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JFK Book Reviews - A Farewell To Justice · The Lone Gunman Podcast : JFK Assassination

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: What's up, everybody, and welcome to JFK Book Reviews. I
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: am Rob Clark alongside me as Joe Borelli, and we
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  Speaker 1: will be reviewing the book A Farewell to Justice by
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  Speaker 1: Joan Mellon Today clocks in at six hundred and eight pages. Joe.
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  Speaker 1: It's a thick one, and this is actually the revised
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  Speaker 1: edition that was published in twenty thirteen by Skyhorse Publishing.
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  Speaker 1: The original was published in two thousand and five by
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  Speaker 1: an outfit called Potomac Publishing. Joan Mellon was a professor
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  Speaker 1: at Temple University for many many years, the author of
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  Speaker 1: over twenty books, Joe, including this one, which was our
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  Speaker 1: first foray into the JFK assassination. It includes twenty three chapters,
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  Speaker 1: a ninety page update, a note section which you'll get
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  Speaker 1: more into here in a minute, and is also indexed thoroughly.
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  Speaker 1: It also has many many pictures included in the book,
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  Speaker 1: never before seen, which is interesting. The book itself can
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  Speaker 1: be found on Amazon in Kendall form for eleven ninety nine,
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  Speaker 1: audio book form for thirty three books if you're rich,
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  Speaker 1: hardcover for eighteen dollars, and paperback for somewhere around fifteen
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  Speaker 1: to twenty dollars, and it can be found as low
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  Speaker 1: as six dollars and fifty four cents at the current
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  Speaker 1: at the current moment, it's a steal, that is a steal,
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  Speaker 1: and Joe, this book does take a conspiracy lean. So
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  Speaker 1: if you could just take us into the meat and
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  Speaker 1: potatoes of this.
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  Speaker 2: Book, I'd be happy to.
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  Speaker 3: So what did Joan Mellen hope to achieve in this book?
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  Speaker 3: I think the goal of the book was to vindicate
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  Speaker 3: and defend New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison's investigation into
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  Speaker 3: the assassination of President John F.
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  Speaker 2: Kennedy. Garrison was the only public official to ever indict
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  Speaker 2: a suspect, Clay Shaw, in Kennedy's murder in nineteen sixty nine.
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  Speaker 2: The show was found not guilty. The author portrays Garrison
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  Speaker 2: as a complex, relentless figure whose investigation faced opposition from
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  Speaker 2: the CIA, FBI, the mainstream media, and even Robert F.
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  Speaker 1: Kennedy.
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  Speaker 2: The book is both a biography of Garrison and a
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  Speaker 2: reinvestigation of the assassination, blending thorough research with a narrative
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  Speaker 2: style likened to an epic but tragic, tragic novel. Overall,
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  Speaker 2: Melon presents Garrison's work as a courageous, if flawed pursuit
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  Speaker 2: of truth, arguing it revealed a government orchestrated conspiracy that
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  Speaker 2: reshaped US history. The book challenges the Warrant Commission's conclusion
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  Speaker 2: that Lee Harvey Oswalt acted alone as an unstable, pro
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  Speaker 2: marked Castro Marxist. Mellan argues that Oswalt was not a Marxist,
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  Speaker 2: but was working with the FBI, CIA, and US Custom Service.
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  Speaker 2: Drawing on previously unreleased documents and witness interviews, many with
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  Speaker 2: first time witnesses and other persons of interests associated with
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  Speaker 2: the assassination Garrison's investigation rob However, there are a few
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  Speaker 2: mistakes in this book, and I'm going to go through
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  Speaker 2: one now. Quote Although Garrison never learned that Jack Martin,
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  Speaker 2: his first real witness, not only served with military intelligence,
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  Speaker 2: but was himself a former CIA employee. Jack's trial name
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  Speaker 2: was John J. Martin, and he worked for the agency
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  Speaker 2: throughout the fifties. John J. Martin was a low ranking
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  Speaker 2: intelligence assistant who joined the agency in November nineteen fifty.
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  Speaker 2: What emerges from the record is that John J. Martin
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  Speaker 2: AK Jack Martin never left the agency. Now I can
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  Speaker 2: appreciate how easy it is to get the Martins confused,
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  Speaker 2: because during our Martin series, in our initial research, we
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  Speaker 2: got a lot of them confused. But here she confuses
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  Speaker 2: Jack Martin to be Joseph James Martin, a CIA employee
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  Speaker 2: in the transportation branch nineteen fifty to nineteen fifty eight. Now,
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  Speaker 2: Jack Martin did have a John J. Martin alias in Kentucky,
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  Speaker 2: but he's not the same Joseph Martin that worked for
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  Speaker 2: the CIA in the fifties. So she's conflating the two here,
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  Speaker 2: and that's not an insignificant mistake to make either of No,
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  Speaker 2: we have zero evidence that Jack Martin in New Orleans
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  Speaker 2: real name Edward Suggs ever worked for the CIA, although
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  Speaker 2: Martin himself did claim that he did, and there are
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  Speaker 2: other similar mistakes and embellishments scattered in the book.
