Customer Reviews

Bloody Treason: On Solving History's Greatest Murder Mystery : The Assassination of John F. Kennedy

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
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1 star:		(3)

 

 

I am not an assassination buff but I have bought a fair amount of books related to the subject.

I am very choosy of which book I buy because book prices are high and assassination progress is slow.

I believe Bloody Treason is a must for anybody interested in finding out new lines of enquiry and updates of old ones. Serious progress is also made in relating the enquiry into 'the big picture' of the assassination itself and the fact that more that one 'cabal' and/or groups -at many different levels- may have been actively involved.

The chapter of the forged x-rays is written in such a way that it even makes it thrilling to find out what really happened. It is detective work of a very good quality.

New theories like the forging of the Zapruder film is also painstakingly put together. In this case the subject matter is not thriller material but very important to discuss and to log.

Twyman, the author, is sincere when he cannot follow a line of enquiry for lack of time and/or when something doesn't quite add up to much but is worth discussing and considering it for further research.

Twyman also goes out of his way to maintain an objective balance in his own research. This is an example to other assassination writers. In the past, the competive nature of some researchers make them lose perspective in their own research. Twyman is genuinely complementary of other authors such as Jim Garrison, Mark Lane, David Lifton, Gaeton Fonzi and others.

If you are new reader on the assassination of Kennedy, this book is all you need for the time being. If you know a lot about it, it is vital to relate the details to the whole. Bloody Treason encompasses the entire assassination universe. From the foot soldiers and bystanders to the potential paymasters and organisers. The presentation is such that you can almost follow the planners as they close in on the kill.

I will not critisize any theory put forward in this book becuase each reader reader will have to do that. This book -as well as others on the subject- require an active mind on the part of the reader.

My recommendation to future assassination researchers is that they should unite according to area of expertise and thoroughly research individual lines of investigation. Then they should publish together the findings. It is a pity that investigative minds like Twyman and others have to be so broad in their research. Maybe Twyman himself should be the General Director of this investigative team because he has the right mind for it (not having been an assassination 'specialist' before the publication of this book).

Maybe this could be Twyman's next project. 10 inquisitive authors each researching anything that concerns the names that appear in Bloody Treason such as Gerry Patrick Hemmings, HL Hunt, David Sanchez Morales, William Harvey, David Atlee Phillips, E Howard Hunt, Frank Fiorini, Jean Rene Soutre and others. Imagine what can be achieved by such team investigation. I believe the next big break will come from that line of research. The first one to try it was Gaeton Fonzi with David Sanchez Morales. In a way, to cite the same 'by line' for each one of the above names is not enough. There's got to be more that can be dug out in relation directly or indirectly to the assassination. The subject is crying out for 'biographies' of these people in order to understand how the CIA, FBI work in covert operations. But from the point of view of the individual carrying out the orders.

I believe there is a fear among some researchers to go on a 'wild goose chase' if they don't cast their net wide enough and miss out on some new nugget of information.

Last but not least I would like to correct a mistake which I detected on the subject of CIA torturer Dan Anthony Mitrione. Its on page 427 under the title 'Epilogue' it reads "Morales was a CIA man in charge slaughtering the Tupamaros in Ecuador for their murdering none other than Dan Mitrone." It should ready "Uruguay" instead of "Ecuador". Mitrone worked as a CIA torture teacher in several countries in South America in the 60s and 70s but it was the Uruguayan Tupamaros that kidnapped him and after a trial he was summarily executed for the crime of being a confirmed torturer. Incidentally Mitrione was a devout Catholic with 10 children. Did he belonged to the Mafia? What was his connection to the CIA? What else knew about David Sanchez Morales? Did he work in Uruguay?

The devastating realisation of Twyman's book is that for the assassination to succeed it must have involved people at the top echelons of several US Government institutions and businesses. The quality of the planning and the cover-up is a warning to us all to be vigilant about our civil liberties and never to give up the search for truth.

