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37 of 40 found the following review helpful:
 Two words for you: Mark Felt Dec 28, 2008
By J. M. Jacobs
"Just one man's opinion..."
This little book was a quite an eye-opener for me, I'll tell ya! Written by a man who was an FBI agent at the time of Kennedy's assassination, this book makes some fairly strong claims such as the CIA was in on being a part of the Kennedy assassination as well as the Chicago Italian mafia along with some anti-Castro Cuban exiles. The big claim deals with Mark Felt who you may know as "Deep Throat" from the Watergate investigation as conducted by reporters Woodward and Bernstein of the Washington Post.
Recently Mr. Felt passed away (Dec 2008) and was virtually canonized in almost every obit I read on him. NONE of the ones I read mentioned his connection to the Kennedy assassination as is asserted in this work.
This seemed odd to me.
And so it is I gave this book a 4-star rating due to its historical importance. It would have had merited a 5-star but it doesn't read well in parts, and could have used some better editing there to increase the reader's enjoyment of the text. Those troublesome parts don't have as consistent a flow as the better parts of the book, but that's a small complaint relative to how interesting Mr. Swearingen's story is.
I can't remember how long ago it was that I saw a documentary on the Kennedy assassination that basically substantiates the claims in the book. Our president was NOT killed by a single shooter as was stated in the Warren Report. The second bullet that hit the president HAD to come from the front as the Zapruder film and basic criminal forensics would indictate. President Kennedy's head explodes out the back and that doesn't happen with a bullet hitting him from the rear where Lee Harvey Oswald was positioned. The rear is where the little hole would be - the entry wound. The big hole is on the other side - the front of the president in this case... and that's NOT what the Zapruder film shows in such graphic detail.
Which brings me back to Mark Felt, a member of the Training & Inspection Division at the FBI academy at the time. Upon delivering the news to Mr. Swearingen that Kennedy had just been assassinated in Dallas, he was informed by Mr. Swearingen that he had information he'd developed that indicated a conspiracy between the CIA, the Italian Mafia in Chicago and some Cuban exiles. Instead of sending Agent Swearingen to Dallas to aid in the investigation of his findings, he sends him home to his office in Paintsville, Kentucky. Now why would Saint Felt do something like that if he didn't have something to hide?
At this writing, Dec 27, 2008, I'm 56 years old and John F. Kennedy was MY president growing up. I remember in grade school doing our physical conditioning tests that came from the President's Council on Physical Fitness. It felt like President Kennedy was paying individual attention to ME! When he was killed, I was more sad then than from any family death I'd experienced at that point. So I've always had a sort of curiosity about the details of the assassination. It was personal to me.
This book gets a BIG 5-stars on the Level of Interest scale for me. If you are interested in presidential history especially that which is relative to John Kennedy, this is a book you'll find hard to put down until you finish. It will certainly make you think when you read it.
In closing, we Americans like to think our government is good at its heart and looks out for us as best it can. Well... the truth of the matter is our government is just as screwed up internally as things are out here. People are people, they have insecurities, and here's book where one formula is presented to be true: FBI = CYA when it comes to the Kennedy assassination.
I recommend you read it and judge for yourself the veracity of what you find between its covers.
13 of 14 found the following review helpful:
Relatively interesting book Dec 16, 2008
By To Be Simple
The conspiracy to assassinate JFK has been the subject of many dozens of books. Some of these books are informative and credible, while others are just downright foolish, with little credibility. "To Kill A President," by Wesley Swearingen, falls into the first category. Swearingen has served his country as a member of the military, as well as a long-time FBI agent. He has also been involved in several high-profile court cases.
The issue of credibility means a whole lot to me when reading about something as controversial as the JFK assassination. Swearingen comes across in this book as very credible and informed. Furthermore, his overall assessment of the conspiracy to shoot JFK is backed by other accounts from people who were government workers at the time. In other words, this book is not the product of a conspiracy theorist who makes claims that cannot be backed up.
"To Kill A President" is easy to read, and gives a good deal of background information as to the way the FBI worked during the Hoover years. Additionally, it shows how the FBI and CIA had various power struggles. Swearingen sets the stage well before getting into the specifics of the assassination and its aftermath. He also offers up a chapter that gives details on a bunch of the people closely associated with the Kennedy administration and/or the assassination who died (many times by shooting) after the assassination. The author claims that these people were eliminated by the CIA due to their knowledge involving the assassination of JFK.
"To Kill A President" does not deliver a definitive smoking gun as to the assassination, but it does give readers a lot to chew on. The author was on the inside of the FBI during the 1960s. He knew the circummstances surrounding the assassination. He has obviously done a lot of research in addition to the first-hand accounts he offers. Ultimately, Swearingen has enough credibility, and puts together enough of a case, to make for a book that should be read by anyone who doubts the official investigation of the assassination and wants to learn more.
