Best book about the JFK assassination

[ville huoponen]

Here goes. I tried to find assassination books that should be familiar to most of you. I personally have not read Crossfire or Conspiracy. I am kind of afraid that I didn´t include some of the best ones. Have mercy on me, thank you.

I personally voted for Best Evidence because it has stood the test of time. It has an incredible theory except that this theory is not just a theory but is also very much true. Lifton´s book is extremely informative, shows the evolution of research and is very well written. Without a doubt the medical evidence is the rosetta stone to this assassination. It is - no matter what others may think. What happened at Parkland and at Bethesda, between Parkland and Bethesda and after Bethesda is something that shows what kind of a coup the assassination of JFK really was. The powers that be were not just accessories after the fact. They had to have planned the assassination beforehand. No other book I have read shows how absurd the situation was and that truth is stranger than fiction. That the conclusions of Lifton´s book have turned out to be correct since ARRB is another reason to appreciate "Best Evidence".

Death of a President by Bill Manchester - best writing style, emotional, simply a five star book allthough a LN book

Coverup by Galanor - too quick read, for beginners and demolishes the LN stance for good

Harold Weisberg - NOT for beginners! (compared to him I am Will Shakespeare)

Murder in Dealey Plaza - ARRB findings and Z-film alteration claims. (my first book)

Killing of a President by Groden & Pictures of Pain by Trask - lots of pictures

Bloody Treason by Twyman: context and introduces us to the gallery of goons.

Probe Magazine on JFK, MLK & RFK: well well, all were conspiracies, what will there be? (so I say thank you for the music)

Great Zapruder Film Hoax: very interesting but has many errors. Come on my friends it HAS bad research in it. I still believe the big Z has been faked (and the rest too)

edit: Thanks Ian, my next book will be The Warren ©ommission Report. (not the 26 volumes)

Edited May 6, 2004 by ville huoponen

[Ian Griggs]

Ville,

I appreciate and applaud what you are trying to do here - but you need to be more specific. What do you mean by 'best'? The best written? The most persuasive in favour of conspiracy? The most persuasive against conspiracy? The book with the best illustrations? The one with the best document reproductions? The best book for beginners?

For what it's worth, here is a short list of the books I personally feel are the most important (no particular order):

The Warren Report. The most important book of all. If you do not know what the lies are, then you can hardly criticize them!

Accessories After The Fact. Remains the best criticism of the above.

Cover-Up (Stuart Galenor). Highly recommended for all newcomers to the case.

Pictures Of The Pain. Well-written and studiously compiled. A very important book.

No More Silence. Larry Snead's masterpiece gives us the opportunity to learn exactly what so many important eyewitnesses saw, heard and did. We should all be gratfeul to Larry for getting to these people and recording their thoughts. AsI have stressed many times before, you cannot interview a name on a tombstone. Larry got there first!

With Malice. A deeply-resesarched work, brilliantly illustrated and with valuable document reproductions. Okay, in the opinion of many of us, Dale Myers comes to the wrong conclusion but that does not mean that all his research is flawed. This should be on every researcher's bookshelf.

Kill Zone (Craig Roberts). An acknowledged expert marksman (USMC) exp[lains that Oswald could not have pulled off that feat of marksmanship because he (Roberts) couldn't have done it.

Just my own ideas. I doubt that any two people would produce the same list.

Ready for the flak!

IAN

[Jim Hackett II]

Just my opinion:

1) Bloody Treason/Noel Twyman

2) The Assassinations/Lisa Pease and Jim DiEugenio

3) Murder In Dealy Plaza and Assassination Science/EDITED by Dr. Fetzer

4) Let Justice Be Done/William Davy

5) All of Fletcher Prouty's works [Prouty CD by Len Osanic]

6) Anything by Harold Weisberg

7) Best Evidence/ David Lifton

8) ANYTHING BUT Case Closed/ Gerald Posnoccio

FWIW

Lists are funny things, something always gets left out and remembered later.

