BOOK REVIEW -- "RECLAIMING HISTORY: THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY" (1 Viewer)

[Ed Moroughan]

You know, it seems these people think that no human endeavor is ever made without mistakes. Apparently the Police are supposed to be infallible, and yet I missed my exit today and had to take the next one. Oh, to be a cop and be perfect! LOL Just because he said Mauser first doesn't mean it was one. What kind of twisted logic is that?

 

[ChristopherDAC]

You should hear the Moon Landing nuts. Hundreds of hours of audio tape, scores of hours of videotape and film, thousands of photographs from six manned landings, three manned flybys, nine living moon-walkers (at least one of whom will punch you in the face) &c. &c., and they still claim it didn't happen. That's a superior grade of nuttery. As far as the Kennedy issue is concerned, I think the problem is one of symmetry. Nobody except a few hardcore loons doubts that Oswald shot at the President with the intent to kill him (or conceivably someone else in the motorcade). Certainly he had attempted something similar before, and certainly he, shortly afterward, shot and killed a police officer in broad daylight and full view of witnesses — it's a well-known fact of life in Texas that killing a policeman is a capital offence only if they bother to bring you in alive, whereas a white man carrying a loaded gun in Oak Cliff in 1963 would have been of only minor interest to the authorities. On the other hand, as people have no trouble seeing, it is astoundingly unlikely that Oswald could have made that one shot, after his others went wild, from that position, managing with that one bullet not only to kill the President with a perfect headshot but to wound the Governor as well. What they fail to see is the at least equally fantastic unlikelihood of its having happened any other way. Every indication is that Oswald acted alone, and that he was such a fantastically contrary person that, if someone had suggested it to him, he would have done something else instead. If his wife is to be believed, he only began to think about trying for the President after reading in the newspaper, earlier in the week, what the parade route was to be, and discovering that it ran right past his workplace. In other words, we are forced to assume either a completely separate conspiracy which just happened to pick that exact time and place for its attempt (which is so improbable as to be totally ridiculous), or a conspiracy which had seized upon Oswald ahead of time to act as a patsy, and had determined with exactitude the one time and place at which he could possibly have a chance at shooting the President, and beat him to it (which is almost worse). Faced with two competing absurdities of roughly equal magnitude, Occam suggests we pick the simpler one. Some people's minds just don't seem to work that way.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Christopher, it wasn't one shot. It was three. The first missed (probably due to tree cover and angle of deflection, because it was fired when the car was closest to the window). The second shot (the "Magic Bullet") entered Kennedy's upper back, exited his throat, hit the Gov. in the back, exited his ribs, hit his wrist and embedded itself in his leg, just below the skin. The third shot, at the greatest distance, but probably the easiest because the angle was almost straight on with no deflection, was into the right rear side of JFK's head.

Neither the second nor third shot was judged to be all that diffcult for an experienced shooter, which Oswald was (despite what the CTers say).

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

In fact, all of the shots were fairly easy. This is what I've been told by ex-military folk who have been to the 6th floor and handled Carcanos:

The limo was moving very slowly, on a slight downgrade, and almost directly away from Oswald. Except for the target becoming slightly smaller with distance due to foreshortening, it was the next best thing to a stationary target. (This is also why all the ink spilled on how accurate the rifle's scope was and whether or not it was mounted properly is such a waste. Oswald didn't need the scope and didn't use it. The gun's iron sights would have been more than enough for the situation that day in Dallas. It was that easy a shot.) By contrast a shot from the Grassy Knoll or almost any of the alternative locations proposed by the CTs would have been much more difficult.

The first shot was almost certainly deflected by hitting some part of a tree, rather than missing because it was poorly aimed, so Oswald probably fired three quite accurate shots in a short period, which is what you'd expect from a trained shooter who had been "dry firing" to rehearse for the day.

The "Oswald was a lousy shot" canard is based on the his last Marine Corps shooting proficiency score. Oswald was tested after he had applied for an early discharge from the Marines, and probably after he had already decided to defect to the Soviet Union. He was a short-timer with no reason to want to score well, and in fact scored below his previous tests, yet he got a passing score. That's "passing" by the combat shooting standards of the U.S. Marines. Merely getting a "passing" score on that test makes you a better rifle shot than most shooters. And in the days leading up to the Kennedy assassination (as in the days leading up to the attempt on Gen. Walker's life) Oswald deliberately honed his shooting skills, something he wouldn't have bothered doing before his last USMC proficiency.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Correct that none of the 3 shots were all that difficult, but the first did involve increased deflection in the aimpoint, due to the car moving more perpendicular to the window. The next two had the vehicle moving straight away, so the target was basically stationary from Oswald's perspective.

 

[David Von Pein]

FYI -- An updated list of JFK-related books, DVDs, and videos:

KENNEDY-RELATED BOOKS, VIDEOS, DVDs, AND CDs

=====================================

A few sample videos:

6 HOURS OF CBS-TV COVERAGE FROM 11/22/63:


YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.


2 HOURS OF ABC-TV COVERAGE FROM 11/22/63:


YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.


BILL PAXTON TALKS ABOUT THE JFK ASSASSINATION AND THE 10-HOUR HBO MINISERIES:


YouTube - 2009 INTERVIEW WITH BILL PAXTON (RE: PRESIDENT KENNEDY'S ASSASSINATION)

YouTube - DavidVonPein's Channel

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Actually there were quite a few Mausers made in other countries - even considering the famous model 1898 alone. After WWI the allies stripped Germany of its munitions factories. The tooling at the Mauser factories was literally crated up and given to the Fabrique Nationale in Belgium and to the Czech rifle factory at Brno. (One of the reasons Hitler was hot to grab Czechoslovakia was to get his hands on that Brno factory.) The Japanese made some in a factory in Manchuria. Even the Turks got into the game, creating a factory to make their own rifles after previously buying them from the Germans and the Czechs.

See for example Mauser Military Rifles of the World by Robert Ball.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Which is probably why Oswald missed with the first shot, hit with the second and inflicted the fatal wound with the third.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Jeff Gatie]

It's exactly why Oswald missed, wounded, and killed; in that order. The final shot, which was practically dead on and moving away, was like fish in a barrel. An average-to-good shot wouldn't even need the scope, it was quite easily accomplished with simple open sights.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I stand corrected. Thanks for the history lesson.

Joe

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Actually the only question I have is why LHO stopped at three rounds. The Carcano magazine holds six rounds.


