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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best book on the JFK assassination!,
By Homer Simpson "DOH!" (Springfield) - See all my reviews
This review is from: November 22, 1963;: You are the jury (Hardcover)
Although most people regard "Case Closed" as the best book on the JFK assassination, I think this little gem from the early 1970s is the best place to start. Belin was a Warren Commission lawyer who lobbied for the Warren Report to be written in the form of a trial transcript, but was outvoted. After becoming disgusted by the rise of the conspiracy literature, he decided to write the kind of Warren Report -- using large chunks of key eyewitness testimony -- that he wanted to see published in the first place. The evidence against Oswald is (of course) overwhelming, and the presentation is eminently readable.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is his argument against Warren's withholding of the autopsy photos and xrays at the request of the Kennedy family. (In fact, Warren himself never got to see them!) His reasoning -- that JFK is a citizen just like the rest of us and that Warren's succumbing to this pressure put JFK on a dangerous pedestal -- is both thought-provoking and ultimately correct IMHO. Read this one first. Then, if you still want to understand why Oswald did it alone, you will need to understand Oswald. For that DO NOT go to the conspiracy literature, which paints Oswald as a two-dimensional cardboard cutout. No, for that you need a fully-developed bio of this intriguing character. And, although the Warren Report does a great job on Oswald (and Ruby), the book to start with is Posner's "Case Closed." I cannot recommend the late Mr. Belin's book highly enough!
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read This Book Right After Reading The Warren Report -- Together They Are Bookends Of Rational Thinking And Actual Evidence,
By David Von Pein (Mooresville, Indiana; USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: November 22, 1963;: You are the jury (Hardcover)
"November 22, 1963: You Are The Jury" by David W. Belin is a fantastic source of information regarding the facts and the evidence surrounding President John F. Kennedy's assassination, which, as the title indicates, occurred on that grim and never-to-be-forgotten November date in '63.
Mr. Belin, an Iowa lawyer, served as a member of the Warren Commission's Assistant Counsel during the Commission's 1964 investigation into JFK's murder (plus the slayings of Police Officer J.D. Tippit and the President's accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald). Belin did a vast amount of work for the WC, including handling the questioning of many of the primary witnesses connected with the Kennedy case. He is, therefore, eminently qualified to write a book of this nature. Belin wrote "You Are The Jury" in 1973, ten years after the somber events in Dallas, and these 520-plus pages provide a superb "inside" look at how Belin and the Warren Commission operated during the Commission's nearly 10-month probe into JFK's assassination. This book could almost be referred to as a "Warren Report Sequel" (of sorts), as Mr. Belin lays out the evidence in massive doses, complete with huge chunks of actual witness testimony, with the reader serving as "the jury", as the title suggests. After reading these 500+ pages of raw evidence and witness accounts (which are combined with a whole lot of common sense being exhibited by the author as well), a reasonable reader can be left with no doubt whatsoever as to the identity of the real killer of President Kennedy and Officer Tippit. With respect to the Tippit crime, allow me to quote a passage from page 112 of this book: "{Fellow WC lawyer} Joe Ball put it succinctly: 'In all of my courtroom experience, I have never seen a more open-and-shut case'." I couldn't turn these pages fast enough, in wanting to see what Mr. Belin would next offer on the next page in terms of evidence, actual WC witness testimony, and reasoned thinking. And Belin never disappointed this reader at any stage. He verbally KOs Warren Commission critic and assassination buff Mark Lane on numerous occasions, including the complete annihilation of Lane's crazy assertion that Helen Markham, a key witness to the Tippit murder, said that Tippit's killer was "stocky with bushy hair". Markham never said such a thing to Mr. Lane, and Belin (rightly so) hammers Lane hard on this crucial matter. Another excerpt from the book...... "Our Warren Commission Report will stand the test of the final verdict of the jury of world opinion because it is basically accurate and because there are more than 6,500 footnotes in our 888-page Report, which are grounded in the 26 volumes of testimony and exhibits. When you examine every one of these footnotes you will find that there is none of the misrepresentation