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Whitewash II: The Fbi Secret Service Coverup
Harold Weisberg was foremost among the early trailblazers who saw the inadequacy of the Warren Report's solution to the Crime of the Century. He tirelessly petitioned the government and used the courts to force release of withheld documents, and wrote dozens of books and manuscripts on the subject, including the Whitewash series, Oswald in New Orleans, PostMortem, Never Again, and Case Open, along with many unpublished manuscripts. He also wrote Frame-Up on the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. Harold died in 2002 at the age of 88.
Weisberg's friend David Wrone, author of The Zapruder Reframing JFK's Assassination, says this about Whitewash II:
"Four decades after its first appearance, Whitewash II--the FBI-Secret Service Coverup still stands as one of the foremost books depicting the great federal refusal properly to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The massive documentation released since then, the many books published, and the several federal investigations have only reaffirmed the soundness and clarity of the author's remarkable insight and superb analyses..."
Weisberg's friend David Wrone, author of The Zapruder Reframing JFK's Assassination, says this about Whitewash II:
"Four decades after its first appearance, Whitewash II--the FBI-Secret Service Coverup still stands as one of the foremost books depicting the great federal refusal properly to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The massive documentation released since then, the many books published, and the several federal investigations have only reaffirmed the soundness and clarity of the author's remarkable insight and superb analyses..."
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First published January 1, 1966
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About the author
Harold Weisberg
40 books7 followersHarold Weisberg was a prolific author & persistent critic of the official report that found a lone gunman responsible for the death of President John F. Kennedy & who was often dubbed the dean of assassination researchers.
Mr. Weisberg's career as the writer of about 10 published & roughly 35 unpublished books on the murders of Kennedy & the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. came last in a series of endeavors. He had been a journalist, a labor investigator for then-Progressive Party Sen. Robert M. La Follette Jr. (Wis.), an investigator for a World War II spy agency, a State Department intelligence analyst & a prize-winning Montgomery County poultry farmer.
In an obsession that kept him in financial hardship during the last 35 years, Mr. Weisberg collected in his home more than 250,000 government papers on the 1963 Kennedy assassination & scoured millions more at the National Archives. He produced one of the earliest books about the president's death, in 1965.
Mr. Weisberg also became a leading authority on the 1968 King killing & was an investigator on behalf of James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty to the crime but later recanted his story.
Mr. Weisberg came to believe that neither Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused Kennedy gunman, nor Ray was responsible for the deaths of the prominent leaders. He focused on what he considered the inadequacies of the government investigations, specifically an improper probe of the available evidence. But for all his work, he never found definitive answers.
He detested many other students of conspiracy, foremost filmmaker Oliver Stone, whose 1991 "JFK" spun out all kinds of theories about the president's death.
"To do a mishmash like this is out of love for the victim & respect for history?" Mr. Weisberg said to The Washington Post. "I think people who sell sex have more principle."
In contrast, Mr. Weisberg presented information he gleaned from government investigative papers in an often dry manner--even if that belied his cover tag lines promising "the end of the cover-up--official lies exposed. Never such an investigation--never such evidence!"
His first literary success was a self-published work called Whitewash: The Report on the Warren Report (1965). After being turned down by several publishers, he publicized the book himself & sold more than 30,000 copies. Dell then published it & a follow up, Whitewash II: The FBI-Secret Service Cover Up (both 1966).
Other books followed, including: Oswald in New Orleans: Case of Conspiracy with the C.I.A. (Canyon Books, 1967); Martin Luther King: The Assassination (Carroll & Graf, 1993); and Case Open: The Unanswered JFK Assassination Questions (Carroll & Graf, 1994).
Mr. Weisberg, a Philadelphia native, grew up in Wilmington DE, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. He attended the University of Delaware & then wrote articles for the Wilmington Morning News & the Sunday supplement of the Philadelphia Ledger.
In the late 1930s, he worked for La Follette, who chaired a special Senate investigating committee commonly called the La Follette Civil Liberties Committee. Mr. Weisberg was sent to look at suspected labor-rights violations in Harlan County, Ky.
