Customer Reviews

First Hand Knowledge : How I Participated in the CIA-Mafia Murder of President Kennedy

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When I first read this book back in 1994, I thought it was going to be another typical, but perhaps amusing, book on who-killed-JFK. Was I wrong! After reading it, I knew our understanding of JFK and that era was much more complex and shocking than what is portrayed in the media or books. Exposes much of the Kennedy brothers' antics (not the sexual escapades of JFK & RFK -- but the political), leaving the reader numb and shaking his head....could this really have happened? Too convincing and detailed to be fiction, it is a book you can read over and over again. For those who were too young to remember, or not alive during that time, you get a feel of the political environment of the early 60's. The book gives you the understanding of why JFK was taken out of the picture (though not justifying it), and reads much better than any work of fiction. I'm not surprised that this book is now out of print....somehow, I DON'T think because it didn't sell well. It's just too dangerous to keep in print! My recommendation is, if you can get your hands on a copy, get one while you can, and stash it. You won't be sorry. NOT like the other "conspiracy" books; NOT a book of theory -- but of real-life events from someone who knew and worked among those who organized and pulled off the biggest conspiracy in this century. Also, if you want a frighteningly accurate portrait of the JFK and his brother, read this. The expose' of "Dark Side of Camelot" was only melodramatic compared to "First Hand Knowledge."

Most books on the JFK assassination focus on who did it. This confuses the real issue. It seems that anyone with a weapon, some ammunition, and a lot of cojones can shoot at a President or anyone else. Morrow's book, though flawed, contains rare passages on the much more interesting and important question of who covered up the truth and why: J. Edgar Hoover, who wanted to bury the Kennedys politically to keep his job, Lyndon Johnson, who coveted the Presidency but had dirty secrets of his own to hide, and the CIA, who in conjunction with Cuban exiles were pursuing their own war against Castro and the spread of communism in the Western Hemisphere. Morrow, a CIA contract agent, claims he was unknowingly on the periphery of the actual hit. He says he bought four Mannlicher rifles which he believed would be used in an attempt on Castro's life, but which actually wound up in the hands of a professional hit team in Dealey Plaza. His descriptions of a couple of other jobs he did for the CIA look plagiarized from Ian Fleming. Supposedly he was in Cuba's interior on the eve of the Bay of Pigs invasion, when he collected evidence of Soviet missile construction which was ignored by the Kennedys for a year and a half. He also recounts a dashing motorcycle getaway from Castro's agents during a trip to the Bahamas. The bravado of these James Bond stories looks phony and somewhat ridiculous when compared to the rest of the text. If you can ignore the baloney, this is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in the assassination. However, in discussing the coverup, this book ignores the most interesting issues of all. There is no discussion of the political climate at the height of the Cold War, 15 years into the atomic age, and the possible consequences if the CIA had not aggressively opposed Castro. Further, there is no analysis of how the Kennedy Administration managed to alienate and make enemies of so many powerful groups - seemingly everyone they dealt with. You have to go a long way to provide incentives for covering up something as incredible as the truth.

I have tried to do a research of the author on the net, but I have found nothing that links him to anything that he claims to be or be a part of. Even without such proof, upon reading this book, this guy is in the middle of all key events and just so happens to know everyone who is anyone involved or mentioned in the assasination.

Just like a certain female who claimed to be Oswald's lover and she put herself involved in every event - like any killers would let some lames know what they are doing, this guy is involved with everyone. Let's see:

* His electronics expertise is in such high demand that the CIA recruits him and rather quickly, he is in their inner-cricle!
* He is an expert pilot and when David Ferrie (his buddy!) could not fly, it was his skills that saved them in the ill-fated Bay of Pigs fiasco!
* You name them, he knew them!
* He did not know he was participating in the JFK assasination, but the Cubans and CIA talked about it and got him to get in on it BEFORE they had him buy four Manlicher-Carcanos - from a store none the less! Why oh why would killers have a guy who they would not tell details to, buy the weapons? The seller could easily recall this bit of info - if it happened!
* This guys is either a liar, or he is the greatest mind the world has ever seen! He can remember verbatum, what all of these various peoples told him, showed him and the names of casual people.
* Just like in the movies, at every critical moment, Robert D. Morrow is the only man that can save the day! He was the McGeyver of the 1960's! They always called on him, even if they did not really know him. If only the CIA could be that trusting of everyone...
* After the murder, he recalled hearing Oswald's name even though he claims he never knew about him until he got picked up! These killers who can pull off a set-up like this have big mouths.
* If the CIA were going to involve players in a set-up for murder, they would not let an un-made man like Morrow know the whole plan! Hell, they would not even let top guys know the plan. They would only have people play the part they need to play and not know why they are playing it. I am not in intelligence, but i know that much. With all of the key witnesses killed, why would THIS guy still (I don't know about now) be alive?

