Not in Your Lifetime: The Defining Book on the J.F.K. Assassination

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As evidence shows, John F. Kennedy was shot from a nearby building by a man known as Lee Harvey Oswald, a former US Marine. JFK Short Bio I don't like conspiracy theories because they require a machine with thousands of moving parts to operate flawlessly in total secrecy. A successful conspiracy, therefore, requires less than a handful of people to control the primary source of evidence. This is Lifton's premise regarding the Kennedy assassination. No longer the president’s closest advisor, Bobby struggled to find his place within the Johnson administration, eventually deciding to leave his Cabinet post to run for the U.S. Senate, and establish an independent identity. Those overlooked years of change, from hardline Attorney General to champion of the common man, helped him develop the themes of his eventual presidential campaign. This gem among books on Robert Kennedy follows him on the journey from memorializing his brother’s legacy to defining his own. Most contributions to the JFK book depository have fingered at least some of the figures in the Garrison-Prouty conspiracy theory. The most recurrent prime suspect has been Cuba, which had been infuriated by the Bay of Pigs operation – Kennedy’s failed attempt to depose the Castro dictatorship through a CIA-run invasion by Cuban exiles. The communist island also features in Oswald’s still-mysterious trip, weeks before the Kennedy shooting, to Mexico City, where he apparently hoped to secure a visa to defect to Cuba. Saying Jim Douglass is a liberation theologian and not a journalist is meaningless. Most journalists are coverup artists, and when did journalists become the only writers who could research and write about the JFK assassination. Who is a journalist? What is the ultimate goal of a journalist? I presume the truth. That is Jim Douglass’s goal as well. What is the ultimate goal of a sociologist or historian – the truth. JFK and the Unspeakable is based on rigorous research, and because a key part of Douglass’s thesis is that JFK underwent a spiritual transformation takes away not one jot from its persuasiveness; rather, it explains the deep motivation behind JFK’s decisions and the reasons why others thought he had to die. What does it mean to write that someone’s concern is ultimately spiritual? Is a journalist’s goal ultimately secular? What doe “ultimate” mean?

Serving as a Chief of Special Operations under the Kennedy administration, L. Fletcher Prouty decided to put pen to paper and give us one of the best-rated Kennedy assassination books in existence. Prouty, a former colonel in the US Army, eventually turned to banking and became a critic of US foreign policy and the existence and practices of the CIA, the very same reasons that many believe JFK was killed for. Despite the size, the book is easily readable, apart from a few volumes that might be a bit too technical for the average reader, and full of critical data and justified speculation. That being said, this is one of those Kennedy assassination books that are best to read only after you have a general understanding of the JFK assassination conspiracy, which you can get through reading some of the other books on this list. This book is great because it can be a compelling read for anyone whether they are already familiar or completely new to the subject. It lists most of, if not everything that was uncovered over the past 50 years about the assassination, and it could turn any skeptic into a believer that there was definitely something shady going on.Writing crisply, with indignation but also with humor, Kennedy focuses on how unions are bought, sold, and sometimes stolen; how ‘democracy’ actually operated in Jimmy Hoffa’s captive unions and what happened to the men who dared to oppose him; how Hoffa was tried on charges of attempting to plant a spy in the McClellan Committee; how an investigating committee works; how the Committee resisted external pressures, threats, and ploys to derail its efforts; and more. On November 22nd, 1963, Bobby Kennedy received a phone call that altered his life forever. The president, his brother, had been shot. JFK would not survive. The book starts out with an introduction by Oliver Stone, the director of the famous JFK movie. Prouty’s theories, claims, and evidence were in fact some of the main inspirations for the director to produce the movie. Crucial Facts Surrounding the Assassination

Lifton writes about how even the highest levels of the federal government were involved, and that somewhere during his short stint as president, JFK did something or multiple things that would make him a target, eventually leading up to him getting eliminated. Answering Crucial Questions Better known as the basis for one of the greatest conspiracy thriller movies – Alan J Pakula’s 1974 film – Singer’s novel was among the first works to react to the widespread view that the Warren commission report into JFK’s shooting was fiction by exploring what might really have happened: a reporter investigating the killing of a politician uncovers a vast corporate conspiracy. Singer also presciently caught the paranoia and suspicion among American politicians and voters that would soon result in Watergate and the fall of Nixon. The Tears of Autumn Bugliosi, a former prosecutor, recounts JFK case from a forensic and theoretical point of view. His self-proclaimed mission is to discredit unsupported conspiracy theories. This is a worthy mission. There are a lot of stupid JFK conspiracy theories out there. But the result is a flabby book that devotes most of its energy to describing what did NOT happen in Dallas on November 22, 1963, as opposed to explaining what actually did happen. I would give Summers top marks, however, for writing a top-shelf book from the other side of the aisle. While I generally did not agree with many of his conclusions in the 1998 edition, I did at least find the book far less ludicrous than some other works out there. With levels of research that are only appropriate for a world-class reporter of Jim Marrs’ caliber, this is truly a must-read for anyone who is looking to uncover the truth about what really happened in Dallas on such a tragic day – a day that was hard to let go off and even harder to forget.

