JFK Lancer Productions & Publications
JFK Lancer Productions & Publications Newsletter
Book Review:
Joan Mellen's new Book on Jim Garrison
 
When speaking of the many prominent persons associated with aspects of the Kennedy Assassination, mention the name Jim Garrison and instantly the audience is polarized - there are no apathetic responses. One either loves him or hates him.

We are keenly aware of Garrison's work in the Shaw Trial, but Mellen's book Jim Garrison: His Life and Times, the Early Years  tells us the story of his life. She explores his childhood beginning with his Iowa upbringing, taking us through his war years, FBI days, his indoctrination into NO politics and his becoming the one of most famous DAs in the world.

The book demonstrates the various aspects of Garrison's development which together create his flamboyant character.  It also reveals his willingness to sacrifice himself politically to actively pursue those whom he thought complicit in the Assassination.

In Jim Garrison, Mellen has added information which sheds light on incidences with respect to the Shaw trial.  For example, she writes about Garrison's efforts to clean up the  French Quarter by conducting Bourbon Raids, and adds to this that he made plenty of enemies. Mellen  concludes that this is why the people in the New Orleans French Quarter would not identify Clay Shaw as Clay Bertrand.

The book is rich with detail giving the reader new insight into Garrison as a man; however it can be a bit difficult to read since with the inclusion of  so much information, the flow occasionally becomes choppy. However, for those of you looking for a peek inside the man who was truly unstoppable, Jim Garrison: His Life and Times, the Early Years is a must have. 

Review by Kathy Becket

JFK Lancer
Published Books:

 
 
 
Jim Marrs Featured Speaker at  NID 2008

JFK Lancer is honored to announce JIm Marrs as the feature speaker of the NID 2008 Conference. Marrs will presnt information during the conference as well as at Dealey Plaza and the Lancer - Mary Farrell Awards Banquet.
_____________________________

Congratulations
Stu Wexler!

JFK Lancer is pleased to offer congratulations to Stu Wxler who with Dr. Cliff Spiegelman, Dr. Simon J. Sheather, Dr. William D. James, William A. Tobin, and D. Max Roundhill was presently recognized with a prestigious national award. The American Statistical Association presented the team with its 2008 Statistics in Chemistry Award, which recognizes outstanding collaborative endeavors between statisticians and chemists.The award was presented to team members for their paper, "Chemical and Forensic Analysis of JFK Assassination Bullet Lots: Is a Second Shooter Possible?" published in Annals of Applied Statistics in 2007.
Tyler Weaver
NID 2008 Speaker
Focuses on
JFK / LBJ Transition

A seasoned veteran of Washington politics, Lyndon Johnson became president at 55 years of age. He had served in Congress for more than 25 years and was the youngest person ever to serve as Senate Majority Leader.

Johnson succeeded to the presidency following the assassination of President Kennedy facing huge challenges: he had to address who plotted John F. Kennedy's assassination, console a mourning nation, and consolidate power in an administration intensely loyal to his predecessor.
 
In the first days of his presidency, Johnson called friends and rivals alike, asking for support, pledging loyalty to Kennedy's programs, and touching the bases of power in Washington.

Johnson himself said, "I took the oath, I became president. But for millions of Americans I was still illegitimate, a naked man with no presidential covering, a pretender to the throne. The whole thing was almost unbearable."
 

Tyler Weaver is providing NID 2008 conference attendees a glimpse of what that transition of power entailed. Tyler is the Executive Director of the Mary Ferrell Foundation (www.maryferrell.org) and a filmmaker, having made such films as "The Fourteen Minute Gap," and the "Withheld In Full" series for the Foundation, and the forthcoming "Gather 'Round the Mic" with his production company, Red Window Pictures.


 
2008 NID Panel:
From Start to Finish

For 12 years following the assassination, the general public never saw the infamous footage of JFK's death filmed by Abraham Zapruder. Although selected frames had been published in Life magazine, it wasn't until a 1975 ABC broadcast that Americans had the opportunity to see for themselves what happened in Dealey Plaza.

Following that television showing, a wave of outrage directed at the findings of the Warren Commission emerged. But this wasn't the beginning of criticism and widespread distrust of the Warren Commission. Earlier mistrust of the official version of the assassination events had resulted in the 1966 Freedom of Information Act.

