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First Hand Knowledge: How I Participated in the Cia-Mafia Murder of President Kennedy
After 30 years of silence the terrible truth is revealed from a first hand CIA participant who took his orders directly from the CIA's Chief of Covert Operations. Stunning revelations include the CIA's entire assassination plan, LBJ and Nixon's involvement, the exact role of mob boss Carlos Marcello, and more. This book is the basis for a major PBS Frontline TV special.
- GenresHistory
320 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 13, 2023
Don't know exactly how to rate this work. It was a very entertaining and a quick read that I enjoyed immensely. At times though, it seemed more like a suspense filled super spy novel and a total work of historical based fiction. Morrow has substantially supported his work with numerous detailed footnotes, but the more personalized first person narratives of his own exploits paint him as the model for a Robert Ludlum or Ian Fleming character. My main thought left from this is how can a man portrayed as so talented, intelligent and clever as Morrow has painted himself possibly get involved as he did? Is it possible to be that smart and that naive at the same time?
September 18, 2017
First hand knowledge in the Kennedy assassination has grown somewhat, since Robert Morrow's 1992 publication. Jean Hill's confused recollections of Elm Street, Ron Lewis' flashbacks of Lee Harvey Oswald, Tosh Plumley's flight into Dallas, the Fontaine's Dallas jail evidence, Crenshaw's blurry memory of Trauma Room One and the equally fuzzy memoir from Aubrey Rike, Sample & Collom's exposure of 'The Men on the Sixth Floor' and Vary Baker's Mills and Boon affair of 'Me & Lee'.
Readers of this topic will be well aware of other 'participants' confessions from assassin James Files, Rosco White, E. Howard Hunt and Marita Lorenz.
I have previously read Morrow's 'The Senator Must Die', dealing with the RFK murder, which is no less intriguing as his 'First Hand Knowledge'. What strikes me with this book is the profusion of names of players in the assassination that are also included in the research of Michael Collins Piper, who published his 'Final Judgement' shortly after this book was first released.
So, what is factual and what fictional? The book does read at times like a Bond novel and it is not easy to judge truth. However, the text is accompanied by detailed Notes. The only errors that I noticed were incorrect dates on p249 & p360.
Notwithstanding the lack of solid documentary evidence, even with the extensive Appendices included here, Morrow provides interesting insights.
Readers of this topic will be well aware of other 'participants' confessions from assassin James Files, Rosco White, E. Howard Hunt and Marita Lorenz.
I have previously read Morrow's 'The Senator Must Die', dealing with the RFK murder, which is no less intriguing as his 'First Hand Knowledge'. What strikes me with this book is the profusion of names of players in the assassination that are also included in the research of Michael Collins Piper, who published his 'Final Judgement' shortly after this book was first released.
So, what is factual and what fictional? The book does read at times like a Bond novel and it is not easy to judge truth. However, the text is accompanied by detailed Notes. The only errors that I noticed were incorrect dates on p249 & p360.
Notwithstanding the lack of solid documentary evidence, even with the extensive Appendices included here, Morrow provides interesting insights.
December 28, 2009
Good book. Though I am not sure about all the first-hand details. Seems, the author might have timed this book to coincide with Oliver Stone's JFK release.
July 3, 2017
Hard to tell fact from fiction.
May 12, 2019
This is as good a spy thriller as out there, best seller or not. The ending is known--Kennedy assassinated--it's the journey: clandestine anti Castro trips to grass landing fields, buying military equipment from CIA fronts, tortured by Castro spies, printing millions of counterfeit Cuban pesos in the basement, dealing with mafiosi, Oswald the CIA patsy, and dodging federal agents controlled by John and Robert Kennedy, among other plots.
The older the reader the better as the back stories of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy assassination, and subsequent FBI/CIA coverups are filled in by a man allegedly right in the middle of several covert operations who puts pen to paper and names names, lists addresses, and references newspaper articles (well, as it turns out, almost all). This is not the usual conspiracy drivel, not a bunch of fuzzy dots connected by light grey lines; we are talking Nixon, LBJ, George Bush, Adam Clayton Powell, Jack Valenti, and of course JFK/RFK; Angleton, Helms, Maxwell Taylor, Howard Hunt, and Hoover; nefarious mafia families and henchmen, including drug and gun running Jack Ruby; Cuban rebel leaders; and of course numerous CIA operatives. It all converges in Dallas, financed by the mafia, operated by a Cuban exile and mafia henchman, and overseen by the CIA. The author supplied four guns and specialized radios, but doesn't say who used them!!! It wasn't Oswald. Hints are it was a French Jackel-like international man of mystery, contract assassin to the CIA who goes by various aliases, in and out, no footprints. So we still don't know who pulled the trigger.
Then came the coverup, Hoover and the CIA moved into high gear. Bodies began to pile up: Oswald, Ruby, several mafiosi, bunch of Cubans, and mistresses. LBJ's black ops in Texas preferred carbon monoxide poisoning; CIA's domestic black ops tended to multi gunshot wounds officially ruled suicide. The question is why the author is still alive, did he make this all up?
The older the reader the better as the back stories of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy assassination, and subsequent FBI/CIA coverups are filled in by a man allegedly right in the middle of several covert operations who puts pen to paper and names names, lists addresses, and references newspaper articles (well, as it turns out, almost all). This is not the usual conspiracy drivel, not a bunch of fuzzy dots connected by light grey lines; we are talking Nixon, LBJ, George Bush, Adam Clayton Powell, Jack Valenti, and of course JFK/RFK; Angleton, Helms, Maxwell Taylor, Howard Hunt, and Hoover; nefarious mafia families and henchmen, including drug and gun running Jack Ruby; Cuban rebel leaders; and of course numerous CIA operatives. It all converges in Dallas, financed by the mafia, operated by a Cuban exile and mafia henchman, and overseen by the CIA. The author supplied four guns and specialized radios, but doesn't say who used them!!! It wasn't Oswald. Hints are it was a French Jackel-like international man of mystery, contract assassin to the CIA who goes by various aliases, in and out, no footprints. So we still don't know who pulled the trigger.
Then came the coverup, Hoover and the CIA moved into high gear. Bodies began to pile up: Oswald, Ruby, several mafiosi, bunch of Cubans, and mistresses. LBJ's black ops in Texas preferred carbon monoxide poisoning; CIA's domestic black ops tended to multi gunshot wounds officially ruled suicide. The question is why the author is still alive, did he make this all up?
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews