Rating: 
Summary: IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS ONE!
Review: Prof. James Fetzer & Co. have produced a landmark book into the study of the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. "Murder in Dealey Plaza" is brilliantly written and researched from start to finish and it proves, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that there was a massive conspiracy and orchestrated cover-up involving our government (the Secret Service seems to be behind everything that fateful weekend-planning, no protection, body, autopsy, evidence, limousine, and on and on). The writings of Douglas Weldon and Vincent Palamara on the Secret Srrvice are first-rate, as is the remarkable medical chapters by Aguilar and Mantic. Looking at my crowded bookshelf I must have 80 or more books related to this subject-this one is the best of the bunch! Get it!
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent update on assassination research
Review: I've probably read 30 books on the assassination and got this to bring myself up to date with what has been learned over the past few years. The editor and the contributors have solid academic and/or professional credentials -- the editor is a professor who appears to have authored or edited a number of mainstream scientific works. The book includes a very lengthy and helpful hour-by-hour "time line" of the events surrounding the assassination, as well as a great deal of analysis of the Zapruder film and the autopsy photographs and x-rays. The focus is primarily on the evidence that was altered or destroyed and the agencies and individuals that would have had to have participated in order for it to be altered or destroyed. I frankly bogged down in some of the medical/scientific analysis, which eventually becomes mind-numbing unless you're a Certified Assassination Freak. I got more enjoyment out of things like the lengthy section on what happened with the Lincoln in which JFK was riding (which includes some startling revelations from a former Ford executive). Not only is this book 400+ pages, but the type is quite small -- there is a LOT of material here. You're sure to find many parts fascinating, and you may find the whole thing fascinating if you're interested in this level of detail. It will also steer you to most of the other classic works in this field if you haven't read them. As the editor says, we're much closer than we were even a decade ago to understanding what really happened -- and what DIDN'T happen is that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I've studied enough to firmly believe that Oswald was precisely what he said he was: a "patsy" who would probably be more accurately described as "a minor cog in the machine" than as the "mastermind" or the "assassin."
Rating: 
Summary: Same old manure in a new bag
Review: Not worth time to read crammed full of old theories repainted with disjointed text to appear new. Poorly edited many typos best skip it.
Rating:
Summary: BEFORE THERE WAS SEPT. 11, THERE WAS NOV. 22
Review: By RUSS TARBY, Liverpool, NY
Before there was Sept. 11, 2001, there was Nov. 22, 1963.
Only one man died in that day's attack, but the echoes of the gunshots that rang out that day in Dallas continue to reverberate 38 years later.
In fact, a study by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center said the 1963 assassination was more
emotionally devastating for Americans than the recent terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Several recent books continue to shed new light on that dark day in Big D. One of the most compelling is "Murder in Dealey Plaza: What We Know Now that We Didn't Know Then" edited by James Fetzer (Catfeet Press, Chicago; paperback - August 2000), the follow-up volume to Fetzer's 1997 book "Assassination Science: Experts Speak Out on the Death of JFK."
Both of Fetzer's compilations of essays go a long way to debunk the medical, ballistic and photographic evidence which
1964's Warren Commission used to frame 24-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald's for the president's murder.
Two of the most eye-opening chapters in Fetzer's new books are those by Vince Palamara, hinting strongly at Secret Service complicity in the crime; and Jack Whites extensive analysis of the infamous Zapruder film, which argues that someone intentionally altered/edited the chilling 8mm color film, distorting images of the kill shot, etc. But no matter how much the Z-film may have been messed with, the conspirators couldn't erase the image of First Lady Jackie Kennedy crawling out onto the treunk of the Lincoln limousine to retrieve a portion of her husband's skull which had landed on the BACK of the car, clearly indicating that the fatal bullet origiinated from in FRONT of the
president.
The photographic record of the murder of the man accused of killing JFK also reveals much more than normally known. A revealing CBS-TV videotape from Nov. 24 delivers solid evidence linking Oswald to the man who silenced him, nightclub operator Jack Ruby.
Oswald's shooting less than two days after Kennedy was hit even aired live on NBC-TV from the basement of the Dallas Police Department.
At the Museum of Radio & Television in Manhattan visitors NBC reporter Tom Pettit's live report on Sunday, Nov. 24, 11:21 a.m. Dallas time, can be seen again, and it vividly captures the pandemonium that enveloped that unlikely killing ground. Even more interesting, however, is a CBS-TV videotape called "One Sunday in November," which also details the Oswald shooting.
Although NBC-TV aired Oswald's murder aired as it actually happened, CBS producers chose to broadcast live funeral services from Washington that morning rather than the routine transfer of the prisoner in Dallas. Nevertheless,cameraman George Phenix, of the Dallas CBS affiliate KRLD-TV, dutifully shot what was supposed to be the simple delivery of the prisoner to a car waiting to take him to the County Jail a mile away. Phenix -- positioned just a few feet behind Ruby as the assailant awaited his prey -- squeezed off several feet of clear lack-and-white footage depicting a manacled Oswald, flanked by two big plainclothesmen, emerging into the basement.