Wouldn't he have kept firing in order to stir up as much trouble as possible?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

??? He had just killed the president of the United States in broad daylight in front of many hundreds of witnesses. How much more "trouble" could he have stirred up? And how? Shooting a few random civilians? Killing Nellie and Jackie? Shooting some street signs or traffic lights?

Besides, his objective wasn't to "stir up trouble". It was to kill the president. Once he had done that (and there couldn't have been much doubt that the third shot was fatal, what with the skull fragments, blood and brain matter flying all over the place) there was no reason to continue firing.

Oswald wasn't a trained sniper, but he saw himself in that role. Any sniper tries to take out the target with the fewest possible shots. The ideal is "one shot, one kill." If he'd killed JFK with his first shot he would have been delighted and he certainly would not have fired a second shot. It isn't like the president would have been any deader for being shot again.

OTOH he had an excellent reason to stop shooting: his desire to escape if possible. The longer he stayed there firing, the more likely that someone was going to figure out where the shots were coming from, and the less chance he had of getting away.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I don't know Joe.

I would think a few random shots into the thickest parts of the crowd would have created such panic that it would be arguable easier to have escaped into the crowd.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Shots into the crowd would do nothing but disperse the crowd, causing them to seek cover. If you were a law enforcement officer, what would you think of a man strolling out of the TSBD and walking down the street amongst these "pinned down" citizens?

Besides, this assumes that Oswald was thinking of anything except killing the President and getting as far away as possible. Remember, the man was loco.

 

[David Von Pein]

Oswald only had four bullets available to him for his evil deed of murder on 11/22/63.

His Carcano clip wasn't filled with six bullets that day. He only had four. And one live round was in the chamber when the police found the rifle. And no other rifle bullets were discovered anywhere after the shooting among Oswald's personal effects (not at the Paine house or in Oswald's rented room in Oak Cliff).

That last point about Oswald's meager supply of ammunition has prompted some conspiracy theorists to speculate that Oswald didn't really own and possess Carcano Rifle #C2766 at all in 1963...but, instead, the rifle and the bullets were planted into evidence by evil, unnamed plotters.

Such a crazy theory ignores this document from the sporting goods company where Oswald purchased the rifle in March of '63 (under his alias of A. Hidell):



And there are many conspiracists who actually believe that Carcano bullets were not available to the general public at all in 1963....which is a really silly theory, considering the fact that we know that mail-order companies like Klein's in Chicago were selling Mannlicher-Carcano rifles and the ammunition that goes into those Carcano weapons.

In fact, the very ad that Oswald used to buy his rifle in March '63 also advertised boxes of "6.5mm. Italian military ammo; 108 rounds" for $7.50. Oswald didn't order his bullets directly from Klein's, but the Klein's ads (like this one from November 1963) verify that Mannlicher-Carcano bullets were certainly readily available to purchase in the year 1963.

Plus, it stands to reason that companies like Klein's wouldn't even be selling Carcano rifles if there was no way for anybody to use them due to a total lack of bullets to put into them. For some reason, this basic common-sense fact seems to have escaped many of the conspiracy theorists.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Have you seen the film footage of the immediate aftermath of the shooting?

Blowing a big part of the president's head off caused plenty of panic as it was. Nobody knew where the shots were coming from (the plaza is an echo chamber, which is one reason people were confused over both the direction and number of shots) or if there would be more coming. Even if Oswald had had more ammo, dropping a couple of random people in the crowd would have made little or no difference.

Given the layout of the plaza and how widely the people were dispersed, very few people would have seen any individual being shot and falling. All eyes were on the motorcade. A few people standing in the immediate area of another victim would have reacted, but people across the street or on the other side of the plaza would never have known that anything had happened. I don't think there would have been any signficant difference in the crowd reaction if there were a couple of extra shots, but agree that if there had been it would have leaned in the direction of dispersing the crowd and hindering Oswald's escape.

Either way I don't think there was anything to be gained from pumping a few more rounds out that would compensate for keeping Oswald in the sniper's next for another 8 to 10 seconds and giving witnesses three more shots to help them zero in on his location.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

The model 1891/38 Carcano was the standard infantry rifle of Italian troops in WWII. Many were lost in the Italian defeats in East and North Africa. Most of the ones available for purchase in recent years (e.g. my own) came out of storage in Albania, which was an occupied Italian client state back circa 1940.

It's harder to find ammo for Carcanos these days, and it's odd that there isn't any cheap Albanian ammo for sale. Albania was a Chi Com client state -their toehold in Europe - and the Chinese built a huge ammo factory in Albania which produced far in excess of any legitimate Albanian need. But their production was 7.62 x 54R ammo for the Russian Mosin-Nagant, not any Carcano ammo as far I as know. IIRC LHO's ammo was American built stuff, the legacy of the CIA getting ammo to supply along with Carcanos to insurgents in the Balkans. I guess they thought the Carcanos would be untraceable to them since they were a "native" military rifle in that part of the world.

It's unclear to me how much postwar Carcano ammo was produced in Italy. The NATO countries quickly adopted the .308 Winchester round as a standard for all member nations, renaming it the .308 NATO.

Here's one store that stocks Carcano ammo. Graf & Sons - 6.5x52 Carcano The Privi Partisan cheaper stuff comes out of Serbia. I should go order some since my Italian surplus stuff is in poor and dirty condition - I've never fired any because of my concerns about its safety. Surprisingly enough the magazine clips themselves are easy to get. Someone in the US has been producing them and I got a handful for $5 mailorder not that long ago from Discount Hunting Gear, Discount Hunting Boots, Discount Shoes, Discount Ammunition, Discount Ammo, Discount Boots, Military Surplus, Outdoor Gear At the Sportsman's Guide .

I guess my long winded post is about how Carcano ammo is still available although not cheap. If it's available 66 years after the Italian surrender, it would surely have been much more available in the 1950's and 1960's.

 

[David Von Pein]

I wanted to share the following download link that I created through the very handy file-sharing service at RapidShare.com. It's a 20-minute "Kennedy Photo Album" (in video form) that I put together last year.

I'm very pleased with the way the album turned out. And I think any JFK admirer will enjoy watching it.

