The Man on the Grassy Knoll

This remarkable journal is a detailed account of the author’s role in the assassination of President John Kennedy. In 1963, John D____ was a senior varsity baseball player at an eastern university. An accomplished marksman, John was also fluent in Spanish. In the spring, he was contacted by an individual identifying himself as Edward Smith, who claimed to work for an intelligence branch of the United States government and had, it seemed, supporting credentials. An effective talker with a commanding presence, Smith recruited the young man on a mission ostensibly aimed at eliminating Fidel Castro. He offered the author $60,000 for a few months work after graduation and appealed to his sense of patriotism, highlighting the threat presented by the Cuban Communist regime. With no job offers and a sense of adventure, John eventually signed on and was trained at a desert facility using Soviet sniper rifles, presumably for insertion into Cuba. An effective cover story was provided so that his family and friends had no inkling of the young man’s real activity. In early fall, Smith met with the author and attempted to change targets to President John Kennedy. Smith was well prepared with documentation and material to convince his recruit that Kennedy was leading the country on a course of nuclear destruction. He had details on the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, the nuclear missiles under Cuban control aimed at the landing beaches, the deceptive and incomplete missile withdrawal from Cuba, faulty Jupiter ICBMs, and other matters. The remuneration was upped to $150,000. Perhaps in a manner similar to Pattie Hearst or even the Manson family, Smith was eventually successful in turning his charge. The young man, alone with no other resources or compatriots, became convinced the entire U.S. intelligence community was behind his efforts. The author and Smith traveled to Dallas in early November, linking up with Lee Harvey Oswald, also recruited by Smith. The journal has now been reviewed in detail by Sixty Minutes, a number of Kennedy assassination experts, from a noted “dream team” attorney to forensic pathologists, autopsy experts and others who appeared before the Warren Commission. No flaw has been found in the work, which presents, in the view of most experts, a more acceptable version of the actual assassination than the Warren Commission. There is an appendix of exhibits supporting the manuscript, including an airplane ticket, Soviet weapon with serial number, passport identification, license tags and other material. Perhaps as telling as the detailed information and photographs furnished, as provoking as the scrutiny of assassination experts, the journal is an understated, poignant account, a haunting memoir by an anonymous author with no wish to surface. It is as spellbinding as Day of the Jackal.