In this book, former Warren Commission lawyer Burt Griffin examines anew the Kennedy assassination, its various investigations, its effects on the Cold War and the civil rights movement, and the motives of Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby. Griffin begins with his own skeptical reaction to the assassination, proceeds to the Dallas police investigation, and continues with the efforts of himself and his colleagues to sift truth from those who concealed, withheld, or exaggerated evidence.

After nearly six decades of study, Judge Griffin is satisfied that Oswald acted alone. He concludes that violence in the Cold War and civil rights movement caused Oswald to believe that blame for Kennedy's death might be placed on followers of rightwing activist and former U.S. Army general Edwin Walker. Walker was an outspoken enemy of Oswald's idol, Cuban president Fidel Castro, and a firm opponent of racial integration--and Oswald had already attempted to murder Walker in April 1963. The author gives the Walker movement a more prominent place in the assassination story and traces the conflicting ambitions of Walker, Oswald, Kennedy and Ruby as they collided in October and November 1963. This book will help serious readers separate truth from fiction and to become examiners of how insignificant, unsuspected, powerless people driven by very personal needs and fears can, with the help of a firearm, alter the course of history.

About the Author
Burt W. Griffin was the assistant counsel to the president's commission on the assassination of President Kennedy (popularly known as the Warren Commission) and had primary responsibility for investigating and writing the section of the commission's report (1964) on whether Jack Ruby was engaged in a conspiracy to assassinate either JFK, Lee Oswald, or both. He lives in Shaker Heights, Ohio.

Reviews
"Burt Griffin writes with the authority and confidence of someone in complete control of the tumultuous history of the JFK assassination. Benefiting from his service as the Warren Commission's assistant counsel, Griffin provides a fresh and page-turning account of America's most infamous political murder. JFK, Oswald and Ruby is accessible both for those who have never read about the case as well as for veteran assassination researchers. Griffin's most important contribution is presenting a credible explanation of how the turbulent politics and social divisions of the early 1960s fueled the lethal motives for 'two powerless but ambitious people,' Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby. Burt Griffin has performed a public service in JFK, Oswald and Ruby." - Gerald Posner, author of Case Closed

"One of Burt Griffin's law school classmates once told me the primary reason he believed the Warren Report was because Griffin had been a member of the commission's staff, and that he would not have been party to an inadequate, corrupt, or incompetent investigation. True to form, in JFK, Oswald and Ruby, Griffin delivers a reality check to those who distort the truth for profit, out of bias or ideology, or through sheer ignorance. The Ruby dimension gets short-changed in many books about the assassination of President Kennedy. Not here." - Max Holland, author of The Kennedy Assassination Tapes



Book Information
ISBN 9781476687766
Author Burt W. Griffin
Format Paperback
Page Count 277
Imprint McFarland & Co Inc
Publisher McFarland & Co Inc