Customer Reviews

Plot to Kill JFK: Rush to Judgment [VHS]

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Over the decades, there's been so much propaganda on both sides of the JFK assassination argument, that it could be off-putting to anybody, especially the novice.

But the strength of RUSH TO JUDGMENT is it's timing, the period, coming just a couple of years after the assassination... True, as it was so early, not as much was known then--- but sometimes less is more; what you have here are just fresh, unpolished, unrehearsed, raw and chilling interviews with the witnesses at a time LONG before the whole topic had become the lost-in-time cliche it seems to now be.

The quiet simplicity, lack of pretense, the (then) newness of the subject-matter, and the flavor of the era drive home this documentary's point more effectively and convincingly--- and hit a far more macabre note --- than any thunderous, drum-beating entry today could possibly achieve.

Mark Lane's legacy is secure, despite three patchy books: his FILM "Rush To Judgment" is brilliant and a must-have for anyone interested in the JFK assassination. The number of primary witnesses on this film is impressive (i.e. Sam Holland), as is the length they speak and, most importantly, what they have to say. Very well done. You have to get this one!!!!!!
Vince Palamara

An absolute must have for any true amateur assassination researcher. Mr. Lane's witness interviews are impeccable. He does not attempt to lead his subjects to any conclusion, and thus, some believe the Warren Commission, and others are convinced they saw different. I love the way these contemporary films capture the feel of Dallas as it was in the early 1960's. This is also the only filmed interview with Lee Bowers that I have ever seen, and the earliest footage of the brilliant journalist Penn Jones, Jr. that I am aware of. In our home we found it particularly amusing that Mr. Lane included a good deal of contemporary news footage from WFAA-TV, Channel 8, as only a few weeks prior to purchasing this video we had received a DVD compilation of Channel 8's assassination news footage as our free gift for subscribing to the local newspaper. Not surprisingly, much of the footage Mr. Lane included, so damning to the Dallas Police Department and the district attorney, is conveniently omitted from Channel 8's own compilation. We laughed for hours. But I digress; Rush to Judgment contains mainly filmed interviews with witnesses, many of whom would soon conveniently die and are hence not to be found in more recent efforts such as The Men Who Killed Kennedy. If you view this with an open mind, you will immediately throw your copy of Case Closed in the trash where it belongs.

intelligent & thoughtful interviews with many dealey plaza eyewitnesses. devastating & profound-don't miss it!

.........to believe that lee harvey oswald, alone, was responsible for the assasination of president kennedy in 1963.
the warren commission rammed their conclusion down our collective throats and didn't give a hoot whether we had any doubts or not.
well, mark lane had doubts and he along with filmmaker emile de antonio documented onto film their interviews with eye witnesses.
eye witnesses who swear shots came from another location other than the texas book depository-meaning others than oswald were involved, totally debunking the 'conclusion' of the commission.
the commission did not cite any of the witnesses in their conclusion.
all of this and more is laid out to see and hear on this spell binding videotape.
i rented it from my local video rental store.
this video tape is out of print so you will need a pinch of luck to locate it at the video stores near you.
or perhaps your local library's may carry it.
it is soooo worth seeking out.
you will also find copies available on ebay and half.com.
can not recommend this video enough.

Rush to Judgment is an immensely important film - if for no other reason than the fact it features many of the most important witnesses to the JFK assassination describing, in their own words, what they saw and heard on that fateful day. Mark Lane asks them the questions that the Warren Commission should have asked (few of these people were ever called by the Warren Commission, and those that were either had their testimony twisted or were never asked questions that could present any problems for the "Oswald acting alone" scenario). Lane pretty much lets the testimony speak for itself, as it clearly raises doubts about the thoroughness, objectivity, and motives of the Warren Commission. One must keep in mind that this documentary was released in 1967. Most Americans at that time accepted the Warren Report conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald shot President Kennedy solely on his own. No one had been allowed to view the Zapruder film or see the autopsy photos, and the mountain of evidence we now have for conspiracy was at that time no more than a potentially significant little molehill. Mark Lane paved the way for all of the serious JFK assassination researchers to come.

