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High Treason: The Assassination of JFK & the Case for Conspiracy
A revised and updated edition of a two-time New York Times best-seller offers new documentation and analysis to make the case that a conspiracy existed to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. Reprint. 50,000 first printing.
672 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 8, 2010
Bill Hicks said it better than I ever could.
It's a good idea to never accept the 'official version' of anything.
It's a good idea to never accept the 'official version' of anything.
November 15, 2023
In the field of JFK assassination research, this book should be near the top of your list. Teeming with critical data and valuable speculation, eminently readable, with no punches pulled. Best when supplemented by other works, however, such as "Best Evidence," "The Great Zapruder Film Hoax," and "JFK and the Unspeakable." Well, OK, also "Rush to Judgment," "Accessories after the Fact" and Doug Horne's five-volume magnum opus. Please avoid like the plague the junk volumes by Posner and Bugliosi—mind-numbing propaganda, which ATTEMPT to prove the validity of the (exceptionally flawed, and politically motivated) Warren Report, which was nothing but a white-wash!!
Groden is a somewhat problematic figure, perhaps most of all considering his insistence on the legitimacy of the Z-film, when virtually ALL of the photographic and film footage evidence has been lost, destroyed or manipulated (and, thus, unreliable). “Altgens-6” and the Zapruder film are excellent examples of this. They contain incontrovertible signs of alteration. Incidentally, the three Jim Fetzer edited volumes are invaluable, though some of the content is highly technical, and might well tax the average reader.
If this is a field of special interest to you, you'll NEED to grab you a copy soonest. I just procured another copy, as mine--after some twenty years--was getting a little beaten-up. If I were on the proverbial desert island with only a handful of volumes, this would be included, along with Hein-lein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "Time Enough for Love," then, "The Synonym Finder," and an excellent unabridged dictionary. One of the best single volumes on the topic, and great to throw in your rucksack for easy accessibility during a trip. A warning: Livingstone’s subsequent books are—lamentably—very wordy, and a bit flawed. E.g., he has the habit of insisting that there was no difference in how the Kennedy body was viewed in Parkland and at Bethesda...which is UNQUES-TIONABLY untrue (though I THINK, he eventually reversed his stance on this).
Groden is a somewhat problematic figure, perhaps most of all considering his insistence on the legitimacy of the Z-film, when virtually ALL of the photographic and film footage evidence has been lost, destroyed or manipulated (and, thus, unreliable). “Altgens-6” and the Zapruder film are excellent examples of this. They contain incontrovertible signs of alteration. Incidentally, the three Jim Fetzer edited volumes are invaluable, though some of the content is highly technical, and might well tax the average reader.
If this is a field of special interest to you, you'll NEED to grab you a copy soonest. I just procured another copy, as mine--after some twenty years--was getting a little beaten-up. If I were on the proverbial desert island with only a handful of volumes, this would be included, along with Hein-lein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "Time Enough for Love," then, "The Synonym Finder," and an excellent unabridged dictionary. One of the best single volumes on the topic, and great to throw in your rucksack for easy accessibility during a trip. A warning: Livingstone’s subsequent books are—lamentably—very wordy, and a bit flawed. E.g., he has the habit of insisting that there was no difference in how the Kennedy body was viewed in Parkland and at Bethesda...which is UNQUES-TIONABLY untrue (though I THINK, he eventually reversed his stance on this).
April 14, 2024
WAS ‘ALL THE EVIDENCE FAKED’ BY A ‘SHADOW GOVERNMENT?
Harrison Edward Livingstone (1937-2015) supposedly wrote the text for this 1998 revised edition of this 1980 book, for which Robert J. Groden provided the abundant photographs.
