Four Days in November: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Paperback)

by Vincent Bugliosi J.D. (Author)
Key Phrases: lady bird, identification bureau, life line, Four Days, Secret Service, Vincent Bugliosi (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"One of the best narrative treatments of the four days... One cannot help admiring [Bugliosi's] zeal, drive, and conscientiousness." Wall Street Journal"

Product Description

“As good a second-by-second reconstruction of the assassination and its aftermath as I’ve read.”—Bryan Burrough, New York Times Four Days in November is an extraordinarily exciting, precise, and definitive narrative of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, by Lee Harvey Oswald. It is drawn from Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a huge and historic account of the event and all the conspiracy theories it spawned, by Vincent Bugliosi, famed prosecutor of Charles Manson and author of Helter Skelter. For general readers, the carefully documented account presented in Four Days is utterly persuasive: Oswald did it and he acted alone.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 688 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (May 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393332152
• ISBN-13: 978-0393332155
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #42,656 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #9 in	Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( K ) > Kennedy, John F.
  #43 in	Books > History > United States > 20th Century > 1960s
  #69 in	Books > Nonfiction > Current Events > Conspiracy Theories

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Some day you'll hang your heads in shame...My son [may be] the unsung hero of this episode."--Marguerite, Oswald's mother, June 9, 2008

By	Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

When Vincent Bugliosi wrote Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, published in May, 2007, the predecessor of the book being reviewed here, it was widely regarded as his magnum opus, a towering masterpiece which took twenty years and 1648 pages to write. In this new edition about the assassination, drawn from Reclaiming History, Bugliosi has now winnowed the original manuscript to approximately 500 pages, concentrating on the facts of the assassination and eliminating nearly all the material used by the conspiracy theorists because he has essentially disproved the conspiracy idea.

Four Days in November reconstructs the assassination, giving dates and times, sometimes second by second, to make these real events come to life, and he includes seventy-nine photographs and drawings. The resulting achievement is stunning, an intensely readable and compelling work of scholarship which should eliminate, once and for all, the idea that there was more than one gunman. Photographs of the shooting, broken down into tiny fractions of a second, anatomical drawings of the wounds of President Kennedy and Governor Connolly, fingerprint evidence in the "sniper's nest" at the Book Depository, extensive photographs of the grassy knoll at the time of the shooting, and accounts from many eye-witnesses provide weighty, seemingly incontrovertible, evidence that Oswald was the lone shooter.

Bugliosi, who prosecuted Charles Manson in the Tate-LaBianca trial and then went on to write Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders about that trial, is an accomplished writer who shares with the reader the kinds of details that he, as a prosecutor, counts as compelling evidence. At the same time, he is a painstaking recreator of scenes and observer of human nature. His intuitive sense of how people behave gives him an understanding of their psychology and, at times, motivations, all of which humanize this account of seemingly inhuman actions. Focusing on Lee Harvey Oswald and his dysfunctional family, the Dallas police and press, Jack Ruby and the underworld which he represents in Dallas, and the Kennedy family as it comes to grips not only with the loss of the President but with the loss of a loved one, Bugliosi provides an intimate and unforgettable look at a national tragedy which, in his hands, is also transformed into a moving series of personal tragedies.

Readers who begin this book will be as compelled to keep reading, as details unfold, as were all of us who lived through these events during that terrible long weekend in November, 1963, when we remained glued to our TV sets around the clock, and the entire country shut down. Bugliosi's total dedication to providing every relevant detail, his ability to convey the atmosphere and the understandable confusion following the shooting, his sensitivity to the feelings of the innocent people and families who were permanently scarred by these events, and his honesty in recreating events without trying to make the facts "fit" an agenda, make this book a milestone of historical research, endowing these terrible events with the respect--and finality--they deserve. n Mary Whipple

Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery
The Death of a President November 20-November 25 1963
The Warren Commission Report: Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning, September 22, 2008

By	E. Von Ray "adventurer" (United States) - See all my reviews

I grew up with the movie JFK and like many fell for its conspiracy theories but after reading this book I cannot imagine why anyone would even hesitate to believe Oswald didnt do it by himself. The evidence presented in this meticulously researched and beautifully crafted book is completely compelling. It literally takes many events and breaks them down minute by minute, covering that tragic day and the three days following.
The most shocking part, of course, is the shooting of President Kennedy and I felt like I was there, watching it all happen, so immersed in it that I felt I could stop it somehow. Any book that can involve the reader to that degree deserves the highest praise.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reclaiming History..Assassination of John Kennedy, September 11, 2008

By	Patricia Norris - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Exceptional masterpiece...couldn't hardly put it down. I am now convinced Lee Oswald acted alone. Thank you Vincent Bugliosi for setting the record straight with the FACTS. I have read all of Vincents books and it's like he is talking to you and you understand everything thanks to his details of the facts. Worth every cent you pay to get the book!
Pat Norris, Medina, OH