I enjoyed this history of the JFK Assassination. It really breaks down his life, the six seconds in Dallas and the conspiracy theories surrounding that day. I've always been intrigued by the Kennedy's especially Jack Kennedy. This book gave me some more information about the shooting and how each theory doesn't make sense. It had me hanging on to see who the author would say actually killed Kennedy.

I did not make it to the end of the introduction chapter. The author utilizes free speech to voice his ideas and opinions in this book. However, he does not believe that others should have the same right to free speech. It was at that point I was done. Free speech is a main reason why we on this side of the pond fought for freedom.

An intriguing look at the JFK assassination and the conspiracy theories behind it. The author makes a great case of proving/disproving the various theories. The author presents a good case with telling clues and facts that lend support to the possible perpetrators of the crime. Although, the author points to his beliefs, he still allows the reader to come to their own conclusions.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the US, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, TX. Kennedy was in the vehicle with his wife, Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, and Connally's wife, Nellie, when he was fatally shot from the nearby Texas School Book Depository by former U.S. Marine Lee Harvey Oswald. The motorcade rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where Kennedy was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after the shooting; Connally was also wounded in the attack but recovered. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was hastily sworn in as president two hours and eight minutes later aboard Air Force One at Dallas Love Field.After the assassination, Oswald returned home to retrieve a pistol; he shot and killed lone Dallas policeman J. D. Tippit shortly afterwards. Around 70 minutes after Kennedy and Connally were shot, Oswald was apprehended by the Dallas Police Department and charged under Texas state law with the murders of Kennedy and Tippit. Two days later, at 11:21 a.m. on November 24, 1963, as live television cameras covered Oswald's being moved through the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters, he was fatally shot by Dallas nightclub operator Jack Ruby. Like Kennedy, Oswald was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he soon died. Ruby was convicted of Oswald's murder, though the decision was overturned on appeal, and Ruby died in prison in 1967 while awaiting a new trial.Kennedy's assassination is still the subject of widespread debate and has spawned many conspiracy theories and alternative scenarios; polls found that a vast majority of Americans believed there was a conspiracy such as there being multiple gunmen involved.Kennedy was the fourth U.S. president to be assassinated.There were theories on who was responsible for the assassination such as Russia and Cuba, since the Cold War was on at the time, the Secret Service, the FBI, CIA, the Dallas Police Department, the Mafia, and LBJ himself.The people who were involved have mostly died,taking their secrets with them, and there are some that are still at large not being forthcoming since its dangerous.

This book is a great educational resource. The illustrations/ photos are amazing. This book is a nice look back of this controversial event.

The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy is one of the milestones of history. Everyone, it is said, remembers where they were when they heard the news. Because the official investigation, the Warren Commission, set up by Kennedy’s successor in the White House, Lyndon Johnson, was such a whitewashing travesty of justice, the world has felt itself free to speculate ever more wildly about what really happened in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, in November 1963.

This is another brilliant book by M J Trow. Well written, interesting and informative. It makes a dry subject exciting and very readable. Although I have read many books on this subject I found that this is one of the best.

Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country - John F. Kennedy

22 November 1963, in Dallas Texas, the unspeakable happened again, the assassination of the country’s president and without a doubt I believe Lee Harvey Oswald was a patsy. Just like he claimed to be, before Jack Ruby silenced him forever.

The JFK Assassination by M. J. Trow delves into all the conspiracy theories surrounding the death of John Kennedy even 60 years later.

Understanding the dictionary definition of conspiracy is a secret plan or agreement between people for unlawful or harmful purposes. M. J. Trow highlights all those involved and those who technically could have been involved and brings them up to the limelight.  

I have read quite a few books on JFK’s assassination, but none like this where the focus was on all the conspiracy theories versus the lone gunman theory. Therefore I quite enjoyed what Trow had to bring to the table on the subject.

And to quote the author - People should be more concerned with the organisers, the instigators, the men behind the scenes who orchestrate and pull strings than with the gunmen who actually carried out the job.

My thoughts - the CIA have blood on their hands… After all it was Kennedy himself, who famously promised to smash the CIA into a thousand pieces.

I've always been interested in the JFK assassination, in part because on November 22, 1963, I was home from school at my grandmother's house with a fever and cold. The TV was on when programming was interrupted by a bulletin saying shots were fired at President Kennedy in Dallas, TX. I recall the TV never went off until Monday evening after the funeral of the President.

