50 years after John F. Kennedy’s assassination people are still talking about the supposed conspiracies that circulate the event. It’s probably the best known of the conspiracy theories around. It’s the G Major First Hand scale (the “head honcho scale” as my ex-guitar teacher used to say) of conspiracy theories. It’s certainly one that most people still hold some type of believe in. But there are so many theories about the event. It’s not just one conspiracy theory. There are people that believe the mob was involved, that the Cubans were involved, that the Communists were involved, and that even space aliens were involved. Well, in Vincent Bugliosi’s book, “Reclaiming History,” he takes on every conspiracy theory that has a bit of credit. By that, I mean, he doesn’t address the crack pot theories like the Aliens being involved. Instead, Bugliosi meticulously documents the day’s events leading up to, and preceding, the JFK assassination and goes on to prove that all the conspiracy theories out there don’t hold their weight in reality.
This is a massive book. It’s 1648 pages and includes a DVD with over 900 pages of footnotes. Yes, I read the entire thing cover to cover. No, I was never really that into the whole JFK conspiracy theory to begin with. However, as a skeptic, I’m always annoyed at how certain people are of the conspiracy theories they’ve latched on to. Nothing is more annoying to me that someone that takes this holier-than-thou attitude when it comes to believing something on the fringe.
“Well, let me give you some literature to read and you’ll see that it was all a big set up!”
Really, you’re going to give me some “literature” (translate: pamphlet) by some crack pot old hack that tries to shoe-horn in every piece of irrelevant data while disregarding scientific fact?
Conspiracy Theorists annoy me. That’s why I read this book. I want to be able to debate them and call them out on their bullshit. Like when they say it’s not possible for Oswald to have made the shot in the stated amount of time. Or when they say it’s impossible for the bullet to make its way through two bodies and not have such minimal damage.
Instead of getting into the whole mess of what the conspiracy theory believers still put their trust in I’ll talk about what this book has to offer.
One of the most interesting reads in the book is straight out of the gate. Bugliosi documents (with meticulous notes and reference) what happened on the day of the assassination and the days following up to Oswald being shot by Jack Ruby. I’m talking about, just about every sentence has a footnote to where he got the information. He’s not using artistic license here. He uses eyewitness accounts and proof to tell you where people were and what was going on.
It’s just an incredible account of time keeping and detail that never gets boring.
Bugliosi said in an interview: “Here, everything pointed toward Oswald’s guilt. All the physical evidence, all the scientific evidence. Everything he said, everything he did. In Reclaiming History, at the end of book one, I set forth 53 separate pieces of evidence pointing toward Oswald’s guilt. It would not be humanly possible for this man to be innocent and still have 53 pieces of evidence pointing toward his guilt. Only in a fantasy world can you have 53 pieces of evidence pointing toward guilt and still be innocent.
Quickly, five pieces: Oswald’s Mannlicher-Carcano rifle was the murder weapon. That’s pretty heavy by itself. Oswald was the only employee at the Book Depository Building who fled the building after the assassination. Forty-five minutes later, he shoots and kills Officer J. D. Tippit, Dallas Police Department. That murder bore the signature of a man in desperate flight from some awful deed. Thirty minutes later at a Texas theatre he resists arrest, pulls a gun on the arresting officer. During his interrogation, [Oswald] told one provable lie after another, showing a consciousness of guilt.”
The book is divided up into separate “books” each dealing with a chunk of subject matter. One deals with Motive, one deals with Conspiracy Theories, one deals with the life of Oswald and the life of Ruby – giving the reader insight on who these people are and what would lead them to do what they did. And so on and son on.
It’s the only book out there that deals with all the conspiracy theories (that aren’t out-and-out wacky). It’s the only book that settles all the questions and the only book that deals with the entire case.
One of the things that annoys me most about Conspiracy Theorists is that they refuse to accept facts that don’t fit into their world view. They want the world around them to be more interesting. They want to think that there are shadow governments and secret organizations. They want to live in the world of Die Hard and Harry Potter. Whenever they’re presented with scientific evidence they disregard it. They write off whatever doesn’t fit into their theory as being planted by the government or a “false flag” or some kind.
They make up their own stories between the lines. Like when they say that E. Howard Hunt made a death bed confession that he was involved in a conspiracy to murder the President. If you listen to the audio he says nothing of the sort. It’s just the ramblings of an old man talking about his past. Conspiracy Theorists fill in the gaps with their own fantasy and make up a story that simply isn’t there.
They also data mine for quotes to support their arguments. Sometimes these pieces of information are either out of date or plainly just wrong. “The three tramps that were arrested were U.S. agents.” OR, “The three tramps that were arrested were never seen again and were never identified.” Actually, wrong on both counts.
Bugliosi makes a salient point in the book that everyone should adopt into their lives. He says that once there is evidence that proves a thing then anything else that contradicts that proof should be thrown out. Scientific evidence should always stand up against speculation, no question.
Like if you say, “hey, if you put a bottle of water in a working cold refrigerator then the water will also get cold if you let it sit in there long enough.”
“Actually, the water gets cold because it’s dead material and since it’s dormant than….”
SHUT UP!
So when you have scientific evidence that incontrovertibly demonstrates that a bullet entered the back of JFK’s skull, not only creating a beveling effect on the inside of the skull that proves an entrance to the back but also illustrates a fracturing pattern from the shock wave originating from a entrance to the back of the skull, all other speculation stating otherwise should be dismissed.
If you’re remotely interested in the JFK assassination then I recommend you checking this out. You don’t have to read the whole thing. The book has a reference in the back that will take you to the part of the book that deals with your question. It’ll be in there.
It’s all in there.