As a lawyer, Mark Lane believed that Oswald - although dead - still deserved representation in the government's investigation of the JFK assassination. After all, he says, dead German generals had legal representation at Nuremberg. Taking this duty upon himself, he pokes hole after hole into the Warren Commission findings, making what would be a pretty strong case for reasonable doubt in the minds of any jury. It's true that he has very little hard evidence to go on, but that is largely because the Warren Report pretty much WAS all of the evidence back then. That is why he goes directly to witness after witness who was in Dealey Plaza on November 22 and witnessed the shooting - S.M. Holland, L.E. Bowers, Jr., Charles Brehm, James Tague, Orville Nix, and many others. He also talks to several former employees of Jack Ruby who tell him that Ruby knew at least half of the 1200 members of the Dallas Police Department and frequently entertained a number of them at his club.

Lane's witnesses came from various areas of Dealey Plaza - from above the Triple Underpass to the roadside curb and back toward the Texas School Book Depository - and yet they consistently say they thought shots came from behind the picket fence on the Grassy Knoll. Some of them even saw smoke drifting over the fence, while Holland and his fellow railway workers talk about finding footprints and cigarette butts in the area they thought the shots came from. All of these witnesses are only just repeating the testimony they gave to investigators on November 22, yet the Warren Commission decided they didn't want to hear any of the evidence these crucial witnesses had to give them.

Lane does a remarkably good job of laying out his case. He doesn't get everything right, but it's remarkable how much he had discovered in those first few years following the assassination. He certainly did all of us a favor by obtaining video testimony from so many witnesses. Even by the time of this film, a number of witnesses had died mysterious deaths, making others reluctant to come forward, and some of those interviewed here would never be heard from again. Lee Bowers, for example, died in a car crash before Rush to Judgment was even released to the public. This documentary is a veritable time capsule of one of the pivotal events in American history and should be appreciated as such by everyone, even those who continue to believe the official story of what happened in Dallas on November 22, 1963. For the rest of us, I think Penn Jones, Jr., says it best: "I really believe that the only way you can believe the Warren Report is to not read it."

Prominent JFK-assassination researcher/conspiracist Mark Lane serves as narrator and interviewer in his self-produced black-and-white documentary film "Rush To Judgment" (which was filmed in 1966). The film is based on Mr. Lane's book of the same title.

Video and audio quality on this "MPI Home Video" VHS Tape are pretty good. Specifications include a Hi-Fi Mono soundtrack and a "Standard" (Full-Frame) TV aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Running time is 98 minutes (in "SP" mode). There is no music score at all.

Mr. Lane attempts to make a case to favor the idea that the Warren Commission was wrong and that a conspiracy existed in the 1963 assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. He succeeds to a certain limited degree. But the "totality" of all the evidence in the JFK case leads not to conspiracy, in my view, but just the opposite. The "whole" story tells me that Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone assassin that Friday in Dallas.

I think that some of Mr. Lane's CT arguments are weak in many regards. To quote directly from the film (with Mr. Lane interviewing Dealey Plaza witness James Simmons):

MARK LANE -- "I show you a picture, published by the Warren Commission as Commission Exhibit number 2215, which is a view of the Triple Underpass area. I ask you if you'd be good enough to mark with this pen, with an X, the area where you thought the shots came from, and where you saw the smoke."

Mr. Simmons then proceeded to place an "X" behind the picket (wooden) fence on top of the Grassy Knoll.

Mr. Lane asked another witness, J.C. Price, the exact same question (and keep in mind he phrased it with the word "Shots" [plural] -- "Where did you hear the shots come from?"). And Mr. Price, just like Simmons, placed an "X" in the same area behind the fence on the Knoll.

Now, the problem I have with this type of testimony and "X"-placing demonstrations with regard to these witnesses is that they are claiming, in essence, that ALL the shots fired that day had come from that SAME frontal (Knoll) location -- which we KNOW is wrong. There is no question that shots came from the Texas School Book Depository Building (to the REAR of JFK's limousine). Therefore, since we KNOW that rear shots did occur (a certainty due to the back wounds sustained by both John Kennedy and John Connally), the testimony of witnesses claiming that shots originated from ONLY the front becomes patently weak (and obviously inaccurate).

