Best Evidence (Signet) [Paperback]

David S. Lifton (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 920 pages
• Publisher: Signet (November 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451175735
• ISBN-13: 978-0451175731
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 3.9 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #893,935 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So ALL the Dallas doctors simply made a mistake?!?!, March 29, 2005

By 

The Mechanic - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best Evidence: Disguise and Deception in the Assassination of John F. Kennedy (Hardcover)

You're high if you think the whole JFK thing happened the way the Warren Report claimed it did. SO WHAT if exactly how it happened hasn't been substantiated down to the letter. How can you ignore dozens upon dozens of suspicious things in this case? LBJ gets the presidential limo cleaned (AND THE INTERIOR REPLACED) before it's inspected and photographed, and no one does ANYTHING??? He destroyed evidence in the murder of an American president, and NO ONE DOES ANYTHING!!! Hoover has the tree (the one between the sniper's nest and the exact location of the car when JFK was hit) cut down, and no one does anything. What, did Hoover have a lawn care business on the side? Why do the FBI agents in question (Sibert and O'Neill) need to be forensics experts, or, for that matter, medical doctors, to be able to recognize that surgery was done to JFK's head??? I don't have to be a certified auto mechanic to understand the difference between a problem with my alternator and a problem with my starter when my car doesn't start. I don't have to be an MI graduate to know the difference between someone who knows their instrument intimately and someone who only takes a casual interest in playing. (Then when re-questioned, the FBI agents said they HEARD one of the Bethesda doctors say that it appeared surgery had been done prior to the start of the 'official autopsy'. It's amazing how many people have back peddled and modified or, in some cases, outright denied, their testimony over the years.) Yes, a lot of people have turned this into a cottage industry. Yes, a lot of people have proposed some obscenely ridiculous theories. BUT IT DOESN'T MEAN THAT THE JFK MURDER WASN'T A CONSPIRACY!!! Reading this book gave me an idea about what it's like to be a crack addict. I lost sleep, skipped meals, and got angry. I thank God for David Lifton. Why would he spend 15 years of his life just to write ONE BOOK? You Warren Report people are the same as us. You'll point to practically anything, say practically anything, and dig you're heels in when cornered just to hold on to what you believe. You'll dismiss, disregard, and ignore, all the while doing the same thing you criticize us for doing. Believe what you want to believe. We may not know the exact details, but we believe there is more than enough evidence that proves something other than what the Warren Commission concluded DID OCCUR. And I think that, eventually, even if it takes hundreds of years, more of what really happened will come to light. And, even though I'll be long dead, I say, in advance, "WE WERE RIGHT!!!"

35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Conspiracy of Logic, October 21, 1999

By 

Simon (London, England United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best Evidence (Signet) (Paperback)

They say truth is stranger than fiction. People often ask whether David Lifton is in touch with reality? Or is he intricately locked in a nightmare from which he never awoke? For my part, this is a genuine soul search. Lifton didn't gravitate in blind fury towards conspiracy. He didn't suspect vast numbers of people of deliberately hiding the truth. Whatever you think of his thesis, "Best Evidence" is saturated in analysis and held together by relentless logic. For me this makes his theory incredible. It also makes it impossible to dismiss. Suppose, if you will, that Oswald was the sole killer of JFK. In that case Lifton is totally wrong and his book is grotesque fiction. But it remains logical. His logic is just based on a false premise (to use his own language). For me the question is: are any of his crucial premises false? Lifton's conlusion is fantastic. But consider the alternative. For Lifton to be wrong, all the Parkland Hospital doctors and nurses, who originally attended Kennedy, collectively misperceived or falsely described what they saw. Or if they didn't, then all the Bethesda autopsy witnesses did. Lifton doesn't pull this testimony out of thin air. It's on the record. Lifton accounts for all of it in a way few other authors have done. Most critics on the subject rely on discrediting witnesses, usually on a large scale. The same problem applies to defenders of the Warren Report. The point about David Lifton is that he doesn't discredit. He explains. His explanation is outrageous, bizare and even absurd. Logic can be like that at times.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The most credible theory I have read so far, January 11, 2000

By 

Caroline Guerin (Dublin, Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best Evidence (Signet) (Paperback)

I found Lifton's book both fascinating and enlightening. Never before have I found such dedicated and in-depth study of the actual documented evidence without hint of hysteria or paranoia. The trouble with films like 'JFK' based on the work of theorists life Grodin, is that, for all it's grassy-knoll witnesses and government sources, it simply is too lazy or credulous to look at the medical evidence. In one of his books, Grodin dimisses the pre-autopsy surgery theory out of hand. He would rather think that the autopsy doctors were all in on the conspiracy, so he doesn't have to explain certain discrepancies in his theory. Like the back wound. And the missing brain. Such "Dealey Plaza-based" reconstructions soon fall apart after investigation and bring ridicule on conspiracy believers. Not so Lifton's work. Every statement is backed up by substantiated and credible evidence. His clear, analytical thinking is one thing rare in many similar books which recycle old theories with their circular logic. Lifton's lifelong commitment to this subject shows through his exhaustive research.