Powerful People – Outrageous Lies assembles a case challenging the official explanation of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the investigations that followed. How long had you been researching the assassination before you realized you wanted to write your own account? 

I started researching after watching an interview about 4 years ago with Oliver Stone, where he discussed his movie “JFK” and described his own experience in combat duty in Vietnam seeing soldiers getting their heads shot.  I then watched the movie “JFK” carefully and started seriously researching the incident about 3 years ago.  What started as a one page note to get my own ideas straight ended up with “Powerful People – Outrageous Lies“. 

One recurring difficulty in assassination research is distinguishing deliberate concealment from bureaucratic confusion, incompetence, secrecy, and institutional self-protection. How do you make that distinction?  

I try to put myself in the position of the person involved.  For example I was amazed by the response of Dallas Motorcycle Policeman Bobby Hargis when interviewed by Stephen Fagin of the 6th Floor Museum.  After describing how he wiped a piece of bone stuck to his upper lip while JFK was in front, 15 feet away, Hargis still stuck to the official line that the shot was from behind !!  The look on his face was of a simple man who didn’t want to rock the boat.  He told the truth as he saw it, but he closed his mind to the obvious.  I tried to imagine LBJ was just scared of starting WW3 by accusing the Russians and tried to cover up the assassination for noble reasons.  That idea fell apart when I realised that LBJ was the only person who could have ordered such an elaborate scheme to steal JFK’s body from Jacky Kennedy’s custody and all the cover up actions by the Secret Service, FBI and CIA.  I cannot help but see that as evil.

You examine the Warren Commission, the House Select Committee on Assassinations, and the Assassination Records Review Board. Of those three official investigations, which came closest to the truth — and which did the most damage?

The most damaging is easy – it was the Warren Commission.  The HSCA concluded that there was a conspiracy to assassinate JFK, but still got the 4th shot completely wrong.  Only the ARRB came closer to the truth, but they still kept many records hidden away for “National Security” reasons.  Douglas Horne went on to do some brilliant work; as most humans do, he jumped to some slightly incorrect conclusions.  As time went on and more secrecy agreements expired and people retired, more information dripped out.  So the later investigations got closer to the truth. Now we have the confession about the “magic bullet” of Paul Landis in 2023 and the release of documents under the 1st and 2nd Trump administrations.

Why do you think the Kennedy assassination continues to fascinate people when so many other major historical crimes have largely settled into accepted narratives?

The JFK assassination had an effect on a wide range of people around the world. Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt when he visited Washington DC told LBJ that Australia would “Go all the way with LBJ”.  As a result, I was called up to serve in the Australian Army, but deferred due to university study.  Friends who served in Vietnam were badly affected.  A recent Gallup Poll shows that 65% of the US population thinks that JFK was assassinated by a conspiracy.  The US population cannot agree on any other subject to such a high degree !!!

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