Below are some other parts of "Rush To Judgment" that are rather weak in supporting his general conspiracy claims and beliefs..........

Mr. Lane spends a few minutes on a very odd conspiracy argument -- where he seems to be doubtful as to whether Lee Oswald rode as a passenger on a Dallas city bus just after the shooting on November 22, 1963. Lane argues that bus driver Cecil McWatters could never positively identify Oswald as having been on his bus that Friday afternoon. But, even if McWatters' personal observations re. LHO are fuzzy, this in no way indicates Oswald WASN'T on the bus. Because Lane conveniently ignores the positive IDing of Oswald by fellow bus passenger Mary E. Bledsoe. PLUS the fact that a bus transfer (dated "Fri. Nov. 22, '63") was found on Oswald after his arrest (Warren Commission Exhibit "CE381").

Mrs. Bledsoe recognized Oswald immediately when she saw him on the bus on 11/22; she had seen him just a little over a month earlier (in October 1963), when Oswald had rented a room from Mrs. Bledsoe for a few days (from October 7th to 14th), before Bledsoe decided she didn't like him anymore, and, in effect, kicked him out.

So for Mark Lane to leave this "doubt" in the minds of unaware people watching his film that Oswald just might NOT have been on the bus is, in my view, both irresponsible and deliberately deceptive -- because besides McWatters (and the physical evidence of the paper bus transfer found in LHO's pocket), there was a MUCH more credible witness to Oswald's having been on the bus -- and that was a person who actually KNEW Oswald and had seen him up close on prior occasions -- that being Mrs. Bledsoe.*

* = Not to mention the fact that Oswald HIMSELF told police that he was on the bus. Now, yes, Oswald was an expert liar -- but I fail to see WHY he'd even want to lie about something so benign in nature, like being on a bus for a few minutes on November 22. So, in this rare instance, it would seem Oswald was telling the truth to the authorities. Especially when his bus story can be backed up with other evidence -- the paper transfer and Mrs. Bledsoe.

And -- There's also Mr. Lane's misleading his audience with the "Lovelady / Oswald in the TSBD Doorway" issue -- which, of course, had been cleared up even by the time Lane produced his film in mid-1966.

Lovelady testified that it was he, and not Oswald, in the doorway. And yet, still, Lane seems to infer in his film that the issue was still "undecided" in some manner -- hinting that it just may have been Oswald, after all, in the Depository doorway. This is wholly misleading by Mr. Lane.

Plus -- There's the several minutes Mr. Lane spends on the rather unimportant matter of the "blacked-out" car license plate in a picture of General Edwin Walker's home. He quotes several passages of Marina Oswald's testimony regarding the blacked-out plate -- but I fail to see where it really leads to "conspiracy" in any manner.

Mr. Lane also interviews Penn Jones, who rambles on and on about the "eight mysterious deaths" that had occurred since the assassination (from late 1963 to the time Jones was interviewed, which I think was approx. late Spring or early Summer of 1966).

Jones' list included one man who was evidently killed by a "karate chop to the throat". Can't recall who that was right at this moment; but it had me rolling with laughter because it sounded so odd.

One thing I've always found amusing about the various CT "Mystery Deaths" lists is the randomness to such lists; and the fact that some of these so-called "Mystery Death" compilations have people listed that died MANY YEARS after the assassination.

A good example of the "randomness" in this regard would be Lee Bowers, Jr. -- Many people believe Bowers was "rubbed out" by conspirators in some manner (with plotters "arranging" the deadly car crash that killed Bowers on August 9, 1966, just three months after he was interviewed on camera by Mark Lane for the "Rush To Judgment" film).

But Bowers' CTer-perceived "Mystery Death" is particularly amusing when viewed from a "Why Bother Killing Bowers Now?" point-of-view. .... I.E.: Why kill him AFTER he's already spilled his guts to Mark Lane ON FILM?

The time to have "rubbed out" Mr. Bowers would have been BEFORE he was captured on film talking about things that seem (on the surface) to be "conspiratorial" in nature re. the JFK assassination.

For any conspirators to want to kill Bowers after he's already talked is like closing the gate after the horse has already gotten loose. What the heck is the point?

In addition -- Why didn't the "Mystery Death Conspiracy Squad" go after and "take care of" S.M. (Skinny) Holland, too? Holland, in fact, should have probably been NUMBER ONE on the conspirators' "Death List", because his testimony of hearing a fourth shot and seeing smoke on the Grassy Knoll was far more damaging to the "conspiracy team" than a lot of other witnesses who died in what some theorists believe was a "shady" manner. And this "Death Squad" was apparently in the habit of "rubbing out" witnesses who went against the Official WC/LN grain after the assassination.

Why, then, wasn't Holland silenced? Along with Jean Hill? And Bill Newman? And Arnold Rowland? And Richard Dodd? And J.C. Price? And Gordon Arnold? And Ed Hoffman? And James Simmons? And Paul O'Connor? And many other MORE DIRECT eyewitnesses to the crime, who told of events that went AGAINST the Official Warren Commission version of the assassination?

I read (someplace) that some bozo had concocted his own "Post-Assassination Mystery Death" list -- and on it he placed a person who was simply visiting JFK's gravesite at Arlington Cemetery, and had a heart attack and died while leaning over the eternal flame! LOL! (Think THAT'S stretching the "Death List" a tad too thin?)

Holland, et al, were all people who have said things since 11-22-63 that could have been very damaging to the conspirators' ultimate goal of "getting away with murder", but were they killed off in "mysterious" ways? No.

The "Mystery Deaths" lists have always been a "pick-and-choose" type of CT argument that fails to hold any water -- especially when some authors of such random lists ALSO include "mystery killings" that occurred DECADES after the assassination. Such stretched-out "killings" are simply ludicrous.

I'm somewhat surprised that Dorothy Kilgallen's death wasn't mentioned in the Mark Lane film. Kilgallen died on November 8, 1965, and many people added her to their "Mysterious JFK Assassination Deaths" list as well.

Kilgallen was found dead in her home of a suspected drug overdose just hours after she had finished up what turned out to be her last appearance on the long-running TV game show "What's My Line?" (a program which featured Dorothy as a regular panelist for 15 years). She evidently had secured an exclusive interview with Oswald's killer, Jack Ruby, and, according to some people, Kilgallen was about to "blow the lid off the JFK case". Many conspiracy theorists, therefore, feel she was murdered because of the information she possessed.

I do not believe Kilgallen was "rubbed out" by conspirators, but I'm surprised that she wasn't at least mentioned in this film, due to the untimely nature of her death and her supposed "connections" to the JFK case.

I've often wondered why the so-called "plotters" in a "Patsy" plot just simply didn't arrange Oswald's own "suicide" right there within the Sniper's Nest on the Depository's 6th Floor on November 22nd?

These plotters obviously were going to need to have him killed off at some point after 12:30 PM on November 22 (per what many/most CTers seem to believe, due to these same CTers also believing that Jack Ruby was "hired" to "rub out" the Patsy), so why wait 48 hours to do it (and give Oswald a chance to spill any facts he may know about ANYTHING related to the assassination plan)?

I realize that some CTers might retort here with the following --- "It was necessary to have Oswald CAUGHT (physically) and detained by police and officially CHARGED with the assassination".

However, if these conspirators who have "arranged" everything else so WELL and completely (right down to apparently PLANTING not only the bullet shells, the paper bag, the rifle, and CE399 -- but also "planting" the two bullet fragments inside the limousine itself which were conclusively proven to have come from Oswald's rifle) -- then the PHYSICAL capture of Oswald would really be unnecessary from the plotters' POV (since his "Guilt" had been so thoroughly "pre-arranged").

Letting Oswald live to say even those four words to a Live TV audience -- "I'm just a patsy!" -- does not make sense from the conspirators' POV, IMO.

Portions of Mark Lane's film give the impression that Lane is grasping at straws -- any straws he can find -- to prove some peripheral point that MIGHT (in his opinion) lead to the idea of conspiracy.

I like the film for its interesting "mid-'60s feel". But, overall, it's a weak effort, in my view, to prove that a conspiracy existed on November 22nd, 1963.