Title: My Father Killed President John F. Kennedy
Author: Bruce H. Bell
ISBN: 9781643789798
Publisher: Austin Macauley
Genre: Historical Memoir, Political Science
Pages: 418
Reviewed by: Lily Amanda
Hollywood Book Reviews
The assassination of John F. Kennedy has been wrapped in a bleary semblance of conspiracy theories that have roiled around for decades. Author Bruce H. Bell has written a groundbreaking memoir that seeks to answer long-lingering questions and breathless speculation surrounding the murder of the 35th president of the United States in 1963.
In his sprawling memoir, Bell, the son of one of the masterminds of the assassination, vividly recounts the days leading up to the heinous crime, the political and social context of the time, the goals of the political figure, the orchestration of the murder and finally the aftermath. He explains how he felt the intensity of it all, the burdens of expectations and responsibilities, the awareness of the immensity of what was being undertaken, and having to live in this secret world while trying to be a normal child. Bell judges the circumstances and motives, to understand to the extent possible, what happened and why.
This magisterial and phenomenal work further gives shocking details on the reasons why Kennedy ruffled the feathers of the Mafia, CIA, FBI, Air Force war hawks, oil tycoons, and a few political incumbents who all collectively were involved in the murder conspiracy. For example, the text explains that Kennedy’s overt actions against the mafia greatly angered the powerful and self-entitled director J. Edgar Hoover who had a covert understanding of the Mafia. Also, there was an existing relationship between the Mafia and the CIA, and the latter did not agree with Kennedy’s high-strung prosecutions of the Mafia. These, and other reasons, are the root causes President Kennedy did to anger all the necessary powers which would eventually come together and agree to assassinate him.
The author does not shy away from giving his thoughts about the whole conspiracy and in his own words says: I felt they were a scourge on American society that should be eradicated; so, my thinking was akin to the Kennedys’. Indeed, My Father Killed President John F. Kennedy sheds a glimpse into the subtleties of human obsession and its consequences. The book bridges the writer’s own story with historical events. It is exhaustively written and answers readers’ questions right before they form in their minds. It is remarkably written and will leave you going back to some of the pages to dig up the nuances you may have missed during the first reading.
Enthusiasts of political science and American history will find My Father Killed President John F. Kennedy by Bruce H. Bell a sweeping historical memoir of monumental proportions.