San Pedro, California July 28, 1994 Dear Mr. Weisberg, I'm writinc, to thank you for your contribution to exposing ?osner. I am a researcher in the JFK murder case and your Case Open has taken a hu h burden off my shoulders. To bad none off us have the time to check more of his CIA/intelligence connections. I 'an't tell you how excited I was to see your book on a bookshelf in a Santa Monica'(CA) bookstore. I will be recommending your fine work in my next JFK project (which is by and large being done to promote Lifton's work). Excuse all the envelopes. It frustrates the law breakers. If I travel back East hope we can haVe a cup of coffee together. I have the honor to remain, Sincerely 7ours, C7414/ren#C-4 )3*--)°)10019/ Lawrence McManus, 1836 West First Street San Pedro, CA 90732 4.4014720trio Lz you- off,ico .7;a4itinc. :InV3 :to icloa It:1' .0 Itic10.2 dato of V. 194 thr,. v,f ti , IL:ritny 7:01T7 ,,r; of P am In V.:. Z.L.2ino,' of 2.a.lt -iovonla :Z. r it on it a :1-.::ared. 2.i.:::o-7.4-t‘70Lso no tratler2.:thexi 11-11at you did. I am nal of --ocinot for 0oe ofKtritlez but ho i-7; not an 0::oort on•the j21: assacoLL-Itton am!. full of fac';ual or-20:7s* en P l'"!=1 b00:1 in tho ooros fo u±to coil.'tic co I d o not nook" nj foz• '13io no nod of rfsinforz.0,....;:Lon./ y.:utad a puzn:10;:..,0 Da!: arm-L. Lizirold Woizthorg $ CASE CLOSED Lee Harvey Oswald and • the Assassination of JFK By Gerald posner (Random House: $25; 585 pp.) Reviewed by JonathauZzitrifteg very strong :case that- Jerk ,RuhY- ase Closed. Fat chance, one-is ?gas s (411411 -" 11: 4-4 1 4T. ii • tempted .to,„respond.10ne is betore. °ming him, contrary to Ctempted tO'Iolie that we have tre—Wirren Commission-Posner come so far:round the circle that an .1 Case„Closed has going for it is ttniten oi append y author can now attain pop success by that all the good-young reporters —4rra shot Oswald on impulse. THe After years of studying the evi espousing the looniest J.F.K. assassins:: and public officials who mistakenly unpuise irlierntk shoo dence and doing a one-hour &a tion theory-of ill4thabthe,,Warren swallowed the official FBI-CIA , a main ppolar Mentary on PBS on the assassins Commission was right. (The commis line on the assassination 30 years under his "lone nut" thesis. But the tion, I think it's unproven whethc sion found that. Lee Oswald, a lone nut,' i ago, and whose careers have evidence against him is so strong or not there was a second gunmai killed Kennedy and that Jack. Ruby,':-brought. them to influential posi- he evidentFy doesn't want the I:sometimes think I'm the onl another lone nut, killed Oswald. j . dons, have been waiting all this reader to see it. So • the whole student of the assassination wl Gerald Posner—who -left a Willi time for someone to relieve them Tfratteris-rettntratrrfaitfim.ah„ considers the question still ope: Stielclaw practice to, become an' from the self-doubt they are too it, Ffigrer ducks a persuasive wit- the others are about equally divic author, so he can't be all bad—does not smart not to have suffered under; ness that Ruby's act was carefully ed, pro and con. I've watched tk sink as low as his slimiest predecessor]predec Posner has offered thernthis com- premeditated (Elnora KIT) Ey famotis Zapruder film of the assn on the case arridon; Oliver' stone fort, and Tom Wicker has even- quoting one line of her testimony in sination, frame by frame, wi. an ar ane); he oesn't knowingly responded with a supportive bliirb contrast to the gist of the rest of it; people (one an FBI official) wl present concoalons as fact. But he does on the jacket. • lie-brusites-off-fcrart5trerWinialds are certain that it proves all tl lie down with such predeceiso r a The third factor in this book's /an NBC-TV crew.. and editor). shots came from behind, and, nation- oo wri ers n a ony "stKceis is that so much, pardon the simply were mistaken, other times, with people equal mers, Jim Marrs and SMI•-d- avT .iorpression, crap has been pub- ignores a fifth (a preacher). corn- certain it proves the fatal sh fefilir,11thi at he resents only the lished about this case over the- iTge.trgitt near only ,what7he came from in front. All the fil ,s years by so many publicity-seek- wants to from a sixth [Ruby's ever proved to me is that t ers and nitwits that Posner can- stripper Karen Carlin, the key to President was shot. Posner clah in a way that readers who easily look like a sage dispelling it. Ruby's