Customer Reviews

Real Answers: The True Story Told by Gary Cornwell, Deputy Chief Counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations, in Charge of the Investigation of the John F. Kennedy Assassination

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Although the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) in the late 1970s made significant progress in beginning to piece together the Kennedy assassination jigsaw puzzle, you would never know it from this book. The HSCA did a great deal of work in interviewing and assessing the anti-Castro Cubans that were responsible for the assassination, but you will need to read other materials to learn that--it isn't covered in this book at all. If you want a book that focuses on the work of the HSCA, far better to get Gaeton Fonzi's The Last Investigation. He was the investigator for the HSCA who focused on the anti-Castro Cubans, and developed information pertinent to the case. His book is well-written and a must read. Fonzi's book goes in depth into some of the most important JFK-assassination related issues that are essential for an understanding of the assassination. Cornwell's book, on the other hand, is extremely superficial, the opposite of Fonzi's work. Cornwell says little beyond that there was a conspiracy. You won't learn anything about the nature of the conspiracy in this book. He either slept through the investigation, or through the writing of his book about it.

Ready to take a trip into the HCSA's records and find some real answers to many unanswered questions over the last 30 plus years? Gary Cornwell has done just that with his excellent work Real Answers.

As a former prosecutor for the Department of Justice, Cornwell knows how to obtain and present facts. This book is the perfect example of, what I would consider, his best work. Cornwell has an exceptional ability to make the reader want to know more.

Unable to put this book down, I was completely drawn into 1963 and the streets of Dallas. Cornwell presented information in a clear, concise and well-researched manner. Cornwell is able to sift through the assumption and present the Real Answers.

For anyone interested in the JFK assassination, or for those researching the case, here is a definite addition to your collection. I have read over twenty books on the subject and for the first time, Real Answers makes real sense. A job well done.

This book deals mostly with the findings of the Select Committee on Assassinations. It does not however review the bulk of those findings. It instead revamps much of the basic events surrounding the assassination that are already considered common knowledge. You want this book to reveal something exciting or new as you read it , but that just never happens. Other than some interesting discussion concerning the gunshot acoustics, it would be totally lacking. Also, a lot of "fill-in" with personal opinion about the Oliver Stone movie or why people are still fascinated with the case. Totally lacking substance. Recommend for novice assassination buffs only.

Ready to take a trip into the HCSA's records and find some real answers to many unanswered questions over the last 30 plus years? Gary Cornwell has done just that with his excellent work Real Answers.

As a former prosecutor for the Department of Justice, Cornwell knows how to obtain and present facts. This book is the perfect example of, what I would consider, his best work. Cornwell has an exceptional ability to make the reader want to know more.

Unable to put this book down, I was completely drawn into 1963 and the streets of Dallas. Cornwell presented information in a clear, concise and well-researched manner. Cornwell is able to sift through the assumption and present the Real Answers.

For anyone interested in the JFK assassination, or for those researching the case, here is a definite addition to your collection. I have read over twenty books on the subject and for the first time, Real Answers makes real sense. A job well done.

This book, written by former Deputy Chief Counsel to the HSCA Gary Cornwell, is an o.k. book, factually speaking, but a good read, nonetheless. No major revelations.
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Cornwell had access to much or what has been "sealed" in the Warren and HSCA investigations...this amounts to a lot of nothing when you realize just how sanitized, limited, and incomplete those investigations were. So many times the leads and "rabbit trails" that should have been followed were not. It's all too apparent that Jack Ruby's investigation didn't go deep enough, that the HSCA was an organizational fiasco with political turf battles promoting certain views over another, and yet there was some value in the HSCA looking a little deeper than the Warren group did. In his unique role, Cornwell should have had more to say, but he merely ads to the sham forced upon us. If you want something more scholarly and in depth, I would look to "Bloody Treason" by Noel Twyman, "Cover Up" by Stewart Galanor, or "Assassination Science" by Jim Fetzer and company. "Real Answers" only skims a small surface of what information could be told. It's too bad for the reader that it doesn't go more into the areas which need to be told.