Mortal Error: The Shot That Killed JFK

by Bonar Menninger

Book Overview

In 1967, a Baltimore man named Howard Donahue began investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Like countless Americans, Donahue was fascinated by the events in Dallas. But what... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312080743
• ISBN13: 9780312080747
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 361 Pages
• Weight: 1.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

too obvious to see- too simple to be believable

I read this book when it was first published after seeing Mr. Menninger on a local TV talk show. It was a very methodical, scholarly, and somewhat "dry" read, but absolutely fascinating. I had always had many questions about the assassination and the many supposed cover-ups/conspiracies.This book and theory I believe answers almost every point worthy of debate in a very plain spoken, matter-of-fact manner that leaves you stunned. This is the way most governments, officials, and beauracrats react. They don't lie- they don't reveal. They don't cover-up they- just aren't forthcoming. I've always thought that the truth would not be made known in my lifetime. Wouldn't it be nice if before they pass away some of the principals would come forward and heal the 30+ year old wounds in our country's psyche.

WHY there was a cover up.

There are a lot of theories as to how Kennedy was assasinated but none of them ever explain why there was such a cover up. The theory behind this book is that the president's own detail was responsible for shooting him one of the three times he was hit. It does assume Oswald's guilt, which is difficult for a lot of people to swallow, but lays quite a foundation of ballistic evidence supporting this seemingly unbelievable theory.I think this book does what no other theory on the assasination has been able to do. Explain why there was some sort of cover up. At the height of the cold war, the United States ACCIDENTALLY kills its own leader. I think that type of information was certainly considered to be vital to national security interests to those in power at the time. Definitely a compelling book and a must-read for anyone interested in the assasination.

Scientific ballistics information provides proof of theory

Howard Donahue having been recruited as an expert marksman to help prove Oswald fired all shots, found it impossible to accomplish within the known timeframe. Soon, when this was covered up, he found himself on a long journey to uncover what happened. He largely failed, helped by the cover up conducted by the Warren commission, and his inability to recover Kenndy's brain which would contain bullet/gun powder fragments. This book has excellent detail regarding ballistics, gun & bullet types. He proves the bullet from Oswalds gun could not have blown up Kennedy's head the way it was. He details how the FBI's gun type could - the very gun carried in the follow up car that day. He details the ensuing cover up by the FBI and names the FBI agent who shot the fatal bullet that killed Kennedy. The title refers to the horrible error done by an FBI agent in the act of defending the President. This is an excellent book and one that remains unrefuted, yet pushed to the back benches of Kennedy assination theory, perhaps simply because it's theory is so mundane and is so likely to be true.

What we have here is a failure to communicate!

I give the book 5 stars and declare that it contains the most likely solution to the JFK mystery, but there seems to be some confusion here.The book FULLY VALIDATES the so-called "magic bullet" theory. It most definitely DOES NOT show it to be a "myth".The "magic bullet" theory is not and never was a "theory" anyway. Ever since 1964, when Governor Connally's physician told the Warren Commission that his patient's back wound was elongularly shaped, indicating that he was struck by an object that had first struck something else, the "magic bullet" scenario has been the only one to make sense. Anything published since 1964 for the purpose of challenging the "magic bullet" scenario is just so much chin music.Again, the author Bonar Menninger and his consultant Howard Donahue provide an analysis that SUPPORTS the "magic bullet" scenario. Their analysis of the head wound is what differs this bo! ok from those that preceded it, and I think they are likely correct.

The best non-fiction JFK homicide (not assassination) book.

This is the only book that explains why SEVEN witnesses near the motorcade smelled gunpowder. No one else -- conspiracy or lone assassin theorist -- has explained that, to my knowledge. And all JFK conspiracy theories run into one scarcely acknowledged buzzsaw, the complicity of Attorney General RFK, who turned down an invitation from the Warren Commission for further comment, would have been necessary. Along the same lines, the Kennedy family has always opposed all attempts to reopen the inquiry. Bonar Menninger may have provided the only explanation possible for this attitude of the Kennedy family that is INCONSISTENT with the Warren Report's findings. If Menninger and his ballistics expert, Howard Donahue are right, and I firmly believe that they are, history would have two more ironies added to it: 1) the most controversial of all the controversial aspects of the Warren Report, the single-bullet theory WAS ACTUALLY PROVEN CORRECT; and 2) the United States government, in order to spare itself embarrassment, has been working so hard for 34 years to cover up an ACCIDENTAL HOMICIDE that it has counterproductively spawned lurid theories of deadly conspiracies. Yet the government still covers up this homicide from reflex because that's what governments do. History is indeed replete with ironies like this. One problem with the Menninger/Donahue thesis - it requires the bullet fragments found on the windshield to have arrived there after the first (missed) shot. In his 1966 tome, Six Seconds in Dallas, Josiah Thompson appears to have shown that this is unlikely to have happened since it is at odds with what the driver of the limousine witnessed (Thompson and the driver weren't responding to suppositions of an accidental homicide at the time). This is the only reservation that I have towards the theory stated in Mortal Error. It is a failing of the system that Secret Service agent, George Warren Hickey, who is still with us and other still-living former agents who were in that follow-up vehicle haven't been called to testify before a Congressional committee.