4 essential books of the event, 1 thought-provoking read, 1 poem and a ballad.
1.
Who Really Killed Kennedy? Recent overview of the various theories, what we know, what is speculation, good overview.
2.
Trauma Room One. Most important book establishing a conspiracy, i.e. the medical evidence, more than one shooter, medical cover up. Written by doctor who was there.
3.
JFK and the Unspeakable. A religious scholar puts the assassination in international and moral contexts.
4.
Mary's Mosaic. Story of one of JFK's lovers. Author, the son of high CIA agent, makes the case against his father and cronies, and he puts the assassination in convincing personal context.
5.
Surrounded By Enemies. Gripping political thriller based on concept that JFK survives assassination attempt and fights back.
Here is my
Ballad of JFK, which I wrote a few days after the assassination and performed for years thereafter. (To the tune of "Dust Storm Disaster" by Woody Guthrie.)
From
In My Old Age ..
American
History In My Lifetime
So
there was this President
and
he actually was going to
change
the power structure in
the
country, which of course
threatened
those who held the
power.
They conspired to protect
what
they considered theirs
and
successfully assassinated
the
sonofabitch President who
dared
to think he could change
the
status quo. They killed the
sonofabitch.
They actually did.
And
the plan was so good they
even
had a fall guy and they
killed
him too so he couldn't
talk.
And there was so much
dirty
laundry everywhere that
an
actual honest investigation
was
impossible without dire
consequences,"national
security"
and
all that, so they made
a
half-ass investigation they hoped
would
put the matter to rest
forever.
Unfortunately a few loonies
didn't
buy the official results
and
investigated on their own
and
came up with unbelievable
frightening
theories about what
actually
happened, which in fact
was
pretty close to what happened,
and
many people believed them except
for
some reason they didn't get
pissed
off enough to take to
the
streets and demand full
disclosure.
Instead they just
shrugged
and said, Well politicians lie
and
there's nothing to be done
about
it. So nothing actually
changed
even though many folks
realized
they'd been duped.
They
went shopping and forgot
about
it. And the original
criminals
who assassinated the
sonofabitch
President in the
first
place retained power
and
now could relax because
they
learned a profound lesson:
in
the end shopping wins out
and
if you let people shop,
hell,
they'll put up with
anything.
