PREFACE

Common sense is quite wrong in thinking that the past is fixed, immutable, invariable, as against the ever-changing flux of the present. On the contrary, at least within our own consciousness, the past is malleable and flexible, constantly changing as our recollection changes. Nearly sixty years after JFK’s assassination, a majority of Americans still continue to respond favorably towards his conduct in office despite revelations of his serial philandering and the cover-up of his serious health problems. The dominant image of his robust health having been created in order to help him win the presidency, as well as some of the possible causes of the disparities between perception & reality.

He’s the nation’s first president who really understood the power of imagery. He learned to harness the power of media and television to cultivate favorable images and sustain popular appeal. He consciously worked to create positive images which portray his youthful appearance & wholesome appeal. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Many people identified with the idealized images he created. Images of the man who seemed like a picture of robust health. Images of an ideal family man. Behind the scenes however, a different image existed. Someone the world was never allowed to see. Due to the erosion of time, the complex man and human being he really was, the one living just beneath the surface emerged. Even as a boy he was forever fascinated with the idea of plotting a series of what he called “satisfying reveals” to fool his family. It’s a term used by magicians whom he emulated.

He carried these magician’s traits into his adult life. Never yielding to the concepts & clichés of other men, he always played by his own rules, living his life on his own terms, practicing his magic whenever he could. As the years passed, the one question, the only question that ever needed to be asked, was never asked and certainly, never answered. Asking, and answering that question will be the key to unraveling the mystery of his untimely departure. Years later, people still wonder and wait for some magic veil to be lifted.

To pull back the curtain revealing the great and wise Wizard trying in vain to unravel the mystery. You see, it doesn’t matter who planned it or who pulled the trigger, for that matter. None of that matters. It’s all just part of a grand illusion. A chimera.

The only thing that really matters is to answer one question. Who stood the most to gain from John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s death? Everyone knows how the story ends, but no one really knows how it began or more importantly, why. For the man who was so taken with magic as a child, this would be his greatest trick.