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JFK Book Reviews - Crossfire By Jim Marrs · The Lone Gunman Podcast : JFK Assassination

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: What's up, everybody, And welcome to JFK Book Reviews, a
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: division of the Lung Gum and Podcast. I'm one of
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: your hosts, Rob Clark Triple B alongside me Joe B
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  Speaker 1: mister Joe Borelli, and today we're going to be reviewing
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  Speaker 1: this book here, Crossfire The Plot that Killed Kennedy by
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  Speaker 1: Jim Mars. And boy, is this a thick Mamma jamma yea,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: And I mean a thick one. And your boy likes
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: him thick.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Jim Mars.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, this is the book that spurned the movie JFK.
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  Speaker 1: It was published in nineteen eighty nine January first, to
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  Speaker 1: be exact, and I have a first edition copy in
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  Speaker 1: hardback and it was published by Carol and Graft Publishing.
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  Speaker 1: This dude clocks in at five hundred and ninety five pages, Joe.
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  Speaker 1: And it's not footnoted, Nay, nay, it's not indexed m h.
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  Speaker 1: And it has a what he calls a selected bibliography.
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  Speaker 1: Now when he's talking in the book, he does cite
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  Speaker 1: different sources. But this is of course before the JFK
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  Speaker 1: Records Act, where files you know, were readily accessible into
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  Speaker 1: the nineties through NAR and on the Internet and all
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  Speaker 1: of that. So basically, you know, Jim Morris wrote this
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  Speaker 1: book based on a lot of witness eyewitness interviews of course,
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  Speaker 1: some stuff from the House Select Committee on Assassinations and
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  Speaker 1: the Warrant Commission. It's not broken up into chapters. It's
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  Speaker 1: got four different parts if you will. The first one being,
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  Speaker 1: of course, what happened that day on November twenty second,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three, you know, the events. The second part
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  Speaker 1: is it kind of breaks down who could possibly have
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  Speaker 1: been behind it, and he looks at everybody from the mafia,
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  Speaker 1: the FBI, the CIA, you know, the usual suspects as
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  Speaker 1: we call him around here. The third part looks more
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  Speaker 1: at the evidence against Oswald, Oswald's movements, Oswald in particular
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  Speaker 1: the Warrant commissioned findings and so on and so forth.
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  Speaker 1: And then the last part is is his personal conclusions
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  Speaker 1: on the matter. You know, this book is definitely written
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  Speaker 1: with a conspiracy lean Joe, that's for sure. And there
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: was an update to this book that I don't have,
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  Speaker 1: and it was updated for release in twenty thirteen, which
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: was the fifty year anniversary. And this book was in
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  Speaker 1: paperback and it clocks in at six hundred and fifty
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  Speaker 1: six pages. But I'd highly recommend to you folks out
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  Speaker 1: there to buy this book on audiobook because Jim Mars
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  Speaker 1: has one of those voices that I could listen.
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  Speaker 2: To for ever.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, he's got that slow, smooth Texas draw.
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  Speaker 1: And mister Mars he passed away in twenty seventeen. He
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  Speaker 1: was an American newspaper journalist and New York Times bestselling
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  Speaker 1: author of many books about cover ups and conspiracies. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: he wrote this book, Crossfire. He also wrote several other
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  Speaker 1: books as well, arranging the gamut from various government conspiracies
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  Speaker 1: and cover ups to UFOs nine to eleven, telepathy, you
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  Speaker 1: name it. This guy was on the fringes of it.
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  Speaker 1: And he also taught a class at the University of
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: let's see, what was it, University of Texas. He taught
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  Speaker 1: a course on assassinations. So you know, he was one
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  Speaker 1: of the first guys to really put himself out and
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  Speaker 1: pour himself into this.
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  Speaker 2: He was He was into it balls deep.
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  Speaker 1: He lived and breathed this stuff, and he dedicated his
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  Speaker 1: life to it. So you've got to respect that. But
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  Speaker 1: that being said, Joe, let's get into the meat and
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  Speaker 1: tatters about this book because there's a lot of meat
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  Speaker 1: and a lot of taters on this book.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, there definitely is. And you know what, what was
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  Speaker 3: the author trying to achieve? Well, you know, I think
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  Speaker 3: he kind of structures the book around the who, what, where, when,
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  Speaker 3: hyn how would the assassination, which is not easy to do,
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  Speaker 3: but it's differently. One of the goals was to reject
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  Speaker 3: and point out the inconsistencies of the official narrative of
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  Speaker 3: the Warrant Commission. Mars argues that the event was not
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  Speaker 3: the act of a lone gunman. And of course, as
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  Speaker 3: you mentioned, Rob, this book was a primary source for
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  Speaker 3: Oliver Stone's film JFK, which of course resulted in the
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  Speaker 3: JFK Records Act. So it is that alone is a
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  Speaker 3: huge accomplishment. I think we talked in one of a
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  Speaker 3: previous review and you mentioned a couple of books in
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  Speaker 3: the eighties, and this is definitely one of the best
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  Speaker 3: ones in the eighties. The book explores the Daly Plaza
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  Speaker 3: kill Zone, of course, crossfire including TSBD, the Great Triple Underpass,
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  Speaker 3: and sex post assassination, chaos, conflicting autopsies at Parkland. But
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  Speaker 3: that's the Jack Ruby's killing of Oswalt, evidence destruction, cleaning limousines,
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  Speaker 3: suspicious deaths of over one hundred witnesses. I'm going to
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  Speaker 3: get back to that in a little bit. I'm going
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  Speaker 3: to read a couple sentence from the preface. Why seek
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  Speaker 3: the truth of Kennedy's death? The answer are simple. Unless
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  Speaker 3: we as a nation come to a truthful understanding of
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  Speaker 3: what happened to our chief elected official in nineteen sixty three,
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  Speaker 3: we obviously cannot begin to correctly understand the events that
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  Speaker 3: are affecting us today. I seek not only the killers
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  Speaker 3: of President Kennedy. I seek the persons who killed Kamelot,
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  Speaker 3: who killed the confidence and faith of the American people
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  Speaker 3: in their government and institutions. Seek justice for both the
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  Speaker 3: accused of sassion and for the United States of America.
