November 22, 1963: You Are the Jury

"November 22, 1963: You Are The Jury" by David W. Belin is a fantastic source of information regarding the facts and the evidence surrounding President John F. Kennedy's assassination, which, as the title indicates, occurred on that grim and never-to-be-forgotten November date in '63. Mr. Belin, an Iowa lawyer, served as a member of the Warren Commission's Assistant Counsel during the Commission's 1964 investigation into JFK's murder (plus the slayings of Police Officer J.D. Tippit and the President's accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald). Belin did a vast amount of work for the WC, including handling the questioning of many of the primary witnesses connected with the Kennedy case. He is, therefore, eminently qualified to write a book of this nature. Belin wrote "You Are The Jury" in 1973, ten years after the somber events in Dallas, and these 520-plus pages provide a superb "inside" look at how Belin and the Warren Commission operated during the Commission's nearly 10-month probe into JFK's assassination. This book could almost be referred to as a "Warren Report Sequel" (of sorts), as Mr. Belin lays out the evidence in massive doses, complete with huge chunks of actual witness testimony, with the reader serving as "the jury", as the title suggests. After reading these 500+ pages of raw evidence and witness accounts (which are combined with a whole lot of common sense being exhibited by the author as well), a reasonable reader can be left with no doubt whatsoever as to the identity of the real killer of President Kennedy and Officer Tippit. With respect to the Tippit crime, allow me to quote a passage from page 112 of this book: "{Fellow WC lawyer} Joe Ball put it succinctly: 'In all of my courtroom experience, I have never seen a more open-and-shut case'." I couldn't turn these pages fast enough, in wanting to see what Mr. Belin would next offer on the next page in terms of evidence, actual WC witness testimony, and reasoned thinking. And Belin never disappointed this reader at any stage. He verbally KOs Warren Commission critic and assassination buff Mark Lane on numerous occasions, including the complete annihilation of Lane's crazy assertion that Helen Markham, a key witness to the Tippit murder, said that Tippit's killer was "stocky with bushy hair". Markham never said such a thing to Mr. Lane, and Belin (rightly so) hammers Lane hard on this crucial matter. Another excerpt from the book...... "Our Warren Commission Report will stand the test of the final verdict of the jury of world opinion because it is basically accurate and because there are more than 6,500 footnotes in our 888-page Report, which are grounded in the 26 volumes of testimony and exhibits. When you examine every one of these footnotes you will find that there is none of the misrepresentation and distortion of the type {Mark} Lane uses when he alleges that {Howard} Brennan could not identify the two Negro men that he saw in the fifth floor window who came out of the

Although most people regard "Case Closed" as the best book on the JFK assassination, I think this little gem from the early 1970s is the best place to start. Belin was a Warren Commission lawyer who lobbied for the Warren Report to be written in the form of a trial transcript, but was outvoted. After becoming disgusted by the rise of the conspiracy literature, he decided to write the kind of Warren Report -- using large chunks of key eyewitness testimony -- that he wanted to see published in the first place. The evidence against Oswald is (of course) overwhelming, and the presentation is eminently readable. Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is his argument against Warren's withholding of the autopsy photos and xrays at the request of the Kennedy family. (In fact, Warren himself never got to see them!) His reasoning -- that JFK is a citizen just like the rest of us and that Warren's succumbing to this pressure put JFK on a dangerous pedestal -- is both thought-provoking and ultimately correct IMHO. Read this one first. Then, if you still want to understand why Oswald did it alone, you will need to understand Oswald. For that DO NOT go to the conspiracy literature, which paints Oswald as a two-dimensional cardboard cutout. No, for that you need a fully-developed bio of this intriguing character. And, although the Warren Report does a great job on Oswald (and Ruby), the book to start with is Posner's "Case Closed." I cannot recommend the late Mr. Belin's book highly enough!