BOOK REVIEW -- "Four Days In November" By Vincent Bugliosi
David Von Pein
BOOK REVIEW:
===================================
"FOUR DAYS IN NOVEMBER: THE ASSASSINATION OF
PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY" (2008)
By:
VINCENT BUGLIOSI
www.wwnorton.com/catalog/spring08/033215.htm
===================================
Vincent Bugliosi's "FOUR DAYS IN NOVEMBER", published by W.W. Norton &
Company in late May 2008, paints a vivid word picture of the events
surrounding the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
This 688-page paperback is a reprint of the first chapter of
Bugliosi's mammoth and spectacular 2007 hardcover tome "RECLAIMING
HISTORY: THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY". So if you've
already got that book, there's really no reason to also purchase this
"Four Days" volume too.
The award-winning* "Reclaiming History" lays out all the evidence (in
overwhelming doses) to definitively show that Lee Harvey Oswald--
alone--did, indeed, murder President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on
November 22, 1963.
www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/3200858-post.html
www.google.com/group/reclaiming-history/topics
* = "RH" won an "Edgar Allan Poe Award" on May 1, 2008, as the "Best
Fact Crime" book of 2007.
www.google.com/group/Reclaiming-History/browse_thread/thread/2d609b32846ec2ed
Author and former Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Vincent T.
Bugliosi has referred to "Reclaiming History" as his "magnum opus",
and after reading its compelling and convincing contents, such a
description is certainly hard to disagree with, in my own personal
opinion.
"Reclaiming History", as mentioned, is mammoth in size and scope,
logging in at 1,535,791 words and 2,824 total pages (which includes
the 1,100+ pages of endnotes and source citations on a CD-ROM computer
disc that is attached to the back cover of the book). That page count
also includes all of the photo pages in "RH"; and most of those same
photographs also show up in this shorter "Four Days" volume as well,
albeit smaller in size.
The narrative that we find in "Four Days In November" begins at 6:30
AM on the morning of President Kennedy's assassination (Friday,
November 22nd, 1963), and continues chronologically through the day of
JFK's funeral (Monday, November 25th).
Bugliosi provides an incredible amount of information and seldom-
revealed facts in "Four Days", much of which will probably be brand-
new to some readers.
Many portions of this book actually can be traced back to two other
similarly-styled books about JFK's assassination that were written in
the late 1960s -- William Manchester's "The Death Of A President" and
Jim Bishop's "The Day Kennedy Was Shot".
www.amazon.com/THE-DEATH-OF-A-PRESIDENT/review/RGHDDNLTB60EQ
www.amazon.com/THE-DAY-KENNEDY-WAS-SHOT/review/RYD6JTWASP90K
This is quite evident when glancing through the 49 pages of source
notes in "Four Days", with Manchester's and Bishop's books being
referenced many times within the 1,557 citations that Bugliosi
provides. ("Reclaiming History", by the way, contains more than 10,000
source citations, which is a figure that probably makes it one of the
most-sourced books in publishing history.)
To a person who isn't inclined to believe that virtually every piece
of evidence against Lee Harvey Oswald for the murders of President
Kennedy and Dallas policeman J.D. Tippit was miraculously and
magically "manufactured" or "faked" in some way, "Four Days In
November" leaves little to no doubt as to the identity of the one and
only person who was responsible for those two homicides.
Or, to put it more bluntly (as Vince Bugliosi does in this quote from
"RH"):
"I can tell the readers of this book ["Reclaiming History"] that
if anyone in the future maintains to them that Oswald was just a patsy
and did not kill Kennedy, that person is either unaware of the
evidence against Oswald or simply a very silly person. .... Any denial
of Oswald's guilt is not worthy of serious discussion." -- Vincent
Bugliosi; Page 969 of "Reclaiming History" (c.2007)
So, if you're interested in just about every last detail imaginable
when it comes to those four incredible days in November of 1963 when
America lost its President to an assassin's bullet, then "Four Days In
November" is undeniably the book to pick up.