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  Speaker 1: The book is.
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  Speaker 2: Well written, although the author does jump around in terms
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  Speaker 2: of some jet matter, time periods and locations, and would
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  Speaker 2: be difficult for someone just getting into the JFK assassination
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  Speaker 2: to easily follow. The way the book is footnoted is
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  Speaker 2: a little confusing, rob a little frustrating when me bring
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  Speaker 2: this up real quick, and there are no footnote numbers
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  Speaker 2: on the pages. So you have to go to the
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  Speaker 2: footnote section in the back of the book, find the
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  Speaker 2: page and the line number, then go back to the
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  Speaker 2: page in the book and count which the lines of
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  Speaker 2: which the note refers to. And there are one hundred
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  Speaker 2: and thirty pages of footnotes, and so it is well sourced,
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  Speaker 2: but it takes a decent amount of time to find
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  Speaker 2: those sources. So I will kick it back off to
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  Speaker 2: you for your thoughts and ratings.
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  Speaker 1: Well, thank you, Joe, you know whatever, this is one
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  Speaker 1: books when it comes to the New Orleans part of
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  Speaker 1: the story, the Garrison investigation, all the New Orleans CD
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  Speaker 1: characters and everything that was going on there. It's one
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  Speaker 1: of my favorite aspects of the Kennedy assassination. So this
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  Speaker 1: is one of my go to books. As I said before,
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  Speaker 1: this is one of John Mellen's first for a's into
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  Speaker 1: the Kennedy assassination, which Joe said took her over seven
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  Speaker 1: years to write over, you know, cost her over one
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  Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars to do, you know, thousands of interviews
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  Speaker 1: for this book. She traveled the country. Aside from some
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  Speaker 1: of the factual errors, you know, this book is just
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  Speaker 1: chocked full of information. About all these colorful CD New
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  Speaker 1: Orleans characters that are intertwined in the narrative of the
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  Speaker 1: Garrison investigation in nineteen sixty seven, nineteen sixty eight, nineteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty nine, and her being a very pro Garrison uh fan,
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  Speaker 1: you know, spurned spurned, of course, this book spurned a
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  Speaker 1: biography of Jim Garrison the man himself, which goes into
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  Speaker 1: a lot more detail about his life in general, not
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  Speaker 1: just this aspect and part of his life. Critics kind
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  Speaker 1: of spurn this book, as they normally do when somebody
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  Speaker 1: comes out of left field that's not part of the
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  Speaker 1: Kennedy assassination research community and drops a giant bomb of
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  Speaker 1: a book with loaded with information, especially that supports Garrison,
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  Speaker 1: which is not a very popular opinion in the community,
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  Speaker 1: at least you know what he did to Clay Shaw.
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  Speaker 1: But that being said, Joe, personally, I love the book.
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  Speaker 1: It's a resource all the you do have to do
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  Speaker 1: your own fact checking just to make sure what you're
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  Speaker 1: reading is truthful. But that being said, Joe, I think
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  Speaker 1: I'm gonna give this book an eight point five out
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  Speaker 1: of ten. Guns up, bum bum bum, how about you, sir?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you're right there's a ton of information
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  Speaker 2: in this book. It's it's if you're interested in the
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  Speaker 2: New Orleans aspect of the assassination, Oswald's time there, the
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  Speaker 2: Garrison investigation, it's a must read. There's a lot of
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  Speaker 2: information in there interviews that was not previously out there
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  Speaker 2: before she came out with this. Uh. I don't agree
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  Speaker 2: with with some of her conclusions. One example would be
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  Speaker 2: Lee Harvey Oswalt's working undercover for not one, not two,
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  Speaker 2: but three different agencies. But that doesn't mean there's a
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  Speaker 2: ton of great research and assassination tidbits in there. So
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  Speaker 2: I give this book solid seven guns up.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Thank you, sir, Thank you, sir. And that is our
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  Speaker 1: review of Joan Mellon's book, A Farewell to Justice, which
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  Speaker 1: of course is a rip off of a Farewell to
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  Speaker 1: Arms title, but that's all good. So you know, the
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  Speaker 1: reason I wanted to do this book is because Joan
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  Speaker 1: Mellon recently passed away within the past couple of weeks
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  Speaker 1: and we wanted to do this in her memory. May
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  Speaker 1: she rest in peace, and thank her for contributions to
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  Speaker 1: the JFK assassination research community. That being said, if you
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  Speaker 1: enjoyed what you saw here today. We do do a
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  Speaker 1: podcast about the Kennedy assassination live every Friday night at
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: seven pm Eastern Standard Time here on YouTube, and every
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Wednesday night at seven pm Eastern for our channel members.
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  Speaker 1: So if you dug this, you'll dig that. Check us out.
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  Speaker 1: We'll see you over there. For Joe Borelli, I'm Rob Clark.
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  Speaker 1: Peace later, m