“Reclaiming History” is an enormous, comprehensive book on the Kennedy assassination by Los Angeles
prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi. By “enormous”, I refer to the 1,612 pages, including bibliography and index, but not including an introduction of 36 pages, plus 958 pages of endnotes and 170 pages of sourcenotes on a separate CD. It is nearly 3 inches thick and weighs over 5 ½ pounds, and, according to the author, is comprised of over 1,500,000 words.
Explaining its length, Bugliosi says, “I would remind the reader that more words have been written about Kennedy’s assassination than any other single, one-day event in history.” He attempts to cover all of the complex issues raised by the multitude of conspiracy theorists in this single volume and show that this crime was planned and carried out, not by a conspiracy of any kind, but by Lee Harvey Oswald alone.
The book is divided into two parts: Matters of Fact: What Happened, and Delusions of Conspiracy: What Did Not Happen. It begins with a chronological, sometimes minute-by-minute description of “four of the darkest days in American history”, beginning with Marina Oswald waking up on November 22, 1963, and ending with the burial of her husband, on November 25.
Subsequent chapters deal with the President’s autopsy, Oswald’s rifle, the Zapruder film, the single-bullet theory, the grassy knoll, and a lengthy biography of Oswald. Book two begins with “Introduction to Conspiracy” and lists the various groups and organizations that have been accused of taking part in the assassination, including Organized Crime, Cuba, the FBI, the CIA, the KGB, and even LBJ, who obviously gained the most from Kennedy’s death.
Another chapter is devoted to Mark Lane, author of “Rush to Judgment”, who Bugliosi labels “the most persistent and audible single voice” in criticizing the Warren Commission. Lane was hired by Oswald’s mother, Marguerite, to represent Oswald before the Commission, but the Commission did not allow it. Bugliosi claims that Lane is careful to omit witnesses and testimony that contradict his conspiracy theories, and even cites Warren Commission evidence that contradicts his statements, knowing that few people will double-check the source for themselves.
The longest chapter in Book Two deals with the prosecution of Clay Shaw by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, and the fictionalization of that event by Oliver Stone in the movie JFK. The reason for its length, says the author, is that the movie “has caused far more damage to the truth about the case” than anything since Jack Ruby’s murder of Oswald. Garrison’s successor, Harry Connick Sr., told the author that the case against Clay Shaw was “absolutely the most terrible, gross, abominable prosecution” in his experience, yet Garrison is depicted as a “scrupulously honest DA” in the movie. Stone is quoted as saying about Shaw, “I have to tell you that I’m not that concerned about whether Shaw was innocent or guilty”, and, later, “Garrison was trying to force a break in the case. If he could do that, it was worth the sacrifice of one man.”
A third section, titled Bookends, contains a description of the murder trial of Jack Ruby, an interview with Marina Oswald, and lists of the various people and groups who have been named as being involved in the conspiracy, including eighty-two assassins. There is also a list of Kennedy-Lincoln coincidences.
Bugliosi became involved in the Kennedy assassination in 1986, when a British television company asked him to be the prosecutor in a “trial” of Lee Harvey Oswald. There was no script, the judge was a federal court judge from Texas, the jury was selected from Dallas jury rolls, the witnesses were not actors, but the real witnesses who had testified to the Warren Commission, and the defense attorney was Gerry Spence, described by Bugliosi as “the leading criminal defense lawyer in America.”
The witnesses were subject to cross-examination, an experience they did not undergo when testifying to the Commission or the House Select Committee on Assassination (HSCA). The jurors had complete discretion on the issue of Oswald’s guilt. The trial lasted three days, and the jury returned a verdict of “guilty.”
Despite its length and the large number of footnotes and references, reading the book is not a tedious chore, which is no surprise since Bugliosi is the author of several best-sellers. Sometimes his sarcasm seems out of place, and he has a maddening tendency to clarify a point by beginning a sentence with the phrase, “I mean,” but, the story is compelling, and the author is a fine craftsman.
Bugliosi makes a compelling case for Oswald’s guilt, some would say a conclusive one. Since I am personally skeptical of conspiracy theories, the book merely confirms what I had previously believed, although it contains much information that I was unaware of.
It is not possible for the average person to read the Warren Commission Report, plus the nearly 19,000 pages of testimony, documents, and exhibits collected during its investigation, plus all of the evidence and testimony collected by the HSCA, Assassination Records Review Board, the Church Committee, and the Rockefeller Commission, pertaining to the Assassination of John F. Kennedy. This book will serve as an adequate substitute.