Author: Jerry Leonard

ISBN: 0-9711756-2-4 

The following review was contributed by: Sue Vogan:  To read more of Sue's reviews Click Here

A 1950's CIA memo describes "a scenario in which a government-programmed assassin-defector kills and American official and then is himself slain while in police custody." Was it a dark government plan? "There are those who would quickly answer the idea is too far-fetched, too impossible to imagine, in both the execution and intent. Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone they would tell us."

"Many elaborate conspiracy theories have been proposed to explain the assassination of President John F. Kennedy." Several attempt to exonerate the man the "establishment" accused of pulling the trigger - Lee Harvey Oswald - from any involvement in the assassination." These proponents portray Oswald as "just a patsy" set up to take the fall for either the Mafia, the CIA or both working in conjunction as they did against Cuba's leader Fidel Castro." Here, Leonard makes reference to Warren Hinckle and William Turner's "deadly Secrets: The CIA-MAFIA War Against Castro and the Assassination of J.F.K., New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1992, p. 16.

The Perfect Assassin walks the reader through the life of Lee Harvey Oswald and the CIA's activities at the time that would come to bear on the events presented in this work. After reading only a few pages, I established that there was validity in Leonard's book.

Leading into the first part of The Perfect Assassin, there is a 1959 quote by J.F.K. -- "Have we the nerve and will? Can we carry through in an age when we will witness not only new breakthroughs in weapons of destruction, but also a race for mastery of the sky and the rain, the ocean and the tides, the far side of space, and the inside of men's minds?" 

In 1978, a New York Times article headlined "The Central Intelligence Agency began a study in 1954 to find out whether a person could be secretly induced to commit an assassination against his will, newly released Government documents disclosed today." Could Lee Harvey Oswald been a test subject? Or is this too far-fetched?

Oswald joined the Marines at age seventeen; defected to the Soviet Union; returned to the United States with a Russian wife (whose uncle was in the Soviet Intelligence network; and was an active participant in both pro and anti-Communist political activities. Now, is it a possibility? Could the Government have used Oswald as an "unwitting tool"?

Declassified records indicate "U.S. intelligence agencies considered using these mind-control techniques (developed in programs code-named ARTICHOKE, MKDELTA and MKULTRA) to kill political figures including American officials."

Quoted in the Times article, "As a 'trigger mechanism,' for a bigger project, it was proposed that an individual, of (deleted) descent, approximately 35 years old, well educated, proficient in English and well established socially and politically in the (deleted) government be introduced under Artichoke to perform an act, involuntarily, against a prominent (deleted) politician or if necessary, against an American official."

The CIA memorandum continues -- "After the act of attempted assassination was performed, it was assumed that the subject would be taken into custody by the (deleted) government and thereby 'disposed of.'"

Was this clearly not the case with Lee Harvey Oswald?

Further declassified documents reveal that Oswald had ties to CIA assassins and was under nearly constant surveillance by both the CIA and FBI  -- even while he was committing the assassination. (Oswald and The CIA, John Newman, New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., 1995).

Is the CIA powerful enough to cover up the assassination of President Kennedy?  Their power seems to have no limits, including the abuse of the media. Their extensive "use of the media was supposed to have ended in 1977 when an executive order was signed that restricted" the CIA's use/abuse of the media -- as in not allowing the truth to be printed. Leonard states, "more recent reports indicates this law restricting CIA-infiltration of the media had loopholes that allowed the CIA to continue to covertly infiltrate the media. USA Today related in 1996 that "the CIA has secretly waived the law, which also covers the clergy,"" How can the CIA secretly waive a law that was designed to "regulate its actions"? Is this why we, after almost forty-three years, still do not have the truth?

Jerry Leonard's "The Perfect Assassin" makes more sense and is better documented than anything I have or will ever read -- unless the CIA decides to ever tell the whole story.