The Man Who Knew Too Much: Hired to Kill Oswald and Prevent the Assassination of JFK [Paperback]

Dick Russell (Author), Lachy Hulme (Introduction), Carl Oglesby (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0786712422 | ISBN-13: 978-0786712427 | Publication Date: October 14, 2003 | Edition: 2

Carroll and Graf has been in the forefront of producing books about the Kennedy assassination. It has come up with a winner in this mammoth study of one of the most mysterious figures on the fringes of the assassination: Richard Case Nagell, described as the man 'hired to kill Oswald and prevent the assassination of JFK.' On the fourtieth anniversary of the JFK assassination, this amazing story has been revised and expanded with a decade's worth of new classified information. Nagell's own death in 1995 was suspicious. Here, freelance investigative journalist Dick Russell delves deep into Nagell's strange past, revealing that Nagell had been a contact for both the CIA and KGB at different times. The author's detailed and expert reconstruction of historic events will have readers wonder and question new possible leads never before imagined in this still unsolved murder.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Carroll & Graf has been in the forefront of producing books about the Kennedy assassination--of widely varying quality; it has come up with a winner this time. Russell, a freelance journalist who has written for Time and the Village Voice , has spent 17 years on this mammoth study of one of the most mysterious figures on the fringes of the assassination: Richard Case Nagell, described as the man "hired to kill Oswald and prevent the assassination of JFK." With painstaking care, Russell sets out to reconstruct the strange life of Nagell, a former member of a super-secret army intelligence unit who was wounded in battle, the sole survivor of two air crashes, a contract agent for both the CIA and the KGB at different times, and a man whose life kept intersecting with Oswald's. Russell has met Nagell on a number of occasions, corresponded with him as recently as 1990 (when he was living in a motel in California) and wonderfully captures the intriguing eccentricities of his speech, with his deliberate, almost playful, allusiveness. Nagell seems to have been utilized by both the CIA and the KGB to keep tabs on Oswald (who himself probably also worked both sides of the street) and was ultimately prodded by the Russians to head Oswald away from his role in the Dallas plot (one of at least three to kill JFK in 1963, according to Russell). If Nagell failed to dissuade Oswald, he was to kill him. At that point Nagell, bewildered and unsure who was calling the shots, lost his nerve, warned the CIA and FBI of the impending disaster, then had himself arrested (he discharged a gun harmlessly in a Texas bank a month before the president was assassinated); he spent years in jail, while lawyers wrangled over his sanity. Nagell has not been heard from for the past two years, but Russell believes he is still alive, his silence bought by a generous military pension. The author is right in suggesting that a government investigation that subpoenaed Nagell as a witness (neither the Warren Commission nor the House inquiry did) would learn a great deal about an event that continues to intrigue and baffle the world. No praise can be too high for Russell's mastery of a massive quantity of detail, for his determination to seek out primary sources and for his refusal to over-dramatize. This is a model work of historical reconstruction that should, as Norman Mailer suggests in a blurb, open up many hitherto unperceived leads in the case.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Don't expect this massive tome to provide any definitive answers to who assassinated JFK. Russell uses Richard Case Nagell, an obscure double (triple?) CIA agent who claims that the KGB hired him to kill Lee Harvey Oswald and thus prevent the assassination, as the basis of a tale of enormous conspiracy. Russell provides a veritable alphabet soup of possible conspirators, including the FBI, KGB, CIA, and OAS, and implicates the Mafia, Cubans, and Texas oilmen as well. He postulates a conspiracy that spans several continents and includes so many people with so many aliases that it is impossible to keep track of them all, even with the "cast list" of 297 names provided. Though obviously laboriously researched, this book simply offers too much to be either cohesive or credible. Purchase only where demand for conspiracy books warrants.
- Rebecca House Stankowski, Purdue Univ. Calumet Lib., Hammond, Ind.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf; 2 edition (October 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786712422
• ISBN-13: 978-0786712427
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #750,959 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Stunning!, February 25, 2004

By 

Matthew DeLuca (Tulsa, OK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Man Who Knew Too Much: Hired to Kill Oswald and Prevent the Assassination of JFK (Paperback)

