Note from Mark Lane

Dear Folks:

          On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was murdered on a bright sunny day in Dallas, Texas. On November 24, 1963,Lee Harvey Oswald was murdered in the basement of the Dallas Police and Courts Building, while handcuffed to a police officer. The next day, the New York Times headline was, “President’s Assassin Shot to Death...” That headline disturbed me. I passionately believed then, as I still do, in the American system of justice, and that headline convicted a man before he was even indicted. In December, 1963, I published A Lawyer’s Brief; Is Oswald Innocent? in the National Guardian. It began:

IN ALL LIKELIHOOD there does not exist a single American community where reside 12 men or women, good and true, who presume that Lee Harvey Oswald did not assassinate President Kennedy. No more savage comment can be made in reference to the breakdown of the Anglo-Saxon system of jurisprudence. At the very foundation of our judicial operation lies a cornerstone which shelters the innocent and guilty alike against group hysteria, manufactured evidence, overzealous law enforcement officials, in short, against those factors which militate for an automated, prejudged, neatly packaged verdict of guilty. It is the sacred right of every citizen accused of committing a crime to the presumption of innocence.

          It is now 2013. It has been 50 years the Kennedy assassination. Since my article was published, I have written four books questioning the Warren Commission Report on the assassination. The first, Rush to Judgment, was the New York Times number one bestselling book for the year 1966, and again the number one bestselling paperback for the year 1967, showing there was a deep hunger for the truth from the beginning. Many, many others have meticulously researched and questioned every aspect of the assassination, and it remains today one of the highest profile unsolved mysteries of our time, despite official claims that it was solved 50 years ago.

          This year I will continue to lobby for the truth. My friend, Martin Sheen, was kind enough to provide the narration for my new film, A Rush to Judgment, which combines the witness reports from the original Rush to Judgment with new material, including my discussion with Oliver Stone, the director of JFK, Robert Tanenbaum, the chief investigator for the House Select Committee on Assassinations, and Abraham Bolden, the first African American member of the White House Detail of the Secret Service, handpicked by President Kennedy for that detail. A Rush to Judgment is nearing completion – we are hoping it will be available to you soon. I’ll keep you posted.

          We are also planning the release of my first three books on the Kennedy assassination, Rush to Judgment, A Citizen’s Dissent, andPlausible Denial, as Ebooks. Look for them this summer.

Mark