Vincent Bugliosi's "Reclaiming History" --- An Error Discussion
David Von Pein
www.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/browse_thread/thread/feb15001760fc896
PETER FOKES ASKED......
>>> "Are there any errors in Bugliosi's book?" <<<
Probably a trick question (coming from Peter as it is). Right Pete? ;)
Anyway, I'll bite........
"Reclaiming History" author Vincent Bugliosi has, in my opinion,
written a very factual book, with only a very few mistakes cropping up
here and there (that I noticed).
That doesn't mean I always agree with everything VB says in his JFK
book. Because that's not the case at all. In fact, I disagree with him
on several different issues re. the Kennedy case....e.g., the timing
of when the SBT bullet struck the victims; the specifics of what
happened to the bullet from Oswald's first (missed) shot; the very
strange flip-flop that Vince seems to do on pages 423-424 re. the
HSCA's insane "upward" trajectory of the SBT bullet path through JFK's
body; and VB's criticism of Gerald Posner in a couple of places
(particularly with respect to a JBC bullet-fragment issue).
But even with my own above-mentioned criticisms, Vince has still
written the best book ever penned on the JFK assassination. And when
placed next to Dale Myers' comprehensive book on the J.D. Tippit
murder ("With Malice"), a researcher doesn't need to buy any other
books dealing with the events of November 22, 1963, in order to know
the full truth about what occurred that day in Dallas. (IMHO, that
is.)
Re. typos and small errors of fact........
There are very, very few misspelled words within this mass of text,
which I found impressive all by itself. (There are some misspellings,
though...."bullet" comes out "bulled" on page 480, and "Dealey" is
missing its second "e" in at least two places in the book, but the
total number of such spelling mistakes is extremely small for a
publication of this length.)
There are, however, a few small factual errors within the tonnage of
information supplied to the reader on these many pages. But none of
the errors in the book, in my opinion, are major enough to discredit
(in any way) Bugliosi's bottom-line "Oswald Acted Alone" conclusion.
I've catalogued a few of these minor mistakes below. I did this for no
particular reason; perhaps just to illustrate that not even the "King
of Common Sense and Logical Thinking" (who is, IMO, Mr. Vincent T.
Bugliosi) is totally immune to making a mistake every now and then.
Here's my short "Errors" list:
1.) Vince tells us that the Secret Service follow-up car that was used
in the Presidential motorcade on 11/22/63 was a "1955" Cadillac. (It
was really a 1956 Caddy. In fact, Vince twice errs re. the model year
of that vehicle, at one point labeling it a "1958" car.)
2.) VB has Eddie Barker located at Parkland Hospital when JFK's death
was announced. (Barker was really at the Dallas Trade Mart at that
time.)
3.) Patton Avenue is called "Patton Street" and Beckley Avenue is
referred to as "Beckley Street" at various points throughout the book.
But, to be fair, VB also mentions Beckley "Avenue" correctly, on page
765. (I'm really nitpicking now, huh?)
4.) In footnotes on pages 118 and 1475, Vince three times identifies
the man who shot Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981, as "William
Hinckley". (He should have said "John Hinckley". Vince, though,
correctly calls Hinckley "John" on several other pages in the book.)
5.) This one has me scratching my head a little bit (although it's
only a very small issue and doesn't mean much at all) -- In Chapter
One (on page 37), Mr. Bugliosi includes a very strange version of
Nellie Connally's last words spoken to JFK that I had never heard
before.
Just prior to the shooting in Dealey Plaza, Nellie turned and said to
the President, "You can't say that Dallas doesn't love you, Mr.
President". But Bugliosi's version of this quote is quite different.
In fact, it's not even close to the quote I just mentioned. I could be
wrong I suppose, but I don't think VB's variant is an accurate one.
6.) Vince has the date of Elvis Presley's death listed incorrectly on
page 872. VB has it as August 17, 1977 (it was actually August 16th of
that year).
7.) Page 897 contains an error with respect to Secret Service agent
George Hickey. On that page, Bugliosi claims that Hickey was in the
"vice president's car" during the motorcade. Hickey, however, was one
of eight SS agents riding in the Secret Service follow-up car
immediately behind JFK's limousine.
VB repeats this same oddball error on page 925. Oddly, though, Vince
gets it right on the very next page (page 926) as he correctly says
that Hickey was riding in JFK's Secret Service follow-up car.
8.) In a lengthy and excellent footnote on page 953, Vince makes a
slip of the tongue when he says that Bullet CE399 caused the
President's head wounds. Obviously, he didn't mean to say "Commission
Exhibit No. 399" caused JFK's head wounds. It was an honest mistake.
