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Best Evidence : Disguise and Deception in the Assassination of John F. Kennedy
by David S. Lifton
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Dell Publishing Company (1984-02-01)
ISBN: 0440005868
EAN: 9780440005865
Mass Market Paperback: 920 pages
SKU: 20163
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: Paperback. Cover has foxing on edges. Pages are clean and unmarked.
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Customer Reviews
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Incredible work
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-05-18
Lifton's research is impeccable, and his conclusions both startling and obvious. He, and he alone, put the medical evidence together in a way that demonstrates beyond any doubt that JFK was killed as a result of a conspiracy by factions within the U.S. Government. Don't believe me. Read it yourself.
But be forewarned that the first 150-175 pages are a little dull, because he wrote the text chronologically, taking the reader with him as he struggles to reconcile the movement of JFK's body with the official report.
However, you should also be forewarned that after that point, the book reads like thriller fiction...except that it isn't. David Lifton has done primary research and has opened up a whole area of the assassination to the light of day.
I wish I could give it ten stars.
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Enter with an open mind or don't bother
Rating  (4)
Date: 2007-08-21
2 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is one of the more interesting books on this subject, and I have read most of them. Mr. Lifton does at times belabor the point, and indeed there are small sections of the book that become so redundant I found one could skip ahead several pages and miss nothing. It is at times as though Mr. Lifton is afraid his reader won't "get" some new piece of evidence when in fact it was quite clear. The theme of the book, however, is unique, credible, and a must read for assassination researchers.
Mr. Lifton is asking us to think outside of the box (please excuse the trite and overworked phrase, it does apply here). Given the lack of progress that has been made in this particular murder case over the past 45 years, I think this is perhaps a more valid request to make of the reader today than when originally published. I purchased a first run hardback of this book from an antique bookseller, and it does not contain the 32 pages of "shocking" photographs. This is just as well, Mr. Lifton's thesis does not require these gory photographs to be convincing and I am of the opinion they probably do more to discredit more recent editions of this book than they could possibly add to it.
The central theme of the book is the concept that if the body of the slain president was altered before it arrived at Bethesda Naval Hospital for the autopsy, then it is not necessary that Dr. Humes or the Warren Commission themselves were willful participants in a deliberate cover-up. Certainly the behavior of these men in the years that have passed would indicate they are, at the very least, unwilling to review their work with an open mind and accept the fact that they may well have been deceived, but ignorant and ugly mulishness is a far cry from deliberate complicity. Mr. Lifton provides ample evidence, all of which is to be found in the Warren Commission and the National Archives own files, that there was not only opportunity for such pre-autopsy surgical alteration of the body to have occurred, but also evidence that people did observe and note clues that it had.
Many of the books' critics, easily found right here on Amazon, dismiss the book out-of-hand in such a manner as to indicate the entire theme of the book was lost on them. They cannot or will not "think outside the box". One critic dismisses the entire book, for example, because Dave Powers stated he never left the casket while it was onboard Air Force One. But we know as a matter of record who the medical personnel were at Parkland Hospital who put the body in the casket, and Mr. Powers was not one of them. None of these medical personnel traveled with the body all the way to Bethesda. Mr. Powers may well be entirely truthful when he states that he never left the casket; he is only assuming, however, that the casket contained the remains of the president. It is unlikely he would engage in such ghoulish behavior as would be required to verify this for himself onboard Air Force One in the presence of the late president's widow.
And indeed, if you look at the reviews posted here about any Kennedy assassination book, you will find the same basic phenomena. It takes a particular type of individual to hate dissent, to tow the party line at all costs and view life with such a closed mind as to hate others who do not. You will note, not 100% of the time but in the overwhelming majority of cases, that those who discount a pro-Warren Commission book generally do so by sighting specific evidence that was overlooked, misinterpreted, or ignored. Those who discount a pro-Conspiracy book tend to do so by merely insulting the author, his readers, even witnesses who gave contrary testimony that does not align with their preconceived notion of events. Supporters of "Case Closed" and "Reclaiming History" will say "this book is full of FACTS", never seeming to realize that just because they agree with a particular statement does not in and of itself make that statement a "fact". I can respect a differing opinion from someone who gives me an informed argument; I do not respect a differing opinion from someone armed only with the juvenile weapons of name-calling and character assassination, and among the community of assassination readers, such persons have done a great deal more to harm the pro-Warren Commission side than they will ever do to help it.
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The Holy Grail......
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-07-30
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
.....of JFK assassination books. One of my troops told me about this book in the early 80's. Since then, I've worn out two hardbacks, given away a bunch of paperbacks to people who probably won't read them, and, over 20 years ago had one long phone conversation with the author. Since that conversation several key players have died, but nothing has come out to shake my belief that Mr. Lifton got it right.
Up front, I will say that reading this book will NOT tell you who killed President Kennedy, or why. It WILL tell you how the killers [plural] got away with it.
Everyone over a certain age can tell you where they were on November 22, 1963 [I was in Chemistry class]. Early on, many of us realized that the "Oswald did it" solution was just too simple. My Dad was a firearms expert who said that the [alleged] sixth floor shots would have been easy, UNTIL he saw Olwald's rifle; then he said that they would have been impossible. [Of course, "easy" for Daddy doesn't mean "easy", but hundreds of Military and Police shooters could make those shots WITH A DECENT RIFLE].
