False Mystery: Essays on the Assassination of JFK [Hardcover]

Vincent J. Salandria (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2004

False Mystery is an anthology of historic, long-lost essays on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy by pioneering Warren Commission critic Vincent J. Salandria. Most of these essays originally appeared in small, limited-circulation magazines (such as "Liberation" and "The Minority of One") during the 1960s.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Salandria is a marvel...False Mystery bears witness to his scathing criticism of the flaws of the Warren Commission. -- JFK/Deep Politics Quarterly

From the Inside Flap

Vincent J. Salandria has been an attorney in the Philadelphia public school system since 1967. He studied law at the University of Pennsylvania, and in the 1950s and 1960s was a volunteer lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union. He began studying the Kennedy assassination on November 22, 1963. In 1967 he served as advisor to Jim Garrison in the New Orleans District Attorney’s investigation of the Kennedy case.

Salandria is a lifelong resident of Philadelphia and an avid tennis player. Nicknamed "Hank" for his boyhood admiration of slugger Hank Greenberg, his favorite baseball team remains the Detroit Tigers.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 213 pages
• Publisher: Square Deal Press (June 2004)
• ISBN-10: 0975494104
• ISBN-13: 978-0975494103
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #438,407 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars "False Mystery" Gives A False View Of What Happened On 11/22/63 In Dallas .... Lots Of Errors In Here, March 2, 2006

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David Von Pein (Mooresville, Indiana; USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: False Mystery: Essays on the Assassination of JFK (Hardcover)

Vincent J. Salandria's "False Mystery" attempts to shed light on a supposed conspiracy in connection with the 1963 assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy.

But right from the very first few pages, mistakes in facts and questionable interpretation of evidence begin to pop out at the reader.

For example, on pages 2 and 3, the wounding of bystander James Tague is briefly discussed, and it is noted that the mark that was left by a bullet on the curb on Main Street near Tague's location lacked any copper substance. Which leads the author to infer that the bullet causing that mark could not have come from the copper-jacketed Mannlicher-Carcano ammunition used by Lee Harvey Oswald.

But the author fails to consider the very real possibility that the bullet's jacket might have become separated from its lead core before striking the curbstone (as a result of possibly hitting the oak tree in front of the Depository, or as a result of the bullet first having gone through the head of John Kennedy prior to reaching Tague's position near Main Street).

Then there's the usual pro-conspiracy nonsense about how the Single-Bullet Theory is all wrong and how it couldn't have happened that way -- which is an anti-SBT position that couldn't be more incorrect. The SBT is most certainly the most logical and sound explanation for the simultaneous wounding of victims JFK and Governor John Connally.

A huge error re. the SBT presents itself on page 5 of "False Mystery":

"The Governor's body did not react immediately after the President's body reacted. Therefore, he was not hit by the same bullet that hit the President."

The above passage is completely inaccurate, and provably so just by simply examining the very same Zapruder Film that Mr. Salandria claims proves just the opposite.

Connally's body is "reacting" (involuntarily) to the bullet strike at the EXACT same time as Kennedy (at approximately Z224-Z230 on the famous Abraham Zapruder home movie).

In fact, since JFK isn't fully visible after emerging from behind the road sign in the Zapruder Film until Z225, Connally can actually be said to be reacting BEFORE Kennedy, at Z224.

At Z224, a very important involuntary reaction is visible in Connally -- his right shoulder drops and pitches forward slightly, indicating the transfer of momentum from the impacting 6.5mm bullet that has just travelled through his back and chest. Watch for that shoulder movement here.....

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Also at exactly Z224, the right lapel on Connally's suit jacket "bulges" out (or "flips" up) toward the middle of his chest. This jacket movement, too, is something that's probably indicating the passage of the bullet through his right chest at precisely that point in time.

At Z225, Connally's facial expression changes, as a startled look appears on his face and his mouth opens suddenly (it had been closed at Z224, which is more-than-likely the precise Z-Frame when the "SBT" bullet struck both JFK and JBC).

Then, starting at Z226, another important (and obviously involuntary) physical movement on the part of Governor Connally occurs -- his right hand, gripping his Stetson cowboy hat, rises and drops again extremely quickly (in just the span of a mere eight or nine Zapruder frames). This "hat/arm flip" is telling us that his right wrist has just been smacked by the speeding bullet from Lee Oswald's Carcano rifle.

These "involuntary" signs of Connally being hit at just precisely the same time when Kennedy is also initially showing signs of distress are solid indications that the Single-Bullet Theory should more appropriately reside in the category reserved for "facts", rather than mere "theories".

