Lost a star for being too disorganized at the beginning and too repetitive.

Overall, a good one volume compendium of all the various actors that might have played a role in JFK's assassination. It is lengthy and repetitive, too much so IMO, although I know the author just wants to make his point.

The start of the book was generally disorganized, rather than providing the background of what took place that fateful day in 1963. Halfway through, the separation into organized chapters dealing with the various possible participants of this heinous act makes for much easier reading.

There is extensive research on the witness statements, Oswald's background and hidden connections with the CIA, FBI, anti-Castro Cubans. Also, the Warren Commission, Jim Garrison's court case, and subsequent House Committee Investigations are all adequately dealt with.

I personally don't agree with all the conclusions Marrs presents in his final speculative scenario, but I learned a great deal and some of my suspicions were validated. Recommended for the dedicated JFK Assassination buff only. ( )

Crossfire by Jim Marrs is essentially the unofficial encyclopedia regarding the Kennedy Assassination and Coup D’etat.

In this phenomenal tome Marrs carries out a methodical examination of all the intricacies that revolved around this incident.

From breaking through the veil of the official story, to heading into the darker aspects of the conspiracy, Marrs attempts to leave no stone unturned .

Marrs takes a gander at everything from nefarious dealings of the CIA, to witness accounts that eviscerate the official narrative, to examinations of the grassy knoll as well as the depository. Of course, there is a LOT more.

Finding peculiar – “coincidental” – instances littering the event, Marrs homes in on the issue with the ambulance that was to serve as the reason for President Kennedy’s motorcade having to stop, to countless dead witnesses [and people in the know]- 143! – and even suspect dealings with the secret service and how it acted once the assassination began taking place. Each of this is sifted to leaving the reader aghast at such events.

Not only that, but the cover up that ensued, which no doubt involved Lyndon B. Johnson and insiders from the CIA, FBI, Secret Service, and more, is also examined at length into a variety of rabbit trails that will leave the reader furious at the fact that so many people turned their backs on Kennedy, or they were part of the conspiracy in the first place.

Issues with the infamous Zapruder film are also given a glance given all circumstances revolving around it.

The author also examines how the CIA and its notorious mind control experiments via MK Ultra might dovetail with the assassination.

As the author saliently notes:

“Since Oswald may have taken a mind-altering drug; since his killer, Jack Ruby, told Dallas police he had no recollection of shooting Oswald; since Sirhan Sirhan, the presumed assassin of Robert Kennedy, still claims he can’t remember what happened in the Ambassador Hotel; and since a San Quentin psychologist, Dr. Eduard Simson, proclaimed that Sirhan has been “programmed” by drugs, hypnosis, or both, the possibility of mind control in the JFK assassination…cannot be ruled out.”[1]

Besides homing in on Lyndon B. Johnson, the author also thankfully narrows in on J. Edgar Hoover, whose ability “to gather information and then to control it” give him enormous power. This along with his suspect dealings within the assassination, are more than ample reasons as to why Hoover is likely very complicit in the assassination.

Marrs also lays down the fact that many witnesses were in fact intimidated by the authorities into going with the official narrative. Regarding this, the author soberingly notes:

“Witnesses Charles Givens, James Tague, Phil Willis, Kennedy aides Kenneth O’Donnel and David Powers, and former senator Ralph Yarborough were pressured to alter their statements, while others – including Ed Hoffman, A.J. Millican, Sandy Speaker, Acquilla Clemons, and Richard Carr – were threatened into silence.”[2]

Predictably, the mainstream media – being part of the establishment – didn’t even bother in examining their testimony, nor anything else that might blow the lid on the cover up. Then again, being the official mouthpiece of the establishment, this is par for the course.

Of course, the author also homes in on many of the interests that revolved around the assassination from Big Oil, to the Big Banks, the Mob, the Cubans, FBI, CIA, and more.

How Jack Ruby’s role plays out around this conspiracy is also given more than a fair glance by Marrs. Interestingly, Jack Ruby dying of cancer dovetails with information from Dr. Mary’s Monkey – How The Unsolved Murder Of A Doctor, A Secret Laboratory In New Oreleans and Cancer-Causing Monkey Viruses Are Linked To Lee Harvey Assassination And Emerging Global Epidemics by Edward T. Haslam. Haslem found that cancer was able to be induced via injection, which rings ominous since Ruby dying of an unexpected cancer certainly sent shockwaves given how many researchers have postulated that Ruby was indeed given cancer as a covert method of murder.

One of the worst parts of all this is that the cover-up continues until this very day.

Regarding this, the author notes feelings related from a JFK assassination research website, JFK Facts:

“If JFK was killed by a deranged lone nut, why are so many records from 1963 considered so significant in 2012? Why were records destroyed? Who ordered their destruction? Where are the Air Force One tapes? Why can’t they be found? Why are so many CIA documents about undercover officers with pre-assassination knowledge of Lee Harvey Oswald classified for reasons of national security? Why doesn’t Congress oversee the JFK Records Act? Why don’t they hold public hearings on these issues and get answers to these questions?“[3]

Or, as Governor Jesse Ventura intimated:

“If the government were telling the truth, there would be no reason to lock up anything from the people of this country. Clearly, they are not, because here we are 50 years later, and they are still withholding documents from us.”[4]

Consider this mandatory reading if you care about what’s happening to this country.

This book not only proves without a shadow of a doubt that the official story is hogwash, but it also proves that there is overwhelming evidence that Oswald was a fall guy. Not only that, but:

“The Dallas police paraffin test showed no gunpowder on Oswald’s hands or cheek, evidence that he did not fire a rifle…”[5]

Of course, the ballistic evidence and medical evidence also support a more concerted and conspiracy into more power elements given that only a select few would have the ability to alter data related to the assassination.

All things considered, this book is a masterful analysis that not only eviscerates the official narrative, but also sheds light into many of the darker components that played a role into the assassination of President Kennedy. It’s my contention, as well as that of other researchers that many of the elements that played a role in carrying out that assassination are still around today. Given how much our nation has deteriorated since the assassination with every new scandal and with every new crisis, we have not rid ourselves of this deadly shadow.

And we must, for how can true change ever take place if the darkness lie embedded within a structure that should stand for good, but unfortunately hasn’t, and has only stood to support the most corrupt within the establishment.

For this, and many more reasons, this book is vital in understanding how we got into this current moment history as a society. ( )

This is a very short book. I got the audio book, and it was only an hour and 14 minutes long, with 20 of that being silly drum beats. Not worth the effort. I wasn't alive when the assassination of John F. Kennedy was done. All my life, I have heard about the conspiracies associated with it. I'm not sure if the evidence presented in this book is accurate or not, but if you don't know anything about it, then it would be plausible.

I would read other books on the assassination if you wanted to know more about it, this one seems to leave a lot out. ( )

While this is one of the Bibles of the conspiracy theorists, as a work of investigation it is weak in many places. But the author's courage in making his theories known is admirable, and he does ask a number of important questions about some of the bizarre circumstances surrounding the assassination and resulting investigation. It's not going to convince anyone to change their point of view, but it is well written and provides a window into the thinking of conspiracists.

Don't assume that this is the best thinking of the conspiracists, but by the same token don't skip over this book if the topic interests you because it is among the most cited volumes among those who are suspicious of the Warren Commission and subsequent government investigations. It's worth a read if you have more than a passing interest in what happened in Dealey Plaza. ( )

Another sensational, but mostly wrong, attempt to link the murder of President Kennedy to everyone alive in 1963.