My focus isn't so much on who fired what from where, but more the long view of who empowered the killers and who dropped the Official Cover-Up over the whole criminal enterprise.

And who keeps the censorship in place today.

I did vote for David Lifton's Best Evidence in the poll above, because of the role it played in breaking new ground and getting some new people thinking about the case in 1980 81.

Jim Hackett II

[James Richards]

"Someone Would Have Talked" by Larry Hancock.

James

[Bernice Moore]

All of the above... plus:

"Harvey & Lee" by John Armstrong.. the great reference book..

"The Man Who Knew too Much" Dick Russell.

"Assassination Science" Jim Fetzer

"Deep Politics and the Death of JFK".

and though it has been said before, any book by Harold Weisberg..

Though you may not agree with all, and all never has agreed. This is making out to be a great list of books...Errors yes, but what book ever was published about History that did not reveal one.. IMO..

Thanks for your time..... B

Edited May 7, 2004 by Bernice Moore

[Jim Hackett II]

I knew I forgot some.

FWIW:

Dick Russell's The Man Who Knew Too Much...positively

Peter Dale Scott:

Deep Politics 1 and 2 and 3

The Dallas Conspiracy

I understand Deep Pol 1 is available but 2 and 3 are harder to find.

Dallas Conspiracy too is worth tracking down I think it is only available in manuscript form as is Beyond Conspiracy to my knowledge.

William Turner and Warren Hinckle's Deadly Secrets is good for JM Wave and some other connections to the plot.

Harvey and Lee is on my list to get soon.

I'll make this my last entry in this thread, because I know a list of my opinion of books worth having would become nearly endless.

But as I said Posner and the like would be no where on that list, I read it out of the local library and it was a waste of my time, IMHO.

Jim Hackett II

[Larry Hancock]

Hi Jim, I know you are closing out the thread but I'd like to make a couple of suggestions and bring up something not discussed earlier.

There are a few early books like Accessories after the Fact by Meagher, Manchester's book, Weisberg's work - especially his unique work on New Orleans where he did first hand research for Garrison - that should be required reading for anybody - Meagher's work on the WC "ages" very well since it's built largely around her excellant logic and illustration of contradictions and "holes". And Manchester was extremely through and cites all his sources (problem being of course that some of them may have been witholding or managing information).

The same can't be said for many of the earlier books because of the simple fact that they did not have documents and even statements from individuals who have talked in the last decade available to the authors. I think many newcomers still do not realize the immense amount of new information turned up by the ARRB, the releases of the 90's and statements from Doctors, medical personnel, FBI agents etc. Lifton's early Bethusda work has been greatly expanded by first Livingston's interviews and then later by Horne's fantastic work with the ARRB - Horne's Lancer presentations and the medical essays in Fetzer's MIDP are invaluable. The same goes for William Law's Lancer presentations and upcoming book. When you get to areas like Mexico City you will find Newman's document research and presentation online at Lancer via Joe Backus's efforts, complemented by Peter Dale Scott's Deep Politics II. My baisic point is that a good deal of what was written 30 years ago plus seemed good at the time and some of it has been validated but some of it turned out to be simple lack of information.....and the more current information is not in books, it is in conference presentations, articles or document releases.

And some of it is in very good history books that are not on the above lists at all, those include books on the Johnson tapes (Taking Charge) as well as in books such as The Last Investigation by Fonzi and more recently Sons and Brothers by Kennedy historian Richard Mahoney and J. Edgar Hoover by Keil. Sons and Brothers gives better and more comprhensive coverage of the conspiracy than a great many of the "conspiracy" books published over the past 40 years.

If you want documents, go to Lancer's collections and CD's or to Rex Bradford's History Matters site for starters.

--just my opinion, after 15 years of slogging, Larry

[Wim Dankbaar]

The Last Investigation by Gaeton Fonzi should be included. Now I can only vote for second best.

