Cover-Up [Hardcover]

Stewart Galanor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1998

The evidence of a conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy and its cover-up by the government and news media.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Cool, clear, concise. Galanor has boiled down a mass of complex materials into an easily accessible, enlightening discussion. Superbly done."
--Michael Parenti, author of Inventing Reality: The Politics of News Media

"Quickly and dramatically Cover-up shatters the lone assassin theory. The weaving of photographs and document with scientific evidence exposes in a remarkably clear way the workings of a cover-up."
--John Loughery, The Hudson Review

"A thoroughly researched account of how the Government's version of the Kennedy assassination is filled with contradictions and impossibilities."
--William Pencak, Professor of American History, Penn State University

"A cogent destruction of the Government's account of the assassination. An astounding amount of evidence counters the deceptions and forgeries that lie at the heart of the official cover-up."
--David S. Lifton, author of Best Evidence

"Galanor skillfully cuts through thirty-five years of clutter and zeros in on the crucial evidence. His systematic, persuasive analysis--supported by beautifully reproduced documents and photographs--will lead any reasonable reader to a chilling but inescapable conclusion: there was a conspiracy and a cover-up."
--Zachary Sklar, co-author of screenplay JFK

"With 40 volumes from two official investigations, as well as hundreds of published books--all devoted to the solution of John F. Kennedy's assassination--Stewart Galanor's eloquent, spare volume is a treasure for novice and expert alike. With understated prose and well-chosen images, Galanor dissects the core issues that hobble the single assassin thesis.
"His amazing short section on Dealey Plaza witnesses may well be the best summation of this evidence in print. Interviews he conducted thirty-two years ago not only formed the basis for this remarkable chapter, but also justified early doubts about the truthfulness of the witness reports the FBI delivered to the Warren Commission."
--Gary L. Aguilar, MD, Head, Division of Ophthalmology, St. Francis Memorial Hospital, San Francisco

About the Author

Stewart Galanor is the author of the textbooks Calculus: A Visual Approach and The Paradox of Tristram Shandy. He is a multimedia consultant and technical writer for financial institutions and the television industry. He resides in New York City.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 182 pages
• Publisher: Kestrel Books (NY); 1 edition (October 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966277201
• ISBN-13: 978-0966277203
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,151,440 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Compendium of Conspiracy Thought, October 17, 1999

By 

William T. Parnell (Sherman, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cover-Up (Hardcover)

According to an old maxim, good things come in small packages and such is the case with Stewart Galanor's 184-page volume Cover-up (Kestrel Books, 1998-ISBN 0-9662772-0-1). It is unfortunate that Galanor's book wasn't available at the time Oliver Stone produced his docudrama JFK. If Stone had optioned Cover-up as the basis for his script instead of Jim Marrs' Crossfire, he might have made a more accurate film. In Cover-up, you won't find reference to the Umbrella Man, Three Tramps, Storm Drain Shooters, Mystery Deaths List, or other canards employed by some theorists. Galanor's book can be thought of as the antithesis of Jim Moore's Conspiracy of One with brevity being their only similitude.

First Impressions

Galanor's book is a well-written volume that is easy to read and beautiful to look at. It features an excellent 13-page photo section at the front of the book that outlines the story of the assassination up to the publication of the Warren Report. At the end of the main text is an extended document section followed by the Zapruder frames and Galanor's analysis of where 216 Dealey Plaza witnesses thought the shots originated. The document section, which includes photographs taken by Galanor, is beautifully reproduced. I had never seen some of these items in such detail and clarity before.

Galanor, a multimedia consultant and technical writer based in New York, has studied the assassination since 1964. His book purports to show evidence that a conspiracy existed to assassinate the 35th President. It is essentially a compendium of criticism of the "official version" of the assassination as presented by the Warren Commission (WC), House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), and the major news media.

Grassy Knoll Witnesses

One of the major contributions Galanor obviously hopes to make with Cover-up is his analysis of those witnesses who reported shots originating from the grassy knoll. In 1978, the HSCA had Dr David Green, chairman of the Psychology department at Harvard, analyze accounts of witnesses from the 26 WC volumes and FBI reports. Dr. Green and the HSCA concluded that, out of 178 witnesses analyzed, 11% thought the shots came from the grassy knoll, 27% thought they came from the TSBD, 44% were unsure, and 17% named another source. According to Green, the size of the sample (178 out of approximately 600 people believed to have been there) "makes it difficult to believe that a sizeable selection bias was present". Galanor argues that a significant number of these witnesses were, "government agents who tend to identify with the government's case. Hence the Committee's selection process did not come close to producing a random sample". Galanor concludes, "Therefore, Dr. Green's claim that an accurate statistical analysis could be performed is false".

Additionally, Galanor offers a detailed look at four issues pertaining to the knoll witnesses that he maintains were not considered by Dr. Green and the HSCA.

1. Accommodating Witnesses Galanor maintains that, "One delicate issue to confront is the truthfulness of some of the witnesses". He then goes on to explain how Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry, JFK aide Kenneth O'Donnell, and AP Photographer James Altgens originally expressed the view that the shots came from the knoll but later changed their story to match the "official version".

2. Deficient Interrogations On this subject, Galanor writes, "A second issue to consider is: How diligent was the Warren Commission in obtaining the Witnesses' accounts?". He goes on to cite three witnesses who were never asked their opinion as to the direction of the shots and who fingered the grassy knoll area.

