Summers has a long familiarity with the JFK story and isn’t afraid to correct himself. “Not in Your Lifetime” was originally published in 1980, under the title “Conspiracy.” Recognizing that the title was problematic, he changed it — and continued reporting on the story. In this edition he has found diverse witnesses — a couple of FBI agents, a Cuban exile, and a former Warren Commission staffer — who bring new information and perspective to his account. No longer the president’s closest advisor, Bobby struggled to find his place within the Johnson administration, eventually deciding to leave his Cabinet post to run for the U.S. Senate, and establish an independent identity. Those overlooked years of change, from hardline Attorney General to champion of the common man, helped him develop the themes of his eventual presidential campaign. This gem among books on Robert Kennedy follows him on the journey from memorializing his brother’s legacy to defining his own. Much less of a kooky conspiracy book than anyone would have you believe, and much more of an in-depth investigation of the flaws of the Warren Commission and an examination of how the the deep pressure to come up with an answer, any answer, can cause anyone to overlook glaring problems. The main reason why this is another one of the top Kennedy assassination books out there is that it gives the reader an inside look at the investigations about the shooting, from the perspective of someone who was involved in the investigation – Jim Garrison, who was the New Orleans District Attorney at the time.

Most of the books that you are going to see on this list ultimately focus on the assassination of John F. Kennedy. However, you will also get to see a lot about his personal life, years of the past, and many other aspects of this man’s life. John was born on May 29, 1917. We all know him as a strong politician and the 35th President of the United States of America. Kennedy also served during the Cold War, and most of his acts during his presidency had something to do with the Soviet Union and Cuba. Personal Life The prominence of Mexico and Cuba in the Kennedy books means that those countries are likely to be among the most frequently searched words in the latest archive release. And those of us who find The Tears of Autumn the most plausible explanation of the assassination will look with particular interest at any CIA documentation dealing with Diem’s death. Don DeLillo, after extensive reading of the 26 supporting volumes to the Warren report, presented Oswald in his 1988 novel, Libra, as the stooge of a CIA attempt to promote war with Cuba. James Ellroy’s American Tabloid (1995) begins with Castro’s coup and ends with the Dallas assassination, which the novel attributes to a conspiracy involving the Cuban interests of the CIA and the mafia. Most contributions to the JFK book depository have fingered at least some of the figures in the Garrison-Prouty conspiracy theory. The most recurrent prime suspect has been Cuba, which had been infuriated by the Bay of Pigs operation – Kennedy’s failed attempt to depose the Castro dictatorship through a CIA-run invasion by Cuban exiles. The communist island also features in Oswald’s still-mysterious trip, weeks before the Kennedy shooting, to Mexico City, where he apparently hoped to secure a visa to defect to Cuba. Serving as a Chief of Special Operations under the Kennedy administration, L. Fletcher Prouty decided to put pen to paper and give us one of the best-rated Kennedy assassination books in existence. Prouty, a former colonel in the US Army, eventually turned to banking and became a critic of US foreign policy and the existence and practices of the CIA, the very same reasons that many believe JFK was killed for.Jim Douglass isn’t some tenured history professor at an Ivy League institution. He’s the writer of many books, but he identifies first and foremost as a peace activist—he’s spent his lifetime advocating directly for the poor and disadvantaged, and he and his wife, Shelley, live a humble life in Birmingham, Alabama, where they run Mary’s House, a non-profit Catholic Worker house. He’s not regularly hob-nobbing with the cultural elite or rubbing shoulders with Hollywood types. Leading up to October 2017, the Archives released a batch of material that July, including a total of 3,810 documents. Some 441 had been withheld in full until that point, and 3,369 previously released in redacted form. Among the released information were 17 audio files of interviews conducted with a KGB officer, Yuri Nosenko. Nosenko, who defected to the United States in early 1964, claimed to have been in charge of a file the KGB kept on Oswald during the time he lived in the Soviet Union (1959-62). This is truly one of the books that you need to read if you are at least remotely interested in learning more about JFK’s death. It’s rare to see such an amazing combination of great storytelling, fact spitting, and valuable insight. Waldron, an independent scholar, comes to the JFK story with the mission of explaining not just how Kennedy died but the nature of American politics in the 1960’s, encompassing not just Kennedy’s presidency, but the assassination of Martin Luther King, and the Watergate scandal. This is ambitious — and endless. If the reader differs with Waldron’s interpretation of events, the story starts to lose credibility. As Waldron’s vehicle motors on towards pre-ordained destination, the author seems oblivious to the possibility that the reader might have a mind of his or her own. What I didn't really like about the book is that it went too much into how the bullet entered and left his brain. I understand it was to show that the brain was tampered with before the autopsy to prove that the bullets only came from one direction (Oswald) and that there couldn't be more than one shooter, but I'm not a doctor. I will never be a doctor and a lot of the stuff written about I just will never understand. Not exactly the best thing to read about while eating lunch, too. I wish the book went more into what was Oswald like as a person before the shooting? How did he end up at the Book Depository? What went on with Kennedy a few months, weeks and days before the shooting? The same question with Lyndon Johnson. This book mostly focuses on the MEDICAL evidence concerning the brain, the autopsy and x-ray photos and how the body may or may not have been altered with either before it went on Air Force One or while it was on Air Force One or not at all.

