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JFK: Caso abierto: La historia secreta del asesinato de Kennedy
The questions have haunted our nation for half a century: Was the President killed by a single gunman? Was Lee Harvey Oswald part of a conspiracy? Did the Warren Commission discover the whole truth of what happened on November 22, 1963?
Philip Shenon, a veteran investigative journalist who spent most of his career at The New York Times, finally provides many of the answers. Though A Cruel and Shocking Act began as Shenon's attempt to write the first insider's history of the Warren Commission, it quickly became something much larger and more important when he discovered startling information that was withheld from the Warren Commission by the CIA, FBI and others in power in Washington. Shenon shows how the commission's ten-month investigation was doomed to fail because the man leading it – Chief Justice Earl Warren – was more committed to protecting the Kennedy family than getting to the full truth about what happened on that tragic day. A taut, page-turning narrative, Shenon's book features some of the most compelling figures of the twentieth century—Bobby Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, J. Edgar Hoover, Chief Justice Warren, CIA spymasters Allen Dulles and Richard Helms, as well as the CIA's treacherous "molehunter," James Jesus Angleton.
Based on hundreds of interviews and unprecedented access to the surviving commission staffers and many other key players, Philip Shenon's authoritative, scrupulously researched book will forever change the way we think about the Kennedy assassination and about the deeply flawed investigation that followed.
A groundbreaking, explosive account of the Kennedy assassination that will rewrite the history of the 20th century's most controversial murder investigation.
A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2013
Philip Shenon, a veteran investigative journalist who spent most of his career at The New York Times, finally provides many of the answers. Though A Cruel and Shocking Act began as Shenon's attempt to write the first insider's history of the Warren Commission, it quickly became something much larger and more important when he discovered startling information that was withheld from the Warren Commission by the CIA, FBI and others in power in Washington. Shenon shows how the commission's ten-month investigation was doomed to fail because the man leading it – Chief Justice Earl Warren – was more committed to protecting the Kennedy family than getting to the full truth about what happened on that tragic day. A taut, page-turning narrative, Shenon's book features some of the most compelling figures of the twentieth century—Bobby Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, J. Edgar Hoover, Chief Justice Warren, CIA spymasters Allen Dulles and Richard Helms, as well as the CIA's treacherous "molehunter," James Jesus Angleton.
Based on hundreds of interviews and unprecedented access to the surviving commission staffers and many other key players, Philip Shenon's authoritative, scrupulously researched book will forever change the way we think about the Kennedy assassination and about the deeply flawed investigation that followed.
A groundbreaking, explosive account of the Kennedy assassination that will rewrite the history of the 20th century's most controversial murder investigation.
A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2013
784 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
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April 26, 2016
The assassination of John F. Kennedy is not a distant (50 years!) event: it is a living, ongoing, fire-breathing debate. It is gladiatorial contest. People choose sides and they go to battle. There is very little lucid about it, which makes it fascinating (and terrifying for bystanders). If you write anything about Kennedy, whether it’s a book or a book review, you risk coming into this orbit.
The people who think that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone picture themselves as cool, level-headed, and rational. To them, conspiracy theorists are nuts and charlatans. Perhaps not mentally ill, but maybe worth a clinical review. Despite the simplicity of their argument, they go to great lengths to prove their point. Gerald Posner wrote a six-hundred page book about how Oswald did it. Vincent Bugliosi, the man who convicted Manson (with, I might add, a doozy of a motive theory), laughed at Posner, and then wrote a sixteen-hundred page book that came to the same conclusion. (That book was so large I had to read it at a table).
The people who think that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone (or act at all) are equally smug in their certainty. They think the lone gunman theory is implausible at best, physically impossible at worst. To them, lone gunman theorists are gullible saps who can’t see the truth for their complacency. The conspiracy theorists (and if Oswald didn't act alone, we’re talking a conspiracy) do a lot of writing of their own. Jim Marrs and Jim Garrison both wrote famous books about the plots to kill Kennedy. Their acolytes are quick to tell you, via a list of web addresses, just where to find the truth.
In this highly polarized and oddly-emotional arena (50 years ago! I was t-minus 17 years from birth), perhaps the boldest decision a writer can make is to split the difference. To write a book that both agrees with the Warren Commission Report while simultaneously undermining the Warren Commission Report. Why do I say this is bold? Well, because this Solomonic approach assures that people on both sides are going to hate your book.
In any event, splitting the baby is sort of the tact taken by Philip Shenon in A Cruel and Shocking Act. It teases you with Cuban conspiracies while mildly accepting a lone gunman.
Shenon originally intended his book to be the story behind the writing of the Warren Report. It was to be a look at how the sausage got made. Shenon got the idea when he was contacted by old men who were once young men and lawyers, who worked on the Commission. It made sense they contacted Shenon, because his first book was a well-received volume on the writing of the 9/11 Commission Report.
Once Shenon began doing his own research, however, he fell into one of the many rabbit holes that fuel Kennedy assassination conspiracy theorists to this day. He discovered that while Oswald was in Mexico City, he came into contact with members of the Cuban embassy. In fact, he may have had an affair with a female employee, Silvia Duran. (Duran denies this, if that matters).
It would take me thousands of words to explain why this is important, if it’s important, which is hard to tell once you go through the looking glass. Suffice to say, the long gunman proponents have always held that Oswald’s trip to Mexico City was the journey of an unstable loser with a self-inflated ego, kept at bay by Cuban authorities. At the very least, Shenon’s well-documented work (instead of trolling the internet like so many Kennedy super-sleuths, he actually interviewed everyone who’s still vertical) shows that Oswald was accepted by the Cubans. Embraced, even. There are hints that the idea of killing Kennedy may have come from them.
Conspiracy theorists have already started to run with this stuff. From what Shenon has written, it’s not a big jump (if you are liable to taking such jumps) to say that Oswald worked for the Cubans. Ironically, despite Shenon’s ultimate conclusion – that the Warren Commission’s conclusion was correct, but the investigation flawed – a lot of conspiracy advocates are citing it as a source.
Shenon’s investigatory trip to Mexico City is only part of this hefty book. The majority of its pages are instead devoted to Shenon’s original purpose, which was telling the story of the Warren Commission.
Simultaneously pleasing everybody and nobody, Shenon tells the story of an investigation that was rushed, hampered, and politically motivated. He shows how the CIA and the FBI lied repeatedly to the Commission. He is extremely harsh toward Chief Justice Earl Warren, a passionate Kennedy backer who consistently confined the limits of the investigation (especially with regards to the autopsy material) out of “respect” for Jackie and Bobbie Kennedy’s feelings. Shenon strongly believes (and Warren would have agreed) that a sitting Supreme Court Justice shouldn’t be involved in Presidential Commissions, for a variety of separation-of-powers issues.
Though Warren takes most of the heat, none of the Commissioners come out looking great. Most of them were absentee members who didn’t do any work but affixed their signatures at the end of the day. Then-Representative Gerald Ford, who is remembered today (partially, I suppose, because of The Simpsons) as a genial bumbler and accidental president, comes across as a poisonous, partisan hack who also had an open line to the FBI. Other damaged reputations – deservedly so, perhaps – include the nightmarish J. Edgar Hoover (who ran the FBI in such a way to ensure that he remained director, at all costs) and the mentally unhinged James Jesus Angleton (who spent a life hunting moles, ruining innocent lives, and once unknowingly befriending an actual double-agent.
The heroes of Shenon’s book are the young lawyers who became the old men who told Shenon to write the book. Shenon is a great reporter and a decent writer, but it’s clear that he allowed interviewer bias to affect his presentation. In< i>A Cruel and Shocking Act, it’s the Young Turk lawyers who are always digging at the truth, while the Old Guard tries to keep them in line.
Despite the plaudits he heaps on them, it becomes rather hard to keep these young guns separate. None of them are given faces or personalities. With the exception of Arlen Specter, who eventually rose to prominence, most of the investigators blur together.
In Shenon’s view, the investigators did all they could running down leads, interviewing witnesses, and making sense of the chaotic events of November 22, 1963. The faults in the report lie with Warren, who circumscribed the Commission’s scope, and with the FBI and CIA, who withheld information. Nevertheless, there is never a point in which Shenon disagrees with the Commission’s ultimate conclusion. Indeed, after reading this book, it’s harder and harder to imagine a possible scenario in which the Warren Commission conspired to hide some larger, nefarious truth. Few of the Commission members got along; none of the young attorneys had anything to gain from promoting a Big Lie; and for the most part, the facts they gathered led them to their verdict.
