BOOK REVIEW -- "Case Closed" By Gerald Posner
David Von Pein
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Gerald Posner's 1993 best seller "Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald And
The Assassination Of JFK" is an excellent piece of work....and is a
book that arrives at the truth with respect to President John F.
Kennedy's death in November 1963.
Like Mr. Posner, I firmly believe that Oswald, by himself, was
responsible for the murders of JFK and Dallas city policeman J.D.
Tippit. And while re-reading "Case Closed" recently, I came across many
outstanding hunks of fascinating text, including a good collection of
direct quotes from various individuals that were placed into the book
by author Posner in his efforts to provide the reader with a complete
picture of Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who was charged with killing
America's 35th President in Dallas.
I've listed some of what I think are this book's most intriguing
passages and quotes below, which give a good general indication as to
the type of person Lee Oswald truly was (i.e., a strange, disconnected,
secretive, violent, and abusive young man who embraced Communism and
hated the American society he was living in).
In other words -- Lee Harvey Oswald was the exact type of individual
who might just have had an urge to take his mail-order rifle with him
to work one day (a day when the President's motorcade was scheduled to
pass right in front of the building he worked in) and fire a few shots
at JFK from a secluded sixth-story perch.
The evidence in the John F. Kennedy murder case, in fact, tells the
world that Mr. Oswald did that very thing on Friday, November 22, 1963.
"Case Closed" Excerpts......
----------------
Lillian Murret (LHO's aunt; sister of Lee's mother, Marguerite Oswald)
said:
"She {Marguerite} told me that she had trained Lee to stay in the
house, to stay close to home when she wasn't there. .... He just got in
the habit of staying alone like that." -- Page 9 of "Case Closed"
----------------
"Otis Carlton, a neighbor in Benbrook {Texas}, was in the Oswalds'
living room one evening when {eight-year-old} Lee , gripping a butcher
knife, ran through chasing {his half-brother} John Pic. Lee hurled the
knife at Pic, in front of a startled Carlton, but it missed and struck
the wall." -- Page 10
----------------
Dr. Renatus Hartogs (a psychiatrist who once evaluated Lee Oswald)
said:
"He {Lee} came to us on a charge of truancy from school, and yet when I
examined him, I found him to have definite traits of dangerousness. In
other words, this child had a potential for explosive, aggressive,
assaultive acting out, which was rather unusual to find in a child who
was sent to the Youth House on such a mild charge as truancy from
school." -- Page 12
----------------
Julian Evans (who knew Oswald when Lee was a youth) said:
"Nobody could figure him {Lee} out. .... He didn't want you to get too
close to him. .... I thought he was a psycho; I really did." -- Page 15
----------------
William E. Wulf (a schoolmate of Oswald's) said:
"His {Lee's} beliefs seemed to be warped but strong. .... He seemed to
me a boy that was looking for something to belong to. .... He impressed
me as a boy who could get violent over Communism." -- Page 16
----------------
"Oswald bristled that Ike {President Dwight Eisenhower} "was exploiting
the working people" and that if he had the opportunity, he would like
to kill Eisenhower." -- Page 17
----------------
"He {Lee} seemed to hit her {Lee's wife Marina} harder and with greater
anger than ever before. .... Oswald flew into a rage over Marina's
inability to cook a Southern dish, red beans and rice, which he
demanded for dinner. The fight ended in their bedroom, with Oswald
choking her and threatening {her}" -- Page 101
----------------
"Oswald increasingly spent time locked in his small study. There,
unknown to Marina, he compiled a blue looseleaf folder, an operations
manual for an action he was planning against {Retired General Edwin}
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." -- Page 104
----------------
On Pages 105 and 106:
"On Sunday afternoon, March 31 {1963}, Marina was in the small
fenced-in backyard {of the Oswalds' residence on Neely Street in
Dallas} hanging up diapers when Lee asked her to take a picture. ....
He returned to the apartment and in a few minutes emerged dressed all
in black, a revolver tucked into the waist of his pants, a rifle held
in one hand, and a camera and some newspapers in the other hand. Marina
broke into laughter."
Marina said:
"I asked him then why he had dressed himself up like that. .... I
thought he had gone crazy, and he said he wanted to send that to a
newspaper. .... It was quite embarrassing the way he was dressed."
Marina also told Mr. Posner the following:
"I was very nervous that day when I took the pictures. I can't remember
how many I took, but I know I took them and that is what is important.
It would be easier if I said I never took them, but that is not the
truth."
(So much for the "Faked Backyard Photos", huh?)
----------------
"Linnie Mae Randle, Buell Frazier's sister, was at her kitchen sink
when she glanced out the window at 7:15 Friday morning, November 22.
She saw Oswald walk across the street toward her house, carrying a long
package parallel to his body." -- Page 223
----------------
"The three empty shells {found beneath the sniper's window in the Texas
School Book Depository after the assassination}...were fired from
Oswald's rifle, to the exclusion of any other gun." -- Page 269
----------------
"Ten minutes after the shells were found, Deputy Sheriff Eugene Boone
and Deputy Constable Seymour Weitzman were near the northwest corner of
the sixth floor when they spotted {Oswald's Mannlicher-Carcano
bolt-action} rifle, hidden between boxes." -- Pages 269-270
----------------
Less than an hour after JFK was shot.....
"As {Dallas Police Officer J.D.} Tippit reached the front left tire {of
his patrol car}, Oswald whipped out his revolver and began shooting.
Tippit was killed instantly. Oswald then began running back toward
Patton Avenue, emptying shells from the revolver along the way." --
Page 272
----------------
"After the theater scuffle, in which Oswald unsuccessfully tried to
shoot another policeman, he {Lee Oswald} was arrested." -- Page 280
----------------
"There is no credible evidence that Oswald knew Guy Banister or had any
association with David Ferrie during the critical months preceding the
assassination. Marina cannot visualize him working with an accomplice.
{Quoting Marina:} "I am not a psychiatrist...but living with a person
for a few years you at least have some kind of intuition about what he
might do or might not. He was not a trustworthy and open person. So,
personally, I seriously doubt that he will confide in someone." --
Pages 147-148*
* = NOTES: The above comments made by Marina Oswald (appearing on pages
147 and 148 of "Case Closed") came directly from her HSCA testimony in
the late 1970s. Many of the other direct quotes I have mentioned within
this review can also be cross-referenced in the official Government
records of the JFK murder investigation, mainly via the Warren
Commission witness transcripts. All page numbers shown above refer to
the paperback edition of "Case Closed", published in 1994 by Anchor
Books.
David Von Pein
November 2006
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Another DVP review of Gerald Posner's "Case Closed"......
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cdddraftsman
Official ! ...............TL
aeffects
cdddraftsman wrote:
> You betcha ! The little commy rat did it all by himself ! And that's
> Official ! ...............TL
sad impersonation of the Griz, you need to get a little more forceful,
acquire that temp *going nuts style*, attitude, step on your dick while
your wearing golf shoes - that ought to get you in the mood.
Saying its offical, don't make it so, Gloria.... Pee up another tree!