As you read this fantasy, you wonder why any agent would trust him with telling him anymore than he needed to know as far as his part as an electrnoics man is concerned? Of all people, why would they need HIM to buy the rifles? Why would they even need to buy rifles? This guy is a fraud and he could be a disinformation artist - or just a con-artist! I just do not understand how people can take a serious issues and bring BS into it. Maybe he was hoping for a movie deal? Maybe, like so many REAL witnesses and others who were remotely associated with someone who was associated with the event, he wanted his name in the history books? Instead of this, he should become a screen writer. This read like Forest Gump or the Watchemen, injecting himself into history.

Clearly this man cannot know every detail and be there for every event as he claims. As you start reading, you realize that this guy is every where and it seems as if he is James bond or in some action film where it is up to "Robert D Morrow" to save the day, even with highly trained individuals around who should be able to do it better!

I bought this used and it was cheap. I had a feeling it was BS, but in case SOME of it were true, I may be able to see it. However, like most who want their name in the history books - even if they were involvled in some way, they overdo it and place themselves where they could not have been. Even witnesses change their stories later on to make a book more exciting or to solidify their place in history. Yes, Jean Hill was one of those people to me. I say get this book if you like fiction. Stay away if you don't have time for games when dealing with this subject.

The main complaint the people below seem to have against Morrow is his arrogance and so-called encounters with women (this is a normal trait for many in that line of work anyways). If you get past that, the book has much infomation and details of the political and intelligence perspective/views of that time. Morrow's dealings with the underworld is quite interesting, and his chapters on the Kennedy brothers is very revealing. If Morrow threw in a few "007-ish" parts to beef up the story a little, just take it in stride. But the information he shares about the D.C community and main figures of that era is quite fascinating. I definitely recommend this book if you have any interest in JFK assassination history.

Although this book is very interesting, I found it very hard to read. I got very sick very quick of the author talking about how he had an affair on his wife, how smart he was and what he did to hold all these very important government deals together.

I think that if even a part of this is true however, that this is very scary. There is a lot of information about the underhandedness of the CIA and other government officials and how much of this led to JFK's death.

If you can concentrate on the story and get past the self bragging, this book is very interesting and disturbing. However, for me, the constant self importance of this author got old fast.

This is all so interesting, but who ordered and allowed the CIA to direct the hit on JFK. The head of the CIA would have been told what and where. Hoover was up to his scrawny neck in it, so was Lyndon and Nixon. I'd like to know who ordered it. So much for big business, undermining the intelligence of the ordinary American with wheeling and dealing and determining who lives and dies. It appeared to be like a game of dominoes with consequences beyond a laymans comprehension. They have no right, as good peoples lives have been cut short because of it. Its all very well to mention Marcello, Gambino family, Roselli, Hoover and half of the CIA, but who were the so-called respectable moneyed persons pulling the strings? Thats the mystery. Otherwise great reading.

Finally!! we have someone who can tell us what happened, who did it, and how they did it! Morrow was there, and he is not speculating and not theorizing. Extremely interesting facts about the Bay of Pigs invasion. For example, David Ferrie and he flew into Cuba to assess Soviet missile implacements. He also goes into what Oswald was really doing in the Soviet Union and many more facts. All of a sudden the whole thing makes sense. Anyone interested in the JFK assassination has got to read this book! Needs to be printed again, and/or we need a Kindle edition. This info should not be allowed to just get covered up by the sands of time.

Great book.One of the many books on the JFK assisination.This is one of the better ones and shows how the CIA compartmentalised many agents so they would not see the big picture.Plausible deniability at its best.For those who have doubts who killed JFK read this.I have read many and people say who pulled the trigger? That we will never know but you can see who was behind it and to this day many transcripts are blocked from FOIA because of " national secuity".Go figure.lol

This is an excellent book. I was stationed in DC when the murder took place. I have always been fascinated by this event and you will never convince me Oswald acted alone. I have been to Dealy Plaza, it was a setup pure and simple. This book outline what I believe really happened.

This is a great book. I definitely enjoyed it.

The part that probably was most shocking for me, was when Morrow's CIA superior, Tracy Barnes informed him that one of Kennedy's murderers was Michel Mertz, alias Michael Victor Mertz, alias Michel Roux, alias Jean Soutre, a member of the French Connection drug trafficking network, and a dangerous killer, who reportedly killed 15 nazi soldiers during a shootout in a restaurant during WWII, even though Mertz originally sided with the nazis.

Mertz had connections to the American Mafia (Marcello, Trafficante, Giancana, Roselli). And he had connections to the CIA (he met with E. Howard Hunt in May 1963, and visited the Cuban exiles training camp run by David Ferrie, Guy Bannister, and others at Lake Ponchartrain (spelling may be wrong) where Lee Harvey Oswald also was seen, along with Clay Shaw and others.

