So is David Lifton's Final Charade just going to be lost to history?

[Aaron Sharpe]

1 hour ago, David Von Pein said:

I too have heard that Lifton's book manuscript was "lost" in a computer hard drive crash. But I find it very hard to believe that Mr. Lifton would have had his manuscript stored in only one location. His "Final Charade" project was obviously extraordinarily valuable to him personally, which would mean (I would think) that he would certainly have wanted to have at least one back-up copy stored somewhere in his digital files.

 

Indeed, it seems unlikely that a sophisticated person with an engineering background would not have a simple backup of something so critical. OTOH, there are the comments here from those who knew and worked with him to the effect that the existence of any manuscript is doubtful. 
 

I’m getting the vibe that this supposed “computer crash” could be concocted to cover the uncomfortable fact that he spent decades producing either gibberish or nothing. He seems to have been reaching in so many directions, I don’t know how he could have maintained a productive focus. 
 

I hope I’m wrong. But there was a moment in one of his YouTube vids where he talks about his new book “which should come out next year.” The video is from 2013.

[David Von Pein]

2 hours ago, Aaron Sharpe said:

But there was a moment in one of his YouTube vids where he talks about his new book “which should come out next year.” The video is from 2013.

Yes, but it's not an altogether unheard of thing to have a major book release being delayed for a number of years. The same thing happened to Vince Bugliosi, whose very large JFK book, then titled "Final Verdict", was originally scheduled to appear in book stores on November 22, 1998 (and at that time it was a "mere" 992 pages long; CLICK HERE). But it took another 9 years for the book, which more than doubled in size, to finally appear as "Reclaiming History".

So a 10- or 15-year delay in publishing a huge JFK tome like David Lifton's last book doesn't surprise me at all.

Here's a 2010 Usenet Forum post by Francois Carlier which says that Lifton's "Final Charade" was supposed to be published in June of 2007, which would have been just one month after Bugliosi's JFK book came out.

So David was working on that book for quite a long time. And by 2022, the number of pages it encompassed surely must have reached well into four digits, probably rivaling Bugliosi's final page count of 2,824 (which includes all of the endnotes and the 32 pages of photographs).

 

Edited February 4 by David Von Pein

[Steven Kossor]

Thanks to David Butler for paging me on the subject of David Lifton's work over the last 10 years of David's life.  I have not had any interaction with his estate since January of last year, but it is my understanding that the estate has, or soon will, complete the process of acquiring possession and ownership of 100% of his intellectual and personal property, including all electronic media and the contents of his Las Vegas apartment and the two storage units that he had been renting to conserve artifacts and other historically relevant media, based on the electronic last will and testament that he created with my technical assistance a relatively short time before he died.  David shared bits and pieces of his work with many others over the last 10 years of his life so I'm confident that there are a number of recipients of information who can help to finish his works in progress at the time of his death, and that the estate will be contacting those who are known to have  given information to him, and received information from him, based on the large body of electronic and other correspondence dating from at least 2005 that the estate has acquired.  There is nothing more that I can contribute to the discussion of David's estate, but I am confident that the estate will contact me if it believes that I can provide clarification about any items or information that that it has acquired.  Best wishes to all, always!

[Jamey Flanagan]

4 hours ago, David Von Pein said:

No, no, Jamey! You're wrong! Lifton's theory was that another man's semen was "planted" in Marina!

The real father of Junie and Rachel was Tom Tilson!

😛

 

That's hilarious!!!! 😂😂😂

[Sandy Larsen]

12 hours ago, Gary Murr said:

For me the "end" of our relationship occurred when [David Lifton] tried to convince me that Connally was shot, more than once, "from the front" though he did never did reveal to me where exactly this "front" location was situated.

 

Lifton wrote several long posts on this forum over the last few years of his life, and none of them seemed like the guy being described by a few participants. That is to say, his posts weren't bizarre at all. (Save for a anti-DiEugenio tirade or two that I vaguely recall reading.)

I wonder how this can be explained.

It reminds me of people bringing up Lifton's earlier bizarre theories, like the plastic tree thing. And yet reading nothing bizarre in his book.

 

[James DiEugenio]

Sandy:

Do you think all the shots came from the front?

Is that not a main thesis of Best Evidence?

Would you not say that is a rather unusual tenet?

From that thesis comes his other main tenet: that the body was altered to make it look like shots came from the back.

Is that not the subject of Chapter 14, Trajectory Reversal: Blueprint for Deception? 

On page 350, he outlines the plot with fake entries, and the body being altered after the fact.  On page 378, with a series of illustrations, he also says there were changes to the body. (References to trade paper edition, 1988 Carrol and Graf)

 

[Sandy Larsen]

12 hours ago, Keven Hofeling said:

 

 

 

Thanks for posting the video, Keven. It is very compelling.

Before watching this, I thought that the only modifications to the Zapruder film were the following quick ones:

• The blacking out of the back-of-head gaping wound.
• The painting in of the right side "blob."
• The removal of a few frames to speed-up the slowed-down limo at Z313.