7 of 8 found the following review helpful:
 WORTH ADDING TO YOUR JFK SHELF TO SUPPLEMENT OTHER MATERIALS Jan 21, 2009
By C. Scanlon
"least helpful reviewer"
A reviewer here writes all those involved in the conspiracy, somebody would have talked.
They did
Read Someone Would Have Talked: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the Conspiracy to Mislead History
In fact there is so much material you can read which is substantiated by this book.
What is especially compelling here is the hint of the involvement of Texas Oilmen (I always wondered why an Connecticut amd mid-West family like the Bushes suddenly went to Texas while maintaing their sons's education in Yale and Massachusetts; I always wondered how papa bush got to be head of the CIA).
As others mention, there is a little too much of the author chatting into the tape machine while driving around in pursuit of leads, a kindly copy editor might have helped or peer review by the historians. But he does drive around, pursuing things he should have been allowed to chase forty years earlier or more, and he shares his insight with us.
Oswald was a Patsy. Big Oil and the rest (Hoover, etc.) did it.
Know your history. Let this book supplement your studies not as a main source but as a support.
To understand why this is still so important, please read as well the recent JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters.
16 of 21 found the following review helpful:
 Not A Bad Book On The Kennedy Assassination, But Could Have Been Even Better Nov 24, 2008
By Shawn Kovacich
"Author of the Achieving Kicking Excellence series."
Well I guess I better start this review off by stating emphatically that if you believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of President Kennedy, then don't bother reading any further because it is just going to be a waste of your time. I personally don't believe that any informed and intelligent individual anywhere in the United States, or for that matter in the world, truly believes that Oswald was a lone nut assassin.
Now that I have got that off my chest, let's get on with the review of this book.
I found some of the information provided in this book intriguing, while other information I found a bit questionable. That's not to imply that it may not be true, it's just that I think the author could have presented a lot of this information better in order to make it more believable and get his point across to the reader. Some actual evidence to proof some of his claims would go along way in establishing and maintaining some credibility.
One item that I found particularly annoying was the author's continuing attempt to tell us that he has helped all of these various people who had been mistreated by the FBI over the years, and then after numerous court cases didn't take a dime of the money that was awarded to them for his services. That is all find and dandy, but why continually push the issue and what real point is there to it when you are writing a book detailing the conspiracy to kill President Kennedy? Unless this was some kind of attempt to clarify that the author is a really nice guy and is just interested in truth, justice, and the American way. If that is the case, then congratulations Mr. Swearingen on being a great guy!
I found a lot of the various sections involving a wide array of characters leading up to and after the assassination to be rather interesting, although there were a lot of sections that I would have liked to have seen expanded a bit more providing more information than what was actually presented. As a side not of sorts, there is a very good movie entitled; Executive Action which starred Burt Lancaster and Will Geer that was exceptionally well done and takes a very interesting look at the events leading up to the Kennedy assassination. If you get the chance, check it out. It is available now on DVD.
I really enjoyed the sections with Craig Roberts author of Kill Zone: A Sniper Looks at Dealey Plaza where he is giving a tour of the assassination site to the author. However, I think the various conspiracy authors need to all sit down and compare notes and then write a single definitive account on the conspiracy, rather than them continually stepping on each others toes (so to speak).
Do I believe everything the author says in this book? Absolutely not! Does the author bring up some interesting points and possibilities? Most certainly, Yes! Could this book have benefited from better editing and more extensive research? Most definitely, Yes! Would I recommend this book to other readers? Yes, but with notation that there are much better and more detailed books out there on the subject.
Shawn Kovacich
Author of the Achieving Kicking Excellence series.
5 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Book sorts out Kennedy assassination facts Aug 09, 2010
By William Sardi
A contemporary history book need not be necessarily entertaining. It needs to provide fact and opinion. as this book does. For the first time, retired FBI agent Swearingen names names -- the possible shooters. The Texas oil companies provided the funding, so it was outside US government budgets. The FBI was complicit and culpable in not protecting the President adequately, and compromised by its homosexual leadership. Swearingen helps sort all this out. More troublesome is that over 90 people have died under suspicious circumstances up to 25 years beyond the date of the assassination. There are hitmen rubbing out witnesses and destroying evidence. The most likely culprit is the CIA, or at least a rogue element in the CIA. But strangely, nobody goes after them, not even Bobby Kennedy after his brother's assassination and betrayal by the CIA at the Bay of Pigs. It's dangerous even commenting here about this.
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