Here's the download link (the file size is 55 megabytes):

www.RapidShare.com/files/239075899/KENNEDY_PHOTO_ALBUM.wmv

 

[David Von Pein]

BOOK REVIEW (FIRST OF THREE PARTS):


"RECLAIMING HISTORY:
THE ASSASSINATION OF
PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY"

AUTHOR: VINCENT BUGLIOSI



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BOOK STATS:

• USA Release Date: May 15, 2007.
• Published by W.W. Norton & Co.
• 1,664 Pages (plus 1,128 pages on accompanying CD-ROM).
• 40 Chapters, Plus Introduction. (Note: You can read the book's entire 36-page Introduction HERE.)
• 32 Pages of Photos/Illustrations.
• 6 Pages of Charts/Diagrams.
• 71-Page Index.
• Hardcover.

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BOOK WEBSITE:
Vincent Bugliosi’s Reclaiming History | Vincent Bugliosi


MY "RECLAIMING HISTORY" WEBSITE:
RECLAIMING HISTORY: THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY


RELATED LINKS:
Amazon.com: Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: Vincent Bugliosi J.D.: Books
Amazon.com: Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: Vincent Bugliosi J.D.: Books
Amazon.com: Customer Discussions: Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy forum
MY JFK-RELATED "YOU TUBE" VIDEOS
THE ASSASSINATION OF JOHN F. KENNEDY: A LONE-GUNMAN VIEWPOINT


BUGLIOSI VS. WECHT RADIO DEBATE:
Assassination Debate via WPTT-Radio in Pittsburgh


INTERVIEWS AND PERSONAL APPEARANCES FEATURING VINCENT BUGLIOSI:
FORA.tv - Vincent Bugliosi in New York City
FORA.tv - Vincent Bugliosi in Dallas
FORA.tv - Vincent Bugliosi in San Francisco
Book TV - Vincent Bugliosi Speaks At Dallas' Sixth Floor Museum
Dozens Of Additional Instant-Access Audio & Video Files Featuring Vincent Bugliosi













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REVIEW BY DAVID R. VON PEIN:

I can remember thinking to myself many years ago....if I could choose just one person on the face of the globe whom I would want to have write an in-depth book on the JFK assassination, that one person would be Vincent T. Bugliosi.

"Reclaiming History: The Assassination Of President John F. Kennedy" was published by W.W. Norton and released on May 15, 2007. (The release date was moved up two weeks from the originally-announced publishing date of May 29, 2007, which would have been JFK's 90th birthday.)

Written over the course of a 21-year period by former Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi, "Reclaiming History" was a daunting project indeed.

This massive 1,664-page book is accompanied by a CD-ROM, which contains an additional 958 pages of endnotes and another 170 pages of source notes. So the total number of pages adds up to a mind-blowing 2,792. (And that figure can be increased still further if the 32 unnumbered pages of photos are figured into the total; so that would put the final page count at 2,824.)

When counting the endnotes on the CD-ROM, this mighty publication logs in at 1,535,791 total words....an impressive stat by anyone's standards. (I didn't count every word myself, mind you; Bugliosi provides that statistic in one of the book's footnotes.) And what makes that seven-digit figure even more impressive is the fact that almost all of those 1.5-million words were written out in longhand by Mr. Bugliosi on Vincent's ever-present yellow legal pads.

In this era of computer word processors, I cannot imagine an author writing a gigantic book like this one (or any book, for that matter) in longhand with a #2 pencil. But evidently Mr. Bugliosi did just that....which, in my view, makes me respect Vince's dedication to this JFK subject all the more. (And the company that supplied Vincent with all those yellow legal pads must be in 7th heaven now. Because Vince probably kept that company afloat for two solid decades all by himself, with his large refill orders!)

The endnotes are essential reading, containing many excellent anti-conspiracy arguments put forth by the author. The nearly 1,000 pages of endnotes on the CD-ROM also include several "clickable" Internet weblinks, providing still more information about certain sub-topics, although some of the links are non-functioning ones, being broken via the line structure used on the PDF document on the CD, necessitating a copy-and-paste into a separate browser.

An Audio-CD edition of "Reclaiming History" is also available (produced by Simon & Schuster). The audio version includes 15 compact discs, which contain approximately 18 hours of abridged material from the book, very nicely read by actor Edward Herrmann. The CD-ROM full of notes is not included with the audio package, however.

A five-minute excerpt of the "Audiobook" version of "RH" can be accessed for free at this webpage.

And as of this writing, Tom Hanks' production company (in conjunction with Home Box Office) is working on finalizing a deal that will bring "Reclaiming History" to the TV screen, in the form of a 10-part television miniseries.

In addition to the HBO miniseries, a companion documentary special is also in the works, wherein Mr. Bugliosi will appear on camera to thoroughly debunk all of the various conspiracy theories.

Bugliosi told "Daily Variety": "Many more people will see the miniseries than will read the book. With the integrity that Tom [Hanks], Gary [Goetzman] and Bill [Paxton] bring, I think that we will finally be able to make a substantial dent in the 75% of people in this country who still believe the conspiracy theorists."

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"HOME BOX OFFICE" AND "PLAYTONE" PLAN JFK MINISERIES

HBO IS 'RECLAIMING HISTORY' -- NETWORK GETS RIGHTS TO BOOK DEBUNKING JFK CONSPIRACIES

BILL PAXTON TALKS ABOUT JFK AND THE HBO MINISERIES (MARCH 16, 2009)

--------------------------

This book, which was originally going to be titled "Final Verdict", was delayed for several years after its November 1998 release date was postponed. As of 1998, the book was slated to have only 992 pages.

Obviously, Mr. Bugliosi found a lot more to say about the case during those interim nine years....and found a few more conspiracy theories to destroy in the process.

If I were being forced to come up with a very brief two-word description of this book, I think I would probably choose the words "Staggeringly Comprehensive". For example, "Reclaiming History" contains more than 10,000 source citations, including 1,557 in the first chapter alone ("Four Days In November"), plus another 1,627 in the "Lee Harvey Oswald" chapter.

To illustrate the grandness of that number, the 888-page Warren Commission Report (which is stocked with an extremely large number of citations) has approximately 6,500 source references in it. But that number is dwarfed by Bugliosi's five-digit stat.

In addition to receiving many positive reviews in major U.S. newspapers and other publications, "Reclaiming History" became an award-winner on May 1, 2008, when Mr. Bugliosi's book won the "Edgar Allan Poe Award" for "Best Fact Crime" book of 2007. The "Edgars" are given out annually by "Mystery Writers of America".

This marks the third "Edgar Allan Poe Award" captured by Vince Bugliosi. His previous victories were for the 1974 best-seller "Helter Skelter" (which is still to this day the top-selling true-crime book in publishing history), and 1978's true murder mystery "Till Death Us Do Part".




