Assassinations Books

Back in 1997 I met a fed. prisoner while "visiting" someone in ND Stae prison. Mr Watson was holding the book and told me he had info fingering some mob figures in the page range of the 70's in the book. The following Monday I went to the book store on main street in Minot, ND and asked to order the book. The elderly woman gasped and said "well isn't that odd?" I asked what was odd? She said the previous Friday the publisher bought back every copy in print! A few months later I found mr Watsons number in Atlanta and called. I spoke with his mother and he had gotton out ant after returning to Atlanta was run over by a car and killed "by accident". The book was reprinted minus his information! Makes you wonder? Get a first printing!

Back in 1997 I met a fed. prisoner while "visiting" someone in ND Stae prisin. Mr Watson was holding the book and told me he had info fingering some mob figures in the page range of the 70's in the book. The following Monday I went to the book store on main street in Minot, ND and asked to order the book. The elderly woman gasped and said "well isn't that odd?" I asked what was odd? She said the previous Friday the publisher bought back every copy in print! A few months later I found my Watsons nuber in Atlanta and called. I spoke with his mother and he had gotton out ant after returning to Atlanta was run over by a car and killed "by accident". The book was reprinted minus his information! Makes you wonder? Get a first printing!

On day Jerry Chiffon from Branch Creek, North Carolina, dressed to the nines in a lady's red suit, "the kind favored by Nancy Reagan," with tasteful red, white and blue accessories, goes to a political rally at the State Capitol. Upon arriving, he pulls out a pistol and fires a round of shots at North Carolina's homophobic, racist U. S. Senator Henry Hampton. (Who on earth could Mr. Ferrell have based this character on?) This is just the beginning of Mr. Ferrell's tale of a small Southern town with all its pretentiousness, customs and secrets. The author understands completely the mindset of Small Town USA where everyone attends funerals, whether they knew the deceased or not, and take obligatory casseroles to the wake. And if there is anything unusual about the deceased-- say a father is buried in the same coffin with his deformed son-- then the funeral may have to be moved to the high-school auditorium to handle the crowds. Everybody knows everybody else's business, or at least they think they do. "No, sir. We never leave each other alone or to our own individual devices. I am glad to say I know everybody's business, and I am proud they know mine." But it is in this small town environment, where boys won't "let their mothers help them with a necktie," that Jerry Chiffon takes home economics in high school and instructs the local ladies about style. From him they learn many things: that you live in a house; you are "at home" and that you shouldn't wear too much jewelry to a funeral, for example. Bathrooms should be white; telephones, black. And you never have unlit candles anywhere.

Mr. Ferrell has written a brilliant novel, rich in detail, and funny in the tradition of SPLENDORA but ultimately a sad commentary on being different. Jerry neither fits completely into the glitzy gay life of New York just before and during the worst of the AIDS epidemic nor in the little North Carolina town to which he returns although there is that sort of "let's not talk about it" mentality of the town, particularly among the women. In their defense, they stand by Jerry when he gets in trouble; but of course, the gossip mill works practically 24/7.

This is not just Jerry's story. Maggie Labrette, his mentor, and Dr. Parchman Anderson, the local practitioner, figure prominently as well as the plot takes a surprise twist near the end of this novel.

HAVE YOU HEARD is ultimately about being different, missed opportunities, love and courage, and in the words of the author, "the goodness of people." In describing the awfulness of the AIDS epidemic in New York and how people rallied around the dying, Jerry, in prison, remembers that "the world divided along the lines of those who are willing to help and those who are not. . . Finding the helpful was like finding you [his friend Maggie] and the others again. . ."

Mr. Ferrell has created in Jerry Chiffon a character you will not soon forget. This is a fine book indeed.

I was immediately drawn to this book by the hilarious voice of it's first narrator, Mrs. I. C. Lamm, a deliciously vain southern cousin to the anti-heroine of Robert Plunkett's "Love Junkie". (On opening up her home for a charity tour attended by the lower classes: "The things that usually happen with such people around did...Imagine women holding their spewing children over my front porch railing. My azaleas are still not speaking to me.") Mrs. Lamm steps back temporarily, and the story of Maggie Labrette and her discovery of Jerry-a sharecropper's child with a penchant for performing can-can dances with a fertilizer sack for a dress-is told through a succession of viewpoints, dipping back and skipping forward in time. As the tale of Jerry's harrowing journey to New York and back unfolds, the humor gradually gives way to a surprising, darkly detailed, and deeply affecting love story.

