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Walt Brown, "The Warren Omission- A Micro-Study of the Methods and Failures of the Warren Commission" ( Delmax: New Castle, Delaware, 1996). Without a doubt, the biggest "sleeper" of 1996/1997 has to be this latest work by Brown, his fifth book on the JFK assassination and his sixth overall (he is currently working on a comprehensive index to all the major books on the case). While many books promise a lot on the dust jacket, this one delivers- it is the single best denouncement of the Warren Report and the 26 volumes to date!
O.K., what does this book have that several other similar works do not? Two things: tremendous, painstaking detail and a thirty-plus year perspective. Throw in Walt's excellent wit and writing style and you have one enjoyable book (the logical follow-up to his 1995 work entitled Treachery in Dallas). Indeed, this book is one hard act to follow-up; I would venture to say it will be looked upon as the Accessories After The Fact of the new millenium.
The Warren Omission is broken down into three distinct yet related parts: "Book One: The Warren Omission", "Book Two: Semantics", and "Book Three: Witnesses." "Book One: The Warren Omission" takes us through November 22, 1963 with a fresh perspective and, at the same time, sets up the rest of the book by detailing the specific investigative blunders and anomolies related to that dark day in Dallas and the subsequent murder of Lee Harvey Oswald by the Dallas Police --- er, I mean by Jack Ruby...
Going further than even Epstein or Meagher before him, Brown portrays the fascinating underpinnings of what was to become a most reluctant Warren Commission by anyone's standards. Also, Brown, again in tremendous detail, maps out just how involved each of the seven commissioners really were in regard to the tasks at hand and to which they were subsequently, as a collective body, given undue credit for by many in the media and popular press. Just when you thought you've seen and heard it all in this case, Walt Brown proves us all wrong; this part of the book alone is a devastating indictment of the failure(s) of the Warren Commission.
In "Book Two: Semantics", Brown takes us through the Forward of the Warren Report, along with the Summary and Conclusions, the Assassination, The Shots From the Texas School Book Depository, The Assassin, Detention and Death of Oswald, Investigation of Possible Conspiracy and Lee Harvey Oswald: Background and Possible Motives; in short, the lion's share of the Report and its pivotal conclusions. Unlike other books that have attempted to do what Walt Brown has done, this work does NOT skip over whole sections of important parts of the Report, thus giving the "lone nut" camp ample fodder for cries of selectivity and bias. No, Brown goes virtually page by page, line by line here, quoting verbatim from the Commission's own words (often devastating by their self- indictments anyway), then offering crisp, concise analysis of that which is being "alleged" by the government. Just as the torch was passed to Walt in 1995 in picking up where Sylvia Meagher left off with her index, Brown does the same thing here --- more detail, more analysis, and, most important of all, a three-decade-plus perspective.
Although the first two parts are excellent, Brown saves the best for last: "Book Three: The Witnesses" is simply THE best analysis of the 26 volumes to date! Starting with Marguerite Oswald and ending with number 488, John E. Gallagher, Brown again lays out what the written record says and then what the truth actually is. There's even a comprehensive appendix entilted "Off the Record" describing every instance (in their proper context) where a specific witness was taken off the record by the Warren Commission --- amazing.
Along with an impressive index, chapter notes, and a tremendous dedication to detail, Walt Brown has, in my opinion, succeeded where everyone else has, ultimately, failed: he has taken the Warren Commission's Report and the 26 volumes and used THEIR OWN WORDS (not just his) to truly demonstrate the mockery that was the "official" story of one man, one gun, and no conspiracy. I recommend this book to everyone, whether they are a neophyte or the most advanced student of the case.
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