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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK x ROBERT J. GRODEN, 94 Civ. 1074 (JSM) • Plaintiff, AFFIRMATION OF -against- • VICTOR A. KOVNER IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANTS' RANDOM HOUSE, INC., MOTION TO DISMISS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY, INC., : FAILURE TO STATE A CLAIM and GERALD POSNER, • OR, IN THE ALTERNATIVE, FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT Defendants. x

VICTOR A. KOVNER, an attorney admitted to practice before this Court, affirms the following under the penalty of perjury:

1. I am a member of the firm of Lankenau Kovner & Kurtz, attorneys for defendants Random House, Inc. ("Random House"), The New York Times Company (incorrectly sued herein as The New York Times Company, Inc.) ("The New York Times"), and Gerald Posner ("Posner"). I submit this affirmation in support of defendants' motion pursuant to Rules 12(b)(6) and 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for an Order dismissing the complaint with prejudice, or in the alternative, granting summary judgment, for the limited purpose of annexing hereto a few published documents that are relevant to the motion.

The motion is styled, in the alternative, as a motion for summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, for the sole purpose of including in the record these publications. 2. Annexed hereto as Exhibit A is a copy of Case

Closed, the book authored by defendant Posner and published by defendant Random House that is the subject of the.advertisement in suit. - - .

3. Anneltsd hereto as Exhibit B are select published reviews and articles about Case Close4.X-7—

4. Annexed hereto as Exhibit C is a copy-of-the front cover, copyright page and page 421 of the book High ,PAIF Treason, which was Co-authored by plaintiff Robert J. Groden and which contains the quotation which appears on the challenged advertisement.

5. Annexed hereto as Exhibit D is a copy of the complaint filed by plaintiff.

WHEREFORE, defendants request that this Court grant 4;- their Motion to Dismiss For Failure to State a Claim, or in the alternative, Motion for Summary Judgment, and for such other relief as the Court deems just and proper.

Dated: New York, New York May 4, 1994

VICTOR A. KOVNER VAX: 224

The annexed excerpts appear in the paperback reprint edition of the book published by The Berkley Publishing Group in 1990. The Berkley paperback edition contains the complete text of the original edition of the book which was published in 1989.

3899A/4775q

- 2 - Exhibit A, the book entitled Case Closed by Gerald Posner, is contained in the file folder submitted herewith ibeNctu Doak Zim es

BookNovember 21, 1993 $1.00 Review cArrnivo o Ion tsvir. r...1 Tina* The Death of J.F.K. 30 YearsP&Anaggiratill~ertes-

N the 30 years since John F. Kennedy was murdered, some 2,000 volumes on the assassination have ...... < appeared, providing a devastating record of the lengths to which sensationalists have gone to sow 1suspicion, and editors and publishers have gone to profit from peddling their wares. In reviewing the crop of this anniversary season, Geoffrey C. Ward finds one — Gerald Posner's "Case Closed" — the most daring, and not because Mr. Posner has new explanations to offer or new suspects to name. Page 15

The View From Mitteleuropat3 The Most Durable Assassination Theory: Oswald Did It Alone

By Geoffrey C. Ward

ROUND lunchtime le years ago tomorrow. I • was browsing lit Use downstairs stacks of the public library in Cambridge. Mass.. when a man appeared at the AL head of the stairs and announced. "The President's been allot - It never craaaed my mind thst he could mean the President of the United Suites my first thought was to wonder shy anycese should have wanted to shoo the president of Mathis College, from which I had recently been graduated. I picked out a couple of books and went upstairs The rams was being dis- cussed in low, library tones around the chethon dela. and I managed to overbear only enough to understand that my college's president limitni been bivalved alter all An, I thought then the swum must be the president of Harvard. Only when I got cue &e and saw a Wool of anguished people gathered around • perked car, Its door open, its redo blaring bulletins from Dallas. did the full horror of shot had happened hit me Thai an American President might be mur- dered was unthinkable in 1141 No salute President had been shoe tun& 1901; none had even been shot at etnce (+hoop • scald-be assassin missed Press- dentalect Franklin 0 Rwereveli in 1913 and two more had been cut down trying to get to Harry Trurnar in 1950) And Jahn Kennedy's youth and 'hen, arid air of mil-conlidence had made him seem • _ ',penally invulnerable persuasive cam that, for all the Warren Cormmis. It Is little wander then that when the Warren TION; Theodora Monk sex). Jean Hill. a highly Mods sins, In the end it reached the right condo. unagthative eyewitness to the shooting who once Commission tutted Its repot in 1064. naming Lae - along as Mr Pamir carefully lays it out the f asserted that the Kennedy, had a -white, nutty dog Harney Oswald as the lane assassin and denying any dance seems overwhelming that Oswald did indeed between them In their limousine, now claims Lyn- previous Link between tam and his murderer. Jack murder the Premieres all on his ogre, that his and don Johnson was behind the whole thing (JFK: The Ruby, Americans were reluctant to Whew it The Ruby's were the case's only smoking guns Out DesseatIng Witness, by Bill Skies Mitt Jean country had been trsumaused by the assamtnation. Mr Penner is not the first writer to make that P.IICILI Plabitehia& 1117M). (Her -proof" A then robbed of the emotional catharsis the accused 11111 ergurnent, and although he conducted I resin inter. poker officer. nose conveniently dead, ance told her assassin's trial could have provided Such profound- V1e.s in the course of ermine his book, much the he LB J had seemed to lean insuffictemly heartbroken ly unsettling events demanded • more sweeping has to 114y in it has been said before. Still, it has as he was driven away from Parkland Memorial seplanstion a criminal conspiracy equal in the never been said with much clarity or narrative skill. Hospital.) Robert J Oradea. who is convinced that enormity of the crime And over the years. as critics his is by far the most lucid and Compelling account I Moat of the Kennedy eutopey photographs and X. of the commission revealed that the C I A and F /I I have ever reed of what probably did happen in rem an forgerres, has non produced a big coffeets. had deliberately withheld information from Its tar Dallas — and what almost certainly did not No ble book (THE KILLING OF A PRESIDENT: The vestuistors — out of bureaucreue unwillingness to serious lusionan who writes about the assassination Complete Phmegrapic Reset W the JFK Assesuil. tedmit their own shortcomings or for more sinister in the future will be abbe to tenon it linden the Casspirecy. and the CireenlAx reasons, depending on one's degree of shepucism — in which those ghastly eahltelts may be severed Wei instal suapicson was set in stone ▪ POSNER begins his account with In lull color Harrison Edward Livingstone. who Books ndiculusg the official version of the as Oswald's arrest for the murder, less once collaborated with Mn Groden on "High Trea- sassmation began appearing months before the than en hour arid a half lifter Ken son:en assassuurtion best miler, now posits a whole commission moon was in print and they've been rowdy was fatally wounded. of .1 D new bet of traitors — his fallow authors of mamma. appearing ever since, wens venous some lured. Twit a Deltas police °Meer who suer books, many of wham, he says, are actually MR description mans simply lomy There have already been same stepped him cm the street because his ion dnusformatron opsoausts.° paw to protect Lady 1,00d volumes on the Kennedy assassination, accord. - matched that of the Kennedy shooter; he then traces Bird Johnson and other mamermuuls of the comp r- ang to Gerald Posner, the author of CASE CLOSED; Use .1,111L1 of the tormented bee that brought Oswald My (KILLING THE TRUTH: Deceit and Deception Lae Harvey Oswald mad On gasanillnetiee ed Jill; to that moment. Along the way, Mr Posner chat. die JFK Cass Carrell 6 Graf, 1127_95). Reoilem Name, IDS. Itself one of a baker's dozen of • r11011 WHO IN THE Jilt ASSASSINATION: lenges nearly every one of the components' as. 111/11•11111.1111tIOR Rocca to appear this anniversary ma. euennerons Oswald was a good shot, Mr Posner As IsearZ Laryelepedie. y Mielutel Beeson; Cita- rout, and he had plenty of tune to gel off the shots del/Cane PWlahh t paper, IILMI offers capsule he needed Oswald missed with the first one, he • • • biographies of snarly 1.110 "eemnual people" con- Con argues, wounded the President and Go.. John nected to the Dallas tragedy, ranging from the Most of them merely add to the cortfuelan For ■ sally of Texas with the second and killed Kennedy President's widow to the writer of self-published mem*, Garton Forou. a former invesugator for with the third_ Employing common maw computer book &Milne that • man With as umbrella used It to the House Select Committee on Assassmatrons analysis end chap graphics, Mr. Posner demon. nit a paralysing dart Into the President bo that he'd which conducted ita own Mowry In the ate 1170's, P rates that the much derided -magic" bullet did Mt etin while being shot. Meanwhile. Peter Dale charges the committee's chief counsel, G Peden priestly out the Warren COIIIIMISSIONI said it did Scott a oedema of English Si Berkeley with a Blakey, with dellbersiely guttering the lerrunigatian "passed through the President, out his neck and anothingly opaque style. argues Wit responsibility toward mamasd crime and away horn OH real then caused all of Governor Cormaltty's wounds " the President's death rests with 'deeper Wawal • who Kr. Foam helleves were renegade for all the fevered talk about snipers lurk peoconies, which base not yet been &seemed" And foe agents within the C.I.A (THE LAST INVESTIGA- Mg along the 'grassy "noir or springing up from (DEEP POLMCS AND THE DEATH OF JFK. sewer drams, not one entrant in Dealey Plas.s Ilerveralty art Cableroka. Geoffrey C. Wang the meth& af "A First-Class Claimed at the time to ham own anyone but Oswald It is evidence of 041f continuing national unease Temperament. The Emergence of Franklin Roose- lima shot The dramatic Malang by tin House Select about the events le Dallas that Mr Posner s book velt," recently Iron an Emmy as principal writer lor C01131111WPO IT IBIS that there was a "ed percent" amens by far the most darted of the current trop. -The Kennedy' " Hu "Tiger-Wallahs. Encounters likelihood that four shots had been find at Kennedy got became ha has new eseManations to offer or new page With the Men Who Thud to Save the Greatest of the Continued on next suspects to name, but became he makes such • Great Cate" is being published next meek THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIgW is

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withdrawn. hr • ig• i•unted as ing to liter daughter "Our papa I "Or." Vann" ant 'Mrs Os. is slut or no. m ind" weld" by nl. Milo. ma rite., nd In Sentnivinen frill Cianti] I Oswald Did It Alone was counanorimind 4114 found turned up in Mean,. Cay win guilty twice first for shooting mg a Mier Cuba and Continued from preceding peep htmself an Ihn mm eon 52 bringing with him • fro dingget pietist M was untsultiorded 10 he had cocooned la IMOremt the (proving he had been caught in more alinui the molter ill hada. carry and slain for Marini • alialsOralei pen, he Claimed tribe cettaliftre) war boon on analysts Mary. after He was mediae/ drink Date Of head 01a cereiftl a 'killed translator. specialist in of o police recording of a trans . And really nobody Isas worried who had dared anion him to -Street Ago:omit: "Radio minion from the radio of a fn. about my svelter!" K P day He subsequently sal. Sperber i.or1 and Lecturer," tortyclt. supposedly in Denley Tea erratic In hold a inb for fern an IlMereni breakdown, ideologisi mOldier Plan, Mat wet later Penn to Iona. consumed by salgody, weeping and tieing iihnts mso the and Mental spy Once lite Cu. have been Prole, (rum the mur- Morning other. Wear. Reiter night while on guard duly Alter benS San it he ...stared his elle I Clki scene promems Hiram; .111•14 IBM he en. celled .'Bugs '• hewrwsld he ...ironed le to I Mr Pottier lt.mnst no credible dreneed heX.Pirm Ile fly By ilien'he had dereglid In de, H•v•na -You Lough MN. he evidence than Oswald riser IV meters 7 year). Thi mg 1 Achim! 10 feel to the Soviet Vnion. sure ME solo ter, in 70 year. when I worked for the C 3.A., the K G.L6..__,VgjoAVICiaaln In •ID, aalrdt Atreprinwethwater,we'll mar new pegorother intelligence tnurn ton wolithirelectlIgherB bY-e_gtE —Communal, In _had Song Mr"- you 01111nogaillalles IllierliMAgrffaaliatemul muga l, .0lea.- --Min& Wail. hie Weeny opened The Cuban. and Russians did clewed no aiiictel thritimeni Oswald K-G1 Illes wineries,. I he Selm- nal laugh: Oswald's milt was hes P from either American or ILOVIal Widtrilefent little ROW- Kg. an homed tut in he no more unnervIng for ghat he went. i euthorthee He neon theLthere queerly pion 1pfill and iememap_ —1•010emil wIngen shim his fell., shuted, bulled • revolver thei win tamer • 'second Oinealer. to iamb him metier flit liarriard American had been He had to he said re curried because the SY atoned theeren nacre on be often sapt until he enamel, sash his onus in keep from F B I arm our to kill him Hit the existence M an upposlor It), he hurled one knife al his being eroelled from the country application sin dented. nonetrir clalmLand that the real one elev. half .111.1111mwend Ihet~lliW a: once lalleTwurter visa Teetotal Two less or knew David Ferric. he M. onteriinamv with another. Soviet peyclnalrrols indefiend• in PASSPORT TO ASSASSI- Lorre eighawtrig olio( legit al. fought with his scnoalmares.dts. eel lie deellerlethim -mentally un- NATION: The Nesematelann higel•ateria car sretterulay „Aleptaptelenes and stayeranny. In Yuri No- Told Hwy of Lee blervey Oswald Shin. the New eleiemalgarniess. -Teonalcisocil fo often re was It. setae, defector, and he By the KGB Celan! Who Knew the I maakor any of dug other ampere, malty remanded m Ii to Youth was finny grained asylum only Him; girth Lem/Carol Publish- figura who peeped the pallago44 HOW m Menthalten fora psycho. because, the Sthratts lee red that 11 1012111, Oleg M NeChtbc. Intawlea of Jhe Garrison, the. -etre! exemlnaticm -I found him he socrinedeil in his neat try at emit., • retired officer in the tate district attorney of that tiny, tonne definite trait. of &inner suicide they might he Named Ma'am Inielliatinee division of or of his Isagitpeapher. ithe Him primess: the pitychmt risi tin behi for murdering an American the K.G.B who wet one of the Milker Oliver Sited Nor hi then — celled when he twitilled before tourist three SOMM Of InClaig who inter. anything concrete to !mazes. the Warren Commission, "a giag vend Oswald 111 *morn City. ma that Oswald ever had anything 10 tenant for eapbraive• allire,11"/ wt.. main tn • radio enrifiern• Mr Pastier's ve [limn n1 do min the Mob gaaauthve Prang Cad Ann and lelevisran MK, hill Warr, vital "OM decided ver Whether he preferred the compa- gory In M.O. mold NM take 00.114 seriously HAT igen ny of boys or gins, Oswald told milsere he met M•ro His nerroumwes, . his ram. Wm to peer. the paychintrat,.1 dislike every. Ame na Pruseloon, ihe Ming and even nOnfierptiCal der, Own, Hwomen who its to become het speech Si urns, Ns avoidance of His own wife. but meekly grew thstllo• • nseertng spec if It questions a nil twilled per,, • • • maned with the gnm realny of dm shills from strong agitation hmality,•ccordingW to Dee author. He dropped out of school alto Soviet Ill* and his own madden. to depression gave as reason to the ante grandame lienblloy in tether at le Munn he sod. 11 441_ misty obscure place within It 'He believe Ihal his mental slide st,as lindetaland the real world •ad could teach !MT Malting, and didn't want to be among the Corn- unstable or that, at the very Ina owes Limited place In it that buried himself in banks on Marx- TM Rive.- • Russian emigre least, he suflered from a serious delves so many other Inadlegbete tarn IMIWOL persuading himself who knew Oswald Wier in Amer. nervous chowder human beings to violence that all the unhappiness and dim In remembered -He Height The only Government on earth CC born et New Orleare in len. appouorneni thm continued to ether he war a dehreler mat • Oswald thought worthy of nim Oswald iseve• knew his lather, corrode hit lift was somehow former Mann Corpsman that had turned him away He re- who died ten months before his besot called by cepnaliarn At he would be given opera! alter- turned to Tens, humiliated and birth, and he was naive by • It, he pained the Marines to an lilted with anger •1 the blire•o Ali. mother us egomaniacal lint the any I ram has mother,. cwt he He retuned to the United CealS who seemed to block his told would on day come to see the was unable ever po shake Ihe Slain In the spring or 1142 with weds on metier where he tried ID Ills anantrution itself merely es "n" of perpetual grant,' Ma wile and Infant daughter He go The truly frightening Pang , further evidence of the world's with which she had imbed him, DOW was • failure by any pale diehm- about sent Reopened there a few butephcable neglect of her- "Let or his anger et • motto than mtg. pine taies, nnsally friend/ma. Unable weeks brier, as Mr Posner re, me tell you this," she told the bonnie refused to grant hart the theca 1011010 On even ID the menial yobs counts it. IS nal lire nation IhM writer Jean Saallord after her MieOgnattin she had aught him —oli rpm, murky farce, sornchOm son'. death, -if you inen•rch the ahniald be his available to hon. routinely but. wring his von whom he forbade Hide PP Illmes. but Mal 1101 even Ha life of Jane Christ, you find that Na sorprnmely, the miltthry ID learn Engllals for Mar he'd Ion We gnielext among us is sale gimp you none dip heir anything did not suit him. Geld; aterraoi control of her But us his awn when madness and Sheer chance the It mina he evellently remained a Mown to conserve hietith fearless !tenter for what he was Had list Cubans. granted Ow td tam callus( the wow his MM. 10, eileMble, he -radical hour. and pi or cause He tned but failed to would probably have been In Ha- Newt shom the ecceninc right-wing vana by November. and me rI general, Edwin Welber. In the would not now know his name Lamer The Claremont Graduate School CI apparent belief tn.' W•lker wee Had any one of four potentai Ni announces the harbinger of Amencen Ma- employers to whom he applied nine THE 1114 KINGSLEY TUFTS Pour" AWARD rton, He penclatmed himself for • on when he got bath 10 rano end nr • mem chap., of the Team detided lu lore him, he gnaw Tlw Oatermem Gnaw, Schted in P would net have had the npsurtu- iirbeimmot ter the air Ploy Inr Cuba Committee dam Pan ramdrr Tido Pam, Awed The need of 130,000 ml I but failed in moract a single non to fire upon the motorcsde Amen he nwermoill 40 rh. A410171C•nlinilt end t. t,.leed mewl member And he talked of M. Had • Deltas neighbor on in' werthr I, • arailsisl panel ol inetneutilstd nide,. larking • pm and forcing la to Ilocfltty fiLMt.ted 10 14•Fart•'• roads 1.0, him end his f•mily as Cube clone.i friend mat Ow, mien where The mime wee neldona hr Kw. Tala.n kn... in h. 1...4 h.dsmd, peer and mow Kind., T.h. ...Mich he had now pertodalted Na • Jab for Onsield at it. Teas/. Urn Scrawl Book Depositary, had inn Tn lei romelered for In 1144 a...4 aulimaangmg men he himself was the only place Pt Jun 1110n filagreed. op inidi • rammarbnl 104. Or Wm. Der•mher If. teal Anon., mom., could find a revolouruma ry role Irwrins ,wit and • merrily al his latent s 011110 ,n Me baleful telephone call to the man M ihr *mod sonnet will b I...Jr ran Apt i.I 1004 grip of legs le :1 MIn100 ne ton to In ch•ree and had ilms man — published in 001 ./.11 hr coninharJ p..ry latearldnig about hi. rig,. In his nem had openings II leo differ. Fin twarkor rloplidarIsomImo .c send 5450 widerwear, liention imaginary ern bcalmn. — nei 050.101•04140 In i by IX Tea Tido rent Amird klbw possenthers. until Into give Oswald the Job at Eaton The Clatennow Graduate 5thnol inghtened wile began whiner- Continued On next poi. Wit) IV Ea. Tenth 5strei Clasen en, CA 0 1111

