Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK [Paperback]

I read this book in hardcover soon after its first edition in 1993.
Being in Grade 11 in Winnipeg and in the same time zone as Dallas, Texas,
I was at my locker at 1:10 PM on Friday, November 22,1963 when I heard the news of
President Kennedy's assassination. First from a fellow student, and later by
the announcement over the school PA in French class, shortly after 2:00 PM.
I then learned of the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby that
following Sunday afternooon, again by word of mouth from a friend.
Gerald Posner clarifies the events and debunks all the conspiracy theories.
I purchased the book so I could lend it to my brother, who was eight years old at
the time. He became a true believer in the Hollywood glorification of Jim Garrison
in Oliver Stone's film JFK. Between 1993 and the second edition of this book in 2003,
computer analysis has confirmed the single bullet theory. The President and
Governor Conally were seated at an angle to each other, not in a straight line,
and Conally's wrist was raised to remove his Stetson and turn around to better
view the direction of the first shot which he heard fired from behind.
Posner focuses on Oswald's life and demostrates that he was an ultra-leftist
megalomaniac, melancholiac, psychopath, pathological liar, cheapskate, wife beater
and a sullen loner and egotist without a driver's licence, anxious to prove himself to the
Communist Party in America and Cuba. It becomes more and more evident and beyond
plausible that Oswald acted alone. All supposed ties to the CIA, FBI, Castro, the
Soviet Union and Mafia are dealt with in depth as remote possibilities, but shown to be
dead ends and red herrings.
The book is methodical, rational, and a triumph of investigative journalism.
To all the conspiracy buffs and authors, Posner's details are painstaking and overwhelming
in setting the record straight. There were three assassins, Lee, Harvey, and Oswald.

This is a review of the First Anchor Books Edition (September 2003) of Gerald Posner's "Case Closed." The first page includes critical acclaim for the book, beginning with some excerpted quotes from Guy Halverson's review called "The Case for a Lone Gunman in JFK Killing" from the 9/28/93 edition of "The Christian Science Monitor," stating: "The most authoritative work to date....Gripping and convincing...likely to stand as the starting point for any future examination of Kennedy's death." I personally have much less overall enthusiasm for this book, but it's helpful to mention the final paragraph of Halverson's review that Posner did not quote from, as it points to one of the major shortcomings of this book. Halverson concluded: "Despite all the praise being lavished on this book, one suspects that the file on Dallas is far from closed. Nor should it be. Computerized enhancements of bullet trajectories aside, the troubling question still involves motivation. Posner attributes the crime to Oswald's troubled past and malevolence; but that explanation is almost as tidy as many of the conspiracy theories."

The first ten chapters are a biography of Oswald leading up to his alleged assassination of JFK. Oswald is depicted as a loser, a liar, a psychopath, a Marxist, a former defector to the Soviet Union, a wife-beater and a violent man. Oswald had no positive qualities whatsoever, with the exception that he was sufficiently able enough of a shooter to allow him to act upon his increasingly dangerous revolutionary aspirations.

Posner recounts how Oswald had previously attempted (and failed) to assassinate General Edwin Walker. "He compiled a blue looseleaf folder, an operations manual for an action he was planning against Walker. It was filled with photographs of the general's house and a safe place to stash a rifle, as well as maps of a carefully designed escape route. Later, when Marina [his wife] discovered its existence, he told her it was 'a complete record so that all the details would be in it'." (p. 104)

Having given the reader a sense of Oswald's criminal mind and modus operandi, the subsequent account of the JFK assassination, however, is too inconsistent with it. Posner states that "Oswald had little time for planning, perhaps not much more than twenty-four hours." (p. 262) The reader is now expected to believe that Oswald, who was so meticulous in his planning on the Walker attempt, would now hastily try to kill the President from the very same building that he worked in, with people lining the streets outside, and in broad daylight. How could he possibly have hoped to get away with it, especially given the FBI's watchfulness about his activities, including person-to-person contact with both him and his wife?

Posner states: "It was not a suicide mission. Oswald also wanted to escape, although he probably had not planned much beyond getting away from the Depository before the police sealed the area." (p. 262) Regarding the question of where would Oswald flee to, Posner provides an explanation from Warren Commission counsel David Belin that Oswald intended to take a bus to Mexico. Yet, Oswald had only $13.87 on him when arrested and had left $170.00 to his wife. How is it that Oswald, this wife beater who was in a failing marriage at the time, all of a sudden became so chivalrous towards his wife by leaving her "almost all their life savings" (p. 272), while attempting to flee to Mexico on only thirteen dollars? Yet, Posner calls this "a plausible explanation." I call it untenable.

The explanations of the bullet trajectories are equally unsatisfying. For instance, Posner is intent on proving that the wound on the front of JFK's neck was an exit wound--and not an entrance wound as some conspiracy theorists have claimed. "Was the hole in the front of the President's neck, described as only 5mm to 8mm in size, too small to be an exit wound, as some have charged? 'There is a mistaken impression that exit wounds are large, gaping wounds,' says Dr. [Michael] Baden [chief forensic pathologist for the House Select Committee on Assassinations]. 'They can be large, but if the bullet isn't tumbling and doesn't hit anything inside the body beyond soft tissue, they can be very small'." (p. 305) In appendix A, called "The Ballistics of Assassination: Graphic Analysis," Posner illustrates that the bullet tumbled only after exiting Kennedy's throat. Subsequently, the bullet went on to hit Governor Connally whose "entry wound in right shoulder was 1 1/4" long--the exact length of the bullet--indicating the bullet was tumbling end over end." (p. 485) The reader had been lead to believe that the President's neck exit wound was small because the bullet was not tumbling, yet no explanation is provided for how a bullet can begin tumbling only after it has exited. Certainly, only a "magic bullet" could do that.

The concluding sentences of the author's preface states: "The troubling issues and questions about the assassination can be settled, the issue of who killed JFK resolved, and Oswald's motivation revealed. Presenting those answers is the goal of this book." (p. xv) Judged by that standard, this book has not achieved its primary goals. On 11/21/03, the eve of the fortieth anniversary of the assassination of JFK, the Gallup Organization's web site published an opinion poll stating: "Three-quarters of Americans recently told Gallup that they think more than one man was involved in the Kennedy assassination. Only 19% of Americans think it was the work of one individual." Posner's views are very far from achieving acceptance with the general public, and I do not agree with his conclusions.

Invest a few hours with the BBC documentary "The Men Who Killed Kennedy" instead.