Reclaiming Parkland

[Marc Ellis]

A splendid scholarly work and a great read October 11, 2013
By Joseph McBride



"...The great public service DiEugenio provides us today is to do a relentless and deeply knowledgeable autopsy on another one of several attempts to replicate and rescuscitate the discredited Warren Report. This is the thoroughly specious, monstrously long, arrogant, and mendacious work by former prosecutor Bugliosi entitled RECLAIMING HISTORY: THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY. That ridiculous yet pernicious book, first published in 2007 and later whittled down to more readable dimensions, ostensibly served as the basis for the lamentable 2013 movie PARKLAND, a dishonest and shoddy attempt to rewrite Oliver Stone's impressive JFK, which was attacked for the wrong reasons. Critics of Stone claim he falsified evidence to exonerate Lee Harvey Oswald, when he was presenting and dramatizing actual evidence to replace the falsified "so-called evidence" (as Oswald himself called it) used by the Warren Report. Bugliosi, like Gerald Posner and other overrated fabricators, has tried again to hoodwink the public into believing the phony conclusions of the original Report. These disinformation specialists have not succeeded, since as many as eighty percent of the public are sharp enough to disbelieve the official version.


What DiEugenio does so well is to patiently read through Bugliosi's grotesque pile of lies and tear it apart piece by piece, showing the contrary and actual evidence that discredits his myriad errors and omissions. His prose, like Meagher's, is lucid, sober, and yet devastatingly mocking in a subtle way. RECLAIMING PARKLAND is a great read and will be even for someone who hasn't tried to climb through Bugliosi's jungle of prose and notes. DiEugenio is one of the most scholarly writers on the assassination. He has digested the wealth of material that has been revealed in the last two decades since the creation of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. And he has made himself familiar with all the other evidence brought forth by independent researchers in books, magazines, journals, and forums (including his own fine magazine, Probe). He writes entertainingly and incisively and is an excellent teacher about the assassination...."

RP is the best book I've read on the assassination, once he starts going after Bugliosi. It is a point-by-point deconstruction of the prosecutor's case. It's persuasive argument.

Maybe Prof. McBride's book will be the next one I read. But I am really looking forward to some 'LN' reviews of "Reclaiming Parkland". I don't think we'll be seeing many. One prominent LN'er, who JDE has debated in the past, posted an ad hominem screed on another site about RP. But it's clear he hadn't gotten near the book he was ranting about. I can't find any reviews yet by LN reviewers who have read it.