"Have You Heard," is the work of a mature intellect at the top of his game. Anderson Ferrell not only knows how to craft a gorgeous sentence and a tightly woven narrative, he knows a great deal about love and loss, and that wisdom gives this finely wrought tale a rare depth.

you can finish this book in one sitting, if you are so inclined. it is the first hand account of thomas jones, who hid and cared for booth and herold in a pine thicket for 5 days and 4 nights before he launched them off into the potomac for virginia. another person put into a situation by booth. he makes no excuses. it is what it is.

If you like Lincoln you will love this book.Long title but its excellent reading.Best book on Lincoln Ive read in a long time.

This book is the best book I have ever read so far. It has the original Shakespearean text on the left pages of the book, and on the right page it has exactly the same, but in a modern translation so it is pretty easy for you to look anything you don't understand from the original text. I really recommend it to anyone who is interested in reading Shakespeare for the first time because it will help you not to misinterpret anything.

OK...for reading Romeo & Juliet and Julius Caesar...definetely get these. With the fact that it has the modern english translation handy, it also points out the writing elements and weird history stuff that was on all of my study guides and test from my english teachers. It's the best. FOR REAL. So yeah. get this.

The Kennedy assassination has spawned its own conspiracy industry. Aptly described as a "bottomless pit", it is equally a many-headed hydra, with each claim and counterclaim giving birth to dozens of others. And yet among the mountains of material there are few--if any--books that examine the event with the clarity of Peter Knight's book. Knight addresses both the official and unofficial versions, the significance of the assassination in US history, and its impact on American culture, in calm, rational prose that doesn't get bogged down in the excessive detail that threatens to capsize so much writing on the subject. This concise and extremely readable book contains probably all you need to know about the Kennedy assassination. Highly recommended.

Peter Knight's scholarly book is surprisingly comprehensive given that it's a relatively short work. It succeeds in being both a fine introduction to the case and in being an incisive and fascinating history of the assassination in both American and World history and indeed in popular culture. The book provides an interesting and very reasonable and balanced assessment of most of the key aspects of the case - a summary of the Warren Report and all other official investigations, the major conspiracy theories, the problems with eye witness reliability, the so called problems with the Single Bullet Theory, the fatal head shot and issues with the flawed autopsy and so on.

But the book goes much further than providing a brief but very succinct history of the case, it also provides an excellent record of key works on the assassination together with some highly interesting observations regarding the event in news, fiction, film and even art. More over the author also finds the space to explain how and why the event has had such an impact on modern America and suggests that actually some degree of exaggeration has occurred in respect of the events true impact at the time. The book also examines the concept of the "conspiracy theory" in principle and asks if the Kennedy assassination has in fact changed the nature of conspiracy thinking giving some considerable thought to Oliver Stone's film JFK and the unfortunate effect that that film has had - that a significant percentage of the American public believe Oliver Stones work to be an accurate rendition of the event, which it clearly is not.

It is actually quite rare to get a book on this subject that is essentially neutral, but still maintains a tantalizing glimpse into what author Vincent Bugliosi calls a "bottomless pit". When you consider that Peter Knight covers just about every angle on this case in some 180 pages, it is quite an achievement. If you are conspiracy buff I'd recommend this book as a dose of common sense. Peter Knight doesn't offer a personal conclusion in terms of was there or was there not a conspiracy, but its clear the author's intention was to provide a thorough assessment of the event and its place in history from 1963 to date in a resoundingly non sensationalist manner - frankly a breath of fresh air when you consider the utter none sense that has been written about the case.

Whilst the author is critical of the Warren Commission in respect of its failure to clarify and set to rest a good many of what would become perceived "unanswered questions", I rather suspect he believes Oswald acted alone, but that conclusion is not the aim of the book, its rather to educate the reader and bring some degree of common sense into a subject that has now been somehow lost into such a huge body of work that its almost impossible for any one, bar the dedicated student of the case, to make some degree of semblance as to what happened when Kennedy was shot and to understand the difference between the event itself and what it has become in popular culture - something far greater, far more reaching than it was. The style of writing is engaging and almost humerous at times. A resounding accomplishment - it joins some four hundred books on the subject in my collection and I would place it high high on the my list of recommended reading.