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  Speaker 3: So that kind of sums up up pretty well. He
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  Speaker 3: as you mentioned, goes and explores the CIA and the
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  Speaker 3: anti Castro exiles and Kennedy's perceived portrayal at the Bay
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  Speaker 3: of Pigs, invasion fueled resentment the mafia, of course, goes
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  Speaker 3: into his brother rfk's crackdown on organized crime FBI and
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  Speaker 3: government elements. Talks a lot about j Edgar Hoover, Lynda B. Johnson,
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  Speaker 3: the Texas oil interests, even the banking system.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 3: He goes through everyone who could have had her motive,
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  Speaker 3: including of course the military industrial complex, Kennedy's motives towards
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  Speaker 3: Vietnam de escalation and detante with the USSR. You went
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  Speaker 3: through the chapters already. The book is very well written.
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  Speaker 3: I think there are some parts that could have been
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  Speaker 3: tightened up a little more, but very overall, very easy
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  Speaker 3: to follow, and I think the author lays out a
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  Speaker 3: great case and motivations for each group, no matter what
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  Speaker 3: group you land on type of thing. And I think
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  Speaker 3: he really tries to urge readers to question institutional trust
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  Speaker 3: and explore the broader themes of power, secrecy, erosion of
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  Speaker 3: democracy and that kind of thing. So with that, I
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  Speaker 3: think I'll kick it back to you for your thoughts
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  Speaker 3: and writing. Sir.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean this is.
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  Speaker 1: This is like the og of ogs Man, Like we
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: were talking about these books. You know, it was best Evidence,
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  Speaker 1: Crossfire and uh.
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  Speaker 2: Shit, what was the Henry herb.
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  Speaker 1: Ab We did it already here reasonable doubt. Sorry, yeah, yes, yes, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: those are the three big dogs that came out in
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  Speaker 1: the eighties for me, and.
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  Speaker 3: Honestly, and you got to think at the time too, Rob,
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  Speaker 3: it's this is ten years after the HSC eight. I
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: think to the day all right, January first, seventy nine
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  Speaker 3: to eighty nine that the HSCA ended. So he's keeping
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  Speaker 3: momentum going.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. You know, of course this book wasn't written overnight.
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  Speaker 1: I mean he was very into this kind of thing
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  Speaker 1: for a very long time, and you know, to compile
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  Speaker 1: this book and put it together the way that they did,
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure it.
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  Speaker 2: Took years and years and years, and it's definitely evident.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: It's you know, it has a a picture section kind
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  Speaker 1: of in the middle of it doesn't really have a
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  Speaker 1: lot of pictures really, but that's okay. You know, it's
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  Speaker 1: a lot of uh, it's a lot of reading. It
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  Speaker 1: is very involved, but there's a lot of good information
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  Speaker 1: in here that that he got out for the first time.
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  Speaker 2: Because a lot of these guys in the eighties we're
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  Speaker 2: doing I guess it's you know, the wild research. You know,
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  Speaker 2: the beginnings of.
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  Speaker 1: The Harvey and Lee theory, the whole backyard photographs were
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: fake type thing, the Badgeman and you know, all this
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  Speaker 1: stuff was coming out in the eighties, and it had
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  Speaker 1: been a very long time, Joe since a book was
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  Speaker 1: written in this style about the Kennedy assassination. Sure, you
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  Speaker 1: had best evidence, but that was just mostly about the medical.
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  Speaker 2: Evidence, and you had reasonable doubt.
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  Speaker 1: Which pulled in pieces from here, more obscure pieces from there,
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  Speaker 1: and it didn't really give you an entire picture of
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  Speaker 1: the entire assassination.
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  Speaker 2: But this book really goes through.