Wim

[Jim Hackett II]

OK I broke my word...

But I had to say I did not intend to "short change" Ms. Meagher. Not by any stretch of the thought. Nor most of the early workers of truth and exposure.

General Penn Jones Jr. to be sure...but Forgive My Grief series can be very hard to find, let alone the Continuing Inquiry issues. I only have part of them.

And others I inadvertently left out.

The two books that turned my thinking around in 68 were Six Seconds in Dallas and Rush To Judgement. These readings led me into the WCR with a skeptical mind and that single act alone stopped the deception.

I like some others I know had my hopes and heartbroken by the castration of the HSCA in the late 1970s. Another great "chance" lost to the control of the intelligence empires releasing only enough to make the presentable appearance that a "job was done", when the facts are again that "we wuz had! Again"!

I left the whole mess for a while, until about 1990.

So yes it's been an off and on thing in my life.

Rex Bradford's History Matters site is FANTASTIC.

I cannot afford to buy the CDs from the site, so I DL'ed the PDF files.

All interested people ought to read the Garrison Grand Jury testimony and Trial transcripts to see what was Garrison's case. As far as I know the Garrison material is available only there -- online that is.

Without that site I would be without the Garrison material

In fact I consider it to be the ultimate site for the WCR and Vols.

I have a slight problem with Manchester though, I use his other history works, but his JFK material is not what I would recommend.

He got to the witnesses before the WC and knows more than he wrote, JE Hoover implied as much in his internal documents to and from Divisions 5 & 6.

IT IS MY OPINION that a lot of the "EARLY CONSPIRACY" works are better than most of the newer ones. If for no other reason than they are closer to the primary sources. Yes the early works must be seen through the later knowledge.

However I try to keep in mind the words of Bill Newman's and the Willis' Family as they were there and did not mince words about what they saw.

And Ms. Jean Hill - God rest her soul.

Supplemented by the ARRB documents, as well as works by SOME authors a clear picture emerges.

But we as concerned citizens should not stop there, many revealing documents are released to include a document from the Western Cartridge Company concerning the lot and order data of the ammo presumed to be Lee Oswald's.

This gem is found in the FOIA and NARA "haystack".

Again in my opinion the "haystack" nature of the latest ARRB releases are not mistakes nor is it's "haystack" nature accidental.

The Dec 2 '63 letter from Western Cartridge Company to the F.B.I is clear and demonstrates a cover up even in December '63.

It out right and plainly states that according to Western Cartridge Company records the ammo order (for the empty cartridges found in the supposed sniper's nest) was placed by the USMC and speculates that the order may have been placed as covert cover for a CIA order as NO USMC weapon ever could chamber or fire the rounds.

Stunning don't we think?

It is much MUCH more than a simple conspiracy of LBJ and JE Hoover.

Much more than Ed Clark and Mac Wallace.

John Newman's books are by me considered to be primary sources of reality, as I also place high value on Jim Garrison's On the Trail of the Assassins, moreover after I bought William Davy's Let Justice Be Done. For the "big threat" to this democracy even Garrison's Heritage of Stone lays it out.

As for Mr. Harold Weisberg, some take his style as crusty and angry and argumentative, I take his "way of thinking" as passion for the Republic. Something I value highly.

I agree with no author totally, as is a given when one commits to thinking for one's self.

In most cases it is the "baby with the bath water" syndrome, care must be taken when "picking and choosing" from source books and even documents. As with all history and the study thereof, consideration must be given to the time and perspective and or "slant" of the author and or sources in the case of released documents.

I would be remiss if I didn't point out the error of allowing any government to investigate itself or parts of the government.

Every single "investigation" has been as case of the government covering it's behind. From the WCReport to the report of the ARRB.

In effect the ARRB functioned as cover - up. Again!

Why has every single empowered investigative body been representative of the Military/Intelligence/Industrial/Government Complex?