es of reading Oswald Did It Alone Continued from precedtng page )DA's life of Plata, he would never have gained the vantage point he needed. And, 0 should be emphasised, Oswald won access to that ithipers perch more than month before he could have known that the parade route :OGERS would pass beneath it, an awkward fact under- standably left out of moat books alleging mat sinis- in the ter forma conspired to put him within range. Sheer Review: *ppm-tunnyserendipity totow strike offered at the him heart • once-in-a-lifetime of the system he believed the source of all his troubles, to alter that history in a way even his wildest fantasies had not afforded him. On the mornin teristic run of luckg ran of Novout he24, asked lee], his to beuncharac- allowed i°gra beforeto chan thege televisioninto new sweatercameras. beforethereby reappearin delayin g own transfer from the city g his e All by nearly five minutes.jail Had to the he Dallasnot done County so, Jack Ruby (who had been sendin a the post office g money order at would otherwisejust haveup the been street hustlin when the police through thubasement/ would have arrivedg Oswald too late to shoat him — and to cheat us of the trial that PM' might have helped lay to rest our worst fears about •ON (4, MN* Ourselves and our Government d all . Lee Harvey and Morino Oswald leavrng Minsk R Ben - R POSNER probes Ruby's motives U.S.S.R , for the United SIWIA in June 1962 as well, and believ those entirely on his ownes he A also ni acted owner and small-time promoter,ghtclub lie in murder him afterward Thirty years after the too hoped to make himself a hero ent,ve no one already convinced of one or another of th the conspiracy theories is likely mbe converted by andM was fully convinced • country grieving for its any narrative, no matter how carefully constructed President would cheer the killer's killer (In the or well documented But whatever one saw first minutes after shooting Oswald he must have Mr. Posner's conclusions. no fair-mindedthinks person about n so thought he'd been right; when the crowd gathered should miss his footnote, There, carefully se th gre- across e street front the city jail learned what he 10 beet had done, they broke into loud applause ) gated asap from muddying has story, he offers a Despite the cockiness of Mr Posner's title. devastating record of the lengths to which sensa- "Case Closed," the Kennedy case — like that of tiOnallate have gone to now suspicion and sell books Abraham Lincoln, nearly a century older — is — omitting inconvenient facts, misrepresenting testimony, favoring stories VIII likely always to remain open. The crime will al. the passing years over thosegrown first toldmore when gaudy details ugh ways outweigh the man accused of committing it were fresh, libeling the safely dead. Shame is out of No one can ever establish beyond doubt that however weird Oswald was,• reasonable he wasn't fashion these days, but perhaps it's riot too much to rs' life hope that one or two of the authors Mr Posner actually doing someone else's bidding when he exposes — along with the editors and publishers in cowboy carried the containing °kat — to the sixth float ofpaper the Bookparcel Depository, hisor that rifle some-to the who have profited from peddling their irresponst. the floor of the thou( other than personal demons didn't drive Ruby bier wares — might suffer at least a momentary is for a fam:knat. pang or embarrassment le It TVA.' lister inquirer Still an Unthinkable Thought )graphy bookWhen, about Gerald the assaasinatPosner decided ion of toJohn write F. Ken-a been accusatory, some tauntin , some obscene . id revealing" nedy, he wanted to Identify the teams that And he gwas surprised boron Globe were still outstanding almost 10 years later that much of the discus- comeThe up bi withggest intent story rovertlbM here would evidence have been of a to sion of the book has cen- eXespirecy.- be said -1 applied the same tered on his account of ished by Knopf mandarcts of evidence to both sides." was what happened in Des- only after Mr Posner, who ley Plaza, not has Street lawyer, spent close toonce It months was a Wallcomb- tailed profile of Oswald And surprised ai ing the written record and than he was some 200 Interviews that he wanconducted convinced he how little reaction "could roach a conclusion" — that Let Harvey greetedhis interview — gilweeimi eel Orwaid acted alone the brat ever — with leery ietileels Thai hi why Mr. Posner was so surprised at GerstIU Posner Yuri riosanks, a K.1:1.,1 smarm. irk elm reaction Is ballot who was kept by peperbeele. Som...me menthe since it was published.Closed." Ints• the has two American authorities in solitary confinement p.m mad wypapwa, • ters acceding Minor bein had let- for two and • half years after be detected But sarfalmo weeppen. bein g a C.I.A. agent or of most unsettling have been the efforts to dis- And rewestee yew takeng theon thetrouble Federal to find payroll. out his Someone interview has credit him -Perhaps my is fighting eases Lela wry schedule and to tax belittlin words," eve said "It tells people who spent 29 MN a g letters t.a radio r yaw. awl.WOr. madams. A computer network lies asked Or 30 years on the CAM that they wasted their Thee! why ser robers try to discredit the book- In Roa- err New to Mr. Poster pondered the rational obsession leboreemer set ms a group of demonstrators athered in front of be hotel with si g with the assaitainauon -This is viewed as the to beg's. Mew *a kin-reppeef gns saying "Caen Still great IWWOIVO0 murder mystery of the etipur eke Open — Poser's a Dupe - germ, makes me& sea Mop He aim has been surprised by the telephone *Sion." he said "It Is hard for many ha rivellovo '. Molt its Aeseelee K memeni ask tie notion that a misguided loser with .1312 rt. Mei • SS-93 etiefew calls in the middle of the night Some have fie could end Camelot' KATHY Rose ,l1■03741 (=do • 17•!! he Pflowea06liarCeek-11.etih NY IRS wp411.1kCesreei•C•wilem• twee *-1144-•••• •1. ites•ase.-414 1 The New York Times, September 9, 1993 THE NEW YORK TIMES. 7H1 L

Books of The Timms7 Kennecly 4ssawnatokapswers-

By CHRISTOPiZR LEHMANN-HAUPT

refutes hundreds of claims that have A simple mini IICOXISICS for the added up toairacy theories force and freshness of Gerald P I GovernmenL the Porter's "Case Closed." a persuasive .4.K..G.Italla Intelligence Agen ma study of President John F. Kee- Cy. the Federel surest' of Invesugn- Mehrs- assassination_ Amld the lion. Cuba, emeemelsglikaillsg_Les, mounting welter of conspiracy theo- do's Cuba. a Calledidibirlithan guar ries. one set of facts tends increasing. sins and, of recently fashionable inn. to get overlooked: those haring to teen members of orpnlzed Mew with the biography and character do Particularly telling II the authors of Lee Harvey Oswald, whom Mr. analysts of en acoustical wroth done Posner ma m prove once and for all by the House Select Carnrnittee on was tha 1000 assassin. Ausurnations (I V74) ostensibly A former Will Street lawyer and ,flawrorn Nowt proving that four thou, not three, bow.. 11...... the author of "Manger The Com- were fired that day at Maley Plaza In pete Story" and "Hitters Olildrert," Dallas Mr. Posner concludes that the amens other Woke, Mr. Psalter has Case Clos.d anthers was of a tam recording murvielnd nearly 300 people, maid- Lee Harvey Oswald and the ramie nearly a minute alter the as. lag arreral new witnesses. smiting Amaannation of j. F. K. ausinaron nicurred, and that the them the K.G.B. aiem who handled ■ recorders microphone "we, 011 mo- By Gerald Posner. Cieweitil defection ta the Soviet torcycle stationed at the Trade Mart. 1171mIveled.(41 mos. Rondos. ikons Sit Union to Het Rehr retrldeend the 24 where the President's heehaw re• vattraws of the Warren Coronalstkie caption was scheduled.- This ea. Report, discovering in the proem pram why the shots were rot obvt. text I know of. In Mr. Poster's hands, bow the only other subject index, the both Oswald and Ruby seem far too wily LAM, on the tape nor Why the one by Sylvr Meagher, reflects what unstable to have been invehred in any mind of whittles could he heard be considers a Sias toward Owleald's conspiracy. And for those who believe Mewed of the purported ponderno- irenseence For Matinee, Mr. Perrier diet their nuttiness Is exactly what Muni Bays he found mare than SO titaUans :suited them to be tools of intrigue, Mr. about Oswald's potential for violence, In an appendix star the claim that Posner offers persuasive evidence whereas Mi. Meagher found only r. many witnesses to the usassmatlan that no amerce! way existed for ei- And be hal eve lied himself of new have met Wreak deaths, the author ther of them to have been manipu IN t• edentate and computer enhance- susituu that Mr more than MOOS ed. ments of Imporunt evidence, moat people were connected to the Warren • perthentty the fUm of the Kennedy Contrornion lenvellinUort. the Inci- Of course, the ease will not be motorcade taken by Abrithem dence of violent death IA In actuality closed as a result of this study. which prude r. try. He also welders why "no major was published just as the National • writer or investigator on the case — Archives was releasing 10,000 Gov. One result lab brilliantly Ilturotnat• e,est thaw want to mom danger- eminent documents on the assassins, Mg section cc the timing el Orwears ear conspiracies — has died an on- ikon. There seems to be a greater three Mots gag the path Oldie mature marl death." need for conspiracy theories account. .dubbed the "Magic bullet- by Angel- • mg for President Kennedy's death Its seem- is a can satisfy. ical amairilearion bulls for Raters But the spine Air -Cam Closed" than mere reasoning ingly otreculoo detailed portrait of La Harvey -Ow . As well as Ormolu/Wig all those Here Mr. Posner sewcele"sce the foam on theories, Mr. Perrier accounts for weld'. We that sllw 1111311111. fry that the first ctrl was HMIS mess hither* ~nuked or left their persistence: bad luck, outer titan previcualy tholaght (IS mew. This made what a prawn& tri& miscommunication. lack of Led, missed). thereby geeing Onseld disonrhad eldldheed Oswald had nological sophrUcallon in examining pie Urne to load, KIM and firs the ern the evidence, evasions by the F.B.I . able to aid totes ea eithembe emartion for two The middle Whet IMO Meitmee ha rrineed as he developed. and CIA- the less than total thor. nuke Ito way Insect Waist Peer- As Mr. Peewee Melia the events be- wiliness of the Worsen Commis- died Kannetya neck and him Carr aion's work and a sense of dispropor. It had fore the crime yes se ahem foal between the nalhel chest and wrist because Oswald developing Into use madman than In the public's mind And was tumbling a hill metal picket obi mild commit Judi an act gravity of the crime and the stature in he path, (Diagrams In the book's And the same can be said of the Of the accused. n. impends help make sew =AIWA air book's treatment of Jack Baby, Mr. Posner quotes William ra mantly Oyer.) It was the last Whet chewer. one of President Kennedy's whole emotional dwinuogration after you put he conciudes that inflicted the mortal the President's death Is more vividly biographers, as saying: wound to President 1Cssrwdy'a head. &amused Wry than In any prrricase the murdered President of the United Elsewhere Mr. Power cflectrely States on one aide of a scar and that wretched wolf Oswald on the other Ode, It decen't balance. You want to add something 'Weider to Oswald . A atrispiraey would, of course. do the Mb Moray." 94,0 aucti a dksmssal of Oswald anseesna W e dispersitement of the human mind and its capacity for scat. Ng the peaks of grandeur and perver • airy. Because Lee Harvey Oswald wasn't Important doesn't mean that hra mind, mice sIdliciently twisted. couldn't coacatre an imettriant crime. By paying deserved attention to that mind, Mr. Posner bar restored the balance teremen the perpetrator and the crime. The result ts more ma Untying than any conspiracy theory because at every map its explanation ✓ clearer and more elegant- & WORLD REPORT

$2 YS AUGUST 30 - SEPTEMBER 6. 1093

OF CONSPIRACY AFTER 30 YEARS Ncl. -*lam NEW BOOK THEORIES, A BRILLIANT ..irrodo • r',..-1Paapoo FINALLY PROVES WHO KILLED KENNEDY o 14006 -ronior- -tiorr 'Ye! SPECIAL REPORT

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DEA.EY PLAZA, NOV. 22, 111143: The roar of the crowd ... the flicker of an 8-millimeter home-movie camera ... the wave, followed by the crack olguitfire7; the splatter of blood and brain matter. The murder of John F. Kennedy reruns in the nation's collec- tive consciousness like a horror show that never closes. Fully 7 out of 10 Americans -think a nameless, craftily concealed conspiracy did Kennedy in—and why wouldn't they? For three decades, harum-scarum conspiracy theories have come not as single spies but in battalions, marching at us out of 200 books and a Hollywood blockbuster. Saturnine superpa- triots, bearded Marxists, vengeful Mafiosi. power-mad bu- reaucrats, ticked-off generals. burnt- out spooks — the suspects stretch to the horizon. Ten new assassination books arrive this fall on the eve of the slaying's 30th anniversa- ry: 10 books with a smell about them, including one with the smell of truth. That book is Gerald Posner's "Case Closed." to be published September 1 by Random House

Frames of refeteace (excerpts start on Page 74).A39- year-old lawyer turned writer (his credits include co-authoring the acclaimed biography "Mengele: The Complete Story," 1986), Posner achieves the unprecedented. He sweeps away decades of polemical smoke. layer by layer, and builds an unshakable case against IFIC's killer. To do this., he had to fully reappraise a massive evidentiary record, plunging in without a clue as to where or when he would come out. He

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• SPECIAL REPORT reindexed all 26 volumes of War- ren Commission testimony and the 1979 report of the House Se- lect Committee on Assassinations and cross-referenced material in hundreds of books and articles. Then, to fill gaps not bridged by his labyrinth of 3-by-5 cards, he did more than 200 interviews of his own. His conclusion: Yes. Lee Harvey Oswald — the pathetic "patsy- of so many conspiracy sce- narios, the putative fall guy of the much maligned Warren Commis- sion — gunned down Kennedy. Soy witli on attitude And yes. he acted alone. Arne ricans determined to disbelieve this thesis may be beyond persuasion. But readers who follow Posner's analysis with an open mind will have their eyes opened in new ways. The Warren Commission correctly identified Oswald as the killer but filed a brief against him that was hobbled by mistakes and unanswered questions. Posner now performs the historic office of correcting the mis- takes and laying the questions to rest with impressive finality. bringing the total weight of evidence into focus more sharply than anyone has done before. SIseN proof. The central issue raised by the physical evidence has always been whether a single bullet could pass through Kennedy's upper back and also cause the wounds suffered by Texas Gov. John Connally. The two men were struck almost simultaneously. If a different bullet hit Connally, only a second gunman could have fired it. Posner demonstrates how computerized re-en- actments. special enhancements of the Zapruder film, new bullet-impact tests and medical expertise have at last proved the single-bullet theory beyond a reasonable doubt (see Page 88). "The chapter on the single bullet is a tour de force. absolutely brilliant, absolutely convinc- ing." says Stephen Ambrose, the distinguished biogra- pher of Dwight Eisen- hower and Richard Nixon. who was previ- ously a strong single- bullet slrAMie. "Case Closed' de- molishes just as deci- sively another cause ce- libre among conspiracy theorists: contradic- tions between how the treating physicians at Parkland Hospital and the autopsy doctors described Kennedy's wounds. Exit wound or entrance wound? Big or small? High or low? Warren Commission critics have treated the discrepancies as proof in II IN that the body was tam- pered with to obscure the presence of a gun- =MIN man or gunmen who Young Oswald ot Ins Bronx Zoo fired from the grassy

64 LEE AND THE KGB ii "My fondes dreams are shattered." Lee Oswald wrote in his di- ary on Oct. 21, 1959, just after the Soviet Foreign Ministry de- nied his request for citizen- ship and ordered him to leave. "1 decide to end it. Soak rist in cold water to numb pain. Then slash my left wrist. Then plaug wrist into bathtub of hot water ... somewhere, a violin plays, as I wacth my life whirl away." Oswald was revived by blood transfusions. His suicide note, left on his hotel-room bed table and included in his KGB file, read: . "Did I come here just to find death? I love life." Two ply. chiatrists found Oswald "mental- ly unstable." For- raeweetre mer KGB officer "seaport Yuri Nosenko, who handled Oswald's case, told Gerald Posner: "It made us feel he should be avoided at all costs." Even so, weighing all the risks after Oswald's suicide attempt, high Kremlin offi- cials decided it would be dangerous not to let the ex- marine stay. Said Nosenko: "He was so unstable he might ... succeed in killing himself. Then we would be criticized for a KGB murder of an American tourist." Too much was at stake. Sev- eral weeks earlier, Eisen- hower and Khrushchev had thawed the cold war at a summit in the Maryland countryside, and the Krem- lin did not want "the spirit of Camp David" jeopar- dized. Oswald was granted asylum and sent to work in Minsk. The local KGB of- fice was ordered to watch him but not recruit him as an agent. Recalls Nosenko: "The KGB didn't want Os- wald from Day 1." ems east le 111410. Whew the defector's cetebrIty failed, Be grew diesetheflod with Reesle. U.S.NEss A WORLD RIPOR7 AUGUST 30 /SEPTEMBla 6 1993 65 ■ SPECLAL REPORT

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LSO Dansild In Minsk softh Markle, a 111-yeer-old Mummer-de& grtudowl h. married ITN 1141 Liter, le America, he werid neat bor. knoll. on Kennedy's nght. while Oswald (or someone else) after issue, Posner catches Stone and the major conspitac% fired from the Texas School Book Depository behind the writers in serious misrepresentations of the evidence (exam- president. But when Posner himself interviewed the Park- ples begin on Page 77). land doctors. all but one agreed with the autopsy findings. conceding that their original observations, made hastily un- THE 011ASSY-0401.1. FOLLIES der great stress. had been incomplete, partially incorrect or The high quotients of common sense, logic and scrupulous subsequently distorted by conspiracy writers. documentation found in "Case Closed" are niceties not often Conspiracists have also long believed that if they could get found in the field of assassination studies. One book entitled a look inside Oswald's KGB file, it might well show he was a "Is Presidertt John F. Kennedy Alive—and Well?" has run Soviet agent. "Case Closed" not only examines that file but through 15 editions.'Allother book, "Best Evidence." made reports the author's interview the bestseller lists in 1981 with its with Yuri Nosenko— the first theory that on the flight back to ever exclusively devoted to the Washington, Kennedy's body former KGB officer's supervi- was stolen from his casket right sion of the Oswald case. Both from wider the eyes of the first confirm that Oswald was not lady and presidential aides and only nor an agent but was surgically altered to disguise deemed totally untrustworthy by wounds made by a second gun- the spy agency (box, Page 65). man. The author, David Lifton, Previously undisclosed files who is at work on yet another cited by Posner also play havoc conspiracy book, has spent his with the romanticized portrait of adult life trying to unmask the New Orleans District Attorney INK plotters. In the mid-1960s Jim Garrison that director Oliver he did photo enhancements of Stone presents in his 1991 film. shrubbery on the grassy knoll and "MK." The files —of Garrison's thought he could discern a man own investigators — buttress an with a periscope. a man with a earlier generation's verdict that machine gun, another with an Garrison's chaotic assassination electronic headset, still another prosecution twisted the truth wearing a Kaiser Wilhelm hel- with cynical abandon. On issue Oswald's first love in Aussie (apper right} rejected ii . met, and a galoot who was either 68 LLS-NEwS a WORLD REPORT, AUGUST 3f) iSERCD4BER 6.1931 • SPECIAL REPORT Douglas MacArthur or the gen- local amusement park and an eral's dead nnger. underground nickel mine. The conspiracy writers are Assassination artifacts can be fed by a network of amateur big moneymakers. Jack Ruby's sleuths who keep vast files of gun went for $200,000 at auc- clippings in their basements and tion last year; the new owner troll for fresh witnesses who all offers 5,000 "limited edition" too often have found their bullets shot from it for $500 tongues after half a lifetime of each. Character assassination of terrified silence. By one count, the dead and group libel can be 30 men have been identified by even more lucrative. Warner buffs as "the second gunman" Bros.' "JFK," a heavily fiction- or have themselves "confessed" alized film tarring Earl Warren, to firing shots at Kennedy, usu- Lyndon Johnson, the CIA and ally from the grassy knoll. the FBI, has grossed $196.5 mil- The quest for Kennedy's kill- lion worldwide. ers long ago became the domain Culture shock. Every presi- of both hobbyists and profiteers. dential assassination and every A for-profit JFK Assassination war in U.S. history has spawned Information Center prospers in suggestions of secret plots and Dallas by selling bumper stick- hidden agendas. but never be- ers, T-shirts and other murder fore have the conspiracy alarms memorabilia and charging peo- sounded so loud so long. Jack ple $4 to view its exhibits. Con- Ruby's shooting of Oswald on spiracy buffs meet for three days live television only 48 hours af- each year in Dallas ($150 regis- ter his arrest (box, below) tration fee) to swap theories, at- stirred visceral suspicions that tend seminars on such topics as were only deepened by the "Media Coverup —Then and Cons,Iraclata Jan Clarrisoa (right) sad Mark Lone km 1.147 troubled epoch that followed— Now" and welcome star con- the calamity of Vietnam, the spiracy "witnesses." who sign autographs like rock stars. Con- social turmoil of the late '60s, Watergate and the disillusion- spiracy "research" occasionally forms a symbiotic alliance with ments of the '70s. JFK's murder came to be remembered as a tourism. Sponsors of a three-day John F. Kennedy Assassina- loss of national innocence, which served to magnify the ap- tion Symposium last week at Laurentian Uriiversity in Sud- peal of conspiracy scenarios. A single individual might mur- bury. Ontario. advertised that participants could also wrap in a der a man, but a whole era? Many people want a more visit to the Shakespeare festival and take their children to a formidable set of villains. "If you put 6 million dead Jews on

slapping, the other half throw- because a strongly anti-Ken- tam district attorney. "Some- THE WRATH OF ing unruly customers or errant nedy ad in a Dallas newspaper one bad to do it." A he detec- SHEBA'S MASTER employees down the stairs at the day of the killing was tor test supported his denials his Carousel Club. Beset with signed with a Jewish name. of premeditation. So did oth- Who was Jack Ruby? financial troubles, he ap- "Yee Me LOA." Two days er circumstances. On the eve- Conspiracy buffs por- peared on the verge of an later, Ruby happened to en- ning of November 22, Ruby tray him as a hit man en- emotional collapse after JFK's ter the basement of police had made no move for the listed by the mob or death. He closed his two night- headquarters just as Oswald .38 caliber revolver in his hip some other murderous clubs out of respect. wept was being taken out. Noticing pocket when he came within cabal to silence Lee Os- openly and wailed that he and "a smirk on his face" and a few feet of Oswald at police wald before he implicated oth- other Jews would be blamed thinking 'why you little headquarters. Two days later, S.O.B." (as he told when he did shoot him, Ru- ers. It is a theory without a lick t/VIIV,S11114 of actual evidence. The facts his brother Earl). by's beloved dog Sheba was suggest that Ruby was no he pulled out the outside in his car. Ruby was a more than a luckless lout try- gun he often car- solicitous master, ahvays dot- ing to play the hero. A former ried and fired be- ing on his dogs, whom he street brawler out of Chicago fore anyone in the called his "children." Says who was barely making ends mob of reporters former Dallas Assistant D.A. meet as a nightclub owner, and policemen Bill Alexander: "Ruby would Ruby was notorious for his vi- could stop him. never have taken that dog olent temper — and for his ea- Ruby felt sure peo- with him if be had known he gerness to please policemen. ple would see him was going to end up in jail. reporters and the Dallas es- as a hero. "You He would have made sure tablishment. He spent half his guys couldn't do that dog was at home and time glad-handing and back- Pelee booking photos of look Ruby it," he told an a.ssis- well taken care of."

71 U.S.NEw5 a WORLD REPCRT. AUGUST 30 /SEPTEABER S 1993 • SPECIAL REPORT one side of a scale and on the other side put the Nazi regime In the real world, each of these imagined utopias mocked . you have a rough balance: greatest crime, greatest crimi- his megalomaniac expectations. The Marines ridiculed him nals... historian William Manchester has written. "But if you as "Ozzie Rabbit" for his reclusiveness and twice court-mar- put the murdered president of the United States on one side tialed him for misbehavior. The Soviets packed him off to of a scale and that wretched waif Oswald on the other side, it Minsk to labor as a lowly sheet-metal worker until he re- doesn't balance. You want to add something weightier to turned to America in disgust. The Cubans gave him the Oswald. It would invest the president's death with meaning, bum's rush as a strange bird whose erratic migrations held endowing him with martyrdom. He would have died for no charm for them. In his private universe, Oswald was a something. A conspiracy would, of course, do the job nicety." dutiful husband; in the real world, he regularly beat his Rus- Some conspiracists are so deep in denial — the actual evi- sian-born wife, Marina, for such offenses as failing to draw dence notwithstanding — that Owe. Rip his bath. She fought back by they have diminished Oswald's insulting his manhood. In Os- . . • role to that of a fall guy without wald's mind, he was a born a drop of blood on his trigger spy with a flair for operating finger. In the film "JFK.," Os- sub rosa against the forces of wald loiters harmlessly in the fascism; in truth, he chose his Texas School Book Depository aliases, false addresses and lunchroom while Kennedy is other superspook affectations killed by operatives of a vast by reading a book, "How to military-industnal conspiracy Be a Spy," that graced his cof- bent on preventing him from fee table. U.S. leftists, like pulling U.S. forces out of Viet- their foreign counterparts, nam (never mind that most his- viewed him as too weird to be torians agree that cold warrior trusted. Kennedy had revealed no such The tension between Os- intent). Posner puts Oswald wald's fantasies and his no-ac- back at the center of the action count life sought release in vio- by establishing who he really lence. By the spring of 1963, he was and what he really did No- had carefully cased the home vember 22 (article. Page 74). _ 4 of retired Maj. Gen. Edwin Walker, a prominent right- THE LONE GUNMAN •• .4.777,--7-,-"1.- winger living in Dallas. and Who was Oswald? How sent off by mail for a 6.5-mm strange that the question is still Mannlicher-Carcano rifle (the being asked a generation after same rifle that would kill John he himself answered it so vivid- Kennedy). He posed with it in ly upon his arrest. His lips de- his back yard while Marina nied his crime but his face af- snapped a now famous photo- firmed it. The faint smirk he graph. The caption, apparently wore both betrayed his guilt in Marina's hand, read: "Hunt- and celebrated it. It bespoke a er of fascists. Ha, ha. ha." One tormented loner with an atti- evening, he took his rifle, crept tude too monumental to be close to Walker's house and concealed even when self- fired at him in his den. The preservation demanded it. bullet was deflected by the That attitude had shown itself window frame, saving Walk- many times before —in a small hinges's.), sopublisSwod photo of Oswald Is Asigrol 1143 er's life but deepening Os- child who hurled rocks at other wald's despair. children: in a 13-year-old who was asked whether be preferred By November, the 24-year-old Oswald had reached a new the company of boys or girls and replied: "I dislike everybody"; nadir. He had lost three low-paying jobs in a row and at the in a 15-year-old who became a Marxist and refused to salute end of September had been refused a visa by Cuba after the flag in school, and who as an adult wrote of himself: "Lee spending much of his meager savings to visit the Cuban Em- Harvey Oswald was born in Oct 1939 in New Orleans, La. the bassy in Mexico City to offer himself to "Uncle Fidel." Back son of a Insuraen [sic] Salesman whose early death left a far in Dallas, he was desperate to reinflate his ego. What better mean streak of indepence [sic] brought on by negleck [sic]." than to play a delicious secret joke on all those who had A psychiatrist who examined Oswald in early adolescence spurned him —one that would demonstrate that he was a found he had a "vivid fantasy life, turning around the topics man wily enough to change the very course of history? On of omnipotence and power," and from the mass of evidence November 19, the Dallas newspapers reported the route adduced by Posner, there seems little doubt that Oswald John Kennedy would follow during a visit to the city three dwelt in a parallel universe all his own. In it, he was always a days later. The presidential motorcade was to pass by the hero aborning, a man on the verge of being recognized for Texas School Book Depository, where Lee Harvey Oswald his high intelligence and unique talent—first by the Marines, had recently found a job and could enter, no questions in which he enlisted at age 17; then by the Soviet Union, to asked. Destiny bayed in his ears like the hound of hell. • which he defected, and then by the Cubans, whom he sought to join in their revolutionary struggles. BY GERALD PARSE-LAU_ 72 U.S-NEWS & WORLD REPCIR7, AUGLS7 3o ISEYrE...(eER 6 1.9,3)

THE BOSTON SUNDAY GLOBE • SEPTEMBER S. OW BOOKS Square one

COM CLPSED wares that the use.winedon controversy not Ontaid and Lk, A•wairrocitIon Who killed disappear. In calling for the release of these adds• of JFK bona! materials, David W. Belie, a counsel to the By Germ& Pone, Rata;Cora Howe 60t pp Kennedy? A new Warren Comnusrion, said that Hollywcod's misrep- /1.1.PCMIat resentation of the truth could not be refuted with- study answers: out full diselooure of all the governments records. By Raters Deli& He thinks the release of the remaining °Meal pa- Oswald, and only pers can and once and for all the debate 006.1E who Imost 30 years after John killed JFK F. Kennedy's death. Oswald Lau Beim. r.-serer, a lawyer who hit., much of the country re- written books on Ned war nominal. inetably -Men- mains convinced that a tie. if anything, to what we knew already. gele. The Complete Story') and a book about the conspiracy took the Experts on the Kennedy mememation who have Chinese Mafia in America thinks the pruinpal president's Ills. Oliver reviewed the record aee nothing startling or even question about the Kennedy asaasaination ran be Stone's “JFK,- a 1991 new in the just-released papers. "This ia note cur- answered convuusingly. 'Case Closed: Lee Harvey 61//1 allettrq a conapirscy rent event,- one of them said -This is a lurtoricel Oswald and the Ammunition of to Posner's of high government all- footnote Wal these mamn•1• change anyone's =ewe to do Just that nets and which Scone de- mind about what happened in Dallas m November The hook u a superb refutation of all the con. scribed m real history or -nuth told to the people 1963? Not likely. another a•••••^^•tion Invesngator sparked congressional legislation mandating the re- smarm 'People who think the emasculation result- JFK Page All lease of nearly a rnahn pages of classiBeri docu- ed from a conspiracy will And confirmation of their ments- Stone predicted that this material would re- theory, and those who don't think so will also find Robert Dade* to p7Ofillar of history w LtL.1 and veal the full story. But the opening of 800,003 pages support for their The existence of Ali adcli- the Maher, Mat reorruis of "Laic Slor Rasing by the National Archives on Aug. M has added lit clonal 150.000 pages of unreleased CIA documents Lyndon Johnson and Hu TIMIS 1908-1960 "

ti Who killed Kennedy? Still, and only, Oswald

• JFK Continued from Page Al2

spiracy theories that have sprung up in the last 30 years. His book focuses on the lives of Oswald and Jack Ruby, the violent, and sleazy nightclub owner who shot Oswald to death before the television cameras in Dal- las two days after Kennedy was killed. By . Air 1! 7:010,~47"4"4 recounting the lives of these two principal ionawd. Ancwvts figures in the acsassinauon. Posner is able Marina and Lan Harvey Oswald leave Mink, In the Soviet Union, In tune 1%2, alter he to address all the outstanding questions_ Ind obtained parade** to return to the United Stites. about why and how JFK died. Relying on games and shopping computers, current scientific techniques dente. There was no involvement by indi- complete with board and good old-fashioned common sense to vidual members of organized crime. as the mall 'assassination research centers' evaluate all the evidence in the case. committee suggested might-be the case. stuffed with souvenir T-shirts and bumper Posner has given us the most convincing It is impossible to do full justice to stickers." study to date on what happened. Posner's argument in a brief review. It can But there is more at work here than Posner demonstrates that the CIA, the only be stated that the evidence he mar- just a crude need to entertain ourselves FBI. the Mafia. Cuba. the Soviet Union shals in behalf of his case against a con- with speculations and fantasies about a and Lyndon Johnson had nothing to do spiracy of any kind and for the conclusion president's murder, or the need to give with 1011ing Kennedy. The sole assassin, as that a single gunman, Oswald, killed the some larger meaning to Kennedy's deatn the Warren Commission told us in 1964. president. is most compelling. Posner's than can be found in the conclusion that ne was Lee Harvey Oswald. A miserable, des- book is not the sort of easy read one asso- was the victim of a demented individual. perately troubled character who failed at ciates with an afternoon at the beach. The Beyond these impulses. whicn surely help everythuig. including an attempt to estab- the- complexity of the case for Oswald's role sustain doubts about the lune gunman lish a new life in the Soviet Union. Oswald and against the abundant conspiracy the- sis. is the national climate of suspicion fos- was a porcieriine psychotic whose killing of ones requires close attention to the huge tered by secret government and official the president was the act of a man desper- body of detail amassed over the years. It is corruption: President Johnson's credibility ate for attention of any kind, Though Os- a tribute to Posner'. akill....ska narrator gap. FBI and CIA deceptions. President wald lurnself might have rationalized his that he is able to keep the story moving as Nixon's Watergate crisis. President Rea- action as a political assault on capitalist well as he does. Still;this is a serious work gan's Iran-Contra affair. and the scandal: America's leader by a dedicated Marxist, of historical reconstruction that demands associated with Koreagate. former House in fact. his political views make little sense more effort than casual readers may care Speaker Jim Wright. the Bank of Credit to the many people Posner and others in- to spend on yet another Kennedy assassi- and Commerce International and the temewed over the years about them. nation book. House banking and post offices. Posner shows us that Oswald had the Will Posner's book finally close the As long as mistrust and dinurisnea opportunity and capacity to shoot Kennedy case on Kennedy's murder. as the title of faith in government and its highest offi- without the involvement of anyone else or his book promises? Don't bet on it. What- cials remain central features of American any organized group. Oswald fired three ever the considerable merits of Posner's political Life, we will continue to have shots. Two found their mark and one bul- Kenneu.. research and analysis. it seems unlikely doubts about the causes let. as Posner demonstrates with impres- the nation s po- that he will persuade conspiracy buffs to death. When confidence in sive scientific data mortally wounded the accept his rational conclusions. As Posner litical institutions revives. Posners book president and seriously injured Texas Gov. himself writes. By concluding that JFK will stand as the most convincing explana John Connally. There was no other gun- was killed as the result of an elaborate tion of the assassination. Until then, he anal man. The so-called echoes of other gun- plot, there is the belief he died for a pur- others receptive to his argument will have shots described by a House select commit- pose. that a powerful group eliminated him to content themselves with the fact mat he tee to 1979, which led some to the conclu- for some critical issue." There is also the has restored a measure of rational under sion that Oswald had a collaborator firing fact that "the JFK murder has. regretta- standing to a 20th-century Amencan trag- from the grassy knoll in Dealey Plaza, edy.. were the result of faulty acoustical evi- bly, become an entertainment business. Tempo Cliraffa CrlibMIG Sunday. October 3. 1993

The case against conspiracy Gerald Posner, acting alone, has wounded the JFK cover-up industry

By Paid Gallaway Trauma "met Werra he rendezvous was ar- ranged for a weeknight last fall at a Turkith res. taurant near CIA head- quarters in Langley. Vi TThe proprietor would be expect- ing him When author Gerald Posner sald he was there to meet George and his Wife. as he had been In- structed to do, the proprietor led Posner and his wife. Trtcha. to a private table In the beck room. George was the code name for Yuri Nosenko. a KGB officer who defected to the U.S. in 1961 and now lives under another name In an undisclosed part of Time paha op Owns o. the country. Posner was re- Gerald Posner. debunker of conspiracy theorists. at Smyth 1 Sus Poem. PA= I School on West 13th Street. which lack Rubin attended.

* Cheap) TrItem,. Sunday, October 3. 1993 Seaton 5 7 Toros

So Posner attended law Intinot at the University of California at Berkeley, where he was an honor Mod Sole student. then pined a prestigious -21 ... -T1..7:4,0'6iWG-. 046,14441k:04;\iz...4Ie Wall Street law arm leaving two years later to than his own firm. "C":i In 19e1 ta represented Jewish e' victims of Dr. Josef Mengel, the e;eridesiem--- .'-'1. 77.77-1-1 nolortous Nazi war criminal who escaped from Germany litter World War II and died Ln hiding In South America It was a pro Dana caw and I sued the Menet family and the German government,' Posner said. 'Nothing came of the lull. but I accumulated 25.000 dons- mans shout Mengele. is I thought I'd write a took" "Mentlele Ti. Complete Story," which be co-wrote with John Ware. was published in 1.916. prompting Posner to leave the law and write full hma "Case Closed" Is his attir trait 'A weakness of mine is that I tend to undenntlmats the =maim of - • . . . each project I undertake. This teas true with this book but as I kept - • awe I.. going I kept finding answers to 1.••■• 1r oho, things 1 disint think I could art answers The real env if-ups • Earreseer laws ?Se ■ef woo et Posner agrees with critics of the OM Oftaliramml wal dal Warren Commission who say Its .ew er wnlildmi M usivey thvestigatton was thawed. Imaa.tdowl~dorMasr ■ms "Mart was a cover-up by the roe lem. 2J lel IMO. Pow•fts ohl FBI and the CIA. but they weren't Cbmwor Ommil, Ma as dm, Immo. attempting to conceal their in• smammtIlle ems err • Sesemegs Owed reams/mew volvement In the murder of the EralrE dome. demon, te president but rather their own In• *tom tio-es,Tle owe i117_ at efficiency and bungling' Pother IN IA •bin amswis said 1 pi into detail In =posing on ter els 11=1 seem HI these coverups, but they can't to Interpreted as evidence of conspo. acy " The Warren Commission's work also was tarnished by s dubious ter. w.ee Owl. woe fa • "X op fns Pow.. M.., wore. low finding of the WTI ineeatleitior by the House Select Committee on know If the bullets fired et Con• by conspiracy books that select Aseasalnallons. Posner said baLly and Kennedy were still only material that's favorable to —The committee's mounts Is- lodged to weir Loam or bad been their position. whether It checks parta tested a DIttabelt recording isiovezed out or not. I think these people of radio trails on Dallas police channels and said they were 95 elf they wanted to shield the are buying the book." percent tertian them had been cOneptracy. were Only be a Can thane* up from the Wane throe shot More than that. and fourth shot. therefore a second shooter and a conspiracy." the single aseassin doesn't have Term weeks after tts mama Li time to shoot. So Irby flak expo. Is eighth on The New Yost Times A retest by the National Amide SIM the ONSIMIIIKT manorial besteeller list and my of Sciences discredited the be Maritthe • rev. committee's esperts fourth bullet that woolnot catch enth on tbe Tribune's UM of Chl. • concluding balLtstically with manna= of the csgo's beet sellers. that the recording was made other rounds,' minute after the shooting, Pouter U.S. News k World Report. said. And whet atom Jack Ruby. the which ran excerpt.* Deus "Case Chicago native who moved to Dal Cleated." orator "Pope: achieves Half of 'Cap Closed" Is • Las to run rtrtp clubs? Did he just meticulous ez•min•tion of the unprecedented. He sweeps Oswald's entire tla. col:onset:is happen by the Dallas jail on Nov away decades of polemical maim and shoot Oswald on the spur In an thong daytry4ay chronicle 24 law by layer. and builds an un- of his movements in the lase two of the toomentl shakable Othe agsltut MCI killmt months before the emasaination. .. Lee Harem Oswald' it WO= lbiby's murder of Oswald doss 'Many conspiracy books almost Stephen Ambrose. biographer of more to undermine this case to ignore Oswald. But he's the key. Dwight Eisenhower and Richard termit of pettily: the truth out than end We grassing how much Ii anything else." Posner mid "First Nixon: 'The chapter on the known about hum' Posner said It prevents the trial of fhwald (Mastic] bullet in e tour de throe. 'It's certainly enough to disprove absolutely brUllant. absolutely where the evidence would have all the theories that he wimpy convicted him. It also gives us conttitting." or a patsy mond asamain with dm to togs New Tort Times book critic , "My technique was to go to orig- nixed grub*. era hard for people to Chrielopher Lehen•nn•Hsuptt inal sources. Too many books believe this was a coincidence. is write that "Posner effectively re: quote secondary sources, some of you're atf and running with I coo. Mot hundreds of claims that have which are mason on mintiforma- 'piracy r, added up to conga:74y theories - Lion. which means the garbage te Pouters account of Ruby's life In a Tribune review. author disseminated again and apith. be- and hie actions during the was- Jeffrey Tooblo oral* that 'Ceres coming fact striation week demolishes any Closed" In 'utterly convincing la 'Hares an trample. 'Inc opens notion he was a conspirator. Its thesis. which seems. in light tt with Rom Cho:moue a prostitute- According to Use trade journal all that has transpired over the warning her doctors that the Han- Publishers Weedy, sin bobs: by past ILI years. almost revolution- ned y inatton is going to major publishers will airPlar this take pact in Dallas and naming tall to coincide with the amts arml- Posner. NI. didn't eel out to be a Ruby as involved. I found her da- esssari, of the meamination. with writer. Mimed complying with the ter. who said she was psychotic "Case Closed"' standing Mom in metier of his Pittner. a union am- and didn't mention the eseasaink its antiminsplrery ranee. dal In San Prediction 'My Dither lion until the day after It hap- %low boo bona beartareed by dealt with I lot of lawygra. He pened or Ruby until the day after promising sales and positive re- said Son, these fellows chary he killed Oswald." views 'Many readers are put off Ms you cant believe.' Posner paused. 1 can go on.'

