A Frustrating Waste of Time
As the owner of dozens of assassination-related books and
reader of hundreds, I can tell you that this book is full of stuff you can read
elsewhere. The subtitle talks about "stunning
new revelations" but there aren't any, if you've read elsewhere in the
field.
This is OK as an introduction for novices, but really
provides nothing but a rehash of books such as Waldron & Hartmann’s Ultimate
Sacrifice and Legacy of Secrecy; O’Leary &
Seymour’s Triangle of Death; Thompson’s Six Seconds in Dallas;
Edward Jay Epstein’s books; and others.
Most of this information is paraphrased or downright quoted
from other researchers. This DOES NOT
constitute revelations that are “stunning” or “new.”
Even Corsi admits he comes to the end of a list of suspects
by blaming “all of the above.” But then
he ties up the knot by saying that the Bush family and big oil are behind all
the other conspirators, because they financed Hitler before setting up the CIA
with Nazis.
In some of his summations of others’ theories, Corsi seems
to not care that these are sometimes competing stories. They can’t all be right. For example, in Chapter Four, Corsi tells us
all about his e-mail correspondence with a source who is ex-USSR/Romanian
Department of Foreign Intelligence. According to him, Oswald was a KGB recruit
who ws aimed at JFK, but was called off by a nervous Khrushchev. But the darn Russkies were worried that LHO
would go after JFK anyway, So, as told on page 175, the KGB decided to
neutralize Oswald, making him look crazy so he would draw attention to himself
and be spooked from trying to follow through on the assassination of JFK.
So, after explaining all of this about Oswald learned from
the ex-Red spy, Corsi switches gears to talk about the two earlier JFK
prospective hits in Chicago and Tampa in November, 1963. Wait, what?
We just heard all about how Lee Oswald was gonna plug the Prez. But if there were other attempts on Kennedy
planned, how could Oswald, the KGB’s go-to guy, have been involved with THEM?
On page 186, Corsi tells us flatly that “a Soviet
disinformation campaign was the origin of the various ‘conspiracy theories’
that have sought to explain the JFK assassination …” How can that be? Most of these theories are based on evidence
that the KGB could not have influenced!
The KGB couldn’t have had the Secret Service replace the limo’s
windshield and wash the car down; the KGB couldn’t control the autopsy that hid
the forensic evidence; the KGB couldn’t have switched the X-rays and photos
from the autopsy. And so on.
Other more easily fixed mistakes included simple
misspellings and boneheaded goofs. On
page 288 we are told that Bobby Kennedy wanted to act as a “deep throat” source
to Life magazine in its investigation into LBJ’s seedy roots. Umm, no!
Bobby might have provided secret info … but the term “deep throat
informant” didn’t arise until many years after Bobby’s murder! This is a sloppy use of a too-recent term.
We have a misspelling of the Oswald alias Hidell as “Hiddel”
on page 129.
In his chapter on “Oswald, Tippit, and Ruby,” Corsi recounts an investigator’s interview
with Oswald’s landlady, Mrs Earlene Roberts.
But twice in that recounting, he calls the lady “Mrs Johnson” when her
last name was “Roberts.”
On pages 150-152, Corsi discusses Edward Jay Epstein’s 1978
book , Legend. Then at least
five times he gives Epstein’s last name as “Lipton”!
At the end of the book, Corsi discusses George HW Bush’s
“New World Order” speech to Congress.
Page 311 tells us it took place on September 11, 1991. Yet when Corsi refers to this speech again on
page 316, it happened in 1990.
On page 314 he says that Clay Shaw was very close to
cracking the JFK case when he meant to say Jim Garrison, not Clay Shaw.
It’s sloppy mistakes like this that distress folks like me.
So, you can read the information presented here ELSEWHERE
. And probably proofread better, too.
Take a last look at the cover image of a guy walking through
a door “into the light.” Well, friends,
I can tell you: on the other side of
that door is a shelf full of earlier JFK books and a photocopier.