Texas-bred CBS reporter Dan Rather, whose career blossomed quickly after his on-the-scene coverage of the events in Dallas, narrated Phenix's film as it flickered before the national viewing audience on the afternoon of Nov. 24:
"Now we will show you the film of Oswald being shot, still-framed," Rather says. "Watch the hat in the right-hand corner of the frame. Watch Oswald's eyes as they seem to catch the eye of the assassin {Ruby}. His head turns, he looks at the
assassin and his eyes never leave him. The assassin moves in...and a few inches from {Oswald's} abdomen, fires a shot."
As Rather throws the broadcast back to anchorman Charles Collingwood in New York, he describes Dallas as "grim, solemned and shamed." Collingwood, meanwhile, reminds viewers that the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald only "deepens the mood of national misgiving." Certainly, many viewers who saw the film of that shooting, especially the CBS version which showed Oswald looking at Ruby, became instant conspiracy theorists.
In his book "The Search for Lee Harvey Oswald," former U.S. House of Representatives and Senate photographic expert
Bob Groden printed several images from Phenix's film, with one close-up captioned, $Q seems to be thinking,'What are you doing here, Jack?'"
The ever-careful historian Richard Trask -- author of the well-researched "Pictures of the Pain" -- warns, however,
that "It's all but impossible to ascertain with any degree of accuracy the direction of the eyes of any photographic subject." Trask interviewed former Dallas Police Department detective Jim Leavelle, the policeman in the white suit who was handcuffed to Oswald's right arm during the shooting. Leavelle--who knew Ruby by sight--claimed that the television lights were so bright in that basement that he couldn't recognize anyone in the crowd. Phenix's film, however, shows light spilling onto the first line of reporters and cops immediately to Oswald's right, a group that
included Ruby.
Mary LaFontaine, co-author of "Oswald Talked," which argues convincingly that Oswald and Ruby collaborated in a
pre-assassination gun-running scheme, recalls her reaction to that Sunday shooting: "When those of us who are old enough saw Ruby shoot Oswald, we knew there was something wrong. There was some kind of conspiracy, and this man was being silenced."
Rating:
Summary: Indispensable book about death of JFK
Review: Mr. Fetzer and his able band of contributors have impressed me to no end. "Murder in Dealey Plaza" is the finest work I've read on the assassination since "Six Seconds In Dallas" and, in fact, is far superior to that work. The chronology by Mr. Wood is, in a word, incredible! The works of Mr. Palamara on driver Greer and the Secret Service is outstanding; I never thought of the Secret Service as suspect until now. Drs. Mantik & Aguilar have written and produced medical compilations second to none here. Mr. Horn is to be comended for the breakthrough on the two brains. I wasn't at all impressed with the color insert on the Zapruder and other films, but, hey, no one's perfect. STILL, all in all, an outstanding contribution to this complicated case.
Rating:
Summary: One fact destroys this book
Review: Rather than spend 1000 words detailing how this book is in error,
one only need to examine the number of shots Fetzer claims were fired to see that his whole argument falls apart. Only 5 percent of the 200 witnesses that provided statements at the scene claimed there were more than three shots, and some of them claim there were 6, some even 8 shots fired. 88 percent said there were three shots and 7 percent said one or two. And 98 percent
said that all of the shots came from the same location. More than twice as many thought the shots came from the depository than those who picked the grassy knoll. There are no mysteries about this murder - it's a very simple case. Unfortunately the Warren Commission made errors in its conclusions about which
of the shots wounded and killed JFK, ignoring very strong evidence that is now known to have been correct. Fetzer's theory
requires half of Washington D.C. to be in on the conspiracy.
Rating:
Summary: Great book. Couldnt put it down or stop laughing
Review: One of the absolutely funniest books I have read in years. The writers have true comedic genius. Kept me laughing the whole time I read it and I'm still laughing right now. And I hear Fetzer has a new one out that is supposed to be just as hilarious. As a caveat, I have to admit some readers might not like the idea of a serious subject such as a presidential assassination being treated with levity, but for those like myself who appreciate black and/or gallows humor, this book is a must.
Rating:
Summary: This Book is a Joke
Review: A prime example of junk science if there ever was one. For one example, just look to the "too-tall" woman as proof that the Zapruder film was tampered with. A woman who is clearly standing far behind a 16-foot post (according to the authors, anyway) appears to be half that height. Therefore, she must be eight feet tall, which is proof the film was altered. Did these "researchers" graduate from high school?
Rating:
Summary: Can anybody edit???
Review: Interesting subject matter, but horribly...horribly edited! I found it difficult to read this book because I had to stop every paragraph or so and correct a misspelling or some other error. Wait for the movie!
Rating:
Summary: Better luck on the next edition
Review: Little care went into the production of this "scholarly" work, making it even more difficult to accept. In a harshly worded and highly defensive "book description" (that works so hard to convince the reader that "trash" reviews are not worthy), the author fails (again) to perform even the most basic of writing skills--spelling and proper grammer. Perhaps the next edition and "book description" will be better written.
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