During World War II, he served in the Army & the Office of Strategic Services. He joined State after the war but left in the late 1940s. He turned to farm life near Hyattsville with his wife, & they won prizes for their poultry. They also were early participants in a Peace Corps program called "Geese for Peace," in which the birds were shipped overseas to be raised in poverty-stricken countries. He turned to writing full-time after relinquishing farm life in the mid-1960s.
By that time, Mr. Weisberg's fascination with the Kennedy death was solidified. In September 1964, the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy -- called the Warren Commission -- concluded that Oswald was solely responsible for
Mr. Weisberg's career as the writer of about 10 published & roughly 35 unpublished books on the murders of Kennedy & the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. came last in a series of endeavors. He had been a journalist, a labor investigator for then-Progressive Party Sen. Robert M. La Follette Jr. (Wis.), an investigator for a World War II spy agency, a State Department intelligence analyst & a prize-winning Montgomery County poultry farmer.
In an obsession that kept him in financial hardship during the last 35 years, Mr. Weisberg collected in his home more than 250,000 government papers on the 1963 Kennedy assassination & scoured millions more at the National Archives. He produced one of the earliest books about the president's death, in 1965.
Mr. Weisberg also became a leading authority on the 1968 King killing & was an investigator on behalf of James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty to the crime but later recanted his story.
Mr. Weisberg came to believe that neither Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused Kennedy gunman, nor Ray was responsible for the deaths of the prominent leaders. He focused on what he considered the inadequacies of the government investigations, specifically an improper probe of the available evidence. But for all his work, he never found definitive answers.
He detested many other students of conspiracy, foremost filmmaker Oliver Stone, whose 1991 "JFK" spun out all kinds of theories about the president's death.
"To do a mishmash like this is out of love for the victim & respect for history?" Mr. Weisberg said to The Washington Post. "I think people who sell sex have more principle."
In contrast, Mr. Weisberg presented information he gleaned from government investigative papers in an often dry manner--even if that belied his cover tag lines promising "the end of the cover-up--official lies exposed. Never such an investigation--never such evidence!"
His first literary success was a self-published work called Whitewash: The Report on the Warren Report (1965). After being turned down by several publishers, he publicized the book himself & sold more than 30,000 copies. Dell then published it & a follow up, Whitewash II: The FBI-Secret Service Cover Up (both 1966).
Other books followed, including: Oswald in New Orleans: Case of Conspiracy with the C.I.A. (Canyon Books, 1967); Martin Luther King: The Assassination (Carroll & Graf, 1993); and Case Open: The Unanswered JFK Assassination Questions (Carroll & Graf, 1994).
Mr. Weisberg, a Philadelphia native, grew up in Wilmington DE, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. He attended the University of Delaware & then wrote articles for the Wilmington Morning News & the Sunday supplement of the Philadelphia Ledger.
In the late 1930s, he worked for La Follette, who chaired a special Senate investigating committee commonly called the La Follette Civil Liberties Committee. Mr. Weisberg was sent to look at suspected labor-rights violations in Harlan County, Ky.
During World War II, he served in the Army & the Office of Strategic Services. He joined State after the war but left in the late 1940s. He turned to farm life near Hyattsville with his wife, & they won prizes for their poultry. They also were early participants in a Peace Corps program called "Geese for Peace," in which the birds were shipped overseas to be raised in poverty-stricken countries. He turned to writing full-time after relinquishing farm life in the mid-1960s.
By that time, Mr. Weisberg's fascination with the Kennedy death was solidified. In September 1964, the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy -- called the Warren Commission -- concluded that Oswald was solely responsible for
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 2, 2012
One fine day I'll get to read a series of books in the chronological order of publication. With Weisberg's 'Whitewash' series I first read 'Whitewash IV', then III, prior to arriving at 'Whitewash II-The FBI-Secret Service Cover Up'. It goes without saying that I have yet to read the first in this series 'Whitewash:The Report on the Warren Report.' The story so far is that 'Whitewash II' is by far the most readable with III & IV being heavily laden with Commission documents and transcripts that are purely for the assassination anoraks.
Weisberg was a very important investigator and critic of the President's Commission on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. His 'Whitewash' series began it's assault on the Commission verdict just eighteen months after the release of the infamous report's volumes in 1964. 'Whitewash II' was published in 67, beating the likes of Sylvia Meagher's 'Accessories After The Fact' to the forum.