alibi). Maybe there's a that a new, computer-enhanc aren't aware th-Et-th-eTe's more to the He goes on at length knocking saustactory.explanation for all this version proves and for all tk: stsitl—-- r7Wrether ?ostler andlhe others softballs out of the park—such as evidence, but Posner doesn't-pro- the shots came from the re: willfully-omitted the contrary evidence! fOur pages of text spent refuting a vide it any more than the Warren Yeah. or just got carried away by forming book that claimed that -J.F.K.'s Commission did, which leaves me posner is perfectly willing to t conviction ahead of fad, I don't know. body had been switched with some thinking Ruby was indeed stalking the word of Aaron Kohn, for= "caseClosecl2:1 3eint other - corpse so that conspirators his target • • FBI agent and head of the N4 taken intic ous y by could monkey with the real body Like other authors.in the genre, Orleans Crime Commission, as lo people than any of-the—ahers. So it before the autopsy. This is "Elvis Posner constantly, quotes' selec- as Kohn is castigating the work needs serious rem-eV:Its success, men in UFO," stuff. Posner shows tively. Posner considers Secret Jim Garrison. (Garrison was I pect, owes to three things. First, the some of the more widely Service Agent 'Paul Landis a reli:; former New Orleans district attc book is extremely well-written'and! followed Warren Commission crit: able witness when quoting him to ney who tried to frame a lo therefore apt to be persuasive to those ics, like those mentioned above, are -prove that Oswald's first shot came businessman in the. assassinatio without the contrary evidence. (The scarcely - better.To .be. sure,' he earlier than Warren Commission But nowhere does Posner then I same talent helped popularize Stone's contributes a public service by critics claim; this showi Oswald you that the same Aaron Ko: movie J.F.K.; deceitfulness aside, it was cataloguing this garbage. had plenty of time to fire off two having studied the evidence, w. brilliant filmmaking.) The second thing .But. when.: Posner faces hard- more shots from his window perch to his grave -convinced that • balls—the serous prooltinis with behind:-..the President. Warren Commission (and ti Please see Page 10 the Warren Commission - Posner-- is 'right bout this.) But Posner) was dead wrong, and t ducks their Sy passing them find. nowhere does Posnertelryou that New Orleans Mafia Boss Cai Jonathan Kwitny's latest book Is footnotes. rOr ex.more, there is a his .trusted witness !Landit_ then "Acceptable Risks" Simon h testified that he heard the'second shot come "from somewhere to- ward the front, right-hand side of the road." That:: would be the fern—Oils "ifirassY •knoll,_*here, ac- cording to Posner, there absolutely wasn't: a second gunman—and so he can't say- Landis (like many others) 'thought there was. • f, Posner is - most misleading . in claiming that Ruby was an under- Bliley and the committee first world nobOdy, merely hanging on' uncovered the mass of circumstan- in a sleazy bar business and trying tial evidence linking Lee Oswald to look important. Posner's three • _xisit.twith Las yegas gambler and and Jack Ruby to the Marcell° main sources for this view are (says they Dallas police) murderer crime .organization. Posner tries Ruby's. brother Earl, who naturally Lewis 11?CdW11Iie,' Who 'tharidgeti a Marcello,zrganized hard to belittle, then refute, this seeks to protect the family image; string of Mafia-controlled casinos evidence, but does so largely and an assistant prosecutor and in Cuba, the Caribbean and the U.S. had the plainest Motive: The Ken- through inaccuracy and omission. Dallas night club eolumnist, bath of Ruby said he went to Cuba to show nedy brothers had been relentless- He says the House Committee was whom are confessed liars about an entertainment act; Zoppi says ly prosecuting him and his friend preparing to endorse the Warren -this .case,Posner„acknowledges he planned to come with Ruby but Jimmy Hoffa, who supplied Mar- Commission conclusions, until, in - (though only in a footnotCdelpite canceled at the last moment to see cello and other.. Mobsters almost December, 1978, the scientific en- many text, references) that the another show in Las Vegas. Ruby unlimited cash from the Teamsters' hancement of the recording of a prosecutor concocted a story for spent almost the entire week in Union.) motorcycle cop's radio led an the press that J.F.K.