more critics would actually read this book (aka The Warren Report) with an open-mind, there would be fewer doubts. It’s all here—medical, ballistics, wound forensics, Oswald’s isolation and possible motivations—and surprisingly readable for a tome composed by lawyers. Flawed by 5.6 second time restraint for three shots (considered to be 8 seconds today), and tests that showed how easily a bullet could have deformed if it directly struck bone, “proving” CE399 didn’t (today, tests are available that duplicate CE399’s entire journey through soft tissue, along a rib and sideways off the wrist). Why do conspiracy theories come and go, while the object of their scorn continues to survive? Find out for yourself. Hardcover/softcover, 888 pages, 92 photos, 13 illus, 74 docs, no DJ. Simultaneously reprinted in hardcover and paperback by numerous publishers, most common of which is Bantam’s 726 page paperback Report of the Warren Commission. Longmeadow Press hardcover reissue Feb. 1992. St. Martin’s Press softcover reissue (888-page format) Feb. 1992.

he notorious 26 volumes that ultimately supplied fodder for critics already disillusioned with the Warren Report. Researchers even complained that the material here wasn’t presented in chronological or subject order. First five volumes present testimony transcripts of witnesses and officials who appeared before the Commission. Volumes VI-XV have transcripts of testimony before the legal staff. Last eleven volumes (XVI-VVVI) consist of exhibits, arguably more interesting than most of the testimony. Most striking are the number of witnesses who testified or signed affidavits alleging shots or commotion from the Grassy Knoll. Be aware that eyewitnesses tend to embellish when they’ve not seen something clearly or, in this case, are immersed with viewing a Presidential entourage (contrast the Tippit murder witnesses). If you have difficulty accessing this item, try law school libraries. Hardcover, 18,205 pages total, numerous B/W photos, illus and docs, no DJ. Originally sold as complete sets only (for $76 per set).

mpressive effort, on the scale of Life or Look, to explain and memorialize the assassination and funeral. Notable inclusion of the more important photos by AP professional James Altgens; and several seldom-seen photos of the limousine speeding to Parkland Hospital (only Jackie, Mrs. Connally and Agent Hill visible in rear). Large photos of the Kennedys’ arrival at Love Field airport; two full-page photos of the Oswald slaying. Plenty of large photos of the funeral. Large-format hardcover, 100 pages, 89 B/W and color photos, no DJ. Parallax paperback 1967.

ery nicely-complied presentation of the assassination weekend from UPI and American Heritage magazine. Written prior to the WR, it reveals the widely-held impression that JFK and Connally were wounded separately, which at that time didn’t cast doubt on Oswald’s guilt. Full-page photos, several in color, abound from UPI’s extensive coverage of events, ranging from the arrival at Love Field to burial at Arlington Cemetery. Featured are large color stills from the Muchmore and Nix films, and a two-page enlargement of the important Moorman Polaroid; used as a research aid by early assassination sleuths. Includes some UPI news stories, the official eulogies and resolutions, the funeral eulogy and graveside prayer. Large excerpts from BBC’s That Was the Week That Was tribute, and smaller excerpts from editorials and personal/official statements from around the world. Foreword by Bruce Catton. Large-format hardcover, 143 pages, 15 color and 113 B/W photos, 7 docs, 3 cartoons.

elying on newspaper clippings, a Munich-based journalist published the first widely-circulated book critical of the lone assassin scenario, months before the Commission finished its work. Joachim’s brush with authorities went back to persecution from the Gestapo for being a leftist; he fled his homeland and gained US citizenship, but eventually returned to Germany. Joachim lays out a right-wing conspiracy that included elements of the federal government, along with (innocent) people like Larry Crafard (a Ruby employee) and Ruth Paine (she arranged Oswald’s job at the Depository). Postulates Officer Tippit in the Oswald window firing diversionary shots to implicate Oswald and cover assassins in the Dal-Tex Building and on the knoll. Because “fall guy” Oswald escaped the Depository, plans were improvised to eliminate Tippit and, once in custody, Oswald. Warren Report addressed Joachim’s assertions in its “Speculations and Rumors” section. In the years to come, Joachim published a string of books about the assassination filled with even wilder speculation and innuendo; and later the conspiracy bulletin Truth Letter. First book turned out to be his best. Reportedly coined the phrase: “Something’s fishy in Denmark.” Hardcover, 177 pages, 24 photos, 14 illus. Softcover reprint (shown) 1965 (with 50-page analysis of Report).

