About this Book

Almost thirty years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, his murder continues to haunt the American psyche and stands as a turning point in our nation's history. The Warren Commission rushed out its Report, but the questions would not go away. Was there a conspiracy? Was there a coup at the highest levels of government? Today, after millions upon millions have seen Oliver Stone's incisive film, JFK, the drive to reexamine this crime of the century has reached fever pitch. The core of that movement, the protagonist of JFK, is Jim Garrison. On March 1, 1967, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison electrified the world by arresting local businessman Clay Shaw for conspiracy to murder the President. His co-conspirator, David Ferrie, had been found dead a few days before. Garrison charged that elements of the United States government, in particular the CIA, were behind the crime. From the beginning, his probe was virulently attacked in the media and violently denounced from Washington. His office was infiltrated and sabotaged, and witnesses disappeared and died strangely. Eventually, Shaw was acquitted after the briefest of jury deliberations and the only prosecution ever brought for the murder of President Kennedy was over. But Garrison never stopped pursuing the case, and, over the years, an army of investigators and researchers have confirmed the essence of his case; Jim Garrison has been vindicated. Only a small minority of Americans still support the conclusions of the Warren Commission, and, since the release of JFK, that minority is shrinking every day. There is a growing demand for the declassification of the mountains of documents that have been locked up ingovernment vaults for decades. There are calls for a new and thorough investigation. James DiEugenio's Destiny Betrayed is the most up-to-date and clearest analysis ever published of Garrison's pioneering inquiry and the assassination itself. The author not only studied all the existing research, but also traveled the U.S. interviewing many of the survivors of this drama, exploring the background and associations of Clay Shaw as no one has ever done. He was granted access to the privately held original Shaw trial transcript. He covered documents never before published or described in full. Destiny Betrayed is one of the few works that truly furthers our understanding of the assassination of JFK, its surrounding circumstances, and the continuing mysteries. Everything in this book is fully documented, with upwards of a thousand notes and an extensive bibliography. The author was assisted in the research by Bob Spiegelman, who helped research JFK. And Zachary Sklar's Introduction provides an intimate profile of Jim Garrison today.