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JFK Book Review - Kill Zone By Craig Roberts · The Lone Gunman Podcast : JFK Assassination

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to JFK book Reviews. My name is Joe Barelli
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: and I am joined as always by my esteemed co host,
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  Speaker 1: Rob Clark, and we are the hosts of the Lone
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  Speaker 1: Gum podcast, which explores all aspects of the JFK assassination. Today,
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  Speaker 1: we are going to be reviewing kill Zone by Craig Roberts.
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  Speaker 1: This book was published first in nineteen ninety four by
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  Speaker 1: Typhoon Press, an imprint of the Consolidated Press International CPI.
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  Speaker 1: The book is two hundred and fifty two pages long,
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  Speaker 1: consists of twenty two chapters, about one hundred ninety eighty
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  Speaker 1: nine pages. In those twenty two chapters, he has an
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  Speaker 1: illustrations and appendix section which is about twenty five pages
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  Speaker 1: long and includes maps, autopsy diagrams, ballistic images, and copies
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  Speaker 1: of some documents. The Appendix and Endnotes section is about
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  Speaker 1: seventeen pages long with one hundred and twenty eight endnotes.
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  Speaker 1: The bibliography is about five pages long and colds from
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  Speaker 1: other books across the JFK and military history spectrum. You
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  Speaker 1: can get this book on Amazon, a paperback for nineteen
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  Speaker 1: ninety five, Kindle for only three books, and a u's
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  Speaker 1: copy started about twelve dollars. So who is Craig Roberts. Well,
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  Speaker 1: he's an author of nine books. He was a Marine
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  Speaker 1: sniper in Vietnam and a police sniper for twenty five years.
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  Speaker 1: Some of his other books are Police Sniper and JFK.
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  Speaker 1: The Dead Witnesses, which he wrote alongside John Armstrong in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four. Mister Roberts had eighteen confirmed kills in
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  Speaker 1: Vietnam and thirty five probables and I'm sure many moors
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  Speaker 1: as a police sniper. In nineteen eighty seven, at a
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  Speaker 1: law enforcement convention in Dallas, he was bored and decided
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  Speaker 1: to check out Deally Plaza and the sixth Floor Museum.
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  Speaker 1: So I'm just going to read a paragraph from the
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  Speaker 1: back of the book. In nineteen eighty seven, former US
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  Speaker 1: Marine sniper Crank Roberts, a seasoned veteran of the Vietnam War,
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  Speaker 1: stood for the first time at the sixth floor sniper's
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  Speaker 1: nest window of the Texas School Book Depository. As he
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  Speaker 1: looked down into what was the US government maintains was
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  Speaker 1: the kill zone used by Lee Harvey Oswalt, he immediately
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  Speaker 1: knew that the Award Commissions verdict that Oswalt acting alone
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  Speaker 1: from that position, fired three shots in five point six
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  Speaker 1: seconds from a bolt action rifle, with a fatal headshot
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  Speaker 1: being the last shot fired.
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  Speaker 2: Was a lie?
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  Speaker 1: Why because Roberts, a combat experienced marksman, knew that he
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  Speaker 1: could not have duplicated Oswald's opposed feet, even if armed
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  Speaker 1: with a modern sniper rifle he had used with devastating
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  Speaker 1: accuracy in Vietnam, and rob this book definitely has a
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  Speaker 1: conspiracy leaned towards it. It's not a low nut lean
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  Speaker 1: at all. And I'll hand it.
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  Speaker 2: Off to you, Thank you, Jill.
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  Speaker 3: Now, when Craig Roberts wrote this book, I think he
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  Speaker 3: was trying to share with everyone his feelings about his
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  Speaker 3: take on being such a trained sniper with eighteen kills
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  Speaker 3: in Vietnam, being a police sniper for twenty five years,
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  Speaker 3: we've got there, how many kills? His expertise on the subject. Now,
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  Speaker 3: as you can see here, mister Craig Roberts is highly decorated,
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  Speaker 3: highly decorated. He's very credible. And the book itself starts
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  Speaker 3: us off in daily plaza, in the kill zone, jumps
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  Speaker 3: right into action, and he kind of shares a lot
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  Speaker 3: of things with us that normally people wouldn't think about
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  Speaker 3: being an unexperienced shooter. Allegedly, Oswald on the sixth floor
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  Speaker 3: of the school Book Depository is sitting up there waiting,
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  Speaker 3: right And according to the official warrant commissioned version of events,
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  Speaker 3: you know, this guy, Bonnie Ray Williams was up on
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  Speaker 3: the sixth floor with him, eating his lunch the chicken
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  Speaker 3: bones and the doctor pepper and smoking a cigarette up
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  Speaker 3: until possibly twelve fifteen before he left the sixth floor.
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  Speaker 3: So Bonnie Ray said he never saw him up there.
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  Speaker 3: So if this guy's hiding in the corner, you know,
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  Speaker 3: it's a pretty humid, hot November day in Dallas, and
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  Speaker 3: that building was not properly ventilated or have air conditioning
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  Speaker 3: or anything like that. So this guy's up there sweating buckets.
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  Speaker 3: Probably he's never done this before. He's never killed anybody before.
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  Speaker 3: He may have shot at somebody before General Walker but
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  Speaker 3: didn't hit him, we don't know for sure. Possibly, but
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  Speaker 3: you have to imagine that this young man who's never
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  Speaker 3: done this before, is sweating, is ass off up in
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  Speaker 3: the corner of a building, waiting, sweats getting in his eyes,
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  Speaker 3: hands are clammy, things get slippery, and then all of
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  Speaker 3: a sudden here comes and somehow he manages to pull
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  Speaker 3: off a feet that many many trained snipers can't do. Now,
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  Speaker 3: as far as the rest of the book goes, you know,
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  Speaker 3: if you just had that part, it wouldn't be a
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  Speaker 3: very long book. So of course, mister Roberts decides to
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  Speaker 3: go into different areas of the assassination, like the medical stuff,
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  Speaker 3: some of the ballistics, some of who he thinks were
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  Speaker 3: the shooters, possible CIA connections, hell even Roscoe Whites thrown
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  Speaker 3: in the mix, of course, But we have to remember
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  Speaker 3: this is the nineties, this was thirty some years ago.
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  Speaker 3: They had to work with what they had to work
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  Speaker 3: with back then. The writing style, I really really dug it, Joe,
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  Speaker 3: because it was like written as a first person perspective,
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  Speaker 3: so you kind of felt like you were right there
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  Speaker 3: with him, which was really neat to see. He didn't
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  Speaker 3: write it from like a three mile high view, like
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  Speaker 3: he was writing about what he knows and what he feels,
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  Speaker 3: which I really appreciated in this book. I thought the
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  Speaker 3: book was well written. It's five pages of sources. I
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  Speaker 3: think the book was well edited, and it was a
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  Speaker 3: reprinted over at least four times, and who knows how
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  Speaker 3: many after that that was just in the nineties. So overall,
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  Speaker 3: you know, we have this perspective that you don't have
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  Speaker 3: to agree with, but you have to appreciate. So Joe,
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  Speaker 3: if you could give us your brief feelings on the
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  Speaker 3: book and give it the rating, sure, sure.
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  Speaker 1: So you know, I don't know of another JFK book
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  Speaker 1: that was written by a sniper, an accomplished sniper, So
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  Speaker 1: there's definitely a lot of value that he provides, value added.
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  Speaker 1: Like you mentioned, he does kind of go off on
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  Speaker 1: some tangents. You know, there's chapters on Watergate, Operation Phoenix,
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  Speaker 1: who did it, who funded it? I almost wish you
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  Speaker 1: would have kind of stayed in his sniper lane a
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  Speaker 1: little more and just really hammered down on that. But nonetheless,
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  Speaker 1: I still think it was a fascinating read and I
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  Speaker 1: give it a solid seven guns up. How about you?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I'm right there with you.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I enjoyed this book because it's not your
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  Speaker 3: typical assassination book, you know, which I can appreciate. And again,
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  Speaker 3: the perspective is a unique one. You know, It's not
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  Speaker 3: like we're getting a lower you're writing the book, or
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  Speaker 3: we're not getting a doctor writing the book, or we're
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  Speaker 3: not getting, you know, a ballistics expert writing the book,
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  Speaker 3: or we're not just getting a very smart, scholarly guy
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  Speaker 3: writing the book. You know, we're getting a very unique
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  Speaker 3: perspective written in first person narrative. And I really enjoyed it.
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  Speaker 3: Although I didn't really share his findings and his conclusions.
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  Speaker 2: I think he.
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  Speaker 3: Worked with what they had to work with back then,
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  Speaker 3: like I said, and overall, Joe I would give this
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  Speaker 3: book a six and a half guns up.
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  Speaker 2: And yeah, that's kill Zone by Craig Roberts.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, thank you everyone for joining us, and tune in
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  Speaker 1: next week for the next episode of the series.
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  Speaker 3: That's right, and if you dug it a we also
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  Speaker 3: do a podcast live every Friday night, seven pm Eastern
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  Speaker 3: here on YouTube and Wednesday night seven pm Eastern for
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: our channel members. So if you dig it go check
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  Speaker 3: it out, subscribe, become a member, and we'll see you then.
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  Speaker 2: Peace.