In 1979, after a wide-ranging two-year investigation, the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that President John F. Kennedy's assassination was most likely the result of a conspiracy, and that the Mafia had the motive, means and opportunity to execute JFK. Identified as the probable conspirators were Jimmy Hoffa, Santos Trafficante, Jr., and Carlos Marcello. But until 1993, there could be no corroboration by a living witness of the Committee's supposition.
In early January of 1992, Frank Ragano, attorney for Hoffa and Trafficante and friend to Marcello, decided to break his twenty-nine-year silence. John H. Davis (the author), here reveals the riveting story behind Ragano's allegation. Included is new informatiion from key witnesses and shocking details surrounding the cover-up. This 1993 book blows the lid off the most fascinating murder case in U.S. history!

In 1979, after a wide-ranging two-year investigation, the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that President John F. Kennedy's assassination was most likely the result of a conspiracy, and that the Mafia had the motive, means and opportunity to execute JFK. Identified as the probable conspirators were Jimmy Hoffa, Santos Trafficante, Jr., and Carlos Marcello. But until 1993, there could be no corroboration by a living witness of the Committee's supposition.
In early January of 1992, Frank Ragano, attorney for Hoffa and Trafficante and friend to Marcello, decided to break his twenty-nine-year silence. John H. Davis (the author), here reveals the riveting story behind Ragano's allegation. Included is new informatiion from key witnesses and shocking details surrounding the cover-up. This 1993 book blows the lid off the most fascinating murder case in U.S. history!

For my senior project paper I chose to do the pictures and film of the kennedy assassination. This book helped a lot, and best of all it was not a boring to read. Read this book if you want to know more about the assassintion, or doing a project. Very good. The book by the way has much more information that this on the subject.

While I thought this book was worthwhile in many respects (I am mentioned on several pages, as well), ULTIMATE SACRIFICE is simply the best book ever on the JFK assassination. Still, very much worth your time. That said, Livingstone's crowning achievements are his "High Treason 2" and "The Radical Right..."

Vince Palamara-JFK/ Secret Service expert (History Channel, author of two books, in over 30 other author's books, etc.)
Pittsburgh, PA

BEST JFK ASSASSINATION BOOK: ULTIMATE SACRIFICE
BEST JFK SECRET SERVICE BOOK: SURVIVOR'S GUILT BY YOURS TRULY :)

