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Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
 
 
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Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy [Hardcover]

Vincent Bugliosi (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (213 customer reviews)


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Book Description

May 15, 2007
For over forty years the truth about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy has been obscured. This book releases us from a crippling distortion of American history. This extraordinary and historic book required twenty years to research and write. The oft-challenged findings of the Warren Commission—Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, shot and killed President John F. Kennedy—are here confirmed beyond all doubt. But Reclaiming History does much more than that. In addition to providing a powerful and unprecedented narrative of events and a biography of the assassin, it confronts and destroys every one of the conspiracy theories that have grown up since the assassination, exposing their selective use of evidence, flawed logic, and outright deceptions. So thoroughly documented, so compellingly lucid in its conclusions, Reclaiming History is, in a sense, the investigation that completes the work of the Warren Commission. In it, Vincent Bugliosi, the nation's foremost prosecutor, takes on the most important murder in American history.

At 1:00 p.m. on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was pronounced dead, the victim of a sniper attack during his motorcade through Dallas. That may be the only fact generally agreed upon in the vast literature spawned by the assassination. National polls reveal that an overwhelming majority of Americans (75%) believe that there was a high-level conspiracy behind Lee Harvey Oswald. Many even believe that Oswald was entirely innocent. In this continuously absorbing, powerful, ground-breaking book, Vincent Bugliosi shows how we have come to believe such lies about an event that changed the course of history.

The brilliant prosecutor of Charles Manson and the man who forged an iron-clad case of circumstantial guilt around O. J. Simpson in his best-selling Outrage Bugliosi is perhaps the only man in America capable of writing the definitive book on the Kennedy assassination. This is an achievement that has for years seemed beyond reach. No one imagined that such a book would ever be written: a single volume that once and for all resolves, beyond any reasonable doubt, every lingering question as to what happened in Dallas and who was responsible.

There have been hundreds of books about the assassination, but there has never been a book that covers the entire case, including addressing each and every conspiracy theory and the facts, or alleged facts, on which they are based. In this monumental work, the author has raised scholarship on the assassination to a new and final level, one that far surpasses all other books on the subject. It adds resonance, depth, and closure to the admirable work of the Warren Commission.

Reclaiming History is a narrative compendium of fact, forensic evidence, reexamination of key witnesses, and common sense. Every detail and nuance is accounted for, every conspiracy theory revealed as a fraud on the American public. Bugliosi's irresistible logic, command of the evidence, and ability to draw startling inferences shed fresh light on this American nightmare. At last it all makes sense. 32 pages of illustrations


Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bugliosi, best known as Charles Manson's prosecutor, spent more than 20 years writing this defense of the Warren Commission's conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the slaying of President Kennedy, but his obsession has produced a massive tome that's likely to overwhelm most readers. At times, the author seems determined to present every detail his researches revealed, even if it doesn't add to the overall picture (like a footnote on Elvis sightings). Further, while Bugliosi says even serious conspiracy theorists don't claim the FBI or Secret Service were involved, he devotes chapters to each. The book's structure—it's organized by subject, such as theories about the role of the FBI, the KGB or anti-Castro Cubans—leads to needless repetition, and, for an author who excoriates conspiracy theorists, charging them with carelessness and making wild accusations, Bugliosi is not always temperate in his language; for example, twice he makes the nonsensical claim that some Warren Commission critics "were screaming the word conspiracy before the fatal bullet had come to rest." His decision to devote twice as many pages to critiquing Oliver Stone's movie JFK as to his chapter on organized crime (identified by the chief counsel of the House Select Committee on Assassination as the likely conspirators) is a curious one, as is the choice to open the book with a dramatic re-creation of events surrounding the assassination rather than a straightforward chronology of the relevant facts. Moreover, Bugliosi does not always probe whether individuals who are the sole source for certain facts (for example, Oswald's widow, Marina) had any motive to lie. Bugliosi's voluminous endnotes are on an accompanying CD. Gerald Posner's 1993 Case Closed made most of the same points in a much more concise way. 32 pages of illus. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The New Yorker

