[Sample B: Approval/Signature Sheet] - George Mason University

Oswald acted alone. 305 The book grew out of Bugliosi’s participation in a British-
produced television show in which he took on the role of prosecuting Oswald before a
real jury and with testimony from real witnesses in July of 1986. Well-known defense
attorney Gerry Spence represented Oswald. The show resulted in Oswald’s “conviction.”
Bugliosi contended that the case against Oswald is “overwhelming and relatively
routine,” but the conspiracy “buffs” have muddied the water with a myriad of conspiracy
theories. 306 This is not surprising since, as recounted above, many of the defenders of
the Warren Commission are scathing in their criticisms of the conspiracy theorists, but
Bugliosi was also critical of his colleagues who support the lone gunman theory. He
deplored what he called the “psychiatric silliness” of Hartogs and his Freudian analysis,
but he was especially critical of Posner and Moore for “engaging in many of the same
unfortunate tactics as the Warren Commission critics” through misleading arguments and
omissions. 307 Thus, Bugliosi saw the need for a book devoted to “the facts and
objectivity,” with the goal to “not knowingly omit or distort anything.” 308
In his biography of Oswald, Bugliosi hewed closely to the Warren Commission
report, buttressed by disclosures by other authors, principally Priscilla Johnson
MacMillan’s Marina and Lee. Once again, we are told of Oswald’s troubled childhood
and his discovery of Marxism, which Bugliosi claimed “probably” provided Oswald “a
metaphor for the outward expression of his disaffection with life, for the rage of a child
305
Vincent Bugliosi, Reclaiming History: the Assassination of President John F.
Kennedy, (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007), xv.
306
Bugliosi, xxv.
307
Bugliosi, 936, xxvi.
308
Bugliosi, xxxix.
135