Much of the criticism of the Warren Commission feels academic to me. Its report did not immediately halt all investigation into the
assassination. To the contrary, Congress has taken it up twice more. The eternal answer has also been sought by every amateur detective with broadband access. Even Warren’s wrong-headed decisions to spare the Kennedy’s has been partially mitigated by William Manchester’s probing interviews with Jackie for his own book, The Death of a President.
Funnily enough, the Warren Commission’s Report’s imperfections has allowed the conspiracy theorists to make hay for decades. If it weren’t for the un-followed leads, the un-interviewed witnesses, and the obstructionism of the CIA and FBI, there wouldn’t be so many handholds for conspiracy-minded folks to grasp. Instead of reviling this report, they should thank the heavens for it!
Despite the slightly clunky way the two aspects of A Cruel and Shocking Act fit together (at times it feels like two different books), this was a great read for me. I burned through it, dispensing with my usual habit of reading four or five books at once (and accordingly making very little headway in any of them).
I’m not a Kennedy assassination obsessive, but I’ve read enough (Bugliosi, Posner, Manchester) so that I never got lost in the thickets. A warning, however: if you aren’t well-versed in the assassination, this might be a tough starter book. It does not present the assassination in any narrative form, and it assumes a lot of foreknowledge of Oswald and his activities. For example, if you don’t already know there’s a big to-do about Oswald’s trip to Mexico City, you’re going to get lost. Before you read this, you will probably want to get a more standard Kennedy assassination book. (Of course, the interpretation of what constitutes a “standard” assassination book varies greatly).
Maybe the most important takeaway from A Cruel and Shocking Act is that the people involved in the Warren Commission were people. If you believe someone other than Oswald killed Kennedy, that’s fine. If you believe someone helped him, that’s fine also. But you also have to acknowledge that for a cover-up, a whole lot of flesh and blood human beings – not sinister, shadowy agents – decided (some at a very young age) to distort the historical record of the crime of the century, thereby committing a monstrous crime themselves.
With regards to the Warren Commission, I can accept that it could have been done better. I cannot accept that the great liberal Earl Warren and the segregationist Richard Brevard Russell and the Republican hatchet-man Gerald Ford and the future distinguished gentleman Arlen Specter ever colluded together to draw a curtain over the eyes of the American people.
The people who think that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone picture themselves as cool, level-headed, and rational. To them, conspiracy theorists are nuts and charlatans. Perhaps not mentally ill, but maybe worth a clinical review. Despite the simplicity of their argument, they go to great lengths to prove their point. Gerald Posner wrote a six-hundred page book about how Oswald did it. Vincent Bugliosi, the man who convicted Manson (with, I might add, a doozy of a motive theory), laughed at Posner, and then wrote a sixteen-hundred page book that came to the same conclusion. (That book was so large I had to read it at a table).
The people who think that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone (or act at all) are equally smug in their certainty. They think the lone gunman theory is implausible at best, physically impossible at worst. To them, lone gunman theorists are gullible saps who can’t see the truth for their complacency. The conspiracy theorists (and if Oswald didn't act alone, we’re talking a conspiracy) do a lot of writing of their own. Jim Marrs and Jim Garrison both wrote famous books about the plots to kill Kennedy. Their acolytes are quick to tell you, via a list of web addresses, just where to find the truth.
In this highly polarized and oddly-emotional arena (50 years ago! I was t-minus 17 years from birth), perhaps the boldest decision a writer can make is to split the difference. To write a book that both agrees with the Warren Commission Report while simultaneously undermining the Warren Commission Report. Why do I say this is bold? Well, because this Solomonic approach assures that people on both sides are going to hate your book.
In any event, splitting the baby is sort of the tact taken by Philip Shenon in A Cruel and Shocking Act. It teases you with Cuban conspiracies while mildly accepting a lone gunman.
Shenon originally intended his book to be the story behind the writing of the Warren Report. It was to be a look at how the sausage got made. Shenon got the idea when he was contacted by old men who were once young men and lawyers, who worked on the Commission. It made sense they contacted Shenon, because his first book was a well-received volume on the writing of the 9/11 Commission Report.
Once Shenon began doing his own research, however, he fell into one of the many rabbit holes that fuel Kennedy assassination conspiracy theorists to this day. He discovered that while Oswald was in Mexico City, he came into contact with members of the Cuban embassy. In fact, he may have had an affair with a female employee, Silvia Duran. (Duran denies this, if that matters).
It would take me thousands of words to explain why this is important, if it’s important, which is hard to tell once you go through the looking glass. Suffice to say, the long gunman proponents have always held that Oswald’s trip to Mexico City was the journey of an unstable loser with a self-inflated ego, kept at bay by Cuban authorities. At the very least, Shenon’s well-documented work (instead of trolling the internet like so many Kennedy super-sleuths, he actually interviewed everyone who’s still vertical) shows that Oswald was accepted by the Cubans. Embraced, even. There are hints that the idea of killing Kennedy may have come from them.
Conspiracy theorists have already started to run with this stuff. From what Shenon has written, it’s not a big jump (if you are liable to taking such jumps) to say that Oswald worked for the Cubans. Ironically, despite Shenon’s ultimate conclusion – that the Warren Commission’s conclusion was correct, but the investigation flawed – a lot of conspiracy advocates are citing it as a source.
Shenon’s investigatory trip to Mexico City is only part of this hefty book. The majority of its pages are instead devoted to Shenon’s original purpose, which was telling the story of the Warren Commission.
Simultaneously pleasing everybody and nobody, Shenon tells the story of an investigation that was rushed, hampered, and politically motivated. He shows how the CIA and the FBI lied repeatedly to the Commission. He is extremely harsh toward Chief Justice Earl Warren, a passionate Kennedy backer who consistently confined the limits of the investigation (especially with regards to the autopsy material) out of “respect” for Jackie and Bobbie Kennedy’s feelings. Shenon strongly believes (and Warren would have agreed) that a sitting Supreme Court Justice shouldn’t be involved in Presidential Commissions, for a variety of separation-of-powers issues.
Though Warren takes most of the heat, none of the Commissioners come out looking great. Most of them were absentee members who didn’t do any work but affixed their signatures at the end of the day. Then-Representative Gerald Ford, who is remembered today (partially, I suppose, because of The Simpsons) as a genial bumbler and accidental president, comes across as a poisonous, partisan hack who also had an open line to the FBI. Other damaged reputations – deservedly so, perhaps – include the nightmarish J. Edgar Hoover (who ran the FBI in such a way to ensure that he remained director, at all costs) and the mentally unhinged James Jesus Angleton (who spent a life hunting moles, ruining innocent lives, and once unknowingly befriending an actual double-agent.
The heroes of Shenon’s book are the young lawyers who became the old men who told Shenon to write the book. Shenon is a great reporter and a decent writer, but it’s clear that he allowed interviewer bias to affect his presentation. In< i>A Cruel and Shocking Act, it’s the Young Turk lawyers who are always digging at the truth, while the Old Guard tries to keep them in line.
Despite the plaudits he heaps on them, it becomes rather hard to keep these young guns separate. None of them are given faces or personalities. With the exception of Arlen Specter, who eventually rose to prominence, most of the investigators blur together.
In Shenon’s view, the investigators did all they could running down leads, interviewing witnesses, and making sense of the chaotic events of November 22, 1963. The faults in the report lie with Warren, who circumscribed the Commission’s scope, and with the FBI and CIA, who withheld information. Nevertheless, there is never a point in which Shenon disagrees with the Commission’s ultimate conclusion. Indeed, after reading this book, it’s harder and harder to imagine a possible scenario in which the Warren Commission conspired to hide some larger, nefarious truth. Few of the Commission members got along; none of the young attorneys had anything to gain from promoting a Big Lie; and for the most part, the facts they gathered led them to their verdict.
Much of the criticism of the Warren Commission feels academic to me. Its report did not immediately halt all investigation into the
assassination. To the contrary, Congress has taken it up twice more. The eternal answer has also been sought by every amateur detective with broadband access. Even Warren’s wrong-headed decisions to spare the Kennedy’s has been partially mitigated by William Manchester’s probing interviews with Jackie for his own book, The Death of a President.
Funnily enough, the Warren Commission’s Report’s imperfections has allowed the conspiracy theorists to make hay for decades. If it weren’t for the un-followed leads, the un-interviewed witnesses, and the obstructionism of the CIA and FBI, there wouldn’t be so many handholds for conspiracy-minded folks to grasp. Instead of reviling this report, they should thank the heavens for it!
Despite the slightly clunky way the two aspects of A Cruel and Shocking Act fit together (at times it feels like two different books), this was a great read for me. I burned through it, dispensing with my usual habit of reading four or five books at once (and accordingly making very little headway in any of them).