Mr. Bugliosi has meticulously examined and scrutinized the entire JFK assassination case here -- from Lee Harvey Oswald, to Jack Ruby, to J.D. Tippit (despite the lack of a specific chapter with Tippit's name attached to it; however, the details of the Tippit murder are chronicled very nicely in Chapter 1 and also over the course of several endnotes located on the CD-ROM disc), to all of the physical and circumstantial evidence, to the witnesses, to the autopsy, to the Warren Commission, to the HSCA, to the ARRB, and also to the enormous number of inaccurate conspiracy theories that have populated the landscape since 1963.

And Vince Bugliosi (who I'll refer to as "VB" many times throughout this review) has assessed this massive amount of information with his usual style of common sense, logic, thoroughness, and fairness....and has reached the conclusion (which I have fully agreed with for many years) that Lee Harvey Oswald, alone, shot and killed President Kennedy and Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.

Given the evidence that VB has sifted through (again and again), there is no alternate conclusion even possible, other than to accept the original 1964 conclusion of the Warren Commission, i.e., Oswald was the sole assassin that day in Texas so many years ago.

Mr. Bugliosi has done something that no one else has done prior to the release of "Reclaiming History" -- he has taken each major conspiracy theory (and many minor ones too) and has looked beyond just the SURFACE ALLEGATIONS of conspiracy to dig deeper into them and reveal the inherent illogic, inconsistencies, and internal contradictions that exist in EVERY THEORY (without a single exception). It's a magnificent accomplishment by Bugliosi, in my opinion.

I've been interested in the JFK assassination since reading the first book I ever owned on the subject, David Lifton's "Best Evidence" (1980), which is a pro-conspiracy book that Mr. Bugliosi so thoroughly demolishes in Chapter 21 of "Reclaiming History" that it will make everyone wonder how on this Earth Lifton's book ever made it to the New York Times Best Sellers list.

In any event, during those many years since perusing Lifton's nonsense-filled tome, I've amassed a pretty decent amount of knowledge with respect to the events of November 22nd, 1963. But even with a fairly vast amount of information stored up in my memory about the case, I still learned many additional details pertaining to that tragic day in Dallas by reading "Reclaiming History".

One such example being Vincent's "discovery" of a second soft-drink machine within the Texas School Book Depository (see pages 957 and 958 for details; and also check out this official Warren Commission Document: "CD496; Photo #7", which provides verifiable proof of the existence of this long-overlooked Dr. Pepper machine).

"Reclaiming History" could almost be considered more of a "John F. Kennedy Assassination Encyclopedia", rather than a mere JFK "book". The heft and all-encompassing scope of this tome are certainly "encyclopedic" in nature, to be sure.

For years to come, these individual chapters are bound to serve as useful reference material for researchers regarding specific sub-topics within the vast landscape of the JFK case. Hence, some redundancy can be found throughout the book's text. But, in my opinion, it's required repetition.

Vincent's extensive and far-reaching knowledge of this whole case, coupled with his rational mind and logical way of evaluating evidence, is pretty much akin to turning a kid loose in a candy store.

I get the sense that VB is having a ball as he works his way from one unsupportable conspiracy theory to the next in the second half of this book, thoroughly reducing each and every theory to a pile of dust. And in most instances, even the dust doesn't stand a chance, as Vince blows that away as well.

When conspiracists go about the formidable task of attempting to dismantle Mr. Bugliosi's 21 years' worth of lone assassin-favoring research, I get the feeling that those "CTers" will, in essence, be trying to put out the Great Chicago Fire with a Dixie cup full of hot water. Such meager conspiracy-rescuing attempts won't be of much use at all.

Bugliosi began writing this book shortly after he successfully "prosecuted" President Kennedy's accused murderer during a 21-hour "Docu-Trial" produced in 1986 for the Showtime cable-TV network, "On Trial: Lee Harvey Oswald".

The webpage linked below features many interesting verbatim text excerpts from the "mock" LHO trial, including almost every single word of Mr. Bugliosi's "final summation" to the jury:

"ON TRIAL: LEE HARVEY OSWALD"

The Showtime TV Docu-Trial featured a real judge, a real jury from Dallas, two real lawyers battling it out in court (Bugliosi vs. famed defense attorney Gerry Spence), and real assassination-related witnesses as well, including Ruth Paine, Wesley Frazier, Marrion Baker, Cyril Wecht, Johnny Brewer, Charles Brehm, and many others.

Bugliosi believes that the '86 Docu-Trial is "the closest thing to a trial that Lee Harvey Oswald ever had or will have" (a VB quote from late 2005).



For me personally, another extraordinarily-informative and entertaining part of "Reclaiming History" is when author Bugliosi puts on display his amazing ability to (as the publisher [W.W. Norton] phrased it) "draw startling inferences" from certain facts surrounding the JFK case. I like to refer to these types of VB inferences as "Why Didn't I Think Of That?" moments. And Vince does this many times throughout the book, too (some examples provided below in my chapter-by-chapter analysis).

I'm a bit disappointed by the overall minimal number of photographs that appear in this massive book (there are two "slick" sections of pictures in the book, totalling 32 pages; and Vince has also included 6 extra pages of charts and diagrams as well, placed on unnumbered pages).

The JFK assassination was the most-photographed murder in history, and many hundreds of pictures were taken which would succeed, all by themselves, in telling a rich photographic tale. And I would have liked to have seen Vince augment his text here with more of the wealth of pictures that exist surrounding those four dramatic days in November 1963. Especially considering the author's boast about "Reclaiming History" being the "book for the ages" on the JFK case.

Although, to be fair to the author, I'm guessing that Vince probably didn't want to add still more girth to this heavy 6-pound volume; and filling up the book with pictures would obviously have tacked on many additional pages.

Another factor that might have kept the number of photos to a minimum is the very thin paper that has been used for these pages (the thin paper obviously also helping to minimize the volume's size).

I'm not an expert on such matters, but I'm guessing that printing photographs on extremely-thin paper stock is not a very good idea. And there are no assassination photos printed on any of the regular (numbered) pages within this stout publication. That's a shame, in my opinion. But it is understandable I guess, given all factors combined.