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  Speaker 1: It all from beginning to end, and it hits everything
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  Speaker 1: in between. And Jim Mars had an advantage that a
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  Speaker 1: lot of other authors didn't have. Well, he lives in Texas,
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  Speaker 1: you know, and he had access to a lot of
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  Speaker 1: these witnesses, and he managed to interview a lot of them,
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  Speaker 1: get exclusive interviews. And this guy's a journalist. He knows
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  Speaker 1: what questions to ask as a JFK researcher. So for
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  Speaker 1: his information alone that is in this book, I think
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  Speaker 1: it's very valuable. Now, of course, this was before the
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  Speaker 1: JFK Act. This is before access to all the files
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  Speaker 1: that came much much later.
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  Speaker 2: So and.
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  Speaker 1: I'd like to think that we're reviewing the original book here,
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  Speaker 1: not the revised edition from twenty thirteen, you know, where
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  Speaker 1: he had a little bit, I would say for the time,
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  Speaker 1: given what he had to work with to put together
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  Speaker 1: a book like this. And I'll even put this up against,
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  Speaker 1: you know, like Anthony Summer's Conspiracy. You know, I believe
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  Speaker 1: it's up on that level. And that's probably another one
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  Speaker 1: from the early eighties as far as you know, chock
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  Speaker 1: full of information goes right now, had Jim Mars written
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  Speaker 1: a JFK book in twenty thirteen that he had never
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  Speaker 1: written before, we might have had a different story here.
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  Speaker 1: But I'd highly recommend checking it out if you haven't.
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  Speaker 1: It's an essential piece for your collection.
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  Speaker 3: Is a staple.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and this book cost a fortune when it came
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  Speaker 1: out in nineteen eighty nine. It was sold for twenty
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  Speaker 1: five ninety five, twenty six bucks in nineteen eighty nine.
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  Speaker 1: It would have been like eighty nine bucks now for
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: this book. I mean, that's ballsy to ask that much
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  Speaker 1: money for a JFK assassination book.
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  Speaker 2: But he did it. Oh shit, but he did it.
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  Speaker 1: Carolyn Graff did it as far as publishing, and kudos
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  Speaker 1: to them because it stands the test of time. I
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  Speaker 1: got my copy for six bucks at a used bookstore.
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  Speaker 1: Oh that's how I wrote but yeah, man, this is
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: one of the gems of my collection. It's in pristine condition,
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  Speaker 1: the jacket is meant, It's beautiful for what it is, Joe,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm gonna take it for what it is. And
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: when it came out.
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  Speaker 3: Of course, that always factors into our scores.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I can't I can't really put it up
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  Speaker 1: against something recent, because, like I said, this is all
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  Speaker 1: pre pre files coming out.
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  Speaker 2: So for what it is.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: And for what it isn't And the fact that he
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: leaves out footnote section in an index in a book
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  Speaker 1: this long and complicated, it's going to hurt the score
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: a little bit. So I'm gonna give book Joe a
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: solid straight eight guns.
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: Wow, all right, all right? And so yeah, I mean
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: I do you know, have a couple issues with a
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: couple aspects of the book. Their their minor, their nitpicky.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: For example, some of the the list of people likely
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: killed includes one of our fan favorites, Daryl Wayne Gardner
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: in nineteen seventy from a drug overdose. Bill Decker, Natural
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: Causes Suppruter in nineteen seventy as well, Natural Causes two
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: mobsters I've never heard of murdered. What mobsters got murdered
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: all the time Billy Lovelady in nineteen seventy nine, which,
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: of course HCA report has already come out. So I'm
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: not sure why you would need to murder him. And
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: the reason for that was complications from a heart attack,
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: Jesse Curry heart attack.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: In his defense, Joe, he didn't come up with his list.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: This was a big deal in the late sixties, early seventies,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: suspicious death lists after Executive Action came out and Penn
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Jones got on this thing and his buddies with Penn Jones.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: So of course he's going to add it to his book.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: It's not necessarily like he's saying, you know, this all happened.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: He's just putting it in there in book for him
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: fair enough, it hadn't been done before.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with that.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: A couple just want to read a couple more sentences.
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  Speaker 3: Since so much information this is what I really agree with,
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: So so much information concerning the lot to kill Kennedy
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: has been destroyed, altered, or masked. This is in the
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: conclusion by false leads. It remains impossible to state with
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: authority details of the plan. Even those involved were probably informed,
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: not informed, of every aspect of the plot. However, there
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: was enough information available today to construct a likely scenario
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  Speaker 3: of what happened, and that is what we try to
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: do on our show every week. Ron, So I am
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: going to give this a very very solid and we
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: don't go through scores before because it was a main
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: inspiration of the JFK movie, which gave us JK Records
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: Act Arb also a very solid eight guns up.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Joe.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: And if you enjoyed this book review, you'll love our podcast.
• 18:02
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• 18:06
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• 18:10
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• 18:20
  Speaker 3: Just ask might even be better.
• 18:24
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• 18:28
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• 18:31
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• 18:34
  Speaker 1: If you're into this kind of thing and this is
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: what you enjoy like us, you won't be disappointed. And
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: thanks for listening. And in the meantime, check out some
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: other book reviews we've done and maybe.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: Some of our podcasts.
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: Yes, we have a very good, exciting, independent the Lone
• 18:56
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  Speaker 2: Well, and I believe.
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  Speaker 2: Check it out and we'll see you next time. Peace,