I’m not a Kennedy assassination obsessive, but I’ve read enough (Bugliosi, Posner, Manchester) so that I never got lost in the thickets. A warning, however: if you aren’t well-versed in the assassination, this might be a tough starter book. It does not present the assassination in any narrative form, and it assumes a lot of foreknowledge of Oswald and his activities. For example, if you don’t already know there’s a big to-do about Oswald’s trip to Mexico City, you’re going to get lost. Before you read this, you will probably want to get a more standard Kennedy assassination book. (Of course, the interpretation of what constitutes a “standard” assassination book varies greatly).
Maybe the most important takeaway from A Cruel and Shocking Act is that the people involved in the Warren Commission were people. If you believe someone other than Oswald killed Kennedy, that’s fine. If you believe someone helped him, that’s fine also. But you also have to acknowledge that for a cover-up, a whole lot of flesh and blood human beings – not sinister, shadowy agents – decided (some at a very young age) to distort the historical record of the crime of the century, thereby committing a monstrous crime themselves.
With regards to the Warren Commission, I can accept that it could have been done better. I cannot accept that the great liberal Earl Warren and the segregationist Richard Brevard Russell and the Republican hatchet-man Gerald Ford and the future distinguished gentleman Arlen Specter ever colluded together to draw a curtain over the eyes of the American people.
November 15, 2013
Why will we never know who killed President Kennedy? Fifty years on, Philip Shenon's 600 page history book lays it out for us. This is not a book about the assassination. (In fact, the first sixty pages of the book -- the sections concerning the crime -- are the weakest part of the book.) This is a book about the Warren Commission, its investigation, its report and its aftermath. And that is the unprecedented historical value of this work.
The book focuses on the young staff attorneys who served on the Warren Commission. No one has previously told their story. And it is a fascinating tale. Each was considered the best and brightest of his generation. Many would go on to remarkable careers. And every one of them expected -- hoped -- to uncover the plot to kill the president and track down the perpetrators.
The book details the research these young lawyers performed, the investigations they conducted and the final report they wrote. There are several episodes that have never been previously documented. And it is all written in a crisp, entertaining narrative.
In a remarkably short time period -- too short it would turn out -- the young staff attorneys on the Warren Commission concluded only one individual was responsible for the crime and that he acted alone. The commissioners they worked for (including the Chief Justice of the United States) unanimously agreed on a final report. And the Warren Commission issued its findings in a deeply flawed document that would ultimately raise more questions than it answered.
So, why will we never know who killed President Kennedy?
The list of contributing factors is too long to list here. But they are all documented in this remarkable book. Sloppy police work, the destruction of key evidence, the withholding of essential information, perjury, disinformation campaigns, you name it, it's all here. The staff attorneys on the Warren Commission never had a chance. They were prevented from doing the job they were hired -- and had hoped -- to do.
And, in the final analysis, there can be no doubt: For over fifty years senior officials of the United States government, most especially at the CIA, have lied about the assassination and the events that led to it.
We will never know the full truth of who was responsible for this cruel and shocking act. But, after reading this book, you will certainly know who is responsible for this unacceptable fact of history.
The book focuses on the young staff attorneys who served on the Warren Commission. No one has previously told their story. And it is a fascinating tale. Each was considered the best and brightest of his generation. Many would go on to remarkable careers. And every one of them expected -- hoped -- to uncover the plot to kill the president and track down the perpetrators.
The book details the research these young lawyers performed, the investigations they conducted and the final report they wrote. There are several episodes that have never been previously documented. And it is all written in a crisp, entertaining narrative.
In a remarkably short time period -- too short it would turn out -- the young staff attorneys on the Warren Commission concluded only one individual was responsible for the crime and that he acted alone. The commissioners they worked for (including the Chief Justice of the United States) unanimously agreed on a final report. And the Warren Commission issued its findings in a deeply flawed document that would ultimately raise more questions than it answered.
So, why will we never know who killed President Kennedy?
The list of contributing factors is too long to list here. But they are all documented in this remarkable book. Sloppy police work, the destruction of key evidence, the withholding of essential information, perjury, disinformation campaigns, you name it, it's all here. The staff attorneys on the Warren Commission never had a chance. They were prevented from doing the job they were hired -- and had hoped -- to do.
And, in the final analysis, there can be no doubt: For over fifty years senior officials of the United States government, most especially at the CIA, have lied about the assassination and the events that led to it.
We will never know the full truth of who was responsible for this cruel and shocking act. But, after reading this book, you will certainly know who is responsible for this unacceptable fact of history.
March 28, 2014
Yet another 2013 publication conveniently released in time for the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination. I found too many reasons to dislike Philip Shenon's book. The sub-title 'The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination' is a complete misnomer. Hardly a page is passed without the disparaging of conspiracy theories or theorists. The main recipient of these slights is Mark Lane, yet tucked away on p602 in the authors Acknowledgments he writes, "I know now that the title of his most famous, bestselling book about the Warren Commission, 'Rush to Judgment', was an appropriate one".
Although I found interest in the chronological documentation of the Commission, its commissioners, junior lawyers and staffers, this book is too long and does not expose sufficiently the flawed investigation of the FBI, or the cover-up by CIA as well as the agenda of Warren to fit up Oswald as the lone nut. Shenon writes on p269, "In the decades that followed, scientific studies, using methods unavailable to the Warren Commission in 1964, would validate the single-bullet theory." Really! Unfortunately there is no elaboration to this wild conspiracy theory.
The above is a perfect summa for these six hundred plus pages. The casual or first time reader of this case is convinced of the lone assassin's guilt, spoon fed page after page of fifty year old false evidence that this author makes no effort to question.
Although I found interest in the chronological documentation of the Commission, its commissioners, junior lawyers and staffers, this book is too long and does not expose sufficiently the flawed investigation of the FBI, or the cover-up by CIA as well as the agenda of Warren to fit up Oswald as the lone nut. Shenon writes on p269, "In the decades that followed, scientific studies, using methods unavailable to the Warren Commission in 1964, would validate the single-bullet theory." Really! Unfortunately there is no elaboration to this wild conspiracy theory.
The above is a perfect summa for these six hundred plus pages. The casual or first time reader of this case is convinced of the lone assassin's guilt, spoon fed page after page of fifty year old false evidence that this author makes no effort to question.
July 6, 2016
At least for this reader the title is somewhat of a misnomer and I avoided this book until it was recommended to me by a friend. This is not yet another conspiracy or alternative theory book; nor is there any “new” or “secret” data/information presented here concerning the JFK assassination. And finally the author does not try to prove, disprove or “take sides” on this controversial topic.
What this book does is present a very engaging, fascinating and at times, extremely frustrating narrative of the investigation – specifically the Warren Commission – to uncover what led up to and exactly happened on November 22, 1963. And besides learning more than a few things, this reader gained a whole new appreciation – due to decisions made by the Commission and the obfuscation of both the CIA and FBI – as to why there are so many “theories” floating around concerning this “cruel and shocking act”.
Highly recommended if this topic is of any interest.
What this book does is present a very engaging, fascinating and at times, extremely frustrating narrative of the investigation – specifically the Warren Commission – to uncover what led up to and exactly happened on November 22, 1963. And besides learning more than a few things, this reader gained a whole new appreciation – due to decisions made by the Commission and the obfuscation of both the CIA and FBI – as to why there are so many “theories” floating around concerning this “cruel and shocking act”.
Highly recommended if this topic is of any interest.
December 31, 2013
I'm not sure chronology was the wisest organizing principle for this one. It was hard to remember the details and sort out the people this way. That, said it was definitely worth reading and while, the general conclusion, that Oswald shot Kennedy and worked along, may seem disappointing, the details surrounding the Warren Commission were extremely interesting. Even more interesting were the conclusions about what the Commission never got to evaluate, who lied (like J Edgar Hoover and James Jesus Angleton) what the FBI and CIA withheld to protect their own organizations.
July 15, 2014
I picked this book up thinking it would be yet another investigation of the JFK assassination, another overview of the merits and weaknesses of the many and varied conspiracy theories posited over the years, perhaps presuming (yet again) that finally the case has been closed with this book. The title certainly implies that, in its 'Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination'. Thankfully, and not at all to my disappointment, it isn't that at all. This book looks at the Kennedy assassination from a relatively unfamiliar angle: that of the Warren Commission presidential investigation into the assassination. Indeed, it is far more the 'Secret History of the Warren Commission' than anything else, and so much of the information contained in these pages was delightfully new and fresh to me.
Most books on the assassination do little more than dismiss the Warren Commission in a few sentences, ridiculing its narrow scope and conclusions. Indeed, with so many conspiracy theories out there, the irony is that the one thing most of them agree on is that the Warren Commission was a whitewash.
