Dr. Joan Mellen’s latest book, A Farewell to Justice, is a distinctive compilation of facts and findings that reveal the inner workings of a malicious cabal that succeeded in murdering a duly elected President of the United States.
A Farewell to Justice
By Joan Mellen
Potomac Books, Inc., 2005
Bibliography, index, references
Hdbk, 547 pgs., photos
ISBN: 1-57488-973-7
RIDE ON! RIDE ON IN MAJESTY!
IN LOWLY POMP RIDE ON TO DIE.
– Henry Hart Milman, Hymns, Ride On!
One of the more significant historical events in my life occurred my senior year at East Liverpool High School. On Friday afternoon, November 22, 1963 not long after lunch, Mr. Dawson, then Dean of Boys, announced over the school loudspeaker that President Kennedy had been shot and wounded in Dallas, Texas. Two days later, on Sunday morning, I saw Jack Ruby gun down Lee Harvey Oswald.
By the time the Warren Commission delivered its report declaring that Oswald acted alone in murdering the president, I was aware of the arguments against the “single bullet theory,” and counted myself among those that doubted the government’s official findings.
In 1972 I watched as Geraldo Rivera showed the now famous Zapruder film on late night television. I saw the president’s head explode, showering his wife, the limousine, and the street with his brain, skull fragments, and tissue, and I knew that there were at least two shooters.
When New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison started his inquiry into the president’s murder in the late 1960’s I followed his activities until, after several years, no one was convicted, not even Clay Shaw. Numerous national publications were alleging that Garrison was involved for personal and political gain and it appeared to me they were correct. After all, Garrison came across as a flamboyant character much given to hyperbole and bombastic rhetoric. Or so I thought! However, after reading Dr. Joan Mellen’s latest book, A Farewell to Justice, I owe Jim Garrison an apology. No one came closer to bringing the cabal that organized and executed the assassination of Jack Kennedy than Jim Garrison and his staff.
Dr. Mellen’s book, which provides great service, has its faults: there are some editing problems, in places it is difficult to follow, and some of the sentence structure is obtuse. Also, the author overloads the senses with so many names and so much information that it’s easy to get lost –- I went back over several chapters, then spent some time going over the names of the participants that are found in the beginning of the book. It’s a difficult book to comprehend on the first reading; however, regardless of the challenges involved in reading Dr. Mellen’s book I highly recommend it because she has not only documented Jim Garrison’s travails but she has answered questions and revealed new information concerning events leading up to the assassination and its aftermath.
Her sympathy lies with Jim Garrison. He was a somewhat tarnished knight in shining armor, challenging a monolithic statist regime united in its efforts to silence him through dirty tricks, calumny, and half-truths. To his credit, against staggering odds, he almost succeeded. Joan Mellen’s story of the New Orleans District Attorney’s efforts is one of revelation, intrigue, murder, suicide, and every sort of debauchery known to man. These were not pleasant people; nor were the people who employed them.
Dr. Mellen’s ruminations concerning the ultimate responsibility for the planning and execution of the assassination reveal a decided passion that serves the essential thesis of her work: a call for renascent justice. She quotes Dr. Robert McClelland, one of the doctors who attended the dying president at Parkland Hospital. McClelland believes the assassination was “a high level plot to kill the president by the CIA and FBI, at the upper and middle levels.” Dr. Mellen adds the afterthought that there were others involved, “These included those corporations for whom a burgeoning national deficit was a small price to pay for the revenues that would roll in once oil, helicopters, airplanes and other war material went streaming toward Vietnam.” Well, maybe, but she makes no effort to prove her hypothesis and I’m not aware of any evidence that would support her accusation. Also, Jack Kennedy was already engaged in increasing the American military presence in South Vietnam.
Regardless of who gave the order to assassinate President Kennedy, Joan Mellen, following up on Jim Garrison’s case, appears to have accurately fingered the action unit responsible for the murder. Don’t count on the United States Department of Justice following up on her findings.
Dr. Joan Mellen’s A Farewell to Justice is a difficult book to read; it is also a distinctive compilation of facts and findings that reveal the inner workings of a malicious cabal that succeeded in murdering a duly elected President of the United States. Oh, and one other thing; Lee Harvey Oswald was indeed a patsy.
A Farewell to Justice is available on Amazon.com.Â
robertcheeks@core.com
Read more articles by Bob Cheeks
Grow up! Oswald acted alone. These doorknobs come out churning the same garbage in a different package every few years hoping to snag more people into this B.S. fest.
The History Channel and Discovery Channel have some very insightful documentaries on the subject that visually answer many of the hyped up questions that only a dupe for Oliver Stone, not the CIA, could ignore.
The magic bullet isn’t!
There was only one gunman, and it was physically easy for him to do what he did!
Oswald did not work for LBJ or the Unions or Castro or the Freemasons. He was a dick taking out his own inadequacies on another human being; killing a man to make himself feel better.
Ruby also did not work or J. Edger Hoover or the Mafia or Khrushchev or Opus Dei. He was also a dork and did something stupid and selfish by taking another man’s life in anger.
Get over it! IT REALLY WAS A LONE GUNMAN!