I do agree with Vincent, though, about this being a "book for the ages" on the assassination. But some more photographs within this tome would have, indeed, been nice, too. Although, the 32 pages of pictures and illustrations that are supplied do offer up a few rarely-seen snapshots.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS/CHAPTER LIST FOR "RECLAIMING HISTORY":

Dedication

Introduction

1.) Four Days In November

2.) The Investigations

3.) President Kennedy's Autopsy And The Gunshot Wounds To Kennedy And Governor Connally

4.) The Most Famous Home Movie Ever, The "Magic Bullet", And The Single-Bullet Theory

5.) Lee Harvey Oswald

6.) Oswald's Ownership And Possession Of The Rifle Found On The Sixth Floor

7.) Identification Of The Murder Weapon

8.) Oswald At The Sniper's Nest And "Evidence" Of His Innocence

9.) The Grassy Knoll

10.) A Conversation With Dr. Cyril Wecht

11.) Secret Service Agents On The Grassy Knoll

12.) The Zanies (And Others) Have Their Say

13.) Other Assassins

14.) Motive

15.) Summary Of Oswald's Guilt

16.) Introduction To Conspiracy

17.) History Of The Conspiracy Movement

18.) Mark Lane

19.) Mysterious And Suspicious Deaths

20.) The Second Oswald

21.) David Lifton And Alteration Of The President's Body

22.) Ruby And The Mob

23.) Organized Crime

24.) CIA

25.) FBI

26.) Secret Service

27.) KGB

28.) Right Wing

29.) LBJ

30.) Cuba

31.) The Odio Incident And Anti-Castro Cuban Exiles

32.) Cover-Up By The CIA And FBI In The Warren Commission's Investigation Of The Assassination

33.) Jim Garrison's Prosecution Of Clay Shaw And Oliver Stone's Movie "JFK"

34.) Conclusion Of No Conspiracy

35.) The Murder Trial Of Jack Ruby

36.) A Conversation With Marina

37.) The People And Groups Involved In The Plot To Kill Kennedy

38.) Lincoln-Kennedy Coincidences

39.) Epilogue

40.) In Memoriam

Abbreviations Used For Citations

Acknowledgments

Bibliography

Index

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UP NEXT.......

"RECLAIMING HISTORY" CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER HIGHLIGHTS AND VERBATIM VINCENT BUGLIOSI QUOTES AND EXCERPTS:

I'd like to think of these excerpts as a kind of "The Best Of The Best" when it comes to Vincent Bugliosi's impressive literary achievement known as "Reclaiming History".

Some of my comments have been inserted as well, denoted by a "DVP" reference. Related Internet weblinks have been included in various spots too. In addition, several of the photographs in this 3-part review serve as clickable links, with a few of those links providing access to some rarely-seen video and film clips pertaining to the assassination.

[NOTE -- The quoted passages from "Reclaiming History" that appear throughout this review are reprinted here with the express written permission of the book publisher, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, N.Y.]


FROM THE 36-PAGE "INTRODUCTION":

• "I can assure the conspiracy theorists who have very effectively savaged [Gerald] Posner in their books that they're going to have a much, much more difficult time with me. As a trial lawyer in front of a jury and an author of true-crime books, credibility has always meant everything to me. My only master and my only mistress are the facts and objectivity. I have no others." -- VB; Pages xxxviii-xxxix

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• "The conspiracy community regularly seizes on one slip of the tongue, misunderstanding, or slight discrepancy to defeat twenty pieces of solid evidence; accepts one witness of theirs, even if he or she is a provable nut, as being far more credible than ten normal witnesses on the other side; treats rumors, even questions, as the equivalent of proof; leaps from the most minuscule of discoveries to the grandest of conclusions; and insists that the failure to explain everything perfectly negates all that is explained." -- VB; Page xliii

-------------------

• "Waiting for the conspiracy theorists to tell the truth is a little like leaving the front-porch light on for Jimmy Hoffa." -- VB; Page xiv

DVP:

Vincent's brand of humor has always been a favorite of mine (in every Bugliosi book I've ever read). And I'm very glad to see that that humor is alive and well in "Reclaiming History" too, with the above jab at "CTers" being the first of many such witty remarks interjected by the author during his non-stop assault on the conspiracy theorists. That Hoffa one was a real goodie too.

-------------------

• "When one removes the Dictabelt "fourth shot" from the HSCA findings, all that is really left is the HSCA's conclusion that Oswald killed Kennedy, and the fact that the committee found no evidence of any person or group having conspired with Oswald, the identical findings of the Warren Commission." -- VB; Page xxii

DEBUNKING THE ACOUSTICS EVIDENCE

-------------------

• "The Warren Commission critics and conspiracy theorists have succeeded in transforming a case very simple and obvious at its core--Oswald killed Kennedy and acted alone--into its present form of the most complex murder case, by far, in world history.
  
  "Refusing to accept the plain truth, and dedicating their existence for over forty years to convincing the American public of the truth of their own charges, the critics have journeyed to the outer margins of their imaginations. Along the way, they have split hairs and then proceeded to split the split hairs, drawn far-fetched and wholly unreasonable inferences from known facts, and literally invented bogus facts from the grist of rumor and speculation.
  
  "With over 18,000 pages of small print in the 27 Warren Commission volumes alone, and many millions of pages of FBI and CIA documents, any researcher worth his salt can find a sentence here or there to support any ludicrous conspiracy theory he might have. And that, of course, is precisely what the conspiracy community has done." -- VB; Page xxvi

"IS IT ANY WONDER THAT IT TOOK VINCE BUGLIOSI 21 YEARS TO 'RECLAIM HISTORY'?"

-------------------

• "And, of course, we know that humans, for whatever reason, love mysteries (which, to most, the JFK assassination has become), whether fictional or real, more than they do open-and-shut cases. For example, who killed JR?" -- VB; Page xxvi

DVP: Oops.

It seems that perhaps Vince isn't an avid fan of the TV series "Dallas". He thinks J.R. Ewing was "killed" by Kristin's bullets in March 1980. (J.R. was only wounded, of course; he wasn't shot dead.)

Vince should have said "Who shot JR?" above (instead of saying "killed"). That's one of only a handful of minor mistakes I found in "Reclaiming History", so I'm quite satisfied with the book's overall accuracy. (Conspiracy theorists will no doubt disagree with me on that point, however. No surprise there, though, huh?)

