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BOOK REVIEW
Fuhrman, M. (2006). A simple act of murder: November 22, 1963. New York: Harper Collins.
Edward J. Schauer, Prairie View A&M University
In A Simple Act of Murder, Mark Fuhrman investigates the John F. Kennedy assassination
as if he were the lead investigator of a police detective team. Avoiding the colossal amount of
hyperbole and speculation produced in the preceding forty-three years, Fuhrman—a trained
and accomplished police homicide investigator—goes directly to the evidence and thereby
treats the presidential assassination as any other murder case.
Fuhrman explains that evidence was both overlooked and misinterpreted due to several
factors: The first is that the main purpose of the original fact-finding Warren Commission, set
up by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, was to determine whether Lee Harvey Oswald committed the murder in order to stop conspiracy speculations. A second is that the Warren Commission did not begin with the murder and go where the evidence led (as homicide investigators do); rather, they depended largely upon films, photos, and expert reconstructions in order
to reach their conclusions.
Third, some evidence was inadvertently lost; and rather than state the facts of the loss, investigators tended to develop theories which would work sans the evidence lost. An important
example of this tendency is the lost windshield trim of the presidential limousine which had
a bullet pockmark. The loss of this piece of evidence may have resulted in the creation of the
Warren Commission’s single-bullet theory. A fourth factor is that documents were sealed, a
complete autopsy was not done, and evidence was purposely misplaced in order to accede to
the wishes of the Kennedy family.
The author suggests that the Warren Commission, with its attention drawn to the Abraham
Zapruder 8 mm movie of the presidential motorcade during the assassination among other photos, and recordings, overlooked the testimony of the witnesses who were closest to the scene of
the assassination. The eyewitness testimony of Texas Governor Connally and Mrs. Connally,
the testimony of United States Secret Service agents charged with protecting President Kennedy, that of police officers and citizens near the presidential limousine when the shots rang out,
was interpreted by the Warren Commission as being of less probative value than the Zapruder
film, a Dictaphone tape, and the Commission’s pet single-bullet theory.
Most difficult to understand, is why a complete autopsy was not performed upon the body
of the president—Kennedy family wishes notwithstanding. President Kennedy’s body was the
one most important piece of evidence for use in solving this murder case. Bullet tracks were not
precisely traced, vital bodily data was not measured or recorded, and the partial autopsy was
accomplished in a rushed manner.
In his investigation, Mark Fuhrman discovered a vital, yet heretofore unmentioned piece
of evidence. The Warren Commission created the single-bullet theory which requires two assumptions: (1) that one of the three shots fired (most likely the first shot) from the Texas School
Book Depository totally missed the presidential limousine and its passengers, and (2) that the
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bullet which passed through the President’s neck (most likely the second shot) also went on to
seriously wound Governor Connally. After the assassination, it was noted that the heavy-duty
stainless steel windshield trim (part of the attachment for the automobile’s bubble-top) held a
pockmark from a glancing bullet.
The author adds the deep, round bullet pockmark in the windshield trim to the close eyewitness accounts—which almost universally observed that President Kennedy was hit in the
throat by the first shot. If the first shot hit the President and glanced off the windshield trim,
and the third and last bullet broke into pieces as it traversed his skull and brain, and Governor
Connally was hit with the second shot; all three bullets are accounted for. Fuhrman concludes
that the single-bullet theory is unnecessary to explain that all three shots fired during the assassination sequence came from the Texas School Book Depository.
Mark Fuhrman shows that all of the evidence points to the guilt of Lee Harvey Oswald as
the sole assassin, the lone gunman; and that the myriad conspiracy theories are therefore false.
And while there was no conspiracy to kill President Kennedy, Fuhrman lists ten conspiracies
which were intended to “protect the living” (p., 212). Examples of these life-protecting conspiracies are: (1) The Kennedy family did not wish it known that President Kennedy had Addison’s disease, for which he was regularly taking drugs and wearing a brace for public appearances. (2) Several federal agencies covered up evidence embarrassing to them which bore no
relationship to the guilt or innocence of Oswald. And, (3) the conspiracy theorists themselves
are part of a conspiracy, as it were, to prove a conspiracy. While the conspiracies to protect life
may appear benign at first glance, the fact that they hide or cloud evidence postpones (possibly
indefinitely) closure of the Kennedy case and also engenders conspiracy speculations.
At least one thousand books have been written about the assassination of President John
F. Kennedy—most of them propounding conspiracies. In A Simple Act of Murder: November
22, 1963, homicide detective and author, Mark Fuhrman, brings legal and logical closure to the
never-ending, President Kennedy assassination debate. The book is a welcome addition to the
assassination and crime literature.