John Lennon and the FBI Files [Paperback]

The premise of the book is to build the case that the FBI was the culmination of the 1960s assignation of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King. Over the years, the FBI, backed by a right-wing political cabal, were able to program `patsies' to take the fall for a larger group of conspirators. With each assignation, they got a little better at it. The authors, Phil Strongman and Alan Parker, have to cover a lot of ground to connect all those assassinations, so at times the narrative can seem rambling. The connections among the assassinations is not made so much on actual facts, but based upon omissions and silences in the subsequent investigations. Obviously, hind-sight is 20-20, but the authors certainly do make persuasive arguments that these investigations were so poor that the omissions can hardly be attributed to `incompetence' alone. The authors reckon that only concerted efforts to cover-up conspiracies could have resulted in such illogical and ineffectual fact finding.

The title of the book is a bit of a misnomer. The book is only superficially about john Lennon or FBI files. In fact, one fact this book sneaks in is that there not much in those FBI files. Authors concede that neither Lennon CIA nor FBI files have been released in their entirety (p. 85). The CIA file contained about 4 pages that have been released and much of the FBI files were blacked out at the request of that British government. The book is primarily about making the case that Mark David Chapman, like Lee Harvey Oswald, Sirhan Sirhan and James Earl Ray before him, was a Manchurian Candidate, programmed by government sources to assassinate John Lennon.

Parker and Strongman globally refer to "Hearts and Minds" as the effort by right-wing politicos to win the popular support of the War in Vietnam. Anyone opposed to the war became an instant mark for the assassins. The authors look into all the devious underhanded surveillance that was conducted by the CIA, FBI and other agencies, not only against Lennon, but other notables that spoke against war, poverty, and the establishment. Obviously, the authors are aware of the thin line they are walking between journalists and conspiracy theorists. They write "Conspiracy theories are ten a penny - many now the subject, often deservedly, of bar-room jokes..." (p. 58). The authors do provide sufficient journalistic substance to warrant suspicion about covert government operations. The book taps the national and international consciousness that government should not have entitlement to unlimited power that is suppressed from public knowledge.

this book is a fairly interesting read however the author basically blends consipacy theories with fact, and treats them as fact. the book is also overtly opinionated. i do not condem the author or the book, but i think it should have been written in a manner that did not frequently display possibilities (even if they seem likely or at least plausible) as though they were known facts. that being said, i did enjoy reading the book. i dont know if i am with it all the way through but it was definitly interesting and did present a lot of facts about Lennon and about the history of the times that i, being born at the tail end of those days, didnt know much about. certainly whether or not all the conspiracy theories are true are not there are some fascinating similarities between various events discussed, odd coincidences, and really untidy loose ends that leave the possibilies open. i recomend this for those interested in such topics as sociology and history as well as the conspiracy theorists of the world, and for those interested in Lennon, although the books focus is really only on his death and only gives a brief overview of his life.

"John Lennon and the FBI Files" suggests that Lennon's assassin was not a deranged fan, but a programmed killer. Despite being this being the main objective of the book, it only occupies the latter third of the book's content. The majority of the book outlines the history of the CIA and FBI organizations and the various theories about mind control and programmed killers as pertaining to the Kennedy and Martin Luther King assassinations.
By comparing Lennon's murder to the murder's of JFK and MLK it only exposes the lack of tangible evidence. While there's much evidence to help fuel the conspiracy theories of those assassinations, there's not a great deal of evidence in the Lennon shooting. The authors make a rather thin case in this book for a conspiracy. It's an interesting idea, but the most interesting portion of this book is dealing with the history of the CIA, which is better discussed in other books.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 4 reviews  3.2 out of 5 stars