1967

Richard L. Lewis

Scavengers and Critics of the Warren Report

New York: Delacorte, 1967.

Entertainingly lobs boiling tar and inflicts eyepokes onto the critical community. Rib-tickler refers to women researchers as “housewives underground.” Based on an investigation by Lawrence [Larry] Schiller, who was in Dallas early on. Schiller would later provide research for Norman Mailer’s 1995 book Oswald’s Tale. The chaffingly-titled Scavengers developed from the 1966 Capitol Record The Controversy.

Hardcover, 189 pages, 5 photos, 2 dwgs. Dell paperback May 1967.

William Manchester

The Death of a President

November 1963

New York: Harper & Row, April 1967.

Impressive effort to chronicle the events of the assassination as broadly and accurately as possible. In early 1964, Mrs. Kennedy invited writer Manchester to be the Kennedy Family’s “official historian” of the assassination, granting unprecedented access to principals.

Manchester went to work right away, maintaining an office in the same building as WC, going to Dallas to walk every mile of the motorcade route, and interviewing firsthand hundreds of witnesses, from bystanders in Dealey Plaza to JFK’s casket honor guard. Much detail—not available anywhere else—emerged concerning not only the assassination, but minor and major sideline events, such as what dignitaries had originally been planning for the coming days, how the Secret Service functioned, the role of the media in relaying the news, and so on.

Manchester misspells some names, smears the city of Dallas and takes too much dramatic license in describing JFK’s last “gesture of infinite grace.” But the greatest controversy generated by Manchester, a New England liberal, was his harsh portrayal of Lyndon Johnson’s seemingly-abrupt and insensitive assumption of power and the friction it generated with Kennedy staffers abroad Air Force One on the flight from Dallas. Not yet sufficiently deterred, the Kennedy family had aspirations for another Hiberian bid for the Presidency, and thus were horrified at the anti-LBJ/Texas sentiment implicitly sanctioned by their endorsement of Manchester.

Manchester was born of strong Puritan stock in Attleboro, Massachusetts, near the Rhode Island border. JFK and Manchester, a Marine on Guadalcanal, served in close proximity in the South Pacific during WWII, both receiving Purple Hearts. They first met in 1946, while recovering from war injuries in Boston, and became casual friends.Manchester attended the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri, where his master thesis—on Baltimore’s pointedly-derisive columnist H.L. Mencken—was expanded into the book Disturber of the Peace. Mencken got Manchester hired as a reporter on the Baltimore Sun, once the paper most read in Washington. Eight years later, Manchester took the position of managing editor of the Wesleyan University Press in Middleton, MA. While there, he wrote four novels and the massive biography Rockefeller Family Portrait.Kennedy encouraged Manchester to expand a series of magazine articles the writer undertook for Holiday into the informal, but flattering, 1962 book Portrait of a President. Manchester was the third author approached by the Kennedys to write their sanctioned history of the assassination. Theodore H. White (The Making of the President, 1960) and the venerable bestselling Walter Lord (A Night to Remember) had—in retrospect—sensibly declined.In 1983, Manchester—who seemed like a literary version of JFK—provided text for the elaborate tribute photobook One Brief Shining Moment: Remembering Kennedy (dedicated to leprechaun Dave Powers). Manchester undertook ambitious biographies of MacArthur and Churchill, and the dense histories The Arms of Krupp, 1587-1968 and The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972. A professor emeritus and writer-in-residence at Wesleyan University, Manchester seldom spoke about the assassination, giving a rare pronouncement in the ruckus that followed the JFK movie.

Harold Weisberg

Photographic Whitewash

Suppressed Kennedy Assassination Pictures

Hyattstown, MD: Self-published, June 1967.

The third installment in the epic Whitewash series. Much ogling over the photographic evidence, including various photos (ie: Betzner, Bond, Dorman) looked at but not used or published by the WC. Weisberg analyzes the speed of the Zapruder camera, claiming it was shot at 24 FPS instead of 18, and the “missing” Z-frames lost by Life magazine.

Concludes the Hughes film “shows the ‘sniper’s nest’ with the President under it and it does not show Lee Harvey Oswald in it.” (The 1993 Frontline documentary did establish the film captured a figure—no doubt Oswald—moving in the sniper’s nest.) This book contained no photos.

Softcover, 296 pages, incl. 150 pages of docs. Reprinted 1976 (shown). In Dec. 1993, Carroll & Graf published a softcover collection of excerpts from the series called Selections from Whitewash.

Charles Roberts

The Truth About the Assassination

The Answer to the Warren Report Critics

New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1967.

Short but to-the-point, this entertaining book takes on then-active critics Lane and Epstein, and clarifies Manchester’s interpretation of LBJ’s “rough” takeover aboard Air Force One. Roberts was Newsweek’s White House correspondent, on the front seat of the motorcade’s first press bus (whose 50 occupants Roberts notes were excluded from Lane’s “complete list” of witnesses) and later standing behind Johnson during the swearing-in.