-------------------

• "I am unaware of any other major event in world history which has been shrouded in so much intentional misinformation as has the assassination of JFK. Nor am I aware of any event that has given rise to such an extraordinarily large number of far-fetched and conflicting theories." -- VB; Page xxix

-------------------

• "In my opinion, the Warren Commission's investigation has to be considered the most comprehensive investigation of a crime in history. Even leading Warren Commission critic Harold Weisberg acknowledges that the Commission "checked into almost every breath [Oswald] drew"." -- VB; Page xxxii

DVP: Mr. Bugliosi also points out in this extensive "Introduction" to the book that the 888-page Warren Report volume contains a "131-page chapter (by far the longest chapter in the report) dealing exclusively with the issue of conspiracy".

In addition, I was also glad to see Vince mention "the thirty-one-page appendix XII to the report", in which "the Commission responds to 126 speculations and rumors, some dealing expressly with the allegation of conspiracy, most dealing in one way or the other with the allegation".

To be perfectly technical, Vince has even slightly understated the matter (but by just a couple of pages). The lengthy chapter of the Warren Report titled "Investigation Of Possible Conspiracy" actually takes up 132 total pages (inclusively). While the "Rumors" appendix Vince mentioned is actually 32 total pages in length.

This means, by pure percentages, that almost ONE-FIFTH of the entire Warren Commission Report (18.5%) is devoted solely to the topic of possible conspiracy in the JFK case (164 of 888 pages). Most conspiracy promoters either don't have any knowledge of this impressive statistic, or they simply ignore it altogether.

-------------------

• "Not the smallest speck of evidence has ever surfaced that any of the conspiracy community's favorite groups (CIA, mob, etc.) was involved, in any way, in the assassination. Not only the Warren Commission, but the HSCA came to the same conclusion. ....
  
  "But conspiracy theorists, as suspicious as a cat in a new home, find occurrences and events everywhere that feed their suspicions and their already strong predilection to believe that the official version is wrong." -- VB; Page xlii

==============================

CHAPTER 1 (317 PAGES) -- "FOUR DAYS IN NOVEMBER":





























DVP: This book's first chapter is a spectacular one. It runs for more than 300 riveting pages and includes a comprehensive narrative of events, written in the present tense (for the most part). This extensive and ultra-detailed chapter has a palpable "as it's happening" feel to it.

The narrative proceeds chronologically, beginning at 6:30 AM (CST) on the fateful morning of Friday, November 22, 1963, and continues through those shocking "four days", culminating with JFK's funeral on 11/25/63.

Per the source notes on the CD-ROM, Mr. Bugliosi garnered much of the detailed information for this chapter from William Manchester's excellent 1967 book "The Death Of A President", which contains practically a minute-by-minute account of the last day of John Kennedy's life. Jim Bishop's book "The Day Kennedy Was Shot" (1968) was also a source for this chapter's richly-textured material.

In May 2008, this extraordinary first chapter of "Reclaiming History" was released by W.W. Norton as a separate stand-alone paperback book, entitled "FOUR DAYS IN NOVEMBER: THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY".

MY REVIEW OF VINCENT BUGLIOSI'S "FOUR DAYS IN NOVEMBER" PAPERBACK





The following section of this "Four Days" chapter is one I was particularly intrigued by, as Vince tells the story of the chaotic and confused scene at the assassination site, with NBC newsman Robert MacNeil desperately searching for a ride to Parkland Hospital:

• "Outside again, MacNeil rushes over to a policeman listening to the radio on a motorcycle. [MacNeil:] "Was he hit?" [Policeman:] "Yeah. Hit in the head. They're taking him to Parkland Hospital." ....
  
  "MacNeil dashes out into the street, dodging the police cars whose wailing sirens are pulling up from all directions, bouncing over curbs, flowerbeds, and lawn. Not a taxi in sight. Traffic is beginning to jam. He sprints across Dealey Plaza to Main Street and leaps out in front of the first car that comes along. ....
  
  "[MacNeil:] "This is a terrible emergency," he tells the driver. "The president's been shot. I'll give you five dollars to take me to Parkland Hospital." ....
  
  "The driver, about thirty, not too swift, smiles and says, "Okay." The car is filled with packages that look like cake boxes. "Yeah, I heard something about that on the radio a couple of minutes ago," he says. ....
  
  "[MacNeil:] "Where's the radio?" [Driver:] "I put it in the backseat." ....
  
  "MacNeil grabs the little transistor and holds it out the window to clear the antenna. They are already bogging down in the rapidly jamming traffic. He begs the driver to speed, take risks, run red lights, anything--MacNeil will pay the fines. All the police cars are headed in the opposite direction, back toward the Texas School Book Depository." -- VB; Page 49

DVP: Click on the images below for extra-large, expandable views of these thumbnail pictures, including the second one from the left, which is a seldom-seen photograph showing spectators running toward the "Grassy Knoll" shortly after the assassination in Dealey Plaza:



------------------

• "Officially, the president is logged into the hospital register at 12:38 p.m. as "No.24740, Kennedy, John F."" -- VB; Page 55

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• "The oft-stated belief is that since the bubble top was plastic and not bulletproof, it wouldn't have made any difference if it had been used in Dealey Plaza. But that presupposes that Oswald would have shot Kennedy if the bubble top was on the car, and we don't know that. The limousine being a presidential one, he may have assumed the top was bulletproof and therefore concluded that he could not shoot and kill Kennedy." -- VB; Page 22 of Endnotes

DVP: This topic of the limo's bubbletop roof comes up in the following discussion I had with a conspiracy theorist in late April 2007, where I hint at the same thing VB hints at above:

HAPPENSTANCE OR CONSPIRACY?

-------------------

• "Other than [conspiracy author Sylvia Meagher] and her colleagues' insatiable passion for pointing out normal (not to them) inconsistencies in the recollections of witnesses, nowhere does Meagher tell her readers what the relevance of these inconsistencies was.
  
  "Was it her point that [Bonnie Ray] Williams was lying, that the chicken eater was the assassin in the sniper's nest (who wasn't, Meagher would assure us, Oswald), or Williams was not lying, but the assassin in the sniper's nest was also eating chicken while he waited to kill the president?
  
  "I wish the theorists would tell us the relevance of the many inconsistencies they cite in the Kennedy case instead of feeling that the inconsistencies are an end in themselves and nothing else has to be shown or argued." -- VB; Page 23 of Endnotes

-------------------

• "Critics have questioned whether Howard Brennan was really the source of [Dallas Police Inspector J. Herbert] Sawyer's detailed description [of the TSBD assassin] and the dispatcher's subsequent broadcast. .... The affidavit that Brennan gave at the sheriff's office within an hour of the shooting includes [a] description of the gunman...nearly identical in language to Sawyer's [12:44 P.M.] broadcast. .... There can be little doubt Brennan was, in fact, the source." -- VB; Pages 35-36 of Endnotes

HOWARD L. BRENNAN: EYEWITNESS TO A TRAGEDY

-------------------

• "Hugh Aynesworth...covered the assassination story from ground zero [and] said that he went out to [Lee Oswald's] rooming house right after the police had searched Oswald's room on the afternoon of the assassination and interviewed [housekeeper Earlene] Roberts in depth. "She never said a word about any police car honking its horn outside the rooming house around the time Oswald was there earlier in the day."
  