Noel Twyman, with a degree in engineering, and the time, contacts and money to do it right, has brought us a work of great value. He reviews most of the major conspiracy theories, and through his own research and logical deductions finally arrives at his conclusion, a conclusion that time may show is as close to the mark as any ever put forth. By combining in-depth personal interviews with suspects such as Gerald Patrick Hemming and high-ranking Kennedy/Johnson administration officials like Robert S McNamara, with scientific re-evaluations of the autopsy photos and Zapruder film, Twyman weaves his way to his final conclusion, which unlike most other conspiracy books, includes all the evidence. A must buy for all wanting to find the truth.

The author has done his homework and like many researchers in the JFK murder, covered ground ignored by the so-called "watchdogs" of democracy (the press). He realizes many people have read many accounts, and this Kindle version allows one to go to the chapter in the TOC that enables one to read his earned opinion on what may have happened, without wading through the building of the narrative that may be familiar. As sad as it is that this murder was glossed over, Americans owe special thanks to those, like the author, who have not given up searching for the truth and who have worked hard to share their knowledge with the rest of us.

Since Johnny Cochran coined the phrase "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit" to get O.J. Simpson "off" for a brutal double murder, it seems that it has been "the theory of the crime" that has taken precedence over all else in determining the true nature and the cause of high profile crimes in the U.S. TV dramas are now all replete with this trope as its theme.

Here Noel Twyman uses with a vengeance his own "best fit theory to the data" approach. It is essentially this: All that remains as an unerring investigative tool is the sloppiness of the criminals' plan and the missteps they took in executing them. In the wake of a slew of errors in the JFK assassination (the mismanagement of the pasty, Oswald being the most egregious), and the unintended consequences that resulted, the author lays bare and exposes the very inner-workings of the crime itself: its motives, its plans, its structural and operational imperatives, the nature of the players; and even the requirements for the cover-up: all are exposed here through data that has been trickling slowly down to us, bit-by-redacted-bit, over the better part of the last five decades.

Twyman asks and answers his own most important question about uncovering the crime: Why not use the criminals' own mistakes against them? When those mistakes are coupled with the welter of investigative information and data to be found in the rich body of secondary sources, and then add to an inductive approach to theorizing, what tumbles out is the logic and the deep-structure of the conspiracy itself. The overarching structure of the crime itself becomes all but self-evident.

The beauty of the author's approach, which can only be described as a last-ditch and final effort to solve the crime of the century, is that by using in a systematic way the errors and missteps in the execution of the conspiracy as the engine driving an inductive investigative process, it becomes one that closely parallels the scientific method itself. Taken together, carefully groomed logic, systematic digging, and constant tugging at the slender thread of errors exposed around the edges of the conspiracy, become a brutally robust investigative guide to hypothesizing -- one that allowed the author to stepwise iterate closer and closer to the truth. So much so, that in the end, we know almost with a certainty that the true nature of the plot has been captured somewhere in Twyman's tightly strung net. If theorizing can be imagined to be a telescope, then with each new iteration of theorizing the author gained enhanced power to look deeper and more focused into the data, and at the full meaning of the mistakes the planners of the JFK conspiracy made. Accordingly, the final theory that best fit the unfolding data is with a high degree of certainty, probably the right one.

The Outlines of the Conspiracy

What we see revealed here by the author is a monstrously devious multilayered and complex plan, with lots of moving parts and lots of "cut-outs" and "sub-contracted" aspects. It would be an understatement to say that this was far from being a one-man job. Intellectually it was hatched well above the university level. The team that hatched the JFK assassination was not a set of novices, but seasoned experts in planning and carrying out complex criminal enterprises. And in retrospect, one can see right off, that this eliminated all but the mob and the CIA as groups with the intellectual, operational and financial capability to pull off such a job. I would also have included the FBI in that group except were it not for the fact that that organization was being run by an inept megalomaniacal leader who due to his homosexuality was already thoroughly compromised and under the thumb of the mob.