I've read many books on one of the darkest events in American history, and always interested in learning any new insights to the numerous questions that surrounded the event. Who/what was behind the murder of the President? Did Oswald act alone? Was there a coverup at the highest levels of government? Was Ruby part of a separate conspiracy to silence Oswald? Why did this happen? And these are just the basic questions.

Author MJ Trow tackles the assassination and many questions. Regretfully there are no answers, just more speculation. I found the book rambling and somewhat disjointed, jumping from topic to topic and introducing witnesses and then moving on to someone else. .The author believes there was a conspiracy, but in the end offers nothing new, and makes a point of harshly criticizing authors like Gerald Posner and Vincent Bugliosi, among others who support the findings of the Warren Commission. Trashing other authors while at the same time offering no new evidence was a big turnoff for me, and I almost stopped reading several times.

Read this if you are interested in the subject and form your own opinions. For me there were too many wild assumptions, and I will detail just one. The author believes there were at least three gunman who shot the President, and a total of 6 to 7 bullets fired in Dealy Plaza. A military crossfire was speculated in an old movie called Executive Action (which the author references). From everything I have read that is speculation unsupported by forensics and audio recordings. Part of the issue with the forensics was the apparent coverup/botched autopsy of the President. Dallas trauma doctors who tried to save Kennedy's life and the findings of the official Bethesda autopsy don't match. Does that mean there were multiple gunmen and a conspiracy? Who knows. Nevertheless, I respect the author and he is entitled to his opinions and beliefs. I was just hoping for more facts and less conjecture.

I don't know when or if the truth about the JFK assassination will be revealed, but the American people deserve to have all of the JFK files declassified and open for review and analysis. It's been 60 years and long overdue.

One thing that I have always wondered regarding a conspiracy--if there was such an event, then why didn't anyone of the people involved (and there had to be numerous) ever come clean and tell what happened, such as a deathbed confession. Think how much money an author could make detailing the real facts of the assassination. Conspiracy theorists would probably say most of the people involved (like Oswald) were killed/eliminated/died mysteriously. So many questions, and so few real answers.

I want to thank the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review an ARC of this work. I attest my review is my own original work.

1 star

This book is all over the place. A struggle to read and DNF. I would not recommend to anyone trying to learn about this tragedy. There are better books out there.

The JFK Assassination - Conspiracies and Coverups by M J Trow is an interesting overview of previous theories and accounts of one of the most famous and tragic unalivings in modern history. Whether you agree with the conclusion or not, it is a fascinating insight into all of the different accounts and a fresh new perspective on the same. The writing is concise and logical, analytical and succinct, and above all, very interesting

A fascinating read

Thank you to NetGalley, Pen & Sword | Pen & Sword History and the author MJ Trow for this fascinating ARC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

This is a good compilation of both fact and fiction surrounding a very dark incident forever marring our nation’s history. We may not ever know for sure who all was involved in the murder of this American president, but from the close examination of what we do know . . . I believe we can safely say that one man acting alone could not have pulled this off entirely. So many things needed to fall through the cracks, align, or be manipulated to accomplish this extraordinary feat and then go even further to convince the American public of the “lone nut” narrative. The Warren Commission report was a condescending pat, as not to worry our pretty little heads any more on the subject. A sad ploy that didn't work and couldn't simply sweep this preventable tragedy from our collective memories.

I'd like to thank NetGalley for an advanced copy of JFK Assassination for my unbiased evaluation.  4 stars

Thank you to the publisher and for NetGalley, which provided me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

I just finished JFK Assassination: Conspiracies and Coverups, by M.J. Trow. I will admit that, early on, I was very tempted to stop reading. The book did not get off to a good start, as he began with a big chapter disparaging conspiracy believers and made it clear that he included the JFK assassination in that critique. Then, came chapter 2, entitled “Camelot?” The question mark at the end of the chapter name was to indicate that he was questioning the myth of Camelot. Now, I am admirable of President Kennedy, but even I’ll admit there was a big element of myth in Camelot idea. However, the purpose of this chapter seemed to be to just attack the Kennedy family—not so much the president as much as his father. By the end of that chapter, I thought I this author is nothing more than an apologist for the Warren Commission, even though the author did say early on that he didn’t believe their story either. His denial of being an apologist did not hold any credibility in my mind on that point.