Looks at Lane’s misrepresentation of witnesses like Mercer, Bowers and Markham; plus the notorious “Carousel Meeting” Lane guardedly referred to in his testimony to the Commission. The 1955 Mister Roberts movie was based on Roberts; he died in 1992 at 75. Foreword by Kennedy Press Secretary Pierre Salinger. Book cited in 1979 The Flying White House.

Softcover, 128 pages, 2 B/W photos.

Gil and Ann Chapman

Was Oswald Alone?

San Diego: Special, 1967.

Alone? You bet. Lee was the only, repeat, only member of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee he formed in New Orleans. Oswald was so lonely, he invented aliases for company. The Magtag Repairman never got that lonely. Poor Lee. This book repackages existing conspiracy research. Apparently no relation to Lennon assassin Chapman, no-less lonely.

Paperback, 160 pages, 3 illus.

Rosemary James and Jack Wardlaw

Plot or Politics?

The Garrison Case & Its Cast

New Orleans: Pelican Press, 1967.

Very informative material on the evolving Garrison investigation and Oswald’s activities in New Orleans during the summer of 1963. With their background as reporters for the now-defunct New Orleans States-Item newspaper, the authors provide a wealth of detail and background not found elsewhere. Very balanced but bothered by Garrison’s tendency to accuse Feds of falsifying evidence that conflicted with his theories. Many photos of characters and locations you’ve only read about. Enough sleaze to back up Ol' Man River. Useful appendix of names.

Softcover, 167 pages, 40 B/W photos, 5 illus.

Harold Weisberg

Oswald in New Orleans

Case for Conspiracy with the CIA

New York: Canyon, 1967.

Analysis of factors behind then-developing case against Clay Shaw by New Orleans DA Jim Garrison. Specualtes on Oswald’s attempt to establish a CIA “cover” while living in the city during the summer of 1963. Foreword by Jim Garrison, who based much of his investigation on this book. Singles out Warren Commission staffer Wesley Liebeler for not pursuing “leads.”

Paperback, 404 pages.

Sylvia Meagher

Accessories After the Fact

The Warren Commission, the Authorities & the Report

New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967.

Despite being the Holy Grail of the conspiracy community, this bedrock volume has not aged well. On the surface it appears scholarly and substantiated—which immediately distinguishes the book from preceding efforts—but quickly unravels in the light of subsequent research and the decline of Sixties radicalism. A leftist zaftig renowned for vitriol, Meagher’s contemptuous attacks on authority figures and the Dallas Police just no longer seem plausible.

Innuendo is captiously applied to the anecdotal accounts in the WCH to undermine the case against Oswald. There’s a condescending East Hamptons disposition—perhaps not misplaced—against Texan rowdies and those disreputable Cuban exiles. The master scholar of the herd, Meagher’s tremendous leaps-of-faith and chop logic include such gems as newsfilm—shown in the documentary Four Days in November—having a soundtrack [of the shots!] that was suppressed, and that Ruby’s retrial would have exonerated him.

New Yorker Meagher [pronounced Marr] was a research libarian for the United Nations and a writer of analytical reports since 1947. In researching the Warren Report, she complied and published the 1966 Subject Index to the Warren Report and Hearings & Exhibits, and indexed Epstein’s 1966 Inquest and Thompson’s 1967 Six Seconds in Dallas. Her exhaustive findings appeared in such publications as Esquire, The Minority of One and Studies on the Left. She appeared on radio programs and panels, and lectured throughout North America.Ever devisive, she had particular animosity towards conspiracy nuts Jim Garrison and David Lifton. The feud with Garrison began over him not answering one of her letters; with Lifton, it was his casual association with a member of the WC junior counsel.

Josiah Thompson

Six Seconds in Dallas

A Micro-Study of the Kennedy Assassination

New York: Bernard Geis Associates, 1967.

This may be the finest conspiracy book ever written—and the first major publication to illustrate effectively the mechanics of the assassination and the curious aftermath in Dealey Plaza. Its attractive layout, reasoned analysis, moderate aspirations and sensible conclusions made the assassination’s intricate contentions accessible to the average reader. Unlike previous books, Thompson declined speculation over the broad plot in favor of outlining a working scenario of the crossfire sequence. The crushing drawback is his overconfidence in the use of eyewitness impressions.

Thompson rashly times the first shot using a Willis photo, said to be taken in reaction to the sound of a shot. It was fired during Z210-224 into JFK’s back and amazingly failed to transit. (In years to came, Thompson relented on the notion of a “short charge” bullet.) The problematic non-transit finding was prematurely tendered at autopsy and enshrined in the Silbert-O’Neill report (first published in the 1966 paperback edition of Inquest).

