Conspiracy! Commentary and DVD Review

"In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way."  This quote was attributed to FDR, and appeared in the underground best seller, None Dare Call It Conspiracy written by Gary Allen in 1976.  No doubt, Roosevelt's words have been the basis of many conspiracy theories -- whether he actually said them or not.  Allen goes on to say that there are really only two theories of history: conspiracy (everything is planned) or accidental (neither planned nor caused).  He says, "If you believe it is all an accident or the result of mysterious and unexplainable tides of history, you will be regarded as an "intellectual" who understands that we live in a complex world.  If you believe that something like 32,496 consecutive coincidences over the past forty years stretches the law of averages a bit, you are a kook."  So, let's be kookie for a few minutes and not say "No." until we've heard the whole story.  With that philosophy, I've welcomed and considered many conspiracy theories related to a smörgåsbord of world events. 

I was in the sixth grade in Louisiana (home of Jim Garrison) when Kennedy died. I grew up in a community of hunters and was familiar with firearms and was shocked when I heard the claims that Oswald had acted alone. How could anyone fire a bolt action rife that quickly and accurately? Even for an eleven year old the magic bullet theory was impossible to swallow. I even began to doubt Walter Conkrite. After the sixites, by 1972, my mind was a fertile field for serious conspiracy theories to germinate. My awakening began shortly after college. My first employer was an enthusiastic supporter of several groups that billed themselves as "educational" organizations. They were devout conspiracy theorists. My father had been a Mason and I thought it was a good thing that so many presidents had been, too. What a surprise to learn of all the many conspiracies out there! One of these groups advocated the same action that "Deep Throat" told Woodward and Bernstein, "Follow the money." It was also during my tenure at this company that Taylor Caldwell had her book,Captains and Kings published. It echoed the theme that the "controllers" were the international bankers that influenced many organizations (clubs and secret societies) who could suddenly turn on the man they made and have him assassinated.

Oliver Stone's movie, JFK, was an amalgam of conspiracy theories and now along comes John Hankey with his DVD, Dark Legacy -- George Bush and the Murder of John F. Kennedy. With layer upon layer of documented facts, circumstantial evidence, "reliable information", rumors and thought-provoking questions he leads viewers through a labyrinth of deeds and misdeeds committed by the famous, infamous, well known and unknown players in a passion play of political intrigue that all adds up to one unmistakable conclusion.

In Part One, Hankey takes a cue from Napoleon's quote that "History is written by the winners," and says, "Killers write the history -- the victims are the ones that get written about." This segment focuses on a pawn surgeon performing a scripted autopsy (his first ever), lost brains, notes lost to fire, and dissent from the emergency room doctors at Parkland Hospital back in Dallas. This movie is full of questions and mysteries -- like Laura Palmer was in Twin Peaks.
Part Two opens with another question: "What does it look like when real power kills?" and begins to implicate a long list of suspects and co-conspirators by their own actions and comments. We are presented with questions that beg for answers; some we know are only rhetorical. Why two different caskets? Were caskets changed in the flight from Dallas to Washington? Why was Texas state law broken and evidence of a murder removed from the state? Why didn't experienced doctors perform the autopsy in Texas? What happened to the body in flight? Where did the President's brain get off to? Hmmm.....

Part Three begins to dig into the answer to it's title, "Who Had the Power?" The narrator (uncredited and unnamed) tells us in a smooth, friendly, conversational tone, that President Eisenhower had warned us that the greatest threat to American security was "...the military industrial complex." This section draws attention to a defamation suit brought against The Spotlight weekly newspaper by E. Howard Hunt (CIA). The newspaper was exonerated. So, does that mean their claims that Hunt was personally involved in JFK's murder were true? Now where was it that I've heard Hunt's name before --oh! Watergate! Nixon! Didn't Nixon order the FBI to stop investigating Hunt? Hoover got fired over that deal. Wow, the dots are starting to connect. How were Nixon and George Bush connected? Hoover had proof that Bush was in the CIA as early as 1962. Now we are shown hard evidence that all three were in Dallas on November 22, 1963. What in the world would Nixon, Bush, and Hunt be doing in Dallas?

Remember the advice that "Deep Throat" gave Woodward and Bernstein in All the President's Men ? In the next chapter, Hankey begins to connect the people with the money beginning with Prescott Bush's service on the board of directors of the Union Bank in New York, in 1942, along with Allen Dulles. That's the bank that J. Edgar Hoover shut down for laundering Nazi money. Nazis? The 41st President's father? All the names read like a Who's Who of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Bilderbergers! The lines connecting all these people become so numerous, suddenly there's no negative space between them on the chart. Can you believe this?

My brother-in-law once met Michael Jackson. I'm a pharmacist. Did I have anything to do with MJ's death? Nah, I was in Dallas that day.

Would I buy Dark Legacy?   Yes!  Faster than a U.S.Marine can work a bolt action rifle!