Then, I got to chapter 3, which made me glad that I hadn’t just given up on this one. Chapter 3 was when the discussion of November 22, 1963 began. Early on, the author pointed out that one of the wounds clearly came from hitting the president from the front. I immediately thought—what, doesn’t he understand that would prove a conspiracy. No lone gunman could shoot from behind and hit from the front. That’s too out there for even Elmer Fudd to pull off in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. It didn’t take long for me to realize that, even though the author goes to lengths to deny that he’s a conspiracy theorist, he definitely is one. I don’t know why he doesn’t see it, but any reader can easily pick up on it.,

This book was a good discussion of the Kennedy assassination and some of the reasons to disbelieve the Warren Commission. But, this one just didn’t advance the field of study of the assassination in any way. I don’t necessarily hold that against it. There are plenty of books that I’ve read on the Kennedy assassination that didn’t really advance the field, but were so enjoyable to read and so informative that I still gave an A or even an A+.

The book initially made a couple of references to the idea that Lyndon Johnson could have been a co-conspirator, but seemed to only do so to make light of the idea. So when it came time for the chapter in which suspects were looked at, I expected the author to again clear Johnson. I was pleasantly surprised to see that he didn’t, although his discussion of LBJ’s culpability was not as good as I was hoping for. For those who are interested in this topic, LBJ: The Mastermind of JFK’s Assassination, by Philip Nelson, remains the best book on the topic. So I would like to point out to other readers that the case against Johnson is much stronger than what you see in Trow’s book.

When it comes to a grade, I have to give this one a B. It would serve as a good introduction to the case for those who haven’t read anything on the conspiracy to kill President Kennedy. But, for those who are more familiar with the case, there are better and more enjoyable books available. Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, a B equates to 3 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

The positives of this book are that it is a quick read and covers a lot of material on this fascinating topic. This, however, may also be its downfall as I felt some of the conclusions were reached too quickly and with little evidence provided. There also seemed to be an assumed bias, for example, any Texan law enforcement officers wearing a Stetson appeared to be characterized as right wing, communist hating racists. While this might be the case the reader needs some evidence to back this up and not just assertions that many of them were members of the KKK.
Despite this criticism, I do think the author paints a good picture of incompetence with the various agencies handling the Presidents security, response to the Assassination and the subsequent investigation. I think the points he makes are valid regarding the cover up attempts by the Warren Commission and the rush to bury the topic in the minds of the American people. I wish, though, that he had explored more deeply the possible reasons for the cover up and the rush to normalization. That there was a conspiracy versus a lone gunman is probably widely accepted these days but the cover up does not necessarily need to be part of the same conspiracy. Nor does a government cover up necessarily suggest sinister motives. For example, I find it difficult to believe that LBJ would have been involved or had prior knowledge of a plot to assassinate JFK. Men such as him care deeply about their lasting legacy and becoming an historical Pariah we’re such a conspiracy discovered as it most likely, would be a risk too great even if he was inclined towards such a criminal act. This does not mean that he did not immediately take advantage of his unexpected rise to the highest office and change some of JFK’s policies. This he did but it means he is an opportunist not necessarily a co conspirator.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for providing access to this book.

The subject of the JFK assassination is one that will be debated until the end of time. This book, however, gives a good number of insights that have not been explored, Good read.

The assassination of John F Kennedy has been a source of fascination for decades,with all kinds of theories, some a lot stranger than others, several tv documentaries ,a handful of movies and a plethora of books on events at Dealey Plaza on the 22nd of November 1963.
M.J Trow's book on the subject separates the wheat from the chaff with a clear-headed and concise review of the assassination and its aftermath. Usually books on the assassination dive into complex theories ,plots and diversions while skimming over the very relevant basics,not least that Oswald was identified as the shooter by 1 person who claimed to see him from a distance,not cunning police work or a mass of witnesses and the gun that police retrieved from the sniper's nest was not even the same make as the one they claimed Oswald used and were presumably going to use in evidence against him.
As Trow points out there was no actual investigation,Oswald was dead before that could happen,the autopsy was flawed,such evidence as there was cleared Oswald rather than condemned him , the Warren Commission was a complete fiasco,and so it goes on......yet still Oswald ,to this day, is touted as a highly proficient "lone wolf" assassin.
Of all the Kennedy Assassination books I've read this is the most plausible,and while I doubt we'll ever know the truth there's enough in here for most to be able to choose the most likely suspect,or at least one of them.