Livingstone states in the 1998 Preface, “[My book] ‘Killing Kennedy’ … brought to fruition both my research and synthesis of the case. I had concluded that it was clear that ALL THE EVIDENCE, including the famous Zapruder film, was FAKE… I had stumbled into the one area that those who sought to cover up the conspiracy had to keep warded off. That was an area where researchers and investigators dared not question… There would be a heavy price to pay for questioning the Zapruder film… We had found the key… I also believe that the false evidence was deliberately planted on the HSCA [House Select Committee on Assassinations].” (Pg. xviii) He continues, “[My book] ‘High Treason’ was also notable for pounding at the issue of whether there was a large hole in the back of the hear, and whether President Kennedy’s body was stolen and altered. I’ve never discounted the possibility that someone did get at the body and dug bullets out of it… Other key issues cannot be resolved entirely, and what we are left with is a reasonable certainty that the doctors lied on some issues because they were forced to, and told the truth on others… ‘Killing the Truth’… also argued that the JFK case had not been solved because the Texas conspirators were running a major disinformation operation among our amateur investigation and research community. That operation ensured that none of the evidence was clear…” (Pg. xix-xx)
He states in the Introduction, “The Assassinations Committee… decided to tell us of four shots… They have to cover up the rest, because otherwise it would reveal that the autopsy evidence is fabricated, and the Committee had in fact evidence of that fabrication from the beginning. This book will provide evidence of that forgery, and evidence of a third sniper and a probable fourth: two in front and two behind… The key to understanding who killed President Kennedy lies with the autopsy photographs… Perhaps the single most important question … was never asked: Why were the autopsy photographs and X-rays never officially shown to the numerous doctors and nurses in Dallas who treated President Kennedy? Had this question been pursued, the true nature of the conspiracy would then have been exposed, because the crucial pictures allegedly of the back of the President’s head are forged!... Who would have had the kind of ACCESS to the evidence in order to alter it?” (Pg. 7)
He asserts, “The autopsy photos are fake, and hold the key to the true nature of the plot which took the life of the President… the fact that neither the House Assassinations Committee nor the government had ever shown these pictures to the Dallas medical witnesses demonstrates the existence of a cover-up. If the evidence still being kept secret in the case proved the government’s theory, then they would have shown that evidence to everyone involved… A book … by David Lifton---‘Best Evidence’---which revolved around the question we are dealing with in this book: Why the alleged autopsy photograph does not show the wounds as they were described by all of the witnesses…. Mandatory to [Lifton’s] hypothesis is the necessity for the coffin to have been left unattended by Kennedy’s aides, or by his wife…The evidence indicates that the coffin was never unattended… Dave Powers, a … close aide or President Kennedy told... Harrison Livingstone … that ‘the coffin was never unattended. Lifton’s story is the biggest pack of malarkey I ever heard in my life. I never had my hands or eyes off of it during that period he says it was unattended…’” (Pg. 33, 35)
He summarizes, “The main issues… are whether or not there was a large hole in the back of the head, whether it would show in the autopsy photographs, whether it was covered by a flap of scalp, and where the entry or exit wounds were located… The overwhelming weight of the evidence appear to demonstrate that the official picture of the back of the President’s head does not show the wounds as they were, and that the photographs were tampered with…so as to conceal the existence of other shots and snipers… there are many more anomalies in the case, with similar questions, each one compelling the conclusions that evidence had been planted, fabricated, faked, destroyed or forged.” (Pg. 46)
He states, “The House Assassinations Committee in 1979 admitted that there was a gunman on the Grassy Knoll to the right front of the President. Why are they sticking to the single bullet theory? The answer is that there were WO gunmen BEHIND the President, not just one, in addition to the gunman the Committee found on the Grassy Knoll. They can’t admit it because that would indicate an official cover-up, fabricated evidence, and a much larger conspiracy. The only recourse was to us more phony drawings, doubletalk, and magic code words to delude us like ‘scientific,’ ‘medical,’ and ‘neutron activation analysis.’” (Pg. 60)
He suggests, “The photo of the back of the head was forged at a different time from the faking of the X-rays, which were made by shooting a body in the manner in which they wished to have it appear the President was killed---shot from behind with a large blow-out in the front of the head, and taking an X-ray of it. It was not possible to coordinate perfectly what the two efforts produced in the short time available. No one among the conspirators realized the photographs were incompatible with the forged X-rays.” (Pg. 72)