As for the motives for the JFK assassination, the overused cliché that it involved a "perfect storm" comes readily to mind. The Kennedy brothers had aligned against them the most formidably set of enemies ever aligned against a modern political leader. To them all, ending JFK's life was nothing short of an existential matter. To the CIA, J. Edgar Hoover, Lyndon Johnson, the CIA, rightwing fanatics, and the mob -- even the Cuban exiles; with respect to JFK, it was a zero-sum game: Either kill JFK or be killed by him is the way they had perceived it. Plus the Kennedy brothers made the job infinitely easy for them by being naïve, corrupt and personally vulnerable to blackmail and extortion due to their sexual escapades and literally being in bed with the mob too. The real enigma was not that JFK was assassinated, but that all the disparate interests aligned against him would be needed to coalesce to get the job done; and that they could indeed come together in a common cause to commit the crime of the century. What we learn here in 900 pages is that they were able to do so, and that they succeeded almost to perfection. Except that there were a few irreversible errors.

Irreversible Errors

Insiders have called the JFK assassination "the perfect crime." But was it really? Twyman proves that it only takes one loose thread to unravel the whole "well put together scheme." And in the JFK assassination there were several such not so well put together loose threads. To wit: the mismanagement of Oswald, the patsy; the botch autopsy; the internecine treachery and backbiting within the ranks of the mob, the CIA and the FBI. The completely botched Mexico operation; the loose talk of too many players with guilty foreknowledge; trying to link the assassination to a possible invasion of Cuba, the incestuous relationships between the key players -- in particular between LBJ and Hoover; the CIA and the Mob; the Cuban exiles and the CIA and the FBI; between Oswald and Ferry; between the mob and its underlings like Ferry and Ruby; and between members of the Warren Commission and LBJ, the CIA, and the FBI.

Like a sieve, these all proved to be porous weak links that when patched together over time, gave up their secrets. Jim Garrison was the first to begin tugging at these loose threads, and had it not been for heroic efforts on the part of the government to squash it, his investigation alone would have cracked the conspiracy. Not enough good can be said about this fearless genuine American hero and war veteran.

The real Tragedy for our Nation of the Kennedy Assassination

That the elected leader of the free world, our self-proclaimed "greatest democracy in the world," could be gunned-down at high noon in Texas is one thing. It is quite another for a public that claims to cherish its democratic ideals and way of life to do nothing about it at all but eat the weak cover story for breakfast, followed by a knee-jerk instinct to bury our heads in the proverbial sand for 50 years; and to run and hide behind our own self-made Potemkin wall of self-delusions?

But that of course is not the end of the matter. It is still quite another matter yet to have to come to the realization that our democracy is actually being run by the same dark, sinister, racist, fascist, anti-democratic forces that gunned-down JFK, RFK and MLK, and thus that as a result, our nation's institutions are far, far less than what meets the eye. Since we have seen a trail of the fruits of the assassination in Watergate, Iran-Contra, BCCI, Mena, Arkansas, and the most recent financial melt-down just to name the more obvious ones, one must ask: Is it not et time for true American patriots to stand up on their hind legs and fight back?

As Peter Dale Scott warned us in his profoundly sobering book "Deep Politics and the JFK Assassination" If we do not expand the scope of our understanding of the reality of American politics (to include the mafia, the manipulation of our political process by the intelligence agencies, the distorting impact of the lobbyists, and of drug money, etc) we will forever forfeit the right to fight for -- let alone enjoy, our democracy. Peter Dale Scott was the first to show us that there is a walled-off infinitely more corrupt more sinister part of America that only rarely rises to the level of everyday public scrutiny. It is a layer that we know exists but which we kept pretending is not there at all, or else we keep pretending that we do not see it, when in fact we do. 100 stars

I guarantee if you read this book & you are the average person that is curious, you will know more about the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy than anyone in the media. The Z Film arguments of alteration are beyond my scope to know if the film was actually altered, rather than the known editing of missing frames, anyway forget about that-600 of the 900 pages are on suspects..it's all extremely interesting and well written. There are several people hooked up with Intell and the secret war against Cuba who spill the beans. It all comes together in that aspect, though latter chapters on Hoover and LBJ show their poor character, they aren't as powerful as the thrust of the book. The 40 pages or so on David Lifton's investigation tracing the different caskets, the different wrappings on the body from parkland hospital to Bethesda is well documented wth outstanding graphics, timeline chronology so forth. The chapters on the medical evidence are fantastic, the one on the X-Rays is extremely technical, but very important to the case. Also, the many, many photographs mainly of suspects( including Autopsy) are excellently reproduced, and several are very rare. Well worth the steep price..