Comment by Ruslfish | January 27, 2006
It never ceases to amaze me how angry many of those who subscribe to the "Lone gunman" theory are that there really are huge numbers of people who don't agree with them at all, and who believe there was indeed a conspiracy which was responsible for the death of John Kennedy that November day in Dallas…….I try to not become enraged at them for their "single gunman" theory, but realize that many of them won't show us the same tolerance on the subject……..I've read a lot about the assassination, and it seems pretty apparent to me that far too many "coincidences" had to take place, some of them even violating natural laws (i.e., the "single bullet" theory of Arlen Specter, counsel to the Warren Commission) such as the laws of physics, to make the "Lone gunman" theory hold water…….common sense dictates that a reasonable man (or woman) would tend to believe in some sort of conspiracy, and at least 2 or more "shooters", for so many strange and seemingly unrelated inconsistencies to occur within the very short time-frame of the assassination and its aftermath; Ruby shooting Oswald based on his "love" for JFK is TOTALLY RIDICULOUS…….Ruby was a "made man" in Mob parlance, and NEVER did anything involving criminal activity (and he engaged in many such activities over his lifetime) without orders from his superiors in the Mob…….maybe that's why over 85% of the American people believe as I do, that JFK was the victim of a conspiracy, and Oswald was indeed a patsy!!!
Comment by Jim Walker | January 29, 2006
Jim: Doesn't it bother you that people are still making money off the corpse of a World War II Vet who was tragically killed? I hate that they continue to pump up some controversy with the grassy knoll and the magic bullet, when it all has been easily explained countless times to people who want to hear it. Unfortunately, many people like you do not want to hear it. They believe it is more sexy and exciting to read books about Di Vinci being part of a secret society and Aliens controlling the Supreme Court and Kennedy being assassinated by a cabal that includes the Mob, the Republicans, LBJ, Castro, the Soviet Union, the Military-Industrial Complex and anyone else a write can jam into 300 pages. Why not just write it in Jack Kennedy’s blood? How about some more pictures of his corpse, or of his wife crying? This is not a TV series, it is a dead president that deserves a little respect. I am tired of the same old “evidence” year after year brought up only to be shot down for the infinite time by people who know what they are talking about. What did you say in there? Is Arlen Specter now part of the conspiracy because he was part of the Warren Commission? Was Gerald Ford also a conspirator since he was also part of the commission? PLEASE STOP!
This is not a mystery story, and it is so annoying that people continue to put books out there with Jim Garrison on the cover as if he’s insightful and a martyr/crusader. A man’s terrible death has become a cottage industry for jerks that rewrite it, reprint it and reread it again and again to only reinforce something that has been proven wrong again and again. Just let him rest in peace.
Comment by Ruslfish | January 30, 2006
No one should have the audacity to claim to KNOW who was involved in the murder of Jack Kennedy. The simple fact is we do not know. There are still some people wo are alive who do know what happened or at least know why a cover up was mandated and followed through, but in all liklehood, these people will not come forward. Beyond the arrogance people potray in knowing who the conspirators are is the ignorance of those who claim Oswald acted alone. This is impossible. The magic bullet theory is impossible. The way the investigation was handled was beyond the pale, but a cover up to murder I doubt. I believe Arlen Specter would have some real incite to why he proposed the magic bullet theory, which I doubt he could be convinced to do today, even if he stands by it. Old lies are hard to get away from, but luckily lies like this, Chappequiddick, and numerous other "wool over the eyes of the American people" will cease to hold credibility without actual proof. If you don't believe me, just ask Dan Rather how quickly a "loose" story will be stopped in its tracks in todays media. Fast forward the assassination of JFK to todays world and we would at least not be told the pack of lies we were; we may even have found out the truth. God bless the bloggers.
Comment by Dan Behrens | January 31, 2006
I ask you to rent or buy this DVD.
http://shopping.discovery.com/product-56798.html?jzid=40588040-0-0
The forensic team in this video proves that the “Magic Bullet” was not magic at all. It also shows how the bullet traveled form the book depository to the Texas Governor’s leg, based on the Zapruder Film, using computer generated 3D graphics.
The History Channel also presented a similar documentary, narrated by Peter Jennings. It also showed how the magic bullet wasn’t. The crap Stone put out with Costner poking Newman with a stick is not the truth. It is also the only thing that could closely be seen as really controversial.
I am tired of people being sucked in to the idea that there are black ops out to get you. Your imagination is getting you!
Comment by Ruslfish | January 31, 2006
Read the magic bullet theory out loud with no one around, no pictures to distort your concentration, no one pumping you with one sided information, just read it out loud to yourself. When your done, if you come to the conclusion that this is how the President of the United States was killed, instead of having two shooters, then any evidence you would ever be showed would be irrevelant. The magic bullet theory is simply impossible. I am not some JFK nut and I do not believe the CIA was in on the murder, but I do believe out of fear and embarrassment they covered it up as quickly as they could. I would ask you this question, Do you believe the magic bullet theory would exist if the man who was hit with a fragment near the underpass wasn't hit? We would have never heard of the magic bullet theory, but with 3 shots being fired as the Warren Report claims, they had to explain all the bullet holes somehow. I am simply amazed people are naive enough to believe it. This crime will remain as a national disgrace, not in the terms of the death of JFK, but how the public was duped into the hows, whys, and whos behind it. To still accept the Warren Commission conclusions is a crime against reality.
Comment by Dan Behrens | February 1, 2006
Dan, honestly, you need to see the documentary I mentioned. You will understand what I mean.
I am guessing you're a good man and you have seen the same things I did before that made me
question like you. Please, watch the documentary.
Three shots, true.
-The first missed, true.
-The second (magic) went through Kennedy below the neck from behind, out his throat area.
The bullet then made a keyhole sized hole in Governor Connelly's back, came out his chest,
through his armand barely into his thigh (it fellout out of his thigh later)
-The third bullet tragically hit the President in the head
This documentary shows how the second bullet's path lines up accurately
with how the men were sitting in the car and how they were positioned according
to all photos and films, including the Zapruder film.
Please check it out.
Comment by Ruslfish | February 2, 2006
For every documentary showing how the magic bullet theory could have happened there is another one showing how it is impossible. I choose to use common sense, one bullet did not make all of those wounds.
Comment by Dan Behrens | February 13, 2006