  "In fact, Aynesworth said he interviewed Roberts at least two more times thereafter and she never said a word about the alleged incident. [Jim] Ewell, he said, had also interviewed Roberts separately and she never mentioned the incident to him either." -- VB; Page 40 of Endnotes

DVP: It's also worth mentioning here, with respect to Earlene Roberts, that Roberts told the Warren Commission that it wasn't all that uncommon for a police car to stop in front of the Beckley Avenue roominghouse and toot its horn. Roberts claimed that such an event had occurred on other occasions prior to November 22, 1963.

So, the very fact that police cars had a pre-11/22/63 habit of stopping in front of 1026 North Beckley and honking the car horn should tell a reasonable person that even if a similar occurrence did take place on the day of the assassination, it probably wasn't any kind of a "conspiratorial" event. Instead, it can practically be considered a normal thing to have occurred at that location (assuming Roberts was being truthful about the pre-November 22 horn-honking incidents).



-------------------

• "[Jack] Tatum sees a man in a light tan-gray jacket start off in Tatum's direction, hesitate at the rear of the police car, then step back into the street and fire one more shot, right into the head of the officer [J.D. Tippit] on the ground. .... [Mr. Bugliosi's Footnote:] I asked Tatum at the [1986] London trial ["On Trial: Lee Harvey Oswald"] if he got "a good look" at the man who shot Tippit and whom he identified at the trial. "Very good look," Tatum responded. I asked if there was "any question in your mind" that the man was Oswald. "None whatsoever," he answered. (Transcript of On Trial, July 23, 1986, p.200)" -- VB; Page 79

DVP: The above book passage turned out to be quite surprising to this writer, because I had no idea (until reading page 79 of this book) that Jack Tatum had testified at the TV Docu-Trial in 1986. And that's because my video copy of the 5.5-hour trial does not include Tatum's testimony at all.

But, considering the fact that nearly 75% of that 21-hour mock trial was not seen by the general public on television, it's not too surprising to learn of some portions of the trial that I had previously been unaware of.

-------------------

• "The doors to the theater are slammed open as a wedge of officers bursts into the sunlight [with suspected police killer Lee Harvey Oswald in handcuffs]. .... The suspect complains that the handcuffs are too tight. Detective Paul Bentley isn't too sympathetic, thinking to himself that Oswald was in much better shape than Tippit was. He reaches back and tightens the cuffs even more." -- VB; Pages 106-107

-------------------

• "[Dallas medical examiner Earl] Rose sees the casket bearing the president's body being pushed out of Trauma Room One, Mrs. Kennedy at its side. .... A crush of forty sweating men are clustered around the wide doorway as curses fly back and forth. One of them looks like he might belt the medical examiner at any moment. .... "In a homicide case, it's my duty to order an autopsy," [Theron] Ward says. .... Ken O'Donnell pleads with him, "Can't you make an exception for President Kennedy?" Incredibly, Ward tells him, "It's just another homicide case as far as I'm concerned." O'Donnell's response is instantaneous. "Go fuck yourself," he yells. "We're leaving!"" -- VB; Page 110

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• "[Quoting LBJ:] "We'll get as many people in here as possible. If anybody wants to join in the swearing-in ceremony, I would be happy and proud to have you." .... UPI reporter Merriman Smith wedges himself inside the door, and for some reason begins counting. There are twenty-seven people in the room." -- VB; Page 117

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• "The unmarked squad car pulls up in front of the rooming house on North Beckley in Oak Cliff and four men, armed with a search warrant, climb out. .... Over the next hour and a quarter, they nearly strip the room [that Lee Harvey Oswald rented under the alias "O.H. Lee"], using the pillow cases and one of Oswald's own duffle bags to carry everything to the waiting patrol cars. Only a banana peel and some uneaten fruit are left behind when they leave just after 6:00 p.m." -- VB; Pages 135-136

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• "The doorbell rings [at Ruth Paine's home in Irving at 9:40 PM on 11/22/63] and two men from Life magazine appear unannounced. .... Marguerite [Oswald] is fuming...because she's beginning to realize that Life magazine is going to do a "life story" segment and she wants to be paid. In her paranoid mind, Marguerite is beginning to suspect that Ruth Paine invited Life magazine to come over and that she and Marina, while speaking in Russian, have conspired to sell Lee's life story without her." -- VB; Page 168

DVP: The above passage had me laughing aloud. I think Vince has probably hit the nail on the head here too. Marguerite Oswald was a strange and rare bird, to say the least.

The above speculation by VB re. the Life magazine thing puts me in mind of another classic "Marguerite Moment" -- her spectacularly-ludicrous (although tearful) "cemetery declaration" about her recently-murdered son, Lee Harvey. Mrs. Oswald actually said this to the rolling cameras and reporters at the cemetery:

"Lee Harvey Oswald, my son, even after his death, has done more for his country than any other living human being." -- Marguerite Oswald

(I'll understand if any readers need to take a five-minute laugh break after having read the above verbatim quote from the lips of Marguerite. If you'd like to see and hear Mrs. Oswald as she makes that statement about her son, you can click HERE.)

By the way, the remainder of page 168, and also page 169, of this book are also quite intriguing, as they reveal additional details I had never heard before regarding the visit of the Life magazine reporters to Ruth Paine's home on the evening of November 22, 1963. Marguerite evidently put on quite a show that night at the Paine residence. Go to pages 168 and 169 to read the rest.


ABOVE: RUTH, MARGUERITE, AND MARINA
(IN RUTH PAINE'S LIVING ROOM ON THE
NIGHT OF THE ASSASSINATION)

------------------

• "He [Jack Ruby] called his sister Eileen, in Chicago [on Friday afternoon, 11/22/63], and was crying. .... "Maybe I will fly up to be with you tonight," he suggested, but she reminded him that Eva [another sister of Jack's], who had just returned home from the hospital from abdominal surgery, needed him now more than she did. "You better stay there," she told her brother." -- VB; Page 172

DVP: Now, the above conversation between Lee Harvey Oswald's eventual murderer, Jack Ruby, and Ruby's sister is quite illuminating (in a "non-conspiratorial" sort of way). Because if Jack Ruby had been a "hit man" for the Mob (or whoever) and had been assigned to "rub out" Oswald (as many people firmly believe was the case), then why is he offering to fly to Chicago on the night of the assassination to be with his sister? It doesn't add up.