He contends, “Of course the [House Select] Committee found that the pictures were of the President. They ignored certain facts, because each hand was shielded from the other. The panel of ‘photographic experts’ did not know what to look for, for they did not know what the issues in question were. They did not run tests on the questionable photographs… Some of the official pictures are composites, if not simply someone else’s head. Clever composites are made all the time by photographic technicians and the advertising industry.” (Pg. 92)
He states, “Many witnesses were intimidated, killed, or died mysteriously. There is no conceivable way that mobsters Carlos Marcello, Santos Trafficante or Jimmy Hoffa… could have done all this alone or covered any of it up. Neither their Mafia bosses nor the men who work for them had this kind of access to the evidence.” (Pg. 103)
He suggests, “Oswald got his passport back a year later, almost at once. He had paid back all of the money he owed the government quite soon after returning from the Soviet Union, although an examination of his income at the time makes it difficult to imagine how he was able to do so… with Oswald’s track record as a defector, it seems preposterous that he would be given his passport, unless he was on government business… Back in the United States, Oswald associated with persons in the CIA…” (Pg. 142)
He says, “We were not told that three weeks before the President was shot, he had ordered the withdrawal from Vietnam to begin, with all troops to be out by 1965. This is a basic reason why Kennedy was murdered… The whole narration of Oswald’s past consists of similar innuendo meant to set him up as the patsy.” (Pg. 145)
Of the signatures used to obtain Oswald’s rifle, he asserts, “This is still shaky, since the signatures would have been forged on all the documents. As well, there is strong evidence that Oswald was acting as a government agent throughout this period, or as an agent working with … intelligence… who used Oswald in their operations, and who probably put him up to purchasing the gun, if indeed he purchased it all.” (Pg. 148)
He argues, “A more rational exposition of the evidence of gunshots… is that the President was shot four times, Connally once or perhaps twice, and James Tague was hit with debris from another stray shot that missed… This gives a total of six or seven shots, which is the number of shots on the tape…” (Pg. 193)
He summarizes of the HSCA, “They were descending into a hall of mirrors, with a thousand false leads and trails leading nowhere. But each false lead consumed great amounts of money, time, and good-will. In this labyrinth, the Committee’s energies were drained away of much of its work lost. The valid evidence the Committee had before beginning its work was almost forever buried, and with it the public’s right to know. With the Committee’s demise, the public’s Constitutional right to a government safe-guarded from control from control by secret influences and secret government would be all but destroyed. It was Operation Chaos, and they were lost in the thicket, in the labyrinth.” (Pg. 308-309)
He speculates, “The Club, or ‘Power Control Group,’ wanted to bring America into Vietnam… This Club, a loosely knit informal organization, has gradually established a shadow government with a secret, institutionalized cover action capability outside the official government… Anti-Communism is only the cover story of this operational capability. It is there to achieve short-term policy objectives or to serve the needs of a specific corporation or industry at any given moment…” (Pg. 351)
He concludes and summarizes, “a faction employed by the intelligence agencies during the Bay of Pigs operation… was responsible for the assassination of the President… To carry out the assassination, the President was lured into a trap to Dallas… The entire government was manipulated, both before the murder and directly afterwards… The gunmen were Cubans and Cuban Mafia, and professional hit men brought in from elsewhere in the world… Some of them were in manholes around the car…. Anther may have been in the sewer directly beside the car… The recorded shots were simply too close together to have come from less than three or four guns…” (Pg. 365)
Finally, “My conclusion is: All the evidence in the case was faked. The proofs for this are many… the accumulating mountain of clues in all the other areas of evidence besides the medical is too massive almost to be believed… There was simply not a good enough job done investigating the medical evidence while there was a chance early in the case. The conspirators’ main goal was to prevent just that from happening and let the memories of those who knew the truth fade with time. They relied on the passage of time to cover everything up better.” (Pg. 484)
Livingstone’s detailed, speculative, and often confusingly-written book will appeal to JFK ‘conspiracy’ buffs, but few others.
Harrison Edward Livingstone (1937-2015) supposedly wrote the text for this 1998 revised edition of this 1980 book, for which Robert J. Groden provided the abundant photographs.