merican lefty journalist living in London fingers Texas oil monopolies, a theory still popular in the Southwest. Postulates shots from the Triple Underpass, based on news report about “hole” in limousine windshield (actually a crack on the interior surface of the glass most likely caused by a bullet fragment from the skull wound). See Warren Report’s “Speculations and Rumors” for series of rebuttals. Some democratic-socialists (who account for most of the European electorate) couldn’t accept that an isolated extremist who shared some of their beliefs might have done it. Thus suspicions that authorities were pawns to a right-wing conspiracy quickly assumed legitimacy in Europe. Originally published early May in London by Secker & Warburg; in US, Putnams edited for content. Hardcover, 207 pages. London: Macfadden paperback 1965. (UK cover shown middle).

riginally published in paperback as a complement to the NY Times/Bantam edition of the Warren Report, this book distills the Commission testimony of 75 “key witnesses.” Chances are you’ll find this long before you get hands-on access to the unabridged WCH. As such, the book is very compelling reading, hinting of personality traits and regional flavor not found in most works on the subject. Nice intro by Anthony Lewis. Critics noted the witnesses selected conformed to the lone-assassin finding. Hardcover, 634 pages, 64 pages of exhibits, some B/W photos. Bantam paperback 1964.

irst of what-became four-part Whitewash series (last one published 1974). Book is faulted for skimming over Oswald’s early brushes with authority and interest in Communism, and for haphazardly attacking the Dallas police. Weisberg’s distrust of publishers led him to charge them with “suppressing” Whitewash when they passed on it; a lamentable suspicion of editors meant all his books appeared with wandering syntax and accusatory rhetoric. Maryland farmer Weisberg was a former Senate investigator who based much research on the WCH and classified documents he was able to obtain through lawsuits. Fiercely independent and suspicious of other researchers (see “The Assassinationist Business”), Weisberg became known as the “Dean of Researchers,” rising to prominence among the more-extreme critics. Jim Moore’s 1991 Conspiracy of One describes some of his dealings with Weisberg, who “apparently disbelieves everything about the Warren Report except the page numbers and copyright date.” Softcover, 224 pages, 17 photos, 10 docs. Dell paperback (shown) 1966. Carroll & Graf published a softcover collection of excerpts in Dec. 1993 called Selections from Whitewash.

ensing the WR too “voluminous” for the average reader, WC member and Congressman Ford had a better idea: weave the Commission testimony into a “nonfiction novel.” Ford offered some insight into the WC’s planning by using then-classified transcripts of Commission meetings, a move that later would haunt him when being confirmed as Vice-President in 1973. The story unfolds chronologically through the testimony of Oswald’s family and associates. Dismisses Oswald’s “grievance” over downgrading of Marine Corps discharge to dishonorable as “fair settlement” that relieved him of future military service. Recollects Marina’s thought that Oswald was gunning for Connally, but killed Kennedy unintentionally (a twist on the lone-assassin finding revisited in 1988 by James Reston, Jr.). Much weight given to the recollections of the three Depository workers who happened to be watching the motorcade from beneath the Oswald window. Ford himself aims a few snipes at attorney Mark Lane in “Dead Man’s Counsel.” Concluding chapter “The Loner” offers some motivational insight into Oswald. First book to defend WC; proposed movie deal in 1970s never got off the board. Ford wrote a major article on the assassination for Life in 1964; as President, survived two assassination attempts by “loners” (with three names) in 1975. Hardcover. Ballantine paperback (shown) Nov. 1966.