Morewoelellmalag SrPterrihrr 16. t5

BETTE MIDLER: Thirty shows at Radio City. That's entertainment 59 f: MICHAEL JACKSON: His 'Dangerous' world tour visits Moscow. 63 NOME Tips from the best of Part2 designer show houses. 69 Case Closed?

think

Gerald Posner's

bold new book

on the Kennedy

assassination

proves Oswald

did it alone.

But will it

change the

American mind"

After 30 years of conspiracy theories, Gerald Posner's "Case Closed" is the first to argue persuasively for the least popular sceztario• 'Case one man, one gun. Closed? BY JACK SMICA rt., ...Vitra

ER,. POS ha la 1071 Me Mr. G Int boot-amen rifle on the era ot rim 1•111•••••••• me, Marl Iran, I 1•••••14. 011113.• 1041 blue -Inn iffiirLh Le OW bat al. tall eat • .minus of the 11.70 net 2 Thmsts Mai malrman• la • fresh reran of • 3C.naret4 thr- or. krun Peen, a ottin• in l •Me bees .Wyag.hed two 40*i 111111 Illileki Prewonnt John F httoring, That Prow ,.tidal MI., fate the nerd Lo ourcfmao 1111 ITEM MinfilICM,CarCan a rill. a wmbrofnotw of th• Itlitdding ••••••••••• romentil that •INsitl• ••• war WO, wooled. — and that if nopto .111 WM In con •1nee klin•Mit•n• that uw Hr•r... 0,..id .fl,,,,e OM ii. •1110.07.■ vie aloha, rawninmed Kennet. sM alLOLInintim II hi..mat,.. litrti. mitten .01. neat Inv linens .1•7 •O• mei went; ine bon In . IrartiRti rii I ....DMA ant, tor Peered a.10 11 , 14 •eti for yourself . Pant., 1a10 o n• melt, the fiirmitrrit armee,. WA "1- 011 want to at II Mann. lit•iNd li wife. awn NO hart pra•noril on on . porch in hr./ °moan- an* uswrit.•• Ilk roe Noun — don it m••• 0 dalewnot in nnw wanokia .mimesis 1641•• • MO r•fhl an he (Iraq omit..deo and fine us, "Pin uninto • •• sew Poznan looked dawn to tn. maul Xi. handle -I ...ill tell yev•then 1 Ara groin ••••7 0~1 I •••••1 in C. erntle with IC he wad no:Wow hi. Inittal utlaurtineta •••• the man • Mimi • World Wye I I wwspn "how I NW worn a III had 1 961 Tom Cowl writ:M*11y found that the nrehaer en a math Worm• It tilmf•tre I •0141d her timmIttoned th• inrettial in • I Aft t••••••• sal differm way " Oinivit sit II PM A. the 300, artarerner• Of /FR . sasaminittre sp. oromehr. Peeler s Mar -Cadle Cared ' Ainl • nog or proem. includamsramare mew au wel ••••1• • litit en now, tawalo. UM 1111 aim Pan in ..Al ilaa betortt. in 4m.-wan filial r•-evaniiiirnni Iiii• rent 01,1 b. gen Well ohou ramp Pet tn Dallas Dawn Pima •I 1.2:30 p.m ea lean 22. 11113 Rut Mt 39.rwead POINIT 1 hap. • 'emelt, i•It di frrent IA at en than, Prownitha ot, thr poll as ran, It ° in 10 Americana illav lb, nirli••• Out hilinri••• aro, inn •IttlItin 01 • cprtlipirso Paner ••■••••• ••••••/1.• riii march a notch who, whams IS a no,1 eetay.....,,e, That.. (or all rt. nee, the V. arran Lwoiran,..., ,... right o.-...ki lulled Jrn wanewi heal, !now onwohe Nowa boa itnp••••••1 wilinir•r• aria ••■• titirnq cm w. moth no. dolfoont nvonorch OM namovard meters He remars•• the enure 26e01010e %wren Cosmic on MC,. trtor: Usan a In tiolt01, roles of forma, whiter and november That mope morsunsuet et • ehtlktrt• pantrao of Lhawahl as a law,oho lane, who meta hone pupal on the Kennedy anima alone Ppain•T aim rrapipypi •••••••gt Winne:dor not Owsilaito la the erar =mon in I Bea He en the am purr meraling on4 ••■••••• NW, thaw iNal the Fnuch-dendal awn bullet — Corrald • Imre* Oat — could sneer tree hat WA klillfiltt, &manes Go. John C.onsay Thy computer erillaherwma We ha■lp

oar tow Oswald had onfile time to get off ha Ina au Posner sot •0 TM bps already no pan male ananta than a so. rant OK ;Nadel mid Olney Stan.. aged "J k: whom rugated that • plot to lid Konn :. amanita low hip okela of the lJnotad Slaws

▪ /L. ailleal live both to its thorough spoonful. own-landed Kane a tamp at Whams a Oubleation in arm arg of a maresorat arm bi consoner books "Com Clad m.0 h• the Bra BY neared gear to WO batman fee Um farald-alerne [Mary. • masa maw Aldraneano do- tard oat Op -doe 'ta• min ineelaten the Hon lad fat • (rerriten UV d.WS of It necatife ire i• low (A- min In all Mae (luny ark MI one W. area lama ttutaprrwoI Typoiad of the (arable treatment thus far a 'Phgo Waal iota On a took en ‘6""u".. aff,121 1:5 hem and Mold Room Tim ateouthe a amor salad the kook "brilliant" and ronchaded than of all too no. boolu on a assathatent "Caw CHOW- hoe thr ' of truth " The others 5 Non mud e+. kWad a He Imam Oro Oaths of adoniteal Maio. lam' br lover and dada on tinsel/Ora cue against JFK • other " kiwi sod of Parr "It s pm a model of lantana wholanlitp Sanni Mara lM Bood Prefewor of Harr at tha Loiefiretti Of fa Oraos. and noted Mutat of sasaoination literature ea soya the book hat int imuse um. mm. Be ragallait vapid he mind Ho said at until Om book. he had M Nay Mole rlga IlmillininnAignew Ira. Ma on a ton owe as efilorlareold M beio.bilay of • consomme boatuae of 011yer llonnit Nei WC doubts .bout tM paebullet than H. a Posner ate M has paha how that • mingle bullet hn both Krn• redo and Corinth, and that Claold Mal alone But into "Cape Clad" clap the Arnancen mind' Cntno — and then on many — m. shot Pont,, a The Plot's the former Manhattan atterntr ignored important M. thea in an effort to build • proomuonal indictment meal and Wand Ad though wurripting to keep Int BY FR , D BRUNING *Maur churning for another ..... ion Stone dell of the worn or comillirth. thane nary Probably the men tenderly roman lobar to the mud "irk - to ecung pale La *MON Mint M. pabiluo of • JFK torapirscr — former Houk Sr HE ASSASSINATION of John F ware. for truth Mama. oe laci Commits* on kowainstion, mural G Robert Nanny and intendam whodunit &Kama Lb. ennen COMMUNION roans the than having dawn Iwo done much to Mine aura* of a waolnahnient • moan. onegun Blow — mud Posner bora other T fear the ✓eal impact would and up • men "footnote, in • the loot Wan*, of tits annum argument. Sion. aly haa no Mann Le bibliography of umioanstion litznituro away — the lona of . tamed 'lath for LIVIA NU WM Nall "Whot t troublacinie forme in Posner'. book u moans Mau.. he low are. "What ma* ua IAmenenol flo lady to Oboe wined to loilliOno the ladder porairen theol1110 was MN the Warm, Commilomm that he • I Loner wrung the brief for one ink and , are • Mil noon far • NINON who a man or hoard sit immunise say of hook said a can ran wait afully awfully inadequate eon Jona the adorer to ratt his boob an oppad to mane tilitria7 arlitarienta because don aria a powerful than Vara.. author of the 11191 took "Campmate,. fa • ad Ham. • Uruorsery of Notre Donne low allepumon aminong ofte neyonal porta. Caner-taw and Gullet Poloal Manipulotion ono Orphan By the unite the 'Avon Camara all in Mind Carol in Amara • ' 1 think the Hero" Cara And two thou from 1964 that Lee Harm Oswald sad aka in awn' Vonlun sane the Woven Camila. fettled for the brad that killed tha MrNidoial of the United Sate Inproom the pram. agar. palls Woad that A third NSW met pollUdilhe tononat mato,. "When But I of Amencom tebreed inward that Orate was only a um IN. that. MN ham la to brondtliung rum" d bland a MNINSble NUM Blakey , at think an Ise imaanual raga to Imlay both Or alarm in wane . flembolle.N fIltna TN numb*, hit tog on al the maw. one barn* it DOM a. and the MINMUINOM that they was another 60 pram . 1966 and sonunthel thatoing Who Oswald on merely a agent in a war pint shot in the am polar. ouesuorme American, fare./ the taro Though M neva captracy dams Edwin "I tab • wariablis awn can apse with our oral 1991 mows. "JFK." 77 pareant ad they had Guthman, pas sarriaary for Robert henna whim Mean bridal "I'm 1.01 la snap. aa to as 'Cam no doubt Kennedy wt ine wcurn of . compare the prorate lather was US oporney eenoral It oa. NI though Kennedy • NINU, had teed • an mom Antermarts how thorn not more than mar of &Maher 'TM thew. -CNN Chord- oponnwely in • annenfonrs,s1 new alga — an renannablit "akonmom arid nutty" oat a o• In RUM of how tee Noyes Claild scum alone ma a nay a around One country la NON,. " it ainotion -Theo rant Oa a hue Yid sari to lull hon.wdu TM mocha.. though Load II coal Kama Clark. etho wrad ea U S lamer Guthman new a averallern oratory in Caldera man artfully to namely that or a *Wren COM poneral Dow 196741 "It erso hare tooS a NUN* Others now that Anaricauts are SW InelIAMI Senn Inman which endured both caninnoorar. and sub mina and non (tail • damn or to wane moon who brae. compare oplanationt titan Europoons. want Oman far not ang • meopacy would WIN Up Way alltatent pranung all lad. of whom Mary a replete oath pohtiwl thtngue - But ant are mom* new tee theories " Sang that Clark wasn't Soya. Naas am of it enumlormia And gal manY Anorram warn wad graduate "They amid milk ay sbolung the outhowkan — For • sighung of Elvis at Poem, paned ono a al.fasewood war By on ■ Olyiar for aung into own indok of the Warnn Commotion as tar Ma - ha 8 14. M Sutler Bowl. Or Mal al mommarmalala mod., Pon. he found what he Ea ta Wonsan Mat 0.- In has book. "Cow Cad" Gonad Pear al the White Howe or mad for on Maga Of weld that other. raw word or awed Amerman. wawa lielfrnall. NOMNINUON to the Jolt Kannody • down Viet Oat, I been and and "I gaups al nano I Maud an undienoandAng Banned, babas boa to US Mann .mod/ MMIlloO so all tae Hawn I:km.1d Ot Oommla. viva WI don't undemand why he owns pluinful for tM ark or. "assaguidod ocumath • haw "Pale would rather go for a raphowed rather panne h." Paw said 'To ooh shot a a tuna. Lee Oorald Mora ng the prouder. sath was diffi. Joctl the Many of has moan than the simple Si,.—., said Team Sthdbett a Frontal flaw in the Warm CONONNN and in ferry cult enough Azasbung California porhotturan who has modal *MI ...- stn took Hut a Ownold 4d It arm asking a arch taw Ho old als mamas that WM number. of For three wan. Pawnee • worth rot on Earn MU, William linnahoter. now prolabor of Mourn U 5 ouwa Whew to aortae and a @Odin to Street airmen 611ed aith MMINNOI of IlimrorMil maim at Wotan Unarm.> innotionot a LOMMUNalita .nth Lim dud — erraeern` that 'Arian am en maga ranging from hall doctor Jae( Kenna Sa/ling in prepention for his 1967 honk. e ns in general tie NM. pandit. Sanaa said temple to the Chorr eneb.r■-• ban, a moo "TM Dan of • Pradent ' the agral that an - el, If Ammon( no.ch for note •newors. the habit did ton of cardboard fie bas Marking off the thaw raw OrIneliSIC IS Mind UN AMNION yearning for not boon alLh LIN Kennedy ONONsaltlen liweirione rah of hand-ation indea ooda an draw Ina consonna erpithauons Mina Sal ClinimarOry Omura abounded altaf the "If you put the murder Mal IM,11.1=1 Joan in World inn ouch aa "Brain' "Balkan' "F infantile murder of hada Lotoin in 1165 to, John Wil•rs War II on one a of the oath and. on the oar tide of kneel- and "Haar, Seem Senna Ma ' Book. Coonnaid them awe Sot. ouunnum the sole the Non — a groat had of sauna Tbe mean mutated Parr to build the a INT ed a. • ON:orialurialar tM pliNNesan who OM the Rau awed troubled and in Inv, Seethe aural Ms auto— they a Wm. O. 0ouald area ro NSse Manchemer Ing kilter Owen log Or Samuel Mudd waa on. sa he gra up Indeed. Pao do- cream. calm*. the grown cranab." *19114in5ly aer, tensed to orlon for Ii!. end his pneicarrient om. stout half the boot to .hat .mounts ad in • uhrolone wawa But if you put the proposal the phi t, "tour lame a Mudd wiling new badroph• of the Wood moan The ammo Man of Ha nod. on ono ado and that wroth With his firmly Marched hem Roth.' Iwo ,e fora. show at much of the tolling Ma in Oe. ad waif Oswald on the oho it dial bane. " mad rauonal Maio. Through the rat may Mangan& Moo then rn. how. to Mad tne lath hart W id a life story *nom wrought out of ocentraion ro- regarda rho Karina lulling But comparY unearths ma which hays keen oothable to anyone for 30 ad by corwooary bull. — I hum .aka of two an WS spoor La hoar • odr ruts thorn Mark Lane to Char Stand loamy of Aso, flounthed for 30 t an o rationcy Will "Cam Clad air woruution on Trail of the brostroshutal onion o • lonebuned "JFK " Sao e along — but Maly ontastat - Gil. arra that %moody was weal by an arbor a Komar maataion at la' "That opted Pont,, ' eon tar a wan to hope for • Pao wa irk on Poe 10 down onsailake of MUNN* 1UMung WINO grarn 4 Tice San Diego Union—Tribune, September 5, 1993

BOOK SHOOTS HOLES If you love linguistics, tlzis IN CONSPIRACY THEORIES says a Mu thfui.

CASE CLOSED A MOUTHFUL OF AIR LIE HAMM' OSWALD aim 110E ASSASSOL•MON of JFX LAW.L.AGE L.4.0Li.LES ENCLL.S■•• Gerald Power !Random House. Anthony Burgess tMorrou Pcqcs 512 pages, $25) REVIEWED BY ARTHUR SALM IllEilEWED BY lAMES C. AUBE/ nthors Burgess has canner • ro ate closed' Not likely ..One's Creak tenlevolif It isn t that Wall Street lawyer.turned- A AIt Oil n in -A Stuutnru. C author Gerald Posner hasn [ presented might not cover every racsoto .war: it Intel. a mean, tously documented, nearly airtight to unguancs'. classei.. ne covers most in teem case against ire Harvey Oswald_ Bursa week — and delightfully. at that utters- flenernee in belore last. the National Arrhrves released Lhe early throes at a love attar with :ariguage more than 1.000 boxes ol previously classified would be easy prey to am, LinItaiSUCS Dentin materials relating to the 1963 assassination of meet savvy enought to require durigese in Lana: President John F. Kennedy. Included were 101 They d fight sor their nem, nut to tarn a, more than 90.000 pages at documents from the Beasoe Boys would have them ao out to the CIA and no lewer than 30 separate files Gerold Posner aquas that Lie Harney declare a linguistics major the agency kept on the ex-Marne before he Oswald. Idler petted dews by lack Ruby. Other readers however will have to be ten. was alleged to have killed the president was JFK's lane =saute traerested in language in order Nils to appreci- Rather than being closed. as Posner suggests. ate Burgess etion an expansion or -Language the case may be just entering a whole new When not using existing photo evidence or Made Plant.' published in the earls 1960st if discovery phase. startling inconsistencies in the testimony of you area t already tarrunar win Pnonene trrt- Posner must have known he was swoneung key witnesses. Posner offers the work of Fail- scnpoon and the physical mecnanism that pro upstream when he began to write this impres- ure Analysis Associates. a -prownent firm" duces speech. be prepared to learn all about sive indictment of Oswald More than 2.000 specializing to computerized reconstructions both — or much of his basic lesson not to books have already been published an the for lawerits Among the more interesting ex. merman his wonderrul asides, sill pass you Oa sublets, only a handful take the pousioo that pertrnents referenced is a process called -re, Vtith some don_ you 11 emerge earn the text the Warren C.amrrussion gal it right Further. verse projection' in which a full-sued model knowing a stop plosive mom a nude a ;nimbi). national surveys have consistently found that of the presidential limousine is created an the tram a uesociensal consonant almost gi percent at Americans believe a con- computer. complete with passengers The Burgess guides readers thrior an the Sr: stun spiracy was behind the murder of President process uses Dim enhancemenu and sophists- about as painlessly as cry arum can veer oeitra• Kennedy . cited techniques of measurement to make a versed. With that grounding. we re prepared to Undaunted by all at this. Posner presents a sating case for three shots born the north understand the development al shinatters Ian. calm cm-sinology ol Oswald s life starting with door of the Texas School Book Depositors, guise Unties_ borrowing at woros amine uit his lormauye years in hew Orleans and end. thereby unplicaang Oswald and Ythruallv guages. the evoluuon ur Languages. a hinter, L.,1 ing that strange Sunday morning in the Pasts eliminating any possibility at other shooterS 01C0011211es. dialects, stadia the ...rye, •,isei ment or the Dallas Police headquarters when Dealer Plaza. Shut_ .amencan vs Britisn inguin aid -\ .,Ii „lack Ruby stepped up and became an assas Ina similar fashion. Posner bravely offers Scotus. Scatosn. Scotch or teaching alas nut in his own right an unwairenng endorsement ol the wen- Burgeon calls in examples !Torn languages Along the way, Posner uses previous work ridiculed 'magic bullet' theory According to which he has some urnshanN — Russian 'alai done by the Warren Commission and the the [hear,. if Oswald acted done. a single bill. lay. Japanese. terrnan. Frericn Welsh He House Select Committee on Assassinations let had to puncture Kennedy s bick. exit his brew and Old Engush, to name a new as well as his own original research and analy- neck. enter Gov John Connally s back. strike All this. remember. !Tom Lie man wrio Von sts. He parades out the larniliar cast ol Deaiey a rib, exit his cheer- pass through his wrist. articled a fictional world using as building Plata witnesses and underground figures. dr enter his right thigh and emerge m a near• blocks some terror-inducing Linguistic hvisir mystifying them with brutal facto and seem perfect sandman. Amazingly, with computers 'There was me, mai is Alex. and my three ingly irrefutable love and not mirrors, Posner " expens confirm droogs Burgess began hi, navel -.A Cluck. -Le For example. lean Hill, the mysterious that thus improbable scenario n actually suite work Orange. - Here s a man was snows—.via dy sn Red' who was poi rayed heroically in possible. knows riow to USE the power at language Oliver Stones recent -,11FHT mow epic. is ex- Unfortunately. as 400friern like Posner are Actually Burgess outsmarted himself in 'A posed :shawls either a vivid inuirananon or well aware. It is not unusual for two highly Clockwork Orange.- and set himself up to be a very bad memory. HilL author al her own quaLibed expens to embrace two separate and torpedoed by the very nature 01 language as it assessing:don account. "The Lest Dissenang completely incompatible theories. A good ex" rusts in the real world_ Witnegs," was standing on the south side of pen, it in said. can start with any conclusion Preparing for the novel. he writes. 'I Elm Street directly to Kennedy's left u the and create the statistics to bark it up_ Ironical• amassed a suitable real-life glossary' Then I re- motorcade rolled through Dealey P12.7.4- She ly, that has been the rap on the Warren Com- alized that all this would be demoded be the was arguably the closest person to J FR. ex. mission for these pas: 30 years. The commie ame the book appeared. so I had to invent a the 1i:uranium when eluding passenger, in sign was told Oswald acted alone in killing leas. strong my story in an imagined Piastre the final shot was deed_ President Kennedy, and its members and [hat is already historic. The irony is that in the Given her position. Hill also had a straight- staff labored mightily to prove it United Stales. a number of teen-seers aporoon. on new of the tamed grump Wall as well. (Re- While the author may be vulnerable to the ated items from the loss— woras a Russian searchers have long sheonsed that one or same charges of harboring a preconceived origin like -drool- and "roadies- and 'nasalSal ' more shooters were stationed behind a tall battle piaci his impressive scholarship and Ire — and this showed my rururr into the cis: aro picket lence on the top of a gently sloping nave analysts should not be overlooked_ The able past - laical lacing the motortadel Hill aubsequens- book canaille hundreds of fascinating foot. It is Ibis leant' of halogen-intense ly told a terrifying tale of immediately running hotel and ends with 71 pages or nut:ions to non as ideas that ought to maze 4.10Lii.f.jui of across the scree and up the grasSy knoll in other authorities . a model 101' college leid000ss Ihei could hot pursuit of a man she thought may have Allr- Pastier may not have closed she case on the he 11.in.1het Itiiinus, : snot the president assassination of President Kennedy. bur he Posner's examinabon of other photos taken irreSiStlialc has struck a severe blow to the conspiracy Solution Have Anthony Siegel.' write 311 it during and some mouses after the assagasna- community. which to date may have thought . them min show Hill never left her origanal position „sell above reproach_ If she ran up the grassy knoll. It had to be a long Dine atter all gunmen. real Of =firmed. MORO . a ronnerzannsaiut. ii as artpriley SALM u a rtividrr writer Iv Me ban tnego '''•4 lett 114 pupate penence. Uero,,- Tempest „ • CHICAGO DiIaLINC

