JFK: The Last Dissenting Witness [Hardcover]

Oliver Stone (Foreword), Jean Hill (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 31, 1992

Abraham Zapruder filmed the only footage of President Kennedyís assassination. In his film, a woman in a red raincoat can be seen. She is Jean Hill, the last dissenting witness.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It seems surprising that there has never before been a book by Jean Hill, familiar to JFK assassination buffs as "the lady in red" who was standing only feet away from the presidential car when the shots were fired. She testified and insisted through years of discouragement, disbelief and distortions on the part of investigators, the FBI, the Warren Commission and others, that she saw an unidentifiable man firing from the grassy knoll and later a person who looked exactly like Jack Ruby running toward that man. Readers of this swollen account, coauthored with a Dallas journalist, will discover that Hill early on decided to add nothing further, having been intimidated by frequent phone threats, the sabotage of her car and an alarming move against one of her children. Only when she came to know Jim Marrs, author of one of the books on which Oliver Stone's film JFK was based , and later the movie people themselves, did she come out of her shell and rejoice in her standing as the last living major dissenting witness. Her tale is often engaging, sometimes infuriating; the feisty schoolteacher emerges ultimately as something of a folk heroine. Much of the later sections of the book, in which Hill becomes starry-eyed about the movie folk, could have been severely trimmed. Still, her story is salutary for those overly respectful of official authority.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Back Cover

"Jean's a pretty terrific lady. She's rock-solid, a woman who speaks the truth. She's given me a bird's eye view of the Kennedy assassination. I believe her." Oliver Stone "Considering her proximity as an eyewitness in Dealey Plaza, her insider knowledge of the Dallas police, and her treatment by federal authorities, Jean Hill may well be the most important assassination witness alive today. Her story deserves close scrutiny by every citizen." Jim Marrs, author of Crossfire "Jean Hill is the one constant factor in the whole assassination story. She's a genuine patriot and her story is what America is all about." Jim Garrison, former New Orleans district attorney "Her tale is often engaging . . . the feisty schoolteacher emerges ultimately as something of a folk heroine." -Publishers Weekly JFK: The Last Dissenting Witness is the gripping story of Jean Hill's incredible ordeal which began when she saw a gunman on the famous grassy knoll fire the shot that exploded the president's skull. That sunny, November, Dallas day turned into calamity. The country would never forget, and neither would Jean Hill. Working as a key consultant on the Oliver Stone film JFK, Hill was inspired to finally tell her full story. In JFK: The Last Dissenting Witness, we learn about Hill's years of death threats, official intimidation, and harassment by the F.B.I. and the Warren Commission. In this highly personal story, Hill reveals her furtive romance with a married Dallas police officer in the presidential motorcade, and her struggle to keep her sanity, her career, and her life together as a single mother of two children while being caught up in the greatest murder mystery of the century.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Pelican Publishing (March 31, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0882899228
• ISBN-13: 978-0882899220
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,280,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Jean Hill's Eye-Witness Story, November 11, 2001

By 

bookdealers2 "I love books!" (Webster, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: JFK: The Last Dissenting Witness (Hardcover)

Jean Hill saw President Kennedy shot and she believed that at least one of the shooters was on the grassy knoll behind the fence and she estimated that between 4 and 6 shots were fired. Her story was heavily disputed by first the Secret Service who kept her in custody for hours on that fateful day, the CIA agent who was present in her first meeting with the FBI, and the FBI who interviewed her extensively for days after the assassination, as well as the Warren Commission's attorney who humiliated and intimidated her before taking her testimony for the Warren Commission.

Some of the most interesting facts presented in this book are:
1. Jean Hill saw Jack Ruby run at break-neck speed from the Texas Book Depository to the fence on the grassy knoll immediately after the shooting of JFK, as she ran towards the fence where she thought the shooter was.
2. She saw a man in a Dallas-police uniform holding a rifle and standing behind the fence on the grassy knoll, immediately after the shooting, right before she was grabbed and escorted away by two Secret Service men.
3. Her boyfriend was J.B. Marshall, the Dallas police officer who was on a motorcycle to the left rear of the president's car and who's helmet and bike got splattered with JFK's blood and brains. He told her that LBJ's Secret Service people instructed the motorcycle cops at the Dallas airport that these changes were being made: (a) the parade route was being changed to cut through Dealey Plaza on Elm Street; (b) the motorcycle cops would not be at the front of the presidential limousine as they normally would have been, but would only be at the rear of the presidential limousine; (c) the order of the cars in the motorcade was changed so that Johnson's car would not be immediately behind the presidential car, but that a carload of Secret Service would be in between the President's car and LBJ's car. Most shocking of all, was his report to Jean Hill that another motorcycle cop witnessed that LBJ started ducking down in his car at least 30 to 40 seconds before the first shots were fired.
4. Arlen Specter, who questioned her in Dallas for the Warren Commission, was the one who proposed the "single bullet theory" that was adopted by the Warren Commission. His butchered transcript of her testimony to the Warren Commission was "heavily edited, completely distorted and shamelessly fabricated."