NID 2008 has a panel of researchers who are focusing on that early time following the Warren Commission Report's release and helping us to see where we are today in our quest in obtaining the truth. This special NID panel includes:

Gerald McKnight, who will focus on the Sins of the Warren Commission;
Stuart Wexler, who will discuss Warren Commission Failures;
Jim Marrs, who will describe the past 45 Years of Effort in Investigating the Assassination; and
Rex Bradford, who will give us a  Document Release Update and a Review of Key New Documents.

JFK Lancer's Online Catalog includes Warren Commission Documents such as:
  1. D369-CD. (Commission Document 3) REPORT OF THE U.S. SECRET SERVICE OF THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY U.S. Treasury Department Washington, D.C. 250 pages
  2. D372. (Commission Document 107.) INVESTIGATION OF ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY NOVEMBER 22, 1963, SUPPLEMENTAL FBI REPORT JANUARY 13, 1964. 353 pages
    3. * Part. One of this report sets forth additional evidence developed incriminating Lee Harvey Oswald in the assassination.(132 pages)
    * Part. Two sets fourth additional information developed regarding Lee Harvey Oswald. (119 pages)
    * Part Three contains additional exhibits. (102 pages)
  3. D122. WARREN COMMISSION EXECUTIVE SESSION TRANSCRIPTS, Transcribed recorded conversations-some disturbing and startling-of the Warren Commissioners and others on staff, purpose, evidence, direction, and directives from President Johnson, the FBI and other government agencies. A unique historical document. 517 pages.
12-5-64 (70 pages); 12-6-63 (25 pages + 5 pages released 1993); 12-16-63 (64 pages + 2 pages released 1993); 1-21-64 (127 pages); 1-27-64 (85 pages; 3-16-64 (5 pages); 4-30-64 (43 pages); 5-19-64 (54 pages released 1993); 6-4-64 (11 pages); 6-23-64 (12 pages); and 9-8-64 (6 pages).

Also on CD is CD-165 The Warren Commission Executive Sessions. Each meeting transcript available to read on your pc or print out for your files. 
Introduction by David Lifton, with selected articles from previous KAC issues.


 
Why Run for President?

Speech by Senator John F. Kennedy, Democratic Rally, George Washington High School Stadium, Alexandria, VA, August 24, 1960:
I run for the office of the Presidency not because I think it is an easy job in soft times. I think it is going to be the most difficult and hazardous year in our country's history. This is a time of danger.

Speech of Senator John F. Kennedy, Bangor, Maine, Fair Grounds, September 2, 1960:
I run for the office of the Presidency because I believe, because I know that this is the great office in the gift of the United States and, really, the great office in the gift of the free people of the world. We represent not only ourselves. The President of the United States represents not only the Democrats of this country, he represents all of the people around the world who want to live in freedom, who look to us for hope and leadership.

Speech of Senator John F. Kennedy, Portland, Maine, Portland Stadium, September 2, 1960:
I don't run for the office of the Presidency to tell you what you want to hear. I run for the office of the Presidency because in a dangerous time we need to be told what we must do if we are going to maintain our freedom and the freedom of those who depend upon us.