I couldn't possibly comment on the accuracy of the Commission's conclusions - nobody can. What this book certainly reveals is that for the vast majority of the young lawyers and staff who worked behind the scenes on the Commission, there was no suggestion of a deliberate cover-up, of the aforementioned whitewash. If the Commission's conclusions have been deemed by history to be faulty, that seems - as this book argues - to be largely the result of deception, deceit, back-pedalling and ass-covering by the three main security agencies: the FBI, CIA and Secret Service. It is almost without question that vital information was withheld from the Commission, information that may well have changed their final conclusions and perhaps the course of history.
In writing this engrossing and disquieting book, Philip Shenon had access to much brand-new material, recently disclosed documents and new interviews with previously unregarded individuals. He doesn't 'set out his stall' on the conspiracy theories one way or the other, although the evidence revealed does seem to strongly lean toward some Cuban connection. What he does conclude is that, almost from the moment of the assassination to the present day, senior officials in the American government have lied about the assassination, about events leading up to it, about what was known and not known about Oswald, and about what was and was not revealed to those who ought to have been privy to the full facts. There may or may not have been a conspiracy that led to JFK's death, but there has almost certainly been one to mislead, obfuscate and deny after it.
Most books on the assassination do little more than dismiss the Warren Commission in a few sentences, ridiculing its narrow scope and conclusions. Indeed, with so many conspiracy theories out there, the irony is that the one thing most of them agree on is that the Warren Commission was a whitewash.
I couldn't possibly comment on the accuracy of the Commission's conclusions - nobody can. What this book certainly reveals is that for the vast majority of the young lawyers and staff who worked behind the scenes on the Commission, there was no suggestion of a deliberate cover-up, of the aforementioned whitewash. If the Commission's conclusions have been deemed by history to be faulty, that seems - as this book argues - to be largely the result of deception, deceit, back-pedalling and ass-covering by the three main security agencies: the FBI, CIA and Secret Service. It is almost without question that vital information was withheld from the Commission, information that may well have changed their final conclusions and perhaps the course of history.
In writing this engrossing and disquieting book, Philip Shenon had access to much brand-new material, recently disclosed documents and new interviews with previously unregarded individuals. He doesn't 'set out his stall' on the conspiracy theories one way or the other, although the evidence revealed does seem to strongly lean toward some Cuban connection. What he does conclude is that, almost from the moment of the assassination to the present day, senior officials in the American government have lied about the assassination, about events leading up to it, about what was known and not known about Oswald, and about what was and was not revealed to those who ought to have been privy to the full facts. There may or may not have been a conspiracy that led to JFK's death, but there has almost certainly been one to mislead, obfuscate and deny after it.
October 8, 2016
A fascinating and compelling look inside the workings of the Warren Commission, and you do pick up some of the issues around the Kennedy assassination along the way. However, this is about the nature of the FBI, CIA, Secret Service, Dallas police and Washington politics and how they all tried to cover their backs for the failures in the years leading up to the assassination and then went on to attempt to cover up their failures. How much they covered up other tracks on the way, intentionally or accidentally, we will likely never know. Nor if those tracks even existed. Shenon writes with incredible lucidity making this complex analysis extremely readable, easier to read than not read. While it may not explain what happened, it does show what was extremely corrupt and incompetent with the agencies that were set up to protect the American public, and couldn't even protect it's most important citizen.
February 23, 2014
I admit that I prefer crazy conspiracy theories to the truth sometimes just because they are entertaining, but this huge, scholarly book also entertained. The book shows that while most of the conspiracy theories are false, there definitely was a true conspiracy by the FBI and CIA to distort and hide the facts (e.g. the CIA was monitoring Oswald since 1959, just like they monitored MLK and Steinbeck) from the Warren Commission. I even enjoyed reading about the lawyers who did all the real work on the commission while the commissioners mainly just took the credit and/or focused on lawyers with communist ties (good job, Gerald Ford!). The emphasis on Oswald's visit to the Cuban and Soviet embassies 2 months before the assassination was also pretty eye-opening. I'm glad that of the 2000 books on this topic, this is the one I read first. *This was a goodreads giveaway*
December 1, 2014
Over the years, I have read many books about the Kennedy assassination (some conspiracy and some lone gunman books) but this was the first book that I had read that focused on the actual formation and behind-the-scenes goings-ons of the actual Warren Commission.Frankly I found the book fascinating and would recommend the same. If you're looking for more of the same grassy knoll, three tramps type of conspiracy book, you may be disappointed. But if you're looking for raw history done in an investigative journalism style, give this one a read.
November 15, 2023
JFK-11/22/63--good timing on this read, about to mark 60 years in just a few days. I am not exactly obssessed with the case like some but it has always interested me. Can I add anything of value after reading this? The biggest takeway from this book for me was simple--do not trust the two federal agencies whose names start with F and C. Ever. According to the extensive research in this book they both lied and covered up facts in 1963-64 relentlessly and without remorse. They lie today and they will lie tomorrow to serve their interests whatever those are perceived to be. They were not and are not on 'our' side. For a history of how the Warren Commission actually functioned, I doubt you could find a better or more complete account than this effort by Philip Shenon. The research and scale of journalistic inquiry was impressive and makes the book worthy as a historical document. He interviewed in 2008-2013 at some length nearly every one of the dozen or so young lawyers who actually did the investigative work of the Commission and wrote the report. Having their versions of events is invaluable as many of them will soon be or have moved on. It also exposed the actual members (Earl Warren, Gerald Ford, Hale Boggs, Allen Dulles, John McCloy, Richard Russell, John Sherman Cooper, and Lee Rankin as the clowns or empty suits they were but most notably it was Warren who did far more then any member to impede and hinder the investigation and this prepared fertile ground for endless conspiracy theories. Of course it was the aforementioned agencies who buried, undermined and sabotaged a true picture of Oswald's activities to the great surprise and chagrin of many of those junior lawyers many years later. So we will likely never 'know'. Shenon clearly sees a Cuba connection and apparently so did RFK. But there are obviously many other theories, and we might get one or two to pop up in the next few weeks, what better time? 3.5 stars, rounded down--because I still don't KNOW!
July 31, 2017
A compelling, sometimes perplexing history of the Warren Commission and the crazy amount of detective work that went into the JFK investigation. Exhaustive, yet not exhausting.
March 7, 2020
This book is excellent. It’s a look at the inner workings of the Warren commission.
April 25, 2017
This book captivated me. It is thoroughly researched and entirely thought-provoking. The writing is crisp, clear and compulsively, hypnotically readable. I don't generally read a lot of history books, but I certainly would if more were as engaging as this one is. Recommended for anyone who loves stories about investigations and the drama of paper chases.
Shenon takes on what is arguably one of the most intriguing and disturbing moments of twentieth-century history: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Books, movies, documentaries, declassified reports...there have been a wealth of materials produced and disseminated (and hidden away, and destroyed) on the assassination, almost since it occurred. Shenon provides a cogent and compelling narrative of what is and was known and confirmed and what will likely remain unresolved, and his work only whets the reader's appetite for more knowledge. A respected reporter, his tone is serious, and remarkably even-handed, given the outsized personalities and figures who feature in the tale.
The bulk of the book centers on the work of the Warren Commission, tasked with investigating the killing and producing the final definitive report on their findings. The Warren Commission Report maintains that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing the President, thereby ostensibly negating the credibility of conspiracy theories. Shenon, however, lets the reader learn fascinating details about the investigation, and especially the work of the young lawyers who did the bulk of the heavy lifting. The author is also careful to point out the complicated policies and practices around information sharing at the time that existed between the FBI, the CIA, the Justice Department, the Secret Service and the State Department. Carefully, the assiduous investigator presents information, so that the reader may draw his her own conclusions about the multiple agendas of the Report and the Commission, as well as other actors in the drama.
Many of the details revealed in this book were new to me, as they doubtless were to many other readers of this excellent study. Hence its characterization as a "secret history." Philip Shenon has written a generous, stimulating book, in service of helping the reader look deeper and understand more, in context. I am eager to read more from this author, and will definitely return to re-read this book. Most highly recommended.
Uncountable stars.
Shenon takes on what is arguably one of the most intriguing and disturbing moments of twentieth-century history: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Books, movies, documentaries, declassified reports...there have been a wealth of materials produced and disseminated (and hidden away, and destroyed) on the assassination, almost since it occurred. Shenon provides a cogent and compelling narrative of what is and was known and confirmed and what will likely remain unresolved, and his work only whets the reader's appetite for more knowledge. A respected reporter, his tone is serious, and remarkably even-handed, given the outsized personalities and figures who feature in the tale.
