The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ

by Roger Stone

Lyndon Baines Johnson was a man of great ambition and enormous greed, both of which, in 1963, would threaten to destroy him. In the end, President Johnson would use power from his personal connections in Texas and from the underworld and from the government to escape an untimely end in politics and to seize even greater power. President Johnson, the thirty-sixth president of the United States, was the driving force behind a conspiracy to murder President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.In The Man Who Killed Kennedy, you will find out how and why he did it.

Political consultant, strategist, and Libertarian Roger Stone has gathered documents and used his firsthand knowledge to construct the ultimate tome to prove that LBJ was not only involved in JFK s assassination, but was in fact the mastermind.

With 2013 being the fiftieth anniversary of JFK s assassination, this is the perfect time for The Man Who Killed Kennedy to be available to readers. The research and information in this book is unprecedented, and as Roger Stone lived through it, he s the perfect person to bring it to everyone s attention.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, True Crime, American History, Biography, Historical

424 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2013

About the author

Roger Stone is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ. He is a legendary political operative who served as a senior campaign aide to Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Senator Bob Dole. Stone would parlay being the youngest staff member of the Committee to Re-Elect the President in 1972 into being a conduit of secret memos from Ex-President Nixon to President Ronald Reagan throughout the 80s. A veteran of eight national presidential campaigns, Stone would spend hours talking politics with Nixon as confidant and adviser in his post-presidential years. Stone is known for his hardball tactics, deep opposition research, biting candor, and love of English custom tailoring. Stone serves as mens fashion correspondent for the Daily Caller.

Reviews

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a book. I knew he was a nut and I knew there was more than one gunman but wow... I don't doubt it at all. I read somewhere that Kennedy said it he gets killed, Johnson did it. Well this book backs that up! This tell just how crazy Johnson was. Scary crazy!
He was a very nasty man, a cruel, and vile person that ordered hits on people like some of us order pizza. Tried to start a war by bombing one of our own ships so he would have a reason.
Does that sound familiar? Think 9/11...
I may not agree with this author's political views supporting Trump but this was a good book.

[Jacki · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I'm typing this with one hand and making my tinfoil hat with the other because YOU GUYS! This is the craziest thing I've ever read.

Honestly, the first half is what absolutely left me with my jaw to the floor. The author pretty much just made a case for what a crooked guy LBJ was, how many people hated RFK, and how the mob and FRANK SINATRA tied into all of this. I cannot even tell you how beyond shocked I was.

And I just read a book about lbj that talked about how he named his penis Jumbo, flashed it at the merest hint of provocation and made men in his staff measure their penises to make sure he was the biggest. So my distaste for the dude was pretty high before.

The thing is, we'll never know 100% about Kennedy's death. We just won't. This guy makes a strong case that LBJ was behind it and it does make sense...Mostly he proves that LBJ had the means and the motive, but it wouldn't stand up in court, I don't think... But even if he didn't? In the off chance that the Warren Commission got It right? Well, fine.

But even then, the whole first half of the book is straight up documented incidents that involved LBJ and his crew killing people without batting an eye. It's about mob bosses and old money and famous people and literally every president from JFK to George Bush Sr. It is WILD. ::edit:: Nope, I forgot that Jimmy Carter was a person. He wasn't included here.

I'm obviously a little president-obsessed, but even if you're not this is a great read that will absolutely knock your socks off.

[M.K. Gilroy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was in kindergarten when Kennedy was shot. To say that the Kennedys were popular was an understatement. The two most popular Halloween costumes at the class party that year, less than a month before JFK was shot, had been John and Bobby plastic masks. My first inkling that something big had happened was when I got in the car and the mom who was driving carpool that day said nothing but only sobbed the drive home.

I heard Roger Stone do a radio interview on his book and realized I had read little to nothing on the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I didn't go see the Oliver Stone film. I found it strange that I've read books on the Viet Nam War and Watergate - the other two defining political events in my growing up years - but I had never taken the time to accept or reject the Warren Commission. It's interesting that in the back of my mind I've sort of known there are two self-contradictory popular beliefs that guide popular perception on the Kennedy assassination:
1. the Warren Report is seriously flawed
2. anyone that presents an alternative view of the Warren Report is a kook
So who does Roger Stone - longtime political strategist for Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H. Bush, and George W. Bush - say killed JFK? Since he has a picture of President Lyndon Baines Johnson on the cover and subtitles the book, The Case Against LBJ, I'm not giving a spoiler to tell you where this book is going. (Note: Stone is equally hard on Republicans as Democrats; he is an equal opportunity sledgehammer.)

His attack on the Warren Report - from his rejection of the "magic bullet" (the conclusion that the same bullet went completely through Kennedy's body and then hit Texas Governor John Connelly, breaking his leg), to the 50+ witnesses present that said there was gunfire from the grassy knoll and whose testimony was deemed unreliable - was all fascinating.

But what makes the book sizzle is his depiction of Johnson as a psychopath who had at least eight men murdered to protect and promote his political career. (The Box 13 incident that got him elected to the Senate in 1946 is just as surreal as the alleged murders in his wake.) Stone sets out to show how the parties that would most benefit from Kennedy's death worked together, including the Mob, J. Edgar Hoover, a few renegades in the CIA tied to the Bay of Pigs and several failed assassination attempts on Fidel Castro, certain Texas oilmen, and first and foremost, the man who stood the most to gain and who could organize the plot and then perform the most important function to hold it all together - controlling the evidence - namely Lyndon Baines Johnson.

How was the book? If you can get past the typos of a self-published bestselling outlier, Stone's writing was fine and propelled you through the pages. It was as or more titillating than many a political suspense thriller.

Did Stone make the case against LBJ? Like any argument based on an historical event; you have to present - and hope the readers / listeners believe - a boatload of circumstantial evidence, assembled cogently, and wrapped up neatly with a bow on top. Did I believe him? I think I can confidently say this: Even if all Stone's assumptions and dot connecting aren't correct, he made an overwhelming case that the Warren Commission and its report was a sham that was designed to protect powerful participants in a plot that could not be subsumed within a lone gunman theory.

Is this the best book to read if you haven't read anything else about the Kennedy Assassination? Go back to the two popular beliefs: the Warren Report was flawed and conspiracy theorists are kooks. An author like Bill O'Reilly tries to make the case that both of those beliefs are still absolutely true - and that he has written a groundbreaking book. (And after reading Stone I'm finding Killing Kennedy decidedly unsatisfactory.) So why not Stone? You'll learn about the political winds of the day, the dominant views, and an alternative view that was there from the moment JFK was shot. If it doesn't go down right, there are a myriad of more traditional primers.

[Tom Stamper · Rating 4 out of 5]

My mom said that LBJ had Kennedy killed. Oliver Stone first suggested the CIA to me. I have always thought that Jack Ruby's mob style hit suggested mafia culprits. What Roger Stones does is weave all of these suspects and the FBI into a large overall conspiracy with LBJ as the puppet master.

My first thought was blarney, but I had stumbled upon the Amazon page and was surprised to see it registered 4.5 stars out of 5 with more than 350 reviews. I figured something with that much support must be worth a look although I had no intention of finishing it. I'm here to tell you that it's hard not to finish whether or not you believe the premise. Stone shares so many compelling tales that suggest LBJ was an absolute scoundrel with no redeeming qualities that you can't wait to see what the bum does next. Kennedy and Nixon may have had their faults, but they were more or less decent guys as politicians go, but LBJ is taking a napalm bath in hell. I can't imagine how Doris Kearns Goodwin had enough anecdotes to spin Uncle Cornpone into a hero of the 1960s, but I am drawn to read her take out of curiosity now.

It’s also entertaining when Roger Stone takes down LBJ biographer, Robert Caro, for ignoring shady people in LBJ's life. He even relates a story where he once questioned Caro after a talk and how Caro was startled by the question. He also knocks Bill O'Reilly for describing what a lout LBJ was without ever putting the pieces together to suggest he had the biggest motive of all.

But I am getting ahead of myself. The story is told mostly in chronological fashion with the author laying out all the shenanigans LBJ engaged in to reach the Vice Presidency (well documented by others), how he hated the job once he had it (understood by all), and how Bobby Kennedy was using his position as Attorney General to bring charges against LBJ acolytes and eventually the big man himself (Not sure I have means to hunt down the source material covered in the footnotes for this one). Along the way Stone teaches us the workings of the CIA, FBI, and the MAFIA and how they all had incentives to do away with Kennedy. This is where I have my doubts. Could that many organizations really coordinate this kind of killing and cover their tracks?

Enter the Warren Commission full of the kind of people who understand not to ask tough questions or go down roads that contradict the lone assassin theory. Are they covering up because they want to quell any fears Americans have in general or are they covering for one of their own?

I am impressed with Stone's case and I would give him more credit if the conspiracy stopped there, but conspiracy theories have inertia once they start rolling. He links this plot to the killing of Bobby Kennedy in 1968 because he hinted on the campaign trail that he would open the JFK investigation if elected and the Martin Luther King assassination by extension of his Kennedy connections. He then calls Watergate a setup by the same people to get rid of Nixon because he had been requesting FBI files on the JFK case and posed similar danger. I’m not saying it’s not possible, but it’s an awful lot to digest if you are skeptical of wide conspiracies as the explanation of traumatic events. I wish Stone would have put forward the possibilities without the insistence of their veracity.

For me to fully commit to this theory I need to see the proof that RFK was hunting LBJ at the Justice Department. Is that among all the sealed papers we’re not allowed to see 50 years later? The cold war is over. That those records are still hidden suggests there is more to the story than Ear Warren told us. This book strengthened my belief that it was a mob hit as retribution for Joe Kennedy’s broken promises. I’m not sold on the CIA or the Johnson involvement yet, but there is documented truth here not fully considered elsewhere, circumstantial evidence, and interesting speculation. In short, there is plenty of meat to make a meal.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1963 I was a young wife with two preschool children. The JFK assassination was an indelible shock to me. I've read a great many books, both on the conspiracy side and the lone-assassin side (Posner, Bugliosi, O'Reilly). This one answered virtually all my questions and filled in all the details.

I was already of the strong opinion that LBJ was behind the JFK assassination; this book added so much evidence that it removed all doubt from my mind. Stone is a political insider who knew Nixon and Reagan well, as well as a number of other highly placed government figures. He took the advice he was given to wait 50 years to publish what he knew, and of course the intervening years provided a lot of confessions (deathbed or otherwise) and other new evidence.

Because this is such an important book, it's a shame that it's so poorly written/edited, with frequent missing or misused words, phrases, and punctuation. I hope it will be reworked in later editions.

[Stephen Embry · Rating 1 out of 5]

This cut and paste piece would better be called "the Man who assassinated LBJ's character". it follows the familiar format of the tabloids, cascading unsupported innuendo and rumor onto falsehood and possibility leaving you with a vague feeling of distaste and suspicion. while it is possible that there was a conspiracy, it is not explained here. indeed it is not a clear what kind of conspiracy we are talking about, the killing of a president or the promotion of a senator's rise to power. Those who have walked the hall of power will not be surprised that others in the hall did not get there by accident, and left bodies along the way, (sometimes figuratively sometimes literally), but specific allegations require some degree of reliable proof, and hearsay statements do not pass the test. So you come away with a deepened distaste for the leaders of the past half century, and their hangers on, but not much else. Spend your money elsewhere.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read a fair amount about the story, and have visited the Book Depository and Grassy Knoll, but unlike others I found some of the info new, not just all re-hashing. Assuming, for the moment, that LBJ was not (directly) involved, the event could not have come at a more exact time for his fortunes. One of the "luckiest" guys in history for sure!

Stone certainly lays out at bare minimum a strong circumstantial case. I hadn't realized that LBJ started ducking for cover at the fateful spot, before anyone else heard a first shot. Stone does a good job driving home how adamant local officials were on that exact, convoluted route; the Kennedy people tried their best to get a more direct one (with a less easily sniper'ed target), but backed down short of canceling altogether.

Following the stories of the various mobsters proved a bit tedious, but I got the idea. Laying out Johnson's underhanded, win-at-all-costs past worked in proving him someone capable of a murder conspiracy, indeed. Moreover, he was facing quite a dire future on that morning. The Kennedys themselves weren't exactly saints themselves, though come through as greedy more than violent. Weakest part of the book would be Stone's attempt to drag the Bush family into the saga, which did come through as more innuendo, or even wishful thinking, on his part. I found the later argument linking the RFK and MLK assassinations back to JFK interesting, if not thoroughly persuasive.

I'm glad I read this one, that had languished on my TBR pile, but wouldn't recommend reading it first. Other accounts give more thorough accounts of Oswald and his story; here, it seemed assumed the reader knew those details.

[Dave Scrip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Roger Stone writes a compelling case for LBJ being the mastermind behind the JFK murder. His neighbor J Edgar Hoover covered up the crime. The CIA -Mafia orchestrated the crime with a little help from accomplice Secret Service agents assigned to protect JFK. LBJ,s personal assassin Malcolm Wallace was on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building. How do we know this? Wallace's fingerprint was the only one found in the sniper's lair. Obviously, there was more than one shooter. Roger Stones work should be required reading for all Americans.

[Les · Rating 4 out of 5]

JFK was assassinated 1 week before my second birthday. Throughout my adult life I have flirted with studying the assassination. What this book does isn't so much prove the conspiracy as just expose the swamp.

The corruption of LBJ and his cronies is on a scale that is is almost unimaginable. Starting with how they stole the 1948 Senate race - boxes of ballots just kept appearing to give Johnson the lead. One of the voting records uncovered that the voters had conveniently voted in alphabetical order and lead to this joke.
"why are you so sad little boy?"
"My father was back in town and didn't come to see me"
"But your father has been dead for years"
"Yes but last week he came to town to vote for Johnson"

Johnson's extramarital activities made Bill Clinton look like a eunuch. Johnson's pay for play made the mafia look like posers. He had a scam involving a radio station he and his wife owned in Texas which took money for advertising that never ran. Lots of money. Especially LOTS of money in 1960 when the average cost of new car was $2,600.00 and a first-class stamp $0.04 , a gallon of regular gas $0.31, a dozen eggs $0.57 and a gallon of Milk: $0.49. He was a long time crony of Kellogg, Brown and Root. They eventually were folded into Halliburton need I say more??

Being VP denied Johnson the power and influence he had held in the Senate. And that was what he wanted power. Bobby Kennedy loathed him and was leaking to major media outlets that were prepared to print an exposé on Johnson's corruption that at minimum would have kicked him off the ticket and at maximum would have had him perp walked. And I am completely certain that it is just the WILDEST Coincidence that one of Johnson's cronies OWNED the Texas School Book Depository. Just like it was no big deal that a man who had defected to the USSR got a job at the company that printed the U-2 surveillance photos.

I am certainly not qualified to be judge and jury on Johnson's guilt but this meticulously researched and footnoted book makes me lean toward "Guil Cups" (Monty Python reference) https://groups.google.com/forum/#!top...

[Patty Abrams · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author discusses LBJ's role in the Kennedy assassination, including his associates who were involved and his influence with the Dallas police, mob figures, and CIA. Very well written and detailed. Many things I had not known. I came away from this read believing totally that LBJ was behind the killing. This is the best book yet on the assassination.

[Richard Martin · Rating 1 out of 5]

After reading the Preface and Introduction, one wonders about objectivity. The author shows much animosity toward Johnson and this is reflected throughout. The book is longer than it has to be. With editing, it could be reduced to a more readable length. Stylistically, there are numerous repetitions as well as paragraphs with multiple tense shifts. Mechanical problems are rife. For example, the table of contents page numbers do not match actual chapter beginnings. Starting with chapter 14, page numbers are off by eight. Also, lack of proof reading is evident with incorrect words: "that" for "than," "it "/ "if," "is"/ "it's," "here"/ "her," among others. In all, the book appears to have been rushed into print to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have followed this since I was in junior high. Stone nails it and really puts the screws to LBJ....man was he an evil guy. A good read and worth it.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

12/4/17 $1.99 for Kindle.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never read anything lengthy about the JFK assassination. I had read some articles and watched some videos, so I knew enough to know that the official story was implausible. I was also vaguely aware of some of the "conspiracy" theories, but had never really investigated the matter.