3. Erroneous Reports Most of the discussion in this section is reserved for the notes made by Secret Service agent Glen Bennett. In his notes reported to have been made around 5:30 p.m. (before the autopsy), Bennett said he saw one shot strike JFK "four inches down from the right shoulder" and subsequently saw the fatal head shot hit "the right rear high". The WC mentioned Bennett in their report, giving substantial weight to his observations. According to Galanor, "A more demanding Commission would have examined photographs of the assassination to see if Bennett was at least looking at the President when the shots were fired. Alas, photographs taken by witnesses show Bennett looking off to his right toward the knoll long after he claimed to have turned to look toward the President".

4. Witnesses Not Called Galanor maintains that the government never interviewed several reporters who witnessed the assassination and the HSCA analysis is therefore incomplete. Galanor's own analysis of the 216 grassy knoll witnesses shows the following:

32% were not asked where the shots came from. 37% thought the shots came from the grassy knoll. 32% thought the shots came from the TSBD. 24% could not tell where the shots came from. 4% thought the shots came from both the knoll and the TSBD. 3% named a location other than the knoll or TSBD.

Conclusion

With Cover-up, Galanor offers a concise treatment of the undeniable discrepancies that exist in the JFK case today. Lone assassin theorists will no doubt find many areas in the book to challenge and may point out that some of the anomalies in the evidence are probably benign in nature. The major contribution of Cover-up is likely to be Galanor's own analysis of the 216 grassy knoll witnesses. To his credit, Galanor has omitted many discredited theories and misrepresentations of fact that weaken similar volumes. He is also to be credited for presenting a substantive discussion of the medical evidence without using some of the more graphic autopsy materials. In this regard, Cover-up would be an excellent tool for even younger students wishing to familiarize themselves with the issues that may suggest conspiracy. On the down side, he asks many questions, only some of which he attempts to answer. Ultimately, it will be up to each reader to decide if the puzzles of the JFK assassination are the evidence of a conspiracy or the result of an inadequate autopsy, mistaken eyewitness observations, and various other innocuous slip-ups. On that score, Galanor leaves the reader with no doubt as to where he stands.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It is provocative...and it spells conspiracy., October 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Cover-Up (Hardcover)

This is a unique book. Unlike the authors of the voluminous books we are accustomed to on the subject of the Kennedy assassination, Stewart Galanor does not get bogged down in minutiae. He does not even propound a particular theory. What Galanor does is straightforwardly roll out the ABCs of the assassination. In a mere 120 pages, plus an additional 50-some pages of valuable documents, diagrams, photos and a witness list, Galanor covers the evidence in a clear and concise manner. It is provocative, and it spells conspiracy.

Francis Lederer, Chief County Detective (retired) of Philadelphia, said, "Although not a novel, COVER-UP is easy to read and understand. It provides much documentation which proves the author's point. COVER-UP should be required reading for freshman criminal justice majors."

I would extend COVER-UP as a "must read" for anyone interested in the Kennedy assassination. Whether new to the assassination, or long mired in details and evidence of the event, COVER-UP is both informative and a stimulus to further study.

Galanor sets the tone simply and eloquently by introducing the tragedy in pages filled with memory jogging photos and few words. He goes on to present the major areas of evidence in an encapsulated form that should make even life long believers of the official government version of the assassination decidedly uncomfortable. Galanor summarizes the official stance in each area and contrasts it with the conflicts and contradictions that are obvious at every turn.

Noted researcher, Dr. Gary Aguilar, wrote, "His amazing short section on Dealey Plaza witnesses may well be the best summation of this evidence in print." COVER-UP includes a list of 216 Dealey Plaza witnesses and their opinions on the origin of the shots with citations. Additional supplemental pages offer crystal clear copies of some of the most talked about photos, documents and official drawings.

While one might differ with Galanor's personal take on some of the evidence in any particular area, he demonstrates pointedly that the official lone nut assassin line is demonstrably at odds with available documented evidence.

If you are new to the assassination and looking for a concise compilation of the basics and the problems inherent in the offical line, this book is for you. If you are well versed in assassination evidence and details, this book offers a fresh perspective, documents details probably unknown to you, and nails areas ripe for further detailed study.

Galanor's comparison of the official conclusions versus evidence denied, omitted, ignored and concealed leaves no doubt that President Kennedy died as the result of a conspiracy and that our historical record of that tragedy was then suffocated to death in a COVER-UP.

Barb Junkkarinen

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Summation Available, September 13, 2000

By 

James H. Fetzer (Duluth, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cover-Up (Hardcover)

Galanor has accomplished a feat that most students of this case have thought was next to impossible: a concise account of the most basic aspects of the assassination of JFK that enables new students to understand most of the crucial issues and old hands to fully appreciate their fundamental importance. In some ways, this stunning feat might have been expected from an author whose earlier work made calculus--perhaps the most difficult of undergraduate courses--accessible to students with no flare for mathematics.

In my own book on this case, MURDER IN DEALEY PLAZA (2000), I provide a set of 16 "smoking guns", beginning with two drawn from Galanor's book; and at the conclusion of my "Prologue", I advise my readers to begin with COVER-UP (1998) before they read mine. So don't be taken in by the book's easy-to-read style or by the abundant photographs, diagrams, and illustrations that make this case accessible to everyone who can read. It takes experts years to master this material. Galanor makes it accessible in hours.