Oswald Talked: The New Evidence in the JFK Assassination [Hardcover]

Ray LaFontaine (Author), Mary LaFontaine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 1996

Oswald knew Jack Ruby, the man who would become his executioner, and Oswald worked for the CIA.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This is something quite new in assassination literature: a book by a husband-and-wife team who are basically TV documentary makers-and in fact aired some of their discoveries in segments on network TV-but who write with vigor, persuasiveness and (almost unique in assassination literature) some humor. If only their discoveries had been up to their presentation, this would have been a significant contribution. As it is, despite the catchpenny title (a TV legacy), the book does not offer any very startling disclosures. There are three advances the authors made by painstaking research, however: they found a man who had been jailed in a cell next to Oswald-and whose incarceration in Dallas that day the FBI had hidden for more than 30 years. The man claims that Oswald knew a jailed gunrunner, as well as Jack Ruby. They discovered that Oswald carried a Defense Department card after his release from the Marines that gave him all sorts of privileges only an active agent would normally receive. And they determined that the famous "tramps" arrested on Dealey Plaza that day really were tramps, and their arrest had indeed been recorded. Beyond that, the LaFontaines have much interesting information about the bootleg gun trade in Dallas in 1963, and about the anti-Castro underground, which they are convinced was closely involved in the assassination. This is an entertaining book, by smart people with open minds, but it doesn't take us a whole lot further.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

John Elrod is not the name that comes to mind when the Kennedy assassination is mentioned. To the general population, the names of Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin, and Jack Ruby, the accused assassin's killer, are much more familiar. But what if new evidence were presented, evidence that pointed to the possibility that facts surrounding the death of John F. Kennedy were suppressed for some unknown reason? And how could the testimony of John Elrod on August 11, 1964, in a Shelby County, Tennessee, sheriff's office somehow shed light on this continuing mystery?

Ray and Mary La Fontaine find and report the evidence emerging from newly released files on the Kennedy assassination. There are probably several hundred books on the general topic of the Kennedy assassination still on the shelves, but this book differs from the others in several ways. First of all it is one of only a handful written by serious journalists. The La Fontaines have cowritten several investigative articles for respected mainstream newspapers such as the and The Washington Post.

Secondly, this book provides more new documented evidence than any book in twenty years, and does not rely on notoriously unreliable "witness" testimony unless such testimony was demonstrably made at the time of the assassination.

Thirdly, because this book has no "agenda" and was written by journalists, it does not gratuitously rehash tired theories, but takes the reader where he has never been before: to where the new evidence leads. Oswald Talked: The New Evidence in the JFK Assassination often reads like a mystery novel, yet what it delivers is what many novels (and films) neglect to present the truth. -- From the Publisher

Oswald Talked: The New Evidence In The Jfk Assassination brings to the forefront documented records that substantiate a number of conspiracy claims, refutes others, and unlocks new portions of the scenarios that have not been written about before. The authors examine overlooked clues and present evidence which supports the existence of a conspiracy and establishes the crucial link between Oswald and Ruby, the CIA, and other government agencies. For example, a Department of Defense card showing the Oswald was employed by the U. S. government after his 1959 discharge from the Marines. This is the same kind of card that was carried by known CIA agent and U2 pilot Gary Powers. Ray and Mary La Fontaine are investigative journalists and producers of PBS and other nationally broadcast programming. Researching police files, legal memoranda form the Warren Commission investigation, and numerous other documented sources, they have attacked the holes of speculation left behind from theorists and filled them in with indisputable facts on this case that has continued to hold a special fascination for many Americans. -- Midwest Book Review

Product Details

• Hardcover: 456 pages
• Publisher: Pelican Publishing (January 31, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565540298
• ISBN-13: 978-1565540293
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #859,931 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Fairly innovative, but generally awful, October 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Oswald Talked: The New Evidence in the JFK Assassination (Hardcover)

The La Fontaine's "Oswald Talked" is a confused and rambling work that is awash in speculation and innuendo and starving for hard facts. Having as its foundation the very shaky recollections of a troubled alcoholic, this poorly researched mess tries to weave a complicated scenario of Oswald working with Ruby, Oswald working for the CIA, for the FBI, infiltrating gun running groups, infiltrating Cuban groups. So carried away did the authors get in spinning this yarn that they failed to notice that much of their "damning evidence" is not new and has long since been discredited or was easily explained away by researchers upon the book's release. It's ironic that the authors had, before this book, helped to debunk one of the most enduring mysteries of the assassination, that of the Three Tramps/CIA operatives, and now find themselves (deservedly) a target of debunkers. Somewhere their presumably sharp journalistic skills deserted them, and they ended up producing this volume of bilge. Ignoring documented facts and historical events, yet failing to deliver with hard facts of its own, this book is a sorry product from a team of writers who present themselves as professional investigators.