Author Bill Sloan does a credible job of telling Jean Hill's story and explaining her inner turmoil and emotional trauma about being a witness to the assassination. He explains about:
1. Why she refused to go to Washington to testify before the Warren Commission.
2. That she was romantically involved with a married man at the time (J.B. Marshall) and how he repeatedly tried to convince her to keep quiet about what she knew, and how he evidently knew more than he wanted to tell her.
3. That the FBI kept her home under surveillance for 15 months after the assassination.
4. Why she would not testify in the trial of Clay Shaw in New Orleans, although J.B. Marshall and Mary Moorman did.
5. Her eventual vindication and validation through experiences with Bill Marrs (author of Crossfire) who introduced her to others who witnessed the assassination, and her experiences with Oliver Stone and Kevin Cossner during the filming of the movie "JFK."
6. The details of the attempts on her life (most significantly, one almost-fatal car wreck caused by the steering-wheel bolts being unscrewed and another time when her car's brake-fluid line was found to be cut).

The most inexplicable fact about Jean Hill's story is why was Jack Ruby running at break-neck speed towards the shooter behind the fence on the grassy knoll? She did not know who Jack Ruby was until she saw him on tv, as he shot Oswald. Her fear that no one would believe her about seeing Ruby running towards one of the shooters was increased when she was told by FBI agent Shanklin that eye witnesses had proved that Ruby was not at Dealey Plaza at the time of the assassination. Perhaps her identification of Ruby at Dealey Plaza is the clue to why her testimony was distorted by the Warren Commission, why she was intimidated and humiliated, and why her story is so important. No doubt, historians, researchers, and future generations interested in finding out the truth about the JFK assassination will be grateful that Jean Hill's story is finally available in this book, published twenty-nine years after the assassination, without any distortion by those who would have preferred that it had never been told.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars So Jean Hill is no John Dean, March 29, 2006

By 

C. J. Brown "CJB" (Liverpool, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: JFK: The Last Dissenting Witness (Hardcover)

Just some thoughts on Jean Hill and her book.
The only book I've purchased and read so far regarding the JFK assassination that gives you an insight on how (in this case) one of the witnesses life was affected by being in Dealy Plaza on that fateful day.
She like most of the witnesses in Dealy Plaza said that she thought the shots came from the 'Grassy knoll'. She was man handled by so-called 'secret agents' 'Magic bullet man' also grilled her about her affair with a Dallas motorcycle Cop. He also goaded her about the `White dog she saw' which turned out to be White toy given to Jackie.
Jean and her young daughter were involved in a car crash, her Lover and a mechanic friend of his checked out the car and found that the track rod ends had come loose. They like any mechanical minded person came to the conclusion that the car had been tampered with. Track rod ends just don't come loose so easily, if they did cars by necessity would have radically different steering assemblies.
If you believe as I do that the witnesses in the Plaza were correct in their recollections of where the shots came from and also in their contact with (according to the official report NON EXISTANT) Dallas cops and Federal \ secret officials just minutes after the tragedy, then there must have been a conspiracy.
Some reviewers have described this book as nothing more than a novel, so I looked up the words definition in the 'Collins English dictionary'
Novel: An extended work in prose, either fictitious or partly so.
I see, it's a novel because some reviewers disagree with Jeans recollections or because her recollections changed over the years. SO WHAT. Most peoples recollections of their life experiences change over the years, does this mean all our memories can only be fit for a Novel rather than a autobiography No.
Now to why I titled this 'So Jean Hill is no John Dean' (I could have replaced John Dean with Harold Weisberg or Cyril Wecht)
During the Watergate scandal John Dean being Nixons Legal counsel was set up for a big fall however because he had a photographic memory he could recall incidents and conversations in great detail without wavering under cross examination he deflected the blame to Nixon's Front line and eventually to Nixon himself.
Most of us (including Jean) haven't got that type of memory or fortitude.
Jean Hill passed away in 2000, she was a primary school teacher. Whenever her young students asked her to tell her story of the assassination, which in their young eyes was a part of American social history, she was always struck by their reactions.
Her story will have left an indelible memory on a good percentage of them. I am sure some of the students will continue the search for the truth.
Jean Hill was just an ordinary mother and schoolteacher.
Arlen Specter is a Senator & highflying lawyer.
Only one of them is a great American in my book: Jean Hill R.I.P.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book, September 1, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: JFK: The Last Dissenting Witness (Hardcover)

This is a great eyewitness account of the events that day, and provides more proof that the assassination of JFK was an inside job. The objective reader can only conclude that our own government not only killed JFK, but also did everything possible to cover it up. Should be added to any JFK buff's library.