Reviews for High Treason 2 : The Great Cover-Up: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

The average rating for High Treason 2 : The Great Cover-Up: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-02-13 00:00:00 Jj Smith I was disappointed in this book, especially in light of the first High Treason. Part 2 was written without Part 1's co-author Robert Groden. His absence is notable here, because he apparently kept Part 1's narrative on track. Harrison Edward Livingstone writing on his own in High Treason 2 is unfortunate, because this book is a mess. Livingstone spends more than 300 pages rehashing the medical evidence in the Kennedy case, focusing an inordinate amount on the forged X-rays and autopsy photos. He interviews many of the medical personnel involved both at Parkland Hospital in Dallas and Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland; I understand he wants to point out that these peoples' testimony matches, but in several instances Livingstone includes the exact same quote twice. Most if not all of this medical evidence was covered extensively in Part 1 and did not need to be repeated here. Furthermore, Livingstone uses this book as a platform to criticize other members of the assassination research community, and his former partner Robert Groden in particular (it is indicated that there was a falling-out between them, but whatever it was isn't specified). He spends an entire chapter taking a shit on Oliver Stone for his 1991 film JFK; I haven't seen the film so I don't know if this criticism is justified, but I'm fully aware that Stone is a heavy-handed egomaniac and the film isn't historically accurate. Livingstone also is a huge apologist for Kennedy and his shortcomings, and one gets the impression that Livingstone has canonized Kennedy in his mind. What I am impressed by - and it's nothing much to do with the book itself - is how much research the writers of the X-Files and noir author James Ellroy did with their own versions of the Kennedy assassination tale. A particular favorite X-Files episode of mine, 'Musings Of A Cigarette-Smoking Man,' has the Cancer Man villain assassinating Kennedy from a sewer beside the Presidential limo, after being given a sign from a mysterious black-clad man who raised an umbrella twice. Lee Harvey Oswald's 'curtain rods' story is mentioned, and he refers to his contact as 'Mr. Hunt,' all of which is part of the historical record. James Ellroy, in his amazing Underworld USA trilogy, also uses quite a few obscure historical details from the Kennedy presidency, Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, and the assassination. I'm not really turned off of researching the Kennedy assassination based on one bad book, but Livingstone's personal vendettas, suppositions and 'could haves,' and poor writing and narrative style did not impress me. Jim Marrs' Crossfire is next in my Kennedy queue, and I'm hoping for a little more substance from it.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-04-20 00:00:00 Daven Griffin Like its coauthored predecessor, High Treason 1, this book, while creditable for some of the original research it represents, is very poorly written. The emphasis here, again, is on the photographic evidence, much of which the author shows to be suspect. In addition, much attention is paid to the testimony of persons present at the Dallas and/or Bethesda examinations of the body, testimony which overwhelmingly indicates that a conspiracy occurred in that the President was shot from both front and back, the greatest damage being incurred by the former. Marring the evidential exposition is a subsidiary parallel text representing the author's beliefs and opinions regarding other matters. First, there is his high regard for Kennedy and rather credulous belief that all would have been well in SE Asia had he lived. Second, there is a long chapter devoted to attacking the movie JFK and Oliver Stone, its director. In addition to this there are also sidesteps into other political assassinations such as MLK,RFK, John Lennon and Allard Lowenstein--even of such failed attempts as those directed at George Wallace and Ronald Reagan. If all of this material had been organized, several books might have been produced.