So while browsing Amazon.com one day, I came across Roger Stone's book. Having already delved into "fringe" history works about Pearl Harbor and the Holocaust, I felt this book was right up my alley.

I was not disappointed. Stone's book is heavily researched and heavily documented. Its conclusion? LBJ had the motive, means, and opportunity to order the hit on JFK and orchestrate the massive cover-up that followed.

Now, having read this book, I don't know how any intelligent unbiased person could examine the evidence and conclude that Lee Harvey Oswald had anything to do with JFK's assassination. Oswald was nothing more than a patsy. In fact, Jack Ruby was also a patsy.

Some of the early readers criticized this book for its poor editing. I still found a small number of typos, but it seems the paperback edition has been cleaned up considerably. The Afterword is new material, and I found a higher number of typos in it than the rest of the book. So I can imagine the first edition had quite a few as well.

The new Afterword in the paperback edition summarizes some of what was covered in the book, but also handles many of the common objections to the idea that LBJ killed JFK. There is also some fascinating information about LBJ and Nixon stealing hundreds of tons of "dory" gold from a New Mexico location now under government control. The Afterword provides better closure for the book than the last chapter on the sinking of the USS Liberty.

Who is this book for? Anybody who is an honest student of history who wants to know the truth about the JFK assassination and Lyndon Baines Johnson's involvement in it.

[Candice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Do you meet at least two of the following criteria? If so, you will benefit from this book:

You know every person's name who was even the slightly bit involved in politics in the 1960s and 1970s.

You know the intricacies and minutiae of the Mob in Chicago, New York, Vegas and Miami.

You are a show runner or executive producer of ABC's "Scandal."

You enjoy an onslaught of random ideas, jumbled thoughts and genealogical data thrown at you in no particular sequence.

You do not expect by page 172 to feel the slightest bit of confidence in the author's premise, but want to press on, feeling confident he'll convince you by page 279, or at least by 383.

[Joel Manuel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Riddled with typos and not terribly convincing.

[Elliott · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have never read a book that promised so much, delivered so little, and pissed me off as this one.
Ignore the claims inside about "inside information" what Roger Stone has is a couple of comments he heard second hand, and some comments that Nixon made to him personally about his feelings regarding the Warren Commission. The second hand stuff has been printed long before, and Nixon's doubts about the Warren Commission have been pretty thoroughly explored in far better books. Indeed the bibliography and note section at the end of each chapter shows this-which I will come back to later.
Taking these bits out the book is a harp song to Tricky Dick, and a slugging contest against the Kennedys and LBJ (obviously). For instance Stone tries to pin the blame of Diem's assassination on Kennedy-which isn't true. The CIA orchestrated it themselves. He goes over the alleged affairs of President Kennedy which let me state unequivocally that most of which are scurrilous fictions if one actually follows the sources backwards to their origin which Stone didn't. Stone also peddles the lie that the Kennedys and LBJ were opportunistic in the Civil Rights Movement. They weren't. They were deeply involved, and fought very hard for Civil Rights in this country. See the story of James Meredith. Stone complains about organized crime in regards to the Kennedys and LBJ-another largely scurrilous fabrication. But, the specter that needs to be addressed is LBJ. Stone's "evidence" against Johnson from other sources are very shaky-he tries to portray Johnson as a man of sociopathic tendencies, but he really has nothing solid. Johnson certainly was a bit odd, and uncouth, even eccentric I'd wager. None of that is evidence that he had Jack and Bobby Kennedy murdered. So, sorry Roger. No dice.
Now, to the fun part. Stone forgets to mention Nixon's own problems. Nixon was a notorious drunk (and wife beater by the way). He happily throws the racist card against Johnson, but doesn't mention Nixon's own anti-semitic, homophobic, xenophobic, sexist, and racist comments that unlike the second hand recollections contained in this book were actually recorded in their entirety. Plus, recall Nixon's 1968 and 1972 strategy that ran completely upon white backlash against the Civil Rights Movement. Which, Roger Stone would have been well versed in as a Nixon volunteer during this period by the way. Stone covers Nixon's secret Vietnam negotiations that prolonged the war by stating dismissively that "the war wouldn't have ended anyway," and "liberal accusations of treason" were unfounded. Never you mind that the whole point of course is that it is not the duty of presidential candidates to negotiate America's war policy at any time, whether peace is likely or not. So, yes the historical record and those "liberals" are correct when together they equate this with treason. Alas for Tricky Dick.
But, I digress. Roger Stone does not present a very convincing case towards Johnson's involvement in the Kennedy assassination, whilst the rest of the book is merely just a condensing of other, better researchers' work. Ultimately, Stone himself contributed perhaps two paragraphs worth of questionable, and ambiguous material and pirated the rest.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read countless JFK assassination books, and I'd largely stopped reading them, thinking that everything that was possible to come out had certainly already come out in the last 50-some years.
Still, this book confirmed every other thing I've read about the JFK assassination, including Dan Rather's "advance" reviewal of the Zapruder film in which he baldly lies that "JFK's head moves forward with considerable force" at the head shot, when it's obviously moving backward and to the left. I saw that tape at Penn Jones's house. Jones had it on a loop so you could hear Rather's falsification of the action twice in a row. Given that Stone knew all of that, I couldn't deny that his research was accurate.