But I'm guessing there are some rabid conspiracists out there
somewhere who will contend that this error negates every argument in
the ENTIRE book and, therefore, Bugliosi cannot be trusted.
9.) Vince gets his DPD officers mixed up on page 938 of the CD's
endnotes, when he claims that is was "Officer McDonald" who stopped
Oswald in the 2nd-Floor lunchroom. (It was actually Officer Baker.)
Mr. Bugliosi, of course, knows full well that it was Marrion Baker in
the lunchroom, because of the many other times in the book when VB
gets Baker's name right when referring to the lunchroom encounter with
Oswald.
10.) Another confusion about names crops up on page 942 of the
endnotes, when VB says that Ralph Paul (a close friend of Jack Ruby's)
had several telephone conversations with "Oswald" over the weekend of
the assassination. Vince, of course, meant to say that Paul was
speaking to Ruby, not Oswald.
(Note -- I noticed that the number and frequency of small mistakes
like this increases during the last several pages of endnotes on the
CD-ROM. I don't know if this indicates a lack of proofreading these
pages in the days just before the book went to press or not; but I
suppose that's one potential explanation for it.)
11.) Vincent B. tells us multiple times in the book that Lee Oswald
started out the day on November 22, 1963, with "$13.87" in his
pockets. But this has to be incorrect. Why? Because the $13.87 figure
is the exact total that Oswald had on his person when he was arrested
on that day. And we know that he spent $1.23 on bus and cab rides
PRIOR to being arrested. So, Lee had to have started the day with at
least $15.10 on him.
It was probably even a little more than $15.10, because LHO also
bought that Coke, remember, from the TSBD soda machine (and I can only
assume he didn't break into the machine and pilfer the beverage).
But even the Warren Commission must have forgotten about the Coke
purchase, because it's not reflected in the WC's microscopic
examination of Oswald's finances that is furnished in the Warren
Report, but the odd amount of precisely "$1.23" is mentioned for
Oswald's bus and taxi fares on 11/22/63. .....
http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wr/html/WCReport_0385a.htm
================
Addendum........
The "Jean/Joan" error by VB was discussed here in May:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/browse_thread/thread/a2f70697540716
Plus, I recently took note of another very tiny, insignificant
misspelling of a person's name in a couple of places in VB's book,
when he sometimes spells Ted Sorensen's last name "Sorenson". (A very
common slip. I think it's really spelled "...sen"; at least it's
spelled that way on the covers of the books that Ted has authored; and
that's a pretty good place to go for spelling verification.)
Detailed "RH" review here:
eca...@tx.rr.com
Regarding your quote:
"2.) VB has Eddie Barker located at Parkland Hospital
when JFK's death was announced. (Barker was really at
the Dallas Trade Mart at that time.)"
OFF
It may be of interest:
1) I did work for Eddie Barker about 25 yrs ago. His
PR firm, my type, art, camera, graphics firm.
2) MORE IMPORTANTLY I saw Eddie Barker about 11-12
months ago. I told Sam Pate who also knows Barker..
Eddie is still working at what may be a mid to late
70s age and he looks just fine! He does a radio
program/show in east Texas near Tyler where my
brother in law is a ( gULp ) IRS attorney.
3) BTW Sam Pate tells me Ron Jenkins who made the
infamous "There's Something wrong!" audio was
supposed to also be at The Trade Mart along with
Eddie Barker but didn't show and missed a scoop of
the century type assignment.. It appears this is
what inspired Jenkins to later do the FAKE audio..
Ed
2244Sep807
On Sep 8, 9:35 pm, David Von Pein <davevonp...@aol.com> wrote:
> www.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/browse_thread/thread/feb15...
> http://groups.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/browse_thread/th...
David Von Pein
That's still a tad confusing, because the fake KBOX audio definitely
includes TWO different voices on it. I don't know if one of the voices
is supposed to be Pate and the other Jenkins (I would assume that's
the case), but two distinct voices of two different announcers can be
heard. So Jenkins certainly didn't do the re-creation ALONE. He had at
least one other guy helping him with it.