The Report of the Warren Commission: The Assassination of President Kennedy

Lifton doesn't try to explain every facet of that awful weekend of November 22-24, 1963. You won't read much about Oswald, Ruby, or the group of standard suspects here. What distinguishes Lifton's work is his concentration on the medical evidence - ostensibly the "best evidence" in any murder case. While other early critics accused the Warren Commission as well as the autopsy doctors of covering up the truth, Lifton eventually came up with a scenario where all of these parties were actually truthful. In his view, it was the medical evidence - the body and the autopsy X-rays and photos - that lied. The autopsy doctors described completely different wounds than those reported by the Parkland doctors because the body of the slain President was altered somewhere between Dallas and the autopsy at Bethesda to make it look like JFK had been shot twice from behind. That is the crux of Lifton's argument. It was originally released in 1989 and puts together all the facts that are there which indicate that there is a lot more about Kennedy’s death than what the general public knows. In the book, the author shows raw photos, documentation, and exclusive interviews that each play a part in solving the puzzle of the president’s assassination. Research Results From a World-Class Reported The interior of the Presidential limousine after the Kennedy assassination How Many JFK AssassinationFiles Have Been Declassified? Waldron, an independent scholar, comes to the JFK story with the mission of explaining not just how Kennedy died but the nature of American politics in the 1960’s, encompassing not just Kennedy’s presidency, but the assassination of Martin Luther King, and the Watergate scandal. This is ambitious — and endless. If the reader differs with Waldron’s interpretation of events, the story starts to lose credibility. As Waldron’s vehicle motors on towards pre-ordained destination, the author seems oblivious to the possibility that the reader might have a mind of his or her own.

While Lifton never truly succeeds at pinpointing when and where (or by whom) the body alterations were made, he does point to many confusing and unexplained aspects of the body's arrival and handling at Bethesda. His attempts to interview everyone who was there in and around the autopsy room that night led to an assembly of confusing stories involving decoy ambulances, two different coffins, and a team of mystery men on hand to watch and control everything that went on there that night. How do you explain reports of a hearse delivering a plain casket with JFK in a body bag vs. reports of the body arriving in an ornate casket with the President wrapped in a sheet? Different people reported entirely different stories taking place at entirely different times from that night in the morgue. The volume and complexity of all this information sort of gets the better of Lifton in the end, I think, as some of his attempts to figure out where and when the body was altered come across as fishing expeditions, but I really don't know what more he could have done in this regard. Summers is a veteran journalist and accomplished biographer whose work has appeared in BBC and Vanity Fair and other publications with high editorial standards and big audiences. He combines story telling skills with a relentless focus on sifting the evidence, eliminating the dubious, and identifying what is new and important. I’m interested in what readers think is the best single book about JFK’s assassination and why. I’ll summarize and publish your views. The reason for that is because while this book goes in-depth on some aspects of the conspiracy, other important aspects that are important for getting the full picture are left out. Full disclosure: I thought “Not In Your Lifetime” was the best introduction to the JFK story before I met its author. Since then I have become a personal friend of Summers. Readers must decide for themselves if I am biased. The best way to do that is to read “Not in Your Lifetime.”