This weighty book (its pages number sixteen hundred and twelve) claims to be the final word on the assassination of President Kennedy. It is as if Bugliosi, who prosecuted the Manson murders, intended to overwhelm with sheer, footnoted bulk. But in the way that others have "proved" conspiracies, Bugliosi "proves" yet again the guilt of Lee Harvey Oswald. He does this by reëxamining familiar evidence but also by dismissing preposterous theories, such as one that J. Edgar Hoover masterminded the murder to keep his job. Bugliosi steps less certainly in considering the work of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, which, in 1978, concluded that J.F.K. was "probably" killed as the result of a plot. Citing a National Research Council study, Bugliosi brushes aside the committee’s acoustic evidence suggesting that four shots were fired in Dallas (a fourth shot would confirm a second gunman); he is uncomfortable with a subsequent analysis, by the British Forensic Science Society, which challenged the N.R.C. opinion. Mysteries are like that"
Copyright © 2007 Click here to subscribe to The New Yorker

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 1648 pages
  • Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (May 15, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0393045250
  • ISBN-13: 978-0393045253
  • Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.1 x 2.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 5.6 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (213 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #87,180 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Vincent Bugliosi, prosecutor of Charles Manson, lives in Los Angeles, California. He is the author or co-author of many books, among them the #1 best-sellers Helter Skelter, And the Sea Will Tell, and Outrage; plus Four Days in November, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, No Island of Sanity, The Betrayal of America, Lullaby and Good Night, Shadow Of Cain, Till Death Us Do Part, Drugs in America, and The Phoenix Solution.

 

Customer Reviews

213 Reviews
5 star:
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4 star:
 (19)
3 star:
 (16)
2 star:
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1 star:
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Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (213 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars 81 days..., April 17, 2008
By 
nto62 (Corona, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   
This review is from: Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Hardcover)
81 days is what it took me to read this over-sized, tightly-spaced, mini-fonted, 1512-page, concrete slab of a book, though this duration was unevenly distributed. Bugliosi starts his book with an extremely suspenseful countdown to the death of JFK. Minute by minute, he presents a pulse-pounding, real-time narrative that easily overshadows the reader's foreknowledge of the tragic conclusion. Were the book to stop here, it's a homerun, 5-star effort. But, it doesn't. Not by a long shot.

Next, is a thorough and highly readable biography of Oswald that perfectly complements the prior assassination narrative. Indeed, at the conclusion of this section, I was fairly certain I had stumbled upon a real gem. However, Bugliosi's ultimate intent is to completely destroy a preponderance of conspiracy theories from the nuttiest to the least implausible, and soon the laity must hunker down for a long, and often tedious, sermon.

Further aggravating the slog is Bugliosi's habit of flippantly and frequently taunting the conspiracy theorists or "buffs" as he likes to call them. He possesses less humor than he thinks and despite his feelings for some of the more outlandish theorists, his playground antics detract from what he, himself, believes a serious piece of scholarship.

Things pick up momentarily when Bugliosi rightfully dismantles Oliver Stone's horribly inaccurate and intentionally misleading film, JFK. The more serious pro-conspiracy scholars, themselves, labeled JFK, the movie, a fantasy and Stone assuredly deserves everything Bugliosi hurls at him.

Bottom-line, however, is there is nothing the author can ultimately do to save what steadily becomes a lead weight in the reader's hands. Those who have developed a personal stake in either the anti- or pro- position might feel differently, but if you're just a person who happens upon an impressively thick, initially inviting account of the JFK assassination, it becomes something of a chore. 5 stars for the first half and 1 for second leads me to settle on 3. It could have been so much better, but the captain himself seemed intent on scuttling the ship.
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51 of 73 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and thorough--but told from the perspective of an advocate,, June 18, 2007
By 
This review is from: Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Hardcover)
This enormous assessment of the Kennedy assassination is impressively researched and seems quite thorough. But the author's background as a prosecutor and his probably well-founded disdain for most conspiracy theorists makes me feel I'm not getting an even-handed assessment of the evidence.