Livingstone states in the 1998 Preface, “[My book] ‘Killing Kennedy’ … brought to fruition both my research and synthesis of the case. I had concluded that it was clear that ALL THE EVIDENCE, including the famous Zapruder film, was FAKE… I had stumbled into the one area that those who sought to cover up the conspiracy had to keep warded off. That was an area where researchers and investigators dared not question… There would be a heavy price to pay for questioning the Zapruder film… We had found the key… I also believe that the false evidence was deliberately planted on the HSCA [House Select Committee on Assassinations].” (Pg. xviii) He continues, “[My book] ‘High Treason’ was also notable for pounding at the issue of whether there was a large hole in the back of the hear, and whether President Kennedy’s body was stolen and altered. I’ve never discounted the possibility that someone did get at the body and dug bullets out of it… Other key issues cannot be resolved entirely, and what we are left with is a reasonable certainty that the doctors lied on some issues because they were forced to, and told the truth on others… ‘Killing the Truth’… also argued that the JFK case had not been solved because the Texas conspirators were running a major disinformation operation among our amateur investigation and research community. That operation ensured that none of the evidence was clear…” (Pg. xix-xx)
He states in the Introduction, “The Assassinations Committee… decided to tell us of four shots… They have to cover up the rest, because otherwise it would reveal that the autopsy evidence is fabricated, and the Committee had in fact evidence of that fabrication from the beginning. This book will provide evidence of that forgery, and evidence of a third sniper and a probable fourth: two in front and two behind… The key to understanding who killed President Kennedy lies with the autopsy photographs… Perhaps the single most important question … was never asked: Why were the autopsy photographs and X-rays never officially shown to the numerous doctors and nurses in Dallas who treated President Kennedy? Had this question been pursued, the true nature of the conspiracy would then have been exposed, because the crucial pictures allegedly of the back of the President’s head are forged!... Who would have had the kind of ACCESS to the evidence in order to alter it?” (Pg. 7)
He asserts, “The autopsy photos are fake, and hold the key to the true nature of the plot which took the life of the President… the fact that neither the House Assassinations Committee nor the government had ever shown these pictures to the Dallas medical witnesses demonstrates the existence of a cover-up. If the evidence still being kept secret in the case proved the government’s theory, then they would have shown that evidence to everyone involved… A book … by David Lifton---‘Best Evidence’---which revolved around the question we are dealing with in this book: Why the alleged autopsy photograph does not show the wounds as they were described by all of the witnesses…. Mandatory to [Lifton’s] hypothesis is the necessity for the coffin to have been left unattended by Kennedy’s aides, or by his wife…The evidence indicates that the coffin was never unattended… Dave Powers, a … close aide or President Kennedy told... Harrison Livingstone … that ‘the coffin was never unattended. Lifton’s story is the biggest pack of malarkey I ever heard in my life. I never had my hands or eyes off of it during that period he says it was unattended…’” (Pg. 33, 35)
He summarizes, “The main issues… are whether or not there was a large hole in the back of the head, whether it would show in the autopsy photographs, whether it was covered by a flap of scalp, and where the entry or exit wounds were located… The overwhelming weight of the evidence appear to demonstrate that the official picture of the back of the President’s head does not show the wounds as they were, and that the photographs were tampered with…so as to conceal the existence of other shots and snipers… there are many more anomalies in the case, with similar questions, each one compelling the conclusions that evidence had been planted, fabricated, faked, destroyed or forged.” (Pg. 46)
He states, “The House Assassinations Committee in 1979 admitted that there was a gunman on the Grassy Knoll to the right front of the President. Why are they sticking to the single bullet theory? The answer is that there were WO gunmen BEHIND the President, not just one, in addition to the gunman the Committee found on the Grassy Knoll. They can’t admit it because that would indicate an official cover-up, fabricated evidence, and a much larger conspiracy. The only recourse was to us more phony drawings, doubletalk, and magic code words to delude us like ‘scientific,’ ‘medical,’ and ‘neutron activation analysis.’” (Pg. 60)
He suggests, “The photo of the back of the head was forged at a different time from the faking of the X-rays, which were made by shooting a body in the manner in which they wished to have it appear the President was killed---shot from behind with a large blow-out in the front of the head, and taking an X-ray of it. It was not possible to coordinate perfectly what the two efforts produced in the short time available. No one among the conspirators realized the photographs were incompatible with the forged X-rays.” (Pg. 72)
