Gundown Rundown

For those of you who want to execute something approaching the full Ulric Shannon, a short list of books you may find useful:

Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of John F. Kennedy. (a/k/a "The Warren Report") 1964. Sorry, Jim Marrs, but it really isn't kosher to skip it, although I'd stay away from purchasing the 26 volumes.

Accessories After the Fact. Sylvia Meagher, 1967. A classic "debunk" text.
Six Seconds in Dallas: A Microstudy of the Kennedy Assassination. Josiah Thompson, 1967. One of the more meticulous "detective school" analyses of The Warren Report. Pushes a three-gunman scenario.

Counterplot. Edward Jay Epstein, 1969. A damning assessment - by one of the original Warren Report critics - of Jim Garrison's attempt to prove that Clay Shaw conspired to kill JFK. Covers the pretrial investigation only.

American Grotesque. James Kirkwood, 1970. Covers the 1969 trial; strongly anti-Garrison.

On the Trail of the Assassins. Jim Garrison, 1988. Big Jim's story.
Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations. 1979.
Mafia Kingfish. John H. Davis, 1988. Explores in great depth the evidence for Carlos-Marcello-did-it theory.

Final Disclosure. David Belin, 1988. Pro-Warren Report argument by a former commission staffer. In a recent (December 17) Washington Post op-ed piece, Belin and fellow commission staffer Gerald R. Ford both took aim at conspiracy theorists for their tendency to ignore evidence that would strengthen non-conspiracy arguments, citing the A&E documentary, for instance, which failed to mention that nineteen of twenty doctors who have examined autopsy photos and X-rays have concluded that JFK was shot from behind.

Libra. Don DeLillo, 1988. Rogue-intelligence-operative theory presented in snazzy novel form.

Crossfire. Jim Marrs, 1988. A compendium of JFK assassination theories.
Conspiracy. Anthony Summers, 1980/1989. A better-written compendium of theories.

High Treason. Robert J. Groden and Harrison E. Livingstone, 1989. Explores the grisly idea that someone tampered with evidence to hide the truth about JFK's fatal wounds. Note to ghouls: comes complete with four-color autopsy photos.

Best Evidence. David Lifton, 1981/1988. A different spin on the same topics, but every bit as stomach-turning.

The Wind in the Willows. Kenneth Grahame, 1908. The adventures of Ratty, Mole, Badger, and their irrepressible friend, Toad, in a timeless children's classic set in the English countryside in the early part of this century. Why? Because if you read all these books, you'll need a cozy place to crash and burn.