This book, "The Man Who Knew Too Much" by Dick Russell is quite possibly THE very best JFK Assassination book ever written.
Russell makes a startling case for a JFK Assassination resolution with this wonderful, 40th anniversary edition of his book based on the life of Richard Case Nagell.
Nagell, in a word, was an enigma, Just like the assassination that he shed so much light on was also an enigma.......until now.
Nagell, a former CIA man and Military Intelligence agent (As well as KGB agent too!) trusted Dick Russell so much, that he met with him, and corresponded with him for many years. In each of these correspondences, Nagell revealed bits and pieces about what he knew about the Conspiracy to kill JFK, and make no mistake, Nagell knew alot!
Too Much in fact, hence the title of this book.
Nagell stumbled upon the actual assassination plots (Notice I said "Plots", plural) that resulted in the assassination in Dallas, of President John F Kennedy.
That in of itself is startling, but even more startling than that is the fact that Nagell warned FBI Director J Edgar Hoover about the plots to kill Kennedy two months BEFORE the assassination took place!
Russell meticulously puts all of the loose ends of Nagell's story together and forms a very plausible solution to the assassination, and exposes who very well could be the true forces behind the murder of JFK.
You may ask, "What makes this book any different from other JFK Assassination books?"
The answer is that the other JFK Assassination books didnt have PROVEN sources that were actually involved with the people who killed Kennedy. Russell's source (Nagell) WAS DIRECTLY INVOLVED! Nagell was not only involved with these people, but he actually infiltrated the group and tape recorded them talking about the assassination of Kennedy!
Nagell also claims to have a photo of him and Lee Harvey Oswald.
It is proven that Nagell and Oswald had lots in common......so much so that Nagell thought that he himself may have been a consideration for the Patsy in the murder. And this takes us full circle into how Nagell's story became public to begin with......Nagell purposely got himself arrested so that he would have an alibi for his whereabouts two months later when Kennedy was killed!
Nagell was "The Man Who Knew Too Much" and he was put into a horrible position that forced him to work with the KGB (The Soviet's equivalent of the CIA). In fact, Nagell was hired by the KGB to kill someone. Someone VERY familiar to JFK assassination researchers. Someone named Lee Harvey Oswald!
It is a long, immensely exciting story, but I will leave the rest for Russell to tell you about.
When you read this book, it will feel as if you are actually learning the truth, the REAL truth about the assassination of JFK. Its almost as if you have secretly broken into the government's secret vault marked "Truth about the JFK Assassination".
You will be transported right into the true circumstances that resulted in the assassination, and you will finally understand many of the aspects of the murder that have been a mystery for over 40 years.
If ever a book was worthy of being made into a Hollywood Blockbuster movie, it is this book. And it may well yet be made into a movie. It certainly is full of mystery, intrigue, excitement, and many other elements that make this book a great candidate for a big budget movie.
This book is the utlimate "Spy Novel".
It makes the James Bond movies pale in comparison, because this story is a true one!
For the most interesting, exciting, and startling JFK assassination book you will ever read, I highly recommend this book.
Did Richard Case Nagell stumble upon the actual JFK Assassination plot? I will leave that for you to decide. But while you are pondering that question, keep this in mind........ Nagell was finally about to tell his story to an official government committee, but was found dead in his apartment before he ever had a chance to tell the Commitee all that he knew about the case.
The mystery has only deepened with Nagell's death.
To fully understand the JFK murder mystery, this book is a must read!
By the way, what was the cause of Nagell's death?
Well, just between you and I, .....the cause of death was in all likelihood because Nagell truly was "The Man Who Knew Too Much".

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you want the truth then read this book, October 26, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Man Who Knew Too Much: Hired to Kill Oswald and Prevent the Assassination of JFK (Paperback)

Dick Russell's first edition of The Man Who Knew Too Much published in 1992 was a ground-breaking book, but the latest edition, just published in 2003, takes us even deeper into the almost unbelievable--but real--world of Richard Case Nagell. The latest edition includes information from recently released documents finally made available to the public, as well as information obtained from recent interviews, such as with a relative of David Atlee Phillips. It also contains new information about the circumstances surrounding the death of Nagell in 1995, an event that occurred with unfortunate timing--just as the Assassination Records Review Board was getting in touch with Nagell. Whether you've read many books about the JFK assassination, or are looking for your first in order to try to begin understanding what really led up to the killing of JFK and who was involved, this book is indispensible to understanding what happened 40 years ago. You will learn about Nagell and what he knew about the central and peripheral characters involved in the JFK assassination plot, such as Guy Banister, David Ferrie, and the anti-Castro Cubans who played a role in these history changing events.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book on the JFK assassination, April 29, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Man Who Knew Too Much (Hardcover)

This is a long book, the product of a lengthy period of research, which was needed to unravel the extensive coverup of the story of Richard Case Nagell, who worked for both US and Soviet intelligence. In the process of being a double agent in the early 1960s, Nagell learned that Oswald was involved in a conspiracy to kill Kennedy, which he was unable to prevent. One of Hoover's greatest failures was not paying more attention to Nagell. Nagell's letter to the Warren Commission regarding his knowledge of Oswald was basically ignored, and it was thus left to Dick Russell to undertake the investigation that Hoover's FBI should have done. Fortunately for the reader, Russell's investigation was far superior to any that the FBI would have been able to do. The result is the best book ever written on the JFK assassination. The nature of the conspiracy and some of the players are clearly delineated in this book. Anyone interested in knowing the outlines of the conspiracy to kill JFK must read this book. This isn't just a book that adds a few interesting pieces to the puzzle--this book puts the puzzle together like no other source, in or out of government, has been able to do. This is the only JFK assassination book ever written that is an absolute must for the serious (or casual) reader on this subject.