22 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The worst book written yet on the JFK assassination., November 15, 1999

By 

Steve Bochan ([e-mail]) (Fairfax, Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oswald Talked: The New Evidence in the JFK Assassination (Hardcover)

I had high hopes for this book initially, but no book ever written on the JFK case has disappointed me as much as this one has. It is a complete shambles from start to finish.

Although the title creates an image of Oswald spilling his guts to a chronic drunkard in a Dallas jail cell, the truth is that the authors have not been able to produce any proof whatsoever that such an incident occurred, except for the befuddled ravings of a troubled man with a chronic alcohol problem. FBI reports of their interview with Elrod show that he was confused about the identity of an "unknown" cellmate and further show that he couldn't remember whether his cellmate had told him tales about Ruby and gunrunning before or after Oswald was killed on 11/24/63. That should have been where this story ended. Does it? Of course not. The authors simply dismiss the FBI report (and choose not to include it in their book) because they claim the FBI lied.

They also accuse the Dallas Police Department of lying. And Silvia Odio, one of the most important witnesses interviewed by the FBI, who testified before the Warren Commission that Oswald had visited her apartment accompanied by two other Latinos six weeks prior to the Kennedy assassination, is also called a liar by the authors. Everyone is a liar who presents a problem for the theory being pushed in this book!

One wonders why anyone would choose to take the word of a self-admitted chronic alcoholic over *anyone* -- let alone the very people who were there and know Oswald was in isolation.

The authors spend very little time on this little jail house episode (despite using the device for their title), indeed, they spend very little time on Elrod (their main witness who did not come forward during the recent Assassination Records and Review Board hearings) at all - his brother Lindy Elrod seems to know more about what Oswald allegedly said than Elrod does and Lindy wasn't even in the jail! It is no wonder the tabloid shows picked up this story as it has that 'I was captured by a UFO' sensationalism to it. But it gets worse as the reader slugs through chapter after chapter of inconvenient witnesses being called liars, romantic fiction supplanting primary source documentation on Silvia Odio, and leaps in logic to conclude that Lee Oswald was an FBI informant on an out-of-control group of Cubans who were planning for a second invasion of Cuba.

First of all, Oswald feared the FBI and claimed he was being persecuted by them. Why would he agree to inform for such an organization if he felt they were persecuting him? But even if he was an informant, what was he informing the FBI of? A planned invasion of Cuba by Archives show that JFK and his brother RFK were up to their eyeballs in planning for a pretense to invade Cuba all through 1963. So he would have been informing the FBI of something they already knew was in the works. Some informant!

Second, even if he was an FBI informant, how does that exonerate him from the crime?

After reading this nonsense, the reader is no closer to a solution to the case than when he started.

This book is a testament to poor journalism and how not to investigate a murder. We've had enough books written by frustrated sleuths who have only confused this tragic case by injecting their own egos and pet theories into what is clear shoot Kennedy? The question is - did he have any help?' That's where the research stands today and this book does not come close to answering that question. It fails as an informative or interesting read, and it is a complete waste of time for anyone seriously interested in the JFK assassination.

Interesting premise, but like most tabloid pieces, lacking hard evidence.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars There are plenty more fish in the sea!, March 22, 2001

By 

John T. Smith (Portland, Maine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oswald Talked: The New Evidence in the JFK Assassination (Hardcover)

I agree with the other reviewers here that this is a lousy book. I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for them to say what they're evidence is, because they say they have like a ton, right? But they don't. They have none, just a drunk witness and a lot of stuff from other conspiracy books.

So I say, skip them and their drunky witness and just go right to the books that they themselves use! Here are some of these books:

***** Not In Your Life Time by Anthony Summers ***** Crossfire by Jim Marrs ***** On the Trail of the Assassins by Jim Garrison ***** Deep Politics and the Death of JFK by Peter Dale Scott ***** Accessories After the Fact by Sylvia Meagher *****

These are good books!!

Also: ***** High Treason by Robert Groden and Harrison E. Livingstone ***** Best Evidence by David Lifton ***** The Killing of a President by Robert Groden ***** High Treason 2 by Harrison E. Livingstone ***** Cover Up by Stewart Galanor ***** Fatal Hour by G. Robert Blakey and Richard N. Billings *****

These are also good books, and you cannot say I am biased because these books have many different theories. That's the problem with the La Fontaines: they went in with they're own theory already decided and they were biased. Anybody can write a book like that!

So get reading! Just not trash like Oswald Talked!