High Treason 2: The Great Cover-Up: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

This is an oddity in the current spate of Kennedy assassination books, representing both the best and worst aspects of the genre. Livingstone, an assassination buff, self-published the first installment, and this is a follow-up. He concentrates intensively, for two-thirds of the book's nearly 600 pages, on the medical evidence, endlessly interviewing and cross-examining everyone involved in either of the two autopsies , in Dallas and at Bethesda. He concludes, as many before him have, that the photographs, drawings and X-rays that were released simply do not add up, and that much manipulation was involved to prove the President was shot only from the rear. Livingstone's amassing of this material is meticulous and exhaustive; in his more general comments, however--on the Kennedy presidency, his enemies, his lifestyle and sexuality--he is another writer entirely: overemotional, credulous, often ludicrous. The book needed severe editing--and it is not clear, despite the detail, what Livingstone adds to what many writers have said in a fraction of the length. Photos not seen by PW. (May)