The bulk of the book centers on the work of the Warren Commission, tasked with investigating the killing and producing the final definitive report on their findings. The Warren Commission Report maintains that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing the President, thereby ostensibly negating the credibility of conspiracy theories. Shenon, however, lets the reader learn fascinating details about the investigation, and especially the work of the young lawyers who did the bulk of the heavy lifting. The author is also careful to point out the complicated policies and practices around information sharing at the time that existed between the FBI, the CIA, the Justice Department, the Secret Service and the State Department. Carefully, the assiduous investigator presents information, so that the reader may draw his her own conclusions about the multiple agendas of the Report and the Commission, as well as other actors in the drama.
Many of the details revealed in this book were new to me, as they doubtless were to many other readers of this excellent study. Hence its characterization as a "secret history." Philip Shenon has written a generous, stimulating book, in service of helping the reader look deeper and understand more, in context. I am eager to read more from this author, and will definitely return to re-read this book. Most highly recommended.
Uncountable stars.
August 31, 2015
This book's title is a wee bit misleading. A more proper one is: The story behind the Warren Commission's investigations, because that's what's it about. It even talks about the junior lawyer's personal lives. Which is okay, because it gives a comprehensive profile on the people who worked officially to uncover the truth.
WAS the truth uncovered? Unsurprisingly, no. The whole thread is elaborate, tight, and complicated but it mainly comes down to three things:
1) Earl Warren, the Commission's president and a friend of the Kennedy family, made some well-meaning but counterproductive decisions that made the jobs of those working under him near impossible. Just to name a few, he did not allow the photos of JFK's autopsy to be viewed by the Commission's investigators, he was too paternal and soft with both Marina Oswald and Jacqueline Kennedy, and he opened up the door to conspiracy theorists with some unfortunate commentaries.
2) Things before, during, and after the assassination were not done right nor at the right time. The amount and level of bureaucracy, intergovernmental and interagency strife and jealousy (we have the White House, the Department of Justice, the FBI, the CIA, and the Secret Service, just to name a few), and the petty battles between Washington and Dallas, all ended up being a war of he said/she said (so to speak).
3) It was more important for the FBI and the CIA to cover up their own mistakes and dirty moves than to find out the truth about a president's assassination. It came to a point where the CIA withheld information about their monitoring of Lee Harvey Oswald way before the assassination because their tactics were illegal.
This book does not doubt whether Oswald did it or not (based on the Warren Commission's findings) but rather whether he did it alone or if he was following orders (from the Soviet Union or Cuba). It seems Oswald's trip to Mexico City in the months before the assassination was key, but nothing was conclusive, "thanks" to the CIA.
There are many many books out there on this subject and there's maybe nothing really new here if you've been delving into it, but it's still an engrossing read. What mainly sticks out for me is the Mexico City connection, which remains murky.
WAS the truth uncovered? Unsurprisingly, no. The whole thread is elaborate, tight, and complicated but it mainly comes down to three things:
1) Earl Warren, the Commission's president and a friend of the Kennedy family, made some well-meaning but counterproductive decisions that made the jobs of those working under him near impossible. Just to name a few, he did not allow the photos of JFK's autopsy to be viewed by the Commission's investigators, he was too paternal and soft with both Marina Oswald and Jacqueline Kennedy, and he opened up the door to conspiracy theorists with some unfortunate commentaries.
2) Things before, during, and after the assassination were not done right nor at the right time. The amount and level of bureaucracy, intergovernmental and interagency strife and jealousy (we have the White House, the Department of Justice, the FBI, the CIA, and the Secret Service, just to name a few), and the petty battles between Washington and Dallas, all ended up being a war of he said/she said (so to speak).
3) It was more important for the FBI and the CIA to cover up their own mistakes and dirty moves than to find out the truth about a president's assassination. It came to a point where the CIA withheld information about their monitoring of Lee Harvey Oswald way before the assassination because their tactics were illegal.
This book does not doubt whether Oswald did it or not (based on the Warren Commission's findings) but rather whether he did it alone or if he was following orders (from the Soviet Union or Cuba). It seems Oswald's trip to Mexico City in the months before the assassination was key, but nothing was conclusive, "thanks" to the CIA.
There are many many books out there on this subject and there's maybe nothing really new here if you've been delving into it, but it's still an engrossing read. What mainly sticks out for me is the Mexico City connection, which remains murky.
February 18, 2019
Well, terms like earth-shattering and bombshell could be a bit of a stretch, but Shenon clearly seems to have dug deep, got past most of the conspiracy cranks, and still reveal that the Washington of the '60s sounds little different than the Washington of the '80s or '10s. We should all keep in mind that it is our tax dollars that continue to allow this charade to continue. James Comey and Andrew McCabe are not J. Edgar Hoover, and Richard Helms is not John Brennan - or maybe they are? No, but the parallels of duplicity are too close to not explore from time to time. First we ought to have a "Church Committee" for the FBI, and maybe then a reprise for the CIA. Somehow the NSA managed to not get snagged in the Warren Commission - probably ought to have them investigated just because they're part of 'the community.'
Time will certainly have others involved dying over the next several years, but dribs and drabs of crucial information will undoubtedly find their way to the light of day. Shenon puts great store in the revelation of one Charles Thomas, a State Department officer who committed suicide after a long career, perhaps wrongfully shortened by paperwork blunders that may have been buried by a 'wink and a nod.' Thomas had first-hand knowledge of Oswald's participation in a party where shady characters related to Cuba were also in attendance. While it seems relatively evident that no modern society's clandestine services would employ someone of Oswald's countenance, that is not necessarily a foregone conclusion..
Earl Warren's deference to Jackie Kennedy and the rest of the Kennedy family were not helpful to an effective investigation. Or what about James Hume's destruction, innocently, of his blood-stained autopsy notes? Might there have been notes that did not survive transcription to the final draft that was eventually turned over for briefing the White House. Or the damning evidence that the FBI Field Office destroyed a hand-written note, by Oswald, that showed beyond doubt that he had been under scrutiny by the FBI - something to which Hoover would never admit. Ah, the webs of deception.
Time will certainly have others involved dying over the next several years, but dribs and drabs of crucial information will undoubtedly find their way to the light of day. Shenon puts great store in the revelation of one Charles Thomas, a State Department officer who committed suicide after a long career, perhaps wrongfully shortened by paperwork blunders that may have been buried by a 'wink and a nod.' Thomas had first-hand knowledge of Oswald's participation in a party where shady characters related to Cuba were also in attendance. While it seems relatively evident that no modern society's clandestine services would employ someone of Oswald's countenance, that is not necessarily a foregone conclusion..
Earl Warren's deference to Jackie Kennedy and the rest of the Kennedy family were not helpful to an effective investigation. Or what about James Hume's destruction, innocently, of his blood-stained autopsy notes? Might there have been notes that did not survive transcription to the final draft that was eventually turned over for briefing the White House. Or the damning evidence that the FBI Field Office destroyed a hand-written note, by Oswald, that showed beyond doubt that he had been under scrutiny by the FBI - something to which Hoover would never admit. Ah, the webs of deception.
October 28, 2013
The Warren Commission, Philip Shenon writes, was “flawed from the start” because of bureaucratic infighting, political manipulation, destruction of evidence, tight deadlines, understaffing, deception by intelligence agencies and a host of other ills. Rather than attempting to offer the Ultimate Truth of the Kennedy Assassination, Shenon presents a persuasive, deeply researched account of why, 50 years out, that truth still seems so hard to find.
Grafted onto this, though, is a spy drama involving Cuban diplomats, alluring young women and the secret love affairs of Oswald. Despite his best intentions, Shenon found himself drawn into the world of spycraft, intrigue and conspiracy that makes up both the best and the worst of the Kennedy assassination literature. The result is a book that’s one part “Mad Men” and one part James Bond.
What the book does show is something at once more sweeping and more banal: To the degree that the Warren Commission overlooked evidence or avoided subjects, the reasons were largely political and bureaucratic.
Beverly Gage reviewed "A Cruel and Shocking Act" for The Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinion...
Grafted onto this, though, is a spy drama involving Cuban diplomats, alluring young women and the secret love affairs of Oswald. Despite his best intentions, Shenon found himself drawn into the world of spycraft, intrigue and conspiracy that makes up both the best and the worst of the Kennedy assassination literature. The result is a book that’s one part “Mad Men” and one part James Bond.
What the book does show is something at once more sweeping and more banal: To the degree that the Warren Commission overlooked evidence or avoided subjects, the reasons were largely political and bureaucratic.
Beverly Gage reviewed "A Cruel and Shocking Act" for The Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinion...
July 21, 2014
This book intrigued me due to my long-standing interest in process. This book certainly fulfilled that call, demonstrating what yeoman's work the junior attorneys performed for this monstrous task. Not surprising, but still vastly disappointing, is what Shenon reveals about the powers that were in the early 1960s (Hoover, Warren, et al). Ultimately this is a story about how supreme egos, personal and institutional agendas, and emotions colored what should have been a transparent investigation into the JFK tragedy. The human condition prevailed again: this time at the expense of the truth.