I know that ordinary Americans value honesty and loyalty so; Why can't a group of common working class citizens be empowered to open the hidden dark tombs of secrets? The citizenry can and would I think sort and redact "sources and methods" in an honest way having integrity and truth.

It is central that ONLY the INDEPENDENT RESEARCHER has EVER given truth in this matter. The FOIA suits and digging of private citizens has been more productive than all the numerous investigations and "reports". As Dr. Cyril Wecht said the WCReport should be relegated to the shelves of fiction beside Tom Sawyer where it belongs.

However as long as liars like Posner and deceptive Reports like those that have gone out over the signatures of Earl Warren and Robert Blakey stand as REPRESENTING truth, it makes all the more CRUCIAL for the independent researchers to keep digging.

As for books I intend to get Mr. Armstrong's Harvey and Lee is on my list. I also eagerly await Mr. Doug Horne's and Mr. Phil Melanson's upcoming releases.

In closing I would be quite clear in stating my own opinion that the MURDER of Jack Kennedy was no quick Texas two step brought about by LBJ and JE Hoover and a few other people.

Never a case of two "lone nuts" altering the nature and direction of the American government.

The WCReport too has only two truths in it from cover to cover: Jack Kennedy was shot on Elm Street in Dallas Texas on November 22, 1963 and that he died.

An exaggeration? Maybe but not by much. As Harold Weisberg told me long, long ago, the WCReport is only a whitewash.

In short as a couple of people I respect said: Not that man, not with that junk weapon and not from there.

Sincerely

Jim Hackett II

[John Simkin]

I don’t think it is a question of the best one but more the one that has proved to be the most important in helping us understand what happened. Of course, it is impossible to pick just one. It depends to a large extent when it was published.

Of the early books I think Harold Weisberg’s Whitewash: The Report on the Warren Report (1965) needs to be picked out for special mention. A very rigorous examination of the Warren Commission report.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKweisberg.htm

I don’t think Joachim Joesten has been given the credit he deserves. It is often forgotten that Oswald, Assassin or Fall Guy? appeared as early as 1964 (in the UK that is, he could not get it published in the United States. In the book Joesten claimed that the Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Dallas Police Department and a group of right-wing Texas oil millionaires conspired to kill Kennedy. In later books he began to point the finger at LBJ. See Oswald: The Truth (1967), The Garrison Enquiry: Truth & Consequences (1967) and The Dark Side of Lyndon Baines Johnson (1968).

Joesten later took the view that both Lyndon B. Johnson and Bobby Baker were involved in the killing: "The Baker scandal then is truly the hidden key to the assassination, or more exact, the timing of the Baker affair crystallized the more or less vague plans to eliminate Kennedy which had already been in existence the threat of complete exposure which faced Johnson in the Baker scandal provided that final impulse he was forced to give the go-ahead signal to the plotters who had long been waiting for the right opportunity."

Joesten was the victim of a vicious smear campaign. It was suggested that he was a KGB agent (he had been a member of the German Communist Party before fleeing from Nazi Germany). I don’t think he was an agent but he did appear to be getting some useful information from the KGB.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKjoesten.htm

I am also an admirer of Anthony Summers book The Kennedy Conspiracy (1980). It includes interviews with most of the key players still left alive. Writes like a journalist but carries out research like an historian. The updated version in 2002 was a little bit disappointing. He did not appear to be following up the new leads that had emerged in the 1990s.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKsummers.htm

Jim Marrs deserves a mention with Crossfire (1989). It is a comprehensive account of all the evidence available at the time. I would be interested in reading an updated version of the book.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmarrsJ.htm

The books edited by Jim Fetzer are all worth reading: Assassination Science (1998), Murder in Dealey Plaza (2000) and The Great Zapruder Film Hoax: Deceit and Deception in the Death of JFK (2003).

