sniping logistics of Dealey Plaza, but then he spoils the book by deciding to venture thither and solve the case. Who did it? Easy — the Rothschilds and their banking friends. The author scrupulously avoids the use of the word ‘Jew’ but the message comes across loud and clear anyway.

Savage, Gary. JFK First Day Evidence: Stored away for 30 years in an old briefcase, new evidence is now revealed by former Dallas Police Crime Lab Detective R. W. (Rusty) Livingstone. Monroe, Louisiana: The Shoppe Press, 1993. 416 pps. Illustrated, bibliography.

A compelling volume of photographs and documents taken from the Dallas PD at the time of the assassination by Rusty Livingstone, who was then an officer in the Crime Scene Search Section. Savage and Livingstone have no doubt that Oswald acted alone but that does not prevent them from presenting the bulk of the material fairly and impartially, including the FBI’s attempts to make the Minox disappear.

Scott, Peter Dale. Deep Politics and the Death of JFK. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993. ix and 413pps. Bibliography, index.

Richly discursive, penetrating, essential reading, and reviewed below.

Trask, Richard B. Pictures of the Pain: Photography and the Assassination of President Kennedy. Danvers, Massachusetts: Yeoman Press, 1994. xx and 638pps. Illustrated, bibliography, index.

A magisterial book. Scrupulously researched, well written, and admirably designed and printed.

Trask isn’t so much concerned with solving the case as with analysing the pictures (still and movie), discussing the photographers, and charting the use to which the pictures were put by the Warren Commission, the media and the critics. Every page has something new on it. A remarkable critical work in every way and one that no student of the assassination should be without. The Big Book of 1994.

Go for Groden above for the actual pictures but rely on Trask for the commentary and analysis.

Wecht, Cyril (with Mark Curriden and Benjamin Wecht). Cause of Death. New York: DuttonPenguin, 1993. xx and 314pps. Illustrated, index.

Wecht has always been one of the most articulate and vocal public critics of the Warren Commission, and, as a professional forensic pathologist, he hasn’t been afraid to challenge his peer group, often to the detriment of his own career. So, I guess, we can forgive him the shortcomings of this volume that appears to be aimed at people who only read books on aeroplanes. The opening chapter on JFK is largely autobiographical and contains several errors. There are further chapters on RFK, Chappaquiddick, Elvis Presley, Jean Harris, Claus von Bulow (he’s innocent, says Wecht) and others. A light read for the forensically disposed.

Weisberg, Harold. Case Open: The Unanswered JFK Assassination Questions. New York: A Richard Gallen BookCarroll and Graf, 1994. xvii and 178pps.

This is Weisberg’s first published book for many a summer and shows that he has lost none of his critical edge. A good hatchet job on Posner’s book but marred by some ad hominem sentiments (perhaps understandable as Weisberg opened his files for this self-proclaimed ‘Wall Street lawyer’).

With the demise of the JFK Assassination Information Center in Dallas after Larry Howard’s death in January, I’ve started getting books from Andy Winiarczyk at the Last Hurrah Bookshop. The Last Hurrah specialises in books on JFK and related assassination and intelligence areas and publishes regular catalogs. Write or call Andy at 937 Memorial Avenue, Williamsport, PA 17701, USA: phone (international code) plus 717.327.9338.

Probe, the newsletter of the Citizens for Truth about the Kennedy Assassination, is a good monthly devoted to what’s happening in the league and on the political front. It’s ably edited by Dennis Lee Effle at 2139 North Vine Street, Hollywood, CA 90068, USA. $25.00 for 12 issues.ENDNOTE: After finishing the above I was reading Earl Golz’s article ‘Kennedy theorists still asking questions’, that appeared in the Austin, Texas, American-Statesman on 22 November 1993, when I came across the following: ‘So 30 years and 400 conspiracy books after the assassination, the debate still rages.’ My figure of 350 books is suspiciously close to Golz’s, but let’s defer to that highly regarded Texan critic. 400 it is.