Thompson feels he has confirmation [of the throat being uninjured] with Kellerman hearing Kennedy yell. The clothing holes suggest an impossible upward trajectory between the back and throat wounds. The second shot fired struck Connally at Z234-238 (the shoulder violently drops); the trajectory suggests the roof of the Dallas Co. Records Bldg. The first shot to Kennedy—and one of the two to his head—came from the Depository.

On the fatal shot, Thompson relates the discovery of “a double movement of the President’s head separated by only 1⁄18 second” caused by two shots from different directions. A skull fragment exiting the throat caused the wound there. (Alas, it’s as unlikely as the simultaneous double-impact to the head.) Outdoing the gyrations of the Single Bullet Theory, Thompson proposes a bullet fragment gymnastically vaulted the windshield to wound Tague.

Thompson presents a mysterious and suitably-indistinct “head” seen at the fence line in the Moorman photo. Witness Sam Holland—loony star of the 1967 Rush to Judgment film—obligingly invents “men” and the “barrel of that gun” in the photo, signaling the book’s climax. Thompson appropriates Lee Bowers’ tale of “two men” at the fence from his WC testimony, failing to acknowledge the omission of same from Bowers’ Nov. 22nd affidavit.

Many of the important findings revealed by the Zapruder film were adapted from Raymond Marcus’s manuscript The Bastard Bullet. Chapter ten destroys a lot of the then-current—and still far-fetched—conspiracy indicators. Appendixes include “A Critique of President Kennedy’s Autopsy” by the sophistical Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, and a section with 73 thumb-sized Commission documents which are referred to in the text. Most impressive was a “Master List of Assassination Witnesses” that ran to 268, with 190 listing their perception of shots heard in Dealey Plaza; it generated great currency among the conspiracy theorists. Firing sequence now thought to have spanned eight seconds, rather than six. Received major promotion and cover-page treatment in the December 2, 1967 issue of Saturday Evening Post. Chapter “Physical Evidence” reprinted in 1976 anthology The Assassinations. Introduction by Bernard Geis (publisher of the 1966 JFK conspiracy novel Trumpets of November, about a bad bunch called the Militants).Hardcover, 323 pages, 212 B/W photos, 40 illus, 96 docs. Berkley paperback reissue (inset; with authentic Zapruder frames) Nov. 1976.

Josiah Thompson

A Haverford College, PA philosophy professor, Thompson took a year’s leave to write Six Seconds in Dallas. Early critic and Philadelphia lawyer Vincent Slandria advised Thompson on new avenues of research. Along with research assistant David Butterworth, the study concentrated on the origin of the shots and—regrettably—the mallable testimony of bystanders.As the work progressed, Bernard Geis read Life magazine’s call for a new inquiry and arranged a meeting. Thompson was invited to be Life’s special consultant on the assassination. In that capacity, he was able to arrange screenings of the Zapruder film for critics like Sylvia Meagher and Cyril Wecht—and gain the trust of witnesses like Sam Holland. Surprisingly, Life magazine denied Thompson use of Zapruder images for his book, forcing the substitution of detailed sketches; eventually the courts would issue a “fair use” ruling for Thompson.

Thompson later became a private investigator, penning the noir Gumshoe. Reflective and temperate, he has appeared in the 1988 Nova and 1993 and 2008 Frontline documentaries, among others; and has done some work with the Sixth Floor Museum. Thompson has pleaded directly with the conspiracy community to abandon the self-delusionary Zapruder film alteration dead end.

John Sparrow

After the Assassination

A Positive Appraisal of the Warren Report

New York: Chilmark Press, 1967.

Brief—but scholarly—approach from a distinguished English academic that urges caution in interpreting eyewitness accounts. Critiques widely-read books by “anti-Establishmentarians” Lane, Popkin, Joesten, Weisberg, Meagher and Thompson. A voice of sanity in a sea of speculation.

Discomforting chapter on Garrison notes a dragnet empty “save for a handful of homosexuals and other queer fish in New Orleans.” Controversy proves “the truth of the old adage—Populus vult decipi: the public is really to be deceived.”

Having undermined their guile overconfidence in eyewitess testimony, Sparrow got under the critics’ skin, as he and Mark Lane had a furious exchange in the Times Literary Supplement of March 28, 1968. For whatever reason, Sparrow was excluded from Lane’s 1968 Citizen’s Dissent. Peter Dale Scott—in his introduction to the 1976 reprint of Accessories After the Fact— wrote of Sparrow and “the rest of his breed.” Book possibly grew out of the article “John Sparrow on the Warren Commission” in the Sunday Times of Dec. 20, 1964.

Hardcover, 77 pages.

Prof. John Hanbury Angus Sparrow (1906-92)