Best JFK Assassination Books - Your thoughts?!

[Guest]

Hi guys,

These are the ones I have read so far:

 

1) James W Douglass - JFK & The Unspeakable

2) David Talbot - Brothers

3) Phillip Haslam - Dr Mary’s Monkey 

4) Peter Janney - Mary’s Mosaic

5) Roger Stone - The man who killed Kennedy

6) Richard Belzer - Hit List

7) David Talbot - The Devils Chessboard

8.) Mark Lane - The Last Word

Are there any others you chaps would regard as essential reading on the topic? I really liked most of the above, James W Douglass book probably had the most profound effect on me. 
 

I have a couple of others to read still, sat in unopened parcels: 

Donald Gibson - Battling Wall Street

Antonio Veciana - Trained to kill 

 

Also in related reading I enjoyed:

 

The creature from Jekyll Island - G. Edward Griffin

Family of secrets - Russ Baker

The Pentagon’s Brain - Annie Jacobsen 

The new confessions of an economic hitman - John Perkins

An unfinished life - Robert Dalek

The Power Elite - C.Wright Mills 

John F Kennedy and PT109 - Richard Tregaskis

[Steve Jaffe]

I have not posted in a while for various reasons as we are now approaching the 60th anniversary.  But throughout my life I have often been asked what shall we read?... because I always lead with the fact that if someone really wants to know the truth they can find it in what has been written already.

The guest post of 8/24/20 is a good list but I have trimmed it and added a few of my choice for what are truly well researched and well written books.  Fletcher Prouty's book, JFK: The CIA, Vietnam. and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy, should be on everyone's list. Prof. Josiah Thompson's books, Six Seconds in Dallas and The Last Second in Dallas are historic works that must be read. The three major photographic books with wise analysis by Robert Groden are part of our history and answer to the question, "Who Killed JFK?" 

There's no question that the film work of Oliver Stone ("JFK") and James DiEugenio,  "JFK Revisited" (in 2 parts or better in 4 parts) are the strongest glue we have that has stuck to the subject of John F. Kennedy's murder and brought it forward six decades so that it could be understood in its historical context. We have some books to look forward to, I happen to know. But let it be a lesson to us all that films, images with actors and directors whether they are streamed or seen on a screen, will be our history books of the future from this moment on. It may appear on social media -- as tortured that concept might be -- but it will show us things with great technological flair that will bring us closer to the truth. The great documentaries by John Barbour, "The JFK Assassination: The Jim Garrison Tapes," the only filmmaker who got a full personal interview with the DA, who was my boss for two years near the end of the 60's which allow you to hear the answers from the people who investigated the people who killed President Kennedy. To the books that were listed by the Guest poster, I would include his list -- well not all but some -- and fill it out with my own contributions. So look at this list for answers and keep on digging. Those of us who were involved in the early investigations, the hand-to-hand combat, if you will, are making our work available because of our dedication. It has not always been that way. And until now, when the sleepy media or the MSM or the people trying to exploit the existence of conspiracies which changed history in reality (for their own personal gain/reasons), we have had less work to do to find the truth even though it was masterfully covered up by Dulles, Hoover, Helms, David A. Phillips, and one of the masters of it all -- James J. Angleton and those top guys making policy. Of course there were people like Henry Wade, Jesse Curry and Captain Fritz but they were down on the lower floor of the cover-up.  There will be new names to our readers such as William Harvey, who intelligence sources gave me as a perfect operator, though hardly a perfect patriot. Frank Sturges (Fiorini) and E. Howard Hunt and his buddy, G. Gordon Liddy. But there are names that will never surface because unlike David Ferrie, Guy Bannister and Clay Shaw, true assassins don't leave a trail, or a note, or a souvenir. But there were courageous players such as Marita Lorenz who told the truth one too many times so she was labeled "doing it for the money." What about under penalty of perjury?  

