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The Return of the Magic BulletTwo new JFK books clash over conspiracy theory.

By Ron Rosenbaum
Posted Friday, June 1, 2007, at 5:29 PM ET

(Continued from page 2)

My first reaction to the Bugliosi book (on my blog) was that he may have established who pulled the trigger that filed the fatal bullet, but he hasn't completely established who or what pulled the trigger in Oswald's head, so to speak. I believe the mind of Oswald may be the last locus of genuine mystery in the case. On further reflection, it seems to me Bugliosi is trying to point to a motive: He reminds us of all the evidence of Oswald's pro-Castro passion and Oswald's potential knowledge of U.S. attempts to target Fidel. He means to suggest that the JFK hit was not a Cuban job but a pro-Cuban job. Yes, I know there's a counter-theory that Oswald's pro-Cuban public stance was a front for an anti-Castro connection. In fact, in my view, nobody has come closer to a convincing portrait of Oswald's muddled mentality than Don DeLillo did in his amazing novel Libra.

But to return to my own trajectory, it began with Mark Lane, now a half-forgotten fringe character but memorable as the first, most visible promoter of JFK conspiracy theory. Bugliosi begins his attempt to demolish all conspiracy theories with ur-conspiracy theorist Lane. Bugliosi's small, inconsequential error comes on Page 1,001 (!) when he tells us Lane began giving lectures on his conspiracy theory at "Theater Four on West Fifth Street" in Manhattan.

Now, most Manhattanites will recognize the problem here: There is no "West Fifth Street" in Manhattan. Coincidence? I think so. It's one of those Village anomalies (there is an East Fifth Street).

But for me the error was more resonant: I attended one of Lane's lectures back then, when I was just out of high school, and I recall listening to Lane's primitive PowerPoint-type presentation with a sense of sudden dislocation. I felt I was hearing about an alternate universe or at least an alternate America—some "West Fifth Street" of the mind, in some realm that I didn't recognize or that hadn't existed before. But wherever it took place (I think it might have been on West 15th Street), Lane's lecture had a lasting effect on me, and made me a conspiracy-theory type on the spot.

It lasted about 10 years. In that period, I saw some of the best minds I knew swallowed up by conspiracy-theory mentality. If I had to pick a point where it began to come to an end for me, it might have been my phone conversation with New Orleans prosecutor Jim Garrison, whose effort to convict a local resident of masterminding the JFK kill became the basis for Oliver Stone's JFK.

This was when Garrison was lying low, before the movie, after the spectacular fiasco of the trial in which he cobbled together pathetically inadequate evidence and grandiose theories about the vast shadowy forces behind it all in a manner so inept that he all but discredited further inquiry into the matter.

Talking with Garrison, I sensed from his tone of voice he had the thing that distinguishes conspiracy theorists from actual investigators and investigative reporters. He had that tell-tale, know-it-all, condescending tone. That if-you-only-knew-all-I knew, if-you-only-knew-the-big-picture, you-couldn't-handle-the-truth tone.

But for all his bloviating about conspirators, Garrison never to my knowledge had named the actual person he believed fired the fatal head-shot from the grassy knoll.

So, I pressed him on it: Who fired the fatal shot? I remember him hemming and hawing and finally producing a name: Larry Crafard. As far as I know, it was the only time he gave the name of the man he thought was "the real Oswald."

After hanging up with Garrison, I looked up Larry Crafard's Warren Commission testimony. He was a handyman night-watchman type who slept in Jack Ruby's Carousel Club after it closed for the night. One detail had a kind of black comic absurdity to it that stuck with me: Crafard worked in a carnival show on some cheesy attraction called "How Hollywood Makes Movies," as I recall. After the assassination, he hitchhiked north to his hometown in Michigan, and that seemed to be Garrison's only basis for naming him presidential assassin No. 1. He certainly didn't cite me any convincing evidence.

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Ron Rosenbaum is the author of The Shakespeare Wars and Explaining Hitler.
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