This book is both scholarly and riveting. It describes the controversial assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, originally Himmler's deputy at SS headquarters and later supreme Nazi commander of the Czech territories. No one will be shocked to learn of SS oppression of the occupied territories in Central Europe, but it is especially chilling to hear a detailed account. The book will come as a revelation to those who may never have heard of Heydrich, or who have encountered only scattered references to his name. In fact, at 38 years old, Heydrich was a rising star in the Nazi movement and one of its most brutal figures at the time of his killing. One especially shocking feature of the book is that Heydrich comes off as an even more vile character than Hitler, to whatever extent that is possible. The handsome SS-Oberfuehrer was actually an expert at manipulating Hitler, egging him on to some of his worst atrocities by falsely claiming that revolts were brewing in the occupied territories. Based on these generally illusory reports, Hitler would give Heydrich and the SS a free hand in using all possible suppressive tactics against the native populations. It was Heydrich who chaired the infamous Wannsee conference, which sealed the fate of European Jewry; afterwards, he was sometimes rumored to be Hitler's likely successor as the Third Reich stretched onward into the late 20th century. After finishing off the Jews, Heydrich planned to deport the entire Polish race to death camps, followed by as many as 60% of the Czechs (those who were deemed non-Germanizable.) The book argues that the assassination occurred in the following context. Czech intelligence was astoundingly good even before the Munich Conference in 1938. The main reason is that Paul Thuemmel (the mysterious Agent A-54), a high-ranking Wehrmacht officer, was spying for the Czechs for reasons that are still not clear. After the German invasion of their country, Czech intelligence fled to London, from where they broadcast news to their oppresssed countrymen and trained patriot commandoes in Scotland to undertake parachute raids in the motherland. Czech access to Thuemmel gave them an enviable position with respect to the British and Soviet governments, who first learned in this way of the planned Nazi invasion of Russia. But in February of 1942, Thuemmel was discovered and arrested by the Gestapo. This put Eduard Benes and his Prague exiles under great pressure to find other avenues to maintain their prestige with the leading Allied powers. They achieved this result with the killing of Heydrich, who had gotten off to a busy start in Prague with the summary execution of the city's student leaders, and with other brutal, cynical maneuvers. (One of the worst was Heydrich's proclamation tripling pension benefits for Czech citizens, knowing fullwell that he planned to gas most of them well before retirement age.) Two Czech soldiers who had parachuted back into the country in late 1941 attempted the hit on Heydrich on what was reportedly his very last day in Prague, on May 27th in 1942. His next stop was to have been France, where he would certainly have liquidated the French resistance by means of the despicable techniques pioneered in occupied Czechoslovakia. At the crucial moment, the gun meant to kill Heydrich jammed, but a bomb wisely designed as a back-up sent shrapnel into his spleen. The man often described as the model SS soldier died a week later in Prague, of blood poisoning (the Nazis did not have penicillin, which would probably have saved his life). Wicked retaliations followed. The village of Lidice, wrongly thought to be connected with the killing, had all of its males over age 15 shot on the spot. The women were sent to death camps, and so were the non-Germanizable children. The "best" children were put up for adoption in Germany, and tracked down after the war by the Red Cross. Furthermore, all political prisoners were immediately executed, and a special train of Prague Jews was immediately sent to Auschwitz, labelled with signs reading "The Assassination of Heydrich". The son of the family that had provided a safe house for the assassins was tortured for a full day without revealing any information. He finally broke down when the SS brought into his presence the severed head of his mother floating in a fish tank (she had actually taken cyanide earlier in the day to avoid interrogation). Having been broken in this way, he finally revealed the hiding place of the valiant assassinsРthe basemnt of a greek Orthodox Church in central Prague. After a courageous siege in the church, the assassins and their look-out men use their final bullets to take their own lives. The names of the assassins had already been supplied by a traitorРanother of the Czech parachutists who had turned on his compatriots, perhaps with the initial aim of preventing further German retaliation against innocent civilians. This traitor, Karel Curda, later went into the permanent employ of the SS, marrying the sister of a ranking official and posing as a commando in various parts of Czechoslovakia so that anyone offering him aid might be captured and executed. He himself was hanged after the war by his outraged countrymen after stating at trial, "You would have done it too for one million marks." Heydrich's deputy, a grim one-eyed Sudeten book dealer named Karl Frank, was also hanged after the war. The story of Heydrich is an amazing one in so many respects, and the author proivdes us with an exhaustive but readable picture of several key elements to the story: 1) the grim background of Heydrich's manipulative rise from cashieered Navy womanizer and SA street-brawler to Heinrich Himmler's ace hatchet man. We watch on in amazement as the lonely teen-aged son of an obscure Halle composer turns into a formidable customer matching intrigues with the shadowy likes of Martin Bormann and Adolf Hitler himself. 2) the remarkable tale of the birth of the Czech intelligence service. This story of the far-sighted Frantisek Moravec and his brilliant cultivation of a top agent within the German military would be worthy of a book in its own right. 3) the complicated saga of former Czech President Eduard Benes, stiffed by the appeasing allies at Munich in 1938. Benes is the picture of liberally-minded nationalism, but also of a ruthless politician willing to risk the deaths of hundreds of countrymen in his power-jockeying against the Czech Communist Party for eventual postwar influence. 4) the cloak-and-dagger tale of the assassination itself, one of the best real-life spy stories one could ever hope to read. The eventual assassins are forced to improvise following a disastrous parachute drop miles from their target zone and to indiscreetly debate the merits of the assassination with resistance workers concerned about the after-effects for the general population. 5) finally, the account of brutal SS retaliation against innocent Czech civilians in the wake of Heydrich's death. This part of the book offers one the best account I've ever read of Nazi atrocities OUTSIDE of the notorious death camps. In sum, the author gives us at least five compelling narratives woven into one compact account that will leave even ardent death penalty opponents (such as this reviewer) cheering in spite of themselves for the timely fall of Reinhard Heydrich.

