Gerald Posner - Case Closed

After visiting the JFK site in Dallas I had to read this definitive account of the assassination.  The book is relentless in laying down the facts.  Lee Harvey Oswald alone killed President Kennedy.  There was no conspiracy.  Elemenets in the Mafia hated JFK.  Castro had reason to kill JFK.  Dragging the CIA and Lyndon Johnson into it is ridiculous.  The atmosphere in Dallas in 1963 was highly toxic.  Nevertheless, Oswald did it and he acted alone.  There were no other shooters.

Oswald was a dedicated Marxist.  He had temporarily defected to the Soviet Union where he met his wife Marina.  He visited Mexico City shortly before the shooting attempting to get to Cuba.  He admired Castro.  Oswald was disturbed, volatile, and downright crazy.  He was the lone shooter and he acted alone.

The thing that struck me the most was what a clear shot Oswald had.  Look down from his perch on the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository and you see that he had a clear shot.  It was relatively easy.  Everything went right.  Things could have happened to prevent the shooting that day.  The motorcade passed by during the lunch hour which allowed Oswald to set up his sniper's nest.  He was able to walk into the building with his rifle disguised as "curtain rods."  He had just gotten the job on October 16th. If he had not gotten the job the assassination never could have happened.  Accidents of history.   Unfortunately everything went right for Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963 and so everything went wrong for the world.

The precise motive for the shooting died when Jack Ruby shot Oswald.  Ruby was a nut case.  He also acted alone.  Ruby was crazier than Oswald.  Viewed from 49 years later, the whole thing is amzing that it ever happened.

I was going to maybe read other books on the assassination of JFK.  I am not inclined to do so now.  Books alleging a conspiracy have proliferated since 1963.  This book convinces me that Oswald did it.  He was the lone gunman and he acted alone.  There was no conspiracy.  The whole thing is tragically a freak of history.  Case closed.