Noel Twyman's magnificently researched and written book "Bloody Treason" convincingly established that the well-buried truths of the JFK assassination were replaced by elaborate lies: the fabricated evidence--such as missing frames in the Zapruder film and other films, photographs, and x-rays--done immediately after the assassination. A logical progression was presented, which led to the author's conclusion that Lyndon Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover were deeply implicated in the massive effort to fabricate false evidence and destroy real evidence. The extensive original research, including interviews with a number of firsthand witnesses, establishes beyond a doubt that there was a conspiracy and that it was wide and deep, involving a number of agencies of the federal government (the interview with Gerry Hemming was arguably more than merely with a witness; he was possibly one of the participants, unwitting or not). Twyman's book is, in many ways, the biggest brick in the foundation of meticulously detailed research upon which my own book is based and, by proxy, incorporates.

Phillip F. Nelson, author of "LBJ: The Mastermind of the JFK Assassination"

It is not very often that one book can add so much that is new and invaluable when dealing with a topic as complex as the Assassination of JFK.

But in this case, that has been accomplished. Noel Twyman, author of Bloody Treason, has written a classic of giant proportions that will rank with the top five books on this topic ever written.

Noel covers the entire spectrum of the JFK plot from the very highest levels that includes FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and Lyndon Baines Johnson through the middle layers that encompassed the machinations of H. L. Hunt, the Texas oil billionaire, and even included several defrocked former Generals like the head of Douglas MacArthur's G-2 for decades, Charles A. Willoughby and Maj Gen Edwin A. Walker who was indicted for insurrection when he led the anti-integration riots at Oxford, Mississippi in the 1960's. Walker had been forced to resign for leading a John Birch style indoctrination campaign of his troops in Germany during his last command there.

Perhaps some of the most valuable insights into the case came directly from extensive interviews with one of the most omnipresent Soldiers of Fortune involved with the anti-Castro machinations prevalent at that time, Gerry Patrick Hemming who was involved with numerous U.S. Gov sponsored and several unofficial actions against the Castro regime. Hemming, a skilled prevaricator, seems to have been involved with every major covert operation during the 1960s's from Cuba to Florida to Louisiana to Texas and even California, by his own telling. The chapters involving Hemming are well worth the price of the book by themselves. Separating the braggadaccio from the whole truth is a challenge presented to the reader by the author, and it is not an easy task.

The only disappointment that I felt after perusing the entire work and searching for the ultimate summation and conclusions was this one item. Even though Noel Twyman spends over 500 pages of the 700 page magnum opus discussing and analyzing and inte! rpreting the effect of the movement known as Right Wing Extremism in the conundrum surrounding the murder of JFK he pulls some punches at the end and fails to deliver what I believed to be a well deserved series of death blows to that movement and its membership.

Certainly he builds a very strong case to that effect and even comments how truly ironic it is that almost everyone who was involved with some aspect of the character assassination of JFK was not only a Right Wing Extremist but also quite likely involved somehow with the actual assassination or the discussion of those events.

That is the only shortcoming that I was able to find in an otherwise brilliantly composed and portrayed work that is a tribute to the intellectual capacity and patience of the author who was never published before this work. To be able to interpret and consume almost 35 years of the written and the spoken word about a topic as complex as the assassination of JFK is a feat onto itself. But to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff and to focus on the primary commonality that was shared by all of those who wanted to see JFK die, the Right Wing Extremists, is a courageous step in the right direction.