In this compelling book, the author James W. Douglass tells you everything there is to know on the reason why JFK was assassinated, and why uncovering those reasons to the general public is very important for the US and the entire world.As one of the most popular Kennedy assassination books out there, you can expect to learn a lot of new details about the case from Plausible Denial. Mark Lane, who released this book 25 years after the first book he wrote on this topic, continues with his groundbreaking discoveries and reports about the case and uncovers how former CIA operatives either helped the convicted murderer or helped him in his plans to kill the president. In A Lie Too Big to Fail, longtime Kennedy researcher (of both JFK and RFK) Lisa Pease lays out, in meticulous detail, how witnesses with evidence of conspiracy were silenced by the Los Angeles Police Department; how evidence was deliberately altered and, in some instances, destroyed; and how the justice system and the media failed to present the truth of the case to the public. Pease reveals how the trial was essentially a sham, and how the prosecution did not dare to follow where the evidence led.

In The Revolution of Robert Kennedy, journalist John R. Bohrer focuses in intimate and revealing detail on Bobby Kennedy’s life during the three years following JFK’s assassination. Torn between mourning the past and plotting his future, Bobby was placed in a sudden competition with his political enemy, Lyndon Johnson, for control of the Democratic Party. Once Kennedy started to waver on those Cold Warrior beliefs, the book claims he was marked for death by the military intelligence agencies that held (and still hold) huge influence over every level of government in the U.S. These forces, which Douglass call “the Unspeakable” (after Thomas Meryton), tagged Kennedy as a dangerous traitor, plotted his assassination, and orchestrated the subsequent killing and cover-up in Dallas in 1963.

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Who Really Killed Kennedy? (2013), by Dr Jerome R Corsi, also finds the mafia guilty, although with a little help from Richard Nixon and the French. Another work published to mark the 50th anniversary of JFK’s death, The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ, by Roger Stone, a Trump associate, implicates President Lyndon Baines Johnson, in close association with mobsters and US intelligence. Lifton's technique in the book is to discuss his personal journey into the world of assassination researchers, and then through to publishing this. He documents his relationship at UCLA with Warren Commission staffer Wesley Liebler, which is a delightful addition to the book. Published in 2013, shortly before the 50 th anniversary of the tragic event, Killing JFK is a fairly new book on Kennedy’s assassination. Lance Moore, an acclaimed author, puts together all of the facts in a conceivable and easy-to-read manner, and lists over 200 credible sources that JFK’s killing was in fact more than the act of a single actor.

I’m interested in what readers think is the best single book about JFK’s assassination and why. I’ll summarize and publish your views. A year after the book was published, a documentary of the same name was also released based on it, which includes footage of many witnesses that were in very close proximity to the president when the shooting happened, who are in support of Mark Lane’s claims. This book is one of the first ones to raise questions about the questionable circumstances of JFK’s death. Questions that still remain unanswered to this day. He combines old with newly discovered evidence on the topic and is certain that a sniper placed looking directly straight at president Kennedy is the one who ultimately delivered the fatal shot to the president’s head. As with most other books on this topic, Moore also talks in detail about the many irregularities involving the Warren Commission. 50 Years of DiggingThe book starts out with an introduction by Oliver Stone, the director of the famous JFK movie. Prouty’s theories, claims, and evidence were in fact some of the main inspirations for the director to produce the movie. Crucial Facts Surrounding the Assassination Speculation about Oswald’s activities on his Mexico trip have long fueled one of the most popular JFK-related conspiracy theories, which argues that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro plotted to assassinate Kennedy as revenge for the Bay of Pigs invasion. In the 1970s, revelations that the Kennedy administration made various attempts to assassinate Castro fueled the idea that Castro acted first against Kennedy.