This book is undoubtedly the definitive work on Reinhard Heydrich. As can be seen from the title, it focuses on both the brutal career of this so-called "Nazi Martyr" as well as his assassination, which has been hidden behind inaccuracy ever since it occured over fifty years ago. The book sheds very informing light on Exiled Czech President Eduard Benes and his government exiled in London, who sponsored the assassination, codenamed ANTHROPOID, for the main purpose of showing post-war world powers that the Czechs had attempted to strike out against the seemingly invincible Nazis that combined brutal measures and their seemingly immortal power to Germanize Czech soil and incorporate it into the Greater German Reich. Yet, Benes seemed to be pig-headed enough to continue the operation, despite his knowledge of the brutality of Nazi reprisals, especially when it came to killing a high-ranking official of grand importance. And then there is Heydrich himself, the ideal Nordic Man, a cold, calculating manipulator that worked his way up to the top in the SS. He had created the SD, or "Sicherheitsdienst" (Intelligence Service), the RSHA, or "Reichsicherheitshauptampt" (Reich Main Security Office), and had organised the infamous Wannsee Conference, in which the Final Solution to the Jewish Question was planned to the finest detail. He was also in charge of the "Einsatzgruppen," or the Mobile Killing Units which operated in Nazi-Occupied territories in the East. In late 1941, he was appointed by Hitler to be Reichsprotektor of Bohemia-Moravia. In this he excelled and was determined in smothering the remnats of the Czech Resistance. His successes grew, and so did his reputation within the Nazi regime. During this time, two young members of the Czech Brigade, Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik, were trained for the sole purpose of killing Heydrich who had now come to be known as the "Butcher of Prague." On the morning of May 27, 1942, at a suburban corner in Prague, Heydrich was being driven by his chauffeur, Klein, in his open Mercedes to the airport where he was to fly to Berlin to meet with Hitler and discuss Nazi occupation policy, the two assassins managed to mortally wound the Nazi--by a whisker. What followed was a brutal rampage: thousands of Jews and Czechs deported, the relatives of Kubis and the ANTHROPOID team's lookout man, Josef Valcik, killed, and the destruction of the two Czech villages of Lidice and Lezaky, in which the majority of the population was killed. The three team members, along with other parachutists, fought with the SS in the Karel Boromejsky Church where they had been hiding from the Gestapo for days in a crypt beneath the church. They fought for six hours and at the last minute, all of them used their last bullets to commit suicide rather than be taken alive. A captured Czech parachutist, Seargeant Karel Curda, had been caught a while before and had led the Gestapo to discover where the assassins were hiding. He received one million marks for his contribution and his mother and sister were saved. He became a Gestapo agent and married a daughter of an SS man. After the war, he stated to his prosecutor, when asked at how he could have betrayed his comerades, "You would do the same for one million marks." He was hanged for treason. Embarrassed by the enormous amounts of reprisals that followed Heydrich's assassination, Benes denied all responsibility for ANTHROPOID and stated that it was the work of the Czech resistance in Prague and London had nothing to do with it. This is just a part of the vivid episodes that the reader will encounter while reading Callum MacDonald's impressive and awesome account of the life and death of "the man with the heart of iron," Reinhard Heydrich. Get it and read it before it dissapears for good!

Outside of Virginia and graduate writing programs, where he is treated as a minor deity, Garrett is largely anonymous. This is a shame, since he is among our greatest living writers. I'm especially fond of this book, which explores the South's relationship with its own history in a way that respects and humanizes everyone without abandoning the humor that marks the best of the region's fiction. I do not wish to imply that Garrett is merely a local star. He writes about the South because he is from here, but also because it provides a microcosm of America. Issues of racial identity and religious splintering dominate this nation, and they also dominate this novel.
Garrett is an elegant stylist, a wry and fearless observer and a gifted humorist. This book ought not be discarded--it is the best American novel about America written in the past decade, and it is a shame that it has not crossed over into the mainstream territory of book clubs and high school reading lists.

The author writes this novel set in Florida with a combination of vigor and poetry and humor that is very rare and wonderful; his many characters pull you deeper and deeper into this story which flies back and forth a generation to gradually reveal the truth of a 20 year old murder. One extraordinary character after another is born on the page and all together form part of the story. No wonder the author can write such very deep and real Elizabethan books for which he is justly famous.

"A Letter for Mr. Lincoln" is a Cover-to-Cover Historical Moments chapter book and is a student edition of a reading program that's marketed to schools throughout the United States. This educational book contains a historical fiction story and nonfiction chapters that historically support the story. It includes illustrations and archival photographs and drawings. It also contains bolded vocabulary words with glossaries or vocabulary sidebars.Children are able to identify with the young, main character and learn about an important event in American history at the same time.
This educational chldren's book is both exciting and informative!

After returning from Ford's Theatre the night President Abraham Lincoln is shot, a young girl writes a letter to her hero. This book also contains information about the shooting of President Lincoln, Ford's Theatre today, and the Civil War.