The newer, better-quality, digitally-enhanced versions of the Zapruder Film have given us a chance to "tighten" the SBT timeline, and to hone in with more accuracy on exactly when the SBT bullet struck the victims. However, most of these "signs" re. Connally's movements have pretty much been visible for years (even prior to the MPI Home Video digital enhancements in 1998); but for some reason nobody seemed to want to interpret these things as indications of a bullet strike with respect to Governor Connally.

Below are a couple more examples of the SBT in action (via looped Z-Film clips). The top clip, in super slow-motion, gives an excellent view of Connally having just been struck by the bullet. Note the obvious "strained" grimace that comes over his face at what equates to Z225 of the Zapruder Film. This "grimace", along with the shoulder movement and the hat flip, IMO, are absolute proof that Mr. Connally has been pierced by a bullet just a few milliseconds prior to those occurrences.

The bottom clip shows another snippet of the Z-Film at the important "SBT" point of the movie. In my view, any person who watches that clip a few times consecutively will have no choice but to come to the realization that the two men in the car were reacting to a bullet striking them at just about exactly the same moment in time. Please take note of JFK's hands/arms at the time he becomes visible from behind the sign. He hasn't even STARTED to move those arms upward toward his neck when we first see him after the road-sign interference has been removed from view.

And yet many conspiracy theorists want to believe that JFK was actually hit many Z-Frames prior to Z224. But if that was so, why on Earth are Kennedy's arms near his lap at Z225? Doesn't add up. But it DOES add up if he had just been hit at Z224, and then started lifting his arms within two Z-Frames of 224......

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users.skynet.be/mar/SBT/Images2/222-262%20full-small.gif

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Here's one more top-notch video extract from the Zapruder Film at the time of the SBT bullet strike:

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An additional interpretive "SBT" error resides on page 5 of this volume:

"The Governor's body did not register any lurch when the first bullet struck the President."

This is definitely an inaccurate statement of the facts (unless Mr. Salandria is contending here that JFK was first hit much earlier, around Z210; but in such a case, neither JFK nor John Connally is visible on the Z-Film; therefore no visual evaluation of Connally's physical movements can be ascertained at the exact moment that JFK is first struck anyway).

As stated above (and visually demonstrated via that excellent slo-mo Z-Film video clip), Connally is most certainly exhibiting what could be described as a "lurch" immediately after Z-Frame 223, with his shoulder being visibly driven downward and forward. And if the impact of a bullet didn't cause this bodily movement at that time, then the question to ask would be -- what did?

Another error -- On page 6, this false statement is made: "A separate shot removed the back of the President's head".

That quoted passage was written to represent what the Warren Commission had stated in its Final Report in 1964. But that quoted passage is wrong. The WC never said any such thing. The last shot from Oswald's rifle entered the back of JFK's head....it didn't "remove" the back of his head. The exit wound on the President's head was to the front-right side. The official autopsy report, signed by three doctors, definitively stated that fact; and the Warren Report says the same thing. Why this publication says otherwise is yet another "False Mystery" it would seem.

Mr. Salandria's earwitness selectivity, used to attempt to buttress the idea that shots came from the Grassy Knoll area of Dealey Plaza during the JFK shooting, is rather interesting, somewhat strange, and not very convincing. By utilizing, on page 2 of this publication, the selective testimony of only the witnesses who were located on the bridge atop the Triple Underpass (plus Lee Bowers in the railroad tower to the north of the bridge, who said the shots could have come from "either the Depository or the Underpass", which certainly doesn't FAVOR a Knoll shooter any more than a Depository sniper), Mr. Salandria has (IMO) actually bolstered the "Lone Assassin" position.

The reason I say that is -- Because the cited witnesses (Austin Miller, S.M. Holland, Thomas Murphy, and Frank Reilly) seemed to hear shots from ONLY the Knoll general area, although Reilly is actually closer to a "TSBD" witness than he is a "Knoll" one. And since there is no doubt at all that at least SOME shots did come from the Book Depository, it would tend to undercut and weaken these witness' claims of hearing the gunshots all coming from the front of JFK's car. Which would indicate, logically, that all of these "Triple Underpass witnesses" were located in an area of Dealey Plaza where the Depository shots sounded as if they had come from further west than they actually originated.

Witness Austin Miller, by the way, said he thought the shots had actually come from INSIDE the President's limousine itself! And yet he is still used to try and improve Mr. Salandria's theory of shots from the Knoll area, when he actually heard none from that specific location. Curious. (Although it's possible that the author was using Miller as a "pro-conspiracy" witness based only on another portion of his account of the shooting, when Miller also claimed to see "smoke or steam" on the Knoll following the shots that he thought came "from right there in the car". But this book's author doesn't mention that portion of Miller's account at all on page 2.)

Another way in which most of those Underpass witnesses do no harm at all to the Lone-Shooter scenario is due to the fact... Read more ›