Oswald Talked: The New Evidence in the JFK Assassination (Hardcover)

by Mary LA Fontaine (Author), Ray LA Fontaine (Author) "John Elrod was having trouble again..." (more)
Key Phrases: New Orleans, Lee Harvey Oswald, Warren Commission (more...)

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

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 454 pages
• Publisher: Pelican Publishing Company; First Edition, 3rd printing edition (March 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565540298
• ISBN-13: 978-1565540293
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.7 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #847,535 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 23 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

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.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Groundbreaking, intriguing and thought-provoking, October 30, 1999

By	Jeffrey J. Lyons (Pembroke, NH United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Oswald Talked" is by far the best book on the subject of JFK's assassination that I have ever read and I have been reading exposes on it for nearly thirty years. This book is extremely well researched and, while it doesn't name anyone in particular as the actual shooter...it does make some extremely enlightening and interesting connections between Oswald, Ruby, gun-running, Anti-Castro groups and the FBI and CIA. The LaFontaines use ACTUAL, previously top secret documents as their evidence. People who criticize this book for not acquitting or accusing Oswald in JFK's assassination are missing the point entirely. This book isn't about theories of hidden shooters in the grassy knoll, JFK's questionable autopsy results, the Zapurder film and the unexplained deaths of key witnesses. To me, this book opens discussion about previously overlooked theories and sheds light on the Red paranoia that was sweeping the nation in the volatile early 1960's and late 1950's. The book is more technical and theoretical. I don't think it was designed to solve the assassination but instead, to make you think. It also adds a touch of humor to break up the onslaught of documents being seen, in many cases, for the first time. I firmly believe that many JFK conspiracy watchers were annoyed that those millions of documents that were turned over to the Assassination committee a few years back never came out and said Oswald did or didn't do it. But the LaFontaines are showing us that that information may be buried there somewhere and they've begun to sift through everything to find out. I'll tell you, this book is over 450 pages and I read it in about two days...it was so engrossing, exciting and explosive.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Important JFK Book to Date, January 15, 2000

By	Robert Harris (Albuquerque, New Mexico) - See all my reviews

*Oswald Talked* is without any doubt, the most important book ever written on the JFK assassination. You may have seen some of this story on national television or in the authors' articles in the Washington Post, but the book goes into much greater detail.

Supported by top researchers, Paul Hoch and Bill Adams, the La Fontaines had already made a name for themselves by discovering critically important arrest records that had long been hidden away by the Dallas police and the FBI.

These records not only solved the decades-long mystery of the "Three Tramps" (they were innocent), but led to another suspect arrested at almost the same time as Lee Harvey Oswald. His name was John Elrod.

Elrod had come forward in August of 1964 to tell the FBI that while he was incarcerated with Oswald, he overheard the alleged assassin identify a suspect who had been involved in the theft of weapons belonging to the army base at nearby Ft. Hood. Oswald also went into considerable detail, describing a meeting of the thieves at a motel, where the sale of the weapons was consummated. He also mentioned one other little detail - Jack Ruby was present at that meeting.

All of this might sound incredible, except for the fact that the FBI acknowledged Elrod's description, not only of one of the suspects badly damaged and bandaged face, but of the Ford Thunderbird that crashed after a high speed chase with the police. The Thunderbird's trunk, Elrod reported, was full of the stolen weapons. All of that turned out to match perfectly, with the case the FBI was then prosecuting, right down to the make and model of the car, as well as the contents of it's trunk.

It also matched the fact that one of the suspects they were prosecuting for this crime, was named Donnell Whitter. Whitter as it turned out, just happened to be Jack Ruby's mechanic.

But Elrod's story amounted to solid proof of the long-suspected notion that Oswald was an informant for the FBI. So, rather than thank him for his contribution, the FBI instead, reported that Elrod lied and wasn't even in the Dallas jail on November 22nd. Of course, like the mysterious "three tramps", Elrod's arrest record had by that time, been hidden and locked away. Years later, the Dallas City archivist would report that these records were placed under "federal seal", undoubtedly by the FBI, and were not even made available to other law enforcement agencies.

Likewise, all of the FBI's records, related to the incident, including the interviews with Elrod and others who were arrested that day (and might have told the same story Elrod did), have completely vanished. Had it not been for the efforts of the La Fontaines, this part of our history would never have been known, except of course to the principals in the case, and to those who tried so hard to cover it up.

There is a great deal more to this story, much of which is centered around the reasons why such an enormous effort was made to undermine Elrod. The fact that those efforts still continue today, is strong corroboration for the La Fontaine's conclusions about who was responsible for this assassination.

No other book on this subject has come nearly as close to unravelling this heretofore unsolvable mystery. This is why you will see, among these reviews, some of the most mean spirited attacks on the authors and their witnesses, that have ever been posted at Amazon.com.

Do not confuse this book with the usual "conspiracy buff" claptrap. This is a very solid piece of work by top-notch journalists, much of whose story has been thoroughly fact-checked and confirmed by the notoriously conservative Washington Post. It is well written, meticulously researched, and a very good read. Most important, this book is honest and objective. If you are even slightly concerned about this part of our history, you should read *Oswald Talked*.