He contends, “Of course the [House Select] Committee found that the pictures were of the President. They ignored certain facts, because each hand was shielded from the other. The panel of ‘photographic experts’ did not know what to look for, for they did not know what the issues in question were. They did not run tests on the questionable photographs… Some of the official pictures are composites, if not simply someone else’s head. Clever composites are made all the time by photographic technicians and the advertising industry.” (Pg. 92)
He states, “Many witnesses were intimidated, killed, or died mysteriously. There is no conceivable way that mobsters Carlos Marcello, Santos Trafficante or Jimmy Hoffa… could have done all this alone or covered any of it up. Neither their Mafia bosses nor the men who work for them had this kind of access to the evidence.” (Pg. 103)
He suggests, “Oswald got his passport back a year later, almost at once. He had paid back all of the money he owed the government quite soon after returning from the Soviet Union, although an examination of his income at the time makes it difficult to imagine how he was able to do so… with Oswald’s track record as a defector, it seems preposterous that he would be given his passport, unless he was on government business… Back in the United States, Oswald associated with persons in the CIA…” (Pg. 142)
He says, “We were not told that three weeks before the President was shot, he had ordered the withdrawal from Vietnam to begin, with all troops to be out by 1965. This is a basic reason why Kennedy was murdered… The whole narration of Oswald’s past consists of similar innuendo meant to set him up as the patsy.” (Pg. 145)
Of the signatures used to obtain Oswald’s rifle, he asserts, “This is still shaky, since the signatures would have been forged on all the documents. As well, there is strong evidence that Oswald was acting as a government agent throughout this period, or as an agent working with … intelligence… who used Oswald in their operations, and who probably put him up to purchasing the gun, if indeed he purchased it all.” (Pg. 148)
He argues, “A more rational exposition of the evidence of gunshots… is that the President was shot four times, Connally once or perhaps twice, and James Tague was hit with debris from another stray shot that missed… This gives a total of six or seven shots, which is the number of shots on the tape…” (Pg. 193)
He summarizes of the HSCA, “They were descending into a hall of mirrors, with a thousand false leads and trails leading nowhere. But each false lead consumed great amounts of money, time, and good-will. In this labyrinth, the Committee’s energies were drained away of much of its work lost. The valid evidence the Committee had before beginning its work was almost forever buried, and with it the public’s right to know. With the Committee’s demise, the public’s Constitutional right to a government safe-guarded from control from control by secret influences and secret government would be all but destroyed. It was Operation Chaos, and they were lost in the thicket, in the labyrinth.” (Pg. 308-309)
He speculates, “The Club, or ‘Power Control Group,’ wanted to bring America into Vietnam… This Club, a loosely knit informal organization, has gradually established a shadow government with a secret, institutionalized cover action capability outside the official government… Anti-Communism is only the cover story of this operational capability. It is there to achieve short-term policy objectives or to serve the needs of a specific corporation or industry at any given moment…” (Pg. 351)
He concludes and summarizes, “a faction employed by the intelligence agencies during the Bay of Pigs operation… was responsible for the assassination of the President… To carry out the assassination, the President was lured into a trap to Dallas… The entire government was manipulated, both before the murder and directly afterwards… The gunmen were Cubans and Cuban Mafia, and professional hit men brought in from elsewhere in the world… Some of them were in manholes around the car…. Anther may have been in the sewer directly beside the car… The recorded shots were simply too close together to have come from less than three or four guns…” (Pg. 365)
Finally, “My conclusion is: All the evidence in the case was faked. The proofs for this are many… the accumulating mountain of clues in all the other areas of evidence besides the medical is too massive almost to be believed… There was simply not a good enough job done investigating the medical evidence while there was a chance early in the case. The conspirators’ main goal was to prevent just that from happening and let the memories of those who knew the truth fade with time. They relied on the passage of time to cover everything up better.” (Pg. 484)
Livingstone’s detailed, speculative, and often confusingly-written book will appeal to JFK ‘conspiracy’ buffs, but few others.