And for an even more-exhaustive examination of JFK's assassination and
the large number of conspiracy theories it spawned (with Mr. Bugliosi
reducing each one of those theories to a most-deserved pile of
smoldering rubble), "Reclaiming History" is an absolute must-have item
for the "True Crime" home library.
Both of Vince Bugliosi's JFK volumes ("RH" and "Four Days") are books
that will (or certainly should) make anybody reading them think twice
the next time they hear the words "Oswald was just a patsy".
===================================
FROM THE LIPS OF THE AUTHOR:
"The millions of Americans who have been hoodwinked into buying
into the conspiracy illusion don't believe that Oswald conspired with
some other lowly malcontent like himself to assassinate the president.
Instead, though most don't clearly articulate the thought in their
mind, they believe that Oswald was merely the triggerman for organized
crime, a foreign nation, or conspirators who walked the highest
corridors of power in our nation's capital. ....
"Not the smallest speck of evidence has ever surfaced that any
of the conspiracy community's favorite groups (CIA, mob, etc.) was
involved, in any way, in the assassination. Not only the Warren
Commission, but the HSCA [House Select Committee on Assassinations]
came to the same conclusion. .... But conspiracy theorists, as
suspicious as a cat in a new home, find occurrences and events
everywhere that feed their suspicions and their already strong
predilection to believe that the official version is wrong. ....
"The fact that Kennedy was a powerful public figure was very
relevant to Oswald's motivation for killing him. On the other hand,
murders of powerful public figures in America by the groups fancied by
conspiracy theorists--the CIA, mob, FBI, and military-industrial
complex--are absolutely unheard of. Show me a precedent. ....
"The bottom line is that evidence of Oswald's innocence in the
Kennedy assassination is about as rare as hundred-dollar bills on the
floor of a flophouse. ....
"Only people who subscribe to rules of absurdity, not rules of
life, could possibly believe that a conspiracy to kill [John F.]
Kennedy ever existed. The conspiracy argument in the Kennedy
assassination requires the belief that for over forty years a great
number of people have been able to keep silent about the plot behind
the most important and investigated murder of the 20th century. In
other words, it requires a belief in the impossible. ....
"Waiting for the conspiracy theorists to tell the truth is a
little like leaving the front-porch light on for Jimmy Hoffa."
-- Vincent Bugliosi; Pages xiv, xvi, xlii, 844, 950, and 1442 of
"Reclaiming History: The Assassination Of President John F.
Kennedy" (c.2007)
===================================
David Von Pein
May 2008
aeffects
a publisher[s] will go to any length to make back the authors
advance.... ho-hmm....
David Von Pein
VINCE BUGLIOSI ON GEORGE BUSH:
==========================
This is merely an observation....a book excerpt....a snippet marking
some of author Vincent T. Bugliosi's personal thoughts about the man
who is currently residing in a large white house on Pennsylvania
Avenue in Washington, D.C.
I'm not passing judgment on whether Mr. Bugliosi is right or wrong
with respect to the following remarks. I prefer to stay out of that
mud-slinging arena when it comes to this particular debate. But I'm
sure that many people will agree with Mr. Bugliosi's comments that I
am going to reprint below. And others will disagree with him.
As for right now, though, the only thing I'm seriously worried about
is my jaw. I'm concerned it has sustained permanent damage after
having hit the floor in such a violent manner upon my reading the
following passages penned by Mr. Bugliosi:
===================================================
"No political figures in American history ever so shamelessly
exploited a war for political advantage as much as [George W. Bush,
Karl Rove, and Dick Cheney]. ....
"Bush is obviously not a man of stature. He's a spoiled, callous
brat who became president only because of his father's good name. And
Rove is a pasty, weak-faced, and mean-spirited political
criminal. ....
"These two [Bush and Rove] are human embarrassments, and it's
written all over their faces who they are. There's nothing of
substance and character on the inside of either of these two "men" for
their faces to reflect." -- Vincent Bugliosi; Page 44 of "The
Prosecution Of George W. Bush For Murder" (Vanguard Press)(c.2008)
===================================================
And that's only page 44 of 340-plus pages. I'm not quite sure my jaw
can withstand the remaining 300 or so pages. But, we'll see. (Maybe I
should put some pillows on the floor.)