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ST 12 1993 saw,4 ('S no pads 1 • Who didn't kill JFK? Gerald Posner shines the cold light of sanity on the host of conspiracy theorists Mond JFK's cortex and caused by the time he was l?. a neuromuscular spasm that tot- Case Closed: His stormy childhood led to LAN P•••••••• Osmsose •nel ted his head backward and be- Ilia hammarouss• sK" his fixation with a sort of Infan- cause of the "let effect." the a. arses tile lefllsm. which manifested same phenomenon in physic; ganoc swig cc:, wen sis , itself in lifelong interest in com• that causes a rocket to go anywise se J•11•••• Saab. munum and use Soviet Union. forward when its let fuel u erec- • VW, ••••••• n ,••• s••-• •O•se• rc Notwithstanding these triclana- ted backward. In detailed land .pr•••••.s • ?tons. he loured the Maxus's. but • ••••• s Cr" Sines • often amusing: footnotes. lone of the many myths that Posner exposes the factual er. Posner explodesi never gained rots. fantasies and frauds that access to any Feat national sr the conspiracy theorists have ndertalung a wnous in• cress in the Corps. The truth is relied on to explain the events vestigation at President more mundane. He was simply of that day John F Kennedy s as- a Wash10111. Posner concludes with a short sassination it a little Alter his military *entice. history of the warren Commis- U like conducting a sober Oswald embarked on the most sion—and the backlash aeairut 'rutty of unidentified ftvutg ob- blzarre chapter of his life. the It. The tragedy of the COM.1113.- is. There is nothing inherently one that became the fount for 5.11M, as Posner sees it. is that :ivolous about tuner subject. manv at the conspiracy theo- its deliberations were rushed, But both fields nave been domi- ries. He defected to Russia. It secretive and incomplete . nated for so tong by crackpots was in part a political act But Worse. the FBI and CIA never .ino nut cases that a sort or mostly it seems to have been owned up to all they knew Judi by association attaches to rather poignant attempt to get about Oswald and events relat- oath new arrival Don t we Ml. attention. ing to the assassusauon on hearing that an otherwise re- For a while Oswald was a Those omissions were criti- spectaole author like Gerald modest celebrity in Minsk—the cal—not because they would Posner his taken on the death American Defector —but the According to 'Case Dosed' the warren Cornmess,on was Not. Lee have changed the Commissions and at President Kennedy. of JFK land the life of -JFK'-1. novelty quickly wore 0fI. he Haney Oswald itatxriket was tnt lone assassin conclusions Out because the du- wonder if the fellow has lost his became lust another Soviet sembling encouraged the con- second shot a "num bullet." marbles' trying to get along on lousy cited of Oswald's alleged co- spiracy theorists flights of food in a too-small apartment. conspirators—had no reason to which survived in an impossi- He hasn t. Unlike many of the fancy. As it turned out. the After about thine years in Rus• want Walker dead. I! Oswald bly pnsttne state after injuring OUu Mot books that have been Warren Commission was perfec sta. he came home. The had any co-conspirators to the two men? No—the bullet per- ,ritlen about Use Kennedy as non itself compared with the Soviets--even the KGB—never Kennedy ssssss !nation. they formed as intended. and suOse- -assiniton Posner a 'Case invesupuonS that followed it. had any use for him and were certainly would not have want- quent tests on cadavers showed In particular. Posner's account Closed` is a resolutely sane that other bullets sustained app happy to see him go. Oswald ed him to take the risk of first of Jim Gamson—the corrupt piece of work. More unpor proximately the same degree of and Pita Russian vale. Martrut trying to kill Walker. The rye and incompetent New Orleans Whir. 'Case Closed" is utterly settled near Dallas in 19E2 He sod* Is strong circumstantial damage. convincing in as tnesis. which district attorney whom Oliver continued to drift quutly des- evidence That Oswald was im- What of the famous grassy stems. us light of all that has Stone made the hero of his Dim perate. ply a lone crazyman witb Was Kennedy snot from transpired over the past 30 knoll? "JFX"—ts by turns Isorrtryuut Posner spends a great deal of powerful rifle. the front as well as from be- -.ears. almost revolutionary His and hilarious. tune on one event all conspira- hind? No—there were IM vrtt. :hefts is this Lee Harvey The heart of "Case awed" is I started 'Case Closed" Is a cy theorists tend to ignore. On messes to the shcoung. and not Oswald killed Kennedy by a reconstruction of Use events of skeptic—and slightly put off by April 10. 1963. using the same one saw a gunman on the knoll. the presumptuous title. To my himself There was no conspire. November 72. MCI. Posner .des mail-order Mannlicher.Carcano Several saw Oswald fire. Ken- cs Fundarrienialls the Warren all of the conspiracy theoruits mind historical truth is always mile that he would fire at JFK. favorite hobbyhorses straight nedy's and Connally's wounds a slippery thing The chances of .'cirnmission was runt to assassinate Oswald attempted out of town are consistent with shots from knowing for sure what hap- The bulk of "Case Closed' is a right-wing retired general Use rear. pened In any event—Muth less Did Oswald have tune to fire Devoted to Oswald s pathetic life named Edwin Walker. who was one murky as the Kennedy all three shots? Yes—the first If Kennedy was ghat from the as ,tort' Hts father died two prominent in Dallas politics. assassination—seem remo.e. one trussed the second tilt both rear. why does the Zapruder months retort he was born. His By some Uuke. Oswald's shot But this fascinating and impor- Kennedy and John Connally Ulm show his head mapping mother was erratic and possibly only rased the general's hair. tant book won me over. Case and Use third blew off the top of back In that direction? Two rea- insane 0.wald had moved 21 The CIA. the KGB and the closed. indeed the President's head. Was that sons—because the bullet de. times and attended II schpalsi Marla—the most commonly

connection with the loathed Warren Com- Warren loathed the with connection

ought to have more impact than previous previous than impact more have to ought

that Ignores the more feverish modern modern feverish more the Ignores that

said. But for a couple of reasons his work work his reasons of couple a for But said.

mission. Second. Instead of simply review • • review simply of Instead Second. mission.

lin ("Final Disclosure, ("Final lin

Warren Report writers such as David Be- David as such writers Report Warren

Oswald-really-did-it books. First, Mr. Pos- Mr. First, books. Oswald-really-did-it

Ing the evidence and serving up a stale cud cud stale a up serving and evidence the Ing

ner doesn't bear The Taint: Unlike pro- Unlike Taint: The bear doesn't ner a treacherous and far-reaching cover-up. cover-up. far-reaching and treacherous a

Oliver Stone would have you believe was was believe you have would Stone Oliver

violent Issue with what past theorists have have theorists past what with Issue violent

the work either of fools or evil partners In In partners evil or fools of either work the

right cranks and in a class class a in and cranks right

some important parlIc.ulars, he's advanc- he's parlIc.ulars, important some

Though Mr. Posner's account differs in in differs account Posner's Mr. Though

of well-meaning researchers, conspiracy conspiracy researchers, well-meaning of

struck the president fatally In (he head. head. (he In fatally president the struck

buffs of varying ability and honesty, out- honesty, and ability varying of buffs

Report, the 1964 document that hundreds hundreds that document 1964 the Report,

ing the same bottom line as the Warren Warren the as line bottom same the ing

and Gov. John Connally and the third third the and Connally John Gov. and

loser's envy, killed JFK by firing three ri- three firing by JFK killed envy, loser's

School Book Depository. With the help of a a of help the With Depository. Book School

missed, the second wounded both Kennedy Kennedy both wounded second the missed,

brimming with half-baked Ideology and and Ideology half-baked with brimming

home movie taken by Abraham Zapruder, Zapruder, Abraham by taken movie home

fle shots from the sixth floor of the Texas Texas the of floor sixth the from shots fle

new computer enhancement of the famous famous the of enhancement computer new and serialization In a newsweekly. newsweekly. a In serialization and

Mr. Posner concludes that the first shot shot first the that concludes Posner Mr.

tions. complete with a publisher's embargo embargo publisher's a with complete tions.

sider what is happening to Gerald Posner's Posner's Gerald to happening is what sider

sination theory have had an effect, con- effect, an had have theory sination

for major works of controversial revela- controversial of works major for

tion is gelling the full treatment reserved reserved treatment full the gelling is tion

"Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the the and Oswald Harvey Lee Closed: "Case

Assassination of JFK" (Random House. 607 607 House. (Random JFK" of Assassination

pages, 6251. This exhaustive re-examina- exhaustive This 6251. pages,

By By

Mr. Posner isn't the first writer to lake lake to writer first the isn't Posner Mr.

If that sounds familiar. it should. should. it familiar. sounds that If

The The

II you doubt that 30 years of JFK assas- JFK of years 30 that doubt you II

ALEX ALEX

scoop? That Oswald, acting alone, alone, acting Oswald, That scoop?

Oswald Really Did It, and Without Help Help Without and It, Did Really Oswald

cleave cleave

- -

19981, he has no no has he 19981,

by by

himself) himself)

The The

leans crime boss Carlos Marcelio had the the had Marcelio Carlos boss crime leans

decade by concluding that a fourth shot shot fourth a that concluding by decade opened the theory floodgates late in the the in late floodgates theory the opened

had been fired (possibly, it said, from the the from said, it (possibly, fired been had

cull-to-believe, real-world conspiracies conspiracies real-world cull-to-believe,

infamous grassy knoll). and that New Or- New that and knoll). grassy infamous

ble. Then, loo, the House Select Committee Committee Select House the loo, Then, ble.

like Watergate made anything seem possi- seem anything made Watergate like

and Mr. Posner avoids II. JFK-assassina- II. avoids Posner Mr. and

disdain for the buffs Is such that they Ig- they that such Is buffs the for disdain

plexity In the '705, In part because diffl- because part In '705, the In plexity cause some pro-Warren Report writers' writers' Report pro-Warren some cause

day one." one." day

tion theory entered new realms of com- of realms new entered theory tion

nore Ihelr wilder claims. That's a mistake. mistake. a That's claims. wilder Ihelr nore

sugi, where the 11•2 spy plane was based? based? was plane spy 11•2 the where sugi,

KGB, he insists, "didn't want Oswald from from Oswald want "didn't insists, he KGB,

ever give us," says Mr. Nosenko. The The Nosenko. Mr. says us," give ever the off waves flatly Nosenko Mr. defector.

coming from KGB sources than he could could he than sources KGB from coming

any interest In Oswald. But what about the the about what But Oswald. In interest any

compelling subjects is Yuri Nosenko, the the Nosenko, Yuri is subjects compelling

fact that Oswald did Marine duty at At- at duty Marine did Oswald that fact

some 200 new interviews. One of his more more his of One interviews. new 200 some

Idea that the KGB recruited or In fact had had fact In or recruited KGB the that Idea

ficial during Oswald's Interlude as a Soviet Soviet a as Interlude Oswald's during ficial

famous Soviet defector who was a KGB of- KGB a was who defector Soviet famous

documents pried loose from the govern govern the from loose pried documents on Assassinations, Into the reams of other other of reams the Into Assassinations, on

men) over time by the buffs. Ile conducted conducted Ile buffs. the by time over men)

documents and arcana associated with the the with associated arcana and documents

1979 report of the House Select Committee Committee Select House the of report 1979

mony and exhibits, into the mountain of of mountain the into exhibits, and mony

conspiratorial theories, he strapped on his his on strapped he theories, conspiratorial

groaning volumes of Warren Report testi- Report Warren of volumes groaning

machete and waded all the way into the 26 26 the into way the all waded and machete

Addressing such points Is crucial, be- crucial, Is points such Addressing

"We had better Information already already Information better had "We

Wall Street Journal, Journal, Street Wall

Bookshelf Bookshelf

By Gerald Posner Posner Gerald By

"Case Closed" Closed" "Case

September September

subcultures. subcultures.

now Is this: They can't Ignore Ignore can't They this: Is now

slightly flattened. flattened. slightly

we'll have to see if they find flaws in Mr.., t t Mr.., in flaws find they if see to have we'll

Posner's argument. But lhe salient fact for • • for fact salient lhe But argument. Posner's

The buffs hungrily await Ihis book and.-, and.-, book Ihis await hungrily buffs The

dItion. In fact, Mr. Posner notes, It's It's notes, Posner Mr. fact, In dItion.

and Connally emerged in "pristine" con:„$ con:„$ "pristine" in emerged Connally and

that the so-called magic bullet that hit JF1S, JF1S, hit that bullet magic so-called the that

ends- making II hard to believe he fired fired he believe to hard II making ends-

second shot missed.) This matters, be- matters, This missed.) shot second

safe bet, however, that the hottest crossk hottest the that however, bet, safe

with accuracy. Mr. Posner also scoffs at' at' scoffs also Posner Mr. accuracy. with

shots, and that the first shot missed. (The' (The' missed. shot first the that and shots, the Idea that Oswald was a poor shot, an9-t an9-t shot, poor a was Oswald that Idea the

cause many buffs insist Oswald's pace wat wat pace Oswald's insist buffs many cause

mare hurried- three shots In CB or 5.6 seek seek 5.6 or CB In shots three hurried- mare

Warren Commission was uncertain abodV abodV uncertain was Commission Warren

(based on a new reckoning of when 0 0 when of reckoning new a on (based

Cliffs Notes outline of the world's most dist,' dist,' most world's the of outline Notes Cliffs

cussed shooting. It Is pointed enough 19' 19' enough pointed Is It shooting. cussed

the timing, and about whether the first or or first the whether about and timing, the

wald's first shot was firetil that Oswald Oswald that firetil was shot first wald's raise plenty of hackles in buffdom. It's C It's buffdom. in hackles of plenty raise enough for beginners and detailed enough enough detailed and beginners for enough

had at least eight seconds to get off hli: hli: off get to seconds eight least at had

fire will be aimed at Mr Posner's theol Posner's Mr at aimed be will fire way walks the reader through a reap- a through reader the walks way

Cubans, the CIA, right-wingers, and mili- and right-wingers, CIA, the Cubans,

for hard-core buffs. But this is far from from far is this But buffs. hard-core for

wald and ends with Oswald. and along thk thk along and Oswald. with ends and wald

praisal of the case that's comprehensive that's case the of praisal

from waging war in Vietnam. Vietnam. in war waging from

a much more fantastic theory than thati:( thati:( than theory fantastic more much a

tary men convinced JFK would keep them them keep would JFK convinced men tary

a lot of Americans-including people who who people Americans-including of lot a

plex plot involving the the involving plot plex

nation a thought-were primed to believe believe to primed thought-were a nation

had scarcely given the Kennedy assassi- Kennedy the given scarcely had

President John F Kennedy assassinated." I I assassinated." Kennedy F John President

Namely, that JFK was whacked in a com- a in whacked was JFK that Namely,

By the lime "JFK" hit the screen in 1991, • • 1991, in screen the hit "JFK" lime the By

motive, means, and opportunity to havPI; havPI; to opportunity and means, motive,

Mr. Heard is is Heard Mr.

So is this case really closed? No chance. ; , , ; chance. No closed? really case this is So

Mr. Posner begins his account with 01- 01- with account his begins Posner Mr.