May 23, 2025
I’ve read quite a lot of books about JFK’s assassination, but never a volume with so much info concerning the Warren Commission. After reading this, I believe that although there might be certain plausible connections to Russia, Cuba, and Mexico, I think that Oswald acted alone. Oswald, like so many other shooters throughout history, was just a loser in every sense of the word. (Heaven help us all that we have to live in constant fear of similar fools!)
November 3, 2025
I’ve read many books on jfk assassination and this may be the best. It stays away from many conspiracy theories but does claim it is plausible the CIA and FBI, through their counter intelligence and surveillance methods, had knowledge of Oswald’s desire to kill Kennedy before he acted on November 22 1963. Therefore the US intelligence apparatus went into Cover Your Ass mode after the assassination to prevent its massive incompetence from becoming known.
August 31, 2015
I am of the belief that Lee Oswald did not act alone in the assassination of JFK. Did he fire any shots that day? I don't think so but who can prove whether he did or didn't? This book is a Warren Commission apologist piece. I did, however, learn new things about the inside workings of the Warren Commission and the wrangling that went on there. That in itself is worth something, I guess.
August 7, 2018
I thought it was the worst book I have ever read about the JFK Assassination. The author did not give good explanations about anything that cast doubt about the Official Version of the Warren Commission. The author was very closed minded and he favored the Official Version. It was a terrible book
August 29, 2022
This was a very engaging and interesting read. It was a very thorough and well researched book focusing on the Warren Commission and those involved. The author exposes new and well hidden secrets. Did the FBI and CIA fail in their duty of care towards the President? Is it possible that had they acted on information they had on hand before 22 November 1963 regarding Lee Harvey Oswald, JFK may have been saved? Reading this I am convinced that this was a tragedy that may have been diverted. Unfortunately the book did not really do very much to dispell many of the conspiracy theories. This was not so much a weakness of the author's as it was more a case of too much information having been repressed about the assassination for whatever reasons at the time. As the author himself has said we may never resolve the assassination of JFK or rid it of all the conspiracies. I really enjoyed this book. Definitely a must read for all JFK buffs.
September 14, 2018
A very good and thought-provoking book! I have been really interested in the Kennedy assassination and conspiracy theories, as I was 6 and remember when it happened. This book is the first that I have read that actually discusses in detail all of the evidence that was withheld from the Warren Commission by the FBI and CIA, and leaves me even more with the feeling that Cuba at least influenced Oswald if not actively helped him. Was there another shooter in the grassy knoll and is the magic bullet theory sound? We still do not know, primarily because of the secrets that Warren allowed to stay cover up -- whether innocently or maliciously (probably the former). This book was very well-written and I will definitely check out the author's history of 9/11.
November 20, 2022
A highly detailed history of the Warren Commission, how it was assembled, how it worked and attempted to function, what it was able to accomplish and what it was prevented from accomplishing. Also quite a bit of interesting (at least I thought it was) information about the timeline immediately following the assassination, such as who was notified, how and when they were notified, etc. This is not a "conspiracy theory" fairy tale, but he justifiably spares no politician or government agency in his revelations.
September 6, 2018
My husband and I purchased this book after our tour of the Book Depository. It is one of the most informative books I have read on the assassination. The author presented the facts without inserting his personal opinions. This is a must read for JFK enthusiasts.
September 20, 2023
I was motivated to read this book after the recent claim by a former Secret Service agent that he found the famous "magic bullet" (alleged to have caused one of John F. Kennedy's wounds as well as all of Texas Governor John Connally's) on top of the back seat of the limousine where Kennedy was shot. His story warrants skepticism: he's changing his story after 60 years and directly contradicting statements he's made in past. Still, knowing how the "magic bullet" was so central to the claim that a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, shot and killed President John F. Kennedy on November 22nd, 1963, I felt like it was time to brush up my knowledge of the assassination.
Title aside, this book is mostly a history of the Warren Commission, the federal body charged with investigating the Kennedy assassination, although Shenon provides plenty of details about the assassination and pitches his own theory of what actually happened. It's especially valuable if you already have some background knowledge of these events and want a nuts-and-bolts view of how these investigations work.
Shenon immediately plunges the reader into the panicked aftermath of the assassination and arguably the investigation's original sin: a rushed autopsy conducted by inexperienced navy pathologists. It was riddled with errors, with both entrance wounds into Kennedy's body being misstated and a failure to dissect his back and neck to probe for one of the bullet's path. Worse, the pathologist in charge later destroyed his notes and the original autopsy report. The investigators were already starting with a handicap.
We're given a glimpse into how the commission came about: Lee Harvey Oswald's murder by Jack Ruby spawned instant conspiracy theories which the new president Lyndon Johnson wanted to nip in the bud. He used his legendary powers of persuasion to force political antagonists Earl Warren and Richard Russell, among others, to sit on the commission (future president Gerald Ford also had a seat at the table, as did ex-CIA director Allen Dulles). The commission then assembled a high-powered team of young, up-and-coming lawyers to do the investigative legwork.
And it's through these young staff members that the narrative largely unfolds. Some were keen on emphasizing their own roles in the investigation while disparaging the work of the commissioners, but it's clear they actually did run the investigation since A) it's pretty much how these blue-ribbon panels always operate; B) a perusal of witness testimony transcripts reveals that virtually all of the major testimony was taken by the staff lawyers; and C) some of the commissioners' attendance records were lackluster. Arlen Specter, future US senator from Pennsylvania, was probably the investigation's most important figure, having been assigned the task of reconstructing the timeline of the assassination and assembling the medical evidence. Others were in charge of gathering eye witness testimony, researching Oswald's background, and searching for evidence of a conspiracy.
Whatever else one may say about the Warren Commission, you can't read this book and come away with the impression that the investigators either cut corners or were somehow involved in a monstrous cover-up. Specter especially comes across as a bulldog of an investigator: his questions to witnesses were meticulous to the point of exhaustion, and he even wanted to ask Lyndon Johnson under oath if he was part of a conspiracy to kill Kennedy (Johnson never testified). Many of the lawyers likewise signed up for the work assuming that a conspiracy was involved and were eager to uncover it. If there was any fault in the investigation, it primarily lay with Earl Warren, who refused to let investigators see Kennedy's autopsy photos and X-rays, was unnecessarily protective of the Kennedy family (to the commission's annoyance, the author William Manchester was given greater access to Mrs. Kennedy), and most inexplicably allowed the CIA and FBI to cooperate with the commission on their own terms.
It's practically cliche in Kennedy assassination histories to criticize the failures of the Warren Commission, yet the other side of the ledger, the enormous compendium of evidence gathered that implicated Oswald for Kennedy's murder, gets almost entirely ignored. It shouldn't: Oswald worked in the building from which the fatal shots were fired, owned the rifle that was positively identified as the murder weapon, left a palm print on the murder weapon, immediately left the building right before police locked it down (and was the only employee uncounted for), went home to retrieve a handgun and then murdered a police officer who approached him, then tried to kill another police officer who arrested him at the Texas Theatre. Oswald was a lifelong misfit with a history of violence - he routinely beat his wife and tried to assassinate a prominent right-wing figure in the Dallas area only months before Kennedy's murder - as well as delusions of grandeur (his diary was hilariously named "Historic Diary"). Oswald was also an ex-Marine with extensive weapons training; FBI marksmen were able to replicate the shots from the Texas School Book Depository for the Warren Commission. He had the means, motive, and opportunity to make himself known to history, and sadly, took it.
Shenon also helpfully dispels some of the myths about the Warren Commission. Conspiracy theorists often accuse Allen Dulles for sinisterly shaping the final report, but it turns out he had almost no impact on the investigation. He often fell asleep during hearings and often seemed confused by the testimony; some of the staffers even thought he was senile. And it was apparently Robert Kennedy of all people who lobbied Johnson to put Dulles on the commission. Arlen Specter actually wasn't the "father" of the single-bullet theory - the notion that one of the bullets that struck Kennedy also caused all of the wounds in Texas Governor John Connally - but the much-derided navy pathologist who conducted the Kennedy autopsy, James Humes. (Scientific methods not available to the commission have since confirmed the theory).