While those changes may have been the only ones made intermediately after the assassination, I now believe that more extensive changes may have been made subsequent to those.

Though obviously the whole film wasn't remade or we wouldn't be seeing any "back and to the left" movement on Kennedy's part.

 

[Mike Aitken]

Just curious, what did Lifton do for a living?  He couldn’t have been living off the sales of Best Evidence since it’s been out of print for decades.  The Wikipedia biography says he studied engineering but was laid off by UCLA in 1966.  Nothing else is mentioned about employment other than his work as an author and researcher.

[Sandy Larsen]

32 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

Sandy:

Do you think all the shots came from the front?

 

No, I don't believe that. But someone examining that possibility does not seem like a crazy thing to me.

 

32 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

Is that not a main thesis of Best Evidence?

 

I thought that the main thesis was that the body was altered to make it appear, as well as possible, that the shots came from the 6th floor of the TSBD.

 

32 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

From that thesis comes his other main tenet: that the body was altered to make it look like shots came from the back.

 

Yes, that's what I thought Lifton was saying.

And I will add, there seems to be some truth to Lifton's body alteration theory. Namely, the multiple lacerations in the top of the scalp that make the gaping wound appear to be on the right-top part of the head. Just like what we see in the Z film, BTW.

Also the apparent fact that somebody else's brain was inserted in place of Kennedy's. Recall that Humes said the brain virtually just fell out, or something like that. That is something that cannot happen on its own... someone needs to cut arteries and veins, not to mention the optic nerves, and especially the spinal cord. The new brain better represented the damage that a shot from behind would create.

 

32 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

On page 350, he outlines the plot with fake entries...

 

If you are referring to the multiple entries of a casket, each being carried by a different group of men, this is something that I believe Lifton got close to 100% right. As he did the ambulance chase that occurred before the autopsy.

 

[James DiEugenio]

Sandy that is not what I meant about fake entries.

What I meant was the fake bullet holes in the body.

Do you buy that?

[James DiEugenio]

26 minutes ago, Mike Aitken said:

Just curious, what did Lifton do for a living?  He couldn’t have been living off the sales of Best Evidence since it’s been out of print for decades.  The Wikipedia biography says he studied engineering but was laid off by UCLA in 1966.  Nothing else is mentioned about employment other than his work as an author and researcher.

Mike:

This is a controversial subject.  

And I predict you will not be able to find out the answer to that question.

Lifton did make a lot of money off of Best Evidence, but that book came out in 1980.

When Oliver Stone's film came out he made some more money off of a video of the same name.  But that was in 1992.

Trying to fill in those blanks is not easy.

[Sandy Larsen]

3 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

Sandy that is not what I meant about fake entries.

What I meant was the fake bullet holes in the body.

Do you buy that?

 

There was no exit or bullet found for the bullet entrance in the back. So yeah, it's possible that somebody made that hole.

But I think it is much more likely that @Cliff Varnell got that right. That it was a high-tech melting bullet.

I don't buy that it was an undercharge bullet that fell out due to massage. But I'm not altogether ruling that out either. It's a real mystery.

What do you think happened to the bullet?

 

[Mike Aitken]

21 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

Mike:

This is a controversial subject.  

And I predict you will not be able to find out the answer to that question.

Lifton did make a lot of money off of Best Evidence, but that book came out in 1980.

When Oliver Stone's film came out he made some more money off of a video of the same name.  But that was in 1992.

Trying to fill in those blanks is not easy.

Hmmm…so maybe family money/inheritance or someone/some entity was assisting him financially?  Welfare 🤔.  I deal with a lot of people on welfare/government assistance and they tend to live in government housing or some other type of housing that is not desirable.  Does anyone know where he lived?

[Sandy Larsen]

On 2/2/2024 at 4:01 PM, David Von Pein said:

On 2/2/2024 at 3:59 PM, Sandy Larsen said:

Call it what you want... it was apparently created by multiple lacerations with a knife.

Have you decided to just start making up crap now, Sandy?

 

I didn't do what you accuse me of, Dave. Do you not know what the word "apparently" means?

Kindly remove that remark. Otherwise I will report it.

 

[François Carlier]

13 hours ago, David Von Pein said:

Hi Francois,

Good to see you posting! How have you been?!

Re: Lifton's book.....

I too have heard that Lifton's book manuscript was "lost" in a computer hard drive crash. But I find it very hard to believe that Mr. Lifton would have had his manuscript stored in only one location. His "Final Charade" project was obviously extraordinarily valuable to him personally, which would mean (I would think) that he would certainly have wanted to have at least one back-up copy stored somewhere in his digital files. (And probably more than one back-up. I currently have everything on my computer backed up on two different external hard drives---just in case.)

It's hard for me to believe that someone as meticulous with his written posts as David Lifton would have been so careless as to rely on merely one digital source for his very precious "Final Charade" material.

I'm guessing there are some "back ups" to be found --- somewhere.

 

Hello David.
Thank you.
Yes, that makes sense.
You're most probably right.
And I do hope that you are right. I would love to read Lifton's last book.