3, 1993 1993 3,

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n book on Ameriran ' • • ' Ameriran on book n

mob, mob,

anti Castro Castro anti

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PHOENIX GAZETTE

PHOENIX. AZ DAILY 85,87/

FRIDAY NOU 26 1993 8u/ve,chzar's 81 HI xambil ■••■••■•• 71111MI, `Case Closed' shatters theories of Kennedy assassination plot CLOSEDLLOSED Sy Joan Kerbs • The doesn't even count the 114E PHOENIX GAZETTE sheer implaua1hilit7 of conspira- tors planting a bullet in a hospital - 44. F armer Wall Street lawyer Ger- teeming with security at a time MI6 ald Pother suffers no shortage of "CASE CLOSED: LEE when they couldn't know If the the bravado that goes with the HARVEY OSWALD AND bulleta would be found (Hide the breed THE ASSASSINATION OF bodies. thus giving away the plot rk7r2 Only a supremely confident JFK" — Much has been made writer could presume, 'with.-one By Gerald Posner of the 1978 speculations of a House committee that Mafia chieftains tPLI book, to put out of hums • Random House. 607 p9e, $25. cottage industry in mmasination may have wanted to get at Attor- L.. Ur-, cararpirectes that has thrived for ney General Bobby Kennedy, who oh! t!,.• was waging war on organised three decades and 2,1200 volumes. prove the case for the aingie-amaa- crime, by killing his brother. (;ERALI) POSNER Nor does ha lack a lawyer's sin theory embraced so quickly for But an analysis of the evidence pump for meticulous detail as political ryas= (but correctly, as proves only that the Mafia hated • evident in hie 607 pages, two it turns out) by the Warren Bobby, and Oct much more. IWalkar, and almost certainly trig- appendage and 2,212 foomotim. Commission but he also resolves the-major doubts and debunks the Backs. Oswald left New Orle- meld his sudden itch to make an And hare's the big surprise. He alternative theories. ans, where all the Mafia contact. min bigger mark with JFK. delivers an the promise. • TImIng — Conspiracists have are alleged to have taken place, Ruby, driven by very different "caLet.C1doed" really does, at long argued that Oswald couldn't weak. before the preeident's trip to demons bat oleemed with the lcsog ass the Kennedy came. have fired three ahnta in the 4.8 Dallas was announced. Indeed, same need to be noticed CI am Of COUTIS. he won't shut down the seconds apparent in the famed what is striking about Oswald's Jack Ruby — you all know me." he uodustry, which is built on specula- Zapruder film; ergo, than wu • and Jack Ruby's acts of murder is told cope aa they wrestled him to non rather than mere fact second shooter. haw little planning they involved. the floor after he shot Oswald), But all future compiracies in- But • painstaking analysis of Both were conceived on the spur of genuinely believed that his act terested in making an bones auto the film makes it deer the shoe the moment, and both men were would be hailed by a grateful will have to cope with Posner's were fired over 8 seconds, vitiating sad loners unlikely or unable to public, and that he would never devastating rejection of all their the need for • second 'amain. conspire with ahem. spend a night in jail will confabulationa, and with he IIMagic bullet — Doubtare And so on. Palmer destroys The theories endure, of comae. irrefutable ooncluaion: claim that the bullet found on Gov. dowse of wild notions. because of a natural human need "Chasing shadow' on the grassy John Connally's stretcher wu too Perhaps most compelling, Pos- to give such a monstrous act some knoll will never substitute for real "pristine" to have gone through ner paints biogniploical portraits of meaning, some sense that John F. history. Les Harvey Oswald, both men, a claim seemingly Oswald and Ruby that give long- Kennedy died for more than a driven by his own twisted and bolstered by the Warren Commis- overdue context to their seemingly social misfit's fevered dream impenetrable furies, wu the only sion's inability to duplicate a inexplicable acts But life is full of irrationality, amnia at Dailey Plaxa. To ally bullet in similar condition. Thus, it Oswald, for example, had been and doesn't tawny, provide such otherwise, in light of the over- must have been planted by con- seeped in Marts alienation since satisfaction. And instead of adding whelming evidence. is to absolve a spirators. . the age of 15 (which ia why he to the insanit7 by conjuring up man with blood on he hence, and Rosner argues (with ample bla- want to Rosie and returned in plOte to amuse our sense of to mock the president he killed? nksl help) the comuniszion COO- disillusionment), and harbored a inadequacy, its time to put this The gums here is that moat of .ducted the wrong teak not ac- lifelong outrider's urge to "be tragedy behind ua. them will simply ignore Posner. counting for how much the bullet somabody." That would be a fitting way to, For good reran — he makes bad been slowed going through the It was the motive behind his commemorate this week's 30th them look foolish. Not only dole he soft ham in both men. failed attempt to kill Gan. Edwin anniversary._ . V Publishers Weekly July 26, 1993

WHEN THE CENTURY WAS YOUNG: the A Writer's Notebook * CASE CLOSED: Lee Harvey Oswald and Des Brown. August House, $28 (224p) Assassination of JFK ISBN 0-87411.267-5 Girard L. Porner. Random. 125 (612p) 1511N 0-179-415115-5 In this graceful memoir, Brown, au- reporter (Mengsis), has set himself • thor of Dury My Heart at Wounded Posner, a lawyer and Investigative of major task here and brought it off with considerable panache.theories, In the face all of Irma, offers quiet, warmhearted anec- a multitude of assassination book, propounding dozens of dotes about his youth In the South and them critical of the lone-sausein/no-coupiracy ease, he has come out his early evolution as a writer. Born in square for Oswald as the sole culprit. Posner propounds—and offers good _1005. he wu Eve when hie family evidence for—just three show all from Oswald in the Book Depository, and moved to Stephens, Ala. It was a quiet spends nearly half the book on a closely detailed examination of the life of town, but by the time Brown was 12, Ste- that unhappy and, he claims, ultimately paranoid young mac. Haassassi- also the discovery of oil had turned scrutinises every minute of the time Jack Ruby spent between the phen' into a haven for flimflam artists and the moment ha shot Oswald In the police garage, and cannot fled nation -of-the-moment rage whom he learned to ape, His school- that Ruby's act was other than an outburst of spur teacher grandmother, however, so born of unexpected opportunity. pricked his taste for print, that young Posner does not ride, testy and rough-shod, over objections, u lesser scrutinises many of the Dee scraped together $25 to buy a proponents of Warren Corrunieslon orthodoxy do. He hand printing press. Almost lnerttehly, conspiracy theories and theorists carefully, lornetirue even withher respect, story It seems. he began to write, selling his but Inevitably finds them wanting. If someone has changed his or Bret adventure story at 17. H. learned later (ea many witnesses did), he tends to give more credenza to their first journalism at a small-town Arkansas impressions, before the conspiracy theories tempted them to doubt whosethem- paper a year later, and, latter acquiring selves. And In many casez—perhaps too many—he Linda that people his passion for the West from his favor- stories have been widely relied upon by writer. are mistakes about time or ite professor at Arkansas State Teach- place, entry, delusional or otherwise unreliable. About New Orleans D.A.an ere College, he wrote his first western Jim Garrison. the hero of the movie JFK, he is merciless, laying out in 1942. The memoir ends in the '501, endless trail of his lies and exaggeratione thereby missing Brown's mature wilt- Posner is oeCtaliOnally critical of the Warren Commission and the later ing career, which is mentioned only in House Select Committee investigations, but makes extensive use of their an epilogue. Photos not seen by PW findings, adding to them much recent expert testimony—and technological (Sept) enhancements of visual and atitlitury material—to which they did not have access. While not exculpating the FBI or the Della* Police for their erratic work and lack of cooperation, he casts no suspicion on them, or upon the CIA (whose statements he seems to accept uncritically), for possibleexplain involvement why in, or foreicnowledge of, the crime; and he does not even try to motorcade so bereft of elementary security precautions was allowed to proceed. 81:111, this is a painstaking and remarkably thorough presentation of what has become an utterly unfashionable approach. There are extensive notes on sources, and some innovative and helpful graphicU.S. Now reconstructione and World of the shooting scene and the shots. First aerial to HIRE Report (Sept.) uccessful FINAL JUSTICRi The Tree Story of has never been convicted. theme' to a legal staff that eventually numbered author and the Richest Man Ever Tried for Murder S Steven Nateik and Gregory Whits 80 and the expenditure of pubspa *20 journalist ,Se•WL Dutton, $14 (480p) ISBN 0-525- million, the authors show. Others have written about this classic Cale, but Andrew Crofts 01111-11 KM true crime tales are brutal and none so searchingly as have NaLNrh also ghostwrites sad, but the ease of Cullen Davis is and Smith, who previously collaborat- ed on The Mormon Murders and the anonymously doubly wrenching because It la also a Jackson Pol- story of justice miscarried. Cullen was Pulitzer Prime–winning and co-writes lock. Cynically, they conclude that Cul- one of three sons of Kenneth had the right of It when he bragged ("Stinky") Davis, who built a Tessa len best-sellers with that "Money can buy anything." Pho- empire and amused a fortune by ques- PW, (Sept) other authors, tionable means. Brutalised by hie te- tos not sun by including human ther throughout hi. childhood, Cullen pew Into a shy, Introverted adoleaunt FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE: The Hu- interest stories, man nos of Poverty In kaiak* and a monstrous adult. Is 1976 in Jonathan Freedman. Atheneum. $20 autobiographies, business Forth Worth, he was accused of -11151.1 wounding his second wife, Priscilla, (1885p) ISBN 041111 books, self-help manuals and with whom he was wrangling over a to a work impreszive for the compact novels. divorce, and her Mend, Beverly Bass. and readable way It depicts govern- of killing PriecIlla's 12-year-old ment's failure to fully support the social and needs of its citizens. Freedman, a Pulit- PW Box GW, daughter. Andrea, and Basa's boy- zer Prize–winningjournallst, has inter- Enquiries to: friend, Bubba GavreL Acquitted, Cul- viewed people across the nation whose 249 West 17th Street, len was subsequently in the courts be sees as emblematic of -for-hire trials, experienue again in two murder elected representatives—both 6th Floor, New York, both cues ending in hung juries. He the way NY 10011 FttiLIAPIXPJ IrEiLLY JI.P.T is, 1551 54 THE COUNTY LINE Rumors were already Charles Davis' ' flying and the Warren Commission had yet even to be suggested."

But that's where the agreement ends. Now, everyone has his or her pet Oswald did it theory: The CIA did it because JFK was about to defang the agency following the or me, the first hint of what would Bay of Pigs fiasco; the Mafia wanted come to be known as the Kennedy retribution for losing Havana — the Assassination Conspiracy came on conjecture seems to be endless. Over the Monday, Nov. 25, 1963. years, writers have identified more than The killing of President John F. 30 gunmen — by name — as the shooter, KennedyF had taken place three days the second shooter, the third, fourth, fifth before. He had been buried that morning. shooter and so on. My friend, Greg Sherrill, asked, "You - Posner, an attorney whose previous know why Lyndon Johnson stopped books include "Mengele: The Complete hunting squirrels on the LBJ Ranch, don't Story," as well as an expose of the heroin you?" We had just walked outside from trade called 'Warlords of Crime," and 111-% 4 4— the daily food fight called lunchtime in "Hitler's Children," a collection of 11. 1111. Pacific Grove High School's multipurpose Interviews with the sons and daughters of Nazi officials, does nothing less than ❑ room. El "Nope," I said, and Greg laughed. demolish the leading conspiracy theories. "Because Lee Harvey Oswald never I . Tom Wicker of the New York Times gave him back his rifler" It was tasteless writes "Posner shows (the theories) to be and disrespectful of that solemn day but same_cases impossible. in others we cackled anyway. mistaken, in many cases dishonest, in all That was the beginning. It might have wishful" Novelist William Styron calls the been what we then called a "sick joke," book "Brilliant and meticulous analysis but plenty of people really did suspect ... 'Case aosed' has helped lay to rest that LBJ had bad a band in the killing one of the great cultural and political Others were convinced Castro or the scandals of our time," Birch Society was behind it. It offers — for the first time — a Rumors were already flying and the detailed examination of the sad Warren Commission had yet even to be circumstances of Lee Harvey Oswald's suggested. Similarly, Posner's is the most , . . The Monday before Thankigiving Day thorough telling yet of Jack Ruby's movements from the time the Kennedy will the 30th anniversary of the assassination. We're going to be motorcade swept through Dealey Plaza to reading and watching quite a bit about the moment be shot Oswald in the the .murder during the next few months. basement of the headquarters of the Dallas Police. Sin to be a centerpiece of all the • renewed examination is a remarkable new "Case Qosed" is meticulously book called "Case Closed." I say footnoted, with bibliography, remarkable because there are few things • acknowledgements and two appendices, In print that could make me put down - Lillie Ballistics of Assassination" and Carl Hiaasen's new novel, "Strip Tease," "The Non-Mysterious 'Mystery Deaths." but Gerald Power's tour de force work of It is a book that is destined to spark investigative journalism did just that tnany a living room debate. It will also antagonize a whole subset of assassination The 600-plus page of "Case Closed"..on!. (Random House; $25) set forth what may, . "investigators" who have been making for some, come its a rather startling 'their house payments by way of "Chariots hypothesis: that Lee Oswald did the foul. bf the Gods"-style journalism. deed all by himself, with malice - !.. t It might just win next year's Pulitzer aforethought. Prize for non-fiction, That such a conclusion can be called as we-a. startling speaks volumes about the innate distrust most Americans have of their own government. Even a majority of the "Love It or Leave It" crowd believes the gov, ernment has conspired to keep the facts of the murder secret. Pon Beath. Post Stan voile `Case Closed': Oswald did it By RON HAYES'

ic.examination of the crime of the cen- 1307 pages: $25. wain try Gerald Posner. Random House;

Posner reaches a conclusion both can- tiny, lawyer and journalist Gerald

tor ling and strangely troubling.

liantly defended. In the JO years since murdered President Kennedy.

14ov. 22, 1963, the national fascination

attention to an ever-widening gallery of suspects with that day in Dallas has turned our ble plots by the CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, anti-Castro Cubans or endless combina-

tions thereof that Oswald, that diffident figure lurking in the corner, has all but

ble. argues, and his guilt is entirely plausi- faded away.

devoted to what, strangely, we have phy of Oswald. Both insecure and meg- never had before — a detailed biogra- nut: a brooding, violent child who had moved 21 times and attended 12 alomaniacal, he was everything JFK was schools before his 16th birthday. A

CASE

In this compelling and convincing

The butler did it.

Posner's thesis is simple, and bril- Lee I larvey Oswald, acting alone,

We've

Take The first half of Czar Closed is

in tin Awsalnallon_dSIL,,

OCT 17 1993

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dishonorably discharged Marine. A

der right-wing Gen. Edwin Walker, and wife-beater. Even a failed assassin. (Be- fore he pointed his mad-order ride at missed). the president, Oswald had tried to mur-

readers won't be, either. Posner's account of the man, most Kennedy's murder. Posner reports, were those in Dallas who knew him best

C LC) S E 1)

c

After Oswald was charged with

;I I:11 I) Pf l\\I I:

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CASE

not

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s Ait.

surprised. After reading

tr

AAIE

j

ird.

Il

l.

aided by several pages of wonderfully

computer-enhancements of Abraham of three shots missed Supported by to conclude whether the first or second vivid maps and graphics. onds in which to hit his target, and fired Posner Zapruder's home nook. which is still

nedy and Texas ( :or. John Connally :1.5 clock starts. The second hit both Ken- the best visual record of the crime, shot missed. sinking a (nib — and the three shuts in 8.4 sei mils. The first

hit the president abinil 4.9 seconds atter seconds later. and the final, Ratal bullet

that.

nis' irresponsible biography of Ted further sullied the reputation of journal • fists with Ike Kennedy, it's a pleasure to report that Posner has written a Kennedy book

that decent, intelligent people can read views, he has read and re-indexed all 26 without feeling dirty. Report, and scarcely a statement goes named, quotes attnbuied, and specula- ing boasts 1116 source notes. Names are unsourced At 38 pages, for example, volumes of the Warren Commission the chapter recounting the actual shoot-

Posner's argument will respect the log- tion clearly presented as such.

his study of the murder itself

The Warren Commission declined

In a publishing season that has

In addition to conducting 200 inter-

Even readers who fail to accept

argues

Last lirothar, Joe Mcfain•

that Oswald had 15 sec

rs

is and professionalism with which makes it.

hell of an exciting read. The Kenned Joseph Mcngcle. tells it in a dean, lucid all, and Posner, whose previous work includes a highly praised biography of assassination is a mystery story, ahes

siyleh Insuntan William Manchester vinto.

put the Nazi regime — the greatest III one side gang of criminals ever to seize contra! of a modern state — you have a rough balance: greatest crime, greatest crimi• nals.

dent

a scale and that wretched waif Oswald on the other side, it doesn't balance.

Oswald. 11 would invest the President's You want to acid something weightier to martyrdom. Ile would have died (or lie has shown us something much sim- death with meaning, endowing him with

something." pler, and therefore much darker, than

anybody any conspiracy. even a nobody can grow up to kill one

say about conspiracy theories:

This book is also, by the way, on

In the end, this reader was con•

In a letter In

"It you put six million dead Jews on

"But if you put that murdered Nest

alone If Posner's conclusions arc correct,

In a country that likes to believe

t at builds suspense. of

the United States on one side of

01

can

a scale and on

grow up to be president,,

The New York Times,

the

other side

had this

hS

Fort Worth SW-Telegram

TAKING AIM

. conclusive evidence OC1 14

14 Inc JOSEPH CAMPBELL Gerald Posner offers Tie MOSTKIPOICIMAIAIR roesnehed, thoroughly persuasive Kennedy.. Oen Id Posner quotes one analysis of ham Manchester, who provides a the assassination of President of the pPesicknt's biographers, Wit- conspiracy theories that surround telling explanation for the many side of a scale and that wretched the death of the president in Dallas doesn't balance, You went to odd dent of the United Stain on one weifOlwald on the other side, 30 nen ago. something weigh tier to Orwatd .

would invest the president's eke th

with meaning, endowing him with martyrdom. tie would have died

something, conspiracy theories

Near the end of his impresei rely

"If you put the murdered presi-

"A conspiracy, of course, would

are off target

...Ito I.

.16,1

that the

1993 AT A FALLA

Harvey Oswald and

it

It

for

one. denceqleetnerce that there was constroskise a powerful bill of in- cessfulireibmantles the many and did Milli Against Oswald. elaborate enitspiracy theories, while

Oswald couldn't have acted in any Compiere Story, yer and en-author of

assassination. In building the ease, Posner illuminates the central and fashioneout alone in carrying out the glaring weaknesses of the con-

osrupi rat chiding Oswald would have had to 'piracy theories— that any plot in. have mushroomed over the past 30 have bordered on Metonym, Pos- work of sympat hirers, allies and co- embrace an impossibly wide net-

ner notes that, over the years, the years; the more recent derivatives conspiracy literature hat "identi-

theory the third, fourth or fifth then:caul or—depending on the fied shooter at Maley Reza, the tile of evolved from being the lone k ilkr to erature, Lee Harvey Orwald being pan of a conspiracy to being the assauination. In the critical lit-

In

Presser, a former Well Street law-

To be sure, conspiracy theories

innetrent

CateCiose4

nearly

ors.

namely, there if no ev

30 gun men, by name, as

r•It•

Posnerqu un-

demonstrates how ■

• on

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f1,11, 4 hP,S1

has

.-

dent bi witgaieg the FBI of the who ic

part ofridellk111111111 to Oswald's -

Lunn* low who het ie ved himself toned** pathetic life. He was an &weakest:inspect that he never

woo. Cronin didn't fit in 'my-where — tithe United Stain or the Soviet married li Umiak in the Marine Corps or is bens pan ors conspiracy. His move- that

documented; his temperament wee men is in the weeks and months be- fore the assassination are too well ic sight of Os weld's Italian-made too poorly sui led for a role in any plot. As unsatisfactory as it may rifle that Novemberday in Dallas. brought Kennedy into the telescop- seem, Posner persuasively argues it

was fate and coincidence that r

I

l

torttelss Assarsaiwation i

Itarsdom Hous., Ily GeraldPorsnew btroatignshnt journalism The ponni I snakes qui to clear

t

a

rbirs under the imbue

OK iii no way could Oswald have

fer

Oble (red io save the presi-

THE

$25

JFK

he liner

ASSASSINATION

deal was simplest** Po.-

for bringing down *epee& aer writes:

find happiness in Rusin or living in America, frustrated in his eta nine, and hound- bans, barely abk to make a the U.S., rejected by the COO ed, in his view, by the FBI, he his downward spiral, He bad

miliation of his fellow Ma- endured long enough the hu- bureaucrat', the employers that rines, the R 'mien and Cuban was desperate to break out of

bred him .. Lee Omelet always Thought he was smarter and better brilliance in Chapter I4, the intri- that others failed to recognize the cate yet absorbing analysis of the ordure he thought he deserved." thi - pruder home movie taken of the shooting. Making use of computer enhancements of of Oswald's shot, and to pinpoint Kennedy motorcade, Posner is able

ously unattainable." the moment were struck, "with a precision previ- then-Tens Gov. John Connally

that

to settle the question of the timing

Posner' s diligence appennehes

Fe ikd in his attempts le

He concludes that the lint shot

n other people, and was angered

InOmAiri fiord from the Trial

-

that Kennedy and

the

faniout Za-

•

I house, the assassin's sniper's nest,

oak tree. Ballistics Irate hook Depository mined — almost

surely deflected by a branch of an hanced borne-movie footage show in the back, armed the tip of a verte- bra in hit neck, exited through his that the second 111101 struck bullet needed no magic," Pouter caused his multiple wounds_ throat, thee hit Connally and

into the president's head. Closed writes. The third and fatal shoe tors

in Appendix A that illustrate the

workings of the murder weapon Oa wald bought from a mail-order the

The pe rsuati vents'

mntnmde'sneniIionsaethe

is enhanced by the graphics

of Case

and

Kennedy

the en-

-

The

of the second ("magic") bullet, and shots were fired, the wounding path

it's not likely that dence that Posner has marshaled, the book depository. end speculation about the events in the route of Osweltrs escape front

less is compelling in Arguing that Oswald acted alone. "Tony ot he r • Dallas that day. The book nonet

wise, in the light of the owerwhelni-

hands, and to mock the president pie ingevidence," Posner writes, absolve a man with blood on his killed."