These are essential books by serious authors who know what happened because they were there:

 

First of all -- Read everything about this case by Dr. Cyril Wecht, the most knowledgeable forensic pathologist on the JFK case. And then read these:

 

1) James W Douglass - JFK & The Unspeakable
2) David Talbot - Brothers
4) Peter Janney - Mary’s Mosaic
7) David Talbot - The Devils Chessboard
3) Mark Lane - Rush to Judgment, Plausible Denial,  Citizen's Dissent and The Last Word

5) Dick Russell: The Man Who Knew Too Much; On the Trail of the Assassins
6) Jim Garrison: On the Trail of the Assassins and Heritage of Stone

and hopefully, soon,  8 - Stephen Jaffe: Shadow of Doubt - One Fact from a JFK Investigator's Notebook

 

I wish that I could give you all the names of the books to read to see the whole picture because that's impossible.  It has been mixed up in the current era of what Trump calls "Fake News" which just serves as a lens cover for people to find it impossible to see the images of fact. However, I make this promise. If I can live long enough to publish my book and travel to talk through the media about the subject of President Kennedy's assassination, I am devoted to that. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 7, 2023 by Steve Jaffe
typos and clarity

[Calvin Ye]

Here is the best books:

1. CIA rogues and the killing of the Kennedys

2. A Certain Arrogance

3. Me & Lee

4. JFK vs. Allen Dulles: Battleground Indonesia

5. JFK and the Unspeakable

6. Why The CIA Killed JFK and Malcolm X: The Secret Drug Trade in Laos

7. The Man Who Knew Too Much

8. The Devil Chessboard

9. The Kennedy Assassination Cover-up by Donald Gibson

10. George Bush: An unauthorized biography

 

 

[Steve Jaffe]

Calvin:

I think your list is well put together in terms of knowing the facts of the case but I suggest you read the book that started it all, Mark Lane's Rush to Judgment and his other books, such as Plausible Denial). You should also read James DiEugenio's Destiny Betrayed, "JFK Revisited" (documentary) and "JFK" (made into films by Oliver Stone). That way you get a view of the evidence from the point of view of a criminal defense attorney who was also someone who successfully "prosecuted" the case in a trial court. It's also necessary to understand the case from a high level member of the intelligence world like Col. Fletcher Prouty who wrote JFK: The CIA, Vietnam and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy. 

Edited August 5, 2023 by Steve Jaffe
addition

[Mervyn Hagger]

Has anyone read 'Farewell America' written using the author name of James Hepburn?

 

[Norman T. Field]

Yes, a long time ago. 

[Steve Jaffe]

Yes. I was the first of DA Jim Garrison's staff to read the book in manuscript form, other than Garrison himself. The book was a composite of chapters from different intelligence sources primarily put together by a French Intelligence operative at a very high level. The manuscript of the book later published as "Farewell America"  (not the original title) was sent to my boss, Jim Garrison, the New Orleans D.A.  It was intended to expose the fact that there was a plot (its original title, by the way, was "The Plot").  James Hepburn was not the author's real name. "James Hepburn" in French means "I love Hepburn" which was the reason he picked the name. He had met and fallen in love with the actress, though he never, to this investigator's knowledge, had an affair with her. His name was Herve Lamarre. "Farewell America" had some interesting history in it, and was not badly written but it largely blamed the powerful leaders of the US oil industry for the plot to assassinate the president. It definitely missed the mark and was more of a misinformation book leading away from the real plotters.

Edited August 18, 2023 by Steve Jaffe
typo

[Pamela Brown]

On 8/5/2023 at 6:15 PM, Steve Jaffe said:

Calvin:

I think your list is well put together in terms of knowing the facts of the case but I suggest you read the book that started it all, Mark Lane's Rush to Judgment and his other books, such as Plausible Denial). You should also read James DiEugenio's Destiny Betrayed, "JFK Revisited" (documentary) and "JFK" (made into films by Oliver Stone). That way you get a view of the evidence from the point of view of a criminal defense attorney who was also someone who successfully "prosecuted" the case in a trial court. It's also necessary to understand the case from a high level member of the intelligence world like Col. Fletcher Prouty who wrote JFK: The CIA, Vietnam and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy. 

With all due respect, I am unable to include in any list of good JFK/A material, anything that references the Garrison investigation while managing to avoid dealing with the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of RFK.  That leaves out JFK and probably JFK/R (which I have yet to view) and DB at the very least...

Edited August 13, 2023 by Pamela Brown