January 9, 2014
With my usual unplanned and random reading habits, I'm out of sequence with this series of books. Having already studied 'High Treason 2' it's back to 'High Treason 1'.
Firstly, I don't understand why Goodreads list this book as the work of Robert Groden! He is not even a co-author, as this was written solely by Harrison Edward Livingstone. Further complication arises by the fact that this was originally published in 1989, has since been revised, mainly due to information released by the ARRB, and then re-released as a 2006 edition. Some indication of how much water has flowed under the bridge in this case since 1989 is shown in the text, where the author has altered the original, shown in bold type, or indicated statements or phrases deleted. The flow of this book is also somewhat uneven, with referrals to later Livingstone publications on this subject, i.e., 'Killing the Truth', 'Killing Kennedy', 'The Radical Right and the Murder of President John F. Kennedy' and 'The Hoax of the Century:Decoding the Forgery of the Zapruder Film'.
However, this was a 'New York Times Bestseller' back in it's day, and no matter how many books I consume on this topic I rarely fail to find some new little gem of information, and this is no exception. Was the Secret Service agent on the knoll Thomas "Lem" Johns? (Not according to the 2013 DVD 'Lem Johns:Secret Service Man') Conversely, no matter how many books I read I rarely fail to find some item to which I disagree. I think Livingstone is mistaken to cast doubt on the HSCA acoustic evidence. Track down the work of Dr Don Thomas, who has published articles in the British forensic journal 'Science & Justice' entitled 'Acoustical Evidence in the Kennedy Assassination Revisited'. He shows five shots, with the firing far too rapid for a single shooter, as well as shots from the front.
Little doubt that the cognitively impaired will still send Oswald to the chair.
Firstly, I don't understand why Goodreads list this book as the work of Robert Groden! He is not even a co-author, as this was written solely by Harrison Edward Livingstone. Further complication arises by the fact that this was originally published in 1989, has since been revised, mainly due to information released by the ARRB, and then re-released as a 2006 edition. Some indication of how much water has flowed under the bridge in this case since 1989 is shown in the text, where the author has altered the original, shown in bold type, or indicated statements or phrases deleted. The flow of this book is also somewhat uneven, with referrals to later Livingstone publications on this subject, i.e., 'Killing the Truth', 'Killing Kennedy', 'The Radical Right and the Murder of President John F. Kennedy' and 'The Hoax of the Century:Decoding the Forgery of the Zapruder Film'.
However, this was a 'New York Times Bestseller' back in it's day, and no matter how many books I consume on this topic I rarely fail to find some new little gem of information, and this is no exception. Was the Secret Service agent on the knoll Thomas "Lem" Johns? (Not according to the 2013 DVD 'Lem Johns:Secret Service Man') Conversely, no matter how many books I read I rarely fail to find some item to which I disagree. I think Livingstone is mistaken to cast doubt on the HSCA acoustic evidence. Track down the work of Dr Don Thomas, who has published articles in the British forensic journal 'Science & Justice' entitled 'Acoustical Evidence in the Kennedy Assassination Revisited'. He shows five shots, with the firing far too rapid for a single shooter, as well as shots from the front.
Little doubt that the cognitively impaired will still send Oswald to the chair.
June 17, 2021
After obtaining 'High Treason' from British researcher Malcolm Blunt's book collection, I now have three versions of Livingstone's publication along with 'High Treason 1' & 'High Treason 2'. Maybe I'm just an avid JFK assassination book collector, or a common or garden anorak. I can't say that Livingstone's work is among my favourite authors in this canon. Be that as it may, my third reading was quite easy going.
As a general overview of the case, as it was in 1990, 'High Treason' has its plusses and minuses. The book adequately lays out the very many anomalies and outright fabrications in the official Warren Commission verdict in the ballistic, medical, photographic and investigative fields. I find the Parkland testimonies to be overdone and very repetitious. However I strongly maintain that no matter how many books are read on this subject, there seems to be something new to discover in many publications, and that is true here. Yet, there are also rabbit holes!
In November 2021 I delivered a presentation to JFK Lancer's 'November in Dallas' conference on the subject of Englishman Albert Osborne, and must correct the false information around pages 155 of this book.
