cover image Reasonable Doubt: An Investigation Into the Assassination of John F. Kennedy

Reasonable Doubt: An Investigation Into the Assassination of John F. Kennedy

Henry Hurt. Holt McDougal, $19.95 (555pp) ISBN 978-0-03-004059-7

Investigative reporter Hurt here assembles an overview of evidence, circumstance and theory about the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. In addition to reviewing the eight official inquiries and the various conspiracy theories, he minutely examines seemingly outlandish notions, such as the involvement of a Lee Harvey Oswald impostor in a Cuban conspiracy. The latter theory does not seem so outlandish after he produces a likely candidate and a witness whose testimony, though ""terribly sullied,'' provides an abundance of plausible detail. Hurt builds a powerful case that Oswald did not kill the president or police officer J. D. Tippitt, and that he was the ``patsy'' he called himself shortly before Jack Ruby shot him to death. The prose is a bit breathless at timesHurt refers to the crime of the century, the autopsy of the century, etc.but after reading this book, few readers will doubt that the circumstances surrounding Kennedy's assassination remain among the mysteries of modern times, or that the components of that mystery are laid out with notable clarity here. Photos. January 27