You can listen to a portion of it here:
www.earthstation1.com/pgs/kennedys/dos-JFKAssassination-KBOXDallas.wma.html
Some other JFK-related broadcasts can be accessed at the links below:
www.earthstation1.com/JFKAssassination.html
www.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/3c6b5b1a26a2b461
www.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/msg/483dfbc491666a53
lazu...@webtv.net
Bugliosi's book? And no I don't give a rat's ass about typo's, awkward
sentences, merged names- only what's important. God, how brilliant can
Fokes be...apparently, he hasn't read Speer, Lifton,Fetzer, Mellen
Thompson, Thomas, Cranor,Horne,Law, etc..but, then one couldn't likely
be a mindless johnny one note lone nutter... you would have to question
the fundamentals.
David Von Pein
fairly obviously just a tongue-in-cheek thing done by "The Foke-
ster"....which is why I started out my reply with this comment:
"Probably a trick question (coming from Peter as it is). Right
Pete? ;)" -- DVP
Peter (undoubtedly) thinks the WHOLE book is one large "error".
Pete likes to play with people's heads like that. I expect it from him
in virtually every post he makes.
muc...@gmail.com
> www.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/browse_thread/thread/feb15...
>
>
> Plus, I recently took note of another very tiny, insignificant
> misspelling of a person's name in a couple of places in VB's book,
> when he sometimes spells Ted Sorensen's last name "Sorenson". (A very
> common slip. I think it's really spelled "...sen"; at least it's
> spelled that way on the covers of the books that Ted has authored; and
> that's a pretty good place to go for spelling verification.)
>
> Detailed "RH" review here:
>
> http://hometheaterforum.com/htf/showpost.php?p=3200858
A few (trival) errors below. Page numbers are bracketed.
[990] Refers to a German edition of "Oswald: Assassin or Fall Guy?".
Comment: Doesn't exist.
[991n] Refers to "Red Roses from Texas" as the very first book written
on the assassination.
Comment: "Four Dark Days in History" was the first, according to
Martin S.
[991n] Refers to Nerin E. Gun as British author.
Comment: I'm pretty sure he was Italian-born American.
[993] Refers to "Oswald: The Truth" as Joesten's second book on the
case.
Comment: It was his third. "Die Wahrheit über den Kennedy-Mord" was
his second.
[993] Implies that "Oswald: The Truth" was published in 1966.
Comment: In 1967.
-Mark
muc...@gmail.com
...and "freelance journalist" seems a better description than
"author".
Papa Andy
> www.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/browse_thread/thread/feb15...
>
>
> Plus, I recently took note of another very tiny, insignificant
> misspelling of a person's name in a couple of places in VB's book,
> when he sometimes spells Ted Sorensen's last name "Sorenson". (A very
> common slip. I think it's really spelled "...sen"; at least it's
> spelled that way on the covers of the books that Ted has authored; and
> that's a pretty good place to go for spelling verification.)
>
> Detailed "RH" review here:
>
> http://hometheaterforum.com/htf/showpost.php?p=3200858
I think many of his conclusions are in error
also, he misrepresents Lane's Rush to Judgment and his selective use
of Weisberg and Thompson is intentionally misleading
A
Ben Holmes
says...
Let's not forget that although he positions his book as the one to demolish CT
theories - and even *mentions* the 16 Smoking Guns - he ducks and runs away when
it comes to any refutation OR EVEN DISCUSSION of those 16 Smoking Guns.
And DVP merely lies about this point. Since he can't *cite* or quote any
refutation by Bugliosi.
David Von Pein
-----
Ben's a Mega-Kook.
(Ah, that's better.)
tomnln
"David Von Pein" <davev...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1189529743.0...@d55g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
Gary A
Letter to New York Times Book Review
This letter appeared in the June 17 edition of the New York Times.
To the Editor:
Bryan Burrough's laudatory review of Vincent Bugliosi's book on the
Kennedy assassination (May 20) is superficial and gratuitously
insulting. "Conspiracy theorists" - blithe generalization - should
according to Burroughs be "ridiculed, even shunned ... marginalized
the way we've marginalized smokers." Let's see now. The following
people to one degree or another suspected that President Kennedy was
killed as the result of a conspiracy, and said so either publicly or
privately:
* Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon;
* Attorney General Robert Kennedy;
* John Kennedy's widow, Jackie;
* his special adviser dealing with Cuba at the United Nations,
William Attwood;
* F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover (!);
* Senators Richard Russell (a Warren Commission member), and
Richard Schweiker and Gary
* Hart (both of the Senate Intelligence Committee);
* seven of the eight congressmen on the House Assassinations
Committee and its chief counsel, G. Robert Blakey;
* the Kennedy associates Joe Dolan, Fred Dutton, Richard Goodwin,
Pete Hamill, Frank Mankiewicz, Larry O'Brien, Kenneth O'Donnell and
Walter Sheridan;
* the Secret Service agent Roy Kellerman, who rode with the
president in the limousine;
* the presidential physician, Dr. George Burkley;
* Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago;
* Frank Sinatra;
* and the "60 Minutes" producer Don Hewitt.
