On the Trail of the Assassins [Mass Market Paperback]

Jim Garrison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1991

The book that inspired the movie JFK recounts Jim Garrison's attempt to solve the Kennedy assassination, and describes how Garrison was harrassed because of his allegations of government involvement in Kennedy's death.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 406 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books; First Edition edition (December 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446362778
• ISBN-13: 978-0446362771
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,359 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #33 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( K ) > Kennedy, John F.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Search for the Truth, June 22, 2004

By 

Mcgivern Owen L (NY, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: On the Trail of the Assassins (Mass Market Paperback)

On the Trail of the Assassins is an excellent starting point for those trying to make sense of the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States. The author was the District Attorney of New Orleans, Louisiana at the time of the shooting. He felt, rightly it seems, that his jurisdiction contained a hotbed of intrigue against J.F.K. OTA is 2 tales in one: The first marshals the virtual kaleidoscope of sinister information, actual events, recreated events, innuendo, questions, malfeasance, lying, ineptitude, charges and countercharges behind the killing. The second relates the author's frustrating attempts to convict a real life person with plotting the act. The first effort is highly successful. This is true at least to the extent that the attentive reader should be convinced that 1) Lee Harvey Oswald certainly DID NOT assassinate Kennedy on his own and 2) was in every likelihood not DIRECTLY involved with the shooting -period. Furthermore, the author proved, to this reviewer's satisfaction that 3) Oswald also did not shoot Dallas Police Officer J.D.Tipitt that fateful afternoon. Linking Tippit to Oswald is critical in determining guilt. Finally, the author effectively eliminates the Mafia as the culprits in the crime. The foregoing is no small accomplishment. Left unanswered are the mysteries that have plagued virtually anyone who is unsatisfied with the Warren Commission or subsequent House investigation into the affair. A partial list of these issues encompass: the virtual criminal activities surrounding Kennedy's so called autopsy, the presence of a second and even third (!) gunman in Dallas that day, the outright theft of the President's brain from the National Archives and the total and complete failure of the Secret Service to protect J.F.K. in Dallas. The author properly raises the right questions. Like most investigators, he is unable to provide answers. The most tantalizing questions of all concern Oswald: Who was he? If he did not shoot the President, why is he so prominent And what on the fringes of the event? He certainly was on the scene that day. Was he set up to take the fall? Was he a patsy? His own murder two days after that of the President proved that someone wanted him silenced. The second tale surrounds the trial of one Clay Shaw, a local prominent business leader. Shaw was not charged with the murder but in forming a plot to carry out the assassination. No reader should be surprised at his acquittal. Garrison's case was unspecific and not coherently put together for such a serious charge. The jury s decision does not detract from the book one iota. There are so many unanswered questions and unexplained events to the Kennedy assassination it boggles the mind. The overriding burden lies in assigning specificity . At least Garrison tried to bring someone to justice. Conspiracy theorists will have to read further to get more answers to the frustrating questions. One weak point is the inadequacy of the one map of Dealey Plaza, the murder site. A more serious detraction is that so many facts are spread out over the text, many buried in footnotes. Readers will have to work hard! These facts, like the Shaw prosecution, are not always coherently presented, a strange omission from such an experienced lawyer. In fairness to the author, this may reflect poor editing, not poor writing. One cautionary note from this observer: The Kennedy assassination is highly similar to another troubling affair: The missing POWs and MIAs from Indochina. In both instances, our Government failed us. And in both cases, the full truth will never be known. There remains no reason not to continue to seek answers no matter how frustrating. If enough of us try hard enough for long enough, perhaps more of the truth will one day emerge.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Staying on the Trail, December 15, 1999

By 

Gary A. Olister (New Orleans, Louisiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: On the Trail of the Assassins (Audio Cassette)

