More fodder for the Kennedy conspiracy canon as we approach the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of JFK in Dallas, November 22, 1963.
Former Australian detective, Colin McLaren, takes up the conspiracy cudgel in the cold case of the century and presents the provocatively titled JFK THE SMOKING GUN (Hachette).
Spurred on by the remainder binned MORTAL ERROR by Bonar Menninger based on research by ballistics boffin Howard Donahue, McLaren was appalled by the lack of basic police procedural displayed on that dastardly day and the glaring omissions that make the Warren Commission Report the work of fiction that Woody Allen has attributed it as.
Five little words that had remained unchallenged for forty five years – There has been an accident – were reportedly uttered by Secret Service Agent Hill to Bobby Kennedy on the day Jack was shot. Certainly Lee Harvey Oswald was not an accidental path that day in Dealy Plaza – he was out to kill the president.
Those five words, together with fellow Secret Service Agent Kellerman’s complete disregard for forensic science, left in their wake a host of unanswered questions and the lingering stench of a cover-up.
McLaren serves up a suet of incompetence pertaining to the squad tasked with the protection of the President. He paints a picture reminiscent of James Elroy’s description of booze and sex addled bozos not so secret in their irresponsible service of body guarding their Commander in Chief.
The evidence is compelling that a good many of the contingent motorcade protectors were nursing severe hangovers as Lee Harvey unleashed a confusion that culminated in the killing of Kennedy.
Their individual headaches shrunk into insignificance compared to the headache endured by JFK that day, an unimaginable mortal migraine as his skull was smashed and his brain decimated and disseminated over Jacquie’s pink pillbox and suit.
Jackie is also attributed with “Oh, my God, they have killed my husband.”
JFK THE SMOKING GUN is a well researched, well documented book, if a tad padded, and gives a credible conclusion to what may have happened that dastardly day in Dallas half a century ago. It’s as much a vindication of Donahue’s work and Menninger’s book as a bone pointing exercise. And, see you later, litigator, the agent named died in 2011.
Whether you buy into the theory or not, the book gives cause to reflect what has gone down in the past fifty years and what might have been different had Kennedy not been killed.