Excerpts of Remarks by Senator John F. Kennedy, New York Coliseum, New York, NY
November 5, 1960:
In less than 60 hours the polls open - Tonight, as this campaign comes to a close, I want to talk about the central issue I discussed when it opened - the Presidency. For the last 3 months, in outlining the programs I believe this country needs, I have in effect answered the question why I want to be President. I hope I have made it clear that I want to be President - not because that will be an easy task in the 1960's - on the contrary it will, in many ways, be more difficult than at any time since Lincoln - but because after 14 years in Washington I know this office must provide the main force in moving this country ahead in these critical years. Tonight, instead of repeating why I want to be President, permit me to discuss what kind of President I want to be.
Should I be successful next Tuesday, I want above all else to be a President known - at the end of 4 years - as one who not only prevented war but won the peace - as one of whom history might say: he not only laid the foundations for peace in his time, but for generations to come as well.
If I am elected next Tuesday, I want to be a President known - at the end of 4 years - as one who not only held back the Communist tide but advanced the cause of freedom and rebuilt American prestige - not by words but by work - not by stating great aims merely as a good debater, but by doing great deeds as a good neighbor - not by tours and conferences abroad, but by vitality and direction at home. My opponent promises, if he is successful, to go to Eastern Europe, to go perhaps to another summit, to go to a series of meetings around the world. If I am successful, I am going to Washington, D.C., and get this country to work.
I want to be a President who will regain that office for the people. I have no wish to be known as a narrowly partisan President, or as a private-interest President - I want to be President of all the people.
But I do not intend, if successful, to ignore party leadership or party responsibility - and I do not intend to forget that I am a Democrat.
I want to be a President who has the confidence of the people - and who takes the people into his confidence - who lets them know what he is doing and where we are going, who is for his program and who is against. I hope to set before the people our unfinished agenda - to indicate their obligations - and not simply follow their every whim and pleasure.
I want to be a President who acts as well as reacts - who originates programs as well as study groups - who masters complex problems as well as one-page memorandums. I want to be a President who is the Chief Executive in every sense of the word - who responds to a problem, not by hoping his subordinates will act, but by directing them to act - a President who is willing to take the responsibility for getting things done, and take the blame if they are not done right.
For I am not in this campaign merely to win an election - I seek election in order to carry out our program.
I am not promising action in the first 100 days alone - I am promising you 1,000 days of exacting Presidential leadership.
For I know what happens to a Nation that sleeps too long. I saw the British deceive themselves before World War II, as Winston Churchill tried in vain to awaken them and while England slept, Hitler armed; and if we sleep too long in the sixties, Mr. Khrushchev will "bury" us yet. That is why the next President must be more than a mere bookkeeper, getting the numbers on the balance sheet to come out even - he must be commander in chief of the grand alliance for freedom.
If I am successful next Tuesday, I want to be a President who believes in working full time when millions of men and women are forced to work part time.
I want to be a President who cares, not only about the Nation's loss of gold, but about 4 million men losing their jobs and income.
I want to be a President who is concerned, not only about the Government balancing its budget, but about the housewife balancing hers.
I want to be a President who recognizes every citizen's rights as well as his obligations - particularly when one stroke of the pen on an Executive order could assure all citizens that every door will be open - in Government employment, in Federal jobs, and to federally financed homes.
I want to be the President of a country which raises the farmer's income instead of his costs - which sends more children to college and fewer oldsters to the poorhouse - which provides higher pay for our teachers and lower interest rates for small business.
In short, I believe in a President who will formulate and fight for his legislative policies, and not be a casual observer of the legislative progress.
A President who will not back down under pressure, or let down his spokesmen in the Congress - a President who does not speak from the rear of the battle but who places himself in the thick of the fight.
But I also believe in a President who fights for great ideals as well as legislation - a President who cares deeply about the people he represents - their right to a full-time job with full-time pay - to raise their children in a decent neighborhood - to send their children to a good school - to share in the benefits of our abundance and our natural resources - and to retire to a life of dignity and health.
And above all I believe in a President who believes in the national interest - who serves no other master - who takes no instructions but those of his conscience - who puts no personal interest, no public pressure, no political hopes, and no private obligation of any kind ahead of his oath to promote the national interest.
If I should be successful next Tuesday, I want to be that kind of President. I want to try to set as my standard the day Abraham Lincoln called his wartime Cabinet together to read to them his draft of the Emancipation Proclamation. They represented a coalition of differing interests and views - but Lincoln knew that only he had the final responsibility. "I have gathered you together," he said, "to hear what I have written down. I do not wish your advice about the main matter - that I have determined for myself."
And later, as he went to sign it, exhausted by several hours of ceremonial handshaking, Lincoln remarked: "If my name goes down in history, it will be or this one act. My whole soul is in it. If my hand trembles when I sign this proclamation, all who examine the document hereafter will say: 'He hesitated'."
But Lincoln's hand did not tremble. He did not hesitate. For he was not only the Chief Executive of the land. He was the President of the United States.
And if I am successful on Tuesday, it is my intention to be, in the fullest measure of the word and office, the next President of the United States - and I shall, without hesitation or reservation take a solemn oath on the 20th of January 1961 to "solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution * * * So help me God."

LANCER was John F. Kennedy's Secret Service Code name. Use of this formerly secret name represents our efforts to make John F. Kennedy's assassination information available to everyone. JFK Lancer Productions & Publications subscribes to the values of patriotism, excellence, integrity and dedication to the revealing of truth surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

If you know someone who supports JFK Lancer Productions & Publications principles and objectives, we encourage you to invite them to become a forum member and join an interesting, dynamic and diverse group of individuals who foster understanding of the John F. Kennedy assassination. Additionally, we ask if you know a student or teacher who is qualified, encourage them to complete the linked application for our scholarship to be awarded at the Awards Banquet at November in Dallas 2008.