ulitzer Prize newspaperman Fox utilizes the work of early critics Buchanan, Joesten, Macdonald, Nash and Salandria to produce a readable synopsis. Accepts Oswald as killer of Tippit, but can’t rule out having assistance with assassination of JFK. Notes conflict in having Commission rely on other federal agencies. Reissue adds claims of O’Toole and Groden. Original had three clean-as-a-whistle holes punched through the cover. Introduction by Edwyn Silberling. Paperback, 219 pages. Award reissue (shown) Sept. 1975.

ndependent editor of small-town Texas weekly Midlothian Mirror assembled editorials in the first of a four-volume set (the last published in 1974). Includes first listing of the “mysterious deaths” of witnesses. Introduction by John Howard Griffin. Jones, eccentric (wouldn’t appear at universities because they “get too much federal money”) but endearing, has appeared in several magazines (ie: Ramparts, Texas Monthly, Life) and is the subject of the 1977 biography Citizen’s Arrest: The Dissent of Penn Jones, Jr. by Thomas Nash. In late 70s, Jones published the JFK newsletter The Continuing Inquiry. Hardcover, 191 pages, 1 photo.

ritten after but released in the US just before Mark Lane’s Rush to Judgment, this book is not about the assassination per se, but the Commission (its procedure and whether ties to bureaucracy hampered its search). Originally a master’s thesis in political science, the published work had academic qualities and appearances that commanded newfound respect for researchers. However, many of those Warren Commission staffers contacted by Epstein would dispute his interpretation of their words (see Goodhart). Introduction by Richard H. Rovere. Excerpted in True Oct. and Nov. 1966. Hardcover, 220 pages, 4 B/W illus. Bantam paperback (with FBI Sibert-O’Neill report) 1966. Ballantine paperback 1979. Carroll & Graf reprinted all three of Epstein’s JFK books (see also Counterplot and Legend) in an Oct. 1992 softcover titled The Assassination Chronicles.

his is the bestseller that drove the JFK assassination controversy into mainstream discussion and inspired many of the second-generation researchers. Lane had been the first to write critically of the case against Oswald in “A Guardian Special: A Lawyer’s Brief” in the National Guardian of December 19, 1963 (included in the 1976 anthology The Assassinations and Lane’s 1991 Plausible Denial). Marguerite Oswald read the article and urged Lane to represent her son’s legal rights before the Commission. But—as Lane well knew—the Commission was a fact-finding board, not a prosecutor presenting a case to a jury, therefore Lane’s petition to allow cross-examination was rejected. Lane did appear at the hearings as Marguerite’s attorney and on his own to present allegations he refused to substantiate; these later turned out to be rumors (see Roberts). Lane’s appearances warranted a chapter in Gerald Ford’s 1965 Portrait of the Assassin. Rush to Judgment deconstructs the Commission’s findings using their own published Hearings reflected in the abundance of footnotes at the rear. Unfortunately, those who have bothered to check Lane’s sources tend to find manipulation and distortion. Ever the lawyer, Lane has said that he never meant Oswald was innocent, only that the massive pre-trial publicity might have tainted any jury and that the evidence—as Lane deemed it—wouldn’t have held up in court. Introduction by Hugh Trevor-Roper. Hardcover, 478 pages, 4 illus, 6 docs. Penguin paperback 1967. Dell paperback reissue 1975. Thunder’s Mouth softcover reissue April 1992.

No … not brother Robert. California philosophy professor tries to document existence of phony Oswald going about incriminating the real Oswald prior to and during the assassination. Daring theory based on vulnerable eyewitness recollections; Popkin admits its “tentative and conjectural.” Author places one assassin on the knoll and another on the sixth floor (“plus Oswald the suspect”). Tippit murder “monumental misunderstanding;” doubts Tippit stopped Oswald because officer was “unimaginative.” Sparrow (After the Assassination) notes Popkin, an expert on skepticism, “made a notable contribution.” Double-take cover. Popkin wrote “The Case for Garrison” in the Sept. 14, 1967 issue of The New York Review of Books. Paperback, 147 pages.