This book is even more relevant today in light of the continued character assassination attacks on our current President, William Jefferson Clinton that emmanate from the far right extremists of today. To stand by idly and do nothing is to invite a repeat performance of the 1960's, in my opinion. The direct lineage back to those who were involved in the attacks on JFK is apparent to all but the terminally obtuse.

I challenge all of you to buy this book and read it and then to mount a massive counter-attack on both the tactics and the tacticians of the far right before they are able to consummate the plan that they hatched over 35 years ago. Whether by hook or by crook they are determined to wrest control of the US Government from the duly elected representatives of the citizenry. Only your continue! d blase attitude and lack of action will allow these McCarthy style campaigns to succeed.

If you ever wanted to strike a blow at McCarthyism or Hitlerism or Right Wing Extremism, but were too young or too naive or too unprepared to do so, then now is the time to stand up and be counted and to do something to reverse their onslaught against both an elected Democracy and our system of Republicanism. Right Wing Extremism is nothing more or less than a combination of the worst of McCarthyism and Hitlerism and John Birchism whether you can accept it or not.

To quote Mary Ferrell, the grand dame of all JFK assassination researchers in her preface to Bloody Treason:

"I salute you, citizen Twyman for your efforts."

I join Mary in her salute to Noel Twyman and to anyone else who has the guts and the courage to stand up and be counted and to do something to fight back against the organized efforts of the right wing extremists who are counting on your apathy in order to install their candidates in the State Houses of this Nation, in the Senate and the House of Representatives and in the White House in Washington, DC. They shall not prevail.

By the way, importantly, you can get this book on Kindle for $10. Buy it IMMEDIATELY! Noel Twymann did a lot of primary research for this book and he used the best of JFK secondary research. Chapter 31 on Lyndon Johnson is a critical one and it leaves on thinking that absolutely Lyndon Johnson was DEEPLY involved in the JFK assassination. He has a section on Gerry Patrick Hemming, a section on Robert D. Morrow (not me, I was born in 1964!), CIA, military industrial complex, ZR Rifle and the French Connection, William King Harvey who was good buddies with mafia hit man Johnny Rosselli, David Atlee Phillips, the Mafia and the Dallas Police... the only section I strongly disagree with is that the Zapruder film was forged. It was not. The Zapruder film is totally legitimate- that is why the government and CIA assets at Life magazine did not show it to you ever! [Finally Robert Groden put it on Geraldo on national TV in 1975 and when that happened MILLIONS of Americans KNEW JFK was murdered in a conspiracy.]

"Noel Twyman is passionately sane. Read his book, begin to wake up from the 35-year-old nightmare. When that happens, the millennium has begun." Donald Freed, Visiting Distinguished Professor of Loyola University and co-author of Executive Action

"You tell Noel Twyman for me that his book is the best thing I've ever read on the assassination." James W. Sibert, FBI agent who witnessed the autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital, as reported by William Matson Law in his book, The Eye of History

"One hell of a book - a fine job of actually linking J. Edgar Hoover to the plot." John Davis, author of Mafia Kingfish

So the bottom line, as I hold the hardback version of this fabulous book, is that it is a BUY, BUY, BUY, BUY! Get it on Kindle for $10 or if you have the cash pay the big bucks for a used copy of this incredibly important book.

Combines important new material with an excellent overview of the major evidence for conspiracy. Full of photos and exhibits supporting his claims, including several frames of the Z film. Decide for yourself whether his claims about the film are correct. The frame in which Conally raises his right hand while holding his white hat is especially good, its something I never noticed seeing the film on television. Even if Twyman is wrong about the Z film being altered, this is a classic.

As a student of the JFK case since 1967 I found the book to be an interesting read. Noel Twyman's work and analysis of the "altered" Zapruder film was a particularly intriguing section of the text. His thorough research is to be admired as well as his organizational skills at putting such a plethora of information in readable form. I would recommend this book to anyone seeking to gain a further understanding of America's greatest mystery. Kudos on all counts.