lea

Despite the weight of the evi-

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OCT 10 1993 r, T caac

AIIPACNICOSALVA r &WON anemia Sian JFK: setting the record straight

"No one knew John Kennedy, not all of conspiracy buffs. Posner. a former W Beyond Camelot him," one old fnend told Reeves. Ftw peo- Street lawyer who wrote a biography ple, for example, knew the terrible state of Nazi doctor Josef IvIengele, shows h, his health. Kennedy suffered from Addi- many conspiracy theories depend on ass. and conspiracies son's disease, a debilitating condition that Lions that were discredited early or ran required massive cortisone injections. For checked out — but are perpetuated in ba Pnalidsof Keisradr Prat% of Power . his bad back. Kennedy received a strong after book. Witnesses radically Change si Imam Ptaaves. Simon I Schustar. 756 pages mil of amphetamines from a doctor who nes years later. often several times, and a 127_.So operated in virtual secrecy. =rented as authoritative. al Casa Claeal Gerald Fouler. Random 555 Reeves' judgments are careful, often sub- One chapter demolishes the work aril tle. This lengthy narrative, with an almost Garrison, the demagogic prosecutor WI lACIPL-S2 • week-by-week account of events, shows how was almost sanctified in Oliver Stone's ly FRANK pawn Vi Kennedy was late to embrace the civil rights JFK. Another chapter. though technics For 30 years, the huge outpouring of lit- issue. For the first two years of his presi- takes the reader step-by-step through ti rature on John Kennedy has been polar- saw the images of black protest in three shots fired by Oswald, using new can md by two biased views: Kennedy as brave dency, he the South as an embarrassment to his for- putts tests to show that the assassin ha 2amelot knight, cut down just as he began Men ventures. But in 1963. after a lot cif plenty of time to get off the shots and the o fulfill his promises and Kennedy as cyni- prodding. Kennedy changed his view and one bullet struck Kennedy and John Col al. unprincipled hedonist. overwhelmed by framed the issue for the nation as a moral filly. Sc presidency. And for 30 years, Kennedy's surder has produced a host of conspiracy Commitment. Kennedy gets mined marks for his han- scones gobbled up by a public skeptical A nasty misanthrope dling of foreign cnses. The Bay of Pigs sat one nut could Commit such a horrible Posner's greatest accomplishment is Is disaster and involvement in Vietnam show rime. portrait of Oswald, the man almost forgo a vacillating president. The Cuban missile Finally, the life and daub of the 35th ten in the conspiracy frenzy. Prone to vii crisis, probably the most documented event resident is getting a strong dose of literary knee. cultivating fantasies. Oswald th of the Cold War. was a qualified success. silky. Richard Reeves' President Kennedy assassin emerges as a nasty misenthroo but Kennedy was preoccupied with the nar. rid Gerald Pos-ner's Case Closed are riear- with a suspicious history — defection t. row escape from nuclear war. He was struck usly thorough and finely crafted conmbu- Russia. flirtation with Castro's Cuba by a simple reality that only he and Khru- bu ons to a confusing historical record. no clear link to any of the people or group sbchev had fully grasped. that "no politi- who might have wanted to kill Kenned!. cian in his right mind was going to use lel-fashIoned legwork One by one. Posner debunks "evidence" o nuclear weapons first." The two authors did it the old-fashioned Oswald the Cl A plant- Soviet agent or mart. ay: sifting through mounds of new source fall guy. Simultaneous edges aterial. analyzing what has been written, Posner doesn't spare the Warren Com- MduCting new interviews and letting the In his brief presidency, Kennedy dealt mission for its shoddy work. or FBI Inc ups fall where they may_ No "nonfiction" with a remarkable compression of events, CIA officials for their mendacity ant lion. lazy speculation or unsourced asses- crises that were simultaneous and tumultu- cover-ups. They were trying to hide embar- ses. ous. With the vanuge point of history, the rassing secrets, such as their collusion with Reeves must•convince readers tired of Lit issues of the Cold War and civil rights the merle on Castro assassination plots. and User "pure adulation at strident revision- look separate. But at times they overlapped, in the process they helped feed many con- that his is s fair appraisal of Kennedy. almost swamping a president who relied on spiracy beliefs. SOLI' must do more — convince us that charm and improvisation. not organization. Case Closed and President Kennedy man, not a conspiracy, killed the presi- if Reeves' appraisal of Kennedy is as have arrived just in time. With the 30th aiL complex as the WNW, Passer's thesis is anniversary of the assassination next Reeves, a arritenforthe New Yorker for disarmingly simple: Lee Harvey Oswald month, expect another onslaught of tempt. ars, has achieved a biographer's primary smuggled his $12.711 mail-order rifle to ing conspiracy claims and juicy Kennedy al, tO '"reeonstruct [Kennedy's] world wOrk, fired three shots and killed Kennedy. revelations. Keep these two authoritative Jeti his perspective." This is not easy, He acted alone. He had no help in carrying books handy as an antidote. - ern Kennedy's penchant for secrets and out the assassination or trying to make his s and b is ability to keep his mlationthips esmpe. Frank Davies 1.■ The herald's associate mpartmentalized. These facts. of course. are blasphemy to news editor. ;caeoc O

JFK cons iracy myths Atlanta Constitutio7 may final y be put to rest August 27, 1993 ...-; or a generation', Vunericans have been sitting around F kitchen tables debating into the night whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assas- sination of John F. Kennedy. This fall, which marks the 30th "Plfrfi anniversary of the shooting, the arguments will grow even more MARILYN GEEWAX heated in the Light of new evi- If a man so special could get shot dence. like a stray dog, how safe are the For the conspiracy theorists, rest of us? the opening of the 'Atonal Surely some greater force Archives' huge stash of assassi• must have been responsible for , nation documents provides the death of a president. The CIA, countless new possible plot the Mafia, Fidel Castro — yes, twists. The 900,000 pieces of any of them could kill our leader, paper, including investigative but not some skinny guy with a- • photographs and memos, will be weak chin. hashed over for years. We easily talk ourselves into. For those who blame Oswald, such conspiracy theories when a new book provides comforting faced with tragedy. When evidence that the conspiracy the- Michael Jordan's father turned ories are bunk. "Case Closed: up dead, we started spinning Lee Harvey Oswald and the yarns about mob hits. When Pres- Assassination of JFK," published - by Random House, uses com- ident Bill Clinton's friend, Via- puter enhancements of the cent Foster, killed himself, many Zapruder Mtn and hundreds of pundits began inventing elabo • . witness interviews to pick apart rate stories about secret plots. the theories. We journalists often hear from • For years, I have vacillated readers who tell us about com- about the assassination theories. plex government plots. Once in a The conspiracy boosters always very great while, such a conspir- raised enough troubling ques- acy really does come together: dons to keep me from accepting Richard Nixon did try to cover up the Warren Commission's con- his wrongdoing. (Of course, the truth came out about Watergate. clusion that Oswald acted alone. •' But "Case Closed" presents so because people never keep • much compelling evidence that secrets for long.) it's hard for a reasonable person At least 99 percent of the time; to read the book and continue an apparent conspiracy turns oat arguing for a conspiracy. In fact, to be nothing but another brutislr' author Gerald Posner so corn- or stupid act. Life is full of acci•.-• pletely debunks the assassina- dents, mistakes, cruel deeds and tion myths that I'm embarrassed goofy coincidences — and more: to think I ever was taken in by often than we'd like, these mis- them. cues and misdeeds lead to trage- Why have so many of us been dy. We hate to accept that, so we ' so willing to believe convoluted make up stories to reassure our- theories rather than accept the selves that bad things happen for • simple explanation that Oswald a reason. did it? Perhaps because we After 30 years, it's time to stop human beings have a tough time trying to comfort ourselves with acknowledging that really terri- myths about John Kennedy's ble things can happen for no death. Our president died good reason. because a nut wanted him dead. . We don't want to think that That's very sad, but it's true. • someone as handsome, vibrant Marilyn Geewax is a Constitution and powerful as John Kennedy writer. could be snuffed out in a second. editorial Iiiiii11111111.111111111111111111

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Oswald and the Assassination of JFK," JFK," of Assassination the and Oswald

whatsoever that there was one." one." was there that whatsoever

Posner quite successfully dismantles dismantles successfully quite Posner

"Unfortunately, there is no evidence evidence no is there "Unfortunately,

him' him'

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States on one side side one on States thejob thejob

dent's death with meaning, endowing endowing meaning, with death dent's

of a scale and that that and scale a of

dent of the United United the of dent

murdered Presi- Presi- murdered

wretched waif Os- Os- waif wretched

vest the Presi- • Posner Posner • Presi- the vest

Dallas 30 years ago. ago. years 30 Dallas

weld weld

surround the death of the president in in president the of death the surround

side, it doesn't bat l+ l+ bat doesn't it side, ance. You want to li to want You ance.

wald. It would in- in- would It wald.

weightier to Os- Os- to weightier

add something something add

dent's biographers, William Manches- Manches- William biographers, dent's

for the many conspiracy theories that that theories conspiracy many the for

ter, who provides a telling explanation explanation telling a provides who ter,

sis of Lee Harvey Oswald and the the and Oswald Harvey Lee of sis

searched, thoroughly persuasive sassy- sassy- persuasive thoroughly searched,

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Gerald Posner quotes one of the presi- presi- the of one quotes Posner Gerald

Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald Oswald Harvey Lee Closed: Case

By Gerald Posner, Random House, $25, 585 585 $25, House, Random Posner, Gerald By

A compelling case that Oswal acte -..alone -..alone acte Oswal that case compelling A

i nation of President John F. Kennedy, Kennedy, F. John President of nation i

Posner, a former Wall Street lawyer lawyer Street Wall former a Posner,

And in "Case Closed: Lee Harvey Harvey Lee Closed: "Case in And

"A conspiracy, of course, would do do would course, of conspiracy, "A

"If you put the the put you "If

Near the end of his impressively re- re- impressively his of end the Near

and the Assassination of JFK JFK of Assassination the and

PP. PP.

with martyrdom. He would have have would He martyrdom. with

on the other other the on

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a role in any plot. As unsatisfactory as it it as unsatisfactory As plot. any in role a

temperament was too poorly suited for for suited poorly too was temperament

nation are too well documented; his his documented; well too are nation

States or the Soviet Union, in the Ma- Ma- the in Union, Soviet the or States

a conspiracy. His movements in the the in movements His conspiracy. a

weeks and months before the assassi- assassi- the before months and weeks

no way could Oswald have been part of of part been have Oswald could way no

rine Corps or in married life. life. married in or Corps rine

didn't fit in anywhere — in the United United the in — anywhere in fit didn't

ed, pathetic life. He was an unstable unstable an was He life. pathetic ed,

Oswald has evolved from being the lone lone the being from evolved has Oswald

being an innocent patsy to being a hero hero a being to patsy innocent an being respect that he never won. Oswald Oswald won. never he that respect

which is devoted to Oswald's torment- torment- Oswald's to devoted is which

loser who believed himself deserving of of deserving himself believed who loser killer to being part of a conspiracy to to conspiracy a of part being to killer

ny of "Case Closed," the larger part of of part larger the Closed," "Case of ny

ley Plaza, the site of the assassination. assassination. the of site the Plaza, ley

second or —depending on the theory — — theory the on —depending or second

In the critical literature, Lee Harvey Harvey Lee literature, critical the In

the third, fourth or fifth shooter at Dea- Dea- at shooter fifth or fourth third, the

conspiracy literature has "identified "identified has literature conspiracy

on the extreme. extreme. the on

nearly 30 gunmen, by name, as the the as name, by gunmen, 30 nearly

more recent derivatives have bordered may seem, Posner persuasively argues ' argues persuasively Posner seem, may bordered have derivatives recent more

mushroomed over the past 30 years; the the years; 30 past the over mushroomed

sympathizers, allies and co-conspira- co-conspira- and allies sympathizers,

tors. tors.

couldn't have acted in any fashion but but fashion any in acted have couldn't

the central and glaring weaknesses of of weaknesses glaring and central the

plete Story," demonstrates how Oswald Oswald how demonstrates Story," plete

and co-author of "Mengele: The Com- Com- The "Mengele: of co-author and

embrace an impossibly wide network of of network wide impossibly an embrace

including Oswald would have had to to had have would Oswald including

the conspiracy theories — that any plot plot any that — theories conspiracy the

alone in carrying out the assassination. assassination. the out carrying in alone

In building the case, Posner illuminates illuminates Posner case, the building In

-,i, BooK-s BooK-s -,i,

The portrait makes quite clear that in in that clear quite makes portrait The

II all withers under the intense scniti- scniti- intense the under withers all II

To be sure, conspiracy theories have have theories conspiracy sure, be To

Posner notes that notes Posner

; ;

over the years, the Kennedy into the telescopic jtighecit *i':',V jtighecit telescopic the into Kennedy the years, the over

A rush bio rush A

Oswald's Italian-made Italian-made Oswald's

taken of the Kennedy motorcade, motorcade, Kennedy the of taken of the famous Zapruder home movie movie home Zapruder famous the of

vember day in Dallas. Dallas. in day vember

Posner is able "to settle the question of of question the settle "to able is Posner

absorbing analysis of the shooting. killed." killed." shooting. the of analysis absorbing Making use of computer enhancements enhancements computer of use Making

of T T of

liance in Chapter 14, the intricate yet hands, and to mock the President he he President the mock to and hands, yet intricate the 14, Chapter in liance

it was fate and coincidence that brought .,:i pally and caused his multiple wounds. wounds. multiple his caused and pally .,:i brought that coincidence and fate was it

recognize the stature he thought he say otherwise, in the light of the over- over- the of light the in otherwise, say he thought he stature the recognize

smarter and better than other people, The book nonetheless is compelling in in compelling is nonetheless book The people, other than better and smarter and was angered that others failed to arguing that Oswald acted alone. alone. acted Oswald that arguing to failed others that angered was and

ness in Russia or the U.S.,Jfeject U.S.,Jfeject the or Russia in ness

deserved." deserved."

pie enough, Posner writes: Ytt writes: Posner enough, pie

bringing down the preside preside the down bringing

. . . Lee Oswald always thought he was Lion about the events in Dallas that day. day. that Dallas in events the about Lion was he thought always Oswald Lee . . .

the Cubans, barely able to make make to able barely Cubans, the

reaucrats, the employers that fired him. ly ly him. fired that employers the reaucrats,

enough the humiliation of his fellow fellow his of humiliation the enough Marines, the Russian and Cuban bu- that Posner has marshaled, it's not like- like- not it's marshaled, has Posner that bu- Cuban and Russian the Marines,

and hounded, in his view, by the FBI, he of the second ("magic") bullet, and the the and bullet, ("magic") second the of he FBI, the by view, his in hounded, and

in America, frustrated in his Marriage, • the shots were fired, the wounding path path wounding the fired, were shots the • Marriage, his in frustrated America, in

ward spiral. He had endured long depository. depository. long endured had He spiral. ward

was desperate to break out of his down- route of Oswald's escape from the book book the from escape Oswald's of route down- his of out break to desperate was

st Oswald ' t t ' Oswald st

Oswald's tormented mo . Bon for7 Bon . mo tormented Oswald's

Posner's diligence approaches brit- to absolve a man with blood on his his on blood with man a absolve to brit- approaches diligence Posner's

"Failed in his attempts attempts his in "Failed

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murder weapon Oswald bought from •a •a from bought Oswald weapon murder

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grazed the tip of a vertebra in his neck, neck, his in vertebra a of tip the grazed

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eated thriangti his throat, then hit Con- Con- hit then throat, his thriangti eated

shot 'struck ,Kennedy in the back, back, the in ,Kennedy 'struck shot

were struck, "with a precision prean- prean- precision a "with struck, were

4

movie footage' show that the second second the that show footage' movie

pository missed — almost surely de- de- surely almost — missed pository

Utica tests 'Ind the enhanced home- home- enhanced the 'Ind tests Utica

fleeted by a,branch of an oak tree. Bal. Bal. tree. oak an of a,branch by fleeted

ously Unattainable." Unattainable." ously

.

t.The persilasiveneadtititaie Closed" Closed" persilasiveneadtititaie t.The

The bullet needed no magic," Posner Posner magic," no needed bullet The

that "Case Closed" will end specula- specula- end will Closed" "Case that

Despite the weight of the evidence evidence the of weight the Despite

A that illustrate the workings of of workings the illustrate that A

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Entertainment Weekly, September 24, 1993

IsTo aicAt , Americans B have long congratulated themselves for their dedi- 0 cation to plain facts and their commonsense suspi• 0 cion of abstract theories. Conspiracy The reality, of course, is far less flattering to national K self-esteem. We have al- ways been suckers for a good conspiracy S theory. Such all-American figures as William Jennings Bryan, Henry Ford, and J. Edgar Hoover rarely failed to Killer find organized subversion wherever With overwhelming evidence and logic, 'Case Closed' proves they looked, nor lacked for cheering throngs to support them. that Oswald was JFK's lone assassin. I r GENE LYONS Even so, it is still remarkable that it has taken 30 years since the assassina- tion of President John F. Kennedy for a book like Gerald Posner's CASE CLOSED: LEE HARVEY OSWALD AND THE ASSASSINA- 11011 OF JFK (Random House, $25) to be written and published, Every conscien- tious citizen who has ever sat up half the night maundering over the elaborate speculations of conspiracy mavens like Mark Lane, Edward Jay Epstein, David S. Litton, Robert Sam Anson, Anthony Summers, and Jim Marrs (those are only the most prominent), not to mention the millions who lined up to watch Oliver Stone's brilliant 1991 propaganda film JFK, owes it to himself to give Posner's book a careful reading. The result, safe to say, will come as a revelation. And, yes, as something of a relief. As thorough and incisive a job of reporting and critical thinking as you will ever read, Case Closed does more than but- tress the much beleaguered Warren Commission's conclusion that Lee Har- vey Oswald—pitiful, grandiose lone de- ment') and would-be Communist defec- tor—bore full and solitary responsibility for the murder of President Kennedy. It also indicts and pretty much convicts the entire JFK-conspiracy industry of slop- py research, shoddy thinking, special pleading, hysterical speculation, and downright dishonesty. More than that, Posner's book is written in a penetrat- ing, lucid style that makes it a joy to read- Even the footnotes, often briskly ASSASSINATION MEN: debunking one or another fanciful or Author !Gerald Posner in front of a imaginary scenario put forth by the con- photo of the man he says acted spiracy theorists, rarely fail to enthrall. alone, Lae Harvey Oswald How and why the Kennedy assassina- tion has become such a happy hunting •

82 SEPTEMBER 2 4 , 1993 PMOTOGRAFK IT JEIF ground for opportunists and crackpots is not so hard to figure. Almost regardless of their political orientation, millions share the perception that American life has grown infinitely more difficult and confusing since that awful November af- ternoon in 1963. Also, as Posner writes, "strong psychological reasons prompted the public's early embrace of conspiracy theories. The notion that a misguided so- ciopath had wreaked such havoc made the crime seem senseless and devoid of political significance. By concluding that JFK was killed as the result of an elabo- rate plot, there is the belief he died for a purpose." But piece by fascinating piece, Pos- ner—a former Wall Street lawyer whose previous works include Warlords of Crime. a book about Chinese heroin smugglers, and a widely praised biogra- phy of Nazi death-camp doctor Joseph Mengele that he coauthored—takes the evidence in the Kennedy assassination apart and puts it back together. As the author himself points out, no mere mor- SOPHOMORE SLUMP: tal could tie up every last loose end. Worencrat's second Even in an ordinary mugging in broad rowel is a letdown daylight, eyewitness accounts are apt to vary sharply. But will it come as news to commit suicide, but plugged the woman- readers persuaded otherwise by count- izing rat by accident. No such halfheart- less books, TV and radio documen- ed measures for Wozencraft's luxuriant- taries, and films to learn that fully 88 The Accused ly embittered protagonist, a freelance percent of witnesses in Dealey Plaza on Judging the sanity of a public relations expert lured from her Nov. 22, 1963, testified to hearing exact- successful Manhattan career back to her ly three shots? That computerized en- husband killer native Texas by a smooth-talking airline hancement of the famous Zapruder film that pilot who not only commences to beat and sophisticated ballistics tests now T'S NOT EVERY NOVEL her like a yard dog but also seduces her prove that the renowned "single bullet" comes with a dust-jacket blurb sister, Alice. Few one-dimensional card- that wounded both JFK and Texas gov- from a convicted murderer—in this board villains in the history of pseudo- ernor John Connally is an incontrovert- case, Jean Harris, the prep school feminist fiction have so badly needed ible fact? That many "eyewitnesses" headmistress who shot her cheat- killing, but the abundantly talented who supposedly saw all manner of ing lover, Scarsdale Diet doctor Her- writer didn't need to stack the deck so strange goings-on that day either man Tarnower. In the case of Kim blatantly. This is what makes Wozen- weren't actually there, told very differ- Wozencraft's NOTES FROM THE COUNTRY how- craft's second outing (after 1990's ent (and more consistent) stories under CLUB (Houghton Mifflin, $19.95), much-hyped Rush—loosely based on oath before the media spotlight found ever, Harris' is an appropriate en- her life as a former undercover narc) so them, or resided in psychiatric hospi- dorsement. The "country club" in ques- disappointing. The novel's minor charac- tals? The chapter on New Orleans dis- tion is the Veritas unit of the Fort ters, fellow Veritas inmates for the most trict attorney Jim Garrison, the heroic Worth Federal Correctional Institution, part, have a vivid individuality unac- lone-wolf prosecutor of Oliver Stone's where a government psychiatrist must countably lacking in Cynthia and her JFK—who before his mad quest ended determine whether heroine Cynthia Mitchell is sane enough to stand trial brute of a husband. There's more psy- had placed 16 assassins at five locations chologically evocative detail in Garth in Dealey Plaza—is by itself a master- for the stabbing death of her abusive husband, Daniel. Brooks' country song "The Thunder piece of expository journalism. Rolls," about a battered wife's revenge, Case Closed is a work of genuine pa- The gist of Jean Harris' defense, read- than in all 200-plus pages of Notes From triotism and a monument to the astrin- ers may recall, was that she'd taken a the Country Club. C gent power of reason. A gun to Tarnower's house intending to