mpressive effort to chronicle the events of the assassination as broadly and accurately as possible. In early 1964, Mrs. Kennedy invited writer Manchester to be the Kennedy Family’s “official historian” of the assassination, granting unprecedented access to principals. Manchester went to work right away, maintaining an office in the same building as WC, going to Dallas to walk every mile of the motorcade route, and interviewing firsthand hundreds of witnesses, from bystanders in Dealey Plaza to JFK’s casket honor guard. Much detail—not available anywhere else—emerged concerning not only the assassination, but minor and major sideline events, such as what dignitaries had originally been planning for the coming days, how the Secret Service functioned, the role of the media in relaying the news, and so on. Manchester misspells some names, smears the city of Dallas and takes too much dramatic license in describing JFK’s last “gesture of infinite grace.” But the greatest controversy generated by Manchester, a New England liberal, was his harsh portrayal of Lyndon Johnson’s seemingly-abrupt and insensitive assumption of power and the friction it generated abroad Air Force One on the flight from Dallas. The Kennedy family had aspirations for another Kennedy bid for the Presidency, not helped by anti-LBJ/Texas sentiment implicitly sanctioned by their endorsement of Manchester. When Manchester refused to incorporate amendments from the Kennedys, the family withdrew their approval. The “Battle of the Book” that “made Mrs. Kennedy cry” raged in the media through late 1966, fueled by major excerpts and a defensive essay in Look magazine. Massachusetts-raised, Manchester met JFK in 1946 while both were recovering from war injuries. The friendship led to the 1962 book Portrait of a President; in 1983, Manchester provided text for the tribute photobook One Brief Shining Moment. A professor emeritus at Wesleyan, he died at 82 in June 2004. Hardcover, 710 pages, 7 B/W illus. Popular Library paperback 1968. Penguin paperback. HarperCollins softcover reissue Oct. 1988.

hort but to-the-point, this book takes on then-active critics Lane and Epstein, and clarifies Manchester’s interpretation of LBJ’s “rough” takeover aboard Air Force One. Roberts was Newsweek’s White House correspondent, on the front seat of the motorcade’s first press bus (whose 50 occupants Roberts notes were excluded from Lane’s “complete list” of witnesses) and later standing behind Johnson during the swearing-in. Looks at Lane’s misrepresentation of witnesses like Mercer, Bowers and Markham; plus the notorious “Carousel Meeting” Lane guardedly referred to in his testimony to the Commission. The 1955 Mister Roberts movie was based on him; died in 1992 at 75. Foreword by Kennedy Press Secretary Pierre Salinger. Book cited in The Flying White House. Softcover, 128 pages, 2 B/W photos.

Alone? You bet. Lee was the only member of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee he formed in New Orleans. Oswald was so lonely, he invented aliases for company. The Magtag Repairman never got that lonely. Poor Lee. This book repackages existing conspiracy research. Paperback, 160 pages, 3 illus.





James, Rosemary and Jack Wardlaw
Plot or Politics?
The Garrison Case & Its Cast
New Orleans: Pelican Press, 1967.






Weisberg, Harold
Oswald in New Orleans
Case for Conspiracy with the CIA
New York: Canyon, 1967.






Meagher, Sylvia
Accessories After the Fact
The Warren Commission, the Authorities & the Report
New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967.






Thompson, Josiah
Six Seconds in Dallas
A Micro-Study of the Kennedy Assassination
New York: Bernard Geis Associates, 1967.






Sparrow, John
After the Assassination
A Positive Appraisal of the Warren Report
New York: Chilmark Press, 1967.






White, Stephen
Should We Now Believe the Warren Report?
New York: Macmillan, 1968.






Bishop, Jim
The Day Kennedy Was Shot
An Uncensored Minute-by-Minute Account of November 22, 1963
New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1968.






Lane, Mark
A Citizen’s Dissent
Mark Lane Replies
New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1968.






Hepburn, James
Farewell America
Vaduz, Liechtenstein: Frontiers, 1968.






Flammonde, Paris
The Kennedy Conspiracy
An Uncommissioned Report on the Jim Garrison Investigation
New York: Meredith, 1969.






Epstein, Edward Jay
Counterplot
New York: Viking, June 1969.






Curry, Jesse
JFK Assassination File
Retired Dallas Police Chief Reveals His Personal File
Dallas: American Poster & Publishing, Nov. 1969.

















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