"Albert Osborne did not have the middle name 'Alexander' that was just one invention of his along with many other middle names and epithets such as Dr. or Rev. John Howard Bowen was another real person, whose name Osborne used from the 1930's onwards. The real John Howard Bowen died in January 1962 and was totally unconnected with anything JFK related. Albert Osborne's connection to the JFK case can be found in Warren Commission Exhibit CE2195. As for being the 'house mother' of any assassination team, that is rubbish. He was in the U.K. in November '63. As for the Mexico City bus trip with Oswald....like everything relating to Mexico City, it's a swamp."
Livingstone also deals with the series of tragic developments that befell the HSCA probe in the late 1970's. Perhaps its only success was the evaluation of the DPD dictabelt recordings. Like many aspects of the case, the dictabelt has a controversial history. A far clearer explanation of this artefact and the scientific research that it has been subjected to can be found in Josiah Thompson's 'Last Second in Dallas' (2021).
All in all, this book is a healthy broadside to the official verdict of Oswald the lone assassin firing three shots from the Texas School Book Depository as well as the abysmal investigations that have taken place along with the federal cover-up that persists today.
As stated above, some of the text repeats itself and there are clearer images of many of Groden's photographs in other publications.
As a general overview of the case, as it was in 1990, 'High Treason' has its plusses and minuses. The book adequately lays out the very many anomalies and outright fabrications in the official Warren Commission verdict in the ballistic, medical, photographic and investigative fields. I find the Parkland testimonies to be overdone and very repetitious. However I strongly maintain that no matter how many books are read on this subject, there seems to be something new to discover in many publications, and that is true here. Yet, there are also rabbit holes!
In November 2021 I delivered a presentation to JFK Lancer's 'November in Dallas' conference on the subject of Englishman Albert Osborne, and must correct the false information around pages 155 of this book.
"Albert Osborne did not have the middle name 'Alexander' that was just one invention of his along with many other middle names and epithets such as Dr. or Rev. John Howard Bowen was another real person, whose name Osborne used from the 1930's onwards. The real John Howard Bowen died in January 1962 and was totally unconnected with anything JFK related. Albert Osborne's connection to the JFK case can be found in Warren Commission Exhibit CE2195. As for being the 'house mother' of any assassination team, that is rubbish. He was in the U.K. in November '63. As for the Mexico City bus trip with Oswald....like everything relating to Mexico City, it's a swamp."
Livingstone also deals with the series of tragic developments that befell the HSCA probe in the late 1970's. Perhaps its only success was the evaluation of the DPD dictabelt recordings. Like many aspects of the case, the dictabelt has a controversial history. A far clearer explanation of this artefact and the scientific research that it has been subjected to can be found in Josiah Thompson's 'Last Second in Dallas' (2021).
All in all, this book is a healthy broadside to the official verdict of Oswald the lone assassin firing three shots from the Texas School Book Depository as well as the abysmal investigations that have taken place along with the federal cover-up that persists today.
As stated above, some of the text repeats itself and there are clearer images of many of Groden's photographs in other publications.
June 1, 2020
Interesting read, the strength seems to be the breadth of information and connections related to the event, but I found it very poorly organized in terms of presenting the information. It often rambled and went over the same details in multiple ways. I felt like someone was trying to influence my opinion with reiteration rather than giving me a complete presentation of the facts and allowing me decide for myself. Without having read any other books on this subject I would guess that this is a good starting point to compare facts with other sources.
February 19, 2018
After months and months I have finally absorbed all the information this book has to offer. Can't wait for all the other conspiracy books I can read now that this monster is finished
December 14, 2024
We all know what really happened.....
March 21, 2025
An amazing book that leaves no stone, unturned , a definite argument for conspiracy in this book.....Great Book, and well researched......
July 7, 2013
The number of outright distortions and leaps of logic in this book are stunning. The best advice to anyone wishing to really find out about the entire assassination history is directed to Vincent Bugliosi's RECLAIMING HISTORY which not just examines the murder of President Kennedy, the investigation of the crime, and the background of the participants of the events, but also discusses many ancillary issues, including the rise of the "buffs" and the conspiracy industry. This book is a prime example of the latter; ladies and gentlemen who make a living coming up with wild theories (of which not a shred of evidence has been found) and selling, for profit, their books, movies and ideas on the lecture circuit for tidy sums, for going on decades. Bugliosi's book will lay out very clearly why books like HIGH TREASON are utter nonsense.