American Tabloid – James Ellroy

With passages on freedom, democracy, civil rights, education, justice, tragedy, and peace, Make Gentle the Life of This World speaks powerfully to America’s unstoppable drive for a better world. Complemented by poignant photographs of Robert Kennedy, this is an extraordinary tribute to an extraordinary hero, whose dream for America has never been extinguished. As one of the most popular Kennedy assassination books out there, you can expect to learn a lot of new details about the case from Plausible Denial. Mark Lane, who released this book 25 years after the first book he wrote on this topic, continues with his groundbreaking discoveries and reports about the case and uncovers how former CIA operatives either helped the convicted murderer or helped him in his plans to kill the president. Our Man In Mexico: Winston Scott and the Hidden History of the CIA by Jefferson Morley. Though not about the JFK assassination per se this book is unrivaled in how it pursues and presents Lee Harvey Oswald’s undeniably peculiar relationship with intelligence agencies. After reading it I could not help but conclude that James Jesus Angleton - chief of the CIA's counterintelligence staff from 1954 to 1975 – was running an operation in which Oswald was involved and one most likely concerning the President of the United States. What makes Morley’s writing so impressive is how skillfully he avoids speculation, like that which I just expressed (smile). To his credit he has attempted to bring a more rational approach to those within the JFK assassination study community with his ‘JFK Facts’ portaland his efforts to get remaining documents declassified are nothing short of heroic. As for substantiating Colonel Prouty – Mr. Morley told me in 2010, “Fletcher Prouty is eminently credible.” Though I wonder over Talbot’s omission of Col. Prouty, I whole-heartedly share the respect he expresses for Jefferson Morley (“ We need the facts – as Jefferson Morley, one of the few journalists to devote serious effort to the Kennedy case, has demonstrated. Morley has been pursuing a lengthy Freedom of Information battle with the CIA to pry loose more than 1,500 documents that the agency is still concealing in defiance of the 1992 JFK Records Act.”) And we are not alone – Morley’s journalistic career and authorship is widely lauded. Once Kennedy started to waver on those Cold Warrior beliefs, the book claims he was marked for death by the military intelligence agencies that held (and still hold) huge influence over every level of government in the U.S. These forces, which Douglass call “the Unspeakable” (after Thomas Meryton), tagged Kennedy as a dangerous traitor, plotted his assassination, and orchestrated the subsequent killing and cover-up in Dallas in 1963. It also covers a few other topics, such as the US steel industry problem in 1962, when the Kennedy administration intervened after the top US steel companies decided to raise prices to control inflation. If you are looking for a detailed book that covers every aspect of JFK’s time as president and the events that led to his death, this is one of the best books about Kennedy assassination conspiracy.

In this compelling book, the author James W. Douglass tells you everything there is to know on the reason why JFK was assassinated, and why uncovering those reasons to the general public is very important for the US and the entire world. The virtues of Summers’s historical journalism is evident when you compare his approach to Bugliosi and Waldron’s. Throughout the 1960s, Robert F. Kennedy kept a private journal of favorite quotations, recording the philosophies of great leaders and thinkers throughout history. Thirty years after his father’s tragic death, Maxwell Taylor Kennedy has culled the highlights of this journal, along with moving portions of Robert Kennedy’s most memorable speeches, to create an inspiring, immortal voice for his father’s vision. The notion that Communist leaders wanted Kennedy dead but his supposed biggest enemies, ‘generals and espionage chiefs,’ didn’t rings hollow. And once someone arrives at the conclusion that ‘Communists’ didn’t hate Kennedy more than fellow Americans inside and outside of government, the thought that the greatest anti-JFK vitriol manifested in the form of a lone individual, a supposed ideologue, and not an unaccountable power center (suffering real and demonstrable loss as the result of JFK’s policies) is no longer convincing.

On the Trail of the Assassins – Jim Garrison

In The Revolution of Robert Kennedy, journalist John R. Bohrer focuses in intimate and revealing detail on Bobby Kennedy’s life during the three years following JFK’s assassination. Torn between mourning the past and plotting his future, Bobby was placed in a sudden competition with his political enemy, Lyndon Johnson, for control of the Democratic Party. What I didn't really like about the book is that it went too much into how the bullet entered and left his brain. I understand it was to show that the brain was tampered with before the autopsy to prove that the bullets only came from one direction (Oswald) and that there couldn't be more than one shooter, but I'm not a doctor. I will never be a doctor and a lot of the stuff written about I just will never understand. Not exactly the best thing to read about while eating lunch, too. I wish the book went more into what was Oswald like as a person before the shooting? How did he end up at the Book Depository? What went on with Kennedy a few months, weeks and days before the shooting? The same question with Lyndon Johnson. This book mostly focuses on the MEDICAL evidence concerning the brain, the autopsy and x-ray photos and how the body may or may not have been altered with either before it went on Air Force One or while it was on Air Force One or not at all. But the most interesting of all the literary retorts to the Warren report is Norman Mailer’s Oswald’s Tale: An American Mystery (1995), which used KGB material released in post-Soviet Russia to illuminate the formative period that Kennedy’s presumed assassin spent in the USSR as a young man. However, despite this period deepening the mystery of Oswald’s motives, the generally anarchistic Mailer eventually concludes: “Every insight we have gained of him suggests the solitary nature of his act.” Mailer’s sly comparison of the assassination with masturbation underlines his theory that the killer was driven by narcissistic egotism, rather than an external commission.