As the only elected official to ever bring a criminal prosecution forward on the JFK assassination, this is definitely a must read book. Every newspaper in the country had as their first paragraph the announcement that the FBI and the Dallas police had an air-tight case against a marxist communist named Lee Harvey oswald. It was impossible to believe otherwise. Our government had facts that indicated otherwise. As District Attorney of New Orleans, Garrison had the authority to bring the facts out into the open. This wasn't a reseacher looking for the truth; this was a DA in a courtroom. Too many things didn't fit into the government's story and this is when Garrison approached the JFK case with a police mentality. From the opening cover depicting how the President's motorcade route was changed the morning of the assassination (only then would it be in front of the depository) to the fact that a first-class Mauser rifle was found by Dallas police on the 6th floor of the Book Depository ( not just the cheap mail order Mannlicher-Carcano rifle Oswald was alleged to have used), the facts continue to frustrate us today. The rifle alone leaves a hundred questions. Three empty cartridges from the Mannlicher-Caranolaying almost parrallel next to each other by the sniper's window in the same room as a 7.65 Mauser only complicated the set-up. One is left with the overwhelming feeling after reading this book that the JFK murder should still be classified as an open investigation. Facts that the government are keeping closed for 75 years from the time of this murder should be released. As entertaining as the Oliver Stone movie was; this should leave the reader numb. I don't often see this book as JFK material for the average reader and the fact that it's no longer published makes one wonder why. Maybe we're still not supposed to look at this case like a prosecutor but only as historians. I like the police mentality that Garrison brings to the story.

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Low-key, fact-filled and fascinating, January 5, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: On the Trail of the Assassins (Mass Market Paperback)

This is an amazing story, and of interest to those who like history, whodunnits or any example of clear thinking. I had always dismissed "conspiracy theories" as paranoia, without bothering to inform myself more. This book changed my mind completely!

It is low-key, fact-filled and well referenced, with footnotes and a good index. It is also a disturbing book, as it forces the reader to confront and question many sacred cows.

Jim Garrison, DA in New Orleans at the time of Kennedy's assassination (and central figure in Oliver Stone's movie "JFK") began his own investigation immediately he heard that Lee Harvey Oswald had spent some time in New Orleans, as Garrison expected Dallas police and the FBI would soon be visiting him. They never did. The Warren Commission Report came and went. It was not until 1966 that a chance remark led Garrison to read the Warren Report for himself: "Considering the lofty credentials of the Commission members and the quality and size of the staff available to them, I had expected to find a thorough and professional investigation. I found nothing of the sort." The book tells the story of what he did find and his own attempt to verify the Report's findings, in particular by talking to many of the witnesses called (and to many who should have been called but were not). His findings led him to Clay Shaw whom he indicted for conspiracy to murder President Kennedy.

The details of the assassination that Garrison uncovered are fascinating, e.g. Lee Oswald's negative nitrate test on the day of his arrest, the disappearance of Kennedy's brain, the odd (to say the least!) White House commands to vacuum and wash the car Kennedy was shot in, etc. Just as fascinating are the many blocks and stonewalls he encountered - why was Oswald's nitrate test result kept secret? Why was the famous Zapruder home movie of the shooting kept hidden from the American public until subpoenaed by Garrison in the Shaw trial? Why did so many important witnesses mysteriously die or disappear? Why was Oswald interviewed by an FBI agent for 12 hours yet no taperecording or notes were taken, nor was an attorney present (therefore nothing Oswald said then could be used in court)? Why did so many people warn of an impending attempt on Kennedy's life and why were these warnings ignored?

Some of the criticisms of Garrison that I have read do not answer these questions. Instead, oddly enough, they aim at his character, assigning to him vulgar motives such as self-aggrandizement or ambition. Some people even attack Oliver Stone's movie, as if discrediting the movie automatically discredits Garrison's own account, or makes Garrison's questions irrelevant. Other critics cite the fact that in the trial of Clay Shaw, the jury took just 45 minutes to find Shaw not guilty, as if this completely discredits Garrison's theory. The trial was about Clay Shaw, not about JFK's assassination. Firstly, Garrison himself was not sanguine about getting a conviction, but went ahead anyway as a trial would make many of his doubts and questions public. Secondly, his evidence passed the preliminary hearing (a 3-judge panel felt Garrison had enough evidence to warrant a trial). It also brought the Zapruder film to light, and discredited the completely ludicrous "magic bullet" theory.

Garrison comes across as an initially patriotic and naive young man, and his growth is similar to that of the main character in another Stone movie "Born on the Fourth of July". His style is rather plodding and perhaps here and there rather smug, but on the whole I found it scholarly and impressive.