Act of Treason: The Role of J. Edgar Hoover in the Assassination of President Kennedy

Books about the Kennedy assassination keep appearing, and now North, a Texas lawyer, claims that the President died as the result of a plot masterminded by Louisiana Mafia chieftain Carlos Marcello--and, more importantly, that FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover learned early on about the plan but did nothing to stop it, warning neither the Secret Service nor the Dallas police. His motives, according to North: hatred of Kennedy, fear that the President would get rid of him and a longing for the accession of Lyndon Johnson, whom Hoover had in his pocket because of scandals surrounding the vice-president. North neatly sketches Hoover's bizarre personality, how he ran the FBI and the ways in which the FBI is supposed to cooperate with other agencies. Most of the book, however, is a near-interminable, day-by-day collection of press clippings involving Hoover, President Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and various crime figures; much of it seems barely relevant and could have been cut without harming North's thesis. But he argues it well, amid the clutter, and certainly helps explain many odd failures of the Warren Commission, whose findings have long been almost universally disregarded. (Nov.)