Mertz also visited General Walker, alleged target of a Lee Harvey Oswald assassination attempt(I doubt it).

The FBI was trailing Mertz before the assassination, but lost track of him two days before.

Mertz was in Ft. Worth Texas the morning that Kennedy was (11/22/1963). And Michel Mertz was in Dallas on the afternoon that Kennedy was killed (11/22/1963).

Coincidence? Hard to say.

Mertz who died in 1995 was then deported out of the country by ROBERT KENNEDY'S Justice Department, after being arrested by the Dallas police on the day of the Kennedy murder.

Why was he deported? Did he have Diplomatic Immunity? Did the Justice Dept. suspect that he was one of Kennedy's murderers (which, if revealed to the public, would put a dent in that whole "lone nut" hoax)? Possibly for both reasons.


And here we have Tracy Barnes, a CIA legend in some circles, admitting that Mertz killed Kennedy, among others, to Robert Morrow.

Interesting stuff.

Anyway, this book has a ring of truth to it....the most plausible assassination scenario, in my view, was that the Mafia/CIA/Cuban Exile faction who were trying to kill Fidel Castro, turned their guns on Kennedy, and framed Oswald to try to have Kennedy's murder domino into Castro's overthrow. Many think that Oswald was supposed to be silenced immediately after the assassination....I wonder. Perhaps, Oswald was supposed to have been taken to Cuba, that day. After all, what better way to force an invasion of Cuba, than to tell the nation that Kennedy's assassin is hiding out in a safehouse in Cuba, courtesy of Fidel Castro, after his despicable act in Dallas? In fact a false story was spread that said that on 11/22/1963 a Cuban airliner had waited hours before take off, for a "special passenger" to arrive. After the "special passenger" arrived, he allegedly then stayed in the cockpit. Perhaps Americans were supposed to believe that Oswald was the mysterious passenger, or that the passenger was a fellow assassin, who with Oswald, murdered Kennedy. Cuba would have been invaded. Castro would have been killed. This scenario explains why Oswald left his wedding ring and some money for his wife and kids, in a drawer on the morning of 11/22/1963.......Oswald thought that he WAS going to Cuba. The problem was that he thought he was going to Cuba as part of the CASTRO overthrow plan....he didnt know that he would be blamed for Kennedy's murder. Oswald was ANTI-Castro. He played the role of a Castro supporter, but in reality he was not a Castro supporter and he was not a communist. After the killing of Kennedy and Oswald, a notebook belonging to Oswald was found, in which it appeared that Oswald planned to give a speech after some heroic event he would be a part of (Castro's overthrow?) In the notebook, Oswald seemed to have been writing a speech. Oswald wrote:"Having lived in the Soviet Union, few Americans have more reason to distrust and therefore hate communism (than I do)".. or words to the effect.

So after the assassination, Oswald goes to the Texas Theater to meet his intelligence contact (whether this was a real intelligence contact or someone who told Oswald he was an intelligence contact, but truly was not is open for debate. Perhaps there was NO intelligence contact in the theater that day. Perhaps Oswald was duped into going into the theater where he would act like his butt was on fire, getting up, sitting down, gettin up, sittin down, etc. thereby bringing attention to himself so the police could then converge and easily capture the patsy.) Oswald was waiting for his contact so that he could go to Cuba and help bring democracy to the Island ninety miles off the coast of Florida. While in the theater, Oswald goes from seat to seat, waiting for his contact to show a form of identification, such as a torn dollar or a torn box top (Oswald having been given the other half of the dollar or box top. Rumor has it, Oswald did have a torn top of a box on him when arrested. I cant confirm that.) So Oswald sits in the theater trying to find his contact. He sits next to one person...no response. He gets up and sits next to someone else. No response.He acted like he had ants in his pants. He even sat next to a pregnant woman in one instance (Movie theaters were probably even darker then, then they are today). No response from the pregnant woman, so he gets up and sits next to someone else. No guilty man would bring this much attention to himself. A man on a mission to meet a contact would act the way Oswald did.
Perhaps Oswald was told that his contact would be in the shoe store near the theater. This would explain Oswald's "suspicious" behavior that caught the attention of an employee of the shoe store, which then led to his capture in the theater.

Hey, it worked when we invaded Afghanistan to search for Bin Laden after 9/11, even though he may have been in Pakistan long before we ever got there......the public was told he was in Afghanistan, so that's where we went. Then we were told that Weapons of Mass Destruction were in Iraq (although President George W. Bush now admits that there werent any, and Saddam Hussein admitted during his interrogation that he never had any WMD's...he just wanted the world to THINK that he did so that his enemies in Iran would think twice before invading his country.) So, to Iraq we went.

Fear and outrage are wars' greatest allies. Instill fear or outrage in the public, and you get to go to war.


Sorry for rambling...just buy the book. ;o)