I have the impression Bugliosi is correct in his assertion that Oswald did it and acted alone, but his repeated characterization of those who view the evidence differently as silly or deluded undercuts his objective of providing a balanced picture of the evidence.

I finally gave up on a straight through reading at page 444, where Bugliosi laments the likelihood of future conspiracy theory proponents "who will breast-feed the conspiracy loonies for generations to come with their special lactations of bilge, blather, and bunk." Yuck.
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68 of 99 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book - from a Prosecutor's viewpoint, July 28, 2007
This review is from: Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Hardcover)
Vincent Bugliosi's "Reclaiming History" is an excellent book, and well worth the long read. It is a good overview of all of the events of November 22, 1963, here in Dallas, and a good overview of many of the problems with the Warren Commission and other theories.

However, the reader should keep in mind that Mr. Bugliosi is a Prosecutor, and not a researcher or investigator. His tendency is to build a case to prosecute the defendant, and explain away, or debunk any information that counters his case.

Unfortunately, like a Prosecutor, this includes discrediting any witness that puts forth any information that points elsewhere. Vincent often addresses the background of the witness, instead of answering or explaining the information the witness presents.

Vincent spends the first half of the book rehashing the 1986 trial of Oswald, where he was the Prosecutor against Gerry Spence. He uses 53 points of evidence to prove that Oswald was guilty of shooting the President from behind. He then goes on to review the many problems with the evidence, but bases the evaluation of these problems on the premise that he has already proven Oswald guilty. Since he has already proven Oswald guilty, the problems can be disregarded.

Mr Buliosi does admit (page 18 of the Introduction) that almost all of the evidence in the case has some "problem" with it. He says that each problem can be explained, in itself; however, he never states when the sheer number of problems reaches the point where it becomes doubt.

It is not surprising that Vince takes this tact, as he has always been a Prosecutor. It is not the Prosecutor's job to look for the "truth", as that should have been done by the Investigators. It is also not his job to evaluate legitimate problems that create doubt, as that would be the function of the Defense Attorney. It is the Prosecutor's job to present a case that would convict the defendant, and to explain away, or discredit witnesses, that present other evidence.

Mr Bugliosi also lumps all of us who have any doubts about the Warren Commission into the group of "Conspiracy Buffs", and states that we are all "kookier than a 3 dollar bill". He thusly tries to discredit any legitimate concerns and questions we may have, by using the most extreme examples.

He further uses the explanation that the public has heard that there was a Conspiracy for so long, that they simply now believe it. He also uses the old concept that "a great man needs to be killed by a great evil", and that is why many believe that a Lone Nut could not do it. He never addresses (or even admits) to those of us who wish we could believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone shooter, but are still troubled with the mass of points that point elsewhere, or to other shooters.

Again, the book is a good read (quantity and quality), but the reader should be aware of the bias of the writer to Prosecute a case rather than look for truth.

Jerry Dealey - Dallas historian, Dealey Plaza namesake family
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Marina Oswald awakens in the dark. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
book depository building, triple underpass, sixth floor museum, lady bird, plausible denial, identification bureau, robbery bureau, coffee mill, three autopsy surgeons, southeasternmost window, supplementary brain exam, conspiracy community, fifteen years after the assassination, grassy knoll assassin, most conspiracy theorists, severe external stimulus, firearms panel, stretcher bullet, right palm print, basement jail office, idential limousine, endnote discussion, chief autopsy surgeon, many conspiracy theorists, forensic panel
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Warren Commission, New Orleans, Secret Service, United States, President Kennedy, Soviet Union, Jack Ruby, Dealey Plaza, Lee Harvey Oswald, Captain Fritz, Mexico City, Fort Worth, New York, White House, Elm Street, Ruth Paine, Lee Oswald, Parkland Hospital, Bay of Pigs, Dallas Morning News, Chief Curry, Dallas Police Department, Governor Connally, Clay Shaw, Edgar Hoover
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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