Murder in Dealey Plaza: What We Know That We Didn't Know Then about the Death of JFK

A compendium of recent thought and discovery about the Kennedy assassination, this volume makes a case for official malfeasance and against the ""lone gunman"" explanation. Fetzer (Assassination Science), a professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, sets the tone for an in-depth revisionist history in his prologue, in which he makes note of what he views as 16 ""smoking guns"" in the Warren Report and questions the veracity of the JFK autopsy photographs and tissue samples, and even the Zapruder film. Most contributors explore these topics in detail, aided by Ira Wood's precisely detailed ""November 22, 1963: A Chronology."" In provocative essays, Douglas Weldon explores tangled vehicle-related evidence that he concludes indicates that JFK was shot through the throat from in front of the car rather than from behind; Vincent Palamara names several Secret Service agents who he believes may have been compromised; and Fetzer discusses the little-seen ""Assassination File"" of former Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry. Also included is Bertrand Russell's acid 1964 assessment of what he viewed as a nascent coverup. With much discussion of alleged manipulation of forensic and photographic evidence, the book's overall focus is primarily technical, on what the contributors see as the wealth of evidence of a multiple-shooter assassination, with likely complicity of the Secret Service and other government agencies. This coolly angry dismantling of the theories of the Warren commission and lone-gunman supporters like Gerald Posner will be fodder for conspiracy theorists. (Sept.)