Whodunit? Who Killed JFK and Lindsey Rose Mitchell?

In 1963, Dallas was the site of the biggest and most complex murder case in U.S. history.

From Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Vincent Bugliosi. WW Norton, 2007.

Political author Thomas Powers cannot be accused of hyperbole when he observes that Kennedy’s assassination “was probably the greatest single traumatic event in American history.” Years later, it remains a festering wound on the nation’s psyche. Though Powers made his remark several years ago, its truth continues to this day. . . .

Throughout the years, national polls have consistently shown that the percentage of Americans who believe that there was a conspiracy in the assassination usually fluctuates from 70 to 80 percent, down to 10 to 20 percent for those who believe only one person was involved, with about 5 to 15 percent having no opinion. The most recent Gallup Poll, conducted on November 10–12, 2003, shows that a remarkable 75 percent of the American public reject the findings of the Warren Commission and believe there was a conspiracy in the assassination. Only 19 percent believe the assassin acted alone, with 6 percent having no opinion.

It is believed that more words have been written about the assassination than any other single, one-day event in world history. Close to one thousand books have been written. So why the need for this book, which can only add to an already overwhelming surfeit of literature on the case? The answer is that over 95 percent of the books on the case happen to be pro-conspiracy and anti–Warren Commission, so certainly there is a need for far more books on the other side to give a much better balance to the debate. But more importantly, although there have been hundreds of books on the assassination, no book has even attempted to be a comprehensive and fair evaluation of the entire case, including all of the major conspiracy theories. .
. .

I have spent many hours over the last month surveying what’s on the web about 1963 Dallas and JFK assassination theories. The Internet contains an enormous amount of conflicting and mis- information. On no other topic is the web likely to be such an inaccurate source for information. In 2008, a researcher studying the subject with a fresh eye is likely to be impressed with how many experts, having been “around the barn,” are convinced that both Oswald and Ruby acted alone.

http://www.reclaiminghistory.com/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/oswald/more/fr.html

On a lighter note, fictional mystery is much neater than true crime, and 1961 BA grad Mary Elizabeth Goldman has recently published a mystery novel rich with nostalgia about teenage years in the White Rock Lake area.

To Love and Die in Dallas by Mary Elizabeth Goldman. Forge Books, 2007.


Here’s a lengthy excerpt that captures some of the late 1950s Casa Linda nostalgia.

http://www.tor-forge.com/Excerpt.aspx?isbn=9780765309341#Excerpt

In her Author’s Note, Goldman recounts how she came to write the book:

Years went by quickly and one day in the early spring I received a notice of my upcoming high school class reunion. Early on I had resolved, and up until then had managed, to avoid such events but apparently time had softened me and now I was curious to discover what had become of my classmates at the school “near the city’s eastern borders underneath the Texas sky.”

Were the football players still popular? Did the ROTC cadets continue to stand at attention, did the class personalities become as successful as I imagined? Did the cheerleaders continue to exude bubbly encouragement? Did the preacher’s daughter ever learn to behave, and was homecoming queen still the most enviable girl alive? Sadly, there were several, too many, missing from this one time hopeful group of wide-eyed wonders, but Vietnam, the drug culture, and the sexual revolution had that effect on many graduating classes in the sixtieth decade of the twentieth century. I wanted to bring them back, to remember them in an imaginary world, and as a result, I created a handful of eager young people found here in the pages of To Love and Die in Dallas. I hope you enjoy reading the mystery, perhaps solving it as you go, and almost recognizing the characters portrayed.

And, the answers to the above questions are absolutely yes, in every case!

http://www.maryelizabethgoldman.com/