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Part Three: Reclaiming Parkland: Tom Hanks, Vincent Bugliosi, and the JFK Assassination in the New Hollywood

By James DiEugenio | Reviewed by Eric Renderking Fisk| September 2018

Continuted from Part Two.

Conclusion Driven Conclusion on Reclaiming History

The most important reason why there’s a need for a book like “Reclaiming Parkland” is to fight against one of the biggest falsehoods surrounding the book and why so many Warren Report Defenders use Bugliosi’s volume use it as a rallying cry. This book is far from anything that lives up to the hype – it’s not a ‘book for the ages’ that the publicist would have us believe. It’s by far not definitive and does not address all the points he claims he addresses.

Thus Vincent Bugliosi must have knowingly lied when he said there is no credible evidence there was a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy, especially after the findings from The Church Committee and the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations. For this book to be anything close to anything that’s accurate means that you make a choice to ignore many facts and disclosures that have been released in the past fifty-five years. It means that there never were secret clandestine programs within the CIA and FBI like Operation MK Ultra, Operation Mockingbird, COINTELPRO… and so on.

We know those programs existed thanks to Senator Frank Church and his committee. A committee that apparently never happened in Uncle Vinnie's mind.

For Bugliosi to be correct and The Warren Committee “got it right” through flawed reasoning and false facts means that you have to a wholesome view and believe your government and media never lies to you when in fact they have lied on so many occasions.

For there to not be a conspiracy like Bugliosi says there wasn’t, you have to have a fanatical belief in the perfection and infallibility of The Government, you choose to believe it’s propaganda, that the seven members of Committee and their investigators were correct and the countless critics of The Warren Report are all stupid or liars. “Reclaiming Parkland” will make you angry and sad at times by illustrating the fanaticism that is genuinely frightening: If you’re a Good American you’ll keep your head down and your mouth shut and quell those doubts you have!

Think about that mindset for a second; what other tragedies have been committed by those of us why are just trying to be "good Americans?" How many people are dead in Europe decades ago because they were just trying to be "Good Germans." The notion that you must go along with "The Program" because that's what "Good People" do always seems to end with tragic results.

“Reclaiming History” isn’t just an expensive doorstop, but it’s a roadblock to the genuine truth. It’s not just the lies, the omission of truth and the cover-up that should concern you, it’s the fact that people have such a personal interest in protecting the conclusion of The Warren Report that they must indoctrinate you, too. The Bugliosi Doctrine is that if you do not submit then you must be emotionally and intellectually crucified through character assignation.

James DiEugenio paints a picture of an elderly man - Vincent Bugliosi - who "researched" this topic for more than 21 years, yet shunned any new information or any modern technology that would have helped him streamline this book, check his facts, read new releases that are now available to the public via The Assassination Archives and Research Center and more. Via "Reclaiming Parkland..." we see and maybe understand the methodology of a crank who relied on old outdated facts and resorted to personal attacks against anyone who questioned his authority.

Former Prosecutor Bugliosi just wouldn't allow his "success" from the mock trial "On Trial: Lee Harvey Oswald" from 1986 go, he had to vindicate and validate his "win" by sharing his expanded notes that proved the verdict he won was "correct." Everyone would have forgotten that mock trial if he alone would stop reminding us of it.

Like a good trial lawyer and prosecutor, he tries to sway the jury by any means necessary to win his case by pretending the evidence that counters his preconceived conclusion just doesn't exist. If that doesn't work, wear down with witness testimony. And if that doesn't work, insult the jury and their intelligence.

"Reclaiming Parkland" is an entertaining defense; not only do you know that Mr. Bugliosi is wrong, you know why. Like a good defense attorney, he introduced all the facts the prosecutor wanted to leave out of the trial of Lee Harvey Oswald and challenges the prosecution's assertions. We know the defendant couldn't have done all the crimes he's accused of doing, here are Oswald's alibis... Here's the witness testimony, here's the evidence from the police, the corners reports from the two different autopsies, here are the documents that proved there was a setup and cover-up by the CIA and FBI. Here's how J. Edgar Hoover, Allan Dulles, and Lyndon Johnston were complicit.

"Reclaiming Parkland" isn't just a serious book about this heavy topic. There are some laugh-out loud moments that make the pages fly. James DiEugenio is the real "Book Of The Ages" on this issue.