Shenon lays out the Warren Commission's case for a lone gunman at Dealey Plaza and accepts it. He does not quite accept the case that Oswald wasn't part of a larger conspiracy, though, and here he takes the story to what he considers the great unsolved mystery of that enigma we know as Lee Harvey Oswald: his trip to Mexico City and visits to the Cuban and Soviet embassies there only weeks before the assassination. Shenon presents evidence that Oswald may have had a sexual relationship with an employee at the Cuban embassy, Silvia Duran (who he actually managed to track down while writing the book!), and, more alarmingly, announced out loud his intention to kill Kennedy to embassy employees. He pairs this with testimony from a Dallas-area Cuban woman named Silvia Odio who claimed that a man introduced to her as Leon Oswald showed up to her front door in late September 1963 with two anti-Castro Cubans, and that one of the Cubans called her the following day claiming that Oswald said out loud that Kennedy needed to be killed. Yet I think Shenon is engaging in the same speculative exercise of tenuous dot-connecting that he chides the conspiracy theorists for. The affair with Duran counts for little in my opinion and the source for the intelligence about Oswald's announcement at the Cuban embassy was an FBI informant who claimed Fidel Castro told him about it. The Odio story is admittedly harder to dismiss since her sister also claimed to see Oswald at the front door, but her history of mental illness and the known whereabouts of Oswald in the timeframe in question (New Orleans, then Mexico City, with a very short gap in between) make her testimony questionable.
The Oswald-in-Mexico-City story introduces another important element: the role of the intelligence agencies and what exactly they knew about Oswald. Shenon spends a considerable length of time documenting the CIA's extensive surveillance operations in Mexico City under its station chief, Winston Scott. This is important because the CIA, as part of its surveillance of the Cuban and Soviet embassies, reportedly photographed Oswald and even recorded him making phone calls within the embassies. The Warren Commission was never made aware of this evidence; the CIA later claimed the recordings were destroyed as part of routine administrative housecleaning. Shenon thinks this, along with the FBI Dallas field office destroying evidence that they were in contact with Oswald just weeks before the assassination, is the real cover-up story.
What we have in sum are honest investigators who found convincing evidence that Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shots that killed President John F. Kennedy on November 22nd, 1963 and likely wasn't involved in a conspiracy. To the extent they failed, it's because their titular boss wanted an expedited investigation and the CIA and FBI destroyed evidence indicating they knew Oswald was a threat. I think their basic conclusion still holds.
Title aside, this book is mostly a history of the Warren Commission, the federal body charged with investigating the Kennedy assassination, although Shenon provides plenty of details about the assassination and pitches his own theory of what actually happened. It's especially valuable if you already have some background knowledge of these events and want a nuts-and-bolts view of how these investigations work.
Shenon immediately plunges the reader into the panicked aftermath of the assassination and arguably the investigation's original sin: a rushed autopsy conducted by inexperienced navy pathologists. It was riddled with errors, with both entrance wounds into Kennedy's body being misstated and a failure to dissect his back and neck to probe for one of the bullet's path. Worse, the pathologist in charge later destroyed his notes and the original autopsy report. The investigators were already starting with a handicap.
We're given a glimpse into how the commission came about: Lee Harvey Oswald's murder by Jack Ruby spawned instant conspiracy theories which the new president Lyndon Johnson wanted to nip in the bud. He used his legendary powers of persuasion to force political antagonists Earl Warren and Richard Russell, among others, to sit on the commission (future president Gerald Ford also had a seat at the table, as did ex-CIA director Allen Dulles). The commission then assembled a high-powered team of young, up-and-coming lawyers to do the investigative legwork.
And it's through these young staff members that the narrative largely unfolds. Some were keen on emphasizing their own roles in the investigation while disparaging the work of the commissioners, but it's clear they actually did run the investigation since A) it's pretty much how these blue-ribbon panels always operate; B) a perusal of witness testimony transcripts reveals that virtually all of the major testimony was taken by the staff lawyers; and C) some of the commissioners' attendance records were lackluster. Arlen Specter, future US senator from Pennsylvania, was probably the investigation's most important figure, having been assigned the task of reconstructing the timeline of the assassination and assembling the medical evidence. Others were in charge of gathering eye witness testimony, researching Oswald's background, and searching for evidence of a conspiracy.
Whatever else one may say about the Warren Commission, you can't read this book and come away with the impression that the investigators either cut corners or were somehow involved in a monstrous cover-up. Specter especially comes across as a bulldog of an investigator: his questions to witnesses were meticulous to the point of exhaustion, and he even wanted to ask Lyndon Johnson under oath if he was part of a conspiracy to kill Kennedy (Johnson never testified). Many of the lawyers likewise signed up for the work assuming that a conspiracy was involved and were eager to uncover it. If there was any fault in the investigation, it primarily lay with Earl Warren, who refused to let investigators see Kennedy's autopsy photos and X-rays, was unnecessarily protective of the Kennedy family (to the commission's annoyance, the author William Manchester was given greater access to Mrs. Kennedy), and most inexplicably allowed the CIA and FBI to cooperate with the commission on their own terms.
It's practically cliche in Kennedy assassination histories to criticize the failures of the Warren Commission, yet the other side of the ledger, the enormous compendium of evidence gathered that implicated Oswald for Kennedy's murder, gets almost entirely ignored. It shouldn't: Oswald worked in the building from which the fatal shots were fired, owned the rifle that was positively identified as the murder weapon, left a palm print on the murder weapon, immediately left the building right before police locked it down (and was the only employee uncounted for), went home to retrieve a handgun and then murdered a police officer who approached him, then tried to kill another police officer who arrested him at the Texas Theatre. Oswald was a lifelong misfit with a history of violence - he routinely beat his wife and tried to assassinate a prominent right-wing figure in the Dallas area only months before Kennedy's murder - as well as delusions of grandeur (his diary was hilariously named "Historic Diary"). Oswald was also an ex-Marine with extensive weapons training; FBI marksmen were able to replicate the shots from the Texas School Book Depository for the Warren Commission. He had the means, motive, and opportunity to make himself known to history, and sadly, took it.
Shenon also helpfully dispels some of the myths about the Warren Commission. Conspiracy theorists often accuse Allen Dulles for sinisterly shaping the final report, but it turns out he had almost no impact on the investigation. He often fell asleep during hearings and often seemed confused by the testimony; some of the staffers even thought he was senile. And it was apparently Robert Kennedy of all people who lobbied Johnson to put Dulles on the commission. Arlen Specter actually wasn't the "father" of the single-bullet theory - the notion that one of the bullets that struck Kennedy also caused all of the wounds in Texas Governor John Connally - but the much-derided navy pathologist who conducted the Kennedy autopsy, James Humes. (Scientific methods not available to the commission have since confirmed the theory).
Shenon lays out the Warren Commission's case for a lone gunman at Dealey Plaza and accepts it. He does not quite accept the case that Oswald wasn't part of a larger conspiracy, though, and here he takes the story to what he considers the great unsolved mystery of that enigma we know as Lee Harvey Oswald: his trip to Mexico City and visits to the Cuban and Soviet embassies there only weeks before the assassination. Shenon presents evidence that Oswald may have had a sexual relationship with an employee at the Cuban embassy, Silvia Duran (who he actually managed to track down while writing the book!), and, more alarmingly, announced out loud his intention to kill Kennedy to embassy employees. He pairs this with testimony from a Dallas-area Cuban woman named Silvia Odio who claimed that a man introduced to her as Leon Oswald showed up to her front door in late September 1963 with two anti-Castro Cubans, and that one of the Cubans called her the following day claiming that Oswald said out loud that Kennedy needed to be killed. Yet I think Shenon is engaging in the same speculative exercise of tenuous dot-connecting that he chides the conspiracy theorists for. The affair with Duran counts for little in my opinion and the source for the intelligence about Oswald's announcement at the Cuban embassy was an FBI informant who claimed Fidel Castro told him about it. The Odio story is admittedly harder to dismiss since her sister also claimed to see Oswald at the front door, but her history of mental illness and the known whereabouts of Oswald in the timeframe in question (New Orleans, then Mexico City, with a very short gap in between) make her testimony questionable.
The Oswald-in-Mexico-City story introduces another important element: the role of the intelligence agencies and what exactly they knew about Oswald. Shenon spends a considerable length of time documenting the CIA's extensive surveillance operations in Mexico City under its station chief, Winston Scott. This is important because the CIA, as part of its surveillance of the Cuban and Soviet embassies, reportedly photographed Oswald and even recorded him making phone calls within the embassies. The Warren Commission was never made aware of this evidence; the CIA later claimed the recordings were destroyed as part of routine administrative housecleaning. Shenon thinks this, along with the FBI Dallas field office destroying evidence that they were in contact with Oswald just weeks before the assassination, is the real cover-up story.
What we have in sum are honest investigators who found convincing evidence that Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shots that killed President John F. Kennedy on November 22nd, 1963 and likely wasn't involved in a conspiracy. To the extent they failed, it's because their titular boss wanted an expedited investigation and the CIA and FBI destroyed evidence indicating they knew Oswald was a threat. I think their basic conclusion still holds.