And, per page 172 of VB's book, Ruby might very well have gone to Chicago too, if his sister, over the phone, had not persuaded him not to make the trip.

------------------

DVP: Vincent Bugliosi's incredible attention to the smallest of seemingly-unknowable details concerning the events of November 22-25, 1963, borders on the supernatural.* Such microscopic details are utterly fascinating to me. Here's one such example, among literally hundreds sprinkled throughout this publication:

• "On an impulse he [Jack Ruby, at around 10:15 PM on November 22] stops at Phil's Delicatessen on Oak Lawn Avenue and tells the counterman, John Frickstad, to cut him ten corned beef sandwiches with mustard. And ten soft drinks--eight black cherries and two celery tonics. He chats a bit with the owner, Phil Miller. .... The sandwich bill only comes to $9.50 plus tax--Frickstad made only eight sandwiches instead of the ten Jack ordered." -- VB; Pages 174-175

* = Upon doing a little additional research of my own regarding Ruby's purchase of the sandwiches and drinks on the night of November 22, I discovered (by way of Mr. Bugliosi's ultra-complete source notes on the CD-ROM that comes with this book) that Vince obtained the detailed information about the type of sandwiches and exact flavors of the cold drinks from Warren Commission Exhibit #2252.

CE2252 (viewable via the link provided above) also gives additional information about Ruby's late-night deli order that VB doesn't have in the book. Quoting from CE2252: "He [Ruby] also ordered three cups of butter, one-half loaf of bread, and some extra pickles. Potato salad and pickles were provided with each sandwich".

That is just one of many examples of the thoroughness of the Warren Commission's investigation (and, of course, exemplifies the comprehensive nature of Mr. Bugliosi's research for this book as well).

------------------

• "Conspiracy theorists, eager to find an extra fourth bullet...and hence a conspiracy, got very excited when they learned that the receipt for the two fragments turned over to FBI agents Sibert and O'Neill on November 22, 1963, and signed by the two agents, refers to a "receipt of a missle [sic]."
  
  "But the HSCA concluded that "the receipt was in error." Chester H. Boyers, the navy corpsman who typed the receipt, gave HSCA investigators an affidavit under penalty of perjury that contained his handwritten notes at the time of the autopsy, in which he jotted down during the autopsy that "there were bullet missile FRAGMENTS recovered."
  
  "Both Agents Sibert and O'Neill confirmed to the HSCA that they received two bullet fragments, not a missile." -- VB; Pages 76-77 of Endnotes

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• "The Dallas police have done an incredible, some would even say a near-impossible job over just the last eleven and a half hours. In that short span since the president's murder, they have apprehended the man they believe is responsible, and amassed evidence against him that is destined to withstand years of intense scrutiny.
  
  "Despite the thousands of government man-hours yet to come, the basis of the case against Oswald is collected and assembled by the Dallas police in these first crucial hours. It is a feat the world would soon forget." -- VB; Page 182

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• "11:05 a.m. [Sunday, November 24]...Altogether, there are around 70 members of the Dallas Police Department in the basement [of the Dallas City Jail] to make sure there are no problems." -- VB; Page 265

------------------

• "11:10 a.m. [Sunday, November 24]...Fritz realizes that Oswald is only clad in a T-shirt. "Do you want something to put over your T-shirt?" he asks. "Yes," Oswald says." -- VB; Page 267

DVP: An interesting quote by DPD Captain Will Fritz there. I had always thought it was Oswald who had asked for the additional clothing, thus delaying his jail transfer just a little longer. But, evidently, per Mr. Bugliosi's chronology of quotes above, it was actually Captain Fritz who initiated the slight "clothing delay".*

Well, perhaps that will be something else for conspiracy theorists to sink their teeth into....as they can now claim (if they haven't already) that Captain Fritz deliberately delayed Oswald's transfer until "hit man" Ruby got into position in the basement.

But to think that 30-year police veteran J. Will Fritz was a part of some kind of conspiracy to "silence" his prisoner is to believe in a silly fairy tale that would have had Fritz intentionally subjecting his very own police department to public ridicule for years to come, due to a Presidential assassin being killed right inside the Captain's own police station while surrounded by dozens of armed officers.

That's a theory that doesn't sound very realistic to this writer.

* = On page 1073, Vince tells the flip-side to this clothing tale, with Oswald being the one who requests the wardrobe adjustment, instead of Fritz. In an endnote, however, Bugliosi acknowledges the ambiguity of the situation with the following remarks:

"The recollections of those present are in conflict as to whether Oswald was asked if he wanted to put something on over his T-shirt or whether Oswald himself made the request." -- VB; Page 104 of Endnotes

------------------

• "11:21 a.m. [Sunday, November 24]..."BANG! The shot [from Jack Ruby's Colt revolver into Lee Harvey Oswald's abdomen] reverberates through the basement garage. .... The Ike Pappas tape recording is available at the National Archives [and can also be heard HERE] and reveals that the shot was fired 1 minute and 58 seconds after Oswald left the third-floor Homicide and Robbery office." -- VB; Page 273

------------------

• "Are we just left with conjecture to reach a conclusion on the issue of how Ruby entered the police basement? No, there is evidence, common sense, and Ruby's knowledge of events that prove he entered through the Main Street ramp. ....
  
  "The virtual proof that Ruby came down the Main Street ramp is that within a half hour of his arrest, and right after he was taken from the basement to the jail on the fifth floor (which was long before [DPD officers] Pierce, Putnam, Vaughn, and Maxey had been interviewed and given their statements), Ruby told Dallas police detective Barnard Clardy and other detectives that he had entered through the Main Street ramp and had seen Pierce driving out of the ramp.
  
  "How could Ruby possibly have known this if he hadn't, in fact, been at the entrance to the Main Street ramp? I mean, Pierce himself didn't even receive instructions to drive out of the Main Street ramp until around 11:15 a.m., just six minutes before Ruby shot Oswald." -- VB; Pages 108-109 of Endnotes

 

[David Von Pein]

...