CONTENT WARNING: They Killed Our President contains Graphic descriptions of the crime scene and its victims.
If you’ve never heard of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, here’s the simple story:
President John F. Kennedy was shot to death by Lee Harvey Oswald on Nov. 22, 1963, during a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas.
That’s it.
Just a lone gunman who, after his lunch break at the Texas School Book Depository building, shot and killed the President and also managed to wound Texas Governor John Connally, who sat in front of JFK during the motorcade.
If you read the official investigation into the murder, namely, the Warren Commission, this is the prevailing narrative surrounding the fatal event.
However, this investigation leaves us with more questions than answers, if examined closely. For example, why was the Texas Book Depository Building, the building housing the sniper’s nest right on the motorcade route, not guarded against potential threats? Why was the secret service out of formation during the parade? And, if the secret service knew about threats against the president’s life weeks before the motorcade, why didn’t they prioritize his safety?
To add insult to injury, the Warren Commission claims that Lee Harvey Oswald shot a total of 3 bullets. However, there were 7 entry/exit wounds in JFK and the Texas Governor. The Warren Commission explained this discrepancy through what they called the magic bullet theory, which proposed that these 3 bullets somehow broke the laws of physics and magically stopped mid-air, turned, and entered and exited both JFK and the Texas governor multiple times. Still to this day, I can’t comprehend how this happened; the laws of nature simply wouldn’t allow it.
Jesse Ventura’s They Killed Our President is an expose of the conspiracy to kill JFK. The book is divided into 4 parts (The Evidence, The Cover-Up, The Witnesses, and The Why, Who, and How) that chronicle evidence dismissed by the Warren Commission and that give “definitive” proof that there was a conspiracy to kill JFK. The book is structured in small and easy-to-digest chapters, each following 1 out of 63 points of discussion and it covers events before, during, and after the assassination.
As an avid conspiracy theorist myself, I couldn’t help but take this book home when found it at my local free library. The JFK Assassination is one of those things that has stayed with me since high school, and I was excited at the idea of learning more about it. Although I haven’t read anything by Ventura, or any other books on the JFK assassination, I had high hopes that I would leave this experience knowing what really happened on that fatal day in 1963.
As for the author Jesse Ventura, he has done it all — served in the US Navy, governed the state of Minnesota, and even wrestled professionally in the WWF. He has written many works uncovering corrupt politics and conspiracy theories and runs a podcast in this same sphere.
To put it simply, Ventura’s thesis in They Killed Our President is that Lyndon B. Johnson (and the CIA, Cuban communists, mafia members, and Lee Harvey Oswald) catalyzed a plot to kill John F. Kennedy. I know, I know, there’s a lot to unpack here. It’s a relatively small volume with bountiful information, so we won’t get into specifics here.
Let’s start with what I liked about the book.
I enjoyed the way it was organized. It had a clear line of reasoning and worked its way from the inside out, engaging the audience with direct evidence from the day of the shooting and then relating that evidence to the web of other events that make up this conspiracy. Although I have a few issues with the book overall, it was a good introduction to the JFK conspiracy plot. As someone who has not thoroughly probed the subject before, it gave me a good foundation to build off on if I choose to read more about this in the future.
I also appreciated that Ventura included videos to support his claims. For instance, he linked to video interviews from eyewitnesses and even linked to his own videos where he reenacted the shooting to gain perspective on what happened that day. However, my main gripe with this approach is that the video links weren’t easy to access. I tried finding a video playlist Ventura posted on his Facebook page but it’s buried by so much content that I couldn’t find it. This meant I had to type out the entire link to each video character by character which interrupted my reading experience. And to my surprise, some of the videos he linked came from random people on Youtube, not from credited sources, and at various times the links provided led nowhere — looks like YouTube took down some of the videos. I didn’t completely mind but it definitely didn’t help bolster his case.
The most interesting aspect of this conspiracy that Ventura explored was the troublesome discovery that Lee Harvey Oswald, the lone murderer responsible for this whole ordeal, was working with US intelligence as a defector in Moscow during the cold war. His wife claims that he suspiciously learned fluent Russian, which she believed was part of an intensive CIA program in which Oswald became a double agent. However, things get even more interesting because it is believed that Lee Harvey Oswald was multiple people at once.
Let me explain.
Ventura goes into detail about Oswald’s role in the assassination and presents evidence of Lee Harvey Oswald being at two different places, two different countries, at the same time. Interestingly, people described Oswald as having certain scars or features that weren’t on his body after he got murdered by Jack Ruby two days after JFK’s assassination. This led to the suspicion that the name Lee Harvey Oswald, or Lee Oswald, or Harvey Oswald, was being used by multiple agents working with US intelligence. Therefore, the body they believe is Lee Harvey Oswald might actually be one of the other Lee Harvey’s.
I had never heard of this plot and it was by far the most interesting part of this convoluted story. Who would’ve thought this plot would be so intertwined? Yet this is exactly what you’d expect of a plot to kill the president. I’ll leave the rest for you to uncover if you choose to read more about this conspiracy.
If you’re interested in the topic and you own this book, I’d recommend giving it a read because it’s a captivating subject matter. However, would I recommend you go out and buy it? Well…
Now, here’s the deal.
Although it was a fascinating topic, I found a lot of things to dislike about this book. For instance, the majority of the book’s content is quotes pulled from secondary or tertiary sources. As a reader, this might be a good thing because it shows that other experts agree that there is a bigger plot behind JFK’s murder. However, in context, this technique does the opposite of what it intended. Instead of bolstering Ventura’s credibility, the constant shift to other sources weakens his own authority in the matter. This is especially so because the sources aren’t primary documentation of the event, so he is sharing an opinion as it’s held by somebody else and not in his own words.
In a similar vein, Ventura weakens his arguments by constantly reinforcing his point of view through his sheer belief in them:
“So you shoot the president and you decide to take in the afternoon movie? You decide that, right?… I Mean, come on!” pg. 88
Although it adds to the personality of the piece, it undermines its ability to stand alone. This stylistic choice puts words in the audience’s mouths about how they must feel instead of sharing unbiased and fact-driven information. In a sense, the book appeals to authority, because the fact that he’s writing the book gives him the “authority” to inject his opinions, which is a logical fallacy. It doesn’t help his arguments whatsoever.
So, was I convinced that JFK was killed as a result of a conspiracy?
My answer is yes and no.
For transparency’s sake, I’d like to say that this was already my opinion before reading this book. For one, I’ve always found the magic bullet theory to be outrageous and discreditable. Therefore, it wasn’t hard to convince me of the Warren Commission’s suspicious discoveries in this case. I’ve also read declassified CIA documents that suggest manipulation of the JFK media coverage. However, I did not know the full extent of the conspiracy and I am somewhat convinced that Lyndon B. Johnson was for the most part responsible for the death of JFK (Not to mention that the U.S. government has kept information on the JFK assassination under lock and key for almost 60 years, which I find rather suspicious). Maybe I ought to read different sources before committing to an answer, but for now, let’s say I’m open to the idea.
Upon surveying They Killed Our President reviews on GoodReads, I came to the conclusion that this may not the best book to read on the subject. And from my own experience, some of the faults outweigh the benefits, even though it was an engaging read.
What do you think really happened on Nov 22, 1963? I would love to know! Feel free to message me if you read this book and want to talk about it or if you have any book recommendations!