To the reader interested in the truth of this case I can only recommend these early publications, even though they are now not easily accessible and in some cases quite expensive. Weisberg presents a fact filled probe into the tragic shambles that was the government's supposed investigation into the shooting in Dealey Plaza. Central to the Weisberg assault is the photographic evidence that was ignored, suppressed, cropped, distorted or confiscated. The author highlights the Zapruder film and the still shots from Altgens and Willis, that proposes that shots were fired earlier than the Commission stated, therefore eliminating the lone nut sixth floor TSBD shooter. Weisberg also maintains Oswald is seen at the door of the TSBD building as the motorcade is passing, and not Billy Lovelady, on the Altgens picture, as well as a shooter from the Dal Tex building. In fact, this same Altgens picture is scrutinised by researchers today in their search for evidence in the case. Philip Nelson's excellent 2011 publication 'LBJ-Mastermind of the JFK Assassination' asks important questions of the Vice-President's car using this same shot.
Weisberg took no prisoners. He fired off broadsides at fellow critics, such as Edward J. Epstein and Mark Lane. Yet, digging under a mountain of skulduggery, he maintained an un-biased fairness. In his Epilogue he wrote, "The whitewashing was done on the working level, not the level of policy. Policy was wrong and was inhibited. It was safer to be for sin and against motherhood than deny the successful Communist scare of the Dallas police. With or without the connivance of others, they launched the never-ended red herring of Oswald's complicity with 'Communism', an evil and an enemy defined by each to suit his own purposes, but in every case false. It is true that before the Commission began it's work, the campaign against Oswald had succeeded. The friendless man was widely accepted as the assassin." If "not the level of policy" indicates that Weisberg did not see a coup d'etat involving high levels of government agencies in November 63, then I certainly part company with his synopsis, but it is hard to argue against his findings of the most infamous cover-up in modern history.
Weisberg was a very important investigator and critic of the President's Commission on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. His 'Whitewash' series began it's assault on the Commission verdict just eighteen months after the release of the infamous report's volumes in 1964. 'Whitewash II' was published in 67, beating the likes of Sylvia Meagher's 'Accessories After The Fact' to the forum.
To the reader interested in the truth of this case I can only recommend these early publications, even though they are now not easily accessible and in some cases quite expensive. Weisberg presents a fact filled probe into the tragic shambles that was the government's supposed investigation into the shooting in Dealey Plaza. Central to the Weisberg assault is the photographic evidence that was ignored, suppressed, cropped, distorted or confiscated. The author highlights the Zapruder film and the still shots from Altgens and Willis, that proposes that shots were fired earlier than the Commission stated, therefore eliminating the lone nut sixth floor TSBD shooter. Weisberg also maintains Oswald is seen at the door of the TSBD building as the motorcade is passing, and not Billy Lovelady, on the Altgens picture, as well as a shooter from the Dal Tex building. In fact, this same Altgens picture is scrutinised by researchers today in their search for evidence in the case. Philip Nelson's excellent 2011 publication 'LBJ-Mastermind of the JFK Assassination' asks important questions of the Vice-President's car using this same shot.
Weisberg took no prisoners. He fired off broadsides at fellow critics, such as Edward J. Epstein and Mark Lane. Yet, digging under a mountain of skulduggery, he maintained an un-biased fairness. In his Epilogue he wrote, "The whitewashing was done on the working level, not the level of policy. Policy was wrong and was inhibited. It was safer to be for sin and against motherhood than deny the successful Communist scare of the Dallas police. With or without the connivance of others, they launched the never-ended red herring of Oswald's complicity with 'Communism', an evil and an enemy defined by each to suit his own purposes, but in every case false. It is true that before the Commission began it's work, the campaign against Oswald had succeeded. The friendless man was widely accepted as the assassin." If "not the level of policy" indicates that Weisberg did not see a coup d'etat involving high levels of government agencies in November 63, then I certainly part company with his synopsis, but it is hard to argue against his findings of the most infamous cover-up in modern history.
Displaying 1 of 1 review