Stone is fairly audacious in his remarks about LBJ, including listing the 10 people he supposedly had killed and his endless trysts with female white house underlings. A lot of those things can't be verified one way or another, so a reader just has to give Stone a pass on them, which I did after agreeing with the historical points that I HAVE read about, which are spot-on. I knew that Nixon knew a day in advance of the assassination, and that his code phrase on his oval office tapes of "The Bay of Pigs thing" was a reference to the JFK assassination. What I hadn't known was the degree to which Nixon and LBJ were enmeshed in the guilty knowledge of the JFK assassination, and the fact that Watergate was intended to dispose of Nixon via a bad burglary because he was really seeking evidence of government complicity in the JFK assassination to protect himself against J. Edgar Hoover having incriminating evidence of his knowledge.

The brutality and insanity of LBJ had only been hinted to me in previous accounts of his life, but the entire assassination plot's depth and cast of characters all in the service of getting rid of JFK and supporting LBJ's backing of the military-industrial complex, was mind-blowing to me. This was a deep and complicated plot comparable in its sheer brutality and indifference to human life as anything Stalin could have concocted, which the book repeats several times. The fact that LBJ was willing to start WWIII just to show how powerful he was is truly indicative of the crazed monarch of legend. LBJ almost ended up being the real-life Ozymandias. The country was very fortunate to have survived his presidency, and the labyrinthine plot that brought it about.

I am impressed with the truth and accuracy of this book from what I can tell, even though it was written by a longtime Republican strategist who supported Donald Trump in 2016. That is the mystery that I can't understand.

It's a fascinating and chilling book.

[Anup Sinha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I took in the first hundred pages like oxygen, but it slowly came off the rails after that. A worthy read for me, which finally addresses a number of questions pertaining to LBJ and the assassination of President Jack Kennedy. A sticking point for me has long been the fact that Jack Ruby was at the least an acquaintance of Lyndon Johnson’s; for him to be the random person who took out Lee Harvey Oswald just doesn’t make sense. As I learned through Stone’s thorough research, Ruby had been a Washington informant going back to the Truman era.

Stone is most definitely an insider with more access into government and government officials than any journalist could ever get, so I appreciate his perspective. At some point, though, he just went way beyond his own expertise and tried to turn his book into a bible of sorts that explains all with infallibility. In the process he spent too much time on minutiae and fell into the trap of many investigative writers by only quoting people who agree with his own narrative.

He dismisses the single bullet theory (which every forensic physicist agrees with) by calling it the “magic bullet” theory and insists, with selected evidence, that Mac Wallace pulled the trigger with Oswald as a bystander who just happened to flee and kill a cop later. It was unnerving that he could have so much evidence for some of his points yet use flimsy forensics or hearsay for others.