For what it is worth, in my youth I ate up a number of the conspiracy books, the JFK film, etc. But at some point, any reasonable person must come to realize they are just empty speculation. I've visited Dealey Plaza, stood on the 6th Floor of the Depository, and saw with my own eyes the mountain of evidence establishing Oswald's guilt, and how impossible it would be for anyone to stand anywhere else in that plaza and escape detection.
Read this book for fun, read it as part of the history of the conspiracy movement, but please don't attempt to take any of this silliness seriously. The Warren Commission, Gerald Posner, Vincent Bugliosi, the Dallas Police, the FBI, etc. all had it right. And the "buffs" have yet to present a single shred of evidence to the contrary.
For what it is worth, in my youth I ate up a number of the conspiracy books, the JFK film, etc. But at some point, any reasonable person must come to realize they are just empty speculation. I've visited Dealey Plaza, stood on the 6th Floor of the Depository, and saw with my own eyes the mountain of evidence establishing Oswald's guilt, and how impossible it would be for anyone to stand anywhere else in that plaza and escape detection.
Read this book for fun, read it as part of the history of the conspiracy movement, but please don't attempt to take any of this silliness seriously. The Warren Commission, Gerald Posner, Vincent Bugliosi, the Dallas Police, the FBI, etc. all had it right. And the "buffs" have yet to present a single shred of evidence to the contrary.
December 23, 2012
Groden is primarily a photographer, Livingstone a writer, Prouty a military insider. Their book, unsurprisingly, contains a good deal of reexamination of the photographic evidence as regards the assassination of Kennedy, including many illustrations. The conclusions drawn by the authors are that many of the photographs have been tampered with or, as regards autopsy records and the pictures of Oswald with his guns, faked. Very much attention is paid to the testimony of those involved in handling the body of the dead president.
Unfortunately, this book is very poorly assembled. While the thematic themes of the various chapters are maintained, the contents of them appear to have been very hastily put together and never edited. There is much redundancy. It is as if one is reading the notes of the authors prior to their being employed in a coherent text. My low rating is because of this.
I found this book at the resale shop of the Childrens' Memorial Hospital in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood while walking about with a Canadian bookseller friend in from Manitoba.
Unfortunately, this book is very poorly assembled. While the thematic themes of the various chapters are maintained, the contents of them appear to have been very hastily put together and never edited. There is much redundancy. It is as if one is reading the notes of the authors prior to their being employed in a coherent text. My low rating is because of this.
I found this book at the resale shop of the Childrens' Memorial Hospital in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood while walking about with a Canadian bookseller friend in from Manitoba.
August 10, 2011
Lots of great conspiracy ideas in this book, and thousands of hours are investigatory evidence. It seems the American media "establishment" loves to suppress this kind of information, much like how everyone only hears about the ruling of the Warren Commission and not the subsequent House Assassinations Committee ruling which called for a conspiracy. Recommended reading for all conspiracy and American history lovers out there, as conspiracy is history, in my opinion at least.
September 26, 2007
I met Groden in Dallas when I went on a pilgrimage to Dealey Plaza. He's spent 40 plus years attempting to uncover answers in the Kennedy assassination cover up. He visits the plaza almost every Saturday in the summer and gives impromptu talks on his newest research and theories.
October 30, 2011
I've read several books and viewed many documentaries concerning the Kennedy assassination. I would say this is the most detailed account of the events and people involved. It includes many photos that were generally not known to most people at this time this book was originally published.
January 22, 2019
I found this book in a used book store and decided to give it a try. It was very similar to Oliver Stone's movie "JFK," except with more detail about evidence and back story. I loved the book over all, but mainly because I loved the movie.
June 25, 2011
It was convincing.....
April 5, 2014
A thorough, and frightening, bit of research.....and a conclusion we may never live to validate. Not for the faint-hearted.
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