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKfetzer.htm

I enjoyed the first-half of Barr McClellan’s Blood, Money and Power (2003). He provides a fascinating account of political corruption in Texas. However, he fails to provide any new real evidence that LBJ was involved in planning the assassination and disliked intensely his “factionalize” account of these events.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmcclellan.htm

The best recent book is Larry Hancock’s Someone Would Have Talked (2003). A very impressive account based on the evidence that has emerged over the last few years. I think Larry has got very close to explaining the events of 1963.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKhancock.htm

[Terry Mauro]

Rush to Judgement

Accessories After the Fact

Best Evidence

The Secret Team

On The Trail of The Assassins

Plausible Denial

Murder In Dealey Plaza

The Whitewash Series

Never Again

Deep Politics

The Man Who Knew Too Much

[Judyth Baker]

Hi, Terry! Good to see you here! ==Judyth===

Edited May 8, 2004 by Judyth Baker

[Dixie Dea]

Hi Terry, Bernice, JIm, Ian and Larry....I see you made it here. It is nice to see some of us all together again, from various forums. Welcome also, to the new JFK Researchers and interested Students.

As for the best JFK Books, I have most of the above books mentioned, except for Barr McClellands book. I was trying to think which would be my favorite and just can't decide.

Those mentioned above are all good books!

Last year, I was able to buy several of the older 1960's books..some have interesting bits of info that has been forgotten through the years. I have a notebook of such items to evenually check out. I have found that some things were only erroneous info from unreliable sources or perhaps misunderstandings... misinfo.

I have also discovered that some things have been passed down from book to book and still believable today, yet was actually erreonous info. to begin with. So, I have discovered it is best to check sources as best you can.

I picked up some interesting info from a book several years ago, about a specific person and today do not recall what book I read it. I have mentioned the info to others and no one seems to have heard of it. So, now I don't know if this was bogus info or not. I do wish I could find the info again though, to at least check out the source of the info. Maybe one day I will run across it again because it does impact on something that might be important, if true.

Regards

Dixie

[Jim Hackett II]

Hello Dixie!

Hope all well and will stay so.

Boy you sure intrique me with this post. But in a good way.

I reckon I can hold the suspense.

I too have the error you speak of I think, the old now where do I know that from?

Or why is that name familiar?

Did I read that in this one or that one or was it from an old newsletter from the

pre-internet days of handouts and on campus speaking things?

Hmmmm?

I once started to set up a database for my own use of incidents and quotes and passages, but it became more work and stopped my research.

Makes it all the more amazing when I think of the huge amounts of amassed info as for example Ms. Mary Ferrell had.

What once started for me as a half dozen books and a few memographed mailings from Ms. Mae Brussells has grown to the point for me that I wonder where did I have that....I know I've got that somewhere. And I do find "it" but sometimes it is hours or days or weeks later. Sometimes after I forget what I wanted to recall that data for.

Anyway Best to You Dixie and Terry and Larry and Bernice and all.

until next time

Jim Hackett II

[Bernice Moore]

Hey All..

Now this is more like it, been way too long....Ter Girl, nice to see you Dix and Jim always, and Larry and Ian, what ?old home week.. Nice.

All do you recall, in what Harold Weisberg's book, he has the information and documentation re the Three different copies of the D.P.D. Radio tapes....If I recall correctly, the first was given to the F.B.I or should I say...seized by them....changes were made, and more changes which produced three different sets..

It relates in part I believe to the last call to and from Tippitt, and the mysterious Police Car number, that of course did not exist.??..that I have been interested in but have not had any luck so far, and also other alterations......so many good books listed here.....

I must get into them again, his work after all these years, still stands as the best for verification..along with Meagher's, of course and her report on the errors and omissions in the W.C......

I read the other day, that had she stated every mistake she found, she would have issued 20, that's right, books.....But she left the itty bittys out... and concentrated on the obvious....Now I would like to know the ittys and all...

Nice to see all, hey where's Adele?....... and I know I must be missing some of the crowd, nice as I said, and about time ......

Best regards all......B