He does have me convinced of President Johnson’s culpability though not that he was necessarily the orchestrator. He also has me convinced what a horrible person Johnson was, someone who killed and defamed his way to power and would not be above taking out the president and, five years later, MLK Jr.

In his Afterword, which was not nearly as readable or well-narrated, Stone puts Lyndon Johnson on a par with Hitler and Stalin and by that point I do think the cars were way off the rails. Horrible man, but let’s keep perspective! The hyperbole takes away from the cultivated story he worked so hard to put forth in the early chapters.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a little obsessed with the subject of Kennedy's assassination. This is one of many, many books that came out within the past year or two at the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's death. It is a compelling read, and there is certainly plenty of tidbits to keep you reading. The revelation about LBJ calling the trauma room at Bethesda mid autopsy is just plain creepy. I had not heard that before.

The biggest problem with this book is it is mostly not original material. A lot of it is compiled referencing other sources, which is interesting, but not exactly blazing any new territory. It does reinforce some evidence, and certainly contains enough weight to be read and considered.

I did become annoyed at the multiple grammatical and typing errors. I was surprised that there was a co-author given the horrible way it was written in places, and I can't imagine anyone proof read it. How does this get published?

But at the end of the day, I could not stop reading it.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is going to face serious rejection. Strike 1 is that it is poorly edited, which is unfortunate. A lot of people will reject it out of hand because of that. It smacks of unprofessional work.

Strike 2 is that it says what you don't want to hear. It tears aside the façade, the ideas you may have about a great many people in American history, starting with LBJ, but tying into present day leadership.

Strike 3 is that the book is somewhat meandering.

A lot of Stone's claims are so remarkable and difficult to substantiate that most people will reject them for that reason.

However, if you look at the big picture view, the connections he asserts actually fit the circumstances. When you consider additional evidence such as ex-CIA agent E. Howard Hunt's death bed confession which actually validates some of the claims in this book, you can't rule this information out.

Again, a must-read for American history and JFK buffs.

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not above being susceptible or gullible, but even I know it's not too bright to trust anyone who has a Nixon tattoo...

[Edward]

“Longtime Republican political operative Roger Stone had gotten his start under Richard Nixon and on the fiftieth anniversary of the JFK assassination, he drew on Nelson’s ground-breaking research to publish his own book The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ, co-authored by Mike Colapietro and similarly implicating Johnson. The Stone book became a national bestseller and by reading it in 2016 I first encountered Nelson’s analysis, years before I read the latter’s own book on the subject. Stone successfully brought Nelson’s material to the attention of a much wider audience, but he also added several important items of his own as I explained in 2016:

Aside from effectively documenting Johnson’s sordid personal history and the looming destruction he faced at the hands of the Kennedys in late 1963, Stone also adds numerous fascinating pieces of personal testimony, which may or may not be reliable. According to him, as his mentor Nixon was watching the scene at the Dallas police station where Jack Ruby shot Oswald, Nixon immediately turned as white as a ghost, explaining that he had personally known the gunman under his birth-name of Rubenstein. While working on a House Committee in 1947, Nixon had been advised by a close ally and prominent mob-lawyer to hire Ruby as an investigator, being told that “he was one of Lyndon Johnson’s boys.” Stone also claims that Nixon once emphasized that although he had long sought the presidency, unlike Johnson “I wasn’t willing to kill for it.” He further reports that Vietnam Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge and numerous other prominent political figures in DC were absolutely convinced of Johnson’s direct involvement in the assassination.”
-Ron Unz

[Drew Zagorski · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK, let's get it out right up front - conspiracy theory. There. I've said it. Now... I've read several books about the Kennedy assassination, most of which came across as crack pot, many of which were highly implausible and a couple that really had some substance to them. I've always personally wondered whether LBJ or Nixon could have been behind the Kennedys being assassinated. Both were driven beyond reason to acquire the power of the Presidency. Both were ambitious to that end to the point of being amoral. Both had the means and connections in the intelligence world, internationally and in the underworld to have accomplished it. Now, at the beginning of his book Stone comes across as one with an ax to grind against LBJ. But get past that and most of the book does lay out a reasonable case against him. I wasn't surprised by some of the things that Stone presents, though much of it I hadn't previously seen in print. This book read almost like a thriller, so if nothing else, it was entertaining. Where is the truth on all of this? We may never know for sure, but this book does give you plenty to consider if even half of it is true. I enjoyed it enough that I'm planning to read Stone's book on Nixon.

