What are your top 5 JFK assassination books?

[Thomas Graves]

Oleg Kalugin - who was in charge of all KGB operations in the US and later defected to America - said the same thing. He said Nosenko's father was a high ranking official under Stalin and had helped promote him. And that he was a drunk and womanizer who was held in low regard but that he did have access to some information that was damaging.

In his book, "Spy Master", Kalugin wrote this:  "Nosenko's flight spread panic throughout the KGB. He was branded one of the great traitors of all time, and dozens of KGB officers stationed abroad who had had dealing with Nosenko were recalled. Six officers in the New York station (including myself) were yanked back to Moscow."

Nosenko's claims, from what I've read, were entirely inconsistent and illogical. He once said the KGB never interviewed Oswald but then later said he personally (!?) interviewed Oswald; he said the KGB never monitored Oswald but then said the KGB in Minsk watched Oswald. Completely different accounts. But why would the KGB send someone to say they had no relationship with Oswald? Just say he was questioned, watched closely, viewed as worthless, and sent back. That's a far better cover story (if there was one) than to say what Nosenko said.

The FBI had two very high agents inside the CPUSA: Morris and Jack Childs. Both were completely trusted by Soviet officials who let Morris handle communications and money deliveries between Moscow and the CPUSA. Morris was in Moscow at the time of the assassination and had access to very high level Soviet discussions about the event. The Soviets had complete trust with Morris and consulted him about how they should react.  Morris said (from the book "Operation Solo") the Soviets were stunned by the assassination and that they gathered all of the information they had on Oswald. He said he found that the Soviets had no role in the assassination and were worried about being blamed for it.

I think the "Soviets were behind the assassination" theory has no basis whatsoever. Not at this point.

Galbraith,

Any KGB defector (Kalugin and Gordievsky come to mind) who says Nosenko was a true defector is either a false defector, himself, or, more likely, was duped by the top-secret Department 14 of the Second Chief Directorate (aka "THE FROM 1959-ON, KGB WITHIN THE KGB") into believing it was true.

--  MWT 

PS  Are you ever going to read Tennent H. Bagley's 2007 book Spy Wars and his 2014 PDF Ghosts of the Spy Wars and Mark Riebling's 1994 book Wedge and Edward J. Epstein's 1989 book Deception, or are you going to continue being duped, yourself?

All of those works are free-to-read the Internet.

PPS  If it makes you feel any better, Bagley did not believe the KGB was behind the assassination, and believed instead that (self-avowed Marxist) Oswald did it all by himself.

[Richard Rubio]

It's hard to narrow it down to five but informative books for me are:

1. Case Closed - Posner
2. Conspiracy of One - Jim Moore
3. The Death of a President: November 20-November 25 1963By William Manchester
4.  Inside the Assassination Records Review Board: The U.S. Government's Final Attempt to Reconcile the Conflicting Medical Evidence in the Assassination (V. 5)
by Douglas P. Horne
5. Brothers - Talbot

Great honorable mention, I had a book on editorial cartoons that came out after the JFK assassination, every one, somber or at least, none was light in tone, just respectful. Good book. This was one of them and apparently, one of the most memorable.

[Mark A. Oblazney]

Steve's reply to my presentation of well documented evidence was disingenuous, but at least he replied. You haven't bothered, yet you say, "but they don't allow all the evidence to have its say. ....

In reply to Steve.... Bush thanks three people for meeting to discuss Bush's political future. One, Tom Devine, just happened, as the story goes, to have suddenly come out of long retired CIA officer status to meet with DeMohrenschildt just two weeks after the shooting attempt at Edwin Walker and several more contacts with George DeM. over the next few weeks, "reading in" Bush to segments of the WuBriny Op. Devine just happened to be one of 15 fraternity house residents of Priscilla's CIA handler, Garry Coit.

Another of the three at the 1975 meeting to decide Bush's political future was Bush's best friend. Gerry Bemiss. A kindergartner could glean what Steve claims he does not, out of the Bush "coincidences" in my post.

And of course, the intriguing item that apparently is not even suitable for discussion, anywhere, ever.... Priscilla testified she was unable to work for a time because her father's death was a concealed suicide. This was the sister of the last man, James A. Thomas, to see Priscilla's father alive and report hims missing to police..... The sister happened to be Eleanor Lansing Thomas, maid of honor and cousin, along with her brother, of Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles and his daughter, the bride.:



Tom Devine's best man just happened to be William B. Macomber, Jr.... former CIA, former top aide to WC commissioner and Yale bonesman, Sen. John Sherman Cooper (R-KY), and top aide to John Foster Dulles. Macomber married another top aide of Dulles, Phyliss Bernau.

Apologies for the kindergarten reference, but it is in reply to Steve turning off his "learned" demeanor to denigrate me personally, reverting to his thoughtful, reasonable "side" after he pulls his, "Scully, I don't know what you're talking about, act."

You're gonna get in trouble again for postin' all this stuff, Tom.  You didn't even know you were in trouble before.  That may be a good thing+

[Paul May]

I think Morley is well read in the JFK assassination. I don't think he'd fall under the category of conspiracy theorist. He seems to be logical.

Morley, at one time was objective. No more. His own site ate him up and spit him out. JFKFacts was anything but facts.

[Michael Davidson]

I think i can make my mind up all by myself , i don't need you to do it for me :  )

[Michael Davidson]

Anyhow heres a list :

1. Epstein : Legend ( first book on the subject i ever read )
2. Marina and Lee  ( CIA and KGB friendly :  )
3. Menninger ( SS accident theory )
4. Talbot ( on Dulles )
5. Do the math : Saffold ( Dal Tex shooter theory )

[Pat Speer]

Here's some good ones...

1, Accessories After the Fact by Sylvia Meagher (a smart lady looks at the facts)
2. Six Seconds in Dallas by Josiah Thompson (a brilliant philosophy professor re-examines the forensic evidence. Note while I disagree with many of my friend Tink's findings, there's no disputing he set a high bar.)
3. Post Mortem by Harold Weisberg (an almost Fellini-esque character study/rant revolving around a crotchety old man's efforts to make his government transparent and accountable.)
4. The Last Investigation by Gaeton Fonzi (a gripping detective story in which a journalist tries to get to the bottom of the murder of the century)
5. Someone Would Have Talked by Larry Hancock (the culmination of a hard-working man's efforts to separate the facts from the fiction, to see what remains).

There are, of course, a number of others which have something to offer.

I wish there was a good Oswald-did-it book which I could recommend. The problem, for me, is that almost all of them embrace the single-bullet theory as a fact, which, to me, is absolute rubbish. So I could no more recommend a book pushing this rubbish than I could a book pushing that Onassis did it so he could hook up with Jackie, or one in which a teenage hit man fired the fatal shot.

It is with high hopes then that I look to Robert Wagner's next book.