November 22, 2014
I am not a conspiracy aficianado. Despite its flaws, I have always generally accepted the conclusions of the Warren Commission: Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and was not part of a conspiracy. No more. Former NY Times reporter Philip Shenon's history of the Warren Commission, which began as an effort to reconstruct the work of the young attorneys who did most of the grunt work in the investigation, uncovers new evidence that suggests that Oswald met with Cuban officers in Mexico City weeks before the assassination and demonstrates pretty conclusively that the CIA covered it up.
The book is an eye-opener in other ways too. Some of the seven commissioners were absent during much of the testimony that was taken. Some were at each other's throats before, during, and after their service on the commission. Some spent more time hunting for communists among the commission staff than they did attending to commission business. Earl Warren was overly solicitous of Jackie Kennedy and allowed Robert Kennedy to conceal vital forensic evidence. He and other commissioners constantly overruled staff attorney/investigators in their search for evidence. Senior attorneys to whom the younger attorneys reported, varied widely in their level of involvement, in one case leaving after the first few weeks and never returning. There was heavy political pressure to rush out the report before the 1964 election, even though many questions were unanswered.
Most troubling, the FBI and CIA, including Allen Dulles who served on the commission, actively concealed information about what they knew about Oswald. Some lied under oath. Others destroyed evidence. Spooky mole hunter James Jesus Angleton took over information sharing from the CIA to the commission and actively restricted what was known. A diplomat who knew about the Cuban connection and tried to alert his superiors was drummed out of the foreign service and evidently blackballed from any future government service; he took his own life.
One is left with the conviction that Oswald may have been under the control of, or urged on by Fidel Castro's Cuba, in retaliation for efforts by Robert Kennedy and the CiA to assassinate him, that many in the government knew and have known the truth for years, and have hidden the truth for years.
This book is complex, but engaging. It reads like a thriller, but is carefully researched history.
The book is an eye-opener in other ways too. Some of the seven commissioners were absent during much of the testimony that was taken. Some were at each other's throats before, during, and after their service on the commission. Some spent more time hunting for communists among the commission staff than they did attending to commission business. Earl Warren was overly solicitous of Jackie Kennedy and allowed Robert Kennedy to conceal vital forensic evidence. He and other commissioners constantly overruled staff attorney/investigators in their search for evidence. Senior attorneys to whom the younger attorneys reported, varied widely in their level of involvement, in one case leaving after the first few weeks and never returning. There was heavy political pressure to rush out the report before the 1964 election, even though many questions were unanswered.
Most troubling, the FBI and CIA, including Allen Dulles who served on the commission, actively concealed information about what they knew about Oswald. Some lied under oath. Others destroyed evidence. Spooky mole hunter James Jesus Angleton took over information sharing from the CIA to the commission and actively restricted what was known. A diplomat who knew about the Cuban connection and tried to alert his superiors was drummed out of the foreign service and evidently blackballed from any future government service; he took his own life.
One is left with the conviction that Oswald may have been under the control of, or urged on by Fidel Castro's Cuba, in retaliation for efforts by Robert Kennedy and the CiA to assassinate him, that many in the government knew and have known the truth for years, and have hidden the truth for years.
This book is complex, but engaging. It reads like a thriller, but is carefully researched history.
February 15, 2018
At nine the JFK assassination was a traumatic watershed in my young life. A year later my mother devoured the massive blue covered Warren Commission report. This is the back story of that commission, an effort drenched in ego and antagonism and hampered by conflicting governmental roadblocks. Chief Justice Earl Warren is so affected by the JFK autopsy pictures he locks them away from other commission members. Segregationist Sen. Richard Russell loathes Warren but is tricked and cajoled onto the commission by President Lyndon Johnson, who fears any suggestion of a connection between the assassination and Cuba or the Soviets will lead to nuclear war. Commission member Gerald Ford is looking for a book deal, and for suspected leftists named to the investigative staff. Staff investigator Arlen Specter seeks to interview Jacqueline Kennedy, but is blocked by Warren who later questions the widow in a gentle private session. Her memories are poignant. Similar sympathy for Lee Harvey Oswald's widow Marina gives way to exasperated recognition of her evasions. Oswald's mother is looking for what she can get out of the tragedy; her attorney is conspiracy theorist Mark Lane. Hovering over all of this is the question of Oswald's trip to Mexico City; who did he meet and what did he say? And J.Edgar Hoover is determined to protect the reputation of the FBI. Along the way we see a sexually predatory staff investigator who targets a beautiful Cuban and Marina herself, while boasting of his conquests. We also see classified and top secret documents handled carelessly and even left on the front seat of an unlocked car in an airport parking lot by a Congressman. So there are associations with our present times. While I am not a grand conspiracy junkie this book raises important questions and significant doubts. The Warren Commission was damaged from the get go by good intentions, official self interest and human failure.
December 23, 2013
For those of us old enough to remember where we were on November 22, 1963, this book is a must read. If you read previous reviews that said you'll learn exactly what happened on that fateful day, or that you'll be able to put an end to conspiracy theories, you'll be disappointed.
The book presents an inside look at the members of the Warren Commission itself. From Chief Justice Earl Warren to Gerald Ford to Arlen Spector and others on the commission, Philip Shenon collects secrets of backroom arguments and pressure from President Johnson in one coherent narrative. Given the luxury of time from the event, Shenon writes with the candor and voice of a trained reporter.
No one comes off spotless. The FBI withheld critical material, mostly, it seems, to protect its image. Hoover's FBI bungled several aspects of the investigation. Only with time have some of the material been revealed. The CIA didn't do a thorough job of following Oswald in Mexico.
Shenon accepts Oswald as a single shooter. Based on the evidence, it would be difficult to deny that position. But with original autopsy reports burned, photos of the president's body withheld out of "deference to the First Lady" and Bobby Kennedy, and key witnesses not interviewed, some of the Warren Commission's conclusions have to be taken on faith.
Was Kennedy killed by Castro? Was he killed by the Mafia? Was he so poorly protected by the Secret Service that one man with a mail-order rifle was able to kill him and wound Governor Connolly?
Answers raised, but not adequately answered. Still, this is a critical work in the pantheon of books, wild and serious, about the Kennedy assassination. Well worth reading and owning.
The book presents an inside look at the members of the Warren Commission itself. From Chief Justice Earl Warren to Gerald Ford to Arlen Spector and others on the commission, Philip Shenon collects secrets of backroom arguments and pressure from President Johnson in one coherent narrative. Given the luxury of time from the event, Shenon writes with the candor and voice of a trained reporter.
No one comes off spotless. The FBI withheld critical material, mostly, it seems, to protect its image. Hoover's FBI bungled several aspects of the investigation. Only with time have some of the material been revealed. The CIA didn't do a thorough job of following Oswald in Mexico.
Shenon accepts Oswald as a single shooter. Based on the evidence, it would be difficult to deny that position. But with original autopsy reports burned, photos of the president's body withheld out of "deference to the First Lady" and Bobby Kennedy, and key witnesses not interviewed, some of the Warren Commission's conclusions have to be taken on faith.
Was Kennedy killed by Castro? Was he killed by the Mafia? Was he so poorly protected by the Secret Service that one man with a mail-order rifle was able to kill him and wound Governor Connolly?
Answers raised, but not adequately answered. Still, this is a critical work in the pantheon of books, wild and serious, about the Kennedy assassination. Well worth reading and owning.
January 8, 2016
If you're like me, you've become pretty well versed over the years in the basic facts, issues and theories revolving around the JFK assassination. I confess, however, to having previously had the notion of the Warren Commission as an austere body of seven people comprised of Earl Warren, some senior senators and Allen Dulles, sitting around a table reviewing police reports and medical records, taking a few oral witness statements and somehow generating the infamous report. Nothing could be further from the truth and I can see now that I should have supposed as much. I cannot overemphasize the fascination and interest generated and sustained by this book. The real story here is the role played by the staff attorneys (hard to imagine a greater collection of legal talent) throughout the process and the nature of the oversight provided by Warren (wouldn't have imagined his intolerance and impatience) and its impact upon the entire body of work. Having recently finished "The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government" this behind the scenes look at the formation, investigation and conclusions of the Warren Commission was the perfect follow up. Between the two, I would have to consider Shenon's work here the more objective, tempered perspective on the assassination. Of course, "Chessboard" covered a broad range of historical events over a relatively lengthy period of time. This book is fully detailed without being overly technical, contains colorful character illustrations (wait until you get a load of both Marina and Marguerite Oswald), and is rich enough in anecdotes to almost be worth reading on that basis alone.
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