David Lifton died on 12/6/2022

[James DiEugenio]

I think we should all do that.

There are many negative things I could say about Lifton, but I kept them all out of the obituary.

I tried to accent his positive achievements, even when they were controversial.

 It is really a shame he did not finish FInal Charade.

But I think Pat is correct on this, he was still trying to carry water for Best Evidence in that book.

And this of course eliminated the possibility of doing the trilogy he planned on, which was to be Best Evidence, Final Charade and a book on the Z film.

[Bob Ness]

2 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

I think we should all do that.

There are many negative things I could say about Lifton, but I kept them all out of the obituary.

I tried to accent his positive achievements, even when they were controversial.

 It is really a shame he did not finish FInal Charade.

But I think Pat is correct on this, he was still trying to carry water for Best Evidence in that book.

And this of course eliminated the possibility of doing the trilogy he planned on, which was to be Best Evidence, Final Charade and a book on the Z film.

Has it been posted?

[James DiEugenio]

As of now, no it has not.

 

It will probably be up tomorrow.

[Bob Ness]

3 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

As of now, no it has not.

 

It will probably be up tomorrow.

I sent an email if you a PR firm to go over it. Let me know.

[Glenn Viklund]

Sorry to hear that David Lifton has passed. I haven't been active in the JFK debate for years now, but I do have a few words to say about David Lifton.

Despite me being - totally unknown as far as JFK research - and an LN, David always treated me with due respect, mostly as a result of my work on Judyth Vary Baker, more than ten years ago. As can be seen in the "exile thread" in this forum, started by Jim Fetzer, myself and DL had similar experiences of JVB.
After those discussions, I was in contact with David for many years, sometimes about JFK, sometimes regarding other matters. In this regard I came to realize that even though we had these basic differences about what happened in Dallas in 1963, there are quite a few CTs who are very reasonable and prepared to discuss issues related to the assassination, with due respect. 

I'm still following the debate, here and there in the Internet forums, and factually I see nothing new over these past ten years, and the debate is much like it was ten or twenty years ago. Unfortunately, the tone in these discussions still leaves, as has always been the case, much to wish for. And much can be said about David Lifton, but I will always regard him has a serious researcher, with an impressive knowledge about the JFK case. 

My condoleances to David Liftons relatives. 

/ Glenn Viklund

[David Von Pein]

[Greg Doudna]

Bugliosi: "I have found Lifton to be perhaps the most meticulous researcher in the conspiracy community"

I just noticed this, to add a backhanded tribute to David Lifton from an unlikely source, Vincent Bugliosi. After citing Lifton on a point related to postmortem fingerprints, Bugliosi adds:

"One may ask why I would cite Lifton as a source for this information when I have virtually laughed at his theory about the Kennedy assassination. I have found Lifton to be perhaps the most meticulous researcher in the conspiracy community. It's the totally unbelievable inferences he has drawn from his research that I have attacked." (Reclaiming History, Endnotes, p. 414)

(Bugliosi's Endnotes to Reclaiming History--all 958 pages of them--are online at https://archive.org/details/ReclaimingHistoryEndnotes/page/n413/mode/2up].)

 

Edited January 9, 2023 by Greg Doudna

[Glenn Viklund]

Indeed, Greg. Bugliosi said it very well and I completely agree with that statement.

[Micah Mileto]

On 1/9/2023 at 12:08 AM, David Von Pein said:

Thanks! Wow, the SFM really been going through all of their oral histories trying to upload all of them.

[Micah Mileto]

On 12/8/2022 at 7:35 PM, Vince Palamara said:

**UPDATE*** Good news, bad news about FINAL CHARADE (a small excerpt from a public post by researcher Matt Douthit):

"This case literally lived with him 24/7. Over a span of 56 years, he interviewed on audio and video more JFK eyewitnesses and researchers than any other researcher I have ever known. If he ever had a lead, boom, he would be on the next bus. And if he didn’t have the funds to do it, he would always find a way no matter what. The most important thing he taught me as a mentor was to always avoid Confirmation Bias, and to always be open-minded. I first got to know him when I was 19 and got to know him even more in person when he lived here in Dallas for a year. We would sit in diners, I in awe, mesmerized listening to him tell me literally everything he knew and all his theories. Yep, I heard it all. I was blown away when he read to me out loud from his spiral notebook the Introduction to “Final Charade”. He has since made all this public per the interviews he’s given in the past few years. As for the manuscript itself, I’m sad to tell you all that his laptop had crashed and he “lost everything.” BUT, like I said, the gist of it all has been made known through those interviews he gave"

Does Matt Douthit think that anything is being done about the hard drive?

[Vince Palamara]

17 hours ago, Micah Mileto said:

Does Matt Douthit think that anything is being done about the hard drive?

No.

[Pat Speer]

19 minutes ago, Vince Palamara said:

No.

I asked someone who'd been close to Lifton if any progress had been made in reviving Lifton's unfinished book. I failed to receive a response. So I suspect it really is lost.

[Gerry Down]

That's sad. He had been talking about Final Charade since the 1990s. Maybe even earlier.

[David Butler]

That would be really sad..Hard drives can be salvaged if you know what you are doing in the IT space...Not always though but this particular one requires special effort on behalf of the research community...

[Micah Mileto]

Lifton had 40 filing cabinets of stuff he paid a storage unit to house. Where are those now? Not ony that storage unit, but he had to have had numerous other things laying around, physical or digital media. That, plus the information we already have could allow us to make a reconstruction.

 

Just like how Turner Classic Movies made a one-hour long reconstruction of the lost silent horror film from 1927, London After Midnight, by showing surviving still images from the film accompanied with dialogue from the script. And we know Lifton's manuscript was not even completed before it's loss and Lifton's death, so either way we woud get an unfinished product which would need further reconstruction from things like Lifton's personal interviews, his forum posts, summarizing some of the already-well-discussed philosophy he talked about regarding evidence - as well as a full accounting of all of the information and discussion we have suggesting the possibilities of body alteration, photographic evidence in Dealey Plaza being alterd, Oswald being an actor. I'm trying to make The Case For An Altered Throat Wound as full as possible.

Edited May 22, 2023 by Micah Mileto