■ kf ro4010G1141, 14 IT DAM IOPIRISJOUTL LI SEPTEMBER 24, 19 9 3 OCT 24 1993 ez/R4KL.LEs Charlotte Observer, October 24, 1993 P3 1,9.cast — A comprehensive, sober look at the assassination of JFK "curtain rods." More likely, Posner believes, History it was the mail-order Mannlicher-Carcano CASE CLOSED: Lee Harvey Oswald and rifle Oswald would fire at the president from the Assassination of JFK the depository's sixth floor. What sets Posner's book apart from other By Gerald Posner. Random House. 507 Pages. 525. assassination texts is not its conclusion - several recent authors have argued Oswald acted alone — but its scope. By JOHN ARWOOD Methodically, Posner demolishes the ext month marks 30 years since John framework that conspiracy theorists have F. Kennedy was killed. In that time, leaned on for years. He reveals key incon- hundreds of books, dozens of televi- sistencies in the testimony of those who N sion documentaries and a Holly- claimed to have seen a gunman on the wood blockbuster have sought to solve the grassy knoll in front of Kennedy. case. He offers persuasive evidence that Jack They usually raise valid questions. But Ruby killed Oswald impulsively, not as an many of them have the journalistic stan- agent of organized crime. And he points out dards of "A Current Affair" or worse. two problems in all the conspiracy scenar- Now comes a comprehensive new book ios the constant interpretation of coinci- by journalist Gerald Posner. arguing per- dence as evidence of conspiracy, and the suasively that the Warren Commission got it unbelievably large number of people who right Lee Harvey Os- would have had to be involved. wald killed the president One of the book's most compelling without arty help. chapters takes a new look at Abraham Of the new JFK-assas- Zapruder's famous home movie of the sination books arriving accusination. Posner uses new computer this fall. Posner's has enhancements of the film. together with received by far the most medical evidence, to lend new credence to critical acclaim, and jus- a theory long disdained by Warren Commis- tifiably, so. While it cer- sion cntics that Kennedy and Texas Gov. tainly doesn't settle the John Connally were hit by the same bullet. case once and for all,. it Posner's meticulously documented ap- accomplishes what only proach mocks many of the more sensa- Posner a handful of such books tional assassination texts. Among the most have done: to look so- putrid is Robert Groden's 1990 best-seller, berly at the facts of the case and reach a High Treason, which contains grisly au- credible. defensible conclusion. topsy photos and broods on possible As Posner sees it, the only way to connections between JFK's death and Wa- understand the assassination is by under- tergate. standing Oswald. To that end. he devotes Anti-conspiracy books have fallen short fully half of his book to a biographical look too: In 1991's Conspiracy of One. Jim at the accused assassin. Moore argues that Oswald acted alone. but Chapter by chapter. Posner builds sus- reaches that conclusion in part through pense as he retraces Oswald's life: At age some absurd leaps of logic 13. in trouble for truancy, he told a Posner's book is the most important psychiatnst. "I dislike everybody.** As a assassination text in years. If we're ever Manne, he was court-martialed twice for going to solve the crime of the century, the violent behavior. answer won't come in a Hollywood block- in 1963. he tried to w.assinate a right- buster or tabloid journalism. For along wing Army general. handed out pro-Castro those roads. Posner writes, "the only casu- leaflets and took a cleft's job at the Texas alty is truth." 000 School Book Depository. On Nov. 22, he JOHN ARWOOD is assistant regional- rode to work with an acquaintance, carrying desk chief al The Observer. a long paper bag that he said contained Houston Chronicle

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AUG 25 1993

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I :%. 1 l't 1\ ,\T:t I 1 Author Gerald Posner concludes that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone . Conspiracy theories discounted

Ily LYNWOOD ABRAM Special to ow Chaim.

Nearly 30 years after the mmasinatlon of John F. Kennedy. the production of books about his death shows no sign of dowing down. More than 2.000 volumes dealing with the events of Nov. 22. 1063, In Dallas have been printed. many of them by the writers known Book review

collectrveiy as the arropirecy buffs. Oliver Stones movie JF7;,.9 mixture of fact and fiction represeiff culmina- tion of mom than decade of writ by the aacaptrithor prom' econding to Gerald Posner, the author of-Case_acwetAt VelarPri Flokseblf12"1121414alk-ergi. Besides disputing the conclusions of the Warren Commission. the buffs have impli- cated in Kiesaerlys death the CIA, the rm. the Malta and Fidel Castro arson others) in what Posner calls ever eapumn gurney theories." - To refute every claim made by the buffs would be the work of a lifetime. perhaps of many lifetimes. ?poser tries to ALMS the merits, if any. of the claims of such leading buffs as Mark Luse. Anthem Summers. Jim Garrison and Jim Marrs. In every famous me,' Posner writes. 'people have come out of the woodotet for their 15 minutes of fame. Some publicity seekers have_esm-istmliested themselves m the murder conspiras7... The only emu- .alty is truth,-esponally-in a sonety we _far too many peopleanscoolient to receive • :••• e Commute' from Pape 10. ten" knowledge on an important issue from a single article or a tnree.hour movie Focusing on Lee Harvey Oswald. Posner concludes that Oswald acted atone La slaying the president There is. as Posner says. no con- mane evidence to the contrary One of the reasons that Oswald's motivation probably never will be 'tumor Gerald Posner dismisses icnown. Posner says. is the bizarre claims by conspiracy buffs personality of the man himself. A few hours after Kennedy's have paced through Kennedy and death. Oswald was questioned at then have caused Conoally's the Dallas police station about two wounds? plastic 1D cards that had been us his Lf the answers to these questions billfold. one bearing the name Lee are Da, then other gunmen - and Harvey Oswald. the other Met thus a conspiracy - could have HideII...Much one ate your a de- been 'evolved tective asked With a snort Oswald Posner reports that ectoputer coolly reviled: "You esture It out." tracking of the trajectories of the As Posner says. for 30 years high- &hots in reverse shows the source al harts . researchers, reporters. gov- the shots was the Texas School ernment investigators - and of Book Depositary. course. the butts - have been try Enhancements from the uig to do just that. Oswald's came Zapruder flint of the assasainetion was not long in doubt. but the answer the Wise question: Oswald's broader question of who he was as s first Oust massed. He bad at least persor. remains a puzzle with most three seconds to reload. aim and of the pieces missing. fire the second shot, which hit Can• Posner says. however. that an un- ruby and Kennedy. (Posner says derstanding of Oswald "a the key to the bolt action on Demist s rifle can finding out what happened in Dallas easily be executed in a fraction of a on Not zz. 1963.- seconds On the basis of hundreds of inter- He then had another five seconds. views. caretul study of previously ample time. for the third &hot, which cussthed information from the KGB killed Kennedy. and other sources. Posner has pro. The famous bullet on the duced an amount of Oswald's odys- stretcher, which passed through sey that in its cumulative effect. Kennedy and Connally, has been in- leaves the conspiracy bugs Little to accurately described as chew on -pristine' to the press and in conspiracy Posner says the recent release of books. In any event, it was bent and previously classified JFK files from flattened. but Dot fragmented or federal agencles is unlikely to help crushed those committed to conspiracy the- The Warren Commission's test ones One authonty who has re- bullet feed into a cadet/es west viewed the documents told Posner. simulate Conoally'a wound, -There is oo smoking gun here.") emerged with a badly smashed to Posnees portrait, Oswald was a nose. Ballistics expert John Lat. solitary. cold-blooded master of his Omer, noting that the bullet was emotions who thirsted for attention fired directly into the cadavers and a place on the stage of history A wrist. said: "Of course you are going Dallas police officer described to get deformation of the bullet Oswald as -a man who enjoyed the when it strikes s hard object at full situation immensely and was enjoy- speed. 11 Gov Connallys wrist had ing the publicity and everything that been hit on the straight fly by that was coming his way." bullet. CE 399. Mt would have been Detective Jim Wyatt recalled •I m much worse shape, and so 'mulct never saw him raise his voice. and tiffs wrist" he seemed to answer questions eas- What the ily He had a smile a lot of the tune. corn/moon failed to take into account in Its test was that kind of a smolt really, sort of Like he as the bullet passed through the knew something you didn't" bodies of Kennedy and Connally, it George de Mohreaschildt as ec• was losing weed centric member of the tiny Russian "First it went through Kennedy's _phi.eifribzwallas, _described...pi WheneLmied...it beton LIED feweishe , - este anew vaunted poopeenteenwed to be In- bias fsatibla alluselliot by 'Use alanlalael matey :tend on the : serened is runt De etalrenectIlltli gee- • also desalbed OelawailDoeje "wont- vmre (Ma_ Watt entered -.shunted tenter WEBBFIreginsrls: wets: continued ogobling -"anent 'ealsed be stupid awash -=Ids chest :,-The Aping . Mist trie under bla tight nipple Owen Illetetkdo4 kapartane the bullet left his chest ekkrwerfa. Axons* GUNN* findings e here book stem that there is so nured lib wrist tunshang beck.' wards, sod muted vadrniet scamp Ann berweas wane to break the skin se "1"" fend any 'MUM. two Jack Ruby. • Nor *melba "two °Twills' dtand oft.' Wallilre Altar.this aid edit: - lusi ' Posner's pow an Jim Gerrlime meat of the major questions about the assamiration. Posner mans op should make Other Starve Mod Ids the findings of this dmuling book bead In shame Despite mountains 'The et accusatory wrstinp. Posner CIO search for a darker truth than the lone assassin Hem an- find no credible evidence kw tbeiri- votvernent of the CIA, the FBI or Ilse quenchable. But for those seelteig Miltr Mafia in Kennedy's death. euthahhtbe facts are incontrmann. One example of POIalert method ▪ Chasing shadow, on the grassy must suffice here. His handling of knoll will never substitute for real the problem of how history. Lee Harvey Oswald, drives many shots were fired at the presidential motor- by his own twisted and impenetra- ble hums, was cade and when and by whom the only assassin at Dailey Pima on Nov. 2t, Ian To The key questions were. _Did Oswald have lone to flay the shots say *Hieratic in light al the over. that wounded Texas Gov. John Con- wbelming evidence..la to aboolee a nally and killed man with blood ao his hands, and to Kennedy' Could the mock the president be killed' nearly whole UuDet. Warren Cam- mama Exhibit Ns, that Only Punters was bawd on a stretcher at Parkland Hospital. seems oil the mark. story seems likely to go on forever THE EXPLOSIVE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY AND THE NEW EVIDENCE OF CONSPIRACY

John F. Kennedy's Murder. Our Government's Secret. A Nation's Betrayal ... Includes 186 dramatic photos— some never before seen ROBERT J. GRODEN AND HARRISON EDWARD LIVINGSTONE This Berkley book contains the complete text of the original hardcover edition. It has been completely reset in a typeface designed for easy reading and was printed from new film.

HIGH TREASON

A Berkley Book / published by arrangement with Conservatory Press

PRINTING HISTORY Conservatory Press edition / March 1989 Berkley edition / November 1990

All rights reserved. Copyright © Robert °rodeo 1989 and Harrison Edward Livinptone ID 1980, 1989. Original artwork by Ed Chiarini, Jr. This boot may not be reproduced in whole or in part. by mimeograph or any other means. without permission. For information address: Conservatory Press, P.O. Box 714, Baltimore, Maryland 21218.

ISBN: 0-425-12344-8

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20 19 18 17 16 IS 14 13 WHY KENNEDY WAS KILLED 421 WHO KILLED PRESIDENT KENNEDY? Who killed President Kennedy? It took a combination of the CIA controlled Cuban exiles, Organized Crime, and the Ultra Right Wing, with the support of some politically well- connected wealthy men to pull it off. They carried out the aKsgsination through a complex series of overt and covert actions—and through failure of the President's protection at the critical moment. All of these seemingly disparate groups had much in com- mon. The CIA and Organized Crime used some of the same operatives; this was certainly the case in Southern Florida and Louisiana. Santos Trafficante employed many of the same Cubans the CIA was hoping to use to overthrow Castro. Jack Ruby ran guns to Cuba during the Revolution on behalf of the CIA and the Mob. CIA operatives like David Ferric and Guy Banister, who were closely linked to Oswald and Ruby, also had close ties to New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Mar- cella. As for far Right Wing organizations, these were filled with a strange assortment of Cuban exiles, police officers, intelligence operatives, oil barons and retired military offi- cers. The following narration is based on intense discussions between the authors and various former high ranking (and dissident) intelligence officials, military officers, political fig- ures, and other powerful persons ip a position to know the facts. In some cases, names were given with great certainty of individuals formerly connected to the intelligence agen- cies, whom the informants believe were involved in the assassination. In particular, a faction employed by the intelligence agen- cies during the Bay of Pigs operation (for which then Vice President Richard Nixon was the White House action officer) was responsible for the assassination of the President. Some of these men had worked for or been associated with one agency or another, so it is difficult to determine exactly their true connections. Civilians with powerful backing operating in the intelligence agencies at the time, some with a military background, planned and covered up the murder of the Pres- UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK X ROBERT J. GRODEN Plaintiff, -v- Docket No.

RANDOM HOUSE, INC., THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY, INC., (.75,00 and GERALD POSNER Plaintiff Demands Defendants. a Trial by Jury X

COMPLAINT FOR MONEY DAMAGES AND A PERMANENT INJUNCTION Plaintiff ROBERT J. GRODEN, by his attorney, ROGER BRUCE FEINMAN,

ESQ. complaining of the Defendants, respectfully alleges as follows: THE PARTIES

1. Plaintiff ROBERT J. GRODEN was at all times hereafter mentioned,

and he still is, a citizen, resident and domiciliary of Delaware County, the Commonwealth of

Pennsylvania. He lives there with his wife and family. 2. Upon information and belief, at all times hereafter mentioned, Defendant

RANDOM HOUSE, INC. (sometimes referred to herein as "RANDOM HOUSE") was, and is a corporation duly organized and existing under the laws of the State of New York, and having its principal place of business at 201 East 50th Street, Borough of Manhattan, in the City of

New York, County of New York, State of New York. For jurisdictional purposes, Defendant

is a citizen, resident and domiciliary of the State of New York.

3. Upon information and belief, at all times hereafter mentioned, Defendant

RANDOM HOUSE, INC. was and is engaged in the business of publishing, distributing and selling books in New York State and throughout the United States, and throughout the world,

for profit. 4. Defendant THE NEW YORK TIMES, INC. (sometimes referred to

herein as 'TIMES") is a corporation duly organized and existing under the laws of the State of New York, and having its principal place of business at 229 West 43rd Street, Borough of

Manhattan, in the City of New York, County of New York, State of New York. For jurisdictional purposes, Defendant is a citizen, resident and domiciliary of the State of New York. 5. Upon information and belief, at all times hereafter mentioned, Defendant

THE NEW YORK TIMES, INC. was and is engaged in the business of publishing, distributing and selling newspapers and periodicals in New York State and throughout the United States, and generally throughout the world. More specifically, Defendant owned, maintained, operated for profit, and published a newspaper known as The New York Times, which was, and still is, published daily as a newspaper of general circulation in New York

City and the United States, and in foreign countries, and has a large, wide and extensive circulation.

6. Upon information and belief, at all times hereafter mentioned, Defendant

GERALD POSNER (sometimes referred to herein as "POSNER") was and is a citizen and domiciliary of the State of New York, City of New York, and his principal place of business is located within the County of New York. RERISIMMISAMILMLE

7. This action is of a civil nature involving, exclusive of interest and costs, a sum over $50,000. Every issue of law and fact herein is wholly between citizens of different states, and this Court has jurisdiction under Title 28, United States Code 11332(a) 8. Besides diversity of citizenship, federal question jurisdiction arises due

to Title 28, United States Code, Section 11331, in that the third cause in this action is a claim

for monetary and injunctive relief arising under Sections 43(a) and 43(a)(2) of the Lanham

Act, 15 U.S.C.. 11125, all as more fully hereafter set forth. 9. Pendent jurisdiction over state-law claims exists under 28 U.S.C..

11331, in that the claims arise from the same nucleus of operative facts as the federal law

claim asserted by the Plaintiff.

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10. The venue properly lies in this District, where all the claims arose Ind defendants reside. 28 U.S.C.. §1391(a).

AS AND FOR A FIRST CAUSE OF ACTION

11. Before 1975, Plaintiff ROBERT J. GRODEN, who was then engaged in a trade and occupation as a photo-optical technician, developed an interest in the subject of

President Kennedy's assassination. On or about November 22, 1973, the tenth anniversary of the tragedy, Plaintiff delivered his first lecture on the subject. Beginning on or about February

1, 1975, Plaintiff exhibited his optically enhanced and stabilized, color version of the famous

Zapruder amateur motion picture film of the Kennedy assassination at civic meetings concerning the case. For the dozen years before Plaintiff began to exhibit the Zapruder film in public, the eight millimeter camera original and all first-generation copies of it were deliberately suppressed from public view by private owners, also by the federal government's disinterest in seizing it as original evidence in the assassination, and by the concomitant apathy of major journalism institutions, including Defendant THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY to that situation. On or about the evening of March 6, 1975, Plaintiff ROBERT I. GRODEN also exhibited his enhanced version of the Zapruder film on the American Broadcasting

Company's television network, which was the general public's first opportunity ever to view the film. This television event is generally regarded by observers who have followed the case as having provided a significant impetus for the congressional investigation of the assassination that began the following year. But for the singlehanded efforts of Plaintiff ROBERT J.

GRODEN in regard to publicly exhibiting the Zapruder film qua continuous motion picture, the public would never have had the opportunity to view this original graphic evidence of

President Kennedy's assassination.

12. Since 1975, Plaintiff has been known as a preeminent independent

researcher and investigator of the photographic evidence on President Kennedy's assassination,

and an expert concerning such evidence; a platform speaker; lecturer and audiovisual

presenter; consultant to motion picture producers and directors; congressional committee

3 PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that, in accordance with the briefing schedule- set by-the Honorabft4ohh,;37.7`irtin at the pre-motion conference head on April- opposition d no la 4, paperuhriQx4,-Arrse and defendants' reply papers are-to ble-served no laterthir, May - -411ft, 27, 1994.

Aw. Dated: New York, New TOrk--:.17111 May 4, 1994 RespaFia, ,suballitted, LANKE TZ

By: Vi for A. Kovner (VAK: 2248)

Attorneys for Defendants 1740 Broadway New York, New York 10019 (212) 489-8230

TO: ROGER BRUCE FEINMAN, Esq. Attorney for Plaintiff Park Avenue Atrium Penthouse Suite 237 Park Avenue New York, New York 10017

3353R

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