The gist of this book is that JFK's body as autopsied at Bethesda was in much different condition than it was when it left Parkland. Dr. Humes was not a liar; he was lied to. By all accounts, J.J. Humes was a fine man. Despite a 25 year career in Navy Medicine [the first years in Laboratory Medicine], I never met him. Several people I knew respected him greatly. Dr. Humes was presented, in the presence of numerous superior officers, with an altered body, and told to perform an autopsy. An impossible position.
When President Kennedy went to Dallas, the plot was in place. Had it worked as planned, much of the controversy of the past 44 years would have never come to light, but two things went wrong: [1] JFK arrived at Parkland still [barely] alive, and [2] John Connally got shot. The Parkland ER was to receive one victim, DOA. Instead, they got two live ones, one of whom could be saved. The doctors at Parkland included "sheep" and "goats", but they got hopelessly mixed up during the half hour attempt to save the President. They body had to be altered after leaving Parkland [somewhere], but mistakes got made, witness saw [parts of] things, and an eternity of controversy started.
The wound descriptions given by the Parkland doctors are totally different from those given by Dr. Humes in the autopsy protocol. Do I remember every detail of every patient I've ever treated in an ER? Preposterous. But some, I can never forget; I would absolutely remember every slightest detail of treating a President. Anyone would. In the end, there's simply too much evidence for the Grassy Knoll, and an altered body.
I disagree with Mr. Lifton about 1 or 2 minor points. He considers Oswald an innocent victim; I'm not so sure, though I agree that he fired no shots.
If I have to criticize this profoundly great book about anything, it's Mr. Lifton's assumption that the average reader possesses a level of medical knowledge that they really don't. [I made the very same critique of Cooper's biography of Jeff Davis, another President whose term was unjustly shortened by tragedy].
President Kennedy is dead. God rest his soul. I don't know who killed him, and David Lifton doesn't, either. Something of ALL of us died with him. That's true be you liberal Democrat, conservative Republican, or those like me who still use present tense in speaking of Jeff Davis. ALL of us are Americans who had our innocence stolen from us. Read this book. Make your OWN descisions, but be informed when you make them.
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How open-minded are you and Do you trust your government?
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-03-12
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I agree with the writer who suggests reading the book first. I think you have to have an open mind and not simply ingest everything the government tells you. I can tell you that unless you have seen the "head snap" that the author refers to in this book which is clearly evident in the videotape obtained by Abraham Zapruder, your comment might as well be as full of agitation as the longwinded one by David V.P. I witnessed this clip out of the videotape and I am convinced- as in CONVINCED, that at least one (1) shot came from the front. Well, how can that be? The TX book depository was way in back. Just follow the motorcade route and simply "Look at it". Open your mind and free your mind enough to be able to ask a logical question. Don't just eat up everything the government gives you. P. in NY
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The best JFK book ever written
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-01-02
7 out of 8 customers found this reveiw helpful
We all know what was supposed to have happened. Kennedy's body was taken to Love Field and flown to Andrews AFB accompanied by the widow. At Andrews, there was the sad scene where the body was put into an ambulance and driven to Bethesda Naval Hospital still accompanied by the grieving widow. How could anything have possibly happened to the body on that sad trip in 1963? Well, Lifton does a very thorough job of reseach and shows exactly what and how and who.
Lifton became interested in the Kennedy autopsy after noticing that the two FBI agents present at the autopsy had referred to pre-existing 'surgery of the head area' in their official report published with the Warren Commission report. What could they have been referring to? First, Lifton did a very thorough job of tracking down and interviewing many of the people who were present when the body was transported to Bethesda and autopsied. Then he visits the locations where events occurred to see what was possible and what was not. Then he puts everything together and shows exactly how Kennedy's body was moved around to give the conspirator's time before the official autopsy to remove bullets from the body and doctor up the wounds to incorrectly show that bullets struck Kennedy in the head from behind.
Some of the things that Lifton proved: Kennedy's wife escorted an empty casket. Kennedy's body arrived at Bethesda the first time in a military shipping casket and zipped up in a body bag. Kennedy's brain was missing when the body arrived. The military team escorting the casket chased after an ambulance containing an empty casket across the Bethesda grounds before losing it and returning to the hospital in their pickup truck to find another ambulance and another casket at the back door.
People often say things like 'how could anyone have done anything to the body with everyone watching?' Lifton shows exactly how. Lifton shows that everything happened at Bethesda and that everything there was observed by disinterested bystanders but they simply didn't know what they were seeing. Lifton gathers all of their stories, reviews all of the official documents and timelines, researchs the news reports, television broadcasts, and other accounts, and puts everything together to show what really happened. If it wasn't an assassination of the President of the United States, the final story that Lifton unearths would be hilarious and is certainly worthy of a movie.
The Warren Commission report is based on the medical evidence established at the autopsy. Lifton shows that the autopsy 'evidence' cannot be used to determine the nature of Kennedy's wounds because it is false. The only reliable evidence left to use then about the nature of Kennedy's wounds is the statements of the doctors who were present in the room when Kennedy arrived at Parkland Hospital in Dallas. That evidence shows that Kennedy had one entrance wound in the front of his neck and one exit wound in the back of his head. Period.
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