and distortion of the type {Mark} Lane uses when he alleges that {Howard} Brennan could not identify the two Negro men that he saw in the fifth floor window who came out of the building after the assassination. Nor will you find any distortion of the type used by Lane when he fragments the testimony and omits {Bonnie Ray} Williams' forthright statement about why he did not go to the sixth floor {on 11/22/63, after having heard gunshots from there}, 'Maybe it was just because we were frightened'." -- David Belin; Page 159 Mr. Belin's attack on Mark Lane reaches its spectacular zenith late in this publication, as Belin tells his readers of Mr. Lane's July 1966 letter to Belin, affording Belin an on-camera opportunity to rebut the anti-WC claims made in Lane's soon-to-be-released film, "Rush To Judgment". Lane tried to ignore Belin's correspondence accepting this unique offer, but Mr. Belin persisted, writing a total of ten letters saying he was willing to take Lane up on his offer to rebut the film on camera. To get the full (outstanding) effect of this "Lane vs. Belin" episode from 1966, you must read pages 470 to 473 of this book. It's fabulous stuff, with Belin calling Lane's bluff and exposing Lane for the fraud he has proven to be. After calling Belin a "bit player" in the grand scheme of the Warren Commission and its associated counsel members, here's a portion of what Belin wrote back to Lane...... "True to form, you tried to hide from the person who could best demolish your fabricated case. .... Once again I challenge you, Mark Lane, to thirty minutes on film -- that is all I need to demolish your manufactured case." -- David Belin; 12/23/66 I love it! A tip of my cap goes to David Belin for the above salvo dished up toward Mr. Lane. I was so thrilled with pages 470 through 473, I've already re-read those pages multiple times. :) "You Are The Jury" also thoroughly trashes virtually every conspiracy theory that had been postulated by the CTers up to the time of Belin's publishing date for this volume (late 1973). I find it very interesting that Mr. Belin, after a brief "Overview" chapter, begins the book by discussing the murder of Officer Tippit (instead of starting with details of the President's killing). I, like Belin, feel that the Tippit murder is an extremely important part of the overall JFK case, because it is a killing that is tied so closely to the Kennedy murder, which occurred just 45 minutes earlier. Belin gushes fact after fact regarding the Tippit crime, leaving little to no doubt as to who was responsible for the murder -- with that person being Lee Harvey Oswald (alone), a man who just happened to work in a building (the Texas School Book Depository on Elm Street) from where gunshots came just 45 minutes earlier as the President was driving by that building and as he was being shot in the head and killed. The raw physical and circumstantial evidence that ties Oswald (and only Oswald) to both the Kennedy and Tippit murders is overwhelming in mass and scope, as Mr. Belin adeptly brings forth in this excellent volume. Backtracking for a moment to the "Overview" section of this book -- That opening section of "You Are The Jury" is a dandy section too, with Belin systematically demolishing the oft-uttered theory by the conspiracy kooks that the paraffin test given to Lee Oswald on 11/22/63 is virtual proof of his innocence in the JFK murder. As Belin thoroughly explains, the paraffin test given to Oswald by the Dallas Police is a completely unreliable way to determine whether or not a person has recently fired a gun....in that the nitrates that can show up via such a test can also be present on a person's hands (or elsewhere on the body) if the person has recently come into contact with other substances, like tobacco or ordinary household cleaning products (like Clorox for instance). Plus (and this is the kicker, which destroys the "Paraffin Tests Are Reliable" claims of many conspiracists) -- Belin points out that a test was done with Oswald's own rifle, where an FBI agent fired LHO's gun and, to quote the text directly from page 18 of this book: "There were negative reactions on both hands and on the cheek of the FBI agent who fired the assassination weapon. Thus, we had the other side of the coin: A negative reaction from the paraffin test did not prove that a person had not fired a rifle." Given the above results done by the FBI, how can anyone then continue to tout the paraffin procedure as being at all a convincing test, either in a pro or con manner? Belin's section concerning the controversial "Single-Bullet Theory" is also very convincing, forthright, and to the point (with heaps of witness testimony being provided, testimony that leaves little to no doubt, IMO, that the SBT is easily the most reasonable and accurate conclusion to explain the wounding of JFK and Governor John Connally). A question is brought up by Belin on page #329 that goes right to the heart of the matter -- "If a bullet entered the front of President Kennedy's neck, where did that bullet go?" A perfectly legitimate question, of course....and a question that conspiracy buffs simply cannot answer in a reasonable and believable manner (and without inserting the words "cover-up" or "conspiracy" or "they've doctored the real evidence", etc.). And, by the same token, Mr. Belin (on the very next page) asks the next logical follow-up question -- "If a bullet exited from President Kennedy's neck at a relatively high velocity, where did it go?" (Page 330) Mr. Belin then goes on to explain that such an exiting missile would have to do one of two things: either hit the interior of the limousine without striking a human being....or hit the man sitting almost directly in line to be hit by such a bullet, Governor Connally. Since the automobile was NOT hit by this missile, the only place for the bullet TO go was into the back of Mr. Connally....just at the point where he WAS wounded by gunfire on 11/22/63. No "magic" involved at all. It's all too obvious where that bullet HAD to go (seeing as how no bullets were found inside the President and no damage was done to the car's interior that can be attributed to such a bullet travelling at approx. 1,775 feet per second after exiting JFK's neck). So, anyone who researches this murder case has little choice here re. the "SBT" question -- they can either believe that a massive cover-up operation was underway on November 22nd in order to eliminate a bunch of evidence that would expose a conspiracy in the murder of a U.S. President....or they accept the evidence that's on the table in this case with respect to the SBT and admit that the single-bullet conclusion "fits" nearly every last scrap... Read more ›
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The Jury is Still Out,
This review is from: November 22, 1963;: You are the jury (Hardcover)
Anything written by David Belin should be taken with a grain of salt...maybe the whole salt shaker. He, it is now known, tampered with evidence given by at least two witnesses whom he interviewed, Policeman Roger Craig and Victoria Adams, and completely ignored other witnesses in his own rush to judgement. Belin had a way of interrogating the witnesses. Take for instance Roger Craig, in reference to his testimony: he, Belin, would ask certain questions and, whenever an important question would come up, such as a description of clothing or a time element or something; he had to know what Craig's answer was before hand, and would turn off the tape recorder he was using, and instruct the stenographer present, to stop taking notes. Then Belin would ask for the question, and if the answer satisfied him, he would turn the recorder back on, instruct the stenographer to start writing again, and he would ask Craig a completely differently question. Consider Belin's question if the Rambler car Craig reports as having Oswald away from the area, had out-of-state plates or Texas plates. Craig replied that they were not the same color as Texas plates...in the final testimony, Belin took the word "not" out, so it completely changed that particular sentence. Craig later saw the car in question and it had out-of-state plates. Belin also changed the color of the car, the color of the man's jacket driving the car; he just rearranged everything. Now in 26 volumes of Warren Commission testimony, Craig's testimony, was changed 14 times! Is Belin a man who can be believed? For new disclosure on David Belin's interrogation techniques, and how he manipulated what he presented to the Warren Commission, see the book: "The Girl on the Stairs," by Barry Ernest. The Girl on the Stairs: My Search For A Missing Witness To The Assassination Of John F. Kennedy As is stated in that book, it was Belin who had officially questioned many of these witnesses; it was Belin who wrote memos attempting to undermine those witness statements; it was Belin who allowed the Warren Report to say that what the witnesses said was wrong. Now writing in his book that asks the public to be the jury in this case, but he hides from them what would prove him to be the one who was wrong, and instead continues with the distortion that several of the key witnesses he interviewed were "mistaken" about their testimony. Honest men do not make these kinds of errors, and evidence to make some of these witnesses appear wrong, was fabricated. New letters from witnesses with collaborating evidence, withheld from the public, have been recently released concerning Belin's mishandling of his position. He's the one who should be put on the stand and made to answer questions about his dereliction of duty to the Warren Commission. I give the book 2 stars for interesting reading and other JFK tidbits, but do not recommend it for accuracy. The jury is still out.
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