[Jay Atwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly written, poorly organized, circular logic, rambling. This book is clearly a complete crock of shit (well, to anyone not wearing an aluminum foil hat.) It brings absolutely nothing to the conversation about the Kennedy assassination. The main thesis seems to be that LBJ had Kennedy killed because he (a) had connections to people in the mob and the CIA, (b) stood to have his career wrecked by the Kennedies, (c) played hardball politics, and (d) was a general all-around asshat. There's no proof, mind you, no paper trail, just those four qualities of LBJ (which could probably be said about a couple thousand people in 1963.)

The author further speculates that LBJ was behind the Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy assassinations too. At least with JFK the author could provide a motive (even if anything resembling proof was missing.) There was even one tangential chapter about the evil connections of George H.W. Bush and the whole Bush family that leaves the reader wondering what the hell any of it had to do with the Kennedy assassination.

[Kent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roger Stone, thou dost almost persuade even me! Almost, I said. There are just too many pieces that are based on assumption. Several of the "facts" that are summed up in the last chapter, and throughout this book, are just not iron-clad, proven facts. They rely too much on hearsay evidence offered by gangsters, prostitutes and other nefarious individuals, who have ulterior interests in framing Johnson, the CIA, the MOB, Hoover, or whomever.

That said, Stone has pulled the conspiratorial story together in a logical and at times convincing sequence. Too often for my acceptance though, a key player is painted as guilty simply because he or she had talked to or had some association with one of the mobsters, or politicos at some point in their lives - which sounds an awful lot like Hoover's unbecoming tactics that the same conspiracy believers will complain about.

Nice job with your story, but sorry, I'm still not buying the conspiracy theory.

Lastly, I have to say that in this edition I read, the publisher must have rushed this thing out and forgotten to make whatever last editing review is normal to the process. Many typos, extra and duplicate words in sentences, misspellings, and an occasional huge grammatical error are found throughout the text.

Still, I have to say that the story riveted my attention and at times revealed relationships I had not known, or had forgotten, about.

[Kenneth Barber · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book details the Kennedy assassination and the purported involvement of LBJ. The author shows the CIA, the FBI, the mafia all had reasons to want JFK out of the way. He traces the intertwining of all the factions that were against the Kennedy agenda. Big oil interests also had grudges against Kennedy. The way all these forces were interconnected and then related to Johnson is fascinating. The untimely deaths of many of the people involved, not just Oswald and Ruby, is worth noting. I don't believe that Oswald acted alone but I'm not sure Johnson is guilty by association either. One interesting twist on the theory is that watergate was engineered by the same forces that plotted Kennedy's death. This was to silence Nixon who knew of the plot to kill Kennedy. I don't think we will ever know the truth about the assassination but this book is an interesting read.

[Harvey Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never read a conspiracy book before, ever. This book was a real eye opener. Not a bunch of wild eyed claims, but a rather well written look at event, people, and things that actually occurred.

If even 1/4 of what's alleged in this book is true, and I see no reason to doubt that more that that amount is true, then LBJ was a very bad man. And, responsible for many murders that he ordered.

One things I got out of the book was that the Warren Commission was a cover up of the worst kind....designed to not let people know what happened at all, except the official government version, which was a fabrication.

The take away, don't believe what the government tells you, without a healthy dose of skepticism.

[Thomas George Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conspiracy Theorist is the term aptly defined for Mr. Stone and his "The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ."

Lyndon Johnson did not need to order the assassination of John F. Kennedy; LBJ was well aware of the many ailments plaguing the late president. Johnson was made aware of that fact from none other than J. Edgar Hoover. Both men detested the Kennedys. Johnson simply expected Kennedy to die from natural causes while in office.

[Richard · Rating 1 out of 5]

bullshit