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

[Greg_S_H]

Since things have calmed down, I hope it's alright to post this. Be sure to read the post above mine, everyone.

I've heard good things about a comic book called 100 Bullets, so I decided to try a couple of back issues. I picked them solely based on liking the cover art, with one showing a baseball player holding a rifle. Turns out the writing was top notch and the two issues were excellent, but the baseball story was extremely preposterous.

Let me give a little background first. The basic premise of the book is that someone was wronged in some way, and a mysterious man shows up with a briefcase containing incontrovertible proof of who wronged them and an unregistered handgun with untraceable bullets. The chance for perfect revenge, in other words.

No names are given in the baseball story, but an elderly baseball player reflects on the deal he was offered. He had been a star player, married to the most glamorous woman in the world. She apparently died of a drug overdose, but the evidence in the briefcase offered ironclad proof that she had been murdered by a very powerful man. The star player decided to take the deal, and he carried out the hit in . . . can you guess? . . . Dallas. By sheer coincidence, there were two other shooters present, but the baseball player was the one who made the kill.

So, Joe DiMaggio was the man on the grassy knoll. Craziness. But, it was written with style. I'll give it that.

 

[David Von Pein]

Good story, Greg. It puts me in mind of this hilarious entry from "The Onion":

http://rt3013.k12.sd.us/event/images/onionnewspaper.jpg

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

The Discovery Channel makes another brave stab at burying the conspiracy theories once and for all in a 45th anniversary special debuting on Sunday night. At least that's what they want you to believe they're doing.

JFK: Inside the Target Car

Regards,

Joe

 

[David Von Pein]

More info on the Discovery Channel program:


"JFK: INSIDE THE TARGET CAR" (Discovery Channel Program)(Airing 11/16/2008) - alt.conspiracy.jfk | Google Groups

(Joseph will want to change his "35th" to 45th above.)

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Yes, he will. Either old age is robbing me of the ability to do math in my head or I just couldn't face the fact that an event I lived through happened that long ago.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Paul McElligott]

I was very impressed with the Discovery special. They effectively drove the last nail into the coffin of the Grassy Knoll Shooter theory (would have produced wounds totally inconsistent with Kennedy's wounds and would most likely have killed Jackie). I could tell that Jackie would have been hurt by a grassy knoll shooter the moment they showed the view though Yardley's scope.

The results of the grassy knoll test using soft-tip ammo were really horrifying.

Of course, I've come to realize that the whole idea of multiple shooters is logically ridiculous even if there was a conspiracy. Think about it, if their goal was to frame Oswald, the last thing they would do would be use multiple shooters and risk the possibility of evidence pointing in any direction other than the sixth floor. What if there's bullet damage to the front of the car? What if a through-and-through from a frontal shot kills Jackie?

Bottom line, even if there was a conspiracy, there was still only one shooter and he was in the sixth floor window of the book depository.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Saw the Discovery episode last night. I would love to say it is conclusive, but you can never underestimate the sheer stupidity of a conspiracy theorist. I suppose we'll hear next about replaced windshields and/or Jackie's "bulletproof" pink tweed jacket and kevlar pillbox hat.

 

[Paul McElligott]

You'll never convince the conspiracy theorists, but hopefully people will be less vulnerable to their crackpot ideas because of specials like this.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

I have to say, I've turned more than a few CT sympathizers into Oswald was the one and only killer supporters, simply by pointing them to the Discovery Channel programs. Some are absolutely hopeless, but there are others who look at it logically and don't have too much of their personal identity wrapped up in conspiracy beliefs.

 

[Paul McElligott]

That's the difference between "sympathizers" and "believers."

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

And don't forget that PBS rolls out a new American Experience episode tonight simply called "Oswald's Ghost".

American Experience | PBS

This film is produced by a guy named Stone. No, not Oliver Stone but Robert Stone.

 

[Greg_S_H]

That Peter Jennings special a few years back helped. Even my father came around (though, since he typically believes the last thing he hears on radio/TV, we're probably one kook away from reversing it).

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I went into my gun storage and pulled out my 1938 Carcano, went into my library and pulled out my copy of the Warren Commission Report, and am now all ready for "Oswald's Ghost".

 

[Paul McElligott]

That's not new. It's been available on DVD for since Jan, but I'm glad they're showing it again, especially now that I have PBS in HD.

 

[David Von Pein]

That's not a new film. (Paul beat me to this, above.) It came out in a few theaters in late 2007, and then was shown on PBS in Jan. '08.

Almost all conspiracy believers, naturally, think "Oswald's Ghost" is a pile of horse manure (even though Mark Lane is on camera for a decent chunk of time, espousing his pro-CT views; but this isn't nearly enough to stop the conspiracy-happy theorists from claiming that both PBS and Director Robert Stone were totally biased toward the "lone nut" conclusion in the end).

But R. Stone's "Ghost" is a very good program, IMO. It doesn't provide anything startlingly "new" or earthshaking in nature....but it's a well-done program, detailing JFK's murder and the era of the Cold War surrounding that crime.

"Oswald's Ghost" -- A Personal Review

 

[Paul McElligott]

David, I'd be very interested in hearing your opinion of "Inside the Target Car" Please tell me you're going to post one of your insanely detailed reviews somewhere.

The Discovery site doesn't say anything about a DVD of this show. I hope they release one.

 

[David Von Pein]

I hope so, too. Because that's how I plan on seeing the new program. I've got the Discovery Store bookmarked.

I'm pretty confident that the new program will be released on DVD, since all of the other 3 "Unsolved History" installments are on Digital Disc right now. So I can't see any reason for the fourth and final installment to be left out in the cold. (Unless the conspiracy against me has reached all the way into the "Discovery Channel Store", too!)

 

[Paul McElligott]

According to the Discovery Channel site, there are re-runs scheduled for Monday, December 1, so if the mob, the Cubans and the CIA stop messin' with your satellite box by then...

 

[David Von Pein]

REVIEW -- "JFK: Inside The Target Car" (Discovery Channel Documentary)

 

[Paul McElligott]

David,

Excellent review!

After watching the show a couple times, I realized that they had to reposition the limo for each sight test meaning that Dealey Plaza was only being closed for a short time for each test and then reopened. I think that asking the city of Dallas to close off the plaza for the entire day so they could fire live ammo was a little too much to ask. The city might do that for Congress but not the Discovery Channel.

There's one point that these specials, in their enthusiasm to refute the second gunman theory, never address is the absurdity of second gunman in the first place. If I'm conspiring to knock off JFK and Oswald is my selected fall guy, I want all evidence to point right back to him. Another gunman creates the likelihood that the evidence will point in a different direction. Despite what they Conspiracy Cult believes, it's a lot easier to get rid of evidence if it doesn't exist in the first place.

Thus, even if you assume, for the sake of argument, the existence of a conspiracy, the single gunman is still the only model that makes sense.