All of the above, ala Burrough, were idiots.
Not so, of course. Most of them were close to the events and people
concerned, and some had privileged access to evidence and intelligence
that threw doubt on the "lone assassin" version. That doubt remains
today. Bugliosi himself this year joined us, Don DeLillo, Gerald
Posner, Robert Blakey and two dozen other writers on the assassination
in signing an open letter that appeared in the March 15 issue of The
New York Review of Books. The letter focused on a specific unresolved
lead, the discovery that a highly regarded C.I.A. officer named George
Joannides was in 1963 running an anti-Castro exile group that had a
series of encounters with Oswald shortly before the assassination.
This is obviously pertinent, yet the C.I.A. hid the fact from four
J.F.K. investigations. Since 1998, when the agency did reluctantly
disclose the merest outline of what Joannides was up to, it has
energetically stonewalled a Freedom of Information suit to obtain the
details of its officer's activities. Here we are in 2007, 15 years
after Congress unanimously approved the J.F.K. Assassination Records
Act mandating the "immediate" release of all assassination-related
records, and the C.I.A. is claiming in federal court that it has the
right not to do so.
And now your reviewer, Burrough, seems to lump together all those who
question the official story as marginal fools. Burrough's close-minded
stance should be unacceptable to every historian and journalist worthy
of the name - especially at a time when a federal agency is striving
vigorously to suppress very relevant information.
Jefferson Morley , Washington
Norman Mailer, Provincetown, Mass.
Anthony Summers, Waterford, Ireland
David Talbot, San Francisco
Gary A
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:GJgARKv0tYgJ:www.reclaiminghistory.org/+reclaiming+history,+peter+dale+scott&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us&client=firefox-a
Here's Peter Dale Scott on Bugliosi:
June 12, 2007
Bugliosi's lawyering worse than Posner's
by Peter Dale Scott
I'd like to share an example of how Bugliosi's lawyering is even worse
than Posner's. The following extract from Bugliosi (p. 980), is his
only extended treatment of my book Deep Politics:
Here are just two examples representative of literally thousands
of A-B-C (and D, E , and F) situations that the conspiracy theorists
set forth in their books : Conspiracy author Peter Dale Scott believes
that Dallas oilmen, Jack Ruby, and J. Edgar Hoover, along with many
others, may have been part of a conspiracy to murder Kennedy . In
support of this, he writes, "A businessman told the FBI that Ruby had
once introduced him to Dallas businessman E. E. Fogelson and his wife,
Greer Garson. Fogelson was a member of the 'Del Charro set'. "This was
a group of Texas millionaires who frequented [Texas oilman ] Clint
Murchison's resort, the Hotel Del Charro, near Murchison's racetrack,
the Del Mar, in La Jolla, California . Clint Murchison and some of his
associates would pay for annual racing holidays of their good friend
J . Edgar Hoover."
You can judge for yourself how accurate is Bugliosi's summary of what
I actually wrote:
"The story of Ruby and Alfred McLane illustrates how Ruby's
intimacy with the world of gambling gave him an entrée to the
overworld of Dallas oilmen and lawyers, men with considerable
political influence. Beyond question, Ruby knew a number of such
individuals. A businessman told the FBI, for example, that Ruby had
once introduced him to Dallas businessman E. E. Fogelson and his wife,
Greer Garson. Fogelson was a member of the 'Del Charro set.' This was
a group of Texas millionaires who frequented Clint Murchison's resort,
the Hotel Del Charro, near Murchison's racetrack, the Del Mar, in La
Jolla, California . Clint Murchison and some of his associates would
pay for annual racing holidays of their good friend J . Edgar Hoover."
(Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, 204-05)
Just for the record, I do not believe, and never have believed for an
instant, "that Dallas oilmen, Jack Ruby, and J. Edgar Hoover, along
with many others, may have been part of a conspiracy to murder
Kennedy." I defy Bugliosi or anyone else to find anything in my
writings that even hints at such an absurd possibility. The above
quotation certainly does not.
When I debated Posner in 1993, I had the problem that Posner misquoted
and distorted what I said. Bugliosi is not distorting, he is
fabricating his nonsense out of nothing. There is a shorter word for
that kind of activity.
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June 10, 2007